Hey! Today I am excited to bring you an interview with an amazing heavy hardcore band from Germany. This band is no other than Blood by Days and I strongly recommend you check 'em out. They can bring both the mosh and those catchy choruses that stick to your head, as well as some bad ass rap that will have you jumping up and down in no time. Their amazing new album is called As Thick as Thieves and it is out NOW! Get into it!
1. Hey Mo! Thanks a lot for this interview. Please introduce the band to TxYxS
readers. What have you done so far and what is the reason behind
creating Blood By Days? Hey dude, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Well, we are just a couple of guys from Siegen/Germany who back in 2003 started this band to play some straight up Hardcore. We are friends for a long time and we just wanted to write music, to play shows and to have a good time. We did a lot of shows, some demos and EP’s throughout the years and now we finally managed to set up a full length record.
2. How do you describe your sound? I sense a little bit of progression (within hardcore parameters of course) from the last stuff. Is that correct?
Yeah, I think so. We really focused on the songwriting this time. There are a lot more details in the songs. We tried some experiments and I think our sound has a lot more facets than on the older releases. It’s still Hardcore after all, that’s the foundation. But we mixed in a lot of Rap, Metal and a lot of catchy melodies.
3. What type of music do you listen at home? I mean hardcore and non-hardcore.. I hear some hip hop, some rock n roll in your sound.. and of course a lot of beatdown! Tell us about your influences.
Personally I listen to a lot of old Metal and Punk-Rock, 80’s and 90’s Hardcore, Sludge, Rap… everything. Everyone in BBD has got his favourites but musically we are a really open-minded band. We don’t try to cage ourselves in the Hardcore genre. Of course, this scene and this music is where we are based, where we have friends and we feel a strong connection to that culture. But we try to mix in all the influences we have. We don’t want to be a stereotype band with a stereotype sound.
4. What is the BBD crew? Don't you think that hardcore used to be a lot more about crews and brotherhood? Are HC crews still alive in Germany and what has changed since the old days?
Actually there really is no such thing as a “BBD Crew” haha. If we talk about this we just mean all our close friends, all the dudes we hang out with at shows and everyone who supports us. I think there still are a lot of crews today. Two of us are part of the BTL Crew, for example. I am not a crew member at all, but I really respect that whole “crew thing” here in Germany. It’s good to see that those guys team up and try to keep the scene alive. I can’t really tell if it’s different from the past. I have a lot of friends and dedicated guys here and I see a lot of ignorant and dumb people – no matter if they are crew members or not.
5. I will ask this because I heard some rapping on your record. Germany seems to have a lot of really badass hip hop, with some rappers looking like hardcore kids wearing hardcore bands' t shirts. Can you let us know more about the hardcore-rap scenes affiliation?
I’m not really connected to that whole HipHop thing and Blood By Days in general is just a Hardcore band and we don’t have any HipHop roots or something like that. I like Rap music, of course. But I’ve always been a straight up Hardcore, Metal and Punk kid. At some point we started to mix a lot of Rap into our sound and it became some kind of trademark. That’s all. And depending all that Hardcore/HipHop crossover stuff in Germany: I think a lot of it really sucks. I won’t drop any names and that’s just my opinion. I just don’t like that whole gangster-rap attitude in Hardcore. I think it's difficult for people outside Germany to understand the difference, because they don't understand the german lyrics. And some acts only have those crappy and fake gangster lyrics about beating up people and shit. No meaning, no passion. We always mixed in Rap vocals, but we always tried to have a message! I love to see when people try to mix different influences, but I hate to see, when they do it with no heart and just because it’s some kind of trend.
The title stands for being close to each other. As a band, as friends, as a scene, however you wanna see it. We thought this was a good choice for an album title. The lyrics on the record are very personal. They are about friendship, about relations in general, about passion, loss, fear, hope, anger - about the things we love and the things we hate. After all the message is about not losing sight, holding on to the people you love and about self reflection. Some of the lyrics on this album really mean a lot to me.
7. How has hardcore shaped your life? Do you think you will be still involved in 10 years' time?
For about 11 years this music and scene is an important part of my life. I met a lot of close friends throughout the years because of Hardcore. I still love going to shows, I still do shows with a friend of mine and I love to be on the road with the guys. There are so much memories connected to this scene. And I know that some things will change, I won’t visit as many shows as I do today, we won’t play with Blood By Days forever.. But this whole thing is dear to my heart and I’m pretty certain not to turn my back on it.
8. What do you think is fake about hardcore 2013? What would you like to see change?
There are a lot of kids who just pretend to be into it because Hardcore became some kind of trend. But every scene has these “problems”. As I said before, there are ignorant and fake people and there are dedicated people, this won’t change. All we can do is support real bands, real bookers, real labels and everyone who is really into it.
9. How are you promoting the new album? Do you have any plans for 2013 with BBD?
Of course, we try to do a lot of interviews and to promote the CD on blogs and zines. We also will be playing shows – maybe even a tour, we’ll see!
10. Any good bands we should check out, or other good stuff you're into and want to share with the world?
Check out our brothers in Ablaze & Reborn To Conquer if you’re into blackened Hardcore/Metal and if someone does not know Siegen’s infamous Embraced By Hatred, go check them out, too. There are a lot of cool bands today, just keep your eyes open!
11. OK, that's all for now! Thanks for making a killer album with tons of attitude! Give the people who read this a good reason to check out BdD and close the interview in any way you want.
Thanks for the interview and thanks for the nice words, man! Good luck with your zine! Everyone who is interested in how BBD sounds today check out YouTube for songs from the “As Thick As Thieves” album, visit www.bloodbydays.bandcamp.com and give us a like on www.facebook.com/bloodbydays . Last words?! Go to as many shows as possible, support both your local scene and other bands, be open minded to other styles of music, be passionate and dedicated about this scene and don’t tolerate fake and ignorant people or fascism in any way!
