GOD (Antidoto #2)

Before Reptil (a zine that started in 1990), ‘Boliche’ (the drummer of ‘Subterranean Kids’, Barcelona) did Antidoto (1988-90). I’d never seen any of them (‘no hablo español‘) until they surfaced on the www (thx to Luis A.)…

#1 (March ’88) had interviews with ‘Acció Directa’, ‘Monstruación’, ‘Subterranean Kids’, ‘S.C.A.’, ‘Squandered Message’, ‘I Deny’, ‘Último Gobierno’; info on squatting in Copenhagen & Hamburg, a ‘foreigner page’ (in English), a Greek scene-report, info on the No More Censorship! campaign, ‘Circle Jerks’/’Gang Green’ tour-report, etc.

#2 (June ’88): ‘Ludichrist’, ‘The Accüsed’, ‘GOD’, ‘Pure Hate’, ‘Cry Of Terror’, ‘Ewings’, ‘Preter Racio’, ‘M.C.D.’, ‘Gang Green’, Vellocet, ‘Instigators’ interviews; letters, ‘foreigner page’, a piece on the Cros 10 squat in Barcelona, a criticism of rightist US bands, scene-reports of Switzerland & Australia, reviews, etc.

#3 (February ’90) contained interviews with ‘L’Odi Social’, ‘Stikky’, ‘Visions Of Change’, ‘Corn Flakes’, ‘Sick Of It All’, ‘Bold’ and more; info on ‘Kazjurol’ & ‘Oncle Slam’, a huge letter-section, ‘Subterranean Kids’ tour-report, squatting in Zaragoza & Galicia, a column on the Barcelona Olympics, reviews, scene-reports (Zaragoza, Milwaukee & Poland), etc. Came with a tape with bands from Barcelona.

GOD‘ was 3-piece from Amsterdam with Thomas ‘Tos’ Nieuwenhuizen on guitar/vocals, Michael Cavanagh (ex ‘Agent Orange’) on bass/vocals & Daan van der Elsken doing drums/vocals. They did 2 albums for Konkurrel (Sweet Life, ’88 & The Shametree, ’89) and in 1991 the Headrush LP was released on Destiny. Their music was called “post-punk that gradually evolved into jazz-punk or art-metalcore”.

[Translation below]


DONE BY AZIZ BADRANE (‘HasjieS’ [singer of ‘N.R.A.’; owner of skateboard- and punk record-shop Independent Outlet])

PRESENT: Tos (guitar / voice) – Michael (bass / voice) /// ABSENT: Daan (drums / voice)

A: What kind of music do you play?

T: Crossover, punk, metal; a compilation of all kinds of music from 1970 until now.

A: Do you believe in God?

T/M: No! A pertinent no! Or do you mean the possibilities of the band?

A: If you want, yes. What are your pretensions? Do you want to become famous and earn a lot of money?

T/M: Yes, we would like to earn some money instead of losing it all the time, and make sure that a lot of people know us. I mean, of course we want to earn some money. Otherwise, you have nothing to spend.

A: Do you want to make it your work, your source of income?

T: Yes, but you have to be careful with that. I mean, if it becomes your job, it also gets boring, I think.

A: How long has the band been around?

T/M: Now 2 years ago.

A: Have you played a lot? Where?

T/M: Yes, about 60 concerts in less than a year. We have played in several countries such as Italy, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Germany.

A: On your tour of Spain, things didn’t go very well. What went wrong? Would you go back to tour Spain?

M: People in Spain don’t understand our music very well. I mean they are busy with other music so I would say that in 1 year or 5 we would like to play in Spain again.

T: I don’t know. I liked it but there were so few people everywhere we played. I think we came up with something completely new in Spain. Too slow.

A: What do your lyrics talk about?

T/M: About life and the problems you face. Problems that everyone encounters when they think about a topic for 1 hour or more. There are many people who don’t, that’s why it’s good that there are lyrics to read. Some of them sometimes make them think.

A: Do you think there is life after death?

M: What question is that? I don’t want to say anything about that. Everything can happen.

T: No, I think it’s very interesting. I think our unconscious continues. So it’s not physically living. I try to imagine it but I’m still stuck with this issue.

A: So what is the meaning of life?

M: What your life-experiences are. And it will be taken into account by someone. I think this world is coming to an end so everything you do now will be good for the next world: they will be able to learn from our experiences.

T: I don’t know the meaning of life. It’s not for yourself, because you will die anyway. I think I’m doing something useful in my band.

A: Do you have political ambitions?

T: I want to be prime minister.

M: No, I’m not into that: I hate it.

T: It’s just a game that the rich and the powerful people play. You should do the things you find important for yourself.

A: Are you a political band?

M: No, we are not.

A: You recorded a tape in Italy [the band’s LP Sweet Life was recorded in Pisa in 1987] right? Is it okay?

T/M: Yes, it must be mixed in Italy too, but the album will be released in March.

A: You were in other bands before: Tos in ‘Funeral Oration’ and in the ‘Gospelfuckers’ [‘Jezus & the Gospelfuckers’]. (Good years, bad years?), and Michael in ‘Agent Orange’.

T: It seems that I’ve been busy with music for the last 5 years. What is there to say? The documentation is there. Well, the ‘Gospelfuckers’ didn’t release an album but they got a reputation, created by those who were too lazy to do a band of their own or had nothing else to do.

M: ‘Agent Orange’, and before that other bands.

T: All that shit about what those bands did! Both ‘Gospelfuckers’ and ‘Agent Orange’ have a bad reputation. And people still want to tell this to the people who were in those bands.

M: They say things like we were a fascist band. It’s just revenge on people we didn’t like.

A: What do you think about the situation (HC and metal) in the Netherlands? Do you think there’s good bands here?

T: I think the whole scene here admires the big foreign bands musically. Nothing is happening with local bands. Only ‘No Pigs’, but they’ve been around for a while and they try to play what people ask for.

M: People just want to spend money and watch bands. And the headbangers are even worse. I think crossover is just something to keep a little bit alive what is already dead.

A: What do you think of bands like the ‘Stupids’ that were promoted as the new revolution in music by the English music-press, and who proclaim that skate-rock is the new revolution in music and similar things?

T: It’s disgusting, it’s like ‘Bon Jovi’, all dressed up. Yuck!

M: I don’t even know them.

T: They just try to make money on a new trend. I see nothing funny in that.

M: We have turned away from that kind of music, and metal too. We only play heavy (hard) music and we don’t need any label for that. We just play.

A: Like ‘Gore’ or something like that?

T: No, I think that ‘Gore’ also tries to take advantage and play for a select audience. They want to get a lot of attention based on the average trend.

A: Where did you get your influences?

T: Of everything I’ve heard. The basis of our music is the people that drink beers and don’t go to discos to listen to music. I don’t have a radio and I never watch TV or video-clips. That’s what I like about ‘Metallica’. They are the best in their kind of music but they have never made a video. While all those shits like ‘Anthrax’ make videos all the time. It’s disgusting, maybe the music has something to do with what we play, but the difference is that we sweat and they use a spray to look sweaty. That’s fake.

M: Take all types of metal: they all have some kind of scheme (like metal, black metal, death-metal, speed-metal, thrash-metal) when playing.

T: I once argued with a guy about those issues. I think I called ‘Venom’ speed-metal and he made fun of that! You don’t need to give your music a name.

A: Do you get a lot of letters from fans and groupies?

T: No letters from fans or groupies. We change directions a lot but we have rarely received anything. We don’t have shirts or discs, or stickers to send.

M: But we like the fans. I mean it’s good to see the same people again at concerts, especially pretty women.

A: Do you do something besides playing in the band?

T: I’m a builder (?), if they don’t fire me; and I have weird black Pumas (shows one), which will make me filthy rich. My hobbies are reading, collecting shells and making small constructions.

M: I’m going to work soon but I don’t have a job at the moment. My hobbies are playing music, cooking and taking long hot showers.

A: Do you have anything to add to this interview, or for people in Spain?

M: Yes, next time I hope we can receive what we asked for and if the other bands bring their own material, we would be happy to play there again.

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