Sometime during 2021, I received an EP by a Dutch band called Waste. It turned-out to be a selection of previously-unreleased tracks recorded during rehearsals in the early-Eighties (the band had split-up in 1983, leaving behind only one much sought-after EP, ‘History Repeats’.) The new record, despite the raw quality of the tapes, captured the band storming through five songs, combining both the UK82 and Anarcho-punk sounds of the time. I liked it a lot! Soon after this, I received another EP from the same label, Subunderground, this time by a current band called Ford’s Fuzz Inferno. Although certainly in the same spirit as Waste, these songs sounded quite distinct, with snarlin’ fuzz-guitar sounds backed-up with pulverising drum beats, whilst short, sharp melodies insinuated their way into your head. Think of a cross between Budget Rock-style garage bands and classic ’77 punk rock tuneage. Over the next couple of years, further records kept appearing and I gradually found-out more about the band. Guitarist and singer Hans, who also ran Subunderground, had originally played in Waste and, later on, also played in another Dutch band, Betty Ford Clinic, alongside Patrick who was now playing drums for FFI. Patrick, in turn, had also played in a Dutch band called The Scoundrels as well as a Belgian punk band called Bad Influence. FFI had started as a studio-only project, with no intention of playing live, but all of this changed when Neil of Issue Punk Zine invited them to play some gigs in the UK. At this point, myself and Tom Phobic tried to set-up a gig for them in London but, due to the short-notice, it all fell through. However, one year later they were coming back and this time, alongside Alex Hadda, we helped to set-up a gig at the Birds Nest in Deptford. On the afternoon of the gig, I arrived quite early to meet Hans, Patrick and (drummer) Bootsie face-to-face for the first time. They all turned to be really nice guys and so, accompanied by several beers, we eventually sat down for an interview...
To begin with, how did you all get into music in the first place?
Hans ; Just through listening to the radio when I was a young kid, but I didn’t have any particular style that I liked. I was pretty open-minded and didn’t follow the singers or bands, I just liked certain songs that I heard. That was until I started to hear Glam rock and that was something I really liked. . I enjoyed the catchy songs with loud guitars, and that it was nothing too complicated.
Patrick ; Before punk came along, I heard things like Pink Floyd because my brother was six years older than me and listened to that stuff. Otherwise, I only got to hear things on the radio. I liked bands like the Rolling Stones, but I didn’t really get to hear much at that time.
Bootsie ; It was the same for me, really. My sister’s boyfriend at the time was a DJ, so I got to hear all of this great stuff through him, from James Brown or Sly and the Family Stone through to the Sweet, and I loved it!
So how did you get to hear Punk Rock? Was it being played on the radio in Holland or was it difficult to hear the new bands?
Hans ; Well, in Holland we had a TV show called ‘Top Pop’, which was the Dutch equivalent of ‘Top of the Pops’. I saw The Stranglers on there and it changed my life! They played ‘No More Heroes’ and ‘Something Better Change’, which were their singles at the time. I think that was the way a lot of people got to hear new bands back then.
When did you start playing in your own bands?
Hans ; The very first band I played-in was just something I did with some friends from school in Breda. A couple of us were into Punk while the others were more into Powerpop or New Wave, so it was alright. We were called Abzurd Act and we really sounded like beginners, because that’s what we were! That was between 1979-1981, but then I met the guys who I would play with in Waste and that would be my first serious band. That was in Oudenbosch between 1981 and 1983. Patrick wasn’t involved with that originally, but later on, in 2012, Waste had their first reunion. For various reasons I wasn’t into it at the time, so on that occasion Patrick was my stand-in.
Patrick ; Actually, I think the first time I met Hans was at an early Waste gig…
Hans ; We were all part of the Breda scene, in the south of Holland.
Patrick ; He was living about 15 miles away but we’d always meet when he came to Breda and we became friends… or partners in crime, perhaps?
Hans : But it wasn’t until 1990 that we joined forces and formed our band, Betty Ford Clinic, which is where the ‘Ford’ comes from in Ford’s Fuzz Inferno.
Hans ; Just through listening to the radio when I was a young kid, but I didn’t have any particular style that I liked. I was pretty open-minded and didn’t follow the singers or bands, I just liked certain songs that I heard. That was until I started to hear Glam rock and that was something I really liked. . I enjoyed the catchy songs with loud guitars, and that it was nothing too complicated.
Patrick ; Before punk came along, I heard things like Pink Floyd because my brother was six years older than me and listened to that stuff. Otherwise, I only got to hear things on the radio. I liked bands like the Rolling Stones, but I didn’t really get to hear much at that time.
Bootsie ; It was the same for me, really. My sister’s boyfriend at the time was a DJ, so I got to hear all of this great stuff through him, from James Brown or Sly and the Family Stone through to the Sweet, and I loved it!
So how did you get to hear Punk Rock? Was it being played on the radio in Holland or was it difficult to hear the new bands?
Hans ; Well, in Holland we had a TV show called ‘Top Pop’, which was the Dutch equivalent of ‘Top of the Pops’. I saw The Stranglers on there and it changed my life! They played ‘No More Heroes’ and ‘Something Better Change’, which were their singles at the time. I think that was the way a lot of people got to hear new bands back then.
When did you start playing in your own bands?
Hans ; The very first band I played-in was just something I did with some friends from school in Breda. A couple of us were into Punk while the others were more into Powerpop or New Wave, so it was alright. We were called Abzurd Act and we really sounded like beginners, because that’s what we were! That was between 1979-1981, but then I met the guys who I would play with in Waste and that would be my first serious band. That was in Oudenbosch between 1981 and 1983. Patrick wasn’t involved with that originally, but later on, in 2012, Waste had their first reunion. For various reasons I wasn’t into it at the time, so on that occasion Patrick was my stand-in.
Patrick ; Actually, I think the first time I met Hans was at an early Waste gig…
Hans ; We were all part of the Breda scene, in the south of Holland.
Patrick ; He was living about 15 miles away but we’d always meet when he came to Breda and we became friends… or partners in crime, perhaps?
Hans : But it wasn’t until 1990 that we joined forces and formed our band, Betty Ford Clinic, which is where the ‘Ford’ comes from in Ford’s Fuzz Inferno.
Here's a track from Waste called 'Bugging You'...
Musically, Waste were more in line with the UK82 / Anarcho punk of the early Eighties…
Hans ; Yeah, we were into the Peace punk and Anarcho punk bands of that time, but there wasn’t a very big scene where we were. There were some fanatical people, but there wasn’t really a big punk scene our area.
Patrick ; It was a lot more difficult to communicate with other bands back then. If you wanted a gig, all you could do was write or phone and hope someone would get back to you.
Hans ; When we went to play in Amsterdam for the first time, we played with a band called the Scoundrels, which was Patrick’s band (who have also reunited recently…)
Patrick ; We were all roughly the same age, 15,16 or 17, so we all got along. We’d get to play with other bands, not every week but probably every month, and when you’re young that feels liked a magic world! It wasn’t about becoming a rock star, it was about the creativity and just ‘doing it’…
Hans ; For me, it was also an identity thing… if you were a punk rocker then you had to be in a band!
Patrick ; A lot of the first generation punk bands from the UK could actually play pretty well because they’d already played in pub rock bands, but they were also saying that you didn’t have to play really well, you just had to get a guitar and an amp. Learn to tune the guitar and that was all you needed to start a band. That’s literally what I did! I didn’t have any lessons but I think I wrote ten songs the first week I had a guitar! I mean, they were pretty basic, but for me, that was okay.
That’s the fun bit, and it gets even better when you find someone else to play with you!
Hans ; Yeah, that’s when it’s really exciting!
Patrick ; Especially when you first feel that chemistry of playing together, it’s just great.
Waste only released one EP, ‘History Repeats’, while they were originally together…
Hans ; Yeah, that was on a label called Miranda, in 1982. The label was run by The Miranda’s who were the first and best punk band in Breda. They had invited us to support them several times so... Compared to us, they were older guys - they were all in their early Twenties! But they had a better idea of how to do things… they also ran a fanzine, all very DIY, and they showed us how to do things that way, so they were like punk godfathers to us. They had their own label, so they offered to release something by us and that’s what happened.
Hans ; Yeah, we were into the Peace punk and Anarcho punk bands of that time, but there wasn’t a very big scene where we were. There were some fanatical people, but there wasn’t really a big punk scene our area.
Patrick ; It was a lot more difficult to communicate with other bands back then. If you wanted a gig, all you could do was write or phone and hope someone would get back to you.
Hans ; When we went to play in Amsterdam for the first time, we played with a band called the Scoundrels, which was Patrick’s band (who have also reunited recently…)
Patrick ; We were all roughly the same age, 15,16 or 17, so we all got along. We’d get to play with other bands, not every week but probably every month, and when you’re young that feels liked a magic world! It wasn’t about becoming a rock star, it was about the creativity and just ‘doing it’…
Hans ; For me, it was also an identity thing… if you were a punk rocker then you had to be in a band!
Patrick ; A lot of the first generation punk bands from the UK could actually play pretty well because they’d already played in pub rock bands, but they were also saying that you didn’t have to play really well, you just had to get a guitar and an amp. Learn to tune the guitar and that was all you needed to start a band. That’s literally what I did! I didn’t have any lessons but I think I wrote ten songs the first week I had a guitar! I mean, they were pretty basic, but for me, that was okay.
That’s the fun bit, and it gets even better when you find someone else to play with you!
Hans ; Yeah, that’s when it’s really exciting!
Patrick ; Especially when you first feel that chemistry of playing together, it’s just great.
Waste only released one EP, ‘History Repeats’, while they were originally together…
Hans ; Yeah, that was on a label called Miranda, in 1982. The label was run by The Miranda’s who were the first and best punk band in Breda. They had invited us to support them several times so... Compared to us, they were older guys - they were all in their early Twenties! But they had a better idea of how to do things… they also ran a fanzine, all very DIY, and they showed us how to do things that way, so they were like punk godfathers to us. They had their own label, so they offered to release something by us and that’s what happened.
Why did Waste eventually split-up?
Hans ; I think it had something to do with the aggression in the punk scene back then. We all got fed-up with the way things were going and developing. Also, some of us were getting more into the post-punk stuff at the time.
Patrick ; Everything seemed to be getting divided. You had Punk, you had Oi!, there was post-punk and other bands were getting more into Metal…
Bootsie : But there were also lots of Anarcho-punk bands and the DIY thing, which was the real eye-opener for me.
Hans ; I didn’t know much about all the new American punk bands as I was focused more on what was happening in England at the time and it seemed as if that scene was almost over.
But you continued to play in bands after Waste had ended?
Hans ; I did but there’s nothing that I’d want to pay much attention to, now. The first one was called Scream Therapy, which was together for a few years, until 1989, I think. It wasn’t until 1990 that me and Patrick decided to do something together.
Patrick ; I’d been playing with the Scoundrels but they had ended in 1989.
Hans ; As we said, we already knew each other, but it was when we met-up at a Gun Club gig in Rotterdam that we decided that we should do something new together.
Patrick ; Which became the Betty Ford Clinic…
Hans ; Rene, who had been in Waste, played bass with us, but the music was a big mix of punk, psych, jazz, surf, noise and pop! We actually received quite a lot of airplay in Holland, although that was mostly for our grungy versions of ‘Sealed With A Kiss’ and ‘Bummer in the Summer’ by Love, although most of our songs were originals. We released a 7” and two CDs, although the second one had very little to do with punk rock apart from our obnoxious attitude. I think we enjoyed doing things that other people would hate…. Judy Garland covers, bad hard rock with German lyrics, indie pop! It was a lot of fun at the time.
Patrick ; We continued doing that for five years, 1990-95, and then we all got involved with other things.
Hans ; I got a four-track recorder and just spent my time fiddling about with lo-fi stuff for a number of years. . Sometimes it was just me, at other times I’d invite some friends over to join me. These were all different projects, but always using the name Ford’s Imaginary Inferno. We also did gigs and small tours every now and then. Patrick and Bootsie contributed a number of times. So in more than one way, this was the precursor of Ford’s Fuzz Inferno, although the music was completely different. Then, after 2004, I didn’t make any music at all, until 2021, when we started doing what became Fords Fuzz Inferno. And that’s the most important thing at the moment…
Hans ; I think it had something to do with the aggression in the punk scene back then. We all got fed-up with the way things were going and developing. Also, some of us were getting more into the post-punk stuff at the time.
Patrick ; Everything seemed to be getting divided. You had Punk, you had Oi!, there was post-punk and other bands were getting more into Metal…
Bootsie : But there were also lots of Anarcho-punk bands and the DIY thing, which was the real eye-opener for me.
Hans ; I didn’t know much about all the new American punk bands as I was focused more on what was happening in England at the time and it seemed as if that scene was almost over.
But you continued to play in bands after Waste had ended?
Hans ; I did but there’s nothing that I’d want to pay much attention to, now. The first one was called Scream Therapy, which was together for a few years, until 1989, I think. It wasn’t until 1990 that me and Patrick decided to do something together.
Patrick ; I’d been playing with the Scoundrels but they had ended in 1989.
Hans ; As we said, we already knew each other, but it was when we met-up at a Gun Club gig in Rotterdam that we decided that we should do something new together.
Patrick ; Which became the Betty Ford Clinic…
Hans ; Rene, who had been in Waste, played bass with us, but the music was a big mix of punk, psych, jazz, surf, noise and pop! We actually received quite a lot of airplay in Holland, although that was mostly for our grungy versions of ‘Sealed With A Kiss’ and ‘Bummer in the Summer’ by Love, although most of our songs were originals. We released a 7” and two CDs, although the second one had very little to do with punk rock apart from our obnoxious attitude. I think we enjoyed doing things that other people would hate…. Judy Garland covers, bad hard rock with German lyrics, indie pop! It was a lot of fun at the time.
Patrick ; We continued doing that for five years, 1990-95, and then we all got involved with other things.
Hans ; I got a four-track recorder and just spent my time fiddling about with lo-fi stuff for a number of years. . Sometimes it was just me, at other times I’d invite some friends over to join me. These were all different projects, but always using the name Ford’s Imaginary Inferno. We also did gigs and small tours every now and then. Patrick and Bootsie contributed a number of times. So in more than one way, this was the precursor of Ford’s Fuzz Inferno, although the music was completely different. Then, after 2004, I didn’t make any music at all, until 2021, when we started doing what became Fords Fuzz Inferno. And that’s the most important thing at the moment…
Here's a taste of The Scoundrels, called 'Reptile Brain'.
Patrick ; I had started to run an eight-track studio, Studio 195, which is where we recorded the Betty Ford Clinic CD, but I was also playing in other bands while I was running it. I played bass in a Belgian punk band called Bad Influence, who released a few records, but then decided I wanted to play drums, because most of the musicians I knew played guitars and they were always looking for a drummer! I ended-up playing with several indie-rock bands, who sort of sounded like The Replacements or Husker Du, but then I took a break for a few years before eventually joining a band called Zachte G Harde P. They were a punk band that sung in the Dutch dialect, but we only lasted for two or three years, even though we did release an album in 2013. But by then, I was really busy with the studio, which became my full-time business. Doing that didn’t really give me too much time to play in a band because, when I did have a day-off, I really didn’t want to listen to any more music! But I’d always wanted to do something again with the Scoundrels, and we eventually got back together in 2020, also including Bootsie… Then Hans contacted me in 2021 and since then we’ve been playing punk rock together again!
Bootsie ; During the time they were doing all of that stuff, I was doing my own things, making music with electronics and live drums. I think that I’d become fed-up with punk rock and rock music in general and I was trying to find a way to have the same feelings that I had when I first discovered Crass and stuff like that. I still had that curiosity and I found what I wanted in electronic music, in jazz, even some Afro-music. Maybe that’s the difference between being a drummer or a guitar player, I gues. I approach music in a more rhythmic way rather than in a melodic way. Listening to other types of music helped to get me involved in other projects and things that were new to me. But whatever I was doing, I always stayed with the whole DIY thing, that we didn’t need the big labels to get things out there, we could just put things out by ourselves or with one of the other small labels that are still out there.
The first release on your Subunderground label, before Ford’s Fuzz Inferno, was an EP of previously-unreleased recordings by Waste. Why did you decide to put that out?
Hans ; Well, over the last couple of years quite a lot of people asked me whether there would be a reissue of the 'History Repeats' EP. I never gave the idea much thought until sometime in 2020, when all the original Waste members - Richard, John, René and myself - were interviewed about the 'old days' by Bacteria.nl (a website dedicated to Dutch punk history.) That prompted me to dig up some old Waste recordings, particularly the tape of our first studio session, but unfortunately none of us had it anymore. But instead I stumbled upon an old cassette with rehearsal recordings from 1981 and '82. I thought some of those tracks sounded surprisingly good and then one thing led to another…
Bootsie ; During the time they were doing all of that stuff, I was doing my own things, making music with electronics and live drums. I think that I’d become fed-up with punk rock and rock music in general and I was trying to find a way to have the same feelings that I had when I first discovered Crass and stuff like that. I still had that curiosity and I found what I wanted in electronic music, in jazz, even some Afro-music. Maybe that’s the difference between being a drummer or a guitar player, I gues. I approach music in a more rhythmic way rather than in a melodic way. Listening to other types of music helped to get me involved in other projects and things that were new to me. But whatever I was doing, I always stayed with the whole DIY thing, that we didn’t need the big labels to get things out there, we could just put things out by ourselves or with one of the other small labels that are still out there.
The first release on your Subunderground label, before Ford’s Fuzz Inferno, was an EP of previously-unreleased recordings by Waste. Why did you decide to put that out?
Hans ; Well, over the last couple of years quite a lot of people asked me whether there would be a reissue of the 'History Repeats' EP. I never gave the idea much thought until sometime in 2020, when all the original Waste members - Richard, John, René and myself - were interviewed about the 'old days' by Bacteria.nl (a website dedicated to Dutch punk history.) That prompted me to dig up some old Waste recordings, particularly the tape of our first studio session, but unfortunately none of us had it anymore. But instead I stumbled upon an old cassette with rehearsal recordings from 1981 and '82. I thought some of those tracks sounded surprisingly good and then one thing led to another…
Ford's Fuzz Inferno present 'Check Out my Machine'
Did that get you interested in playing music again?
Hans ; Yes, exactly! I liked the way that those songs sounded, really uncomplicated, so I started to think, how would I make uncomplicated songs now? How would the songs sound with the different skills that I now have? So I started playing some things and came up with eight or nine songs over three evenings. I was trying to duplicate the Waste-style but it ended-up being quite different. Then I gave Patrick a call and said, ‘Hey, I’ve written some new songs, we should record them together’. The following weekend I went over to Patricks’ place and we recorded them all in one day, with Patrick on drums. People responded really well to the first EP, so we decided to make another 7” and it just carried on from there.
Patrick ; We had all been doing different things, but that was good because eventually we all just wanted to do something together for fun and not have to think too hard about it. Punk rock is perfect for that because it’s easy. You just need three chords, some good songs and some good friends to play with. That’s almost more important than the music itself. I mean, if we didn’t like each other we wouldn’t be here. But it’s a great feeling to be making this music.
At first, FFI was just Hans and Patrick and you only intended to be a ‘studio-band’, but eventually you asked Bootsie to join so that you would be able to play live. What changed your minds about playing live?
Hans ; We weren’t planning to play live at all, but when we started releasing the records we needed to find a way to let people know about them, so we sent copies out to some punk fanzines to try and get reviews. After we made our second EP, Neil Duncan from Issue punk zine invited us to play some gigs in England and while we weren’t planning to do that at all, we both liked the idea of playing in England so we said, Yeah, we’ll do it! But then we had to ask Bootsie to play drums with us, so we could actually play live…
Patrick ; I’m mainly a guitarist, but I’m happy to play drums in the studio. I have played drums with bands in the past but I don’t really like playing drums live anymore… All I hear are all the mistakes I make, so I didn’t want to play drums live. But I’ve played with a lot of bands and I think I prefer it when they just have one person in charge which, in our case, is Hans. He calls the shots and he also wanted me to play guitar, live, so we asked Bootsie if he would play drums. As Hans was writing the songs, it was fair that he called the shots! Also, if it all goes wrong, it’s all his fault as well, hahaha!
Did you play any gigs in Holland before you came to England?
Hans : Not until we agreed to play in England. Once we decided to do that we thought, well, maybe we should do something in Holland first, just to try it out and see how it goes. So we booked two shows in Holland and I think they went pretty well. No complaints! Although we haven’t had any other offers to play in Holland since then, only in England, hahaha! Back home hardly anyone knows about Ford’s Fuzz Inferno. We have no fanzines, no punk media, no tight-knit scene, so…
But I think that, over here, there are still quite a few fanzines and people who will set-up shows for us, while in Holland that doesn’t happen so much at the moment. So far, we’ve only played six gigs but by the end of this week, we will have played nine… seven of which have been in England! Hopefully, that will impress the people in Holland!
(Note: in the meantime the band has been invited to play several shows in the Netherlands, in 2025.)
Hans ; Yes, exactly! I liked the way that those songs sounded, really uncomplicated, so I started to think, how would I make uncomplicated songs now? How would the songs sound with the different skills that I now have? So I started playing some things and came up with eight or nine songs over three evenings. I was trying to duplicate the Waste-style but it ended-up being quite different. Then I gave Patrick a call and said, ‘Hey, I’ve written some new songs, we should record them together’. The following weekend I went over to Patricks’ place and we recorded them all in one day, with Patrick on drums. People responded really well to the first EP, so we decided to make another 7” and it just carried on from there.
Patrick ; We had all been doing different things, but that was good because eventually we all just wanted to do something together for fun and not have to think too hard about it. Punk rock is perfect for that because it’s easy. You just need three chords, some good songs and some good friends to play with. That’s almost more important than the music itself. I mean, if we didn’t like each other we wouldn’t be here. But it’s a great feeling to be making this music.
At first, FFI was just Hans and Patrick and you only intended to be a ‘studio-band’, but eventually you asked Bootsie to join so that you would be able to play live. What changed your minds about playing live?
Hans ; We weren’t planning to play live at all, but when we started releasing the records we needed to find a way to let people know about them, so we sent copies out to some punk fanzines to try and get reviews. After we made our second EP, Neil Duncan from Issue punk zine invited us to play some gigs in England and while we weren’t planning to do that at all, we both liked the idea of playing in England so we said, Yeah, we’ll do it! But then we had to ask Bootsie to play drums with us, so we could actually play live…
Patrick ; I’m mainly a guitarist, but I’m happy to play drums in the studio. I have played drums with bands in the past but I don’t really like playing drums live anymore… All I hear are all the mistakes I make, so I didn’t want to play drums live. But I’ve played with a lot of bands and I think I prefer it when they just have one person in charge which, in our case, is Hans. He calls the shots and he also wanted me to play guitar, live, so we asked Bootsie if he would play drums. As Hans was writing the songs, it was fair that he called the shots! Also, if it all goes wrong, it’s all his fault as well, hahaha!
Did you play any gigs in Holland before you came to England?
Hans : Not until we agreed to play in England. Once we decided to do that we thought, well, maybe we should do something in Holland first, just to try it out and see how it goes. So we booked two shows in Holland and I think they went pretty well. No complaints! Although we haven’t had any other offers to play in Holland since then, only in England, hahaha! Back home hardly anyone knows about Ford’s Fuzz Inferno. We have no fanzines, no punk media, no tight-knit scene, so…
But I think that, over here, there are still quite a few fanzines and people who will set-up shows for us, while in Holland that doesn’t happen so much at the moment. So far, we’ve only played six gigs but by the end of this week, we will have played nine… seven of which have been in England! Hopefully, that will impress the people in Holland!
(Note: in the meantime the band has been invited to play several shows in the Netherlands, in 2025.)
When you first came over in 2023, that was the first time you’d played over here and the gigs were on a pretty small level, but as you’re here again this year, I assume you must have felt they went pretty well?
Hans ; Yeah, I think so. I mean, we’ve been invited back and the shows went down well, so we were happy with them. This time, someone also contacted us from a town near Leeds and asked us if we could play there but we didn’t have enough time to do it on this trip. Hopefully we’ll be able to arrange something with him next time…
Patrick ; We do have to be careful because not many people know about us over here. Quite some time ago, I was on tour in England with Bad Influence. Some of the shows were with other bands but most of them were on our own and not many people knew us. When we played in Leeds and Manchester we ended-up playing to only twenty people, so it felt like a waste of time and energy. We have to keep things like that in mind because however well-intentioned the promoters may be, we don’t want to play gigs that don’t go well for either us or them…
You’ve been releasing your own records so far, what kind of response have they been getting?
Hans ; I must say, response is very positive, at least from the few people who know us., haha… So we really don’t sell that much... We do have distribution in Holland which is supposed to be worldwide, but we have to take care of our own promotion so it's all very DIY and rather low profile. Obviously, there are no huge marketing or promotion campaigns, I just send downloads and copies of our releases to some of the fanzines I know and hope they'll like our music. It's great that most of those zines write about us. All those little bits help and hopefully it'll all add up. And in the meantime I'm having a great time just doing what I do.
It can be frustrating because people who have heard your records tend to like them, but a lot of people who might be interested just don’t get that chance to hear you…
Patrick ; It’s always difficult for a new band because it’s not as if it’s a rehash of an old band and people already know their name. What we’re doing is something that we like, it’s fuzzy punk rock and it’s not too difficult, but we have some good songs and people seem to like it, if they hear it…
Hans ; All we can do is carry on playing and see where it all goes…
Patrick ; Luckily for us is, we’re doing this because we’re having a good time. That’s the main thing.
Hans ; That’s right, so please don’t get the wrong idea. We’re not complaining, we just don’t want to be realistic and not blow things out of proportion.
That said, you’ve recently had some support from Micky Bradley of The Undertones, who has been playing your songs on his BBC Radio Ulster show and also writing about FFI on his social media...
Hans : Yeah, he’s already played us about five times. That's so awesome. Even more so since I'm an old Undertones fan. It's a really nice thought that the Undertones bassist knows about us and appreciates what we're doing.
Patrick : The music business has always been about young bands. There are some places where young and old bands can still play together and people will enjoy it, but mostly it’s about young bands that can be marketed by the big labels…
Young bands… fuck ‘em!
Everyone : Hahahahahahahhahahahahahaha!
Hans ; Yeah, I think so. I mean, we’ve been invited back and the shows went down well, so we were happy with them. This time, someone also contacted us from a town near Leeds and asked us if we could play there but we didn’t have enough time to do it on this trip. Hopefully we’ll be able to arrange something with him next time…
Patrick ; We do have to be careful because not many people know about us over here. Quite some time ago, I was on tour in England with Bad Influence. Some of the shows were with other bands but most of them were on our own and not many people knew us. When we played in Leeds and Manchester we ended-up playing to only twenty people, so it felt like a waste of time and energy. We have to keep things like that in mind because however well-intentioned the promoters may be, we don’t want to play gigs that don’t go well for either us or them…
You’ve been releasing your own records so far, what kind of response have they been getting?
Hans ; I must say, response is very positive, at least from the few people who know us., haha… So we really don’t sell that much... We do have distribution in Holland which is supposed to be worldwide, but we have to take care of our own promotion so it's all very DIY and rather low profile. Obviously, there are no huge marketing or promotion campaigns, I just send downloads and copies of our releases to some of the fanzines I know and hope they'll like our music. It's great that most of those zines write about us. All those little bits help and hopefully it'll all add up. And in the meantime I'm having a great time just doing what I do.
It can be frustrating because people who have heard your records tend to like them, but a lot of people who might be interested just don’t get that chance to hear you…
Patrick ; It’s always difficult for a new band because it’s not as if it’s a rehash of an old band and people already know their name. What we’re doing is something that we like, it’s fuzzy punk rock and it’s not too difficult, but we have some good songs and people seem to like it, if they hear it…
Hans ; All we can do is carry on playing and see where it all goes…
Patrick ; Luckily for us is, we’re doing this because we’re having a good time. That’s the main thing.
Hans ; That’s right, so please don’t get the wrong idea. We’re not complaining, we just don’t want to be realistic and not blow things out of proportion.
That said, you’ve recently had some support from Micky Bradley of The Undertones, who has been playing your songs on his BBC Radio Ulster show and also writing about FFI on his social media...
Hans : Yeah, he’s already played us about five times. That's so awesome. Even more so since I'm an old Undertones fan. It's a really nice thought that the Undertones bassist knows about us and appreciates what we're doing.
Patrick : The music business has always been about young bands. There are some places where young and old bands can still play together and people will enjoy it, but mostly it’s about young bands that can be marketed by the big labels…
Young bands… fuck ‘em!
Everyone : Hahahahahahahhahahahahahaha!
And one more helping of glorious, fuzzy mayhem from FFI, 'Body Function'...
Whilst FFI were getting busy, you also found time for the original members of Waste to record an EP of new material and also release it on Subunderground…
Hans ; Over the years, our singer Richard and I have always stayed in touch and shortly after Ford's Fuzz Inferno started, in early 2021, Richard came up with the idea for a Waste reunion in the studio. Since I had just started my label, it made perfect sense to us to record an EP with new songs. Getting all of the old members together again was no problem as Richard coordinated that side of things. I think it came out really well and everyone seemed to enjoy doing it, but I don’t think we’d ever play live again and there are no plans for another reunion at the moment…
So, back to Ford’s Fuzz Inferno, you recently released the ‘Fuzz Up Your Electric Chair, Baby!’ CD, which featured 11 songs recorded live in the studio. What were your reasons for that?
Hans ; One of the reasons was that we started playing live with Bootsie on drums, but none of our previous releases were recorded with him…
Bootsie ; And they realised that it sounded so much better with me!
Hans : We just went to the studio and recorded everything as if we were playing live… But next, we’ll be releasing a 12”, ‘Electrofuzzification’, which will basically be for new songs on one side and then six songs taken from the live-in-the-studio CD on the other. It’ll be a sort-of compilation, featuring both old and new songs, but with the current line-up. It should have been out already, in time for these dates, but there were a few problems at the pressing plant and it’s running late by a few weeks…
You’ve used a pretty distinctive style of artwork for most of the FFI releases, using images that appear medieval and depict sinister events. How do those images relate to the music of FFI?
Hans ; I came up with a title for the first EP and then started thinking about an illustration to go with it. I liked the idea of using something quite old, especially as that meant that the artist wouldn’t complain about us using it! I found some images that were, like, 500 years old and I thought, well, these are pretty safe! And that seemed to work well, so I used similar things with the following EP’s.
Patrick ; We’re all old souls – old punk souls – so we can appreciate those images!
It’s funny in a way, because when Punk Rock started everyone was saying it’s all about ‘the kids’, but now it’s nearly 50 years later and so many of those people are still into it, still going to see bands (both old and new) and still enjoying it…
Hans ; When I was first going to punk gigs, you’d never see anyone older than 21 or 22… apart from the local village idiot, you know, or some old hippy trying to get in to it. But now when you go to gigs, it seems like no-one’s under 40.
Bootsie ; But you can also go to a gig and see someone that’s in their teens or twenties and they’ll be wearing a Flux of Pink Indians t-shirt… how great is that?
Hans ; Over the years, our singer Richard and I have always stayed in touch and shortly after Ford's Fuzz Inferno started, in early 2021, Richard came up with the idea for a Waste reunion in the studio. Since I had just started my label, it made perfect sense to us to record an EP with new songs. Getting all of the old members together again was no problem as Richard coordinated that side of things. I think it came out really well and everyone seemed to enjoy doing it, but I don’t think we’d ever play live again and there are no plans for another reunion at the moment…
So, back to Ford’s Fuzz Inferno, you recently released the ‘Fuzz Up Your Electric Chair, Baby!’ CD, which featured 11 songs recorded live in the studio. What were your reasons for that?
Hans ; One of the reasons was that we started playing live with Bootsie on drums, but none of our previous releases were recorded with him…
Bootsie ; And they realised that it sounded so much better with me!
Hans : We just went to the studio and recorded everything as if we were playing live… But next, we’ll be releasing a 12”, ‘Electrofuzzification’, which will basically be for new songs on one side and then six songs taken from the live-in-the-studio CD on the other. It’ll be a sort-of compilation, featuring both old and new songs, but with the current line-up. It should have been out already, in time for these dates, but there were a few problems at the pressing plant and it’s running late by a few weeks…
You’ve used a pretty distinctive style of artwork for most of the FFI releases, using images that appear medieval and depict sinister events. How do those images relate to the music of FFI?
Hans ; I came up with a title for the first EP and then started thinking about an illustration to go with it. I liked the idea of using something quite old, especially as that meant that the artist wouldn’t complain about us using it! I found some images that were, like, 500 years old and I thought, well, these are pretty safe! And that seemed to work well, so I used similar things with the following EP’s.
Patrick ; We’re all old souls – old punk souls – so we can appreciate those images!
It’s funny in a way, because when Punk Rock started everyone was saying it’s all about ‘the kids’, but now it’s nearly 50 years later and so many of those people are still into it, still going to see bands (both old and new) and still enjoying it…
Hans ; When I was first going to punk gigs, you’d never see anyone older than 21 or 22… apart from the local village idiot, you know, or some old hippy trying to get in to it. But now when you go to gigs, it seems like no-one’s under 40.
Bootsie ; But you can also go to a gig and see someone that’s in their teens or twenties and they’ll be wearing a Flux of Pink Indians t-shirt… how great is that?
It’s all relative, in a way. When you’re 18, someone who’s 30 seems so old, but as you get older the age difference becomes less significant… And with the whole Punk thing, you’ll find these people who are still into the music or the ideas, or others who are returning to it in some other way…
Bootsie ; To me, age is something pretty strange. When you’re 20 you think of 30 and go, ohh, that’s so old. But then you get to 30 and you start thinking the same way about 40 and at some point you start thinking, well maybe I’ve got to stop doing this stuff. But eventually you get to 50 and you think, ahh, I still enjoy this, why should I stop?
I think it’s another thing that goes back to the DIY idea… if you’re doing a band or a fanzine it’s your own thing and that means if you want to take a break for six months or even a few years, that’s your decision. But if you then decide to come back to it, then good for you. As Crass said, there is no authority but yourself…
Bootsie ; Exactly, and especially with Punk Rock. There’s supposed to be no rules…it’s my life, my band and my music. Even if I still can’t play it very well!
Patrick ; Yeah… No Future, No Future…
How do you feel about the big Punk festivals like Rebellion? Would you like to play at something like that?
Hans ; I don’t know… I mean, maybe it’s nice for bands to be able to say that they played at Rebellion, but that just means you’re one of, like, 600 others, or whatever it is…
Bootsie ; I still prefer smaller events that are put together by the people themselves, with a more DIY approach rather than those big operations…
Patrick ; Maybe five or ten years ago it would have been cool, but now… I like the idea, but it’s becoming more like a history lesson and I don’t know if I want to be a part of that just yet…I mean, we haven’t played in Belgium yet, so that’s something we ought to do first.
Hans ; Well, I certainly want to make some more records and maybe play live some more. I think we’ve always just been interested to see what happens. As long as we’re still enjoying it, we’ll carry on.
With the first band, Ugly Scenes, already playing, we decide to end the interview there. I still don’t manage to see much of their set, but what I do sounds pretty good… frantic punk with a suitably snotty attitude. And then it’s time for Ford’s Fuzz Inferno!
Bootsie ; To me, age is something pretty strange. When you’re 20 you think of 30 and go, ohh, that’s so old. But then you get to 30 and you start thinking the same way about 40 and at some point you start thinking, well maybe I’ve got to stop doing this stuff. But eventually you get to 50 and you think, ahh, I still enjoy this, why should I stop?
I think it’s another thing that goes back to the DIY idea… if you’re doing a band or a fanzine it’s your own thing and that means if you want to take a break for six months or even a few years, that’s your decision. But if you then decide to come back to it, then good for you. As Crass said, there is no authority but yourself…
Bootsie ; Exactly, and especially with Punk Rock. There’s supposed to be no rules…it’s my life, my band and my music. Even if I still can’t play it very well!
Patrick ; Yeah… No Future, No Future…
How do you feel about the big Punk festivals like Rebellion? Would you like to play at something like that?
Hans ; I don’t know… I mean, maybe it’s nice for bands to be able to say that they played at Rebellion, but that just means you’re one of, like, 600 others, or whatever it is…
Bootsie ; I still prefer smaller events that are put together by the people themselves, with a more DIY approach rather than those big operations…
Patrick ; Maybe five or ten years ago it would have been cool, but now… I like the idea, but it’s becoming more like a history lesson and I don’t know if I want to be a part of that just yet…I mean, we haven’t played in Belgium yet, so that’s something we ought to do first.
Hans ; Well, I certainly want to make some more records and maybe play live some more. I think we’ve always just been interested to see what happens. As long as we’re still enjoying it, we’ll carry on.
With the first band, Ugly Scenes, already playing, we decide to end the interview there. I still don’t manage to see much of their set, but what I do sounds pretty good… frantic punk with a suitably snotty attitude. And then it’s time for Ford’s Fuzz Inferno!
It’s a Thursday evening in Deptford so the venue isn’t packed, but enough people have turned-up to give the band an enthusiastic audience. As they begin their set, Hans and Patrick create a massive guitar sound and Bootsie hammers the drums, but at the same time their devious melodies ensure that everyone pays attention. The songs are short and snappy, straight to the point with no messing around, so you can’t afford to be distracted and, while it may not be a huge audience, you can see that everyone in the place is enjoying the set. Their sound is raw and noisy, just like the best Punk rock, but also surprisingly catchy and enjoyable. If you missed them this time… shame on you! Just be grateful that you may get another chance in 2025…
Finally, it’s time for Rites of Hadda and it’s a special occasion as it’s Wasp’s birthday! Surprisingly, he seems to be a little more sober than usual, but soon launches into the set with his usual enthusiasm. Like Jayne County fronting a punky version of early-Hawkwind, he combines bizarre drag costumes with the bands’ unique blend of hard-edged, punky Space rock to create a real spectacle, albeit on a DIY level. In fact, that’s one of the things that I really like about this band. Much that others would treat such a performance in a sensational way, Rites of Hadda are there for the moment itself and are content to play in a real environment rather than making it up. They do tend to divide opinion, but trust me, once you figure it out it all, it all makes (non)sense. It was a great end to the evening, three bands all playing different styles but they all worked together. PS, Happy Birthday, Wasp... that was some party!
Finally, it’s time for Rites of Hadda and it’s a special occasion as it’s Wasp’s birthday! Surprisingly, he seems to be a little more sober than usual, but soon launches into the set with his usual enthusiasm. Like Jayne County fronting a punky version of early-Hawkwind, he combines bizarre drag costumes with the bands’ unique blend of hard-edged, punky Space rock to create a real spectacle, albeit on a DIY level. In fact, that’s one of the things that I really like about this band. Much that others would treat such a performance in a sensational way, Rites of Hadda are there for the moment itself and are content to play in a real environment rather than making it up. They do tend to divide opinion, but trust me, once you figure it out it all, it all makes (non)sense. It was a great end to the evening, three bands all playing different styles but they all worked together. PS, Happy Birthday, Wasp... that was some party!
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