Iron Fist

1. Cheers can you introduce the band, members and how you know each other?

Chris - Vocals and Guitar
Schmog - Guitar
Kimbel - Drums
André - Bass

Chris and Kimbel are related with each other. Schmog is known by everyone in our local pub scene and from his band he played in before Iron Fist. And I came out of the circle of mates around the band because this circle is our scene here in our city.

2. When and why came decision to start Iron Fist? Have members experience with some other bands?

It all started in 2004 when Chris and his brother Martin met a guy called Icke who has moved from the Berlin Area to Idar-Oberstein. They recognized very fast that they mostly listen to the same kind of music and so they decided to start a Band. Icke could play Guitar, Martin did the job as bassplayer and Chris began as the Vocalist of the Band. A few months later our member Schmog joined the Band as Drummer. But he left the Band after two months again because he´s got trouble with his other Band he played in ( a unknown local fun punk band). That was the beginning of a hard year for the band. 2005 was not on their side. First they lost their drummer and afte that they lost their practise room. In the mid of the year they decided to give a good friend(David aka Kimbel) the chance to do the drummer part. The only problem was that he first had to learn playing drums. This means to made a break with the Band to give Kimbel the time to learn. Chris decided to learn playing guitar in this time. They had luck that they got a new practise room in the basement of a house from friends where they still practise until today. In the beginning of 2006 they came out again to record to songs for a football sampler in a studio. To that time Icke wasn´t in the band anymore because this doesn´t fit any longer. He wanted to do music in the Hardcore thing and that was definetly not the sound of Iron Fist. But therefor the old member Schmog joined the Band again. He splitted with his other Band. Now he did the job as guitarist. So the line-up was complete. There was just one change in the end of 2006. Martin left the band out of privat reasons. Since November 2006 I (André) play the bass in the Band and hopefully will do this a long time.

3.You have CD called Wir spielen für euch released on Skins on Attack records. How was the recording and cooperation with the label?

The recording of our first Album "Wir spielen für euch" was very hard but made a lot of fun. We were for two weekends in the studio to record and mix the 11 songs. In the studio it is completly different as playing live for an audience. But it made a lot of fun and when you hear the complete result of your work you know that your effort has been paid. With our label we are mostly safisfied. Jan could do definetly more promotion for the album and there are several little things which could be better, but we are the first band on "Skins on Attack" and the guys are already learning

4.What about the gigs in Germany? Is it difficult to find a place for oi/punk band to have a gig?? What about the Skinhouse Menfis? Do you like that place? I play there two times with our band and I really like it.

I will not say that it is hard to find gigs for a Oi/Punk Band in general. It mainly depends on what kind of music you play. When every second song of your Band is against Nazis and Racism you have it very easy to play in every youth club you want when there are people who organize gigs. If you don´t make the " Against Racism " thing to your number one theme in your music the people, especially those from the AFA are very fast in giving you a negativ call. Especially it..s hard for young Bands like us. Here in Germany it´s very easy damage concerts long before they are. There are too many people who believe more the person who writes anonym crap in the internet instead of believing the words of a person who gets in contact face to face. I hope you know what i mean. This is the age of internet heroes. I think we should do a song about those wankers some time. We played this year nearly every month one gig in almoust every region of the land. So I think our music is liked by the people. But here in our hometown it is difficult for us because no one likes us hehe ( but we don´t care) In the region we live in there is not a big scene and something like the Skinhouse Menfis is a dream for us. They do a good job with their skinhouse. Iron Fist played there two times yet and we liked it very much. Nice people, nice music and beer. What do you want more.

5.How often do you play gigs in Germany or abroad? Do you like it?

As I said before we played this year nearly every month one gig. Perhaps we could play more often but it has to fit with the working times and with the family. Two of us have children and so it would not be good when we were on tour every weekend. Playing gigs is a great thing. When the crowd sings your songs you know you are doing the right thing. In every places we played the audience did a got job and that..s pretty good for us as a young Band. Now it get´s time to play abroad. Perhaps Jan of our label could do something for us because he has bands from spain and sweden on his label to. I think it..s a great honour to play abroad. But we will see, time will tell.

6.Can you describe the German scene? I know many good bands like Crusaders, Brachial, etc. Can you told us something about some new breed bands and give us the webs or myspace?

The german scene is a quiet big one. If you want to, you can drive nearly every weekend to an Oi! Concert. There are several good (new) bands and also some good fanzines and internet pages. Unfortunately the scene is very disunited. I´m not talking about the conflicts between the different political wings, I´m talking about the disunity in the traditional skinhead scene which give a fuck on politics. This is something i regret very much. Unity is Strength! But lets come to the Bands. There are some really good newcomer bands i like, but on the other side some of the old bands are getting more and more far away from the skinhead cult. Negative examples therefore are Broilers and 4 Promille.

Newcomer Bands you can listen to are for example:

Unantastbar (www.unantastbar.net)
Gerbenok (www.gerbenok.de)
Vollkontact (www.vollkontact.de)
Lammkotze (www.lammkotze.de/)
High Society (http://www.myspace.com/highsociety44)

or older bands like:
Krawallbrüder (www.krawallbrueder.de)
Stomper98 (www.stomper98.de)
Schusterjungs (www.schusterjungs.de)
Vortex (www.vortex.de)
Riot Company (www.riotcompany.de)

Listen to this bands and you see that the german scene is an uprising one. At least when we talk about music.

7.What is your opinion on political extrems in scene? Have you got problems with those wankers?

I don´t like them and we don´t need them. Left-wing, Right-wing everything the same crap. The Left-wing does not really like us. But that´s the thing I said in question number four. For the Right-wing we are not really interessting because we do not play their kind of music. Both sides destory the oi and punk scene massively. But it´s good to see that there are more and more people who give a fuck on the paroles of those wankers.

8.What about football? Are you interested in hools/ultra thing?

I am not really a football fan, it never gave something to me. Chris and Kimbel play both football in a local team and watch the games in TV. But no one of us is in the Hool or Ultra thing involved. That the rest of the Band likes football you can hear in our two football songs on the Reclaim the Game Sampler.

9.What should we do to make a gig of your band, and can we order somewhere something of your stuff like T-shirts or cds?

We play only for fuel-money, something to eat,a lot of beer and a place to sleep! We are very happy if we could play in your country! Cds or T-Shirts can you order from us.Tell me what you will. Or look here. www.ironfist-streetrock.de

10.Do you know anything about Czech Scene??

Not really, sorry :o)

11.Plans for the future?

We will play some gigs until the mid of the next year. Then we will begin to work on our second album. Apart from that we hope that we are having a lot of fun with our band in the future and that the people like what we do.

12.Words on the end?

Thanks for the interview and perhaps we see us sometime in your country. It would be a pleasure for us. If you are now interested in our band you can buy cd´s and a shirt. Just check out our homepage under www.ironfist-streetrock.de

We play for you!