Here's an interview I did with Wulf one of the singers from one step beyond.
1, CAN YOU GIVE A BAND HISTORY, WHEN YOU FORMED, WHO'S IN THE BAND, WHERE YOUR
FROM ETC.
In short it’s like this
Formed in 2006
Members
Wulf (Vocals)
Buske (Vocals)
Carlos (Guitar)
Smidtn (Drums)
Bass (????)
Ex-members
Jeroen (Guitar)
Stimp (Bass)
In detail:
It all started in 2006. Me (Wulf) and Jeroen (ex-member now) shared the idea of starting a band that was different from what our area was known for at the moment. The Ypres area was mainly beatdown/deathcore orientated. We quickly found Smidtn to fill in on drums.
After a while and quite some drinks I asked Carlos to join us on bass. He came for a try-out and told us he would be more interested in a spot on guitar but he knew someone for bass. That’s where Stimp came in and both were enthousiastic to start up this project.
To throw in a bit more variation we asked Buske to come and try as a second vocalist. Since we both have totally different voices this mixes up well.
We played our first show in 2007 and have been playing lots of shows since then without any real break to write or record. We like to keep ourselves busy.
At the moment Jeroen and Stimp are no longer with us due to personal reasons. Which means we are looking for a new bassplayer and a second guitarplayer. We have Nicho from Pushed Too Far currently helping us out on bass for the planned shows.
And we’re still good friends with Jeroen and Stimp.
2, YOU REMIND ME OF A HARDER SOUNDING WISDOM IN CHAINS, WHO ELSE WOULD YOU SAY
IS A BIG INFLUENCE ON YOU?
Thanks for the compliment as we all like Wisdom In Chains a lot.
We have quite some influences and that’s for a big part our strength in my opinion.
Everyone has their main influence. For me that’s Oi! and streetpunk. Carlos mainly streetpunk, rock ‘n roll
Smidtn was mainly into deathmetal and such at the start. Buske is more into NYHC. Stimp is a ska/reggae man.
But in the end we all love hard music.
To name a few bands that influence us as everyone likes such a list. We have Blood For Blood, Sheer Terror, No Redeeming Social Value, Slumlords, Madball, Death Threat, Breakdown on the hardcore front. But bands like Cock Sparrer, Cockney Rejects, Argy Bargy, The Business, 4Skins, Bulldog Courage,... influence us aswell.
It's up to the listeners how they want to describe us. To us it's just hardcore.
3, ONE STEP BEYOND IS REALLY GOOD DRINKING/PARTY MUSIC IS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED
WHEN YOU STARTED OUT?
Not really. Things just turned into that direction.
When I started writing our first lyrics I automaticly started writing about things from my everyday life.
I could write about how I am the toughest kid in the neighbourhoud but I'm not so why should I do that and take away the honesty that hardcore/punk music has to offer?
Except Smidtn who's still a student we all have an honest hardworking fulltime job. In the weekend we like to sort of escape from the everyday job, sleep, bills, etc.. by having a good time and enjoy ourselves. And we want to crowd to do the same. What's the point in going to a show after a hard workweek and just stand there? Have fun, make it a good weekend before you get back to work on monday. Doesn't matter if you're drinking or not. We drink but if you're straight edge you're just as welcome, change the booze in our lyrics to coke, ice tea or whatever you like and the meaning would still be the same.
So basicly our lyrics are about our everyday lives with a wink here and there.
But if you for example check the lyrics from a song like CCTV you'll also see that we take on more serious and social topics.
4, YOUR ABOUT TO RELEASE YOUR FIRST CD, YOU PUTTING IT OUT YOURSELVES RIGHT? CAN
YOU TALK ABOUT THAT.
There's still a bit of a grey zone there. This was the idea from the start but we've been approached recently by a label that looks honest so there's a chance we might put it out with them.
5, WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO DO IT YOURSELVES & NOT ON A LABLE?
As a small band you often have to bend over and take it up the ass only to get a bad deal. You pay for everything and they get the benefits. So it looks better to do things on your own.
But as said we've been approached by a label recently and they look honest to us. They've already done quite some releases and really supported the bands on their roster by doing lots of promo, helping them on shows, merch,...
Since promo takes a lot of time and work it could come in handy to have someone take care of that for us. Also they're not locally based which means a new audience may get to know us.
There's more news to come soon on that.
6, SCOTT MOVE IS DOING THE ARTWORK RIGHT?, WHATS GOING TO BE ON THE COVER?
Scott has indeed taken care of the artwork. If you're familiar with his artwork then you know a bit what to expect, we allowed him to be creative in his style with our idea in the back of his head.
In general it's an image of a city/world that's a bit in crumbles or just a bad neighbourhood if you want. Where society is failing and rats have free roaming, empty bottles are the sign or holy grail for people trying to escape this.
7, DO YOU HAVE A RELEASE DATE FOR IT YET?
Not yet. We're aiming for a march release (Break Bones Fest) but don't want to rush things just to release it.
We want things to be good so we can look back and say "yes we're proud of it". Offcourse we don't want it to take too long either.
8, ONE STEP BEYOND IS FROM THE MADNESS SONG, WHY DID YOU DECIDE ON THAT NAME?
We had to come up with something right?
During one of our early rehearsals we we're looking for a name. We came up with all different kinds of stuff and we're voting in rounds untill we would have one left everyone liked.
One Step Beyond was not on the list. But as it got a bit boring we decided to open the garage we we're rehearsing in at that time and play some music from the car. First thing we heard was the intro to that Madness song and we all though One Step Beyond had a good ring to it. The list got thrown away and since then we're One Step Beyond.
9, HOW IS THE SCENE WHERE YOUR FROM RIGHT NOW, ANY NEW BANDS WE SHOULD BE
LOOKING OUT FOR?
The Ypres area itself is quite dead. Lots of people from our area wouldn't like to hear that though. Lots of show at the Vortn Vis but except the barkeeper and some locals who go just because there is a show and to have a drink you won't see anyone else from Ypres itself.
If we get outside Ypres (which is a small area anyway) there's a really living scene. Lots of show get put on, kids go to the shows, many kids start bands,...
Belgium in general has a good hardcore scene with many different subgenres. Offcourse each subgenres has it's own crowd but guess that's the case for any country.
Bands to keep an eye on are Pushed Too Far, Enough Said, Headshot, Golden Bullet, Saviour, Angelskin, One More Sword, Crossed The Line, Fatal Recoil, The Boss,... and still lots of band missing. Honestly I don't like every band there is but that's the beauty of it, there are many different styles and every band seems to be doing what they like and that's something I can only respect.
10, WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE REST OF 2011?
First bring out the MCD. Find a new bassplayer and maybe a second guitarplayer. Continue to play shows and build up a name/reputation so people can't ignore us.
11, WHATS YOUR MYSPACE/FACEBOOK LINKS SO PEOPLE CAN HEAR YOU?
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/onestepbeyondhc
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Step-Beyond
The myspace only has some crappy demo and live recordings on it though. Will change once we receive the final master of the upcoming MCD.
12, ANY LAST WORDS & SHOUT OUTS.
Thanks alot for this interview. Means a lot to us.
Also thanks to everyone taking the time to read this and check us out.
Be sure to check out our MCD entitled "Our Way" when it's out and if your want the full OSB experience then come and see us live.
Cheers,
Wulf
