Rockezine.com interview with Born From Pain on Sep 03, 2003

with Che on Sep 03, 2003

This interview with Born From Pain, one of the leading metalcore bands in Holland at the moment, was done through email with vocalist Ché. Due to the band’s ultra-busy tour-schedule, the interview has been delayed a bit, but here it is!
		First of all, congratulations on the release of the new album. I guess you guys are quite happy with the way it turned out. How has the response on the new album been so far? To be short: the feedback until now has been overwhelming. It’s great that the magazines and the fanzines give the CD super reviews. We’re also very happy with how everything turned out, the recordings, the mix, the layout. We couldn’t be happier.
		I’m sure everybody in Holland knows you by now. How is the response you get in the rest of Europe and the States? I’m sure that in certain parts we’re a pretty well known hardcore band, but there is still a lot of hard work to be done everywhere. I consider Europe as our basis, nothing is more important than a basis in music. But we want to achieve much more than we achieved so far. There’s still more to see, more shows to play, more CD’s to put out, and more tours to do… And among these things are the States and the rest of the world as well.
		You’ve had quite some changes in the line up of the band throughout the years. Do you have a steady line up now? You never know what might happen, but I like to believe we have a steady line up right now. I don’t think that all those line up changes held us back though, as far as playing live goes. I also have to admit that this is the strongest line up we had over the years. We have the right chemistry on stage, it feels right when I’m on stage.
		You’ve been playing new songs during shows for quite some time already. Did you end up ditching a lot of new songs in the process? We ditched a couple of songs, that’s true, but we never played any of those songs live. We are very critical when we write songs, it sometimes takes ages to finish a song, and other times it’s done in one rehearsal…
		One of the songs on the new album was written by Marijn, who is no longer in the band. Did you consider not recording this song? Is the dude making money of ‘Sands Of Time’? That song was written for Born From Pain, we always considered “Under These Skies” as a Born From Pain song, to be put on the next CD. Hahahahaha, we’re not even making money ourselves with the band, so it would be a bit weird if Marijn WAS earning money with the song.
		Why doesn’t Ché write any lyrics? You’re lucky that I’m doing the answers. That’s a really good question. I don’t think someone ever asked me this in an interview. I have to admit that I write stuff, but I either think that it’s not good enough for Born From Pain or that it is too personal to use. Then there is the fact that I like writing in Dutch more than writing in English. So as far as writing is concerned, I prefer the Dutch language… So why does Rob write the lyrics? Basically, when we started he had some lyrics ready, he had experience with writing lyrics because of his previous bands, and he is an English teacher, so his knowledge of the English vocabulary is bigger than mine or anyone else’s in the band. His lyrics fit the music for Born From Pain perfectly, I love the dark metaphors he uses. I consider Rob’s lyrics as being poetic…
		In general your lyrics are quite clear. However, what’s the song ‘Death In The City’ about? That song is about the town most band members live in, called Heerlen. We have one of the highest crime rates in Holland. There are loads of problems with unemployment and the unemployment rate in our city is one of the highest in Holland. There’s a lot of drug abuse in the city centre, so all of that happens underneath our eyes, even kids see these junkies shooting up drugs in their arms in broad daylight. There is nothing we as people (citizens) can do about it. It’s strange if you take into consideration that Heerlen is a pretty small city. All you see is the destruction and decay of our city when you walk around town. No one does anything; they just relocate the problems to another part of the city centre. So to be short the song is about our city.
		According to the bio, ‘Sands Of Time’ is ‘the soundtrack for war’. Are you indeed that bloodthirsty? Do you support war in general? Do we support war? No not at all, if you read the lyrics you know we’re not supporting it. We’re ruining the earth, with our stupidity and ignorance thinking that everything will be okay…I don’t support any war, in every war there are innocent victims, and I don’t think that weighs up to the “goals” they so-called want to achieve…
		Both the site and the layout of the new CD look great. Do you try to be involved as much as possible in these things, or shirt-design for instance? We want everything to be coherent; you can call it a line… or maybe even style. Certain people in the band are responsible for these things. However we asked our friend René to do this for us, but in the end we still have to be satisfied with how it turns out.
		You’ve already done several European tours, and according to your bio you have trips to the States and Japan planned already. What are you planning next? What do you see in the future for BFP in general? Play as many shows as possible, put out mad CD’s, go on big tours… I just want to do as much as possible… We are working on a couple of things, but nothing is definite yet.
		Are you happy with the way Theo takes care of you? Did you get offers from other record labels in the time between Reclaiming The Crown and Sands Of Time? If yes, did you consider accepting them? We’re very happy with Theo. Theo is more to us than just the guy that puts out our CD’s, we get along really well. Both Karl and Rob work for Theo. So they have a lot more contact with Theo than I have. But Theo supports us in every way he can. We had some offers, but as you can see, we released Sands Of Time on Gangstyle again. We’re really happy with that.
Strange that people think of us and think of hard dancing.		Your live shows are known for some pretty hard dancing. What’s the worst thing that ever happened during one of your shows? Is that the only thing that people know of us? Strange that people think of us and think of hard dancing. For me personally I’d like it better when people would remember Born From Pain as being a good and energetic live band. But sometimes the dancing is hard, but we just want EVERYONE to have a good time. And when I say EVERYONE I mean EVERYONE, not just the kids that dance hard, or the moshers, or the thrashers or the headbangers or the pogoërs or the people that don’t want to move. Every single person paid to get in, to see a show and to have a good time. That’s what I personally want to give to people. The worst thing that happened… Hmmm… That probably happened to me personally. It was our release show of the Reclaiming The Crown CD in our hometown when someone jumped on stage, jumped up again and kicked me in my face (not on purpose) while I was singing our last song. At that moment things got black, and a second later I regained my consciousness, and started spitting my teeth out. Result 6 fake teeth…
		That’s a nice thong you’re selling on your website. Do you make your girlfriends wear it? Moreover, is it a popular item with the fans? My girlfriend has one. She doesn’t wear it though, at least not when I’m around, the only times she wears it is when she goes to the gym. I wouldn’t go down on her if she was wearing one either ;-) Well, the thongs were sold out in two days... So yes… It’s our best seller…
		Well, that’s it. Thanks for the interview. Any last words for the fans? Yeah, to you the reader, thank you for the 5 minutes of your time you invested in reading this interview. If you have the chance, check us out live in the upcoming months. We’ll be playing a shitload of shows coming period. And check out our new CD Sands Of Time which is available as of now. Born From Pain 2003!!! This was Ché, and last but not least I’d like to thank you for showing interest in us and doing this interview!!!
		(Jasper Klein)