Interview with Fillip from UK BACK2FRONT zine issue 3 - September 2007

 

Q1: What is it like living in the Czech Republic since its split with Slovakia in 1993? Is the government that’s in power now similar to government under the Communist Regime?

I think that it’s not so drastically different from living in any other “Western type” country with free market and parliamentary democracy. Sometimes it’s tough to say but yes, today’s government is way better than the Communist regime. There are more freedoms and more possibilities how to lead your life.

 

Q2: What was the punk scene like under communism? Was it more underground and did the state treat punk as a threat?

It was more underground and more honest, no doubt about it. In 70’s and early 80’s the state considered rock music in general {not only punk} as a threat and tried to ban it. There were lists with dozens of bands names, who should be prohibited from playing gigs. It was almost impossible to play live legally - you had to obtain some kind of guarantee from one of the state’s approved organizations {like the “Union Of Socialist Youth”} and you had to go through musical exams in front of commission composed of professional musicians, local politicians etc. Also there were no clubs {of course no squats, youth centres etc. as well} and basically no possibilities to play at all. All this repression against rock went back to mid 70’s when the states-opposition {totally illegal of course} supported underground rock movement around the band PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE. In general you can say that Communist state did feared of any youth movement which was not under his strict control.

Despite this, very first punk bands in Czechoslovakia started back in late 70’s after some UK punk vinyls were smuggled here - bands like EXTEMPORE, ZIKKURAT, GARAZ, ENERGIE G... later also A64, KECUP, VISACI ZAMEK or F.P.B. They were influenced mostly by the most known punk bands such as SEX PISTOLS, DAMNED, STRANGLERS, DEAD BOYS, GENERATION X etc. Also some of these bands were not strict punk - they played some sort of new wave or jazz-rock, but decided to throw few punk numbers {often cover songs with original music, but Czech lyrics} into their sets - this was case of bands like EXTEMPORE, GARAZ and ZIKKURAT. You can still find the {usually very good!} live tapes from these bands, which are the only source of music from these times as these bands obviously had no chance to record in normal studio or even to release record {there were only three official state-owned record labels back then}. I would recommend F.P.B. especially, who played really good hard-driving punk with poetic lyrics. Some live tapes do exist + in early 90’s they re-recorded their old songs and released them on LP and CD. From the ashes of F.P.B. arose two other very interesting bands - UZ JSME DOMA and SANOV, who still play and the former one are very popular in the abroad {with few U.S. tours and many releases behind them}.

You should understand the circumstances under which these bands did existed: there was total cultural isolation from the “Western” world - you could not buy the punk records in the shops, you could not see the punk bands on TV or hear them on radio, there were only very rare possibilities to see punk bands live officially in early 80’s, you could not travel outside {with the exception of other socialist countries}, there were no shows of foreign punk bands at all {with the exception of DIE TOTEN HOSEN from Germany who played here in 1987 and it has ended with huge riot}. So you can’t wonder that most of punk bands were influenced by stuff like SEX PISTOLS, EXPLOITED, CLASH etc. as it was virtually impossible to find recordings of more underground/D.I.Y. bands here.

On the other hand sometimes the people from Western countries have these ill-informed views about living in Communist times - it was not easy, but there was no hunger, the political and cultural repression during 80’s slowly calmed down and it wasn’t like every  punk rocker would get shot or sent to prison. Of course that police sometimes did attack the illegal gigs {held in pubs, private homes etc.} and people got beaten up or fined, but usually not jailed. But the secret police kept an eye on punk movement {like on every youth movement} and after the regime’s change in 1989 it was revealed from secret police’s archives that some people active in punk scene as band members or gig organisers were secret police’s agents... sad but true.

As the 80’s went on, there were more punk and hardcore bands, around 1985 the regime changed its repression to more tolerance and allowed the Union of Socialist Youth to organize huge “rock festivals”, where some punk bands were allowed to play. I think that if the “revolution” in 1989 would not come, then there would be also official punk records released in the end {like in Poland or Yugoslavia}. The only official Czechoslovakian punk record from Communist times is VISACI ZAMEK 7” released in 1988 {and it’s very good!}.

I would like to recommend you some more bands from 80’s:

HRDINOVE NOVE FRONTY {H.N.F.}: unlike many other Czechoslovakian bands they were not influenced by SEX PISTOLS or EXPLOITED, but by DEAD KENNEDYS and DISCHARGE. The result was crushing raw punk with great parts filled with distorted guitar solos and hopeless screams. Most of their lyrics dealt with horrors of war. They organized illegal shows in their hometown, self-released four demo tapes {later there was vinyl LP released in early 90s with stuff from these demos} and also put out the very first punk zine in Czechoslovakia. They existed between 1985 and 1988.

RADEGAST: the very first Czechoslovakian hardcore band, influenced by MINOR THREAT, YOUTH BRIGADE, BATTALION OF SAINTS etc. put two demo tapes out, the one from 1986 {w/male and female vocals} is really great. They started back in early 80s and split up in early 90’s after re-recording the old songs and releasing them on LP.

TELEX: great rampaging hardcore/punk active in late 80’s. They covered many foreign bands, but used Czech lyrics + of course played own songs too. They did stuff from OLHO SECO, ARMIA, CHAOS U.K., DAYGLO ABORTIONS etc. In 1989 recorded demo tape, split up in 1990.

ZASTAVKA MILEC/ZNOUZECTNOST: two bands with almost the same line-up, great simple melancholic punk rock active since early 80s until today. Lots of demo tapes from 80’s do exist.

ZONA A: from Slovakia’s capital-city Bratislava, active since late 70’s {back then they were called PARADOX}, they play catchy “77” punk rock. They still play, but today it’s just a joke. They did many tapes in 80’s too.

There were more bands like PLEXIS, DO RADY!, NOVODUR, LORD ALEX, MLADE ROZLETY etc., but there’s no place to list them all.

 

Q3: What is the scene like in Czech today? Is there any political or squatting movements? You’ve been involved in punk for a long time – how has it changed for you and are the changes for better or for worse?

I think that it’s pretty active compared to many other countries. Especially the hardcore scene still remains mostly D.I.Y. and well organized with dozens of bands, some good labels, zines, gig spaces... Squatting doesn’t exist here in last years. In 90’s there were some squats in Prague {Sochorka, Ladronka, Milada...}, but they were either evicted or left empty. With politics and punk it also used to be better here in early/mid 90’s, but at least animal rights and antifascist issues still seems to be strongly accepted in hardcore/punk scene. You should understand that after 1989 many ideas or political activities were kind of new and fresh here and people used to be more active, today they are pacified with endless consumption and maybe little worn out and disillusioned too.

 

Q4: Why do you think the English-speaking scene tends to largely ignore what’s going on in Eastern Europe and Asian punk scenes? What is the wider eastern European scene like in general?

It used to be always like this - rock’n’roll, punk rock, hardcore... they were all born in UK/U.S.A. and not in Czechoslovakia or Romania. So people pay more attention to these countries assuming that bands from more “exotic” countries will probably suck anyway. I don’t know, ask your friends how many bands from Czech do they know. There are tons of releases {on vinyl and CD} of Czech bands and Czech bands quite often tour UK, so you must be really ignorant to international scene to miss them. I don’t understand this kind of closemindness as discovering new unknown bands is at least for me one of the best things in punk. Paying attention only to most popular shit or to some reformed rehashed old farts from the past is very mainstream behaviour to me.

I am not sure if the Eastern Europe still does exist - we are over-flooded with Western production {in music too} and most of bands are of course influenced by Western stuff. I think that in Poland there were {and probably still are} some great punk bands sounding quite “Eastern European” – playing charged driving punk bands with great melodies like 80’s stuff DEZERTER, SIEKIERA, ARMIA, REJESTRACJA... in 90’s POST REGIMENT... today for example PEZD {Prank records put out their LP recently}. From Czech you should check out F.P.B. and SMRT MLADEHO SEBEVRAHA {80’s}, TELEFON, C.T.C., PSI, COMPLICITE CANDIDE, INNOXIA CORPORA, ZEMEZLUC, MAC GYVER {90’s + today}... who all play or played something which you could consider as “typical” Eastern European sound.  You should also check out GRAZHDANSKAYA OBORONA from Russia {80’s stuff only}, PSYCHOTERROR from Estonia or some of the great 80’s Yugoslavian bands {U.B.R., TOZIBABE, NEKROFILIJA, III. KATEGORIJA etc.}.

 

Q5: Do you think that scenes in these countries tend to copy the UK and America in musical styles and that this is perhaps why they are often overlooked or do you think it is simply the language barrier?

Some bands do copy, but it’s the same everywhere in the world, not only in the Eastern Europe. Take a look at Japan – these bands take or even blatantly steal something and make it better sound in the end. Also see my previous answer - as the punk was started in UK, you can hardly expect foreign bands to sound completely different. On the other hand 90% of Czech bands do sing in Czech language, so you can at least get some originality here. The bands I mentioned above have all unique sound, but still it doesn’t seem to help them to gain more recognition from outside. Language barrier... I don’t know - how many other languages other than English do YOU speak? Over here most of people can understand English or German. In my opinion the bands outside the hyped UK/US/Scandinavian circuit tend to get ignored not because they are worse, but because people in general /apart from few die-hard enthusiasts} just don’t care and are not willing to search for them. And today they don’t even have to search for them so hard as there is quite a good number of releases on vinyl and other formats.

 

Q6: Is there a political vacuum in Czech now and is there any evidence of a rise in right-wing organisations? Is there much anti-fascist activity?

After the Communist’s regime failed there was huge resurgence of right-wing activity and most of governments since 1989 until today were right wing. Today there’s coalition of right wing party, Christian-democrat party and green party. One of the big issues is the planned US radar base which should be built in Czech {near Prague} despite the disagreement of most people. Other than that it’s the usual neo-liberal bollocks like in the rest of Western Europe - privatisation, cutting taxes for the rich, while taxing the middle-class and poor, cuts in health services etc. It’s same everywhere.

Nazi activity goes in waves, early 90’s were worst, today they seem to get more active again, but maybe not so violent, but more “political” - trying to organize legal marches, having official parties etc., but they are still the same nazis.

 

Q7: What advice would you give to bands from the UK who want to play in somewhere like the Czech Republic? Are there any good contacts that you’d recommend for setting up gigs?

There are many UK bands, which have already played in Czech and I think it’s nothing special anymore...  You name almost any UK band at least little active tour-wise and they have probably already played here {well, except DISCHARGE}. Bands usually play in Prague {007 Club}, Brno {Yacht Club or in our practise room}, in Roznov pod Radhostem {Vrah}, Liberec, Napajedla, Jihlava... But it really depends on the style you play and if the band is at least a bit known and have some releases out. There are way too many gigs all the time and sometimes it’s difficult to organize something. But still I think that people are not {yet} so spoiled and most of gigs are usually pretty good and wild. Our United Crusties gig collective here in Brno did organized gigs for bands like BICKLES CAB, AFTERBIRTH {2 times}, WARDEAD, FLYBLOWN... we usually prefer crust, fast HC, raw punk bands.

 

Q8: Does Religion play a big part in Czech life now that the Communist Regime is gone or is there still a large atheist tradition there?

Yes, most of people in Czech are atheist and I hope it stays like this. It’s very different from Poland, where the Catholics are going wild having so much power and abusing it {like always}. You can see many churches in Czech, but only few people are religious here and the above-mentioned Christian party has all the time less and less voters. Church is not very popular here.

 

Q9: You wrote a book a few years back about punk in your part of the world. Tell me a little about what the book was about and the ideas behind it? Was it well-received?

The book has more than 300 pages and it’s about hardcore/punk scene in Czechoslovakia from early 70’s till 1989. It’s written in Czech language only, but there are dozens of photos inside too. Basically it is detailed history of every punk band who ever played in this period + chapters about recordings, zines and concerts in general. I contacted many people from these old bands and it was very interesting work. I put the book out back in 2002 and there were two re-presses. In total there were 2000 copies sold and currently it’s sold out. Maybe there will be another repress of 500 copies in the end of this year. I decided to put out the book in total D.I.Y. way as I don’t want to pay taxes from it and want it to stay away from musical business. I think it was received extremely well both from readers and from the band-members of said bands. By the way the book’s name translates as “Guitars And Screams - Punk Rock and Hardcore in Czechoslovakia before 1989”.

I wanted to write a book about Czechoslovakian hardcore/punk history from the D.I.Y. punk perspective and to put it out this way. I wanted to do it before some rock-magazine journalist will do it as it would be most probably total farce. I think that it’s important that we, as active participants in the punk scene, document our own culture.

 

Q10: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you for your interest to our scene. If you plan to come here, check out www.czechcore.cz website for the list of shows all around the country. You can contact me or my band SEE YOU IN HELL here:

www.seeyouinhell.cz {you can find here links to many Czech bands/labels}

www.myspace.com/seeyouinhellthrash