We already played four times in Holland, the last time was together with TOY DOLLS (GBR) (it was the second time we played with them). We also played once in Switzerland, in Bazel, and it was the best gig abroad we ever had. In Holland, the audience acts rather cool, not because they don't like the band, but it seems to be a custom there. In Bazel the audience went berserk, and as you have pretty girls (and green grass) and good beer in big quantities, we really would like to play again in Switzerland. Actually it doesn't really matter in which country we play (as it's always interesting to visit another country, and to meet the people who write us regularly), as long as we have fun, and the audience too of course. In the past we have had some offers for gigs in other countries e.g. Spain, Yugoslavia, Poland, France, ..., but we haven't been able to do them because it wasn't convenient for us or because the organisers didn't keep their word.

Honestly said, we've never been thinking of stopping the band because some people ripped us off, that would really be stupid, but where from do we take the power: out of our common love for music in general, but most of all out of the everlasting friendship between the members of the band, and also the friendship between us and our entourage, we're one big family and that keeps us rockin'. We also believe very strong in this thing we're doing, it's not just a hobby, it's more than that, it's a lifestyle, and one doesn't change from lifestyle like he changes from underwear.

No, up till now we haven't been able to reach him, and we never have tried it actually. Our king doesn't really interest us because he isn't really involved, he shows up once a year to give an annual speech on TV and that's about everything we hear about him. In fact, his power is rather symbolic, and we don't believe he's a bad man. Therefore we really wouldn't know what to say more then "hello" if we ever would have the "honour" to meet him ...

Yes, but let us explain first the situation a bit: in the northern part of Belgium, Flanders (where we live), one speaks Dutch, in the southern part, Wallonia, the language is French. The problems mostly appear on the borderline of these two parts where French speaking and Dutch speaking people live together. According to the Flemish people they don't have enough facilities, they say the Walloon people are privileged, and the Walloon people think the same about the Dutch speaking part. Every now and then things are getting out of hand and both groups (or the extreme ones of them) are fighting a little war then, mostly on Sunday, although that happened more often in the past than it happens nowadays. Two or three years ago our government came into serious problems because they couldn't handle the problem anymore. The mayor (French speaking) of a certain village was elected legally, but according to the law, he had to proove he could speak both languages, so he had to do an examination to proove he could read and write Dutch but he refused it (as he was sure to fail). So the national government fired him, but the mayor got elected again and refused again to do the examination, so the government fired him again. This scenario was repeated about ten times and in the end the government sent its resignation to the king. This language problem has to be explained historically. In the past, the Flemish "bourgeois" spoke French, and also the Flemish universities were French-spoken, as well as a lot of public authorities. That is really not so long ago, and the Flemish people had to fight for their rights. They now have their linguistic rights, but still a lot of people think the linguistic struggle isn't over, and on the other hand still a lot of French-speaking people see Flandres as a region where they have to be understood in French. That makes that a lot of Flemish people speak the two languages, but the Walloon people only their own.

How about the three languages in Switzerland ?

Yes, whe think there's a rather good communication between some bands in Belgium. Speaking for ourselves, we always have cooperated with bands in general (exchange of amplifiers on gigs, giving information based on our experience (records, gigs, ...), searching gigs for other bands, ...). In the past, we played almost always together with (amongst others) NO NUMBERS, SPONKY BUSINESS, before they splitted up, and more recently with VORTEX, with whom we made now a T-shirt together. But we must say that, due to the high number of bands, and the metalinvasion, as we call it, the communication nowadays is worser than it was in the past. As we were not that much people in the past, we were closer, we felt all part of a big thing, together we would change the world, we were in it together as they say. People from all over Belgium came to gigs, no matter where they were, everybody knew each other, now there are more local scenes, and there's created a distance between the younger audience and the veterans (who generally don't like the (new) music anymore).

We would like to say "fuck off" to these people. No, that's a joke. We're not intolerant, although it can't be denied that such people are making the scene sick, gossip doesn't belong in our scene. It's disturbing that some of those people are having a rather important position e.g. in a radiostation, and that they can press on their personal opinion, which is defined by all sorts of subjective choices, to the audience. There aren't many punkprograms, so it isn't necessary to select, you have to be objective. The same counts for people who organise gigs or distribute records, some bands are simply ignored for a false or hazy reason. But it is justified to refuse bands who are intolerant themselves. Then, concerning the primitive lyrix, it's simply sufficiant to read them because all our records are supplied with a lyric sheet, we have nothing to hide. Our lyrix talk about serious matters as well about light (primitive ?) subjects, although the last ones have the upper hand on the last album called THE BOOZE AND THE CHICKS, the lightness you can deduce a bit out of the title. Anyway, during our career, eight years now, we have shown where we are standing for, we have written quiet some so called serious lyrix (and we still do, but in a lesser degree), but it's a fact that the people who read them are already convinced of the fact that this world is rotten, and that there are a lot of things that can be changed. Those people for whom the lyrix are meant aren't reached because they don't like the music, it doesn't interest them because they don't agree with punx. Our lyrix are also written in almost faultless English, so it would also be unfair to call them primitive with regard to the grammar. The people you write about have thus no reason at all to say that our lyrix are primitive. They are free of course to come to a gig or to stay away, but if you're responsable for a radioprogram, you have to be objective, we think. And for the sake of clearness: the album THE BOOZE AND THE CHICKS wasn't released yet when we played in Switzerland. So, maybe let's forget those people and devote us to more interesting subjects. Jealousy is a well known phenomenon and a real independent band that's active for longer than an average punk/hardcore-band is enviable indeed, thank you. Next question please.

Yes, and how ! It sometimes happens that there's not much reaction of course, but that happens to every band once in a while. The good reaction prooves there's still a need for ol'time punkrock. We ain't going to change our music because of the audience. Why we still play punkrock ? That's a question we never posed ourselves, but it's the music we can play the best, we love the most, we're good in, and maybe the most important is that it simply are punkrocksongs that come out of our instruments, and we can't tell our instruments to play something else ... Our common love for punkrock doesn't mean we ignore other kinds of music, if we like a song or a band we listen to it. It's not because a certain kind of music doesn't fit in your world, you have to ignore it, that's narrowminded.

We used to discuss a lot about politix, anarchism, communism, fascism, ..., but that's diminished somehow. We wrote lyrix about/against the army, policepower abuse, our government, nuclear weapons, the destruction of the environment, and we had a fanzine (THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY) in which we wrote amongst others political articles. As these subjects disappeared a bit of our discussions, they are also expressed in a lesser degree in our music now, although we still have our opinion about these subjects. We believe it's necessary for everyone to follow what's going on in the world on politix, and then especially to read alternative things than the daily newspapers. Innocence is no more an excuse. If you follow what's going on, it gives you the opportunity to detect the real truth behind the facade of certain politicians, governments, organizations, ... Therefore, we believe the title of our deceased fanzine is still very actual.

It's not that quiet as you expect. We have corrupt politicians who are involved in criminal affaires (drugs, sex with children, fraud, murder, ...), some are connected with extreme right organisations who planned a coup d'état, we have fascist terrorists who have done raids on supermarkets (about thirty people killed up till now), and as if all that isn't bad enough, our pigs are having the plague now (ten thousands of pigs who had to be killed) !

He's the prime minister of Belgium and he's a nightmare for the working class, he privileged the rich by taking all kinds of unpopular measures, he has lengthen the army service, he placed nuclear missiles (they are gone now) before the parliament had decided about it, ..., he's in fact the personification of everything that goes wrong in Belgium.

Several people have problems with the lyrix of this song, what makes suppose that prostitution is something taboo in the punkscene. Nevertheless it's not a difficult text, there's no hidden meaning in it or so, it's just a simple story. Noone of us had yet an experience with a prostitute, but we think however it's a credible scenario ! Some are shocked by the direct lyrix of the song (and by the way we dare, even in this subject, put some fun in it), but we thought that shocking was one of the basic principles of punk. Prostitution exists, and it's a pity that someting of such a value like sex sometimes has to be obtained on such an impersonal way, although for some people there's no other choice to have some sex, and for other people there's no other choice to earn their life but like that. So far for the lyrix. The song as a whole sounds maybe rather poppy, something we all like very much. We're glad it's your favourite song, it's one of our best (or it was one of our best at that time) and that's the reason why we put it on a single. The coincidence of the innocent sweet voice of the girl and the rather dirty (!) words she sings, has someting very sexy. Also the coincidence of PIK's voice and the girl's is something special, as well as the innocence of a popsong and the lyrix who aren't innocent at all. And as this isn't enough: because the measure in which the song is written is every time interrupted, the song received that special hook.

It's an improvement that east and west have a relaxed relationship now, and that the communist system as we know it declines, the people there have more freedom or at least that's the intention of that revolution. If they are ready for it is another question. You can't change an authoritarian system into a democracy in a few months, such an evolution takes years. We will have to wait a few years and then we will see the consequences.

That's hard to tell, so many bands are splitting up, so many people are disillusioned, maybe we're going back again to a smaller scene ? For what concerns us, we're going on and we'll see what the scene brings along. We don't think the punkscene (international) can change the world, but you can try to improve your own world, starting with yourself, and that's already hard enough sometimes.