INTERVIEW: SECTARIAN VIOLENCE

“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.

INTERVIEW: VODKA JUNIORS

 We will start by posting the interviews we've done for the past issues... and then we will continue uploading articles, mainly by theme. (interviews, recipes, diy crafting, etc)

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They’re not your typical hardcore band. Playing for ten years they started as a hardcore punk band with some thrash and skate punk elements but now, with “Dark Poetry”, they’re experiencing with a dub / acoustic / surf rock sound. Vodka Juniors formed in Athens in 2000 and since they’ve toured Europe several times and most recently they did an exclusive Romanian tour.

1. How come you decided to make a tour only in Romania?

O&K: Paul BHCB had the idea and emailed us about it. All the capitals and big cities in Europe are very similar. The exciting part of touring abroad and not playing Athens everyday is to meet new cultures and play the strangest, smallest, most distant places. We enjoy gathering weird experiences. The only way to do this is to go somewhere and spend at least a week going up and down the country. We’ve played one off shows in other countries and its ok. But this is different because in Romania now we have a new home.

2. We all noticed that your merchandise was for free, how did you manage this?

O&K: We sell drugs. Also we work really hard during the rest of the year and instead of buying cool amps and guitars we invest all the money in making our stuff as accessible as possible to everyone trying to keep our band and money separated even if it’s really difficult. The downside is we can only tour for a couple of days per year, but on the good side these days are usually an emotional bloodbath. You must come to see… and ask for drugs.