Mike of Berlin hardcore bands SEEK NOTHING and ERAI joins us today for a quick chat about his new project LOCAL SUPPORT, a relatively new hardcore band (est. 2019), who just released their debut EP “Stone Cold Jane Austen”! The new offering features four harsh jams with a solid nod to melodious, classic punk roots, with a modern twist of high-octane hardcore. We sat down to give you a brief introduction to their project and send a proper message about local artist support all indpendent scenes need in these difficult times.
100% of all digital sales of the EP will go to the Hardcore Help Foundation, a non-profit group based in Germany that works with local organizations and various community based projects.
Why LOCAL SUPPORT and what other bands are guys in?
Well what started out as a little project a couple of years ago grew into a full-blown band eventually, so the name really started as a joke because we were shocked that no one had used the name yet!
I know Scott (Black Lungs/Vicious Cycle) through mutual friends (that all totally hate heavy music…) and we eventualy instantly bonded over hardcore and punk music. He had some demos that he wanted me to sing over so we recorded them on his laptop then suggested finding a bassist and drummer, potentially with the idea of playing a couple of shows for fun. Eventually we found Bonnie (Isoscope/CHLOR) and I realised that my mate Dan actually played a pretty mean bass!
Anyway, we jammed, wrote some songs and were ready to record them before we got hit with an eight month lockdown… so it was a bit frustrating to sit on four tracks lasting barely six minutes, but we go there in the end.
Cool. So what are your plans for the future?
Currently we are making some tapes and shirts ready for shows but mainly we are trying to play our first concert before there might be another lockdown! We also have a couple of ideas for new songs so potentially maybe writing an album but we shall see, we’ve all played in bands a lot so it’s important that the project is fun and not stressful… so we’ll see what happens.
How did you decide to support the Hardcore Help Foundation?
Well we all have full-time jobs and like I said are all a bit “long in the tooth” for touring so Dan suggested we charge a little bit for the digital download and help where we can. I’ve played fundraising shows for HHP before so it made sense to go with them. It’s definitely something we would like to do more of in the future.
Can you give us a track by track commentary for each song with explanation of the lyrics?
STONE – Mike (vocals) The opening song is just your typical obnoxious punk anthem but like with most of my lyrics it’s pretty tongue-in-cheek. It’s nice to play this kind of music but mess around with the clichés a little.
COLD – Mike (vocals) Dan wrote the lyrics for this about shit friends not getting in touch and once we recorded it with vocals it ended up being one of our favourites. We were all heavily involved in the song writing of the record so each track has a really different feel and vibe, which is pretty exciting and also bit confusing but that’s what I like about it. It’s a challenge to make all our identities present and still make the EP sound mildly consistent.
JANE – Bonnie (drums) The lyrics for JANE deal with the topic of rape and with all the feelings it leaves behind in you. There are moments your alienate yourself, but there are also moments where you feel fierce and want to call someone into account. JANE tries to put this inner divergence into words.
AUSTEN – Mike (vocals) I think this might our favourite song on the record, especially because Scott gets to be let totally loose on the guitar solo at the end! Lyrically it’s about a burgeoning relationship that ends very abruptly, basically I just wanted to finally write a proper breakup song. I cannot bloody wait to play this live!
Thanks! Is there anything else you’d like to share here?
Well mainly a massive thank you to Tim at Man Made Mastering who kindly mixed and mastered the EP for us, we could not be happier with how it turned out.
Bonnie’s other band Isoscope just released their debut album too, so go check it out!
And lastly, I just wanted to remind everyone not to forget about local hardcore and punk bands, especially as the pandemic has completely obliterated touring and concerts across the globe. Countless music venues and bars are being shut down in Berlin, and sure techno and indie music is cool I guess but why is punk and metal music always forgotten about?!
#FuerDieZukunftAmOstkreuz
