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Pressure Release 2007 – Looking back part II

Part II of the Pressure Release 2007 special. If you missed the first one, check it out here. In this second part we’re going to have a look at Soulfire, Losing Streak, Hoods Up, Cracks In The Wall and World Collapse.


An ad for the tape that was published in some zine(s?).

There were also some bands that didn’t make the tape for whatever reason: I remember talking to Common Cause from Norway, they said yes initially but then totally stopped communicating. Rather frustrating. Age Of Kali from the UK didn’t make the cut either. I loved that demo. I don’t know the specifics about them anymore, they were into the idea, but it just didn’t materialize. I discussed the idea of including the Tenement Kids (The Netherlands, who’s demo we released on tape) but they thought they didn’t fit in with the rest of the bands which is okay by me. I don’t care much about that, if something’s good it’s good you know. I suggested Deal With It from the UK to Rob (I think Nate of Age Of Kali suggested them to me), but he wasn’t that into that demo. He’s a big Deal With It fan now haha, times they are changing. I’m not sure but I think we talked about State Of Mind (Netherlands) too but decided they weren’t new breed anymore (or something like that). Kinda funny in hindsight, wish they were on the tape. One of the coolest bands in the Netherlands. Then there were bands that split up even before we finalized the tape; Break A Sweat from the UK. They contributed “Overcome” from their demo, but since they were done already we decided to leave them off. Rat Attack from Portugal didn’t even get to that stage, they broke up before they send in a song. Or bands that never really happened like Isolation (a straight edge project featuring Emile State Of Mind, Martijn No Turning Back, Arjan State Of Mind and more). There’s probably more, but that’s what I can remember, or at least think I remember..

 

Oh well, let’s focus on the bands that did get included:

Where are they now?

06. Soulfire

Norway / 2005-2007 / R.I.P.

Soulfire was a band I wanted to include since I read some interviews with singer Erik, who had some interesting stuff to say. It didn’t hurt either that the tracks on their Myspace were cool.

So what happened to Soulfire?
Not much really. During 2005/06 we recorded a three song demo and played some shows in Norway/Sweden. Too bad we never got around to record some of our later material – just when we were about to realize our potential as a band and do a 7″ EP on The Essence Records, it fell apart.

What are the best memories from that time?
The shows we played at Black Eyed Bean/Hausmania, Barong Sai (Oslo), Uffa (Trondheim) and Metropolis (Stavanger). We also did more interviews than songs, which proves that zine culture is alive and kicking, from Hungary to New Jersey…

What are the members of Soulfire doing now?
All the other members (Daniel, Truls and Hans) are doing Common Cause, look out for their upcoming 7″ on React! Records, which elevates their classic hardcore sound to a whole new level. I’m in Strike A Match, a band that has done four shows and an unreleased recording session so far. We are not “for fans of” anyone or anything. We will strike a match to burn down such structures of alienation, separation and commodification.
Love, Erik Anarchy
soulfirehc@gmail.com

Soulfire – Think And Grow

More info:
http://www.myspace.com/soulfirehc

07. Losing Streak

Belgium / 2006-2008 / R.I.P.

Losing Streak blew me away from the first moment I heard their stuff. Aside from that there were some great dudes in that band. It always was fun to hang and play with them. It’s a shame they did quit so fast.

So what happened to Losing Streak?
LxS rather had a silent dead I suppose. 2 months after we decided to call it quits we played a killer last show in one of the smallest venues in Belgium and that’s that. We didn’t had arguments before that decision, through time we all developed different goals, ideas and motivations which couldn’t be sustained within the band.

What are the best memories from that time?
Like all bands a lot! Holding our 7″ in our hands for the first time, playing our releaseshow in Bruges, All the tours we did including the LxS/Deal with It tour, LxS/OnexVoice tour and the LxS/True Colors tour. It’s hard to be more specific, our time of existence went like a rollercoasterride.

What are the previous members of Losing Streak doing now? What should we be looking out for?
Bram (vocals) is the dude which I (Didier) see most frequently, he’s still going to shows from time to time and doing his thing.He started a band with some people a while ago but that band is still in a state of rehearsal, members from Black Haven and Black Heart Rebellion are in that band. He invested in a bicycle last year so he’s totally into that right now. Erwin (bass) is still working in his familybusiness as a constructionworker but I don’t see him too often anymore. It’s a shame to tell this but I haven’t seen Sam (guitar) after our last show. During that period he graduated and immediately started doing a shiftjob in a printingfactory. Last thing I heared is that he’s planning to move to Antwerp with his girlfriend. Even during the time LxS played shows, we weren’t the best of friends but we knew we had a good thing going on, after our last show it got obvious that we weren’t best mates since we all took a different steps into life. Now I’m glad I see Bram and Erwin once and a while. It seems like we can talk better amongst each other without having bandrelated pressure. I’m still touring as much as possible and luckily for me I get a good amount of offers. I’m also into writing nowadays so I projected this by releasing ‘Malfunction’ fanzine. Issue 2 recently got released and I’m already working on my third. I also did a shortlived band with a couple of friends called ‘Cold Women’. It featured members of Black Haven but also people that never played in a band before. It was the first ‘project’ where I was as motivated as I started out with LxS a couple of years ago. It sounded nothing like Losing Streak, think Iron Age/Disembodied/Bad Seed in a weird mix. After one show we disbanded though because we didn’t share the same vision on how the band should evolve.

Losing Streak – Get Off My Back

More info:
http://www.myspace.com/losingxstreak

08. Hoods Up

Germany / 2005-2008 / R.I.P.

Hoods Up was just one of the bands that needed to be on the compilation since they were a new band and doing well. They were doing the straight edge thing and they were doing it right. Funny thing is that aside from the compilation we never had any contact though because years later when Alex booked some shows with Cold World (the German weekend) for Said And Done I didn’t even remember he was in Hoods Up. Cool guy.

So what happened to Hoods Up?
Hoods Up broke up because we’ve grown to a point where we couldn’t feel anymore what we were doing. Everything became too artificial somehow. The name, the outspoken straight edge image as the main topic (sure, we brought that up). It was cool to see people shout their hearts out to our songs but we had a feeling that there was a lack of substance and tried to question us to something more. Even when we already tried to bring up some kind of content and weren’t just singing about the edge and dedication. We had blast shows, at least for a tiny youth crew band and it somehow felt that we could motivate people to take action but on the other hand we were unsure if the whole thing was just about shoes and shirts and moving up to the next trend.

What are the best memories from that time?
The internal friendships. Bandwise it wasn’t just a music relationship like being at work or whatever, this turned into friendship even when I (Alex) was 10 years older than Niko and Max. Also we made like dozens of real good friends worldwide where communication is still flowing – good stuff! An other good thing for sure is coming through europe with getting the costs covered through the band (talking about gasmoney). It was regular to go to The Netherlands, Belgium, East and South Germany on every weekend where you work mates just hit up their couch or maybe their parents in the next city. Road dawgs for life!

What are the previous members of Hoods up doing now? What should we be looking out for?
The present is quite unsatisfying right now. We were about to start a follow up to Hoods Up called Collapse and worked on that quite regular. We had 6 songs that I would mosh to, but due to financial things, bad motivations and whatsoever we quit it a year or so ago. I’m feeling a bit bad about it, since it was our main event to meet the others and hang out and I guess we had some things to say that in my eyes are needed in this worlds status quo, but.. we said that we delay that stuff for the next 2 years when Niko hopefully moves to hamburg. But that’s hard future talk and I’m not into that so lets see what happens.

Watch out for AYS!

Hoods Up – Clear

More info:
http://www.myspace.com/xhoodsupx

09. Cracks In The Wall

The Netherlands / 2006-Present

Since I knew David and Franke and they had a new band, they ended up on the tape. Sometime it’s that simple haha. If you ask David about this song he’ll probably tell you they’re a lot better now.

So what happened to Cracks In The Wall after the release of that tape?
After the release of the pressure release tape comp we continued to play shows here and there. Somewhere around the end of 2007 the offers to play shows increased and we were playing more. At the beginning of 2008 Stijn from Reproach, who I (David) knew from a mutual aquaintace, asked us to do a UK weekend tour with them. So we did that and it was awesome. A month or two before that tour we managed to record a 3 song “promo”, which we sold as a “discography” cdr type thingy on that tour. After that we somehow got in contact with Franke from Crucial Attack Records about a possible 7″ EP, so in the summer of 08 we recorded 12 songs with Erik from Citizens Patrol at his studio (Snowstar studio’s, also did some CP recordings and the awesome Blind to Faith 12″, check that out…..fuckin brutal). Eventually the 7″ was released somewhere in march of 09 I believe. After that we did an Eastern Europe tour, which was awesome. We did Romania (Timisoara kids, what up!), Hungary, Austria and our hometown Tilburg. We almost did Serbia, had a show booked, but couldn’t get in because our drummer didn’t have a passport. Also our 18+ hour drive to our first show of the tour in Romania was nuts. Don’t think we’ll ever do that again haha. We also played with a bunch of amazing bands like Municipal Waste, MDC, Government Warning, Annihilation Time(rip), Nightstick Justice etc etc. So it’s been good.

What are the best memories from that time?
Would have to be the tour with our buddies in Reproach and our Eastern Europe tour. Both awesome. So much stories and memories. Also the usual roadtrips with the band are always awesome.

What are the future plans for Cracks In The Wall? What should we be looking out for?
We’re recording for our new 7″ somewhere in the next few months and if it’ll go according to our plan, we’ll release it at RR fest 3 in Venlo on the 25th of September. You can expect us to sound a little bit different. Faster and somewhat darker sounding. Also we’re about to go to the UK for a weekend with the guys from Rip It Up. Also we would like to play more shows after releasing our new record. Hit us up for shows and for distribution of the new record.

Cracks In The Wall – Crackzombie
This track was exclusive at the time we released the compilation tape.

More info:
http://www.myspace.com/cracksinthewall

10. World Collapse

Germany / 2006-Present

The most controversial band on the tape? Some people love them (me being part of that group) and some people hate em. At the very least it showed the diversity of bands that’s on the tape. I’m glad to know they’re not fully done yet. ONLY, ONLY THE HEAVENS KNOW.

So what happened to World Collapse after the release of the tape?
From the very beginning World Collapse has been myself (René) and Frank Olma. We always picked different members for different positions, thus have been exposed to personell changes every now and then. After “Deutschland, Deutschland, Into The Night” we played a few shows but more so focused on the writing of new material. That phase kicked in around the time the tape came out. So now there is a ton of new material that we yet have to sort out and decide what we’re going to do with it. Coming from where we came from culturally, we set the bar extra high for ourselves in order to make a significant step forward. Just like those great bands before us we are firm believers in constant progress.

What are the best memories from the band so far?
Well, there are so many great memories and experiences to this day. I wouldn’t want to miss any of them because they have made us who we are today – as artists and persons. What sticks out though are the live shows. They always presented the band in a slightly different light than what people may have expected listening to the CD, and set off a whole new energy. Apart from that the overall creative process of writing and producing music and lyrics is great.

What are the future plans for World Collapse? What should we be looking out for?
As mentioned earlier, we have a lot of new material. There is no set plan of any sort other than producing the best songs we can and presenting the essence of Word Collapse. To this day I still feel the urge to speak out on a lot of things – aimed at the scene and our world at large. So, it will be a lyrical as much as a musical statement. Other than that we have teamed up with two new members, opening up World Collapse to an international plateau: Jonathan Buske (ex-Terror, currently Maximum Penalty and Rag Men) on Bass guitar and Owen Black (ex-Jaguarz) on lead vocals and digitals.

World Collapse – Hours

More info:
http://www.myspace.com/worldcollapse

Part III (featuring Black Haven, High Treason, Watch Out!, One Voice and Rush ‘N Attack) up next.

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