Guitarist Filippa Nässil had pretty much always wanted to write and perform music. But as she moonlighted in various bands in her native Sweden, there was just one problem. “I was always too crazy and too much for them,” Filippa said with a laugh. “So I needed to do something with the energy that fits my style.”
In 2009, she formed Thundermother — a raucous, rabble-rousing, four-on-the-floor (and all female) rock outfit that has caught the ears and eyes of rock aficionados around the globe. “I just wanted to make music, and I realized the best way to do what I wanted to do was have a band for myself,” Filippa said.
At the start, Thundermother wasn’t even a band, it was a just an idea. But it came to fruition in full, bombastic force. “It was just a dream (at the start), but I was telling everybody, ‘I have a band called Thundermother,’ but I really didn’t,” Filippa said laughing. “But the idea was very clear in my head. I had some guys in the band when I tried to write some demos in the beginning. But I’ve had (vocalist) Guernica Mancini and (drummer) Emlee Johansson for almost six years, which is a record for anyone but me in Thundermother, and it really works out well. And we’ve had Mona Lindgren on the bass for the last year.”
Thundermother are about to wrap up their lengthy North American tour as the lone support act for the Scorpions. What was a bit of bad luck for singer David Coverdale turned out to be very fortuitous to Thundermother, as Whitesnake dropped off the tour due to a nagging upper respiratory infection for their legendary frontman.
“It was very sad of course, but it was good for us if I’m gonna be completely honest,” Filippa said. “We got a longer set, and more are people seeing us because we play much later. For us, we feel so spoiled by the Scorpions, because they treat us like queens. They help us with the lights, and we’re up on the big LED screens. They’ve been so nice to us.”
Thundermother have sprinkled in a few of their own headlining club shows on the trek and are supporting an excellent new album, “Black and Gold.” The 12-track effort is perhaps the band’s most complete record to date and sports a refined edge to the band’s long-running AC/DC-meets-Joan Jett-meets-Airbourne swagger.
Recently while on the road, Filippa chatted all about the band and their new album in this Web Is Jericho exclusive. Here are some fast facts on Thundermother.
Thundermother has sported a few different lineups, but the current one rocks the hardest. “(They bring a better) work ethic and the will to tour. The lifestyle and also musicianship. They are fantastic musicians. I even improved as a guitar player since they joined. You can hear it how much I developed as a musician and songwriter working with them. It’s just a real blessing to have this kind of dedication from people more than myself. It’s a real band and a real democracy, finally.”
Filippa went to school for guitar, but her biggest teachers ended up being Malcolm and Angus Young. “When I started, I never had an inspiration with guitar. I had no idols. I was very confused. I just wanted to do my own thing. I discovered AC/DC very late. I was 24 years old when I discovered Malcolm Young’s playing style. I went to a good guitar school, and I was the only girl. They made us play really difficult stuff like Yngwie Malmsteen and Van Halen, and it’s great, but it killed my vibe a little bit to be forced to do something for three years for college. I heard AC/DC, and it was so good and so groovy, and I said, ‘I wanna do that.’ For my solos, eventually I started to find my own tone and my own way of playing, and I went back to what I listened to from the beginning. I was confused in my teenage years — who isn’t? But (for my solos) I want back to Stevie Ray Vaughn. He inspired my playing a lot, along with Jimi Hendrix and AC/DC.”
There’s a science to AC/DC that Filippa incorporates in Thundermother. “How Malcolm and Angus compose, I absolutely borrowed a lot. How they structure the guitars together, they would play different things. I do that as well. In the rhythm section, what would Malcolm have done? Would would Angus have done? For my inspiration, it’s definitely more of Malcolm’s style, because he has less gain. Normally I turn off my right speakers, so I can only listen to the left. With AC/DC albums, if you turn off the right speaker, you won’t hear Angus at all, because they panned each guitarist 100% on each side in stereo. So it’s very easy to hear what each guitarist is playing. I’ve been studying Malcolm’s way of playing, and the rhythm is crucial to sound like a professional band. So I absolutely borrowed from him and also in my attack and how hard I play, I have to change strings much more often than a normal guitar player. I really bash my guitar. I feel sorry for it! (laughs) I don’t really remember a lot of the solos Angus did. If you try to think of a solo, you can maybe remember ‘Highway to Hell,’ I like solos with more of a melody, because I’m so interested in writing songs and incorporating that blues Stevie Ray Vaughn vibe, and that’s something I discovered more myself.”
The anthemic single “I Don’t Know You” is about a creepy backstage intruder. “You can see in our video, us traumatized from all the really small shows we’ve done. We’ve done so many gigs. ‘I Don’t Know You,’ is when there’s not so much security. And one guy comes in and thinks he’s a best friend, and he’s basically destroying the experience for us. He’s turning off the lights in our dressing room. He’s filming us while we put on our stage outfits. He steals our beer for the show, so there’s no beer left in the fridge. ‘No, this is not OK! Don’t steal the drinks!’ So we did a funny video about that. That song also for me stands out. I really like it, too, and that’s a song we all said from the beginning was something new and special that everyone couldn’t get out of their heads. People we played it to, booking agents, our label, family, they all really love that one. It has this little bit of a modern vibe to it, if you know what I mean.”
“Black and Gold” is about the team spirit — and team colors — of Thundermother. “When we were recording and writing songs together, we recorded them straight away when we came up with an idea. So for ‘Black and Gold,’ I said AC/DC tempo — all their hits — is 109 BPM. Let’s do a song with 108 BPM. (Laughs). So that’s how we decided the tempo. I laid the riff. And we just maximized everything on that song. We went all crazy and had fun doing that one. When we wrote the lyrics together it was more about the team spirit of rock ’n’ roll, and we’re such a team. We want everyone else to be on our team, too. Well, what colors are our team? It’s black and gold, because we have crew jackets when we tour, and they are black and gold and say ‘Thundermother’ on the back. That was like we have our own football team. It’s just us playing around with sports ideas for rock ’n’ roll.”
The album’s “ballad” is “Hot Mess,” and recording it was an emotional experience in the studio. “No one is perfect, and we try to make the songs current. So it’s pretty honest lyrics in that one. Guernica sings very good on it. It’s our first 6/8 rhythm ballad, which it’s like a waltz tempo. She also cried in the studio singing it. So there was a lot of effort and emotion and thought into that song from all of us.”
Rock anthem “Loud and Free” is an idea that’s been around for years but finally came together for “Black and Gold.” “That’s a song we have been jamming during soundcheck for the last four years I think. Me and Emlee had been playing that riff together, and we had been trying to put it on an album for so long. We had never came up with a chorus for it or lyric or anything. So we’d been struggling, and we had so many versions. We had one for the previous album that we ditched. And now finally we got it. It’s a great rock ’n’ roll track that you want to party to. We all love it so much.”
Thundermother expect the Scorpions tour to be the first of many visits to America. “This is just the first step of wanting to come to the states and play more. That’s always been our dream. I guess either we follow up with our own tour, or we hope that someone else wants to tour with us in America. That would be amazing. We are already planning our next European tour right now. We got some really cool offers for the spring, and we’re already getting the festival offers for next summer.”
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