Saturday May 13th

First of all, welcome back and thanks for all of your patience. I know it’s been quite a while since you last heard from me. Life’s been pretty busy lately and to be really honest, doing this blog isn’t my biggest priority. Not that I have been sitting still behind the scenes. I’ve been doing some interviews and writings and stuff the last few months, but didn’t get around posting anything up here. So yeah, you could say that you aren’t rid off me yet. So today’s May 13th and what else for a comeback could be better on this very day than a new interview with True Blue’s Patrick Kitzel? I wouldn’t know. Originally I had the plan to post some live MP3s of a show True Blue played in Belgium a couple years ago, but as I haven’t figured out how to moderate anything like that you’ll have to do with just the interview. I think what Kitzel had to tell me was pretty interesting and I got answers to some questions I had on my mind for some while in typical PK-style.

What was the whole vibe or concept behind True Blue? When you guys started out kids weren’t into Cro-Mags yet and the hardcore world seemed to be under the reign of mediocre youth crew revival bands or third generation Earth Crisis-influenced bands. You dudes stood up like a sore thumb. How did a band like True Blue deal with that?

René and me never respected much separation in hardcore. We always hated and despised it. When in late ‘96 the whole “youth crew” revival arrived it was some sort of near death experience once again for hardcore. I mean for the most part all those bands and followers cared about was their ill clique of bands. I kept hearing “this ain’t hardcore, that ain’t hardcore”. It was like it had been before when the first “youth crew” came around. Nothing but separation and alienation. It seemed like everyone jumped onto that train. I mean, there were of course the few and the proud around (like Big from Mainstrike) that always had been into that sound and style, but it seemed like the new “fashion” arrived at that time. And time has proven that most kids that jocked that shit are now into whatever is cool now. Minus once again a handful of people like Big. Anyway, both, René and me would sit around and just shake our heads. We tried to look back at which bands got us into hardcore and inspired us the most and that pretty much gave us the musical direction. We didn’t try to be like anything, man. We just wanted to play a style of hardcore that we love most, you know. For us it wasn’t like “hey let’s try to sound like this or that band”. It was just natural. So we got a few peeps together and went for it.

Do you have any ideas how many shows True Blue played? What are the ones of which you have the best memories?

We probably played around a hundred shows I’d say. Best memories? I don’t know... One of the last shows we played in East Germany at some festival was a great show. Tons of kids knew the words and went nuts. I always liked playing Belgium and Holland. The whole US tour was amazing, the trips to Switzerland. It was all great. It’s always hard to talk about “best memories”. It was all good and it was all bad in a way...like real life.

What was the reason for True Blue to break up? Did you still have any unrecorded songs then? Will you ever record any of those? I heard rumours that True Blue already recorded some songs (or demo versions of songs) for an upcoming full length. Is there any truth to that? And how about that On The Attack song that World Collapse did, was that originally a True Blue song?

I guess I was the reason for the break up. I was in a weird place in my life during the last year of the band’s existing. To make things worse I couldn’t stand the people in the band anymore. In my eyes except for Rene nobody was what I’d consider hardcore. I had a hard time doing with the band what I wanted to do. People had different ideas were to take the band I guess... (editor-???) I mean, most guys in the band consider themselves musicians and I ain’t one at all. All I cared about was to get on stage and let go, to speak my mind, etc. I would fight and argue constantly with people in the band. Flo, who was a important part of the band, wanted to quit to go to school full time... It was all a mess. When we wrote the LP songs we recorded some demo versions. So, yes it’s true. Some of that might end up one way or another on the discography that’s coming out sometime soon. And yes, On The Attack was a True Blue song. We played it a few times in Europe and on the US tour. The lyrics were slightly different. I love the World Collapse version. Shit’s mad hard!

What was the meaning behind some of those abstract lyrics True Blue had, e.g. God Of Wrath?

I think that life in general inspired most words. World Collapse was about our planet going down the drain, God Of Wrath was about struggle in life, Devilangel was about people that abuse hardcore. It was important to us not to have the lyrics written a certain way, which ended up confusing a lot of people I think. I mean, we didn’t have your “step in the back” type shit.

You told me there will be a True Blue discography sometime in 2006. What will be on that CD? What label will put it out? Can we expect some new classic True Blue gear with the release of that CD?

The discography will have a ton of cool stuff. Tons of pics, flyers etc. It will have the demo, The Ice, one or two unreleased songs, live stuff, cool stuff man... I am pretty sure that there will be some merch with that release. Labelwise I am not sure. I might put it out on Reaper Records. We will see. Some bigger labels are interested so who knows.

Currently you are working on a demo of a new band you’ll sing in again, Retaliation. Who else is in that band? Can we expect to see some live shows of Retaliation, or is this band more of a project? When will the demo drop and how many songs will be on it?
We recorded 6 songs as a demo, last week. This coming week we’re gonna get the words ready and then try to go in the studio a.s.a.p. Maybe later in April or May. I’ll have to do the vocal recordings in the States. The bass will also be recorded over here in the States by Buske from The Promise/Terror. The line up is René on drums (ex-True Blue, currently in World Collapse), Frank on guitar (ex-True Blue, currently in World Collapse) and last but definitely not least my good friend J. Buske DNA on the bass (ex-The Promise, Another Victim, Terror). We will definitely play shows and try to tour. But nothing is definite yet, due to the distance of band members. Some song titles are Death By My Side, False Prophets, Kingdom Of Heaven... Hopefully we will play Yper Fest, Posi Numbers, etc. We will see. The website should be up soon too with some more info and songs and what not. Stay fucking tuned. 2006 will def bring some stuff that’s worth checking out.

Anything to add? Any cool things you wanna share about either True Blue or Retaliation that I haven’t asked you about?

Retaliation is gonna be a band to be taken serious. This is not some jaded fucking attempt to put a record out. People gonna not like what they hear. I have quite some shit to say and it won’t be pretty. The way I see hardcore these days. It’s fucking invaded by bands that might have roots in this scene but that drifted too far away from the core. Bands that no longer have any sort of message involved and def don’t sound hardcore either. Bands like As I Lay Dying, 18 Visions, Bleeding Through, Bury Your Dead and God knows who else needs to pack it up and quit playing shows within what’s called the hardcore scene. I am sick of meeting people that find out that I listen to hardcore and they go “Oh I listen to hardcore too... Do you like yada yada yada...” I get pissed off that your regular Joe thinks that this is what hardcore is. A bunch of freaks with crazy hair, tight jeans and a lyric book filled with suicidal dreams. It’s time that all this shit gets out of this scene. People think I take this shit too serious, but I mean it, hardcore can be anything you want. But if you lose all the ingredients like having a message that’s real then I don’t know what to say other than... Fucking get the fuck outta here, I don’t care what you sound like or dress like but as I said, if you don’t have the heart and the hardcore attitude and lifestyle then you ain’t supposed to be here.
Also get ready for the new Terror LP, shit’s gonna be ill!

Love it or leave it,

God bless, Patrick Kitzel DNA

www.reaperhardcore.com

www.worldcollapse.com

www.givemedrugs.com