Anything But Yours – Anthony Bourdain is an asshole and should be killed by cannibals! - By Jon A

OK, so Anything But Yours hate trendy chefs, they’re not too keen on work, and they’ve definitely read a book or two, judging from the ambitiousness and scope of their debut album “Welcome to Karoshistan”, one of the most intense albums yet to come out this year. But what lies behind these Germans playing angry, noisy, experimental post-hardcore? And what is “Karoshi”? Read on.

LowCut: How did Anything But Yours come about?

Michael: Alexander, Tom, and Holger already played together in another band. Then I became their biggest fan, supporter, and even substitute drummer for two and a half gigs. I have played drums in another band for 19 years. After their bass-player left, they wanted to start up something new and asked me to join them on bass. This was somewhere in 2004.

LowCut: You namecheck our own Lack as one of your influences. I think that says a lot about how young this music is, its tradition going back no more than a decade, doesn’t it?

Michael: Our musical backgrounds vary quite a lot. I am speaking about the different band members in ABY and their personal favourites. Lack, for example, is one of the bands we all like, the same goes for Majority Rule or Breach. On the other hand, I listen to punk like Nomeansno or to grind core bands such as Assück or Brutal Truth, and mid 80s English hardcore like Ripcord, Electro Hippies. Can you hear that in our music? Definitely not! So, a band like Lack is kind of a lowest common denominator for our different preferences. The fact that the bands whose influences you can really hear in our music aren’t so old or don’t have so much tradition doesn’t mean anything and is pure coincidence. By the way, I would never try to hide our influences in interviews as lots of other bands do – that’s too cheap.

LowCut: How do you feel about the “post”-tag that’s added to anything that seems to break the boundaries within its genre, attempting to evolve – like post hardcore or post metal?

Michael: Interesting question! You’re right when you say that it breaks boundaries. On the other hand, it perfectly fits the need of people to put bands into genres. As far as I am concerned, I would even say that by adding “post” to nearly anything, things become more and more arbitrary. You don’t know where to put a band? Simply call them “post-whatever” - and nobody will have a clue what they really sound like! As I said before, it’s absolutely no problem for me to be compared to bands who have influenced us. So, if you want to describe our music as “sounds like Lack or Breach”, this is perfectly OK with me. For others we are “post-hardcore”, that’s it.

LowCut: In your point of view, is there such a thing as a post-hardcore scene at all?

Michael: Yes, in a way, to a certain extent. If everybody knew what post-hardcore really was, as a music genre, then there could be a scene - I just fear nobody knows… But it’s definitely a certain kind of people who listen to this music, go to shows, make friends with other bands, so let’s call it a “scene”, OK. But I appreciate it a lot that there are hardly any typical post-hardcore record labels; most of the labels that release this kind of stuff have a very wide range of bands and this prevents the “scene” from stagnating or limiting itself. Maybe this is the most evident thing about the “post”-scene: It’s open-mindedness. And just minutes ago I called it arbitrariness - tsk, tsk!

LowCut: Do you have any links to the more traditional hardcore scene?

Michael: I do. I have been around in the scene since 1986, with all the DIY things like writing articles for fanzines, releasing tape samplers and of course playing in my other band named I/O. The same goes for Holger, we played together in two bands - one of the “posi-core” type and one which was started as a tribute to the great Active Minds from England - in the mid 90s, plus his own band John Deere, now defunct.

LowCut: One of your songs is called “Bourdain – A Legitimation”: Are you referring to the cook?

Alexander: Yes! He is an asshole and should be killed by cannibals! This is my personal view!

LowCut: It would be fair to call Anything But Yours just a tad intellectual, wouldn’t it?

Michael: Because of the lyrics? Or because of the fact that two of us are teachers and a third one wants to become one? Anyway, intellect in general means a lot to me. And there is some concept behind our music, maybe not an intellectual one, but there is one. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but people who don’t care about intellect will have some problems with our music, too.

LowCut: The lyrics on “Welcome to Karoshistan” are fairly bleak, but at the same time, the music is very beautiful at times?

Alexander: Mostly the lyrics tell stories of our lives and what is going on around us. They are a description of feelings we have in certain situations, e.g. how we feel about the exploitation of our environment, how we feel in a relationship or how we think about other people, etc. I do not really know why they are so bleak – maybe I simply like to write lyrics this way!? Lyrics and music create certain feelings and often beautiful melodies point out things better than a thrashy noise inferno.  

LowCut: According to the press release, “Welcome to Karoshistan” is “all about the stupidity of mankind”? What is “Karoshistan”?

Alexander: Karoshi means nothing more than “death by overwork”. This is a really strange thought. Just go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoshi to read the complete explanation and history of it. So Karoshistan is a metaphor of the Status Quo in our world (a real but still fictitious country) with growing selfishness, people trying to get more and more by never having enough, wars, murder, exploitation, etc.  But many people do not want to change that because it is part of every day’s life and they take profit of it. Secondary we all seem to loose the sense to realize the important things in life.

LowCut: What’s the future of Anything But Yours?

Michael: In November we will record three or four tracks hoping to find a band for a split release.
Alexander: Furthermore we will play some shows just like any other band plus we will try to release some stuff on our own label Heckspoilermusic. Maybe it will be Desperado and The Sound Oe.

http://www.heckspoilermusic.de