Viagra Boys: Nothing’s Off Limits
When Bryget Chrisfield Zooms one third of Viagra Boys ahead of their upcoming Australian tour, they are in Stockholm: bassist Henrik “Benke” Höckert is at home, while saxophonist Oskar Carls is in Shrimp Enterprises, the band’s studio.
Words Bryget Chrisfield // Image Fredrik Bengtsson
“Smoking meth under the bridge,” “your mom’s OnlyFans,” “spend[ing] all day at the nail salon,” “I’m selling drugs to the kids at school” – Viagra Boys deal loose, horny rock ’n’ roll, laced with LOL-worthy lyrical zingers on their latest record, viagr aboys. We can’t help but wonder whether any subjects are off-limits for the band. “Probably not, no,” Höckert admits.
The last gig the Swedish punk sextet played was at Stockholm’s Globen (aka Avicii Arena) on November 26th, about which Höckert enthuses, “It was crazy to play to [thousands of] people in the hometown where I grew up.” When asked whether Viagra Boys get recognised in their hometown these days, Carls says, “Yeah, it happens, but not so much. I think it’s worse for Sebastian [Murphy, frontman]. It’s hard to hide that face tattoo.”
Höckert recalls first meeting the band’s singer: “We talked about old punk bands that we both liked and started talking about starting a band. Then we were at a party together and he sang karaoke. I don’t remember which Mariah Carey song it was, and I was like, alright! I saw that he had something, you know what I mean? I saw that we gotta start this band, because that’s not so common. I played tons in punk bands before where the only thing that the vocalist can do is scream, so…” he trails off laughing.
On whether he immediately knew they were onto something during early Viagra Boys jam sessions, Höckert responds, “Yeah, I think so, ‘cause it sounded like an old punk band from the early ‘80s and the vocals were really good. I’d never had that feeling before.”
Named after Murphy’s beloved pet, ‘Uno II’, a viagr aboys standout track, speculates on the Italian greyhound’s inner dialogue when he woke up after dental surgery missing several teeth.
“Every time we play ‘Uno II’ live, that’s the song that people sing along to the most,” Carls reveals, “and the lyrics are so absurd. There’s always this moment when you hear everyone start singing, ‘I found a crouton underneath the futon…’ - but what are they doing? What is this? What have we created? Yeah, I always laugh on stage during that one.”
The sax-fuelled, post-punk chaos of Viagra Boys is perfectly captured on viagr aboys. Throughout, Carls’ demented sax breakdowns are used sparingly, hitting like gut-punches (see: ‘You N33d Me’). On how he works out when a sax attack is required, Carls shares, “It’s always been a challenge to play sax in a rock band but, yeah, I think sometimes I manage. Once you start to play, it stands out so much from the rest of the instruments so it’s hard to blend in. But I try to find ways to be a part of the rhythm section, I think that’s my main outpost.”
Carls says he was first drawn to the saxophone when he was eight, recalling, “I went to an open house at this music school where you got to try out a bunch of different instruments. And when I saw the saxophone, I cut the line and I was like, ‘[puts on a little boy’s voice] I wanna try that!’ I was so small, so they let me do it. And then, yeah! I never stopped.”
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Before he mastered his weapon of choice, Carls admits, “It must have sounded awful. I mean, it’s so loud. I remember my brother was coming into my room, super-pissed off, like, ‘Hey, please stop playing that. Please just shut up’.”
When asked to share an early memory of being moved by a song, Carls shares, “The first CD I got was this Kiss Greatest Hits [collection]. I listened to that a lot back then, I was maybe seven. At school, me and my friends started to have, like, band rehearsals. We took those things – maybe you don’t have that in Australia – but in Sweden we have these things that you put over the radiators, that you can remove. And then we [would] hold those as guitars, playing [along] to the songs. Like, ‘Okay, you play the drums, I play the guitar…’ We had proper rehearsals. But we were just putting on the CD and starting to… [he plays air guitar].”
Höckert offers, “When I was five, the first rock song I heard was ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ by Twisted Sister. I had that recording on a tape that I listened to over and over and over again.”
A self-taught guitarist, Höckert started playing in various bands before eventually switching to the bass in his early twenties. “I was kind of old. I was too bad a guitarist, so I just played the bass instead,” he jokes. Is that because the bass has less strings? “Yeah, exactly, haha.” Viagra Boys supported Queens of the Stone Age a couple of years back, which Höckert remembers “was really fun.” “We played for 40 minutes, early every night,” he elaborates, laughing. “And all of them [QOTSA] were very nice.”
“We were hanging out backstage and drinking their superexpensive tequila,” Carls adds with a cheeky glint in his eye. “It was George Clooney’s tequila, Casamigos. It’s pretty good, super-smooth.”
Carls singles out discovering “chess, the game” as a highlight of his year. “It’s fantastic! And also, the worst thing I’ve done in my whole life, but I’m sticking to it,” he vows with a chuckle. According to Carls, Viagra Boys played chess “a lot” during downtime on their American tour and also went to St. Louis. “Apparently, it’s the chess capital of the US. Got to visit the chess centre there. It was superinspiring.” Viagra Boys have had one helluva 2025 since their rapturously received Coachella sets back in April. Of their US tour, Höckert marvels, “Almost all shows were sold out, that was crazy!”
When they hit our shores in January, Viagra Boys look forward to thawing out from the Swedish winter and eating some “really good Thai food.” “The Thai food in Sweden isn’t really the same,” Carls laments
Catch Viagra Boys performing at Hindley Street Music Hall on Wednesday January 21.Tickets on sale now via moshtix.com.au.
