I think No Turning Back is a quite unknown band besides the Netherlands, give us a short introduction about yourself and the band?

MARTIJN: We're No Turning Back from the south of Holland. We started in January '97. We play raw and aggressive oldschool, with heavy beatdown parts. In the past 4 years we've released 2 demo tapes, a demoCD called "Shadow of Darkness", a 7-songCD on Buttkick Records called 'The beautiful lies…' and our latest releases are a MCD "The Horrible Truth" and a livetape. The current line-up is: Martijn (22, vocals), Frank (22, bassguitar), Willem (20, drums), Frankie (20, guitar) and Gio (21, guitar).



How would you describe your kind of music to someone who never heard of you?

GIO: Furious beatdown hardcore with an oldschool touch and raging moshbreaks.

MARTIJN: Think of Bulldoze, Madball, Sworn Enemy and a lot of other bands. We could mention bands (people say) we sound like, but then we could make a list as long as this interview will be. So we won't. Anybody can listen for him/herself!
GIO: We kinda rolled into this direction, as we started out as 'garagepunk from the neighbourhood' on the demotapes, then added more metallic influences (demoCD) and finally we found this style we're making for four years now. But we're still developing.




No Turning Back had a lot of great response in the Dutch HC scene and finally you got a pretty cool deal with Gangstyle Records. How did you come together with Theo?

GIO: We know him from his distro for years, he always has the good shit for sale! I think Theo noticed us as a band for about a year ago, having heard or read a few good stories of people that have seen us playing shows in the Netherlands. He really had his doubts about our potential (he puts in a great deal of money, so that's understandable), and our will to get it as far as possible. But we worked hard this year, played a lot of shows and got a great response. He programmed us at he two-day festival in Maastricht called the M-Town Hardcore Valley Summer Event, and he liked us so much that he offered us a contract for a full-length somewhere next year.



Can you tell us something about the songs you're currently working on? What can we expect?

MARTIJN: We're almost finished with all the songs for our upcoming full lenght and it's
the hardest stuff NTB ever made. The new songs are full off pissed-off oldschool and alot of hard breaks...the perfect sound to make some crazy dance moves!!


What's up with that limited MCD you actually brought out?

GIO: You must be confused with the limited edition livetape. It was recorded at W2 in Den Bosch in June 2001. On it are 6 songs, from the last three CDs (including one oldie from the demoCD). Only 100 copies are made, and won't ever be remade.
We recorded the MCD "The Horrible Truth" in July. It was the idea of giving our fans something to listen to. It contains three studio tracks, and we added two of our favourite live tracks from the tape to the MCD as bonus tracks. This is because we wanted people that don't know us to get an impression of the energy and power we express live.

MARTIJN: Both the MCD and livetape are released by ourself in co-operation with BUST! Records. The release fill up the gap between "The Beautiful Lies" EP and our upcoming debut full-length.



How long does NTB exists?

GIO: Want the extended version? Haha, no I'll try to keep it short. Martijn and I live in the same village and got to know each other in 1994, went to shows and there we met Frank, with who we became close friends. Plans for a band were put up just after and I bought an electric guitar, and Frank was eager to play bass. So he bought one, we ripped drummer Willem from another band and we started jamming. That was in January 1997. It was pretty noise in hindsight, especially for Frank's parents cuz we rehearsed IN his house on the first floor in a 3 by 3 room. But we had lotsa fun, and we played several shows in Brabant. After the demoCD was recorded in 1999 we wanted a second guitarplayer to improve our overall sound, and tried with some guys but it never worked out. Then Frankie came to our minds, with whom Martijn and I had played in a side-project called CropCircle. He was the right choice, for our first show with him was great! From then on we wrote the material for "The Beautiful Lies".

MARTIJN: ´Nuff said....



The lyrics have a lot of anger and frustrations. Where does it come from? Who is writing your lyrics?

MARTIJN: Our lyrics deal with day-to-day events in our lives. About the so-called "friends" in the hardcore scene. Feelings of distress, hate, anger and frustration. Hard & direct in- your- face lyrics, straight up. Our lyrics are writen by Frank en me. Sometimes our brother Saki Shattered also writes some lyrics...he is the 6th member of the band.



Any message you want to express with the band?

MARTIJN: We don´t have a message like a Straight edge band if you mean that....we are 5 guys with different ideas about live and non of us think the same about things like that. So if you spread a message with your band you got to do it together with the same ideas en thoughts....


What do you guys in your freetime? Hang out together or...?

GIO: Yeah, besides rehearsing and playing shows we hang out a lot together, when school activities allow it. We are not just bandmembers, you know. We're friends. We do so much together, we go to shows and summer(hardcore)festivals, we go to clubs, hang out anywhere, partying, you know all that.


What are you and the others do for living?

GIO: We all still go to college. Martijn studies interactive media design, Frank does a social/cultural study, Frankie studies metal working, Willem does art school and I do marketing management. Besides that we all work a few days a week to make some money.


What brought you into hardcore?

MARTIJN: I´ve been listining to hip hop when I was a kid, one day, in 1994, my brother gave me Biohazard and Madball....That was a wrong thing to do. From that day I´ve listining day in day out to hardcore, go to shows and being a part of the so called scene.



What are your 5 favourite albums?

MARTIJN: Only 5??? Damn!! Well: Cro-Mags-Age of quarrel, Bad Brains-Rock for light, Bulldoze-The final beatdown, Madball-Set it off, Crown of Thornz-Train yard blues. And at the moment I´ve been listining alot to Full blown chaos, 5 minute major, EGH, Sworn enemy, Life´s blood, Stop and Think, Carry on, Irate etc etc etc....



Did you enjoy your show at the European HC Party 6 in Maastricht (NL)?

MARTIJN: Yo!!! that was a great show for us!!! One of our best shows in all those years!! The response was awsome. We didn´t know what to expect on a great stage like that one, we played once at that height andthat was in Spain, normaly we are at our best on a small stage wher you got contact with the audience but this was great.



What was the main reason for starting NTB?

GIO: At first it was to play fast and loud music with lyrics that made sense for us, full of frustrations that we put up with, and getting to play shows with that. Being together with good friends, hanging out and so on. As the lyrics were getting more personal, playing the music really became a release for us, an outlet so to say. For instance, we saw friends saying goodbye to the HC and we wrote angry lyrics about that.
When we're on stage, we live out those negative feelings. And that makes the greatest fun.

MARTIJN: The best feeling on earth is having played a show in front of people that get mad on our own music. People can recognize their own situations or experiences when they know what we sing about. It bonds you with the audience. It's like magic.



If you could choose a band to tour with, who would it be?

MARTIJN:Damn, I have alot of bands in my head. I hope one day we gonna be on tour with Bulldoze..they are back together so maybe. Death threat, we've played there song "Wasted" in 1998 after we've picked up their demo tape. Sworn enemy, because there music, one of the best live acts i've ever seen. You know, there are to many bands I wanne to tour with......



What's up with your website, why is it still not updated?

MARTIJN: We´ve got a new one: www.noturningback.nl. We working on it everyday and we wanne update it weekly with all the news and some other stuff about the band....so check it out!!!


Thank's for the interview, any last words?

Thanks to you Rico and the rest of the Allschools crew for your patient and not beating up my ass for being a slow-coach and for letting us speak our minds!! Mad props to the entire NTB Family, we´re a five-piece band but we´re nothing without them! Thanks for there love, representing and always taking care of business. To my peeps in Redemtion Denied!! RDS! Our friends in Reaching Forward, I reject, Shattered, Antcow, Born From Pain, Full court Press, Settle the Score, Die my demon, LOD, All our friends world wide!! Germany, Belgium, NY, Detroit, Baltimore, London!!!! Theo noizz, Onno cro-mag, Alain RPP, All the bands we´ve played with. To everybody who represent at our shows.See y'all soon…peace.