1. Hello guys, could you tell us about your band's history?
The Stage Bottles were formed in 1993. I’m theonly original member left in the band.
The first line up also included a female singer, Manu. Manu left the band in 1999. After that it was just me singing(before me an Manu were singing). But I continued playing the saxophone, ofcourse. So Stage Bottles still had and have a special sound comparing to the majority of other Punkrock- and Oi!bands. We played a few hundred gigs in Europe and did a tour in Canada a few years ago.
We already released 6 albums and several 7’’.And we took part on many compilations worldwide.
2. Is there any meaning to your band name?
That’s a difficult thing to explain in English.Our first bass-player, Eric, suggested to call the band “freebeers” in germanlangaguage (“Feibier”). So many people would come to our gigs ‘cause they’dexpect beers for free. We had English lyrics right from the start so I suggested to use an English name. In german you can call a person “bottles”. It means kind of the person is a loser. So I suggested “Stage Bottles”. The loserson stage.
3. are politics your musical influence? are you left wing band?
Yes, we are a leftwing band. We were very much influenced by bands like Blaggers ITA, The Oppressed, Angelic Upstarts, TheNewtown Neurotics, Kortatu and many other political leftwing-bands especially from England. We’re also influenced by classic Streetpunk-bands like Cocksparrer, The Cockney Rejects, The 4 Skins, The Last Resort and so on, ofcourse. But we always wanted to make a political stand. We’re part of asubculture. And being part of a subculture like Punk or Skinhead alwaysincludes a critical attitude to the mainstream-society. Punk and Skinhead can’t survive in rightwing-system and shouldn’t try to. And everyone from everywhere is welcome to join it. We are a product of the capitalistic society. But we are completely different and we don’t want to adapt. And that’s why we are against it. Otherwise we would be normal people heading for economical success and being racists for chucking out others for that they’re not taking our money.That’s not the way the Stage Bottles want to be. And that’s what we talk about and that’s what we fight against.
4. do you have a new album?
Yes. It was released last month on Mad Butcher Records. It’s called “power for revenge”.
5. what do you think about un-poltical bands and right wing bands?
There are bands existing who call themselves “non-political” but the way they act is okay. They make a stand against rightwing and racism without being anti-leftwing.
Some bands call themselves “a-political”. Theydo politics with telling people not to be political. At the end they tell people to adapt to the mainstream-society. Being a Skinhead or Punk is just anexcuse for drinking and having fights. Most of them are stupid and don’t understand dynamics in society and even not in their scene. The problem is:They are fucking useless.
Right wing-bands are bullshit and the real enemy. They want to destroy most parts of the human being including people likeus and people who come from somewhere else. They want to take freedom from many good people. They’ve got nothing in common with our scene. We are fighting for freedom.
6. besides the band, what do you guys do?
I’m a social worker, Kimba (bass) aswell,Marcel (guitar) is working in an office, Olaf No. 2 (drums) is anmotorbike.mechanic, and Slavko is working at a school.
7. Have you had any trouble with the police?
Well, we got contacted by the police as a band a few times ‘cause we were involved into concerts where fights happened. Personally I think we all had problems with the police yet. Some of us more,others less and for different reasons.
8. how is your punks/skins scene right now?
In Germany the scene is very big. But I’d not say it’s a homogen scene. There are many discussions about politics. Even in between non-racists. But you can see nearly every band in Germany you want to see. From all over the world. There many alternative places where good events are happening. Football also matters. And football is big in Germany. So part sof the Skinheads, Hooligans, Punks, Psychobillys and so on are all together.But it’s more like an entertainment-scene at the moment, I think. It was better a few years ago.
9. new flag, what does it mean?
It seems there is no political alternative to capitalism at the moment. The idea of a socialism kind of died with the Stalinism. It’s good that Stalinism is gone. But the problems are still the same. And we all are concerned in a globalised world. Have a look at the financial crisis one year ago. Our system worldwide still continues to makerich people more rich and the poor more poor. Freedom in this system just means the freedom to be allowed to get as rich as you can. So we need a new flag to build power against this kind of selfishness. And everybody should know what this flag stands for. The red flag was a strong symbol, but it was misused manytimes. So many people would never follow it. That’s understandable but also the result of Stalinism and conservative propaganda.
10. do you have any plans to play to south east Asia, including Indonesia?
If you’re going to pay it, yes, but I think you can’t. We are not a big band. And we’re not rich people, so we can’t pay the journey ourselves. We don’t even know if we’re big enough for people turning upat our gigs. There are obviously some people interested in to the Stage Bottlesin Asia. But enough people for doing gigs? I don’t know…
11. do you have any comments for webculturezine?
Dear readers: If you’ve got anymore questions just ask: olaf@stagebottles.de.
We’d love to come to Indonesia. We heard you’ve got a big scene. So collect money to pay our flights, food and drinks (is beer allowed in your country?), tell us one year before and we’ll come over!
Cheers
Olaf and the Stage Bottles
EDITED BY SALLY MAY (NYC,BROOKLYN)
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