Carl Gunhouse Photography

Iam a photographer in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I picked up a camera to participate in hardcore almost thirty years ago. While not making pictures at shows, I’ve done bodies of work on American politics, suburban landscapes, indie wrestling, and gentrification all subjects fitting an aging hardcore kid. To get pictures out into the world, I’ve published fanzines, books and have been fortunate to have work in The New York Times, Vice and Maximum Rock N Roll. I am lucky enough to teach photography to college kids to pay the bills. In my free time, I am also part of running an art gallery I helped start in Brooklyn called Transmitter, which has been featured in The New Yorker, Artforum and The Brooklyn Rail. I still go to shows regularly, do my best to participate as much as I did at seventeen and of late tried to push myself out of my comfort zone by making more portraits at shows. I am still straight edge, still vegetarian and have a wonderful wife and two cats. www.carlgunhousephoto.com @carlgunhouse on IG / Twitter

Well, to be fair, I still regret selling that rad Foreseen long-sleeve I got during the Helsinki D.R.I. show in the summer of 2019 (hell of a tour, by the way, could elaborate on this some other time…), but after all I have gained weight and L is not my size anymore, haha! Anyway! Foreseen straight out of Helsinki lads and gents; the perfect blend of thrash & hardcore, crossover, or however you wanna call it. It’s already been 11 years since I got the split 7” they did with Upright (from Finland, as well), and this band never disappoints. Their new album that was released a couple of weeks ago (or maybe months when you read this!) via Quality Control Records is soooo good! Give it a spin and read what Mirko has to say about the band’s history, the Finnish scene and today’s hardcore!

Photos by Liro Koo, Niko Velkman and Teppei Miki. www.instagram.com/foreseenhki

Hey! Welcome to Soulcraft 4! Give us a short bio of Foreseen, who’s playing what, when did you form, etc. You know the drill!

Hey! Thanks for the opportunity. Foreseen started in late 2009 by me, Mirko, on SM58 and our ex-guitarist Erkka, who left after the ‘Grave Danger’ LP. Our drummer Mårten joined in 2012. We got Jaakko on guitar who started as a fill-in on the 2015 US tour and joined officially a bit after that. Next we got Ville on other guitar and he’s been in Foreseen for four years now. We recorded the last LP, ‘Untamed Force’ with Jaakko doing both, his own guitar tracks and bass, because our bassist Joonas left in 2021 to focus on his adult life. Since I’ve been the youngest member of Foreseen for our whole existence and I’m turning 30 very soon, it was time to get some fresh blood to grease the gears, so we got Tuomas aka Stögä on bass who’s in his early 20s and is a hell of a bass player. Can’t wait to see what he brings to the table when we start writing again.

You play pummelling heavy hardcore combined with heavy metal. I’d say it’s 50% hardcore and 50% metal. Your song ‘Oppression fetish’ even has an epic part in it! Where did you draw influences from? What’s more important, heavy metal or hardcore, for Foreseen?!

The influences come from many different places. Obviously it’s mostly metal and hardcore/punk in this band, but there’s tons of smaller things buried in there from various genres. Mårten is very into Yes and Deicide, Ville loves Black Sabbath and New Order, Jaakko is digging deep in obscure jazz and other stuff I don’t understand, and I’ve spent most of my money in G-funk vinyl lately. So, what I’m trying to say is that all of that must have some effect in the final outcome of our songs. Speaking of that

Oppression Fetish track; for example we were influenced by and made references to Whiplash, Dio era Black Sabbath and Totally Insane, 90s gangsta rap group from East Palo Alto in that very same song, haha!

Your new record is about to be released soon! Any info on this? Do you have a street date? I’ve read that Quality Control from London is going to release it. How did it occur to collaborate with Ola’s record label? You also play Damage is Done later this year.

30th of September. A week away as I write this. Quality Control HQ lives up to its name. We dig the label and we admire all the effort put in all the QCHQ releases. Also the lady behind it all, Ola has been a friend of ours for many years, so we thought it would be a good fit. We already did ‘Power Intoxication’ 7” with her and it went smooth. Yeah, it’s gonna be good to be back in London after a long break!

It’s been 5 years since ‘Grave Danger’, why did it take that long for you to release new material (besides the 2019 2-song single)?

Well, we did a US tour right after the release of ‘Grave Danger’. Also another tour in Europe, another one in US, a bunch of one off shows here and there, that DIY 7” and a tour in Japan. Looking back at it, I think we got a good amount of shit done with this band. Our members are also involved in different bands, such as Kohti Tuhoa, Death Toll 80k, Kaleidobolt, Violent Spirit, Killing Frost etc. etc., that also released records during that time. affect your everyday lives? There were threats by Putin against Finland in case the country joins NATO. What’s your take on all this?

I have the chance to catch you live when I was touring with D.R.I. and we visited Helsinki 3 years or so ago. I still remember that your performance was very eye catching and struck a nerve on me. Did you miss playing shows the last couple of years and how do you feel now that everything is back to ‘normality’?

Thanks! Actually I didn’t miss the playing at all. It was a well needed break for me personally. I’ve been doing this band since 2009 and the band has always had at least some shows coming up and plans to do new shit. So it felt pretty good to actually use my holidays to charge my batteries instead of going on tour and focus on other stuff for once. Two years of break was enough and now that we have brand new material coming out it feels like a new start and I’m excited to be back at it again.

Damn, what a question... First of all, fuck Putin and all of his puppets. Of course it’s been stressful on a national level to share the border with Russia, especially with our history, at the times like these. Do we even have a good choice? Honestly I don’t know. All I know is that we couldn’t stand a chance alone if we would be in Ukraine’s position.

Back to the musical side of things, what’s your favorite crossover period and what are your favorite bands both in hardcore and metal?

To be honest I’m not a huge fan of the sound many consider “crossover”, but I definitely dig some albums where NYHC bands dipped their toes in metal and the other way around. AF’s ‘Cause For Alarm’ is one of my favorite example, even though I like their first LP even more. Favorite bands? Damn that’s hard. Let’s say Negative Approach, Agnostic Front and Slayer.

Foreseen is not a new band, you already exist for more than 12-13 years if I’m right. How’s the scene in Helsinki and Finland in general?

It feels pretty good. Judging of the very few shows I’ve seen during the last two years. The gigs have been quite well attended, even though there’s usually few different shows happening the same night in typical Helsinki fashion. It also seems like there’s a bunch of new faces at shows, which is cool. More and more women starting new bands, and death metal kids getting into other type of heavy music. Our scene mostly runs on local bands, because touring bands don’t come over here that often due to our not-so-ideal geographical location. Probably even less now that playing in Russia is out of the question. Check out G.A.Z.E., Raamattu, Cageless and Gray State!

One of my favorite hardcore bands ever was and is Endstand. Is their influence still present in the Finnish scene? Do you like Endstand? Did you have the chance to see them live? I managed to make it to their last ever show in 2010 and was such an experience!

Hard to say really. I haven’t seen that melodic hardcore sound being that popular with younger kids yet. There’s a good amount of people between 30-40 who still dig them a lot but, like usually with that age, people tend to move on to new things and the younger kids are starting to take their place. I saw them few times I think. That Combat Rock thing was big when I was a teen and it played its part in getting me interested in punk on a local level.

You also had a thriving scene in the 80s with bands like Rattus, Riistetyt, Kaaos, Destruktions, etc. How important is their legacy for Foreseen? I get it that NYHC and crossover is more of your thing, but I can definitely say that I can hear some old Finnish punk/hardcore influences in your music!

To bridge your two questions together, I bought my copy of Destrucktions LP from Janne of Endstand, hah! Those bands are definitely influential for sure, especially in Ville’s playing. You better check out his other band, Kohti Tuhoa to know what I mean. Those bands you mentioned are so raw and aggressive and at times catchy too and that’s definitely something that we aim for as well.

By the way, what’s your view on today’s worldwide hardcore movement? Any standout bands? Are you involved in the scene anyhow besides playing in Foreseen?

I think there’s a good amount of interesting records coming out, so that’s a good sign. The Chisel, Game, The Flex and Big Cheese have put out great stuff lately for example - I’ll assure you the UK scene is not paying me for that answer! But yeah, I’m very curious to hear those new Savageheads and Long Knife LPs too. Also I gotta give shout-outs to our friends in Germany and Sweden putting in a lot of work in their local scenes!

I’m not that active these days, outside Foreseen. I booked a lot of shows from my teens to midtwenties. Sometimes I draw gig flyers and be part of releasing friends’ records, but that’s it really. Paying in at other shows and buying records from time to time are self-evident and doesn’t really need to be mentioned, right? These days I’ll rather do less and likely be more satisfied with the outcome. That being said, Killing Frost will have a 7” out in 2023!

Last words are yours! Is hardcore more than music?!

As cliché as it is, yes. However it’s naive to think that we all will have something more than the music in common. Otherwise you’ll end up being disappointed.

Gag?! What a band! I am so happy that I have them in this issue. The first time I really paid attention to them was a few days before the 1st lockdown, at the Turnstile gig in Berlin (March 2020). They delivered such a great and intense show that it blew my mind. I mean I have listened to them a bit before, but never delved into their music, to be honest. So, the months that followed that gig I got their records and since then I concern myself a big fan of the band! Their latest opus ‘Still laughing’ is a hell of a record, from the cover to the last song, can’t wait for their next record! I don’t know if ‘Gag are the America’s new hardcore heroes’, as Vice wrote a few years ago, but they are undoubtedly great ambassadors of America’s hardcore scene nowadays. Thanks to Jose for answering my questions, check out his other bands (Apex Predator rules) and if you like movies, don’t forget to check his podcast, too (at its 5th year already).

Photos by @daggers_for_eyes, @robcoons, @in2thewayside www.instagram.com/gagguys

Hey hey! What’s new at the Gag HQ?

Just touring and trying to plan for what the next move is after this West Coast tour is done.

Why Gag? What does it stand for? Who’s in the band and when did you start playing? Are you involved in any other hardcore activities (bands, zines, labels, etc.)?

Gag is Jose (me), Adam, Jeff, Ian, Paden, and a few homies who fill in, Kevin and Casey. Jeff is in Odd Man Out and Change, Paden is in

Death’s Door and I’m in Apex Predator, Sun Spots and Crawl Space, and I do a podcast called Every Movie Is Good.

First time I got in touch with Gag was by reading a Vice article that grabbed my attention. ‘Gag are America’s new hardcore heroes’. Do you feel like this?

No hahaha, we can be whatever you want us to be and I think even separately we have our own meaning and reason to do Gag. Plus we’re not into the idea of being America’s anything.

Your sound is so different from today’s hardcore, reminiscent of 80s hardcore / noise punk bands like The Germs or even G.I.S.M. but also modern but now defunct bands like Hoax. Which bands helped you mold your music style and which are your all-time favorites?

We’re not really concerned with what the rest of hardcore is doing in regards to our sound at all. We just wanna do what we want. As for influences and all-time favourites, we must mention the key bands; Rudimentary Peni and SSD. Contemporary hardcore bands are mostly influential to us in the way that when we see a band that loves what they are doing and they push themselves, it fuels our fire to go harder too.

‘Still laughing’ is one of my favorite hardcore releases of the last years. What influenced your writing and how easy was the whole process? Where do you record? Your records are released by Iron Lung Records, a label that I think suits you the best! Do you plan on moving to a bigger label sometime?

Ah thank you that’s really cool of you to say. My writing process is the same for every band and is extremely annoying and tedious. I obsess over one song for days then bring it to practice and we play it and I continually change riffs and structure up until the day we record. We recorded with Cameron Heck in Seattle and got it mixed by the big homie Arthur Rizk. Iron Lung is our dads. They have help sculpt us and shown us huge love how to conduct our band from early on.

Who’s responsible for that amazing cover with the guy with the bicycle for ‘Still laughing’? How did you come with such a great idea and what do you want to demonstrate?

I took the picture actually and the story behind it was we were at a Snake Festival in Eugene Oregon when I watched this guy get his face painted, he was singing the national anthem and hissing… I followed him with my camera and he turned around and I snapped the photo and he said “come closer child”. Saw him in a pizza spot hours later just staring at me. Chilling stuff. Couldn’t make that story up.

You come from Olympia, Washington. How’s the scene over there? Favorite bands / venues / whatever?

Yeah Olympia, Tacoma. Seattle is our home base. Favorite bands going right now personally gotta be Physique, Lexicon, Electric Chair and Dead Family Dog.

You have already toured North America, Mexico and Europe. What differences do you spot between touring in those places? Any memories and funny or not so funny stories you want to share? What’s next on your calendar?

Mexico actually never happened, we got turned away at the border hahaha. The big difference between Europe and America is that in Europe they really take care of your food and lodging. I’d say the second is a significant less atmosphere of “cool guy” bullshit. I really appreciated that about them.

‘Ha ha ha, blah blah blah, either way you die’. Wanna talk a bit about your lyrics? There’s a provocative irony that I really like.

I want everyone to interpret the lyrics their own way. I will say a lot of our bands collective coping mechanism is through humor.

Is Gag a pro-crime band like it’s stated in your ‘Nobody’s smile’ video?! What’s the definition in crime for you? Is breaking the law always a crime?

You gotta get it how you live. Law means nothing really, no one is looking out for you, you have to do what you have to sometimes.

I was at a Turnstile show recently and one of the guitarists was wearing a Gag hat with the ‘No cops’ slogan on it. Besides that, I saw you in Europe for the first time as support to Turnstile, days before the first lockdown. It’s amazing that this band still gives space to smaller hardcore bands to perform in big crowds with them. How important is Turnstile for the contemporary hardcore scene? Do you still consider them a hardcore band?

Hardcore is an ethos. Turnstile is a hardcore band through and through. Turnstile has such a huge platform and them helping promote hardcore bands is amazing. They run Pop Wig and put out records too. They are incredible people with love to share with everyone. We have been embraced and show only support and respect from them. Shout out Turnstile, I love watching the team win. It’s Olive Garden.

I like asking bands about their top-5s, bands, records or songs. But for you I have something special. What are your top

5 favorite things / situations / etc. in the world?!

Okay this is hard but I’ll do top five pertaining to music. No particular order.

1. Hearing the final mix of a record you recorded on.

2. When you’re playing and you see people as excited as you are to be at the show.

3. Needing out with fellow music obsessors. Nothing like finding another person who is gonna dig deep into bands’ discography, after hearing one EP, their lore or all the other bands they had members of.

4. Working and supporting artists. Shout out Soloman, Legfarmer, Foie Graphics, Riley Kerr, John Vanacore and so many more.

5. When you go on a tour and nothing fucked up happens to your van. We have only maybe gone on three of those. www.instagram.com/greedydust

Thanks for the interview, it means a lot. Any shoutouts?

Yeah, no problem, hope it was fucking boring, haha. Shout-out NWHC and any scenes pushing and building.

Lately, I had the pleasure to take care of the European (but also available globally) edition of the split tape between Indonesia’s Keep It Real and Singapore’s Wreckonize, released in South East Asia by Greedy Dust and Divided We Fall. A few months prior to this, I discovered Greedy Dust Records, an Indonesian hardcore label with such an impressive back catalogue. As I wrote somewhere else in this issue, I wanted it to be as widespread as possible and try to represent the worldwide hardcore scene, and the interview with Delpi from GDR adds to this.

I am glad that this issue feature bands/labels from Australia, Japan and Indonesia. I would love to have South Korea’s Slant, too, but they never got my message (I guess), maybe next time. So, fuck the mainstream, there’s lots of great underground scenes of our counterculture in the whole world to explore. Welcome to the Indonesia hardcore scene, these coming pages belong to Delpi.

Logos & photo provided by GDR.

Hey hey! Please introduce yourself! Who’s behind Greedy Dust Records?

Hello, big love from Indonesia! My name is Delpi Suhariyanto and I am the owner of Greedy Dust Records. For now, Greedy Dust have 4 main powers; Jaka Permadi (Bizarre Voc) as Designer, Aziz Nurfata as Operational & Finance Officer, Denise as Admin, & me as Marketing & Production manager.

What was the urge to start a hardcore label in Bandung? I must say that GDR’s discography is impressive!

Actually, Greedy Dust was formed in my hometown called Blitar, in East Java, as a distro (distribution store) in 2015. We were selling anything about music & art but because I love hardcore I released my friends’ band. First release we had was Deluded, they play hardcore/punk music with an aggressive stage act. Meanwhile, I had to continue my bachelor studies in Bandung. So, I declared Greedy Dust bankrupt in 2017 and then I run it by myself as a record label from 2018 and on. All this stuff happened because I love hardcore & want to make it sustain, especially in my country.

I am not familiar with the Indonesian hardcore scene, so as you can imagine, we need a scene report! How’s the scene over there?

As everyone knows hardcore comes from America and I think every hardcore kid in the world has the same idea, to make their scene as cool as hardcore in U.S.A. Almost all bands from Indonesia want to become like their hardcore references in U.S.A. But I think this is not a problem, because basically hardcore, and music in general, is a universal language to deliver messages about how we appreciate everyone in our society and to make all our minority friends feel safe in our scene. But you can make this idea come true if you do it alone. Indonesia has a big problem in sexual harassment, especially to women, and this happens in underground scene, too. Ini Scene Kami Juga!, a documentary movie about women in the hardcore/punk scene, directed by Hera Mary (Oath Voc) can represent Indonesia’s scene today. As time goes on, more hardcore kids will make this scene safe and fun for everyone. So, right now, you can find many interesting bands in Indonesia with their political statements and absolutely their music and art.

Any legendary local bands? The predecessors of today’s scene? Any bands from the 80s/90s that are still around?

One of the biggest influences, based on the artistic achievement, is Puppen from Bandung, one of the best hardcore bands from the 90s. Although they were active for only a short period, some of their members, like Arian 13 (Seringai) & Marcel Siahaan, are still active today. I would also like to mention Straight Answer, a true youth crew living legend from the 90s.

Are there separate local scenes? Which cities are the most active when it comes to hardcore/punk/metal shows? Do you often have touring bands from outside Indonesia over there?

Nowadays, the internet is very helpful to connect scenes. But as a country, Indonesia has a complicated problem in Papua, so in my opinion it’s hard to find connection in Papua or in any area near there. Big cities have good infrastructure and a creative ecosystem to keep their scenes alive. Jakarta, Bandung, Jogjakarta, Surabaya, Malang & Bali are some cities that have intense programs & art events about hardcore or other art movements. So there are more possibilities to organise events for touring bands there.

Is the scene connected to other scenes from nearby countries in the South East Asian region? How hard is for an Indonesian band to tour?

Yes, of course, especially with Malaysia and Singapore, because they are really close to us. Greedy Dust have some vision to connect the whole South East Asian hardcore scene through our collection, and for this reason we release an annual compilation called ‘Out For Blood’ that includes newcomer bands from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. We hope that next year we can include bands from the Thailand hardcore scene, too. Basically, Indonesia is a big country with many islands, so it’s harder to tour in another island because it is very expensive. Usually, we make tours in one island; Java and Sumatra, for example, host lots of hardcore tours. Another reason is that our country is one of the most corrupted ones. That shit makes our country poor, so it is hard to establish an international movement.

What problems do you have to cope with running a D.I.Y. label in Indonesia? I guess it’s expensive to import records or even ship outside of the country, so I think that your target group is the local scene, right?

Yes, like I said before, the main problem is money, our currency rate is relatively low. So, it’s hard to ship outside Indonesia. But we can overcome this if we make good stuff, good music with great artwork, so other people from other countries will help us to send it outside Indonesia. For example, we were very happy that Quality Control Records from the UK bought some stuff from us and one band of our roster, Crucial Response, managed to get their EP, called ‘Puppet’, re-issued by the US label Not For The Weak Records. And, absolutely yes, our target group is the Indonesian scene.

Tapes are back for good the last decade! I really like the format and since it’s so much cheaper and faster than pressing vinyl, most of my label’s releases lately are on cassette format. Do you only press tapes or other formats, too?

Yes we press on vinyl sometimes, if there is a great demand for a band, or if we have good material (both music & artwork).

Everything concerning the artwork, from your logo to your releases’ covers is so cool! Do you work with local artists? Anyone we should check out?

Thank you! We have worked with a lot of great artists. Our logo using the Old English font was designed by Tiny Studio (Jakarta). Some artists we often work with are StoneGag (Kendal), Conbini (Malang), Eye Dust (Bandung – ed. check his amazing work on the cover of this issue), & Fr3lan (Palu).

As I mentioned before, GDR’s discography is amazing, all releases are of great quality but they are also so diverse! From Defy to Keep It Real and from Wanderlust to Dazzle, all hardcore styles are covered! How do you choose the bands you work with and what are your stand-out releases so far?

Yes, we have our own curation, but it’s quite flexible. One of the best bands from our roster is ZIP from Jakarta.

One of the best hardcore websites around is the Uniteasia.org, you are lucky to have a platform like this, since as far as I know there’s not any other major hardcore online platform besides No Echo (Idioteq and DIY Conspiracy are doing a great job, too). But Unite Asia focuses strictly on Asian extreme music. Are you anyhow involved in this? Are there any other sources of hardcore information you follow?

No, we are not involved in Unite Asia, but we quite often send our press releases to them. Personally, I am active on Instagram and follow many music platforms, and also hardcore bands that I like, so it’s easy to get all the hardcore information I need.

Hardcore is in great shape nowadays! What are you favorite current bands and releases? If you were able to release a non-Indonesian band, which one would you pick?

Turnstile is always on top when it comes to hardcore releases, but I think they are in another level anyway. Never Ending Game, Pain of Truth, God’s Hate, Despize & Gridiron are in my playlist for a few months already. But if you ask me who will I pick for a GD release that would be Whispers from Thailand, I want to make Greedy Dust Records home for the South East Asian hardcore bands and represent Indonesian hardcore, as well.

Terima kasih! Let’s finish this with your top 5 of South East Asian hardcore bands ever!

It’s really hard for me to pick the best S.E.A. hardcore bands ever. I will pick 5 of my top bands for now; Sial (Malaysia), Zodd (Singapore), Losing End (Singapore), Whispers (Thailand) and Crucial Response (Indonesia).