“I’m insanely grateful for the medical system that we have set up in Sweden” – Dennis Lyxzén of Refused shares what happened to him last summer

If their initial ideas had succeeded, the avant-garde post-hardcore group Refused by the end of the year would have completed the second phase of their career. However, life gets in the way, as it so frequently does. Dennis Lyxzén, the group’s frontman, suffered a “massive heart attack” in June of last year, right before their final run was scheduled to begin. He has now had treatment and is still dedicated to maintaining his health. Ironically, on the day that Lyxzén suffered his heart attack, the band—who had previously split up in 1998 and reformed in 2012—was scheduled to announce the planned immediate end of their career. However, the group has since changed their plans to include 2025 because of the additional time Lyxzén’s recuperation has given them. Lyxzén described his heart attack, his present health, the intentions he has for his numerous musical endeavors, and what Refused’s final year will include in a recently released video through his “Dennis Deep Cuts” video series.

So on the 13th of June this summer, I had a massive heart attack. I was at a hotel in Uppsala. We were getting ready to do our comeback show.  We hadn’t played in over four years, we were supposed to play a huge festival in Stockholm the next day. And I woke up with insane chest pains. Felt like I was on fire. It was pretty horrible. But I was mere minutes away from one of the best hospitals in Sweden, and I’m insanely grateful for the medical system that we have set up in Sweden. They blew up some arteries in my heart, and made sure that I am doing pretty well. It’s hereditary. I’m trying to be like, the healthiest person alive, but that didn’t help. But then again, my dad had a stroke when he was in his 50s, my uncle had a heart attack when he was in this late 40s, my grandad had a heart attack, so on and so forth. So it wasn’t really much that I could do to prevent this from happening. And by doctor’s account, me living a really healthy lifestyle probably made it so that I didn’t have a heart attack earlier. This, of course, led to the fact that, well, that Stockholm show didn’t happen and everything over the summer got canceled. And I told myself, I need to take a break from everything. So the summer, I didn’t do anything. I didn’t even… I didn’t answer emails, I didn’t play guitar. I didn’t do anything, which was extremely, extremely boring, and that is why I haven’t been doing any episodes. And then I took a decision that most of the activities that was planned for this fall and winter was all going to be moved or canceled. So I wanted to talk a little bit about that, and my plans for the future, and how my different projects and bands have been affected by this and stuff like that. I’m feeling pretty great under the circumstances. I feel really good. I lost cardio, which was kind of frustrating. But I’m working on getting my cardio back. And apart from that, the only thing is the mental aspect of having lived through a weird trauma like this is that I’m super sensitive now. So as soon as anything in my body hurts remotely, I’m like, ‘What is this? What’s happening?’, which is super common. And that’s something that I need to get over, and sort of put myself in a situation where I hope this is not going to happen again. With correct medicine, and so on, and so forth, I should be able to live a life as full-on as before. So that’s why I haven’t been posting. That’s why I haven’t been active here lately, but I’m back. I feel really good and I feel really optimistic about the future.

After then, he gave a summary of his current projects. Given his less demanding role as a guitarist in that band, he has a few performances scheduled this fall in addition to a new album from his Vännäs Kasino project, which was recorded in May and will be released in late November. The recording of INVSN‘s upcoming album has been postponed until February, with a possible release date of late 2025. Fake Names, his punk ensemble, has been composing new songs for their third studio album.
His “death jazz” side project, Backengrillen, which features saxophonist/flautist Mats Gustafsson, Magnus Flagge, and David Sandström of Refused, is working on a new record that will be released in 2025. The (International) Noise Conspiracy, his now-defunct project, will release their discography in vinyl.

In addition to a 25th anniversary version of their 1998 masterpiece, “The Shape Of Punk To Come,” the trio has already announced a North American farewell tour for next year. A companion tribute album, including “Quicksand, Snapcase, Touché Amoré, GEL,” and others, will accompany the latter. The band anticipates wrapping up their farewell tour in their home country of Sweden in late 2025, and Dennis discloses on this episode that other territories are being considered for legs.

We went out pretty hard with a statement saying that Refused is breaking up next year. We’re doing a farewell tour, and that we’re releasing ‘A Shape Of Punk To Come‘ 25th year anniversary edition. The day when I had my heart attack, we were supposed to go out with a press release saying, ‘Refused are fucking dead’ — which is insane, of course. The festival in Stockholm was to be like the starting point, and then we were supposed to do 15 shows, 15 shows, over this fall and winter, before we were supposed to pack it in. That was the original plan. And then I have a heart attack, and everything changed. And obviously everything this fall got moved or canceled. And we said, what are we going to do next year? And after this conversation, we said, let’s do it, but let’s do it for real. The tour dates for the U.S. tour are already out, and a couple of those shows are already sold out, which is fantastic. We’re looking into festivals over the summer. We’re looking into doing a European tour. We’re looking at South America, Australia — anything that we can fit into it. We’re finishing off in Sweden next fall/winter. That’s the tentative plan for the next year. I would love to play anywhere we can. But of course, life, as you know, logistics, timing, economy, you know, families, etc, etc…. We won’t be able to play everywhere, which is a shame. But the good news is that instead of 15 shows, we might end up doing something maybe like 50 shows next year, which is pretty fantastic. Yeah, so that’s the plan for Refused. We’re doing a full year of touring next year, a little bit of a celebration of ‘The Shape” record, and also a celebration of a long, cool career that we had together. And we want people to come out. And if you want to hear any songs, let us know we play all the songs people want to hear. And then that ‘Shape‘ 25 year anniversary edition will come out. It’s pretty awesome, I might do an unboxing here if I get it in reasonable time. Yeah. So that, that’s what we got in store for for Refused.

Last month, Refused received a significant honor back home when they were admitted into the Swedish Music Hall of Fame. The previously reported 25th anniversary edition of “The Shape Of Punk To Come” is scheduled for release on November 8th, and a second run on purple vinyl is scheduled for sale in March.

Upoming shows with Quicksand:

03/21 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
03/23 Toronto, ON – HISTORY
03/25 Chicago, IL – Salt Shed
03/27 San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
03/28 Los Angeles, CA – Shrine Expo Hall
03/29 Del Mar, CA – The Sound
03/30 Phoenix, AZ – Marquee Theatre
04/01 Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
04/02 Salt Lake City, UT – Union Event Center
04/04 Boise, ID – Knitting Factory
04/05 Seattle, WA – The Showbox
04/07 Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
04/08 Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
04/10 Sacramento, CA – Ace Of Spades