BANDS ARE LIKE GIRLFRIENDS

Chris BALG
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  • MUSIC INTERVIEWS

Having played in bands since 1995 without any significant kind of success, what remains are plenty of stories to tell. Stories about growing up during the Nineties, learning about punk and hardcore, meeting great people on tour around the world, starting and ending bands and the love and heartbreak that went along with it.

  1. #21: Kent McClard (Ebullition Records)

    09/30/2022

    #21: Kent McClard (Ebullition Records)

    Episode 21: Kent McClard Kent started Ebullition Records and HeartattaCk zine, two important entities in 90s/00s Hardcore and Punk. We talk about - why he started Ebullition - how he was about to release Inside Out’s LP called Rage Against The Machine - how he designed the early records - why he felt he was forced to do HaC - punk was about blowing up boundaries, hardcore was about creating your own thing - his take on straight edge and why he made the XXX 2xLP comp Kent also talks about Green Day, Ebullition, Maximum Rock’n’Roll, releasing international bands' records after touring abroad with Downcast, hardcore is for nerds, HeartattaCk as a platform for diverse opinions within the hardcore scene, being decidedly amateurish, it’s okay to be an outsider, hardcore is nerdy, giving people a space to participate, the 2008 housing crisis seriously affecting the underground music world and much more.

    1h 7m

  2. 09/22/2022

    #20: Abermals – Reasons to Travel song by song

    Episode 20: Abermals Happy 20th anniversary to BALG! For this special episode we're doing something special: We're not talking about the past but rather about the present. Abermals is a power-pop-punk-emo-kraut-rock trio from Mallorca, Spain and includes BALG's Chris, so to prevent the order of the universe from imploding, the interview is done by the great Michael Oxley of The Mitchums fame. We go through the new album Reasons to Travel song by song, listen in on it and talk about it all. Check out Reasons to Travel here: https://linktr.ee/abermalsband

    49 min
  3. #19: (German) Daniel Benyamin (Ghost Palace Records)

    05/11/2022

    #19: (German) Daniel Benyamin (Ghost Palace Records)

    Wir haben den ersten returning guest zu vermelden, der Musiker und Musikverrückte Daniel Benyamin ist wieder zu Gast, und nachdem wir in Folge 10 eher über die Vergangenheit gesprochen haben, geht es in dieser Folge um die Gegenwart, in der viel Interessantes zu erzählen ist. Unter anderem geht es um diese Themen: - warum der Musikbranche wieder mehr DIY und Idealismus gut zu Gesicht stehen würde, - der freiwillige Verzicht aufs 9 to 5 Leben im Tausch gegen regelmäßige Existenzängste und Strategien, mit diesen klarzukommen, - Daniel erzählt über Ghost Palace, sein Labelkollektiv/Kollektivlabel, bei dem zwischenzeitlich der große Wim Wenders beteiligt war (den ich peinlicherweise im Gespräch Wim Hof nenne), - wie es dazu kam, dass seine neue Platte Eral Fun so nach 80s-Pop klingt, obwohl er musikalisch neunziger-sozialisiert ist (falls ihr euch erinnert, die 90er waren quasi die Anti-80er), - die eigentlich unwichtige aber trotzdem spannende Frage, ob man mit oder ohne Click Drums aufnimmt, - und noch mehr #podcast #diy #indie #podcastdeutsch #indiepop #indielabel #nonprofit #musikszene

    1h 13m
  4. #18: David Gamage (Rydell, Come The Spring, Couch Potatoes, The Atlantic Union Project, Engineer Records)

    03/31/2022

    #18: David Gamage (Rydell, Come The Spring, Couch Potatoes, The Atlantic Union Project, Engineer Records)

    I’ve known David for more than twenty years, when we co-released the Tidal/Acabah Rot split 12" in 2002. Out of sight, out of eyes, so it was about time to catch up on what’s been going on in the meantime, and David, a great DIY idealist who has been doing his thing for more than 30 years now, has a lot to talk about: - getting bullied by Oasis’ management - touring Europe and sharing a record with Hot Water Music with his band Rydell - Rydell’s bad luck having to cancel their US tour because it was scheduled to start two days after 9/11 happened - a strange encounter with Soprano-style mafiosi in Italy - being blown away by a Fugazi show in a townhouse on the English coast - how he managed to stick around in the punk and hardcore world for more than three decades - coming up on 340 releases now on his label Engineer Records - writing and publishing books for Earth Island Books, born from his archival and collector ideas www.engineerrecords.com www.earthislandbooks.com #punkpodcast #diypodcast #hardcore #emo #screamo #posthardcore #zines #indielabel

    1h 2m

  5. 08/30/2021

    #17: (German) Christian "Mosh" Ebert (Elision, Cataract)

    I don’t wanna be buried in a podcast sematary. Deshalb ist BALG nach fast einem halben Jahr zurück in euren Earpods mit einer introspektiven, fast schon Emo-Folge mit Christian "Mosh" Ebert. Mosh war Sänger bei zwei Schwergewichten des süddeutschen bzw. Schweizer Metal-Hardcore, Elision und Cataract, spielte Hunderte Shows mit Legenden der Neunziger wie Chorus of Disapproval, Quicksand, Unbroken. Zufällig und unerwartet traf ich ihn 22 Jahre, nachdem unsere Bands eine Bühne geteilt hatten, in seinem Motorradladen bei Würzburg, und schnell war klar, dass seine Stories perfektes BALG-Material sind. Darunter: - wie Walter Schreifels ihm eine Elision 7“ geklaut hat, - Elision im Lieferwagen des väterlichen Betriebs auf Einladung von Refused nach Umea fuhren - wie Franky G, der legendäre Gitarrist von Elision, vor einigen Jahren überraschend verstarb und danach für Mosh das Thema Musik erstmal beendet war, - wie er seine Liebe zu Motorrädern früher in der Punk- und HC-Szene versteckt hat und heute in seinem Laden den DIY Spirit einzubringen versucht

    1h 7m

  6. 03/02/2021

    #16: Nathan Gray (Boysetsfire)

    Just because we’re over forty doesn’t mean we don’t have shit to say anymore! Boysetsfire singer Nathan Gray has always been one to speak his mind on and off stage, and make no mistake, he's still as politically active and outspoken today as ever! So naturally, in this episode we talk about current politics. But Nathan also tells me how Boysetsfire started in the mid 90s, got pretty big in 2000 and continue playing sporadically as a band until today. Nathan is in the middle of producing his third solo album, so we touch on the interesting difference between playing and writing in a band vs. in a solo project, as well as the pros and cons of playing cover versions, working with producers J Robbins and Brian McTernan for his new album, the importance of having a creative outlet in life especially as we’re getting older, and a lot more!

    1h 20m

  7. 02/15/2021

    #15: Rodrigo Ponce (Colligere)

    In these times of isolation, where travelling has become a virtual impossibility, let BALG at least take your ears and mind where your bodies can’t go! Today we’re in Curitiba in the south of Brazil in full summer, where I talk to Rodrigo Ponce of Brazilian melodic hardcore band Colligere. We go deep on the feeling of empowerment that playing in a hardcore band, releasing records and touring the world gave us when we were in our early twenties, and how that has or hasn’t changed in almost twenty years, and the challenge of translating these feelings into our current lives and making something good of it. Rodrigo also talks about growing up on, rejecting and rediscovering traditional Brazilian music, why straight edge got so big in Brazil and how Colligere broke up in 2008 at the height of their success and now are back together recording a new album. Working as a staffer for a regional politician, Rodrigo also gives some insight about the political upheaval in the past years in Brazil, a country that has transformed from the economic wunderkind under socialist rule to a reactionary ultra-right-wing government.

    1h 11m

  8. 02/02/2021

    #14: (German) Bernhard 'Böni' Hahn

    Ein leicht Musik- und Ton-ange’nerd’etes Gespräch mit der süddeutschen Produzenten-Koriphäe mit den vielen Spitznamen („Don Böni Albini“, „Papst Beni Fleisch I.“ etc.), seit den Neunzigern mitverantwortlich für viele großartige Platten von Bands wie Monochrome, Dawnbreed, Sabeth, Robocop Kraus und vielen anderen. Wir sprechen über die empfohlene alljährliche Beatles-Dosis, Bönis Anfänge auf Vierspur-Kassettenrecordern in Korntal-Münchingen, Atari-Computer, Aufnahme-Sessions mit zahlreichen Hardcore- und Indiebands, aber auch mit Bands wie Pur, Nena oder dem legendären Hank Häberle.

    57 min
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About

Having played in bands since 1995 without any significant kind of success, what remains are plenty of stories to tell. Stories about growing up during the Nineties, learning about punk and hardcore, meeting great people on tour around the world, starting and ending bands and the love and heartbreak that went along with it.

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