Use to Abuse interview: Many thanx to J.D. Stroy for answering our questions! This band rocks like there's no tomorrow! One of my absolutely fave bands, they are highly recommended!! Check them out!!!! -Mikki 1/04

JD: Everything started in 1993. Me and my friend Max played together in a German hardcore band called "Growing Movement". But Max left "Growing Movement" and started UTA with my best friend Harry (aka Sgt. Peter Fuck). Max was playing drums, Harry singing/git. and a guy called Fratz was the bass player. Fratz left the band after some gigs. So I helped out playing bass. With this line up we toured around Germany, Austria and some east European countries. The first 5 years we had no constant line up. I also left the band for about 2 years to play again guitar in "Growing Movement". But since 5 years we have a constant line up except Fratz who joined the band at 1998 again playing drums. He left UTA one year before and so we got a new drummer called Scheich.

DML: How would you describe your music for those new to you & how do you think you have changed musically over the years?

JD: Oh, that's a very difficult question we don't like. We just call it Rock'n'Roll but I guess this won't describe our music. Some call it Punk'n'Roll or Horrorpunk (???) or also Outlawpunk but we don't like these neologisms. We started as punk/hc band (just listen to the song "Innocent" at our website). But we are also AC/DC and Motörhead Fans. So more and more Rock'n'Roll influenced our music. UTA released a single named "Studio-EP" in 1996 which was never called Studio-EP by our fans. They just call it "The Rock'n'Roll" single. We listened to "The Sonics" this weekend in our van and we came to the conclusion "The Sonics" and "AC/DC" most influenced UTA.

DML: Congrats on your 10 yr anniversary, btw! What have been the best & worst moments of the band's career?

JD: The worst thing first... Peter Fuck had a nervous breakdown a couple of years ago. He fell into a deep depression. This changed a lot. The band seemed to break at this time. He lost his job his home and lived like a bum. But we live in 2004 and there's a pill for everything and so Peter is back in life again. The question about best moments is difficult to answer. There are too many good moments we had. When I look back I could say it was touring with "The Troublemaker" from Sweden and playing at the "Force Attack" Festival in Rostock. Rostock is located top north of Germany at the north sea where we where at the beach the day after our gig. There we had the idea to go to Italy for a couple of days. So we jumped in our van and drove through whole Germany and Austria to Italy (I think it's about 1000 miles. A very long distance for Europeans...). These were very funny days in summer 2002...

DML: I notice all your songs are in English. Although I realise this is good for gaining fans from multiple countries, do you never feel the desire to sing in your own language in order to connect better w/ your German fans?

JD: Singing and rhyming in English is much more easier than in German. You also can use a lot of phrases used by million other bands which always sound cool ;-) German is a very "hard" language. Most of the rhymes sound a little bit dull. It works well for German punkrock bands and bands like Rammstein even though they overdo it a little bit with the pronounciation (no one speaks like this - it also sounds a little bit scary to Germans but I think that's the intention). Almost everybody of our generation speaks English or at least understands the lyrics. I'd say 99% don't care which language you sing. We also want to play in whole Europe and in every European country (except Austria and Switzerland) you have to talk in English.

DML: How did you get on Hulk Räckorz?

JD: Fratz our former drummer is the founder of Hulk and also manager of WIZO. We live all at the same town/area. We just thought about releasing the albums on another label but why not being completely DIY. We also have a own recording studio. At the moment things seem to change a little bit cause we split with Fratz. Hulk also stands for German punkrock. We played to much shows with bands like "Dritte Wahl" and other German punk bands. The typical Deutschpunker doesn't like our music - too much R'n'R. So now we are searching for a more R'n'R orientated punk label. Let's see what the future brings.

DML: What is it that has influenced this whole Tex/Mex/outlaw thing you guys seem to have going on?

JD: Peter wrote a instrumental song called "Desperado". He started with the intention to do a surf song but it sounded more like "TexMex". We decided to call the 7" also "Desperado" and a friend of us draw the skull with the hat and the crossed guns inspired by the songs. On "It's all about nothing" I wrote another instrumental with the intention to write a ballad and it ended in a Mexican style instrumental. A friend from Spain told us to call the song "bahia mexicana". On "Nothing left to lose" everybody was waiting for successor of these songs and so we released a new song called "Bandidos" and "Desperado" in a new version

DML: A mailing list member wanted to know: "I thought punk was very politicised, what's with all the songs about fucking?" :)

JD: ...and drinking!!! ...just songs about the fun in life. I think political lyrics are better done by other bands.

DML: The album, "Nothing Left to Lose", really rocks! Are you guys working on a new album? If so, are there any date expectations?

JD: Yes, we're working at the moment on our new album but there's no release date...

DML: What plans/goals does UTA have for the future?

JD: New album and then touring touring touring.

DML: Can the US prepare itself for a UTA invasion/tour someday or do you plan to remain a strictly European band?

JD: We hope so!!! We plan to do this. Maybe with the release of our new record and a new record company. Some record companies work with booking agency around the world. I think we could start something like vacation in combination with playing some shows. Let's see what will happen...

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