History? -ZSK was founded in 1997 by some young punx, which didn’t even know how to play an instrument. We recorded a Demo-Tape, then a SplitCD. We did lots of shows and shared the stage with bands like: Exploited, Distillers, Agnostic Front, Venerea, US Bombs, Down By Law, Anti-Flag and many more. In May 2002 our first album “Riot Radio” came out on Wolverine-Records. Until now we did 4 European-Tours and more than 200 shows and there is more to come….
-Joshi
(guitar/ lead vocals)
Henny
(guitar/vocals)
Eike
(bass-guitar)
Flori
(drums/vocals)
-Sometimes I feel like making english lyrics sometimes german. That depends. There is no special meaning behind it, we just don’t want to say “Ok, we only do german songs” or “We only do english songs cause its cooler”.
-Probably english, cause almost everyone can understand it and you can get popular in all european countries or even in the USA. But we don’t care about that.
-Wow!. You compared us with Crass ? I didn’t know that. Why havent I seen this review yet ? Well actually Crass is a great band and you are right: We got influenced by lots of skatepunkbands but also by hardcore music.
-Sometimes people compare us with Anti-Flag or Pennywise.
-Of course we do. I mean if you record an album and you worked pretty hard on it for month so you really wanna know what people think about it. We would never change the sound of our music because of any reviews, but its good to get an impression of what the fanzine-people like and what they don’t like about ZSK.
How is a good gig with ZSK? -Loud, energetic, fast and full of surprises.
-Being in contact with our “Fans” is pretty important to us. Even though we get tons of emails, letters and Demo-CDs we are trying to answer every question, no matter if it is the 100th time. How does the average ZSK-Fan look like? Mmmh. Probably young, hopefully interested in beeing different and definitely punk.
-Oh, that was on the european Tour with Anti-Flag. There was one guy who came up on stage and everyone thought he would stagedive, like all the others, but he turned around, pulled down his pants and showed his ass to the audience. That was weird, but cool.
-I honestly don’t know. Never thought about that, but I guess it is cause its a good way to express myself and tell lots of people what I think about this world. And of course it is a lot of fun.
-Political Fast Skatepunk
-Punk means to very much to us. Punk is definitely a way to live. Punk is what you make out of it.
-Booring. Dumb politicians.
-We know lots of good upcoming ska and punkrock bands in Germany. For example No Respect, Frontkick, Waterdown, Terrorgruppe, Oxymoron. The music-scene in Germany is pretty big at the moment. Good bands in the world are for me groups like F-Minus, Anti-Flag, Propagandhi and Choking Victim
-Very difficult question. To put it in a few words. I think fucking Bush sux, but Saddam sux too. And war is not the solution. Fight war, not wars.
-Well, there is a pretty big anti-war-movement at the time. We got demonstrations in almost every big german city and the media cant hide this movement anymore and I think that is good. Its nice to see that there are so many especially young people being on the streets and using their right of expression and free speech. This is how the next generation learns how to protest against war and hopefully against much more shit which is going on at the moment.
-If you talk about punk and hardcore music I would say “Yes” other people would say “No”.
We do this all the time. We did a lot of benefit shows for the Animal Liberation Front, the Anti-Fascist-Action-Movement, Anti-Racist-Groups and also Environmentalist-Groups who are trying to stop nuclear transports.
-Yes it can. Punkmusic changed my life so it can change your life too.
-Records: Operation Ivy – Energy Propagandhi – Less talk, more rock Ausrotten – The System works for them Rancid – And out come the Wolves Against All Authority – Destroy what destroys you
Shows: UK Subs / Goettingen Propagandhi / Berlin
Against Me
/Berlin Agnostic Front / Leipzig
Most important things: My friends Health Trying to change the world in a positive direction Music Freedom
The Damned 7” “Smash it up” 20 Euro First Rancid 7” 25 Euro
-Actually we know a lot about Sweden since three of us have already been there. You guys got crazy prices for alcohol and cigarettes but a very very cool landscape. There are many nice little wood-houses you can hang out and sleep in, while you are hiking through the forests. And you got pretty good chocolate. Another thing we know is that Sweden has got policemen who shot at demonstrators in Goteborg and them put em to jail for several years. That is not good !
-Venerea. These people rule. We did a three weeks Skaterock-Tour 02 with them in Oktober/November 02.
-Both. On one hand for me it is very important to have a particular message in the songs I write and on the other hand it is no use to make songs with refrains which nobody can remember. So you always have to combine both of these elements to create good song.
-First question: Yes we get many, many interviews to answer. Second question: No. I got no problem in answering interviews. Its fun, I like it.
-Why the hell do you smell so bad ? Cause I never take a shower when I am on tour.
-Actually ZSK has got no particular meaning. We were just looking for an unusual short name for a punkband and there it was…
-We did some Tapes and a SplitCD with a cool skapunk band called Blowing Fuse. You can order this CD at our online-shop: www.moshpit-clothing.com
-We will record our next album in summer, play lots of festivals and then do a headlining european tour in order to promote the next album.
-Starting the world revolution.
-It does not only count what you are doing, but what your are not doing.
-Thank you very much for the interview. I think that was our very first interview for a swedish magazine. Hooray!
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