KIDS AND HEROESmagazine interview on Czech language
http://www.kidsandheroes.com/rozhovory/gft--94/this is the English translation:
1. I don..t like these
kind of questions, but you don..t have any official website, so... Tell us
something about your band, you play only for a short time, don..t you?
The band was created this year (2009) in April in
Vilnius, Lithuania.. We are also playing in the other bands and play also together in some projects, but
this one was created only to kill our boring unemployed lives. We are 4. Oleg – 6 string, back vox (back vocals), G – voice, Marcius – 4
string, back vox (back vocals) &
Martynukas – beat box. At the moment we are working on our first EP, which will
be soon to hear... our music is influenced by good old HC/punk bands from the
80's.
2. What does G.F.T.
means? (I mean the shortcut of the name....)
G.F.T. is an abbreviation for GOOD FUCKING TIME. It‘s a simple name, but I think , it reflects our activity perfectly.
3 .What are your
lyrics about?
The lyrics are about everyday tone, what surrounds
us, what we care about and of course - skateboarding.
4. Are there any
other activities of you (zines, another bands, Food Not Bombs, promoting gigs,
graffiti, etc - whatever)?
[Marcius]: at the moment I‘m playing too in the band named Spengimas, but I don‘t have any other
underground activities ;]
[Oleg]: Apart playing in GFT, couple years I played punk
rock with
Sloppy livin‘, took a part
in ska punk project
Pendelis,
which is related to football club
FC VOVA (
www.fcvova.lt),
of which member I am. Play football.
[G.]: I run small distro/label/booking agency, play in band LENINO pr. Help with booking gig‘s for
bands, which are travelling through Europe, I also organize gig‘s in
Vilnius.....
[Martynukas]: I only play in bands, in this one and LENINO pr.
5. You run some label
(Pasidaryk Pats records), don..t you? Could you tell us something about it?
[G.]: Yes, I do record label, if we could call it so... This
agency was established with aim to let the world know about other, not traditional, music. I‘m talking not only
about lithuanian music. Our aim is to release qualitative records or present
and up coming punk bands..., at the moment we have published 44 releases. We
also help the local bands with everythig – recording, organizing gigs, their
first tours... Now we are active not
only in music‘s publishing, but also in distribution of other labels and
organizing concerts...
6. Back to the band -
what audience visits your concerts and gigs in Lithuania generally?
We hadn‘t any gigs yet....
7. Do you play any
cover songs?
Yes, we have done one cover. It‘s „8bit.“, originally made
by COMMON ENEMY. From that cover we started our creative process, actually
8. Do you still go to
school or do you work already?
[Marcius]: this year I should graduate university, I also
have in-and-out work.
[Olegas]: I‘m thinking about going up to university again.
Since the beginning of financial crisis I‘m officially unemployed.
[G.]: I don‘t have any job, I give my attention to music and
family only.
[Martynukas]: I just play ...
9. It seems to me
that thrash music starts to be popular again in the last months. What about
thrash music in Lithuania? And what bands do you listen to?
We don‘t have any trash punk bands in Lithuania, at least we
haven‘t heard about them... We listen to many bands and all them are different.
Each of us has his favourite bands, but to say that we like this or that
certain band, we can‘t, cuz it all depends on the mood.
10. What is it like,
to live in Lithuania and be a punkrocker? Tell us something about local scene
and how does it go there, please...
[Marcius & G.]: well, the situation is kind of good
enough, but if we compare our punk stage with the other ones, after visiting
other european countries, ours is much
shabby... we don‘t have such big choice of events and bands.
[Oleg]: It‘s a pity, but Lithuania‘s society is still
stick-in-the-mud... that‘s why they look aquint at „differently“ thinking and
living or just looking people. Actually, with time the situation is getting
better, maybe it‘s all because of people, who are getting higher education ;)
11. What is the
neonazis situation in Lithuania?
It‘s more common to european. I mean, it‘s not so sharp as
in Russia or Belarus. Yes, we have them,
but not so many, so they could be“huge power“. Most of them are 14-20 years
old. After passing evolutionary crisis mosto f them turn their back to
politics. Of course there are others, who can‘t be cured, so they are trying to
find weak-headed amoung teenagers and create a new „army“. Mostly they are from
Klaipeda, Siauliai. They don‘t cause many problems. But there‘s one unpleasent
fact that our goverment allows them to make demonstration in centre of Vilnius
on independence day.
12. What is the vinyl
situation in your country? Do records exist also on vinyls or largely on CDs
and MCs? Do people buy vinyls / LPs?
The vinyls are becoming mo popular slowly, there are getting
more people interested in my distro. But the lithuanian bands are avoiding to
release them, cuz it‘s quiet expensive and there might not be that much people,
who‘d like to buy them...
13. Which band do you
would like to have a split record with and why? You can say any band in the
world...
You know, there are many bands, with which we‘d like to
play, so that‘s why it‘s hard to name one... I think, we‘d like to play with
those, which would like to play with us....
14. Do you know any
czech bands?
Yeah, quiet many, cuz we are interested in it and we have
also good friends... Geldshit, Houba,
Hibakusha, etc.,we can‘t even name them all, cuz you won‘t have enough
place for that...... and we don‘t want forget any.....
15. What is the squat
situation in Lithuania?
We don‘t have any squats. Our national law is
disadventageous.
16. I read that
Vilnius is the European city of culture this year. Does it show in the life of
ordinary people and how?
[Oleg]: yeah, this year Vilnius is European capital of
culture. It reflects in the life of
ordinary people, in that way that the money from already losing budget is used
for organisation of luxurious parties, exhibitions, spectacles, concerts etc.
Maybe it‘s not the worse way of advertising
Vilnius and Lietuva, cuz u can meet more tourists in the streets. But it
doesn‘t reflect on my life anyhow. I
wouldn‘t even know about it, if not the adverts...
[Marcius & G.]: I think, we are not capital of culture,
but of potboiler. We just have more events in the city as usual, what attracts
people to go out. Sometimes we also go to one of those events, if it‘s
interesting for us.
17. I think most of
the people in your country espouse to Catholic Church. What about you and what
is your oppinion for that?
[Marcius] : The religijon for me personally has not meaning
at all. My family didin‘t force me in th childhood to go to church, that‘s why
my point of view about it is sceptical.
[G.]: I agree with Marcius
[Oleg]: Well, my opinijon about it is also not the best one.
I‘m christenned orthodox, but I have been to orthodox church only 2 times in my
life. I don‘t believe iin God. The church‘s role in Lithuania is becoming
smaller, buti n comparison to european strong enough, maybe that explains
partly the conservatism of our nation.
18. What do you mean
about straight edge, vegetarianism, veganism, anarchism?
All these things (as many other) we value positively, if it
not becomes extremeness and slavery to those ideas....
19. Ok, that..s all
for today, if you want to say something to our readers and punks in Czech and
Slovak republic, the space is yours:
THRASH or be
THRASHED.............. Cheers