Interview with Heinzel & Pascal from Shivery Productions

I first met Heinzel somewhere around Serbia during the first European tour we made with Expectations. Pascal I met on our next tour, and my last with the band, when we shared the stage with his band Dearest in Herrenberg. The next day, we played a show in Würzburg, hung out with the whole Shivery crew, and it was great. Now, almost a year later, Heinz and Pascal are doing their first tour, and it’s taking them to Bulgaria, among many other cool places. So I decided to share with you how cool those guys are.

Hey, Heinzel and Pascal, glad we’re making this talk to celebrate DIY Conspiracy’s fresh start. Can you present yourselves and all that you’re doing to all the people who haven’t heard about you yet?

Heinzel: Hey there! First of all, I would like to thank everyone from DIY Conspiracy for giving us the opportunity to get interviewed, particularly Angelo. This means a lot to us, and we can’t wait to see you again in March! I’m also really happy that you are restarting this project, and please continue with it forever!

It’s really difficult to present yourself, I guess, especially if there is not much to tell. However, I play bass and try to sing in 52 Hertz. Besides that, I’m in Shivery with Daria and Pascal.

Pascal: Hey, I’m Pascal, playing drums for Dearest. I founded Shivery.MMXII.Productions with Heinzel and Daria, I’m writing for some fanzines, and I’m still searching for a sugar daddy who will finance me so I can finally quit university and stop working. I would be a perfect housewife. Anyhow, I’ve watched Desperate Housewives and practiced cooking and cleaning a lot.

Heinzel: Ah, and we are both from a city called Würzburg in Germany…

How did you meet, and why did you decide you could do stuff together?

Pascal: We met at a house party after both of us had moved to Würzburg. None of us knew the owner of the flat back then, but by chance, we were in the same group of people going to the party. The next days, we often met on our way to university and kept in touch. We became friends quite fast and realized that we both missed something pretty important for us: good shows in Würzburg! So we talked about doing it ourselves and founded Shivery.

Heinzel: Yes, that’s basically it! I guess, additionally, it’s obvious that we have a really similar taste in music, and that’s why it was pretty easy to start such a project without too much hassle.

Tell us more about Shivery Productions. When did it appear, what have you done, and what are you planning?

Heinzel: Daria, Pascal, and I founded this project around two years ago by starting to put on hardcore shows in Würzburg. With the release of Sending Lights’ first EP, we expanded into a label and launched a small distro as well. I personally got into booking because I really loved Hindsights and Nai Harvest at that time, and I wanted to see both bands live so bad. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to see them here, so I booked them a small tour… Since then, we’ve released 13 other records, mainly tape and vinyl, because we don’t like CDs. We already have some releases scheduled! Among them, there is the eaglehaslanded self-titled 7-inch and I’m Alone in This by wherebirdsmeettodie on tape.

To the people in Eastern Europe, booking shows or simply surviving in the Western scenes looks way easier. Is it really like that? Tell us more about the pros and cons of booking shows in Germany.

Pascal: I have no comparisons, so it’s hard for me to name some pros and cons. I think a big pro here in Germany is that most promoters really do care about the musicians. Mostly, it’s absolutely natural that the bands get warm food, enough drinks, a place to sleep, and breakfast the day after. From what I’ve heard, this doesn’t seem to be normal in every country.

Sometimes it seems to me that people don’t really care about small bands anymore. They’re not going to shows, don’t support their local scene, and don’t give a band a listen if it’s not from the UK, for example. People complain about having to pay €5 to watch four bands from abroad, but don’t mind spending €7 for a shitty club, dancing to shitty music, paying too much for shitty drinks, and partying with shitty people. That’s definitely a con!

Booking shows here is also hard. Everyone is counting Facebook likes. If you’re a small band, it can be really hard to find a location to play. That seems to be different in Eastern Europe. I was totally impressed when Heinzel and I started booking our tour. I couldn’t believe that it would work out so fast and that so many people were actually helping us—two small and unknown bands from a shitty small town in Germany. I still can’t believe it, and I’m so thankful to everyone who has helped us. That shows me that people in Eastern Europe really do care about the music and not about fucking Facebook likes or styles.

Besides helping out other people’s bands, you are both playing music. Tell us about your bands.

Heinzel: The punk band I’m playing in is a pretty new one, and I’m really thankful that Gregor and Mike gave me the opportunity to be a part of it, even though I had never played bass before, not to mention that I had never sung before either…

We are called 52 Hertz, and we played our first show in October 2013. I can’t believe that we are already going on tour in just a few days. I guess it’s hard to describe your own music, so I’d like to quote a friend from Pilsen, Czech Republic: “You sound and look like you are Algernon Cadwallader’s children!” As he had been driving them for a month on their last European tour, I assume he knows what he’s talking about.

Seriously though, I guess I would describe us as a punky emo three-piece band…

Pascal: As I said before, I’m playing drums in Dearest. We were founded in August 2012. All the others played together in a hardcore punk band before, but then their drummer left the band. I met them by chance at a Pianos Become The Teeth concert and found out that they had been searching for a new one. So I met them for a practice. I was totally amazed because these guys played exactly the kind of music I had wanted to do for a long time. Now we have our first EP released, and we’re going on our first tour ever. We are already planning new recordings and a new tour.

Where is that first tour taking you?

Heinzel: We’re starting with a show in our hometown, Würzburg. Then we are driving down to Sofia, Bulgaria, and back. On the way, we’ll be playing in Germany, Austria, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and maybe Croatia.

We already announced both your debuts. Is there any new music coming from you sometime soon, or will you be promoting mostly your current releases?

Pascal: Dearest want to record some songs after the tour. We don’t really know how to release them yet, but we’re thinking about a split with an amazing new project from the States.

Heinzel: We are also releasing some new stuff soon. We’ve started recording five songs already! Sadly, we won’t be able to finish them before the tour, so it might take us a while to record the vocals and finish everything. Once we’re done, the plan is to press these songs on a 10-inch or something like that. We can’t wait to share those songs with everybody!

I guess in general this tour is not about promoting our past releases, but about meeting old friends and making new ones, and simply playing some shows.

Will this be your first ever tour, or have you been involved in other bands?

Pascal: It will be the first ever tour for me, and I’ve been totally nervous for months, haha.

Heinzel: I’ve also never played a tour before… But I’ve been on some tours with friends already. One of those tours was the Southeast European tour of Minus Tree back in September 2012, and I’m sure this tour was the reason why we’re going to play our first ever tour in that very region as well! I would like to thank them again for taking me with them!

DIY Conspiracy loves people living somehow beyond the matrix. Are you following similar lifestyle ideologies, and if yes, what are the little things you’re doing for the bigger change?

Pascal: I think we have to be realistic and admit that we don’t have the power for the “bigger change.” It might sound pessimistic, but it isn’t.

Two years ago, I was involved in a protest of Iranian refugees here in Würzburg. They had been fighting for their right to stay in Germany and to be respected as political refugees. It was impressive how big this protest became and how fast many different cities in different countries joined it. Two years later, most of the refugees from Würzburg who had been involved are allowed to stay here and start a new life, but not all. Also, the political system regarding refugees is still inadmissible, especially in Bavaria. But although we didn’t change the world, we helped at least a small number of people stay here in Germany, where they can start a new life. It was a little step that got the ball rolling. We are only powerful for the little steps in life, but these little steps must be done.

For myself, I figured out that the most important thing is to be critical of yourself and society. So question yourself and society, be brave, and start projects. Don’t be what others want you to be, be yourself!

What else is big in your life besides music?

Pascal: My friends, my family, and pandas on slides!

Heinzel: Obviously, friendship is a really big thing in my life as well, even though many of those friendships have resulted from music. Besides that, my girlfriend is the most important thing in my life right now.

Share with us a cool recipe that you recently cooked yourself?

Heinzel: It’s a huge shame that I’m really uncreative when it comes to cooking. For example, even though I’m vegan, I hadn’t ever made hummus until a few days ago…

And maybe a band that we gotta check?

Pascal: Puh… There are millions of bands who deserve more attention. For example, wherebirdsmeettodie, Kapytaen, eaglehaslanded, Expectations, Cvlt of Grace, Furtive Forest, Rollergirls, I Saw Daylight, and many, many more!

Heinzel: Besides the bands Pascal already mentioned, you should definitely keep an eye out for Birmingham Pines, Thoreau, ██████, Bait, and Always Wanted War. And Kapytaen are really underrated!

This last one is on you. Share anything we haven’t yet mentioned, tell us something nice, something cool… whatever you fancy.

Pascal: If some of you join us on any of the dates of our tour, that would be amazing. Please bring a toothbrush with you. Heinzel won’t play the tour any longer if he loses his toothbrush. So help us prevent this problem! Thanks!

Heinzel: I just wanted to say thank you once again, buddy! In addition, I’d like to recommend Kalmare Print to all of you. They are a really cool new DIY project. They are in the process of hand-sewing and DIY screen-printing the cloth sleeves for our upcoming wherebirdsmeettodie tape release.