Raw Punk Spirit: JUST A NIGHTMARE Zine

If you like d-beat raw punk and haven’t spent the last ten years living under a rock behind an abandoned squat in the mountains, you must have heard (or at least heard of) Disease from Skopje. Fuckin’ sick band that takes the dis-clone thing to another level of dedication. Basically, these guys have released a couple of records and made some impressive touring over the last few years.

Under lockdown/quarantine measures, of course, they are also as affected as the next punk band, so we haven’t been lucky to see them around in 2020. However, it seems they don’t let themselves rot at home too much, because Alex (voc./guitar) introduced us to his new brainchild, namely JUST A NIGHTMARE Zine.

In only a couple of months, he brought out three issues of the zine, and recently I was able to purchase a couple of copies to distribute among local punks. They sold out in a day. From the outside, this is almost your usual punk zine with collage artwork and interviews. What is a bit different than what I’m used to is every issue is in fact one huge interview with an interesting musician from a legendary punk band.

The first issue is a long and very intense interview with Per from Giftgasattack (as well as a bunch of other rad bands)

Number #2 has a really extensive conversation with Fofao of Besthöven, the renowned one-man dis-crust army from Gama City, Brasil.

In #3 Alex talks with Nils of Dispose about his band, his early days, his pen-pal friendship with Kawakami of Disclose, the stuff he listens to lately, and the daily grind in his hometown Luleå, Sweden.

Every zine is around 30-40 pages, printed in color on nice paper, but it’s still 100% DIY publication, you can tell every copy is been put together by hand, which I love. I really appreciate the time put into page design, there is a lot of images, photos, posters, and artwork on every page.

Definitely these 3 issues are a great addition to your collection if you are a zine nerd too. It was an absolute pleasure dealing with Alex, he shipped the zines superfast, well maybe it helped that Macedonia is right next door.

However – I strongly recommend contacting JUST A NIGHTMARE and purchasing some copies if you like zines, have a distro, or just want to get your hands on a good quality d-beat/raw punk centric DIY publication, done for punx by punx.

Order your copy at [email protected]

from JUST A NIGHTMARE Zine #1 – “Giftgasattack”

The story of Per from Giftgasattack

Q: Last that came from Giftgasattack was ”Moraliskt Förfall’, how did it happen?

Per: Yes… We had all the songs ready and Mattis from Makabert Fynd/Dissekerad, asked if we wanted to come there to record it… Sex Dwarf had done their recording there so why not… Obviously looking back on it…we should have waited a bit and I should have been there when the mixing was done…

I lived in Berlin at this time so it wasn’t possible and it was a long process of sending files back and forth… At last, I just said, let Memphis and Granath decide… It didn’t went so good… There are some guitar trax missing and such shit. Later…we talked about recording some of the songs again for some other record…but it never happened. People started dying.

from JUST A NIGHTMARE Zine #2 – “Besthöven”

The story of Fofão from Besthöven

Q: In 2011 the masterpiece ‘Dis Means War’ LP was released on Agipunk Records.A lot of punks say that’s one of the best and most brilliant Besthöven records. Can you tell us a bit more about the record, the whole recording process, where it took place? Was there any specific inspiration for the sound of that album?

F: Thank you for cool words mate! Well, it was recorded exclusively for that tour also! I don’t know how I can explain about the form the inspiration comes in me…of course there’s always the bands I love and influences me, but I always try to be original also, I never intended to be a copy! There’s all the work into dis and crust and d-beat, but we need to do our own songs right?

In part this record brings part of my excitement to be going to do the tour also, you know, it was a dream that realized true! Many people don’t know, but in the first song ”This Means War” there’s a part that makes a reverence to the history of at all also, there’s a part that I sing the name of 4 Besthöven records, inside that lyrics:

After an air attack (Depois de um ataque aereo)
More victims of war
Just another warsong
A bomb raid into your mind

This part is like the ”history” of the band also so ”Dis Means War” was getting complete and I’m going to tour overseas for the first time and finally meet face to face, so many people that helped me in my history, you know… A history that continues going, but I never forget the past…

I never forget the bands that influenced me and I never forget my own history too, this is the reason to be doing compilation CDs discographies and also now, doing the books about the past… I think that is really important to keep the ”roots”, and registering it all, in the way you can.

from JUST A NIGHTMARE Zine #3 – “A Glimpse Into The Nightmare of Dispose”

The story of Nils from Dispose

Q: From being a one-man band Dispose merged into 3-piece. Why was that?

N: We formed as a real band in 2008 with Wille on bass and Pukan on drums. I wanted to rehearse like a real band to better learn guitar and shout vox at the same time and play live etc. Solo projects can be fun but have its’ limitations and sometimes it’s just too much of yourself really… haha!

Q: Do you remember how you became friends and for how long did you know each other? How and what made the decision to continue Dispose with this line-up?

N: Oh, I knew Pukan from before, he was in “Earth Died Screaming’ and ‘Slavstak’, I recorded some songs with them in the Disbunker studio so I knew he had what it takes for d-beat raw punk, he is a better drummer than me I think, really too bad he moved, but that’s the kind of place this is, no one ever moves here, they all move out…

Wille, I knew from gigs and ‘Acskyvarld’, recorded their first demo back to town in 2008 I asked around to form d-beat raw punk band and so it happened. With this line up there was no real issues, just 3 fuckups doing what they like to, why change members?!

Support DIY punx! You can order your copy at: [email protected]