The combination of Pink and France wake up prejudices in simple minds! It would be funny to hear some prejudices from the France side against germs!
Let me think. French people think Germans always drink beer and after that when they are drunk they put on their Lederhosen and start to dance sitting on a chair while they sing hailihailo! All Germans eat sausages in their BMW cars while they try to forget the two world wars they caused. Oktoberfest is the definition of the legendary German sense of humor. Come on, what can you think about a people who gave Derrick and Nina Hagen to humanity? Beat on the Bratwurst!The whole world like it French! What are your favorite practices?
“J’aime mes saucisses avec du camembert s’il vous plait.», « Mon dieu, où est papa schultz ?». The first was « I love my sausages with camembert » the second « Mein Gott, wo ist Papa Schultz ? ». “Tout art est forcément politique” means: “Ich liebe mein Frühstück.”Normally France is well known for good kitchen and the haute couture! When I saw your LP Cover the first time, it makes me almost blind. Tight stretching trousers and stripped cravats. Tell the truth! It’s your master plan to ruin the good call of your country in the fashionable world?
We dress in a way we love. We hate the haute couture stuff. Jean Paul Gauthier is a piece of shit, so is Pierre Cardin. Only a little German punk can think the French punks dress in Yves Saint Laurent. On our next album we got a song called “fashion is crime”. What do you think we care about the good call of France? France sucks.I wonder about the short time you climb up nearly into the international Punk Rock heaven. First gig before two years. Now four records with fantastic reviews and uncounted gigs later. Are you surprised? What do you await could be happen more?
We started the Hatepinks right after the end of my band, The Gasolheads. It was helpful to use the contacts we made with Gasolheads, but we never though about putting out an album, or doing an European tour only 6 months after we began practicing. We don’t care. We only want to do short, angry and funny songs, to play in good places and to record our shit for cool labels. The only think we would love to do besides that is to play in the United states. Just to see how things happen in the country of those stupid Hamburger eaters.To get you a little bit closer. Please tell us a short band history, who’s in the band, how long and old and facts like that? That question isn’t very witty but I guess it’s your first interview with a German zine, so it’s the duty before the free exercise!
Huggie Von Pinkbird play the guitar, he is 32 and work as a sound engineer in a studio for boring contemporary music. Colonel Nass Le Pink is 29, he plays the bass, he is a doctor, he studies Arab History. Rémy Der Pinkbeat is 30, jobless, he makes a living by buying vintage guitars on Internet and selling them at double price to poor little rich rockers. He really doesn’t care much about anything. He is a drummer. I’m Olivier Gasoil, 32 years old, singer, I work in a public library.I guess the HATE PINKS are in love with real `77 underground Punk Bands. How do you discover that sound for yourself? Don’t you think it is too boring to play that old style today and how are the reactions of the audience?
Huggie and Rémi were playing together in Dollybird, a power-pop band, in a Jam/The Beat/Kinks kind of way, I was playing in the Gasolheads, which were a 77-garage-turkish band, and Nass was doing the Plastic Congelators, a very primitive band, something nearly the Gories. The Hatepinks are a mix of all those influences. No it’s not boring at all to do that stuff, this music is the only music which combine the anger with the melodies, you can also add some humor, in a Dickies/Angry Samoans/Ramones way. The audience is not something we really care about, but they seem to enjoy what we do when we play.What do you think about the new wave of `77 Punk Bands which are flow over now?
It’s like every wave or fashion , you got good bands and you got mediocre bands. It becomes boring to see tons of bands with silly sunglasses, dressed like Elvis Costello or Captain Sensible, spiky hairs and keyboards instead of crispy guitars. But at least it’s funny. Way funnier than skate core or new metal. The Spits are better than NOFX, the distraction are better than Offsprings, better the Briefs than a new ska band. Exploding Hearts, The Shocks, Motras, The Stitches, The Minds, Melted Men… it goes on. All good bands. It’s funny, fresh and catchy. And it’s still punk, with energy and anger. Fashion is crime, ok, but boredom is a bigger crime. I’m a gimmick and New Wave Punque is Fuquing shit!The pix and the flick on your website show you as real experienced live band. Could you tell the awkward thing happened you on stage? Do you strike the skins and tones with your sun glasses on?
Once in Austria, we were ready to play, the audience was there in front of the stage, staring at us, I was almost like “Go! We are Le hatepinks baby, We hate your world yeah baby! 1-2-3-4!”. Suddenly Huggie look at me and say “One second I have Diarrhea! I have to go to shit!”. So we had to wait for Huggie to finish his thing while people yelled “What are you waiting for?! Lazy cunts!”. They did not understand. I should have tell them what was happening. Poor Huggie! Yes Rémi der Pinkbeat and I never leave our sunglasses.Why you compare yourself with a parasite like the tapeworm? Do you like the thought to crawl up into others assholes and guts? It’s a little bit pervert, isn’t it?
I was only thinking about your asshole, not your guts. The perversion is a view of the mind. It’s an allegory: we are parasites, we don’t care about you. We are the tapeworm up your ass. It’s not funny. It’s a social song. Our next album will be named “Kartofel Destroy” and it will be very social.In other songs you want others to smack your silver badge, want to sniff glass and your friends are assholes. What’s going on with your relation to the human race, your friends and yourself?
Ok the thing with the silver badge: it’s a song about a sexy cop who wants to fuck you instead of beating you up. Its’ another social song. Sniffin glass: again it’s an allegory: I want fucking speed! Amphetamines are so hard to get nowadays. And my friends are really assholes, but they think the same about me. My relations with myself are ok, thank you. You really love the Human race? The state of the world today makes you want to dance around with flowers in the hair? Are you some kind of fagot Buddhist or what?When I think about the German and French punk scenes, I guess it’s almost like the connection between our countries in general. Reserved! Could you describe the present situation in the France punk scene, please?
We always had a good relationship with the German scene: our booker is German, Heartbreak booking, we toured with The Motras and the Shoemakers… The scene in France is good. Great bands like Neurotic Swingers, The Zoomen, Jerry Spider Gang, The Magnetix, Cowboys from Outerspace, Anteenagers, The Fatals… and a lot of new bands are emerging. Good labels: Lollipop, Reflex-o-Matic Vibrator Records, Yakisakana… but Germany is way better when you come around places to play and fanzines, in France we don’t have that much of good fanzines, Dig It!, Larsen zine, SDZ… not that much…After France and Germanys peace alliance the connections get more and more friendly What’s your opinion about Islamic radicals and the anti terror war?
Our opinion about whaaaat? Ok, here is our opinion: the American government is pure shit. Dangerous shit, with a fascist project for the whole world. Americans should start a revolution. Islamic radicals: it’s exactly the same. Arabs should start a popular revolution too. Why can’t all those people dress in pink, wear black skinny jeans with white plastic sunglasses? They could dance the pogo in a funny way and they could listen to the Damned. They could sniff good drugs. I think our project for the world is way better.I don’t want to be shameless, but it seems the HATEPINKS are no twins anymore. From where you get the motivation to tour through small clubs and play Punk Rock instead of getting a serious job and earn to less money?
We all have serious jobs. Only Rémi can afford not to work, because his parent are very rich and he doesn’t feel ashamed to ask his father 20 euros to eat his daily pizza. Punk rock is not a job. We never wanted to make money out of it. It’s only a way to affirm our identity and to expose our ego. It’s also the best way to tell the world you hate it.Was it an advantage to be mixed and produced by your own band member Huggie von Pinkbird?
It’s free, it’s good and it’s pleasant. He produced a lot of good records. He is very good at it.Your seventies Punk sound is really authentic. Do you use special equipment to get it?
Woaw! What a boring question! Yes we have special equipment : a vintage Gretsch guitar from the Fifties, an old Gretsh drum kit and we records on an old 8 tracks analog recorder. And after that we use computers to the mix.Any idea why you cover Bad Brains –red bone in the city-? Because they are more Hardcore than the Pagans and the Plastic Congelators you covered on “Sehr gut Rock`n`Roll”!
We were always big fan of the Bad Brains. Their later Reggae/hardcore stuff is maybe not as good as the real punrock sound they offered at the beginning. “Redbone in the city” is an old song, not to be found on the albums, you can find it on the “Black dots” record, which is a recording of an early Bad Brains rehearsal. We also covered the Swell Maps on our split single with The Distraction. We tried to cover a song from the German band PVC, but we failed. It sounded bad. Our next album will include “Catman”, a Gene Vincent cover.I read that you plan to go on your second Germany tour. Do you like to play in Germany? With how many shows do you count?
Yes we love to play in Germany. This February tour will be 10 days long. And it’s planned to com back later next year.
