Tim Hackemack - HIT THE STAGE

Jack: We’re definitely not a night liner band. But we’ve already gotten lots of abuse about being sell-outs. They even called us a boy band.

Sid: Some say now that we just wanna be a copy of Rancid , because Tim Armstrong co-wrote a few songs on the new album. But in the end, those are all our songs, Tim just helped us out. Everything on this album was done the way we wanted it. Nothing changed from how we did the last album.

What’s the most important thing for you to have on tour?

Sid: Tea, British tea.

Jack: Nobody seems to know how to make it right besides us apparently.

Sid: Add sugar and milk and that’s it.

So, you have to bring it along?

Sid: Yes, but in many places, especially the USA, they don’t have kettles and we can’t make it.

Jack: We’re rock’n’roll, aren’t we? What we need on tour is tea and a good night’s sleep.

What’s the worst experience you have had on tour so far?

Sid: Being in a police chase in Greece was the worst and funniest experience so far. The promoter for the show had two bars. We went into one of the bars to have a drink and then head into the hotel. But then we saw him doing shots of whisky and he was supposed to drive us. He said it was alright and since we were pretty hammered as well, we didn’t make him stop. He stumbled into the car, pulls out of the car park and instantly hits a taxi. He was trying to drive away, but people tried to stop him. What made matters worse was that on the other side of the street were two police cars. He eventually got away and the police immediately followed him. He took ages to pull over and when he got arrested he gave us 20 euros and said: “Thanks for coming.” That was the last time we saw him. We don’t know what happened. But that show was one of the best we’ve ever played.

Jack: The worst experience financially was one time in Germany when we missed the bus call for the airport and decided to take a taxi. The thing was I set an alarm on my phone, but had to charge it in the bathroom and didn’t hear it in the morning. We missed the bus call by about four hours. The airport was hours away, but we still decided to take a taxi, which cost us about 650 Euro. Luckily, we had enough money, but of course it would have made a lot more sense to just book another flight from another airport.

Sid: That was the worst decision we ever made.

Are you thinking of getting a management involved?

Jack: Right now, we are semi-managed by Lars Frederiksen. It’s not like a fulltime thing, but he gives us advice and helps us get gigs here and there.

Sid: He’s our guardian angel. But we still manage ourselves and make the decisions.

What do you do if you have a disagreement in the band?

Jack: It’s a group thing. We decide it all together democratically and we’ve never had any strong disagreements. We all come to a good conclusion in the end.

Sid: If you’re in a band that tours a lot you get to know each other really well and you learn that you have to give each other space.

Jack: If that’s possible. We sleep so weird sometimes on the road and many times you have to share a bed and so sometimes I wake up spooning Sid or he is spooning me. In the end we work together for a common goal and we grew up together, that helps.

Do you consider yourself a political band?

Sid: No, I think politics kills it. I would never be able to write a song with just a few lines and describe the reality with it. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t condemn racism or sexism, that’s just general morals and we don’t need to mention it. A picture of the band should answer those questions.

Did you ever get accused of being racist?

Sid: Not really, I guess at one time we were on a list of so-called grey zone bands in Germany, but that’s it. But I guess you can be easily tricked into something like that. One time after a concert a guy came up to me and asked for a photo. I agreed and he opened his jacket but turned away from me. I took a closer look and the guy was wearing a Skrewdriver T-Shirt. That would have been so easy to miss.

What did you do?

Sid: I clocked it before they could take pictures. What a bastard.

If you look at your experiences, where do you prefer to tour, the USA or Europe?

Jack: We enjoy it both immensely, but there are differences. When it comes to hospitality, Europe is far better, and right now, we also get bigger crowds over here.

Sid: But that might be because we’re a fairly new band in the US. Break the routine has only recently been released over there. We still played a lot of good shows over there to a fair amount of people.

Are there any places you wanna go?

Jack: Yes, we’d like to go to Japan, but it hasn’t worked out so far.

Sid: And South America, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil. We hope it will be possible in the future.

Wie viele shows pro Jahr spielt ihr durchschnittlich?

Das ist schwer zu sagen, in manchen Jahren waren es etwa 75 Shows. Ein Jahr haben wir dreimal in Europa getourt, es war großartig!