Outsiders Joy is an awesome band on the Hulk Räckorz label. Within days of first contact I realized that an interview with singer/guitarist, Party, was absolutely something that had to be done & here it is. Thank you, Party, for the awesome interview. I have to say it's one of my favorites! -Mikki 7/09

First question is ridiculously typical. How did you come up with your band name and do you imagine only outsiders will find joy in your music?

PARTY: Haha, that's really a good question. Everybody thinks that band names must make sense, band names have to declare something. Well, I think in our case it’s right. ;-)
When we chose the name OUTSIDERS JOY, we thought that we were real outsiders. And we liked it. We grew up in a very small village, there were no punks, no freaked out people, our friends did only drugs, but they were not punk rock. Örny and I were big fans of punk rock and we felt like outsiders, cause nobody else had this passion. JOY is like being happy to be an outsider; in our thoughts outsiders have more fun. It's not only about music or our music, it's about the whole life. Being different is maybe sometimes difficult, but it's always more fun.
By the way, when I started the band in 1995 with our first drummer, we were named DIE GEBRÜDER SCHLIMM (The Brothers Bad). That was because of our first song "Rafunzel" which was a parody of that fairy tale "Rapunzel" written by the Brothers Grimm (Die Gebrüder Grimm). It was really funny, but when Örny joined the band late in 1995 we wanted to get a little more serious and changed the band name into CRAWLVIRUS. But that sounded too much Heavy Metal, so it was Örnys idea to name us OUTSIDERS JOY.

DML: How did you get into punk rock and what made you seek the path of making your own music?

PARTY: I always made music since I was four years old. My parents wanted a musical education for me, so I started playing glockenspiel at the age of four. At six I learned playing acoustic guitar, but my teacher was a fucking asshole, he only wanted to play me classical music. So I left my guitar lessons after three years. Later I wanted to play keyboards, but after a short time I thought keyboards were not that cool. In 1995 I met a funny guy at the holiday camp in Denmark, he played electric guitar, but he can't write his own songs. I opened my fat mouth and told him, that I could write a song. Oh shit, I've never did that before! But I wanted to try. And so I played the acoustic guitar of our overseer - it was the first time after six years for me playing a guitar - and I really made a little melody. Cool! Together we started writing some lyrics and after all it was the first song I've ever written and additionally the first song of OUTSIDERS JOY. Cause when the camp was over and I came back home, I took the western guitar of my sister, plugged it in an old bass amp of my sisters friend and started playing "my" song. In my parents basement we had a very old drum kit which my mum brought one day from the parish hall. I told a friend how to play the only rhythm I knew and so we started playing "Rafunzel" all day long. It was so much fun that we decided to start our own band. We were not good, but we liked what we did and I wrote more songs with the western guitar of my sister. :-)
Well, I came into punk rock at the age of 14. The first punk band I've listened to was SLIME, a great German punk band. Before that I was a big fan of Michael Jackson, but getting older it was not that cool to listen to pop music. I became a huge fan of AC/DC and after listening to SLIME I got more into punk rock by bands like DIE ÄRZTE, ABSTÜRZENDE BRIEFTAUBEN or DIE TOTEN HOSEN.

DML: What bands have influenced you & your music?

PARTY: It's not easy to answer this question. I mean I'm influenced by so many bands and I think they have influenced our music in a way, too. If you read the reviews of our record "Sonnenbankgebräunter Anabolikamutant" most of them tells about a similarity to WIZO. Well, I really love WIZO and I think they've influenced me a lot. It's a big compliment to award us a similarity, but on the other hand we do the music we wanna do. We do not try to imitate somebody or something. We do our own thing and if people think it sounds a bit like WIZO, it's ok. I think there could be worse comparisons.
But I think every music I've listened to did influence me in a way. And that is why I love music. Every music is different and you can take from every music what you like. Isn't it great?

DML: I read that you had tried various line-ups, even including female vocalists. Who in the band is an original member and how did you come upon the current line-up?

PARTY: Oh that's right. We tried lots of various line-ups, it was horrible. Every time we got a new member, we had to start from the beginning. New members have to learn the songs and it always takes time and nerves till they are able to play live.
Yeah, we also tried a female singer. She was a real eye-catcher on stage, but her voice was not so good. Hehe. It took a long time till I realized that, I was blinded by her visual appearance. Haha. She was really sweet. Even we did a demo record at that time. Oh my god, why do I tell you that? But forget it; you will never listen to this demo!
Well, if we speak about OUTSIDERS JOY Örny and I are original members. I started the band in summer 1995 as DIE GEBÜDER SCHLIMM, but Örny joined the band in winter 1995 and so I think he is an original member, cause at first we wanted to be a serious band at that time.
Örny, our old drummer and I were in the band for the first ten years. Örny was always the bass player, the drummer was always the drummer and I was always the guitar player and sometimes the singer. We tried two times a second guitarist, two times a singer and one time a female singer. What a waste of time! But we had our fun. :-)
In 2005 our old drummer got more and more lazy, he didn't want to play shows, he had a girlfriend that he wanted to marry and so on. So we decided to kick him out and searched a new drummer. Falte was the only guy who answered on our advertisement and so we did a rehearsal to check him out. And wow, he was much better than our old drummer, he was 17 years old and we thought we could form him into our new drummer-slave. Regrettably, we were unable to let him became our slave, but he drummed very well and so he joined the band. And we are very happy now to have Falte in the band, he is really good, motivated, funny and an asshole like Örny and me.

DML: Your first CD, "Grosse graue Männer", was marketed on your own but then got picked up by NC-Music and Nix Gut Records for their mailing lists. How well did that work out and is that CD still being sold through them?

PARTY: Fuck, who told you about "Grosse graue Männer???
Ok, we recorded that album in 1999. We went to a studio in the Eifel and wanted to record six songs. We booked the studio for 24 hours, allotted on four days. We started the recording session and thought we could do more than six songs. At the end of the recording we have recorded 18 songs! They were not played very well, but we thought it was cool and so we decided to do a record. The studio and the pressing were really expensive and the quality was so bad. But anyway we found a small label who wanted to sell the CD. It was a great thing for us, we never thought our own CD to be sold by a label. And it worked, not that good, but it worked. I think Nix Gut is still selling the record. But be sure, you must NOT have it, it's really bad!

DML: For your new CD, "Sonnenbankgebräunter Anabolikamutant" (whew, quite the name!!) you partnered up with Hulk Räckorz. How did you get involved with them? Has it helped a lot?

PARTY: The name is very cool, isn't it? :-)
Hm, how did we get involved with Hulk Räckorz? I think the answer is not as spectacular as you wish. We recorded the record without having a label. We knew that Nix Gut would do the record if we wanted. But Nix Gut released so many records of nearly every German punk band; we didn't want to go under in that bunch. We wanted quality, not quantity. And we always wanted to be on Hulk Räckorz, there was not really an alternative label. When we finished the record, I called Fratz and told him about it. He seemed not to be very interested but he said I should send him one copy. After a few weeks I tried to call him again in order to know if he liked the record or not. But Fratz was on holidays and not at office. So I waited more few weeks and then I got him on the phone. He didn't really know who I am and it seemed that he didn't have listened to the record. But he promised me check it out the next days and after my next call he told me that he liked the CD. Then he came with Vera to one of our shows and after that he wanted to release the record. That was so cool! We were very happy! We really made it on Hulk Räckorz! Wow!!!
For sure it helped a lot. Now we are playing more shows, we are getting more attention for our music, we have merchandising and we are more known in Germany - and the US! ;-) And decidedly the best is that Fratz has become something like a friend for us. We love being on tour with his band ROCKWOHL DEGOWSKI and he always helps us with problems, gives us the straight tip and it's fun to hang out with him.

DML: Speaking of that CD, I mentioned that that was quite a name... How did you come up with that? & the first one also… "Grosse graue Männer" who are they??

PARTY: Do you like the name "Sonnenbankgebräunter Anabolikamutant"? We thought it’s cool, cause it seems to be hard for everybody to pronounce it well. But primarily it's a line from the song "Fünf Minuten Ruhm". This song is against the high society and show business. I'm working in the TV-business and I met so many fucking so-called stars, rich and beautiful people, it's disgusting. They live in their own world, which is superficial and far from reality. They think they are better human beings cause they have money, cause they are famous and "good-looking". But appearances are deceiving. Without their money and make-up they are nothing. I hate them and so I wrote this song.
"Grosse graue Männer" is also a line from one song of the album. The song is called "Diamanten" (diamonds) and it's about getting formed by the society into something they want you to be. If you do your own thing you get kicked out of society, being an outsider, but without having fun. The great grey men are a metaphor for parents, teachers, and politicians.

DML: I've never had the chance to read your lyrics but I've read about what some are about and they sound very cool, some fun, some dealing with serious issues. Who writes the lyrics and music and what are you hoping to convey with your songs?

PARTY: Why didn't you read our lyrics? Is it because they are in German? Haha. I should try to translate them. But I think you won't understand anything, my English is as bad as you see. ;-) But I will tell you what the lyrics are about.
At first our lyrics are the most important thing in our music. I think that is what punk rock is about, the lyrics should proclaim a message. Generally punk rock is often criticized being always the same, telling the same old messages. In a way that's true. For example punk rock was always against Nazis, politics, the state and so on. Almost every punk band has songs including this content. But I think it have to be that way. There can't be enough songs against the fucking fascists, so every band should write 1000 anti-right songs! And that is not boring, it is necessary! It's sad, but it's true. In one of our songs I sing "As long as assholes rule the world we will go on writing songs..." and that is what it's about. We must not get tired writing songs against everything that bothered us. In Germany there are still Nazis. And these fucking assholes are proliferating more and more. We always have to fight them by writing songs, doing demonstrations, kicking their fucking balls. We hate Nazis and we will never stop to shout out our message.
But our lyrics are not only against Nazis, politics, church, cops, pedophilia and something like that. There are also personal lyrics about heartsickness or the life without meaning. Often we like to write our lyrics in an ironical way and sometimes they are a little bit morbid and sarcastic.
Well, I write most of our songs. I always write the music and 95% of the lyrics. Örny for example wrote the lyrics for that song "Sieben Jahre Regenwetter" on our record "Sonnenbankgebräunter Anabolikamutant".

DML: You guys live in Köln... what do you think of the punk scene there & in Germany generally?

PARTY: Well, here in Cologne we still have a punk scene, but it's getting smaller. There are not so many punk rock clubs where you could do shows. Most of the clubs deal with fucking "pay to play" which means you have to pay 250€ to play a show in those clubs. Fuck them! There are only two or three clubs that are really punk rock. Ten years ago it was much easier to do shows and there were more kids interested in punk rock.
And it's the same in Germany. It's hard to book shows and often not many people come to see the bands. Maybe there is an oversupply of bands, I don't know. Maybe there were not so many punk bands in the 90s. But I won't complain about the punk scene, it's still alive and we are hopefully for better times. As long as we have fun we will go on touring, writing songs and doing records. And I think that's what punk rock is about, it should be a passion, not ambition.

DML: So, 12 years is a long time, what are some of your best & worst experiences you've had as a band?

PARTY: Hey, meanwhile we're doing this for 14 years!
I think most of the years we had really good times. It's always great to play songs written by yourself and it's one of the best feelings you can have when people like your music and sing the songs along on your shows. That's awesome; I can't describe how cool that is. Of course we had times that were not so good. We had personally problems and differences; there were times we wanted to stop the band. But the music was the point which let us stick together all these years. We love what we are doing and I think there must really bad things happen before we break the band off.
One of our best experiences was the release of our record "Sonnenbankgebräunter Anabolikamutant" on Hulk Räckorz. It was the only label we wanted to partner with and we were so proud that we managed it. Great!

DML: This is kind of a strange question but, suppose you could create a concert of every band you've ever wanted to play with or see live... who would be there?

PARTY: That's a funny question, I like it. If I could create my favourite festival there would be the following line-up:
AC/DC, NOFX, WIZO, No Use For A Name, Slime, Molotow Soda, Social Distortion, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes, Black Flag, Lagwagon But there are so many great bands we want to play with, I can't list them all here. For example we played a few weeks ago two shows with THE LOST LYRICS. They are such a great band; it was so much fun being on stage with them. And every time we play with new bands from other cities it's exciting and mostly amusing.

DML: What great things are you hoping to achieve in the future?

PARTY: It would be great to do more and more shows, more and more records and have more and more fun. And maybe we can do our music for a living one day. But more important is that we will always stick together as good friends who love playing their own music and having the best time of their life. We will go on with what we are doing for so many years and are full of expectation what the future will bring.

DML: Most important question... when does the US tour begin? ;)

PARTY: Haha, I hope it will start soon. That is one wish we always had. Touring in other countries, first of all in the US, Canada and Japan. That would be sooo cool. Who knows, maybe it will work cause of your great support in America. We hope to see you soon on the Warped Tour! ;-)

DML: Thank you so much for doing this interview; I really like your music!! Is there anything you would like to add?

PARTY: We have to say thank you. Thank you for liking our music and thank you so much for your support. It's really great to know that people who don't understand our lyrics are although interested in our music. And that's what we call the international punk rock mafia! :-) Cheers!

More at:

• Official
• Outsiders Joy on MySpace