The Mo along with Melody Club are heading up from the same scene The Ark sporned from in Vaxjo, Sweden. With a harder edge and raw sound than their contemporary's, The Mo look to bands such as the Clash who weren't afraid to mess up the punk prototype and add melodic pounding piano motifs to the traditional band set up. Designer Magazine caught up with Dix from the Mo.

Q: I've tried to establish a comparison between the Mo with a well known UK /USA band and the nearest I can come up with is a poppier version of the Blink 182 side project The Transplants. Do you see it?
A: No, not really. But it's always difficult to compare your own music with other bands, that's for the listeners to do.
 

Q: How would you describe the sound of The Mo?
A: Some sort of piano-punk-rock-pop…

 
Q: It's obvious to look at you that you're punk kids at heart. There always tends to be a guitars = good / synths = bad ethic in the old school punk scene. Was there a hesitance to bring in the synths or have you always been open minded musically?
A: We've always listened to different kind of music, it's to boring and plain stupid to just stay in one genre and never listen to anything else. So you can say that the synths on this album came quite natural to us.

 
Q: How has the sound changed from "City Heart" to "Night At The Zoo"?
A: I guess it's quite the same, but hopefully there is more “air” in this recording and a bit closer to the way we do it when we play live.

Its always the goal when you enter the studio to come as close as you can get to the way you sound live. To somehow capture all the excitement, blood, and sweat that you experience with live music.

 
Q: What's the obsession with animal metaphors on the new album?
A: I guess it just came along with the writing of the songs, guess the main theme is that we're not that different from the animals in instincts, fear and such. In the end we're all quite primal I think.

 
Q: Sweden tends to have a real sense of melody, a real pop sensibility. Why do you think this is the case?
A: It has to be the cold winter nights…
 

Q: How much does the town of Vaxjo influence the band and what's it like for a band trying to break out?
A: The town itself wasn't so inspiring, but the lack of interesting things to do with your spare time gave a incredible music climate. At the point when we still lived in Växjö there were great scenes to play on, and lots of great band, but all of us who did music back then have moved to other cities since a long time back. None of the band from Växjö made their “break” when they lived there it came several years after they've moved. It was a good place to grow up in, and a even better place to leave…

 
Q: What other great Swedish bands do you play with over there? Is there a whole scene of bands like The Mo? How important is it for you to be Known outside of Sweden?
A: There are several good Swedish bands, The Ark, Melody club, Her majesty to mention a few. It's very important to us to make it abroad, the more countries you can go to and play your music the better. We would love to be out there on the roads of Europe, Asia, Usa, Australia, Africa. Just bring it on baby…

 
Q: Finally is their one ethos or message that the Mo would like to share with our readers?
A: Music always sound better when you're drunk…