Please introduce yourself to our readers?
Bjoern: We´re Black Friday´29 hailing form the ruhrpott and deserving you straight edge hardcore. Our upcoming full length record will be out in september on ww.GSRmusic.com. Watch our for that!
When/Why did Black Friday 29 got together?
We got together... I suppose it was around fall 2001. We knew each other for quite some time, Death Or Glory was started, we had a one time only coverband and there was a lack of Hardcore bands that played the style of HC we like.
And we thought we´d need to get rid of some anger and frustration and what is better than putting that into something creative, something positive!
Some people think Black Friday 29 is a rather unique name, perhaps not a "typical" hardcore name. Why did you choose those name and whats the secret behind?
There´s no secret behind the name. The BlackFriday´29 was the day that lead to the great depression. It was the worst day during the world economy crisis in the year of 1929. Many people lost their jobs, their money, basicly everything they had. Wall street brokers jumped off the rooftops. It´s about facing a sad situation and seing no way out. But still life goes on and sometimes you gotta struggle hard to still keep on track!
The Black Friday in 1929 had impacts on the lives all around the globe. And that was something new. Some say, that this day also led to the brutal empries of hitler or mussolini empires.
What are musically influences for you and the band?
For the band it´s mainly hardcore from all it´s eras. We love early eighties hardcore from bands like Negative Approach, Minor Threat, Bad Brains and Antidote, Necros. We were inspired by bands like Youth Of Today, Judge, Gorilla Biscuits and Killing Time, Cro-Mags or Underdog and Breakdown. Then we also listen to Mouthpiece, Right Brigade and True Blue, Floorpunch.
I personally listen to Johnny Cash´s American Recordings (may he rest piece) and The Smiths at the moment...but i´m like open minded towards a lot of somehow alternative music
What are you doing beside the band? What are the other guys do for a living?
I study besides the band. I´ll soon finish and in 2006 I am a trainee teacher for primary school. nevertheless i do have to make a living by working part time and I also have a 4 year old daughter, so don´t ask me about spare time! Pete is going to school right now, and works as a tattoo shop manager the rest of the time. He´s also singing in Harsh Truth who recently released a great demo. Sven is studying biology and goes to footballgames far too often if you ask me. Dennis Sommer does civil service right now. He also plays in Zero Mentality and that´s why he´s gotta quit his football career soon. Dennis Schmidt brings food to elder and disabled people and plays the bass in Zero Mentality until they find a steady Bassist
You are working on your first full-length for Gangstyle Records . Tell us something about the working process? How is the sound?
Well. 10 songs are ready. We still wanna have like 4 more or so. We might demo the songs just for ourselves in march/april and then we can say something more about the sound. It is by far the best stuff we ever wrote. We´ve grown as musicians but we´ve also grown as band but we´re still trying to keep it raw fast paced hardcore. Two of the songs already came out on a split 7" with our friends What Went wrong from Portugal so some should get a hint of the direction we´re heading for.
Why did you change your label? How did you get together with the Gangstyle?
The contract with CRR has been expired. He made us an offer for another record but it was not what we were looking for. Rob from GSR asked us in London. We see each other quite often at shows. He plays in Born From Pain, so we also played together. He asked us about our plans for the future and we told him that we´d like to do an mcd or cd and he was interested, made us a good offer and everything is fine. He also lives in our area now, so the communication couldn´t be better. All the fellas at GSR are hardworking and sincere and psyched to be on that label.
I think its going great with the hardcore scene here in the Ruhrpott area. Lots of new bands have been coming up lately. How does this affect you?
haha. It´s totally great. There´s so many good bands and my best friends play in my favourit current bands Harsh Truth and Zero Mentality.
It affects me in that way, that ZM and us have to find a solution right now concerning the member problem. That is the bad thing about having two serious bands with members in both bands and good friends.
What do you think about the German Hardcore scene in general?
The german HC scene...There are a lot of bands in germany, but I wouldn´t say that it is connected like a scene. There´s some bands i personally like for instance Bleed into one, Sidekick, Jaylan/World Collapse, Settle the Score and more that i do have deepest respect for like Caliban and Heaven Shall burn but there´s also bands that are quite big but we have never even played with them or got in contact in any possbile way. But we´ve played with bands like Dead Stop, Icepick, the Deal, Rise and Fall, The Last Chance and What Went Wrong who are not from germany. I don´t really care about boarders and shit like that. We have a strong scene in europe right now within some bands. I am totally psyched on playing together with our friends in Born From Pain, No Turning Back and For the Glory although none of these bands come from Germany, but i don´t give a shit about "look at me i´m cute" wanna be Texas is the Reason bands (although TITR is one of my fave bands) from the other side of the street.
Thanks for the interview Bjoern, any last words?
Thanx to you for doing the interview. Mad props to our friends and supportes everywhere. You know who you are. Without this support BF29 would be nothing. Shout out to the Ruhrpott Wolfpack. Check www.blackfriday29.com and support european hardcore. Can´t get better as it is right now. Peace!
