When I first heard this band from Munich, Germany, I just couldnt believe how good their music was. A perfect mixture of metal and skatepunk melody blended in with good lyrics. They released new album for Bird Attack so it was time to talk with Bart a bit for my webzine.
Welcome to my webzine. „Vanishing values“ is out, what can you say about your new album, judging by the song „Not Afraid“ it is excellent.
Well, if you liked that song, you will probably like the whole thing. It’s a good mix of our metal influenced songs, typical fast skatepunk and our more poppier mid-tempo ones. Plus you will get some surprising things like some rock here, some reggae or funk there and some acoustic guitars as well. There is something for everyone!
You guys also recorded a video lately as far as I know. Whats up with that? Is it your second video? What is it going to be about?
The 1st version of the video was a story ersion, although the story in the vid is a bit different then the lyrics but sums it up pretty well. The 2nd version was just the performance we did to that video shot cause it was such a nice atmosphere that we wanted to have more of that in a vid. So we did 2. In total this is our 5th video, together with the 2nd version it’s even the 6th.
How did you start your cooperation and work with Bird Attack Records? Personally, I think it is an awesome label.
We started the cooperation and the contact in general in 2014 already. They shared our video to Retrogressive and we somehow got connected via Piotr from Melodic Punk Style. Then we spoke about us doing a new album and Bird Attack releasing it. The album was done almost in 2015. Finished in early 2016. but it took almost another year due to some happenings and issues that kinda delayed the release. Finally its out now and we are glad it goes well so far.
I love how your music kind of evolved and became better and better through the years, do you think that you evolved as a band and as musicians?
Sure, of course ! I mean that’s the purpose of every band, isn’t it ? We all want to grow as a band and expand our possibilities and songwriting. But no matter how far we evolve, we always want to keep our main style and spirit alive and to always make us still recognizable as Straightline. There are some bands who just completely change their music due to better sells or marketing structures and then just call it „we changed“ but that’s not our intention. We would never deny our roots just to sell more and will always only evolve due to logical steps if that makes sense. A complete change of our style will never happen, but it will sure still evolve and hopeful get better and better.
Any touring plans? As I understand you also have big plans on that. Trip to South America for the first time? Any funny stories from the tour you would like to share?
Oh yes, we already confirmed a lot of Festivals (Punk Rock Holiday, Jera On Air, Konrad etc. – and more to come) + did a lot of releaseshows in Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany and lately UK. There is a tour coming and eventually a 2nd but I am not allowed to speak about that yet 😉
For funny stories about our last Southamerican tour: There are none cause all I remember was : sleep, wake up, go to the venue, play, speak a bit with peeps, go to the hotel to sleep, and repeat process. It was a tight time schedule so not much time for impressions. But the own „Meet & Greet“ we did in Colombia was definitely a highlight and we all partied the whole night J Not funny, but we definitely had our laughs.
Where do you get lyrical inspiration from? What comes first, lyrics or the music riffs?
Oh, mostly life in general. Can’t tell what exactly. Sometimes just the news, general happenings in the world, sometimes personal issues or stuff you heard somewhere. I try to never make it personal and to make the lyrics sound like they are not about only about me as I want to write songs not diary entries. Thy lyrics should be objective so that everyone can find something they can relate to in them. No matter which part of the world. That’s why you mostly dont read any current names or happenings in them. I want them to be relevant in 10 Years as well. Can’t tell if I do good with that but that’s how I do them. And they come always as the last thing. First I have the riffs and a finished song – means melody, riffs, structure, tempo , breaks etc. Also incl. a whole vocal melody with just some random words and no sense at all. Haha. Once the song is finished and practiced and will stay in the set, I get on the lyrics.
You play Punk Rock Holiday festival this year. Have you already played there? Have you been there as fans? What does this festival mean to you?
Short thing – PRH is the greatest festival I know so far ! The atmosphere is outstanding and the people so nice. It’s clean and relaxed – the total opposite of regular fests. And the only fest where you dont want to go home in the end.
And yes, we already played there in 2015 , where we headlined the Beach Stage and also been there as visitors in 2014 already. Really looking forward to be there again and see all peeps there. It’s like a really big family meeting to me. No joke.
How is life in Germany in general? Is there many right wing bullshit coming out these days because of refugee crisis and all that? Many people here in Croatia think of Germany as promised land. Is it really a dream land?
Define a dream land please! Depending on what you search for I guess. Haha. But I think it’s ok here with right winged bullshit compared to some other countries currently. This don’t mean we dont have that shit – we do, just like any other country ! But when I compare this for example to Poland, where I originally come from, it’s way less right winged here and also more tolerant. The Punk Scenes of course are always tolerant and open minded in every country we go – so this thing always stays the same and is cool everywhere, but comparing the general people of a country I think Germany is ok. There is not that much fascism, homophobia or religious bullshit going on here as in some other countries these days. Still it is, and we of course do something about it, but it could be worse. For the refugess crisis – yes, of course we let the people in and helped. They were fleeing from bombs, lost their houses & just asked for some help and shelter. Just a natural thing to help here if you ask me. Now if everyone else in Europe would help there as well (which should be normal in something called „European Union“ instead of closing borders and saying „we just take but don’t give anything back“, that would be something. Again a small hint to my homeland Poland here 😉 Bottom line : It could be worse in Germany. Better for sure as well, but we are working on that ! Is this is a dreamland then? I don’t know. But we definitely have a lot of people from Croatia here in Munich for example and we all live together pretty well. So this in fact is something that some people dream about – living together in peace.
How about the hardcore punk scene in your hometown? Are there many venues for gigs, many bands, zines, labels etc…?
It’s hard to explain a hardcore punk scene in a town where the majority of the citizens is rich and well situated. So even when you are a punk here, you are probably doing well. That’s why you have a lot of come and go’s here (you know the „It was just a phase“ thing) and also mostly we have these big tours with sellable, commercial stuff, which has not much to do with the meaning of HC at all if you ask me. On the other hand you got some really small shows going on as well but they are mostly not visited very well. That’s why I stopped doing shows for example. The very small shows also got something very militant sometimes, making it very unpleasant for people who were not into the scene (or not xxx and vegan for example), so that they never came back to a 2nd show. It kinda kills itself here I think. There is a core of people (30, 40) who stay but the rest comes and goes. Not real big or consequent if you ask me. It’s hard to tell if thats a global problem or just here. The big shows are always full due to people from outside of Munich coming to them as well. But the small ones remain being empty and make a band eventually not coming back. We have 2,3 bigger venues for that and 2,3 smaller clubs or even cafe’s/bars. So that’s ok. Skatepunk and the kind of music we like and play in general is not really popular here, so we mostly don’t play in our hometown. We have something existing here, don’t get me wrong, but it’s somehow not what I would expect from a scene. For example a place like Metelkova in Ljubljana or Medika in Zagreb could never exist in Munich.
How did you come in contact with the underground scene? Do you remember the first hardcore punk gig you attended?
Oh I got in contact with music very early anyway and also with heavy music. With 9 to be exact. When I started to listen to thrash and death metal back then and got into punk and hardcore later in 94/95. I don’t exactly remember my fist gig but I remember the first that did impression on me was a tour in 94 of Biohazard, Dog Eat Dog, Downset and Dub War. The club was totally full, I was very young and never saw pits and stagedives like this before so I got infected. I saw Suicidal, Sick of it all, Spudmonsters etc. pretty soon after that one as well and was searching for this kinda energy and kept going on these shows + the metal ones. The moment skatepunk went really important to me was in 97/98 I think, when I also started to get on these shows and watch all the fast punk & hardcore bands. It’s great these bands are back as the vibes on these gigs are mostly something really special and i really love these scene and how every band supports each other!
Is hardcore dead? Has it lost its essence through the decades?
To me yes. The spirit I miss in hardcore these days is that „Fuck it, let’s just do this“ thinking. Sure, it’s a different time and all was already there, Bands want to make a bit of profit out of it and also it’s kinda stagnating. But it became a brand, a sellable music genre, with typical clothing, calculated speeches, clothing lines, HD videos, choreographed dancemoves etc.
That’s not hardcore to me. Some of these peeps are so full of themselves and so much into posing without having anything to say. I usually went into that scene cause I wanted to escape from them and avoid these people. Now they are here, representing everything that hardcore stood against actually. Not my cup of tea. I will not mention names here but you may know which kinda bands I speak about. FinanciallyhHardcore is not dead – it sells very well ! But musicwise or spiritwise in that case it is pretty dead to me. I miss this unpredictable thing in the music and to hear that the people doing it dont care about how you think about it. (Hardcore was wild, full of energy and dind’t sound necessarily good. And it stood for something. Not saying there are no bands like this left. I always find some small ones still doing this thing with the right attitude but they somehow disband pretty soon. Which is a pity as there is a need for more of them. From all scenes i know, HC evolved pretty shitty. Only hip hop did even worse. And both stagnated somehow and it become about fake stuff and show instead of important content or a real attitude. And I say this as a lover of both.)
I therefore stuck with the skatepunk scene long ago and like it here way more anyway. Less teachable and also less ignorant or selfish. Everyone is welcome here without any prejudice in the first place if you dont fit in the picture. Everyone supports everyone and is happy for other bands to make it. Most bands are really really good musicians and also I dont think there is danger that it will sell out soon as this music is mostly just for a very small amount of people who dig this.
That would be all for the first time. For the end, typical fanzine boring question. Name five music albums that had an impact on your life.
Oh that’s a tough one. I got over 3000 Records here and a lot did an impact on my life somehow. But i try without a genre boundary:
- Suicidal Tendencies / The first record especially but somehow everything till Freedumb – i just love this band.
- Bad Brains / Rock For Light. Quickness is also very important to me but R.f.L. is still one of the most intense and original hardcore punk records.
- Public Enemy / Muse-Sick-N-Hour-Mess-Age. One of my very first rap albums and still one of the best. The kinda live vibe you have on this one is really great, all songs go together and its like a big demonstration you are just joining. I have more motivation to go out on the streets after listening to this album than i got from 90 % of all hardcore, punk or metal albums. Too bad this record somehow was very underrated and didn’t got the attention it deserves.
- Metallica / Master of Puppets. My very first metal record and the first that went into the direction I followed in general. What can i say ? I was 9, this was the heaviest thing to me at that moment and we all kinda started with them, didnt we ? It’s still a great album, no matter what the band do and represent today.
- Napalm Death / From Enslavement to Obliteration. Maybe still the most aggressive and pissed off record i know. I love all their records but this one is the first i ever heard back then. Its like a soundtrack to the world downfall.
And before you think I don’t listen to skatepunk at all, here are also 5 skatepunk albums that influenced me and my sound in general 😉
- Strung Out – Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues
- Propagandhi – How to clean Everything
- Satanic Surfers – Hero Of Our Time
- Good Riddance – Ballads from The Revolution
- Strike Anywhere – Change is a Sound
That’s it so far. Thanks for your support !
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 