FUCKED UP 2003 for ON FIRE #4 (AUSTRALIA)

Present for interview:
Mr DAMIAN (Vocals)
John Dee (Lead guitar)

1. First off, most of the people reading this would never have heard FUCKED UP: tell us about why the band came together, what motivations you have in being in a hardcore punk band? Also, a brief history of the band including a discography (that'll be brief, right?!) and your favourite record would be great.

D: The band came together as a joke.... and like all good jokes he just kept it going until it wasn't funny anymore. The reason this band exists is as a way to destroy everything. The best record of all time is Roky Erickson's The Evil One.

J: FU came together because none of us where in bands at the time and also because i wanted to see Concentration Camp be a frontman. That didn't work out and Damian took over vocals. So the history is this: Me and Camp forming the band with Colohan from the SWARM on drums. Kicking him out and getting Guinea Beat to learn drums for the band. Then getting Slumpy on bass somehow. At this point we were playing on all rented gear save for my guitar. Played a few shows with Camp on vocals and recorded a demo when he trainhopped out of the city for the summer, with Damian on vocals. Demo sounded alright and we moved Camp to guitar. Then we started putting records out. Me and Camp used to do a pretty detailed zine called QUICK and since stopping that I've needed an outlet where i could see my ideas made into objects that i could hold - thats why i do this band. Favorite record - BEACH BOYS Pet Sounds/POISON IDEA feel the darkness/METALLICA master of puppets.

2. You're named after a NOTA song, right? From the songs I've heard, you all seem to be influenced by early American hardcore - my contention is POISON IDEA and NEGATIVE APPROACH. What kind of bands influence your band, less in terms of music, but more in terms of your lyrical approach, your politics and so forth. Are there any bands outside of the hardcore punk scene that are worth mentioning as influences?

D: Lyrically, I guess for me the inspiration comes from the Subhumans to 16 all the way to the fugs but the H100s are without a doubt the most important one. Angery bands that seem to look at anger in different and unique ways. Vocally, Choke, Dwid, Ian Stewart and Ben from No Warning are all people who I wish I sounded more like.... definitely not in what they choose to sing about kind of way. As far as non punk influences, The Nerves, the Who and the god: Roky Erikson who is without a doubt the most true genius the world of rock and roll has ever seen. The way he sings and what he sings about makes him the most inspiring artist to me.

J: Well for the last few years PI has been my fav punk band. I don't really think we sound like them too much (save one song from LITANY) because we don't have extended leads or mondo drumming and we can't play as well as them...FU is influenced by PI in other ways however, especially release-wise...people ask us a lot why we chop up recording sessions into a number of 2 song singles, and while its true that the obvious influence for that sort of decision is derived from bands like THE DAMNED THE BUZZCOCKS or THE UNDERTONES (not to mention all 60s bands), we get our translation through PI who put out a lot of 2 song singles, 12" eps, and generally have a really interested and detailed discography. I don't want to look back at our releases later and see 2 or 3 LPs that look computerized and sound boring, i want to be able to hold 25 records in my hands or look at them laid out on my bed. We don't really have a politic as a band, the way i am politically certainly isn't influenced by any band. Instead of politically, i'd say aesthetically, meaning what our lyrics are like, what our records look like and how we produce our records...the last batch of lyrics have been influenced by nuts like the Viennese ACTIONISTS, or crypto writters and drawers like ALFRED KUBIN or MAX KLINGER. Basically when we get into something, we schedule a single around it. NO PASARAN was specifically about the Spanish CIvil War, POLICE was specifically about THE RUDE KIDS, BAITING was a tribute to THE ACTIONISTS, PROVOS, RAF, KING MOB and GILLES DE RAIS...DANCE OF DEATH is for turn of the century euro painters and authors like KUBIN and KLINGER. As for non-punk bands look for upcoming FU records to sound like FLOYD, NEKTAR, CAN, ZEPPELIN, GOGOS, KONK, GONG, early GENESIS, CREAM, FAIRPORT CONVENTION, NICO and DEATH IN JUNE.

2.a) You listed the H100's as an inspiration, which is fucking rad because I've been listening to 'Texas Death Match' and 'Distort Cleveland' everyday for the past week. It seems that band fucked things up in Canada... do you have any decent stories of seeing them? Why do you think they have such a legendary legacy?

D: The H100s never played up here. Nine Shocks has a couple of times. I've heard all the stories though from throwing a hammer into the crowd to smashing up a church. The singer Chris Erba was a mental case and really saved hardcore from slipping into a something totally positive and boring. They were a fast hardcore punk band that just fucked shit up and followed in a lineage of insane rock and roll.

2.b) Sorry to sound like a moron, but who the fuck is Roky Erikson?

D: Roky Erikson was the lead singer of the Texas psych-rock band Thirteen Floor Elevators who was institutionalized to avoid a pot conviction and subsequently destroyed mentally by the treatments they but him through. He record a bunch of lo-fi songs while in the hospital, in the '70's he record a real rock record that will destroy you (The Evil One) and then a record in the mid nighties. He is the most amazing musician ever.

And tell us about the Nerves, y'all are putting out a tribute compilation in their honour, why the fuck?

J: The NERVES were a power pop/punk band from LA who put out an amazing EP in 1976 and hung out on the bourgening LA punk scene setting up shows for the WEIRDOS and ect. Their "hanging on the telepone" was later covered by BLONDIE. All members (Jack Lee, Paul Collins and Peter Case) went on to have less-good solo acts in the 80s. The NERVES are amazing.

2.c) Tell us about the Viennese Actionists. And who is Alfred Kubin and Max Klinger?

J: The ACTIONISTS were sort of a retarded bullshit art troupe from the 60s. Most of their games were stupid, like flaying goat carcasses, or paiting basement apartments with blood or walking around the town covered in white paint - that sort of obvious bunk, but they were interesting because they were pulling those stunts so early on. We can see TOM GREEN on tv and it doesn't mean anything but back then that sort of stuff that seems run-of-the-mill to us must have had a larger impact, which it absolutely did. FUCKED UP isn't an art project by anymeans, but i've always been interested in artists as shit-disturbers, which is a tradition that the actionists were part of. They would hold art shows where people have to leave in tears or sick. Debord and Jarry did plays and films that would cause audiences to riot. The BAITING 7" is sort of a tribute to people like that, thats why its one long masturbatory song split into 2 sides on a record, and thats why you can't read the lyrics, and why there are horn parts at the end, its purposefully meant to be an annoying record. The idea behind the song is that one way of changing the way people think and act is to annoy them or give them so much stress that they erupt and lash out. The way we live has given us a lot of easily exploited pressure points - just think of the movie FALLING DOWN where just driving home causes michael douglas to turn into a lunatic. Turn the power off long enough in any city and soon enough people start to crack and burn down buildings for no reason other than they can't take it and need to lash out. If you want people to think like you, you've got to make them see the world out of your eyes. Klinger and Kubin were painters and people can research themselves if they are interested.

3. I've read a fair bit about OCAP, and I know members of FUCKED UP are involved with OCAP organising. Could you give a brief intro to OCAP for the readers? 'Municipal Pricks' is an obvious attack on the kind of cops and politicians that OCAP is up against: what other have OCAP influenced FUCKED UP?

J: I used to get down with OCAP way more before than now. Camp does a lot of organizing with them and worked for OCAP full time for a while. Ontario Coalition Against Povety basically is a volunteer run (save for a handful of paid organizers) group that does a lot of shit - people hear most about the massive and not so massive demos OCAP puts on from the infamous riot on our provincial parliament buildings 3 summers ago or the smash up at a tories constituency office...but what OCAP does on a more daily basis is human rights work like fighting panhandling or public sleeping tickets for the homeless in the courts, or doing apartment appraisals for tenants in order to get injunctions forcing scum landlords to make repairs, facing off for tenants at the housing tribunal, and doing immigration work that helps families and individuals from being deported. A lot of people have problems with OCAPs politics, but aside from ideology, OCAP gets results like no other activist group there is - who else fights in the courts and at immigration hearings to stop refugees from deported back to the countries that want them dead? OCAP seriously saves lives in many ways. ocap.ca

4. I think 'Police' is the best anti-cop song I've heard in years. What kind of experiences have you all had with police that made you write the song? (Me: beaten, wrongfully arrested, the whole bullshit) What's your favorite anti-cop song? (Me: Police Brutality)

D: Hate Police by the Dicks and The Authorities I hate Cops. I'm one of the least militent anti-cop people in this band and that's is probably because I've had the least violent run ins with them. I've been harrased and stuff but I try my best to avoid them I'd even go so far and say I'm affraid of them. The whole concept of an authority figure who answers to no one is the most frightening element of civilization. While it is a nesessity it is something I will never be fully able to accept and that is because I don't even trust myself let alone some dude who felt the need to be a moral guardian.

J: Yeah i really feel scared of cops as well. I had bail conditions for a long time and since then i've pretty much been looking over my shoulder at all times when i'm out of doors.

5. In 'No Pasaran' the lyrics are pretty blatantly pro-anarchist. Would you consider FUCKED UP an anarchist hardcore band? What do you all think of the struggling modern anarchist 'movement'? Do you feel the major concern of most anarchist organisations is to convert people to consider themselves anarchist - as opposed to organising communities in non-heirarchic manners?

J: Again i wouldn't consider FU to be an anything band, because we are all really different from one another. Personally, i believe in anarchist ideas but i don't consider myself part of the modern anarchist movement or any project that is specifically one thing. I guess if you can think of a name for yourself you aren't trying hard enough to fully express yourself. When kids come through who are part of that movement, while i have sympathy for some of their aims and for its legacy i can't help but feeling antagonistic towards them for some reason.

6. Canadian hardcore has ruled my world since CHOKEHOLD and LEFT FOR DEAD fucked me up all those years ago. What bands from your area are worth checking out? What's the local 'scene' like? So Gord from Deranged has the best label around right now, right?!

D: Toronto and surrounding areas has the best scene it has ever had. Rammer and Goathorn are insane metal bands worth checking out. No Warning off-shoot Violent Minds are great. Career Suicide and the Curse are both awsome on record and fun live. Anagram and Lullabye Arkastra are both solid post-punk bands with serious hard-ons for hardcore. Carnations and Dead Letter Dept. are to local bands that play poppy punk that are totally slept on. Hostage Life are a new band that are worth keeping an eye on for sure. All must certainly bow down for Teen Crud Combo who's LP will be dropping on deranged soon and will not dissapoint. Deranged is good but Devour is perfect. They released amazing records in every genre.

J: Toronto has always been wierd in that there has always been really great bands from around but never any sort of scene, which actually i'd prefer. That way bands are more internatlized and develop on their own. Great bands from here right now are RAMMER, CAREER SUICIDE, and the recently departed TEEN CRUD COMBO. ALso NO WARNING. Gords label is good.

7. Breakout Fanzine was pretty short lived, but the issue (#1) I got a hold of was pretty fucking awesome. In it, you talk a lot about the need to document the hardcore scene, and you interview the kids who wrote 'WHO GOT THE NEUTRON BOMB' and review a whole bunch of books written about hardcore. Could you tell us a little about why you think that shit is important?

J: Well this is discussed a little better in issue 2. Basically punk history happens on two fronts - you can see amazing bands documented in the mainstream on TV (DAMNED, SEX PISTOLS, ect) as park of rock and roll history, which is fine but there is always a subtext made up of oral histories, where old peoples memories are passed down generation to generation, in a sort of tribal way, zines and to a lesser extent books. Documenting punk in such a way gives anyone the opportunity to at once help to preserve punk history and also create it. Doing a zine or being in a band or taking a picture or telling someone about a show you went to is like contributing to and creating history in real-time. Since a zine is something tangible that you can look at and read, it represents that sort of documentation in a little more sturdy way. When I was doing Breakout it interested me to interview people who had documented punk rock in zines or books because i felt maybe they had a strong hold on a certain time and place of the history that i was part of. One of the guys who wrote NEUTRON BOMB ran the MASQUE, one of the main punk dives in the LA 77 explosion so talking to him let me give a modern recollection of a part of punk history i would have otherwise have to had pieced together myself from lots of different sources.

8. What kind of legacy do you want FUCKED UP to leave behind you?

D: For me I want Fucked Up to be looked at like the nerves or the melvins. A band the was never hugely popular but does have a lasting impact. The music that is ignored by one generation seems to shape the next.

9. Any final words, future plans, contact details and all that kinda stuff should follow a sentence with: "The last time I started shaving my genitals...".

D: Thanks. Mad props to Death Sentance, The Hard-ons, Permament Damage, Rupture, etc. Aussie Hardcore Killin' Shit!

Back