Hemiptera is a neocrust band hailing from the British seaside town of Brighton & Hove. They released their demo in March 2024 and have been a personal favourite of ours ever since. Hemiptera’s epic five-track release features the cello prominently, adding a distinctive depth and complexity to their sound. This approach clearly shows the influence of their local predecessors Fall of Efrafa, as well as the spirit of French bands like An-Attâ and Anomie, while Francesca’s Italian vocals even evoke legends such as Contropotere.
Yet, comparisons can only go so far. Hemiptera stand out as an up-and-coming band with a fierce political message and a determined, forward-facing attitude. The following interview was conducted in September 2024 with all four members of the band for a Turkish zine, which has remained unpublished until now. As the interview has been on hold for some time, we are proud to publish it here first.
Greetings! Thank you for accepting my interview invitation. The kind of punk you play might be my favourite style. I wish more bands would play in this vein nowadays—it’s aggressive, powerful, and emotional. How did this quartet come together? Who first suggested playing some doomy neocrust? I’m also curious about why you chose this name.
Francesca: I’ve always liked melodic crust and moody atmospheres, and when I started playing cello, I knew I wanted to be in a band. I’d jammed with Maxim (guitar) before and we had a great time, so when we found out Phil (drummer) was looking for a band, Chris (bass) and I decided to give it a go!
Choosing to play emo crust was a no-brainer since we all love it. The name was my idea—it’s Latin for “true bug.” I mainly chose it because it sounds spacious and cool, but I also like to think of punx as bugs, able to evolve and survive in this toxic society.
Phil: When they asked me, it was a no-brainer: perfect genre, three really cool, kind people, and great musicians.
Maxim: Same as Phil. I really enjoyed jamming with Francesca on the cello before, and I love the genre, so with these fab people it was an easy yes. I’ve always struggled with my identity as a guitarist—when asked what style I play, I’d just say “whatever I write,” which turned out to be neocrust all along!
Chris: It all came together quite organically. The initial idea was to be a crusty hardcore band. I’ve known Phil for years and knew how dedicated and talented he is, and he kept pushing us to get into a practice space after I mentioned the idea. Once Francesca started learning the cello and I realised I hated doing vocals, we rearranged things. We even tried as a five-piece before the extra guitarist moved on to other projects.
The sound we settled on reflects our world: rage at endless injustices and the fucked-up state of everything, but also the certainty that some goodness and hope remain. It reflects our collective mindset: screaming at a world gone wrong, despairing about the future, yet holding on to hope because we must.
All your songs seem to have a political stance, a call to struggle. I’ve noticed the term “polycrisis” being used more often to describe today’s world. It’s hard to disagree; we’re facing political, ecological, social, and economic crises wherever we look. How do you see the state of the world from Brighton? What does the political struggle look like there, and how does it relate to the punk scene?
Francesca: Brighton is a town full of contradictions. On one hand, you have expensive houses, gentrified neighbourhoods, hipster coffee shops, and amazing vegan restaurants. On the other hand, homelessness is off the charts, people struggle with addiction, and locals are being driven out of town by astronomical house prices, replaced by those who earn their money in London or who are simply wealthy and fancy living near the sea.
The class divide is stark, and many groups try to organise and do something about it, like Solfed Brighton. Also, the Cowley Club is an anarchist social centre hosting a vegan food bank, political initiatives, and non-for-profit punk gigs. I just wish there were more places like this in Brighton and across the UK, so punk music could grow and emerge from non-commercial spaces.
Phil: The world is currently in the most chaotic political situation I’ve ever seen. The rise of the far right is out of control and in the mainstream. We must show unity and have the strength and hope that things can change.
Chris: In Brighton, at least, we’re relatively privileged. It’s a beautiful city, comparatively safe globally, and it has a long tradition of open-mindedness and tolerance compared to much of the UK and the rest of the world. As a community, we’ve managed to keep ourselves fairly safe from the far right on the streets, and we have a reputation for standing against them in numbers.
On the other hand, as Francesca mentioned, there’s a stark class divide, and the pressures of tourism, students, drugs, proximity to London, and capitalism make it hard to survive. The anarchist community and the punk scene come in waves, then either burn out or get torn apart by egos. Still, enough people stick around to keep projects going through tough times, whether political, musical, or ideally both.
We’re really lucky to have the Cowley Club, which has been going for 20 years now, kept alive entirely by volunteers. It does a great deal of good for the community and the music scene. It was also the only food bank in the city that continued operating throughout 2020 without shutting down even once; nowhere else managed to maintain that pace.
Speaking of Brighton, for those who are not familiar with the scene, who should we listen to? If there are fanzines, what should we read? Thanks to streaming and the internet, I have access to bands from all over the world, but on the other hand, I still do not know what to listen to and keep spinning the same bands!
Francesca: You should definitely listen to Dead Name (even though they are from London), Ikhras, Prom, Wimp, and Pog. There are also amazing bands like Wreathe, Ancient Lights, and Cady, but they are from London as well.
Totally out of genre, but Boom Boom Raccoon are great, though they are more ska. By the way, we want recommendations of any Turkish bands! Send those suggestions our way, we cannot wait to discover new music. There are a few fanzines in Brighton; sometimes our friend from Stray 4 Life releases one, and Pitcrew1312 does one too! If you like heavier hardcore, check them out! Another great zine is Papercore, printed in France but including articles from people all over Europe!
Maxim: On the metal side, Brighton used to have a big doom/stoner scene which I grew up with, bands like Sea Bastard, Kalloused, Solleme, etc., but that has mostly given way to death metal and hardcore. Astral Noize and Hwæt zines still cover a few bits. Vacuous (London) are at the top of the old-school death metal revival at the moment, and their guitarist runs a great zine called Charred. Fuck Hype, Endless Disappointment (FHED Zine) from Cardiff is also well worth checking out.
Chris: Hardcore in Brighton, at least in the more metallic and less politically conscious sense, has blown up over the last few years. It is not exactly my cup of tea, especially the ridiculous dancing! But at least it gets kids out and doing something, and hopefully they will grow and discover related genres and the politics that come with them. Some standout bands from the current scene, for me, would be xapothecaryx, Prom, and Wimp. Negative Measures had a great run but recently called it quits, though they were one of the more original bands in recent years.
Chalk Hands do not play very often, but I always try to catch them when they do—really tight skramz sound for people who miss Fluff Fest. On that note, there is also Closed Hands from London, who really nail that chaotic, viscerally uncomfortable screamo carnage. I claim to write a zine called Good Lookin’ South, but I have not put a new issue out for four years, and the one before that took even longer. Still, when I am motivated there will be another, for sure.
You are planning a short European tour soon. Brexit must have had a big impact on touring outside the island. How did it affect you? I love hearing tour stories. Do you have a favourite story you like to tell?
Francesca: Brexit has made things much more difficult, and I suppose we will find out this November exactly how difficult. We have never toured before as a band, so we have no stories yet, but I have toured solo as a folk punk act in the past.
My favourite story is when I arrived in Ostrava and was offered a shot of something that turned out to be mouthwash/household cleaner! It got me drunk straight away! I also got to play on top of a van that night. Ostrava is great—shoutout to Frano and Honza!
Maxim: As above this will be our first big overseas outing, the fun stories are yet to come, but the most gruelling tour trip for me was a 20-hour coach ride for a show in Switzerland at the peak of summer with all the band’s gear and no air conditioning, followed by a 20-hour ride back after the show. My bandmates flew in and out and spent less time in the country than I did stuck on that coach; never again!
Chris: We did a pair of shows in Italy this spring, which was the first time the four of us played together outside the UK. Since we only travelled with backpacks and borrowed instruments, it was not too difficult, but we will soon see how Brexit has affected touring. We have more dates planned in the Benelux region this year, and across central and eastern Europe in 2024.
Brexit has made a complete mess of the UK, emboldening the far right and normalising narrow-minded isolationist rhetoric across the political spectrum. We do not have any wild tour stories yet, and we are not the type to cause chaos on the road. We are all pretty laid-back and more likely to be reading the local punk zine than knocking back the spirits at the bar.
What do you read, what do you listen to? Do you have any favourites from 2024? I have recently been learning French and have discovered authors such as Houria Bouteldja and Sadri Khiari (let us wish a blessing to their publisher, Eric Hazan, who recently passed away). I have been reading them and listening to Gel, Subdued, and Syndrome 81 lately.
Francesca: Lately I have been listening to a lot of Contrasto and Sud Disorder (two Italian bands). I am Italian, and if I feel nostalgic I tend to listen to Italian bands. Unfortunately, I have been doom-scrolling too much and haven’t been reading a lot, but yesterday I started Alex CF’s new book called An Absence and have been enjoying it very much so far.
Maxim: I’ve really been enjoying a lot of silly black metal/dungeon synth recently, basically everything on Grimstone Records (Curta’n Wall, Old Nick, Keys to the Astral Gates And Mystic Doors, Bloody Keep, etc.), alongside more serious stuff like Gråt Strigoi, Tumultuous Ruin, Suffocate for Fucks Sake, and Dawn Ray’d (RIP), plus an off-shoot project from Dawn Ray’d’s drummer called Greet.
Chris: I’ve really been digging lagrimas’ debut album lately—an absolute must if you’re into melodic crust. The same goes for Habak, who I managed to catch when they were in Europe this summer. I had high hopes after listening to their records for years, and they exceeded my expectations. Tenue’s new record is another huge step forward for them. I was lucky enough to hang out with them when they were in Brighton recently, and they’re really great people, which always makes any band’s music resonate even more!
I’ve also been revisiting some classics recently—His Hero Is Gone, Tragedy, and early From Ashes Rise. A hugely underrated band is Nu (formerly Nu, Pogodi!), who have been playing occasional shows again and put out a new EP. It’s brutal, crusty grindcore that feels like having a fan blowing in your face live.
Are there any new songs on the horizon, any records or splits that we can hear from here?
Francesca: Our demo tape should be available soon on Fiadh Records, and we are super excited about that. We are also planning on recording a full-length if we have the time and money. Right now we feel like prioritising touring so more people can get to know our music.
Maxim: I’m super excited about the Fiadh release. I’m slowly working through new riffs, and hopefully you’ll hear about them soon.
Chris: Yes, we’re really excited about our demo reaching so far and wide. I certainly didn’t expect us to be offered a release from all the way across the Atlantic. We’ve been writing new songs since recording the demo—some we’ve been playing live, and others are still a work in progress. We aim to have them ready to record a full-length early in 2025.
Aside from that, it’s about getting on the road, playing as much as we can, meeting new people, and catching up with old friends wherever possible.
Francesca: Thanks so much for taking the time to interview us; it felt very special! I definitely feel honoured.
Find Hemiptera on Bandcamp, Instagram, and Facebook.
