Alright this is the last "Ieper Fest Interview". It's an interview with the Belgian band facedown. Everybody who read my reviews knows how much I appreciate this band's output lyric and music wise. Well I was really looking forward being able to do this one. I hope you enjoy it....


Ploedi:

If you'd first like to introduce yourself to our readers..

Thomas:

Hi my name is Thomas and I'm the bass player for facedown, I'm 24 years old.

Dani:

My name is Dani and I do the vocals for facedown and I'm 23 years old.

Ploedi:

Reading your booklets and lyrics you seem to be much about tolerance...Would you please give some further information to your lyrics or just introduce the band?

Thomas:

You know mainly the concept of tolerance is because we consider facedown and the four of as individuals, very militant persons. You know like militance is often a very ugly word. That's mailnly because militance is to force towards others. But like the militance you use it to degrade other people who are not thinking alike but that's wrong. The militance we like is called intramilitance and this means you are very militant towards yourself and only for yourself. Another word could be like dedication. We think that's very important to have this kind of militance because it gives us a pplatformto speak out towards others and it's the perseverance which gives us words, the right words, to express towards others. And the tolerance part of it is that it's ok to be intramilitanmilitants you are open minded and tolerant towards other opinions. You know that's like the only way like you can actually change people. First you change yourself and then you dedicate yourself towards your principals and you maintain an open mind towards others so that's how people will listen. Be very militant and say like smoking is bad and just go out hitting people in the face who are smoking and they will never listen to your message. But if you can speak with theese people on an equal level and saying I respect your choices and I'm very open minded towards them people most of the time will listen to you. So that's the tolerance part: It's ok to be miltant as long as you don't bother others with it and not bothering others is like keeping an open mind for what they have to say so they will listen to you.

Ploedi:

Like in the song "Severance"?

Dani:

Yes, this concept of intramilitance is something we're proud of. Just to be able to express dedication in a very extreme way, so beiingbeingated. BeiingBeingated is not just about doing, it's about living a Straight Edge Vegan / Vegetarian lifestyle but also expressing that to others. I mean to me Veganism and Straight Edge are just words you know. But the concepts they represent are very important to me and I think it's my duty to tell people about that. The reasons why I think they are important. It's all based on ethics, ethical decicidecisionst's wrong to the animals to kill animals, so why don't be vegetarian. The concept is very simple but it's just the fact that one has to do it. And the fact that you express is means you're intravegetarian perfect dedication like first because otherwise people in discussions will always attack you. Because like "you're vegtarian but you're still wearing leather shoes" or so. They always gonna have to find something. That's why we became vegan. Like in the first place we have to be very dedicated and very strict in our ways otherwise you can't preach to people or you can't say anything.

Ploedi:

Are all members Vegan Straight Edge?

Thomas:

Yes.

Ploedi:

Looking at the song Earhmaker...Earthmakerlive in sobelievea class society system?

Thomas:

Well it's just a concept, the true meaning of Earthmaker was in the times of Enlightment Enlightenmentre like discussed or you might have read it in the lyrics part. There were like vivisectionists and this is just a way of finding a word for a guilty party. Like everyone's still eating meat and everyone who is still in the society doing the wrong things. It's a mechanist, an Earthmaker is a basic concept of life, it's the basic concept of finding ethics, it's the all surrounding force that gives us the words to do the right thing and express... Well it's not god, you know but it's something like that, some higher power that tells us what is right or wrong.

Ploedi:

Why did you print no explanations in the booklet of "Education, Contemplation, Dedication"?

Dani:

It was a layout thing, mainly. Maybe that's stupid to say but you know like we thought it was kind of beautiful to have like a whole white page with theese little lyrics. Another reason why we didn't do that is because it is a re-release. Those songs were already released once with explanations to them so this CD with 3 songs on it normaly was normally 7'' with the American band Earthmover and it was released in the States and it was released on a minor scale here in Belgium, too. And then in April this year we toured with Liar and Earth Crisis and we needed a CD to take on tour and we chose that one because it only came out in Belgium on a little scale and in America on like 2000 copies so that's not too much. And there were many people who haven't had the chance to buy it or listen to the songs like in France, Germany where we went on tour. And that's why we decided to rerelease it on a CD and it was only on vinyl 7'' and then we decided "oh let's do a CD" so the people can buy it where we go on tour.

Ploedi:

Actually how was the tour?

Dani:

Well the tour was quite ok, there were some gigs that were not so crowded.

Ploedi:

Ulm?

Dani:

*Laughs* For instance.

Thomas:

But that's not what makes a tour good or not. I mean we had a great time with Liar, we didn't loose money on the tour so that's perfect we didn't earn money and didn't loose money either. So it was great and so we had a good time and some people like were really glad to see us well and sometimes it's not so crowded but this happenes.

Ploedi:

What's up with your side project "Semper Fi"?

Dani:

It's still running, we decided to do a full length CD so now we are writing new songs which is going slow because now we're focusing our creativity and inspirations on the new CD which is going to be released in February/April next year. So it's kind of hard finding the time for Semper Fi besides of facedown. Because facedown at this moment is taking up most of our time.

Thomas:

When the CD from facedown is out we'll surely gonna work on Semper Fi as soon as possible. We've got a lot of riffs and new stuff but it's just gonna take a while after facedown's new release.

Ploedi:

Da you plan Do tour with Semper Fi?

Thomas:

Yeah, sure.

Dani:

We'll hopefully be a big band with Semper Fi *laughs*.

Ploedi:

Now that you wanna bring out a CD with Semper Fi, will there be some Easy Listening / Techno Tracks on the new facedown release?

Dani:

We may do but we don't know yet. I'd like to but I don't know.

Thomas:

I'd like to have a song like that but first time we did it it was the message, not so much the songs. We like all kinds of music if it's played with passion it's great. It's not whether you're Metal or Punk. It's like all kinds of music is ok to express your emotions and Semper Fi..those two songs were like a message because it wasn't done in Hardcore you know like was saying yeah "it should be New School or Old School or it should be whatever .. Metal". We dislike that very much because it should be all together it should be about familiy, abofamilyy. It's an old word, it's used so many times but it's the right one it's true. What people are trying to express with unity should happen and we just decided that it shouldn't be only words it should also be music. We're a band and music is a way of expressing ourselves and we thought it would be nice to express ourselves in that way. You know like mainly making New School songs between brackets. But then at the same time putting some other music so that people would say you know like "It's just music, the message still stays the same".

Ploedi:

The scene in Belgium is known as a very big scene, how do you see your scene? Perhaps in contrast to the scene in Germany.

Thomas:

The scene in Belgium is propably theprobably and most active scene in Europe. I think there's a lot of band in Belgium and a lot of people are into hardcore like organizing shows, doing distros, running labels. The Belgian scene has been around with bands like Rise Above and Nations On Fire, just like the bands who just started it early like in the eighties so we had an advantage in time so that's why the Belgian scene is bigger. When comparing it to like the German scene..you know we toured a few times in Germany.. the German scene is rising it seems to be lime more kids are getting into Hardcore in Germany that's good. Hopefully it will stay that way. I don't know but the German kids are great because the Belgian scene is a bit corrupted by violence you know like everybody thinks there should be macho dancing and doing windmills and stuff, and you don't see that too much in Germany and that's good that's what I like so much about German Hardcore it's more a positive vibe and I wish this would be in Belgium, too.

Dani:

But I think that the negative vibe is gonna come to Germany and anywhere else but that's the same thing with the time evolution the violence will be a part of the scene and it will get bigger and the it will diminish: But many people will loose interest because of the violence. It was the same in New York, it happened in Belgium. I think it has nothing to with a scene, it's just that people are the same everywhere, it may happen, you don't know nobody knows. I hope it doesn't in Germany, because the German scene was very good. Violence really kills the scene.

Ploedi:

in the past few months there were many food scandals in Belgium. Do you htink that tthinks a good point to start educating people towards Veganism or Vegetarian Lifestyle?

Thomas:

No I don't think so. Because like the food crisis in Belgium: only for a brief moment in time people were like "Oh shit what are we eating!" and were like contemplating this. A few people did change. the problem is like people are indoctrinated on the products of their education and people have been eating meat for so many years and it's hard to change old habbits. Mayhabits people got enlighted but I don't think that the main mass will change therefore the industries are to big, they are to powerful. Sure, the food crisis have proven the right of the Veganists you know.

Ploedi:

Do you consider facedown as a political band?

Dani & Thomas:

No.

Ploedi:

What about the future bands with facedown?

Thomas:

in October we'll go to the East Coast of The USA and there we're gonna tour all the East Coat way down to Florida. And we have a friend, Chirs who is an American and he has rented a van for us and he will tour with us and maybe Damien will join us, too. So it will be a cool experience. Right now we're like working very hard on a new CD which is going to be called "Valor is dead" and we have a few songs ready now and it's going to be a good CD.

Dani:

We'll have different influences again. You know when we did our first CD "Friendship Is Everything" and then "Beyond All Horizons" we always tried to do some differenc. Tdifferencegs that are the same and then the different stuff and the next three songs. Now it's maybe gonna be only two songs... That's what we like to do.

Thomas:

It's gonna be more Rock 'n Roll. For sure.

Ploedi:

Some final words?

Thomas:

thanks for the interview and the shown interest, it's very cool that you keep some fanzine even if it's online. Online is good you know, it's good for the communication and Fanzines keep the communication rolling in the Hardcore scene. Keep on doing this. Two times up for everybody who contributes something positive and constructive to the scene and not only the scene but in his life...

Dani:

Same here...Respect to everybody who is not Straight Edge and Vegan as well because I know it's not easy... Well it seems that you're going SxE or Vegan you're following the masses but you are not. Eventually SxE and Veganism are just ethical decisions that you have to make for yourself and always consider that it's your own freedom at risk.. if you're not SxE, it's your own freedom, if you're not Vegan, it's your own freedom but the freedom of the animals as well and that makes a little difference. Well i don't know, go Vegan, go Vegetarian...It soungs like soundsing logo thing but it's just basic ethics and everybody should consider that for themselves.