1. I will not ask how are you guys? hehe, Please tell me about your indonesian tour and what do you think about indonesia!?
Linz: Our tour in indonesia was 13 dates, 11 in Java, 2 in Borneo. In fact, heres where we played in order: jakarta, bandung, jogja, semerang, pati, kediri, malang, porong, surabaya. Then we went to borneo for two dates, samarinda and balikpapan, and back to java for jakarta and tangerang!
Unfortunatly I didn’t get to see a lot of indonesia as a place, we were in our own little touring bubble, but the punk scene in java was amazing to me,so many punks in bands, doing distros, screen printing and zines etc. It seems like everyone is really involved in the scene and has developed skills vital to keeping the punk scene alive and D.I.Y, producing own media, music etc is really important.
The turn out to the gigs was also really good, and people who come to watch the shows are really into it, we played with a lot of different bands, i cant believe how many bands you can actually fit onto one show (for example, we were all amazed at the 42 bands playing in porong!! I think i would struggle to even think of 42 bands here in the UK haha) I liked the fact that each band played a 10-15 minute set too. Shorter sets, more bands! Play fast or dont! hahaha.
Outside of the gigs, we did get to visit Porong, told about the hot mud situation. This is new knowledge we could take back to the UK with us, we plan to make a pamphlet (with help from some friends) and distribute the information here at shows, so maybe more people will be aware of this.
ed: Yea the D.I.Y of the punk scene is really encouraging and the gigs had a awsome atmosphere. Indonesia itself is a beautiful country but there is alot of de-forestation for mining etc.
One thing i noticed quite strongly was how strongly male dominated it was towards women. one culture shock for us was males and females in certain neighbourhoods not being alowed to sleep in the same rooms.
Linz: Oh yeah, another not so positive thing we were told about in Jakarta was homophobia in the punk scene, you know a scene where youre supposed to be able to be whoever you are, be free and that it was very difficult to come out, its quite shocking… I’m not going to claim that homophobia is non existant in the UK punk scene, but it seemed like a subject that nobody addressed in songs or literature etc..
John: yeah peolple should never be scared to be themselves.
2.you’re play on borneo island!(BALIKPAPAN AND SAMARINDA) it was rarely a hc/punk band that tour in indonesia ussualy just play on java island and not go to borneo, but you broke it man you play here.and it was nice!! mmm give me a reason why you play here?
L: Yeah! We broke it! haha. Yeah we played in borneo because when we first started working on the split with Bleeaaauuugggghhh they all lived in or around Balikpapan, so from the start, when we decided that we’d tour indonesia, we knew that we’d play in their home city.
While we were there, we also visited the ‘sun bear reserve’ where Bleeeaaauuughhhs guitarist, used to volunteer, which was an eye opener for me, were learned a lot about the enslavment of (not only) sunbears for entertainent, medicine, pets etc. and also a lot about the loss of their natural habitat due to destruction by forest fire, deforestation etc.
The shows in borneo were awesome too.
3.please tell me the history of your spilt album with bleuaaarrgh!!
L: Oh, this is quite a confusing story..okay, I think it all started one day when Ed was looking around on the internet for new bands to listen to, and he managed to find a band called Peace or anihilation from indonesia. He ordered a cassette by them through Tony of Battleground Records,Jakarta. He brought this p.o.a tape to a state of urgency practice.. so Ed and I got into the indonesian punk scene, we even watched a documentry “punk in indonesia” dubbed in german, and managed to contact a girl from this documentry called Ika, by contacted a local indonesian food not bombs group. So by chance, we find Bleeaaauuurrrrrghhhsss page, and see theyre looking for a band to do a split with!
4. your original member’s just 3 person, Ed = vox , guitar , Linz = bass , John = drum and michl is your additional vocal , hmm one’s more rare thing that you have, ussualy band have an additional bass / guitar or drum , but in s.o.u you got additional vocals, why you use an aditional player?
L: Good question! Well, there are two reasons we have a second vocalist. The first is, Ed damaged his vocals about a year and a half ago through shouting in the band. He had to go to hospital for that, for about 3 months, and rest his voice, drink a lot of tea, warm up etc… And since our lyrics are so long, it became too much for him to do alone.. We did look for someone to help out as a second vocalist, but we didnt find anyone right.
And the second reason is, it just happened! About six months ago, we toured poland with a band based in london called Meinhof. We stayed in germany for a couple of days to meet with some german friends we met at scumfest, Michl being one of them, and another friend Jan, who does a great zine “proud to be punk” in german.
Halfway through the tour Michl started to sing for us, doing second vocals on a couple of songs (at the time i think it was comply or die, and just the way it is) So it happened just as friends touring and everyone getting involved. When we knew we were touring indonesia, we asked Michl to come with us, and sent him the new recordings, he agreed to come and learned the songs, we had two practices with him and then started travelling to indonesia!
5.most of your song is sound so anarcho, are you an anarchist?
L: I’ve never really thought about this. I’ve never called myself an anarchist, but yeah i suppose i am! haha.
Ed: well i guess we all have slightly differing views but i would call myself an anarchist
J: Yes!!
6.outside s.o.u, what are you doing man?
L: I dont know if you mean politally, personally, or generally what do I do, but I’ll cover all the topics for quickness.
I work in a factory, I help to put on punk shows as well as play them, I write a lot of zines: “Five minutes of freedom” (with ed), “Skull crusher henderson” (A personal zine of cartoons I draw when travelling, at shows etc) and another zine for fun with a friend of mine,I draw comics (currently I’m working on Indonesian tour 2009, dead line is July, as Ed and I are visiting again for a few months, not as a band unfortunatly) I also write and do photography. And anything to keep my mind alive.
E: I work in a shitty factory too. As well as working on Five minutes of freedom, and putting on shows as part of the dead scene collective, I do a small D.I.Y distro and a VERY small D.I.Y label with 2 others. and we are trying to get a food not bombs started in our town aswell.
J: Community activism, for example I’m part of a food co-op which bascially means by-passing supermarkets. For example, instead of buying a product from a supermarket and paying the mark-up cost and profit that they add on, we get food from a UK based whole-food place, and sell it at cost price. So basically you can get cheap and healthy food.
Hunt sabbing- going out onto a hunt and stopping the hunters from killing the animal.
Housing Co-op,bascially this is a house run by tenents with no landlord. This means that the house is public, not private, and any rent that you pay goes towards buying the house and making it a resource, not a commodity, so the rent doesnt just go into the back of some landlords pocket.
L: Johns a park ranger. And a hippy.
7.ohya , did zine important for the scene? in my city (in my survey) ,most of people(6 of 10) are not interest to read ! but zine progression in indonesia ara growing up!
L: You’ve probably noticed by now that I think zines are important. Very important! Its important that our media is ‘controlled’ (for lack of a better word!) by us and not a select few people who can decide everyones opinions for them. Its important that we can share our thoughs and observations and tell the truth in zines. And I think cartoon zines and per-zines are also very important too! Its also a good way to connect our scene and network and help each other out. And something fun to read, haha.
John and Ed: Everything Linz said.. hahah
8.how about zine progression in u.k or your city
L: Zines are very popular here. In our town we even have a zine distribution “Corndog zine distro” (http://corndog.co.uk/zine-distro/) . You can get pretty much anything there. If you go to a show in london there will always be zines, all sorts of zines, to pick up.
(In fact, if you would like any specific zines to distribute I would be happy to try and get a couple for you so you can copy over in indonesia and distribute.)
9.and you think if we want to share our opinion where’s the best media, zine or band?
L: Oh, I cant choose. Both are too important. I think maybe a zine is more acsessable. Its cheaper than paying into a show to see a band (usually, at least in the UK) and you can read it anytime you like, and get more information in there.
But on the other side of the coin, one punk song can change someone forever. And the live energy of a band who’re pissed off at the world cant be beaten, at least in my opinion. Plus a punk show is more social, you can meet up with so many people who share your anger and opinion, and you can let our your frustrations, pick up the demo, read the lyrics, give the record to a friend…you know. Both are so important, so I cant choose. Continue reading →
