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 Fratz Thum interview: Fratz Thum is musician, record producer, band manager and head of Hulk Räckorz which is only the greatest punk label around! I love Hulk Räckorz!!! Thank you so much, Fratz, for taking the time to answer our interview questions, you rock!!! :) -Mikki 7/04 DML: How did you first get involved with the Hulk Räckorz project?
Fratz: In the late eighties I had a small punk distribution business called "Hulk Connaction", which sold punk records, organized some punk concerts and I also played in a German-style punkband called "Wahnwitz".
One day, I met Axel of WIZO and his band wanted to play more shows than my old band, who were really lazy guys and don`t like playing so much.
So I decided to book some shows for WIZO, because I also love touring.
At this time WIZO only had their first demo tape out with their original singer, Jochen. It was more schoolband-like, but it was fun. After the second demo I started to book a tour through all of Germany but we thought it would be much more easy to get shows when we have a record out. DML: Why punkrock and not "Schlagermusic" or anything else? Fratz: I think it`s everywhere and if you`re really interested in the music you can`t take the Schlager thing too seriously. When I started listening to music in the 70s there were these old boring glitter and hard rock bands and all the hippie stuff everywhere. So, I discovered in the beginning of the 80s, that there was a really fresh thing coming up with punk and that was amazing . Especially German punk seems more political than anywhere else and it was so cool to listen to that music because it was so honest, direct and provocative. That was my feeling! DML: I notice you have A LOT of involvement with the bands that are on your label. You manage Wizo, you were a member of Use to Abuse, you produce the albums & you work the shop... Is this a full-time job for you then? Fratz: I work for the bands I really love and there must be also a friendship. This is very important for me, because I love to work really closely together with the band and I don´t like to work together with assholes. This is the reason that Hulk Räckorz is still a small label with only a very few releases. All the stuff I do is definitely a full-time job. But it`s not so hard for me, because I can decide when I want to start and end with work. So, usually I get up at ten o`clock, make music till twelve o`clock and then I sit in the office til the evening and if there is anything special to do, I do that. It`s not really work - for me it`s more a passion and I`m really glad to live that life. DML: I know there were some problems with the German government over the Wizo song "Kein Gerede". What exactly happened, how did they even know this song existed & how did that affect you & the other bands on the label? Fratz: It was in late December 1994 and at this time I produced my records in the Czech republic, because it was cheaper than in Germany. It was a funny thing that the customs officers at the German border saw the CDs and they thought it must be an extreme political thing so they gave one of the CDs to the district attorney in Regensburg. Some days later, they decided that it must be a terrorist song. So one morning there were some policemen standing in front of my house and they confiscated all CDs of the "Bleib Tapfer" which included the "Kein Gerede" song, they took the computers away and they also went to my distributor SPV and confiscated more than 1000 copies of the "terrorist" CDs as well. At the time, that was really hard for me. For the crime I was punished and I had to pay a lot of money. But then censorship has a long tradition here in Germany, haha. Now to the second part of your question: How did that effect me? It was my first "conviction", the WIZO comic, with the pig on the cross was the second one, after some years and I was wondering if I really could go to jail for doing the punk rock thing. The other bands on the label weren`t really affected by that at all. DML: I mentioned that you seem to produce all the albums Hulk offers... what exactly do you do when producing an album? Fratz: Every Hulk record is a new challenge. For some records there is more to do and some go really easy. DML: You have some really awesome bands to offer: Wizo, Lost Lyrics, Swoons, Toxic Walls, Use to Abuse & even some by the Hungarian band, Aurora! How did these bands join the Hulk family? Fratz: Oh, there are different stories about every band. With Aurora it is a real oldschool friendship. That was one of the first bands I worked together with. In the middle of the 80s my old band often played in Hungary, and we played together often in South Germany as well and I also did the booking of Aurora here in Germany in the 80s, and I sold their first LP "Viszlát Iván". That was funny, because we had to smuggle the records out of Hungary. At this time there was still the iron curtain. And of course I told you the story how I met WIZO. Ok, next band: Toxic Walls. They supported WIZO one time near Hannover and I was really impressed how honest these guys were and we became friends. Then the Lost Lyrics-story: A friend of mine organized a Lost Lyrics show near Regensburg and I played support there with another band and the Lost Lyrics were headlining. It was such a really nice evening and so we decided to work together and Holger (the singer-guitar player) is still a good friend. Two guys from the Lost Lyrics played at this time in the Swoons - so it came that Swoons also released their stuff here. After the split of Lost Lyrics and Swoons, the Swoons went their own way and I don`t think that they really exist right now - same as Toxic Walls. And with Use To Abuse that's an old story, too. In the beginning of the 90s there was a Use To Abuse show here in Regensburg and I saw these guys playing and was really impressed by them and after the show I wanted to offer to make a record for them, but they asked me if I knew anybody who could play bass and so it came that I started to play bass in U.T.A. After some months when we played together there were a split, I had to manage WIZO and there was no time and no use to play bass with them any longer. During WIZO`s big break I met Harry of Use To Abuse again and we decided to try it one more time and I played drums then, because usually I`m a drummer. Finally, last year I decided to quit the band because we had some meaningless differences. DML: The list of bands hasn't seemed to have changed, though... are you looking at adding other bands or are you satisfied to work strictly with the bands you have now? Fratz: Actually I´m looking for new bands but it`s not easy. I always want to work with guys that I really love or with good friends or people with the same opinion or the same ideas. It must be something special afterall. At the moment I´m looking forward to releasing something from the Canadian band Grimskunk from Montreal. These are really nice guys and they are a great band. And maybe there are some more surprising acts in the future - watch out for that! DML: You played with Use to Abuse as bass player & then drummer, is that right? Why did you stop playing with them this last time? Fratz: I mentioned that there were different ideas. The Use To Abuse guys are doing their usual work and they can`t imagine that music could be a fulltime job for them and they didn`t really want to do that. For me it`s a fulltime job for years and I love to do it and I´m sure they can do it better without me. DML: What other bands have you played with? Fratz: The list is long but the bands are not really known. In the beginning of the 80s I played in "Frischer Wind im Landkreis" that was my first band. And then we played a lot with "Wahnwitz". With that band we released two demotapes. It was so-called German politpunk. Then there was nothing to do for a long time beside some projects. In Regensburg I had some indie-projects and then of course Use To Abuse. Besides that I played one show as drummer for the Boxhamsters and one show I with WIZO as their drummer because Charly had problems with his hands - that was really hard . (I hope that there are no recordings from that show..) DML: Have you ever considered having a "Hulk Fest Tour" or something, where all the bands got to play together? That would be so cool! Fratz: I don`t think that it`s so cool because every label does it... the blabla label tour and the blabla label compilation... For me it`s important that they are my friends and I don`t think that they all have to fit together or that they should love each other. DML: What do you think of the German punk scene right now? Fratz: It changed in the last years. German punk turned more into a fashion thing. There isn`t the old feeling as when we started in the punk scene to do anything against everything. Actually it is more fashion like the rock`n`roll thing - for the older guys to look cool and for the kiddies who grow up with the skateboard-thing. In between, there are also some intellectual emo-guys - but for me - it seems that they only cry all the time. DML: What can we hope to expect from you &/or the Hulk label in the future? Fratz: The future isn`t written yet, but I`m sure to work for my dream to make everything happen like I really want. And I think there will be some more releases from bands that I love and maybe I can find a new band where I can perform. We will see. DML: Vielen dank für das Gespräch! Fratz: Ich danke Dir, Mikki und Mark + Silvie Derita für die Korrektur!!! More at: |
