Give Up All Hope
February 6th 2008 05:20
Interview:
GIVE UP ALL HOPE is not going to have you reaching for a blade and cutting your wrists as their name would suggest! Their pummelling d-beat is more likely to have you dancing like a madman; running through the streets clanging bells and smashing things in anticipation of the apocalypse!
For the past four years this band from London have been blaze trailing their way around the world, brutalising ears while touring Mexico, Europe in 2007 with Sydney punk rockers Vae Victis and now bound for down under in Feb 2008. They squat nasty places, can drink you under the table, they have an ex member of Doom, hell they probably even have pet rats!
Cathy from Vae Victis interviewed these crust rock n’ rollers to find out more.
Cath: G’day Give up all hope, let’s start with introducing yourselves...
Arno: Hi there, so here we go my name's Arno and I play a 6-string axe. I’m the newest member. I joined about 10 months ago, just before the Mexican tour. Other drunks in the band include Gian Luca on bass and spikey-mohawk Robert on the d-beat machine / vocals and Chris grinding the other 6 string axe. Chris and Gian Luca are the only original remaining members.
Chris: I play guitar and sing.
Cath: Give up all hope seems like a pretty star studded line up, tell us about what other bands you have been in and are in now? How do you think this effects GUAH?
Chris: Ok showing my age here; Septic Holocaust (never made it out of the bedroom), Warfear, Wartorn, Biohazard, Health Hazard, three great tours with Hiatus, Suffer, Doom, Sawn Off, Boxed In, Losing the Battle, Beginning of the End (present).
Arno: All right, I guess we all have been involved in the DIY punk scene for years and years now so to name some bands Gian Luca was in Nailbiter, Robert was in polish legend White Rabbits and I have been in Visions of War (for about seven years now), Skew Whiff (ex Hiatus) and Detritus. I don’t think our previous bands influence GUAH, except maybe because they represent the kind of music we love and have been playing for years. Nothing original but that’s what we love and have been doing a long time before ‘D-BEAT’ was the trend.
Cath: How would you describe the kind of music you make to someone that has never heard it before?
Chris: D-Beat
Arno: I would describe it as a bunch of drunk bums that should learn how to tune their instruments! No, seriously, it’s straight in your face Scandinavian influenced d-beat crust-core. We all Scandinavian bands and are influenced by them. Just enough melodies but without getting emo! Haha..
Cath: You used to have someone who just did the singing, but now Chris and Robert take turns with the singing, tell us about how that came about?
Arno: I wasn’t in the band back then but the singer who recorded the 7inch left the band last year. We tried another guy on vocals around the same time I joined the band but he couldn’t keep up with the band for health reasons. Having a three week tour planned in Mexico a few weeks later we just thought the easiest thing to do was to try vocals with people all ready in the band, and since we felt good as a four piece we just kept it this way; more for convenience really than anything else.
Chris: We had a couple of singers but it didn't really work out. Giulio sang on the 7inch but he left a few weeks before a European tour due to personal reasons. We had to cancel the whole thing. Then Steve who does spoken word with Project Hopeless had a go but he got really sick and we had a tour of Mexico to do. If he had got sick in Mexico it would have been a disaster. So we had a go at singing and it worked out. I'd still like to find another singer though.
Cath: When you're not playing brutal music what do you do with yourselves? Are there any other projects, outside of music, that you're involved with?
Chris: Full time dreamer and falling off my bike!
Arno: I've been quite busy with this weird project called my life lately! Been working on it for the past 28 years but its going nowhere really! No, seriously, I used to be a lot more active in the scene back in Belgium. Nothing special, just going to do more demos and stuff, opening squats, organising benefit gigs and cafes etc. Used to print t-shirts and stuff for Visions of War, doing a distro; mainly Anarchy based books and pamphlets, vegan recipes, shirts etc. All really cheap! I do a little bit less these days unfortunately, but I will return!
Cath: England seems to have very generous squatting laws, do you all squat? Tell us about squatting in London.
Arno: I only moved to London a few months ago, so I guess I’m not the right person to talk about that. Seems fairly easy and tolerated to squat in London, but on the other hand squats don’t often seem to last for a very long time which can be very energy sucking and demotivating. Gian Luca, Chris and I all live in the same squatted building in Brixton, a run down dodgy area in the south of London. We seem to have been quite lucky with our place as its been squatted for 15 years and probably wont be evicted ‘til next year at least! It makes things easier for the band as well. I have been squatting for quite a few years in Belgium before moving to London but here with such crazy expensive rent and stuff it makes squatting a necessity, as much as a political choice.
Chris: Guess we do have generous squatting laws but if you keep getting evicted every 3-4 months it can get pretty demoralising. Once you have a lock on the door and a key that fits it you have squatters’ rights. In reality if someone comes and uses violence most people will leave. It doesn't happen so often but I've seen it. If you keep a place for 12 years and can prove it, the house is yours. Don't know of too many houses that are now owned by the people that squatted it. There is one in Leeds. There was another house in Leeds that was squatted for 18 years, they were evicted because someone had tried to do a rent scam at some point so the owner could say they had claimed rent. I have been so lucky where I am now, been here for over two years and we should have another year (if we trust the council).
Cath: Are there many squatted social centres or DIY venues? What's the scene (for lack of a better word) like in London? One band from Europe said they would never ever tour the UK because it was so shit. What do you think of that?
Arno: There are a few cool social centres and stuff but things don’t seem to last very long, at least that’s the impression I get. Most gigs seem to happen in bars, which I don’t really enjoy as much as gigs in squats. The scene here in London seems really segregated, I guess it’s a bit like everywhere, like you know, the chaos / spikey punks on one side, on the other the crusties, and then your average records nerd! Things are a bit more complicated since the city is so big, some people don’t go to gigs in the North cause they live in the South and vice versa.
Chris: There used to be a great place in London called the 1 21 only 10 mins from where I live now. I got evicted about eight years ago. Since then I've been in London; three and a half years. There has been loads of different squatted venues. Now there is the Grosvenor Pub where most of the gigs are in the South but it's not exactly DIY and the beer is really expensive. There is the 1 in 12 in Bradford. Europe is great! There are lots of amazing well established venues. I would like to live there one day. Maybe that band has a point, whoever it was?!
Cath: You all moved to London from other countries / cities. How does the land of punk rock compare in the place you came from to London?
Arno: I have been living in a lot of different cities in Belgium but I would say that in general the scene is bigger here for sure. People in England seem to go home after the gig to party or whatever around midnight or something, when in most places in Europe bands are only starting to play around that time. Gigs are also more often in squats and stuff in mainland Europe. The gossiping is the same everywhere though!
Chris: I moved from Bradford, always had a great time here when I visited. Now it's lost it's romanticism and is just a big city with no easy escape to the countryside. There are generally more people at gigs here than other cities in the UK. Some of them even dance!
Cath: If I had a magic wand and could get you to play your dream gig, what bands would you be playing with?
Arno: Ok, if this can be completely crazy I would say Motorhead (for sure), Discharge (with original line up), Johnny Cash, The Ramones, Anticimex and Vae Victis of course! Haha..
Chris: Motorhead, Anticimex, Deathside (r.i.p Chelsea), Wolfbrigade, Judgement and Vae Victis.
Cath: What are your lyrics about and who writes them? Are they about giving up all hope and other such nihilistic visions?
Arno: They are quite different depending on who writes them. Nowadays we all try to do our bit. Mine are quite pessimistic, but they haven’t been recorded yet. We have four completely different personalities and the lyrics reflect that.
Chris: I don't know. Some of Guilio's lyrics were quite optimistic for my taste. We have songs about being beaten down by the system / life and coming back stronger, working some shit job and ending up like a slave, squatters who don't really care about the movement just wanna save their money, people who buy / take pills for everything and wanna live forever etc.
Cath: You seem to go on a lot of tours around the world. Tell us something about going on tour with Vae Victis around Europe.
Arno: Touring with Vae Victis was amazing and great and I’m so glad we did it! I guess the regular dance sessions on cheesy music were great, and seeing James Russian dancing is something I’m not gonna forget soon! Playing Slovenia and Slovakia was quite an experience too. I had never played there before, and the audience and organisers were ace; I loved it!
Cath: What recorded stuff have you got and how can people get their hands on it?
Chris: We have a 7inch on Never Healed Records which you can find HERE
Gian Luca: We have a 7inch called ‘Nowhere to hide from yourself’ out on Never Healed Records, which is sold out but you can still get copies from me via wolp74@hotmail.com. Then we have a split CD with the great Antimaster from Mexico which includes our 7inch plus one more song that you can also get from me. We have recorded four new tracks for a split 10inch with No Conforme (Spain) hopefully out soon, and we intend to record two more songs for a split with Vae Victis that should be out for the Australian tour.
Cath: My favourite song that you played with us on the European tour was "Take a look at Gian Luca". Tell me about this song? Do you usually write lyrics about looking at members of the band? Does Gian Luca not get enough attention? I remember one show when Chris dedicated a song to himself! Are you a very inward looking bunch or am I just misunderstanding things?
Gian Luca: That's my favourite song too! I wrote it to myself because I think I deserve more attention, you should read the lyrics! And it was me who suggested Chris should dedicate himself songs at shows. Now both Robert and Arno are writing compositions (should we call them odes?!) to themselves. By the way, cheers to Richard, our old guitarist, who came out with the ‘take a look..’ thing!
Arno: We never get enough attention haha! Im’ actually just writing this all concept LP about myself! I humbly called it ‘Arno’!
Cath: Lastly, what do the Australian punk rockers have to look forward to when you hit our shores?
Gian Luca: I hope we'll be able to come, we like the booze, the fun and loud music, we should get along. Thanks for the interview, hope we didn't bore you too much.
Arno: Be afraid, be really afraid! Thanks for the questions and thanks for reading this!
You can check out the Give Up All Hope website HERE
GIVE UP ALL HOPE is not going to have you reaching for a blade and cutting your wrists as their name would suggest! Their pummelling d-beat is more likely to have you dancing like a madman; running through the streets clanging bells and smashing things in anticipation of the apocalypse!
G I V E - U P - A L L - H O P E
ARNO: Chainsaw
GIAN-LUCA: Distorted 4 Strings
CHRIS: Axe Grinding & Throat Breaking
ROBERT: Hell Hammers & Throat Ripping
ARNO: Chainsaw
GIAN-LUCA: Distorted 4 Strings
CHRIS: Axe Grinding & Throat Breaking
ROBERT: Hell Hammers & Throat Ripping
For the past four years this band from London have been blaze trailing their way around the world, brutalising ears while touring Mexico, Europe in 2007 with Sydney punk rockers Vae Victis and now bound for down under in Feb 2008. They squat nasty places, can drink you under the table, they have an ex member of Doom, hell they probably even have pet rats!
Cathy from Vae Victis interviewed these crust rock n’ rollers to find out more.
Cath: G’day Give up all hope, let’s start with introducing yourselves...
Arno: Hi there, so here we go my name's Arno and I play a 6-string axe. I’m the newest member. I joined about 10 months ago, just before the Mexican tour. Other drunks in the band include Gian Luca on bass and spikey-mohawk Robert on the d-beat machine / vocals and Chris grinding the other 6 string axe. Chris and Gian Luca are the only original remaining members.
Chris: I play guitar and sing.
Cath: Give up all hope seems like a pretty star studded line up, tell us about what other bands you have been in and are in now? How do you think this effects GUAH?
Chris: Ok showing my age here; Septic Holocaust (never made it out of the bedroom), Warfear, Wartorn, Biohazard, Health Hazard, three great tours with Hiatus, Suffer, Doom, Sawn Off, Boxed In, Losing the Battle, Beginning of the End (present).
Arno: All right, I guess we all have been involved in the DIY punk scene for years and years now so to name some bands Gian Luca was in Nailbiter, Robert was in polish legend White Rabbits and I have been in Visions of War (for about seven years now), Skew Whiff (ex Hiatus) and Detritus. I don’t think our previous bands influence GUAH, except maybe because they represent the kind of music we love and have been playing for years. Nothing original but that’s what we love and have been doing a long time before ‘D-BEAT’ was the trend.
Cath: How would you describe the kind of music you make to someone that has never heard it before?
Chris: D-Beat
Arno: I would describe it as a bunch of drunk bums that should learn how to tune their instruments! No, seriously, it’s straight in your face Scandinavian influenced d-beat crust-core. We all Scandinavian bands and are influenced by them. Just enough melodies but without getting emo! Haha..
Cath: You used to have someone who just did the singing, but now Chris and Robert take turns with the singing, tell us about how that came about?
Arno: I wasn’t in the band back then but the singer who recorded the 7inch left the band last year. We tried another guy on vocals around the same time I joined the band but he couldn’t keep up with the band for health reasons. Having a three week tour planned in Mexico a few weeks later we just thought the easiest thing to do was to try vocals with people all ready in the band, and since we felt good as a four piece we just kept it this way; more for convenience really than anything else.
Chris: We had a couple of singers but it didn't really work out. Giulio sang on the 7inch but he left a few weeks before a European tour due to personal reasons. We had to cancel the whole thing. Then Steve who does spoken word with Project Hopeless had a go but he got really sick and we had a tour of Mexico to do. If he had got sick in Mexico it would have been a disaster. So we had a go at singing and it worked out. I'd still like to find another singer though.
Cath: When you're not playing brutal music what do you do with yourselves? Are there any other projects, outside of music, that you're involved with?
Chris: Full time dreamer and falling off my bike!
Arno: I've been quite busy with this weird project called my life lately! Been working on it for the past 28 years but its going nowhere really! No, seriously, I used to be a lot more active in the scene back in Belgium. Nothing special, just going to do more demos and stuff, opening squats, organising benefit gigs and cafes etc. Used to print t-shirts and stuff for Visions of War, doing a distro; mainly Anarchy based books and pamphlets, vegan recipes, shirts etc. All really cheap! I do a little bit less these days unfortunately, but I will return!
Cath: England seems to have very generous squatting laws, do you all squat? Tell us about squatting in London.
Arno: I only moved to London a few months ago, so I guess I’m not the right person to talk about that. Seems fairly easy and tolerated to squat in London, but on the other hand squats don’t often seem to last for a very long time which can be very energy sucking and demotivating. Gian Luca, Chris and I all live in the same squatted building in Brixton, a run down dodgy area in the south of London. We seem to have been quite lucky with our place as its been squatted for 15 years and probably wont be evicted ‘til next year at least! It makes things easier for the band as well. I have been squatting for quite a few years in Belgium before moving to London but here with such crazy expensive rent and stuff it makes squatting a necessity, as much as a political choice.
Chris: Guess we do have generous squatting laws but if you keep getting evicted every 3-4 months it can get pretty demoralising. Once you have a lock on the door and a key that fits it you have squatters’ rights. In reality if someone comes and uses violence most people will leave. It doesn't happen so often but I've seen it. If you keep a place for 12 years and can prove it, the house is yours. Don't know of too many houses that are now owned by the people that squatted it. There is one in Leeds. There was another house in Leeds that was squatted for 18 years, they were evicted because someone had tried to do a rent scam at some point so the owner could say they had claimed rent. I have been so lucky where I am now, been here for over two years and we should have another year (if we trust the council).
Cath: Are there many squatted social centres or DIY venues? What's the scene (for lack of a better word) like in London? One band from Europe said they would never ever tour the UK because it was so shit. What do you think of that?
Arno: There are a few cool social centres and stuff but things don’t seem to last very long, at least that’s the impression I get. Most gigs seem to happen in bars, which I don’t really enjoy as much as gigs in squats. The scene here in London seems really segregated, I guess it’s a bit like everywhere, like you know, the chaos / spikey punks on one side, on the other the crusties, and then your average records nerd! Things are a bit more complicated since the city is so big, some people don’t go to gigs in the North cause they live in the South and vice versa.
Chris: There used to be a great place in London called the 1 21 only 10 mins from where I live now. I got evicted about eight years ago. Since then I've been in London; three and a half years. There has been loads of different squatted venues. Now there is the Grosvenor Pub where most of the gigs are in the South but it's not exactly DIY and the beer is really expensive. There is the 1 in 12 in Bradford. Europe is great! There are lots of amazing well established venues. I would like to live there one day. Maybe that band has a point, whoever it was?!
Cath: You all moved to London from other countries / cities. How does the land of punk rock compare in the place you came from to London?
Arno: I have been living in a lot of different cities in Belgium but I would say that in general the scene is bigger here for sure. People in England seem to go home after the gig to party or whatever around midnight or something, when in most places in Europe bands are only starting to play around that time. Gigs are also more often in squats and stuff in mainland Europe. The gossiping is the same everywhere though!
Chris: I moved from Bradford, always had a great time here when I visited. Now it's lost it's romanticism and is just a big city with no easy escape to the countryside. There are generally more people at gigs here than other cities in the UK. Some of them even dance!
Cath: If I had a magic wand and could get you to play your dream gig, what bands would you be playing with?
Arno: Ok, if this can be completely crazy I would say Motorhead (for sure), Discharge (with original line up), Johnny Cash, The Ramones, Anticimex and Vae Victis of course! Haha..
Chris: Motorhead, Anticimex, Deathside (r.i.p Chelsea), Wolfbrigade, Judgement and Vae Victis.
Cath: What are your lyrics about and who writes them? Are they about giving up all hope and other such nihilistic visions?
Arno: They are quite different depending on who writes them. Nowadays we all try to do our bit. Mine are quite pessimistic, but they haven’t been recorded yet. We have four completely different personalities and the lyrics reflect that.
Chris: I don't know. Some of Guilio's lyrics were quite optimistic for my taste. We have songs about being beaten down by the system / life and coming back stronger, working some shit job and ending up like a slave, squatters who don't really care about the movement just wanna save their money, people who buy / take pills for everything and wanna live forever etc.
Cath: You seem to go on a lot of tours around the world. Tell us something about going on tour with Vae Victis around Europe.
Arno: Touring with Vae Victis was amazing and great and I’m so glad we did it! I guess the regular dance sessions on cheesy music were great, and seeing James Russian dancing is something I’m not gonna forget soon! Playing Slovenia and Slovakia was quite an experience too. I had never played there before, and the audience and organisers were ace; I loved it!
Cath: What recorded stuff have you got and how can people get their hands on it?
Chris: We have a 7inch on Never Healed Records which you can find HERE
Gian Luca: We have a 7inch called ‘Nowhere to hide from yourself’ out on Never Healed Records, which is sold out but you can still get copies from me via wolp74@hotmail.com. Then we have a split CD with the great Antimaster from Mexico which includes our 7inch plus one more song that you can also get from me. We have recorded four new tracks for a split 10inch with No Conforme (Spain) hopefully out soon, and we intend to record two more songs for a split with Vae Victis that should be out for the Australian tour.
Cath: My favourite song that you played with us on the European tour was "Take a look at Gian Luca". Tell me about this song? Do you usually write lyrics about looking at members of the band? Does Gian Luca not get enough attention? I remember one show when Chris dedicated a song to himself! Are you a very inward looking bunch or am I just misunderstanding things?
Gian Luca: That's my favourite song too! I wrote it to myself because I think I deserve more attention, you should read the lyrics! And it was me who suggested Chris should dedicate himself songs at shows. Now both Robert and Arno are writing compositions (should we call them odes?!) to themselves. By the way, cheers to Richard, our old guitarist, who came out with the ‘take a look..’ thing!
Arno: We never get enough attention haha! Im’ actually just writing this all concept LP about myself! I humbly called it ‘Arno’!
Cath: Lastly, what do the Australian punk rockers have to look forward to when you hit our shores?
Gian Luca: I hope we'll be able to come, we like the booze, the fun and loud music, we should get along. Thanks for the interview, hope we didn't bore you too much.
Arno: Be afraid, be really afraid! Thanks for the questions and thanks for reading this!
You can check out the Give Up All Hope website HERE
Interview with 'Give Up All Hope' by Cathy from Vae Victis
Hails! to the lads of Give Up All Hope for agreeing to participate, and taking the time to the complete this interview.
All pictures courtesy of Give Up All Hope.
Hails! to the lads of Give Up All Hope for agreeing to participate, and taking the time to the complete this interview.
All pictures courtesy of Give Up All Hope.
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