Being in hXc quite a long time (I guess it began in 1986) we started playing as a band in early 1992. Bored of consuming the music we decided to do our own style, play what we like to hear. In the beginning we had a second guitar player but he had to leave the band because of his strange attitude, but that's another story. The current line-up is Dennis (voc), Jorg (drums), Rainer (guiitar) and me (bass).

In 1992 we decided to record some tracks at Andy Classen's STAGE 1 STUDIOS. Chris from RYKER'S played these tracks to LOST&FOUND and they wanted to release them immediately. And so "Face the truth" was born. We did a split 7" with UNBROKEN, and appeared on three L&F compilations (HOLD YOUR GROUND, GOLDEN SHOWER OF 72 HITS, EUROPEAN HARDCORE - THE WAY IT IS). Meanwhile we played some shows with BAD TRIP, RORSCHACH, RYKER'S, YUPPICIDE and many more. In 1995 we did a tour supporting PITBULL. After that we went to STAGE ONE again to record our first full-length album "Punchline".

It didn't happen a lot since then because Jorg lives in Berlin now and Dennis in Cologne, so there isn't much time to do something new. We played a few shows around Europe with RYKER'S and RIGHT DIRECTION.

As I said before Chris (RYKER'S) played our tape to L&F and we signed there. We're very pleased with this deal. They really do a lot for us. Many people in Germany say that L&F sell out that whole hXc thing releasing all this old stuff on CD. But I must say it's the only company here that gives to new bands a chance instead of pushing up those US bands like other companies do. I think there are a lot of very good bands here in Europe who a re worthy that someone releases their stuff and I think that L&F are doing a good job on this.

Well the best thing playing in BRIGHTSIDE is that you can go to Andy Classen and record a CD. He's a great guy and a good friend of us and he's doing the best sound I've ever heard. The recordings for "Punchline" lasted for nearly 10 days. The first day we arranged the drums, the second we recorded drums and bass, 3th and 4th the guitars, 5th we did the bass tracks again with a better sound, 6th-8th day we did the vocals and backings, 9th and 10th day we did the mix-up. We recorded 12 hours a day and had a lot of fun thre, so I look forward to go there again soon.

At first we will record a new CD in August. It will be a cover of Henry Rollins' first band SOA and we record the whole 10 songs of their 7". Well, let's see how it sounds nowadays. After that we're gonna come over Europe (not touring but many gigs).

First of all Kid D didn't sing the backings on any of our recordings. Many people thought that and maybe they still do), because on "Face the truth" and "Punchline"'s booklet it is written that Sergeant D did the backings, but Sergeant D is Dennis and not Kid D. back to your question: BRIGHTSIDE was really founded a few months earlier that RYKER'S, but they worked really hard and so they achieved publicity earlier thatn we did and now we're the little brothers of RYKER'S and this can suck a lot!

They worked really hard to get there where they are now and I hope they can stand the high expectations. We wish them good luck!

Yes it is! On Octobre 6th and 7th we're gonna play one show in Amsterdam and one in Paris, but I don't know exactly which location on which day (ed: that's Paris the 5th and Amsterdam the 6th).. So I hope to see you and many of your parisian readers there!

Our main influences are the sounds of 88 New York Old School HxC. We try to combine these sounds with our ideas and we put it together with that what we most like at the moment, and so the sounds are different from time to time as you can hear it on "Punchline". Some songs are very old school ("Crossfire", "Bone of contention", "No retreat",..." some have metal influences ("New breed", "Cognition",...) and some are new school influenced ("Forgotten fears") but they all depend on that '88 NYHC scheme

I'm writing the songs at home and when I like it, I play it to the guys and then we decide if we're going to play it or if we change something including new ideas, or if we just leave it. Then Dennis (sometimes I) writes the vocals to that song so that they're fitting exactly and then we play that whole song and figure the backing vocals out. That's it.

No. None of us is straight-edge or something like tht. We wrote that song because here in Germany there are a lot of people who think that we're just cloned from RYKER'S or SICK OF IT ALL by L&F just to make money. And there are lots of people who condemn bands if they're not sXe. And "True lies" goes out to all those ignorant assholes who hide themselves behind a sXe or politically correct attitude by spreading rumours about people they don't even know. You cannot judge someone because of what's he's eating or what he's drinking. A lot of sXe kids come to our shows and have a good time, they know the lyrics and they sing along, so why can't everybody show such a behaviour? Why are there people who think they're something special? Those people should better stay off the hXc scene. hXc is one big family, it's unity, no matter if you are sXe or whatever as long as you tolerate and accept the other people who do the same to you. Otherwise those backstabbing attitudes will split up the scene.

Our lyrics often deal with personal problems and experiences we have made. The lyrics are mostly written in a sarcastic but funny way. So our intention isn't clear to see in some of them. You have to read between the lines. For example "Rest in peace" on "The face truth" album deals with those people thinking they have to destroy and beat up everything and everyone they don't like or doesn't fit to their schemes. And we wrote the refrain in the way one of those people would write it. And so some weird guys in Germany doing a so called fanzine named "Out of step" wrote a review that said we're fascists because of these lyrics. So the thing is that you need more than only translate the lyrics into your language...

As I said before there should exist one big hXc scene for one reason: unity! We all listen to the same kind of music, there's no need to split up in several groups. We're all the same and if someone thinks he's better than anyone in this scene he should just piss off!

Many girls come to hXc shows and the thing is that most of them just come as "the girlfriend of" whoever. I mean those girls are individuals with individual names. Many people in the scene accept those girls but they don't involve them into it. This is something we all should change.

For myself I have to say I'm a bif computer freak and I think that the net is a new kind of media we all should accept. There are no frontiers and you can communicate with whoever you want and that's great!

So, I hope to see you and many of you readers at our shows to have a good time... KEEP THE SPIRIT ALIVE!

"Punchline" Format : cd Date : 1995-10-08 Label : Lost And Found records