Kansalaistottelemattomuus
1. Hey, you are the band of the month in Schizo Fanzine, please introduce the band. You are a very political band, what topics are you most keen of? What do you think is the best way to get rid of fascism when bureaucracy and shit like that is just something to laugh at?
We are a five-piece anarcho-punk band from Helsinki in Finland called Kansalaistottelemattomuus. Lyrically we cover a lot of different political topics but everything is interconnected - I don't think you could say for instance that we're "more into environmental protection than anti-fascism" or whatever - all our problems, from fascism to pollution etc, are a result of this fucked up capitalist system and you've got to attack the root of the problems as well as the symptoms. Our remedy for fighting fascism and most of the other problems is usually one and the same - a mixture of direct action, community activism and education/propaganda work. Since you specifically mentioned fascism we should emphasise that we don't go along with some macho idea that the only way to fight fascism is by street-fighting alone. Physical opposition to fascism most certainly has its part to play but there is also a need for people to be involved in intelligence gathering, education and propaganda work, antifascist prisoner support etc etc so there's a role for everyone to be involved in.
2. I must ask, how did you pick the band name and what does it mean?
If you want the honest truth I actually just got it from looking through a dictionary! The other guys asked me if I had any ideas for what we could call ourselves and, since we wanted a Finnish name rather than an English one, checking the dictionary seemed the best idea as I'm not a native Finnish speaker myself. Kansalaistottelemattomuus means something like "civil disobedience" in English so it's fairly suitable for a band like us given our politics and it's also got four "A"s for drawing circles round so what more do you need?! It does seem fairly difficult for a lot of people from other countries to spell though so the spellings on gig posters in other countries can sometimes be a bit funny. Some people find the name difficult to pronounce too - and when we played in London some guy there thought we were called "Kansas Hippopotamus" - excellent!
3. You really impressed on me when you played at the Punk Illegal festival. Since I have a special in this issue about Punk Illegal, what do you think of that fest, playing, purpose, people etc... And what do you think of festivals like Rebellion?
We all had a great time at Punk Illegal and were really impressed with how smoothly it went, the great mixture of music and the excellent atmosphere. It was very impressive indeed and we all appreciated how much work must have gone into planning it and making it happen over the weekend - respect to the organisers and all the volunteer workers too. All for a good cause as well obviously. My only one tiny criticism isn't really related so much to the festival itself but is that while I know that they must get overwhelmed with e-mails it was a bit of a shame that despite writing to them three times my other band (who had played twice at Punk Illegal) could never get a reply about buying more copies of the excellent video they made at a previous festival that they were selling as a fundraiser and which we wanted to sell for them at our gigs. We could have sold so many copies for them on tour and raised a load more money so I don't really understand why they didn't seem to put much effort into getting the DVD out there when so much work had obviously gone into making it. Whoever put it together did a really good job and with all the great bands on it they could raise a load more cash if they would get it out to more distros. So yeah, I'd say they should get some more volunteers to help answer their mail! Overall though - amazing festival - anyone who missed it should make sure they don't make the same mistake next year.
Fucking "Rebellion" is a very different story though. I fucking detest that kind of shit - just total commercialisation of punk and completely stripped of all politics - it's all just about money making, entertainment and consumption - it makes me want to be sick - seriously. I've also met the main man behind the thing a few times in the past and I was not impressed with his attitude. My other band's guitarist was in a band once that played at one of his gigs and he told me about how they got totally ripped off by him so obviously we're not gonna be into anything that is about making a fat profit for rip-off businessmen - fuck that - this is not what our idea of punk is - it can be so much more than this.
4. What do you think of the D.I.Y-punk scene nowadays if you compare just 10 years back in time?
I think compared to ten years ago the biggest changes are probably due to widespread adoption of information technology within the scene - you know really widespread use of internet and computers by almost everyone involved in the punk scene nowadays. On the plus side this can make organisation of stuff like tours and so on really easy as you can get really, really quick replies from people all over the world at very little cost and you can also get your music out to people everywhere via webpages and mp3 files. On the down side the fact that so many people are just downloading so much music for free means that they are buying a lot less hard copies of the music and that does make things difficult for bands like us. We really notice the difference in how many CDs and LPs were being sold even five years ago to the situation now. Yeah, it's great that people can get music for free but sadly it's not free for bands to get decent quality studio recordings and if people don't buy the CDs then how do you get the studio costs back? Certainly not from gigs when you're a DIY punk band playing so many benefit gigs for free or other gigs just for travel costs or even less. We used to be able to subsidise loss-making gigs by using money from record or CD sales and pay for recording costs that way too but nowadays that's a lot more difficult. You can make a bit of money to help with that from t-shirts but not so much so you're really put in the position of having to cut back on the number of gigs you can do unless you can subsidise the band out of your own pocket which is pretty difficult for us as we're all fairly poor. We did try the recording an LP cheaply on a friend's laptop option too but the results just weren't good enough sound quality-wise. It does cause difficulties for people like us so we'd like to thank anyone who has actually bought any of our records or CDs as they are the people who are helping to keep us gigging and recording - thanks and respect!
5. What will happen with Kansalaistottelemattomuus in the future? As I've understand is it a side project. Is that right?
We have plenty new releases planned from stuff that we've already recorded - tracks on compilations etc and maybe a new 7" and then after that a new LP and tour to coincide with that. We've also got quite a few local gigs coming up over the autumn and winter so we're keeping busy. All of us play in other bands - for instance our bassist Lari plays in the industrial band No I Ain't and our guitarist Janne plays drums in local anarcho-punk outfit Heterofobia but I wouldn't dismiss Kansalaistottelemattomuus as a "side project" at all - we're a fairly regularly gigging proper band who just happens to be made up of members who also play in other groups. Certainly from our experience that's not so unusual in the punk scene.
6. Please, add some last words, whatever you want
Our next release should be out later this month and is a split EP with Oi Polloi which has been released as a benefit fundraiser to help the campaign to rebuild the Cyklopen autonomous centre in Stockholm that was burnt down by neo-nazis at the end of 2008. We played at Cyklopen just a few days before it was destroyed and were really inspired by the place so we really wanted to do something to help. Any readers who are interested in helping the Cyklopen activists should check out their website at www.kulturkampanjen.se - we can't just sit back and let nazis close down our spaces like that - fight back!
1. Hey, you are the band of the month in Schizo Fanzine, please introduce the band. You are a very political band, what topics are you most keen of? What do you think is the best way to get rid of fascism when bureaucracy and shit like that is just something to laugh at?
We are a five-piece anarcho-punk band from Helsinki in Finland called Kansalaistottelemattomuus. Lyrically we cover a lot of different political topics but everything is interconnected - I don't think you could say for instance that we're "more into environmental protection than anti-fascism" or whatever - all our problems, from fascism to pollution etc, are a result of this fucked up capitalist system and you've got to attack the root of the problems as well as the symptoms. Our remedy for fighting fascism and most of the other problems is usually one and the same - a mixture of direct action, community activism and education/propaganda work. Since you specifically mentioned fascism we should emphasise that we don't go along with some macho idea that the only way to fight fascism is by street-fighting alone. Physical opposition to fascism most certainly has its part to play but there is also a need for people to be involved in intelligence gathering, education and propaganda work, antifascist prisoner support etc etc so there's a role for everyone to be involved in.
2. I must ask, how did you pick the band name and what does it mean?
If you want the honest truth I actually just got it from looking through a dictionary! The other guys asked me if I had any ideas for what we could call ourselves and, since we wanted a Finnish name rather than an English one, checking the dictionary seemed the best idea as I'm not a native Finnish speaker myself. Kansalaistottelemattomuus means something like "civil disobedience" in English so it's fairly suitable for a band like us given our politics and it's also got four "A"s for drawing circles round so what more do you need?! It does seem fairly difficult for a lot of people from other countries to spell though so the spellings on gig posters in other countries can sometimes be a bit funny. Some people find the name difficult to pronounce too - and when we played in London some guy there thought we were called "Kansas Hippopotamus" - excellent!
3. You really impressed on me when you played at the Punk Illegal festival. Since I have a special in this issue about Punk Illegal, what do you think of that fest, playing, purpose, people etc... And what do you think of festivals like Rebellion?
We all had a great time at Punk Illegal and were really impressed with how smoothly it went, the great mixture of music and the excellent atmosphere. It was very impressive indeed and we all appreciated how much work must have gone into planning it and making it happen over the weekend - respect to the organisers and all the volunteer workers too. All for a good cause as well obviously. My only one tiny criticism isn't really related so much to the festival itself but is that while I know that they must get overwhelmed with e-mails it was a bit of a shame that despite writing to them three times my other band (who had played twice at Punk Illegal) could never get a reply about buying more copies of the excellent video they made at a previous festival that they were selling as a fundraiser and which we wanted to sell for them at our gigs. We could have sold so many copies for them on tour and raised a load more money so I don't really understand why they didn't seem to put much effort into getting the DVD out there when so much work had obviously gone into making it. Whoever put it together did a really good job and with all the great bands on it they could raise a load more cash if they would get it out to more distros. So yeah, I'd say they should get some more volunteers to help answer their mail! Overall though - amazing festival - anyone who missed it should make sure they don't make the same mistake next year.
Fucking "Rebellion" is a very different story though. I fucking detest that kind of shit - just total commercialisation of punk and completely stripped of all politics - it's all just about money making, entertainment and consumption - it makes me want to be sick - seriously. I've also met the main man behind the thing a few times in the past and I was not impressed with his attitude. My other band's guitarist was in a band once that played at one of his gigs and he told me about how they got totally ripped off by him so obviously we're not gonna be into anything that is about making a fat profit for rip-off businessmen - fuck that - this is not what our idea of punk is - it can be so much more than this.
4. What do you think of the D.I.Y-punk scene nowadays if you compare just 10 years back in time?
I think compared to ten years ago the biggest changes are probably due to widespread adoption of information technology within the scene - you know really widespread use of internet and computers by almost everyone involved in the punk scene nowadays. On the plus side this can make organisation of stuff like tours and so on really easy as you can get really, really quick replies from people all over the world at very little cost and you can also get your music out to people everywhere via webpages and mp3 files. On the down side the fact that so many people are just downloading so much music for free means that they are buying a lot less hard copies of the music and that does make things difficult for bands like us. We really notice the difference in how many CDs and LPs were being sold even five years ago to the situation now. Yeah, it's great that people can get music for free but sadly it's not free for bands to get decent quality studio recordings and if people don't buy the CDs then how do you get the studio costs back? Certainly not from gigs when you're a DIY punk band playing so many benefit gigs for free or other gigs just for travel costs or even less. We used to be able to subsidise loss-making gigs by using money from record or CD sales and pay for recording costs that way too but nowadays that's a lot more difficult. You can make a bit of money to help with that from t-shirts but not so much so you're really put in the position of having to cut back on the number of gigs you can do unless you can subsidise the band out of your own pocket which is pretty difficult for us as we're all fairly poor. We did try the recording an LP cheaply on a friend's laptop option too but the results just weren't good enough sound quality-wise. It does cause difficulties for people like us so we'd like to thank anyone who has actually bought any of our records or CDs as they are the people who are helping to keep us gigging and recording - thanks and respect!
5. What will happen with Kansalaistottelemattomuus in the future? As I've understand is it a side project. Is that right?
We have plenty new releases planned from stuff that we've already recorded - tracks on compilations etc and maybe a new 7" and then after that a new LP and tour to coincide with that. We've also got quite a few local gigs coming up over the autumn and winter so we're keeping busy. All of us play in other bands - for instance our bassist Lari plays in the industrial band No I Ain't and our guitarist Janne plays drums in local anarcho-punk outfit Heterofobia but I wouldn't dismiss Kansalaistottelemattomuus as a "side project" at all - we're a fairly regularly gigging proper band who just happens to be made up of members who also play in other groups. Certainly from our experience that's not so unusual in the punk scene.
6. Please, add some last words, whatever you want
Our next release should be out later this month and is a split EP with Oi Polloi which has been released as a benefit fundraiser to help the campaign to rebuild the Cyklopen autonomous centre in Stockholm that was burnt down by neo-nazis at the end of 2008. We played at Cyklopen just a few days before it was destroyed and were really inspired by the place so we really wanted to do something to help. Any readers who are interested in helping the Cyklopen activists should check out their website at www.kulturkampanjen.se - we can't just sit back and let nazis close down our spaces like that - fight back!
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