Interview
Whats your full name, age and current mind set?
Bjorn Dossche. 27. Set It Off.
How have things been over the past few months with yourself and Rise and Fall? I know you have a job now, hows that going?
Rise And Fall has only been playing the occasional show here and there, which is weird and refreshing at the same time because we used to play out all the time. It took us a while to get focused after the summer of 2007, but we got a new practice spot and have been working hard on writing new songs. We're the slowest songwriters ever, but things seem to have been picking up lately so it's looking good. As for myself, I've been working at my new job since early March, I sell jeans at the local Levi's Store here in Ghent. It's cool.
How do you cope when you’re not on tour? I know from conversation with you that a 9-5 job is not your ideal path in life and that you prefer to be on tour.
I definitely prefer to be on tour, but at the same time the reality of life is that you can't always do what you love the most. I definitely needed a job to be able to make ends meet and I also think having a life a little more structured and plain will do me good. Besides that I've been lucky enough to have been on some awesome tours the last few years, with and without Rise And Fall so I can't complain.
I remember reading that George from Blacklisted just focus’ on the shows when he is on tour to get by. What makes you enjoy being on the road so much?
I love the feeling of total freedom. Being able to hang with like minded people, exchanging ideas, talking nonsense or whatever. Immersing yourself in hardcore, the music and the movement... It's the best thing there is. I love George by the way.
How does touring in the States compare to Europe? I guess it’s a lot more gruelling with the longer drives?
I never really thought the drives were that much worse... Maybe because when you're in the States, you're in the States ya know... To me that is still such a thrill... I feel like Eddie Murphy in "Coming To America" half the time. Other than that it's a lot of fun... Seeing friends you don't see all that much, shopping and realizing that mostly everything is so much cheaper there, eating Mexican food and pizza every day, hitting In-N-Out Burger in California... I miss it dude.
R & F are currently writing material for your 3rd album, hows that going? Did you ever think R & F would make it to 3 full albums ?
No, I never thought we'd ever make it to 3 full lengths... It's pretty crazy, but we're not there yet though. Rise And Fall started out as a project Vince and me wanted to do with our friends Murph and F-Double and things just got out of hand I guess? We started to do better and better, got the chance to record some records and some awesome tours and a few years later here we are... So like I said earlier on, songwriting for the new album has been picking up as of late, Cedric's been coming up with some ill riffs. I have a lot of lyrics written too so hopefully we'll be able to demo some new songs soon... Maybe have the album out in early '09? We'll see.
Whats the differences between writing your upcoming record and, say, the split with PTTR? Do you feel under more pressure to write a flawless album?
Definitely. See, that split CDEP (I had almost forgotten the damn thing even existed!) featured 2 songs we'd recorded for two compilations at the time. One was released on a GSR comp and the other one was for a 7" that my man Hans put out for his H8000 Fest. Marco then asked us if we wanted to put those same songs out on a split EP as well so we were like "sure". That was that. Those were some of our first songs ever, so there was no pressure, no expectations or whatever. Just us having fun, trying to write some hard ass songs. Writing a third album though is a different beast all together... It is so much harder to please ourselves and I bet it'll be harder to please everyone else out there that likes the band as well, since "Into Oblivion" was very well received.
How do you feel R & F have progressed as a band over the years? Has it gone the way you wanted it to?
I think we've become more aware of our abilities and have also worked a lot harder than we ever did before in any of the bands we were in. We sacrificed a lot to make it as far as we could with Rise And Fall. Even though we've been through some rougher times I feel like we've also matured a lot as people and still have common goals we want to reach, such as writing a record that will blow "Into Oblivion" out of the water. Hopefully that'll pan out. Musically, Rise And Fall is the combination of what all four of us bring to the table, even if we don't all write riffs or music, our own backgrounds and preferences still shine through I think. If all 4 of us did another band on our own, I have no doubt that you'd end up with 4 bands that sound nothing alike. But the challenge is to come up with a bunch of songs that we all love and that sound like Rise And Fall. I feel like we've been doing pretty good at that so far...
With so many bands going for that darker, for want of a better description, Integrity influenced sound do you see this as a good thing? Do you feel R has influenced this?
I don't know if it is a good thing or not. I love Integrity. I love Ringworm. Those are both bands that have definitely influenced our sound, but at the same time I still feel like we have our own thing going. If we've managed to get some people into those bands than that is cool, but it takes a lot more than third rate Integrity riffs and some "evil" song titles to create a vibe that is truly dark and threathening. I'm not saying that we've mastered that art, far fromit... But I'm saying that is not even what we want to do, emulating Integrity or whomever else, that just seems boring and pointless to me... I just want to see bands that do their own thing, put their heart and soul into that and carry on regardless of what's thrown their way.
You have been around for a good many years now, what do you think about hardcore in the year 2008? How does it differ from when you first came around? How has it affected your life over the years?
It has affected my life on so many levels. Without hardcore I would not be the person that I am today. I would not have the friends I have and I would not know the things I know. I wouldn't even know about the Antidote 7"... Imagine that?!
Hardcore has definitely changed a lot since I have started going to shows in '95, it's always been a changing, evolving thing since the early 80's... Although a lot of the things that make hardcore hardcore have stayed the same, or close to the same, musically, visually and ideologically it has changed. It has become a lot broader I think, there's more subscenes and subgenres and sometimes it is hard to tell whether certain bands still are hardcore or not, because it is obviously more than just music. We could discuss this for days and still not come to a conclusion... At the end of the day though, I think hardcore is still in good shape, there's still a whole bunch of bands out there that do it for me, that inspire me and keep me excited... I couldn't ask for much more than that.
How’s hardcore in Belgium at the moment? Are all shows in the middle of nowhere like the last Justice show? Ha Ha
Hardcore in Belgium has been taking some serious blows the past few years, with Dead Stop, Justice and the Lintfabriek all breaking up and/or closing doors... So while shows might generally not be as well attended and/or crazy as a few years ago, it still is a lot better than some of the darker times in the early 00's. Bands like True Colors, Reproach, Vogue and Losing Streak are doing real well, while we also have Rhythm To The Madness coming on strong, The Reactionaries working hard and putting out an EP later this year and so on. Belgium has always been the centre of hardcore activity in Europe and I don't see that changing soon.
Who do you see breaking out and being the new big thing in European hardcore?
Dirty Money? What's up Graham and Dearlove?
I remember reading in your zine (correct me if iam wrong) you had an article about missing shows when you were younger for various reasons, has there been any recently you have been really pissed you missed?
You have a good memory my man. I did write something along those lines for Vince's zine called Where It Ends a while back... 2003 I think? Let me think about recent shows that I missed and I'm bummed on... Terror in Holland a few weeks ago. Gutter Twins in Brussels last friday. I'll be missing Witchcraft again in a few weeks because we have a show that day. There's gotta be more... It's frustrating!
Could you list your top 5 favourite shows? Doesn’t have to be ones R & F have played.
Such a hard question... I'll give it a shot though. These are all shows Rise And Fall did not play... Neurosis / Today Is The Day, Brussels '99... Madball, Lintfabriek '02... Dead Stop / Justice, most Lintfabriek shows... Life Of Agony, London '04... Congress, Deinze '95... I actually freak out on questions like these 'cause I've seen so many good shows and it's impossible to narrow them down to 5.
Ok so what’s your top 5 favourite things about life?
Right now: Free Levi's gear, MVC Keizershof + Apetown Ghent, my friends + girlfriend, blogging and Chucky Edge.
Mars Volta, worst band ever? They are certainly the worst live band I have ever had to sit through. (yeah I have been reading your blog, ha ha)
Don't even get me started on that band. It's not even that their music is that horrible, it's just the band as a whole.... The vibe, the live shows... Makes me sick.
I don’t wanna make this to long so any last words? You can give a shoutout to one person, who will it be?
Thanks a lot for the interview Billy. I love zines. Don't forget that Vengeance Of Gaia feature. Shout out to Geert Hollanders, CEO of Powered Records, buddies for life. Peace.
Bust
