Interview: Subculture

Here's a part from the interview I made with the UK band Subculture. The entire interview will be published in Schizo Fanzine 8. It's Peter who answered my questions. I can really recommend Subculture if you like traditional UK Oi!

Hello Peter, Subculture was formed back in 1980, what made you start playing at that time? And which bands influenced you?

We were all young punk fans, and just like a lot of people at the time, we just wanted to make a noise like our favourite bands which were the Pistols, The Clash and the Cockney Rejects. We never said, “right, lets form an Oi band, that’s what’s going on at the moment. We just got put into that category because we dressed in ordinary everyday clothes, not in leathers and studs. I think if we had had a stereotypical punk look, things would have been different, one way or another…

I think you're much better than many of the big classic UK-bands, what would you say is the reason why didn't you become one of them? I have the impression that there is a bunch of bands who've reunite just for the money and don't care about their roots, do you agree or do you have another opinion?

Well I think there are two reasons for that. The main reason was I think that we were younger and about a year behind bands like The Business, Blitz  Infa Riot ect , who all had records out by 1981… our first vinyl outing came just everything was falling apart, so we playing catch up all the time, trying to gain a reputation, even though as you have said, our sound was better than a lot of other more recognised bands. The other reason is probably that we didn’t come from big town like London or Manchester and got little or no press coverage early on. Cambridge is thought of as a snobby well-to-do place,  but like any city, its got working class areas, and all the problems that come with that.

What have you released so far? Do you have any upcoming relases planed? When you write a song today, is it the same procedure like it was when you were active in the 80s? What is your lyrics about?

Well apart from the cd we released last year and the single in 83, we have appeared on various compilation cds, and we are releasing a new 7” vinyl e.p soon, on our own label Council House Records. Four tracks of classic punk rock n roll. We write as a team but Phil and Dean do most of the words and music respectively. There are plenty of things to write about these days, as I’m sure you are aware! The song structures are pretty simple, pretty much like they were before. We are better musicians now but we don’t overplay anything. Its all pretty stripped down and raw sounding. The new e.p is gonna be really good. It will be on download to, as the single will be very limited. 

Related: Subculture web