"UPDATED, RESTARTED AND POWER POPPED UP"

• 19 May, 2016

In February 1993, after half a year in semi-retirement, the band gathers itself together to make a new record. Magnus resigns after five years' loyal duty, and in his place guitar player Ulf Abrahamsson, from the band Aspirin for breakfast, is brought in. Chips Kiesbye is asked to resume the collaboration and happily accepts to produce the record. However, Radium Records, now bought by semi-independent biggie MNW at this point, turns out to be thoroughly uninterested in the band's plans; the Psychotic Youth ask to have their record contract annulated, which is readily arranged.

The Psychotic Youth CD "Juice!" takes form in the Music-A-Matic studio in the summer of 1993. Jörgen Westman has spent a good deal of the last year in used record stores rummaging through the nickel-and-dime bins, searching for obscure new wave from 1979-80; findings such as the Plimsouls, Paul Collins Beat and the Knack cut-outs will leave a distinctive mark on his new songs. The first single, "Elevator Girl", gets its fair share of airplay on Swedish radio and is tried out for the national listeners' poll (alas, it's disqualified when Gunnar calls in to vote for himself, is put on the air and happily introduces himself with his name...); the band appears on a pre-teen pop music TV show, demonstrating their "beautiful" show dance routine. A second single, "MTV", is subsequently released, complete with groovy video clip.

After touring Scandinavia in the autumn and winter of 1993, the band, deciding that they'd better make hay while the sun shines, go to work on what turns out to be an eight-song "medium play" CD called "Pop". Studio wiz Nille Perned, engineer during the "Juice!" sessions and a good friend of the band, having worked as the Psychotic Youth's live sound engineer for several years, is called in to produce. "Pop" is recorded in about a week under jovial circumstances in the Swedish National Radio studio in Gothenburg, with successful results. Ulf has grown into the band naturally, and the whole record is more or less recorded live, giving it an extra amount of energy and presence. "Pop" is released in May 1994, to good reviews. The German disco band Aneka's 1981 hit "Japanese Boy" is, in the Psychotic Youth power pop version, a minor radio hit.

With "Pop" under its collective belt, the band again feels ready to reach outside the Swedish borders, but Nonstop Records is lacking international distribution and connections. The band promptly decides to buy out the master tapes of "Juice!" and "Pop" themselves releasing a wholly new record with the best songs of the previous two CD:s for distribution outside Sweden. This record, called "Bambozle", is released in the summer of 1994 by Jörgen's newly founded label Blast Records.

After their "1994 Summer Festivals-Swimming In Every Lake In Sweden-Tour", along with a couple of visits to Denmark and Norway, the band once again seems to fall to pieces. Jörgen joins the band William while the other band members start to engage in other projects; Gunnar is playing pedal steel with honky tonk heroes Gillis Jordan & The Bad Lovers, along his work as a theater musician; Ulf is recording a CD along with the band Wish and Kent has gotten a big shot job at the car factory. The endless summer seems to be over, and at this point in the late 1994 the Psychotic Youth are closer than ever to throwing in the towel. A week later they appear on a national TV show playing a couple of songs from the /???/, along with their announcement that from now on the Psychotic Youth is only considered a hobby project for the band members. But no peace for the wicked...

Just days after their announcement the band is contacted by German label Wolverine Records who wants to take a license on the "Bamboozle" CD. There's also a demand for a tour. The distributor SPV makes the CD available all over Europe. So the band makes new plans. A German booking agency is hired to set up the tour in the spring of 1995. It becomes the last trip for rhythm section Kent and Gunnar, who both already have decided to leave the band but come along on the trip to Germany for old times' sake. In the autumn of 1995 they are replaced by Dennis Staaf on drums and Johannes Kagelind on bass guitar.MNW Records and the band decide to co-operate again since the back catalogue of the Psychotic Youth is now under MNW's label. First out is the greatest hits compilation "Small Wonders 1985-1996", then the twin-CD of "Faster! Faster"/"Anything For A Thrill". MNW also releases a double CD of "Juice!"and"Pop" filled out with some B-sides and outtakes. A split-CD with the American combo Surf Trio is released on the German label Wolverine Records in April with all previously released material, followed by a two week tour in May/June with the Surf Trio, which becomes 'hombres' with our boys. In Brazil Natasha Records arranges for the song "Japanese Boy" and "MTV" to be a part of the 80,000 printed copies of Showbiz, a magazine with attached CD. Serious efforts are also made to break into the huge Japanese market, but no luck.