Interview with Weekend Nachos

Yeah, quite old interview again. But at least this band still exists, they recently released a second full length called "Unforgivable". I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet, but I'll definetly check it out asap. And you should as well.

I discovered Weekend Nachos in an interview they did with SF&L Fanzine about, dunno, maybe even two years ago. A while after that I found their „Torture“ 7“ in a small record store, and that was (and is) some pretty heavy and brutal piece of vinyl. And then again, months later, WN released a LP, so I ordered that one, too, and it was even better than the 7“, really heavy music, with lots of different influences ranging from bands like No Comment to bands like Iron Monkey to bands like Godflesh, so you know that this IS heavy and awesome. In addition to that, John is a very cool dude, so get into Weekend Nachos!

I'm not sure about the "who's doing what" thing in Weekend Nachos, on the insert of the Torture EP it seems like Weekend Nachos is a four piece band (Andy, Inverted, John C., Ronaldo), on the new LP it looks like there are only two permanent members in the band, Aaron and you, and Andy „just“ did all the recording and mastering. So if you could put that in its correct light, who's in the band for how long, who is Weekend Nachos?

Weekend Nachos right now is me (John) on vocals, Aaron on guitar, and Varg on bass. the original lineup was Andy on guitar, Ron on bass, and Adam on drums. Over time, Andy quit and Aaron replaced him on guitar... this was quite a while ago. About a year ago, Ron and Adam got kicked out for reasons that aren't important, and we got fill-ins for a while. Varg eventually became the permanent bass player and to this day, we still don't have a real drummer... probably never will! Aaron and I recorded all of the music for the LP, at the time we were really the only people in the band.

Since you wrote a song about Steven Blush and American Hardcore, did you even watch the movie? What do you think about it?

I watched it recently actually. It was alright, not enough of the more obscure bands were covered. I was hoping to see awesome coverage of Urban Waste, Verbal Abuse, Necros, Whipping Boy, Fang, Deep Wound, and pretty much all of the lesser known bands that made up the time period. I felt like the bands covered we're great bands and the movie wasn't bad... but let's face it, any mall punk can get into Bad Religion, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, etc. speaking of mall punk, there DEFINTIELY was not enough Dead Kennedy's talked about in the movie, which I found very strange considering it's pretty much the entire book. One strong point about the movie was that they had a decently long NYHC section in it. The bullshit "old man" attitude reflected in the book was not as apparent in the movie, which I liked. Keith Morris and H.R. interviews were great!

Yeah I also was hoping to get some more rare live shots from Siege and Deep Wound or The Fix, and I found it pretty irritating that there wasn't anything about the Misfits as well, I mean it's like one fifth of the book. What do you think about all those bands from those days playing shows again, like the Adolescents or the Circle Jerks, or even touring like the Bad Brains (not to mention the "Cro-Mags" Europe tour last summer)? Here in Germany and Europe we're like witnessing reunion tours like every 3 weeks (nah, nearly...) and somehow I just don't get the point... are 20 bucks of entrance really necessary? I don't know.

I agree it's pretty dumb, especially since the money's really not going to anyone except the band... It's like, you play shows the first time around and you don't make a dime... then you break up for 15-20 years and make a SHITLOAD of money on ONE reunion tour. Lame! I love all of those bands you mentioned especially the Cro Mags but yeah 99% of the time I don't even give a fuck about seeing a bunch of old dudes playing songs they wrote when they were 17. Just kinda kills the vibe.

Many of your songs seem to have a quite strong influence from sludge core bands like Eyehategod for example, and there is even a song called „Sludge“, would you say you're influenced by bands of that kind?

I'd say they is an influence, for sure. That's one of the things I wanted to originally emphasize when I began writing songs for our demo, just adding a good amount of dirty, heavy sludge parts to the mix. A lot of bands are influenced by metal and end up sounding pretty hard but people forget about bands like Eyehategod and Grief... nothing rules more than a brutal sludge part at the end of a really fast song!!! Crowbar has definitely been influencing some of the newer songs I've been coming up with that haven't been released yet... I'm going for a Nirvana "Bleach" era meets Crowbar meets Bastard meets Tragedy meets Hatebreed kinda thing for our next LP.

Quite a lot of lyrics of your songs deal with violence, violence you wish to practice towards people that surround you, would you say that violence is something like the last option that is left in certain situations?

It's the last and most unrealistic option in my mind. If you asked me if I truly wanted to be violent, and truly wanted to hurt people, the answer would be yes. I've got a real desire to end people's lives and make them feel pain, always have, just something that I've felt inside since I was a little kid... this is the point where I should say that writing songs and playing them live is a healthy way for me to release that negative energy. My inner feelings do match up with my lyrics... but my actions, and intentions, do not. Music is the only way to survive. And even music barely helps, but at least it's something.

In an interview you did with Short, Fast & Loud zine you discussed about how the style of hardcore you play became a little bit more popular lately; also your song „Trapped in a scene“ deals with that topic. Since the interview and the writing process of the record was done a while before, I'd like to know how you think about this now. Would you still say that powerviolence (if we name it like this) gained more popularity over the last months/years? And if so, would you still say it sucks or would you say it's cool that kids discover that sub genre of hardcore?

Begin rant. The powerviolence trend is fortunately on the downswing now, and I'm less annoyed by it these days because it's just not happening as often as it was around the time of that interview. My feelings have not changed... powerviolence is one of those terms that will never stop annoying me. People are desperate to fit in, to find something new to cling on to, this will not change. It's up to us to weed out the people who feel the need to classify us as well as themselves into sub-genres that are simply a "word of the week" for whatever's cool at the time. That's all powerviolence is and it's all it will ever be. A lot of people hear me say this and they say "well, you're playing that style...what are you, "above it" or something? hypocrite." And you know what, those people don't know what they're talking about. I started our band in 2004 when this music barely existed anymore... sure, there's always gonna be bands doing everything at some point, but I'll be damned if I'm going to admit to "hopping on a trend" when in reality, we beat the trend by about almost a year. I'm not saying we "brought it back" but we definitely pre-dated the powerviolence resurgence, and never claimed to ever want to be a part of it in the first place! End rant.

Last question about a certain lyrics, about what band is the song „Mocked“? When I read the lyrics Bones Brigade came to my mind, but then I thought it can not be about that dudes, because they actually do skate a lot, so about which band is that song?

Have you ever been to a show and seen kids skateboarding out front... and they're fucking TERRIBLE? Like, seriously, can't land a single trick, just riding around, actually most of the time they aren't even skating, they're just HOLDING their skateboards... there's a reason for that, and it is because SKATEBOADING HAS BECOME NOTHING MORE THAN A BULLSHIT FASHION STATEMENT TO HELP SELL RECORDS AND MAKE BANDS LOOK LIKE "COOL DUDES". I will stand by this statement til the end of time. Cool, you're into skateboarding... then if this is your whole life, drop the mic, drop the guitar, get off the drums, and go fucking skate. You write lyrics about how you hate yourself when you're not skateboarding... then break up and skate all day and stop writing songs that I can't relate to. I guess I just do not fucking buy it. The reason these kids can't skate is because the only time they ever DO is at a show where they know people can see it. Don't even get me started on people who just bring their boards to a show as an accessory... cool, where's your flannel and your bandana? Don't you need those accessories too? Fuck ANYONE who defines themself based only on fashion.

What is more important to you when it comes down to music: the music, the lyrics or the (baaaad word) lifestyle of the people in the band and how they refelct that with their music?

All that matters to me is if you're sincere about what you're doing. Seriously, freedom of speech is an interesting thing... you can have lyrics about bogus shit that I disagree with and be a total fucking asshole but if you're doing your own thing and releasing pure energy from inside of you, I can at least respect it in that sense, regardless of your message or your image or anything else. It's not about what music you play, what lyrics you have, and what lifestyle you live. If it's who you are, sure I might not LIKE it or even SUPPORT it (i.e. a racist band or something) but if it's truly coming from inside you, that's what all forms of art in general are about... releasing yourself and attacking the world with who you really are, and not being afraid to piss people off and show them how you feel about shit. Add hatred to the mix as well as being really fucked up and confused and never wanting to be a part of society and you get what I consider "Hardcore".

Do Weekend Nachos tour a lot? What was the best and the most fucked up thing that happened to you while touring? Do you have certain rules while in you're in the van, like nobody's supposed to wake somebody up who's sleeping or something or is a Weekend Nachos tour a complete mess?

Hahaha, we don't tour very much at all! We actually did a real tour for the first time over the summer... it was really awesome. There aren't really any fucked up stories that come to mind... we played a house show in Santa Cruz and during another band's set, someone jumped off of a trampoline from outside INTO the living room where the band was playing, THROUGH the window (which was half-closed), THROUGH the glass, and punched Chris in the face upon his entry into the living room, knocking him out. I looked over and saw Chris falling over, completely passing the fuck out from the punch. It was amazing. There aren't really any rules in the van... but I seem to be the only person who gets REALLY mad if someone farts in the van. It's disgusting, I say hold it in until we stop, show some courtesy.

That window guy, he didn't hurt himself? What an amazing action hahaha.

I hope he did! A lot of people got hurt at that show actually, our friends from California have this thing where they crush beer cans on each others heads. Myself and a bunch of others were definitely bringing the "hate mosh" at that show too, it was pretty good. Matt Rolland, our roadie at the time, went into another room and brought their COUCH into the room where the show was and threw it on top of the crowd. I was wearing an American flag headband and an Oakland Raiders jersey (which wasn't even mine, fuck sports) and rolled up sweatpants... weird crazy night.

Are there any more cool bands one should check out from your hometown? Do you know any actual bands from Germany?

There are a bunch of great bands from the U.S., where do I begin? I don't want to name a bunch of bands and leave anyone out, so I guess I'll just namedrop our good friends SICK FIX from Baltimore, Maryland, and IN DISGUST from San Jose, California, both of those bands are fucking great and should be checked out and supported immediately. As for overseas, I know of a lot of bands from Europe... I always forget what countries they are specifically from. Were Mainstrike and Eyeball from Germany? I like a lot of the Crucial Response Straight Edge bands, and I like Cold War a lot, they're from Germany I'm almost positive. not sure about bands from Germany but I love Selfish, D.S. 13, Wolfbrigade, E.T.A., you know, a lot of European bands but not necessarily Germany.

Yeah Eyeball were from Germany, Mainstrike from the Netherlands. Cold War are from Berlin, Germany, 100 points for you!

Haha, awesome, yeah Mainstrike were a great great band, I wish I had gotten to see them when they toured the states.

What are you into besides Weekend Nachos? Are you still attending school or college or working?

Na, to be honest Hardcore is all I give a fuck about. I have a dumb job that I go to so I can survive and eat and all that... but school can suck it, and so can work, but I got no choice there. I like to watch movies and listen to records and occasionally just sit around and laugh about retarded stuff with friends of mine, but writing songs, releasing records, playing shows, going to shows, etc. is the only thing I know how to do.

So this year isn't that long anymore, what's your favourite movie, record and show from 2007?

Fuck, favorite movie, I have no idea! I haven't really seen any that I liked all that much, but 300 came out in 2007, right? That movie was fucking incredible... definitely the best movie of 2007 if I had to name one. Might be the hardest movie ever made, actually. Records and shows... shit, my brain hurts from thinking about this, uhmm I recently saw an instrumental band from Japan play with High On Fire in Chicago, they were called MONO and they completely blew me away, it was not only the best set I've seen in 2007 but one of the best I've ever seen... words couldn't describe it. Check em out if you've got an open mind, they were fucking LOUD and intense, too! Best record would probably go to either the Sick Fix 7" or the Coke Bust 7", both on Third Party Records.

So, last question, it's for a survey I'm doing, what's the best place to read a printzine? If you want to give any shout outs or something, do so! Thanks a dozen this worked out!

Honestly, the best zine around is by a friend of mine named Matt Rolland, he does a zine called MINDLESS MUTANT and he really works hard at it and makes it look damn good. Hands down, best zine around. It really bothers me when people talk about how great MRR is and how it's such a wonerful thing... sure, it's the best distributed underground music zine in the world but so what?!!?? That doesn't mean shit. Of course there are good things someone can get out of a zine like MRR but you have to realize that it DOESN'T represent what's really going on out there AT ALL. It's just a representation of what the current state of the scene wants to see and thinks is cool, and who is anyone to decide that? You all need to find out what's going on in your town and check it out. Don't resort to a bunch of people telling you what to think and how to feel, which is essentially what Hardcore turns into when you have something like MRR dominating the way we view zines. And it's not MRR's fault either... it's ours. Seek out what kids in your scene are really doing, and do it for yourself as well.


Weekend Nachos on myspace.com

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