AC/DC, Pete Townshend Among Hives Guitarist Nicholaus Arson’s Influences

It’s easy to pick out the punk influence in the Hives‘ music, but guitarist Nicholaus Arson says there’s definitely some classic rock flowing through their veins as well.

In an exclusive interview with Diffuser, Arson says that even before punk there was AC/DC for them. He explains, “That came really early on. I was six, and Pelle [singer Almqvist] was five. I was listening to AC/DC. [I] got those records from an older friend on my street, and I was listening to that over and over and over.”

Arson says he and his brother would play music half of the day and then the other half would be masquerading at the Three Musketeers. Arson says as a guitar player, it was always about Angus Young and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Meanwhile, another classic rocker — Pete Townshend — came along as an influence at a later date, but maybe more for his stage presence than his music. Arson says, “I never listened that much to the Who. I only listened to the hits and I saw him on Woodstock footage and we thought that was cool.” But the one thing that Arson does credit Townshend with was his energy onstage. He adds, “If you see a picture of Pete Townshend, you can see why people like him. You can see why people want to buy Who records. Any sort of punk bands that we’d see that were jumping, we pretty much liked them.”