Hello, how are you? Could you begin by introducing yourself: name, age, hobbies, job, the basic first question.

Haha great, feels like the first day at school, introducing each other. Well, I’m Pim and 23 years old. I work at a web development company where I do design and programming. I’m in the last year of my education as well, I switched from full time classes to 1 day in the week and the rest of the time I work / free-lance. As for hobbies, the time I do have free aside from this are usually spend doing something hardcore or job related Or reading, fanzines, books, newspaper, anything with words in it will do. Educate yourself.

How did you get in contact with hardcore and punk music? I heard that all began because of Nirvana, am I right? (Yes, I’m like you and love that kind of story)

Haha, great you did some research! Well my love for alternative music started with Nirvana for sure. For some years in my youth it was the only band I listened to. I loved it. It was heavy but still melodic. I don’t care what people say about them, talk as much shit as you want. I love that band, and they have been so influential to a lot of kids.

A bit later I got in touch with hardcore / punk. Not a direct link with Nirvana though, it’s not that I discovered it through their namedropping or covers or something. No Turning Back was the band that drew me in (a long time ago, back when they still played metalcore / beatdown stuff). The energy, the honesty, no barriers between band and crowd. The D.I.Y. aspect. That got me hooked.

You sing in the band Said and Done, so could you introduce the band, a short history for those who don’t know you, where everything began, you first song, your first cover song (I’m pretty sure it was a Nirvana’s cover!)

Of course, Said And Done started in 2006. It’s more or less an evolution from the first time Joost (our drummer who’s now in Taiwan) and I started jamming back in ’99. Throughout the years people came and went, names were dropped and claimed, the sound changed and it all came together in what we now call Said And Done. Said And Done at the moment is Remco on guitar, Stef on guitar, Joep on bass and Henri on drums. Our original drummer is away for half a year in Taiwan. He’ll be back in January / February. We’re siked Henri was willing to step in for the time being. Awesome dude. Anyway, aside from them I’m the one holding the microphone and writing the lyrics.

The first things we did back in ’99 were actually doing our own songs. I wrote some stuff and I was excited to play them with a drummer (although he could hardly drum at the time, not that I was any better…). I played the guitar and sung back then. The first song we covered was a Nirvana song for sure. I think it was “Floyd The Barber” from “Bleach”. Pretty easy song. But soon after that a lot of them followed, we couldn’t help it. The first cover we did with Said And Done was “Hard Times” by the Cro Mags. We also did “No Remorse” by Crown Of Thornz, “Down By Law” by Madball, “Life Is Pain” by Merauder, “Devilangel” by True Blue and at the moment we’re throwing around “Life Of My Own” by the Cro Mags and “Foot the Bill” by Leeway during rehearsals. Good times.

I know that there were a lot of names for S&D so what could have been the name of the band instead of Said and Done?

Pfff, we had a huge list indeed. I don’t know what was on it exactly anymore. I remember “Sink Or Swim” being on it, recently a vegan band from Germany claimed that name. Cool people by the way. “Give And Take” was the one that was close to being picked. In the end we went with “Said And Done” though. Other names fell through because they were already used. Like Said And Done we found out later… Oh well, we’re part of the hardcore tradition of recycling names now.

You played guitar when then band began, am I right? Why did you change for the vocals, could you imagine you playing guitar in Said and Done instead of singing now?

Yeah, totally in the beginning (before we were called Said And Done) there was a period I played the guitar and did the singing. But when the music evolved I decided it was time for me to switch to singing, because I couldn’t focus on both properly. So nowadays I keep the guitar playing to myself although I did a short lived oldschool project called “Those Days” some time ago. We still have plans to revisit that some day, when we have the time. At the moment I couldn’t imagine playing the guitar in Said And Done instead of singing, it would sound totally different. I can imagine myself playing guitar in a band after this though. For sure.

In the song “No Balance”, you deal with the gap between poor and rich, and the fact that we have to wake up, but what can we do? What are the best things to do in your opinion?

It’s about the gap between rich and poor as well, but it’s more about the balance in general. It’s lost. We live in a world of extremes you know. What we can do? The first thing is opening our eyes for it I guess, being aware of it. I don’t know if we can turn the tide, I’m pretty pessimistic about that actually. But we have to keep hope I guess. PMA!

The things to do are mostly small things. Help out charities. Be it with giving money, collecting, or donating clothes or something you know. All kinds of options. How about benefit shows for charities, you don’t see them that often anymore?

At my work we’re developing a website at the moment called unitedthoughts.org. It’s about making sure the money you give is going to the destination you want you know. So it doesn’t get lost somewhere along the line. You vote for a charity and if a charity gets enough votes the money is going there. We’re trying to give people more control you know, to bring them close to the projects.

Could you tell me who must feel concerned about “Empty soul”?

It’s more or less the sum of a couple of peoples. It’s about politicians playing with words, twisting around the subject. It’s even about people who I like to call friends, breaking their promises. I absolutely hate it, I always try to keep my word. I can’t stand it when others don’t. But you know how it is. Time heals wounds they say, it’s not true all the time, but with stuff like this it is. Until the line is crossed for the final time. You can’t keep forgiving, you don’t keep forgetting. Once it’s enough, it’s enough.

Could you explain me the artwork of the LP “Everyday”, we can see different characters from the churchman to the cop, is it reflecting the life in the Netherlands? Is this representing a feeling of oppression and how they want to control you? (Like in the song “controlled”)

That’s exactly what it should reflect. The hippie was an idea of the guy who did the drawing, Nabbe the Bastard, by the way. We didn’t came up with that one. The rest is what you described. The guy on the left in the back stands for corrupt governments, who only care about the money. The church, the pigs… The terrorists stand more for the fear that the government instills about them than the actual terrorists. But you can take it both ways if you want to. The guy in the middle is you, me, whatever. Slowly turning insane.

Why did you decide to totally change the artwork for the new 7” and put only pictures of landscapes, are all of these places means something special to you?

Didn’t you read the inside Simon haha? Shame on you! Haha no. It’s pretty simple, all those pictures are from our trip to Spain in February of 2007. Right after we released “Everyday”. Those pictures, the title and the song “Into The Distance” reference to that time. So yeah they’re special to us.

We decided to switch from the drawings because we wanted to do something different. It also was easier for me to do the designs since I had all the source material I needed and wouldn’t have to wait on a drawing or anything (not saying that we had to wait long on Nabbe or anything!). We’re pretty glad with the result.

You seem to come from a little city, do you have a records/music stores there to get good stuffs, places to rehearse, how did you spend your time?

City? We come from a small town. Different small towns actually, all pretty close to each other. There are no good record or music stores around here, we have to go to the city for that but then there aren’t any amazing places either. Thank god for the internet, where you can order whatever you need if you search well enough. It’s still a search, just a bit easier.

As for a rehearsal room, we rehearse at my parents place. It’s right behind our house. My dad has a company where he needs to have a big storage room etc. In that building we build our rehearsal room into a corner (because of a neighbor who complained about the noise). So now we can rehearse whenever we want. It isn’t the best space sound wise, but aside from that it’s amazing. We’re really lucky with it.

We rehearse two days every week (when possible), and that’s the only time we see each other most of the time. Aside from shows that is. We all have our own separate lives. School, jobs, sports, you know how it is.

You guys seem to love “Only living witness”, tell me how awesome is that band for you? Can you introduce this band to our readers please?

Hahaha, great question. Yeah, I love Only Living Witness. I think all of us in this band do. That groove, that voice. It’s up there with the best bands ever, for me that is. I interviewed Jonah for Some Will Never Know (and Asice.net) and he was really nice about at all, great guy.

Some weeks ago, Only Living Witness reunited in the USA and Koos Loudnoise tried to bring em over to the Netherlands for a final show as well. And he succeeded. They played at this big metal festival in Eindhoven. Not the best setting ever, but still, we had the chance to see them live. It was amazing. It was such a blast to hear those songs performed live. Never thought that would happen, since they made it pretty clear a reunion was out of the question. Luckily things changed.

As for an introduction to everyone else, just check www.myspace.com/olw. Listen to Prone Mortal Form and if you’re not banging your head right away, you can forget about it. You just don’t understand haha.

You just completed a European tour, what are your best memories of this adventure?

You wanna hear me say the show in Rennes right? Hahaha, ok, here you go. “The show in Rennes was the best memory of that trip”. It’s true though. We had a blast! I need to mention the show in Santona (Spain) as well. It’s just amazing that people from other countries can sing along to songs we have written in our small rehearsal room you know. It’s pretty unreal. Aside from that it was just the time together, the off days checking out the cities. Just having the time of our lives, meeting new people. Amazing times.

You guys spent a day off in Paris, what do you remember of the French capital and what did you visit?

That day was really cool. “Oh we have a day off, let’s check out Paris” hahaha. Now that I’m saying it out loud I notice how cool it actually is. You don’t really understand that when it’s happening you know. We’re spoiled hehe.

As for that day. We parked our car near Ben’s place. Shout out to Ben by the way, dude’s amazing. He was supposed to do a show for us originally, but that fell through because of the venue. When I approached him for a sleeping place, he opened up his house for us without any questions. Amazing. We owe the dude. He even was sick at the day itself but was so friendly. Really cool. Thanks dude!

Anyway, we took the metro and started exploring the city. First we went to the Champs Elysees. All those people, cool to see. After that we went to the Arc de Triumph where some of us took the stairs up. Quite a climb, amazing view though. In the end we visited the Eiffel tower, but when we saw the lines of people we decided to just chill in the grass. That’s when we decided to get in touch with Ben and we went to his place. There we enjoyed some beers (No worries, Ben is still edge) and a nice pizza before we went to bed.

It’s a great city. We behaved like proper tourists haha.

I read on your tour report that you appreciated the show in Rennes (and we loved it too), and you wrote that “all of the rumors about French scene are wrongs”, but what are these rumors?

People say that there aren’t any many good French bands you know. Such a big country and not many good hardcore bands. People talking though, always amazing. I’m not talking about Kickback by the way, not my kinda thing. You guys proved the rumors wrong, at least that’s how I think about it. I loved it.

You never heard about that though? Because other people I talked to from French seemed to agree about it.

You just put out a zine, which really impressed me. It’s quite personal (sometimes maybe too much), but it is really well done, questions are really far away from what we can read in a random hardcore zine! In the previous interviews that I read of you, you asked people to begin paper zines, why paper zines? The internet and all the blogs’ stuff are so easier and useful!

Thanks dude! You thought it was too personal sometimes? Which parts? Because I think if people didn’t want to talk about some stuff I always said they could refuse to answer or something. I think it’s interesting to talk about personal stuff etc, more than the usual standard questions you know. That was the whole intention of the zine.

Why paper zines? They have more soul than online zines, it’s more work to do them, so if people take the time to do them, it… I don’t know. It just feels better. Aside from that I can’t sit down on the toilet, or lay down in bed and read an e-zine. Wait, actually that’s untrue. I can read them on my iPhone haha. It’s just not the same though. I totally agree that for making them the internet is a lot easier. But that’s the same discussion with vinyl and CD’s. I still prefer vinyl though. It’s good that some stuff takes some effort for people.

How do you choose the people you interview, is this only friend? Because you seems to know all of them personally.

No not at all. I didn’t knew Jonah Jenkins at all. And with Patrick Kitzel, Andrew Westerhouse and Sean Riley I only exchanged some emails or messages now and then. And most of the other people I don’t know THAT well either. So no I can’t say I picked them based upon that.

I just picked people that I thought would be able to come up with interesting stories, you know, people who have something to say. For some of the people I had to do some research, for others I knew some background info so that was easier. The intention was to do personal interviews, so that’s how they come across, as personal conversations.

Why didn’t you put reviews in your zine? That’s the first thing I read in a zine, i like to know how people feel about a record, what is their favorite song and why…

Hahaha, I guess we’re exact opposites then. I don’t read reviews that often, because they’re not really interesting to me. Good, original reviews, with a twist or something are always great to read by the way, so there are exceptions to this. But those reviews that simply state the bio. All those zines with pages and pages of reviews. I don’t know, I can’t be bothered with it.

Aside from that the zine took me a long time, so reviews would be outdated right away. I write reviews now and then for asice.net, so check that site for reviews. I actually wanted to insert a page about this in the zine, to explain it, but I left it out at the last minute. Maybe I should include one in the next issue. I pretty much hate to review stuff too. I’m just not good at it. So I guess that helps haha.

Now I’m talking about this, I kinda have to come back about it a bit. I do love to read the reviews in old zines. To see how they thought about releases back then. Especially with releases we now consider classics you know.

In Some will never know, you‘ve made a “how to…” guide with advices of other scenesters, what are your advices to people who want to do a good zine?

First of all. Don’t put it off, just do it. For real, it’s going to cost time and money, but it’s totally worth it in the end.

Secondly, don’t do “here are 10 questions, please answer them” questions. Send return questions on the answers you get. The best things are face to face interviews, but I didn’t do those for Some Will Never Know either. Those are all email interviews. Do some research, on the other hand starting off blank can be cool too.

Pick people who have something to say. Nah that’s not totally true, everyone has a story, everyone has interesting stuff to say. Just make sure you get that info out of them. If people reply with standard one sentence answers, don’t publish the interview. Nobody cares and if someone isn’t willing to give decent answers they’re sure not worth the free publicity you’re giving them.

I don’t know, just try to put some effort in it. As long as it’s done with heart it’s okay by me.

Oh and for all you Frenchies, translate it into English Sorry Simon!

You’re also involved in the label “Pressure Release Records”, with the guy of Light the Fuse, you are only focused on tapes. Why don’t you put out CDs, people have less and less tape player, so what’s the point on releasing only tapes?

Yeah I started that with Rob some time ago. It’s more or less dead in the water at the moment, we’re not doing much with it. But the new 3 song promo tape of Said And Done will be on Pressure Release again. PRR08.

Why tapes? Because tapes are great. Why vinyl? Because vinyl is great. Demos and promos etc are cool on tape, other releases should be on vinyl.

I just don’t give a shit about CD’s. They’re just all over the place, getting scratched etc. You know the deal. With vinyl you have to be careful with it, take care of it.

If you want to promote your releases, it’s time! Sell your products man!

Aaah that shit sucks, I’m horrible at it. If you think anything you just read was meaningful, or do like a mix between Cro Mags, Leeway, Only Living Witness or something, feel free to check out our band. Places to remember are www.saidanddone.org and www.myspace.com/saidanddonehardcore. Say hi, leave us a message. Communication is the key.

Here is the “say what you want” space, so this space is yours!

I have nothing to add, I just want to thank you for the opportunity you gave me to speak out. Thanks a lot. I’m looking forward to the result, even if I can’t read it haha. La France c’est tres bien et au revoir! Something like that Shout outs to Money Time and Golden District. Good luck with your zine man, hope to meet you guys again soon!

Source

MM: First a small step back in time. When still called Stab Back you released your first CD ‘Break Out’, after which you chose to carry on as Said And Done. How do you look back on the songs on ‘Breaking Out’?

Pim: I have mixed feelings about it, I guess. I don’t have much affection for that particular style anymore. Especially my singing style, which sounds weird now. On the other hand; I can remember how happy we were leaving the studio with this CD, how proud we were of what we had accomplished. I’d rather let that feeling prevail. It’s too easy being condescending about it now, it’s just a snapshot of that time as far as I am concerned.

MM: So you could say, looking at Stab Back in hindsight, that you were looking for a sound to call your own. Do you think that you went into the studio too soon?

Pim: We were indeed searching for our own sound, which we still are in my opinion. We’re still evolving, musically speaking as well as human beings. Were we to quick in recording these songs? I don’t know man… We’ve learned so much recording the songs. People are constantly changing, especially at that age. We’re no exception to that process.

MM: ‘Everyday’ the first CD to carry the name Said and Done, seems to have certain connections to ‘Breaking Out’, in that you’re trying to escape the pressure imposed by school, parents, boss and peers. Would you say your lyrics are just a personal escape or are they also meant to give hope to people who feel trapped in this ratrace?

Pim: I can’t really see that connection. ‘Breaking Out’ was much less about that pressure you’re describing. Although on ‘Everyday’ I can only say ‘Yes’ wholeheartedly. It is a release valve, trying to write about these frustrations. And it’s not just the writing, also the playing and singing of our songs on stage is great therapy.

Simultaneously I thoroughly enjoy it when people get something out of it. These are the biggest compliments I can get as far as our band is concerned. Some time ago a guy in Belgium came up to me, to let me know the lyrics of ‘Everyday’ really helped him through a difficult period. I just didn’t know what to say, that just amazing, isn’t it? I’m just a simple guy from Brabant.

MM: The titletrack on ‘Everyday’ shows us that we’re never to old to learn or experience new things. Then in ‘Day In, Day Out’ you say; “Our Lives Are On Repeat”. Are you trying to escape tradition, which seems to dictate our lives? Are you more interested in self -regulation, maybe even anarchy?

Pim: Contradictions make me who I am. I think that’s inherent in being human. Traditions don’t mean that much to me, something like Christmas is just choking me. That compulsory cozyness, the religious angle. It’s just not for me. Everyone has habits though, and it’s good breaking them every now and then, but we’ll never be free of habits. About anarchy… I can’t relate to that on whatever level. How un-punk is that haha? It would become one giant mess, wouldn’t it? Everybody could do as they pleased, if we didn’t enforce any punishments on murder. Longing for these situations is utterly ridiculous. It’s great having rules, but we tend to take things a bit too far. Just rules for the sake of rules. I don’t think that will ever change though.

MM: What I really like about your lyrics is the fact, that despite being heavily rooted in New York hardcore, you don’t sing about the rough life in the streets. You touch the core of life in the Netherlands… over organized and disciplined, which cause unwanted side effects like loneliness and burning out. Have you made a conscious choice, to look at things more realistically, from a Dutch perspective?

Pim: Would you ever take a Dutch band seriously if they sang about the ‘hard life on the streets’? I wouldn’t, come on… Yes, we all face difficulties in life, which we can write plenty of songs about, just like the examples you mention, but overall we’re living the good life. But yeah, that has been a conscious choice. I want my lyrics to be about something, not just a collection of words. I am not trying to say I’m a talented writer, or a true poet, but I am trying to get the best out of me.

MM: In ‘Into The Distance’ we see that, for you, being on the road with your band is the ultimate feeling of being alive. Which makes me wonder if you feel locked up in your life at times?. Is real life that monotonous? Would you have the guts to let everything go and start wandering the world?

Pim: Interesting reasoning. Yes, life can be rather monotonous. I mean during the weekends we all get involved in ‘other things’, but Monday to Friday are reserved for work or school. Days tend to look very much alike. Don’t get me wrong; I love my work, but calling it exciting? No, not really. Being on the road with our band is an escape at times, you can feel truly free. Not sure whether I could choose for that option; letting everything you can go and taking that leap into the unknown. That’s a rather big step and it also depends on how far you’re willing to take it. Is it still an option in this society? You’ll need money, and have to work in order to get some. Before you know it, you’re back in that same cycle again.

MM: We talked about the traditions and rules which seem to have trapped us. Would you say your lyrics are a description of our lives, and that all who feel trapped by them, can see they are not alone? Or would you say Said and Done as an entity is also an alternative, along the lines of ‘make music, write lyrics’?

Pim: Both! I can only write about what I see happening around me, how I experience this and how it forms my opinion about our society. In that aspect it’s about observing and describing things. I hope people will recognize this, and get something out of this. Or maybe it would even be better if they don’t recognize it… Like I said earlier on, this is an alternative for me. Being busy with Said and Done is giving me the possibility to break out of the daily routine. Doing something constructive with the thoughts and the feelings I might have.

MM: Besides Said and Done you also design sites, write for fanzines and do this networking thing like there’s no tomorrow. Are you restless? Would you like to add something to this abstract thing we tend to call our scene?

Pim: Yeah, I would like to add something, contribute my little thing to the whole. In my opinion that’s what it’s all about. To participate and to create. It’s all too easy in our society to just lean back and consume. That’s also the case in our scene. Playing in a band is good fun, but it just doesn’t stop there. There is just so much more and the beauty of it is that you can learn so much from it. I can use that knowledge every single day and that learning process hasn’t ended yet. As for adding what some would call a message, Said and Done is not just a personal thing. If it were just this personal thing we would never have to climb on stage and we’d be in our rehearsal room all day. The lyrics are from my perspective, which can hardly be done otherwise, as they wouldn’t make any sense. I do think about what others might think about my words. It’s not that I want to enforce a message on them, more like making people think about it. Have people form their own opinions and ask questions when needed. Of course I don’t claim to know it all, let there be no misunderstanding about that.

MM: What drew you into the hardcore scene in the first place? Musically speaking it is, of course, a matter of taste, but in your lyrics it feels like you do feel connected to it all. What’s your opinion on more generic aspects like straight edge, unity and the DIY principle?

Pim: What won me over in the first place has got to be the energy and the fact that the band and audience are on equal footing. It all felt so sincere to me. A bit later I got to know all about doing things DIY and that really convinced me. Hook, line, sinker! Do It Yourself! For me the most beautiful side of hardcore. Do not depend on others, but get of your lazy ass and start things. Although nowadays it is possible doing loads of things still sitting on your lazy ass. Ha,ha! This doesn’t mean this is all exclusively for hardcore, other underground scenes have something similar, with different rules however. I have heard many times metal bands, even when just starting out, are asking ridiculous prices for playing a show. I think it’s cool that there’s some unwritten rule in hardcore you’re not allowed to ask too much. I can’t even count the times my dad asked me “Are you going to drive that far, for that amount of money? You’re out of your mind!” It’s not always easy, and not everyone will understand, but the things you will get in return are amazing. I wouldn’t have missed that for the world.

Staight Edge, what a wonderful idea. A clear head, always under control. It’s just a shame many claim to have the Edge, keep on screaming about it for a few years then turn around and start indulging in life’s vices. Of course a few years of being straight edge won’t hurt… it’s all positive peer pressure. Nothing but respect for the few who remain straight edge for many years. I’m not straight edge, as I do enjoy a beer every now and then. I don’t use any other drugs though!

Unity is a myth; but better not telling Rick Ta Life about that. I do understand where it all came from, and you do feel a certain connection to other people within the hardcore scene. However that’s all just superficial. Only when you get to know people a bit better can you feel a certain bond, or not. Taking in mind all the wars plaguing our earth you will understand unity isn’t possible. “Worldpeace can’t be done”, the Cro-Mags already said it.

MM: You said earlier on, anarchy doesn’t appeal to you, but you seem to be the sort of guy who doesn’t take anything for granted, trying to make people think and ask questions when and where needed. Does it bother you that hardcore has also become a scene driven by flock-mentality? Is that one of the reasons Said and Done is approaching things the ‘old school’ way?

Pim: You have to ask questions! You should NEVER, just follow anyone. We, the people, didn’t get our brains for no reason, so use them. Not for anarchy, as that has just gone too far. Flock-mentality. You just can’t get around that. The bigger something gets, the more ‘polluted’ it will get. However, as long you can stimulate people, so they will start questioning things all will be good. I’ve only been in the scene for a few years, and without that flock mentality I wouldn’t have known about it at all. Besides everybody will be influenced by, to some extent, that flock mentality. I wouldn’t say Said and Done is a counter reaction. I don’t think that we’re truly unique in that aspect. I do think this is the way to approach hardcore, it should be more than playing a nice tune.

MM: The song ‘No Balance’ also struck me because this track has a more global view on things. This time around it’s about the whole world and the balance which has been lost. Is there a specific event which made you write these lyrics? You also seem to ask whether it’s still possible for us to turn the tide…

Pim: I wrote that song after having been confronted with starving children, disaster areas not getting the aid needed and pointless wars yet again. It was just the final straw. I wanted to put my feelings in words, and this was a perfect time to write about that. I don’t think humanity is able to turn the tide. I think we’re just set for self-destruction and are not sociable enough. It’s always; ‘Me, myself and I’. It’s how we survive. I know this all sounds rather grim, and I hope I’ll be proved wrong. That’s probably the reason why I’m asking it as a question, I’m trying to keep that tiny sliver of hope alive…

MM: So when asking questions, do you also dive into more abstract philosophical subjects? I was thinking about your remark on our urge for self destruction. Doesn’t that make things a bit pointless? Or I’m I digging a bit to deep?

Pim: Just dig away, no problem! Why would it be pointless thinking about life, even if humanity is bound for destruction? That doesn’t mean we can’t do something during the time given to us on this earth? There’s a bit of self reflection (like in ‘Rearrange’ and ‘Reflections’), in which I look back on my past and future. I’ve never been much deeper than that, not until now at least. Who knows what might happen someday. If I can find a way of putting it to paper the right way, I would definitely think that’s a great subject. You’re giving me some ideas, Martijn!

MM: You reckon every subject would suit a Said and Done song? Don’t you have to get the songs by the other band members?

Pim: In principle everything can serve as a new song, although it has to be worthwhile turning it into a real song. Sometimes even the smallest things qualify. I always have everything read by the other members, but I can’t recall having to adjust anything or discarding anything. I think, even if do we differ as people, we think very much alike about lyrics. I do have a lot of leeway in that matter. Or maybe it’s just because they can’t write any lyrics, or haven’t mastered English good enough.

MM: What we haven’t talked about yet is the interaction you have with the audience. Hardcore and punk might be the only true genres in which the audience can communicate with the artists. As you said earlier, there’s no barrier. Is there anything a musician can learn from the crowd?

Pim: It’s all about interaction. The opinion of an outsider can have an influence. Not just on my lyrics or music, on everything. We can all be influenced on any level. No matter how independent, alternative or whatever you’d like to think you are. Do you know Derren Brown? Just Youtube or Google his name… He had a nice experiment in which he asked people to drive a certain route before having them to design a logo for a specific company. He made sure he posted certain distinctive features along the way to influence the designs. He could pretty much predict the outcome of the artists. So even free and creative thinkers are being influenced. Hitler might be named as another prime example of manipulation… As far as the learning process goes. Of course you ‘ll notice by the feedback from the audience if you’re doing a good job or not. It’s up to you to use that feedback or not. You can also learn from the reactions you get to the lyrics. I have an opinion, as a writer, but you will hardly ever hear from the opinions of the readers. If you do get to hear these thoughts, you can consider them, and they might even change your thoughts. We can all learn from each other.

MM: To close this interview of on a lighter note. What can we expect from Said and Done in the near future? Can you already shed some light on plans for a second album?

Pim: There’s certainly a second album to be expected. Just before Joost left us for a while, we wrote a few new songs, all of which we’ve recently recorded. We’ll release them on a tape on my own little label Pressure Release records. As for the songs itself… one is a bit more melodic, the other heavier, as usual. Above all it’s just Said and Done. It’s the line we will continue to follow with Henri, with whom we have also recorded and written a few new songs. I just can’t wait to wrap things up and start recording them, or better, start playing these songs live. Writing songs and playing shows is all we do are the moment. Joost will be back in January / February. We’ll see after that. We hope to visit many great countries in the future, always an adventure wherever this band might take us. Anyone interested in us please visit www.saidanddone.org or www.myspace.com/saidanddonehardcore . Leave a message, communication is the key.

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Hello Pim. How is Said And Done doing at the moment ?

Yo dude. We’re doing great! Our original drummer might be away for half a year to Taiwan, but because of Henri stepping in on drums we’re still going strong. We’ve just released a new tape, we’re going to the UK, we’re writing new songs. It’s all good!

Being in a band of course takes a lot of time. Does it indeed consume all of your time, or do you also do other stuff besides the band, like work, hobbies, family life? And i also know you are a designer, you are busy with a ezine and a lot of other stuff. I really don’t know how you combine all those things.

Haha you kinda answered your question already, yeah there’s stuff besides the band for sure. I switched from a fulltime education to part-time earlier. I’m working at a web development company and I’m going to school 1 day in the week. Aside from that I’m doing freelance stuff (creating sites etc. for people), helping out with asice. net. I should be starting on Some Will Never Know #2, just have to find the time. All kinds of stuff. Busy times, but I’ll manage. It’s just that it’s all cool stuff to do, so it doesn’t really feel like ‘work’ most of the time you know. I love what I’m doing. Guess I’m lucky.

You have released your second album. In what ways has the band grown since your first release ?

In every way I think. We’ve all grown. Both as musicians as persons. It’s a long road we’re travelling and each rehearsal I’m still curious to see where we’re going to take it this time. We still learn every time.

What are the main influences of Said And Done ?

Bands like Only Living Witness, Cro Mags, Leeway, Bad Brains, Motorhead, Fugazi, Quicksand, Supertouch, Handsome, Inside Out, Nirvana etc. etc. etc. All those bands influence us more or less. You know, hardcore, heavy but melodic. But I guess pretty much everything influences us. Can be a song on the radio, can be something I read, something I see. Anything.

What’s your favourite artist, outside of hardcore and punk?

Does Nirvana count as OUTSIDE hardcore/punk? I don’t know. But if so, it would be them. Or stuff like Johnny Cash, The Doors, Screaming Trees, Alice In Chains, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joy Division or even Prodigy now and then. There’s so much great stuff outside hardcore/punk. Don’t lock yourself into any genre.

What is hardcore for you and how do you arrange your normal life in a hardcore way ?

Hardcore for me is a mindset, a state of mind. Not so much about the music at all. It shaped me to how I am today, so that’s kinda what I take into account arranging my normal life. Mostly the DIY stuff you know. Getting off your ass and doing stuff, getting it done. Thinking about stuff, not taking anything for granted.

Belgium or Netherlands ?

Can I pick both? I live in the Netherlands. Love it. Has good sides, has bad sides. We played some great shows in Belgium (the first one was insane!), cool bands over there, we know some cool people. Belgium’s cool.

Sometimes i really think that the scene is really smaller in the Netherlands. But you got bands like Born From Pain and No Turning Back. Reflections Records is also active in the Netherlands. How do you see this ?

The Netherlands have an amazing scene man. Those bands are huge and worked hard to get where they are now, but how about Union Town, Tenement Kids, State Of Mind, New Morality, Strike First, Brat Pack, Citizens Patrol. Straight A’s is quitting but they were cool too. Reflections Records is great, but also check out Shield Recordings, Not Just Words Records and Crucial Attack. We’re doing just fine.

The thing Belgium has and what we lack is young, active kids. Belgium has lots of younger kids, that are actually active. Doing bands, setting up shows, doing zines etc. That’s what we’re lacking. I think the only younger band we have is Outlive? They’re cool, so check em out. But that’s about the only band we have of younger kids at the moment. That’s not much.

What’s the secret ingredient you guys have over there? Oh well. I guess there will be more new breed in time.

You are also one of the contributors to asice. net, and you have your own zine. What’s your opinion about zine’s and webzines these days ?

Both are cool in their own way. E-zines are great for actuality, for news and updates you know. Zines are great for in-depth interviews. If you ask me what I prefer, I’m totally for paper zines though. It’s just great to sit down and absorb the pages you know.

I don’t know, a computer screen can’t really replace that feeling of reading a zine for me. But still, they serve their purpose. An example of a great e-zine is the Double Crossed blog. Go check it out!

Let’s talk about the lyrics for a second. Your lyrics really reflect your way of life and your way of thinking. What are your main influences or thoughts when you are writing the lyrics ?

You basically answered that question yourself haha. My life and way of thinking indeed. You know, the things I see around me. Stuff that pisses me off, stuff that I can’t get out of my head. Stuff that I think needs to be adressed. It can pretty much be anything.

The Presidential Election of 2008 is coming our way, Obama or Mccain and why ?

Easy, Obama. I think it’s a good thing to see a black president in the USA. A fresh start after that cowboy But that’s from an outsiders perspective. I can only judge from the television, internet blurbs I see/read you know. But to me he seems like the better candidate by far. He makes far less mistakes than Mccain.

Said And Done only exist for two years, and you have done three cool tours. How do you see the future of Said And Done. And where do you see yourself in ten years ?

I see us doing more trips, writing more songs, releasing more records and having more fun. Just doing exactly what we want and how we want it. No pressure, no ‘it has to sound like this’, nothing. But that’s pretty much the next couple of years. I have no idea where we’ll be in ten years. Ten years is a long period for a hardcore band. Next year December Joost and I are jamming for 10 years. We should celebrate that, big time.

thanks for your time!

Thanks for your time man! Thanks for giving us the chance to speak out and good luck with your e-zine and other projects you’re working on. Be active, activate yourself!

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‘Endless Road’ has received lots of good reviews. People compare you to Underdog or say you’re the band putting European Hardcore on the map, did you ever expect that to happen?

Ofcourse we didn’t expect that! Man! We’re just some kids from a small town in the Netherlands. When our drummer and I started jamming together back in ’99 we never expected something like this to happen. At the very best we would play some shows in the local venue without people walking away.

These days we are getting compared to such great bands, I almost feel ashamed. It’s unreal. Not only Underdog, but also the Cro Mags and Leeway were mentioned a lot. It’s so strange, I mean those bands are nothing but amazing. I listen to those records all the time.

As for saying Said And Done are putting European hardcore on the map… It’s a great compliment, but it’s untrue. We’re just doing our own thing. It’s bands like No Turning Back that are putting European hardcore on the map. They’re out there all the time, giving it all, making sure everybody knows exactly what’s going down in Europe. Or the lovely Brabant area to be exact. Anyway, let there be no mistake though, we’re really flattered with all the positive feedback we’re getting. It’s great to hear people talk about our band like that. It keeps amazing us. Don’t think that will ever change.

Critics who have seen your shows do say the band live is not the same as on recordings. Personally I think you all come over a bit to nice in person to be so angry on stage. Is that something you have worked on as a band, or doesn’t it bother you as much?

Critics, schmitics. I don’t know man. I personally think we’re just as “angry” on record as on stage, or as “nice”. I don’t care that much to be honest. To us it’s not about being as angry as possible. It’s an outlet, not an act. We’re not puppets on a string putting up a show. We’re just doing our thing. We always give our best, no matter how many people there are. I will be the first one to say that shows were people are moshing or singing along or whatever are more fun though. It creates a good atmosphere, energy flowing back and forth. You know how it is, you’ve been on that stage yourself.

‘Endless Roads’ was recorded in De Studio with Dirk Miers, previous record Everyday was recorded at 195 with Patrick Delabie. Why the change of studio and producer? What is the main difference between Miers and Delabie?

Well the sound of Studio 195 fitted the stuff on “Everyday” great if you ask me. And we always had a blast working with Patrick but we just wanted to try something new. We wanted a bigger, heavier sound for the new songs. We absolutely LOVED working with Patrick Delabie at Studio 195 though. He is a great guy. I would love to record something with him again someday.

As for the differences between Dirk and Patrick. To me it felt like Patrick was more focused, more into the project he’s doing at the time. Dirk did a great job, but was gone to do some other stuff now and then and let his assistant do the rest. Not that that wasn’t okay or something, it all worked out right, but it felt differently. I don’t know, I’m really satisfied with both recordings. Soundwise I’m going with Endless Roads, producer wise I would pick Patrick.

Anyway, we wanted to try something new and so we did. We’re really pleased with the result, the sound we ended up with fits the new songs perfectly. Ofcourse there’s always room for improvements but it was good to change settings for once. I don’t know if we’ll record at De Studio again next time, or go back to Studio 195 or maybe try something new all together. We’ll see. Only time will tell.

Going back in history, Said and Done in the same line-up started out as Stab Back, very soon after releasing the Stab Back record you guys changed the name and the sound of the band. How did that decision come about and wouldn’t it have been better not to release the Stab Back material but wait six months and only have the Said and Done songs out?

No, I don’t think so. It was just all part of a natural progression. The Stab Back MCD was from 2005. Before that we did release two demos. We did pit out “Everyday” with Said And Done in 2007. That’s a bit longer than 6 months. Anyway, I never thought of it like that. It wasn’t a “sudden” change or something for us either. At the end of the “Stab Back era” (to give it a name) we already had songs that would later become Said And Done songs. “Wake Up” from the “Everyday” album was written right after (or maybe even before) we recorded “Breaking Out” with Stab Back. It was just the fact that all new songs were starting to sound like that and I no longer felt like abusing my voice like in Stab Back. Aside from that we got to hate the bandname, people were taking it the wrong way. Not like we intended it. But then again, maybe it was a bit naive from us to pick that as a bandname. Anyway, all in all that made us change the bandname, to make it feel more like a fresh start. I think we did right, we can’t complain you know.

You all originate from small villages in Brabant. How did you come in contact with hardcore? The band also started out because of a lack of better things to do? Have some of the bandmembers ever considered moving out of Brabant?

First thing first: Moving out? Whaat? No dude! Never haha. To be honest, I have no idea. We never talked about any of us moving out or something. We all have our lives here. We’ve got all we need right here. For now, we’re bound to Brabant. Anything can happen though, we’ll see.

As for how it started it out? I think it all started with Nirvana man. I got in touch with that band through someone who was helping building our house, he had a Nirvana tape of a liveshow. It took me some time to get into it (I was used to crappy top 40 house like “the lalala song”) but when it did hit me, it did hit me hard. It made me want to pick up a guitar myself, write my own songs. So that’s what I did. Joost (our drummer) was the son of my parents friends and when they got together one day we just started to jam (aside from my guitar stuff I also picked up a second hand drumkit (from the same guy that got me in touch with Nirvana)) and we liked it that much that we never stopped jamming. Skip forward a year or maybe two and that’s where I ran into Erik (Gio, who was the guitarplayer of No Turning Back at that time), he asked me to come to their show the day after. And that’s what I did. I loved it, the energy, the DIY aspect, no boundaries between the band and the crowd. Everything. It was great. I was hooked. Still am. It was never about “a lack of better things to do” though.

You just came back from the second tour in Southern Europe. Do you see the difference between the first tour, like more people knowing the songs or attending shows? And is there a difference between shows in Spain and in The Netherlands?

We had a blast! And yes, there was a difference, more people knew our songs this time. In France people even knew the newest songs. They were singing along to almost all the songs. Really cool. Hooray for downloads I guess I really loved the first time we went over to Spain because it was all new, but this trip was a lot better show-wise.

As for differences between countries, yeah there are I guess. I think we play our best shows outside of the Netherlands. I don’t know why. People are more into having a good time in Spain instead of the “we’re here to judge you”-crowd in the Netherlands (I’m guilty to the exactly the same thing myself) probably. You know the “arms-crossed, watching the band” kind. In Spain and France people were tearing the place down. But then again I don’t know if I’m capable to judge that on a couple of shows. Maybe we just played the right shows over there. I don’t know if that’s the case at every show, there are always differences between shows. You have good and bad ones.

You’re also the main man behind Pressure Release Records. How did that come about? Don’t you think tapes belong to the past and are there any new releases scheduled?

Aah that was just Rob and me talking on MSN some night. You know, the usual talk, about how much we both love the Cro Mags and stuff like that. Some months before that conversation I mentioned to him that I wanted to do a small label or something. He was doing Light The Fuse Fest at the time and I think he was still involved with Light The Fuse Records as well. Anyway, he wanted to release the Tenement Kids demotape with Light The Fuse, but the rest of the guys of the label didn’t want to do a tape. He just said to me “Isn’t that a good band to start your label with?”. The rest is history, I loved the idea as much as I loved that Tenement Kids demotape.

As for tapes belonging to the past? Is that a serious question? I mean a lot of stuff in hardcore could be labeled as “a thing of the past”. I don’t know. I love tapes. I love vinyl. I don’t think it’s a thing of the past. You’re putting out a demotape with State Of Affairs yourself as well man

As for any new releases coming up. At the moment none whatsoever. We had a pretty cool idea that fell through, maybe that’s going to happen sometime later when we all have more time, but I don’t know. We still have the We Are Idols from Poland and Maaswater Veenlijk from the Netherlands demotapes for sale. Both really cool demos if you ask me. Not your typical hardcore or something, but that never was our intention. We’ll see, maybe in time we can do some cool new stuff. Bands can always contact us ofcourse, if we’re totally blown away by a demo I can promise you we’ll put it out for sure.

The Endless Roads vinyl version came with a free download. The first record on Shield to be released like this. Was this an idea from the band? Do you think this will be the future of (hardcore) music?

Yeah that was an idea of mine. You see labels doing this everywhere now. I think 1917 Records was the first hardcore label I saw doing it. Deathwish jumped aboard pretty fast and now pretty much all labels are doing it or have atleast plans in that direction. I contacted Gert-Jan of the label about it and he liked the idea, I think all his new releases will get the same treatment (if the bands agree) but I’m not sure.

If it’s the future? Yes I think so. I mean, our 7″ was put on a blog the day after it got released, so you’re not going to stop downloading anyway. So why fight against it? Just give it to em, the more promotion the better. People that picked up your 7″ will still do it, people that didn’t but downloaded it will still do that. And maybe some people will pick up the 7″ or MCD when they hear the MP3. The best thing though is that people know the words to the songs, making live shows a lot cooler.

Can you tell me a bit about your fanzine. What can readers expect, why did you make it? How long have you worked on it. Were there any setbacks and can we expect a second issue?

I’m so glad I finally did it. I had plans for one for a long time. I even started working on one called “Glory Days” some years ago. But I never managed to finish it, I just didn’t know how or didn’t had the time, you know how it works. But it’s done now, it’s out there. The feedback it’s receiving is really great. It makes me wanting to do another issue. I’m not sure yet, but I guess there will be another one. If not I’ll probably do an online blog or keep doing interviews for asice.net or something. We’ll see.

As for the content, it features more personal, in-depth, longer interviews than you usual read in zines I think. At least that’s what I tried to do. Inspired by the almighty Anti-Matter zines. I was missing those kind of interviews from other zines. I love reading those zines don’t get me wrong, but reading the same questions over and over again about the new record gets a bit boring. The people behind those bands have way more interesting stories to tell (well… most of the time).
I worked on it for a couple of months. From the beginning of 2008 till the day before we left for Europe with Said And Done when I picked up the zines from the printer. That’s like half a year I guess. There were no real big setbacks aside from re-doing some layouts a couple of times because I wanted the font to be bigger and the actual printing was giving me a bit of an headache. Oh and ending up with a price of 4,50 was more or less a setback too. I’m not making any money on it, but I thought that was a bit much. I originally wanted to include some label ads for free, but with that selling price I decided to contact labels for some money. I hated to do that but luckily enough the kind people of Shield Recordings, Reaper Records, Dead And Gone Records and Reflections Records kindly agreed. Now I can sell the zine for 3,50. So kudos to them! For the next issue I’ll look into that stuff a bit better or just print some more zines. We’ll see.

When is Said and Done going to conquer the rest of Europe and the USA?

You tell me! We did a couple of trips through Europe now, probably more to follow. But we’re all working or in school so we can’t leave whenever we feel like, we have to use our free days wisely. Anyway we talked to some people about an USA trip and hopefully we can put that into magic next year as well. Would be great. Maybe some small trips again. I would love to go back to the UK and France as well.

As for now we’re writing new songs (got a couple ready to go) and learning Henri (from Maaswater Veenlijk fame), our new drummer for half a year, all our songs. Yeah, that’s right. Joost, our drummer, the dude who I jammed with for years is leaving us for half a year to check out Taiwan, to learn. We’re all going to miss him for sure. The good thing is, Henri is a really cool dude and things will work out for sure. He was with us on our trip to Europe (not drumming yet) and he blended right in. The two rehearsals we had so far went great. We’ll use the summer to learn him all the stuff so we can blast ahead full speed again after the summer.

Anyway, I guess that’s all there is to tell at the moment, thanks a lot for giving us the chance to speak out man. Good luck with your blog Rold!

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Yo Apostolis! Sun is shining over here now. So I’m not complaining… Guess it’s way sunnier over there in Greece though. Anyway, the CD is out for some time now and getting some great feedback. At the moment we’re busy finishing everything for the LP release. Artwork is finished and sent off to the pressing plant. Preorders are still coming in and we’re sending those out pretty soon now. Releaseshows are set. Just preparing everything for the release. Aside from that we used this month to write some great new songs. I really feel these song are by far the best songs we’ve ever written. A bit different, but nothing drastic. But how many times did you hear that before from a band already? Oh well… Can’t wait to finish them. For now we’re going to play as much shows as possible again, full speed ahead. Be prepared.

Can you give us a brief history of the band?

Well Said And Done started busting out songs just a year ago, not any longer. But it all pretty much started back in ’99 when Joost (our drummer) and I started jamming. Through the years people came and went, names changed and the sound evolved but we’re playing with Stef and Remco on guitar and Joep on bass for quite a long time now. All great, solid dudes and I hope this lineup will stick together for a long time. We write songs together so easily now, we’re at the same page. It just feels right.

You just released your first full length CD; some more info?

It’s released by the kind folks of Shield Recordings. Gert-Jan & Fieke are great people and we’re really glad to be working with them. As for the CD, it’s 12 songs in about 25 minutes. Hardcore. It’s getting some great feedback from all over the world. We’ve had comparisons to bands like the Cro Mags, Leeway, Bad Brains, Maximum Penalty, Beowulf or even Motorhead. Not our words, but we’re not complaining ofcourse haha The LP is coming up as I already told you, that’s something we can’t wait for… To hold the vinyl in our hands. Amazing!

Aside from the full length we did a 2 song promo in 2006 that we put up for download some time ago. We also contributed a song to the Pressure Release 2007 tape compilation. An European new breed tape compilation. That’s it for now. Hopefully a 7″ can be added to that list somewhere in the future. Early next year? We’ll see.

How’s the scene in Netherlands?

Pretty good actually. Lots of shows. Great new and already established bands (Union Town, State Of Mind, Tenement Kids, Brat Pack, Civil Terror, Nothing Done, No Turning Back, Born From Pain to name some). It’s a shame Restless Youth did quit recently though, that band was amazing. We have some great labels releasing quality stuff like Shield Recordings, Not Just Words Records and Reflections Records. Let’s see, I like to think we have a good e-zine as well, Asice.net. Shameless plug since I’m part of the crew behind that as well More importantly though, we need more paper zines! All in all a pretty healthy scene I think. Only the turnup to shows seems to be getting a bit less, oh welll… That will change…

As far as I can figure out, you are all young kids. How did you decide to play hardcore influenced by the back in the days movement, when you haven’t even born (metaphorically!)?

Yeah we’re pretty young I guess. Remco is the oldest one with 25 years. I’m 22. Joep is 20, Joost and Stef are 19. I don’t know. We’re all kids in hardcore right? As for our music being influenced by bands from some time ago. It’s pretty simple, we just really love that music. We never saw those bands back in the days, but that music still speaks volumes these days. Bands like the Bad Brains, Cro Mags, Underdog, Leeway etc. They just created amazing music. Without them we would have sound totally different I guess. But it’s not only hardcore that influenced us. I mean we all listened to Nirvana, we love driving home from shows with Johnny Cash on the radio etc etc… But lately we’re listening a lot to a band called Only Living Witness. Check that band out, I keep telling people that, you will not be dissapointed. Great grooves, amazing voice. It doesn’t matter to me how old a band is. If it’s great music, it’s great music. Simple.

What is your opinion about all these reunions of old school hardcore bands? Have you been in any show like that?

To me, it really depends on the band that is doing the reunion. As long as they’re sincere about it I don’t see any problem with it, as long new bands still have the chance to play shows. But playing with bands like that are a good opportunity for new bands to promote themselves as well. Anyway I’ve heard some horrible stories about the Bold reunion shows, but I didn’t went to any of their shows. I totally loved the Underdog reunion. That show was amazing. It felt sincere. Same goes for Leeway, really good show as well. I loved the Fearless Vampire Killers shows (Cro-Mags & Bad Brains songs played by JJ & Mackey and others). Some were better than others, but all in all I’m really glad I got to see some of those bands. We even got to play with FVK. You wont hear me complaining about those reunions.

You run a great tape label called Pressure Release, along with a member of Justice, right? How did you start and what are your main goals?

Thanks dude! It’s not with a member from Justice though. Maybe you mixed us up with Powered Records. That’s their thing. Check that out by the way, they’re putting out some awesome stuff now! Anyway, Pressure Release Records is me and Rob from the Light The Fuse Fests & Records. We talked about our mutual love for bands like the Cro Mags now and then but one day he asked me what I was planning to do with Pressure Release Records. I originally started that label to release tape demo’s from Said And Done sideprojects. But those sideprojects pretty quickly fell through and those releases never happened. So I told him I was just waiting for the right band to get things started. He told me he wanted to put out the Tenement Kids demo on tape but the other dudes from Light The Fuse Records weren’t into the idea. I really liked that TK demo, so when he asked me to restart the label together and make that demo our first release… I didn’t have to think that long. That was our first release. Demo’s by Diablo Blvd & Mans Ruin from Belgium followed. Our last release was the “Pressure Release 2007″ compilation I told you about earlier. A huge success, we made 250 copies and they sold out in no-time. If you get the chance to pick that up, do yourself a favor and do so. Some great new bands on it.

Our main goals are are pretty much releasing stuff on tape again. Lots of bands skip the demotape part (hell, we did that with Said And Done too, but this is my way for making up for that ) nowadays and because we like tapes a lot we want to keep them around. We don’t have any plans for the future yet. We’ll see what crosses our path. We’re both pretty busy with our own stuff at the moment. If the right band comes along…

What’s your opinion about the following: a) tough guy / macho, b) straight edge / vegetarian c) metal-core & other related to it trends? d) politics in the scene?

tough guy / macho:
Don’t know man. Don’t get it at all haha. Act as though as you want, just not something for me. I’m a nerd haha, so no need for me to act all tough guy and macho. People wouldn’t accept it. Otherwise I would be sooo though. For real. Masterkiller!

straight edge / vegetarian:
If people are into it for the right reasons I think straight edge is a great concept. The whole ‘keeping a clear mind’ thing does appeal to me I have to say. It’s just that I like to drink a beer now and then. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. And if you look at the size of me you probably already guessed I eat meat It’s just not something for me, being a vegetarian. Maybe it’s stupid. Nobody is flawless… I don’t do drugs (aside from beer that is) and I don’t smoke though.

metal-core & other related to it trends:
If you asked me this question a couple of years ago I would have answered it totally different because I was totally into that style back then. I just wanted everything to be as loud and agressive as possible. I found that back then in metal-core. Nowadays I think most metal-core is pretty boring. Boring riffs, most of the time horrible vocalists. ‘I don’t know, it’s just not something for me anymore. Each to its own though. If you like it, good for you. Enjoy it! When I want to hear something LOUD (even heavier than those bands) I’ll crank up a Rise And Fall record or something. Check that band out people. Awesome punk-metal from Belgium. LOUD.

politics in the scene:
Good. Hardcore is more than music right? Politics are important. I think those two go perfectly well together. I think a message is imporant. I do want to say something with our songs. It’s not like we have the greatest lyrics ever, but it’s always something I wanted to get off my chest. Something important to me one way or another. I also think people need to think more. Use your head people, use your head. And speak up. Express yourself. We’re getting too passive. Myself included. We all need to wake up.

What about tours and stuff? Are you planning to conquer the world?!

We’ve been to Spain in February, which was an amazing experience. Such a beautiful country. We hope we can go back there sometime next year. Aside from the shows in the Netherlands we also did some shows in Belgium and Germany. Next up are some shows in the UK and we’re talking about doing some shows in France & Germany as well. We’ll see where we’ll be heading. We want to play as much as possible but because most of us are still in school we’ll have to see when and where. Get in touch when you want to book us though, we’ll work something out!

Thank you a lot for the interview! Do you wanna add something more?

Thank YOU for the interview dude. Thanks for the chance to let us speak out about our band in your zine man. Good luck with everything. As for adding anything? Just use your head people, that’s all. Take care and hopefully we’ll be coming over to check out Greece someday. With this band or just on a personal visit. Heard some great story about the country.

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Hey Tim. Said And Done is a hardcore band. That answer must have surprised you. Oh well, in reviews we’ve been compared to bands like Leeway, Cro-Mags, Maximum Penalty, Beowulf etc and we’re not complaining about that at all haha. Would you? In reality we’re just busting out tunes we feel like. No plans. If we like the result, it’s good. Since we don’t have any big “from the ashes of this and that band” story, I could tell you we have Joost on drums, Remco & Stef on guitars, Joep on bass and me on vocals but how interesting would that be? We’re not a straight edge band, that doesn’t mean we don’t have something to say with our lyrics though. Think for yourself… That’s Said And Done in a nutshell I guess.

You guys just released a cd/lp tell us more about that one.

Yeah, it’s called “Everyday”. For the influences from the outside we encounter every single day. You know, pressure from the government, religions, the threat of terrorists they try to fear people with etc etc. That’s what we’ve tried to portray on the cover as well.

The LP came out recently. We had two cool release shows. One in Holland. The other one in Brugge, a place we love to play. The CD came out in february already though. Both on Shield Recordings. Great label that supported us from the start. They are releasing the Real Danger LP soon (punk featuring Uppercut / Nothing Done people). Check it out!

Anyway, we recorded the CD/LP at Studio 195 with Patrick Delabie. You might know him from his work with Dead Stop & Restless Youth etc. We loved working with him, solid dude. We’ve got some great reactions to the record from all over the world. It’s really cool, we didn’t expect it. We really liked the record ourselves, but you never know what other people think.

Said and done doing a uk trip next month, Siked?

Oh boy! For sure. I never traveled much. Only been to Paris once you know. And with this band I’ve already went to Spain, UK is up next. We’ll see where else this journey brings us. We’re in contact with people all over the world. It’s a matter of time (and money ofcourse) if we’ll get there or not. I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re really siked about all of this. Can’t wait to get to the UK. The country of Spaced, The Office, bacon & eggs… How can you NOT love it

Why you started a band?

The short and simple answer? Nirvana. Or is that uncool to answer? Who cares. When I heard that band in 1994 (I was 9), it changed my life. I was always into music, but they got me into heavier stuff. I learned to play the guitar and started to write my own songs right away. Aside from that I kept playing Nirvana songs, like on repeat I was really heavy into them. Got lots of shows, unreleased stuff etc on CD by them. Great band. Anyway they inspired me to make my own kind of music. It didn’t have to sound polished, “just bang something out and mean it”. That’s what I did. Back in ’99 I met Joost (he’s also drumming in Said And Done). We started jamming and along the way hardcore came into our lives, the other guys hooked up with us and now it’s 2007 and we’re traveling to places like Spain and the UK with our band. Who could have imagined that. It’s unbelievable. It’s like a big dream for all of us.

Okey dude that’s all i’m sorry. last words?

Don’t be sorry dude. Good luck with your zine, enjoyed the previous issue! Cool to see Belgium is alive and kicking with bands and zines. Shout outs to Losing Streak, One Voice, The Struggle, Black Haven & Take It Down. We’ll be back in September and October. Looking forward to it!

Thanks!

I would have said thank YOU for asking us for this, but I already used my last words so…

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Yo Kevin, good! I should be busy with school cause I have a lot of stuff to finish, but stuff for the band (like this interview) keeps popping up. And off course I want to do that stuff first. Setting your priorities, right?

Right! Just for the record, could you start by giving an introduction of your band?

Ok, here we go. On the left side we have our infamous party animal Stef on guitar, on the right side we have rock star Joep on bass and longhaired Remco on guitar. Hidden in the back is Joost, but he’s beating so hard nobody is missing out on him. Then there is me (Pim), the fatso on the mic. I’m pretending I can sing.

You told me that all of you also played in the band Stab Back, why did you decide to start a new band under another name with the same guys?

Well, a couple of reasons. First of all I was pretty fed up with the way I was singing in Stab Back. I needed something new, something fresh. Also, we were all getting a bit tired of the metalcore stuff. So the new stuff has a different vibe, different vocals. It just felt totally different. Aside from this all, the name ‘Stab Back’ was always picked up as a macho/tough guy name, while we intended it as a reaction to backstabbers. Coming up for yourself, not as negative as it was picked up. We wanted to change that as well. So we summed that up and the logical conclusion was to start over, start fresh. Glad we did.

The band is now called Said And Done, why did you pick this band name? Is there a special meaning behind it?

Well we had huge lists of names. Aside from names from our own lyrics etc I just went through all my records and wrote down possible names. Looking at song names, lyrics etc. So at rehearsals we just went through that list and crossed off names. In the end we got a couple of favourites. We started googling, of course some existed already but we didn’t found any Said And Done hardcore bands. Boy, we were wrong haha. I think there was at least a German Said And Done and a Boston Said And Done before. The Boston one is pretty cool by the way. Oh well, almost every name has been used before. We could have gone for a name like The Bloody Horizon Is Killing The Eternal Sun In Black Death or something instead. But we didn’t.

How did you get involved into hardcore and when did you have the feeling you wanted to start a band?

Well for me (and I think for most of us in the band actually) it pretty much started out with Nirvana. Not the hardcore part, but the music part. I was always busy with music, but Nirvana just hit me. It felt real. It just totally got me into heavier music and I wanted to play the guitar. So that’s what I did, I met Joost and we started jamming. We played songs I wrote myself and some Nirvana covers. But that’s still no hardcore. After some time I talked to Gio (ex-guitarist of No Turning Back) at a local show and he invited me to their show the next day. So that’s what I did and that’s what drew me in. The energy, the passion. Amazing. And now I can’t get out anymore. haha.

Do you think it is a good thing that there are a lot of new bands now days? Because I have the feeling that everything has been done before and that it’s very hard to create an own sound.

Yes everything has been done before. But I don’t mind that. Actually I don’t care much about an ‘own sound’ at all. Most of the bands that want to sound original either sound horrible or don’t sound original at all. Not all of course, but I guess you know what I’m saying. As for new bands, that’s a good thing for sure. Without the new breed there’s no future dude. We need new kids doing bands. The more the better.

What are some of the musical points that Said And Done has and other bands don’t?

Pfff. I don’t know man. People better judge about that for themselves. I hate ‘selling’ the band. If people like it, great. If people don’t like it, fine. We just write melodic, grooving songs. Sing-along, mosh, think, do whatever you feel like.

Do you wish to stay independent and more underground or do you hope to become mainstream and more well known with the band in time?

As long as we decide what we do it’s all good to me. I don’t care about something being mainstream or ‘sold out’ or something. I don’t like it though if bands turnaround completely because they can be really famous. If they get really famous by just doing their own thing, that’s just great. I don’t get it when people don’t when their bands to be well known. Oh well. I do really enjoy what we’re doing now though. Slowly getting out there, playing more and more shows. Seeing a bit of the world. Still enough time for school etc, but rocking the free world. Good times.

Does Said And Done have a message? Who writes the lyrics and what does he write about?

We do have something to say. As far as having a general message, I think it’s probably pretty simple: THINK. Just really use your head before you do anything and learn from your mistakes. Instead of people getting smarter and learning from the past we are getting more stupid every single day.
I write all the lyrics for Said And Done. I do pass them on to the rest though, so they can read them through. Because I don’t want the band to speak about stuff they don’t agree with. To give you an idea what our lyrics are about, let’s go through the album really short: ‘Your Downfall’ is about people close to you throwing their lives away. Horrible. ‘I’ll Be Fine’ is about hardcore and people not understanding why you’re into it. They just don’t see the beauty of it. ‘Worlds Apart’ is about people really close to you but are at the same time very far away from you. ‘Controlled’ is about all the influences from the outside trying to control our lives. Be it the government, religion etc. ‘Overcome’ is about overcoming bad times. Try to keep your head up. ‘Use Your Head’ is about thinking before you act. ‘Everyday’ is about the fact that we still learn every single day. ‘Let It Rain’ is about letting all of your frustrations out. ‘Reflections’ is about the fact we’re all searching for ourselves. Trying to find out who we are. ‘Wake Up’ is about the world we live in and the fact we’re getting more passive by the day. ‘Time’ is about the pressure time brings along. We all know about that. ‘No Balance’ is about the fact that the world is not balanced at all. Read the newspaper or look at your television and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Which are your favourite bands? In which way to they inspire you when you are writing new songs?

All kinds of bands inspire us. Biggest influences are bands like the Cro Mags, Bad Brains, Leeway and Motorhead I guess. Something like that. But also stuff like Johnny Cash, The Beatles, The Who, Dire Straits, Nirvana etc etc… We’re not stuck to one genre or something. If it’s good, it’s good. Lately we’re on a ‘Only Living Witness’ trip though. That band is a really big influence at the moment and you’re going to hear that back in the new stuff for sure. Be prepared.

Last year you released your album called Everyday, but the LP release is scheduled for this year. Why did you wait so long before bringing out the LP?

Money. The root of all evil. The label had a couple of releases going and there just wasn’t enough money to do the LP release right away. That’s pretty much the whole story behind it. It’s coming out on the 30th of June now though. Can’t wait to hold the vinyl in my hands. How great is vinyl!

Haha, can’t agree more with that, but about the album, can you tell us something more about it?

It’s released by the great people of Shield Recordings. Gert-Jan & Fieke are really cool and we’re really glad to be working with them. It’s 12 songs in like 25 minutes. Harcore. We’re pretty lucky it’s getting some great feedback from all over the world. We’ve had comparisons to bands like the Cro Mags, Leeway, Bad Brains, Maximum Penalty, Beowulf or even Motorhead. Not our words, but you will not hear us complaining off course haha!

You called it Everyday, is there a reason why you named it that way?

Yeah, we try to do (almost) everything with a reason. Both the artwork and the name are picked with a reason. The artwork depicts the influences we’re exposed to everyday. The same the song Controlled is about. The government, the police, religion, the fear for terrorists, drugs etc. Every single day we experience stuff like that one way or another. It also stands for the fact that every day we learn from our mistakes. Falling down and getting up again, but we’re learning. Another reason is the fact that nowadays we’re busy with this band everyday. There’s not a single day I’m not doing anything band related. Be it working on the website, writing lyrics, answering interviews etc etc.

When is a Said And Done song good enough to play it live and to put on an album?

That are two different things. We do try out a new song (that we are satisfied with) now and then live, but it’s possible in time the song will change. When it’s put on an album it’s finished though. We’re working on a song called ‘Into The Distance’ at the moment and we played it live a couple of times already. But in time it changed a bit but only now it feels really finished. Be on the lookout for that, we’re finishing a couple of new songs. They’re a bit different, nothing shocking though. We hope to record sometime this year. No dates set though, no pressure. We’ll see.

About downloading music, a lot of people have already albums from bands before it ever came out. How do you feel about that… or downloading music in general?

I don’t mind that at all. I mean, when a band I really like has an album coming out and I get the chance to download it… I’ll do it right away. I’ll be enjoying the songs and when I like them I’ll be buying the vinyl for sure. I do download a lot actually. Out of print stuff etc. Maybe later on I try to find myself the vinyl or something, but a lot of that stuff is just way too expensive. I do think that people that are only downloading stuff are missing the point though. Most hardcore records aren’t expensive. Bands and labels need you to pick up their stuff to support them. The more you pick up, the more they can put out. That’s just how it works. Most bands don’t gain that much money with playing shows, it’s mostly in the merch. Shirts, vinyl, CD’s etc. Not that it’s all about the money, but I think you get what I’m saying. On the other side, when people download your stuff, they probably know the words to the song a bit faster etc and shows will be more fun. So maybe I should just say ‘go ahead and download away’. If our stuff is available online that is, don’t know. Don’t care.

About the live aspect, can we say that you are a live band, or do you consider yourselves more as a studio band and why?

I think all hardcore bands are live bands. I mean, most of the time a band works better live than on a record. There’s just another layer that’s so important to hardcore. The experience. The feeling you get when seeing a band live. Participate. We love playing out live. We love getting direct feedback to our songs. We feed on that. But on the other side I can’t wait to finish our new songs and record those. Studio is really cool now and then but playing live is just great.

You already played in Belgium a couple of times, can we compare Belgian and Holland shows to each other? Or are there some differences?

It all depends on the show I think. Bruges was awesome and maybe the coolest show we’ve played so far. We just didn’t know what to expect and people went nuts. We hardly started playing and people were crowdsurfing already. Singing-along. Feeling it. Just plain great. Roeselare was cool too, but totally different. We’re going back to Bruges to release our LP on the 4th of July and we hope it will be as great as the first time. But the same goes for shows in Holland. Sometimes they’re wild (the Light The Fuse show was great, the show in our hometown was amazing), sometimes they’re not. Of course the first are the coolest ones, but hey it’s all good. We’re just thankful we get the opportunity to travel and play our songs for people.

Maybe a bit of a false question, Belgium and The Netherlands have a rich history in hardcore bands which country has the best bands in your opinion?

Let’s see. The Netherlands had/has Mainstrike, Reaching Forward, No Denial, Razor Crusade, Restless Youth, Strike First, Nothing Done, Tenement Kids, Union Town, No Turning Back, Born From Pain. Belgium had/has Dead Stop, Justice, Rise And Fall, Mans Ruin, Diablo Blvd., Losing Streak, One Voice… Both not so bad lists I think, I’m still going for the Netherlands though dude. Germany had True Blue though… Oh well, let’s stick to the Netherlands.

This is a question we ask to every non-Belgian band. What is the first thing that comes in your mind when you hear ‘Belgium’?

At the moment it’s Losing Streak. A GREAT new band from Belgium that you and your readers probably know all about already. Check it out people. I also want to mention the cool guys from The Struggle. Heavy stuff. What else… Friet! French/Belgium Frites haha. And you guys are probably the nicest and modest people in the world. That are pretty much the first things that come to mind when I hear Belgium. Oh and the hit by ‘Het Goede Doel’ called ‘België’ of course…

Ok, this was it for the interview. I wish you the best of luck in the future with the band! Any last words you want to tell us?

Good luck with your zine as well. Good to see you’re turning it into a paper zine as well now, we need more of those! Check out zines like Rising Tide, Persistent Vision, Running Through, Colonization, Mass Movement, Clocked In etc etc. Reading doesn’t hurt.
Thanks for the opportunity to let us speak out dude. Really appreciated.
That’s all, I’ll shut up now.

Interview by: Kevin

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Kun je de geschiedenis van de band vertellen?

In December 1999 zijn Joost, onze drummer, en ik aan het jammen geslagen. Ik speel zelf ook gitaar (in de band niet meer inmiddels) en was al vrij vroeg bezig met eigen nummers. Ik wilde die songs graag spelen met andere muzikanten en zo kwam ik bij Joost uit. Zelf was ik ongeveer dertien en Joost zal rond de tien zijn geweest. Ik kan me nog herinneren dat het eerste nummer over de oorlog in Kosovo ging. Met dat soort dingen ben ik altijd wel bezig geweest. Door de jaren heen hebben we onder verschillende namen gespeeld en zijn er aardig wat mensen gekomen en gegaan. In de huidige line-up spelen we al een tijdje en het voelt beter dan ooit tevoren. Nu zeggen bands dat altijd, maar zo voelt het echt. We zijn inmiddels goed op elkaar ingespeeld en weten precies wat we aan elkaar hebben.

Hoe heeft de stijl zich door de jaren heen ontwikkeld en hoe is de naamsverandering tot stand gekomen?

Voor ons waren die ontwikkelingen vrij logisch, want we hebben gewoon altijd de muziek gespeeld die we wilden spelen. We leren continu nieuwe muziek kennen, nieuwe invloeden. Druk bezig met volwassen worden, opgroeien. Nog altijd. Zowel als individu als met de band. Zo begonnen Joost en ik ooit met grungeachtige nummers en dat evolueerde langzaam naar metalcore ten tijde van Stab Back. Dat was het enige waar we naar luisterden in die tijd. Toen de mini-CD “Breaking Out” uitkwam, waren we al weer veel meer bezig met NY-hardcore en verdween de metalcore min of meer uit onze nieuwe nummers. Toen ik ook nog eens besloot om anders te gaan zingen vonden we het tijd om het Stab Back-tijdperk af te sluiten. Het klonk anders, het voelde anders. Bovendien waren we de naam Stab Back ook behoorlijk beu. Mensen pikten het anders op dan wij bedoeld hadden, wellicht ook wat naïef van ons destijds. Het was nooit bedoeld als een “tough guy” naam. Het was juist een reactie op dergelijke “backstabbers”. Uiteindelijk is het Said And Done geworden en nu zijn we druk bezig dit hoofdstuk van onze geschiedenis te schrijven.

Hoe kijk je nu terug op de periode met Stab Back?

Het was een ontzettend coole tijd maar alle mensen veranderen en wij zijn daar zeker geen uitzondering op. Maar goed, onze eerste min of meer serieuze stappen als band hebben we met Stab Back gezet. We hebben ontzettend veel geleerd. Nummers schrijven, het opnemen van een demo en het uitbrengen daarvan, de studio ingaan, een MCD uitbrengen op een label, shows regelen, spelen in heel Nederland, de roadtrips, grote shows, kleine shows, merchandise. Noem het maar op. Alle aspecten die bij een band komen kijken, leerden we kennen. In feite deden we precies hetzelfde als dat we nu doen, allen weten we nu beter hoe we het moeten aanpakken en wat we willen. Maar goed, er is nog zoveel te leren, dus wat dat betreft…

Jij bent iemand die elk aspect van een release goed verzorgd wil hebben, inclusie artwork. Kun je de tekening op de cover uitleggen?

Ik vind inderdaad dat alles aan een release evenveel aandacht verdient. Van de muziek, de teksten tot het design. Het design is toch vaak het eerste wat iemand te zien krijgt van je album. Het idee achter de tekening op de hoes zijn de invloeden van buitenaf waar je bijna elke dag weer mee te maken krijgt, of je dat nu wilt of niet. Ik denk dat de afgebeelde figuren allemaal wel min of meer voor zich spreken. Zo staat de priester voor de religies die je proberen te manipuleren en de agent voor de corruptheid van het gezag. De terrorist staat meer voor Bush die ons bang maakt dan voor de terroristen zelf. De persoon in het midden is de belichaming van ons allemaal, al zien sommigen van ons er misschien net iets knapper uit. We worden langzaam maar zeker helemaal gek door al dat geduw en getrek aan ons. Elke dag weer moeten we het hoofd bieden aan deze invloeden en daar komt ook de titel van het album vandaan.

De sound op de nieuwe plaat is erg duidelijk. Kwam dit vanzelf tot stand tijdens de opnames?

Elke band wil voor zijn releases natuurlijk een goede productie. Maar wel een goede productie die bij de band past. Een dichtgesmeerd geluid met twintig dubs per gitaarpartij zou niet echt bij ons passen. Daarom was de keuze voor Studio 195 ook al vrij snel gemaakt. We hadden met Stab Back al eerder met Patrick Delabie gewerkt en wisten dus wat we konden verwachten. Het werkt ook gewoon erg makkelijk met Patrick. Hij weet wat wij willen en wij weten hoe hij werkt. Erg relaxt. Geen gepush, maar hij is wel erg alert. Hij hoort alles en brengt goede ideeën aan die de nummers zeker beter maken. Je kunt er vervolgens zelf mee doen wat je wilt. Hij zal zich nooit opdringen. Wellicht dat we voor volgende releases wel gaan experimenteren met andere studio’s, maar dat zien we dan wel weer. Daar zijn we nog niet echt mee bezig.

Is het experimenteren met je stem op “Everyday” goed bevallen?

Jazeker! Maar ik zou er maar vast aan wennen, want het stemgeluid op “Everyday” is zeker geen experiment. Je kan trouwens in het refrein van “Never Enough” Op de Stab Back MCD ook al wel wat horen van deze richting. Alle nummers die we na die mini-CD schreven hadden dit soort zang. Ik was het brullen gewoon beu. Ik hield zelf steeds minder van dat geluid en daarnaast merkte ik ook dat mijn stem het steeds minder goed trok. Genoeg redenen om over te gaan naar iets anders dus. Ik luister zelf ook vooral naar hardcorebands met “zangers”, bands als Only Living Witness, Cro Mags, Underdog, Maximum Penalty, etc. Ik was er in het begin nog wel wat onzeker over, omdat het toch iets totaal anders was, maar reacties waren gelukkig goed.

Je bent ook actief met Light The Fuse Records en Pressure Release Records. Kun jij je een leven zonder hardcore voorstellen?

Haha, goede vraag. En dan heb je Asice.net nog, een van de grootste hardcore e-zines van Europa en Hypekid.com, het designgebeuren waarmee ik voor een groot aantal hardcorebands en labels ontwerpen en websites gemaakt heb! Ja ik ben er toch wel aardig wat mee bezig. Ik kan me momenteel inderdaad geen leven voorstellen zonder hardcore. “Hardcore, a way of life”. Hoe cliché en stom het eigenlijk ook mag klinken, het is eigenlijk ook gewoon zo. Ik denk niet dat je zo af en toe met hardcore bezig kunt zijn. Als je er eenmaal inzit, zit je er ook helemaal in. Je wilt onderdeel zijn van het geheel, je wilt participeren, wat toevoegen aan het geheel. En dat is ook wat het levendig houdt. Zonder fanzines, zonder mensen die shows opzetten, zonder labels, zonder de mensen die de posters en dergelijke ontwerpen, zou er helemaal geen hardcore zijn. Dat is ook wat me zo aanspreekt aan hardcore, het is veel meer dan alleen de muziek.

Gaat het nummer “I’ll Be Fine” daar over?

Inderdaad! Bekenden vroegen me vaak waarom ik toch maar altijd met die herrie bezig was. Of waarom ik in mijn eentje uren reisde naar een show in Amsterdam om daar een band te zien spelen. Mensen begrepen het gewoon niet. Er is me ook wel eens gevraagd of ik echt iets zong of dat ik maar wat deed. Ze hebben gewoon geen flauw idee wat het allemaal inhoudt en wat het zo bijzonder maakt. Ze willen het vaak ook gewoon niet zien. Het staat te ver weg van ze. Hetzelfde geldt voor ouders: vaak snappen ze het niet en maken ze zich zorgen. Voor een buitenstaander ziet zo’n moshpit er natuurlijk ook vrij lomp uit. Vandaar dat zinnetje “You don’t have to worry, I’ll be fine”. Ik moet er wel bij zeggen dat mijn ouders me altijd honderd procent hebben gesteund, ook al begrepen ze het niet altijd allemaal. Hoe extreem hardcore ook mag overkomen, juist bij hardcore zouden ouders zich geen zorgen hoeven te maken. Hardcore zet mensen juist aan tot denken, het activeert ze. Door middel van het ‘do it yourself’-principe bijvoorbeeld. Ik ben erg blij dat het op mijn pad gekomen is in ieder geval.

David Brinks

Source

Damn, that’s a nice one to hit it off with dude… I don’t know, we’re just doing what we like, what we want to hear in music ourselves. If we count as a typical, average band or not, I don’t know. I don’t care either, I just want to do what we’re doing. This one you can decide for yourself.

2. On the two new songs it’s all about rock n roll, groove and having a good time, sweet if you ask me. Does it have a reason?

Rock: check. Groove: check. Having a good time? Lyrically they’re both not about having a good time for sure. How do you mean? Like we’re having a good time as a band? That’s true for sure. We do take this band pretty seriously but we’re having lots of fun in the meanwhile. All the roadtrips, the midnight snack-attacks, the shows, the rehearsels and the recordings. It’s just great. We all love to do this band. We’re pretty different from eachother, but together we just click.

3. I don’t know if people already have said that you guys have a typical Leeway sound in your songs?

Yeah people mentioned Leeway. Pretty cool if you ask me. Leeway is a great band, I really love the groove in those songs and Eddie’s singing is great. Did you see them live on their reunion tour? I absolutely loved it, I still regret I didn’t went to see them @ Lintfabriek. Only saw them in Tilburg. Would be cool if they came over again, they were supposed to support Killswitch Engage but I don’t know what happened to that…

4. Can you tell me what the song ‘Controlled’ is all about? Rough song if you ask me!

Yeah it’s not really a positive song but it’s just how I think about the world. I mean, we are all just numbers in a bigger system. We’re all controlled one way or another you know. By the government, instilling fear into people, trying to scare us into war all the time. Religions trying to brainwash people, your boss at work telling you can’t do shit etc etc… But I’m kinda repeating the lyrics now, you can read them at our site and they’ll be in the booklet with the full length ofcourse.

5. What’s your contribution in today’s hardcore scene? How do you look up to ethics in general life, it may concern the hardcore vibe of course.

Well, that are more or less two questions. As for ethics. I just would like to see people think more. I mean, how hard is it to think about it before you do something. People are really getting more stupid by the day. See the signs dude, see the signs hehe. I don’t know, maybe people should read more or something. Paper zines are a good start…

As for my “contribution to today’s hardcore scene”… Aside from the band I run a tape-only label with Rob from the Light The Fuse fests, we did some really cool demos if you ask me. Tenement Kids, Diablo Blvd, Mans Ruin, check them out. Next up is a great new breed tape compilation. That tape is going to be killer. Lots of great new bands coming up from all over Europe. Then there’s the e-zine Asice.net, which I’m a part of. And if I’m not doing anything related to that I’m probably doing sites or designs for hardcore bands. Check out hypekid.com if you want to know what I’m talking about. All in all I’m pretty much busy with hardcore everyday in a way. Nothing special though, just doing my two cents like everyone else. Which is maybe the coolest thing about hardcore anyway, everyone doing their part, keeping it all alive.

6. Is our Belgian hardcore scene similar with the Dutch scene or not?

Yeah I guess so. There are great bands from both scenes. Like you guys had or have Dead Stop, Justice, Rise And Fall, Liar amongst others. We had/have Mainstrike, Reaching Forward, Restless Youth, No Turning Back etc etc… I think the people are pretty much the same as well. What do you think about it yourself?

7. Internet: inter-crap or inter-skilful?

To me it’s obviously the latter choice. I’m making websites all the time man haha. But that’s not what you’re getting at I guess. Well, on one side you have some negative aspects, like the anonymousy people have. Just come up with some crappy fake nickname and you can talk all the shit you want. Too much people enter a post, a comment or whatever without thinking. That’s a shame. Cause the internet is a really great way to communicate, if used the right way. For bands it’s a blessing really. You have this huuuuge audience that’s just a couple of clicks away. It never has been so easy to promote your band, get shows, get the word out you know. I absolutely think internet is great. It’s really just that people should think a bit more, but I don’t think that has something to do with the internet.

8. The new release is recorded, mixed and mastered by Patrick Delabie (guess what: the lads in Newgate Potential went there too for their new Polonaise of Death). Is he that good? How is it to work with him?

Yeah, he is that good without a doubt and aside from that he’s just a great guy. We love to record over there because he knows how to get the best out of our band. It’s all in the details and he simply hears everything. It’s also really relaxed to record over there, it’s like one big living room. Go there yourself sometime and you’ll know what I’m talking about. I would recommend Studio 195 to anyone.

9. I see you planned a mini-tour through Spain in February. Is there a band with you for maybe doing the support? Any expectations you have? Dudes, check the local food, you will love it!

haha I’m sure we’ll have to eat something over there so the local food will be checked. If you want a review contact us in March Anyway, we’re not taking any band with us, we’re going in for the kill alone. It will be a blitzkrieg cause we’ll be there for 4 shows only. Can’t wait man, can’t wait. I’ve never been to Spain by the way so I hope to look around a bit as well.

10. If you have the possibility, with what band would you guys tour?

Hmmm… You’re expecting a big name right? But I think the most important thing, if you’re touring with a band for a long time, is if they’re good guys to hang out with. I mean, if you’re stuck together for a long time you better get along… I think a tour with the guys from Strike First or something would work out just fine. Check them out by the way if you didn’t already, cool band. I don’t think we would reject a tour with the reunited Bad Brains, Underdog, Leeway or Crown Of Thornz or something though…

11. Any plans already for 2007, besides that mini-tour?

Yeah for sure! The new full length “Everyday” that will be coming out ofcourse. That’s like the biggest thing happening next year. It will be out on CD (first) and LP (later on) on Shield Recordings. End of january/start of february. Keep an eye out! Then we’ve got some cool shows coming up. We’re playing Light The Fuse 2007, there will be lots of new bands this time and it will be held at the great Innocent venue. It’s going to be great. Be ther and take as many of your friends with you. Some really cool Belgian bands playing as well. Aside from that we’re playing a show with Merauder in April at that same venue, which is cool. The plan is to visit some more countries next year, all small tours, weekends and stuff. Writing new songs again, we’ve already got some ideas that we’re toying with… We’ll see. 2007 is going to be great!

12. Nuff said, thanks a lot! Wish you guys all the best and oh I forgot to ask: any last words?

Thanks for giving us a chance to speak out dude! I’m looking forward to reading this zine! Curious what you’re going to make of it. We need more zines anyway. Start zines! Do tapes, pick up tapes! Go listen to Only Living Witness… Oh well, I’ll shut up Keep thinking.

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Kun je jezelf (en de band) even voorstellen?

Natuurlijk. In het kort: Said And Done is een hardcore band uit het ontzettend prachtige Brabant. We hebben Joost die op de drums ramt, Stef die op een gitaar ragt, Remco die solo’s uit z’n gitaar weet te persen, Joep die de lagere geluiden op bas produceert en ik (Pim) probeer iets wat op zingen zou moeten lijken. In welk hokje je ons wilt plaatsen moet je zelf maar kijken, daar zijn we niet zo mee bezig.

Kom maar op met die vragen!

Jullie hebben onlangs een cd opgenomen. Kun jij dat war meer over vertellen?

Het is onze eerste full length. Voor deze full length hebben we 2 nummers (“I’ll Be Fine” & “Overcome”, staan beiden her-opgenomen ook op de CD) met Michiel Toenink opgenomen die we als promo online gezet hebben. Daar kregen we erg goede reacties op en het vervolg is er nu dan in de vorm van deze CD. Hij komt overigens ook nog uit als LP. Beiden op Shield Recordings. Check ook de andere bands op dat label zoals Heartfelt, Gascoigne & High Treason!

De plaat heet “Everyday”, een titel met verschillende betekenissen. Wat we met de hoes hebben proberen uit te beelden (tekening van Nabbe The Bastard!) is het feit dat we elke dag weer te maken hebben met controle/invloed van buitenaf. Dingen als geloof, regering, politie, terrorisme, corrupte zakenlui, drugs etc. Elke dag weer, of in sommige gevallen probeert men die schijn in ieder geval op te houden voor je. Het staat ook voor het feit dat we elke dag weer leren. Met vallen en opstaan. En ten slotte staat het ook voor de band, aangezien we elke dag op wat voor manier dan ook toch weer bezig zijn met deze band. Maar goed, dat laatste was niet de belangrijkste reden om de plaat “Everyday” te noemen.

Waar is de cd opgenomen?

We zijn voor deze opnames weer naar Studio 195 gegaan. We hebben daar al eerder opgenomen (met Stab Back) en het was dus reeds bekend terrein. Patrick Delabie is een ontzettend gave gast om mee samen te werken en hij weet precies wat we willen qua geluid. Niet te gelikt, geen 10000 overdubs dus. Dat past gewoon niet bij ons. Gewoon een goed klinkende productie, geen flauwekul. We hebben het er eigenlijk amper over gehad, het was meteen duidelijk dat we hier heen zouden gaan. Bands als Dead Stop, Restless Youth en Justice hebben er ook al eens opgenomen mochten mensen Studio 195 nog niet kennen.

Hoe verliepen de opnames?

Naast het verorberen van een hoop junkfood en het spelen van Fifa & GTA op de Playstation 2 hebben we tussendoor ook nog tijd weten te vinden om de plaat in te spelen. Het ging erg goed, alles verliep precies volgens schema en we waren dan ook mooi op tijd klaar. Goede tijd gehad daar!

Wat is je favoriete nummer op deze cd?

Ik denk dat het voor iedereen binnen de band verschillend is. Zelf vind ik “Your Downfall” erg cool, omdat het een gaaf nummer om te zingen is. Ik hou van de groove in dat nummer. Maar ik zou eigenlijk alle nummers kunnen noemen. Snel, hard, groovend, melodie. Alles staat erop. Tekstueel heb ik eigenlijk ook niet echt voorkeuren, het ene nummer is echter wel wat persoonlijker dan het andere.

Wat is het grote verschil met wat jullie eerder deden?

Dit is de eerste Said And Done CD maar als je het vergelijkt met de vorige band Stab Back, dan valt de de verandering in zang als eerste op. Ik had dat gebrul enz wel gehad. Daarnaast zit er sowieso meer groove in de nummers, het is allemaal een stuk meer oldschool hardcore. Jaren ’80 stijl.

Waarom zou iemand deze cd moeten kopen?

Niemand moet de CD kopen maar ik vind het cool als mensen de CD oppikken als ze de show die ze gezien hebben, of de nummers die ze online gehoord hebben, gaaf vinden. Als ze er niks aan vinden moeten ze de CD vooral laten liggen.

Is er voor jullie als band veel veranderd de laatste tijd?

We zijn vooral zelf veranderd, dit ligt ons allemaal een stuk beter. Het gaat nu allemaal wel wat rapper. Aardig wat shows, coole shows ook. Goede reacties, interviews. Super cool dat niet alleen wij het gaaf vinden maar dat mensen het ook oppikken.

Wat vind je van de huidige hardcore scene in Nederland/Belgie?

Er zijn in ieder geval, naast de reeds gevestigde namen, genoeg nieuwe bands. Ik merk wel dat er in Belgie wat meer jonge kids bezig zijn met nieuwe bands, erg cool. Zou in Nederland ook nog wel wat meer mogen wat mij betreft. Al hebben we niks te klagen natuurlijk. Ook zijn er ontzettend veel shows, voor bands ideaal. Maar dat heeft ook weer een keerzijde, doordat er zoveel shows zijn zijn de shows ook wat minder druk bezocht.

Wat waren voor jullie de hoogte/dieptepunten in het afgelopen jaar?

Voor de band was het een erg cool begin iig. Geen dieptepunten. Met name de CD opnemen was fantastich maar ook het spelen met de Fearless Vampire Killers (Cro Mags) was een droom die uitkwam. En 2007 belooft alleen nog maar beter te worden. Dat is het eigenlijk al met het uitkomen van de CD en de shows in Spanje.

Voor mij persoonlijk waren het ook vooral hoogtepunten. Maar aangezien ik een hoop tijd in de band steek komt dat sowieso wel overeen. Een dieptepunt zou je het gestuntel van het kabinet kunnen noemen. Personen als Rita Verdonk. Moet hier even de Reagan Youth cover van Gewapend Beton noemen, “Rita Jeugd”. Super! Verder het feit dat mensen met de minuut dommer lijken te worden, maar dat heeft niet zo zeer iets met vorig jaar te maken. Mensen zouden hun gezonde verstand wat meer moeten gebruiken. Maar goed, dat is iets waar ik me persoonlijk aan kan ergeren.

Wat verwachten jullie van 2007?

“Everyday” die op LP uitkomt. Veel shows, in zowel binnen als buitenland, nieuwe nummers schrijven, misschien nog wel uitbrengen op 7″? We zien wel. De stijgende lijn voortzetten die we vorig jaar hebben ingezet in ieder geval.

Welke bands moeten we dit jaar goed in de gaten houden?

D’r zijn zo ontzettend veel coole nieuwe bands. Dit gaat weer als een verkooppraatje klinken voor m’n tapelabel wat ik samen met Rob van Light The Fuse run maarrrr… Check de “Pressure Release 2007″, European new breed compilation tape. Daar staan 30 nieuwe bands op uit heel Europa. Ik denk dat je daar dan wel even mee zoet bent.

Hoe hardcore zijn jullie eigenlijk?

Ongeveer 12,535314 denk ik.

Wat vind je van het gebruik van internet door bands (myspace bv)?

Met internet heb je de hele wereld aan je voeten. Bands kunnen heel makkelijk veel mensen hun muziek laten horen en het is natuurlijk fantastisch als je van iemand hoort dat ze je muziek gaaf vinden, helemaal als deze persoon zich aan de andere kant van de wereld bevind.

Natuurlijk zijn er ook nadelen. Mensen trekken makkelijker anoniem hun mond open wat vaak niet zo’n geweldige gevolgen heeft en het is natuurlijk zo dat bands die wellicht nog iets langer in het oefenhok zouden moeten hangen zich al rocksterren wanen. Veel bands hebben tegenwoordig ook al een website voordat ze ook nog maar een naam of een nummer geschreven hebben. Maar goed, wellicht is dat het enthousiasme. En dat is iets wat zeker niet verloren mag gaan.

Ik zie in ieder geval meer voordelen dan nadelen. Zou ook hypocriet zijn als het anders was, aangezien ik zelf websites ontwikkel.

Maken jullie er gebruik van?

Ja zoals ik al zei, ik doe sowieso zelf erg veel met internet. Maar ook met de band hebben we er ontzettend veel van geprofiteerd. Je weet het nooit zeker, want wellicht was ik wel erg fanatiek brieven aan het schrijven geweest als internet er niet geweest was, maar zonder internet denk ik bijvoorbeeld niet dat wij al zo snel naar Spanje waren geweest. Carles van Deathwishteam Girona hoorde echter onze promo opnames en wilde ons graag naar Spanje halen. Zo zijn er meer dingen voorgevallen waarbij we zeker ons voordeel gedaan hebben met internet.

Zouden beginnende bands demotapes (cdr’s) inclusief goede artwork etc moeten maken ipv bv het gebruik van myspace?

Demotapes! Je hebt me pas al aan de mouw getrokken over Pressure Release Records dus je weet hoe ik denk over demo’s. Hoe gaaf zijn demotapes! Ik denk zeker dat het belangrijk is dat bands een goede demotape maken en inderdaad het liefst met goed artwork. Goed artwork kan ook erg simpel zijn, het hoeft geen kunstwerk te zijn. Knip en plak, zwart/wit kopieerwerk. Ik hou er wel van.

Wat luisterde je zelf in je jeugd?

Met m’n 21 jaar voel ik me nog steeds erg jeugdig maar tot m’n negende was het vooral top 40. Ik kende hitlijsten altijd helemaal uit m’n kop, maar toen ik negen was ontdekte ik via een (oudere) jongen uit de buurt Nirvana. Het voelde echter, het deed iets met me. Toen ik eenmaal de hardere muziek ontdekt had was er geen weg meer terug. Die liefde voor Nirvana is overigens nooit meer over gegaan. Ik luister het niet veel meer, maar kan er nog steeds van genieten.

Wat is je laatste aankoop geweest?

Mijn laatste aankoop is een Only Living Witness 7″, van voor hun eerste full length, geweest denk ik. Daar was ik al een tijdje naar opzoek maar kwam hem onlangs tegen op een internetsite (daar heb je het weer, internet mega handig). Check die band trouwens, goed spul!

Meestal koop ik op shows, bij bands of distro’s. Af en toe struin ik internet af voor dingen die wat lastiger te verkrijgen zijn, maar dat gebeurt niet zo heel veel meer.

Oh wacht ik herinner me dat ik een Spanje nog een CD gekocht heb van een band die met ons speelde, Charles Bronson Discipline. Dat is m’n laatste aankoop geweest.

Heb je een grote of een kleine muziekcollectie ?

Dat is zo ontzettend relatief. Wat voor de een groot is voor de ander een kleine muziek collectie. Ik ben erg blij met de verzameling tapes & vinyl die ik heb in ieder geval. Ik heb ook aardig wat CDs maar daar doe ik eigenlijk niks mee, die liggen verspreid door het huis hier stof te happen.

Wil je nog wat kwijt?

Volgens mij heb je alles zo’n beetje gehad. Bedankt voor de interesse in onze band in ieder geval! Ik denk dat ik daar deze gelegenheid maar even voor gebruik, om iedereen te bedanken die ons de afgelopen tijd gesteund heeft of dat de komende tijd gaat doen. Super cool!

Voor de mensen die nog nooit van ons gehoord hebben, mocht je interesse hebben in de band: www.saidanddone.org en www.myspace.com/saidanddonehardcore

HOUDOE!

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