It took a whil i know but
i have finally added the
interview i was very
pleased with it, so i hope
you will enjoy reading it.

The guys were amazing
and you really should
check them out
on Reflections Records

After the set of possibly the best tour of the year (along with the line-ups for Give up the ghost with Amulet, Sworn In & xCanaanx and the shows Norma Jean played) both The Hope Conspiracy & I Defy headed back with me to my house.

Two things were obvious 1) I live in a cull-de-sac and everyone has like at least two cars so parking two vans was always going to be humorous (oh and I can’t direct people for shit cause I don’t know any street names) …luckily I live in a very quiet neighbour-hood (which is why I put up bands that need a place to stay)
And 2) that I wouldn’t be sleeping in my bed (I never do I usually give it up) I wouldn’t get a great deal of sleep…

I Defy slept in my bedroom and I put The Hope Conspiracy in the living room and I slept in the dining area.

“I DEFY was originally formed in late 1999 when RAOUL (singer of VEIL) and Frank (Former MIOZÄN Bassplayer, now SOULS ON FIRE) hung out one afternoon at a hardcore show and talked about the idea of forming a hardcore project. After exchanging phone numbers, a few weeks of on and off in discussing potential allies, two good friends and talented musicians, Flo (Drummer of VEIL) and Mathias (Guitarist in UNITED MUTATIONS) joined the team and the project was formed. Since all members were still engaged in their main bands and busy touring, recording ecetera I DEFY was primarily seen as a side project. However, this would change soon, when the first songs were written and two local shows were played as opening band for KILL YOUR IDOLS, SHUTDOWN, AMERICAN NIGHTMARE and ENSIGN. The response was so amazing (not just from the crowd but from the headlining bands as well) that I DEFY decided to turn the side project into a serious band.
A year further, the band found a home at REFLECTIONS RECORDS, known for various quality bands like Stretch Arm Strong, American Nightmare, Reaching Forward, Good Clean Fun, Shark Attack amongst others. March 19, 2002 will be the release of I DEFY's MCD "First Strike". Their style could best be described as a mixture of Uniform Choice and Stretch Arm Strong. Self-searching personal lyrics combined with fast, aggressive, yet melodic hardcore. I DEFY is ready to tour and do shows promoting this nothing short but amazing debut MCD.”
Taken from www.idefy.de / email info@idefy.de

Their amazing new album “The Firing Line” is not what fans of “First Strike” would expect because it just sounds so good. “First Strike” laid the foundations for what deserves to be one of the most talked and energetic albums in recent memory really encapsulating the hardcore punk youth crew spirit

What were your first impressions of the club (The Vic. Swindon) is its quite small in comparisons to what you are used to playing with the band?
I think it was quite small, but actually I think that it’s the right sort of size, the atmosphere was exactly how it must be. I think too often people want to play in big places and they forget that the whole atmosphere may suffer so we like to play in the small (er) clubs and where always tight which make’s for a good atmosphere.

How are you finding the response from both the kids back home in Hanover (Germany) and from how the people react from the bands live sets
Do you mean that generally?

Generally the bands (I Defy’s) only been around since 1999
Ok I think the problem with Germany is that hardcore is at a very critical stage at the moment in Germany. There are a lot of hardcore bands around that are actually more into that whole moshy hardcore. The old school hardcore sound a mixture of bands like Bane. Where as with I Defy we always wanted to have more of a melodic aspect and keep entertaining myself and it’s really nice because I am talking loads of bullshit

(Cue scary but typical Hollywood style German voice i.e. when ever a film features Germans you never get the language with the subtitles just this mildly odd European accent just said louder)
BUT IT WON’T BE ON THE INTERVIEW (um my mistake I guess I forgot to edit it out but…damm)

The thing is with I Defy is to me when we started I Defy we wanted to do a real old school punk hardcore band and we felt that there weren’t that many bands that really made that kind of sound. But was also shown in the way for example what those type of bands / German hardcore bands covered like when your growing up. Bands covered Inside Out (Zack De La Roche’s of RATM first band) & Gorilla Biscuits and I love those bands.
But for me we really wanted to start a band that really represented hardcore and punk rock and that’s why probably we have a good reaction, but were not so much part of that real scene you know? Which I think is good I’d like to attract people from all scenes with I Defy.

How’s Germany? It’s a stupid question, I spent 2 weeks there in 1990 when I was eight years old and even at that young age I noticed apart from fashion being quite backwards (although this coming from a person who up until about the age of 12, had his mum or grandparents buy his wardrobe and sported a Beatles, style, bowl haircut) and lets not mention the music on the TV. But the recycling policies are second-to-none and really commendable so what is it like when you come over to the UK?

Are there any similarities or major differences that you’ve maybe all picked up on?
There are probably so many differences that I just can’t name one! Because I usually am a person who looks at the way with which people deal with each other than how people are, (anthropologists study societies don’t they?) I don’t really look so much at the policies and the differences in the certain aspects of society. I really like to look at the people and what I noticed for example people are usually very polite here. In Germany, German’s have a way of being very cold. They think that it’s honest to be unfriendly when you feel bad which is ok and honest but I feel that I like to be friendly all the time even if its superficial.

But then most interactions in life intentional or not are superficial; when you meet somebody for the first time for example
Well actually I grew up in Italy, as my father is Italian. I grew up in Italy so I feel like (I but-in with the witty yet poignant comment that Raoul isn’t your typical German name think Hans or Claus)

I feel very much connected to the Italian “everything’s easy going” attitude (pasta food I helpfully add) its not very well organised and you have all that beuracratic stuff there. It’s kind of different in Germany cause in Germany everything is in order! You can really rely on them where as in Italy it’s a different story, but the people there are easier to deal with (apart from the driving) I’m playing with the idea to leave Germany in a couple of years. Because it might be better for me (as a person?) yea as a person

Do you think you would like to move back to Italy?
Not necessarily Italy maybe somewhere else another country. I could also imagine moving to the UK actually! I’ve just been living in Germany for, when did in move to Germany now? Well I’ve been living there since I was six and maybe it’s good to have a change.

Your doing the UK leg of the tour with the Hope Conspiracy (to divert the conversation back to the music) How has it been going so far I know you’ve only played three dates?
So far I am really amazed, I’m really having a good time the guys who are very, very nice and they are also down to earth. Especially what I felt today was that the show, tonight sorry, really represented a lot of things that I have felt and that’s what’s so special about hardcore that you can’t find anywhere else.

Like having bands stay round my house?
Yea and all that comes together people sleeping at other peoples houses the whole show was very, very powerful and also this emotional thing you can’t find it anywhere else. I mean there’s no other subculture I think like hardcore and punk rock where you can find real people with real feelings and real emotions and real anger you know?
And so that was really something that I feel very nice about and I’m glad to share, on this tour I mean, to be actually touring with a band that’s grounded in the scene.

How do you adapt to touring and the lifestyle that’s goes with it?
We don’t tour that much we all have jobs and we all have obligations. I study and I work for a music promotion agency, Florien is working as a graphic designer, Frank also and our guitarist is also studying. So were all working apart from that so we can't just take off for three or four months that would be such a stress for me and I can’t afford that.

Do you find it stressful? Some people can adapt to it some people can’t?
We did a lot of touring in the last ten years with my previous band Veil
We toured Europe about nine times we toured with Biohazard, Better Than A Thousand all those bands I’ve really done a lot of touring and I like it.

I haven’t actually heard Veil how would you describe them?
Veil was totally different to I Defy I mean Veil was really well known, we were considered as one of the important German / European new school hardcore bands from that 1996 era. We were playing with all these bands like Refused when they were not so well known, we played with Snapcase we played with everyone you know all this and Earth Crisis for example.

What was it like playing with those bands?
It was great! (Real enthusiasm) I had great moments and I have met so many nice people and had great moments with Veil, but what I felt with I Defy is that I wanted to have something different. I wanted to actually take it back to the roots, really go back to the roots of the music and also have this well what I missed with veil all the time was we always played in front of the same crowds.

It’s nice to always have an enthusiastic crowd but it’s very limited in a way especially the whole way for youth school bands and it was also such a separation that took place. With I Defy I like the fact that there are punk rock kids coming and I would really like us to tour with a punk band you know? I’d really like too see I Defy as a band opening for any band. It’s not like a straightedge band and it’s not just a hardcore band but
(Its more than that, the sounds been done before) it’s a funny thing because once it was called hardcore punk a different kind of punk people forget that, and that’s a very important thing that people forget that and this is where it started

When I said it’s been done before, you interrupted, so I didn’t have a chance to finish. What I men’t to say with it is that it’s been done before but because nobody really does it anymore it sounds original and really fresh and that’s where I believe you guys have an edge.
Which is why I believe I Defy as a band stand apart from other bands.
Most bands follow the current trend. If it was down to a popularity contest there would be Emo bands procreating in every little nook and corner of the world. But the “youth crew punk” style you guys are playing although slowly picking up pace here in the UK with bands like Sworn In, The Break In & XcanaanX straightedge or not, like I mentioned sounds fresh because no-one is really experimenting with it
Firstly though if you talk about the Hope Conspiracy they are a very moshy, punky & rock (-like) band and some parts remind me of Black Flag and that’s really something I think is special in what they are doing. I think a lot of people forget both the roots and also the history.
Its not that I don’t want to sound blaming but I think when you get into music and you really love your music you ultimately want to dig deeper and you want to really go and see the bands, I find it so interesting and so inspiring.

Do you try and collect the old …
I got so many videos; I have a video at home called another state of mind, which is about social distortion
Is that the one done by…
At a certain point they end up at Ian Makaye’s Discord (Records) house and they all hang out together and this is what it was like in the beginning so its important to…
(Try and keep that level of interaction, and not move away from what makes the scene so interconnected and become ultimately faceless?)

I try buy them when I see them but haven’t got a great deal as of now, one of my favourites is the Sick Of It All video
That’s the same type if I think or had to think of a band that represents hardcore punk it has to be Sick Of It All (I also own Stife ‘One Truth’ Earth Crisis ‘1991-2002 forever true’ Release ‘punk/hardcore music documentary and some general label video compilations)
Have you seen Release?
No
(Release is via Victory its an hour or so long hardcore documentary featuring not just hardcore bands but it focuses on the punk scene and the people who contribute to it-it’s a really good insight)

What’s the state of Reflections like, Johan always seems to sign so many decent bands and unlike Goodlife it’s quite prolific yet small how did they approach you and was it and I don’t mean to “force the cheese” but a dream come true?
Through being in bands I got to know the guys in Reflections around 1995 when they were starting their fanzine (same name) those guys are just friends and we’ve been friends ever since and it was a natural progression you know. First they were just the fanzine then they started releasing CD’s, after a while step-by-step.

I think the best thing is you learn so much for later in life through doing a website a zine, label or promotions. You learn how to organise things and you also learn other things like being in a band and really learn how to organise things by yourself there'’. There is nobody you have to really learn anything from because you do it for yourself, you learn by mistake and you do it by all helping each other. Again where else can you find something like that? Look around there is nowhere or any comparison to make to another scene.

How about working for a record company?
You know people who work for record companies many of these people are faceless.

That’s what I mean the major companies not the independent’s not anything like Reflections, I’m talking like fuckin Sony, or Time Warner, or Island etc
I’m working for major labels because I work for a promotion agency and it’s like sometimes if you really look at the numbers of records, you could like go to Reflections and they sometimes press and sell more records than some of the major’s

Really? (Not convinced tone but then the pop world is fickle and a lot of its talentless miming tools of the industry)
The thing is with major labels they have so many people and singings every month. Alot of there releases never get off the ground, they pull it out and sometimes will only press one or two thousand and that’s it and Reflections maybe if they put out an American Nightmare (Give Up The Ghost) CD they will sell four or five thousand whatever so this is the thing with the major labels they…

I heard Poison The Well shifted about twenty thousand of their last CD
And this is the thing, major labels have no guarantee for anything and it doesn’t matter who it is

Because they are faceless you don’t have such a degree of any interaction?
You have to have somebody who believes in you

I hate that. I have met a lot of different bands, with different sort’s of deals with various types of labels which in turn have different vested interests in them – and of course sometimes when bands talk to majors before signing to an independent.
It turn’s out the major try’s to change their image or market them. I’ve talked to bands rejected by Sony or Emi who were asked to sound more like the Lostprophets for example. They are trying to mould these people and of course they lack the creativity because they are told to play in a style that is not fundamentally what the band may be about
What is good though in the last few years people have finally realised how stupid this whole thing is and really finally found a way to be comfortable with being on an Indy label. There was this time not long ago when in the early 90’s all of a sudden major labels discovered punk rock and hardcore. They wanted to try to get those bands.

Its good that in the end it didn’t work (It’s a funny story and this band aren’t exactly minor league punk widely regarded as one of the most important punk bands of our time and I know this band is a major one but all the same when Rancid hit it big time and were searching for a deal Madonna who owned the label Maverick (Deftones label) offered the band a huge sum of money and sent the band naked photos of herself as like an enticement towards Maverick but they rejected it for Epitaph owned / run buy Brett Guerritz of Bad Religion fame-story based on interview I read feat Lars & Tim Rancid)

What first inspired you too pick up instruments or in your case the mic? Who were you influenced by and was it any particular band that sent you in the direction that you find yourself with today?
I was skateboarding which I started when I was ten years old and at that time I of course; I got in touch with people who listened to a certain type of music. My first contact with music was actually, well actually hardcore punk music, was through skateboarding.

There were these Thrasher (I think which is of course a skate mag) compilations at that time which were very famous which had all these Venice bands like Beowulf (?) and No Mercy and I was totally into Suicidal Tendencies and Black Flag and Youth Of Today ‘89’. I saw my first show and as I got more and more into it and at that time I got into straightedge also

You’re straight edge?
I was since last year I got into it in ‘89’ with Youth Of Today and all those bands coming out at that time and it just really became the main thing, but it was through skate boarding.

I was going to ask about the Straight Edge, are any of the other band Straight Edge?
No

What’s the Straight Edge scene like back home? Is there one at all?
There is a straightedge scene. I used to be really into it like I said ‘89’ and the problem I have really is that, for me, it lead to a point where I felt I had to just give it a break. I can’t speak for everybody of course, but I think for me it was like I felt I was not really looking at people in an equal way anymore.

There was all this feeling that there was a certain difference between that person and me and it really pissed me off because actually we are all the same it doesn’t make a difference. I was straightedge, I always had this thing in my mind and I’m not an intolerant person I’d really like to be friends with everybody. I have a lot of friends I have my best friend who’s straight edge and vegan also but I had this thing in the back of my mind that also other people defined me, through that you know?

I’ve been living in Hanover for so many years and if you live in a town or a place for fifteen years or something everyone knows you and everybody knows you are under that label. And I felt really pissed off and I felt like I really wanted to give it a break, be like anybody else you know. For me that was like such a release, because I really finally felt like everybody else and I don’t have too feel that thing, that difference, all the time. That is basically the reason why I left it and also because I have a problem with not feeling like part of a scene anymore. I think it really is the older you get the more complicated life gets and it’s like it’s as simple as possible and even less possible to have easy answers you know? And straightedge for me, really its a very good thing. But I was young and looking for something to hold onto but I felt that there are so many things and so many questions and I’m beginning to really enjoy myself. It’s complicated (to explain) and it’s not easy but that’s life and your not better if your straight edge

(Gosh darn that was the only reason that I became straightedge and the tired cliques oh and that gang mentality that I love! maybe I shall have to think my idea’s about beating people up for smoking lol-sorry that was my silly and sarcastic moment for the interview)

So all these things were building up and then one day I just felt like it wasn’t really necessary for me anymore and I don’t really want to redicule the whole thing. Although I didn’t like those straight edge kids who were saying shit and stuff like that. I was always annoyed about that and I would never say “oh fuck that” and I haven’t really finished with it it’s not like I have really put it aside and I have a new label at the moment it doesn’t really fit into my life. It wouldn’t be honest.

One of my good friends dropped the edge, I suppose people change and as longs as it suits them and they are happy.
What pissed me off more about that situation was nothing to do with him at all, cause I consider him a real close friend. Whenever I asked other friends how he was doing, I was generally enquiring into his well being and people saw it as me trying to have words or something based around me being straightedge. I hate misconceptions, assumptions and the people who start rumours, anyway the subject people changing their perspectives
People do change but we have to really believe each to their own and the older you get the more you realise if I look back at how many friends I’ve made and how many I have lost and how many changes have been I guess that it has always been me and me for myself and in the end there is nobody to judge you. Nobody to label you and there is nobody to say oh now he’s not straight edge and you have to leave that behind and I did feel this pressure very much.

Was it hard to make that change, were you worried about what people would say?
Yea, I was actually thinking about that. But it felt very good because there were people who I wasn’t sure about, who were not really interested in me and just interested in me for that fact that I was the straightedge person or the straightedge celebrity and for me it was good because It made me (did you find out who your true friends were?) yea.

Did you have any negative experiences because of it?
From some people I got bad vibe’s and some people look at me in a different way now and I know exactly what they are thinking. I mean they would never tell it too my face but I know exactly what they are saying

Being straightedge I cannot exactly say it doesn’t bother me, because a lot of the time I agree with reasoning from both sides of the camp from the perspective of someone who used to do drink/smoke and now what I am today. I’m not vegetarian or vegan I eat meat you don’t have to be either of those to be straight edge
Like I said it’s a very complicated thing, life is complicated there is no easy answer

(For the record I don’t eat red meat only white meat like chicken/turkey and occasionally I am partially to tuna, cod but as part of a healthy well balanced low fat diet – I’m into keeping fit and as any one knows those foods are actually good for you because of the source of protein-I’m preaching to the converted aren’t I note to self –shut up phil)

Sometimes you have to make mistakes and learn from something and for me it felt so right and I don’t regret that I feel and felt very much like I had to do this. It was the right way forward for me. It was just like I had to do it.

Any plans to conquer the US?
No plans no I mean of course everything interest in us is welcome but

Last questions then (It’s very late at night and with have to get some sleep lol) what sort of thing would you not leave home without? Is there anything you take with you either for good luck…?
I take the (I cannot pronounce or spell it I think its) barbelaketa with me that’s the Krishna

Are you Krishna then?
I used to be really into it I’m not so much now I just have this book and in take it everywhere with me just because in case something bad might happen and because I’m religious. I guess I’m a religious person and a spiritual person but ambivalent (?) sometimes I feel very strong about it and other times I’m very critical especially how much bad things religion has done to humanity

It’s often used as an excuse for wars? Because it’s a complete hypocritical statement to make by telling someone that there religion is wrong and that theirs is the correct one..
That’s one of the main problems with a religions because they all claim that they are the ones who have the ruler god and this is a problem I have, so I am spiritual but I like criticism I think its important to criticise and to debate.

Have you ever been too Lords? Its like the biggest religious commercial fiasco, I don’t know if you had a Christian upbringing but my family are, we went whilst holidaying in Biarritz (South France) and I’m not talking about just one shop selling portraits, posters, mugs and god knows (excuse the pun) what else to do with Christ etc I’m talking about the whole town a couple of hundred shops, kind of seemed like the Disney world style farce of the religious sector.
That’s not how religion should be it’s a personal thing that you feel not what you buy into
But you need a certain organisation at the same time. People basically worship the institution they don’t really think about the person what it was Jesus perhaps and all these things and all they see is then institution of the church as a whole. Its all wrong it’s so all wrong I mean there was also part where I’ve known the Krishna stuff since I was fifteen or sixteen I really got into it and a little bit the fact that I was so young I was (so need to have a maturity about you) yea it’s very heavy and a pure religion. Things like sexuality and all these things there is a very strict rules and I believe that I don’t think it’s wrong because every religion is just like you do what ever you want to do and this and that and it’s not a real religion if you look into something its has to be honest and hard.

I think spiritualism lets take Buddhism for example then it’s a totally different story completely organised

Straightedge isn’t hard if you’ve never drunk alcohol tried smoking or any other drugs but if your surrounded by it and have been a part of the culture that comes with all that and used to doing it and being around it then when you make that change I t can be a struggle however that is no way a comparison to religion

I’ll round it up anyway I hope the tour goes well and you have a good nights sleep!