"Listen up there's a brand new band in town".... Okay I may be lifting the opening line from the self-titled intro song on The Genuine Fakes debut album here, but never has a truer word been penned in respect to the band by the same name.  When the band's 'Striped Album' arrived at URHQ without any of the usual fanfare associated with a new album back in late 2010, we were about to make one of THE true musical finds of the year.

Hailing from Stockholm Sweden, The Genuine Fakes are a four-piece band that will hopefully do for powerpop what Willie Wonka did for chocolate.  As songwriters the band have a special set of ingredients that takes elements of classic 'scene' bands like Fuzzbubble, Sugerbomb and The Grays and sprinkles them with a little bit of Genuine Fakery to produce songs that will live inside your heads forever.

But enough of my chatter, you want to hear from the band themselves right?  Well I caught up with the band's lead singer/guitarist and songwriter Joey Fake recently to get the full run down on exactly what its like to be in a powerpop band in the twenty first century, and what I found out will amaze you all....

Hi Joey, firstly many thanks for taking the time to talk with us at Uber Rock, it is a pleasure to be chatting with you.

My pleasure Johnny!

The Genuine Fakes are going be a new name to a lot of our readers so could you please give us bit of a catch up on your career to date.

Well, we started out as a trio in 2005. I'd been focusing on my solo career up to that point and wasn't really looking to start a new band, but we really hit it off from the get-go and before we knew it we had an album's worth of material. About a year later we added a keyboardist to the roster and started playing shows all around Sweden, focusing on becoming a strong live act. We've played two of the largest festivals in Sweden - Way Out West and the Peace & Love Festival - and gained some recognition in the Indie and powerpop community. In between gigs we wrote and recorded new material, and after three years of on and off work in the studio we felt that we had an album we were happy with. It was released worldwide digitally on December 1, 2010 and on January 17 we put out the CD here in Sweden. The rest is history in the making. (laughing)

Your debut, 'The Striped Album' made my top ten albums of the year, and was nearly my powerpop album of the year (you were just pipped at the post by The Posies).  What has the reaction been like elsewhere?

We're amazed by the positive response we've gotten so far. Everyone who's reviewed the album has been very enthusiastic about the album. We made several "Top 10 of 2010" lists on various powerpop blogs and we've even gotten good reviews in a couple of the snobbiest music magazines here in Sweden. It feels great that all the work we've put into this band over the past five years hasn't been for naught.

I do think it is a fantastic album, with many many highlights (I could go on here by I will not), what do you consider to be your personal highlights.

I think that the track that kicks off the album - the "theme song" - is my personal highlight. After I'd written that song the whole album just fell into place piece by piece. We had a lot of fun in the studio arranging the vocal harmonies and trying to fit in different licks and musical quotations from other songs on the album. As trivial and straightforward as it may seem, it's actually a pretty complex song that we spent a long time trimming.

I can hear loads of reference points in your music from Will Owsley, to Jason Faulkner via Silver Sun to the obvious Posies comparison, how do you think those stack up when describing your sound?

I think that's pretty spot on. Owsley's been a favourite of mine since high school, and The Posies have been a big influence ever since 'Frosting On the Beater' came out. I'm happy that you can trace those influences back to our songs - we WANT people to hear where we're coming from musically!

And the album is getting a US release soon isn't it?  Where and when can people get it?

It's already up for pre-order through http://koolkatmusik.com/. It will also be released in Spain by Rock Indiana Records by the end of February.

And what's this about the just released Japanese release getting extra tracks? What are those guys getting they I haven't heard?

The Japanese version contains four songs that got left over from the album sessions. Great songs that we somehow felt didn't fit in amongst the rest of the bunch. One of them is a funny Nintendo 8-bit version of the opening track that I did just for kicks when I found a cool Nintendo plugin (laughs)

I was in a bar the other night and 'Irreplaceable' by Beyonce was played over their sound system.  My wife just looked at me mouth wide open as I started to sing along. What's it feel like being responsible for corrupting people's minds with such feckless drivel? 

Ha ha, sorry about that! I'm glad we decided to do that cover, 'cause everywhere we play shows where people have never heard of us before, that song always wins over even the most sceptical listener. I never get tired of seeing people's facial expressions changing into surprised smiles as they realize what song it is they're hearing. I've seen that people are talking a lot about it on different message boards and it's gotten people not really prone to liking this kind of music to check us out so that's fantastic!

You really did nail that track though, what's the reaction been like to your version?  Any feedback from B herself?

We've yet to find out what B herself thinks about our version. I tried to get a roadie of hers to pass it along when she played in Stockholm but he just shook his head, gave me a condescending smile and said "she doesn't speak to the crew". When I asked him whether he speaks to anyone else whom she might speak to he just said "sorry, dude". I think he was full of shit, but whatever. I gave it a shot. However, I've heard that her sister's on Twitter, maybe I should try through that instead? (laughs)

You're certainly not scared of taking brave moves in your career, I mean It's a pretty brave move just to play powerpop music, as you either end up being megastars (normally after you have died) or disappear into obscurity (and then end up dying), what is it about the genre that attracts you all to playing it?

It's really the ultimate genre. Why it isn't the biggest genre of all is a big mystery to me. It's got the best of both pop and rock - great melodic pop tunes performed with the energy of rock music. How could it not attract people?! In a perfect world, Big Star would be regarded as one of the most important bands in music history up there with The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, The Stones and Queen, and 'Frosting On the Beater' and 'Spilt Milk' would be as common in record collections as Oasis' 'What's the Story...' and Nirvana's 'Nevermind'. It's a shame that the record companies never really cared to exploit powerpop bands more. When people ask me what kind of music The Genuine Fakes play and I say that we're a powerpop band, they just stare at me with a strange look in their face, wondering what the hell I'm talking about. We want to change all that. Four decades of being an underground sub-culture is enough, wouldn't you say?

So is there much of a powerpop scene in Sweden?

Not really. We're pretty much the only band on the scene (at least the only new band), which is why we haven't found a label that would be interested in signing us. We ended up releasing it on my own label and licensing it to labels outside of Sweden. Some bands like The Drowners who've been around for many years are still putting out good records, but they're more or less just doing it as a hobby these days and the albums are few and far between. The Merrymakers aren't around anymore, but David Myhr is putting out a solo album soon and we're talking about maybe doing a tour together, which would be beneficial for both parts I think. Back in the 90's there were a lot of powerpop bands in Sweden, only it wasn't called powerpop here. It was "swindie pop". But swindie bands were more pop than rock I guess since even The Cardigans would be considered as part of that scene. The Genuine Fakes have a lot in common with swindie pop bands such as Popsicle and The Wannadies. If you haven't heard of them, be sure to check 'em out. If I had to choose my two favourite bands, they'd be Popsicle and The Posies.

As I've mentioned Sweden I hope you don't mind me pointing out that you, as in your voice Joey sounds more American than some American bands sound these days. How do you manage to get the diction so bang on?

I guess that's due to the fact that I was brought up on mostly American music. I happened on powerpop when I was deeply into the whole grunge scene, checking out all the bands that came out of Seattle. So, naturally I started mimicking my idols - the way everyone starts out I imagine. Also, my family has moved around a lot and we've lived in different parts of the world so I started learning English when I was about four years old. My high school years were spent in an American school and because of that I could consider English as my second first language rather than just my second language.

I mentioned in my album review that the track 'The Genuine Fakes' is the perfect theme music to your as yet unscripted TV show (like a Swedish Banana Splits).  What would your TV show look like?

It would be us four Fakes being superheroes, fighting villains like Linkin Park and Christina Aguilera!

So if the TV show isn't on the cards just yet what is up next for you guys?

In May we're going to do a tour in Spain. Until then we're in the studio rehearsing songs for the next album that we'll hopefully put out in spring 2012 (if the Mayan's aren't right about the world ending then). The songs are already written, we just need to finish the arrangements and start tracking. We will also put out an E.P. after summer with some of the songs we didn't use for the debut album. A kind of "best of the rest" or something.

Is there any chance you guys will be bringing your moustaches to the UK anytime soon?

We're hoping we can do some shows in the UK in the fall. It depends a bit on whether we can get a license deal there or not. Got any tips?  (laughing)

OK a couple a silly ones to finish off if you were a Kim Fowley sven gali type putting together the all time best powerpop band to take over the world who would you have in your band and what would you call the band?

Mike Viola on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Jon Auer and myself on electric guitar, Tom Petersson on bass, Andy Sturmer on drums and Ben Folds on keyboards. We'd be called The Cuckoos! (Hell, I don't know - band names are tough!)

And then finally just to finish I'd like to get inside your musical mind by asking you to take the Uber Rock random music test where if we were to do the random first five tracks on your I Pods/I Phones MP3 players right now what would come up? (No cheating OK !!!)

Pearl Jam - 'Can't Keep'

The Beatles - 'Baby You're a Rich Man'

Mark Olson and Gary Louris - 'Kick the Wood'

The Genuine Fakes - 'The Genuine Fakes' (yeah, I listen to my own records!)

Owsley - 'Oh No the Radio'

And with that we'd like to once again thank you for taking the time to speak with us at Uber Rock we'll hopefully catch up with you sometime soon here in the UK (get a Welsh date on the cards), so until then we wish you and the gang every success with the upcoming worldwide crusade in the name of 'The Striped Album'...

Thank you Johnny it's been a pleasure!

Listen up Uber Rockers.... Bands like The Genuine Fakes don't come along that often so let's make sure they are not yet another name to add to the list of powerpop's finest that are no longer with us (I really don't need to list them do I?).  Get out there and buy your copy of the bands superb 'Striped Album' and spread the word that there is very much a brand new band in town, and they're kicking against all the trends and making some mighty fine rock music in the process. 

Check out the links below to find out more.

http://thegenuinefakes.com/

http://www.myspace.com/thegenuinefakes

http://www.facebook.com/thegenuinefakes

Photo Kudos Johan Lundin and Richard Ortega