"Work hard, play hard, fry your eggs in white lard," Gluecifer’s Biff Malibu growls on their recent single The Idiot. Same Drug New High is the Norwegian garage-rockers’ first studio album in 20 years, and it’s another high-octane reminder that they emerged from the same Nordic scene as Turbonegro and The Hellacopters.
Originally active between 1994-2005, Gluecifer re-formed for live shows in 2018 and remain a potent, sometimes slightly daft thrill. Chatting from his home in Oslo, the band’s Ramones T-shirt-wearing guitarist Captain Poon explains their re-boot.
What’s with Same Drug New High’s cover photo of a chicken?
Article continues belowIt’s a cock; a rooster! We just think it’s a fun animal. It has aggression and a little bit of pride. We were like: “Fuck this AI shit, let’s get down to the farm!” I think we got some cool shots of him.
When you re-formed in 2018 you thought new music unlikely. What changed?
Me and Biff got really drunk after a show and the topic of new music came up. We weren’t in a good state for sensible discussion, so I said ‘let’s talk about this tomorrow’, and we did. I suppose we realised there had to be more of a point to the reunion shows, otherwise we’d break-up again.
On new song Made In The Morning, Biff sings: ‘I have nothing but this band.’
Gluecifer is more central to our lives than ever these days. When we split in 2005 we were tired of the whole thing and each other. But then you get a break from it and you remember all the fun times. We still have an audience that’s really interested, so it would be crazy to not take that opportunity.
Your real name is Arne Skagen. How did you become Captain Poon?
When I was about nineteen me and Biff were sitting in a pub in Oslo talking about this seventies porn actor John Holmes. There was a film where he called himself Captain Harpoon, and Biff said: “That should be your name, but let’s shorten it to Captain Poon.” My English wasn’t good enough at the time to know what ‘poontang’ meant. It wouldn’t be my first choice of nickname now [laughs].
During Gluecifer’s 2005-2018 hiatus you worked as a chef.
I still do, sometimes.
And Biff [real name Frithjof Jacobsen] works part-time as a journalist?
Yes, and it’s very schizophrenic for him, because he’s a political journalist on Norwegian TV and a columnist for [Norwegian newspaper] Dagens Næringsliv. It can be serious stuff, so it’s great for him to sing with us and let it all hang out.
He certainly does that on The Idiot.
Yeah. It’s about this little park near where he lives called The Idiot, and all the characters he sees there.
The park is named The Idiot?
Yes, back in the day there was an asylum there, and they didn’t have kind words for mentally disturbed people back then.
Gluecifer once did a huge US tour with Motörhead. Fond memories?
For sure. I always loved Motörhead, and there was nothing about the Lemmy myth that didn’t come through [laughs]. He was very friendly and funny. When Lemmy died I felt it quite personally, actually.
Same Drug New High is out now via Steamhammer/SPV.
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