DRESSED in his sharp black and white suits, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist is one of rock’s most flamboyant, energetic and, let’s face it, enigmatic showmen.

The Hives singer is renowned for crowd-surfing, amp-climbing, stream-of-consciousness ramblings and for occasionally doing himself an injury.

He fronts a band steeped in mythology, with each member adopting a pseudonym and guided, until a recent dark turn of events, by a mysterious songwriting guru called Randy Fitzsimmons.

But, as the Swedish garage punk outfit releases its first album in eleven years, I discover that Pelle isn’t putting on an act.

“I actually feel like I have to fake it in normal life to fit in,” he affirms.

“You can’t behave like that person on stage in the f***ing supermarket, tipping s**t over and screaming all the time — you’ve got to keep the lion in the cage.”

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The Hives’ breathless new record, The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons, is a 12-track, 31-minute blast.

It kicks off with the already crowd-pleasing Bogus Operandi, a riff-heavy hard-rock juggernaut which ushers in the ensuing mayhem.

The ridiculously rapid latest single Trapdoor Solution lasts all of one minute and three seconds.

You just have to marvel at the sheer audacity. “No one really does stuff like that any more (apart from us),” maintains Pelle.

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“Showing guts and balls is way more important than technique.”

He sees the album as a Hives reset after the Covid pandemic stopped them in their tracks.

“The live show is really important, mainly for those euphoric adrenalin highs, but it was basically illegal for two years,” he says.

“So this album is post-prohibition rock ’n’ roll. We’re hoping people overdose on it!”

Though The Hives formed 30 years ago and the frontman has hit 45, Pelle is hell bent on preserving the band’s deliberately immature spirit.

“That is what rock ’n’ roll is all about,” he says in his accented but perfect English.

“We were doing a record signing the other day and a guy told me, ‘I’m 60-years-old but when I listen to your music, I’m 16’.

“Now, that’s awesome! “We’ve always thought energy and gusto and bravery are more important than anything else.”

It’s a philosophy The Hives have determinedly applied to 2023 — a momentous comeback year which has yielded an LP, stadium shows supporting Arctic Monkeys and a first Glastonbury appearance in ten years.

Their singular vocalist takes his cue from one of his heroes, the Rolling Stones indefatigable Mick Jagger, still going strong at 80.

“Imagine how much st he’s taken about not maturing throughout his life but he’s still there,” says Pelle. “He’s winning, man.

“He’s probably an adult for most of the day but he’s allowed to act like a 15-year-old for an hour-and-a-half.

“I take off every hat I’ve ever worn to Mick Jagger.” Pelle well remembers when The Hives opened for the Stones at their 2002 show in Stockholm.

“It was really inspiring,” he says. “I guess they were all about 60 at the time and we were in our early twenties.

“They showed us you can just keep doing it. They helped cement our aim to be in it for the long run.”

There’s no doubt that The Hives stand out from the crowd in the sanitised modern music world.

Pelle rails against the idea “that anything with an electric guitar” is regarded as rock ’n’ roll these days.

He says: “Best Rock Album, whatever the f*** that is, can be somebody moping around but with a guitar somewhere in the background.

“Coldplay? I mean, it’s great but it’s not rock ’n’ roll!”

So, does it take Pelle longer to get ready for a fast and furious Hives show than when he was younger?

“It’s a use it or lose it thing,” he replies. “There’s no amount of exercise that can really prepare you.

“For me, performing live is like being in an altered state. You are in a different universe and something else takes over.

“My mouth comes up with things I wouldn’t say if I was thinking about it. My body does things I didn’t know it could do.”

It was 1993 when teenage Pelle and his soulmates formed The Hives in their hometown of Fagersta on the back of their passion for Seventies punk rock . . . “The Misfits, The Sex Pistols and the Ramones”.

The other founder members included his lead guitarist brother Niklas (Nicholaus Arson) and, to use their stage names, Chris Dangerous (drums) and Vigilante Carlstroem (rhythm guitar).

The line-up was completed by Dr Matt Destruction (bass), who was replaced because of health issues in 2013 by The Johan and Only.

“We found a connection in our parents’ Sixties rock ’n’ roll collections,” says Pelle.

“I remember listening to The Yardbirds a lot because we couldn’t afford that many punk albums.

“We also bought gas station Fifties and Sixties compilations and stuff by more obscure punk bands.”

I ask Pelle about his relationship with Niklas, imagining that their 30 years in a band together must mean it’s a whole lot better than Noel and Liam Gallagher’s.

But he cries: “It sucks man! We argue all the time and we disagree about s**t.

“It may or may not be connected to the fact that there hasn’t been an album in 11 years.”

That said, he thinks current rows tend to centre on the creative direction of the band rather than good old-fashioned sibling rivalry which started decades ago with a few childhood punch-ups.

Crucially, both still harbour a burning desire to make The Hives a success.

“I guess we’ve realised we cannot sacrifice our relationship as brothers as much as we have in the past,” he says.

“When you’re in the centre of it, sometimes it’s hard to see what’s going on. We’ve just been flailing around, trying to do our best.

“The fact that we argue so much means we care deeply, right?”

And The Hives is not just about two brothers, as Pelle explains: “There’s a lot of passion in the whole band because we are striving for the best results.

“We’ve been together for so long that it’s more like five brothers than two. We all have love-hate relationships with each other. It’s mostly love though.”

A lot of love and energy has gone into The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons, an album which arrives 11 years after Lex Hives and continues The Hives’ eccentric folklore.

To set the scene, I give you this message from their publicity department: “The band’s extended absence from the studio has been no hiatus but rather a horror story.

“The Hives now admit they have not seen nor spoken to their founder, mentor and songwriter, the perpetual limelight-shunning Randy Fitzsimmons, since the release of Lex Hives.

“Following the recent discovery of a hidden-away obituary and cryptic poem in the local paper of the Northern Vastmanland town where The Hives are from, the band members were led to Fitzsimmons’ tombstone.

“Upon digging the freshly interred ground, they found not a body but instead several tapes, suits, and a piece of paper bearing the words ‘The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons’ typed up as if a title.”

The statement concludes that the tapes were of demos which became the new album’s 12 songs.

‘Strange time’

You also need to know that right from the 1997 debut album, Barely Legal, and through the next four albums, Veni Vidi Vicious,

Tyrannosaurus Hives, The Black And White Album and Lex Hives, their original songs have been credited to the elusive Fitzsimmons.

I ask Pelle if he can shed any further light on this legendary benefactor.

“We’re not in contact with him any more,” he says. “He’s supposedly dead but we don’t really know. Maybe he faked his own death.

“One of the reasons why the album’s taken so long is that we’re short of two members, Randy Fitzsimmons and Dr Matt Destruction.”

At least Fitzsimmons left The Hives with the demos and new black and white suits complete with dramatic lightning flashes.

“Obviously, we improved on the demo versions immeasurably,” laughs Pelle.

But he says the past 11 years have been “a very strange time for The Hives”.

“In the past, our principal songwriter disappeared from our radar while we toured but then he would pop up again.

“It didn’t happen this time, so we just booked shows with no new songs and then the next year we booked some more with no new songs.

“It was excruciatingly boring and painful fielding questions from fans about why there wasn’t a new album.”

The Hives also had to cope without original bass player Dr Matt Destruction, who shared so much history with the rest of the band.

“Losing Matt was one of the biggest things that happened to us,” says Pelle.

“We started out when we were 13 and he was one of the original members. We grew up together so it was like losing a family member.”

At least Pelle is happy to report that the replacement, their old friend The Johan and Only, is “having a great time. He thinks everyone should join The Hives.”

For a band built on riffs and vocal hooks, it’s odd to think that their new album comes with a connection to tuneful Swedish pop icons, ABBA.

Pelle says: “We recorded it partly in the studio where ABBA made their first four records and partly in the studio where Benny Andersson is now.

“So yeah, we know ABBA a bit. How very Swedish!”

New song The Bomb is an enjoyable super-fast romp which relies on Pelle’s accomplished delivery of tongue-twisting alliteration.

“We find a lot of inspiration in hip hop,” he says. “We try to find a rhyme structure and use other tricks than melody.

“It’s more fun that way, especially coming from Sweden, a country where most pop music is based on melodies.”

As we speak, Pelle and the rest of The Hives are in the UK promoting their album which is vying for this week’s No1 with Liam Gallagher’s Knebworth ’22.

“I’m obviously hoping it’s us,” he says. “But I realise that Liam at Knebworth is the most nostalgic, quintessentially British thing on earth.”

Pelle adds: “This is the first place where we had mainstream success. We have a passionate love affair with the UK — we love being here.”

He particularly enjoyed being back at Glastonbury earlier in the summer. “A lot of people hadn’t seen or heard from The Hives in a long time. It was a big, beautiful reunion.”

And there was a very special moment when Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders joined them on stage for the blistering Rigor Mortis Radio.

“That song sounds better with two drum kits,” says Pelle. “So we asked Matt to join us and he did.

“That show was a real drummer love fest. Matt had said in an interview that Chris Dangerous was his favourite drummer, which was cool.”

Finally, I ask Pelle if he still enjoys belting out The Hives’ classics like Hate To Say I Told You So and Main Offender.

“Yeah! Just seeing the reaction is awesome,” he answers. “We want our show to have maximum impact, so the dumbest thing we could do is take out the hits.

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“You owe them to the people who love you,” he concludes.

Right now, it’s clear that Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist is feeling the love again.

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