RASENDER STILLSTAND have a really nice sound which I was “forced“ to hear more about…the group I mean because the sounds I already have in my house. June-2016

Please tell me a little bit history of the group?

-RASENDER STILLSTAND as a punk/DIY-music-commando was formed in 2010 by Frau Paula and Rodger 451’ in Dortmund/Germany. Both are responsible for the Front- Vocals and the E-Guitars. Since that time there were different members in the group playing the drums (nowadays Thomy) and the bass-guitar(nowadays Dr. Fuchs or P.ercy Unknown). One special feature for sure was the presence of a cello-player (Dirk the Constructor) in the first two years. This instrument influences the first songs of the Band in a very special individual manner. Some early members of the group actually stay in close touch to us and become friends for life.

Please tell me a little about every member in the group right now, age, family, work, interests and something bad about everyone? Earlier bands? Other bands on the side?

-For the age of the members: we think from a certain age on everyone is responsible for his own face! ;-) So much can be said: All actual members of RASENDER STILLSTAND have seen and breathed the old punk days!

Work: Our profession is not to be the son or daughter from some privileged and so all of us have to work for managing our every day lives!

Interests: So much, so many but one in common: never lose the child in your heart!

To tell something bad about of us, we all have this point in common: We ignore the fact that Punk is dead, like Don Quichote is running again and again against the wind-mills. All other life concepts beyond the punk that we tried, gave us the feeling of self-deception!

All members of RASENDER STILLSTAND have played in earlier bands, furthermore some have other band-projects on the side.

I can hear much different influences , much old punk and some hardcore? Favorites from the past?

-There are many favorites and each of us has several different former and actual bands which he/she likes. Certainly a big point for all of us was and is the influence of basic bands with “real honest intentions” (like Guy Fawkes had once upon a time in the parliament of London! HAHAHA)  . Punk and even punk music for us primarily is a way of individual lifestyle. The music often did not play the most important role, but how real is the band, how do they life, what do they express and what does they have in common with our own lives and ideas.

Rasender Stillstand are you satisfied with the name? How did it came up? You weren’t afraid that some other band would be named like this. Which is the best bandname you know?

-"Frenzied standstill" (RASENDER STILLSTAND) is a metaphor of the Western societies in which everything goes faster and faster, but each of us fails by the smallest deviation from adaptation, gets socially and financially stigmatized: standstill

The name gives an idea of repressive systems which creates more and more isolated, sick and broken human beings with the main goal to exploit everything and to maximize profits for a small elite. The title of our new album and the track on it “100 % RASENDER STILLSTAND” brings that to the point. Back To your question if we are satisfied with our name! Do you believe we are?

Best Bandname in our mind: “Rage against the machine”.

What´s the best thing with playing live?

-Open minded Bands, good mood in the audience and dedicated organizers .

And where is best to play? And the worst place?

-The best place to play are the places where people are interested and curiously.

The worst place where people are fed up, bored , aggressive or totally shitfaced.

How is to play this sort of music in Germany right now? Which types of bands do you have concerts together with?
-For many people in the audience it’s a positive surprise to see us the first time.

We are not fixed on a special type of bands playing with us, but look even if the bands suit us in human, political and possibly also in terms of music.   

How would you describe your music in three words?

-Punk with A!

What does punk mean to you, is it only a word or is it a lifestyle?

-For us: absolutely a lifestyle.

How do you see on downloading, mp3 and that stuff?

-For us it’s inflationary und superficial, with less meaning, you have nothing in your hand to look at and to keep with.

How is it to live in Germany now? Politically?

-Better than living in North Korea, worthier than living in “Peter Pans” world

Is there any good bands from Germany now? Is the punkscene/hardcorescene big? The metal scene? How is it in your hometown?

-Yes there are many, many good smaller bands in Germany. Unfortunately the scene listening and going to the nowadays Punk/Alternative-Bands is rather small, comparing to the electronic music scene or the Hip-Hop scene. But there are a few hundreds in the town. People running through the streets looking like genuine Punks are very rare. The same you can apply to the metal-scene which was in our hometown Dortmund very huge in the 80’s and 90’s years. Today we’ve got rather an alternative student scene interested in many mixed styles of alternative music on the other hand more and more young people listen to a mean less mixtures out of modern Soft-Rock, Pop and (we hoped that that will never happen again) conservative folklore German Hit-shit and there are more and more bands here doing exactly that really successful and for that there is a fast growing audience coz this is the music which is in the media totally dominating everything.

What do you know about Sweden?

-Sweden is crowded with Vikings, was neutral during the last world-war, win their “Waterloo”, has a world wide operating furniture company, has an exiting countryside, good food to eat, had only one serial-killer, kings and queens and is completely out of cash-money.

Have you heard any good bands from Sweden?

-The Hives, Clawfinger, Tiamat.  

Your lyrics, who does them and what influences you? Is it easier to do lyrics now or was its easier to do it when you was younger? Which is most fun to do lyrics in English or german?

-The lyrics from RASENDER STILLSTAND are written by Frau Paula and by Rodger 451’. The lyrics are basing on a mixture of individual sensitivities und social incidents.

When you are young it’s easier to write spontaneous not too much reflected lyrics with the feeling that you are the first persons who has something to say to a point. When you get older you have to take care to make the messages easier again and not too reflected and rational like a science report.

Writing lyrics for us has nothing to do with fun. It often is a roller-caster bringing emotions and pictures in our minds into written lines.  Our lyrics in German are surely more detailed because it’s our home language and our school-English is a bit rusty. On the other hand we have many people from other countries which are friends or are interested in us and our music, so they also can participate to the content of our messages, over that some music creations we did give us the feeling that they work better when they are performed in English.

Is there any subject that you never will write anything about??

-Intercellular Kit substance!

Politic and music, does it goes hand in hand? Which is your most political song?

-Songs played in Discotheques, on TV, shopping centers or big Radio stations have the only intention to whitewash your brain and give you a doubtful feeling of happiness. So the intention of mainstream music is to keep the people calm and reduces them to passive observers and friendly consumers.

That kind of music has nothing to do with our ideas what music should be and what even also your question is about!

So political music never stops a war in history or brings any famine to an end. But music can touch people in many different ways, create effects of solidarity, brings people together, give them back the feeling to participate on something away from their often isolated thoughts and behavior, influence their lives and their sight on the world. So we are convinced that it is necessary to bring on important and critically and even vicious aspects of life into music. We don’t have one most political song. Every word we sing is an expression of that!

Best political band/artist?

-Many bands and interprets have done important politically works in different times and different styles and meanings. They are all best in their intention to make this planet a little bit better in reaching the people in their ideas and visions.

Do you think that music(lyrics and so on) can change anyone’s life, I mean people who listens to music?

-When you are young music can have a huge influence on your mind. Unfortunately many of those kids grow up and loose in their everyday routine these improved views and ideas. They get rational and often cynical because they are frustrated from their own reality which is far away from their former ideas on life. But even people out of the old punk scene have kept many ideals in their heart and have even nowadays many attitudes.  Mostly they show these convictions not so offensive like in the young stormy years. In many different often transformed lifestyles they practice and live their convictions certainly not so excited, dramatically and totally as in the past.   

 Your cover on your CD looks really nice, is it important to have a record cover which shows people which type of music you play? Your favorite recordcover? Who does your covers? And do you have any good recordstores in your hometown.

-We’re happy that you like our CD-covers. We put many time, creativity and work in our artworks and even in the first years of RASENDER STILLSTAND we create the materials completely by our own.  With the new vinyl-albums we couldn’t get on with this DIY-Production and they were manufactured in a conventional way. But soon we bring out our latest album “100 % RASENDER STILLSTAND” also in a limited CD-format, which will be than again completely created by our own hands.

Record-Stores: We have even three (!) recordstores in our closer environment.   

Is it important to get out physical records of your stuff? Why or why not? Vinyl, CD, cassette, what do you prefer if you could choose whatever ?

-In the 70ties and the 80ties the rare and expensive vinyl was an exciting and significant great thing, strictly speaking a status symbol that shows everyone, that you are the chosen one, because you now hold on something from your “heroes and gods” in your hands, which no one could understand who never got in touch with this “Holy Grail”. Therefore a LP has maximum space to bring up your art-work, ideas and messages even you can put in the envelope for example posters or small pamphlets. The cassette was also very important because there you can record music which you only could get through the radio or through friends which own a record you cannot get because  your record-store don’t sell it, or you can get but have not the money to buy it. The coming up CD in the 90ties was for a short period very nice, coz you can rent them for “One Deutsche Mark” a day, copy it on a cassette and are immediately owner of the latest music stuff nearly for nothing. By the way making music on parties was also very practical with CDs while much smaller and easier to transport as Vinyl and even if you get completely drunk it’s much easier to handle by only pressing the start button and do not the crude attempts to navigate “on the high seas” the record-arm into the right groove ;-).

For our publications we started with CDs because it is the easiest and cheapest term to bring the music to the audience without losing the objective material in form of something you held in your hands with all positive aspects  of presenting an art-Work in opposite to the for example “mp3 formats”.

Many people in our scene don’t accept anything else but vinyl and they often asked us why we don’t have any records. So last year we’ve had for the first time the resources to produce vinyl with the financial help of some friends. So now we can pay tribute to those people with our new album                      “100 % RASENDER STILLSTAND” in vinyl and another Vinyl-disk as a compilation (“AUSRASTEN”) with a select of songs we’ve done before on CD’S. 

Please tell me a funny thing which have happened during your career and under some gig?

-Playing as support for Jello Biafra in Stuttgart in a club called “Universum” When we reached, completely  tired after a long ride on the streets, the place we see some buildings and a big cross-junction, but nothing which reminds to a Live-Music-Club. So we started to ask some pedestrian: “Excuse me please. Can you show us the way to the “Universum?”  People feel really irritated and we need some minutes to understand why…

How does your audience look like? Which people do you miss on your concerts? Which is the biggest band you ever have played together with?

-Most gigs we’ve played, the audience was original from our scene. We also played some gigs in other coherences even in front of other ethnics. These were also very interesting concerts with a totally different perception, but throughout positive reactions on our performances. So we don’t miss any type of people on our concerts. Sometimes we regret that there are people outside, where we are convinced that they would like to enjoy us, but never heart about us, and so don’t visit our gig, when we play in their town. We had performed with some “bigger” acts like “Jello Biafra”, “Reagan Youth”, or “The World Inferno Friendship Society” as really positive examples in relationship. And yes that is always something special, but even to play with so called “small” bands like “Los Disckolos”, “Dead City radio”, “Notgemeinschaft Peter Pan” etc.  means to us often more fun, relaxed time and closer contacts, than playing with the so called “Famous” which are, even if they don’t claim that for themselves, always busy and distanced (surely for their self-protection).

Is it boring with interviews? Is it much interviews??

-Sometimes in interviews the questions are a little bit pointless. In many ways you get questions which have nothing do to with you, your life, the identity,  ideas or intentions of the band. Often we have the impression that the interviewer isn’t really interested to become acquainted with the band in a closer manner, while it costs time to be engaged in individual personality.

If you could choose five bands from the past and the history and nowadays and both dead and living bands to have a concert together with your band. Which five have you been chosen?

-“Joy Divison” (Rodger), “Rage against the machine” (Frau Paula) , “Emils” (Dr. Fuchs), “Suicidal Tendencies” (Thomy),  “Neurotic Arseholes” (P.ercy Unknown)

Is music a good way to get out frustration and become a nicer person outside the music??

-Absolutely, playing in a Band is like having a family with all conflicts, different views, doubts and struggles. If you are in an active band playing many gigs in different places you are confronted with many challenges and making by the way many experiences which bring you to your own bounds, teach you to manage difficult situations, make you more open minded, sovereign and self-confident. Things which are helpful to transfer in your everyday life. Overturning: Yes, playing in a Band helps you to leave the everyday life with problems behind or to put out strong emotions or thoughts into creative energy.

Which is the most odd question you ever have got in an interview?

-Do you drink bear or hard liquor?

Which is the question you want to have but you never get. Please ask it and answer it?

-Yes there is the question we were never asked till today. But we want that the people make their own thoughts on themes. So we can wait and don’t want to give odds on everything.

Futureplans for the band?

-To become acquainted with others are the celebrations in life. We met many different nice people through the activities of the band outside of the own environment, so have many new won contacts and even friends , spread all over the countryside and even the planet. This is a great thing! We wish that this happens further on in the future.

For yourself?

-No matter what happens! For that we never surrender and never lose ourselves!

Punk is dead, but giving up is not an option

Wisdomword?

-Punk is dead, but giving up is not an option!

Something to add?

-Thank you Peter, for the interest in us!

Many Greets to you and to Sweden!

Peace!

RASENDER STILLSTAND