1. Give us a brief history of the bands you've played in over the years, what was the inspiration to start Audio Kollaps and who plays in the band?

Bjorn: In the mid Eighties I started to play in a band called "Anti Job Department" with Andreas K (also known as "Paul" on our Recharge records). , our later guitarist from Recharge and Audio Kollaps. Then a few other bands followed ("Flodders", "F.O.C." ...). At the beginning of the Nineties, I started to play in a band called "Chemical Maze" with Armin, the later bass player from Recharge. We released one EP on a South German label called "Bodonski Records". Then I moved to England for one year and played in a band called "The Losers" from Nottingham We did some tours, and released an EP, a lot of songs for various compilations and a discography CD. When I returned to Germany, Armin and me decided to form "Recharge". When "Recharge" split up in 1998, there was only me and our two guitar players left. So we decided to form a new band; musically we wanted to be more diversified (that means including slower and faster parts), but lyrically we wanted to continue our short and direct style. Since we had no bass player, we "forced" Andreas K. to change from guitar to bass guitar and finally we also found a new singer called Kai.

2.We have to ask,so let's get it out of the way now..why did Recharge split-up?

Bjorn: In all the years with Recharge, we had a lot of line-up changes, especially with our singers. After our Split EP with Extinct Government from Tokyo came out, our bass player Armin left the band and so did his brother Eric, who was doing the vocal parts at that time. I think Armin was disappointed about the whole punk scene; he often said that it didn´t make sense to play gigs any longer because most people in the audience didn´t care anyway. Then we recruited a new bass player and a new singer. After our next album and Split EP came out and after we did our next tour in Europe, a few internal quarrels affected the whole situation. Some band members suffered personal problems, and on top of this, we received a lot of pressure from people who called us "commercial", just because they heard that we got various offers from big record companies. Sure we received some offers, but we didn´t sign any contracts! In the end both the new bass player and singer left the band, and the rest of us didn´t want to have another line-up change and continue playing the old songs.

Jens: There were different opinions about how to go on in the future.

3. Your hometown of Hannover had another "Chaos Tage" event recently,how did it go?There are people who are not sure what it's all about,can you tell them what goes on.Does everyone in Hannover agree with it?As We've heard that the cops can be even more bastards to Punx/Squatters after it all.

Jens: You´re right, we had much more cop problems after the "Chaos Days" than before.

Bjorn: The whole "Chaos Days" thing started in the early 80`s; the first one was a demonstration against a punk file card that the cops invented to criminalize the scene. In 1983 some thousand punks arrived in Hannover (the media talked about over 5000 punks!), and this was one of the greatest parties I´ve ever seen; at that time it was no problem for punks getting into the city centre (as it is nowadays) because the cops weren´t prepared for it. The next Chaos Days in 1984 was meant to be a big united - meeting for punks and skins, but everything resulted in a big clash so that many skins went into the right wing direction. After this the whole punk scene went down a bit; many people left the scene, and new people were more interested in joining the American hardcore thing which became very popular at that time. However, we always had smaller Chaos Days and Christmas Pogo meetings in many German towns throughout all the years. In the mid 90s the punk scene in Germany erupted again, and some bigger meetings followed, although the problem was that the cops were very well prepared every first weekend in August and always tried to arrest as many punks as possible and kick them out of town instantly. This was also the biggest problem when the Chaos Days 2000 took place: Although most punks could get into Hannover, they were not enough to resist the cop attacks. I think a lot of punks believed that they couldn´t enter the town anyway, so they stayed at home. Finally, most of us got locked up for one night in, the cops wanted to charge us for several violations but eventually all charges were dropped.

Kai: Chaos Days are always a very good event. But often most people just talk large about fighting the cops, and when there´s a riot most of them take run away instantly. Or they destroy their own quarter and act totally senseless so that the richt people just laugh about it. When they are locked up in a prison cell for one night they even start crying and try to apologize. Fuck off!!!

4.How do the German public react to Punx? Do you think your government se's us as a threat or just a joke?

Bjorn: I think we´re still a threat, otherwise they wouldn´t order 12.000 cops to Hannover in order to look after a few hundred punks... .

Kai: I think that a major part of the punks are taken seriously, but another part is just a big laugh for the govenment; these people are even a joke for me. The problem is that they are too lazy.

5.What's your opinion on drugs,especially hard drugs? What impact do you think they have on the scene?I'm sure we all know at least one friend who has fucked up their life through getting too involved.

Jens: Yes, we also know these people.

Bjorn: Nowadays I prefer beer. I don´t want to let the rest of my brain get ruined by some stupid chemicals, and I don´t want to be another false person. Drugs change people´s characters completely.

Kai: Well, everyone tries to be sooo correct. However, a lot of people like to be benumbed by the most decadent drugs. Personally I hate hard drugs because they ruin people´s ego instantly and friendships aren´t worth any longer.

6.Which bands have kept you going over the years?

Bjorn: I still like the old English bands from the early 80s like Discharge, One Way System, The Varukers, Uproar, External Menace etc., basically I listen to all kinds of punk music. I don´t listen very much to 77 music anly longer because I have to play it every week in the punk pub where I´m working; recently I prefer Swedish - style bands like "Vomitory", "Wolfpack", "Nasum" and "Driller Killer".

7.Do you think bands like Rancid & Green Day maybe have a purpose in Punk,like getting younger kids interested in the scene so we can then expose them to better things?Or do you think these bands should fuck off and stop making money from punk !!How important is the D.I.Y.scene to you?

Bjorn: There have always been bands like Rancid and Green Day: punk bands who signed to major labels. I mean what´s about nearly all the early punk stuff: The Buzzcocks, UK Subs, The Angelic Upstarts, The Rezillos, The Damned, The Dickies, X Ray Spex ( I can name you some dozen more): They all signed to labels like EMI, Warner etc. So many bands went in the charts, and believe me, if they had the opportunity to make more money and go on MTV, they would all have done it. Surprisingly, no one says anything against these bands. And what´s about all the bigger bands who are on a small label but have a big distributor that acts the same business way as major labels do. What´s about bands like Crass, Conflict or Dead Kennedys who had these big distributors? In my opinion every band should do what they want; no one is forced to buy their records or watch them on TV. The problem with the DIY thing is that it doesn´t work as it used to do: The amount of records coming out per month increases, but the number of people buying them don´t. Small labels just end up exchanging records with each other but most of these records don´t get sold so that most of the label people are in debths with an increasing number of records at home. No one wants to pay for a record, so it´s nearly impossible for a small label to pay the studio costs for their new bands.

Kai: As a matter of principle I hate bands like Green Day. However, when people find a way to punk through these bands, stay with the whole punk thing, and finally also hate bands like Green Day, then it´s ok. The problem with the D.I.Y. scene is that people think from themselves as being super-correct, however it´s weird that they want to be so un-commercial and everything gets marketed. I detest people who think about themselves that they are the better punks just because they wear a crass badge. I also don´t like anarchists who are trying to enforce something on me.

8.What is the most interesting country you have visited and how did it compare to Germany?

Jens: The Czech Republic and Switzerland were very good.

Bjorn: Surely the most intersting country was Japan where we toured with Recharge some years ago. It differs completely from Germany: the punk scene in Japan is very fashion-orientated; people don´t fight the cops or live in squats, but we met a lot of nice and friendly people there.

9. Hannover sounds like it has a very healthy Punk scene,you mentioned to me before about various clubs and even a Punk radio station,could you let us know more about these things and anything else you think is important around your local scene.

Bjorn: In the early 80s Hannover was one of the main punk meeting points in Germany. In the last few years, it seemed the punk scene would die out completely. However, as Kai mentioned before, there is a new venue in town which I hope brings people back together. The radio station I´m working for is an uncommercial project, financed by the federal media organization for a few years. We have a weekly punk show called "Stay Punk" where we play all kind of punk music, the program is very popular in the scene and it can also be listened to via internet. (www.radioflora.de). All in all, the scene is not as big as it used to be but it will hopefully grow again

10. We have noticed that Oi is becoming more popular in Europe, Do you think Punks & Skins should unite and do you think they want the same things out of the scene. Have you came across any trouble at gigs between Punx & Skins?

Kai: Nothing against the old 80s punk, but all these idiots who shout "Oi!" the whole day long and simply adore some old scumbags just make me sick.

Bjorn: As I`ve mentioned before there were always conflicts betweeen punks and skins. However, one should try and see the persons behind and not how they dress. There have always been idiots in both scenes, one shouldn´t generalize persons. For example, Paul and me are playing in a band called "Vendetta" with my girlfriend Kirsten and two Skinhead friends, and of course I don´t have any prejudices against them, just because they are skinheads. It´s the person and not the scene!

11.What's the most enjoyable gig you've played and/or been to?

Jens: It was a gig near Slovakia, there was a really big audience.

Bjorn: No idea, there have been far too many of them. Concerning gigs, we had some brilliant gigs in Japan, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland.

Anything else you would like to add?

Bjorn: Stay Punk!!! Visit our website at www.audiokollaps.de