At the beating heart of any genuine movement is the independent rekkid label. That’s ‘independent’ as in: ‘DIY/self-produced/self-released/private press’, whatever. That means labels not owned by majors, not imprints, not faux or pseudo-independent excuses, but labels who source their releases, self-publish (if necessary), package and distribute their wares online, by mail order, or through a network of established underground distro houses, or other independent underground labels. The contemporary DIY punk and hardcore movement is global, the game has evolved while the mainstream/industry has been dying on its feet. For those of us old enough to recall turning to the back pages of the NME/Sounds to access the latest Small Wonder or Rough Trade list, the song remains resolutely the same. Hurrah!
The UK’s current contribution to this milieu is represented by a triumvirate of labels: Quality Control HQ, La Vida Es Un Mus and Static Shock. The following conversation with QCHQ’s Ola is the first in a series of such interviews we’ll be running over the next few months:
We understand the label grew from a hardcopy fanzine, namely Quality Control . . . can you talk us through QCHQ’s birthing experience?
First and foremost, I’m a nerd loving records, UKHC, and history: how it says more about the present, our perception of the past acting like a mirror, than the actual past which is long gone. As an art historian, I became intrigued specifically with the mystery surrounding historical objects, and particularly those that still give us aesthetic pleasure today whether visually or aurally. If you look at my play-list on my Walkman 95% of it will be pre-1992. The birthing decades of hardcore resonate for me like nothing else in this world, and I thank my lucky stars that I found it and it found me. That jolt of electricity and angry hope coming from hardcore globally, it’s beautiful – fight back! It’s pure escapism for someone living in a world where the enemies of freedom and equality have gotten that much smarter at hiding and tempting us into self-enslavement. Apologies, I digress, but I felt it important to state where I am coming from.
Having received my education from a select group of international vinyl archivists in London and a gent from Cleveland, it really annoyed me that, apart from these golden gatekeepers, no one cared about UKHC in the UK around 2008 – like, no one. Everyone was licking the USA’s ball-sack, let’s face it, politics was mirroring the hardcore scene and vice versa. What I mean is, this was happening in the community I was revolving around, so this was my world. Angry, and with a pen at the ready, I wrote a ‘zine focusing about the history of UKHC/punk, and interviewed bands in the UK and Spain on purpose (this was pre-Spain hysteria). The idea was to get people thinking about their own roots again, and not idolizing the exotic.
Globalised hardcore versus grassroots communities is still something that plagues my mind, but I think we are getting the balance right, slowly but surely. Back then, all shows had to have a USA band headlining for people to show up, now there are more bands here and more people doing cool stuff taking pride in their own community. That is not the same as isolationism, but when you spend your budget on records from somewhere else and don’t seem to connect to your friends playing their own thing or supporting them by buying records or going to their shows, you have to ask yourself, is this cultural imperialism at work or are local (not national) stylistic evolutions obsolete in a global world? I don’t think it is the latter because many bands in the 1980s were swapping sounds from across the planet and coming up with unique results, so why not now? It just takes a little more effort to not be spoon fed puppets acting out the idols of the past. With this in mind, the title for the ‘zine seemed appropriate, even though with the subsequent records I have released I have sold out on my ethics a bit, let’s face it, with my layout skills, it was only ever going to be tongue firmly in a dung heap.
“Borne out of a love for aesthetic terrorism and hate for all ironic signifiers, Quality Control Collective is a series of ruminations on the cultural detritus produced by the disenfranchised, the deceived, the angry. Empowered by a pencil, distortion pedal, scissors and glue, QCHQ attempts to cripple dominating voices with literary knives and auditory harassment” . . . that’s some manifesto! In fact, it’s been a while since a label had anything approaching a manifesto, period . . . yet alone a confrontational, proactive manifesto . . . which is a good thing, right?
Please bear in mind I wrote this at 4am feeling very proud that a non-technical person like myself had a website about to go live, but it does ring true. At the time, I was about to release the Crazy Spirit 12” (the cassette demo re-mastered at Abbey Road studios) and it could not be a more accurate description about how I felt about them. Around 2009 I moved to New York and our lives collided. I never met true misfits in my entire life, and based on their interactions with other labels trying to get their stuff out, I still don’t know how it happened that they took a chance on me, considering I never released anything before, and I wasn’t even going to be a local label for them. Mavericks, street-stompers, early-morning underground- hooligans, these guys are very smart aesthetically, both visually and aurally. Maybe I am just proliferating their mythology here, but I think it is well earned. It was fascinating to see a group of people truly play the sound of their lives, from the rolling beat replicating exactly the drudgery of New York streets, to the weirdo screeching of Walker’s vocals, echoing people’s contemptuous mystery. “I just don’t care anymore, I will take you down with me, ha ha” attitude in full force. That, and talking to Sam (CS bass) a lot about underground lizard ladies with brick Walkmans inspired this manifesto.
OK, jackets off, sleeves rolled up now . . . let’s start with a definition of ‘aesthetic terrorism’?
Aesthetic Terrorism is a term coined in 1984 by J.G Thirwell a.k.a Foetus, who – let’s not forget – was the great love of Lydia Lunch, when he said: “Aesthetic Terrorism: Using the element of surprise through the usage of past clichés, knowledge, and ‘home truths’ being flung out of joint, and therefore used as possibly a weapon or subversive force”. I definitely feel like hardcore punk at its best totally fits into this description, so I will leave it at that.
And these pesky ‘ironic signifiers’ . . . who might they be?
If you ever walk East London streets on a Saturday night you definitely know who they be! Irony is the latest weapon of self-enslavement, obliterating all meaning with empty signs, mostly, it seems, by commodifying our own selves such as. on Facebook. We are literally melting into thin air with a smirky knowingness! The British are kings and queens of this performative masochism, obliterating ourselves into a thousand ironic signs. A few years ago, for example, the latest trend was ironic wearing of Nazi gear. “Its OK, I’m not a racist, I just really like this sort of thing ironically”. Er, right. When Chronic Sick did it, it was Aesthetic Terrorism, although the jury is still out on that one for sure. Irony is not the same as sarcasm, which is angry and full of meaning, present in punk and hardcore in the 1980s, replaced now with self-centred whinging. Boooo! I’m making some massive philosophical leaps here, but for more info on this sort of thing read here (ironically, in a magazine that supports ironic culture, and in the UK, staffed by quite a few ex-punkheads – you make the head-leap!):
VICE Simon Critchely interview
In terms of timing alone, QCHQ couldn’t have chosen a more relevant release to open their account with than Crazy Spirit’s s/t 12″ . . . how did that release come about, and are the stories of interfaces with Abbey Road’s mixing desk myth, or faction?
So, I guess I have answered some of this question already, but the stories of me getting this thing re-mastered at Abbey Road studios are quite true. Sadly the credit got missed out in the insert artwork by accident. I wanted to give the CS demo the treatment it deserved, so I went all out with Steve Rooke, who recently was on the Beatles collection re-mastering team. We sat there for quite some time painstakingly chopping out silence, bringing out sounds from the cassette depths, and making both sides of the vinyl spit out two- mutogenic chimera, before cutting to copper masters for that extra detail. It really isn’t that hard to get a spot there, and you get free cups of tea, and everyone is super-nice. You just have to barge past tourists outside, and be willing to not make a profit with the release. Totally worth it, and I did the same with Death Evocation 7” – I have to thank Clint Chapman of Shortfuse Records and Demotapes for giving me the idea.
In terms of diversity, the genre-swerve from Crazy Spirit to QCHC’s second release, Death Evocation’s EP, traversed several lanes . . . is this indicative of the breadth of material you want to bring to the label in the future, and can you tell us anything more about the mysterious Bostonians lurking behind the moniker Death Evocation?
I guess the secret is out! The members are DFJ and Chris Corry from Mind Eraser with Meghan Minior from Ampere/Siamese Twins/Foreign Objects on vox. Chris came over to the UK on holiday and sniffing the London air, my constant ranting about UK music, plus finding many Hawkwind records must have really rubbed off on him because he promptly wrote all the songs shortly upon his return. Female-fronted 80s UK style metal? How could anyone pass this up? As a Polish person, metal is in my blood, and I love Sacrilege, so even though again I released an American band, this time the inspiration was definitely UK 80s, and they created something really raging. I went through some of my NWOBHM records and tried to make a sleeve to match, outside flaps, thumb-cut, 300gsm sleeve, and, of course, ‘pay no more than 50p’ sign. Sadly, due to my love of luxury releases, I made a loss on this record, even at £3 wholesale. Oops.
In terms of both power and implied violence, Stab’s ‘Stab Nation Rising’ EP would appear to be QCHQ’s most substantial statement to date . . . do Stab represent a watershed for UK hardcore, and can you see their marriage of straightedge abstention and left-wing polemics appealing to a generation apparently crippled by apathy?
Who knows! I actually play guitar for STAB, so I can’t really comment on ‘watersheds’ and all that jazz, but the idea Nick (drums) and I had was to do Hardcore UK style, or rather let the sound grow organically. Maxxx, the vocalist, is a very serious man, with serious things to say, so he was never going to la-la-about talking about poor little me bollocks. We’re just angry people: Argentinean, Italian and Polish. It’s a scary mix! Luckily, we have Ben the lovely gent on bass to calm us all down and do sick artwork to boot. He is also in a sick band called Hunger. Check it out. Straight Edge is in a weird place now, I feel, I’m not sure what it means, and what it has evolved into anymore, but that makes it an interesting experience for a straight edge band that isn’t playing music that straight edge people listen to for the most part in the UK.
Who do QCHC view as allies in the contemporary battle against ‘the man’?
No one, the enemy is within each of us rather than ‘out there’. However, I will tell you I support fully fellow London labels: La Vida Es Un Mus, Static Shock, Dire, and any band that self-releases their own shit – go you!
What does 2012 hold in store for QCHQ, in terms of further releases?
QCHQ ‘zine number three might actually happen this year! The material is massive, and there is a comp tape attached, it’s just a massive project two years in the making, argh! Three releases are hoped for, nothing concrete as yet, but rest assured the aim is to be as raging as possible! Many thanks for your interest!
interview by Jean Encoule