Posted on Jul 16, 2007 by Tom

Austria's Rentokill are a band on the rise, what with their latest "Antichorus" making waves across Europe at the moment and their blend of furious melodic hardcore playing straight in the books of fans from the likes of Rise Against, Strike Anywhere and Propagandhi. We had some questions regarding the bands political engagement ever since hearing their debut, so with a few years delay here goes ...

First off, we can imagine there are quite a few people out there who aren’t too familiar with the name Rentokill so please quickly introduce the band, it’s members and anything else you’d like to share upfront!

Rentokill was originally formed around 10 years ago, and in the beginning it took us quite some time to learn how to play our instruments. It took us even more time to realise how to step out in the world of DIY ethics, and get our asses moving. We then had a line-up change in 2003, on a “now-or-never” basis, and from that on we played around 250 shows all over Europe, put out our first album “back to convenience” on several labels in different countries, also including Japan. Recently, we worked heavily on our second full-length album “AntiChorus”, which had been released on Rude Records (CD) and Broken Heart Records (LP) in May 2007.

You’re from Austria, a country that really seems to be booming in punkrock matters with acts the like of Jan Feat U.D.S.S.R., Random, 3 Feet Smaller, Antimaniax, Red Lights Flash whom found a home on A-F records, and of course yourselves. How would you assess the strength of your local scene at this point?

I guess there’s a point in networking. Since this is a small country, you soon know many of the bands that are willing to do something, you get to know them and you see who they are, what they do. You can learn a lot from each other, exchange experiences, and this surely helps a lot. Of course, this has nothing to do with the music itself, but we learned that there are so many great bands in every country, in the end it is just about getting to know them or not. If they do not step out, because they don’t know where to start, or if they wait for something from outside to happen, you will never hear from them. And that’s something that bands like RLF, Antimaniax or JAN feat. UdSSR showed us – if you want something to happen, make it happen.

Any bands besides those mentioned we should keep an eye out for?

Definitely! We are part of a local band’s collective, NEUSTADTPUNK.NET, and I can just suggest to check out all their bands, especially the latest releases of “Astpai” and “Dimitrij” are amazing! For metal influenced hardcore you should check out “The Plague Mass”, they have been touring all over Europe recently, very politically based stuff! And we all love “The Cretins” for their straight 1-2-3-4 Ramones-style punk, they have also a great debut-album out now on Dambuster Records.

Austria isn’t exactly known for its strong underground scene though, but more for its Schlager-music and après-ski hits. How do the Austrian people react to the kind of music that Rentokill plays?

Well, of course the mainstream audience will never get to listen to our music, but i guess that’s the same thing in every country. Even at “alternative” festivals or something like that, where we have the opportunity to play sometimes, you will find people that are not into punkrock at all. On the other hand, we have met a lot of people who tell us that they had really liked our show, although they had never listened to that type of music before.

Do you have the chance to play in between two après-ski acts or are you limited to alternative clubs and café’s only?

The question would be: “do you want to play in between two aprés-ski acts at all?” I don’t see playing in clubs or squats as a limitation, that’s where this type of music came from, and maybe that’s where it belongs. Of course, big concerts may have some attractions, for both audience and bands, but if it is about making your music really touch people, or even transport some message, you will gain quality on a personal level, therefor small clubs.

How hard do you find it, being a band from Austria, to reach across the borders with your music and try to make a name for yourselves, like on a European level?

I think it depends on multiple things. We could really see some progress when we put out our first record “back to convenience”, and got good reviews everywhere, suddenly people seemed to react positively to our music. Maybe this only gave us more self-confidence, and made us play better shows. But it really changed something. Also for the fact that we could book shows in foreign countries, not for decent money, but at least book them and go on tour.

Maybe for some bands it’s an option to have something like a “hit-single” on airplay, making you well-known in different areas, and then go on tour when you’re already known, but that doesn’t normally work out for punk or hardcore bands. You have to go on tour, naturally because you like it, and the more shows you play, the better you will do. The same goes for releasing records regularly, so i guess you have to be moving constantly, and not sit on your ass.

When I see the European Union I always make the analogy to the underground scene in my mind. I mean sure it’s underground but instead of having this multitude of scattered islands who each have their thing going I would much rather see that people would look beyond the borders and reach out to bands from other countries as well. Do you think the European scene is ready to really come together and finally recognise and acknowledge the talent it harbours instead of looking at what comes from across the Atlantic as the ultimate guideline?

This is mainly a question of perception. Fact is that a band coming from the US, for example, must somehow be a good band, they are coming over, and they are from the US. A lot of people seem to think that way. Finally, popular punkrock emerged in the US, therefor it’s clear that people will react differently to that. Seen on a larger scale, even alternative airwaves do not give local acts a big chance in most countries. But it really depends, you could see a very well established scene in Scandinavia in the mid 90ties, for example. At the moment, we are exchanging more interests with bands from Slovenia or Czech than we do with bands from Belgium or France, for example. Of course we haven’t toured much in those territories, though. So much for the European Union.

But i think it’s an interesting comparison, and things might well change over the next few years, in terms of a scene that is growing together – hopefully.

Do you think the European scene fares better now than a few years ago in terms of possibilities for bands? How has the internet played a role in this (negative and positive aspects?)?

Yes, i do, but not exclusively. We have a lot more contacts and opportunities than we used to have a few years ago, but this also depends on the work we did over those years. But you can see that there is more people organising shows, running webzines or distros, and also more bands that are willing to step out. But if there’s a lot of people doing concerts, for example, you can easily reach the point where you cannot distinguish between who’s doing decent shows – good promotion, good clubs, taking good care of a band, whatever – and who’s doing it just to do it or whatever. Also, if there is so many shows going on in a certain city, for example, people get saturated, and in the end no one profits. However, the internet has surely helped bands to expose themselves, and as long as “consumers” can still decide freely what they like, i think it’s a fair game. It’s just strange when a band puts more effort into their myspace profile than into their music.

Having been in the genre and played as opening act for a lot of great bands, what do you think should really improve drastically for bands to get better opportunities to play, distribute their discs, …?

Nowadays, i would say the decrease in record sales is the main factor. I don’t wanna cry around like some major label business people, because in fact they are the main factor.

People get used to download music or burn CDs, they get used to quantity instead of what could be called sustainability in music. Quality! However, if that’s the way it goes, what can you do? Who can force people to pay for something like they did a few years ago if they don’t want it anymore? So the majors come along and try to get most possible profit in the short-term, because they are used to that profit, obviously. Bands are booked for big festivals, and people get used to those festivals. Consuming music is more and more degenerating into a egocentric fun generation, which is of course selling well! As you mentioned us as opening acts for some great bands, that would really be a point! There’s so many good european bands out there, but it’s very hard to get them booked as support slots for better known bands, when they come on tour as a package, for example.

But, naturally, people who complain about a lack of opportunities are usually people that want to gain something, and not people that make music because they love it. It’s pretty easy.

You don’t seem to be doing badly by yourselves, as you inked a deal with Engineer Records for a release of “Back To Convenience” in the Uk and Vitaminenpillen for Germany, while your new one is getting released in a slew of countries. Excited?

Yes, of course we are excited! There’s been a lot of positive things going on in recent times, and we are of course curious to see what will happen next. We have a friend who has helped a lot with promotion stuff over the last 5 years, without asking for anything in terms of money or shit. This is something really important for the daily work, that is growing more and more, as the band grows. You reach a point where it’s hard to co-ordinate everything by yourself, and still find the time to make music. We have maybe been a bit lucky by getting that many different people to work with over the last few years, but still it depends a lot on the band where you can go.

How important has the deal with “Rise Or Rust” and more recently Rude Records been in terms of exposure for the band?

First of all, the work with the guys from Rise Or Rust Records has offered us a good step into the punk/hc scene in Austria, they are great guys and we still owe them a lot. On the other hand, we had the feeling that the band was reaching out faster that we thought the label could support us, that was why we started to look for additional possibilities for “back to convenience”. For “AntiChorus”, we immediately started looking for labels all over the world, to see what the potential opportunities might be. We had quite some visions of what we wanted and what we didn’t want, and we kept talking to a lot of different people to get their opinions, because we didn’t want to make a mistake by choosing a label that probably would not work the way we wanted. As for the possible “exposure” over the next one or two years, it’s hard to say what the work with RUDE will bring, but we have a very good feeling within the whole situation, actually.

Has there been an interest from other labels as well?

Yeah, quite a few. The most interesting alternative was a deal proposed by GoKart Records Europe, a label that we really would have liked to work with. They offered an exclusive, world-wide deal for the CD and an option for vinyl, and we unfortunately couldn’t agree with that because for us it was clear that we wanted to have the album out on vinyl immediately, preferably released by our friend’s label Broken Heart Records, who already had done a great job on “back to convenience”. We were really happy to get the proposal from GoKart, but in the end we were aiming in a bit different direction, i guess. We won’t limit ourselves to just one exclusive deal, and you’ll see us working with different labels all over the globe in the future as well.

”Back To Convenience” was a strong title for an album, and “Antichorus” follows suit. What’s behind the titles?

“Back to Convenience” had a strong focus on problems concerning this society, distorted perception of human and animal rights, individual satisfaction and people’s urge to get it. “Back to Convenience” means to me somebody leaning back in his easy-chair, switching the TV on, forgetting about what is going on outside, yet being satisfied with what the TV offers.

Some songs on “AntiChorus” turned out to be more about this media issue, less about the ones consuming but those creating the content. This also goes for the title itself, people blindly following mass media, politicians or even potential punkrock “stars”, without questioning content and context.

Did you tackle the recording process for the new record differently?

Well, it was clear that we would go for overdub recording, and not record all the instruments live at once, as we did on the first record. We also knew that we wanted to spend a little more time on the recordings, but we didn’t plan to spend that much time. Especially the vocal recordings took us way too long, we couldn’t keep the schedule and collided with a UK tour, voices broke, and so on. Of course it’s the second album, and you want to put even more love into it than into the first one. It can be hard to draw a line sometimes, you risk losing the original point. As Picasso once said: “The picture is never finished, i just stop painting.”

But for the main approach, it was more or less the same. It was clear that we would choose the same guy for recording, and that we wanted nobody as a producer than ourselves.

As of late, there are tons of bands that insert a political message in their music. Personally, I think that there’s so much preaching going on at shows and on records that kids might get bored and lose interest. What are your thoughts on this matter?

That’s a very good point. But as i said before, it depends a lot on the surroundings of that specific situation. If kids “feel” politically active because the experience that preaching during a big punkrock show, for example, they might lose that interest as quickly as they originally got it. In fact, they see “stars” on a big stage, and not ordinary people that have opinions that can be shared. But if somebody is already thinking in specific – e.g. alternative – ways, it won’t be seen as preaching, i would say.

Do you think there is such an overflow that the real message gets lost in the sea of (mis)information or do you think the more the merrier?

Which leads us to the question what the “real message” is. People have to have a feeling about what is going wrong in this world, and there can be as many ways of thinking as there are people. You have to have a feeling about what you want to be changed. We are so embedded in a society based on capitalistic principles that it gets hard to see what will truly satisfy us over the long term. And things are based on personal satisfaction, of course.

Once people realise that buying fair-trade products or caring about the environment really can make a change for their lives, individually, they will see that it is also making fun, that it satisfies them. Of course, this depends on what they are told to want, and corporately controlled mass media is aiming for most possible profit, obviously.

But as long as you are open for different sources of information, important hints can come in the form of a book, fiction or non-fiction, a film, a documentary, a website or whatever. You have to be the one who’s ready for using that knowledge offered, to transform it into some form of reaction.

Do you think that punk rock is still about provoking or that the main importance of the existence of the scene is the “musical” aspect nowadays? Has the shock-effect faded away for good with a lot of bands flying the flag on the radio these days?

Maybe. But the shock effect that is making a difference is working on a deeper level.

Of course, since this provoking has happened for decades now, people get tired of if. But you can also see that political punkrock or hardcore bands are putting more importance into the content of their songs, or lyrics, respectively. So it’s more pointing at a certain issue than just provoking.

How do you value the importance of the DIY lifestyle, and do you think it is still applicable in a scene where there’s so many hypes and trends watering down the initial values the music carried so highly in it’s crest some years ago?

Well, the good news is that the DIY ethics will never die once they are established, i would say. Hypes and trends come and go, and there will always be pros and contras to those. Three letters like DIY can also be used as a trend, who can truly say?

It comes back to the question why you are making music, in fact. If you pass on some work concerning your band to a third person, for example someone who wants to “manage” your band, chances are high that his or her interests are of a more financial approach. He or she might want to be a “star” in managing your band, while you simply want to make music. Somebody might try to book you a show for 500.-, whereas you would ask for only 150.-

If you work with somebody that you know, and trust, or of who you know that he or she is working on the same principles as you do, it’s still DIY although you are not “doing it yourself”.

Is there still a room for the fat wreck style of punkrock bands these days when waves of screamo emo and indie bands are taking over the airwaves and such?

Isn’t it hard to define “fatwreck”-style at all, especially in these days? Also, this has always been a style of music that doesn’t go on the airwaves, at least not mainstream.

Rentokill plays the same Fat Wreck type of fast, aggressive and technical melodic punk rock, which is a pretty overcrowded genre still despite its waning influence. What differs Rentokill from the other bands around? Why should people listen to Rentokill?

Because we are smart, handsome, have trendy haircuts and we’re supercool, of course! Haha!

Seriously, people should listen to whatever they want. It’s major label business to tell them what to like, and to buy, respectively.

Time to get a bit acquainted with your personal preferences: What song that is currently on the radio that you shamefully admit to liking?

Shamefully? There’s some Avril Lavigne song i like. Something like “I wanna be your Girlfriend”. Haha. No, actually i hardly ever listen to the radio, since there is too much shit being broadcast. In Austria, there aren't any real independent radio stations, especially none that play a dedicated, specific type of music, or at least “underground”: Hence, no radio for me.

What’s playing in your stereo at the moment?

Intensity – The ruins of our future, LP

What is more important to you? Writing good lyrics or writing a good song musically?

Both is important to me. But if one of our own songs is really shitty to me, musically, i can still like it if i’m satisfied with the lyrics. If the lyrics are shit to me, i try to work it over.

What do you like best: Currywurst or bratwurst?

We’re all vegetarians. I love curry, though.

Are there any specific things that you want to achieve with the band in the future?

Well, it would do good to reach a point where the money we put into this band comes out again. I would like to go on tour without thinking of how we can afford it, besides having to afford our living when we are at home. And we are praying for our van not to fall apart. We will also try to get decent deals for the new album for outside Europe, where North America and Japan are on the main focus right now. And it would be great to have the chance of touring on another continent one day, once we have that representation over there. We will see.

What are the short-term plans for the band except for touring off of the new album? Anything special you’d still like to achieve.

There is the idea of making a video to at least one song from “AntiChorus”, mainly because we have never done one so far. It will depend on time and motivation, however. Touring will of course be the plan for most of the time, and maybe record some new stuff later that year. No hurry, though.

Any famous last words?

Can words be famous? Even if so, it will have to be words in a conversation, and not a one-sided message. We’re neither politicians nor rockstars. We’re gonna be on tour again soon, and i cannot wait to meet people out there, personally, talk to each other, or simply have some drinks together. Finally, there’s more in life than punkrock.

We would like to thank EuroPunk for the support over the last years, and we hope to meet you all out there, finally. May the trash make you strong!

thanks

jack + rentokill

Taken On:

May 29th, 2007

Interviewees:

Jack - Guitar, Backing Vocals

Related Links:

• www.rentokill.com
• www.myspace.com/rentokill

Band Profile

Click to view band profile

Band Of The Month December 2004

Album Reviews

	Antichorus May 18, 2007
	Back To Convenience Jun 22, 2004

Interviews

May 29, 2007