Interview with Niclas Stålfors from Lowrider

Doomentia: How did you get started in music?

Niclas: My parents put me in the municipal school of music and performing arts. It is a publicly funded extracurricular school where children and young people can learn music, dance, theater after regular school hours.

I studied classical guitar for ten years. 

No fun what so ever…but looking back I’m grateful to my parents… since it all led to what’s today. 

Doomentia: What was your first musical equipment? (guitar, effects pedals, amplifier) Do you still have it?

Niclas: It was an acoustic Spanish guitar of course. 

My first electric guitar was a cherry red Fender Stratocaster… the amp was a small fender combo… I can’t recall the model but it was nothing fancy. 

My first effect pedal was a Boss DS-1. That one I still have and it still sounds like it should. 

From the first Fender to my setup today there has been several guitars. Pedals I’ve lost track of a long time ago. 

Doomentia: What were your influences when you started playing?

Niclas: 60’s to 70’s blues rock has always been my thing. Cream, Iron Butterfly, MC5 and Sabbath of course. But also som classic 80’s British metal… Iron Maiden and such. 

Doomentia: How did you meet and who of you had the initiative to start the band?

Niclas: Peder, Ola and I went to the same school. 

I met Peder in the music room. This was the year after I graduated. I stayed for another year, but as a music teacher’s assistant. 

I was probably cleaning a piano or something when Peder stumbled into the room. He was one of those kids who stayed after school hours to hang around and borrow the school’s instruments. 

We got to talking about what kind of music we liked and found out that we had a common preferences… One day he brought a tape with a new band he had found out about via some obscure fanzine.  Mind that this was before internet… Just saying….

Anyways…. The band called themselves Kyuss….  First song up was Thumb from Blues for the red sun. Instant love… The idea to start a band sprung from that revelation. We brought in Ola quite fast. 

Ola played guitar, Peder played the drums and I took on the bass… It was fun. Sounded like crap most of the time. But it was loud… and loud is always fun. 

Andreas joined half a year later or so. When we had cleaned up a little. And we started to work on the first couple of songs that later would end up in the Nebula split. 

Doomentia: What led you to choose stoner rock as your musical genre?

Niclas: When we found the genre it was in a sense new. There weren’t that many bands sounding like that. It was more like Nickelback in one corner and Spice girls in the other…. 

Shortly after discovering Kyuss we got into Fu Manchu as well…. For me the genre ticks all the boxes I have at least. Aggressive but kind, heavy whilst smooth and trippy.

Where we lived it was all post grunge and the idea to do something else wasn’t far fetched. 

Doomentia: Who suggested the band name and why was it Lowrider?

Niclas: Hmmm if I can recall correctly it was me….but maybe it was Peder. 

We had one of those “ok we have started a band, we have some material, what should we call ourselves” sessions. Don’t know exactly why the name Lowrider was chosen. 

But we thought it suited our music…. And now we can’t change it. Haha!

Doomentia: Since there was a 20-year gap between Ode to IO and Reflections, was there a different way of composing and recording the second album?

Niclas: Yeah! Completely! Miles apart. 

With Ode to Io we went into the studio with som raw ideas and sketches. We literally lived in the studio for a week writing, tested ideas and experimented. We had no producer or engineers. We did it all by ourselves. 

The songs on Refractions and on the long forever split with Elephant were already written and completed when we started to record them. Peder has written more or less all of the songs. He’s a genius. The recordings have been made in several different studios. A lot of my own contributions I recorded in my home studio. 

Doomentia: Was there a reason for that long hiatus?

Niclas: Manly life in it self. 

When we came home from our tour back in 2000 we started to work on a new album. But we moved to different cities, begun our day jobs, got married, kids…. The whole lot. 

Doomentia: And during that 20-year period, did you continue making music?

Niclas: I never put music to rest but there have not been any other bands meanwhile… When the reunion came it was like picking up where we left off. A little rusty to start but the energy was there. For me the reunion ment a lot. I mean, I love being in a band. I love being in Lowrider and most importantly I love playing with Ola, Andreas and Peder. 

They are the best friends that you don’t speak to everyday but when you do… you know? 

Doomentia: Do you only dedicate yourself to music? If not, how do you balance your time?

Niclas: When it comes to dedication… music is my main go to. But I have a day job, I have a wife and kids. I even have a dog… life you know. 

Doomentia: You toured with Dozer and Spiritual Beggars (with their classic lineup that includes Spice). Any anecdotes you remember from those gigs with them?

Niclas: It was a long time ago….and the memories are quite blurry… that is an anecdote in itself…. Haha!

But what I do recall and keep really close to heart is the family feeling we had between Dozer and us. They are lovely guys and meeting them nowadays is a real pleasure. 

Doomentia: What do you have planned for the future of the band? Any new albums in the works?

Niclas: The plan is to continue as we have the last couple of years. Doing shows, writing music. We are working on a new album but you never know when it will be released. With our track record…. But we are so grateful and humbled to have the opportunity to do this. We won’t let you down. 

Doomentia: Have you considered touring in the Americas? It would be amazing to have you here in Latin America.

Niclas: Would love to!

Doomentia: Brother thank you so much for your time.