Sweden's post-punk/gothic rock band Missiles rehearses where the internationally acclaimed film director, Bo Widerberg, during the Cold War, filmed the masterpiece Kvarteret Korpen (Raven's End). But unlike Anders in the movie, Missiles was contracted by a prestigious record label, Svart Records. And its debut album, Weaponize Tomorrow, came out on 10 May. The album release party will happen at Medley in Malmö on 14 June.

But everything was about to explode before it even started. During a chaotic recording session in a stark office landscape at the World Trade Center located in the West Harbor, Malmö, the songs took a different direction, and the project grew into something bigger and harder to control. Emotions ran high. And the band broke up immediately after a failed debut performance in old East Berlin.
 
"Our recording process was a textbook example of how not to do it. But looking back, I'm grateful that we made many of the mistakes, as it has given the album something, a nerve, that wouldn't have been there otherwise", says Missiles' singer and guitarist Gabriel Forslund. "One shouldn't take for granted creative processes without casualties, it can and tend to get ugly."

The album's working title was "The Cold War Album" to express the feelings between the band members. Perhaps it also expressed the underlying frustrations and heated emotions of songwriting. Collaboration with the artist Thomas H Johnsson visually captures the band's thoughts and concepts. "The album cover began to take shape and the already iconic cover photograph 'The Boy with the AK-47 Kalashnikov', taken in a nuclear power plant, became a visual guide for the continued work on the album. In these AI  times, it's important to point out that the image is indeed a real photograph. And that approach can also summarize Missiles: what we do is real", summarizes Forslund with a smile.

Just when the work on the album cover was finished, Russia invaded Ukraine, and the world situation escalated. The album cover came to represent both Missiles' songs and the mood of the present time. And the theme of the album suddenly became eerily relevant. The Cold War was now a reality, and the album was re-titled Weaponize Tomorrow.

"During the video recording of 'Dead Summer Moon', everything turned into a cold war. The record company booked a gig in a cramped basement club in Berlin. It might sound cool to have a first gig in Berlin, but the conditions were lousy, an incredibly small room, which we had to share with a local stand-up event. Emotions exploded in an anticlimax, and the band broke up", says Missiles' bassist Linus Larsson and continues: "We became two fractions. Like East and West. I acted as a peacemaker and managed to gather the superpowers around the same table. Probably a real crap gig was exactly what was needed to release the tensions, finish the album, and start on the next project. I think we've found the form for how not to work and thus paved the way for a more painless process for future albums".

The band has also shared a video for "Living In A Nuclear Town" and commented: "The video is shot in a drab part of Berlin, by a group of dedicated souls, not scared of rodents or nuclear threat, a girl's gotta eat, and so do you". Director Johan Snell added: "Amidst the rubble we choose to consume our surroundings and consummate our commitment towards an inevitable shared fate". Link