Interview: Mathias Färm of Millencolin – Spotlight Report

Swedish punk rock legends Millencolin are heading back to Australia in 2025, joining forces with Pennywise for an electrifying tour that promises high-energy anthems and plenty of skate-punk nostalgia.

Ahead of the tour, we caught up with Mathias Färm, Millencolin’s longtime guitarist, to talk about his friendship with the Pennywise crew, share the impact of being featured in the Tony Haw Pro Skater 2 Game, and recall a wild tour story involving Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters in the mosh pit during a South American show. Buckle up for a chat filled with music, mayhem, and memories!

SR. The Oz tour around the corner with, Pennywise. Must be very exciting to come back to Australia, I remember seen you guys’ live last time at Soundwave in Adelaide back in 2011. Now almost 10 years later the band keeps going on the road non-stop. What would you say keeps the fire burning for you when it comes to live touring?

Mathias. I guess, I mean, touring, touring. For me, it’s, these days, the show, when you’re up on stage is the best time, you know, it’s so fun. But my band traveling around it, you know, traveling for me is not that fun. But to play live shows, that’s the best thing I know, you know? But I guess it’s so rewarding to be able to, I mean, go to Australia and perform our songs and you get people to pay money to get in to see us.

That’s incredible! So it’s very I’m very happy to be able to do this.

SR. Not long ago we saw Pennywise here at Good Things Festival 2023. They’re an ageless band, still with the same vibe and loyal crowd singing alongside. You guys are touring with Pennywise co-headlining the Australian tour. What can fans expect about these shows?

Mathias. Actually, our first tour we did outside of Sweden back in 1995 was with Pennywise in Germany. So I mean, we know them. We played shows with them ever since 1995. So, it’s such a cool thing to be able to do with them in Australia now. And our last club tour in Australia was 2019. So it’s been, almost six years. So, it’s a good, super nice to come back and do it with Pennywise. There are good old friends, you know.

SR. Millencolin has evolved evolving their sound since the roots. However, they still keep these like raw kind of punk ska mix in every song. No matter how many years passed from one another, the essence, the core of the band is still there. As former member how your approach playing the guitar changed over time?

Mathias. Since we’ve been the same guys in the band, you know, since we started then it’s been, I mean, 30 this year is 33 years since we started the band so, of course, you evolve as a human being and as a musician and as a guitar player and I guess for us, it’s not about making music in a special style. It’s more about making good music.

You know, that’s the reason why our songs have been, evolving and changing throughout the years. And I guess the two last albums we did was a little bit more back to the roots than, before that. So it’s, you know, I got a lot of new songs now, so hopefully we’ll make something new soon. That’s, it’s gonna be interesting to see what it’s gonna sound like.

SR. Any new music you guys might have in the cards to play during this tour?

Mathias. No, we’re not playing new songs now. You know, it usually we don’t. It’s such a long process to usually when we make new songs, we make new songs, then we record them straight away. So it’s, there’s never time to play them live. But, Well, you never know. Maybe we’ll do something new. We’ll see

SR. “No Cigar” became like a punk anthem thanks to the track being featured on the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 game, which is still probably one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever made. Looking back, how was it like to be part of this, iconic game that still remains a cultural phenomenon among gamers?

Mathias. It’s incredible because, I mean, it’s back in those days, you could only fit ten the songs on a game. So if you got your song on the game, it was huge. Now in a game it’s unlimited. So everyone who played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, they heard our song every 10th time. You know it. So it it was a huge thing.

We actually got to know Steve Caballero a skateboarder from the US when they released Tony Hawk Pro Skater one. Then we met him again. He said he’s going to be a character in the Pro Skater two. And then we we got, we got the song into that game and he was a character in the game.

It was really cool thing, and yeah, it’s, it’s a of course it’s been a huge thing for us and I’m very proud of being part of that.

SR. The album Pennybridge Pioneers still remains fan favorite? Looking back to when you release that album, what do you think made that record so impactful and how do you feel about that now after all these years?

Mathias. I mean, before, before we did that album, we released, an album called “For Monkeys” back in 1997, and we were struggling as a band a little, just because we were fed up with the the way we sounded. In a way, we wanted to do something new. So it took three years, and then we got the opportunity to to record in the US with Brett Gurewitz from Bad Religion, who is the owner of Epitaph Records, our label.

He produced that album in L.A. and I guess it was like a restart for the band. So, we got a lot of new fans from releasing that album, and maybe some of our old fans thought that we were, yeah, selling it and not selling out, but they didn’t like the way it sounded. But I guess it’s, it’s nowadays it’s, it’s a milestone in our, career, you know, and, I’m very, I’m proud of that album and it changed a lot for us

SR. What’s life for you personally off the road is any hobbies or anything that fans may find amusing that they don’t know about you? 

Mathias. I run my own hot sauce company. Okay. Mad mad hot sauce and, I got my own hot sauce factory on top of my garage. I make my hot sauce myself, and I label the bottles, and I sell it in stores here in Sweden.

I like hot sauce, and, I didn’t know how to make it so. So I started to study how to make hot sauce, and it took me a while to, to produce a good hot sauce. Now I have all kinds of different flavors, and, it’s a fun thing to do.

I also, I’m also into drag racing cars. I got a couple of cars, and I compete a lot in here in Sweden in drag race.

SR. Can you share with us any fun tour story or something crazy that have happened to you while on tour?

Mathias. My first tour we did in South America, we played Brazil in Rio was actually next door to the club that had a Jiu-Jitsu school, and during our show, the Jiu-Jitsu guys got, down in the crowd and started fighting the crowd…that tour was crazy back in 96′.

The whole Brazilian, experience for us was kind of a little bit scary. It was kind of violent in a way that I said South American is a little different. Most of the people are like, really nice, nice and very dedicated people. It was good times were we were like regardless as It was the first time we went outside of Europe.

Also on the first show we did in the Sao Paulo, there was the security guy was chasing people with knives on stage and the one guy ran into me. So my guitar broke in two pieces on the first song.

SR. What advice would you give to young aspiring Australian musicians?

Mathias. I think the most important thing you should do is try to write your own songs. Not playing cover songs, just it doesn’t matter how shitty your song is, it’s just try to to make own music.That’s the most important thing for me I guess, to, to write songs and if you start to do that you get better, in doing it all the time and you get better and better and better. It’s a good thing to practice.

SR. Any message to your Australian fans ahead of the tour?

Mathias. I’m just, we’re super excited to get back and, I hope to see you all in the pit. It’s going to be great!

Pennywise & Millencolin Co-Headline Tour: