Serial Pissers
from Belgium sent me a split-LP with On fire and
that record was the best one I have heard for
many months. Here have Pascale Pisser with her
friends answered a lot of questions from
me…Enjoy!!
August-2023
Please tell me a
little about the history of the group and the
members right now. Age, family, bands before and
on the side.
Pascale: It all
started in spring 2019 on a Silence Means Death
rehearsal because i was always there drinking
their beers. Rik (guitar player/singer of SMD)
suddenly decided to form the band then Serial
Pissers was born. He once said to me that he
knew that my voice would fit their music by
hearing me yelling at a show ahahah... Serial
Pissers was and still is Rik on guitar/backing
vocals, Willy on drums, Jos on bass guitar and
me on vocals. Age wise, we are all approaching
fifty except Jos who still is a lill' youngster
ahahah... Jos and I are a married couple and we
live in Liège in the french part of Belgium. Rik
and Willy are located in the beautiful city of
Bruges completaly on the other side of the
country, in the flamish part. Willy is playing
drums in NahendeVernichtung (the longest runing
d-beat band of Belgium, active since 1991),
Silence Means Death (from 2007), Contradisanti
(from 2013) and he is the guest drummer on the
last LP of Private Jesus Detector “Nobody’s
Master Nobody’s Servant” on In Crust We Trash
(Japan). Rik is playing guitar and doing the
vocals in Nahende Vernichtung and Silence Means
Death. Jos plays bass in Feed The Tumör (from
2018), СМОГ (Smog- from 02/2022) and Silence
Means Death. He was the bass player in Last
Legion Alive (2009-2013) and used to sing in
Fart (2000-2008). Me, I was screaming in
Grindfeast whose name later became Chaos
Bastards (1994-2000), Buzzsaw (2000-2003) and i
actually shout in СМОГ and Feed The Tumör.
Have it been many
lineup changes?
P: Nope, Serial
Pissers is still in the original line-up.
Serial Pissers how
did that name came up? What does it mean? You
were never afraid that another band already was
called so?
P: It was Rik who
came up with that name. No idea where he had
this inspiration but we all liked it straight
away as we are a bunch of drunks who are,
sometimes, serial pissers eheheh...A serial
pisser is someone who, when he/she's drunk, piss
his/her pants or wherever he/she feels at ease.
Not much people are proud to be a serial pisser
and the name can be shocking for certain persons
and we were sure that nobody else would call
their band that name but we were wrong...a
grindcore band from South Carolina is called
Serial Pisser but we decided to keep that name
anyway.
Is it still
important to release physical records? Or can
you feel that you have done a record if you only
release it digitally? Are you satisfied with the
split with On Fire. Something you could have
done better?
P: Of course
releasing physical records is important to us.
It's always cool to have your own vinyl in your
hands. It's more than a music support, it's like
a piece of art. But it's also cool to have
platforms as bandcamp to spread music and it's
easy to send the link when you look for shows.
As well, not everybody still has a record player
tho'. We're pretty satisfied with our split with
On Fire, having a split with them is great as
they are friends for many years and Max
(guitar/vocals) is activ in the Brussel/Belgium
scene since i don't know when. The artwork was
done by Steph Gillain Killustrator and we're
more than satisfied with the result. Of course
there is always a few things you would have done
differently but for a first vinyl we think that
it's a good quality.
You have never
been to Sweden and played or? If you not have
when do you come?
P: Unfortunetaly
we've never had the opportunity to play in
Sweden neither than Norway, Finland or Danmark
but we really wish to come and play in the
future. Jos and i drove a band on their
scandinavian tour back in the days, we also
visited Sweden several times and we went to
Hygget Fest, Punk Illegal and Fragile Mountain
Fest...these festivals were incredible! So to be
honest it would be awesome to play there once.
Which countries
have had the pleasure to be hearing the band
live?
P: We played in
Belgium of course then in Germany (Villa
Oetinger/Darmstadt, Frost PunxPicnic/Mülheim),
Poland (Atelier Wolimierz/Pobiedna),
Slovakia(Garage/Bratislava), Hungary (Kripta/Budapest).
We will play soon in Czekia (More Noise
Fest/Pardubice), Slovenia at the infamous
Metelkova (Ljubljana) and a few other shows in
Germany but we're still waiting for confirmation
as I write. As you can see we don't play so many
shows but with all the bands we play in it's not
that easy to arrange.
When you do songs,
how do you do, are you jamming together or do
someone comes with a lyric and some with the
music or how do you do your songs?
P: It depends,
sometimes Rik comes with a riff, sometimes is
Jos and sometimes is a mix of both riffs. Willy
add his drums and we talked about what we like
and what we don’t and we do the adjustments
together. I’m the one who write the lyrics. I
show them to the others and if there is
something they want to talk about or change I do
so. Some of the lyrics (No Fear and Life’s a
Bitch) are made by Dish (second singer of Chaos
Bastards) and me, back in the days but were
never been used.
It seems like your
lyrics are important, is there anything you not
will write a song about?
P: Yep i think
that lyrics are as important than the music in a
song. I write about subjects which mean things
to me, about (my) life, about myself, about
what’s happenned in the world...I’ve never
thought about that but i think i could not write
about a subject that i don’t understand the
meaning. And as I don’t like to preach, I would
not be able to write about things people should
have the right to do or not. As an anarchist and
a punk from the older generation i think that
everybody as the right to think by her/his-self
and not receiving orders from others...in a
respectful way of course. No racism, no fascism,
no sexism, no homophobia..!
Please tell me a
little about the following lyrics
Self-esteem
Doomsday machine
Suburban Fury
P: Self-esteem
talks about ourselves. The fact that we all
have, as human, an enemy in common. This enemy
is ourself. We all doubt, we are in need to have
the approbation from others to see that we are a
good person. We don’t trust ourselves and we
should!!! I spent almost a decade with a pervert
Narcissist, this relationship dragged me down so
much, i lost the faith i had in myself and i
lost my self-esteem, it was a really difficult
time but nowdays after a long “work” i finally
am proud of myself, proud that I managed to be
back who i used to be BUT with more strength. We
should stop listenning to the little devil voice
in our head and sure follow the one in our
heart. In a way, it’s a positive song.
Doomsday Machine
was written during the Chaos Bastards era
together with Dish. The lyrics talk about
suicide/suicide thoughts when some situations in
life pull you so much down that you think that
you are less than nothing and that no words can
help.
Suburban Fury is
about reclaiming the world. Reclaiming what
governments took from us, by force in need.
How is it to live
in the Belgium nowadays, racists, politics, etc?
P: Living in
Belgium is nothing special. Like any European
countries there are things good and things bad.
We have a pretty good arranged social security
and the standards of living are not that bad
even if these last few years the country is
going down. But Belgium is a really complicated
country with it´s 3 different languages (French,
Dutch and German), it´s 4 regions (Wallonia,
Flanders, Brussel Capital and Eastern Townships)
and its 2 political views, the North is
extremely rightwing and the South is left. It’s
almost impossible to form one solid government
in Belgium, we already spent years without one
(194 days in 2010/2011 and 589 days in
2018/2020).
Are you calling
yourself a punkband, hardcoreband, metalcoreband
or just call you a rockband? Is it important to
mention punk in the same time you talk about
your band? What is your thoughts about punk when
you started and if you compare with punk today?
P: I would call
ourselves a “Crust Punk band” with a good
attitude and lots of humour. Sure associate the
word Punk when I talk about the band is totally
important because Punk is a way of life, it’s
political and not just wearing a costume or
having a cool haircut even if I love it tho’.
Thinking of Punk back in the days, it feels like
a teenage rampage...shocking people, having fun,
going your own way, being anarchist, living with
you own rules “us against the world”, being
anti-fa, fighting authorities, being free!
Nowadays the scene has more rules, it’s a small
society in the society, it has its advantages
and its inconvenients.
Do you have any
favorite football team (I support Arsenal and a
Swedish team called GAIS myself)?
P: Personaly I’m
not a big fan of football but when the Worldcup
or the Eurocup is on I can watch a game or two.
My father-in-law is a huge fan of sports in
general and I do appreciate to watch some match
with him and Jos sometimes but i don’t have
preferences in teams.
Jos: Being born in
the flamish part I support the Underdog of my
old city Eendrachtaalst but I’ve always been a
supporter of Standard de Liège, the city i live
now. Outside Belgium I’m a fan of St Pauli
(Hamburg).
Beer is expensive
in Sweden. I have a very big interest in beer
and brew myself? Your favourite beerstyle ? You
don’t have an own SerialPissers-beer? Or maybe
your straightedge?
J: We are not
straightedge at all. We like beers, good wine, a
good whisky and the delight of the
Eastern/Balkans spirits (preferably homemade).
Pascale andIi are vegan and the other two blokes
are more souple. Oooh damn, talking about beers
in Belgium, you got a week or two? Ahahaha...Well,we
have more than 1000 brews, not Ale but special
beers; Without counting the Abbeye and Monastery
brewings. Rik enjoys Jupiler and Hoegaarden
(white beer) and, i don’t know why, Desperado.
Willy likes Chimay Bleu, Jupiler but he would
drink every kind of beers, he’s not picky.
Pascale doesn’t like Ale and bitter beers but
she’s alway up for a white, a souer red (Rodenbach)
or a Lambic beer (Only to be found/produced in
Belgium). Me, i can’t live without my Jupiler
ahahah...but i do appreciate souer red beer and
trappist wise (Westmalle Triple).
You never do
lyrics in Belgian language?
P: As I said in a
previous answer we have 3 languages in Belgium
(French, Dutch and German). I speak French, the
rest of the gang speaks Dutch. I write/sing in
English ‘cos it’s easier for me as eveyrybody in
the band understands and also it sounds better
to me in english than in French. I have one song
“The Call” where the lyrics are a part in French
and i love it. I would like to sing more in my
language but it’s not that easy to make lyrics
which fit the riffs as French is a more
complicated language (longer sentences to
explain things).
What is your
strength when you play live?
J: Our strength
live is, if you can say so, our solid and
powerful sound and Pascale who is an energetic
person jumping all over the place and to quote
Ervin from Two Manky Hookers And A Racist Dwarf
(Bratislava) “You live what you sing about”.
Which type of
people comes to your concerts? Which type of
people do you miss?
J: We’ve played in
different venues with different style of bands
from Crust/Metalcore to HardCore/Rock’n’Roll.
Our public is diversified but mostly punks. We
don’t really miss people, we got
everything/everyone we want but we sure know
what we don’t want as an audience, fascists and
racist pricks!!!
Do you buy much
records, or is it only Spotify and those type of
things to listen to music?
P: Jos and i are
buying lots of vinyls or tapes and we also use
different platforms as bandcamp to listen music
but we rather buy physical recordings than
digital ones. We also buy records, tapes and
fanzines for our distro “Cara Punks Distro”.
Willy and Rik buy vinyls but also digital
albums.
Are you selling
any merch on your gigs, do people buy it?
P: Yes we always
bring merch to our shows and yes people buy.
Tshirts are the best sale.
Which is your own
favorite song among your own songs? And which
song is the people choice?
J: Life’s A Bitch
is my favorit song because it’s the first song
we’ve written and it’s always something special.
Also it was totally different than SMD, it
reminds me of Spanish Punk in the veins of
Derrota, Totallickers...No Fear is definataly
the song where shit hits the fan, the public
choice i think so and as Rik would say “That’s a
killer”.
P: Life’s a bitch
is also my favorit song but not because it’s the
first song we’ve mabe but because I love the
lyrics. They talk to me and bring me back to my
youth. But i would choose Breakout (not on the
split) for the music. And i do love Doomsday
Machine because it’s a cover of Chaos Bastards
and i’m touched to play it with Serial Pissers.
What an honor it was when Rik proposed it as a
cover. Indeed, No Fear is the people choice with
its square d-beat tempo.
What’s the biggest
difference when you play live nowadays if you
compare when you first started to play in a
band? Or is this your first band maybe?
P: I think that
the shows were more crowded before. People were
going out to concerts to see bands wherever they
were from or whatever the bands were known or
not. It’s true that we didn’t have social
medias/Musical Platforms and listen to the bands
was not that easy so, yes, we were going to see
them live without knowing much about them/the
music. There were also more venues and, in
consequence, more shows. Nowadays we have the
choice and the “luck” to know about the bands
before to decide to go out and support the scene
and we all are becoming more lazy as well.
Do you care about
reviews? Which is the most peculiar you ever
had, with this band or any other band you have
been to?
J: Of course i
care about reviews. It’s always cool to read
feedback of people who are dedicated to the
music/scene. I like to discover bands while
reading reviews. With Serial Pissers we don’t
have reviews yet, the one in Skrutt Magazine
will be the first one. Back in the days i
remember reviews of SMD and Last Legion Alive,
they brought me always a smile on my face.
P: I remember of
one review in Maximum rock’n’Roll for Chaos
Bastards. We were so proud. But i can’t think of
an other one?
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?
P: Mmmh...it’s a
tricky question as i like so many bands, dead or
alive. I would really be happy to play with
Vicious Irene (Sw), Coitus (UK), Mushroom Attack
(NL), Nausea (US) and Health Hazard (UK) and
many many more ahaha..
J: I would
definetaly love to play with Dirt (UK), Nausea
(US) and Disclose (Japan) and for those living
bands, Extenction Of Mankind (UK) and
Misantropic (SW).
Is music a good
way to get out frustration and become a nicer
person outside the music?
P: To me yes, it
helps a lot relieving my frustration. I listen
all kind of music and each of them helps me in a
different way. It can give me peace of mind,
happiness but also sadness (life is not always a
piece of cake and crying while listening music
is beneficial for me sometimes). But also
singing is a good medicine, i give all i have to
evacuate my stress or frustration when i sing.
What shall a young
guy do today to shock their parents as the way
we did when we were young? They have already
seen everything ?
J: Sniffing a line
of Coke on the kitchen table in front of the
parents and grand-parents would do the trick no?
Beside that I don’t really thing lots of stuffs
are still shocking, they’ve seen it all.
Is it boring with
interviews? Is it much interviews? What do you
prefer Telephone interviews, face to face or as
this one via e-mail?
P: I like
interviews, to read them or to answer the
questions. I prefer via e-mail like that i can
take my time. The one here is the second
interview for Serial Pissers (first one was for
Luminous Dash) and i never made other interviews
for the bands i played or still play in. Jos had
a few interviews about SMD and LLA : Just A
Nightmare Zine (Skopje), Disastro Sonoro
(Italy), Luminous Dash (Belgium), Disorganised
(Belgium)...and there are much more than he
can’t remember.
Any good belgian
bands you can recommend and you have some more
bands on the side too, old and new belgian bands
we must hear?
P and J: Wow yes
there are quite a bunch of cool/good bands in
Begium : The End Of Ernie, When Birds Hunted
Horses, Hetze, Raw Peace, Arrögant, Mölar,
Freddy And The Vangrails, Wizards Of Oi, Verpest,
Frustrerad, Plague Thirteen, Mucus, Sons Of
Disaster, Intestinal Disease, Days Of
Desolation, René Binamé, Vacant, Agathocles,
Werly, Suit Side VS Vega Plight, The Nutters,
ElevenO-Seven, Loathsome, Holyland, Travolta,
Reproach, Hiatus, Wildheart, Ulrike’s dream,
Ekzeem-A, Tranny Terror, Smäris, Ordigort,
Cyclone, Bütcher, Detestation, Gura, Pesticide,
The Dirty scums, Toxic Shock, Bezette Stad,
Detrvire, Idealus Maximus... And those who no
longer exist : Unhinged, Skewwhiff, Twisted
System, Higgins, Goat Vomit, Loadead, Punching
Pecker Guns, Two Star Hotel, Les Shtroumphs
Alcooliques, Netra, Vort, Crapulius Ceasar,
Oedeem, Ezekiel Speedözer, Violent Mosquitos,
The Pitbull Boys, Furious, Trouble Kidz...Sure
we’ve forgot some!
Future plans for
the band?
P: A second split
LP is in our mind. We working on the songs as we
speak. A mini-trip in Balkans and we hope a few
cool concerts in Sweden, that would be nice.
Any Swedish bands
you like?
P: Contorture,
Vicious Irene, Totalitär, Warcollapse,
Misantropic, Pale, Agrimonia, Asocial, Avskum,
Disfear, Entombed, Wolfpack, Skytsystem, Mob47,
Voidfiller. There are more bands but my memory
is playing with me right now ahaha...
J: I
like the same Swedish bands that Pascale named
already but i can add a few more : Swordwielder,
Crutches, Anti-Cimex, Warvictims, Uncurbed,
Nekrokraft, Moderat Likvidation, Wolfbrigade, To
What End.
Wisdomword?
J: Eat your
vegetables.
P: Be kind and
believe in yourself.
Something more to
add?
P: Thank you for
this interview and for the review of our Split
LP “Double Trouble” in Skrutt Magazine. It’s a
really good webzine that you make...keep it
alive !!