From Luleå ("Sweden's northern metropolis") in Norrbotten we have Dispose, a band that's been playing unpretentious d-beat raw punk for almost 20 years now. From the very second I heard their tape 'Future Or Grave?' I've been a huge fan. Like Diyconspiracy so eloquently said: "Alongside Macedonia's Disease, Dispose helped define the modern d-beat raw punk blueprint, and they constantly prove they're still leading the charge. A masterclass in punk as sonic annihilation."
1. Dispose begun as a solo project by Kajuntti back in 2007. Was it called Dispose then as well? Did the original vision change when becoming a full band? Has it changed over the years?
Kajuntti: Yes, it was called Dispose in 2007 and it was a solo band as you wrote. I had done few other solo projects as well prior to that but with Dispose I wanted to do more DIS style of raw punk hardcore. The vision of this didn't change when forming a real band, only the way the vision sounded in reality. We're still doing d-beat raw punk like we want to do, still inspired by bands like Disclose, Anti Cimex, Discharge etc. Maybe some other influences too that make it what it is.
2. I was listening to Källarpodden's interview with you last summer and there you presented yourself as Wille, Jocke and Nils (Kajuntti). But on Discogs Dispose consists of Adam, Viktor and Nils. How has the personnel changed throughout the years and for how long has it been what it is now?
Kajuntti: I just want to say Discogs suck in my opinion. Dispose today is Kajuntti (vocals and guitar), Wille (bass) and Jocke (drums). Adam is no longer in the band as he moved to your city (editorial note: Malmö) in 2018 or 2017, something like that. Me and Wille are part of the original line up since 2008. Jocke joined in 2022 as drummer.
2.1 How come you think Discogs suck? Is it because it's driving prices up or is it perhaps from a technical point of view? I find it incredibly useful for one thing and one thing only - and that's to keep track of my music collection. I used to also use it to look up info on bands but as we've just discovered, information on there easily get inaccurate.
Kajuntti: Well, there were some less than accurate things published about Dispose there from some outside party and I tried to correct it but it wasn't possible. I have not published any Dispose info there so the discography is compiled by various users but it can't be edited at all. Deeply disturbing... I don't really have an opinion on the other functions. Does it drive prices up? I suppose so but no one is forced to buy anything, so...
It doesn't drive prices up by itself, no, I was thinking of the collector's aspect with people spending more and more and sellers wanting more and more for no real reason other than greed. But as you say, no one is forced to buy anything!
3. Would you like to introduce yourselves a bit, I mean more than name and instrument? Who or what is your biggest personal inspiration? What do you like to do outside of Dispose? I know, for example, that Jocke is building some pretty cool guitar pedals.
Kajuntti: Outside of Dispose we all have boring jobs and me and Wille have children to take care of as well. Wille likes to travel, go fishing, cooking, eating, drinking. Yes, Jocke builds pedals, fuzz pedals. They are indeed cool. I used to build some myself but haven't done so in years. Jocke is actually a guitar player and started building tube amps out of old radios and such. I think he's a better guitar player than I am. These days I record d-beat music, try to fix reel-to-reel machines, grow weird ficus trees, read, ride a bike around and collect stuff I guess. If there's time, that is. If I were to choose a person for my inspiration it would be Kawakami of Disclose, his love of d-beat raw punk was infectious.
3.1 Growing weird ficus trees sounds like something I could get into, if only I had the space (small apartment already full of stuff). But then again, I usually move on from things before long (I only have a handful of interests that I've had forever, new ones seem to not stick) so I guess my ficus trees would dry up and wither away... Anyway, reel-to-reel machines are so cool, do they make new ones still or is that why you try to fix broken ones?
Kajuntti: I see, but maybe that's a good thing or you'll end up like me with a house full of junk... Grow a rock fig, they can go pretty dry. They are almost like succulents and are more easily killed with frequent watering.
There are four or five manufacturers today of reel-to-reel machines and they are all expensive. But hey, if your choice is between buying a new car or new reel-to-reel machine, the reel-to-reel is probably a better investment. I don't know why I try to fix old ones. Part curiosity, part using them for recording I guess. Another part of it is just collecting and restoring for its own sake. I like the mono two track machines the most. But they do take up a lot of space. Like, put a handle on a twenty kilo machine and claim it's a portable recorder! You've got to love the fifties really... Well, well. "A man's junk is his treasures."
Video by Wilke
4. You've done splits with bands from Peru, Brazil, Finland, Japan, Macedonia, Spain... all over the world really. But the most frequent has been bands from France. How come? Do you have any personal ties to France? Are you "Big In France"?
Kajuntti: We did a split with Displode from France and a split cassette with Baltring Terror plus a split 12” with Bakounine both also from France. I seriously doubt we are big anywhere... I have no personal ties to France really. I was in contact with Bakounine member Jerome before but not anymore these days. Why, I don’t know really.
5. Do you prefer to play live or stick to the recorded stuff? I heard you still get nervous just before getting up on stage, even after playing for almost 20 years (and even more if we count other bands) but perhaps that's just a natural thing and something that never really goes away?
Kajuntti: I do like to play live, it's usually fun. Usually we just do a quick line check and just go. We're no fancy soundchecking band. Yeah, you get a bit nervous because you never know how things will unfold and so you perhaps overthink things. Waiting to go on stage and play just sucks. But usually, by the time you're about to play, I think like "fuck it, I was born for Dis!". I don't know, it's not a stage fright thing or anything... Just a tension, an expectation, that makes it hard to relax or enjoy other bands playing and stuff like that. I do like to record as well, always experimenting with sound recording, trying different things, equipment, microphones whatever. We don't play live too often really and I think we would record a bit more if we didn't do live shows. But it's hard to choose between them.
I can strongly relate to the feeling of being unable to relax and enjoy things when something is coming up, but for me that thing can be even small things like having to make a phone call to someone I don't know or an appointment of some sort, haha. I'm an anxious man.
5.1 Anyway, isn't that sort of a paradox? The fact that you describe Dispose as not a fancy soundchecking band, while at the same time being interested in sound recording electronics?
Kajuntti: Doing sound for shows can be fun, Jocke usually handles the sound during shows at our venue. Recording sound is similar in a way, but just more fun. I should say we are underground pros - we don't need to soundcheck really. A quick line check so you get a feel for it and able to hear each other is enough. This is raw punk after all.
6. You did a gig just a couple of weeks ago, at "Annandagsfesten" in Luleå, how did that go? I saw it was a mixed bag of different sounding bands!
Kajuntti: That gig was a disaster if you ask me. Two of the bands cancelled and we were playing last because I was working til about one hour before we were supposed to go on stage, so there was little time to overthink I guess. None the less it wasn't a very good gig... But fun I guess.
7. I recently learned that Kajuntti is a bit older, born 1980, while Wille and Jocke both were born around 1990. That took me by surprise, I'm apparently older than two thirds of Dispose and that's a bit weird since you have sort of a cult status for me. It feels like you've "always" existed. Well, I might subconsiously also think of Dispense... Anyway, speaking of age - in a lot of places around the country people claim the punk scene is aging fast with little to no new blood coming in. How's the situation in Luleå? And how would you compare the local activities now to when you started?
Kajuntti: Dispense was great, especially the miniCD 'In The Cold Night'. The chorus always repeats twice. Great. There are some younger people at the shows but I don't know them really so I can't say. I'm feeling all the bands are bit older and not the "youth" in the same way as it used to be. Maybe kids today don't start bands in the same way as before, I don't know. There are younger people at the shows but it's more of a mixed crowd. I guess some are more into rock or stoner or whatever, not so much d-beat raw punk I guess. When we started there was perhaps a bit more d-beat raw punk people, but not a hell of a lot. Bands would rehearse in the basement of my parents' house. There was no FG7 and no YTTERVIKEN, which is a new venue since FG7 went under. People got families, people grew old (no, people grew boring if you ask me) and some moved away.
I agree, their miniCD was the best! Nice to see someone else say it, usually it's the EP that people talk about. I guess vinyl is always going to be favored over CD...
8. I've heard there's a place, a house, in Luleå for live gigs. What is it called, is it this Ytterviken you just mentioned? How long has it been around and how is it doing?
Kajuntti: Yes, it's called YTTERVIKEN and is located in an industrial area of the city after working hours. Pretty dead which is great for us, no neighbours to disturb like with FG7. I think it started in the summer of 2021.
9. You recently uploaded 'March Of The Techgod' on your bandcamp, five tracks that're going to end up on a split with Disappoint. Is "the techgod" supposed to reference big tech and the horrific future we're facing with giants like Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Apple, Meta, Microsoft and the likes at the helm? Or is it something else completely? I ask because sometimes I learn about, to me, new concepts through your lyrics (like most recently the Faraday cage).
Kajuntti: People put too much trust and faith in technology. The song is mainly about the dark side of technology and the tech guru's behind it. Be it civil or military use. Surveillance/control/manipulation... Used by governments, tech company guru's, military/authorities to control people and exercise their powers, fingerprinting, face recognition, GPS data collecting etc. It's a perfect infrastructure of dystopia. And people not minding control... But it's not mind control, is it? I can't see the future. But I can see today, can you see it? The future is today. My Faraday cage is about conspiracy theorists in tin foil hats and similar online warriors... In electronics a Faraday cage blocks out unwanted magnetic fields. Electronics is interesting, conspiracy theorists not so much.
9.1 I wholeheartedly agree. It's increasingly disturbing and a lot of people still show no sign of stopping and having a think about what they let slip by, what they're tolerating and even actively agreeing to. Have you looked into alternatives? Are you on the fediverse? Sure, as a society we're still going full force ahead into the darkness, but on an individual level and perhaps us as punks and so on, we can at least try to be a bit aware. Also, I'm happy to say, Bomberna Faller Fanzine is built completely without any tracking, fingerprinting or data collecting. I've even stored the fonts locally as to not give any company the slightest bit of information. There's even alternatives to Facebook popping up (privacy focused event calendars and the likes), would you jump ship if a swedish one was launched?
Kajuntti: No, I'm not on fediverse. I don't know anything about it. (Editorial note: If you, like Kajuntti, don't know about the fediverse then here's a good place to start.) Lately I've been growing weary and tired of computers pretty much. Alternative ones sound like a good idea but I don't know if I would join it for the already mentioned reason. Facebook and its algorithms really suck. Like this and like that? But I don't like anything! Wtf! "Facebook is a great tool to keep in touch with friends and family" they said. But I failed anyway. I think it's because I'm a failed human and not Facebook's faulth though.
9.1.1 What makes you say you're a failed human being? Is this part of some d-beat raw punk mindset (because it's pretty prevalent when talking to people) or do you truly believe it in your heart? I ask because I can relate to feeling inadequate and not cut out for this world, but that's a struggle I'm trying to deal with and intend to adress in a future article regarding mental health in the punk world.
Kajuntti: Well, I don't know if a d-beat raw punk mindset exists. But it's a lonely life for sure... So what? I don't care... There has certainly always been a lot of weirdos in the punk scene with differently wired brains for sure... Nowadays they are referred to as neurodivergent people. I don't know if there is a prevalence for them to be into d-beat raw punk over other punk music styles. But I've most certainly met a few... But isn't weirdos and freaks a better term? I'm not good at a lot of things really, but we all must learn to live with a lot of things.
10. Speaking of your lyrics and how to interpret them, how have they been received through the years? Have any reviews brought them up or has it been mostly a focus on the music itself? I'm also curious of how the feedback in general has been. You mentioned you seriously doubt you're big anywhere, but I know for a fact that a lot of people out there really enjoy your music. Perhaps they've not been good at expressing that?
Kajuntti: Oh I don't know how our lyrics are received. We've written many lyrics of anti-war and such through the years. Anti-war through anti-state. Anti-war through anti-racism. Anti-war through a lot of things. Because war are all these bad things. But I don't want to just repeat lyrics in every song. If there is some new input on how to write about anti-war I'll write it. But we've done maybe a hundred songs or something. It's becoming harder to write lyrics without repeating ourselves. So then I rather write about something else. I probably should write a song about the new cold war and the possibility of nuclear war but we already recorded a song like that in december 2008. I think reviews mainly focus on the d-beat, fuzz and rough vocals. Even if there's not that much fuzz sometimes. I don't think lyrics are that important for reviews I guess.
We don't come from a cool place and we're not a cool band as far as I know. I think we're mostly an underground band, whatever that means. It's cool if people like us though.
11. This is sort of an awkwardly timed question since you have 'March Of The Techgod' upcoming, but do you have anything else in the pipeline right now? Will a physical version of 'Imagenon Disponible' ever see the light of day? Any booked shows?
Kajuntti: Yeah, the split is going to be released by Sistema Mortal Tapes soon. No shows are booked wich could mean we just start working on another dystopic noise recording but nothing is certain at this point. I doubt that 'Imagenon Disponible' will ever be released in a physical format but I'm happy just the same.
12. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and thank you for almost two decades of excellent d-beat raw punk! Do you want to add something?
Kajuntti: Well, this is the part where I say thanks for your interest and good luck with the zine project! I'm also supposed to say buy our records and download our songs. Or don't.