HALBSTARKE JUNGS (Germany – Oi! / hardcore)

Next to this website i also run a recordlabel and mailorder service. One of the bands i’m happy to work with are the Halbstarke Jungs from Germany. A few days after the band came back from their first English tour i contacted Basti and asked about England, their upcoming split LP with The Warriors and their HC background. All questions were answered by Basti (vocals).
April 2013 – band website

Hi Basti, can you first of all introduce the band and the members?
Hi mate, thank you for the interview. We are Halbstarke Jungs – antifascist streetcore from Germany. Signed at Sunny Bastards Films & Music. The band exists for about 5 years now. The up-to-date line up is Kuegi on leadguitar and vocals, Max on rhythmguitar and backing vocals, Ande on drums, Pille on bass guitar and Basti on lead vocals and lyrics. The two unofficial members are Tessa as merchandise girl and Göran as photographer and driver.

You just come back from your first tour in England? Can you tell a bit more about it?
It was awesome. We met a lot of new friends, really cool people and great bands. England is an amazing country. Concerts there are totally different than in Germany. Salute to all promoters, who helped us sorting this tour. Last but not least our brothers from Steeltown Records, who supported us during the whole tour. We’ll definitely come back next year. Look forward to it! May 2014!

For the non-German speakers, can you explain what your band name means?
No problem. Halbstarke is a German synonymous for young adults, that have always a big mouth, drink too much and think they can change the world. Like teenage years. In the end it is more an attitude for us… we don’t want to grow up so fast.

You have a split LP coming up with The Warriors, can you tell a bit more about it?
This split is part of our 3-vinyl-series with different English bands. We’re really proud to make a split which such an amazing band. The Warriors are heroes. We really like their music. Hope to share on the next tour the stage with the lads. It will be releases as co-production on Aggrobeat and Infiltrate The System Records. We should receive our copies middle of may. Supporters and we look forward to it.

The songs on the split are your first songs in English, was this only once or do you plan to sing in English more often?
When we started the band we sang songs in English. We had three tracks in our live set and one on our demo CD. I like writing in German language. It’s better to express my feelings. For the splits we decided to do songs in English to make it easier for the people in England to understand our stuff. The Feedback on the tour was very positive.

When i take a look at the insert of the split with The Warriors, i see you guys wearing short from European HC bands from the mid 90ies like Rykers and Only Attitude Counts. Where this the years that you got into HC and punk music? How do these bands influence you these days?
Yes we love hardcore and punk. Our hometown had a big HC punk scene in the past and as we grew up there. I think you heard in our songs, that we use a lot of hardcore influences. We have a good relationship to the Vienna style hardcore crew. Cheers to Only Attitude Counts and Spider Crew. See you on tour in May!!

Apart for the split with The Warriors you also have a 10″ coming up with two Sunderland bands, can you tell a bit more about that one?
Nice question. We stand as one – the Streetpunk Connection is one of our personal highlights in 2013!! Red Alert vs. Halbstarke Jungs vs. Loudmouth. With this release we finally seal our private friendship with musical cooperation!! The 10″ will be released on Steeltown Records in black vinyl, is limited to 500 copies, hand-numbered, with download code and there are five different special artworks, hand printed in silkscreen.

Do you have any closing comments?
Thank you again for the interview and the cooperation for the split LP. We wish you a lot of success with Aggrobeat!! You are first choice for our next split-ideas, haha. Of course we salute our crew, friends, Sunny Bastards Films & Music, Steeltown Records, Aggrobeat, I.T.S. Records, all our partners and musicians we shared the stage with.

Click at the image(s) to purchase band releases from Aggroshop.com

Red Alert / Halbstarke Jungs / Loudmouth – We Stand As One 10″ LP

Halbstarke Jungs / The Warriors – split LP

Red Alert / Halbstarke Jungs / Loudmouth – We Stand As One 10″ LP