Straightline is a pretty recent project if I understand well. Could you please give us an overview of how the project came about?
Yes, of course. At first we would like to salute all readers of your zine and thank you for this small discussion. We formed the band before a year and a half in Central Greece. We started practice so to make tracks that would represent our politically incorrect point of view as far as many themes of our everyday life concerned. In our country the scene is small and has to face many difficulties and problems so we had the belief that Straightline would give something new and special, both in the scene and the listeners of this kind of music. At our beginning we were three persons, (Kostas - vocals and drums, Dimitris - guitars, Makis - bass). With this line up we made several songs and participated in our first live gig in October 2009 at Skinhouse Hellas with Short Cropped. After some concerts in local events we tried to change the forming of the band, so a friend and comrade of us, Sotos, entered to cover the drums' section. This is our current line up and with this one we played good gigs with bands like Kommando Skin and Brutal Attacka and recently we have released our forst full length album, "Act for a new generation".
You`ve had the chance to play with Brutal Attack! How is it to play with such a legend?
It is a great chance to share the same stage with a band like Brutal Attack. Your mind passes through all the history and the glorious past of our music, the early years, the present, the future... We talk about a band with 30 years of presence, not only as musicians, but as a political attitude. All guys were very energetic, polite, happy to visit our country and they left the stage with the best of impressions. Straightline gained experience from all this and we hope that we can meet each other somehow somewhere in the future.
What type of music do you play? What is your style? For someone who’s never heard Straightline, what song would you recommend?
Our basis is Oi!/RAC but we think that we mix several types of music, in our music you can find many modern rock themes and we also use few metal tips too. We do not matter if you call it Oi! or something else, it is like an expression of four different people who share the same ideas and the same way of life. If anyone would like to hear the band, we could recommend some songs from our myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/straightlinehellas) and others from the cd like Time to bleed, Bring back your life, Europe song, Alive etc. Every track is different, every sound and word represents the point of the view of ours.
I think you guys started a CD for the POWs, how did that go, and why?
Well, the cd "Freedom" has been released from last May through the label S-Crew Records as an effort to spread the message of solidarity to 44 Nationalists in Greece, who were accused for their ideas. In fact, freedom is a word that cannot stand only for Hellenic comrades but for everyone who suffers from the democratic system. We had a good network of distribution, at about 600 copies are sold till now in Greece and abroad and we kept some money for comrades that could not pay the expenses of their trials etc. The point is to make whatever we can to show our solidarity and music is something like a weapon to this cause.
Beside Straitghline, what is in your opinion the greatest Greek RAC band?
You can hear different opinions from us about the best Greek band. The most well known is for sure Iron Youth, the famous NS metalcore group from Athens, with great influence to the scene. Other favourite bands, except the ones we participate in, are Boiling Blood, No Surrender, Cause of Honour etc.
Do you guys support any specific organization?
No, we count ourselves in the free forces of Autonomous Nationalists, but we have respect and support many local nationalist groups. We are also proud members of the Hellenic Skinhouse, our musical and political events' hall.
What is "Hellas Skinhouse Crew"?
Skinhouse Crew is a group of Nationalists who are gathered to spread the message of their thoughts and beliefs through political music. But Skinhouse Hellas is not only that. In fact, we try to generate a new way of life by sharing our ideas through different ways. We form political groups, smaller groups, joining several activities, making different kinds of events, supporting young patriots and nationalists, participating in alternative efforts like online radios, demonstrations, small marches etc. The fight goes on for us forever...
How is the skinhead scene in Greece?
As we mentioned before, there are some good bands and all people try to do their best to improve the scene. The majority of the bands appeared the last 7 years so we made some good steps these years but there are many things to see for the future. Now, there is a standard place for concerts, there are also many young comrades who support music and there is good distribution net too. However, we cannot stop here. We must work on our adaptability of our lyrics and our music, because times are changing and we cannot be the last in line but the first to attract young people. So, musicians here have to keep in mind that it is very important to make a whole evolution on our way of expression to other people through music and this is not funny or something easy to do in one day. At first, it is about our way of thinking...
What part of Greek history is the most inspiring to you guys?
For sure archaic and classical period of our ancient past, but modern history could also give us food for thought about the situation nowadays.
Where do you see Straigthline in 10 years?
Hmmm, we hope that we will make good releases that will influence young people, and who knows, maybe we can help more the Hellenic scene to improve its profile and effectiveness too.
And what are your future projects?
We now try to promote our new release, you can order it through this email: screwrecords@yahoo.gr or through many good labels in Europe and around the world. We plan to make new music and to keep on with the live gigs, actually there are some new ideas as far as some lyrics concerned.
Anything else to add?
Just to thank you again for your interest! Stay true, stand proud of your beliefs!
Respect,
Straightline, Hellas
Best regards,
Screw Records Hellas
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