A week ago, Chris Dangerous (a.k.a. Christian Grahn), drummer for cartoon-like punk rock group The Hives, got ready to put his six-year-old son to bed at home in a rural area of Sweden.

The euro-rocker is the beat behind one of rock's most celebrated post-garage rock bands.

Tomorrow night he'll be sweating it up on stage at the University of Calgary's MacEwan Hall. But the humorous Swede says for a large part of the year it's down to daddy business and his favourite hobbies: Motorbike riding and car collecting.

"Collecting cars and riding motorbikes, ATVs and snowmobiles, that's my interests beside the music. I suppose I would have been a Formula One driver if not a rock star," says Grahn.

The Hives broke out on the rock 'n' roll scene nearly a decade ago with the hit Hate to Say I Told You So.

The quirky and colourful loudmouths were barely out of school when the band was formed in the late '90s, but now the post-grunge-sounding lads are also dads.

Which means toddler's toys and diapers must be packed along side telecasters and jazzmasters on the tour bus.

"Now we have six kids that come along, imagine being the bus driver who has to drive on that tour."

Grahn and the boys, Howlin' Pelle Almqvist (vocals), Nicholaus Arson (guitar), Vigilante Carlstroem (guitar) and Dr. Matt Desruction (bass) are touring in support of the new release, The Black and White Album.

The recording features production by a number of unlikely talents, including hip hoppers Pharrell Williams and Timbaland. Grahn says working with the variety of producers was just the challenge The Hives were looking for.

"After we made Tyrannosaurus Hives, we figured there's no band on the planet that's even close to taking over our torch. We could have made that album again backwards and in our sleep, that's how good we were at making rock music," says Grahn.

The Hives are known for their tongue in cheek rants of self-grandeur.

"We needed a challenge and so we worked with seven different producers. We learned so much. Pharrell was great because there was no looking through a magnifying glass at everything. He just said 'play, go' ... We weren't used to that, before we were always so rehearsed," says Grahn.

The band has also become renowned for their matching suits and boisterous stage antics -- Grahn says they're as revved up as ever when it comes to hitting the road this time.

"When we started out, we thought that bands didn't do enough and we swore, we cut our arms with a knife and joined our blood, and said we will be a great live band," he says.