Artist profile/interview: DEATH BY COFFEE

I love coffee. There's not much better than good black coffee. And I love shirts and nice designs. A while ago I stumbled upon Death By Coffee on instagram. Death By Coffee designs coffee and punk/metal inspired merchandise. I had to get their 'Mornings are for coffee and for doom' shirt because it looks awesome. To my surprise Death By Coffee is run by a Belgian guy named Tom. I asked him some questions for an artist profile on Hello Bastards Zine. Pour yourself some good coffee and check it out:

• Please introduce yourself to the readers. Who is behind Death By Coffee?

My name is Tom. 27 years old. I live in Tournai, Belgium.

• If I understand correctly you design a lot of the stuff for Death By Coffee yourself and sometimes work with guest artists. What’s your background in design and illustration? How long have you been drawing and making designs?

Yes that’s correct. I never studied art or illustration at school. My mom just put me in evening art classes since a very young age and I’ve been going to those until I was 18 I think. I’ve always liked  todraw. In my class reports the teachers at school would write « good work but Tom needs to draw less and pay more attention » and stuff like that. I really wanted to go to art school after high school but I had good grades so I guess my mom thought it would be a waste to send me there if I could make it as a doctor or scientist or whatever ( she said art schools were for kids with rich parents who could support them ). 

I did a year in Mons in Biomed and the only class were I got decent grades was animal biology because we had to draw animals. Then I went to Louvain-la-Neuve to get a masters degree in Psychology. 

During that time I was introduced to Illustrator, photoshop, etc.. I started to figure out how to get my drawings from paper to the screen. I was in a band at the time ( The Inequity ) and I started designing our t-shirts, cd sleeves and all. Then other local bands would see our stuff and start asking me to design stuff for them and that’s how I started I guess. It was mostly t-shirt designs for small bands but once in a while I would say fuck it and send some drawings to Impericon or some other big merch website with Comeback Kid or Parkway Drive written on it and they would buy it! So yeah that’s the starting point I guess.

• Where do you get your inspiration? What other artists formed you to become an artist?

Like every t-shirt designer of my age I started looking at websites like mintees and emptees to get inspired by all the artists on there. At the time it was Godmachine ( he actually messaged me once with some drawing advice, really nice guy! ), Craig Robson, Monkeymouth, etc.. I was looking a lot of stuff on internet and some artists just blew my mind :  Charles Burns, Simon Erl, Mike Giant, Contino, Freak City, Wesley Eggebrecht, Nico Bassez, Zach Shuta, etc.. 

Seeing my friends work also pushes me a lot. I consider myself really luck to know people like Florence Roman, Jantie Flyer, Robin Renard, Alex Arrows, Arno,...  and to see how their work evolves. 

That’s what I would call the conscious part. As you grow and keeping training you analyze your work a bit more and start to see things that you weren’t aware of were influencing you. For that part I would say : My aunt Laurence’s work. She’s an illustrator and I’ve seen her drawings around me all my life. Now I watch my doodles and I see influences from her work everywhere. 

There’s also my mom who was the most beautiful handwriting in the world. I used to copy everything she wrote when I was a kid to get the same handwriting. That’s were my interest for calligraphy and lettering comes from. There’s probably much more stuff I’m gonna realize later in life. 

• A lot of your designs are inspired by music. There’s a lot of punk and metal references in your designs. I also saw you designed a flyer/poster for an Amen Ra and Gagged show recently. What’s your music background and what are your 5 favorite records of all time?

I’ve been playing in bands since my teens. Mostly metal punk & garage. I played in The Inequity, Sects Tape, Regal, Full Contact. At the moment I play in Pedigree, B.Polar & the Spacefuckers and Slavemaker. I’m so bad with top 5’s. I have no idea how people can have top 5’s about anything but here you go from the top of my head : 

* the first punkorama compilations : These brought me to punk when I was young. They were the only cd’s you could get for 5€ at the record store and that’s all I could afford at the time. 

* Inter Arma - Sky Burial : I am obsessed with this band at the moment. All their stuff is good but the first album was mind blowing to me. 

* The Ventures - Walk don’t run : Surf rock is my spirit animal in music. Long riffs, simple beats and short songs. Perfect

* Flatt, Scruggs & Watson - Strictly instrumental : This one hits my turntable weekly. You can listen to all the metal you want nobody shreds as hard as these guys. Bluegrass is the punk of country music.

* Suprême NTM - Suprême NTM

• Off course we need to talk about coffee. When (at what age) did you drink your first cup of coffee? Were you immediately hooked on the taste? What’s your favorite brand of coffee? What are your favorite coffee shops?

I’ve started drinking coffee at the end of high school just before going to university. I started drinking it with sugar and milk to get used to the taste at first but I stopped and went for black coffee pretty quickly. At my mom’s place we had this professional espresso machine that was so simple to use you could easily drink 3 or 4 cups before starting your day. When I moved out she gave me her old Alessi moka pot that she used with my dad when they lived in Barcelona. The first 2 cups I made with that one almost killed me. I had tremors so hard it ruined my day. I’ve been obsessed with coffee ever since. My favorite brand is dark matter but it’s so expensive to get it here. I got their collab coffee they did with Mastodon once and it was amazing. A sort of double blend but the beans were aged in old whiskey barrels. It was delicious. I try to get some from Dark Arts too when I go to London. In Belgium I’ll get coffee from Caffenation or OR. 

But specialty coffee is expensive so usually I buy it from the store and the best you can get here in medium grade coffee is the Rombouts Cachet d’or. I think it’s the only one you can get that’s not like they burned the beans to a black crisp.

• As mentioned before: you also work with guest artists. How do you decide to work with someone? Who is on your bucket list to work with?

DBC is mostly a theme and a creative output outside of commissioned work I do so I think that spoke to more people than just me. With Robin Renard and Florence Roman it was I who commissioned them because they’re friends and I love their style. With Marald it was he who came to me actually. It’s still crazy when I think about it. He really liked the project and asked if he could do something with the theme and he absolutely killed it 2 times. With Branca Studio we talked about doing a collaboration on instagram for like a year before I actually sketched something. The last guest artist was ZRO30 from Colombia but she’s actually Venezuelan. I bought some of her merchandise on instagram and we started talking so I asked her to draw something in her style. I just love to see people with very different styles have their take at the black coffee theme. I don’t really have a bucket list but if I had to make one it would be all the people mentioned in my answer to your 3rd question.

• What are the future plans of Death By Coffee?

I really want to make a small batch of DBC666 coffee someday. I haven’t found anyone who wants to collaborate on that yet but maybe one day. Other than that I have no plans. We’re still releasing 2 or 3 new designs every month with Loser Jamboree ( our collective in Canada with Broke&Stoked and Good Chill ) but I’m not really planning on expanding or growing. It’s fun now because I don’t have too many orders and there’s no pressure about it. If I have an idea I draw it and if it’s popular I print 30 t-shirts and that’s it.

Order stuff from Death By Coffee here and go follow their Facebook page here.

One Last Wish - 1986 (Vive la liberté!)

It's no secret I'm a Dischord Records enthousiast and fan. A couple of months ago I got two records of one of my all time favorite recordlabels: Jawbox's 'Novelty' and this peculiar LP by One Last Wish simply called '1986'. It was long overdue that I got that Jawbox record as it is a genuine classic that I already had on tape for a long time.

The One Last Wish record was a big surprise. I already knew some songs from the '20 years of Dischord' box set and the 'State of the union' compilation LP but besides that I didn't know a lot about the band. One Last Wish is kind of a post Rites Of Spring band featuring three former ROS members (Brendan Canty, Guy Picciotto, Eddy Janney) joined by Michael Hampton of Embrace.

One Last Wish was a very short lived band and the recordings they made for this record were released on vinyl in 2008, more than 20 years after the band recorded them. This is a lesser known band of most of these members. I mean, the Rites Of Spring and Embrace records are genuine classics and embodied a fresh air and a change of direction for the DC (and Dischord) hardcore scene during the infamous 'revolution summer' of 1985. Here's one of my favorite Rites Of Spring songs:

So this One Last Wish record might be a bit underrated and overlooked but I was completely blown away once I put the needle on this one for the first time. First song 'Hide' starts off with a very new wave and Joy Division influenced bass line and sets the pace for the rest of the record. Guy Picciotto is one of my all time favorite singers and songwriters and he sure delivers on this record. The songs still have this 'revolution summer' sound to them and you can definitely hear some traces of the bands the members were in before they started One Last Wish. But it's also a step away from them. A step forward. A step forward for the musicians but also once again a step forward for the entire Dischord and DC hardcore scene. Listening to this record also helped me understand how important Guy Picciotto later was to the sound of Fugazi. 

They only existed for 4 months and only played 6 shows but I am really glad they recorded these 12 songs. An essential Dischord record for sure! And a record that showcases a kind of scene and 

sound that was in full development in the mid to late eighties and continued all through the nineties. Get this! Listen to the full album here:

"She's a feverchild gathering flowers in the garden..." a post about SHORTSIGHT

Normally I don't put my iPod on shuffle. I like to be in control of most things in my life (call me a controlfreak), including the music I listen to. A couple of weeks ago I got on the train, turned on my iPod and had no idea what to listen to. The thing is packed with awesome music but after a busy and stressy day I felt restless and had no inspiration what to listen to. I put my iPod on shuffle and the first thing I heard were the opening notes of 'Feverchild', the first song on Shortsight's only full length album 'Cold wounds waking' on Goodlife Recordings. My day and mood instantly got better. It had been a while since I listened to this record so I immediately turned off the shuffle mode and listened to the rest of this album.

As I mentioned already a couple of times my favorite H8000 band has always been Blindfold. Second place has always been a tie between Nations On Fire and Shortsight. I love 'Cold wounds waking' and I especially love those first notes of the album. An album has to start good for me. A good intro or first song is very important and to me that's actually a craft that not every band masters. The kings of first songs is and has always been Fugazi. Every record starts with a banger.

But I'm getting off track here. Let's talk about Shortsight! They were actually a short lived H8000 band. They started in the early nineties with Hans Verbeke (Liar, Blindfold,...) on vocals. After the demo Hans' sister Saskia took over and they recorded a 7inch on Conquer The world Records and Machination Records called 'Why spend time learning...'. They also contributed a song to the infamous 'Regress no way' 7inch on Warehouse Records. In my mind this compilation is an as important document to the 8000 (and later H8000) scene as the 'Flex your head' LP is to the early DC hardcore scene.

The evolution of this band is pretty mind blowing. From the pretty basic but very good song 'On fire' on the 'Regress no way' 7inch to the four songs on the 'Why spend learning' 7inch to the fully grown and mature full length 'Cold wounds waking' cd on Goodlife Recordings (it's a pity I don't have the first demo). It's hard to describe the sound of Shortsight. The guitars are awesome. There's not a single bad riff on 'Cold wounds waking'. I still get amped when I hear the opening riff to 'Screaming trees' (which I first heard as a bonus track on the Green Leaf 'Best of Belgium' compilation). Josh Fury (of Congress, Liar and King Hiss) delivers an awesome acoustic instrumental track on 'Cold wounds waking' (something he continued to do on his own bands' records). Saskia's vocals are always on point and very catchy. I also love the drum sound on this record. Drummer Björn Lescouhier went on to play in Regression and became one of the best and most powerful drummers in the H8000 scene (he actually proved he still is very good on the Regression reunion shows a couple of weeks ago). The lyrics range frome very personal ones (like 'Father', written by Hans Verbeke) to environmental pollution ('Screaming Trees') to pretty original ones for a hardcore band ('Give him light' for example).

Inside of the 'Could Wounds Waking' cd. I have always been intrigued about the awesome show picture. Where was this? Looks like a bunker. Edit: I finally saw the extra's of the H8000 documentary dvd and know the story about this show. Check out the documentary!

Edward Verhaeghe (Goodlife Recordings, Nations On Fire) said it best in the H8000 documentary: Congress, Liar and Shortsight each delivered their 'magnum opus' in 1995 and kicked off a crazy period in Belgian hardcore history. Because 'Cold wounds waking' sure is a very good record. Too bad Shortsight quit so soon. I'm sure they could have done more great things in the H8000 scene. It was awesome to see Saskia sing along to a song during the Nations On Fire reunion show.

To end this I would like to point out that I think Hans and his crew who made the H8000 documentary feel the same as I do about the intro to 'Feverchild'. The documentary starts with the very same notes that gave me goosebumps on that train ride home from work and actually gave me goosebumps again while watching the premiere of the documentary in a packed De Kreun in Kortrijk a couple of weeks ago. I also love every minute in the documentary about Shortsight and the interviews with Saskia and Bjorn. Very interesting and often times funny stuff! I secretly hope a vinyl release of 'Cold Wounds Waking' might be one of the next projects for Hans' FX7 Records label!

Listen to the 'Cold Wounds Waking' record here:

RDS220 - Hell is truth seen too late chapters I - IV review

A couple of weeks ago I finally got my hands on these awesome looking tapeboxes by RDS220 on Svart Blod Records. Sadly my tapeplayer decided to start eating tapes instead of playing them so I had to listen the tracks on the RDS220 bandcamp page to review them.

Let's start with who is in this 'band'. It's actually a duo project featuring ex members (let's get this ex members thing over fast...) of Liar, Amenra, Hive Destruction, VVovnds, Black Haven,... Musical mastermind is Matthias who plays guitars and programs drums and he is joined by co-songwriter, bass player and visual mastermind Kristof. I've known these two for quite a while now so it came to me as no surprise they came up with something this good. Because it really ís good!

Chapters I-II

Chapters III-IV

Ever since I met Matthias more than fifteen years ago he was always busy with bands but also with homerecording, programming drums, puzzling songs together on his 8-track recorder or computer. I remember he singlehandedly pre-recorded the demo's for the Empathy record at home before entering the studio. Same thing for the Liar record 'Murder manifesto'. I always thought that was really cool and showed a damn hard work ethic. Same goes for Kristof. I've known him even longer and he has always been playing in bands or making really good looking and mind blowing art and graphics.

Let's talk about RDS220. It's more or less the same concept as the beginning years (and 2 demo's) of Hive Destruction. Matthias and Kristof record the songs at a home studio as a duo. Hive Destruction was instrumental but for RDS220 they handed over their songs to guest singers. In this case, chronologically from part I to IV, they worked with singers Jenci Vervaeke (VVovnds, Et Dure, Gagged), Hans Verbeke (Liar, Blindfold,..), Paulo Rui (Besta) and Dehn Sora (Throane).

They describe RDS220 as punk black metal and I can only agree with this description. It's fast and vicious. It's really a riff fest and non compromising. Harsh and rough music perfectly fitting to the sometimes harsh and hectic times we live in today but always with a hint of melody in the guitar department. There's also enough variation to keep things interesting. The guest singers do a really good job and add a lot to the brutality and the hateful atmosphere of the songs. My favorite tracks are the ones with Hans Verbeke (you can't go wrong with a title like "Triumphant on the ruins of the world"...) and Paulo Rui (who I hadn't heard of before but man, what a throat!).

The lay out of these two boxes is phenomenal! Kristof and the label Svart Blod Records did an awesome job!You get two booklets with collages that really add some more vitriol and harshness to the whole concept of RDS220. I have always been a fan of Kristof's visual work. He has his own style but always surprises with original and thought provoking lay outs or art. He really should do more printed stuff like the book he did a couple of years ago called 'A book about decay' together with Arne Wastyn.

Go listen and download on bandcamp.
And buy some stuff from RDS220 and Svart Blod Records.

The immortal emokid - the Genet/Pyrrhus records emo years...

When I was 16 years old I was, like a lot of other kids, trying to find my way musically. I was fully developing my tastes and discovering a lot of music and subcultures. I saw a Congress and Blindfold show (there's a picture of this show on the back cover of 'Blackened Persistance') when I was 11 but I mostly remembered the Congress singer being quite little but singing and skating like a madman. I was pretty impressed by Blindfold and listened to my sister's Blindfold tapes on my walkman a lot!
I got sidetracked into more alternative rock (which I still enjoy) but at age 15 I got into skateboarding myself and turned into a snotty skatepunk. I really got into Jane's Detd. and Goodlife Recording's sister label Green Leaf Records and the well known American bands.

This all changed when I found two compilation cd's in my local recordstore. I got Revelation Records' 'In flight program' and a Genet Records/Sobermind Records sampler.

Three bands immediately stood out for me on the Rev sampler: Sense Field, Farside and Texas Is The Reason. My aunt lived close to Ghent and I asked her to pick up a cd in the Pyrrhus record store as a christmas present. I got Sense Field's 'Building' cd. It didn't leave my stereo for several months and I still know every song and every word by heart. This record had a serious impact on my developing music taste.

My beat up copy of 'Building'

The Genet Records/Sobermind Records sampler was called 'hardcore knockout' and I loved pretty much every song on the sampler but again three of them stood out: Serene, Reiziger and Kosjer D. I listened to these three songs religiously. At the same time I discovered fanzines like Yoda Magazine which (starting from the eighth issue I think) started covering more emo bands instead of the usual H8000 bands. A little while later I got my own crappy turntable and I started buying vinyl. The first records I ordered were from the Pyrrhus distro. I got the Reiziger 'the kitten becomes a tiger' LP on yellow vinyl (numbered!), the Kosjer D 'true' 7inch and a Blindfold shirt.

My first Pyrrhus order. I regret not having the Blindfold shirt anymore....

It was finally time for a visit to the Pyrrhus recordstore on my own. I remember being really siked for this. I got the Leiah 'Mood shifting tones' mcd, the Reiziger 'don't bind my hands' 12inch and a couple of other records. Leiah were quite the revelation for me. I liked the fact that they didn't look like most other bands at the 1999 Ieperfest and of course they played beautiful music. This was the time I started calling myself the Immortal Emokid (after a Serene song) online. Pretty cheesy and kind of cringeworthy looking back but hey, I was still only 17 years old... I got Leiah's first full length 'The Tigra Songs' on beautiful blue vinyl (again... numbered!) and there was no looking back. I got into all the bigger American bands like The Promise Ring, The Get Up Kids, Braid, The Casket Lottery,...

'The Tigra Songs' by Leiah

The years passed and I bought a lot of great records in all kinds of different genres at the Pyrrhus Recordstore. I have really fond memories of buying records there and then looking at them on a bench next to the water nearby. The Reiziger/Bob Tilton split LP helped me getting into more complex or experimental music (the Bob Tilton side on the split caused that). I really got into the Deep Elm Records catalog. I played in an emo band called Wilson and we even opened up for Cursive and The Appleseed Cast. As Friends Rust and Saves The Day also became huge bands for me and I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some bands and records.

So thank you to Bruno and Kathy and Genet Records and Pyrrhus Records for helping me to find my way into music and for developing my taste. Leiah has reunited and released two new songs which I actually like. I saw a short rehearsal video on Instagram of them playing 'red star pilot' (my favorite Leiah song) and I got really nostalgic which could actually be the reason why I'm writing this. They also posted screen shots of an interview I did with them for my webzine when I was 18 years old.
I even bought a Kosjer D shirt on etsy last summer. How nineties is that! Some bands and records stood the test of time and some others didn't.

Let's listen to some of those records and prepare for 'The French Belgian Winter'!

 

What I'm currently spinning.

Things have been pretty hectic lately. But in between taking care of our one and a half year old son, house hunting and busy times at work I found some time to finally write a new post. These are the records that are currently on high rotation on my record player and I'll finish this post with two on-line gems
Let's go!

Devil Master - Manifestations - LP 

This must be the record I continually go back to the past few weeks. It got released at the beginning of this month on Relapse Records. It's actually not a new record but a compilation of two demo's that got released in 2016 and 2017. This is such an awesome band! Think of Japanese hardcore/punk mixed with the coldest black metal and some goulish death rock to finish this unique blend of dark music. The lay out of this beast is also great. It reminds me of the obscure lay outs of Les Légions Noirs bands but all finished in pink. My favorite song is 'Inhabit the corpse' The band is from Philadelphia and are releasing their debut full length on Relapse in 2019. I can't wait! They're playing in Baltimore in january with Integrity (DM's guitar player Francis Kano plays live bass in Integrity). Listen here or through YouTube:

The Frames - Longitude - Double LP

I got to know this Irish rock band through the legendary and greatly missed Belgian radioshow 'Duyster'. I already knew singer and guitarplayer Glen Hansard from his role in the movie 'The Commitments' from the beginning of the nineties. This double LP is sort of a best off and shows the variety of this band. Early songs have a slightly twisted side to them (kind of reminds me of early dEUS) and they grew to be a great indie rock band. My favorite song has always been 'What happens when the heart just stops' and I'm glad I finally have this song on vinyl. The artwork is a picture of a beautiful painting of Belgian artist Thierry De Cordier. I also learned from the liner notes that they recorded an album with Steve Albini. Didn't know that.

Shellac - At Action Park - LP

Which brings me to the next record: Steve Albini's Shellac! 'At Action Park' is probably the album with my favorite packaging in my collection. It's some awesome cardboard fold out package that's hard to describe or even take a picture of that does justice to this great record. Shellac is my favorite Albini band and this record is my favorite. It's from 1994 and you can clearly hear how influential they have been on a lot of bands. Albini is a great songwriter and the rhythm section of Bob Weston (bass and vocals) and Todd Trainer (drums and vocals) must be one of the tightest around. The overall sound of this album is so good. It sounds organic yet dry and heavy yet clear. Love this band and record!

La Muerte - Murder Machine - 12"

The last record I want to write about is a Belgian one. It's an EP released on Record Store Day in 2016 that I recently dug out of my collection again and listened to a lot because I want to see them live in january in Brussels. La Muerte is a legendary Belgian band. They describe their own music as 'Salvador Dali meets The Stooges'. They formed in Brussels in 1983 and released a couple of albums and EP's (and even a John Peel session!) before disbanding in 1994. They reunited with a new line-up (including Michel Kirby of Wolvennest, Length of Time and Arkangel, Christian Z of Length Of Time and Tino De Martino of Channel Zero) and original members Dee-J and Marc Du Marais in 2015. They play heavy rock/metal with awesome vocals. Marc Du Marais growls his way through the songs and performs live with a bag over his head. I really want to see this band live and have to get the old albums and EP's!
Je suis le destructeur!

To finish this off here are some things I really enjoyed online:

Integrity - Bark At The Moon

Integrity released this digital only single on Halloween. It's a cover of the classic Ozzy Osbourne song 'Bark at the moon'. Integrity proves again why they are the most interesting band in heavy music today, even after a career of over 20 years and Domenic Romeo proves why he is my favorite guitar shredder at the moment.

Joie De Vivre - April 2009 (Live at little elephant)

While talking on-line about the Mineral reunion with a friend and fellow emo-enthousiast he recommended me some newer bands I didn't know. One of them was Joie De Vivre. I don't like the band name but love their song 'April 2009'. It has everything a nineties emo lover wants. Glasses, checkered shirts, sweet riffs, slightly out of tune vocals,...

That's it for now! I plan on updating this thing more regular in the future so stay tuned!

Halloween and my refound love for all things horror.

I used to love horror movies. It all started with the 'Scream' movies when I was about 13 years old. I saw the first one in the movie theatre, got hooked and rented a whole lot of VHS tapes and later on dvd's. I saw a lot of great movies and a lot of bad ones. One of them that has always stuck with me was the original 'Halloween' movie by John Carpenter.

Fast forward to 2018. I haven't seen a horror movie in a while. I barely watch tv and go to movie theatres anymore. Besides that, my girlfriend isn't fond of horror movies. Being home alone and with some time to kill I watched 'Halloween' again. How I love and missed this! The suspense created by the genius that is John Carpenter, the young Jamie Lee Curtis, the awesome soundtrack,... I love it! Part of what moved me to watch this masterpiece again is the Instagram posts of Tim McMahon (singer of Search, Mouthpiece, Hands Tied,...). He recently posted some pictures of his visits to some of the original locations of the movie.  The Myers house, the Laurie Strode house, the sidewalks and streets where John Carpenter shot the movie, the gates to Smith's Grove Sanitarium that Mike Myers escaped,... Great pictures and it must have been great visiting these locations. Makes me a bit jealous.
I also found out he has an Instagram account dedicated to horror movies. Go look for 'Curatedhorror' on Instagram and enjoy all sorts of horror movie ephemera.

Being the nerd and art lover I am I also spotted the James Ensor (probably Belgian's most famous artist ever) poster in Laurie's bed room. Couldn't resist taking a screenshot.

I've got a lot of catching up and (re)watching to do. Maybe it's time to buy a second tv set and dvd player so I can enjoy some classics and new horror movies again. Get in touch if you got recommendations, although I think I'm all set for now with the Curated Horror page. And I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the 2018 Halloween movie in the theatre soon!