Get Lost

When I lived in France I watched Get Lost play quite a few times. They are a good band with an interesting message so I asked Chris a few questions. Check them out if you don't know them yet!

Hi, how are you? Could you present the band, who's doing what and who's answering my questions?

C: Hi, I'm Chris and I scream in a microphone. Otherwise we have Nico on guitar, Julien on drums and Daick on bass and sleeveless t-shirts. We started in 2004 after Last Quiet Time split up with the intention of doing a straight forward, fast, straight edge hardcore band with a strong message. Our influences span pretty much the entire hardcore spectrum, from 1980 till today, even if I guess musically we are strongly influenced by Stop and Think, Floorpunch, Youth of Today, Knife Fight and maybe a little by some more ''tough'' recent bands.

Have you had a lot of line-up changes? Members forced out because they broke their edge?

We had 2 big line-up changes but never because someone broke his edge. As far as I know, our 2 ex members are still straight edge. At the beginning we had Ben on drums, we did the demo and our first shows with him, he left us soon after that for personal reasons... We had a lot of trouble finding a replacement for him, various people flaking out or worse… So we decided to teach Julien how to play drums and we got our good friend RV from First Failure on bass. RV decided to leave us soon after we recorded our first cd as he wanted to travel to Australia so we recruited Daick from MOWOL, which brings us to the line up we have today.

Is it important to define yourselves as a straight edge band?

It's definitely important. It was one of the initial objectives of the band: to have an outspoken straight edge band in France. For me it's an important subject: this choice helps me live my life fully, without any filter to reality, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I hope my stand helps the people near me to maybe question themselves or even actually give them strength depending on their situation. If I can touch a few people with music, it will have been worth all the efforts and disappointments. And yes, being straight edge in France can close a lot of doors or at least provoke a lot of prejudice... I don't know if we succeeded in overcoming this but I hope people have or will at least give us a chance.

What have you released until now? Any plans for the future (near or not so near...)? I know you have recorded a few tracks for a 7'', when will it be released?

We started very fast as we released a demo just a few months after we became a band and after that the line-up changes slowed us down... To cut it short, Get Lost came back really in 2006 and we released our first cd, Unity is fucking dead, which we toured Europe on. We recorded a new album early 2008 but for various reasons, it is not released yet. It will be out on Build me a bomb records and High Hopes records really soon. We are planning on a June 2009 release date and a Euro tour will follow. We also have a few new songs to record but we don't have a plan for these yet. I’d like to resurrect the idea to do a split 7'' with Balance, but we’ll see.

Chris, you sing in English, can you explain why? I know that the French don't speak Shakespeare’s language very well; don't you think your message would be better understood if it was in French?

I sing in English for a simple reason: I don't like how hardcore sung in French sounds like... And actually, I can't write lyrics in French. I've had a very international education and because of it every time I sit down and try to write something the words come out naturally in English, I don’t know why... It's true that the message would be understood better in French but that's also why when we play live I always take my time between songs to explain the songs themselves or to clarify my positions. However, I'm not sure that when a band plays a show the crowd understands what the singer is screaming in his microphone, no matter the language, so I prefer to speak between songs to be sure they can understand me!

Why do you think unity is fucking dead? Is this song about a particular person (I should say it makes me think of Rick ta Life haha)?

This song has a very long history. We already played it at the time of the demo or at least we played a song with this title. The old one was a parody on Rick Ta Life so I suppose that after we changed it there's still some traces haha... I don't believe in unity in the hardcore scene, there are a lot of people that represent some things that I sincerely think are bullshit, and their words and actions make them complete strangers to me, as in we have nothing at all in common. I can't see why, using the pretext that we are playing a kind of music that is maybe slightly similar, I should turn off my brain and accept everything just because of this proclaimed ''unity'' of the scene. I never hesitate to help other people/bands when I can and that's the beauty of the punk/hardcore community, but it's a choice not an obligation. If a band represents things/ideas I do not support, well I won't help them, it seems logical to me... I don't want others to treat us any different... One of the foundations of this scene is to think for yourself, use your brain, flex your head! Why do we try to reduce ourselves to the lowest common denominator with this concept of unity at all costs? It seems pretty absurd to me.

There aren’t too many singers letting people from the audience scream/tell whatever they want in the mic', I know that you like it... Can you explain why?

I always love to participate and singalong when I go to a show, that notion of closeness and symbiosis between the audience and the band is what attracted me to hardcore. When I play/sing I always feel this need to share and I express it by my long speeches between songs and also by sharing the mic' with everyone who wants to scream something in it. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to see someone scream in my face or jump on me or appropriate our music and/or lyrics, making them his own. That's what separates hardcore/punk from the other styles of music: here the audience and the band are merging into one entity, by the kids for the kids is a reality. Sometimes when I forget what I wanted to say between songs I ask the people to come say something if they have something on their mind, but it has never worked well which is a real pity. The fact that I have a mic' does not mean I have more right to speak than someone else... It's just easier for me to be heard!

Do you think that hardcore is politics?

For me, from the moment you say ''I'm playing hardcore'' it means you are doing something related to politics: you have a message, you take a stand against something, or you try to build something new or different. You do that using music and lyrics that can fill up caves with the screams and heat emanating from an undefined number of people that share or not your ideals but that, at least, will think about those topics at the end of the show. If that is not your case, you are playing something that sounds like hardcore, ok, but is nothing more than music. It's the ideals, the ideas and the actions that make hardcore what hardcore is, not the guitar chords. Your emotions are nothing but politics, right?

What do you think of vegetarianism/veganism? Is it just an ethic/moral choice or is it more like a real political choice?

Some of us are vegetarians but it's not something we represent as a band. Personally I support fully the ethical choice of being vegetarian. As soon as there is a choice to be made, I think politics and ethics come together. It is a personal choice for sure but it has an implicit message and strength, by being out of step with the “normal world”, which should bring people to understand or at least question the status quo. I don’t want to say that you should impose your choices on others, but by making this choice of becoming vegetarian, just like straight edge, we can not do it only for ourselves. If you don’t incite dialog on these issues, you are robbing these stands of a lot of their power. We have the responsibility to present them and to explain it to the rest of the world and that makes it some kind of politics.

Do you have a political message as a band? And I have to ask you a question that you won't like, I have noticed that your shirts were in a particular order on your merch table: Blue-White-Red (N.B. the colors of the french flag), any comments...

It depends how you define political message. If you mean that we support a certain political movement or party, no we are not. On the other side, if you mean that we have a very conscious and critical message about our society, life and the human condition in general, yes I think we are definitely a political band... To clarify the situation with the t-shirts, I made the mistake of not really thinking through the colors I chose at each repress of the design and one day on our tour someone who will remain anonymous had the great idea to arrange our shirts in this more than questionable way. They know I hate it and keep on doing it each time I turn my back on the merch. Wankers hahaha...

What do you think of the financial crisis? Is it real or just a conspiracy so the rich can become even richer?

The financial crisis happened because we want to make more money by shuffling money, it lasted for a few years and the numbers and values just didn't mean anything any more... All these economic indicators made no sense; they weren't representing any reality... And now it has an impact on us because our lives have been partially based on this nonsense. I have no idea what we will become, if the system will succeed to redress itself, if at last we will be able to transform it in something more real and more respectful of happiness and not just judging by the numbers... It's not the first time we have had this type of crisis and every time it's the same status quo that comes back in the end so I don't have much hope. The normal way of life will probably start again and those who profited before will continue to profit after...

Have you felt the last gas crisis? It was a big fuss here in Bulgaria for at least two weeks because we didn't have any gas at all... I think the only thing we can do to show them our force is to boycott them (=not use their gas for one or two weeks for example, it would represent a big loss to them because the quantity is quite big...). Do you think it would have any impact?

I don't have anything running on gas so I didn't feel anything... And France, with the Algerian gas sources, is for sure one of the European countries least dependent on Russia. The Russians are just taking advantage of their position of monopoly seeking some of their past glory and no one does anything to stop them so they don't really take any risks. A boycott would be really hard on their economy and I don't think their leaders, even if they are pretentious and have a “tough guys” pose, would let things degenerate so much. I don't know if it's possible for you to boycott the Russian gas... Do you have any other possibilities such as electricity or coal?

I haven’t had the time to follow what's happening in France since I came home... Is Sarkozy going to save the world like Rambo?

Sarkozy is too small to be Rambo, even with his heelpieces, he is not capable of saving his dignity let alone saving the world... This guy is of no use, he's even worse than the bankers who provoked the financial crisis... When something happens, hop we gotta make a law that will be retracted six months later anyway. It's simple, he is useless, he knows it and he's hiding behind a whirlpool of actions to try and make people believe the contrary.

I don't have any stupid questions left... Your last words!

Thank you very much for the interview, it was a pleasure to answer your questions that touched on a lot of interesting subjects. Thank you to all the people who took the time to read this till here... and don't forget to check Money Time, Golden District, Courage, Lost Boys, Strong As Ten, Trashington DC and all the other excellent bands we have in France nowadays. The final word: FLEX YOUR HEAD.