Die Band BO LABAR aus Tel Aviv hat zwei Alben veröffentlicht, das Ganze auf dem amerikanischen Label Fat Wreck Chords. In Deutschland werden die beiden Releases nun von Bandworm Records als limitierte Vinyl-Ausgabe herausgebracht. Das Pressure Magazine traf die Band und hat dem Gitarristen Ishay Berger in einem Exklusiv-Interview einige Fragen gestellt.
Bo Labar besteht aus Mitgliedern von Betzefer und Useless ID. Beide Combos sind ganz klar international ausgerichtet, Betzefer zocken technisch extrem hochwertigen Pantera/Pro-Pain/Sepulture-Style Trash-Metal und veröffentlichten auf Roadrunner Records, Useless ID haben sich weltweit einen guten Namen im Melody Punk-Sektor erspielt, werden mit Rise Against und Alkaline Trio verglichen.
Hey, for those people you do not know. Please introduce the band shortly.
Ishay: There are 6 members in Bo Labar, we are all in our late 20’s or early 30’s, well, i’m reaching mid-30’s. Everyone in the band is an alcoholic.
You are coming from Tel Aviv, Isreal. How would you discribe the punk rock scene there?
Ishay: It’s pretty good, concidering how small and shitty Israel is, Tel Aviv is with no doubt THE place for punk rockers to live in. There is a pretty diverse punk scene here, we got a LOT of street punk kids, and they all hang out about 2 minutes from where i live. Some bands that play here are really good, and the shows can be a lot of fun.
How would you discribe your music?
Ishay: Short fast silly punk rock made by drunks for the punks.
Your albums were released on the label from Fat Mike (NOFX), Fat Wreck Chords. How did the collaboration?
Ishay: With Useless ID we have been touring around the planet for over 15 years now and we met Fat Mike in 96′ at a Bouncing Souls show in S.F, we gave him a demo tape that we had at the time and kept in touch ever since. He’s a good friend and have always helped us when he could.
Now, in 2012, both albums will be releases on the germen label Bandworm Records. Why and who had the idea?
Ishay: Matan, who plays guitar for Bo Labar and also in Betzefer, had contacts in germany through his good friends Alan Wright, who really helped us a lot with this thing, and he just sent out our recordings in email to some labels, Bandworm were the second label to reply, and…wow….they are such an amazing label, this is something that we never thought could happen…to be on such a strong, cool label that does limited pressing of vinyl?! It’s really like a dream for us.
Video: „Bo Labar – Alek Punk“
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You are also playing in the bands Betzefer and Useless ID. How do you get it all under one screen?
Ishay: We are all good friends and everything is very family feel here, so i guess it’s pretty easy. We just try to not book shows on days that the other bands are playing and the rest is easy. Useless ID are going to be touring a lot in 2012, so Bo Labar will be playing a bit less (we play a TON of shows here when were all at home) but that’s ok for everyone.
You are singing in your national language. Is there is special reason?
Ishay: Well, it’s a funny language! Most of the israeli punk bands sing in english, because it really makes more sense for a band to be understood beyond their borders, but we kinda say stuff that no one is ever saying here, and we fuck the language up badly, it’s like, we got no respect for the language, we make up words, we curse a fucking lot, and i think that if we sang in english it would be sounding very retarded like „get high, puke blood“, we heard that stuff on a million records already…but in hebrew…it was never sung in hebrew….untill Bo Labar did it.
Your first album „Bong Rock“ was released in 2011. What reasons are there to buy it?
Ishay: The Album rules!
Foto: Ishay Berger zusammen mit Useless ID
Your second album is from this year available and it´s simple called „2“. What are the differences to the debut-album?
Ishay: No big difference, i think we just have some better songs on it, and the recording is a little bit cleaner, like, the first album we recorded the guitars at my friends house, just plugging guitars into a computer and some really retarded shit like that, for this new album we actually brought our guitar amps and went to a studio. Also, the drums for „2“ were recorded at the Blasting Room (studio of Bill from Black Flag/Decsendents) when Useless ID were doing their last album there, so yea, definatly better tones on the secong album.
What are your plans for the future?
Ishay: Good question! There’s a talk about going on tour in germany later in 2012! And we have all the songs for the third album ready, so we’re looking into recording and releasing another bo labar album, too! It’s very exciting, because we started as a fucking joke band but now we’re actualy talking about touring and doing a third album.
So weird!
Thank you very much, the lase words belongs to you!
Ishay: I really really just wanna thank bandworm records for putting out our albums. Everyone that likes the albums is welcome to get in touch with us and stuff. Thanks for the interview!
Interview von Florian Puschke im April 2012
Fat Wreck Chords website: fatwreck.com/
Useless ID Homepage: myspace.com/
Facebook Bandseite: facebook.com/
Bandworm Records Homepage: bandworm.de
