[ SEE YOU IN HELL ]

You can download the whole interview incl. photos here.

1. Ok, let's get the typical stuff out of the way first, when did SEE YOU IN HELL form, line up changes, influences, etc. Also, what were your initial intentions with the band? Are these still the same?
SEE YOU IN HELL started in May 1999, but it took us more than one year to get the stable line-up and to start playing gigs (our very first gig was in August 2000 at infamous Vrah Club in Roznov). Back then I still had my other band MRTVA BUDOUCNOST going strong (M.B. did split up in April 2000) and I wanted to play something little different from the hyper-fast extreme HC slaughter M.B. did. Back then me and SYIH’s former drummer were influenced by bands like BORN AGAINST, ORCHID, CATHARSIS, ZEGOTA, REVEARSAL OF MAN, PALATKA etc., basically this political Ebullition/CrimethInc. stuff, so obviously there were some influences of it in our music (but we sucked compared to them!). You can hear this on the first demo, on split 7” w/MINDLOCK and full 7” - our recordings from 2000/2001. In 2002 we did changed the old drummer and took the Brno’s scene veteran Beno (he’s the oldest SYIH member today - he’s 36), who used to play in early 90’s hardcore/crust bands LOS SOMMROS (who were even supposed to release split 7” w/DISCLOSE in 95 I think but flaked out!) and NO PASARAN. We also tried several 2nd guitar players, but none of them worked, while singer Jozka and bass player Tom are in the band since 1999. With new man beating the drums, our style has evolved as well: it become more direct, simpler, more straight forward dark hardcore/crust and later it has evolved even more to fast and raw hardcore influenced by Japanese HC like JUDGEMENT, BASTARD, DEATHSIDE, FORWARD, D.S.B., LIBERATE, ASSFORT etc. We all listen to many different styles of hardcore/punk and three of us have huge record/tape collections, but I think that the common agreement among us in last few years is, that Japanese HC in all it’s forms is the most aggressive/full-on energy music ever created! But I hope we don’t imitate/don’t copy (f.e. we don’t write lyrics in intentionally “broken English”, we still do lyrics in our language), we just try to take the energy and straight-forward musical attitudes from Jap HC. Well, decide for yourself.

2. You recently did a tour with SHEEVA YOGA throughout southern Europe. How did this go? Any cool stories to tell? How does the scene in Europe compare to other places like Brazil and Japan, both of which SYIH had toured in the past few years?
It was one of the best tours we did so far and obviously our best European trip ever. We did almost three weeks tour with gigs in Austria, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, France and Spain. We have played with some ass-kicking bands like SOTATILA (Austria), ENTROPIJA (Serbia), DEVASTATION OF LIFE (Greece), DIRTY POWER GAME, MEMENTO MORI and JILTED (Italy), YAKUZA HORROR and DISKOIRAA (Spain) - watch out for them! We toured in March which was OK as there were not so many gigs at all and we had good turn-out almost every night, yet still we managed to loose like 1000 EU on this tour because of expensive van rental, ferry from Greece to Italy and esp. highway tolls, which are pretty high in some of these countries.
Some of the high lights included playing in underground garage in Macedonia for 50 wild kids and then setting up the distro stall outside in children’s playground, shows in squatted University classrooms in Greece, playing in Rome for bunch of crazy madmen in frozen squat, playing in legendary 80’s Torino squat El Paso again, meeting all our friends from the last 2003 tour in Spain and France, also food and drinks everywhere and ofcourse being with SHEEVA YOGA every day, who are killer band (any fans of power violence MUST check out their split LP w/DISNEY!) and good friends of ours. The movement of autonomous self/governed places/squats in Greece, France, Italy and Spain is really inspirational and it makes hardcore/punk here really D.I.Y. to the bone!
It’s not easy to compare this tour to Brazil or to Japan as each region is unique. For sure Brazil is more crazy with more young people interested in hardcore/punk and going wild, also with many killer thrash bands and often with not so good backline/p.a. (but who gives a fuck..?). Japan is 100% professional, with best bands around today and huge cultural differences from the rest of the world. Europe is more “laid-back”, also sadly currently with not so exciting hardcore/punk scene in most of countries, but Southern Europe is still better than North/West in my opinion, not so bored and more enthusiastic.
I really don’t know when we could repeat this again, but we want to make at least a short trip around Balkan like Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, maybe Turkey... we will see.
3. What releases is SEE YOU IN HELL planning for the future? How about upcoming tours?
Releases: 2-3 new songs on split 7” w/CROW, which should be released by Insane Society/Phobia on vinyl/mini-CD in April 2009. We will try a different studio for the first time in last five years, so I am looking forward to hear the final result. CROW already did recorded for the split and I have to say that the their first song on this is one of the best hits they ever did (and this comes from a long time dedicated CROW fan - MRTVA BUDOUCNOST did covered “Last Chaos” already back in 1995!). Other than that no more plans apart from having our previous records reissued on different formats all around the world - there should be “Umet se prodat”/”Utok” CD version in Brazil and “Umet se prodat” tape version in Malaysia (just this year we had CDs/CDr’s/tape versions of these records re-released in Macedonia, Belarus, Philippines, Japan, USA... thanx a lot to all the labels involved!). Maybe 3rd LP or maybe split LP? We will see, no hurry at all since we don’t want to crank out new record every 2 months.
Tours: Brazil again in late April/early May 2009, it seems that it should be another great experience, we can’t wait! The guys from DISKÖNTROLL (Check them out, new great raw crust band from SP!) should organize it and we hope to meet VIVISICK and FUCK ON THE BEACH too since we tour in the same time. In 2010 Japan again maybe and maybe not only Japan, but Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia too? We would like to tour U.S. as well one day but as we have only 2 weeks left for touring each year, who knows, when this can happen... 2011??? Hahaha...
And I will visit Japan again for the 3rd time in just few weeks, just for the gigs (FORWARD, WARHEAD, SYSTEMATIC DEATH, VIVISICK, LIFE, ZYANOSE, CROW...), record buying and meeting many friends from my previous visits or from their gigs here in Brno - I can not wait!
4. You write some of the lyrics along with your singer Jozka, correct? What type of message are you trying to get across (if any)?
No, let me correct you, Jozka doesn’t write lyrics in SEE YOU IN HELL. Until not so long time ago I did all of them, but recently Beno stepped in some lyrics-writting too, which is cool since I am running out of ideas slowly after writing like 60-80 lyrics in my previous band MRTVA BUDOUCNOST and like 50 in SEE YOU IN HELL. Some of the older lyrics were about alienation of man in modern society, people becoming lifeless machines, communication breakdowns, isolation and shit like this. Some of the more recent lyrics are kind of optimistic encouraging individuality, not giving up and aiming strong to reach your dreams and goals. We sing in Czech language, but always do our best to provide translations atleast to English, sometimes to Japanese, Russian, Spanish or German language too, when there are releases of our albums all over the world.
5. Can you tell a little about your fanzine/label HLUBOKA ORBA? How many issues have you done with your zine and what have you released with your label? Is there any interest from abroad or mostly just in Czech/Europe?
The fanzine did started back in summer 1993, but before I did another one between 1991-1992, which was more collective effort, while H.O. used to be in the beginning “one man” show only. This had changed a little in late 90’s, when I invited a couple of good friends to write columns, tour reports or to submit interviews. The great thing is, that some of them still do contribute even 10 years later. People (mostly singers!) from bands like GRIDE, PANGS OF REMORSE, MINDLOCK, BALACLAVA, FESTA DESPERATO and of course both MRTVA BUDOUCNOST and SEE YOU IN HELL have helped during these years, so you know it has to be a good quality read, haha... Since the beginning I decided to cover mostly the extreme part of hardcore/punk scene with huge focus on international DIY network and also some more radical politics. Some of the bands who were interviewed so far are f.e. RESIST, DISORDER, DROPDEAD, CAPITALIST CASUALTIES, DISCLOSE, SPAZZ, EBOLA (uk), FINAL EXIT (jap), CRIPPLE BASTARDS, MASHER, REAL REGGAE, BAD ACID TRIP, KONSTRUKT, ASMODINAS LEICHENHAUS, LAMANT, REAGAN SS, AGATHOCLES, NULA, DS 13, LOCUST, SEEIN RED, ORCHID, ANTICHRIST, CITIZENS ARREST, CONFUSIONE, HRYDJUVERK, DESASTRE, BOMBENALARM, SELFISH/FORCA MACABRA + obviously many Czech bands. From labels I interviewed f.e. Darbouka, Tian An Men, Prank, Strongly Opposed, I also print huge tour reports of Czech bands, also some political stuff f.e. articles on police surveillance, political extremism, history of workers struggle in my city, car industry or squatting.
So far I did 26 issues, the last three came out in press run of cca 800 copies, in full page format and put together like a book in soft-cover, also ofset printed. The newest issue (27) should be sent to printers in just 2-3 weeks. It’ll have 200 pages stuffed with interviews with ACTIVE MINDS, GERM ATTAK, BLOODY PHOENIX, PRUMYSLOVA SMRT, DISKONTROLL, tour reports from Brazil, Southern Europe, Baltic states, Balkan, huge special feature on autonomous spaces (incl. history of squatting in Italy, Oslo/Norway, Poland, interviews with Cowley Club/UK, AJZ Rostock/Germany and Milada squatters/Czech etc.), scene reports from Croatia, Belarus, Serbia and Bulgaria, tons of reviews, article on Brno shows organized by our collective in last two years, columns + ofcourse tons of photos. Well, the photos and punk as fuck graphics are most probably the only thing of interest to foreign readers since the zine is written entirely in Czech! But I usually do submit the English written stuff (interviews, scene reports) to foreign zines, mostly to Maximum Rock’n’Roll. I don’t promote the zine to abroad at all, because of the language barrier, but few people always use to buy or trade a copy even they can not read it.
The label started around the same time as the zine, first with some tape releases, later I contributed to MRTVA BUDOUCNOST and SEE YOU IN HELL records, which were released in cooperation of more labels, Hluboka Orba being one of them. Last year, when I was doing pretty OK financially since I had a good income from both jobs I decided to “resurrect” (it was never big deal anyway) the label put some hard-earned cash to cooperations like RISPOSTA LP, DEMARCHE EP, STOLEN LIVES/TIME OF MY LIFE split EP or PRUMYSLOVA SMRT/KOBRA 11 split EP. Recently I decided to stop the label again due to lack of funds and time to dedicate to more trades, distribution etc. The zine is killing me recently, it’s such a monster taking like 1-2 years to put out a new issue, infact it’s a book, not a zine, you know. Also the band and gig organizing eat lots of my free time recently, not to speak about family, jobs etc. etc.
6. What do members of SEE YOU IN HELL do to make a living in this crazy fucked up daily life? Do you ever find it hard to be in a band/do a label/do a zine/ etc, and still work a normal job?
Jozka is conductor checking out the tickets in trains, Tom works in laboratory and Beno in pharmacy. David, who is not a full time SYIH member, just a friend or guest-guitar player (his main bands are THEMA 11 and TUMMO) is currently looking for new job in Prague, 200 km away from Brno, so who knows if he will continue with us. And I work as a social lawyer in Roma/Gypsie ghetto and as a side-job I do the same for drug addicts, who want to solve their crazy fucked up daily problems like debts, criminal records, family disputes etc. I think it’s probably better to have a “normal” (well, my job is not totally “normal”, but that’s what I like about it!) job and not to have hardcore/punk label or band as a main source of your income, because then it’s very hard to resist the urge to become another fucked up bussinesman. I think that the band like SEE YOU IN HELL (and many more, I should add) can prove that you can have job and family (all of us except David have kids, I will have 2nd one in March 2009) and still can produce some fucked up noise for 10-15 years and tour the world from Japan through Europe to Brazil. And you don’t need a manager, press support, exclusive deals, advertising and similar bullshit.
7. Can you tell us a little about the (much overlooked) Czech hardcore/punk scene? Why do you think that people from abroad ignore awesome current bands like SEE YOU IN HELL, GRIDE, LYCANTHROPY, SHEEVA YOGA, FESTA DESPERATO, etc, just because they're not from Japan, USA or Sweden? Do you think there will ever be a time when kids in the USA will be wearing RADEGAST patches and KRITICKÁ SITUACE t-shirts?
Hahaha, please no, not this question again... I used to spend hours and hours writing scene reports from the whole Czech Rep. or from my city to foreign zines like Maximum RocknRoll, I put together two comp. LPs with Czech bands, recorded dozens of RADEGAST demos to foreign penpals etc. and now I feel little tired. I feel that I don’t need to persuade anybody anymore that we are not some 2nd class citizens when it comes down to some raging hardcore/punk and honestly, why it should always be us trying to convert the Western punx to our shitty bands? Sometimes I feel that I shouldn’t give a fuck anymore, seriously. I am all for international communication, discovering new punk scenes from unusual/”exotic” places (Fuck, get some stuff from TAM 89 and Darbouka, two of my fave labels ever, also read We Gona Fight zine!) and honestly, I totally love the communication and trading with the few international hardcore/punk fanatics like you, Zach! I really appreciate the interest from die-hard punk fans from all over the world, but the general foreign hardcore/punk public did not changed at all during all these years of my hopeless attempts (I understand that back in 1992 you had no source of information about the situation here in Czech, but c’mon, in 2008?!?). Most of them continue to ignore the bands, which weren’t born in Sweden, Japan or USA, but I don’t cry about it anymore. Currently I feel little too old to bust my ass trying to change this and rather dedicate my efforts to other things like supporting the local Brno-city scene, which today seems to be the best we ever had since early/mid 90’s.
By the way, it is little weird that when Japanese bands play here, they are always very interested in our local scene, always watch the other bands playing, filming them on their cameras etc., but when we have US or Swedish bands here, they are often bored and full of themselves or just plain ignorant.
Besides the bands you mentioned above I would also recommend PRUMYSLOVA SMRT, SAY WHY?, RISPOSTA, EVIDENCE SMRTI, NEEDFUL THINGS, RABIES, DEMARCHE, MAD PIGS, HIBAKUSHA, REAKCE NA ZMENU, ZEMEZLUC, TOMORROWS HELL, INNOXIA CORPORA, COMPLICITE CANDIDE, STOLEN LIVES, RED INSECT, DEZINFEKCE, LAHAR or KOBRA 11. Also you should check out couple of ragers from neighborhood Slovakia: ROXOR, IDIOTS PARADE, VINTAER, ABORTION, E330 or TIME OF MY LIFE. 90% of these bands have vinyls or myspace sites (most of them both), so it should be pretty easy to find their music even for overseas freaks.
Kids in USA wearing RADEGAST T-shirts??? Hahaha, I don’t know... sounds like a true utopia.
8. You've managed a lot of big projects such as your book written about the Czech punk scene during communist times and also the "Dying Alive/Living Dead" comp LP. Now you have a new comp LP out that you organized called "SPALTE BRNO NA PRACH". Could you please tell us a little about it?
I am not one of those snobby assholes who always do complain about compilations and especially about local compilations. I love records like “Ljubljana Hardcore”, “Ataque Sonoro”, “This Is Boston Not LA”, “Tokyo Crusties”, “Kobenhavn I Ruiner” and many more. “Spalte Brno na prach” (“Burn Brno To Ashes”) is compilation LP of local bands from Brno and around, it was put out in August 2008 ad contains 12 bands and 27 {unreleased} songs. Maybe you have heard about FESTA DESPERATO, RISPOSTA, ZEMEZLUC (who play since 1987!), MAD PIGS or SEE YOU IN HELL {hahaha}, but there are more unknown bands as well like AGE OF DEATH, PRIPYAT or EVIDENCE SMRTI. Most of the featured bands play raw punk, crust or fastcore, some of them could be filled under the “typical old school driving Eastern European punk rock” as well. It comes with huge booklet featuring not only the bands pages, but also info about local fanzines, gig-collectives, political activities etc. 14 labels from Czech and Slovakia co-released this and there are 800 black vinyls and 300 red vinyls available, so I think it should be pretty easy to find, also the price here in Czech is very cheap compared to other records. I am sure you can easily order this from labels like Insane Society or Phobia.
9. Do you see SEE YOU IN HELL still active in 10 years?
Maybe, but I don’t plan too much... also deafness could be a problem one day, this fucking music is unhealthy! Hahaha...
10. Ok, that's all the questions I have. Thanks so much for the interview! Any final comments, contact info, etc?
Well, one important thing we didn’t discussed at all is our United Crusties gig collective (= basically all SYIH band members + some friends from time to time). We organizes gigs in Brno since 2003, so far we did like 60 shows and since the beginning we have total blast w/dozens of great bands from all over the world from Argentina or Brazil through Russia till Japan playing in our best local gig-place of all the times called Yacht, sleeping on our floors and having a great time here! Just this year we did gigs for bands like D.S.B., VOETSEK, PISSCHRIST, VIVISICK, ARMAGEDOM, ACTIVE MINDS and in 2007 we had GIUDA, SUMMON THE CROWS, GASMASK TERROR, AFTERBIRTH, FRAMTID, AGHAST, PAVILIONUL 32, BORN/DEAD, NK6 or DUDMAN here... Also every December we set up an annual Killed By Brno Fest, where SYIH always performs some special set involving cover songs, stupid costumes and some more shit, it is always crazy fun. Sometimes we organize gigs in our tiny practise room, where we could fill like 40 people max. We book only DIY hardcore/punk bands under fair conditions, no hotel rooms, no guarantees, no rock star attitudes. It is really cool to meet people from other bands from all over the world, from 99% we had always only good experiences and I am sure we will continue with this. Of course there are other gig collectives in Brno too and you can read more about them in the booklet of compilation we already discussed above.
Thanks a lot fo this interview too, Zach, and also big thanks for your huge support of SEE YOU IN HELL through the years, we really appreciate it!