Magnus Tannergren - Podcaster/Editor-In-Chief

Please tell us something about yourself and about heavyunderground.se at the beginning. How long has the medium been around, what is important to you when choosing topics for podcasts, how did you get into it, etc.?
Magnus: I have been writing about music since 2002 in Swedish magazines like Close Up Magazine and Slavestate. The podcast started as a local community radio show back in 2011 and it became a podcast in 2014 with the mission to interview bands on the underground scene. Mostly Swedish. I release a new episode every week interviewing bands and people from the underground scene. And we also do written album reviews.

How do you define underground for yourself and when do you see a band/artist outgrowing the underground? Why are you so connected to the underground?
Magnus: I discovered metal back in 1984 and was heavily into punk in the 90s. What attracted me to it was independence and the feeling of belonging to a community of peers rebelling against the mainstream culture. It’s hard to define „underground“. I think it’s more about attitude than what label you release your music on and how you approach your creativity.

You mainly concentrate on the scene in Sweden. What makes the Swedish music scene so special for you and what about the next generation? Sweden is known to be blessed with sensational bands/artists. Is there a high-quality and ambitious next generation?
Manus: Sweden is a small country with a great number of bands. It is a tradition I think since way back thanks to publicly funded rehearsal spaces. But we are still a small country. I see myself as an archivist that is documenting what is happening right now and also what happened 30 years ago that is having an impact now. And there are lots of great new young bands out there that are doing stuff that blows my mind. So, I think that I will be busy talking to them for a long time. Great things will happen!

Release date: 15th of March, 2026
Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/heavyunderground_se/