...Fruity Interview...

Interview with Hubert(Vocals, different other instruments) 
 
How did you get the name „GO BANANAS“ and which goals do you personally pursue concerning the band?
 Go Bananas means to get crazy, to lose your mind just like you have been bitten by a wild monkey. When we were making up our minds to find a good and fitting band name, we asked ourselves one What does it mean to us to make music?
 The result was very clear: Music means to relax and just to lay down without obeying to any social rules. To cut a long story short, just to do whatever pops up in your mind, get rid of all the unimportant things in life and to listen to your inner inspiration!

How do most of your songs come to life?Do you have any precederues you keep to?
Mostly we get our songs out of jam sessions but also out of preconceived song structures, which have been developed by both of our guitarists, Woife and Aki. However, we do try to include influences of all our band members in order to get the right flow which satisfies the whole band. 

What are your engines, your concepts, what do you stand for with your music? 
For me, honest and handmade produced music always was one of the most important things. Music is part in every situation of my life, meaning that it does not only help me to deal with all the difficulties in it, but is also a welcoming guest which accamponies the good days in life. Therfore the most horrific thing to do would be living a life without music! Benefiting from the newest techniques and possibilities to produce music these days is kind of an engine enough to leave behind our own musical footprint. 

How did the first tour go? 
 It was a long awaited and very funny life experience which definitely none of us wants to miss! We got to meet crazy and extremely hospitable people, all of them being unique and supporting the underground music. We have to say that we are very thankful for this great tour and want to express our gratitude once again to everybody who helped us getting through our tour, even though we did not have any contracts, label or managers. 

What are the most important things to take with you whilst touring? 
Name at least 3. First of all a whole lot of sound, a whole lot of light and a lot more of fun! 

What was your first CD you have ever bought? 
You definitely do not want to know that. At that time I was very young and therefore extremely dumb, also I had next to nothing. (My taste in music is not the same anymore, and I also grew older but that is all that has changed up to now) Name 3 of your favorite bands. For me, it is very difficult to do that, as there are so many great bands and my personal taste changes every now and then. There are bands which I do not listen to in years, and suddenly once again in continuous repetition. However, I would list the all time godfathers BLACK SABBATH on the first place, followed by Monkey3, Sleeping Karma and Space Collective. I know that I have named four bands, but in my opinion three are way too few. At last I want to mention that you should enjoy every band on Vinyl or if possible even live!

Do you have any rehearsal rituals?
 Not really. Of course it is important to just get into a chilly mood, eat a few bites of whatever you like, forget about your jobs and problems and meet up with a bottle of beer or a glass of wine. Only when your mind is free, the music can start to unfold! However this is a long process which sometimes can even take up to 2 hours. This is probably the reason why our rehearsals last longer than usual. 

What are the future plans of the band? 
 After having released our second album „Erutan“, which we have recorded all by ourselves, we want to hit the stage again and play as many concerts as possible. The plan is, to make people with our live music happy. If you are interested in any gigs, just write us! We are easy to handle and willing to join every party! Besides, we are looking forward every day to get into our chilly room, in order to write new songs and spend some nice psychedelic evenings in there.

Additional words for the world out there?
Take your time and enjoy the real things worth living in life! Be pleased by the nature and listen to handmade music, escape the stress of our society and support music which comes from the heart.

Big thank's to Hubert for this support and check them out on their facebook page here!

...time for a interview...

JEROME CRUTSEN 

FROM

Hi Jerome nice to get your time for this little interview...tell me a little bit about your work on Eclipse Productions.

What can you say about the tour with Planet of Zeus in spring 2012 and the minitour with Radar Man from the Moon in summer 2012?

The tour with POZ was a blast being in four countries (Netherlands, Germany, France and Austria) in two weeks. Some gigs got cancelled but also some last minute gigs so that keeps it excited. The highlights were at Oetingervilla in Darmstadt which was kinda like a jamparty. First local support Black Lizard played a short set and after that POZ played their normal set. Afterwards people could join them with their instrument playing some songs and jams. The bands weren’t playing onstage but in the middle of the room with the people standing round them so that created a special atmosphere. Besides that the villa is an awesome place to be with friendly people and everything what a band needs. The other highlight was playing as support for Black Tusk and Red Fang in Salzburg. A sold out Rockhouse and cool to meet the people from both bands and of course you guys from Sativa Root. 

We rented a big van from Highway Tiger which was very relaxed with a bed and playstation in it. Pity thing was the playstation was already broken after one or two days. 

A thing that I would never arrange for a band is pay to play as we had to in Munich. Paying a lot of money to play for a few people and no food and drinks as even no sleeping place so that was a very expensive night unfortunately. But you learn the more you’re on tour. 

with Radar Man from the Moon 2012 

The minitour in Italy with the guys from RMFTM was a real fun thing to do. We drove twelve hours one way for just two gigs near Milan but it was worth it. Never had so much fun in that short time haha…we arrived in a small village which I can’t remember the name from anymore. The outside ‘venue’ was like a courtyard with a water well surrounded by some old houses. The night RMFTM performed onstage was the so called Rocknight from a fourdays festival and a couple of other local (stoner)rockbands played also. It looked all a bit amateuristic with simple electricity connections and stuff but the people took good care of us with a lot of bottles of homemade wine and pasta. 

The day after was also a little festival on the square of a school in the centre of the village which looked pretty professional when we arrived. Also here we were welcomed very good with everything on it. Too bad a storm spoiled the festival but after some discussions they decided to remove the festival inside of the school which was for RMFTM maybe even better cause of visuals and sound. 

What can you tell us about working with the people of Planet of Zeus? What kind of guy’s are they?

The guys from POZ are friendly malakas who are very pretentious and make good quality rockmusic. But to answer this question a bit more generally so far I luckily always worked with nice people and bands who knew what their status is. 

What was your first record you bought and how old were you at that time?

Oef, that’s already a long time ago and I cant remember exactly what my first record was actually. But I guess I was 15 years old when I got into the local punkscene and started to listen to a lot of punk- and hardcorebands. Then also I started to collect my musiccollection which is now like 3000 cd’s, 200 vinyl’s and several music DVDs against the wall. Bands like NOFX, Pennywise, Green Day, Offspring, No Use For A Name, No Fun At All, Lagwagon but also hardcore like Ignite, Born From Pain, Earth Crisis, Spirit Of Youth, Morning Again etc. and local bands like Zwaar Klote and Cradle To The Grave I played and saw many times. 

Then in 1997 I met some guys in my town Heerlen who played in a band called Cupids Quality who made kinda noise/postrock with influences from Sonic Youth and Blonde Redhead. So I started to listen to a lot of bands like previous and more. Years later after working for several local bands I met a band called 3 Speed Automatic and then the world of stonerrock opened up for me. 

Jerome at work with Cojones 2011 

Count me three positive things and three negative things while you are on tour.

Positive things;

- having a small vacation

- meet new people and see old friends

- a lot of alcohol and (soft)drugs

Negative things;

- too less sleep

- too much alcohol and (soft)drugs

- dirty toilets, sweaty and stinky vans and Burger King/McDonalds

Ups, bit more then three but some belong together! ;)

What bands are your absolutely heros in the scene of stoner/doom/sludge/psych?

That’s a pretty difficult question because there are so many good quality bands walking round on this fuzzy and psyched planet. Not only the well-known names but also a lot of underground bands who make quality music. To name a few of my favourites; Unida, Kyuss, Karma To Burn, Brant Bjork, Sleep, Earthless, Celestial Season, Astrosoniq, Lonely Kamel, Colour Haze, Green Leaf, Graveyard, Sons Of Otis, Truckfighters. These are just a few cause there are too many to name all of them. 

Ofcourse I listen also to a lot of less-known bands like 1000mods, Cojones, Nightstalker, Planet Of Zeus, 3 Speed Automatic, Blowback, The Quill, Deville, Routes, Bushfire, Grant National, Radar Men From The Moon, Arc Of Ascent, etc…I can go on and on. 

Do your listen to some other kind of music?

Of course I listen to other music. Main thing is indeed stonerrock but also psychedelic music I listen to even as some heavy rockstuff, metal and postrock. My favourite of all times is and always will be Pearl Jam. These guys make such intense and emotional music, no other band can tip on it is my opinion. Besides that what I like bout them is that they’re famous all over the world but almost never you hear rumours or commotion bout them. Another big favourite of me is Mastodon. What a killerband! I like the cult that is created around them with all this magnificent artwork and of course also I dig their music a lot. Their latest album isn’t the best and not a concept-album but the previous ones are all good to me with maybe ‘Crack The Skye’ one of the best albums from the century. Besides these two bands I listen a lot to other bands also like Baroness, Alter Bridge, Isis, Helmet, Therapy?, Red Fang for example. Sometimes some slow music like on a Sunday morning but for the rest I listen mostly to heavy stuff. 

What are your plans for the future, some new tours in planning?

At the moment I’m working on some upcoming tours for bands like Wo Fat (USA) and Abrahma (FR) together, Nightstalker (FR), Ape Machine (USA), The Quill (SE), Banda De La Muerte (ARG) and Planet Of Zeus (GR). Another goal is reached and that is to get a band on the famous Roadburnfestival which is Wo Fat from USA for next year. Besides that at the moment I’m in contact with some pretty well-known Dutch bands which I’m also planning some tours or gigs for but we’re still discussing how and what so I’m not gonna talk bout that too much for now. Keep an eye on my website or facebook

; www.eclipse-productions.nl. 

Me and Jerome are hard working on SFTU 2012 

Do you have an other job next ECLIPSE PRODUCTIONS? Can you live on that?

Yes, I work as a pedagogic worker in childcare which is a fun job to do. It’s cool to see how these little children grow up and I can teach them some education. Ofcourse also some music education ;). Unfortunately I can’t live on that cause making too less hours. 

How would you personally assess the current situation and popularity of Stoner rock?

At the moment there’s a good and big scene going on but I’ve got this feeling that it’s getting too big. So many bands and so many festivals are existing now that people can’t decide anymore what to listen to or where to go to. Don’t get me wrong but it all looks like a big concurrency and on a lot of festivals you always see the same names.Stonerrock is getting more and more commercial which is a good thing in a way cause bands getting more attention now and the scene is getting more accepted by the big audience. But I hope it still stays also underground cause of the atmosphere and the tight relationship between people. 

What are the Stoner/Doom/Sludge/Psych bands of the near future...which you can think well?

Radar Men From The Moon, 1000mods, Kadavar, Black Bombain, Monomyth, Nightstalker, Blues Pills, Goat, Wo Fat, Stoned Jesus to name a few.

Some words to the Stonerhead's out there?

Thanks for this interview and giving me the opportunity to tell bit more bout Eclipse Productions and I’d say; keep the spirit alive!

...time for a interview...

A interview with the singer 

"Bill Brown" of the german stoner rock band "Bushfire"

myspace

hompage

facebook

Let's talk about Bushfire how would you describe your sound?

Well the sound is a good mix of rock and blues along with other various musical elements.

A new album is expected us what is waiting for us and when will it be available?

2013. we have a great solid base and i believe "diversity" is the core of this album. since we began in 2004 we had a plan. we have overcome that with great success, now the songs we are writing all have their own path and i believe the BF sound is what marries them all together. but in the end (you) the listener will be the judge of that. 

Let us talk about the last BUSHFIRE/WIGHT tour did you enjoy the time? What can

you say about the band WIGHT and which compound has bushfire tied to this band. And what the fuck mean’s “Malaka”?

We all enjoy the time we spend together, it is a true brotherhood. some bands you can tour with and you are friendly to another but with all the M.O.T.U. tours we are FAMILY. everyone is taking care and watching for the other... when we tour together i see it as 1 big band giving you the viewer a larger spectrum of sound for the evening. in DA the town is small enough that everyone knows everyone from mostly all types of bands. if you are a musician here then you've been in many beds... oops bands.

malaka is a greek word and that's all i'm allowed to say (or i have to kill you)  

Which song of yours do you like playing live the most?

The song at the moment are all the new ones coming, like "dream" or "elephant" as far as things already released i would say "useless" or "nwo33".

What moment or concert do you think was the highlight of your rockcareer until now?

The highlight is easy. i'm 40 and been doing this for a while now. my highlights are those (bookers) who make our time on the road very comfortable and they make the effort to go out of the way to show it. for example freakvalley or WDS or SFTU. i guess the best was SFTU only because we were the first to play and then we could party for the next 3 days with all the people we met over time. what a nice family of freaks!

Do you remember the first record you owned? If yes, can you still listen to it without feeling ashamed?

The first record i bought was "thriller" and i can still listen to it. but in all actuality my mother had a good collection of LP's ranging from sugarhill to the doors to hank to the bee gees to rush. secondly, american radio was the shit in the early/mid 70's. i think i have a vast openminded musical ear.

Which type of music or band do you think is so bad that it should be prohibited?

The only music to prohibit is music without HEART. and i believe everyone can hear what that is. i'm not going to be specific because i believe it is all our own personal choice what we like and don't like. 

Whats your favourite albums in this year 2012?

Hmmm i've been listening to the green/yellow from baroness and orangegoblin at the moment. but my highlight was hearing siguria at sftu (i guess thats not from 2012 but i never heard of them before and they blew me away and of course Wight not only for the kick ass fusion of jazz and rock music but also because i'm on it as well for a track or two. (under my real name)

Last and most important question: Which advice can you give all the young and unknown singers/songwriters out there?

Do what you do with heart, and do it for yourself. DIY is not a bad thing and as long as you do it for the right reasons, people will notice your heart.

Thank's for this nice words...