Why did you decide to change your name?
Sascha: That's easy! "Regina Regenbogen" is the German name for "Rainbow Brite". When we started the band we didn't care about that. It was just a funny idea because I watched the movie a few days before we started the band. But now we're going to do a 7" and we would love to do some merch, but that means that we're possibly confronted with trademark shit. And i think everyone can imagine and understand, that we aren't a rich band. So we decided to change our name and save our little amount of money.
Inga: Regina lost her rainbow on the way to get popular. When we're rich enough to pay all this trademark shit, we'll buy it back!
How is the new split 7" going?
Sascha: The songs are finished and I'm sure that this record will kick everyone's ass. The Lipkick (an all-girl band from southern Germany) songs are amazing too. Means that you'll get a 7" with 2 very pissed sides. At the moment we're in the search for record labels to collect money for the vinyl duplication.
Inga: I have to check different offers from vinyl duplicators and Lars, our bass player, has to finish the artwork.
When will it be released?
Inga: I hope everything will be ready for Christmas, then you'll find one under the tree...
You don't have many shows listed online. Are there any plans to tour soon?
Sascha: That's not that easy. Except for Inga, all of us have other bands. Next "problem" is that we (Inga and I) have a little daughter and we're not able to find a babysitter for the time a "real" tour takes.
You have a song called "Der Anti-Myspace Song", but you also have a myspace account. Do you feel like it's impossible to make music now without having one?
Sascha: No. I don't see any problem in playing shows without having one. You just have to know a few people and you have to do a lot of "work". Record some stuff, put it on cd, make artwork, take band pictures, write a biography, send all those little packages all over the world and play a lot of local shows first. And that's the point. It's very easy with myspace. I think myspace was made for lazy people like us. We don't have to do anything. We're just sitting around and waiting for e-mails of people asking us to play.
What is it about myspace you hate?
Sascha: That there's a lot of shitty music. Hahaha. But that's not what the lyrics are about. They were also the reason for starting Regina. We wanted to scream at each other. I scream that the only reason for the huge amount of Inga's friends, is that she's showing her tits in her pictures. And she screams that I'm an asshole 'cause I chose that I'm on myspace for "dating".
Inga: I can't stand this copy & paste society. sometimes we run D.I.Y shows with underground bands that no one likes except for us. Because of that we get hundreds of messages a week with the same stupid message. A few years ago bands sent self recorded tapes and letters instead of e-mails. When I think back to times like that I wish myspace to hell.
A lot of other German bands right now sing in English, but you sing in German. Did you decide that you were going to do it that way for any particular reason?
Sascha: We never thought about that. We just wrote some stuff. And then more stuff. And it was always in German. Maybe 'cause there's no one in the band, who's very good at English. And it's always easier to express what you mean when you're a native speaker.
Inga: I think, dream and speak in German, so why should I shout in English? If we translated all this crazy shit from our heads into English it wouldn't be the same!
What's the music scene like in Münster?
Sascha: We have a lot of students here. People come and go. And there's a huge number of boring, slow old-school hardcore bands, which get a lot of support by germany's biggest mailorder (for punk and hc) "green hell" and their friends. Those people have their own scene, own shows and don't care about the lil' diy stuff we're doing. Except for hating us for hating them. Pretty funny, isn't it?
Inga: Münster is a city which seems to be made for rich people and students. There aren't many spaces for squats and other self determined places. There is a group of people who have been fighting for an autonomic youth centre for a couple of years, but the city council smashes every effort in this direction.
Descendents would say: "This place sucks!"
When did Regina get started? How did you get started?
Sascha: We started the band in... I think it was 2005, when we we're drunk at Inga's flat and listened to Slayer's "south of heaven". Johnny (our first drummer) and I had a band together, but he left the band cause he wanted to study in another town. But then he decided to stay in Münster. So we decided to start a new band. We went to our rehearsal room and just played. Johnny on the drums, myself on the guitar and Inga grabbed the mic. The "Anti-Myspace Song" was born.
A few months later, again johnny wanted to leave to study in another town. This time he left. The band split up. Inga and i broke up. The band was dead. A few months later we brought our relationship and our band back to life. We started the search for a new drummer and this time a bass player. We found 2 people (Lars and Maik) for the drums. So we took Maik for the drums and Lars for the bass. Tadaaaaaa. Fin.
Inga: I got sick of sitting around and watch TV while the boyzzz toured through Germany with their other bands. So i decided to do my own shit and have a band instead of screaming around at home.
When did your band start to get noticed by people?
Sascha: I'm not sure about that. But I think it happened really fast. Like I said before it's amazing that we don't have to do anything. People contact us asking us to play. Our other bands have to work hard for that. Maybe the reason for our popularity is that we don't take care about what we say. We just say it. And for that a lot of people love us and a lot of people hate us. There's no inbetween.
Was your demo tape self-released or did somebody put it out for you?
Sascha: The tape was released by Oile, a friend of us, who does a DIY label, named Katze Platten. The recording, mixing and artwork was done by us.
Inga: Lars also made some copies with his label, called Kill All Human Records!
Alltogether we made about 150 tapes and sent them to different mailorders and distros to spread them all over the world to kick peoples asses.
Is it still possible to buy copies or did it sell out?
Sascha: I heard that it's sold out now. Our copies were sold very fast and the last Katze Platten copies are sold out, since a few days ago. If you still want regina stuff you have to download it from the myspace page or just wait for the 7".
I think we will offer the demo as free mp3-download after it's sold out now. But we have to start a homepage first, cause that won't work via myspace.
Inga: We did 150 copies but all of them are sold out. I will make some new promo-tapes in limited edition, but no new ones for the mailorder. You can buy some compilations with our songs or wait for the 7"!
Is there anything you'd like to recommend to people reading this (websites/blogs/bands/record labels)?
Sascha: Sure! First you should check out our other bands: Over The Top, Absorbor, and Bomben auf Bullerbue.
Inga: Listen to our great heroes from Galaxor.
And visit the pages of our labels.
www.myspace.com/
Do you have any advice to finish with?
Sascha: Ehm... If there's something to say, say it!
And if you're planning to do a Regina show, make sure you have enough beer and Jaegermeister.
And, of course, buy our 7"! You won't regret it.
Thanks for the interview and to everyone who wasted their time on reading this.
Inga: Thanks for doing a show about our shit. Listen to regina at www.myspace.com/rainbowcore!
Thanks a lot to Sascha and Inga for taking the time out to answer those questions. You can listen to them and a lot of other German hardcore bands in this episode of the show.
No comments:
Post a Comment