Umeå

There's a big difference between that.

going and studying abroad and being sheltered and going over there and actually living in some of these small towns and small small cities and having to make your way around and i was fortunate enough to be in good position to make it eight years and and uh After my final year in the north of Sweden in Umeå, where we would go a month and a half without any sunlight, it was time to call it quits.

I had kids, and I was ready to come home, and I was fortunate enough to latch on to Brad Brownell and the Clemson staff at the time.

T.O., what was your favorite stop overseas of all the stops in Sweden and France, Georgia, and all those places?

Yeah, and it's been since I've played in the Blue, so that's what I've experienced, and I think that's incredible.

Elmhult away, and I don't know who, Umeå, and all sorts of things, that they're always there to support, and it really feels like that as a player.

So it's a big reward for everyone who comes, and it really makes a difference for us, even if it's not as many as it can be, it's still quality, so we like that.

Speaking of Umeå being gone, we have to talk about that.

How was it to go minibus up to Umeå? I

can't exactly ask the same question.

It was special, but it went really well.

You

for having me on.

And you're like 110 Swedish miles away from me up north in my old hometown Umeå as you play for Björklöven this year.

Yeah, it's a great little town and I'm excited to be in Sweden.

It's a university town, let me tell you that.

It's a great town.

there are two towns I could, I could see myself and my wife moving to, um, if we had the opportunity in Sweden, one is Umeå where Björkläven plays, obviously.

And the other one is Engelholm where, uh, Nate Plurman plays in, in El Regla.

So I hopefully see you there because that's an hour drive for me.

In, in this area, in the northern part, for example, we don't have neuro, neurosurgery.

So that's a category of patients that we have to send down to Umea, which is, like, from 400 kilometers, uh, south, and that's, uh...

So that usually we send them with fixed wings.

If it's not really urgent, then that's the h- helicopter job.

So that's...

I, I've been thinking about that a lot because if you look at in Europe, um, like the north of Sweden, for example, Umeå had this super thriving hardcore scene in the '90s, and they had, like, state-subsidized rehearsal spaces and, uh, just like a lot of cultural funding programs and all of that.

So you see the connection between, um, this type of, uh, system and then, like, a thriving arts and underground music culture.

But then the counterexample is the U.S. Like you said, there has never been anything like that, and still a lot of fucking great bands coming out, uh, of nowhere with no government support, with no subsidized rehearsal spaces, you know.

And the only reason I mention that is just because it's, like, such a, it's such a foreign idea to-

Yeah

... us here in the States, and then when you hear about those things, uh, you're just like, "Oh my gosh," like, you know, that's why it's like, you know, dumb, dumb hardcore kids from all across the United States, like, know about Umeå.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know what, what you listeners have noticed, but I, I-- where I live, literally every billboard has Jimmie Åkesson [chuckles] grinning at me or some, or a set of stats on what the government's achieved with the Sweden Democrat backing.

And Mandy up in Umeå says it's the same up there, and the party's got a position right in front of Umeå Town Hall.

And then they've been doing lots of attention-grabbing stunts, so, uh, th- they did this boat tour on the Göt Canal.

Uh, they've been arranging in Sweden.