1. HOW LONG HAS THE BAND BEEN TOGETHER?
Said And Done isn’t around for that long. The band that evolved into Said And Done, Stab Back, has been around for some years though, since 2001/2002 or something. The drummer and I started jamming together in 1999. Somewhere along the way the others got involved and it all evolved into this. We just recently changed our name to Said And Done because the new songs we were writing were totally different and we were pretty fed up with the old name. People took it as a ‘tough-guy’ sounding name. That never was our intention though, it was meant as a reaction to backstabbers. Ah well, that’s history now. Time for the next chapter, it’s all about Said And Done now.
2. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE BAND NAME?
When we decided it was time to change our name we started to think of new names right away. I simply went through my record collection and started to write down song titles. I also went through all the lyric sheets. We had a BIG list of names. A lot of cool names were dropped because they already existed (every cool Cro Mags or Bad Brains title is used already ofcourse) or we couldn’t agree upon the name. So then we ended up with Said And Done. A Negative Approach song. Not a bad choice we thought. Later we found out there already have been some bands with the same name… This zine’s from Boston right? You might know about the Boston straight edge band with the same name then. We didn’t… Ah well. There are lots of bands that had the same names in hardcore history…
3. WHAT IS THE CURRENT BAND LINE UP?
We’ve got Joost on drums. Joep on bass. Stef on guitar and Remco on guitar as well. And me, Pim, on vocals. Exciting huh?
4. HAVE THERE BEEN ANY LINE UP CHANGES?
Not recently luckily! The last lineup change is from 2 years ago or something, I don’t even know anymore. That’s when Remco stepped in. We had our share of lineup trouble in the past already. I hope we’ll stick together with this lineup and I don’t see any reason at this time that would suggest otherwise. We’re really working well together at the moment.
5. WHATS THE MUSIC SCENE LIKE WHERE YOU ARE FROM?
Really good! There are LOTS of bands. Great bands as well. Lots of venues to play. Some great labels. I think we’re really lucky over here. Especially the part of the Netherlands we’re from, Brabant, has some great bands with No Turning Back, Restless Youth, State Of Mind etc. Other bands you should check out from the Netherlands are Strike First, New Morality, Bratpack, Civil Terror, Tenement Kids, Straight A’s, Room 13, Cracks In The Wall, Citizens Patrol etc etc. I could go on for some time. It’s a big list. And that’s only the Netherlands we’re talking about. In Europe there are a lot more great bands, Belgium for instance has a great scene at the moment as well. Be sure to check out the upcoming “new breed” tape compilation on Pressure Release Records. That tape will feature a lot of the new great bands from Europe.
6. IF YOU HAD TO DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC TO SOMEONE WHO HAD NEVER HEARD YOU BEFORE HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELVES?
I rather see people just check us out and decide for themselves, because the description of one guy/girl can be totally different that someone elses their description. I have seen us compared with some bands that I’m really surprised about. I just don’t hear it back in our songs. All in all I think we simply make raw hard-hitting old school hardcore. Pretty heavy but with enough melody. Hardcore.
7. WHAT ARE THE BANDS MUSICAL INFLUENCES?
Aside from the obvious influences like the Cro Mags, No Warning, Leeway, Crown Of Thornz, Madball, Bad Brains, Judge, Minor Threat etc there are tons of other bands inspiring us. Maybe you’re not hearing all of it back in our music but they influenced us for sure. Stuff like Only Living Witness, Johnny Cash, Nirvana, even hiphop etc. I think it’s good to listen to all kinds of stuff, keep an open mind.
Talking about influences… I recently went to a Cro Mags, or Fearless Vampire Killers, show again. I was pretty tired (had a pretty damn busy week). But when that band started to play the energy started to flow again. It’s amazing what a band like them can do to you. Just amazing. I went away with tons of energy and tons of plans. They not only influenced me musically and vocally but they simply inspired me.
8. HOW DO THE BAND DECIDE AND WRITE THE LYRICS AND MUSIC?
Most of the time one of the guitarists has a riff, or a couple of riffs, they bring to the rehearsel where we start to jam on them. The drummer adds his beats and breaks etc. Then we add some structure. Sometimes songs are created straight out of a jam session where we just start to improvise together. Most of the time vocals and lyrics are added to the song later on. Sometimes I start jamming/improvising with them when they’re writing a new songs, other time I just listen and try to come up with lyrics. I try them out later with the band, untill they totally fit the song. I write all of the lyrics myself but I always tell them what they’re about. It would be silly playing these songs and screaming along if they wouldn’t agree with the lyrics. There’s never been any discussion about this actually. We just started to work this way and it works great for us.
9. WHATS THE BEST VENUE YOU HAVE PLAYED AND WHY?
I think we’re all big fans of the Innocent in Hengelo (NL). A small venue where some “legendary” shows have taken place. It’s run by some great people too. Overall the main credo is: the smaller, the better 🙂 We love playing small venues. I love venues without a stage, way closer to the audience.
10. WHAT BANDS HAVE YOU PLAYED WITH IN THE PAST?
We only played a couple of shows with Said And Done yet. We played with bands like Justice from Belgium, Tenement Kids, Bratpack, Room 13, Cracks In The Wall, Eye Of Judgement, Straight A’s etc. All kinds of bands. We’ve got some cool shows coming up, as said before with the Fearless Vampire Killers. We’ll also be playing with Merauder when they’re coming over to Europe. Looking forward to it.
11. ARE ANY OF THE BANDS MEMBERS IN ANY OTHER BANDS?
Joost and I did a short lived project called Those Days with a friend of ours but that didn’t really work out, we recorded a demo (which had Joep on bass as well) but after that we kinda lost interest. Stef and Wessel, who’s filling in guitars now and then, also have some kind of project going on, but that’s jamming at the moment. Remco also has a rock & roll band aside from Said And Done, but all in all we’re pretty loyal to the band actually 🙂 I think I can speak for all of us when I say we love playing in this band, playing these songs.
12. WHATS BEEN THE BANDS FAVOURITE SHOW AND WHY?
The first show we played was pretty special, not because it was the first show but because of the whole atmosphere. It was in a little bar in the south of the Netherlands. And the place was packed. That’s a good thing, but the thing was… half of the crowd were hardcore kids, the other half were dumb nazi kids. As bands played the tension got higher and higher. It errupted just before we played and a nazi got hit and thrown to the floor because he was picking out kids and intentionally hitting them. Luckily he left, but there was a short fight outside. Then it was our time to close off the evening. I didn’t know what to expect, would it escalate even further? I was getting told to not speak out about it because it could hurt the venue, could hurt the bands etc but I just had to say something, I couldn’t let it go. So I made a remark in a way that I hoped the right people would understand. Something like, the next song is for all the lefthanded people… The right people did get it. I just don’t get it people like that are so ignorant… I just don’t. The whole atmosphere really fueled us though and we played a really good set. The last show we played was great as well, we just did our set when people asked for an encore. Something I think is really cliche and cheesy by the way. But it felt right this time for some way or another. We played a cover of “Hard Times” from the Cro Mags and the place went nuts. Hard times for sure, loved it.
13. IF YOU COULD PLAY WITH ANY BANDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD WHO WOULD THEY BE?
Well, as for bands that are still together or just back together… Cro Mags were high on that list, but we’ll be playing with them (Fearless Vampire Killers that is) on the 23rd of November. We’re really looking forward to that. I would love to play a show with Underdog or with the Bad Brains (since they’re just back together). You know, the usual names you’ll hear when you ask hardcore bands about that, playing with those bands are just dreams coming true. But I would love to play with a band like Iron Age as well, great band! Be sure to check out their record, “Constrant Struggle”, it’s out on Youngblood Records & Reflections Records. We were supposed to play with them in the Netherlands but the show got cancelled. They went on a tour with Righteous Jams instead of coming over earlier on. Looking forward to seeing them play though.
14. DO YOU HAVE ANY DEMOS/RELEASES AVAILABLE? HOW CAN PEOPLE GET HOLD OF THEM?
At the moment we only have these two songs up for download as an online promo. We’ll head to the studios early on in December to record our full length “Everyday” that will come out on Shield Recordings. It will be released both as a CD and LP. We can’t wait to record it and get it out. You can order it somewhere early next year from both the label as from us directly. We’ll be sorting distro etc for other countries. If you have a distro/label or something and want to help us out, just contact us! Anyway, we’ll make it perfectly clear how to get it when it’s out. Just keep an eye on our site, www.saidanddone.org.
http://www.myspace.com/saidanddonehardcore
Thanks for this interview, it’s great you give bands (like you’re doing now with us) an opportunity to speak out. Good luck with your zine and I hope the plans for the paper version will work out. Paper zines are great. Take care and keep thinking.