There is always a floor or stage for F.U.B.A.R.

interview with f.u.b.a.r. fubar grindcore

Please give us a short introduction of yourself and also introduce the other members as well.
Hello, I am Mark guitarist of F.U.B.AR.. I will be answering the questions. And I also do a little bit of vocals in F.U.B.AR..
The other guys are Bas. He plays bass guitar and does the low grunts. Paul is drumming. And Luc is our main vocalist en writer of most of the lyrics.
But I think that won’t come as a surprise, the line up hasn’t changed in about 10 years.
We had a short period when we called ourselves I Scream Protest!. But never released or did anything worth mentioning under that name.
By the time our demo came out, and we started to play more and more, we were already called F.U.B.AR.. Playing as loud and fast as we can for more than ten years now.

Can you also explain the moniker? And don't make us believe that it stands for "fucked up beyond all recognition"…
Why not, we made you believe it stands for Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition for all those years now.
To be honest, I am not really fond of our name. But in our defense, we were young, and all the good band names, like Brutal Truth, Phobia or Neurosis were already taken.

It took us some time to come up with F.U.B.A.R. We thought about keeping the name I Scream Protest! or calling ourselves Nihilist. But I Scream Protest! was not ours and Nihilist already existed. So after weeks of discussions we all decided on F.U.B.A.R. We had to decide, we needed to put a name on our demo.

Diving into history we see the birth in 2001. What was the main reason to form the band and why was grindcore chosen?
Back then I was playing guitar in Suppository. Boris (vocalist of Suppository), me and Bas were looking for a drummer to put some live in a old project of Boris called I Scream Protest!. The goal was to make old school grindcore (playing just like Napalm Death did).

After some searching we found Paul. He was playing in a band called Maggots and was very enthusiastic about drumming in I Scream Protest!.
So we started to write some songs. The farther we came, the farther the songs drove away from the idea of making old school gindcore. We put influences in, of all the music we liked. More, punk, power violence, hardcore and modern stiles of grindcore.
Boris lost interest in the project, we said goodbye and we found Luc. Actually he already was at all our rehearsals anyway and loved grindcore as much as we did.
So when we got enough songs to record a demo we asked Luc to sing.
Making grindcore was never a question. What kind of influences we put in our grindcore was, and still is the basis of how we write songs.

Btw, is it coincidence that the track "I Scream Protest" is on the new album?
No. We wanted to do that for a while now. A shout out to our past after all these years. And found a full length a great opportunity to do it. The lyrics have nothing to do with our past.

Without having a debut out you managed to play obscure festivals ad with other bands like LDOH, Regurgitate and Phobia. How did you managed that?
That’s what I love about the underground grindcore scene. If you want to play, you can. No mather how small or big your band is. There is always a floor or stage to voice your opinion.
We drove all over Europe for gas money, some beers and food. I remember one time we drove to the Slovakia border in a fiat 500. Arriving and nothing is there but a empty room. But a few hours later the billiard was set aside a PA system was brought in. And we had grindcore show.
Even though we did not have a full length, we released a demo two split seven inches and split record with Catheter before "Justification Of Criminal Behavour". That gave us a lot of publicity.
And Bas our bass player, played in LDOH. So it was not a big problem to play with them.

After the debut you even got a tour in Brazil. How the hack did you came there? And what do you remember from that time? Some crazy stories to tell?
Bruno asked us. I think he is playing guitar in Life Is A Lie right now. Played around 10 to 12 shows I think.
Lots of memories of Brazil. Love to go back there someday. We spend most of our time in Sau Paulo, sleeping in a hotel that most people only book for about an hour.
I think we played the best gigs there to. Good crowds, very enthusiastic. How we survived everything is a miracle.

Since then F.U.B.A.R. is doing the standard things like recording, releasing and playing. It is almost a job or not?
No, playing in F.U.B.AR. is far from a job. In the end F.U.B.AR. is costing us money. We try to pay the studio with the money we make of doing gigs and selling merchandise and that’s it.
We all see it as a hobby. Every Tuesday we have rehearsal, and shows are mostly in the weekends.
Paul, Bas and me have jobs during the week. Luc is just out of a job, but trying to put life in Doomstar booking agency. He is doing pretty well.

Can you mention the goals for the band to reach in the nearby future? What would be called the cherry on the cake?
Just after finishing "Lead Us To War" we started to write new songs for some new releases. Hopefully another full lengt sometime in 2013. But we are far from finished with that. Because we are trying some new stuff. I think a lot of you will be surprised, if it all works out. Between our first and second full length is about 6 years. Hopefully this time we will be faster.
And for me, a cherry on the cake will be a new tour, sometime in 2013. We haven’t done in a while, and I’m really starting to miss it. So if you are interested in booking us. Get in contact.

For those who are unknown with grindcore could you briefly explain the music, how it sounds like?
Short, fast and loud.
F.U.B.AR. is very fast punk/crust music, with heavy guitars and blast beats.

Grindcore is a rage against a lot of things. Some use politics as inspiration other animal rights. Do you have such believe what you broadcast through the music?
You have got the wrong one to answer this question. I almost never write lyrics. I only wrote one or two lyrics in the history of F.U.B.AR.. Luc is our main writer, and I think Bas also does some of them. Together with three of us we put them on the music.
But as a one of the vocalists I can’t say I don’t know what the lyrics are about. They are about everyday frustrations and politics. Our opinion about social problems and the society we live in.
Mostly shit that gets us angry enough so scream very hard, as you can hear on our records. If you want to know what we scream, listen very carefully or by the records. Most of them have got the lyrics in them.

We just had elections here in the Netherlands. Did you follow and did you vote? Do you think it will make sense to vote even the other ones always win?
I follow it very carefully. The outcome of the elections have a great influence on my daily work. I always was interested in politics. I think as an artist who makes a form of punk music you have to be. You have to know what you are protesting against.
And I also vote. No matter what you think about all the political parties we have, or the political system we live with.
If you are against it all or have no trust in it, vote blank. If you can give your opinion, do it. No matter what.
You can see what happened in the middle east and north of Africa. Maybe the outcome is not what they wished for. But you can’t ignore such a large outburst of people demanding freedom to say what they want to say and to choose what they want to choose.

Every country is in recession nowadays, do you notice this yourself? Are you concerned what is going on? What is your opinion what should be changed in society?
Yes, I see more and more people losing their jobs and houses, not able to get out of the problems by themselves or barely hanging on. More and more people depending on welfare, and a government who is making it more difficult for them.
But to be honest I also do not have a answer about how to solve all of this. I could write, about how the whole world should change and all the bankers should be punished (most of them should). We should get rid of a self destructing system only thrives on growth, and that multinationals are not interested in people, and are so big, unions can’t do anything about it anymore.
But helping out someone who was already barely hanging on, and now gets kicked down further is also an answer.
And for the people who are whining, how bad they are struck by this recession because they have to pay more taxes or some shit. What we call a recession, is enormous wealth in comparisons to 90 percent of this world.

"Lead Us To War" is the album title and implicates we have to push you to war, or not? Or referring to something or someone?
To be honest we choose the title out of all the songs that are on the record. In the end is was a battle between, 'Lead Us To War', 'I Scream Protest' and I think 'Beasts', as they are.
We compromised to 'Lead Us To War', because it sounded the best with all the songs we had on the record. So for an album title it has no further meaning.
The song is about, how the system that mistrusts us and tries to control us will eventually lead us to war.

Register. No thought is left secret. Every move controlled. Everything is now predicted. Safety, it’s more important than freedom. Why, why. We can’t explain why. Freedom, lead us to war.

Some metalheads reject grindcore as it would be a style which you don't have to be a musician. Chaotic, fast and short songs. Obviously you won't agree so convince those narrow minded.
No need to convince no one. If you don’t like it, don’t listen to it.
I love the chaos and intensity of grind, crust and hardcore. I am not a big fan of everything being so thigh en well produced. I love feedback, noisy stuff, singers who sing who can barely stay in key and that kind of stuff.
The intensity of our songs makes them so short. When we feel we made our point we stop and make another one.

All I can say, music is the most open en reachable form of art in the world. With a well organized scene and nowadays with internet, grindcore is available everywhere and very cheep of even free. I love that. That’s why you make art, to show to others, maybe even convince them whit what you want to say. I like to be open minded about that. Give all music a chance and decide myself what I do or don’t like.

For me it never was about being the best guitarist of most technical band, but songs that I like, no matter in what form.

Are you involved in other projects? Or maybe doing other things in the music world? And what are doing outside the music world? Work, family or hobbies?
For Bas, Paul and me F.U.B.AR. is the only thing we do in grindcore. I have other interests in different kind of music styles. But nothing worth mentioning here. F.U.B.AR. is my only recording and performing band at this time. Always full of new ideas though.
Luc our singer is a very busy man in the grindcore en metal scene. He is organizing lots of festivals and tours with Doomstar bookings. Best known I think is Bloodshedfest, but he also does Slugfest and Slow end Fest and loads of tours for grind, metal, sludge and doom bands. Right now he is on tour with a death metal band of witch I forgot the name.
But check Doomstar out. Very interesting what they all do and all the bands they bring over and tour through Europe. Last year they toured Macabre, P.L.F., Coffins, Catheter and lots more.

If we met in a pub and had some beers, what joke would you tell?
Probably, a very bad one.

And how about humor in the band? Joking between the lads when playing? Joking towards the crowd? And what about humor in the music?
Lots of humor in the band. I don’t think you will make it more than 10 years with just 4 guys without humor. Lots of fun with all the bands we got to know in all those years. The old cliché is still true. If you put a bunch of guys in a van and go on the road. You will end up with very bad humor that only those people will understand.

In our music and on stage we are not that funny. In our songs there is no humor and we do not have any sketches of standup comedy between our songs. We sing about serious shit, so humor in our act does not fit that in my opinion.

Most likely there are things not being said so here is your chance to say what you want.
Listen to grindcore.

Thanks for your time and see you around.
Thanks very much for the interview. Good luck with the magazine. See you around.
Interviewer: twansibon
Sep 25, 2012

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