DISKULTUR BOOKING

Text taken from GRÜST #3 zine, published on 06.2023.

GUYS CHILL WE COOL… 

TURBOHOBO the vocalist here, telling you the story!

BROKEN ENGLISH FOR BROKEN TOURISTS

You’re holding a punk zine in your hands. Probably used to roll a joint. Check for leftovers!!! You never know.

This one’s called GRÜST. Kinda like CRUST but with a G. It means PUSH!!! Push the scene. Inspire youth to make communities, activism, create zines and music with ideology. You know, pushing them to care!!! And I’m so desperate I decided to write this one in English. The international internet language.

In the last 5 years the Riga scene has been reborn. It’s been years, man! Last time something like that happened was in the 2000s/10s. Jerked chain: if you ask me. Youth has no one to look up to. No idols. No metal dudes in their 40s wearing leather jackets with a WOLFBRIGADE backpatch, questioning themselves if the NO FUTURE they soo riot against has actually arrived. 

Damn it’s a foggy Wednesday night…

So the scene before the last wave and this wave was really calm, almost not existing. Punks got married, moved to a better paying country, started to play post-metal or switched to the STURM scene (our local industrials). And the ones that stayed didn’t evolve along with the scene. Because there was no scene!!! …Well you got the idea. Nowadays the older guys naively believe that they can keep the scene like it was in the old days. Like it was when humanity didn’t try to accept each other as much as they do now. At least in Europe. 

And so here’s something we did to inspire youth that they can step up and change something. We organized something revolutionary – first Latvian Queer Punk fest! In Eastern Europe… ex-USSR country. Yeah… We are the first European country with a gay president, tho! So in your face Western Europe! 

In a week-long festival we led lectures about safe sex, sexperiments and sex traumas. During the second part of the week we held a queer patch workshop with a beautiful acoustic concert in the background. We also organized two punk shows with female fronted / queer bands. They were packed! Even the police paid a visit. Busted 3 underaged kids for public drinking. Luckily we stopped them from coming inside. Backstage was used as a joint factory. And weed in Latvia is as illegal as heroin or meth or whatever. Anyway, for 11 grams you risk 7 years in prison. I actually was once caught with that amount. Cycled to a pagan metal festival 60km outside of Riga with a full bag of weed. Had those small plastic pockets and scales with me. To sell obviously.  When I noticed that they had cops with dogs patrolling at the festival’s camp side I rushed to the backstage area to give my bag to a friend and act a fool. While I was waiting I got surrounded by 10 pigs and their snitching paw patrol. Got escorted straight to the cops van with my hands locked behind my back and a taser pointing to my waist. “If you try anything funny I’ll shoot!” God damnit. It’s fucking weed you morons. I came up with a story that I’m a bartender and a customer that knows me (but I don’t know him because obviously I don’t know all customer’s names) sold me weed. A little lie to not bust my dealer or anyone actually. Cops didn’t believe me because I had pockets and scales with me. “Well… I carry scales around so I know how much weed I put in a joint.” – “And pockets?” – “Oh, they came together with scales at the tobacco store.”

I had to work 180 hours of forced labor and pay around 300 eur for having 11 grams. Actually on paper they were only 9 grams. I don’t know if cops smoked a little bit themselves or saved my ass (less than 10 grams – 1 year probation, over 10 grams – 5 years probation) but I’m 100% sure they took some of it! Corrupted fucking system’s slaves. 

Soo… The Queer Punk fest. On the 7th and last day of the festival we organized yoga with PIDARI playing in the background. 

It was an early Sunday morning. A yoga teacher was leading the group in the rain, hiding only herself from it. She was flowing and we followed her. I played clarinet, PASTNIEKS acoustic guitar, MINITURBO drums and ARMADILLO synth. Without melody, without rhythm. Like a Gregorian chant OM kinda vibe. The jam started to breathe together with the yoga teacher’s breath. Friends gathered around, spread out the blankets on wooden pallets and stretched along. Rain was falling the whole morning. But yoga people didn’t mind about it. Absolute calmness. Rain was the 6th instrument in the performance (5th being the teacher’s voice). People passing by froze. Waited a bit. Enjoyed their present. What a beautiful moment to exist!

Sometimes after longer festivals I take a sketchy pill to pass out. To switch off my brain after overworking. To give my mind a break, to stop running. Forced turn off. But on that day I learned something new – to meet myself with peace. No, not by meditating or concentrating. Not by thinking about creating peace. No! I didn’t even have to make an effort. I didn’t catch myself calming myself and giving my brains a rest. Process ended and I slowly started to be aware of my thoughts. Wow! Such a peaceful moment with an empty mind. I stopped running. How beautiful to spend the well earned rest with myself alone in the moment. This chapter ended and the next one will start soon. What’s next on the list? We’ll see… Let this one end first.

This happened 10 days before PIDARI European tour with HELLBASTARD.

It was a beautiful week full of love. PUNK IS LOVE! Remember that!

The ideology behind this fest was to unite two minority groups of Latvian society. We need to support each other against USSR mind-sets that still live among us. We are power, bro! We also received a lot of hate during the week. Nice! Bigots care to comment on our actions! Triggered small-minded people = free advertisement for us. Fuck who you want. Look how you want. What is this? Nazi Germany? Be free, kid!

PIDARI MANIFESTO

Would we really call our band FAGGOTS and perform at queer shows? It’s not a Russian swear word. Fuck russia! It’s Latvian. Means ASSHOLES, HOOLIGANS, RUDEBOYS. Something you say to a young skater boi that nails a sick trick – BĻĒ, PIDARS! AHUJENNA, VECĪT! (“Fucking hell! That was rad!”) So yeah we named our band PIDARI. 

We started off as a wedding band, actually. Shared drinks with mother-in-laws and earned cash at seaside cafes. Same 100 Latvian schlager and country cover songs on repeat every weekend.

Yeah well fuck that… It’s not about the money, man. Fuck money! Fuck capitalism and fuck this fucked up system where you need to have wealth to survive in a society. Fuck it! 

One day we decided that we have to make a punk band and play punk with an attitude! Pass the message, you know!

So we got together to STICK THE HATE IN THEIR FACES. It was October ‘22. We managed to write some pretty angry tunes despite having a blues guitar teacher, jazz drums student, music programmer and a burnt out crustie in the same team. 

9 months later we got Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland under the belt. And we didn’t stop there. In late June ‘23 we are going on tour with UK crust pioneers HELLBASTARD. Yeah the same guys who’s ‘86 demo is the reason you call your stinky-drunk-all-black-wearing-passed-out-on-your-momma’s-sofa pal a CRUSTIE and not a DIRTBAG, YELLOW-TEETH or whatever.

Oh yeah another thing – social media? Nah! You wanna hear us? Come to our shows. This is live music and not some hearts and followers collecting instagram pages. We are music! We are in action! We are energy that we share with you LIVE! Don’t need to exchange politeness in the comments section. Come to the show! Shake hands. Buy merch or sell merch. Hell, even better – trade merch! That will give way bigger support and respect than re-sharing a facebook story. 

Yeah, it’s all about that. Being alive! Maybe no one will remember us in a few months. So what? We will! Live your own life to the fullest! 

Not the smartest decision for a touring band but oh well… We are just some jazzy crust band from an exotic country named after an LGBTQ N-word. We actually made the punk band play 3 shows only and disband. On the 3rd show ARMADILLO even smashed his bass on stage. The end. BASTA! Yeah, well we thought so too. And look where it has led us! Touring bands from Latvia is not a thing. We have maybe 20 punk bands in total from which maybe 3 have played in Estonia or Lithuania (neighbor countries). Latvian punk bands touring Europe are a rarity. You should stick to this zine like Yugi sticks to his rare Exodia cards.

We have absolutely no idea how the style of music that we are attempting to play should actually sound like. A country solo in the middle of a crust song, a reggaeton song that finishes off with doom and blast beats underneath the tunes of standard jazz. A wonderful trip. 

In August PIDAR are going on another tour. This one will take us to Finland and back with our Tampere friends .338, a high caliber d-beat band. TURBO Dave the vocalist from PIDARI is playing bass with them as well. 

Всё в меру or All in Measure is an undiscovered treasure in the local grunge scene, due to being in the russian circle and having a poor connection with the bubble that is known as the Riga scene. The band has 1500 followers on instagram (slightly more than Nikotīņi, the “cult” local band) and still remains unknown for most. Their music video for a single “EVTANAZIJA” that has a potential to win somekind of Latvian music award, being professionally filmed in various wild areas (Lithuanian hill of crosses, school, church, jumpscene from an actual bridge, epic makeup for face scars, underwater takes etc.) has been published for 8 months now and has only 500 views. What is this phenomenon of a band? Where do they get their ideas and how can they afford to realise them?

Here’s an interview with Riga’s grunge/stoner band Всё в меру.

1. Hey! Thanks for finding time to chat. First of all, let’s start from the very beginning. How did the band started? Who’s in it? And what’s the idea behind this project?

Hi, Dave, thanks for having us and for the pleasant remarks about our music video. Band was founded in 2020 in Riga by two classmates – Eduard (vocals, guitar) and Daniel (Drums). We went through frequent line up changes until last year when Oleg (bass player) reached out to us from Daugavpils and Jānis (second guitarist) just by hanging around enough got into band.

Original idea behind the band and its name was blending bunch of rock sub-genres, making a new sound, which could introduce itself to a broad audience. Gradually, replacing naive youthful dreams, a more rational and professional approach to the music emerged, leading to a more defined and individual style for the group. Additionally, the name carries a philosophical undertone, signifying harmony in life and with oneself.

2. From the latest posters of your shows I can see you are sharing stages with other local bands that has russian members. Is there some kind of wall between russian and latvian bands in the Riga scene? Why is that? Any story from your experience? Is there a reason you switched your band name to english from russian?

Well, we don’t think that there’s a “wall” separating local russian and latvian rock scene minding that we share the same venues and perform niche, underground music. We’re all in the same boat. Cooperation with russian groups is primarily driven by the fact that we know each other better, closely communicating and rehearsing in the same place. Changing the band’s name and the language of songs to English was our deliberate decision, driven by the future plans to expand into a more global, English-speaking market.

3. Who writes songs in All in Measure and what are they about? How would you describe your music for someone who hasn’t heard of it? What can FILTHY HANGOUT attendies expect from you?

Every member contributes to songwriting, but the lyrics are always written by our vocalist, expressing his and our worldview, attitudes toward society, and the values of the community. This often involves positioning ourselves against societal norms, valuing freedom, and the importance of individual opinions. As our name suggests we induce broad spectre of rhythmical sensations. Gloomy, angsty vibes to uplifting and rioting motifs, our songs will rock the shit out of your intestines, so we advise you to not miss our performance.

4. Could you tell the story behind the music video of “EVTANAZIJA”? How did you afford to film it? I have jumped from that Jugla bridge for fun as well until I was informed there’s floating logs underwater. How long did it took to get ready to jump?

The concept of the song and its video initially envisioned the purposeful creation of a psychedelic, chaotic, atmospheric journey capable of lingering in memory long after viewing. Without exaggeration, it is our most ambitious project in the band’s history. We invested a considerable amount of money, effort, and time in bringing the video to life. Most of the shooting took place in June 2022, a 5-day thrilling adventure across various corners of Latvia and its surroundings in a fully loaded minibus with bags, drums, boards, and equipment. This journey was accompanied by daily filming, sleepless nights, and various challenges.

Ultimately, upon our return to Riga, tired and worn out, fate had its own plans, leading to the irreversible damage of all the filmed files. Thus, we had no choice but to redo the entire journey in August. In the end, despite all the difficulties, we are pleased that the video is available for viewing, and you can watch it. As for the lake jump, for us, it’s nothing ordinary – our vocalist regularly practices it every summer. Later on, the jump from this bridge became a symbol of initiation into the group for future members.

5. Thanks for the interview! Looking forward to hear you live on April 20th!

Again, thank you, Dave, we are grateful for this opportunity and really psyched to be a part of this upcoming hangout of yours!

Depustūtes is quickly gaining the leading role in Latvian riot girl punk scene. They recently released their debut album “Kretīnu Pavadā” (“Led by assholes”) full of fast and short songs about a young female life struggles in the modern times. They gained more recognition after appearing on a local radio show “Bitīt Matos” and defending their ideology while leaving interviewers confused, unable to relate to younger generations.

Here’s an inteview with the controvesial local hardcore punk Depustūtes.

1. Hey girls and Mark! You have probablly answered to this question before a lot but for foreigner readers, please tell the story of Depustūtes. The meaning behind the band name and the ideology.

The band’s title is very simple, its supposed to mock the government by calling the deputes government’s prostitutes because they sell themselves out for money. But recently it also got a new meaning – as in if you call someone a Depustūte it can also just mean a fan of depustutes, a punk girl that hates the government and is a feminist. Meaning isn’t anything crazy we’re just trying to spread feminism a bit more, make people uncomfortable by showing the issues in the world (inequality, etc.) in their face with with unromanticized lyrics.

2. For most of Depustūtes members, this is your first band. But that doesn’t stop the band to be confident about the message. As an anarchist band, do you set lyrics as a priority? How much attention do pay to riffs and song structure? Who’s writting songs and how do they come together? Also, I have heard that all of you have a tattoo of the band logo. Does this applies some promise to eachother (for example, to never split up, change members etc.)?

Tbh we think most of the time some bandmates don’t even know what the lyrics are until way later  they just read it maybe once to get the general meaning. The whole melody part is mostly Marks work, he makes the riffs and construction before anyone else and then we have to adjust to it. Kata write most of the songs but ofc she always tells bandmates that they can always write lyrics themselves too – as for songs “menti” (cops) and “alus” (beer) which were written by the drummer. Most of the lyrics are twisted explanations of how Kata sees the world or her stances on it’s issues. Back in the day it started as writing poetry but now she tries to not care about rhymes as much. Most of us have a tattoo yes. We think to each bandmate the meaning is different like for mark tattoo means that he is associated with a band and likes it very much. For Kata it serves as a reminder for the good memories that she had with this band, she thinks she would still think about it even if she wasn’t playing in it anymore besides the motivation to not leave the band. But the tattoo for her also serves as a reminder of who she is – a punk at heart. 

3. You are planning to tour the whole summer, including some shows outside of Latvia. All of your songs are in Latvian. How do you plan to translate the message to foreigners? What other future plans do you have?

Actually we talked about this with the band before. Band said they feel like singing in latvian is the most authentic, even if people won’t understand. Then Kata offered to make one album in english for tours. Our rage against the system and crappy things in society is so strong that the lyrics need no translation. and we try to put so much energy that everyone catches the message and feeling, no matter the language barrier. Plans for future – more albums and tours in the future ofc maybe changing the sound to be more rough but that’s over time.

4. Do you feel like Riga scene has divided into groups based on ideologies? If so, which group/bubble do you associate with the most? I don’t think there is a political venue in Latvia. Are you fine to play anywhere or are there venues or promoters or events you would not agree to perform at?

Maybe there are different bubbles in the underground scene, but we kind of don’t want to sort into one specific bubble. Of course, we have our shared ideological views and could technically fall into one bubble or another, but this division is really toxic. Maybe the “normies” and conservatives conspired against the underground and plotted these bubbles, who knows 😀 anyway, what underground needs, is honest and open discussion, that people try to resolve differences and unite around some common ground, not hide into bubbles based on conflict and inability to listen to each other. We don’t think there really exists a bubble, but for Kata besides the feminism bubble, because most popular subcultures are goths, metalheads and crusts.

Obviously we wouldn’t agree to play at a show where the organizers have questionable stances like white supremacists etc. but that’s obvious for any punk band. Probably wouldn’t agree to play if someone from the band is with bad terms with organizers as well.

5. What can FILTHY HANGOUT attendies expect from your show? Cheers and thanks for the interview!

Angry women yelling about why we need feminism. Kata stuttering in mic as usual, wearing crazy outfit and screaming. Evisa sharing beer propaganda. Mark playing full max speed and trying not to fall from the stage because of his jumps and runnings, always looking for energy on stage and in the crowd. And bassist is living the time of her life, fulfilling the dream of playing insane music and looking slutty. She has known the system for too long so has some true rage.

Anti Fallos is a mayhem punk band from Tampere. Vocalist stomping over guitar pedals and mocking something in Finnish while everyone goes “Oh no!” in the audience. The guitarist, being a peaceful hippy dude forgets his roots and goes full nuts on shreds. The bassist, giving zero fucks, sits the whole set with his hood on ignoring the chaos breaking out and drummer keeping up with whatever mess he signed for. Tampere punk and skater scene goes hand in hand. Shows happening on ramps, attendies crashing thru moshpits while doing kickflips. And this is the aftermath – skaters making punk rock.

Here’s the interview with Anti-dicks:

1. Hey! Glad you’re coming over. Let’s start with the band name. Why anti-dicks? Is it because of some ideology or just making fun? How did you came up with the name?

-we are all about hating different kinds of dicks. nazi dicks, police dicks, rich capitalist dicks etc… At least for me, im much more interested about smoking dope and playing my guitar, than watching some stupid ass dicks swinging around. Fuck dicks. Och samma på svenska vi handlar alla om att hata olika typer av kukar. nazistiska kukar, poliskickar, rika kapitalistiska kukar etc… Åtminstone för mig är jag mycket mer intresserad av att röka dop och spela min gitarr, än att se några dumma kukar som svänger runt. Fan kukar. – björne/guitar

2. These are gonna be your first shows outside of Finland. You’re going on a weekender together with Mörv. How do you feel about it? Are you excited? Do you have some checkpoints you want to see, do or achieve during the trip?

-For me, it is so fucking cool to go abroad and FINALLY get my ass out of Finland! The beer we drink here is way too expensive and to be honest, this tour came out like a gift from the gods even though i believe only in satan. Touring together with MÖRV is going to be like having sex when tripping on mdma u know. Full of love! CHEMICAL LOVE! But we don’t want to play after them because the way they perform on stage is way beyond and we can’t beat them. When we are on tour, we are interested only in drugs and local idiots. Sightseeings and other stuff is for posers and for samsonite tourists. Do I look like one of them?? Maybe yes but still i’m not Canadian even though i might look like a lumberjack. WE’RE GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!! – Jave/vocals

3. The band has no social media, nor available demos. When can we wait for some recording from Anti-Fallos? Is there something unreleased already? Do you plan to do any publicity or is this project more just for fun?

-No time for social media, have more important thing’s to do, like getting high for example. Recordings we have, but they are not for you, and I definitely don’t want any fucking publicity! -vova/bass

4. What can FILTHY HANGOUT attendies expect from Anti-Fallos? Cheers! See you in April!

-speed (in all its forms), raw peasant power& good fucking times are the ingredients of antifallos!lyrics& interludes may sound like total gibberish but there should be a seed of truth somewhere in the deep(?). for fans of: Poison Idea, Steely Dan and 90s Eurodance. DO NOT EXPECT ANYTHING BUT PREPARE FOR THE WORST!!! – Ere/ Drums

Lein comes from Tallinn. A new black metal band passing by FILTHY HANGOUT fest on their way to another fest DUŠTANT in Vilnius. This will band’s first show in Latvia, and one of the first ones overall. I know some of the members from their other projects, one of them being the queer punk band Keskkool. Interestingly, Lein performs the total opposite – black metal, known as the music genre with roots coming from the right wing ideologies. Does this mean Baltics are facing a RABM wave? Let’s find out!

1. Tere! Let’s dig into he misterious and dark world of Lein! The band is only few months old. Could you tell the story of the birth of Lein?

The very first time that a resemblance of what now has become Lein rehearsed was all the way back in summer of 2022, but it was just me (Kaur) and our drummer (Jaagup) jamming black metal together, we didn’t have a name or any plans to take it that seriously. We really became Lein in the beginning of 2023 when we picked a name, started rehearsing regularly and also started looking for other people to complete the band, Kiur (our lead guitarist) joined shortly after and we played our first show in april, where we met our now bassist Adeele who was in the crowd that night and offered herself to join in on bass duties. She ended up joining sometime in late june and after only 2 rehearsals together played our third ever (and her first ever) show with us in Tartu alongside Defekt and Paranarkar. That is when we knew that the band had finally been “completed”.

2. How would you describe your sound? If you would have to choose a subgenre of black metal, how would you label yourselves? What are the lyrics about?

I’d describe our sound as something leaning more on the aggressive side of pagan black metal with occasional influences of punk and a couple other metal genres, but i feel putting Lein in the pagan black category to be the most accurate. I’ve been told we come off as melancholic and hateful. Our lyrics mostly talk about ancient Estonian history and its rebellions and wars for freedom, but a couple songs are just good old-fashioned misanthropy as well.

3. What’s the situation with the black metal scene in Tallinn? I know you guys even have a venue dedicated to black metal – Black Magic. And some black metal bands, for example Goatsmegma are recognised outside of countries borders.

Black metal scene in Tallinn is very much alive and strong although you don’t see bands performing as often as punk bands for example, nor going outside of Estonia unfortunately, we hope to see that change.

4. You are going on a mini tour with Weeping Abyss. How did the planning went? How did you met the other band?

It originally started with us being invited to play at DŪSTANT and me looking for a gig or two on the way there, but i figured that since our demo is ready to release i would organise a small tour around that event (incl. Filthy hangout) in celebration of its release. I simply planned out a rough route of cities to play and contacted the venues. We had met The Weeping Abysd at our second ever gig in Barbar in Tallinn, where we both played. We liked eachothers music and we had been wanting to play with them toether again for some time already so i figured to invite them along for our string of Estonisn shows and they agreed.

5. What are band’s future plans? Cheers, see you in April!

More music, more releases, more rehearsals. That’s all our plans for now.

YR might be the rawest active black metal band from Riga. They have adopted all stereotypical 2nd wave specifics – blast beats, tremolo picking, lack of technicality (meaning – primitive & brutal) and fry screams, mixing all of that with lyrics in latvian and maximalism of youth power.

Here’s an interview with (in my opinion) the most authentic Riga black metal band YR.

1. Hail satan! Let’s start with the name. “Y” and “R” makes a difficult sound to remember and correctly pronounce. Is it an acronym? And what does it mean? How did you choose this band name?

YR is not an acronym. It is a rune, but spelled with capital letters. This rune means quite a lot of things, but we chose this rune, because of its meaning of death.(and no, it does not make us NSBM)

2. Who’s playing in the band, who’s writting music and what other projects do you guys have?

Our band members are: Ä(drummer), Sērga(rythm guitar/main vocals) Sumburs(lead guitar/backvocals) Rabrt(bass). All of our band members write the instrumental parts of our music, for example we can take our EP – Ä wrote “Lāsts”, Sumburs wrote “Ēna” and Sērga wrote “Saules sāpes” (bassist was not yet in the band). All lyrics is in our native language and written by vocalist- Sērga. Here are other bands and projects our band members participate in:
Ä- Polycephaly, Hæedrunn, Nazishweinejäger, грех;
Sērga- ex-Polycaphaly, Hæedrunn(as bass);
Rabrt- OPIUM_LV (not metal), Grobiņa, Nazishweinejäger;
Sumburs-грех and one, yet untitled,bm band.

3. A year ago YR recorded an EP that later got released as a split with Finnish black metal band Warorath X under the label Planetary King Records from West Virginia, USA. How did this collaboration went? The split got released on a 25 tape run. Do you have a copy of your own? And are they still available? Big respect for choosing a Finnish black metal band as the other half! Kippis!

It was pretty random. This american guy emailed us after releasing our songs on bandcamp and offered to make cassetes and then he offered to combine these cassetes with Warorath, and scince we liked their content, we totally agreed. Sadly we dont have any of those cassetes, but we know local people who have bought it. We have not contacted the records guy in a while, so those who are interested, must investigate their availability themselves.

4. You call yourselves pagan and war metal. Is it because of lyrics or does any other aspect make YR pagan? There was a big wave of “pagan metal”/folk metal bands few years ago, copying Skyforger success – Deodium, Druun, Green Novice, Ryvendir, Varang Nord etc. Do you feel like sharing ideology or style with these bands? Side note: you would fit Zobens & Lemess festival line-up. Would you like to perform there?

Our vocalist is the only one infuenced by these bands (mostly), and he uses paganism as a unique way to protest againt christianity and promote underrated mithology of ancient Balts. Soundwise there is no big influence from mentioned bands, altho some parts might be simmular to early Skyforger or Deodium, but it is not intentional. Our vocalist is writing lyrics in a politically neutral way (except anti-christianity of course), so anyone who enjoys our music does not have to worry about the band being opposite political wing. Our vocalist says that, in the EP lyrical focus was on a vison of how dark paganic forces would end the helpless world and humanity, but newer lyrycs are more focused of everyday pchycological struggles, anti-christianity and just some brutal, graphical stuff. We think that performing in Zobens and Lemess would be a new, great experience for us, so it would really nice to play there.

5. What should FILTHY HANGOUT festival attendies expect from your show? Thanks for the chat, cheers!

You should expect new songs with a different sound, as we are constantly evolving it to our liking. Oh yeah and dying in the moshpit.

West Latvian youngsters Trencheard are no strangers to the Riga scene. They are taking the 3.5h bus to the capital city quite often to spread their death metal sound and gain popularity outside of Liepāja city. Trencheard has now appeared on every major Latvian metal festival line-up, even those organized by 50-something dudes because of Trencheard authenticity and attitude both on and off stage.

Here’s a little interview with my favorite Latvian metal band Trencheard

1. You guys started as a crusty sounding metal band but slowly turned into blackened death metal. Why is that? And what’s the band’s history?

Personally, we’d say that we started out as a thrash metal band, with our first two songs being very trashy, but the crusty sound was foreshadowed by our song, ‘’thou shalt mosh’’, which is a short, fast, straight-beat song about reviving mosh pits in Liepāja music venue and bar Fontaine Palace. But the real crusty sound appeared when Pēteris and Regnārs listened to a bunch of tragedy, disfear, and martyrdod and made one crusty song with a lot of d-beats, and ever since we’ve had a tendency to put in d-beat riffs with fast face-melting solos.

The band started completely by accident on one day in 2021, when Pēteris was riding his bike and saw a strapping, young, long-haired lad wearing a slayer t-shirt that he had never seen before in his city. So naturally, he drove up to this lad and immediately started a conversation. That whole day, they hung out and decided that they would make a band because they played drums and guitar. The original line-up was pēteris on lead guitar and vocals, Harijs on rhythm guitar, and Aleksis on drums. But after a few months, Harijs left because of school, so Trencheard became a duo for a few months before finding Regnārs and later on Aleksandrs.

2. Bassist doing the main vocals is the ultimate Lemmy move. Your vocalist Pēteris also has a Motörhead tribute wall at his home. Who’s writing your songs and what are they about? And what’s with the Lemmy worshiping?

Our songs are written as a collective; we believe that as a band, everyone has to contribute to writing the instrumental; however, the lyrics have been written by pēteris and Aleksis. Aleksis wrote the songs more based on war and other generic trve kvlt metal shit. We have two songs about the Vietnam War, a song about the atrocities done in Unit 731, the human centipede, and what it would be like to be burning alive in hell. Whereas pēteris writes the more edgy punk lyrics about how people treat others based on how they dress or look, about experiencing grief, homelessness, pollution, and this one time in the 1910s where a lot of people from Liepāja froze and starved to death because they couldn’t get any firewood. But unfortunately, as of recent months, Pēteris is stuck with writing all the lyrics for upcoming songs because it would be a more fitting role for the vocalist of the band.

And about Lemmy. I’m not sure if the tale of Lemmy has affected the other members as much as it has to Pēteris. Ever since a young age, he’s looked up to Leonardo da Vinci as a person and an artist. So when he started playing bass, he studied the way Lemmy plays bass and uses similar vocal techniques. And he keeps his microphone above his head at an angle as much as possible while also playing as loud as possible at every gig. It’s purely a religious statement because Lemmy is God.

3. You have recorded some tracks but are delaying their release. Why is that? What do you plan to call the album (or demo)?

We have recorded four of our favorite songs at the moment, and currently they are being mastered. We’ve been staying away from rushing the recording because we wanted to make the EP as perfect as possible. While recording the ep, we decided to put in some new parts to make it sound more melodic, so that took some even more time, and the demo will be called “Nāve Zinātnes Vārdā” / “Death In The Name Of Science”. Which is based off of a track on the ep, “Atrocities of the Rising Sun,” which is also the inspiration for the cover art.

4. How’s the Liepāja scene? What other bands besides Trencheard, Ryvendir and Overcast Rain are active there and worth checking out?

The Liepāja scene is growing stronger every month! In the last few years, a lot of young people have been starting punk rock and metal projects, though at the moment they aren’t very active performers, because they are preparing their material. Currently, there are bands such as Cuntroller, a raw crust band, and a neocrust band one of the Trencheard members is starting, and with the recent breakup of Kultura Potreblenya, there have been rumors that their guitarist is also working on a brand new HC punk band. And long-gone meme band Nagla has made a new line-up and is working on something “big.” So the scene is still growing, and you won’t find much music without going over to the musician’s house for a listen, but with the rapid rise of alternative cultures in Liepāja, I don’t think it will be long before even more bands start popping up.

5. What can FILTHY HANGOUT attendees expect from the Trencheard show in April? Cheers and see in a month!

In this performance, viewers will be presented with some really fast, hard-hitting riffs, beautiful melodies, gun-like blast beats, and perhaps even a new song. We’ve all been looking forward to this occasion, so there is a chance that there will be some new patches and maybe even shirts. We will do our best to give everyone a good earache, a memorable set, and some intense mosh pits!!!

Mörv were one of the headliners from that last year’s festival edition. I have seen them so many times and they always surprise with an unresting energy. One of those bands that can truly be defined simply as hardcore, mixing heaviest subgenres into one set. You can recognise hardcore punk and death metal among other other heavy genres. Agressive sound, makes you twist your face into disgust. I wish more bands would experiment in the same manner as Mörv!

1. Hey! Thanks for chatting and for coming over for the 2nd year in a row! I only recently, while writing this interview, found out you have a new album released! And it’s recorded at analog studio. Why do you keep hiding in shadows? More people should know about Mörv! Your music should be distributed more wildly! Do you plan some physical releases?

Hi! It’s a pleasure to get the chance to come to Riga again. Last year’s Filthy Hangout was one of the best experiences we’ve had as a band; great bands and everything worked really well. For the album, yeah! Actually, it’s a double EP, with the first side “Viha vahvin” (The strongest hate) recorded at Black Floyd’s Analog studios in 2020. The other side “Kuvottavaa” (Disgusting) was recorded 2022 digitally in Näädänpesä studio here in our hometown Tampere. The hiding is not intentional, we’re doing this all in a DIY-manner and we’re maybe (definitely) not the greatest marketing people around. We try to play as hard as we can live, and hope that people find us organically. We released the new album as an LP, which we’ll have with us in Filthy Hangout as well!

2. Week before FILTHY HANGOUT Mörv & .338 will record a split album. Seems like we will have a 2 week long party together. What songs do you plan to record for this? What are those songs about? Should we do a song all together?

Yeah, we’re really looking into it, and have written five new songs for it. We’ve seen .338 multiple times, and really enjoyed the live sets. The energy and songs you folks have are fucking great, which also makes a good motivator for us to record a nasty angry side into the split. Lyrically the songs deal with death and dreams with a pinch of occult, each song having a different point of view. Instrument-wise, we’ve listened to a lot of hardcore punk, death metal and thrash metal recently, so expect something along those lines.

We’d love to do a song together, a dirty grindy hc punk song?

3. Could you please tell a little history of Mörv? How did you got together? What’s the meaning behind the name? What are band’s future plans?

Sure! We all grew up in the same small town in Finland. Some of us got together as 14-15 year olds to play punk classics such as Dead Kennedys, The Ruts, Misfits and whatnot. We had some different band names and lineups, but we settled with this lineup and have been playing together for over 10 years. All of us listen to lots of different types of music, but the aggressive and heavy music flows with us the best. Last couple of years we’ve pushed ourselves to be more active, which has been really nice. The name “Mörv” resulted in slight alteration of the Estonian word Mõrv, which means murder. We felt this was thematically a great name, as lots of our lyrics deal with subjects such as homicides and the occult. In Finland we don’t have the letter “õ”, so Mörv suited us the best. After the .338 split and the baltic minitour, we’re recording the next LP during the later part of this year and aim to play as much as we can live.

4. What do you plan for the weekend with Anti-Fallos? What should FILTHY HANGOUT attendies expect from Mörv show in Riga? Cheers and see you in April!

We recently shared a stage with Anti-Fallos in January, and their raw hc punk show is really impressive. With them, we hope to deliver great all around shows to enjoyers of aggressive, heavy and fast music. As said, at Filthy Hangout, we’re going to play some new songs which have not been recorded yet. We’re going to play an aggressive, heavy and fast show with no bullshit which will ease an itch in everybody enjoying heavy and fast music. We’re really looking forward to it! Cheers! Hope to meet lots of new people in Riga!

Gerārijs comes from Valmiera city, once big with the scene, now facing a new generation. Best boyband with a Peter Steel-looking dude up front. Their songs variate from punk to oldschool heavy metal to whatever is Valmieracore. Cool to include bands from outside of Riga on the line-up to mix up the scene bubble.

Here’s a little interview with North Latvians Gerārijs.

1. Hey! Seems like Gerārijs is a group friends just having fun. How serious do you take your band? What’s the story behind the band?

Yo! Gerārijs is a group of friends just having fun. We would not like to say that we do not take our band seriously but we are not actively trying to get famous with this band, but if it happens, it would not be that bad. We are doing this just for fun. Long story short, the concept of this band exists for more than 5 years, it started as a garage band and it still continues being one.

2. Gerārijs translates to “Heroin” or “heroin user”. Why did you chose this name? Is it a word-play? Who’s the addict in the band? What’s band’s favourite drug?

The band name comes from a song “Jauns draugs” from Mazie Smirdīgie Kociņi. It comes from a wrong lyric interpretation from one of our former band mates, instead of heroin he heard Gerārijs and it somehow stuck to us. (We do not use any drugs tho, to be clear.)

3. What’s the future plans for the band? Planning to record something? The most popular Latvian recording studio is located in your city.

We would like to release an album this year. (Finally) About the future plans – we would like to continue having fun with this band and music overall.

4. What can FILTHY HANGOUT attendies expect from the band? Cheers! See you in April!

They can expect Valmiera Hood Classics and an energetic performance from us.