This is a true veteran band that has been bulldozing its way through fast hardcore since 1990. The band was co-founded by Stoffel in a port city in northern Germany, and he has been playing guitar and screaming since day one. Over the years, they have released countless records and split releases, and have played hundreds of shows and toured all over the world. Any fan of extreme hardcore, fastcore, or powerviolence should be familiar with this band.
For this interview, Stoffel himself took the time to answer my questions in great detail.
You are obviously closely related to punk and hardcore, but what was the first kind of music that appear you as a kid? I imagine that a radio was a big factor in terms of exposure for you.
I think that the main influence for my musical taste in my childhood came from my parents. They were typical music consumers with no particular taste and primarily listened to 60s and 70s mainstream pop/rock music. My mom and dad had a medium-sized collection of records and tapes, but they also played the radio a lot. Even as a young boy, I liked most the songs that had a kinda „distorted“ guitar, although I didn‘t know what bands those were at the time. Later I recognized that it was groups like THE SWEET or SLADE … I started to listen to music consciously and to buy my first records with my small money in 1980 at the age of 11. At that time it was normal pop groups like ABBA or new romantic stuff like VISAGE, haha. In the summer of 1981 I discovered a new thing called „Neue Deutsche Welle“ („New German Wave“), a commercial adaptation of the English late-70s new wave, in which all German-speaking bands were thrown together, no matter if it was pop, rock, synth-pop, punk, hard rock or electro. Due to this so-called „movement“ I discovered my first new wave and punk bands, like EXTRABREIT, IDEAL, TRIO, NICHTS, BÄRCHEN UND DIE MILCHBUBIS or NEONBABIES. Just a short time before, through a classmate I got introduced to ADAM AND THE ANTS. Basically, that was the first punk band of my life. So it can be stated that punk has had a stranglehold on me since about mid-1981, haha.
Do you remember how you first discovered the underground/punk center of music? Did you have a mentor in that regard?
I had already indicated that in the first question. Through the „Neue Deutsche Welle“ trend I discovered punk and so I dived deeper into that matter. There was no kind of „mentor“; I discovered it on my own and tried to read as much as possible about this phenomenon. There was no internet, and back in the day I was living in the northernmost district of Hamburg, which was somehow an isolated area. There were a few punks at my school, but they were all two or three years older than me and a few grades higher. I never dared to approach them. But one fine day it was the opposite: Due to my jeans jacket, on which I had drawn various punk band logos with a ballpoint pen, I was contacted on the schoolyard by a punk who was a grade above me and already had been part of the local scene for a few years. This guy then recorded a few tapes for me and that‘s how I discovered more bands like STIFF LITTLE FINGERS, COCKNEY REJECTS, DEAD KENNEDYS, CORONERS, SLIME or RAZZIA. Otherwise, the general development was comparable to many other kids: One day I accidentally heard on the radio „Do you wanna dance?“ by the RAMONES and my aunt later surprised me on my birthday with the SEX PISTOLS-12“ LP „Never mind the bollocks …“.
What made you want to pick up an instrument/microphone initially?
When I got into punk, I developed a certain passion, but never considered playing an instrument, because I thought I was completely untalented. Sometime in the spring of 1986, I discovered an old three-string acoustic guitar in my great-grandmother’s
attic. I started playing around with it, tuning the E and A strings in a way that I could just put my index finger across them and it still sounded like the typical punk chord. That inspired me to continue, but at some point I realized that this way of playing is
very limited and I can’t develop properly. I bought a cheap’n’shitty electric guitar and a year later, the guitarist of a local rock band I was friends with, showed me the first real chord due to my request how to play punk rock. I never wanted to be a singer.
Referred to YACØPSÆ it was inevitable because we couldn’t find anyone who wanted to overtake the microphone for us.
Who were some of the local bands that you got into early on, before starting your own band? I remember a very first band called BÖSER BUBEN CLUB and especially a noisecore band like CAPITOL SCUMFUCK. Anyway, what inspired you to start YACØPSÆ in the first place?
In 1985 my parents moved with me from the north of Hamburg to a shitty suburb of Hamburg in the east. There existed two bands: THE SEXTONS and ANTI-CLOCKWISER. THE SEXTONS weren’t punks, they have been a bunch of high school kids who were into various independent music and sounded punk because they couldn’t play very well. However, they developed pretty quickly and became quite a diverse rock band. I really liked their punk phase, but I also liked their later material, because we were friends. ANTI-CLOCKWISER was a band of local punks who never left the practice room because they were too disorganized. I think they had potential but some members preferred to focus on using (harder) drugs and so the band died out after about a year. After all, both bands inspired me to start my very first band BÖSER BUBEN CLUB in 1986, which also only existed for three months. But it was a start haha. CAPITOL SCUMFUCK, just like BÖSER BUBEN CLUB, did not come out of the rehearsal room. CAPITOL SCUMFUCK existed exclusively in the summer of 1988 and made a practice room tape with 47 noisepunk songs heavily inspired by the HERESY 7“ flexi „Never healed“. Two years later YACØPSÆ started rather accidentally. After playing in a post-punk band in 1989/1990 but not being able to develop there, I met Pattex in the summer of 1990 with whom I founded YACØPSÆ and could finally play the sound I liked since the mid-80s (LÄRM, early S.O.B., early D.R.I., FEAR ITSELF, ATAVISTIC, SATANIC MALFUNCTIONS, NEOS etc.).
YACØPSÆ! Sometimes they call your music „speedgrind“. I do not see any relationship with grindcore, but who cares? But in many aspects it‘s hard to be connected with the nowadays modern or even goregrind scene which absorbs many weirdo bands. I do not care if it‘s called speed or whatever, but honestly, do you like to be connected more to the hardcore/punk scene or to the grind/metal scene? Or is it somehow important for you to belong somewhere?
In terms of content and overall aesthetics, we see ourselves as a part of the punk scene because that’s where our roots are and where we have been socialized. On the other hand, what does that mean nowadays? The entire scene today is completely different than it was in the 80s and has been divided into so many different sub-genres that sometimes hardly have anything in common. It’s comparable to the death metal/goregrind scene, by the way. Today’s bands hardly overlap (aesthetically) with the pioneer groups. Still, to get back to the core of the question: we see ourselves as a hardcore band in general and don’t put much emphasis on a deeper categorization, although we are well aware that the style we play was not invented by us and we have the closest similarities to the so-called power violence/fastcore scene, whose older bands were probably influenced by the same groups as us. Additionally, we don’t care who finally comes to our shows. Nobody will be excluded and everyone is welcome. So it doesn’t matter if we play to metalheads or to punks. It’s important that people are active together, and I also think it’s great if several different styles come together at concerts and festivals.
YACØPSÆ are well known worldwide. Yep, of course in the natural limits of the hardcore/punk genre. What do you think what helped to spread your name most? Is it a daily band work like trading tapes, writing letters, cooperating with fanzines and generally being active? How helpful was the CD „Einstweilige Vernichtung“ released by the legendary SLAP A HAM RECORDS? Hard to find such a cult label for power violence and fastcore than this one, am I right? What should you advice to young bands and how to spread their music or to promote themselves? I am worried that a part of bands stop after creating a profile at Facebook or Bandcamp.
It is difficult for me to estimate how high our level of awareness is in reality, but I think that it has automatically increased due to our long existence. On the other hand, I was also very active in our early years as a tape trader and sent out our stuff to many people from all parts of the world. Furthermore, I never restricted myself exclusively to one scene, but maintained many contacts in all directions, be it noisecore, death/thrash metal, punk, straight edge or even black metal, because I myself am interested in many different things. Interestingly enough, this gave us the opportunity to play on stylistically different concerts. Sometimes we played on classical punk events and sometimes with pure death metal/goregrind bands. From today‘s point of view it‘s amazing to see what was possible in former times without internet and you just had a typewriter, a telephone and the local post office at your disposal. But the formula is actually quite simple: If you don‘t move, nothing happens! I remember a couple of bands from our area that started at the same time as us, but never got out of our area, even though they weren‘t bad. But the problem with those bands was that they were too lazy to send out their demo tapes or otherwise try to get external contacts. The result was that they only played in the surrounding youth centers and eventually disbanded. In our case, we said from the beginning that we wanted to get out and that we haven’t been interested in just playing concerts in our local venues. Basically, at a certain point a snowball effect set in. After our first singles, more and more worldwide contacts developed and we also got better in terms of quality. At some point Chris Dodge/SLAP A HAM RECORDS contacted us and offered us to release something on his label because he was a big fan of our first album. Releasing on SLAP A HAM RECORDS helped us tremendously and pushed our name immensely – especially in the United States. And yes, SLAP A HAM RECORDS was the perfect label for power violence, fastcore and sludge, although I personally don‘t like all the releases, but that‘s a matter of taste. Moreover, there were other good labels for such bands at that time, for example DEEP SIX, DRAW BLANK, SIX WEEKS, SOUND POLLUTION, PESSIMISER, CLEAN PLATE, BOVINE, A PRODUCT OF SIX CENTS, 625 THRASHCORE or SATANS PIMP. Explicit advices for younger bands I can give just conditionally, because today‘s promotion structure is completely different than back then. It is suggested that it is easier today to make music known all over the planet, but in my opinion this is only partly true. Sure, you just have to upload the demo instead of dub all tracks in real time from tape to tape, package it and move your ass to the post office. On the other hand, there is an unmanageable amount of bands today, so that a lot simply can’t be noticed. Additionally, factors such as fast pace and low value appreciation have to be considered. While we used to put money into envelopes and sometimes waited weeks for a rare record from overseas, nowadays people primarily just click, take a quick listen and surf on.
You cancelled a couple of shows in the past. I was travelling a large distance to see you but you did not arrived. The same happened at the 1st edition of our „Play fast or don’t“ festival. Okay, I believe and I have the same experiences with my own band that due to private reasons, work duties, health conditions etc., it‘s impossible to play each confimed gig during a long running carrier of a band. That‘s totally clear to me. But did you notice a negative feedback due to the situations mentioned above? Did you have serious reasons or is it partly caused by ex-members?
Yes, I remember that there was a phase when we were „notorious“ for cancelling concerts more often. That was about 20 years ago. Most of these cancellations were caused by our bass player at that time, mainly due to health reasons. Because of our drummer Emu rather less. And as far as I‘m concerned, only once a concert was cancelled because of me, because I couldn‘t get away from work – otherwise never! Of course it‘s very annoying for promoters, but I also have to say that the issue has been somewhat hyped up. I still have the flyers from the cancelled shows and there were basically just a little more than a handful. But since these cancellations were within a relatively short period of time, it was all perceived more intensively than it actually is.
Most of your records has been recorded in the long-term line up with Emu on drums and Frank on bass. I don‘t know how deeply you want to go into their leavings, but how has their departure impacted the band, and was there ever a sense that you might not continue as a band? I believe that might be difficult to handle this situation in the band furthermore if they are long-time members. Anyway, how hard was it to find a replacement?
Yes, the Frank/Emu/Stoffel lineup was stable for 20 years, but people change and shift their priorities, that‘s normal and happens a lot, but it doesn‘t necessarily have to be negative. In principle, the lineup changes were rather fluid. In February 2016, Emu and I amicably parted ways with Frank, as we had noticed for some time that he had lost interest in the band in a certain way. Just two weeks later Manuel came to us, who was looking for a band. From that point of view it was a perfect fit. At the end of 2018, Manuel and I kicked out Emu, because we couldn‘t cope with his behavior anymore. Again, it didn‘t take two weeks until Thore was around. So we never had a longer break or other problems due to the lineup changes. On the contrary, we even became qualitatively better as a band.
Your recordings provides a very clear and distinctive style which hasn‘t changed during the years. How do you think you have progressed as a band from release to release? Is there any record you would pick up amog others? And why? I know you hate your 1st 7“ EP „Krank ist normal“, so which one do you like most?
We wanted to play extreme hardcore from the beginning and never felt the need to deviate from that style or add other elements to it and create a hybrid. The development showed itself with time through an improved playing ability. Thus, the quality of the songs also automatically got better. The same counts for the lyrics. If these were rather simple in the beginning, they became more sophisticated in their form and lyrically more mature over time. You may think on the surface that extreme hardcore is a genre that offers little opportunity for further development, but that‘s exactly where the challenge lies, in my opinion. It is quite possible to develop without permanently repeating yourself and without leaving the terrain. To highlight one record of ours in particular is not easy for me, because I lack the objective distance and I‘m also very critical. I still consider „Einstweilige Vernichtung“ as one of my personal favorites, whereby there are also weaker tracks on this record, but these have been cleverly placed so that they do not stand out negatively. The same applies to „Tanz, Grosny, tanz …“. At the moment I think our current album „Timeo ergo sum“ is the best, especially since we put more work into this record (compared to other releases). The material is more sophisticated in every sense. On the other hand, our first four 7“ EP‘s, they are so shitty from today‘s point of view that I think they shouldn‘t have been released at all. I don‘t mean the songs themselves, but the sound and the playful realization. That the songs from the ‘94 „Krank ist normal“ 7“ EP are okay in themselves was proven by the re-recording for the 20th anniversary. I am glad that we did it, because finally the tracks were played adequately and provided with a good sound.
I personally think that a little and only weak side of YACØPSÆ is the artwork of your records. Don‘t get me wrong. I am happy that everything other is superb, music is heavy, sound is top, lyrics, attitude etc. But the pictures with a lower quality resolution taken from the internet and used for a big size of a 12“ LP makes me sad. Is the artwork of your records not important for you? I assume that you don‘t want to use a typical skull drawings etc. like every band do. Anyway your best and genial art is the stolen art from D.R.I. (as a label of „Einstweilige Vernichtung“ 12“ LP), VENOM („power violence“ instead of „black metal“), CORROSION OF CONFORMITY (typical skull) etc., haha.
Yes, we’ve never been particularly heroes when it comes to cover design matters. We designed our early singles ourselves in the best „do-it-yourself” manner, very punk rock with scissors and glue. Later, after our first album, the computer came along. Personally, I think some of the covers are well implemented, with others some things could have been done better (but that actually only applies to a few covers that we created on the computer ourselves). The cover you suggested is probably our split 7” EP with TUMULT. The resolution is not particularly good, but on the other hand I personally don’t think it’s that bad, especially since the effect still comes across. The best are our covers, which we had it done by other people, haha. The exception here is the cover of our Split 7” with VASELINE. Indeed, it’s really bad, but we didn’t have any control over it because we didn’t see it until the record came out. I have no idea who drew the picture at the time, but originally the split was supposed to come out as a 10” LP compilation featuring K.K.F. (or B.R.B., not sure), VASELINE and INTESTINAL DISEASE. Two bands quit and so T.V.G. RECORDS split it up and kept the cover art. Well, at last, you can definitely say in general that our cover design got better and better with the time. The use of the D.R.I. logo was meant as a small „tribute“, because we are long-time fans. No big deal, the idea came spontaneously while creating the artwork. Incidentally, in line with the question, in my opinion D.R.I. are the ones who almost consistently have bad covers on their records, haha. For me, the only usable artwork has been seen on „Dirty rotten” and „Violent pacification”. But that’s just by the way. To do a VENOM rip off was the idea of the label that released the shirt. We have nothing to do with it, but the result was great in our opinion. And as far as CORROSION OF CONFORMITY is concerned, it was also a spontaneous idea like using the D.R.I. runner (especially since the logo is one of the best in the worldwide hardcore scene).
„Pop punk alienation“ album. I had no clue about this album and when I was listening to the trax I hardly believed that‘s YACØPSÆ, though it‘s fine to relax to. I know that you have recorded a THE CURE cover in the past and it‘s your fave style like punk rock, new wave among others. Further there is NIRVANA‘s „Smells like teen spirit“ on your „Krank ist normal“ 7“ EP. Why did you decide to record this kind of full album and how did you choose tracks and bands? What kind of feedback did you get? Any negative response? You know that the hardcore/punk scene can be very strict and orthodox although after DIY punk shows there is always disco party till the morning and shitty pop music is played, which I hated most, haha.
The idea for „Pop-Punk Alienation” came up shortly after the release of „Einstweilige Vernichtung” and was simply a joke. Since we do not listen to power violence all day long, but also other styles of punk, the idea of making a cover album came up spontaneously. Of course the idea isn’t unique as many bands have already released cover albums, but at least we thought, we could make something special out of it. If we had announced that we were doing such an album, most would have thought that we would cover bands like INFEST, ELECTRO HIPPIES, PANDEMONIUM, SEPTIC DEATH, HELLNATION or BOBWIRE. So we decided to do the exact opposite of that and cover pop punk bands exclusively. Our concept was that each of us chooses three bands/songs. On top one track has been selected together just to have ten tunes total). Later we added two of our own compositions, which – also contrary to the subject matter, because pop punk bands mainly got stupid boy/girl lyrics – were provided with gory contents. As I said, the full album was just meant as a nice joke and we also knew that we would never play it live. Although, we occasionally played three titles of that live. 2002, at a show in Magdeburg with DENAK, we did „Mall monarchy” by COMPULSION as an encore just to scare the crowd. „No ease to see” was in our program for a longer time at the end of the 90s with more harmless lyrics and was picked up again especially for this album, since there existed just one rehearsal room recording of the track. Last but not least, at the end of a short Skandinavian tour with BRUCE BANNER we once played in Sandviken „Hit“ by THE WANNADIES, because the band was from Sweden. I never saw any reviews. The record tends to go under the radar within our discography. There are only 500 copies of the CD version and just 102 copies of the 12” LP. Last year a tape version of 50 copies was released by some label from Los Angeles. But as I already said two times, we made the album just for fun. Nonetheless, there is one anecdote to tell. Emu received an email from some dude complaining about the album. He said he was a big fan of our records and then bought „Pop-Punk Alienation” because he thought he’d get the same noise as on „Tanz, Grozny, tanz…”. That dude was pretty disappointed and said it’s okay to do a different album stylistically, but we should have used a different name for it. Emu answered him short and to the point: „The band YACØPSÆ is playing, so that’s what is printed on the cover!”, haha.
I didn´t realize that you have released a split with NAPALM DEATH called „Ultra Thrash Noise Cranium Meltdown“ 1“ Split EP. I didn‘t find any other info. What‘s this? Is it an official release? It´s deadly limited to 11 copies (1st press) and 4 copies (2nd press), haha. Good luck, collectors!
That was just a joke made out of a funny mood. A mini vinyl record that cannot be played and which is just an accessory of toy dolls. It was sent out to friends of the band exclusively, but some dork put it on Discogs afterwards.
I‘m sure that during the years you have spent a lot of your own money on band‘s expenses. Bands who are well known, might ask for much more money than actually need for travelling costs. Is it ok for you to get more money for a punk band or straight-out to earn money? Is it okay to make a living off of punk?
Of course, some private money always flows into the band, but it’s never that much that it hurts or that we have to worry about it. We don’t play together for the money. It never was and it never will be! We also don’t ask for more than is necessary at concerts. Some people say, related to our „status“, we even could take a lot more, but we don’t want that. When we play in Hamburg, for example, we often don’t take any money at all so that the foreign bands we play with have more available. Or it’s the case that we don’t take any money in favor of the autonomous venue. Basically, we regulate our finances in such a way that we make sure that we don’t make a loss. And the surplus flows back. We use this to pay studio costs or for printing t-shirts, in example. We are very happy with this approach and don’t give our finances too much thought. If other punk bands go out for the money, that’s their choice. I’m not judging that, but personally I wouldn’t act that way. This also raises the question of what you are giving up in favor of commercial success and a certain degree of comfort. My freedom is more important to me. On the other hand, I think it’s cool if bands like CHUMBAWAMBA or GREEN DAY are successful, but don’t lose touch with the base and also let something flow back or occasionally give concerts in smaller autonomous clubs.
Is it wrong to sell bootlegs? Is it ok to download mp3‘s of independent D.I.Y. punk bands without paying? To listen music online doesn‘t make any money and it‘s hard for a label to keep ongoing.
Well, the question has been around for many years. I don’t really see any difference to the 80s. Back then, quite a few people had friends’ records copied onto tapes because they simply didn’t have the money to buy every 12“ LP. Even then there was this campaign by the record companies with the slogan „Home taping is killing business”. The English post-punk band BOW WOW WOW (one of my personal all-time faves, by the way) even wrote a song about this in 1980:
„C30, C60, C90 – Go!”
„It used to break my heart when I went in your shop
And you said my records were out of stock
So I don‘t buy records in your shop
Now I tape them all ‘cause I‘m „Top of the pops“
Yeah, now I got a new way to move
It‘s shiny and black and don‘t need a groove
Now I don‘t need no album rack
I carry my collection over my back
Policeman stopped me in my tracks
Said, „Hey you, you can‘t tape that
You’re under arrest ‘cause it‘s illegal“
So I shoved him off and blew his whistle
I‘m a pirate and I keep my loot
So I blew him out with my bazooka“
Of course the labels complain because after all they want to sell their stuff. On the other hand, I can’t imagine labels that are tainted with the subculture staying on their records forever, since the passion for collecting is still quite widespread in the scene and, conversely, manageable editions are usually pressed. And from my position as a „musician” I can say that it’s not a problem for us whether people download our stuff or listen to it on the net. I already mentioned it in another question: We don’t care about the money and we don’t depend on record sales either. Despite the download culture, we always got rid of our records. As I said, whether downloading or copying to tape makes no difference at all. And when you start a label you are aware of this side effect and you don’t complain. If you don’t get your records sold, the problem is located somewhere else, in my opinion.
What are your favorite places to play? Do you prefer a show in small venues or squats opposite to a festivals? What was the most violent show you ever played? How did you enjoy playing at the legendary 924 Gilman Street Club in California?
Personally, I prefer to play in small venues because there’s always a direct connection to the audience. At big festivals everything is always so spacious. In tiny clubs there is just a better atmosphere, in my opinion. Indeed, we had some violent shows. It’s hard for me to single out one in particular, but some of them resulted in heavy injured people. For example, I remember a concert in Paris in 2013 where someone in the pit had an open fracture and the bones were popping out of the flesh. Last year in Weimar some guy had to be taken away by the ambulance, because he hit his head on the edge of the stage. There was a lot of blood … It’s always difficult to deal with such situations. On one hand it shows which emotions are set free by this kind of music, on the other hand it’s definitely „over the top”! Playing at the 924 Gilman Street Club was kind of a special experience. We never thought we would play in such a „historical” place. As a part of the „Zesta Grande“ festival, it was doubly enjoyable for us to play there, because we got the chance to see some great power violence bands that we probably would never see in Europe (in example CAVE STATE, CONCUSSIVE and ACXDC, just to name a few). Our show was fun and a lot of people freaked out. We just had a totally bad guitar and bass sound due to the borrowed instruments. Fun fact: We used the P.A. that GREEN DAY had donated two years earlier. As GREEN DAY in the beginning of their career played their very first show in this venue, they still feel connected to the Gilman Street project.
Have you ever dealt with performance anxiety? How do you deal with it?
No, not to any particular degree. Of course, I‘m always a little nervous beforehand, but that passes relatively quickly. Besides, as Plan B, I‘ve developed a kind of tunnel vision on stage. That means I can block out the audience should I be more nervous than usual.
Do you feel lyricism and social/political issues are an important part of punk/hc? I know for me often it feels like that’s what differentiates it from other types of aggressive music.
Yes, I do think these topics are an important and essential part of punk music, and they always will be. On the other hand, I personally don’t see an obligation to exclusively serve these themes, just „because it’s part of it”. I think it’s important to stay authentic and there are many bands that go a different way and write good personal lyrics. I think it’s much more important that you behave consciously outside of the music. You can scream about the misery of the world on a stage in a squat, but afterwards you go to McDonald’s and watch trash TV shows at home. Ultimately, I want to say that the problems that are sung about take place outside of music and have to be solved there as well. Anyway, on stage you only preach to people who think like you do. By the way, related to this, for me many crust bands are pretty crappy lyrically, because like DISCHARGE they just take up bluntly the war theme and chew through it a thousand times. Very „original” … And I always have to smile when I hear older bands who always emphasize that their old lyrics from back then are still up to date. Actually, that just means they didn’t change anything, haha.
Hardcore is more than music. That‘s what we can hear quite often. What did you learn most from hardcore punk scene then? What are the things that still apply to your daily life?
To be honest, I never really got to grips with this slogan, as there is something almost „religious” and „meaningful” about it. Yes, hardcore is definitely more than music, but so is pop. Plus, hardcore certainly means something different to everyone. I generally have a problem with some sort of set of rules being put in place, like „Hardcore is this”, „Punk is that”, and so on. For me personally, the freedom of the individual is paramount and needs no definition. And that’s exactly how I live my life! Certainly punk shaped my life during my teenage years and was a great help in developing some certain consciousness, but at some point you have to be careful that it doesn’t become a personal prison, because there is a lot more outside of the hardcore universe.
During the years you have released a lot of records through independent labels only. Have you ever dealt with a major label? Did you ever got any offer from bigger labels?
We love to work with small labels because usually they’re friends. The right of self-determination is also very important for us. We want to decide for ourselves what we do. We’ve never signed a contract either. And no, bigger labels have never asked us. We’re probably too bad and too unknown for them, haha. The only exception was an offer from RELAPSE in 2006. They were interested to do a 7” EP with us. We rejected the offer as we were busy preparing and collecting material for „Tanz, Grozny, tanz …” at that time. Who knows, maybe we would have released something through RELAPSE at some point, but the contact has fallen asleep. During our first US tour we visited the RELAPSE headquarter and the people were very nice. There even was a poster of us in their storage, which surprised us a lot. At the end, each of us was allowed to choose three CD’s as a gift. As I said, the people were very nice. You hear different stories about their business practices, but I can’t and I don’t want to pass judgment on this.
You are 51? What motivates you to continue on and on? What‘s next planned for YACØPSÆ? Many thanks for your time!
When this interview comes out, I’ll be 53 years old, haha. The motivation to keep ongoing comes simply from not worrying about it. I just follow my feelings. And as long as it feels „right”, there’s no reason to stop. I also take care of myself and am fit in all matters. On the other hand, I also know that I would quit in time before it got embarrassing. Our next plans are the completion of our one and a half albums, which we already recorded in December 2020, but for which I still have to do the vocals. Sometimes I just don’t have enough time, but I hope it will all be ready at the end of 2022.
Thank you very much for the interview!