Slouched on a sofa in a former cement factory in Stockholm, Viagra Boys’ Swedish-American frontman and lyricist Sebastian Murphy is recalling a low point in his life, several years ago. He points to a tattoo on his heavily inked torso that sums it up. “It says ‘You need me’,” he explains in a tobacco-stained California burr. “When I did this tattoo, I was such a piece-of-shit drug addict who only cared about himself. I thought it was funny. I don’t need you guys – you need me.” It inspired You N33d Me, one of the best tracks on the sax-blasting post-punk band’s electrifying, sort-of-self-titled fourth album Viagr Aboys. Hooked on amphetamines, pills and Valium at various points in his past, Murphy has been, by his own admission, the last person anybody needed around.
But the strongest thing Murphy is consuming when we meet on a recent Thursday afternoon is black coffee. We’re in the lair of Shrimptech Enterprises, the independent label and umbrella company for the Swedish band’s increasingly hectic operations: they’ve gradually climbed out of the toilet circuit over the last decade, and business is booming. This is where Viagra Boys write and record, design merch and poster art, all six members punching in for regular hours most weekdays. Our chat is soundtracked by the insistent chime of a piano being tuned. Here, Murphy is a cog in an increasingly smooth-running machine.
