NOT VERY NICE VOL 5: FINISHED JANUARY 29, 2009 ACTIVE MINDS INTERVIEW DONE BY FILIP FUCHS. CZECH LANGUAGE VERSION APPEARS IN HLUBOKA ORBA #27. NOT VERY NICE PO BOX 2 BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI 48303-0002, USA CHAOSNONMUSICA@GMAIL.COM WWW.NOTVERYNICEFMP.COM PRINT RUN: 100 COPIES. THANKS TO TOM FOR THE PRINTING.

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, * - \ ll. Since I don't have your new LP yet, I have to ask - why this system doesn't work?

Because it creates victims just in order to continue. Those who advocate free marketcapitalism as a way of improving everybody's standard of living are convenientlyignoring those starving millions whose suffering enables our standard of living to bemaintained. A global economic system which cannot provide even the most basic ,+necessities of life for everyone cannot be said to be working.

: S!i[zt-; ,:

2. ACTIVE MINDS started on January lst 1986 - well, it is pretty uncommon for punk band

to exist for so long time, so where do you draw the motivation and inspiration to continue

from?

I know this sounds a bit corny, but in a way Active Minds isn't really a 'band' in the

conventional sense. As we're brothers we have a relationship that lasts where other

friendships might not - 'blood is thicker than water', as they say. Although our

relationship now isn't the same as it was when we lived together, it's still strong and

we're both still into the music and the politics so it just seems natural for Active Minds

to continue. We've always tried to share the workload as well, which helps. It's a real

partnership - not always equal, but we both have important input into the things we do

as Active Minds, which makes the bond stronger.

i.lli.'{'l*^f;S#g'ff3. When you look back - what are some of the best and worst memories from the years youdid with this band so far? How did the hardcore/punk scene changed over these years fromyour point of view?

Probably both the best and worst memories both stem from the same activity - touring.We've had some great times, met some great people and seen some great bands. Isuppose the novelfy does wear off a bit, but our earliest tours of Europe in the late '80s

always bring back special memories - traveling by train to gigs on 17 day tours whichtook us right down into Italy and right up into Scandanavia in the space of just over afortnight. When we first toured Europe (1987) we didn't really know of any other UKbands who had ever done it so it seemed a real adventure. Poland in 1989, before thecollapse of the "Communist" system, is also a special memory - as was touring in Mexicoa couple ofyears ago.

The worst times? Well, in those travels you do sometimes get bad experiences, play orstay in shitty places, or meet some people you'd rather not meet again. But not too often.I don't want to single out particular instances, but we can usually laugh about themnow.

How has the scene changed? In terms of activity it tends to rise and fall every few years -things stagnate and then get reinvigorated again with some regularity. The politics hascertainly stagnated at times, when the scene has sometimes become dominated by

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cynical old-timers, but then we get a good kick up the arse from new blood coming intothe scene with the sort of fresh enthusiasm which inspires new activity. Comparing withthe mid to late '80s the major difference is the awareness, and access, people have to

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music and ideas from all over the world. In more recent years, with the use of theinternet, that awareness has really exploded.

/ / / / / / , / / t \\\\\\\ \ \ \\ \4. Before ACTIVE MINDS there was S.A.S., can you tell more about this band? As far as Iknow S.A.S. splitted up to two 2-piece bands - yours and SATANIC MALFLINCTIONS,right? Isn't it kind of odd, that small town like Scarborough did produced not only one butjust two 2-piece hardcore bands? I mean, couldn't you play together, when you had prettysimilar lyrics and music? And what was this project ACTIVE MALFUNCTIONS about? Ijust remember seeing add for demo tape in UK zine in early 90s...

SAS existed for about three years, did a handful of gigs, two demos and an EP. Theystarted practising as a three-piece in early 1983 before I joined a few months later - theline-up then being me (vocals and occasional guitar), Ade (bass), Tony (guitar) andVince (drums). All recordings were done with this line-up, with the EP coming outaround the Spring/Summer of 1985. Shortly after the EP came out Tony and Vince left,and Stu and Set joined, but we struggled to regain the tightness we'd had for the EP -particularly because Vince had been a really good drummer, whilst Set was just startingout at that time. For those who are trying to find it, the EP had a pressing of 1,000 copiesand is now quite a collectors item.

Satanic Malfunctions originally started as a four-piece (guitar, drums and two vocals) -Stu, Ade, Gary and Vince. They began I think late 1985, and they were not aparticularly serious band at that time (at least, I didn't think so). SAS were still togetherat that time, but me and Set were growing a bit disillusioned and felt that we couldreally pursue the direction we wanted to take better as a two-piece - particularly thelyrics we wanted to do. So we made that decision on New Years Eve (a New Year'sResolution?), and the following day told the rest of the band that we'd decided to quitwhilst we started writing new material for Active Minds. We didn't tell the others at thattime that we were carrying on as a two-piece.

Although Active Minds have always been a two-piece, it wasn't the same for Satanics.The core of the band was two people (Ade and Stu), but they were at various times athree-piece and a four-piece. They were only a two-piece for the second EP and first LP.There was always the similarity with us though in that they had no bass, but maybe thatharks back to the first days of SAS, before I joined, when they were practising without abass... The other similarify, perhaps, in guitar sound would be because I'd devised a wayof tuning the guitar so that you played chords with just one finger, which I then showedStu how to do and he always used as well.

Why didn't we just all play together as a four-piece? Well that's how SAS had ended up,and it wasn't working for me and Set. I know that some other people may think that AMand Satanics were very similar in our approach, but I certainly didn't always see eye-to-eye with Stu over politics so working together as one band was too restictive for me.

Incidentally, there was another two-piece HC band from Scarborough for a while asa split EP as a two-piece. They wereI well - Upheaval (two brothers). They put out

definitely influenced by us to do what they did.

As for Active Malfunctions - that was nothing at all to do with us. I never actually heardit, but as far as I know it was some cheeky bastards from Lincolnshire taking the piss.We should have sued! :-)

IIght sound5. Being just "guitar + drums" band, how do you manage to get the ri

studio?lA.ny teihnical advice for similar "minimalistic" projects?

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With mixed results, I think it's probably fair to say! We usually have to borrow amps tt '-. t

.when we play live, and so we don't always quite manage to get the sound we want. It was f,]f:

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more of a problem when we first started and I just used to play out of one guitar amp, IId'_. ."..but after a few years I got a local shop to make me up a special pedal that split my guitar [n lt:.fi.i.signal into fwo, with a switch on each, so that I could play out of two amps at the same :.'1

t 7":time. Since then I've always played through both a bass amp and a guitar amp, which : .-.tends to always get a more acceptable and powerful sound than we sometimes used toget in the old days. Technical advice for similar projects? Get one of these pedals madeup. It cost me about €15 at the time - the best €15 I'll ever spend.

6. You always kept strongly thoughtprovoking and critical attitudes in your lyrics andcomments on every record you did so far. Is there something you regret looking back,something you feel is not relevant anymore or you feel you were wrong about back then?

I'm not sure that I think we were "wrong" about anything, as such, but the world doeschange and things do become irrelevant. After allo when we started off we were stillsinging about Reagan and Thatcher, and the Berlin Wall was still in place. The stuff wedid against CDs is certainly not relevant these days - there are young kids listening tomusic these days who've grown up in the post-CD age and for who talking about vinylrecords is like talking about 8-track cassettes. That's why our new album is available onboth CD and vinyl - even though we said we'd never do a CD. That's one thing I'vedefinitely learned - never say "never". You can't predict the future.

Although I don't think there are things that we said which were wrong, obviously thereare things that I wouldn't do or say in the same way anymore. I'm more than twice asold now as when we started and life's experiences change you. You find that certainmethods of getting yours views across that seemed appropriate when you were ateenager are less convincing when you're middle-aged (which is, after all, what I amnow).

:i:..,..t$ Regrets? Possibly that we singled out particular bands for criticism in things like "Dis isi:fi getting pathetic...". With hindsight, I don't think that was necessary in order to make thttii ttt. polni. It certainly didn't make us a lot of friends.

iiiiii.iit'rtii :i: ,;'::;iii.i;iii,iiti Sl.,':fukiiiifffr, 7. Lets talk now more about some of your lyrics, which probably caused the biggest

controversy/angriest reactions - "Dis Is Getting Pathetic" from the EP of the same name from1995 - do you want to comment on this now, l3 years later, when there are probably ten timesmore "dis" bands than there were back in 1995? Are there any current bands with "dis" in thename you like?.].''1]'.j:.1.i..-.:;.1'.-,.|i'1.1-.:1...'....:.M..'.:::::'..f:'::i.1{6Yj:i'lEF'.l

I could never really understand why it provoked such an angry reaction from somepeople, although, as I said above, it probably wasn't necessary to single out particularbands as that just gets people in a defensive, embattled mode. But the basic point wewere making was, and is, still valid. That doesn't mean I'm trying to tell people whatbands to listen to. Make your own decisions. I'm just making a comment that peoplemay or may not want to take consideration of.

Do I like any "Dis" bands? Of course I do! I did back then too. I'm a mad collector ofhardcore punk vinyl, and have probably got stuff by a hundred bands whose namebegins with "Dis" - let alone all the other '!d-beat" (dreadful term) bands who've chosenslightly more original names. But just because I like a band doesn't mean I can't also be ,

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8. "At War With Satanists" from "Free To Be Chained" LP from 1997 - again, it seems to methat black metal is getting popular again in punk scene in recent years, do you still have thesame opinions about it? Isn't it some form of authentic "misanthropic/nihilist" point ofview/attitudes, similar to early punk bands, just pushed more far?

Yes, I still have the same opinions about it, but again I still like to listen to a lot of thosebands. Where do you think the pictures came from that we used in the album booklet?From my own record collection. As I said above, though, just because I like a band'smusic doesn't mean I have to accept or support everything about them. I can't reallyunderstand why people think it's necessary to do so. After all, I can watch "Terminator"and think it's a good film without thinking that Schwartzenegger is a cool guy or that hispolitics are sound. It's OK to view music, like films, as purely superficial entertainment.But there's an incliniation not to do so - to see bands as some sort of cultural heroes andleaders, just because they can produce an album that makes you want to leap around.That makes no sense to me. You shouldn't be afraid to criticise aspects of things that youalso admire in other waYs.

Is black metal some sort of legitimate f misanthropic/nihilist' point of view? I don't thinkso, but then again I think that nihilism as a philosophy is pretty dumb and self-destructive. And is it ever really that 'authentic'? I remember seeing an insert of an LPfrom a band who was particularly well know for it's misanthropic views. The thanks listis this record was absolutely enormous. I don't think I would even have known thatmany people, let alone like them. The idea that they hated everybody on the planet butthen had so many friends seemed a little bit contradictory to me.

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\\a \ll lLT?a / .a.. rlUt larl tnl9. The lyrics to "Goremless" from "l Am Not Tourist, I live Here" EP inspired a responsefrom Italian CRIPPLE BASTARDS who wrote song "I Dare You" released on their split EPw/WORLD. Do you know it? "Inhibited bigot censors... filanthropic politically correctstandards... " these are some words from their comments directed to your song... Personally,no matterwhat I think, I think that it's greatto have this kind of "dialogue" (if you can call itso) with one band reacting to another through songs/comment - don't you think so?

-d/,7'ylrtt rr,/I wouldn't really call it a "dialogue". Yes, I do have that record and when I read thestuff they'd written about us I have to say that I found it pretty bizarre - focussing in onone song of a band that probably not many people have heard of. When we did our stuffabout the rfDis" clone bands, or black metal, or gore bands, we were looking at wholegenres of the underground music scene. In that way we felt that most people reading itwould be able to relate to what we were saying in some \ilay - they'd have at least somereference points to it.

The Cripple Bastards attack on us seemed a bit more self-indulgent - like having anargument with us about one part icular thing we'd said, and doing so in a public way infront of an audience who might well have been completely unaware of who we were, orwhat we'd said, and would therefore be a bit bemused by the whole thing. So, I'm notsure I'd agree with you that dealing with it in this way is "great", but perhaps we can'treally complain because people may consider that we started it, in a way.

-rF-

.. 10. And finally "Young Fit Males" from "Free To Be Chained" questions the way some of the

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' - you played over the years? Don't you get this kind of reactions like "you don't live in squar .so you don't know how hard it is, so what thefuckyou lmow..."? I arf

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Yes, it was difficult to write - but again, we felt it needed saying. I do feel that if you'rewanting to challenge people's opinions you need to be willing to do so on subjects thatare closer to home and which may be uncomfortable for some of your audience -otherwise you're not really challenging anything at all.

And yes, it was certainly inspired by some experiences on tours. I'm not going to singleout any particular incidences, but we have played in some very shitty places wheregetting the basics right didn't seem to be the top of anybody's priority list. I used to feelthis particularly when my son was very young - I would look at a place and say to myself"Would it be safe to bring him here?". I didn't mean taking a three year old into a gighall, but I meant taking him to the buildings themselves - would I be able to wash him orget him to a toilet, for example? Similarly, I used to think of people I knew outside thepunk/hardcore scene - if I took them to some of those places, would they recognise themas genuine attempts to build an alternative society?

And sometimes, of course, the answer is no. But many times it was also yes. We'veplayed in some truly inspirational squats (Leipzig, Berlin, and one in Italy spring tomind, but there have been many others) as well as a few truly awful ones (dogshiteverywhere, no toilets, no water, no electricity, unsafe structures, etc.). I hope we'venever given the impression that we disapprove of squats in general, because that wouldbe entirely wrong - and we've also written songs like "Take It Back" which look atsquatting very positively. As for the "What the fuck do you know?" response - I can'tremember ever getting that, but perhaps we have sometime...

ll. UK has long history of self-runned places, collective housing, social clubs, co-ops...which arelwere some of the most inspirational places, you would recommend? Have you everbeen involved in something like this in your town? What does it take to have a place like thisworking well?

As far as squatting is concerned, the UK has a history of legal squatting and squatter'srights that I don't think many places in the rest of Europe have. But these legal rightsrelate to people squatting in houses to live, rather than creating squatted social centres,etc. I think this has always produced very different squatting scenes in the UK whencompared to mainland Burope. Squatters in Europe, by necessity, usually need to grouptogether in larger projects for support and solidarity to resist eviction. It also helps ifthey create or provide community space and activities which will bring them supportfrom others who don't actually live there. This has resulted in a very vibrant culture ofself-managed, squatted social centres.

These sort of places are largely absent in the UK, except for a few places where thepeople who have set them up have either moved here from mainland Europe or havebeen inspired by what goes on there. There are sometimes relatively short-lived squattedgig venues, trut I don't know of anywhere like that which has been around for a longtime. Squatters in the UK are often people looking for somewhere to live, who are notlooking to draw a lot of attention to themselves from the authorities by operatingunlicensed bars or music venues.

However, there have been a number of excellent self-managed, legal clubs/co-ops etc. Iunderstand there are some down in the South of the country, which I've never been to,but the one I'm most familiar with is the 1-in-12 Club in Bradford which is excellent.The other one which stands out in my mind, but is sadly no longer around, was theWarzone Centre in Belfast which I always felt was exceptional and inspiring.

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I'd say that to make such a place work well needs a solid group of committed people whoare prepared to do the work, and it needs the respect and support of many more peoplewho are going to use it. If people treat a place or its volunteers badly then those workingon the project can soon get disheartened and pack it in. And the other thing is that itneeds to avoid being 'cliquey' - like a closed club which feels like it excludes anybodynew who might be interested in coming along and getting involved. Without new bloodand enthusiasm everything eventually dies.

There's never been this type of place in our town, which is too small and has too fewpotentially active members and supporters to make it viable.

12. I can imagine that with lyrics questioning some punk scene issues you can often get allsorts of reactions like that you are some uptight P.C. weirdos never having a fun, criticizingeverything, trying to enforce your point of view on everybody, dictating to others what is andwhat is not punk... I think that you must have tons of experiences with reactions like these -what would you respond?

We don't get so many reactions like that directed at us personally, but I think it's howquite a few people view us. We've had a couple of amusing experiences where peoplehave met us and got on well with us, without actually knowing who we were. When theythen found out where we live, they've asked us if we know those 'weird, miserable ActiveMinds folks, who have no sense of humour'. I think it's a little strange that peopleassume we're like that, because I think that some of our stuff is quite 'tongue-in-cheek'. Ithought "Dis Is Getting Pathetic...r' was quite funny - more humourous than mostnihilistic grindcore bands, surely?

I wouldn't necessarily try to respond to those sort of reactions in any particular way. It'sup to other people how they want to react to what you say. I think a lot of it stems frompeople being uncomfortable about looking at their own lives in a self-critical way. Inwhat we write, sometimes we will provoke that - to which people may choose to react ina defensive way. There's not much I can do about that. Some people do seemunnecessarily nervous about approaching us sometimes, but I think that werre a lotmore friendly than they perhaps assume that we are.

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13. You strongly promote activities on personal/local scale through your lyrics/comments orin interviews - tell us more about your involvement on local level in Scarborough. F.e. I readsomewhere that you used to have billboard in front of your house informing about all sorts ofissues like multinationals, ecology, animal rights etc. - tell us more about it and about thereactions it did attracted...

The billboard on our house used to be an advertising board for a business that wasbased there before I moved in. When I arrived I just left the board in place, painted overit and started enlarging posters to fit on it. It's quite big (about 6 feet high), and on thecorner of a busy road, so it's quite visible.

The comments I've had show that people do take notice of it. The poster that Iremember attracting most interest was one I mocked up of Gordon Brown, when he was

i$ in charge of the Treasury (rather than being Prime Minister, as he is now). It was basedr.,'.1,., on a famous World War I army recruitment poster. The poster I put up said "Do your

f;.X:..*i nit for the economy - buy things that you don't need". There were then various imagesand statements on it about consumerism and the exploitative advertising campaigns ofmultinationals. A number of people came up to me and asked for smaller copies of thatposter for themselves, and I used to see people stopping and taking the time to read ital l , which was good.

so have you been successful? Also I think you were a candidate for European Parliament?What is your main agenda on local/national level? I think this may sound kind of embarassingto some people as they may think about band like ACTIVE MINDS to be an anarchist band...so what were your main reasons to get involved with Green party?

I first got interested in the Green Party when I was still at school. I read some stuff andfelt really comfortable and at home with the ideas and philosophy behind the party, aswell as with the decentralized and unconventional way that it worked. There was nolocal branch in my hometown at that time, but a few years later when one was set up in1988 I joined. I've stood in many local elections during that time, and also forParliament (fwice) and the European Parliament (once).

Yes, I've been successful with it. In 2006 I successfully won a by-election for a localCouncil seat. As this election was a result of a resignation by another Councillor, I onlyhad a l year term of office and had to defend my seat again in Spring 2007.I won thatelection with one of the biggest majorities of any Councillor in the area, so I am now alocal Council lor unti l Spring 2011.

On a local level our main agenda has been concerned here with reducing energy use,better waste management and better pubtic transport. When standing for national orEuropean elections the issues have been more nationally or internationally based -peace' global wealth redistribution, opposition to US bases and US-led wars, climatechange, animal rights etc. It's still me. I'm still the same person whether writing lyricsfor Active Minds or writing election addresses, so the issues are similar - although ofcourse written for very different audiences and therefore having different styles andemphasis.

I've never claimed to be an anarchist, or that Active Minds were an anarchist band. Ifpeople want to take what we say and assume a particular philosophy then that's up tothem, but I don't think my involvement with the Green Party has been inconsistent withwhat I've been doing with the band etc. I've never said, or believed, that moreconventional political action like standing in elections was necessarily likely to havemore success than other forms of action, such as protests or direct action. Nor do I thinkthat doing one excludes doing the other. Different methods are appropriate at differenttimes and for different audiences, and, in my opinion, election times offer anopportunity to speak, and get new ideas across, to a public which otherwise would bepaying no attention.

Having said that, after 19 years in the Party, I did decide to leave at the end of 2007. Soalthough I'm still a local Councillor I'm no longer involved with the Green Party - seebelow.

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#l5' Are there any issues within the Green Party which you strongly disagree with? How doyou deal with it? You may know that the Czech Green

-Party is part of th"e government now

and it will most probably say "yes" to US plan to build Ameiican radar base in Czech - couldyou imagine British Green party to agree with something like this?

During my time in the Green Party I think it's fair to say that I was quite influential in it- not only locally, but also nationally. I was on the national Executive, in charge of theParty's Policy development for three years. euite a few of the party's poricies wereactually written by me, including the Party's Core Principles und it.^ policies onredistributive taxes and universal benefits. I was also selected as the iarty's topcandidate on the regional list here to fight the next Buropean Election in 2009.

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' - { l r l r* I ' . ' ru-L. <There were some minor bits of policy that I disagreed with, but nothing major. If therehad been I would have tried to get them changed (and may have succeeded - I was quitea persuasive speaker at Conferences, according to others...). But the Parfy's individualpolicies weren't as important as its overall philosophy. Policies are tactical ways oftrying to put philosophy into practice, so they will inevitably change over time asexternal circumstances change.

Whilst I was in the Party I always felt that the philosophy was sound, therefore I washappy to be involved. Certainly whilst I was in the Party I was sure it would never haveconsidered supporting US radar bases (which already exist here - including one just 15miles away from us - and which the Green Party has already opposed).

But last year something changed which meant that I felt I could no longer remain in theParfy - it decided to have a Party Leader. Up until that time it had never had a Leader,and had advocated collective leadership and bottom-up empowerment. It was one of thethings that had originally attracted me to the Party - the fact that it actively opposedconventional power structures and tried to work in a different way. It's opposition tohaving a conventional parfy Leader was later written into its philosophy (one of my ownproposals). But last December, after a bitter internal struggle, the 'modernisers', whowanted a more conventional Party to appeal to a more conventional public and media(one more interested in celebrity and personality politics than radical ideals), finally wona membership ballot and the Party decided to have a Leader - at which point Iannounced that I was leaving it, and resigned as the lead European candidate for theregion.

Ironically, the last piece of policy that I proposed, and which was adopted by the PartyConference last Autumn, was to advocate a new system of Government which didn'thave a Prime Minister - i.e. an administration with a collective leadership rather than asingle Leader. in my opinion, this unconventional view of how the country should be runnow sits pretty much at odds with how the Party has decided to manage itself...

^al[r rx \l-tF ^ {tt r W.Eirlv16. Why there are no ACTIVE MINDS T-shirts?

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\_rJI've never been interested in making band'merchandise'. Apart from music I want

understood why people find it so important to advertise to the rest of the world whatbands they like. Of course, you can find some Active Minds t-shirts around, but they'renot 'official'. I'm not too fussed, providing people aren't ruthlessly profiteering fromdoing them, but it's not something I want to spend my efforts doing.

! 17. Loony Tunes label put out tons of great records over the years - I think that some of yourstuff like v/a "splitting Headache On Sunday Afternoon" EP, vla "lve Got An AttitudeProblem', EP, SATANIC MALFLJNCTIONS EP or TOTALITAR EP muSt bE tOtAI CIASSiCSnow, did you ever thought about repressing them? I think that demand for them is high... alsoafter few years of silence there are 2 new releases out now - your new LP andKULTURKAMPF LP, please talk more about them and also tell us if we can expect morereleases in the future.

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| / We've never thought about repressing those old records, because I don't consider that

{'t we have any right to do so. All the master plates have long ago been destroyed (thea company that made most of our records went bankrupt some years ago). We'd have to

remaster the records from the original vinyl, and if the bands wanted to make the stuffavailable again in that way then they're just as able to do that as we are. I'm not surewhether or not all the old Totalitar records have been compiled into an album, but if notthen I'm surprised and I think someone should do it because I'm sure lots of peoplewould be interested. As for Satanics Malfunctions - at the time that was released LoonyTunes was run with Stu from Satanics and that was obviously his project. Any sort of

y' reissue would be up to the band members themselves. I heard from Ade that some,l German label may be interested in reissuing all their releases in some form or other, so

we'll have to see what happens.

Yes, we've got fwo new releases out. We always intended to do a new Active Mindsrecord, but that's just been delayed for a (very) long time. As for Kulturkampf, theywere an anarcho- band from the early '80s whose demos I always thought were greatand I always wished they'd come out on an LP. For many years I had the idea that Ishould try to contact them and see if I could put it out, and a couple of years ago Iactually got round to writing to a 20* year old contact address on the vague chance thatI could stil l reach them there. I was amazed to find that I did make contact. and thevwere happy for us to do the LP of the old demos.

Future releases on Loony Tunes? There are a couple more older bands whose stuff I'dlike to posthumously release, and I've contacted one of them. Whether it works out ornot I don't know - it 's a question of getting some co-operation from ex-members who arefrequently no longer involved in the scene. You'll just have to wait and see... :-)

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flil X I e_ ,I think that with the aqe comes sometimes more

cynical/jaded feelings and especially in hardcore/punk it leads often to people leaving the .scene, not being enthusiastic anymore about it, not giving a fuck about newer bands, just

fliving {surviving?} in the past... how do you fight this? Do you still manage to keep an eye on ,lcurrent hardcore/punk scene? What are some of the new bands you like?

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Yeah, I'm 41 now. I don't actively try to fight cynicism in others who are getting otOe, $and a bit jaded. If people have had enough, then let them go. A's for me' yes I still thinkI'm quite enthusiastic, and seeing as I'm an avid record collector and run a distro I keepup with a lot of newer stuff that way - too many to list individually. There's quite a fewgood, energetic hardcore bands cropping up in the UK at the moment - although manyof them don't seem to last very long. Quite a few good split 7"s out though of newer UKbands in the last few years - check out labels like Peter Bower and Town Clock. TheBickle's Cab LP impressed me too - a co-release befween both those labels.

tZ,tIffi (W19. Punk rock, family, marriage, kids all+ogether... for some younger people it may soundlike a crazy thing, for you it is reality for long time already, how do you manage to work thisout?

J ar ,] , al--Not marriage - I never got married as I don't believe in the institution of marriage. Howdo I manage to work it out? Having a family and still having a life? The same waymillions of people outside punk still manage to fit things they enjoy around having kids,I guess. I 've only got one son, and he's 15 now. Whilst he was growing up I guess it didimpact on things like touring, as I didn't feel it was fair to leave him too long with mypartner on her own. But adapting to different responsibilities doesn't mean you have togive up on everything else - just maybe focus a little less time on those other things.

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the split Eps wfuRKO, AN-ATTA and VOCO PROTESTA in these 10 years and definitely

not much gig-wise/tour-wise... I think that many people thought that you dont play anymore...

What were you doing all these years? I may be wrong, but I think I heard something about

Mexican tour, but I know no details at all - how was it (if it is not a rumour!)?

We also put out two 7"s in that time - "National Lotta e" and "Recipe For Disaster", the

split 7" with Jesus Crost, and I think the split LP with Petrograd and the 7" with

Umbretla Tribe came out since the second LP too. But you're right - we haven't been too

active lately. Although our three LPs are each separated by l0 year gaps, until about the

year 2000 we put oul about a record a year or so, when you include the 7"s. Since 2000

we've done very little, and actually went 6 years without entering a studio.

What have we been doing? Well we've still been doing a few gigs on occasion, and doing

the distro, but much of our time has been taken up with other commitments - largely

family and politics for me. I'll have a lot more time to give to the band, label etc. again

now.

Yeah, we toured Mexico in January 2006, which was a real blast. We had a great time

celebrating 20 years of Active Minds over there, played some cool places and met some

great people. A few months earlier we'd toured Spain as well, which was also great fun,

but other than that we haven't really done a proper tour for quite a few years - just the

odd couple of gigs over a weekend on a couple of occasions.

--. I"5EII21. You know "bigger bands", when they have new LP out, they usually tour a lot to"promote it", so can we expect another ACTIVE MINDS Euro tour since mid 90s, when youwere here last time? After 20 years of playing, huge line of records out, are there any goalsyou feelyou can reach with this band?

Yeah, I'm hoping we'll get over to Europe for a decent sized tour either later this year orearly next year. And we'd like to visit some other places too in the next couple of years(now that people know we're still around!) - maybe the US/Canada, Japan, Mexicoagain.

. Those aren't really 'goals' as such - just things that would be fun to do. I don't think weI really have goals as a band, but it 's always good to get feedback from people who say

that we've been a positive influence for them, or that we'ye made them think aboutthings in a way they might not have otherwise.If we can stil l get a few of those responses

from time to time then I'm sure we'll feelit 's not just self-indulgence on our part!

that it's worthwhile us carrying on and that

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ACTIVE MINDS DISCOGRAPHY:

You Can Close Your Eyes To The Honors Of Reality..." 7""Welcome To The Slaughterhouse" 12""Capitalism Is A Disease and money is an addictive drug" 7""Behind the mask" 7""The lunatics have taken over the asylum" 7" flexi"Dis is getting pathetic..." 7"Split 7" with YapcopsaeSplit 7" with FreakshowSplit 7" with Umbrella TribeSplit 7" with An-Atta"l 'm not a tourist.. ." 7"Split 12" with Petrograd"The National Lotta E" 7""Free To Be Chained" 12"lTape"Recipe For Disasters" 7"Split 7" with Urko (part of Direct Hit zine issue # I )Split 7" with Jesus CrostSplit 7" with Voca Protesta"It's perfectly obvious that the system doesn't work" 12" lCompact Disc

"Against The Grain" tape has the Acitve Minds tracks from these things:

"Splitting Headache on a Sunday Afternoon" comp 7""Exclusion" comp LP"Wild and Crazy Noise Merchants" comp double LP" 1984 the Fourth" comp 7""Noise Against Repression" comp double LP"Tic tac toe" cornp 7""An Insult To Our Freedom - Smash Fascism" comp LP"Mit mir ist nicht zu rechnen" comp 7""Europe in Decline" comp LP"Wear Your Smell" comp LP"Every Twenty Seconds" comp 7"split LP with Petrograd

They also have 4 tracks on the "Retro Is Poison" LP which is a 4 way split with CIRIL,KARNVAPEN ATTACK and I OBJECT,

FOR A COPY OF THE ''AGAINST THE GRAIN'' TAPESEND $4 IN THE USA, $7 WORLDWIDE TO THIS ADDRESS OF THIS ZINECOMES WITH LYRIC BOOKLET

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1981. SWANKYS formation. Member is WATCH, LOODS, JIN, BEER. 4 people. 1981. 12. JIN withdraws (for high skill entrance examination) 1982. SWANKYS real action begins. Many session bass players take part in live performances. Every gig is very extreme. Afterward, our performance was refused. 1983. 5. SWANKYS band name to be liable to incompetent action, band name was changed to GAI . In December of the same year, 1st tape "DAMEGING NOISE" is published. 1983. 2nd generation bassist GAUSE joins as a member. This time, we conducted gigs outside the prefecture. 1984. 2nd tape "DAMNATION" is recorded. Already mail order has sold about 500 copies! GAUSE suddenly withdraws in the middle of recording. At that time when the lineup of GAI was incomplete, the punk band SIEG HEIL broke up. Their leader, TV, joins GAI as a member. "DAMNATION" is published. 1984. 12. 1st flexi "EXTERMINATION" is published. Astounding sales are recorded. 1985. 3. The band name returns to SWANKYS once more. Participation is taken in the KPP omnibus LP, "PINCH AND OUCH". 1985. 7 City Rocker LP, EP, omnibus recording for the sake of Tokyo. KPP's EP "THIS IS MY LIFESTYLE" recording. 1985. 11. First gig in Tokyo is performed. 1985. 12. The 1st LP "THE VERY BEST OF HERO THE SWANKYS" is released from Dogma label. At the present, the record sells good! INSERT PROVIDED BY MIKE MCGRAW. TRANSLATION BY ZACH HOWARD

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DIE HARDS OF THE CZECH HARDCORE SCENE; SEE YOU IN HELL HAVE BEENAROUND FOR ALMOST 1O YEARS ALREADY! THIS INTERVIEW WAS DONE WITHGUITARIST AND FOUNDING MEMBER FILIP. DEFINITELY CHECK OUT THIS BAND IFYOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!!!

1. Ok, let's get the typical stuff out of the way first, when did SEE YOU lN HELL form,line up changes, influences, etc. Also, what were your initial intentions with the band?Are these still the same?SEE YOU lN HELL started in May 1999, but it took us more than one year to get the stableline-up and to start playing gigs (our very first gig was in August 2000 at infamous Vrah Clubin Roznov). Back then I st i l l had my other band MRTVA BUDOUCNOST going strong (M.8.did split up in April 2000) and I wanted to play something little different from the hyper-fastextreme HC slaughter M.B. did. Back then me and SYIH's former drummer were inf luencedby bands l ike BORN AGAINST, ORCHID, CATHARSIS, ZEGOTA, REVEARSAL OF MAN,PALATKA etc., basically this political Ebullition/Crimethlnc. stuff, so obviously there weresome influences of it in our music (but we sucked compared to them!). You can hear this onthe first demo, on split 7' w/MINDLOCK and full 7" - our recordings from 200012001. ln 2002we did changed the old drummer and took the Brno's scene veteran Beno (he's the oldestSYIH member today - he's 36), who used to play in early 90's hardcore/crust bands LOSSOMMROS (who were even supposed to release spli t 7" w/DISCLOSE in 95 | think butflaked outl) and NO PASARAN. We also tried several 2nd guitar players, but none of themworked, while singer Jozka and bass playerTom are in the band since 1999. With new manbeating the drums, our style has evolved as well: it become more direct, simpler, morestraight forward dark hardcore/crust and later it has evolved even more to fast and rawhardcore inf luenced by Japanese HC l ike JUDGEMENT, BASTARD, DEATHSIDE,FORWARD, D.S.B. ,LIBERATE, ASSFORTetc. We all listen tomany different styles ofhardcore/punk andthree of us have hugerecord/tape collections,but I think that the

' h common agreement

*-{t among us in last fewyears is, that JapaneseHC in all it's forms is themost aggressive/full-onenergy music evercreated! But I hope wedon't imitate/don't copy(f.e. we don't write lyricsin intentionally "brokenEnglish", we still do lyrics in our language), we just try to take the energy and straight-forwardmusical attitudes from Jap HC. Well, decide for yourself.

i \ . \

2. You recently did a tour with SHEEVA YOGA throughout southern Europe. How didthis go? Any cool stories to tell? How does the scene in Europe compare to otherplaces like Brazil and Japan, both of which SYIH had toured in the pastfewyears?

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It was one of the best tours we did so far and obviously our best European trip ever. We didalmost three weeks tour with gigs in Austria, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, ltaly, France andSpain. We have played with some ass-kicking bands l ike SOTATILA (Austria), ENTROPIJA(Serbia), DEVASTATION OF LIFE (Greece), DIRTY POWER GAME, MEMENTO MORI andJILTED (ltaly), YAKUZA HORROR and DISKOIRAA (Spain) - watch out for them! We touredin March which was OK as there were not so many gigs at all and we had good turn-outalmost every night, yet still we managed to loose like 1000 EU on this tour because ofexpensive van rental, ferry from Greece to ltaly and esp. highway tolls, which are pretty highin some of these countries.Some of the high l ights included playing in underground garage in Macedonia for 50 wild kidsand then setting up the distro stall outside in children's playground, shows in squattedUniversity classrooms in Greece, playing in Rome for bunch of crazy madmen in frozensquat, playing in legendary BO's Torino squat El Paso again, meeting al l our fr iends from thelast 2003 tour in Spain and France, also food and drinks everywhere and ofcourse being withSHEEVA YOGA every day, who are ki l ler band (any fans of power violence MUST check outtheir spl i t LP w/DISNEY!) and good fr iends of ours. The movement of autonomousself/governed places/squats in Greece, France, ltaly and Spain is really inspirational and itmakes hardcore/punk here really D.l.Y. to the bone!It's not easy to compare this tour to Brazil or to Japan as each region is unique. For sure

Brazif is morc crazy with moreyoung people interested inhardcore/punk and going wild,also with many ki l ler thrashbands and often with not sogood backline/p.a. (but whogives a fuck..?). Japan is100% professional, with bestbands around today and hugecultural differences from therest of the world. Europe ismore "laid-back", also sadlycurrently with not so excitinghardcore/punk scene in mostof countries, but SouthernEurope is still better thanNorthMest in my opinion, not

so bored and more enthusiastic.I really don't know when we could repeat this again, but we want to make at least a short triparound Balkan like Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, maybe Turkey... we will see.

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3. What releases is SEE YOU lN HELL planning for the future? How about upcomingtours?Releases: 2-3 new songs on split 7" w/CROW, which should be released by InsaneSociety/Phobia on vinyl/mini-CD in April 2009. We will try a different studio for the first time inlast five years, so I am looking forward to hear the final result. CROW already did recordedfor the split and I have to say that the their first song on this is one of the best hits they everdid (and this comes from a long t ime dedicated CROW fan - MRTVA BUDOUCNOST didcovered "Last Chaos" already back in 1995!). Other than that no more plans apart fromhaving our previous records reissued on different formats all around the world - there shouldbe "Umet se prodat"/"Utok" CD version in Brazil and "Umet se prodat" tape version inMalaysia (just this year we had CDs/CDr's/tape versions of these records re-released inMacedonia, Belarus, Phil ippines, Japan, USA... thanx a lot to al l the labels involved!). Maybe3rd LP or maybe split LP? We will see, no hurry at all since we don't want to crank out newrecord every 2 months.

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Tours: Brazil again in late April/early May 2009_, it seems that it should be another great

experience, welan't wait! The guys from DISKONTROLL (Check them out, new great raw

crust band from SPI) should orginize it and we hope to meet VIVISICK and FUCK ON THE

BEACH too since we tour in the same time. In 2010 Japan again maybe and maybe not only

Jip"n, but Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia too? We would like to tour U.S. as well one day

bui as we have only 2 weeks left for touring each year, who knows, when this can happen..'

doesn't write lyrics in SEE YOUlN HELL. Until not so long time ago I did all of them, but recently Beno stepped in some

lyrics-writting too, which isiool sinCe I am running out of ideas slowly after writing_like 60-80

tyrics in my lrevious band MRTVA BUDOUCNOST and like 50 in SEE YOU lN HELL. Some

of tne older'lyrics were about alienation of man in modern society, people becoming lifeless

machines, communication breakdowns, isolation and shit like this. Some of the more recent

lyrics are'kind of optimistic encouraging individuality, not giving up and aiming strong to

reach your dreams and goals. We sing in Czech language, but always do our best to provide

translations atleast to English, somltimes to Japanese, Russian, Spanish or German

language too, when there are releases of our albums all over the world.

2011??? Hahaha...And I will visit JaPan again forthe 3rd time in just few weeks,just for the gigs (FORWARD,WARHEAD, SYSTEMATICDEATH, VIVISICK, LIFE,ZYANOSE, CROW...), recordbuying and meeting manyfriends from my Previous visits orfrom their gigs here in Brno - |can not wait!

4. You write some of the lYricsalong with your singer Jozka,correct? What tYPe ofmessage are You trYing to getacross (if any)?No, let me correct You, Jozka

5. Can you tell a little about your fanzine/label HLUBOKA ORBA? How many issueshave you done with your zine and what have you released with your label? ls there anyinterest from abroad or mostly iust in Czech/Europe?The fanzine did started back in summer 1993, but before ldid another one between 1991-1992, which was more collective effort, while H.O. used to be in the beginning "one man"show only. This had changed a little in late 90's, when I invited a couple of good friends towrite columns, tour reports or to submit interviews. The great thing is, that some of them stilldo contribute even 10 years later. People (mostly singers!) from bands like GRIDE, PANGSOF REMORSE, MINDLOCK, BALACLAVA, FESTA DESPERATO and of course bothMRTVA BUDOUCNOST and SEE YOU lN HELL have helped during these years, so youknow it has to be a good quality read, haha... Since the beginning I decided to cover mostlythe extreme part of hardcore/punk scene with huge focus on international DIY network andalso some more radical politics. Some of the bands who were interviewed so far are f.e.RESIST, DISORDER, DROPDEAD, CAPITALIST CASUALTIES, DISCLOSE, SPMZ,EBOLA (uk), FINAL EXIT (jap), CRIPPLE BASTARDS, MASHER, REAL REGGAE, BADACID TRIP, KONSTRUKT, ASMODINAS LEICHENHAUS, LAMANT, REAGAN SS,AGATHOCLES, NULA, DS 13, LOCUST, SEEIN RED, ORCHID, ANTICHRIST, CITIZENSARREST, CONFUSIONE, HRYDJUVERK, DESASTRE, BOMBENALARM,SELFISH/FORCA MACABRA + obviously many Czech bands. From labels I interviewed f.e.Darbouka, Tian An Men, Prank, Strongly Opposed, I also print huge tour reports of Czech

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bands, also some political stuff f.e. articles on police surveillance, political extremism,of workers struggle in my city, car industry or squatting.So far I did 26 issues, the last three came out in press run of cca 800 copies, in full pageformat and put together like a book in soft-cover, also ofset printed. The newest issue (27)should be sent to printers in just 2-3 weeks. lt'll have 200 pages stuffed with interviews with

Oslo/Norway, Poland, interviews withii7,::;'.:;:',. Cowley Club/UK, AJZ Rostock/Germany'..:al.4tj

sni Milada squatters/Czech etc.), scene

ACTIVE MINDS, GERM ATTAK, BLOODY'. PHOENIX, PRUMYSLOVA SMRT,.'.. DISKONTROLL, tour reports from Brazil,

, ' . . : . Southern Europe, Balt ic states, Balkan,'.. r.. huge special feature on autonomous

spaces (incl. history of squatting in ltaly,

reports from Croatia, Belarus, Serbia andBulgaria, tons of reviews, article on Brno

? shows organized by our collective in lasti;: two years, columns + ofcourse tons of

photos. Well, the photos and punk as fuckgraphics are most probably the only thing ofinterest to foreign readers since the zine iswritten entirely in Czech! But I usually dosubmit the English written stuff (interviews,scene reports) to foreign zines, mostly to

i:l Maximum Rock'n'Roll. I don't promote the:.i, zine to abroad at all, because of theirfar.:t:...::t ztne to abroad at all, because ot tne

::;t:,:ii';;:i.; language barrier, but few people always useii.7il:;i!.:: to buy or trade a copy even they can notiiai'i1i!i:;i!:: to buy or trade a copy even they can not'.i; ;i.i:;:.7.r::.i;;, rea d it.

r^::? The label started around the same time asthe zine, first with some tape releases, laterI contributed to MRTVA BUDOUCNOSTand SEE YOU lN HELL records, whichwere released in cooperation of more labels, Hluboka Orba being one of them. Last year,when I was doing pretty OK financially since I had a good income from both jobs I decided to"resurrect" (it was never big deal anyway) the label put some hard-earned cash tocooperations like RISPOSTA LP, DEMARCHE EP, STOLEN LIVES/TIME OF MY LIFE splitEP or PRUMYSLOVA SMRT/KOBRA 11 split EP. Recently I decided to stop the label againdue to lack of funds and time to dedicate to more trades, distribution etc. The zine is killingme recently, it's such a monster taking like 1-2 years to put out a new issue, infact it's abook, not a zine, you know. Also the band and gig organizing eat lots of my free timerecently, not to speak about family, jobs etc. etc.

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6. What do members of SEE YOU lN HELL do to make a living in this c;.;azy fucked updaify fife? Do you ever find it hard to be in a band/do a tabei/do a zlneldtc, and stillwork a normaljob?Jozka is conductor checking out the tickets in trains, Tom works in laboratory and Beno inpharmacy' David, who is not a full time SYIH member, just a friend or guest-guitar player (hismain bands are THEMA 11 and TUMMO) is currently looking for newlob inFrague, 200 kmaway from Brno, so who knows if he will continue with us. And I wori as a soci-al lawyer inRoma/Gypsie ghetto and as a side-job I do the same for drug addicts, who want to solvetheir crazy fucked up daily problems like debts, criminal recordl, family disputes etc. I think ..it's probably better to have a "normal" (well, my job is not totally "norrnal",'but thaib *ii"i i fflike about it!) job and not to have hardcore/punk labet or band as a main rour."-oi yo;; t[income, because then it's very hard to resist the urge to become another fucked up r I

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bussinesman. I think that the band l ike SEE YOU lN HELL (and many more, I should add)can prove that you can have job and family (all of us except David have kids, I will have 2ndone in March 2009) and still can produce some fucked up noise for 10-15 years and tour theworld from Japan through Europe to Brazil. And you don't need a manager, press support,exclusive deals, advertising and similar bullshit.

7. Can you tell us a little about the (muchoverlooked) Gzech hardcore/punk scene?Why do you think that people from abroadignore awesome current bands like SEEYOU IN HELL, GRIDE, LYCANTHROPY,SHEEVA YOGA, FESTA DESPERATO, etc,just because they're not from Japan, USAor Sweden? Do you think there will ever bea time when kids in the USA will be wearingRADEGAST patches and KRITICKASITUACE t-shirts?Hahaha, please no, not this question again... I

used to spend hours and hours writing scene reports from the whole Czech Rep. or from mycity to foreign zines like Maximum RocknRoll, I put together two comp. LPs with Czechbands, recorded dozens of RADEGAST demos to foreign penpals etc. and now I feel littletired. I feel that I don't need to persuade anybody anymore that we are not some 2nd classcitizens when it comes down to some raging hardcore/punk and honestly, why it shouldalways be us trying to convert the Western punx to our shitty bands? Sometimes I feelthat Ishouldn't give a fuck anymore, seriously. I am all for international communication,discovering new punk scenes from unusual/"exotic" places (Fuck, get some stuff from TAM89 and Darbouka, two of my fave labels ever, also read We Gona Fight zine!) and honestly, Itotally love the communication and trading with the few international hardcore/punk fanaticslike you, Zacht I really appreciate the interest from die-hard punk fans from all over the world,but the general foreign hardcore/punk public did not changed at all during all these years ofmy hopeless attempts (l understand that back in 1992 you had no source of informationabout the situation here in Czech, but c'mon, in 2008?!?). Most of them continue to ignorethe bands, which weren't born in Sweden, Japan or USA, but I don't cry about it anymore.Currently I feel little too old to bust my ass trying to change this and rather dedicate myefforts to other things like supporting the local Brno-city scene, which today seems to be thebest we ever had since early/mid 90's.By the way, it is little weird that when Japanese bands play here, they are always veryinterested in our local scene, always watch the other bands playing, filming them on theircameras etc., but when we have US or Swedish bands here, they are often bored and full ofthemselves or just plain ignorant.Besides the bands you mentioned above I would also recommend PRUMYSLOVA SMRT,SAY WHY?, RISPOSTA, EVIDENCE SMRTI, NEEDFUL THINGS, RABIES, DEMARCHE,MAD PIGS, HIBAKUSHA, REAKCE NA ZMENU, ZEMEZLUC, TOMORROWS HELL,INNOXIA CORPORA, COMPLICITE CANDIDE, STOLEN LIVES, RED INSECT,DEZINFEKCE, LAHAR or KOBRA 11. Also you should check out couple of ragers fromneighborhood Slovakia: ROXOR, IDIOTS PARADE, VINTAER, ABORTION, E330 or TIMEOF MY LIFE. 90% of these bands have vinyls or myspace sites (most of them both), so itshould be pretty easy to find their music even for overseas freaks.Kids in USA wearing RADEGAST T-shirts??? Hahaha, I don't know... sounds like a trueutopia.

.t '"-{rI am not one of those snobby assholes who always do complain about compilations andespecially about local compilations. I love records like "Ljubljana Hardcore", "Ataque Sonoro","This ls Boston Not LA", "Tokyo Crusties", "Kobenhavn I Ruiner" and many more. "SpalteBrno na prach" ("Burn Brno To Ashes") is compilation LP of local bands from Brno andaround, i t was put out in August 2008 ad contains 12 bands and 27 {unreleased} songs.Maybe you have heard about FESTA DESPERATO, RISPOSf A, ZEMEZLUC (who playsince 19871), MAD PIGS or SEE YOU lN HELL {hahaha}, but there are more unknown bandsas well l ike AGE OF DEATH, PRIPYAT or EVIDENCE SMRTI. Most of the featured bandsplay raw punk, crust or fastcore, some of them could be filled under the "typical old schooldriving Eastern European punk rock" as well. lt comes with huge booklet featuring not onlythe bands pages, but also info about local fanzines, gig-collectives, political activities etc. 14labels from Czech and Slovakia co-released this and there are 800 black vinyls and 300 redvinyls available, so I think it should be pretty easy to find, also the price here in Czech is verycheap compared to other records. I am sure you can easily order this from labels like InsaneSociety or Phobia.

9. Do you see SEE YOU lN HELL sti l l active in 10 years?Maybe, but I don't plan too much... also deafness could be a problem one day, this fuckingmusic is unhealthy! Hahaha...

10. Ok, that's all the questions I have. Thanks so much for the interview! Any finalcomments, contact info, etc?Well, one important thing we didn't discussed at al l is our United Crusties gig col lective (=basical ly al l SYIH band members + some fr iends from time to t ime). We organizes gigs inBrno since 2003, so far we did l ike 60 shows and since the beginning we have total blastw/dozens of great bands from all over the world from Argentina or Brazil through Russia tillJapan playing in our best local gig-place of all the times called Yacht, sleeping on our floorsand having a great t ime here! Just this year we did gigs for bands l ike D.S.B., VOETSEK,

PISSCHRIST, VIVISICK, ARMAGEDOM,ACTIVE MINDS and in 2007 we had GIUDA,SUMMON THE CROWS, GASMASKTERROR, AFTERBIRTH, FRAMTID,AGHAST, PAVILIONUL 32, BORN/DEAD,NKO or DUDMAN here... Also everyDecember we set up an annual Killed ByBrno Fest, where SYIH always performssome special set involving cover songs,stupid costumes and some more shit, i t isalways crazy fun. Sometimes we organizegigs in our tiny practise room, where wecould fill like 40 people max. We book onlyDIY hardcore/punk bands under fair

conditions, no hotel rooms, no guarantees, no rock star attitudes. lt is really cool to meetpeople from other bands from all over the world, from 99% we had always only goodexperiences and I am sure we will continue with this. Of course there are other gig collectivesin Brno too and you can read more about them in the booklet of compilation we alreadydiscussed above.Thanks a lot fo this interview too, Zach, and also big thanks for your huge support of SEEYOU lN HELL through the years, we really appreciate i t lFi l ip, November 2008

Contact:orba@seznam.czwww.seeyouinhell.czwww. myspace. com/seeyou in hellth rash

LIVE IN GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN. PHOTOS BY JOHN MCCABE.

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REVIEWS SPALTE BRNO NA PRACH comp LP Fuckin’ hell! If people start putting out more compilations that are as high quality as this one, then maybe comps will stop getting such a bad rep. This LP features 12 hardcore/punk bands all from the same city in the Czech Republic; Brno. The bands are varied enough in styles so that your attention won’t wander, but they also aren’t too varied either. My personal favorites were EVIDENCE SMRTI, SEE YOU IN HELL, AGE OF DEATH, FESTA DESPERATO, and PRIPYAT, but really, every band on here is great. Get this now or you’ll be kicking yourself later! (Released by many labels…try Insane Society for a copy: http://www.insanesociety.net) QUESTION – Insanity 7” EP Fast and raw hardcore punk! This record is really fucking great. All I really knew about this band is that Saira from DETESTATION is their vocalist. This is much more direct and furoius than DETESTATION was though! Six songs of fast, pissed off hardcore punk. Cool hand screened and blood splattered covers too! This is their 2nd EP by the way! (FASHIONABLE IDIOTS RECORDS, PO BOX 580131, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55458. http://www.fashionableidiots.com) THE WANKYS/EXIT HIPPIES split LP 100% noise punk through and through here! THE WANKYS present 5 tracks that just might be there best stuff to date. Total SWANKYS worship as usual, which is of course never a bad thing. The EXIT HIPPIES side is total noisy chaos, no house beats though! Oh well, you can’t have everything. (DETONATE RECORDS. http://www.myspace.com/distortdk) NK6 – Yellow Beauty 7” EP Apparently, this 7” was released for NK6’s European tour in 2007, but I just picked this up out of a distro box at a show recently so hopefully there are still copies out there. This is hyper fast, distorted HC in the style of GAUZE (which makes sense when you consider that members of NK6 are roadies for GAUZE!). Contains some re-recorded older songs and some new songs too of course. For some reason though, the guitars are mixed much lower than the bass, so that’s kind of strange. Regardless, if you don’t get this you lose at punk, so it’s up to you!! (Yellow Dog Records. http://www.yellowdog.de) NOISEAR/MAGNICIDE split 7” EP Devastating fucking grindcore terrorism! I was honestly blown away by how insane this EP is! NOISEAR continue to dominate over every boring fake tech “grind” band out there with their own style of pin point execution blasting. This was the first time I heard MAGNICIDE (from Singapore) and they just fucking crushed me. Amazingly heavy grind like 324 on speed. Unbelieveable! All grind freaks, GET THIS NOW! (Rescued From Life Records. PO BOX 14821, HALTOM CITY, TX 76117, USA. http://www.myspace.com/rflrecords) THE SICK – MATOHAZURE CD Straight outta Tsuyama city Japan, it’s the heirs to the throne of Sweden’s ASTA KASK! 10 songs of great melodic hardcore punk in the famed Trall style; hard and fast but amazingly melodic and catchy. In fact, these songs are so catchy that they will get stuck in your head for days on end! Ex-members of LAUKAUS so you know that these dudes know what’s up as far as Scandinavian punk goes. (Classick Records. Try natrecords.com for mailorder) OGO DYS – Neptune Everywhere CDR + OHM CDR From the genius behind ULCERRHOEA, NETJAJEV SS, and SYPHILITIC VAGINAS, comes the most recent project from the inimitable Magnus Lundberg: Motherfuckin’ OGO DYS! These two CDRs are truly next level. In fact, I can safely say that I’ve never heard anything like the music contained on these discs. A mix of hardcore punk, sci fi movie soundtracks, and fuck knows what else. I think “out of this world” would be an appropriate descriptor, as outer space seems to be a very apparent theme throughout these releases. Anyone who’s talked to me for more than 3 seconds knows I’m nuts about anything Magnus produces, so naturally these come with my highest recommendation. (http://www.ogodys.com. populationx@gmail.com)

SAYWHY?D.H.I.B.A.C split 7” More sick grinding thrash terror! SAYWHY? From the Czech Republic throws down five songs of killer grind/hardcore like early GRIDE. You definitely can’t go wrong with a band that sounds like that! D.H.I.B.A.C from France give us six songs with a similar approach as well, maybe a bit slower, but still fast as fuck on anyone’s radar. All in all, this is a fucking great split 7” and I would highly advise you to try and get a copy. (Out of Control Records. www.lycanthropy.wz.cz) TAKAHASHIGUMI - Trall-i-La-La CD Anyone who’s talked with me about hardore punk knows that for the most part, I hate melodic stuff; feed that fucking shit to the birds. However, this CD is one of the most melodic hardcore punk releases I’ve ever heard and to tell you the honest truth, it fucking rules! Like THE SICK, this is another Japanese band paying tribute to the mighty ASTA KASK, right down to lyrics and titles in Swedish. I got this back in August 2008 and have listened to it constantly since then, it’s just soooo fucking catchy! A total must!!! (http://www.hipcatsrecords.com) 902 – 犯される洗脳bang CD Ah, good ole Japanese hardcore punk! Charging HC in the traditional Japanese style like WARHEAD, NIGHTMARE, etc. I believe this band contains a member from ZONE, so you know it’s high quality HC for sure! Not much more to say other than the fact that it’s awesome! (Bloodsucker Records, get it from natrecords.com)