Interview with Christoph of No Escape Records and Roskopp

Tell us a bit about yourself? What bands do you currently play in?

I have been doing No Escape Records for 6 or 7 years, I'm helping out with Dave who was doing it for 2-3 years before that, I play in Roskopp, been doing that for about 8 years, as well as Doubled Over, Trench Systems, Sun of Dad in NZ whenever either of us are in the country, all bands are either hardcore and grindcore, and a bit of metallic hardcore.

Can you remember the first grind gig you went to?

My 1st grind was most probably Fallout and Heads Kick Off back in 98, used to go to a lot of all ages hardcore shows, including bands like Warsore, Open Wound in 98, Fuck... I’m Dead and The Kill started out a bit after that, Blood Duster and Damaged in the mid 90’s.

What got your first excited about grindcore?

Listened to death metal early on, Damaged is similar to death metal. I used to go to heaps of Mindsnare all ages shows and moved on from that, lots of crust and grind.

What are some of the standout pieces of grindcore you’ve heard coming up through the ranks in the last couple of years?

Super Fun Happy Slide are the most exciting, always put out good records, new songs are great, they produce a good balance of ripping off Napalm Death and Regurgitate, they are true grind without being generic, and now with The Kill coming back, Captain Cleanoff and Fuck... I'm Dead are sick as well as Now You're Fucked from Tasmania.

Have Now Your Fucked come over to play on the mainland?

Now You're Fucked played over a year ago on the mainlaind, and hopefully they will play Grindcore fest this year.

How is Grindcore fest going this year?

I forgot about it for too long last year, this year I want to bring an overseas band and build it up, I want to bring Machetezo over but I don't have enough money at the moment, hopefully late this year or early next year, I have worked with them closely in the label. Things have gotten a bit quiet lately. The tours coming through has delayed things. The Corner Hotel loved Grindcore fest last year we had a 350-400 turnout and they were really happy with that, no bar fights and all great fun.

With the latest closure of Melbourne music pubs, how is this affecting the grind scene in Melbourne?

The closing pubs has caused a bit of a problem for Grindcore, The Green Room going, making things rough, we still have The Pony. But when trying to put on a predominately Grindcore bill things get tough, venues need to bring in more crowds and venues would only book out with bigger bands as there is less venues to go round for all the bands. It has become tricky to convince venues that need to pull numbers.

We need to bring in more all ages shows, in the Grindcore scene everyone's getting older and people are fading away slowly over time which seems to happen every 5 or so years, its is a cycle things go through, things wind down and come back back up. People get over coming day and day again to see the same bands, although they are great bands it can become quite stale but i am positive it will pick up again.

Hardcore is a growing scene and young aged scene, it is at the moment very all ages focused which is awesome in its own way, and we should make that same effort, it seems like in the hardcore community money flows more freely round between hands, they are more organised with all ages shows, put on shows kids can get to, we should take a leaf from their book. Saying that some grind bands are getting on these shows and getting a great following, Pathetic Human always play all ages shows, and are getting good following, Agents of Abhorrence are a great band that do this also.

What countries do you think unleash the best grind bands in the world?

Australia – I believe that Australia higher overall standard than many overseas countries, it seems like every song put out in Australia has a lot more thought put into it. Not as many bands but a higher standard, more variation and creativity flows in Australia.

Japan – pump out too much stuff, a lot of it is awesome but a lot of it can be much filler as well.

Sweden - Have some great bands

America - In the 90’s America seemed to have some awesome rough heavy Grindcore, bands started to spring up, California and Texas bringing out some great shit but i am not too sure about the rest of the country.

Holland actually have a good scene going at the moment, riffy sludgy grind. Bands like Bile and Last Days of Humanity.

Lachlan: Hey baby, do you like jazz/grind?

Jazz grind – Generally I like my music heavy the whole time through, but I do appreciate other styles of grind from a creative standpoint. Don’t really listen to it.

Hows the new Beyond Terror Beyond Grace album! Do you dig?

Beyond Terror boys are great – I like it, it is full on and sonically brutal, they have done some great stuff and I look forward to more.

One final note, would you like to plug anything coming up?
Lachlan: When is Roskopp coming up to Sydney?

Roskopp, well the album is album finishing up very soon, the CD will be out through No Escape Records in Australia, vinyl will be out on Floodgate Control in Europe + US distribution also, it should be done the first half of this year. Split with Hymen Holocaust coming up as well which i am very excited about. And just some demoing with other bands.

Sydney, well we have been talking and Ben wants to come up in April. A member of Roskopp has been overseas for 5 months halting a lot of things but now he is back so March and April are looking really promising.

Thanks a lot for the interview man, your support of the Australian grind scene is very much appreciated.

http://www.noescaperecords.com/