Refused caught up with NME backstage at Mad Cool 2025, and told us about their final tour, the future of the hardcore scene, and how featuring on The Bear’s soundtrack won them some new fans.
Frontman Dennis Lyxzén and drummer David Sandström opened up to us ahead of their immense set at the Madrid festival this weekend (Friday July 12), and explained why they have decided to bring the band to an end and turn their sights to other projects.
When asked by NME if the band would consider reforming later down the line, the members were adamant that these will be their last-ever shows as part of the band, with Sandström saying: “We have other plans for our future, and Refused doesn’t fit in there.”
“What we’re doing with Refused is very physical and quite demanding,” Lyxzén elaborated. “I already feel like it’s pushing it. In 10 years, I’ll be 62, and that’s not a good look to try and prance around in tight pants.”
“I think we can still do ‘New Noise’, but maybe not in 10 years,” he added, referencing their cult classic 1998 track. “It’s just time. We’ve been doing this for a long time and we felt that we just wanted to do different things… 2025 will be the last shows of our career, at least with this band. We’ll [still be making music after then], of course.”
As they take a step back, they are feeling optimistic about the future of the hardcore scene, and revealed that they think the genre is experiencing an all-time high thanks to the likes of Turnstile and High Vis.
“I think that hardcore as a subculture has never been more musically interesting. We can debate if DC’81 was the best, or LA’82… but as far as musically creative and interesting, I think hardcore in 2025 is fantastic,” the frontman shared. “I do think we are leaving it in good hands. We’re not leaving, we’re just doing other stuff, but I do think that hardcore right now is super interesting and super fun.”
“I’ve seen Turnstile live and I loved them, I thought it was mind-blowingly good, but I’ve got to give a shoutout to High Vis, which is my favourite contemporary hardcore band right now,” he added. “They’re fucking amazing. They mix indie rock and Britpop with hardcore and house music, and they’re really raw and violent live. Fantastic band.”
Sandström agreed: “In the DIY underground scene, there are tons of great bands. Then it feels like with Turnstile that hardcore is reaching crazy heights. It’s going across the spectrum, and it didn’t feel like that 15 years ago.”
Speaking about how ‘New Noise’ featuring in the hit FX series The Bear, the band explained how it brought them a new generation of fans.
“To be on a TV show like that, it’s insane. I guess the producer is a big fan of our band,” Lyxzén said.
“They got in touch and paid to have the song on the Golden Globes,” Sandström added. “Then Martin Short and Steve Martin were giving out an award, and as they read the [winner] out, it was someone from The Bear.
“So Steve Martin and Martin Short were standing there and our song started playing on the PA. I never thought that would happen… It’s in the Book of Revelation that it’s a sign of the apocalypse.”
“It is fantastic, and I think with The Bear we did reach new people, but mostly it’s my friends who are like ‘Holy shit, you’re on this show’,” the frontman went on.
“We did music for a video game called Cyberpunk, too, and that got us a lot of young new fans. Every show we played in the states, there were a couple of really young kids with samurai shirts up front.”
Check out the full interview in the video above, where the band also discuss their admiration for Iggy Pop, and the resurgence of their 1998 album ‘The Shape Of Punk To Come’.
At Mad Cool, the band’s performance at night one was given high praise from NME, and described as being both “one of the best sets of the night” and a showcase that gave that night’s headliners, Muse, “a run for their money”. Check out images of their show, as well as other performers on the day here.
Refused’s final tour will come to a close in October this year, where they will hold performances at venues in Glasgow, Manchester, London, Dublin, Paris, Lille and Leipzig. Visit here for remaining tickets.
NME is the official media partner of Mad Cool