Interview with Moa Lenngren from Browsing Collection

Browsing Collection is a Swedish Punk Rock band that have been cruising their way into the hearts of people all around the world. Their recent EP, ‘Don’t Want to Dance’, is like a Pringles pack – “Once you pop, the fun don’t stop.” (I should really stop writing articles before dinner while hungry)

Now guess which one of the four members of Browsing Collection we got to interview! Guess! Oh wait, nevermind, it’s in the title.

Moving on, we had the chance to chat with Moa Lenngren, the multi-talented guitarist of Browsing Collection, and we talked about many things, such as Browsing Collection’s music, their plans for the future, and of course, Frodo of the Shire.

Mirk: Hello Moa. It’s very nice to talk with you! How are you and the other members of Browsing Collection?

Moa: Hi there and thanks for having me! I’m just fine thank you! The rest of the gang is unfortunately home with super high fever and the worst of colds. I’m lucky to still be alert and well, so I’m sending them my best and warmest get well wishes!

Mirk: Hope they get well soon! How would you introduce Browsing Collection to the unlucky part FemMetal readers who haven’t heard your music yet?

Moa: In short Browsing Collection is a Swedish hard rock band with punk attitude and metal influences who never leaves the audience without a sore throat or an aching neck.

Mirk: Compared to many other “new” Punk bands, you’re still closer to let me call it “authentic” Punk. Your tunes are heavy, fast and catchy and the whole sound has that Punk vibe. However, your sound is also very unique. How important do you think it is to maintain this balance between delivering the authentic music that certain genre fans expect, and being yourself and creating a new identity sound?

Moa: I totally agree with you here, it’s a very fine line between giving the audience what they expect but also never create the same thing twice to bore them. For us it’s more about what we enjoy playing, and if we like it we think that our fans will too. But it’s not always that easy of course. We have very different taste in music so it’s sometimes very hard to keep the songs within a certain genre. If we could go totally crazy we would have loved to play everything from death metal to opera or jazz. I think that’s why we still keep making interesting music, because we always use the best parts from one another and strive for making something that might fit us all, and at the same time is a killer to play live.

Mirk: Browsing Collection is almost 12 years old now. What has been the best part and the hardest part of it?

Moa: Yes we’ve been doing this for quite a while now, and we keep in enjoying it more and more every year! In some way, I think all the best parts are payoff from the hardest parts. Since we’ve been doing this for so many years we’ve grown to be more of a family, and that kind of intense relationship can be really tough of course. Despite some fuss from then to then we always know that we love each other and love what we do, so that will never be any problem. In fact they lead to motivation, great feedback and giving us the opportunity to develop and grow as persons. And it might sound quite corny, but the absolute best parts are actually to be able to just live my dream with my girls. To be on tour, kick ass on stage, be in the studio, have taco and tequila band meetings and just hang out. I’m so thankful for everything we’re able to to together. To be honest, we’ve had a really hard time getting to where we are now. In this business it’s still hard being a female and wherever we go there are people constantly telling us we’re not good enough, not blond enough, not sexy enough, not old enough, too pretty, not pretty enough etc. To fight and endure these comments every single time is super tiresome and disturbing, when all we want is to focus on the music. That’s something that we after 12 years still try to get rid of and is definitely the hardest part of being in a band like this, that just happens to consist of only females.

Mirk: Browsing Collection have released their debut album in 2015. And last year you released an EP, called “Don’t Want to Dance”. Is this EP an appetizer for a new album coming soon?

Moa: Oh yeah, that’s for sure! We have currently released three singles from our new upcoming album! It will be released in spring 2020 and will be the best thing we’ve ever done. If you like the sound of “Don’t Want to Dance” this will be an even more catchy, heavy and well produced record, with songs that totally will blow your brains out. This time we’ve also added a few more influences, such as rap and blues! So excited to share this with the world!

Mirk: You’re a developer, a composer, a guitarist, a teacher, an event organizer, and I also saw that you designed your band’s website. (Which looks amazing by the way). So I think it’s fair to ask, what did you want to be when you were a kid?

Moa: Thank you so much! Haha, well when I was super young my dream was to be an ice princess. We had a lake just beside our house and I was there every night during the winters. But when I got a little older I totally changed direction and decided to be what we in Sweden call a “raggare”, you know the people who just drive around in old cars all day listening to rockabilly? But here in my hometown they are so much less fancy, have crappy cars and have never heard of soap. Well, I thought that was cool. Now I can never in a million years understand why. But I really planned to have a nice green car, with matching green hair of course. Fortunately, I grew up some more and upgraded my dream to be a rally-driver. And I still want to!

Mirk: In your bio on the band’s official website it says you love Lord of the Rings movie. So if Browsing Collection were the four hobbits of the Fellowship of the Ring, who would be Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin?

Moa: Oh wow, this is by far the best question I’ve ever gotten in an interview. Let me think about this… It’s really hard actually! In my ordinary life I might see myself as a Sam since I’m very organized, loyal and want to take care of people and always try to be responsible. But in terms of the band, like on tour or on a gig night after a few beers I’m definitely Frodo, no doubt. I’d like to think that I’m super passionate about what I do and determined to follow through my tasks, no matter the cost. But after too many beers trying to follow some kind of instinct I have our drummer Carro, who would be Sam then, trying to stop me from taking bad decisions. She’s obviously the hero helping me home after a long night. Also, Mimi and Nora are 100% Merry and Pippin. Wild, honest and full of humor.

Mirk: Another thing I read in your bio is that your biggest fear is humanity. And I bet if we just brainstorm we can come up with a gigantic list of faults in humans; racism, greed, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, and the list goes on. What do you think is the most dangerous of these faults in humanity?

Moa: Exactly, this is such an important subject! You mentioned so many things here that are the worst things in this world. And I think the most dangerous feature many people develop these days without even thinking about it might actually be greed, ‘cause the egoism and the need of trying to compare ourselves with other persons is literally taking over the world today, especially on social media. We always strive for being better, happier, stronger, healthier, richer, prettier, more famous, more handsome, thinner and more popular than everybody else. That’s why we constantly keep on putting ourselves first, spend our time and money on the wrongs things, only care about ourselves and forget about the real problems. We’re too concerned about always making the decisions that only we benefit from, even though it hurt others. I have a feeling that this is the main reason for many of the other faults in humanity. Oohhh, I can talk about this all day! It’s so extremely important and engaging. And this is exactly what Browsing Collection writes lots of lyrics about. We really want to be good role models for young people and to make a change.

Mirk: Do you remember the first time you performed on stage? How big was the crowd and how did you feel about it?

Moa: We’ve performed a lot in school as kids, but not with with the same set up we have today. So when we were around 14 years old, I think it was in October 2008, we got our first real gig at a small club with some other bands we didn’t know about. We had never even been to a concert before and had no idea what to expect but got totally blown away. The place was completely packed with people! We were super nervous and played like shit but had an amazing time. I remember my whole family being there to support us, it was such an indescribable feeling and we were totally euphoric afterwards.

Mirk: Thank you for the interview Moa! It’s amazing to talk with a talented lady as yourself. Good luck for you and Browsing Collection in your coming projects!

Moa: Thank YOU! I’m very honored and it was totally my pleasure!
Thank you so much and I really hope to talk to you again. All the best!

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