Żegota: We Wanted to Create Something That Would Make the World a Better Place

When DIY Conspiracy began back in the early aughts, we were greatly inspired by hardcore zines like Inside Front and HeartattaCk, as well as CrimethInc.’s early books like Days of War, Nights of Love, and of course bands like Catharsis, The Spectacle, Requiem, and Żegota… Formed around 1997 in North Carolina, Żegota captured the politicized, Ebullition-style hardcore momentum of the ’90s, while also channeling influences from Fugazi and Dischord’s more experimental releases.

In late November 1999, the growing anti-capitalist movement of the time converged to protest the WTO summit in Seattle, marking a key moment for the global resistance to neoliberal globalization. In that climate, Żegota drew inspiration from the Seattle uprising and released their groundbreaking debut album, Movement in the Music, through the anarchist imprint CrimethInc. Over the following years, they played hundreds of passionate shows in the US and abroad, and released two more albums—Namasté and Reclaim!—as well as a self-titled 7-inch, before some members relocated to Europe and the band splintered into three different countries on two continents.

In 2025, North Carolina’s Bitter Melody Records unearthed the obscure 1997–1998 Żegota demos for their first-ever vinyl pressing. According to label founder Grant McCracken, “This is Bitter Melody’s 100th release in our 15th year as a label. For this one, I wanted to do a legacy North Carolina band because above all we are an NC label and one of my favorite NC bands from my youth was Żegota.”

He remembered them as “musically all over the place—punk, hardcore, jazz, and world elements swirl,” and noted how mind-blowing they were live. With three albums and an EP spanning more than a decade, Żegota’s 1997 demo had reached an almost mythical status. “A few digitized versions popped up online,” Grant said, “but I started this project to see if I could restore it somehow.”

Through a stroke of luck, Grant managed to secure the original ADAT tape from recording engineer Doug Williams. While working on this restoration, they discovered another forgotten demo from 1998—never released and even unknown to the band. This second demo included three early versions of songs that would eventually appear on Movement in the Music plus a re-recorded track from the 1997 demo. “$59.95 is one of my favorite Żegota tracks,” Grant explained, “and hearing it here is amazing because it has an extra chorus not heard on the album version.”

The new vinyl, containing both the 1997 and 1998 demos, is a collaboration between Bitter Melody Records in the US and Refuse Records in Europe; Europeans should order from Refuse for cheaper shipping. The CD edition, co-released by Bitter Melody and Waterslide Records in Japan, features glass mastering, LP-style packaging with an OBI strip, and this new 2025 interview with the band—presented here for the first time in English and translated into Japanese for the CD. Enjoy!

How did you guys get together and how quickly did you start having output? How did you all meet and how old were you?

Jon, Will, and Brian had been friends since childhood, growing up in the same neighborhood in Greensboro, NC. We started learning to play musical instruments in high school and began forming our first bands. Moe became friends with Brian and Jon, and after everyone graduated, the four of us decided to start Żegota. We all had diverse musical interests, but the political ideas and “do-it-yourself” ethos of the hardcore punk scene were really important to us. We wanted to create something that would make the world a better place. Żegota started in 1997, and we recorded our demo cassette tape that same year (now this CD).

Like most artists, we started by imitating our favorites. The first song we learned to play as a band was Fugazi’s “Merchandise” from their legendary 1990 album Repeater. Listening to the demos all these years later, you can really hear that influence both in terms of the sound and the strong anti-consumerist themes of the songs!

What were your influences as a band when you started writing songs? Your sound was very unique and your early demo sound reminded me of Action Patrol. When I interviewed with Action Patrol guys, I heard that they were also connected with the NC scene and used to play in Greensboro, where you guys were from. Did you guys know Action Patrol?

Action Patrol was definitely one of many early influences on our band, but we did not know them personally. We saw them live a few times, along with lots of other great local and touring bands. Each of us had our own influences though, and luckily there was some overlap: Fugazi, Avail, Catharsis, Born Against, Oi Polloi, Los Crudos, His Hero Is Gone… Where we diverged—and what helped formulate our unique sound—was that our bassist loved Incubus and Primus, while our guitarist liked the later Jimi Hendrix recordings and Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. Our drummer was into grunge bands and getting into West African drumming, then our singer was into a lot of ’90s hardcore and Ebullition Records bands like Downcast.

The name of the band is also great, Żegota, which was the codename to rescue many Jews during World War II. I understand that you have adopted paper jackets for your CDs to encourage people to think about environmental issues, and that some of your members were also involved in organic farming. You were a band that put principles and ideas into action and practice. Did you decide on this kind of attitude from the time you formed the band? Or did such an attitude change over the course of your activities? Sorry, there was no information about you guys in Japan at that time.

We were quite young when Żegota started—all of us were teenagers! We did have a lot of principles and concerns because we felt like the world was filled with injustice. We chose the name “Żegota” because we were very inspired by the selfless actions that the real Żegota in Poland undertook during WWII—they risked their lives to save others from Nazi persecution and death. The participants in the real Żegota from WWII were genuine heroes, and relatively unknown. If people found out about the real Żegota through our band, that would be great!

When we think back about our band, there is something special about being young and idealistic. The world and the challenges that humanity faces are far more complicated than the four of us understood back then, but we believe our hearts were always in the right place. Regarding our CDs, we chose to use paper jackets at the time because we wanted to minimize plastic and we thought the packaging was more interesting than the classic CD “jewel cases,” which in the 1990s were absolutely ubiquitous.

What do you remember about writing/recording/releasing the 1997 Demo?

We wrote our demo songs in an old log cabin on the farm where our bass player Brian’s grandparents lived. It was fun and exciting to be writing music and thinking about playing shows. The recording process was great—it was thrilling to be in a studio and create something with our songs. When we released the 1997 Demo, it really had a big impact on our band. We would mostly play shows in North Carolina with twenty to fifty people in attendance, yet suddenly people were singing along because they had the Demo. It felt great and we started making a lot of friends, which helped us get shows farther and farther away from North Carolina. We sold hundreds of the Demo cassette tapes up and down the US East Coast for three dollars each—very inexpensive.

What do you remember about writing/recording/releasing the 1998 Demo?

Ha! We remember very little about the 1998 Demo. In fact, we had all completely forgotten about that recording session until Grant from Bitter Melody Records got the original ADAT tapes from the recording engineer, Doug Williams, who had archived them all this time. We were probably focused on getting ready to record the Movement in the Music album.

Three of the four 1998 Demo songs are on your first album Movement in the Music on CrimethInc. This album was also released by Reflections Records in the Netherlands and Masapunk Records in Chile at that time, wasn’t it? Did you contact these overseas labels to release your album?

In 1998/’99, we were becoming good friends with Brian D. from Catharsis and CrimethInc. Catharsis brought Żegota along on a few short tours, and Brian D. ultimately asked if CrimethInc. could put out Żegota’s full-length record. It was a really big deal for us—we were very excited—but it also felt natural. If you had asked us at the time what label we’d want to work with, the only answer would have been CrimethInc.

In 1999 we loaned Jon, our guitarist, to Catharsis for their European tour. During that tour, he handed out copies of the Demo liberally and started making European connections, including with Ard, who later took over as our bassist after Brian moved on to other projects. CrimethInc. then facilitated the overseas releases with Reflections and Masapunk. We got to know them as well—they were wonderful people to work with!

As your records spread in those different countries, did it change the environment surrounding you guys?

We don’t think it changed our environment, but having an album on CrimethInc. and Reflections did help us tour a lot more places, especially Europe, which gave us confidence in what we were doing. Also, keep in mind, the internet was basically nonexistent when we started. Our first tours were booked over the telephone; we didn’t even have email! There wasn’t digital music to share at first, but as that technology evolved, people began trading and downloading MP3s online. We’ve always believed that really helped our band too, because it allowed our music to be heard in parts of the world where importing a record or CD would not have been possible.

Did you do a lot of touring at that time? Did you also tour in Europe? Do you have any particular tour stories that really stand out?

Yes, we toured a lot. Żegota performed approximately 325 concerts in 42 US states and 25 European countries. We were very fortunate as a band to travel as many places as we did. The DIY hardcore punk scene is very special—when you are part of that scene, people genuinely help one another. We almost always had a floor to sleep on and food to share when we went on tour. Likewise, we helped many touring bands when they came to our town—we booked shows, fed them, and offered places to sleep. We made a lot of friends that way.

We could write a small book about the experiences we had in those years! Looking back, most of the “crazy tour stories” come down to us just being young, dumb, and reckless. In the early days, we toured in Moe’s late ’90s compact extended-cab pickup truck. There wasn’t enough room in the cab for everyone, so one of us would ride in the back with the equipment. It was covered, of course, and we made a cozy spot with sleeping bags and pillows at the back of the truck bed, so it wasn’t too bad. On one late-night drive, however, the tailgate fell open and our drummer Will had to ride for three hours manually holding the gate closed! Nowadays you would just text the driver and have them pull over—but as we’ve mentioned, we didn’t have that kind of technology yet. It’s amazing we survived those early tours!

As I told you, there is very little information about you all in Japan—many people think that you are a Swedish band because that is the country where you moved and were active at the end of your span. What were the reasons you moved to Sweden and played there? How did you live there?

After a few years of what felt like a lot of touring, we decided to take a six-month break. Jon went to visit friends he had met in Sweden—where he ultimately met someone special and they had a baby together. Jon’s life and responsibilities changed quickly, as becoming a parent changes everything. Jon lived in Sweden full time, and our bass player Ard (who is Dutch) lived in the Netherlands, while Will and Moe lived in North Carolina—so we were spread across three different countries. The three of us would visit Jon and our other friends in Sweden for several months each year, where we lived, wrote music, and did short tours in Europe.

What was the dissolution of the band like? What were the reasons it ended?

Żegota never really disbanded—it’s more like we just stopped and never restarted. From my perspective (Moe), it was hard to save money each year to go to Sweden for several months while my life in North Carolina was on hold. I wanted to do other things like farming, going to university, and building relationships. Logistically, it was really challenging for a band to stay functional and creative while four people lived in three different countries.

Are there any regrets about anything? Do you think the band accomplished everything you sought to accomplish?

Perhaps we accomplished more than we ever expected, but we do have some regrets. We had an offer to tour Japan once, but we couldn’t align our schedules—what an amazing opportunity we missed! Also, live performances were incredibly important to us. We always tried to push ourselves creatively when we played live, and our shows were typically intense. Sometimes we feel like we never reached our full creative potential—there’s a mythical album or tour we wish we could have done, but life leads you in directions you can’t always control.

Thanks to Bitter Melody for letting us publish this new interview. Previously we’ve published another interview with Żegota, conducted by our friend Honza at their 2004 show in Prague, Czech Republic.