Monday, February 16, 2015

Agathocles (16.02.15)

Huge greetings to you, Jan! I hope this interview doesn’t interfere much with your usual activity, hehe)

Cheers Alex, Jan here. Haha, no no, I have found a little time for your questions. Sunday 15 february over here…Sunny weather but cold outside.

This year is very important to Agathocles, it turned 30! This is a great anniversary, congratulations, Jan! What can you say about the road you’ve traveled with the band and the underground movement at all?

Thanks Alex…Ha yes, 30 years AG this year…Well, that’s nothing too special. I really am not into these birthdays. Most important is that we are still able to crank out some raw noise. During all these years, I have seen enough to make my own opinion on this “scene”, based upon my experiences. Some good, some bad,….like life, hahaha.


You played in a lot of places, different countries, long tours, but I can’t remember if you ever performed in Ukraine or Russia((( Why is that? Didn’t you get any invitation? Tell us what Agathocles needs to do a live show somewhere?

We have got some offers to play in Russia but all of us work full time, so it is quite difficult to get free days from work, all at the same time, to do longer tours. We need transport, good sleepingplaces, food, drinks and a bit of cash for the gigs.

I won’t question you about splits, I guess you’re pretty tired to answer to these kind of questions for about 20 years)) But still I have to ask, do you count them maybe? How many of them did you release?

No, I don’t count them. Yes, we have released many split releases, on vinyl, tape, CD, video and recently a split floppy computer disc in Ukraine. And we have more stuff recorded to be released soon. The noise continues.

I love Egor Letov’s oeuvre, so I just can’t miss this question. What is your favorite Egor Letov’s album and do you play covers on “Grazhdanskaya Oborona”?

Yes, EGOR and GROB rule !! In fact, at the moment, I am wearing a GROB T-shirt, hahaha. I most like the GROB recordings from the 1980’s. And I really like the POSEV recordings, the band before GROB. No, we have no plans to record GROB songs. GROB and EGOR are too brilliant to be played by another band. Playing songs from GROB with AG would do no good for the original brilliant songs.


I remember that you are huge friends with Unholy Grave, you even have 4 (!) splits with them. Have you ever thought about making side-project with them?

Yes, UNHOLY GRAVE and AG are great friends. First time I met Takaho (singer) was in 1989 when he visited me in Belgium and stayed at my house. That was a great moment. Later, we did some tours together and in 2011, we recorded the AG “KANPAI” album in the studio of Takaho UNHOLY GRAVE in Nagoya, Japan. Takaho engineered and mixed that album. Brilliant !! No, we never thought about doing a side project.

Jan, is it important to have fan’s support, friend’s support or other band’s support for Agathocles?

Support is always important. AG works in the DIY way, that means that we don’t have big commercial distribution, managers, bookingagencies and all these kind of things. So it is very important to have help and support from the world wide network of DIY-friends.

What do you think about 2 tribute albums devoted to Agathocles? By the way, did you like new Brazilian compilation? What band’s cover did you like the most?

I have the tribute CD which was released in South Africa back in 1997 but I don’t have the Brazilian one. I hope to get the Brazilian one soon. I also heard the AGAMEMNON PROJECT “tribute to AG” CD where they play AG songs, which is really excellent !! It’ s always very interesting to hear other bands play your own songs. Thanx for the respect and support to all bands.



 Let’s talk about something other than music. What Belgian dish fits better with cold pint of beer?))

Belgian fried patatoes ofcourse, hahaha. With Belgian pickled vegetables, that fits great with a cold Belgian pilsner beer. If you wanna drink strong special Belgian beers, I would say drink it while eating old special Belgian cheese (more then 3 years old) with black bread and butter. Great stuff !

I think that your phrase “Grind is protest” describes Agathocles more than precisely, the same goes for grindcore in general. Has the purpose of protest changed with years? What troubles you the most right now?

Many things are still troubling me…. Situations just do not seem to change. I know “grind” will not change anything, it’s people, many people, that are needed to change at least a bit. Every little action, which is for the good of ALL people, is a good action. We must work for a system where everyone can feel a little comfortable. This does not mean a big revolution all the way, just little things here and there can already help.


Sorry for a little boring question, but I can’t get past it. You invented a style called “mincecore” and nowadays we have a huge army of Agathocles’s progeny. Was it all planned as a part of “world’s noise infestation”?) What current mincecore bands do you like to listen?

MINCE CORE is socially and politically aware old school minimalistic grind. We did not expect it to be as big as now. The reason why we took this name is because we were fed up to be associated with sexist, macho, snuff loving “grind”. AG has nothing to do with that. We stand for DIY, solidarity for all, a better system for all,….  About current mince core, well, there are many I love and many of them come from Russia, hahaha.

You protest against politicians, sexism, nazism, and other shit. What about religion? What do you think about recent incident in France?

Every kind of religion can be the cause of serious conflicts, especially when political ideologies go hand in hand with religious extremism. If people wanna believe in a god, it’s better to keep it to themselves. I totally oppose the fact that governments (like in Belgium) give religious organisations tax-money for houses of prayer like catholic churches, mosks,…. It is a waste of money ! Governments better spend money on building more schools, hospitals, nursery homes for very old people,…

Do you miss the time when the mail was on paper, so as zines, when labels distributed releases with distro catalogues, and organizers did a lot of calls on the phone before gigs?))

Yes, I quite miss that time. People were more active and creative in getting things done in those days. I think internet makes people lazy and impatient. I loved the days when I was waiting for the mailman (or mailwoman) to come and bring me packages full of tapes, zines, shirts,…. Brilliant time. And papermail created more jobs, because more mailpersonal had to work to deliver all the mail. Modern technology is not always a positive thing.

What makes you smile and brings you a good mood? Maybe some movie, or people’s good deeds? 

Sitting in my garden and having a beer in the sun, after working in the garden. Watch the flowers grow, see the birds hopping around the garden, that makes me smile and gets me in a good mood. Also right after finishing a recording hearing the final result for the first time, can make me smile, hahaha.


That’s it, no more questions here, hehe. Thank you so much! Keep mincing! LONG LIVE AGATHOCLES!

Cheers Alex, thanx for your interest and support of AG. Good luck with your work ! Keep up the good job. MINCE ON.

For more info:
Official site
mincemania@hotmail.com