De Vet Du Bring Signature Comedy-Club-Pop To Melodifestivalen 2017

Photo: Lizel Strömberg (ZEL photography)

De Vet Du are unlike anything seen before in the Swedish entertainment industry. With a constant stream of content spanning the last five years and many viral videos breaking a million+ views, it's hard to believe that such a consistent level of success is not achieved due to the backing of a team of big-shot producers, but from a close-knit group of friends with a pure love of comedy.

Johan Gunterberg and Chris Martland are the creative driving forces behind De Vet Du's unique fusion of comedic concepts produced into club-pop ready-made for every party.

JG: "We usually have the concept first. We chat on Facebook."
CM: "Every song is written on Facebook chat."
JG: "People tell us, 'How do you write your songs?' We just say, 'We make our songs.' 'Write' sounds like we want to be poetic or something."

The other members include Tor Wallin, who neither sings nor composes, but simply brings positivity, a fun energy, and a willingness to engage in whatever antics the song or performance requires.

TW: "I'd say that my role is, nothing really. It's more like I run along with the whole thing and try to have fun, easing up the tension a little bit sometimes. We've known each other for a long time, we're friends, and just from the beginning it seemed natural to tag along."
JG: "He's like [the] guy from Westlife who didn't even sing but they didn't tell us. We tell them."

The final member is known as "DJ Hunk" - the group's DJ that maintains a non-speaking persona and always has his sunglasses on and his shirt off. When the group is asked about DJ Hunk, they maintain their usual set of non-answers that maintains the persona of the character.

JG: "I don't think he can talk. We've never heard it."

When asked to book a one-on-one interview with us during the ongoings of Melodifestivalen 2017 semi-final 1 in which De Vet Du are competing, Gunterberg is insistent that the group will make time for it. Upon meeting them for the first time, it's a round of hugs from everyone except for DJ Hunk, who maintains his 'cool' persona and aura of mystery by simply shaking hands instead. All the live-tweeting from our preparatory research, ranging from watching every video posted to their official YouTube channel, their TV4 documentary/reality series De Vet Du Livet (with the help of a Swedish colleague to translate enough to follow along), and even the agonising process of watching 'professional' Swedish interviews with zero preparatory research done by the reporters beforehand, has not gone unnoticed by the group. Even Wallin, who does not have an active Twitter account, admits to having lurked on the barely filtered feedback of De Vet Du's work and the Swedish media that does not understand it.

The name "De Vet Du" originates from a phrase in Swedish slang that can translate to mean "You know it" and is often used as a mildly aggressive rebuttal to questions.

JG: "We thought that was stupid so we wanted to call our group that, it's perfect."

SVT has allegedly been after De Vet Du to join the contest for a couple of years now but 2017 is the year that the group finally decided to participate.

JG: "If you do [Melodifestivalen] early in your career, you're just gonna be that. So I guess we waited to build our career so it wouldn't be defined by this, what we did here."

Despite having built an entirely unique form of entertainment content that and a strong business model that includes a wide variety of merchandise that they design themselves, there is often an awkward tension between De Vet Du and the Swedish media that are meant to report on them.

TW: "Most of them I don't think like their jobs."
CM: "Yeah, exactly."
JG: "Most of them don't understand comedy. Comedy's always been seen like that around the world. Comedy doesn't get the prizes and all that. They sort of take us as stupid and not serious."

With an impressive and highly ambitious staging for their performance that includes a prop car to be climbed in and out of and a meticulously organised and purposeful set of elaborate camera effects, it's indisputable that De Vet Du are taking their run in the contest seriously. Despite their insistence that they are making content from a place of fun, they are putting out a number with a concept that stays on brand and thus maintains their authenticity. There's fun, there's humour, and a whole lot of energy just waiting to burst onto the stage.

Watch our full one-on-one interview with De Vet Du here: