MONDAY MORNING MUSICAL MAYHEM - featuring No Guidance
New interviews from people in the music scene every Monday, every week, every month!
Welcome to Monday Morning Musical Mayhem: an online series that focuses on musicians, bands, artists, and whoever else in the musical industry that reaches out to us! The goal is help spread the word about people doing rad stuff in the music world! Are you doing rad stuff? Email us at brutalrealitydigest@gmail.com to be featured! xoxoxo
Another Monday and all us punk rock dads are nursing a hangover but here's your weekly dose of radness as we are back at it with MMMM! We're heading back across the pond to Germany to chat with Lukas from No Guidance - a melodic punk rock band that'll blow your hair back. We discuss their upcoming record, their influences and whether or not Bitburger is a good beer. Lets goooooo!
BRUTAL REALITY DIGEST: Introduce yourself, your band, and weapon of choice.
NO GUIDANCE: Hi there. No Guidance is a five-piece melodic Punk Rock Band from the western part of Germany. My name is Lukas and together with Sebastian I play guitar. On bass we have Florian, on vocals Pascal and my brother Niklas plays drums. We all played in several other local bands before we formed the band in 2019. Lukas and Flo joined early 2020 and we immediately started writing songs with the mutual goal to record our own record. Any here we are: FIREWORKS FOR ARSONISTS will hit the streets on June 25, 2021.
BRD: Your press release states that you are from a place called Erndtebrück. Can you convince us it's a real place and if so, what does a guy do in that town?
NG: I can assure you that Erndtebrück is a real place. More or less all of us grew up there, but in all fairness there is not much special here. It's a rural area where you can't do a lot more other than spending time with your friends, having a beer and playing football. That's at least what we did growing up. The next bigger city is 30km down the road and there are a few shows with bigger bands occasionally.
BRD: Some of your influences are Good Riddance, Strike Anywhere, and Rise Against. If you could steal any of their songs as your own, which would you choose?
NG: All bands have a big number of great songs. Picking one of each would be way too hard. What we take from these bands is definitely their dynamic songwriting, the great hooks and surely the depths of the lyrics. Oh yeah, and paper wings. We would totally steal paper wings from Rise Against.
BRD: What's your favourite country to visit in the EU?
NG: Since we all are big punk rock fans we love Slovenia and the Punk Rock Holiday Festival. It is basically our favourite bands performing in Paradise. The people are awesome there and the country is just beautiful.
BRD: Do you guys love the girl from How I Met Your Mother too? Every German dude I've ever met seems to love her and the Hoff!
NG: Not sure which girl you mean but I think we all agree that Ted should have married Victoria. She ended up moving to Germany if I'm not mistaken. And yeah, the Hoff is a national hero in Germany. He is basically the reason West and East Germany re-united in 1989. Looking For Freedom should be our national anthem if you ask me. Just kidding, the Hoff is cool and I think he had his time here. Knight Rider still kills it by the way.
BRD: Most North American punks know about Wizo due to the Fat Wreck compilations in the 90s but tell us about some other good punk bands from your country?
NG: Wizo is a great band. Our first steps into the punk scene were German bands like Wizo, Die Ärzte, Die Toten Hosen & Donots. Some of the bands have mainstream success now but their music changed completely and turned into Radio Rock. Most of the other bands are still around and release new music regularly. What we can say is that we have some awesome not mainstream punk rock bands here, naming Straightline, Heathcliff, The Detectors and For Heads Down. Go, Check them out!
NG: When I attended Groezrock in Belgium in 2011, some very friendly Germans fed me Bitburger beers all weekend. Is that a good beer? What else do you drink there?
NG: Bitburger is a decent beer. Nothing fancy but absolutely drinkable. We love to drink beer from the North of Germany. During and after practice we usually drink Astra, Flensburger or Becks. But to be honest, you may find the best beers in the South of Germany.
BRD: 2020 and a large chunk of this year have been difficult for most of us but what's something non-music related that makes you hopeful for the future?
NG: From what we can say is that the people we know made it through the pandemic safely, which is the most important factor. Since the numbers in Germany are heavily decreasing, Pubs, Restaurants and Beer Gardens are re-opening. As the weather gets better you see people in the streets again, meeting friends or having BBQs in their gardens. Also it is allowed to organize private parties and concerts. If everyone does his or her utmost, getting vaccinated, keeping a safe distance where required or just keeps an eye on each other, I think we can make this last.
BRD: Collectively, how many languages does your band speak?
NG: Everyone speaks German and English. I speak a little bit of French and Spanish and my brother some French.
BRD: Now you can tell us about your musical plans for the rest of 2021 and beyond!
NG: We are super excited about the release of the album and we can't wait for everyone to hear it. For 2021 the most important thing is that countries allow concerts again. I think the people miss those good times, hanging with friends and seeing bands playing live. Would be great if we are able to play some shows this year. Size of the show does not matter in that case.
Beyond 2021 we definitely want to play as many shows as possible, seeing different places and meeting awesome people. Our big dream is to play festivals and share the stage with some of our favourite bands.