Once upon a time, five kids got together and formed a band. Said band never went anywhere, so after a few years of shows and demos, they split. Fast forward roughly 20+ years later and these same kids, now well into their adult years, decided to “get the band back together” for old time’s sake. Little did they know this reunion would mark the beginning of a second act they never could’ve anticipated. Does this sound like a storybook tale come to life? Well that’s exactly the story of Nestor, Sweden’s current hottest AOR export. We sat down with bassist Marcus Åblad to discuss their incredible journey, their new album, Teenage Rebel, and his favorite gigs thus far.
Greetings Marcus and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Marcus Åblad: I am doing great! How about you?
I’m doing great myself. Just to make sure I’m not butchering or Americanizing it, is your last name pronounced “Uh-blahd”?
MÅ: “Oh-blood”. You’re really close.
You know us Americans. We completely disregard umlauts, rings, or any other various grammatical symbols of other cultures.
MÅ: *laughs* You tried!
I’d like to thank you for taking the time to do this interview and start by congratulating you on the excellent new Nestor album, Teenage Rebel.
MÅ: Thank you. That means a lot to me to hear you say that. Thank you.
When did ideas start coming together for this record?
MÅ: I think they were always there, but somewhere on the tour for the first album, we realized that there were more songs that needed to come out. They started to grow. Nothing was written, but when we sat down to do it, like when we were gonna start recording, then they all came out.
Would you say it was a natural progression from the first record?
MÅ: I would like to think so. It felt natural to deep dive a bit more into the music and the emotions. This record has a bit more low end and deep diving than the first one, so we’re trying to penetrate our musical history even more.
I definitely noticed that when listening to this record. There’s part of me that hates to use the word “mature” because sometimes that implies moving away from the original sound, which is not the case here at all. That said, there’s definitely been a growth in the writing and musicianship.
MÅ: Yeah, we took some more time on this one to really go into details and let it sink in. We had a bit more time and we were happy to have that because it needed to be deeper.
What did the band set out to achieve with this album as opposed to the debut, Kids in a Ghost Town?
MÅ: I think we all wanted to continue the journey. As I mentioned earlier, we felt that there were songs left. There were parts of the story that wasn’t told yet that we wanted to tell on this one. Just to continue this journey with my best friends and all the people out there that’s tagging along for this beautiful ride.
Was there anything in particular the band found themselves doing differently on this album?
MÅ: I think almost everything is different. We’ve been in this for four years almost, since the start. We’ve gotten to know each other again in a different way as adults. Everything in how we play and how we are with each other, life happened in between. The start of the first one and the second one, life came to us again so to speak. We actually are not the Kids in a Ghost Town anymore. We’ve grown to be teens now!
Coming off the immense success of Kids in a Ghost Town, did the band feel any pressure when it came to Teenage Rebel?
MÅ: I think there’s always pressure when you deal with music and want people to feel things, but I think we all came to terms with that we can only do as much as we can and put our hearts and souls and blood and sweat into it, and fingers crossed that people feel what we feel when we play it for them. There was pressure, but also no pressure in that sense that we can only do our best and try to put our hearts on the line.
How would you describe Nestor’s songwriting process and which members handle which aspects of the songs?
MÅ: (Singer) Tobias (Gustavsson) is a machine. He writes most of the songs and lets us give input. Then, Jonny (Wemmenstedt) comes in with the riffs and there’s a merger between those two. We have a bit of a team up with some other great musicians. I’m in the mix too in and out, a throwing the ball on the wall thing. “Yeah, do this. Do that.” Then, I come in and put my two cents in. Tobias is the one who writes most of it, but always in a good dialogue. It’s a quick and amazing process where he’s like…I don’t know. Fire burning through! He’s amazing.
It sounds like a real group effort!
MÅ: Yeah, definitely. Martin (Frejinger) and Matti (Carlsson) are of course in there too, but it’s mostly us with the string instruments and the singing that are putting it together.
When Kids in a Ghost Town came seemingly out of nowhere in 2021, many, myself included, thought the whole bit about the band forming in 1989 was lore. You know like how GWAR “hails from Planet Scumdogia”?
MÅ: *laughs* Right.
However, upon this album cycle, it turns out we all stand corrected. How did Nestor first come together and why did it take over 30 years for the band to finally release a full length album?
MÅ: That’s two really good questions. This is my take on it. I was playing in another band when I met the guys and they asked me to join forces with them. I was like, “Oh yeah, I’m gonna do it.” I had a great respect for them as musicians. They played in various other bands before our paths crossed. They saw me at a show and said, “You wanna join us, man?” I was like, “Yeah, I’m gonna do it!” It was both coincidence in that we knew about each other and had competing bands.
As for the album, I think we all realized that the albums we’ve done now are the albums that we wanted to do back then but we were not secure in who we were and what we wanted to write. We went through a lot of errors and whatnot, everything from grunge to hardcore to different genres. I guess we all landed that we loved this type of music, even if it’s…it’s not a copy paste of the ’80s AOR thing. It’s music created from music we love and our influences and our lives. We couldn’t do it back then because we weren’t the people we are now. We can do it now because now we have it in us.
Going back in time to those young Teenage Rebel years, who were your favorite bands and was there any one band or musician that made you want to pursue music?
MÅ: Yeah, I’ll start with the bands. I’ve had a lot of influences like KISS, Toto, Bon Jovi, but also Queensrÿche were really big in my heart and King’s X. For me, my brother told me he needed a bass player for his band when I was really young. I said, “Okay!” That was when I started, but my biggest influence, and it’s more his stage presence back in the day, when music was larger than life, especially the rock scene; I really love Nikki Sixx as a performer. How he was as a bass player, how he took control in a band and took those big stages: That is still a big influence to me. I don’t think many bassists back in the day beat him on the premise of catching a crowd and making them feel it.
On the last album, you did a song with Samantha Fox, “Tomorrow”. Are there any other ’80s icons Nestor would like to team up with for a song in the future?
MÅ: Well, you never know. It was a fun project and someone who’s poster we had on our wall! Yeah, we hope to find some more. We had some others on our own festival with Nik Kershaw and Alphaville. Those were other guys from our past. It’s always fun to do these collabs, so fingers crossed. We’ll see what happens!
Nestor’s sound is not merely a throwback, but an extension of the glory days of ’80s AOR. Off the top of your head, what are your three essential ’80s AOR albums?
MÅ: I really love Vital Signs from Survivor. I think it’s a great, great album. It’s hard to pick any from Journey in that era, but they had amazing albums as well. Also, those early ones from Toto, like Fahrenheit. They were big influences on me, so it’s really hard to just pick three, but I’ll say Survivor, Journey, and Toto were super big for me in my music and writing. That was the ’80s for me.
It’s funny because when I was listening to Teenage Rebel, the two albums I found myself referencing the most in terms of atmosphere were Vital Signs and Journey’s Raised on Radio.
MÅ: Yeah, I’m not saying you’re wrong because those are iconic albums. It’s great music!
It especially hits me hard because I’m from Chicago, which happens to be Survivor’s hometown. I’ve interviewed Jim Peterik a couple times over the years and have met him as well. We should get a Jim Peterik and Nestor collaboration!
MÅ: That would be great! He’s a great musician.
Nestor has played some pretty high profile shows on the fest circuit and beyond in the past few years. Which ones stand out to you the most?
MÅ: That’s a really hard one. We’ve had some amazing shows. We had the show with KISS, and Sweden Rock now has been a big one, but if I have to pick one, and that’s because it’s really close to heart, it’s the first show in our hometown when we came back home and played our festival, Nestor Fest. There were 3,000 people cheering us on in our local park where we might have been drinking some beer when we were a bit too young *laughs* and have some sweet memories from. That was an amazing musical memory. I’ve got goosebumps on the skin of people welcoming me home, but we’ve done a lot of great shows. It’s so hard to pick them because the fans are amazing everywhere and the joy and the energy and the feeling they send back to us is crazy. I’ll pick the Nestor Fest 1 because it was a great one.
The one show I wanted to ask you about was Keep It True Rising. I know some of the true metal crowd were a little skeptical over the inclusion of an AOR band on such a heavy lineup. How did that go?
MÅ: That was a great show too. We’ve played a couple of those shows in Germany where we are like a disco band compared to the others *laughs*, but the crowds are always super great. I think the hard rock audience is really perceptive and go, “Okay, we’ll listen to them.” At Wacken as well, people stopped by and it was good! But Keep It True Rising was amazing. I think we found a lot of new fans there. They said, “You can’t play rock n’ roll and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”, but I liked it and danced along with it!” *laughs*
Considering the steam Nestor has managed to pick up around the world, can we expect an attempt to break in to the American market in the near future, whether it be via radio airplay, touring, or both?
MÅ: We’re hoping next year to step foot in the US. There’s nothing decided yet, but that would be great. I also hope for airplay and to get our music into your country because we really love it. We’ve been on the Monsters of Rock Cruise two times now and the American audience is amazing. We want to come over and do shows for you, so fingers crossed they come soon!
The new Nestor album, Teenage Rebel, is out now on Napalm Records. For more information on Nestor, visit www.nestortheband.com.