No Ripcord Interview Johan and Caroline from Fungus
It's not every day a decent band comes to Carlisle but somehow, local 'journalist' Mark Campbell persuaded Fungus to headline the annual "Free In The Park Festival", in the city's Bitts Park. No Ripcord popped along armed with only a special edition 1970's tape recorder hoping to interview the Swedish four-piece, who are rapidly making a name for themselves in the music world.When we turned up for the interview we were informed that we'd be talking to drummer Caroline Engdahl and frontman Johan Lundgren, as the other two had disappeared.
No Ripcord: Why did you decide to call yourselves Fungus?
Johan: It's from a Garfield cartoon, and it was David's idea. Garfield goes into the refrigerator and it's full of really mouldy things and he says "Oh my god it's killer spores from the planet Fungus".
Caroline: We like the name!
No Ripcord: How long has the band been together?
Johan: 4 years. Me and Caroline have been playing since '89 when I was 11 and she was 13, and since then we've been playing in different bands and stuff. Then Fungus started in '95.
No Ripcord: What do you think of the local bands on display?
Caroline: Well we haven't seen too many of them yet have we! The one's on right now (Scarborough's Mr Bruckman), I think sound very 80's rock 'n' roll, which can be cool, but I don't really listen to that anymore.
No Ripcord: What was it like playing with Idlewild?
Johan: It was really good.
Caroline: Yeah, a fun evening. It was the Leadmill, Sheffield. Seeing as we're on the same label and stuff and know each other, we had a big party afterwards. And Pelle was crowd-surfing, and they had this rule where you're only allowed to crowd-surf three times before you chucked out. So Pelle got chucked out and he was bleeding from his elbow going "oh no, but I'm in the support band". So he had to go and get our tour manager who said he'd never seen anyone that drunk before.
No Ripcord: I hear you get a lot of onstage injuries?
Caroline: Well, that's Pelle again really.
Johan: Yeah, he's the mad one.
Caroline: He twisted his knee on the last tour we did with Symposium. He's suffering from it a bit still, but you can't really do anything about it - you're supposed to rest but he doesn't want to.
No Ripcord: What was it like touring with Symposium?
Caroline: Really good, that's the best tour we've done so far cos we had so much fun and great audiences.
Johan: Yeah, we did about 15 venues and there was loads of crowd-surfing.
No Ripcord: Do you have any plans for the summer?
Caroline: Yes, we're doing Reading, the Breeze Festival, Lizard in Cornwall, and Music in the Sun.
No Ripcord: So how do gigs in Sweden compare to ones over here?
Johan: We haven't played that much in Sweden cos we haven't released anything there yet. We've done a few gigs there.
Caroline: What you can say is that the people in the big cities, like Stockholm, and London, are more boring than the people out in the country. You often get loads of industry people in London.
No Ripcord: Have heard of a band called Shed 7 cos their drummer…
Caroline: (anticipating the question) Oh yeah, I read the thing in the Melody Maker and I wrote this really angry letter first but there were so many swear words in it I thought, "no, I can't really send that". Then I just thought more and more about it and thought I shouldn't waste time on such a sad person. I think the reason he did it was to get some extra press
No Ripcord: They need it don't they…
Caroline: (laughs) Yeah, especially with them releasing the album (their Greatest Hits apparently)
No Ripcord: Have you heard "Disco Down"?
Caroline: Yeah, I think it's ok. Not my cup of tea, but he's definitely a wanker though.
No Ripcord: You've just released a mini-album, when can we expect your debut album proper?
Johan: It's probably going to come out at the beginning of next year.
No Ripcord: Have you got a quote for the day - something to sum up Fungus?
Caroline: (after about a minute of "er, er that's really hard") Music, Fun and happiness or something! That's what Fungus is about.
No Ripcord: Finally, we were just wondering Caroline, if you have a boyfriend, cos Adam's got a bit of a crush on you.
Caroline: Yeah, I have. He's back in London...
No Ripcord: But if you're ever single in the future you'll give him a call?
Caroline: Ok, yeah, I will!
