Behind The Tracks: The Holy Ghost - Brownshirt Trojan (Single) (2023)

Jens Åker, The Holy Ghost: The point of the song is to express my exasperation with the manipulative games, lies, and media tactics of the newly elected government Sweden Democrats (SD). It infuriates me to no end to see them try and pass themselves off as just another political party.

They’re not. The normalization process has gone very far very fast, to where it’s almost controversial to point out the obvious fact that they are a party of and for racists. Besides the fact that SD have their origins in Nazism, their current policies are straight up racist Nationalist Conservative, too. They imagine themselves knights in a cultural war for the survival of the white race. They say this openly.

I don’t know if a fascist agenda gets any clearer than that.

I’m old enough to have caught the tail end of a time when Swedish society was actually run on the principles of actual Democratic Socialism. There was, at the very least, a degree of real solidarity with refugees and respect for immigrants and their cultures.

I remember Sweden and I miss it.

So, in my mind, it’s racist assholes like SD who do not belong here and they should leave my country.

Musically, the verse is based on a really old riff from the last days of my former band, somewhat inspired by the truly excellent Swervedriver, who just played a bit punkier. Washington DC’s Rites Of Spring also loom large as an influence on the rest of the song.

I mean, they were one of the best bands of all time, and their one Lp is just like a master class in great songwriting to me now, I find it endlessly inspiring. Please do yourself a favor and check that record out.

I find myself returning to the A Minor again and again in my songs, so I guess it’s a favorite chord of mine, and it features here in a couple of places. Simple as it is, it’s really effective.

The tone of the music is not angry like the words are. It’s kind of uplifting. That’s because I want to give my community of people who feel the same about this shit a song that is not a depressing bum-out, but a happy type of fight song, with some love and hope in the rage.