INTERVIEWS
Still
holding on newslatter, Februrary/March 2001
LowPunch
comes from Sloveniaand released on of the best albums of 2000. They
play awesome fastcore with great political lyrics...
1.
Please introduce the band…
We are group consisted of four people trying to make some music and
mainly to express our emotions, ideas and beliefs through it. So the
line-up is: David (drums), Radovan (guitar), Ivo (bass guitar) and
Dean (vocals).
2. You are from Slovenia, could you tell us more about your country?
What are the main society's problems over there?
Well Slovenia is a small, young country that tries to gain its place
among the other countries in European union. Pretty idealistic if
you ask me. Other members of European union were here and there will
have to be some drastic changes in economy, relationship with other
members of EU… But Slovenia is not prepared for this yet. Now you
can see these changes are being made only in economy - this means
more capital for a few and others bend and work if you want to survive.
We can see it - the prices are getting higher everywhere, in all economic
aspects but the pay checks of workers are staying the same and people
are getting scared of what will become out of this. As far as the
society is concerned you can see Americanism like everywhere in the
world. People really believe that living guided by capitalism can
really work. So there are some people who discovered that this can
never be it but they are quiet because they can loose their jobs and
so on, so on… I believe you know the entire story behind this.
3. How do you explain that the eastern - European hardcore scene
is so underrated (while there's lots of great bands)?
Oh… this is tough one. I think that for hardcore/punk there is also
this thing called Americanism. Where all the major label bands come
from? America. I hate to talk over the America so much but it is true
that people prefer something that supposed to be more known or better
they have to be sure about the bands quality. But that is not an issue
here. There are so many bands here that are excellent but people won't
give them a chance. They are surround by propaganda about how good
is this band and you have to buy records from this band and so on.
For example Catharsis are going to play on Vort`n Vis festival this
year or so I heard. What convinced a band of their quality to play
at such commercialised festival? I don`t know. But I do hope they
are going to speak about this while they are on stage.
4. Your new CD is entitled "Act…Revolt…Live…", could
you tell us why you chose this title?
Act… is about struggle for a better life, life without restrictions
from somebody you don`t even know. We act every day in our lives.
People are aware that this is not it but there are only a few of them
who really care about what's going on. We have to act in our lives
to accomplish something new, better… Revolt… goes for our never-ending
struggle against the mainstream, against the status quo. This is our
right and our must to work against the today's world's pessimism and
its constant ignorance. Live… stands for life itself. In the end we
will have this thing called life. This way or another but we will
have it.
5. Can you tell us your point of view about the d. i. y. ethics
and the big label that you evoke in "our epitaph"? Are you
totally against major labels (like Victory, Good life…)?
For me d. i. y. stands for doing it yourself. Not just music and lyrics
but also preparing lunch, fixing things and if I had a chance growing
my own vegetables in my own garden. Not just hardcore but life itself
should be doing it yourself. About hardcore, there are people who
don`t look at it in this way. They are rather guided and misled by
amount of money they get from their music and I think that major labels
do this with great joy. First of bar codes have no place in the hardcore/punk
community because a portion of money that cd earns goes to support
the economy (capitalists) of the country. And it is invested in more
wage slavery, more invested in army, more investment in Church and
so on. So no matter pc the band is if they carry a bar code on their
CD they are plain hypocrites or they don`t have a clue what they are
talking about. Yes we are totally against the major labels.
6. What would it be possible to do to be 100% diy in every day
life? I think that it's impossible in our modern society...
DIY in everyday life… It would be great but as you previously said
I too think it is kind of hard to do everything by yourself in today's
world. But if you have great skills in life or you are a great learner
(that is if you are ready to learn) then I think you could be totally
diy in life. That means being your own doctor, cook (one of the best
parts of being diy) although I am not a good cook, you would have
to be able to do every single thing with your hands and everything
else that you would need for living. Yes I think this is hard to do
in today's society. But I also think that a big part of diy philosophy
we all combine. Putting zines out, cooking their own meals, repairing
their cars and a lot more. A big step for some individuals that step
is.
7. What are your other songs dealing with? Do you think that it's
important that the bands say some words (explanation) about their
songs when they play a show?
Yes, to me it is very important to talk between the songs because
I think that the band is nothing more then three or four or more people
from the audience who have instruments and play. We just want to communicate
and not to brainwash others with "we are right and you have to
follow". This would be totally stupid. Sometimes I would like
to only talk and not to play. I love hearing other peoples ideas and
beliefs and talk about them with the people. But people who come to
a show rarely want to listen to a band speaking so I think it is rather
hard to talk between songs. But I love to listen to things that band
has to say before they play. Our songs are also dealing with injustice
towards women, gay people, they deal with the stupidity of racial
prejudice, alienation of man who only sees TV screen and thinks this
is the top of his life, they deal with connection between capitalism
and war, they deal with organised religion and its poisonous effect
on today's youth and other human beings, with remembering your friends
that were somehow erased from your life, with chasing your dreams
but never accomplishing them…
8. In the explanation of "just a number" you say:"
……", what could you do to break the chains and to improve the
society in which we live in?
First of all this cannot happen in two days. It will take decades
to make the world in which we will be pleased to live. Society has
to learn to think by itself. But not the society but every human being
that is a part of it. We have to make our own rules that will satisfy
every single one of us. And we all have to realise that we live in
a shitty place right now and we have to do something about it. But
this will take time.
9. What are the things that revolt you the most?
Sexism, homophobia, alienation of today's people, racial prejudice…
It is our duty to fight against the stupidity of today's world and
keeping the struggle continue.
10. What do you think about the previous american elections &
the first measure, against abortion, taken by Bush jr.?
I am not much into America's politics but I thought it was funny.
Looking at all those young people being disappointed why their candidate
was not elected ( I saw them waving with their Americas little flags
and being so sad while reporters were explaining the situation that
occurred) and how everybody were gathered when one of the candidates
was yelling their slogans at them and then they all cheered him and
applauding him. Sometimes it was sort of scary. Now what Bush jr.
did is a matter of debate. While him being also strictly religious
I assume that what he did was influenced also from the side of religious
institution. I strongly support the pro-choice so his decision is
much questionable. From my point of view this is not a fair decision.
But abortion is a personal choice and I think that a lot of women
will not have this choice according to the president's decision. Very
sad and irresponsible act the president made.
11. (In your booklet) you say that the message is more important
than the music... so, what do you think of the hxc bands wich don't
have a real message (wich only sing about unity, friendship,... or
demons,...) ?
I think that HC/punk is much, much more than just music. Think of
how great the music is. How can it play with your feelings. By inserting
meaningful lyrics you can accomplish great things. So I think that
the message that you want to give is surrounded also with the feelings
music elicits out of you. HC/punk is so much more that just being
sXe, vegan, much more that just unity, friendship because this is
just what HC/punk is - life itself.
12. Is it something special you want to speak about?
Well some people were saying that we try to be like we know and you
don`t. Also because we put song explanations beside the lyrics. We
put the song explanations in to represent OUR point of view. This
is what we think. And definitely not to play some smartasses. Everybody
have right to his or her own thinking and we just wanted to represent
ours. Maybe we wanted to challenge people to some thinking or maybe
not. It is their decision if they agree with us on some terms or not.
If somebody thinks that we are wrong in some aspects then we encourage
you to communicate with us. Because this is also a part of HC/punk
community - communication. We are not saying what is right or wrong,
we only express our own thinking.
13. What are your future projects?
Well, it turned out our European tour will not happen this summer
so we are not going to see Belgium, France, Netherlands and all this
countries soon. Now, we are doing now songs and the first four will
appear on some kind of compilation CD with political old school bands.
This CD is going to be released on various labels all over the world.
The rest of the future is unknown.
14. Last words...
Thanks a lot for the interview and a few minutes you gave us on your
compilation. If you have some more questions and you want to know
more about us don't be afraid to contact us! And remember: resistance
not entertainment!
