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, hanged out with all the Shivery crew and it was great. Now almost an year later Heinz and Pascal are doing their first tour and it’s taking them to Bulgaria (and many other cool places as well). 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 yourself and all that you’re doing to all people who haven’t heard about you yet?
H: 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 for 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.
P: 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 finally quit the university and stop working. I would be a perfect housewife. Anyhow, I’ve watched Desperate Housewives and practiced cooking and cleaning a lot.
H: Ah and we are both from a city called Würzburg in Germany…
How did you met and why did you decide you can do stuff together?
P: We met on a house party after both of us moved to Würzburg. None of us knew the owner of the flat back then, but by chance we’ve been in the same group of people we were going to this party with. The next days we met often on our way to university and kept in touch. We became friends quite fast and realized that we both miss something pretty important for us… Good shows in Würzburg! So we talked about doing it ourselves and founded Shivery.
H: Yes, that’s basically it! I guess additionally it’s obvious that we have a really similar taste of music, that’s why it was pretty easy to start such a project without too much hustle.
Tell us more about Shivery Productions, when it appeared, what you’ve done, what are you planning?
H: Daria, Pascal and I founded this project like two years ago, by starting to put 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” 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 more easier, is it really like that? Tell us more about the pros and cons about booking shows in Germany.
P: 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 do really care about the musicians. Mostly it’s absolutely natural that the bands get warm food, enough drinks, a place to sleep and a 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 the people don’t really care about small bands anymore. They’re not going to shows, don’t support their local scene, don’t give a band a listen if it’s not from the UK for example. People complain about having to pay 5 euro to watch four bands from abroad, but don’t mind spending 7 euro 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 could 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 will work out so fast and that so many people are 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 about everyone who has helped us. That shows me that the 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.
H: 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’ve never played the bass before, not to mention that I had never sang 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 a 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: “You sound and look like you are Algernon Cadwallader’s children!” As he’s 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…
P: As I said before, I´m playing drums in Dearest. We are 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 I found out that they had been searching for a new one. So we met them for a practice. I was totally amazed ‘cause these guys played exactly the kind of music I 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?
H: We’re 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 in Croatia.
We already announced both your debuts, is there any new music coming from you some time soon or you’ll be promoting mostly your current releases?
P: 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.
H: 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” 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 you’ve been involved in other bands?
P: It will be the first ever tour for me and I´m totally nervous for months haha
H: I’ve also never played a tour before… But I’ve been on some tours with friends already. One of those tours has been the South East 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?
P: 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’ve been involved in a protest of Iranian refugees here in Würzburg. They’ve been fighting for their right to stay in Germany and to be respected as political refugees. It was impressive how big this protest has become and how fast many different cities in different countries joined it. Two years later the most of the refugees from Würzburg who have been involved are allowed to stay here and start a new life but not all. Also the political system referring refugees is still inadmissible, especially in Bavaria. But although we didn’t change the world we helped at least a little amount of people to stay here in Germany where they can start a new life. It has been a little step, which 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 is to be critical to yourself and to the society. So question yourself and the society, be brave and start projects. Don’t be what the others want you to be, be yourself!
What else is big in your life besides music?
P: My friends, my family and pandas on slides!
H: 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?
H: 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 humus until few days ago…
And maybe a band that we gotta check?
P: 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!
H: 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.
P: 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 looses his toothbrush. So help us prevent this problem! Thanks!
H: I just wanted to say thank you once again, buddy! In addition I’d like to entrust 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 wherebirdsmeetodie tape release.
