Long time no see, our Belgrade based one man screamo / emoviolence friend, Filip from EVA RAS! The ever-prolific act is back with his new collaboration, this time with his Serbian pal from give.me.the.gun, another one man noisy screamo project based in Novi Sad. Unsurprisingly, their new offering comes of the most harrowing, disturbing releases in experimental, raw screamo this year.
“I was the one who came across give.me.the.gun. by accident. First online and then at one of the diy punk venues. ” – explains Filip.
“At first, I thought I was talking to a random person who just happened to attend the event. It’s when he revealed himself to be behind give.me.the.gun. that made my night. I’ve been wanting to make a split with someone within Serbia and other ex-yu countries. Which is why I had the chance to ask him about the split and he accepted it immediately. Within months of recording despite hardships, we managed to make it happen. This split release is important to me in so many ways.”
Asked about his recent projects and updates on Eva Ras, Filip confirms that it’s been nearly two good years of no releases for the project up until now.
“I’ve been performing at a few shows once in a while here and there as well as getting myself balanced with post-college life, as well as fronting for another band. Nevertheless, that doesn’t prevent me from releasing more stuff. I just liked the fact that I somehow improved and i would like to continue doing so.”
Speaking of his local punk scene, he conitnues: “As always, the ex-yu punk scene is pretty much in shambles. It feels like we’re still set back in the 80’s, where all kinds of subgenres don’t exist yet and that only hardcore and post punk are all the rage. It’s a shame because you have so much to get influenced by and have an opportunity to make something of your own, even with something so extreme like grindcore. And what’s worse is that no one cares about any of that. Everyone wants to mosh to it but no one would bother being active and contribute to the scene themselves. It’s a sad state we’re in.”
Taking on his perspective on this collaboration, give.me.the.gun. confirms that he was approached by Filip indirectly .”He’s been archiving more emo/screamo bands that he could find.”
“We started talking the second time we met at a punk show in Belgrade, we talked about out similar interests and his projects that he’s involved in (sueisntfine, eva ras).
“I mentioned that I was featured on a list that someone did on RateYourMusic, to my surprise that was him who found me. We were both pleasantly surprised, he asked if I wanted to do a split with him and i immediately said yes. Even seeing him perform live was inspiring enough to motivate me to work with him. As for me, this was the first time I worked with somebody that listened to this type of music.” – comments give.me.the.gun.
Expounding a bit more on their local scene, he admits that screamo, as well as emo by itself, is a niche genre that not everybody can digest.
“Our local scene mostly consists of metalheads more than anyone else, so collaborating with him was a breath of fresh air for me, honestly.” – he sighs.
“Generally, being influenced by bands such as Jeromes Dream and Neil Perry, i decided to record songs in my bedroom with the intent to sound very lo-fi and desolate, trying to emulate similar to what you would get if you’d record a band practice session into a cassette recorder, the potato-like quality style isn’t dead!”
As for performing and his possible live shows give.me.the.gun. argues that he’d rather leave it just as a project for people to listen to at home rather than play it live, being more like a lost recording type of thing.
