Time to look back, to reflect.
2007
The first thing we did was releasing our first full length “Everyday”, made possible by the great folks of Shield Recordings. We were pretty much blown away by the reactions, really positive reviews from all over the world. So with our record out, we got ourselves in a van and took off into the distance. Spain would be our next stop. Our first trip ever. An amazing experience for sure. Carles from Deathwishteam Girona helped us out greatly on that one, “Leuk skipak!” dude (inside pun, everyone else just ignore this). Read our report about this trip here.
When we got back it was time to play Light The Fuse, the coolest European oldschool hardcore festival by far. We owe Rob bigtime, he even pushed the festival back a week, because we would be in Spain on that date. Now how cool is that? Light The Fuse was amazing, only new upcoming bands from Europe. Who said you need big American headliners to have an amazing show? Rob proved them wrong, year after year. The week after that we got the chance to play with Gang Green at the Goudvishal, a venue that’s pretty special to us. We’ve seen some great bands there. That month we also played our first shows in Germany and Belgium. The crowd made us feel at home right away, good times.
We also played a show with the almighty Merauder in the coolest venue of the Netherlands, Innocent. And we’ll never forget a show in our hometown, playing in a bar that normally doesn’t do hardcore shows, to people that (most of them) never go to hardcore shows. We didn’t know what to expect, but the place went crazy.
2007 also made another dream come true, we were able to hold our own vinyl in our hands. We celebrated this with a releaseshow in both the Netherlands (this show had the most lineup/venue changes EVER, but in the end we ended up playing with Earth Crisis, Losing Streak and Deal With It amongst others at our beloved Innocent again) and Belgium (which we always love to play, scream for us Brugge, uhuh).
With out LP out, it was time to get in the van again. This time our destination was the United Kingdom. First, we made a stop in Belgium though. Jeff, Didier and everyone else that got us that very last-second show, we’ll remember. That show showed us all how amazing hardcore can be. Rob Boyce was the one crazy enough to get us over to the UK. Later we learned he not only was crazy enough to do that, but playing Crazy Golf and Guitar Hero with us wasn’t a problem either. And he also has the honor to be only one moshing at the amazing PLS MOSH 07 fest. No-one can top that. Read all about it on a little report we wrote here.
Other highlights include the State Of Mind (check that band out people) releaseshow at The Stage (another cool venue!), the honor to play at the 25 years of Lintfabriek party and an uplifting show in Wijhe at the Final Stand demorelease party, crazy times. We also got featured in a couple of cool zines, Rising Tide #1, Face Reality #2 and Keep It Clear #7 to name some. We love zines and if anyone wants to interview us, get in touch, because we’ll be more than happy to answer your questions. We also got interviewed for bigger magazines like Aardschok and Rock Tribune. We even got a small part in a national newspaper. And I’m probably forgetting things, oh well…
It wasn’t all peace and happiness though. 2007 will also be the year of a lot of venues closing down. Places we loved to play or see shows at. Most importantly hardcore landmarks (and not limited to that) like the Goudvishal in Arnhem (NL) and the Lintfabriek in Kontich (BE). It’s a shame places like that are dissapearing. Hopefully good replacements will be found. To end this on a more positive note again though: Innocent in Hengelo (NL), the coolest venue in the Netherlands (if you ask me), is currently reconstructing the place and will open up again in 2008. We can’t wait to play there again.
2008
Let’s try to look ahead a bit as well, what will 2008 bring us? Well, first of all. A 7″ with some new songs. We’re currently working on a bunch of new songs. Some of them will be recorded in February, when we’ll hit De Studio in Asse (Belgium). Details will be announced later on, but we can’t wait to get this recorded and released.
2008 will also mark the end of two cool festivals. Light The Fuse (Netherlands) and Break The Chains (Germany), will be no more after their final editions next year. They’re going out with a bang though, so be there. We’ll be playing Break The Chains. At Light The Fuse you can find us in the crowd. More importantly: Who’s going to take over the torch? A new name, a fresh start? Get it done. If you need a crappy flyer, you’ll know where to find me.
Anyway, we’re also hoping to find the time to get out of the Netherlands more. To invade some other countries again. If you want us to come over, get in touch. Shows in general actually, we wanna play, anytime, anywhere. We need to plan things out in advance though, because of work/school/internships etc.
2008 will also feature some new Pressure Release Records releases, tapes still aren’t dead. Another thing I’m working on at the moment is a zine called “Some Will Never Know“. I’m not going to let out more information yet, but be prepared for a lot of words.
While writing this down I really started to realize what an amazing time we actually had this year. I don’t know how to thank everyone properly, everyone that helped us out in any way this year, but I’ll try it in a simple way: THANKS A LOT! Hope we can count on you in the new year as well. To close this off: Be at the final Lintfabriek show (the youth are getting restless!) and enjoy new year’s eve! And most importantly: Keep using your head.
– Pim / Said And Done