H-BLOCKX 'Fly' To America

By Jess Redmon

The German band H-BLOCKX comes to America with their overpoweringand eclectic album "Fly Eyes." The band pummeled the Warped Tour thisSummer and has recently torn apart college metal radio. Now they set theirsights on the rest of the rock world with their first U.S. single in "Fly." JNBCrecently sat down with Dave and Henning, the vocal powers behindH-BLOCKX, to get their story and move beyond preconceptions ofGerman bands. You can catch them on tour soon with Biohazard, anopening act you surely won't want to miss.

JNBC: How was the Warped Tour? Was it strange being on your first U.S.tour?

Dave: We for the first time had a change to come to the U.S. and play infront of a lot of people. It all came about when last year we played theEuropean leg of the Van Warped Tour, we were invited for the Australianand South American part, but at the time we had to do a soundtrack for aGerman cinema movie. We decided to do the soundtrack and were invitedby the organizers to do the American part of the tour. We did all 6 weeksthis Summer, we had a great time, played with great bands we've beenadmiring for a long time like Suicidal Tendencies and Pennywise. That wasreally a great adventure, especially being on the big stage for 26 out of 31shows, being able to play in front of 4,000 or 5,000 people in New York,Boise, LA. That was an incredible thing for us because we could get ourmusic to people who had never heard H-BLOCKX before.

JNBC: Had you always dreamed about playing in America?

Henning: We dreamed about playing in America, but we didn't really haveany expectations at all what so ever. Just about two weeks before we finallycame to the United States to go play on the Warped Tour, we actuallysigned a record deal with Risk Records. When were got first invited to dothe Van Warped Tour, it was more like well let's just get over there for thefun of it and let's see what's going to come out of it.

JNBC: Do you think the first single "Fly" is a song that represents you wellto America?

Dave: It's kind of tough for us as a band. In the last ten years, all of ouralbums have shown very, very many different songs. On our album, we havevarious different songs. We have slow songs, ballads, hard rock songs,alternative rock songs. Our influences are so wide-spread that not one singlesong would represent the band as a whole. I believe "Fly" is a good song tostart off with, because it has a lot of energy and a lot of power, which wealways show when we play live.

JNBC: What kind of bands do you think you're comparable to in the U.S?

Henning: Bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, like Lit at the moment orpeople like Kid Rock or Limp Bizkit. It's funny enough that the first albumwe did, in the early 90s, is kind of like what Limp Bizkit is to the late 90s. Iwas so amazed about the fact that this kind of music comes over to theUnited States, where we thought we got it from the United States. History isrepeating itself. I'd say we have songs that relate to bands like Creed, oreven Oasis.

JNBC: What do you want U.S. audiences to know about H-BLOCKX?

Dave: We want them to know that not only are the Scorpions andRammstein from Germany, but good rocking alternative bands. We're oneof them. I would like to see that people don't look on German bands as atotally strange and alien thing, but something that is home-grown, evolvingand within the world comparable music.

Henning: We fucking rock. That's what they realize once they've seen uslive and I think that's the thing that represents us the best. If people like thesingles they've heard on the radio, they just have to come to one of ourshows and check us out.

JNBC: How is it different playing over here?

Glenn: Right now it feels like playing in Germany 7, 8 years ago. Peopledidn't know anything about H-BLOCKX, we had to kind of grab the crowdby the neck and tell them this is what we do, this is what we like. That'swhat I feel is quite a great advantage, if it stays that way. It's a nice situationif you don't have to expect at least 500 people come to a show. You don'tput yourself under any pressure. I find it amazing that over here the peopleare a lot more appreciative than over in Germany. People are a lot more intoguitar, rock, alternative, rap type of stuff than they are in Europe. In Europeeveryone wants to have easy-listening, what we understand is Euro-Beat.Easy music, one-hit-wonders, that's all they care about it. They kind ofdance a little bit to it and forget about it. You really have people who are stillreal rock fans and that keeps us going.

JNBC: What exactly is crossover music in Germany? I know that's how youguys get described some over there and in America that means a totallydifferent thing.

Dave: At the time when we started out with our first album there was thissort of labeling movement going on in Germany and Europe. It said thatbands like Faith No More and the Chili Peppers were crossover. So whenwe started with out album, they said these guys are doing crossover as well.That was just inside Germany, where as those bands had never heard of thatword ever before. Everybody said in Germany and Europe that this was amovement coming from the U.S., they just needed a term to describe themusic. We understand of crossover to have the freedom to not only beinfluenced and inspired by different styles, but mix them up and try and cooksomething out of it. Have open eyes and open ears for all kinds of music.We're influenced by trip-hop, drum n bass, hardcore. We're influenced byMadonna, as well as Metallica, as well as Black Flag, as well as All, theDescendants, Chili Peppers, Faith No More. Pretty much everything we likeand everything we think has some soul to it. That's what we think iscrossover, but that's not what Germany thinks is crossover.

JNBC: When people hear that H-BLOCKX is a German band, there are alot of preconceptions in America. A lot of people think of Rammstein, orNazis or something that is ugly and dark. I hope that people can get pastthose stereotypes.

Henning: The sad thing about it is that's why it's attractive to most of thepeople. During the Warped Tour we've seen so many people in front of thestage (Henning makes a Nazi sign). We know how it is to grow up in asociety that has to take the toll for having a past that is not-so-nice. Eventhough I was born 40 years after Hitler got the power in Germany, I still feelthat is to be blamed on me. In German history we're not taught how goodGermany is and was, we're taught what bad things we did. There is norelation what so ever to any kind of Nazi shit that we could even think of.We're trying to tell the world how important it is to think of Germany as nota racist place anymore. There is some racists still running around beating uppeople, it's just like in every other country. We're doing our share to letthese people know that we don't like it. We've had shows where there wasskin heads attending the shows, right-wing skin heads. We said fuck you,we don't like your attitude and we don't like what you guys are doing.Standing up in front of these people and tell them what we think about them,their idealoligies, their beliefs. I'd rather not sell a single record over herethan have people think that we want to take advantage of that belief. I don'twant any person that tends to have right-wing beliefs buying our records. Ican't make it any clearer than that. I want the people who buy our recordsthat we think that's wrong, that this is never going to happen in Germanyagain. Same thing with Rammstein, I think they get caught in the middle.They blew up in the Eastern part of Germany. They were thrown in jail forthe beliefs that they had. I just think that their management or Rammstein asa whole are playing a bit too much with this fascist type of power, fame,what so ever. Even their lyrics, even the way Till sings, I was thinking of thespeeches Hilter made. I know these guys very, very well and as matter offact we spent our last snowboarding vacation with them and I know theydon't think that way. If something like that happened to us as a band, we'djust stand up and say no we don't want that. We want to have the powerover what's being done with us.

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