You recently put out your "Umet se Prodat" (Market Yourself) LP/Tape which totally blew me away. It's, in my opinion, without a doubt your best work to date. What are your thoughts, and how's the reactions been so far?
Thanx, I am glad to hear you like this record! Almost all reactions have been very positive so far (Fuck, the best one was in MRR - when somebody wrote there that my guitar sounds like guitar of SODOM - thanx a lot man!), I think we are really surprised and happy about it. We are also pretty satisfied with the record, but I think that our newest stuff (3 songs on split 7" w/MASS GENOCIDE PROCESS) is little better especially sound-wise. There were 1.000 copies of LP and 500 copies of tape pressed, as far as I know the tapes are already sold out and the record will be sold out soon with no plans for repressing it (both labels who co-released it - Insane Society and Ultima Ration have lots of other plans and limited funds), so hurry up if you want to get your copy. It will be released on CD (along with some bonuses - incl. split 7" w/M.G.P. and cover songs of RADEGAST and KRITICKA SITUACE) on Japanese label Too Circle Records in May and hopefully also on Usina De Sangue in Brazil - label of Fabio from SICK TERROR. So there will be Japanese and Brazilian edition available. There was some talk about re-releasing it on CD - digipack in Europe as well (on Insane Society as well?) but nothing is sure yet.

Could you tell us a bit about the meaning behind the title of the record?
And, in the song "Snad Zítra" (Maybe Tomorrow) you sing about people ignoring their ideals, or perhaps leaving them behind, to be able to fit in "normal" society. Have I understood it correctly, and also, is this a big problem where you live?
The title of the record "Umet se prodat" means "Market Your Self" and it is name of one of the songs and basically one of main issues of our lyrics - it deals with conformity, with hopeless attempts to "fit in" into your surrounding environment, struggling to be finally happy when you conform and become a part of the mass. Usually it doesn't work like this, does it? The song "Snad Zitra" ("Maybe Tomorow") is very similar - it's about people changing their life styles and opinions so often, again to be finally part of something better, more fashionable... again - people looking for long-term hapiness and success in becoming part of mass are doomed. We have seen so many of our friends leaving their former ideals and life styles and turning into complete morons and conformist pieces of shit and it really sucks. But I think its the same everywhere - punk is "designed" by big labels and fashion makers as a youth rebellion, which ends up in your early 20s or even sooner, so it is sadly nothing unusual. I think that most of our lyrics deal with struggle of individual vs. lifeless mass pressing you to conform and these 2 songs are exactly about this issue.

Who is that writes the music and the lyrics in the band? Do you all contribute to everything or does some have a natural talent for one over the other?
I write 99% of music and lyrics. I am really not sure if I do have some natural talent for this, well, I used to write also almost all music/lyrics in my old band MRTVA BUDOUCNOST, so maybe I already got used to it and don't expect somebody else to do it... it seems like it works so far somehow. Obviously we discuss every chord and every text, so I think that both music and lyrics do reflect opinions of all band members.

You seem to have been on at least one tour/year since the start in 1999. Do you like being on the road and where has the best shows been?
Any funny tour stories you wanna share?
Yes, we like touring a lot. I won't probably write anything ground-breaking when I mention that it is totally great to meet like-minded people in foreign places, to check out new spaces, new bands and last, but not least to leave your average life for some time and escape to bizarre world of punk touring! Honestly, some of the best shows we ever had were mostly here in Czech, I think that people over here are still not so much spoiled and especially in some smaller towns around here we had some great and pretty crazy gigs. But one of the top ones was few months ago in our hometown when we organized 2nd annual Killed By Brno fest and celebrated 5 years of our existence there - we started the gig with some crazy speech taken from historical film about inquisition processes with witches in Middle-ages, then we came on stage dressed as monks (we borrowed the costumes from Moravian National Theatre!) and singer was waving big cross. The reaction of audience was almost fanatical and when we started our set with VENOMs "Countess Bathory" cover the whole place went completely wild. But recently we had more good gigs like this one all around Czech, which is really cool. Seems like our gigs are each time more wild and more out of hand.
But you have asked about foreign gigs - some of the best were in Budapest/Hungary in 2001 with MINDLOCK, Dijon, Montbrison, Bordeaux - basically all 3 French gigs of our Euro tour in 2003 with GRIDE, also San Sebastian/Basque country from the same tour. Last European tour with HOMO CONSUMENS had also lots of great gigs - Regensburg/Germany, Liege/Belgium and almost all gigs in UK, especially Edinburgh and Bristol... In March 2006 we are supposed to tour Japan, it will be organized by Shingo/Too Circle Records, I am really excited about it as we will be first Czech punk band ever to tour there. Also I visited Japan last year and saw lots of ass-kicking gigs (GAUZE!) there and bought tons of records, their scene (and whole country) is completely different from anything I saw so far. I can't remember any crazy tour stories now, we had our fair share of broken cars and excessive drinking madness, but it's nothing so special.

You also have a tour planned for later this year together with Homoconsumens on which you will play a lot of gigs in the UK. I always read and hear about many bands skipping the UK islands when going on European tours, what made you decide on doing 9 out of the 13 dates there?
I have heard much worse tour stories about Sweden, haha! From what I know about UK scene it was kind of dead during 90s, but for last 2-3 years it has changed so much to better. For us it is easier to tour there because our good friend Zina lives in Edinburgh and as she is originally from Czech, she started to organize tours for Czech bands and from what I know all of them were excellent. Before us bands like ZEMEZLUC, DREAD 101, EXEKUCE and RED INSECT toured UK and we decided to give it a try as well - in Septemper 2004 together with HOMO CONSUMENS. We had a total blast - people seemed to appreciate a lot that bands from Eastern Europe care to tour so far away places (we played some gigs in Scotland as well) and they seemed to be really into our music. It was great to play in place like Bristol with people in the attendance even 10 years older than us (and we are not young anymore) going wild! We met people from bands like ICONS OF FILTH, HELLBASTARD, EXCREMENT OF WAR, CHAOS UK etc. there, which was pretty cool! We played 6 gigs in UK total and all of them were pretty good. It was big contrast to play in Belgium or Netherlands for almost nobody on our way back home. This year we are touring UK again - again in September and again with HOMO CONSUMENS, I can't fucking wait! Dates look so far like this some of the UK ones are already confirmed:

16/9 Regensburg (ger)
17/9 Luxembourg
18/9 Southampton or Brighton (uk)
19/9 Birmingham or Stoke on Trent (uk)
20/9 Manchester or Liverpool (uk)
21/9 Leeds (uk)
22/9 Glasgow (uk)
23/9 Edinburgh (uk)
24/9 Boston (uk)
25/9 Bristol (uk)
26/9 London (uk)
27/9 Liege (bel)
28/9 Manheim (ger)

Make sure to check out www.seeyouinhell.cz for updates/more info.
I would like to tour more, countries like Norway or Finnland would be really great to visit, but 3 of us have already children and we have all regular jobs, which makes touring a little difficult.

There seem to be a lot of touring bands from abroad coming through your country. Is there a bigger turnout at those gigs or are there just as many people coming when there's a gig with domestic bands playing?
You are right. We are in the middle of Europe and prices here are still considered to be a little cheaper than in the rest of EU and also our scene is considered to be a little more enthusiastic, so even the most shitty foreign bands who have never played a lot in their own country try to come here. Also lots of totally unknown American bands come here. I really don't get it: is it so difficult philosophical concept, that you should AT FIRST release some records, THEN have them distributed as much as possible all around the world and THEN think about touring abroad? Really, why you don't get it? Ofcourse that the turnout at gigs over here is decreasing all the time, when in some cities there are few gigs every week and most of them are really not worth attending. Even these bands who claim that they are coming here just to have fun and nice vacation and don't care about the money are ruining it for everybody since the organizer has to rent the place and sound so there are always some expenses to be paid. Today it seems that domestic bands sometimes can not play at all their own gigs - only as a support of some foreign ones (who are sometimes pretty awful).
We have gig collective here in Brno (one of 5-6 gig collectives just in this one city!) called "United Crusties", we operate since mid 2003 and we did some ass-kicking gigs for foreign bands like SICK TERROR, BORN DEAD ICONS, CONFUSIONE, TRAGEDY, VIIMEINNEN KOLONA, FROM ASHES RISE, MIGRA VIOLENTA, MUNICIPAL WASTE, D.F.A., LIFE SENTENCE, RUIDOSA INMUNDICIA, 9 SHOCKS TERROR, DEATH TOKEN, BURIAL etc. (+ few dozens of Czech and Slovak bands) and even when we do really good bands it is hard to get enough people at shows - usually there are 50-120 people, which is sometimes not enough. Still we get requests for gigs from foreign bands almost every other day and we have to refuse like 90% of them (we just want to make only bands which fit our narrow musical taste - only raw punk/crust/extreme HC - absolutely no pop punk, metal, emo etc. - there are other gig collectives for these styles).

For me it seems as if there has been a huge boom in the Czech hardcore punk scene in recent years. Would you agree or am I simply catching on late?
Well, there were always pretty good hardcore/punk bands in Czech, even in 80s some totally unknown obscure bands, which kicked some serious ass! Maybe that finally after milking out the Scandinavian, Japanese and American hardcore dry there is time to discover some unknown, non-trendy and non-fashionable corners of the world?! So yes, I am sure you are catching on too late, but thanx atleast for showing some interest, it's highly appreciated.

When describing the Czech scene, what do you think is the most important thing to include do you think? What do you think people do not know, or, what do you think people have a pre-assumptive opinion about that's not true.
You should understand that since cca mid 90's there is nothing so special about Czech hardcore/punk scene and now with Czech Republic entering the European Union I think we became fully "westernized" in all parts of life including hardcore/punk music. You can find "a mirror band" for every trendy US band here - it is especially awful with pop punk trend with major labels now releasing Czech verisons of GREEN DAY or OFFSPRING, but there are bands playing Scandinavian crust, bands playing 88 youth crew HC, bands playing raw punk in the vein of old Finnish or Italian bands... But I think there are still some remains of originality/obscurity left - one good thing is that most of good Czech bands still sing in Czech language, which gives their music pretty original taste. I would also say that there are still few bands left playing some original brand of punk/hardcore influenced more or less directly by 80s Czechoslovakian punk (especially by mythical band F.P.B. from early 80s). I am talking about bands coming from area of Vsetin/Roznov pod Radhostem towns, where you can find also the best gig place in Czech - Vrah Club, the oldest active Czech hardcore label Malarie Records and great bands like COMPLICITE CANDIDE, INNOXIA CORPORA, AD CALENDAS GRAECAS... in the past there used to play bands like TELEFON, V.V.B., KULTRA, STASTNI A VESELI, PSI... most of them have vinyls available and you should really try to check them out. They usually play(ed) hard-driving punk influenced as I said by old Czechoslovakian punk, but by old Polish punk as well (DEZERTER, REJESTRACJA etc.) and with some other influences and great lyrics.
You have asked about some pre-assumptive opionions, which people may have about Czech scene... well, it is really difficult to say. Maybe they always think that records by bands coming from ex-East Europe have shitty sound (well, I can only say check out records by INNOXIA CORPORA or MALIGNANT TUMOUR or even, fuck... SEE YOU IN HELL - sorry for shameless self-promotion...), that they are always bad copies of some foreign "hip" bands (check out records by COMPLICITE CANDIDE, INNOXIA CORPORA again, AD CALENDAS GRAECAS...), but most of the time I think they don't have any opinion at all as they simply ignore anything coming from this part of the world. Assholes...

See You In Hell appeared on the "Dying Alive, Living Dead" compilation LP, and I think you, Filip, also are involved in one of the labels releasing it. This is one fucking awesome compilation. Great music, and an important documentation. Could you please tell us a little more about the story behind this LP? How did it come together, and did it take long to do?
Yes, I put the whole thing together. In summer 2002 I was thinking about doing a compilation like this - I thought about great compilations documenting local/national scenes like "Ljubljana Hardcore", "Yalta Hi-Life", "This Is Boston, Not L.A.", "Jak Punk To Punk", "Fala" or "El Sub" and that something like this is missing over here. I asked some of my current fave Czech bands playing raw punk, crust, extreme HC etc. and all of them were into this idea as well as most of Czech labels I contacted. In summer 2003 this record was released in 1.000 copies, so it took only one year to release it. Also it includes a thick 60 pages booklet with detailed history of Czech hardcore/punk scene since late 70s till 2003 written in English. I am really satisfied with the final result, maybe now I would change 2 or 3 bands for some better ones, but still most of the participating bands sound great as they donated some killer unreleased stuff. My faves are DREAD 101, MASS GENOCIDE PROCESS, HOMO CONSUMENS, SICHERHATE SYSTEM and INNOXIA CORPORA. If you like crust/raw punk, then I think you will like this record. Also I think it is a great opportunity to check out some unknown bands. As far as I know the record is almost sold out, but you can probably still get it from Profane Existence distro and also it will be re-pressed on professional tapes and it will include the same booklet. Insane Society Records will do it hopefully later this year.

There are a lot of interest shown towards American, Scandinavian and Japanese hardcore today, and it always has. But in my opinion people who only look at those places are missing out on so much. The Eastern European scenes are exploding with energy right now and there are great bands around every corner. Why do you think it's so hard for, some, people to search beyond the "usual" boundaries?
What are some Czech bands and labels that you would recommend us to check out?
Well, I will be 30 years old this summer and older I am, the more jaded and frustrated with some aspects of hardcore/punk scene I am becoming. It really sucks and it is pretty sad to realize that this so called "subculture" or even "contra-culture" is often just imitating the practises of big bussines just in smaller scale. For me one of the best aspects of hardcore/punk was always finding out some obscure band from another part of the world, communicating with people from foreign countries, trading tapes/records etc. It is just not the same like to go to record shop and buy all these new trendy records there. After all these years I came to sad realizations that majority of people in this so called hardcore/punk thing just imitates any new fashions and waves which get started by US labels/zines/bands just to change it completely within few years and jump on another bandwagon. It seems that for foreign (read "non-US") HC scene to get more popular it needs to be at first "approved" and promoted by people from USA. Take for example Japanese hardcore/punk - I remember times when band like DISCLOSE was seen just like cool oddity - a band from Japan ripping off all aspects of DISCHARGE with original noisy guitar sound - interesting, but nothing so ground-breaking. Now, after Americans "discovered" them and started to re-release their records (in small quantities again - to make them instant E-bay classics) and started to write lyrics for them, everybody is going nuts. Fuck, I like DISCLOSE as well, but I liked them 10 or 12 years ago as well and I won't be more crazy about them just because they became now an instant discussion topic on PE message board! The same goes with "Burning Spirits" Japancore - how many people did cared about bands like DEATHSIDE before TRAGEDY members started to wear their T-shirts? The same goes with Swedish hardcore - bands like TOTALITÄR weren't so popular in early/mid 90's until US labels started to promote them hard and repressed their records. Certainly I like to see some of my fave bands getting more popular, but I feel it is just a fashion for many people and I fear that this trend too will soon disappear - like "power violence" or "bandana thrash" did few years ago. I think that the scenario is always the same - US label will pick up some bands, start to promote them really well (how many European or dare I even say East European labels can pay for advertising in every MRR or Heartattack?), the biggest magazines will put their photos on the cover (how many times have you seen non-US bands photos in Heartattack?), they do some extremely limited records to make them even more hype... My previous band MRTVA BUDOUCNOST also got much more popular when we did split LP on Six Weeks Records after 5 years of active playing and releasing records on Czech labels.
I think that if you are so lazy and don't try to discover more unknown bands from "non-trendy countries" then you are missing a lot. For long years I just foolishly ignored German punk ("Deutsch punk") wrongly assuming that it is just boring horrible background music for excessive beer-drinking. I was really surprised when I discovered great DISCHARGE-influenced bands like MALINHEADS, VORKRIEGSPHASE, THE NIKOTEENS, SCAPEGOATS or VORKRIEGSJUGEND from 80's, classical deutsch punk as fuck bands like SLIME (first 2 LPs rule!), RAZZIA, CHAOS Z... also East German punk from Communist times like LATTENTAT, NAMENLOS, SCHLEIMKEIM... and finally killer hardcore of INFERNO (first LP is like early D.R.I.!), NO ALLEGIANCE, SPERMBIRDS... this stuff is all from 80's and you can get most of it on vinyl as it is currently repressed by labels Hoehnie Records and Weird System. But there are some newer bands still playing this classical deutsch punk style - I really like the production of Attack Records label from Berlin, especially band called STROHSACKE who have 2 EPs out is fucking great! Speaking about some non-German stuff, I can not recommend the production of Tian An Men Records and Darbouka Records enough, both from France, specializing in totally obscure/exotic punk scenes and releasing mostly EPs. While Darbouka seems to be inactive during last few years, TAM 89 is still going strong putting out compilations with bands from countries like Kazahstan or Iran.

If you are interested in checking out some bands from Czech or Czechoslovakia - untill 1992 we were one common state together with Slovakia, then here comes a short primer:

80's: RADEGAST (first and best Czech hardcore band, starting in 1981/82 under the influnce of MINOR THREAT, DIE KREUZEN or later CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER, 2 classical demo tapes out, the first one from 1986 with female vocals is just killer - Max 625 even wanted to release it on vinyl, but somehow it didn't happened, RADEGAST did LP with all this old stuff re-recorded in early 90s called "Otravena Generace"/"Poisoned Generation" and the splitted up), F.P.B. (playing in first half of 80s, great punk influenced by DAMNED, KILLING JOKE, DEVO, RESIDENTS etc., sometimes a bit on "arty" side but other times pretty hard-driving. Some live tapes from the old times do exist, they did LP + 7" in 1993 with old stuff re-recorded), HRDINOVE NOVE FRONTY/H.N.F. (mid/end of 80's - distorted raw punk aggression, sometimes like DISCHARGE, other times like some slower DEAD KENNEDYS songs, 4 demo tapes out, LP released in early 90's with songs collected from old demos), SMRT MLADEHO SEBEVRAHA/S.M.S. (really obscure band playing just 3 gigs and doing demo tape, energetic raw punk with sharp guitar sound reminding PEGGIO PUNX and some other Italian bands so much), VISACI ZAMEK (they did only official Czech punk vinyl in Communist times - full 7" in 1988, good hard-driving punk with rawer sound, also their first LP from 1990 is good), KRITICKA SITUACE (hardcore/punk band rom Prague playing in late 80s, sounding a bit like primitive version of NEGAZIONE, after 1989 they were more active but started to sound more metal than on their old demos), MRTVY MIMINKA ("Dead Newborns" - I put this band here just out of total curiosity just becuse they covered SHITLICKERs "War System" back in 1984! They did only few gigs and recorded rehearsal tape, then they splitted up after pressure from secret police)... More good bands from 80's: PLEXIS, SANOV, TELEX (covering OLHO SECO, CHAOS U.K. etc.), LORD ALEX, ZONA A, MLADE ROZLETY, ZEMEZLUC, S.R.K., BRACHYBLAST etc. I wrote a book about history of Czechoslovakian hardcore/punk before 1989, it was released 3 years ago and repressed (in total 1.500 copies were put out), but it's sold out now, hopefully there will be another repress in summer 05. It has more than 300 pages written in Czech, but there are hundreds of photos and long English summary, so contact me later if you are interested in it.

90's: HEARTLINE (full EP and split EP w/MASSKONTROL out, active in 94/95, furious hardcore/crust a bit like SEDITION or DISAFFECT), CUL DE SAC (raw punk, full EP out in 95), NIHILOBSTAT (total crust like HIATUS, only 1 demo tape left), LOS SOMMROS (driving hardcore/crust covering DISCHARGE, OI POLLOI or E.N.T., only few live tapes left, our drummer played there - active from 93 till 97, they were even supposed to release split 7" w/DISCLOSE back then!), PANGS OF REMORSE (first Czech power violence/extreme HC band active between early 90's - 2001, split 7" w/MRTVA BUDOUCNOST and split 10" w/RAVELIN 7 out), NONCONFORMIST (starting as crust band, slowly transforming to street punk, first full 7" is great, they have also more vinyls out and probably still somehow exist), TELEFON (mix LOS CRUDOS, DEZERTER and GRAZHDANSKAJA OBORONA - old Russian punk band - together and you have TELEFON, great LP out in 1998, one of the best and totally ignored from Czech bands of all time!), MRTVA BUDOUCNOST (my previous band active beween 1994 and 2001, lots of vinyls out, crust/extreme HC with dual vocals, lots of gigs all around Europe as well - one even in North of Denmark - Aalborg!), LIES AND DISTRUST (crust as fuck, split EPs w/GRIDE and EXEKUCE, split LP w/DISCHORD out)... all these bands have splitted up already.

2000-2005: GRIDE (devastating extreme HC w/few vinyls out, active since mid 90's, they just underwent some drastical line-up changes recently and have CD discography out, we are doing small Slovakian tour next month together), HOMO CONSUMENS (early Italian/Swedish HC worship, 2 split EPs out, new split 7" w/YARVAR COOCHA and September 2005 Euro tour w/SYIH planned), BALACLAVA (100% energical HC/youth crew with some emo/metal influences - a bit like CHILDREN OF FALL, split 7" w/CO-CA out now), CO-CA/COMPLICITE CANDIDE (punk as fuck with WIRE/STOOGES influences just started playing again after some longer hiatus, 3 LPs out, 4th in the works), FESTA DESPERATO (with new line-up sounding like some heavy Portland/Scandinavian crust with live intensity of FRAMTID/GLOOM, total crust as fuck - also the first band I know who play DISCLOSE cover, full tape out soon), MASS GENOCIDE PROCESS (Scandi-crust tornado, 3 split EP's out, new split 7" w/SEE YOU IN HELL out right now and split LP w/VISIONS OF WAR out now as well), SICHERHATE SYSTEM (raw punk, split 10" w/NESOUCAST STROJE out soon), LAHAR (extreme HC ala HELLNATION, split 10" w/IDIOT SAVANT and split 7" w/GRIDE in the works, also there is a vague plan for full 7" on 625), INNOXIA CORPORA (rocking punk, 2nd LP out now), V.I.R. (dark crust in the vein of some old UK bands like HELLBASTARD or AMEBIX, split 7" w/DREAD 101 out soon, recently they toured UK), ZEMEZLUC (punk as fuck w/tons of vinyls out, playing since mid of 80s, toured UK for 3 times already), AD CALENDAS GRAECAS (fast punk attack w/some pretty original parts, a bit like DEAD KENNEDYS - LP and split 7" out), VYBOR VEREJNEHO BLAHA (sadly just split up - great bastard of hip hop and punk - LP and split 7" w/HOMO CONSUMENS out), MALIGNANT TUMOUR (grind/mincecore veterans playing since early 90's right now they sound like UNCURBED/MOTORHEAD mix, tons of vinyls out, Euro tour in May 2005!), LYCANTHROPHY (fastcore/grind mix, new split 7" w/MALIGNANT T. out now), RED INSECT (punk as fuck like VARUKERS or BROKEN BONES, great split 7" w/NEMA BARIKADA out now, toured UK in 2004 and will soon again), GUIDED CRADLE (new band w/ex-DREAD 101 and V.I.R. people, total crust, full LP out soon), BASTO (another new band w/ex-FESTA DESPARATO people playing spastic raw punk in the vein of old Finnish bands), RABIES (noisy grind/punk before, now I have heard they changed their style to blitzkrieg fastcore, I am looking for some new stuff of them, few split EPs out), SHEEVA YOGA (power violence/jazz in the vein of SPAZZ, MEXICAN POWER AUTHORITY etc., some split EPs out), MORE BAD NEWS (technical hardcore in CATHARSIS vein, full 7" + split 7" w/SHEEVA YOGA out, ex-SYIH drummer beating skins here), MAC GYVER (driving hardcore/punk, full 7" out now)… The list is definitely NOT complete, there is also huge death/grind scene with bands like INGROWING, FLESHLESS, ISACAARUM, CEREBRAL TURBULENCY etc., which is pretty popular all over the world thanx also to famous "Obscene Extreme Fest" going strong since 2000 with bands in this style from all over ther world. Also some of the better-known bands who have already splitted up and who have been active during last 5 years are MINDLOCK, DREAD 101, EXEKUCE, LUMEN, PAZI SNAJPER, PSI...

Labels: Insane Society Records, Ultima Ratio, Phobia, Malarie, Impregnate Noise Laboratories, Beer Is Not Drink, Drugs Kill Your Mind, Day After...
You can check out most of these labels and some of the bands websites if you click on "links" section at www.seeyouinhell.cz.

You Filip are also involved in Hluboka Orba - which is a label and zine, and the gig collective United Crusties. Tell us more and also, what does these activities mean to you?
Well, these activities are just strong part of my daily life... there is not much more to say about it. I do the zine since 1993 (new issue out now - issue 25 looking more like a book than a zine!), the label is not so important as I just use it to co-release SYIH stuff from time to time and I already talked about United Crusties. It is gig collective with SYIH and BASTO members + some friends, we do gigs like once in a month in Brno mostly. There are plans for gigs of SOCIAL CHAOS, DOG SOLDIER/CUT THROAT, MIGRA VIOLENTA, CATHETER, MIERDA etc. for summer/autumn 2005. We are all pretty satisfied with this activity as we do only gigs for bands, which we really like and there were not any major fuck-ups so far like money lost or bands cancelling in last minute (well except HUMAN WASTE from Sweden, haha). I have also to mention that the current hardcore/punk scene in our hometown Brno is fucking great, these are best times I remember so far with bands like FESTA DESPERATO, BASTO, SCARTO, MAC GYVER, ZEMEZLUC, MORE BAD NEWS etc.

There are often many labels involved when it comes to Czech hardcore releases, is there a good co-operation going on throughout the whole country?
Yes, lots of Czech vinyls are released in cooperation of more labels. The prices in pressing plant (there is only one in Czech Rep.) are going permanently up since American company bought it, so it is pretty difficult for one label to release a record. I think that one of the first multi-label releases in Czech was MRTVA BUDOUCNOST/GRIDE split LP back in 99 and it inspired other labels to do it this way. Our newest release - split 7" w/MASS GENOCIDE PROCESS was released in cooperation of 18 labels from the whole world incl. Japan, Mexico or Iceland. It is always better (also for distribution) to do it this way, much better than to wait for some big HC label with exclusive distribution to do it for you. We are also able to do really large quantities of the vinyls this way - around 2.000, which is also much cheaper. But ofcourse most important is the DIY aspect of these operations.

Speaking of unity, eh. The Czech Republic became a part of the European Union a while ago. What are you thoughts on this? Was it a close call or did most people want to join? What did the government tell you in order to try and persuade you to vote yes? Did you vote?
Our government told us that if we won't say „yes" to EU, then we are completely fucked and our grandchildren will hate us... Government also gave few dozens of millions from our taxes to advertising agencies to persuade us. I didn't voted, I hoped, that there will be less than 50% people voting and then the proposal to join EU wouldn't pass, but in the end there were slightly more people voting. I see EU as a scam to make big bussiness/multinationals more powerful and better competing with USA, China and Japan.

I hear you. Staying with Czech politics for a little bit longer. Wasn't there some government scandals recently involving the President? He had bought a luxury apartment that cost more than he could have made legally during his whole life or something like that?
Is there a big problem with corrupt leaders?
It was Prime Minister, not president. His wife had some shady business with woman involved in prostitution and since there were Christian Democrats as a part of the government coalition, they did not liked it for obvious reasons. Also the Prime Minister was not able to explain where he got the money to buy his luxurious flat. After few months of chaos he finally decided to resign, so we have new government since few days. I think that 99% of our leaders are corrupt, because the way how this system is built and how it works it is ideal for endless possibilities of corruption. Even me, who work as social lawyer and in poorest part of our town received few offers... so I can only imagine how does it work on highest positions.