1) Hi. My first question concerns your history, specifically the year 1989, when in Germany arose LE SCRAWL ( You didn’t have this name since the beginning, do you?). Who of your current members was next to this big birth? How was your start as a band? It could be hard to gain a toe-hold in Germany as a young band playing grind-core, is it true?
As you mentioned, Scrawl (the „le“ was added in 2000 to avoid a mix up with another band from the US) was formed by Peter (drums) and myself (vocals/guitar/bass) in 1989. Both of us went to the same school and shared an interest in the same kind of music. Influenced by bands like E.N.T. and Napalm Death and a live show by „Active Minds“ (one of the very few occassions to see such bands in East Germany) in the Spring of 1989 we decided to start the band. The Wall coming down obviosly improved our chances to perform that kind of music siginicanctly ... We decided to record songs before ever playing live – maybe as we were not sure whether anyone would ever except our blend of musical styles. After putting out 4 songs on the ”I kill what I eat” compilation by Ecocentric Records in 1993 we began to do live shows as well and kept on recording ever since....
2) Well, at the beginning you played “typical“ grind-core. How did you find the idea to combinate grind-core with other music styles like ska, swing, jazz and so on? Was it exacting to mix together so many different styles and make it as a listenable whole? And how were first reactions from your audience, when they first heard this varied assortment of various types of music?
The idea to blend these styles and, potentially even more important, to built up songs on a melodic base adding blast beats etc. came up very soon after we started the band, mainly as we had and have a broad interest in music. Fortunately many people seem to share these interests; therefore reactions have been very positive from the beginning. However, it’s always interesting to find out how people respond to our stuff, like when we played OEF for the first time we’ve been not sure at all that would turn out so well.
3) I would to jump to the present: could you describe your present band-compositions, cand you say about each member? Who has a “main word“ in a band, as regards making music, planning concerts and so on? And when are you making new songs, do you make it from many different ideas from each member, or is it only stuff for a part of your band?
The line up currently consists of Peter (drums), Simon (git), Uta (keys), Arne (Sax, Flute) and me (bass, Voc). All songs are somewhat based on ideas and melodies I come up with and become developed by all of us – which means songs often take surprising turns in the process of further elaboration.
4) Your discography is quite wild, you have changed many labels and companies, like ECOCENTRIC RECORDS, PSYCHOMANIA RECORDS, MORBID RECORDS and of course OBSCENE EXTREME PRODUCTIONS, where did you release your last CD SNOWBLIND, last year. Why did you make so much changes in publishers? And how did you get to OBSCENE EXTREME PRODUCTIONS? Are you going to stay in cooperation with Curby, is it OK for you?
Well, there’s even more labels (Life is abuse and RSR) but we don’t consider it “wild” at all and it’s not unusual to release on various labels simply due to the D.I.Y. idea. Moreover, it’s interesting to cooperate with different people and to get to know the different ideas about music. Curby approached us for the OEF in 2004 and we stayed in touch since. We told him about the new record, sent him a rough mix and I guess he must have liked it. We’ve been very pleased by this coop so if there’s a new project somewhere in the future we’d be happy to release it on Curbys label again.
5) What can you say about your CD TOO SHORT TO IGNORE, which was released in 2002? This CD was type of a turning point in you career, is it true? Can you describe what followed after releasing this CD?
This CD is actually a discography and sums up all our releases until 1999 recorded by the original line up. It got a pretty good response and established the coop with „life is abuse“ and „RSR“ which also released „Eager to please“ which marked not only line up changes but also the first record with more structured, melodic, faster (and longer) songs including „boiling point“ which got the best response so far.
6) What about your cooperation with producer Harris Johns? How did the meeting with him change your career?
With „Eager to please“we started recording with Harris and taped all projects thereafter at his „music lab“as well. It’s incredibly helpful to work with someone who’s so experienced (needless to mention all the bands he’s worked with) and over the years we got to know each other better and better – so it becomes easier every time we go back to the studio.
7) You have played in OBSCENE EXTREME FEST for two times, last time was in this year, and first time was in 2004. Can you compare these two OEFs (2004 vs. 2011) ,as regards fans, sound, surroundings, and the feeling of your show in general? How did people in Czech Republic embraced your music?
Yeah 2004 marked our first appearance at the OEF, which was to us one of the most exciting shows ever, we came back in 2008 and 2011 and it’s every time very thrilling to see people dancing to our songs and from what we hear, aside from OEF also, people in the Czech Republic seem to be very open minded and to appreciate our approach to music. Therefore, we chose Prague for our release party for “snowblind”.
8) What about your playing in Germany? Is there similar friendly atmosphere between bands which play extreme music as in Czech Republic? And what about fans, do you have big attendance and dancing crowd in your concerts?
It’s actually not that big of a difference – people who show up at our shows usually know by now what to expect and even at the festivals we played we got good response.
9) You have undergone the tour over California and France. Can you describe local concerts and fans? How did these tours were under way and who did keep you company?
It’s not that different there as well, it was just very exciting to see that there’re people like in San Francisco or Paris who know our music and attend our shows. The response it’s pretty much the same (fortunately). Even though the tours were rather short it’s exhausting also, besides tons of fun of course.
10) I have a question about you last CD SNOWBLIND, which was (as I wrote) released in OBSCENE EXTREME PRODUCTIONS. Are you satisfied with the record at all? How does this CD differ from your previous creation? Which way will go your music on, do you have some special plans, changes, new instruments, or other experimental elements?
We are very happy with record – we’ve been trying to include some elements of 80’s alternative music and skipped other styles we used in the past – so we think it turned our really well. And as I said before the recording sessions went very well too.
Currently we’re in some sort of a brain storming process starting to lay down some new ideas – so we’ll see were this is gonna lead to ....
Answers: Ralph Kaufmann from Le Scrawl
Questions: Kate BandZone.cz profile
Original article location (in Czech): Tubera.cz WebZine Article
As you mentioned, Scrawl (the „le“ was added in 2000 to avoid a mix up with another band from the US) was formed by Peter (drums) and myself (vocals/guitar/bass) in 1989. Both of us went to the same school and shared an interest in the same kind of music. Influenced by bands like E.N.T. and Napalm Death and a live show by „Active Minds“ (one of the very few occassions to see such bands in East Germany) in the Spring of 1989 we decided to start the band. The Wall coming down obviosly improved our chances to perform that kind of music siginicanctly ... We decided to record songs before ever playing live – maybe as we were not sure whether anyone would ever except our blend of musical styles. After putting out 4 songs on the ”I kill what I eat” compilation by Ecocentric Records in 1993 we began to do live shows as well and kept on recording ever since....
2) Well, at the beginning you played “typical“ grind-core. How did you find the idea to combinate grind-core with other music styles like ska, swing, jazz and so on? Was it exacting to mix together so many different styles and make it as a listenable whole? And how were first reactions from your audience, when they first heard this varied assortment of various types of music?
The idea to blend these styles and, potentially even more important, to built up songs on a melodic base adding blast beats etc. came up very soon after we started the band, mainly as we had and have a broad interest in music. Fortunately many people seem to share these interests; therefore reactions have been very positive from the beginning. However, it’s always interesting to find out how people respond to our stuff, like when we played OEF for the first time we’ve been not sure at all that would turn out so well.
3) I would to jump to the present: could you describe your present band-compositions, cand you say about each member? Who has a “main word“ in a band, as regards making music, planning concerts and so on? And when are you making new songs, do you make it from many different ideas from each member, or is it only stuff for a part of your band?
The line up currently consists of Peter (drums), Simon (git), Uta (keys), Arne (Sax, Flute) and me (bass, Voc). All songs are somewhat based on ideas and melodies I come up with and become developed by all of us – which means songs often take surprising turns in the process of further elaboration.
4) Your discography is quite wild, you have changed many labels and companies, like ECOCENTRIC RECORDS, PSYCHOMANIA RECORDS, MORBID RECORDS and of course OBSCENE EXTREME PRODUCTIONS, where did you release your last CD SNOWBLIND, last year. Why did you make so much changes in publishers? And how did you get to OBSCENE EXTREME PRODUCTIONS? Are you going to stay in cooperation with Curby, is it OK for you?
Well, there’s even more labels (Life is abuse and RSR) but we don’t consider it “wild” at all and it’s not unusual to release on various labels simply due to the D.I.Y. idea. Moreover, it’s interesting to cooperate with different people and to get to know the different ideas about music. Curby approached us for the OEF in 2004 and we stayed in touch since. We told him about the new record, sent him a rough mix and I guess he must have liked it. We’ve been very pleased by this coop so if there’s a new project somewhere in the future we’d be happy to release it on Curbys label again.
5) What can you say about your CD TOO SHORT TO IGNORE, which was released in 2002? This CD was type of a turning point in you career, is it true? Can you describe what followed after releasing this CD?
This CD is actually a discography and sums up all our releases until 1999 recorded by the original line up. It got a pretty good response and established the coop with „life is abuse“ and „RSR“ which also released „Eager to please“ which marked not only line up changes but also the first record with more structured, melodic, faster (and longer) songs including „boiling point“ which got the best response so far.
6) What about your cooperation with producer Harris Johns? How did the meeting with him change your career?
With „Eager to please“we started recording with Harris and taped all projects thereafter at his „music lab“as well. It’s incredibly helpful to work with someone who’s so experienced (needless to mention all the bands he’s worked with) and over the years we got to know each other better and better – so it becomes easier every time we go back to the studio.
7) You have played in OBSCENE EXTREME FEST for two times, last time was in this year, and first time was in 2004. Can you compare these two OEFs (2004 vs. 2011) ,as regards fans, sound, surroundings, and the feeling of your show in general? How did people in Czech Republic embraced your music?
Yeah 2004 marked our first appearance at the OEF, which was to us one of the most exciting shows ever, we came back in 2008 and 2011 and it’s every time very thrilling to see people dancing to our songs and from what we hear, aside from OEF also, people in the Czech Republic seem to be very open minded and to appreciate our approach to music. Therefore, we chose Prague for our release party for “snowblind”.
8) What about your playing in Germany? Is there similar friendly atmosphere between bands which play extreme music as in Czech Republic? And what about fans, do you have big attendance and dancing crowd in your concerts?
It’s actually not that big of a difference – people who show up at our shows usually know by now what to expect and even at the festivals we played we got good response.
9) You have undergone the tour over California and France. Can you describe local concerts and fans? How did these tours were under way and who did keep you company?
It’s not that different there as well, it was just very exciting to see that there’re people like in San Francisco or Paris who know our music and attend our shows. The response it’s pretty much the same (fortunately). Even though the tours were rather short it’s exhausting also, besides tons of fun of course.
10) I have a question about you last CD SNOWBLIND, which was (as I wrote) released in OBSCENE EXTREME PRODUCTIONS. Are you satisfied with the record at all? How does this CD differ from your previous creation? Which way will go your music on, do you have some special plans, changes, new instruments, or other experimental elements?
We are very happy with record – we’ve been trying to include some elements of 80’s alternative music and skipped other styles we used in the past – so we think it turned our really well. And as I said before the recording sessions went very well too.
Currently we’re in some sort of a brain storming process starting to lay down some new ideas – so we’ll see were this is gonna lead to ....
Answers: Ralph Kaufmann from Le Scrawl
Questions: Kate BandZone.cz profile
Original article location (in Czech): Tubera.cz WebZine Article
