“Sectarian Violence is five hardcore punks that come from
three different countries. Through touring, arranging shows and doing fanzines we
got to know each other and came to realize that we wanted to do a band together.
A band that would throw hardcore and straight edge into a social and political
context.”
They will come to Cluj in April,so we decided to catch up
with them and have a glimpse in how they see the scene and the world. Here’s
what Staffan had to say:
1. The first thing that stands out about
Sectarian Violence is that you guys are from 3 different countries, 2 different
continents even. How does that work and
how did the band start?
My Swedish band Stay Hungry went
on tour with Never Again during the spring of 2010. We were worried that the
Brits would consider us to be total idiots, and it turned out the they had
concerns about the same thing on their end. In other words: we fit very well
together and had a lot of fun. For the Edge day show in Gothenburg later that
year, I booked what came to be the second to last Never Again show, as well as
Coke Bust, who were on tour in Europe at the time. We had a lot of fun,
including sumo wrestling suits and Americans breaking stage floors and drums,
adding to the trail of destruction that follow their countrymen across the
world. Somehow, the idea about a new band was born there, which probably had
some to do with the fact that Never Again was breaking up. The plans were
perfected over Internet and that’s basically it. The band works mostly online
in that sense. To rehearse and record, I head over to the UK. It might seem
impractical, but it depends on what you compare with. It is not much more
expensive and doesn’t take much longer time than when I rehearse with Stay
Hungry, which is a four hour bus drive away from Gothenburg, where I live. Nick
can obviously not fly over the Atlantic Ocean just to rehearse though. It’s not
perfect conditions but it is what it is. This set-up has other pros.
2. You come from relatively similar backgrounds.
You all play or played in hardcore bands. How is Sectarian Violence any
different from the other bands?
The different countries is the
most obvious thing if we’re going to compare it to other bands we are or have
been in. It does create culture clashes for sure. The clash of hardcore
civilizations, so to speak.
It becomes evident in anything
from the use of the word “studio” in the UK to differences in how
tours are booked in the US and in
Europe.
3. Please tell us more about your other bands.
There are a few! I am in Stay
Hungry, a straight edge band with a few records out. Nick is in Coke Bust,
which everyone should be familiar with. In any case, don’t miss them during
their upcoming six week Euro tour. Tomas, Andy and Pat are in Wayfarer, who are
working on a new LP. I joined that band on bass for a short Scandinavian tour last
year, which was awesome. Pat is also in Final Rage, Inherit and probably a few
more. I am not quite sure if Andrew is in any other band right now. Tomas plays
bass for a heavy metal band called Hang
the Bastard, in which he explores his rock star dream. He’s a great bass
player.
4. As a straight edge and a political band, how
do you see the 2 subjects merging?
I am talking for myself now,
there are different views and takes on this within the band. For me straight
edge is a personal choice with political implications and reasons. People can
talk about straight edge as merely a personal choice how much they like, it
does not cut them off from their social context and what impact this choice has
on it. Straight edge for me is both physical health for myself and solidarity
with those who suffer from personal addiction or the addiction of loved ones.
It is both a matter of living my life to the fullest every second of my life,
and having the clarity of mind to be vigilant in a seriously fucked up world.
It is both wanting to keep my blood free from poison and not wanting to support
industries that profit on death, suffering and complacency. So it is both personal
and political.
5. What issues are most important to you, as a band?
If you look at the EP
on Grave Mistake, it deals with a pretty wide range of subjects, from macro to
micro level; from how we chose to live our lives, to how we look upon homeless
and cast-out people, to our outlook on the occupation of Palestine. I think
Nick did a very good job with that, and I think our lyrics will continue along
those lines, sort of tying it all together.
6. How do
you see the straight edge scene and the hardcore scene right now?
It is very different from place
to place, obviously. In Sweden, there was a pretty cool peak a couple of years
ago, and right now we’re experiencing a down period. Nothing new. I guess the
US had had a rise of straight edge bands that connect more to the roots,
perhaps both sound and attitude wise. The UK has a bunch of cool bands, too.
Hopefully not being too cliché, this scene is what we make of it. We have a
chance to either let it slide, or create something great. We can never base it
on the way things are during trends and peaks, we just have to make the best of
every situation. No one else will do it for us.
7. Do you think that we, as a global
community, still have the power to make some difference in the world? The
reason why I’m asking is that, the way I see it, hardcore “borrows” way too
much from mainstream society. So much effort and money is being put in just
doing shows and promotion and merchandise , that we tend to forget what the
real issues are.
In the new issue of Law and Order
there is a conversation I had with Kurt Catalyst about hardcore and
philosophies that are prevalent within the scene. Check that out, it’s very
interesting, Kurt has a lot to say. There are different sides to a question
such as this. On the one hand, hardcore is a very limited forum for political
change, partly because of the fact that we keep our doors closed from the
mainstream, the outside world etc, and
instead take pride in and cherish the status as outcasts.
I believe there are practical as
well as social reasons for this: practical because we have learned over the
years that we cannot rely on business people, we have to do it ourselves in
order to have something that will/can last; social because there is a reward
for those involved when it is an exclusive scene. We have special bonds with
people all over the world; we know things that are alien to the outsiders;
being a part of this can give us both a social security network and a sense of
home, belonging, purpose. But all that demands that we don’t act very openly towards
the world we’d also like to change.
Of course, being the change
ourselves is a step in the right direction, but there is a contradiction here,
too. In some cases, bands have managed to really make a difference obviously,
such as Earth Crisis, whose impact on the dietary habits of people should not
be underestimated. But compare Inside Out and Rage Against the Machine: what
band has had the greatest impact? That said, I think hardcore has a tremendous
power to change the lives of kids and to make them more caring, passionate,
creative and free-thinking. But we have to create the context that allows for
that to happen within the scene, it doesn’t happen by itself. Fuck the
status-quo. In the end, it comes down to what we as participants in the scene
make of all the inspiration we can get in it. If we can channel it and use it
outside of the scene, it carries tremendous opportunity.
8. What do you think about the
situation worldwide? I mean, mostly everywhere people are in the streets
demanding their rights.
Once again this answer reflects
my personal outlook.
I think that this will continue
and intensify in the decades to come. We are seeing the real consequences of
the stagnation of the world capitalist economy that started in the seventies.
Neo-liberalism (the opening of new markets for capital to exploit, and the
eradication of laws that limit the ways to do so), neo-colonialism (imperialism
going from using stooges within freed countries to actually re-colonizing them)
and the fall of the Eastern European bloc (new markets for capital to exploit,
no restraints or competition on a world scale) constitute a combination of
necessary means and fortunate opportunities to keep the rich getting richer
despite the complete decline of the economic (as in productive) base of it all
in the center powers. But it also
creates new reasons for and forms of resistance everywhere in its wake.
I think we live in both very
dangerous times and very hopeful times. In South America, people are rising up
and creating new alternatives to free their countries from the shackles of
imperialism. I witnessed this myself in Venezuela a couple of years ago. In
Africa last year, a country was invaded and its
president killed after attempts to create an African investment bank
that would ease the economical stranglehold on the continent. In times like these, we need to be very
vigilant.
9. Where do you see hardcore going in the next
years? Seems to me that the more “popular” bands tend to be more and more
neutral and not taking a stand on anything. Do you think this is the trend
right now in hardcore?
Yes and no. The latest Trapped
Under Ice LP (which fucking rules!) has more political stuff on it than their
previous stuff. First Blood did “Silence is betrayal” in 2010 which is an
extremely political record. In Sweden, Lose the Life’s debut LP “The end of
complacency” is about to drop, Anchor is touring the world etc. I don’t think
the hardcore scene will ever be completely homogenous in this sense: there will
always be both bands and currents that deal more with political issues, and
those who are content with singing about hanging out and stage diving. I think
there’s room for both. Perhaps we could say that for the lyrics dealing with
the preservation and treatment of the scene itself to be relevant, there needs
to be other bands and lyrics that deal with things of more “substance,” and
that there is a dialectical connection between the two sides.
10. Back to the music. You will
have an EP coming out soon and you’re doing a Euro tour this spring. Tell us more about
it.
The set-up of Sectarian Violence
allows us to make use of a very large network. Nick has all his US contacts,
and over here we have an extensive network of friends and contacts in Europe.
Before we had even played a show, Grave Mistake had agreed to release our debut
7”. It is of course extremely fortunate and something we need to be humble
about. I am very happy with the 7”, musically, lyrically and how Alex Grave
Mistake put together the cover art.
Booking the Euro tour was quite
easy, and comes down to both what we’ve shown with the band so far, and people
appreciating our other bands and how we’ve come across on tour with those. The
next step after this is a US tour with Poison Planet in June.
11. Recommend some bands that we should check out.
Iron to Gold from Poland is a
band no one should miss out on. From Sweden, check out Hårda Tider, Undergång,
Anchor, Obnoxious Youth, Lose the Life, Angers Curse, Agent Attitude etc. Too
many to mention, check out swehc.com for more examples. In Europe, Get Wise,
Unveil, Risk it!, Not Afraid, Inherit, By My Hands and so on. Everyone knows
about the US bands, no need to name drop them.
12. What do you do besides music?
A few people in the band work or have their
own small businesses that allow them to tour and make a small living. Some
study. I am currently unemployed after
having ended studies. I guess I am an unemployed auto-worker since that was my
last profession, and I am still back in the factory now and then. Hardcore
wise, Tom and Pat run Carry the Weight Records, and I do Law and Order zine.
Nick sets up a lot of shows in the Washington DC area, and I do quite a few
here in Gothenburg as well. At the moment, I have to say that my involvement in
hardcore makes it hard to find a lot of time for involvement in other stuff, so
I try to make as much sense of what I do hardcore wise.
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