History?

-Arrested Denial was founded late summer 2009 in Hamburg. We released  our first record "Church On Friday" DIY as a free download in 2010. After that, we played a lot of shows. The second album “Our Best Record So Far” came out in 2013 on Mad Butcher Records. After that we did a record release tour through Southeast Europe im May 2013.

Please tell me a little about every member, age, family, interests and something bad about every one?

-Hi, my name Timo... I actually started out as a substitute drummer for Arrested Denial, but now I got an upgrade to be the bass-player and background singer, haha... 

Bad things about me?!... drinking, maybe... and having a hard time keeping my equipment and shit together ;-) 

Daniel, drums, 37, single, interested in movies and football, love to go to Sweden on holidays, something bad: I snore like hell.

I’m Sascha, 30 years old and I play Guitar. I’m not interested in anything except Music. Something bad about me? Sometimes I'm unreliable.

Valentin, vocals and guitar, 33 years old. My main focus is music, besides that I’m into travelling the world. Something bad: I’m always late.

Have it been many different members in the group through the times?

-No. We’ve had one change, our first bass-player Thorben left the band last year. He is more into fast Skatepunk stuff and also didn’t like the various other influences on our latest record that much I guess. He was replaced by Timo.

Do you have any other groups on the side of Arrested Denial?
-Our Bass player Timo is also singing and playing guitar in a Punkrock band called Small Town Riot. But that’s it.

Have you done anything more than Our best record so far? If you have how can I get it?

-As said before, we put out our first record “Church On Friday” early 2010. It was actually meant to be a  four track Demo only, but we finally recorded 10 songs, with 2 of them being cover-songs. It was released on the internet only and you can still download it for free on our Reverbnation page. There is a download link somewhere: http://www.reverbnation.com/arresteddenial

You sing in both english and deutsch, how come? Which is most fun to sing in?

-We started with English lyrics and changed to German later on. No big intention. In the beginning I had some older songs with English lyrics already written, so we just started with them. The band I played in before Arrested Denial had very political lyrics, so I was actually quite happy to just do some story-telling lyrics without big messages this time. But after I while it just changed and I started to write lyrics on more serious issues again. Most of them turned out in German, because it was stuff related to German or local topics. It doesn’t make much sense to sing about problems in Germany in English. 

I think that deutsch is a really good language to sing in, it sounds very good?

-I can’t judge that from a Non-German speaking point of view, so I don’t really know. German is a hard-sounding language, so it is a bit harder to get a flow into your words. But basically I like it when bands sing in their own language, no matter where they are from. There are enough bands singing in English worldwide I guess.

Is there any good bands in Germany today?

-Good question. Most of the German bands I like don’t exist anymore, because it’s older stuff from the 90s. Frontkick, Small Town Riot, Dislocate and Ammunation are active bands that I like.

Is there any good band in the world you really like?

-To spontaneously name a few existing ones: Apologies I Have None, Swingin’ Utters, The Aggrolites, Incendiary, The Slackers, Bouncing Souls, The Bayonets, The Beatdown, Sick of it all, and so on…

In the beginning of your career, which was the bands you were most influenced by?
-We like bands like Swingin’ Utters, Operation Ivy, US Bombs, Bouncing Souls, to name a few bigger ones. But when it comes to songwriting, I am more influenced by stuff like Dylan, Live, Pearl Jam, Tom Petty, Powderfinger and so on, as well as by old reggae stuff from the 60s, like the Maytals and Desmond Dekker.

Which are the bands you have being compared to?

-Basically to Rancid and Social Distortion. I understand the Rancid thing. But when it comes to Social Distortion, well, maybe it is because of a similar sound, but I don’t see many similarities regarding the songwriting.

Do you care about reviews? Which do you trust the most the bad or the good ones?
-Of course it is interesting to read what other people think of our stuff. I care about review that  are written by people who really take the time to listen to the record and have something to say, no matter if it’s criticism or commendation. But we actually haven’t had any negative reviews for this record so far. 1 or 2 reviews were really uninspired and contained a mixture of useless phrases and wrong information. But that just happens.

Which is the most peculiar review you have got?
-There were no really peculiar ones so far. A quite big print-magazine from Germany called Dynamite wrote some strange things, for example about our lyrics “against the police state Germany”. I have no clue what song they are talking about.

What does punk mean to you, is it only a word or is it a lifestyle?
-My background is more the Hardcore thing, although I think that there is a smooth transition between both scenes, so it doesn’t really matter. “Lifestyle” somehow sounds pretty juvenile. I don’t label myself anything, but I would say that my attitude and ethics are strongly influenced by Hardcore and Punk.

Which are the biggest band you have been playing with?

-I have no idea. Most bands we have been playing with consisted of 4 or 5 people. The biggest band so far was probably the Street Dogs, they were 5 people. But we also played with a lot of smaller bands like The Oppressed or Menace, both bands had 3 members only.

Is Mad Butcher a good record label?

-Yes, it is the kind of label we were looking for. Punkrock, down to earth, no shit talking.

Where do you stand when we talk about mp3 and downloading?

-I personally would never pay for MP3s, I like to have a real record with a cover and a booklet. If you mean people downloading everything for free, well, I’m not sure, it doesn’t bother us as a band a lot I guess. But I mean, if you want the scene and bands keep on going then it is not a bad idea to support them by buying a record now and then, because many bands pay for what they are doing.
But the whole thing goes further than just downloading mp3s. For example, there is so much complaining about concerts being expensive, which is pretty ridiculous to me. I mean bands have to pay for instruments, gas, a rehearsal room, recordings, productions, and a lot of other shit that comes with it. So do locations that set up shows. Where do some people expect all that money to come from? It is not capitalism if a band gets the money back that they spend on gas for a gig, or if a location wants to pay the rent. To believe everything in the punk-scene  is growing on trees is pretty unworldly.

Is it good or bad for a band like yours?

-As I said, for us as a band it is not a big deal. It’s good for promotion if people share it on the internet, so others get to know us. On the other hand it is maybe not that good if people want us to put out another record one day, because we might not be able to finance it.

The name on the band. Does it have any deeper meaning or is it only a name?

-It had to do with people questioning the system having to face repression. I wouldn’t call that a deeper meaning, but at least it is not totally useless.

How is it to live in Germany today, I mean politically?

-It is getting more complicated, and there are a lot of strange things going on that are worth questioning. But this seriously is a question you can write a whole book about. We should be aware that most European countries are still in a better position than many other countries in the world, I mean we don’t have to face hunger or war. But that doesn’t change the fact that many things are going in a wrong and also dangerous direction in Germany.

Music and politics, does it goes hand in hand?

-That depends on the band and music. I don’t expect the Cardigans to write songs against fascist cops. But I do expect a punk band to have a distinct political opinion and clarify where they stand.

Best political artist/band?

-Billy Bragg, Napalm Death, Keny Arkana, old Propagandhi. And maybe Midnight Oil, they did much more than many people know.

Do you think that some lyrics in music can change peoples way to think?

-I don’t think you can change someone’s existing point of view on a certain topic with one song. Maybe with a book. But I think with a song, you can make people aware of issues that they maybe haven’t thought about before.

Please rank your five favourite records, five favourite concerts and five most important things in life?

-This would probably take me ages to answer appropriate, so these are just some things that come to my mind spontaneously right now.

Concerts:

The Aggrolites 2008 in Berlin

Ska-P 2000 in Strasbourg

Live 1999 in Nürnberg

Sick of it all 1995 in Freiburg

Stampin Ground & Indecision sometime in the 90s in France

Records:

25 Ta Life – Friendship Loyalty Commitment

Bouncing Souls – How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Slime – Schweineherbst

Stampin Ground – Carved from empty words

Sepultura – Chaos AD

And about the 5 most important things in life: That seriously is too much pathos for me in this context right now, haha. Maybe the 5 records I mentioned before? But besides that, I would put humanism and health on the very top.

First, last and most expensive record ever bought?

-The first records I bought was ZZ Top “Recycler” on tape. On CD it was Morbid Angel “Covenant”, and on Vinyl it was Helloween “Pink Bubbles Go Ape”.

I am not into spending hundreds of bucks for a special pressing of whatever. The most expensive records was either “The Sensational Maytals” by The Maytals, an original pressing from 1965 or some of the countless 7 Inches by Indecision.

The last record I bought was the Vinyl version of Successfools by No Sports. Quite expensive too actually, but I just love that record and haven’t had it on Vinyl so far.

The record you bought for the recordsleeve and you became so disappointed on...?

-The latest Hard Skin record was rather disappointing.

Futureplans for the band?

-We will put out a split 7 Inch with The Bayonets from Serbia later this year. Besides that we want to play as much as possible.

For your self?

-No big plans actually. But I just don’t find the time to think about things like that very much at the moment anyway.

Wisdomword?

-Ask me again in 40 years.

Something more to add?

-Not really. Interesting questions, thank you for your support