Here's M.O.R.A from Finland. One of the best existing band when it comes to brutal punk. This interview is just a small part of the interview which you can read in its entirety in Schizo Fanzine #9. If you like really raw punk with trash influences will you love M.O.R.A. Get in touch with them and buy their self released CD. They will also contribute on the Schizo Punk Compilation #001 which will be released on Spotify in April/May 2013.
Ok, start with a short story about M.O.R.A, members, history and what does the name mean?
Yaki: It was Ruriks and Turos (Ratface, St.Hood) idea to form M.O.R.A. somewhere around 2006 I think. Katja and myself joined soon after. So first it was Rurik on guitar, Katja on bass, myself on drums and Turo doing the vocals. Things didn’t advance quite as one would hope at the beginning, and after Turo decided he couldn’t give his all to M.O.R.A. since he already had two prior bands to see to Rurik, Katja and me ended up just fiddling around for a while. After Piia and Suvi joined the band around 2008 things gradually started to happen so to speak... But all in all M.O.R.A.s current lineup is as follows: Piia & Suvi: Vocals, Rurik: guitar, Katja: bass, Yaki: drums.
I’ll tell you what comes to my mind; Mora is town in Sweden. In this cozy swedish town they make knives. These knives are very, very popular in Finland. They’re good for both construction-work and for gutting your best friend after you had a night of Koskenkorva-vodka and speed. Ask any finnish guy over 16 what comes to mind when they hear the word mora and it’ll be the knife. With the periods between the letters, we’re trying to take some distance to all the violence. Also, I googled the bands name and it turns out that mora means blueberry or something in spanish, so it’s not that hard-core, now is it?
You sound so fucking pissed, what make you most angry in this society? And I guess that’s what you write your lyrics about as well?
Piia: Everytime when starting to write stuff I endup pondering about grievances. It seems hard to write about good vibrations, payday or sunshine with all the crazy shit happening around you. Greed and ignorance are subjects that occure in everyday life from which one can instantly obtain lyrics for 3 albums and then some.
Finnish is the most brutal language or? Have you ever thought about write lyrics in english?
Rurik: Since we are Finns I believe our mother tongue was the logical way to go conserning the vocals. I think after finnish rap came around people have been more inclined to do other kind of music in finnish aswell, allthough punk bands have been singing in finnish since day one, but in metallic hardcore it’s still pretty rare.
Tell me about your CD you released. What have the response been?
Yaki: We decided from the beginning that we were going to do this CD all by ourselves. I’m happy that we’ve gotten some great reviews from abroad, and that a lot of people outside the so called scene have found our music! One review said that our band was probably a joke, founded in two minutes and broken in less and Maximum Rocknroll truly hated us! Their review was funny as hell so thanks MMR, we had a good laugh!
Piia: The album has been received really well all over the world. It was made by the band from start to finish, and we’re proud of that! CD format seems to be the only issue, but the truth is we didn’t have the finances to put it out in vinyl. If people wouldn’t mind giving our music a chance and stop bitching about the album being a CD they might be pleasantly surprised!
What can we do to fought elitism in the scene? Have you got any problems with that somewhere?
Piia: Does such a thing still exist? I remember a time when there were people who only listened to certain kind of music and wore a certain brand of clothes but thats in the past or at least it has escaped my attention during the last few years. I wish people would listen to more punk and rap so they wouldn’t get too caught up on hardcore. There’s so much good music being made outside this genre!
Rurik: I disagree; elitism is something that’s always been around when it comes to the hc scene. But since people are getting older things have calmed down a notch, and now there’s a much better atmosphere here.
Let me know your future plans, have you got any feedback from any labels? I really hope and think you will have a good future
Yaki: No feedback from the labels, but I wouldn’t mind if someone wanted to participate in publishing our next release... The ideal situation would be that a couple of record labels from different countries would want to release our album so we’d get more exposure abroad. Since now we’ve been selling most of our records in shows, though a few record stores have it in their selection as well. A handfull of few people have ordered the CD from us via mail.
Review from Schizo #8 [MORA - S/t CD] This Helsinki band really know how to play angry hardcore, with some trash metal influences. And the both female singers have brutal voices, the finnish language make it even more brutal and better. This wouldn't sound good in norwegian for an example. It's 9 tracks on this CD and 16 furious minutes. MORA is a band that follow the finnish tradition playing this kind of brutal punk. The sound quality is perfect and I can just congratulate this 5 piece band to a great release. I will follow this band for sure. Order this CD and you will get the finnish lyrics translated to english. If you take the hardcore from Disrupt and the trash from Beyond Description will you get close to MORA. I am not a fan of music with too much trash influences, but MORA mix it just perfect. And they do it so well that I have to consider if an interview in Schizo Fanzine can be possible for the future.
Jag har kommit över ett gäng CD-skivor från det holländska hardcorebandet Fokkum. Läs min recension här: http://schizofanzine.blogspot.se/2013/02/review-fokkum-paradise.html
Nu säljer jag deras skiva "Paradise" för 15 kr + porto (vilket
blir totalt 27 kr) Det är alltså BILLIGT och du får en jävla massa
hardcore. Upptäck ett nytt band som verkligen står för DIY. Skicka ett emailom du är intresserad.
Fokkum vill gärna sprida sin musik, så DISTROS... hör av er om ni vill ha två ex. av Paradise CD'n (bara 12 kr i fraktkostnad
tillkommer).
Stickers och pins medföljer så långt lagret räcker. Först
till kvarn är det som gäller!
Sir Reg - 21st century loser (CD) http://www.sirreg.se/ (www.heptownrecords.com)
For two years in a row (2010-2011) Paddyrock.com appointed Sir Reg to the best band in the Celtic Punk genre. And I wouldn't be surprised if this album will place them in top-3 for 2013. Although Sir Reg had a professional sound from the beginning, you hear that they have developed and they get their own sound more and more. From being a band influenced by Flogging Molly and similar, they're now a band that will infuence other bands. I called for more roughness when I reviewed their last album "A sign of the times" but insted they took away the most prominent punk elements and replaced them with some kind of britpop and suddenly the crystal clear sound became 100% right. I would say it's more paddypop than paddypunk now. Sir Reg are fantastic musicians and Bren has a great voice. There is one thing that provoke me, I would like to have more Irish tunes in the songs. Since Karin is one of the best fiddle players I've ever heard could they have make use of her much more, like they do in "Walking into doors" which is a lovely ballad. One thing I like much is that Sir Reg has very good lyrics, it's not just ordinary drinking songs, their lyrics portray the society in a very mature way, and that's good. It's not an art to write about drinking whiskey and Guinness, their lyrics are more thoughtful. This album just get better and better for each time I listen, and I have no problems that they play more pop insted of punk now, but please, take back I hope you'll have more irish folk tunes next time, you have all the possibilities. All in all will you get 12 songs in 42 nice minutes.
Torpedo Göteborg - Nu jävlar! (CD) (info@kjellhell.se)
What an amazing flashback I got with this album in the CD-player. Torpedo Göteborg has the classic Gothenburg punkrock sound and could without any problems been one of the participating bands on the excellent "GBG Hardcore Punk 81-85" compilation. And Torpedo had the intention to sound like this when they formed the band, so I must say that they really succeeded. I love this 77-punkrock style and the Gothenburg accent give the vocals a working class feeling. I like many of the old Gothenburg' bands so it's really fun to hear a new band (well, they was formed 2002) with better sound quality than all bands I've just heard on compilation tapes. Perverts, Troublemakers and GBG Sound are some bands that must have influenced Torpedo Göteborg. My favorite tracks is: "Gatans Musik" with a strong rock n roll feeling. The song "Vad har du för val" is the ultimate punkrock song. There is 12 tracks on this CD, 6 studio recordings and 6 live tracks. There will be a Torpedo Göteborg interview in the future, I don't know yet if it will be on the blog or in the fanzine. This CD can compete for this year's best album in the Swedish punkrock genre.
Gatans Lag - Från fest till arrest (CD) http://gatanslag.blogspot.se/ (www.kjellhell.se)
This CD will be released in the end of March and I think this will be the best Swedish punkrock album of 2013. When it comes to Gatans Lag you always know what to get, their lyrics always seems to be very honest and they are much more mature now, they use to romanticize heavy drinking, but on this CD is there also reflections about that topic. But they are still filled with rage against almost everything even if I find more joy on this album. I know some people will label Gatans Lag as an Oi! band, but for me is it punkrock just as Ebba Grön or an angrier version of Troublemakers. But of course, a bunch of the choruses have street/Oi! vibes and so has the lyrics, much because of the drinking, fighting and living topics. The way they use the saxophone is just brilliant, more punkbands should use that instrument. Best on this CD: "Från fest till arrest" which is a fantastic punksong. "Turister" is a pure Gatans Lag song against hipsters and sounds much like their earlier stuff. "Norrby Soul" is a tribute song to the local football team Norrby IF. The chrous on "Livet är för kort för sorgliga sånger" is wonderful. This is a great album that grows the more I listen to it.
Here is a DIY punk trio from Brazil. I think they are a charming band with lot's of street punk feelings. Most of the Brazilian bands I've heard has been playing more crusty hardcore so it's fun to hear something new. The lyrics are in Portuguese so I don't understand them at all. The music is pretty slow and contains of much 4-beat. The only thing I don't like is the vocals, they are a bit to dark and rough for my taste. But the song "Piriguets on fire" is a bit better because of that he sing insted of disguise the vocals. There are 8 tracks on this CD. And I like the slow tracks best, like "Geracâo Iogurte" and "Eterno Desempregado". Garraffa Vazia, which means Empty Bottle, have the potential to become a good band. Some more ideas to break the unconvential sound wouldn't be wrong and maybe customize the vocals a bit.
Al Bundie's Army - Robopop (CD) http://albundiesarmy.bandcamp.com/
This is the first full-lenght with Al Bundie's army from St.Louis, US. It is 13 tracks of pretty charming powerpop or college punk which I would prefer to say. But it's no boring Blink 182 wannabe fucked up disgusting stuff. No, I would rather compare them with bands like The Dickies, Riverdales and the way how The Buzzcocks sounds nowadays. The only reason why "The Army" doesn't reach the same grade as those bands is due to the vocals that sometimes feel a bit uninspired and powerless. It makes the whole thing a bit monotonous and it's not really fair, given that several of the songs are good songs. "Paying for drugs in change" "Never Was" and "No bed for the wicked" are my favorite tracks on this CD. They have also recorded a cover, "Teenage Kicks" by the Undertones but I don't really like that version. Well, all in all is Al Bundie's army an interesting band.
Utanförskapet - Vildhjärta (LP) http://utanf.blogspot.se/ (http://rawby.se/) (Fight Back Records - http://bloggasfuck.blogspot.se/)
Nothing can go wrong when you form a band with members from Asocial, Crossing Chaos, Svart Parad and Uncurbed. This must be the most brutal LP I've heard for a long time. Utanförskapet are significant with Swedish käng/rawpunk at it's best. The music is filled with extreme brutal rock n roll riffs, D-beat as hell, TB's lovely vocals and a dirty sound. I don't think I'm the only one to think that Utanförskapet are just as good or maybe better than bands like Wolfbrigade, Disfear and Victims. The Swedish lyrics are just as angry as the music, and TB sounds pissed off as always. When it comes to raw/kängpunk is these 13 tracks the only thing you need at the moment and the best tracks according to me is "Vildhjärta" och "Kängor från rännstenen", but all the tracks are absolutely brilliant. I don't know why they play a Svart Parad cover when they prove that they can write their own songs. Buy this LP today!
