They toured Romania 3 times, released one album in 2008 - “Transit”, toured with Confronto, 25talife, Questions and next year they are celebrating 10 years of existence. These 3 boys and one girl are United & Strong and they were nice enough to answer a few questions for us.
1.So you've played Romania 3 times ,some thoughts about the scene?
Christian:
For me your scene seemes to be pretty united. Cause all the people that made the shows on our tour know and respect each other and the special thing about the Cluj/Bistritia crew is that they are all still friends over the years and stick together. Seing all these different people still together, just being friends and having a common aim is always great. This is the speical thing about the romanian scene.
2.Did you notice any changes in Romania during these 3 years?
Flo:
I guess you can already feel that much has happened since romania joined the european union. the streets are getting better, people don't drive as crazy as they used to, there is a gas station on every corner, you can see all the big western european supermarket chains everywhere.
Christian:
The differences between Romania and west europe are getting smaller, this is obviuos but with that it feels like Romania looses its exotic flair it has for us and this is something I dont like about the EU, just brings the capitalism and makes whole europe the same boring place.
3.What do you think are the main differences between the western European hardcore scene and the eastern one?
Christian:
The main difference is that the different subgenres of hardcore/punk are not divided as much as they are in germany. We have enough shows for only deathcore, oldschool, melodic hardcore, crust, beatdown or whatever kind of bands and people. And you make shows for all kind of bands and the scene is not as business orientated as the german scene. And I really hope that you keep it like that.
4.Is it harder to tour in the east than in the west? I mean there's a big difference in infrastructure and the money is probably better in the west.
Flo:
Yes, it is different but there are also differences between eastern european countries. when we crossed the border from moldova to Romania the difference was obvious and romania seemed so much more like for example germany. i don't know if it's harder to tour the east, of course sometimes you have to drive absurd distances to get to the next show but all the shows were so good so it just doesn't really matter if it's harder. and yes, sometimes the roads are shitty and the borders outside the european union can be scary but there are enough gas stations and banks so we never had a problem with that.
Christian:
The touring in east europe is harder when it comes to driving, crossing borders and changing money. In germany a distance of 500km means 5 hours of driving in the east it means 8-10 hours. But when it comes to playing great shows it is much easier in east europe. Most of the poeple really apriciate that you drove 10 or 15 hours and got fucked by the cops on the streets and go crazy at the show. Which makes us forget the long drives and problems at the borders.
And we never tour or play shows because of money and dont wanna think about it too much.
5.You've played Moldova this year. How was it? I know there aren't a lot of hardcore shows there.
Florian:
it was amazing and weird the same time. weird because the venue was a "bowling palace", which was really clean and didn't look like the "typical" hardcore/punk venue. great because we were treated so well by everyone, the show was amazing, after the show we shot a million photos with basically everyone. and yes it's true, the scorpions had a show two days after we did. so i guess it's clear: scorpions: 0; united and strong: 1!
Christian:
They told us that we will be probably one of the first german hardcore band ever playing in Chisinau and they dont really know about any hardcore bands from outside of Moldova that played there before either, so we didnt know what to expect. And I was afraid, cause we are just a small german band that likes to tour and now we should be one of the first bands in Moldova.
Vova, Marina, Slava and the whole Harvey Dent crew cared so much for us and stayed awake whole night waiting for us and served lots of food after we arrived finally after 18 hours driving through the night on abandon roads and crossing a scary border, this was allready much more than we expected. And the show was just crazy in the fancy bowling plaza and signing posters afterwards. I dont know what to say, great experience and great new friends.
6.What do yo think about hardcore and politics? I heard people in bands say the two shouldn't mix. How do you feel about it?
Florian:
It's not two things that should mix, it's actually one thing that's not to be seperated! an antifascist, antiracist and antisexist attitude and a healthy antipathy towards hierarchies, authorities and cops is probably the most important thing that separates this kind of music from anything else.
Christian:
All the bands saying that politics have nothing to do with hardcore are just afraid to take a stand, and this is what hardcore is about, having something to say. How can you write angry lyrics if you don’t wanna think about politics... government, cops, nazis?
7.The tough guy image is sometimes associated with hardcore, and especially beatdown hardcore. What do you think about this?
Flo:
People tend to compensate their own prejudices and behavior into something they can be scared of and/or something/someone they can condemn. the "tough guy" can be found everywhere not just in the hardcore scene. people should look into the mirror and start to think about themselves before they start printing "no tough guys allowed" onto their hardcore posters, because this is not how you become an antisexist! it's no coincidence that most of the bands have only male members.
Christian:
It is exactly like Flo says, "tough guys" are not just the people listening to heavy hardcore stuff and dancing hard, you also have stupid "tough guys" in wannabe antisexist male bands. We once met a band playing melodic hardcore with all the fashion attributes and of course the antisexist sticker on their merchbox and the antisexist message on stage. The first thing they told us was that the girls are beautiful here and have big boobs. They are the real stupid tough guys.
8.I noticed that there is a big rift between the different punk scenes in western Europe. I mean the kids you see at a crust show are not usually the kids you see at a hardcore show. Is this ok? Why do you think things are this way?
Flo:
No, it's a shame! people are so intolerant. there's nothing worse than watching three bands that sound all the same in front of an audience looking all the same. i hope people here will not pick up this trend.
Christian:
It is because there are so many bands and people in all these scenes, they can survive parallel with their own dresscodes and scene laws. They dont need to be open minded. I hate it.
9.Ok, now to the important questions. What's up with the name?
Christian:
It all started beside our first hardcore band, which was all very serious although we didn’t know what to do and I was just sick of it. So we started United And Strong and searched for a real hardcore stereotype bandname. And then UAS became more serious and we didn’t want to change our name into a fancy one to get more scenepoints so it stayed like that till today. And on the other hand, as cheezy as it sounds, but this is what we stand for, united and strong!
10.Best food on tour?
Flo:
It's a close fight between Cluj and Chisinau! the food in Ukraine was also very good. it's funny, food is actually an essential part while being on tour, you either eat or think about eating.
Christian:
I have to say that on the whole tour all the people cared so good for us, we arrived, they told us whats gonna happen, if we had some time we could sleep and they always gave us so much and good food especially Cluj, Chisinau and Alex mother in Uzhgorod!
11.So all of you are straight edge except Flo, is that why i haven't seen him drive the van?
Flo:
No, i'm just a shitty driver and i don't have much driving experience.
Christian:
I wouldn’t even say that he is a shitty driver he is just the best copilot, always stays awake and keeps me fresh with long conversations and he reads maps like a GPS!
And on this tour I haven’t really seen him drinking anyway.
12.You've been playing for a long time. What's the secret?
Christian:
The secret is not really a secret, there is nothing magic about it. We just do this band because we are friends and we wanna spend time together and go on tour. We never wanted to be successful in a way of being a hyped band with cds on trendy labels and playing big shows. And I can’t imagine playing in a different band with different people.
13.Any other bands/projects?
Flo: Yes i also play in the "aggronauts", a punk band with german lyrics and Antonio, the guy that was with us on tour is Berlin's best rap act "kalm"!
Christian:
And we hope that "Kalm" will has his comeback soon! Bianca used to play in Diamonds Are Forver, an all girl band. But they were much better than UAS so she had to stop it!
14.Any future plans?
We hope that we can do something special next year, cause it will be our 10 year anniversary. Beside that we always wanna tour crazy countries and play nice shows in Germany. With or without plans, this band plays on!
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