Im April und Mai diesen Jahres werden die aus St. Albans, London stammenden YOUR DEMISE zusammen auf einer Bühne mit DEEZ NUTS und MORE THAN LIFE zu sehen sein. Doch wie kommt es eigentlich, dass man in hiesigen Breiten zuvor noch vergleichsweise wenig von dieser begnadeten Kapelle gehört hat? Eigentlich ganz einfach, hatte der Fünfer aus dem Vereinten Königreich in der jüngsten Vergangenheit doch mehr mit Besetzungswechseln zu kämpfen gehabt denn mit übermäßigem Erfolg. Eine Schande eigentlich, doch mit einem Werk wie 'Ignorance Never Dies' in der Tasche sollte es dem britischen Quintett binnen kürzester Zeit gelingen, sich auch in hiesigen Breiten recht bald zu etablieren In musikalischer Hinsicht denke man nur an überwiegend im MidTempo angesiedelte SICK OF IT ALL, an die Landsmänner von ARCHITECTS, an THIS IS HELL und, ja, sogar auch an eine leichte Brise COMEBACK KID, obgleich YOUR DEMISE mit eben diesen wohl am wenigsten gemein haben. Wir sprachen mit YOUR DEMISE-Sänger George über die Erfahrungen der Band vor deutschem Publikum und natürlich über deren Debütalbum 'Ignorance Never Dies':


SJM: First of all: Who am I talking to? How are you and what are you doing in days like these? How does it feel like waiting with your brand new album called "Ignorance Never Dies" in your pockets and waiting for it to be released?

George / Your Demise: I’m George, the vocalist in Your Demise. I’m currently feeling pretty good, I’ve just been hanging with my girlfriend and doing a bit of scaffolding for my dad. Getting tattooed and chilling with a few mates and stuff. It feels incredible to be sitting on this record to be honest as it’s something that the whole band are happy and proud of. I know prides a sin, but that’s how pretty evil some of the songs sound haha. But seriously we’re proper syked on it and can’t wait to be playing it out on the road.

SJM: I suppose a good place to start is with the new record. The release date is set for April 20th, and it is entitled "Ignorance Never Dies". Upon first glance, this totally seems to be on the negative, pessimistic side. Now I'm pretty interested in this sort of stuff, so I was hoping you could elaborate on where the title came from, and how you think it relates to the rest of the record.

George / Your Demise: Well the way i go about writing lyrics is mostly a way for me to express most the negative stuff that I feel and experience in my life, so it doesn’t have to let me linger on it in my head. It’s a real strong form of expression for me and a real good release of all the shit and anger that I don’t want clogging up my already fucked up mind. The title comes from inspiriation of our lawyer for our court case in Belgium haha. We’re just ignorant dudes and all this record shows is the dialogue of the life of an ignorant dude living his life. PS TF is a real happy song that I tried to dwell in the positive. It’s a way to combat bad feelings head on and bring on real good and positive feelings in your life.

SJM: What, in your opinion, and probably having listened to the album for about a hundred times in the studio, is one of the most exciting aspects about "Ignorance Never Dies"? What, from your point of view, makes "Ignorance Never Dies" differ from your earlier work?

George / Your Demise: I think the fact the I can personally notice an improvement in myself and the general writing of the songs. I feel a lot more confident about this record. I think the fact that we’ve really made a point to explore our writing and it’s sources has changed Your Demise for the good. It’s still very strongly held in place with our older songs but has just flowered a bit more, haha.

SJM: I don´t really give a damn if it's old or new school hardcore, but your new songs reminded me of one of the greatest mixture and atmosphere of bands like This Is Hell, Bars, Sick Of It All, and Comeback Kid. What I want to know is: Are you into these bands? Do you think this would be a great reference for you?

George / Your Demise: Ah definitely. I will be the first to admit that Sick If It All and Comeback Kid are strong influences of ours. What I love is that people can cunjour up these ideas and influences, and we can sit there and genuinely appreciate them as compliments. Cos jesus, to be told that you’ve got a vibe of Sick Of It All or Refused or Madball in my eyes is something to really be happy with.

SJM: I don't know what it is that makes "Ignorance Never Dies" that special for me. Maybe it's the most fascinating hardcore record since Sick Of It All's "Scratch The Surface" or Bars' "Introducing…". If things come to passion – would you say you mostly identify with old school hardcore acts like Bane and Sick Of It All or are mostly interested in being identified as a younger act among bands like More Than Life or maybe Architects?

George / Your Demise: I will have to outrightly say that everything that we’ve ever taken influence from we have had no reservations with them being old or new particularly, but we always want to put a different spin. If someone says to me what you have about the comparison to ‘scratch the surface’ I’m going to take it as a great compliment as I would for someone seeing say, influence in some parts from maybe Emmure or Guns Up or whatever! But regardless I take more of an honour from sounding like fundamental and pathway leading hardcore bands like SOIA or Madball!

SJM: What about the main messages portrayed in the lyrics of "Ignorance Never Dies"? Is "Ignorance Never Dies" about being pissed about the current state of affairs or is it an album about standing up and fighting for what you think is right?

George / Your Demise: It’s about standing up and not fighting. Just chilling, having fun, getting by and letting all the shits that’s on your mind out in one LP record. For me the lyrics are intentionally pissed off more than not because it’s feeling that I’d love to be able to leave on paper and in song to use as a method of chilling myself out! Haha.

SJM: You´re going to be on tour in support of "Ignorance Never Dies". I think the tour is called 'Get Ignorant 2009 Tour', and you're gonna share the stage with More Than Life and Deez Nuts. What do you guys think about most and listen to when going on those long ass drives from city to city?

George / Your Demise: Well we make sure that we NEVER listen to hardcore or metal as it can just make you lose your mind, but System of a Down are an exception. I like to chill out on the drives and maybe listen to Kasabian, Current Value, Oasis and personally I throw a little bit of death threat on the sly on my headphones on, haha.

SJM: Well, I think, Your Demise are at a fairly young age, but you definitely seem to have already found the definite sound and niche of your band. Could that be right or do you even think that the band is on its way to do so?

George / Your Demise: I don’t really think much about the band because I have to say I really feel like I don’t know! I haven’t got a clue what stage, niche or stance we’re at! I appreciate every last compliment that comes our way and everything that we contintue to do we’ll always do it as hard and serious with as big a smile on our face as we can.

SJM: What do you hope to uncover in the future of Your Demise? There must be more the band has in store to unleash to the public, it’s only a matter of time until it’s all said and done. What else would you like to try and stress to your listeners through your work?

George / Your Demise: Well we want to get out to Australia and the U.S as soon as we can and we’ve got a lot more in us music wise. Not just the band itself but Dylan (Freak Recordings) has 4 of his artists remixing a track each off the new album which will be fucking inredible! But mainly just gonna be a lot more shows and hard work to get every little bit that we can out of this band. The message I want to get across about this band is that it’s like a tool. You can see and hear and read the lyrics of a dude that’s clearly pissed off in the vocal content, but between songs and after shows I’ll try show how much it works by being a laid back, chilling out, hopefully happier guy! Ha.

SJM: In what direction can your fans see Your Demise heading towards? After touring, are you going to go straight back into the studio, or do you plan on taking a break to write new material and get back in the swing of composing?

George / Your Demise: We’re gonna just keep touring hard I think and we’ve already started writing the new record but there is no agenda to it right now. We’re just thinking about more shows, tours, videos, fun shit. We’ll see what happens and let you know as soon as we do!

SJM: Have you ever been touring here in Germany or is the 'Get Ignorant 2009 Tour' your first chance to play abroad? How about your experience so far?

George / Your Demise: We’ve been out to Germany loads! And It’s real good fun meeting a lot of different people and observing the differences in culture across the country. It’s real interesting and we always seem to get a relatively good crowd and dudes that are real into the band which is cool. We’re up for coming out as much as we can.

SJM: I always leave the last statement to the band. Is there anything you´d like to mention that hasn´t been mentioned before? Anything you want to add or just say. If so – be my guest:

George / Your Demise: Nothing much really I’m afraid haha. I’m all out knackered from 3 days of touring. Just gonna say that I can’t wait to hit your town and hope people come check us out and spread the word and check out all the other bands around us in the UK. Run, Pay no Respect, BWP!

(Dennis Grenzel)