Press: Move Your Ass interview (eng)

1. what exactly is dr.Green, I know the whole story but most of the readers dont know, so please explain it

it's a comics character, funny doctor-gynecologist or some pusher from Cypress Hill's song: "I'll show you how to grow inside and out / From seed to clone, and the best homegrown / And if you're afraid of those pesky pork choppers in the sky / No worries, we'll fix them too". also there are some companies under this name, some producing natural food supplements, some - smoking bongos. and in the end there is a band from Lithuania. some punkrockers from various bands who wanted something new and heard ska sounds (Operation Ivy at first, then M.M.Bosstones, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Unsteady, Skankin' Pickle, etc.). that was in 1996. they used to be hard smokers so "green" came naturally and lots of ska bands are titled "dr.something". ska was unknown music in Lithuania then and the band wanted to introduce it for local underground society. later saxophone players joined the band, adding more ska flavour.

2. people know you as a ska-punk band, but the as the times go by you have less and less "ska" elements in your music, got any explanation for this?

well, we've never been pure ska thing. just used some elements, that we liked most, of ska music. in the beginning we liked to label themselves "ska", since it was new and exciting. promoters also liked the idea, because "ska" on a poster means more people at a concert. also some skins, making problems during the concerts. also promoters saying: "let these serious bands play first and then you go with ska dances". we didn't want to play the last all the time :) it's not a reason, of course. it came naturally, that we came back to our punk roots. but in general we don't like any labels, just play what we are able and like to do. we like jamaican music, but the reality around forms different sounds in our heads.

oh man , you dont know really even know how many fans of " that oh so cool ska band" you're gonna lose now... no just joking...you've mentioned some problems, I know when "some" crowds show up at the gig, it might get pretty hot...did you experience this often ? I've been told Poland and Russia special countries for this...

the last time we've experienced this at Rozbrat squat/Poznan/PL on our last euro-tour. the gig was very positive, but some bastards managed to spoil it. yes, the most often it happened in Poland - there were concerts interrupted because of troubles in the crowd. though once it happened during our gig in Brno/CZ as well. it seems these people came just to look for a fight. it never turn out in big fightings, but the atmosphere was quite nervous. we've played lots of gigs in Russia, but never experienced such a problem. even in Belarus, where lots of concerts are broken by nazi boneheads, we've played nice gigs only. there are lots of positive skinheads all around - we're close friends with local skinheads from TORO BRAVO band, also have some friends from Belarus, Czech rep. (cheers to Rytir crew). but stoopid people are stoopid, not matter how they look like.

is any member of the band(previous or present) a doctor...

our bass player is a doctor of... computers :) the rest of us have nothing to do with medicine, unless we're talking about soul healing through music. there are journalists, unemployed, students of history and art in the band.

5. a friend of mine, who has a band, during a chat about the countries his band“s gonna tour, told he doesnt want to go to Poland, Baltic republics or even Russia, because in these kind of countries the life has not that worth, sure it was a joke, but I wasnt told it just by him. And you“ve toured both east and west europe, so what are the differencies? You can judge better, than West European/American bands, who“s most eastern experience was Prague (and they luckily survived :) Is it true when people tell me, the less "civilized the place is, the more the people rock"...

absolutely true and we can confirm that. it's very simple - there are underground gigs every week somewhere in West world compare to 2-3 in half a year in East. people were hungry for diy sounds. 3-4 years ago gigs at our native "Green" club were really wild and all Western bands were impressed by the atmosphere and support. the situation is changing - concerts aren't so highly attended and the audience gets more and more passive. but still a band can play a gig, that will stuck in mind for it's brilliant atmosphere. nowadays you need to go further than Poland or even Baltic states for these "rocking people" - Russia, Belarus, Ukraine or some Asian countries are the options. so far, the hottest gigs, we've ever played, were in Russia, Belarus, also Croatia. there's a balance like everywhere - you get one, loose the other and vice versa. East - you get rocking people, but less money, worse roads, problems at borders, problems with finding food if you're vegan, etc. on the other hand, West - you get paid well, drive highways without any borders, eat good food, etc., but play in front of few indifferent people.

6. because you re involved in running your Green club, let us know more about it ? it was first only a rehearse room or something right ? Are there in Vilnius some other clubs for this genre of music...?

the club was opened in 1998, when we've presented our first record "Ska'n'go" there. it used to be our rehearsal room (in fact basement), but after few events, we've decided to use it as a club as well. we simply have no other choice, because people were really hungry for a place like that. you can read the full story and find other info about it at http://hardcore.lt/greenclub. during about 5 years of totally illegal activities such underground bands like Tragedy, By All Means, Toad, Sabot, Endstand, Segue, Good Clean Fun, JMKE, Contra La Contra, Analena, Wasted, Zu, Hero Dishonest, Antimaniax, Defdump, Paprika Korps, Robotnička and many many more had played here. also we've arrange some dance music events, mafia, disco, arab parties. finally the club was totally destroyed by fire in the end of 2003, when we've lost all our instruments, records and, of course, beloved space. before that the club was closed by ourselves because of possible police raid. the same time we have re-opened "Green" club at a new place - in a neglected supposed to be art center. at the moment we rehearse and do gigs here. there used to be other clubs like "Bombiakas" (the first punk club in Lithuania), which became a place of gothic culture nowadays. also few more less popular. at the moment "Green" club is the only place in Vilnius fully devoted to diy underground culture.

7. Another thing thats pretty much important for the Litva scene is the Kablys zine so let us peep into the Kablys kitchen...there are not many zines like yours in Europe, and still I think very few people know you around here. btw. how does it sell , aren't you sick of people telling you " hey, why dont you run it only as a website ? " I confess, I really hate it ...

Krilaz from hardcore band Bora is the main man behind Kablys zine (http://www.kablys.hardcore.lt). he started it long time ago as metal music oriented publication and asked me to write something about punk/hc. from that moment we're doing Kablys together. later Krilaz got interested in hardcore, also punk, so i turned to ska/reggae stuff. at the moment it's a zine covering punk/hardcore/ska/reggae fields. last issues were distributed with a free CD sampler. at the moment we're preparing issue #13. circulation of the zine varies from 200 to 500 copies. don't know what do you mean by telling "there are not many zines like Kablys"... do you mean content of Kablys is quite unusual? well, all these subcultures are in the same "family" of do it yourself underground movement. talking about popularity of Kablys around Europe. the publication is written in Lithuanian, so people abroad simple can't understand it, that's why we are not looking for Europe-wide distribution. we don't want to do just webzine, because printed stuff is different - you can take it where you want, give it to your friends, etc. though who knows, it takes much longer to do print version, so webzine would be easier option. anyway, you can read most of the back issues stuff on the web.

8. when I said "zines like yours" I meant zines, that cover quite a few genres, have color cover and include cd and still are d.i.y , there are few in Germany, few in Poland and thats it (as far as I know) ...

well, Krilaz always likes good quality whether it's a sound or cover design or print matters. it's quite usual for metal scene with all their "full color glossy paper" quality. for me personally, it's enough two-three color cover and simple paper a la newspapers. but the thing Kablys is printed on better quality paper, because we can get this paper for free :) CD sampler is a very useful thing - you can listen to what you've just read about. especially now, when copying of CDs is such a cheap thing, all music zines must include free sampler!

9. thru the years Dr.Green exist, what was the most incredible thing you“ve heard shouting on you from the crowd during the gig ?

there were lots of funny things, but probably the most incredible was "Grajcie regyyy!" ("Play reggae!"). we're invited to play in quite famous Polish festival "Winter reggae". dr.Green was one of the last bands of the festival after lots of reggae oriented artists and the audience was interrupted by dirty punky sounds.

10. from time to time, all of us have a moment, when we go nuts about something, whats worse when it is something that's in the "scene", because we don“t live in perfect world, anyway what things would you like to change about the "scene", gimmie your top 5, that make you rise your temper

not in particular oder 1. responsibility 2. tolerance 3. innovation 4. brand 5. real respect strange, these qualities supposed to be something like roots of the "scene", except brand...

10. anything I havent asked you and you simply need to say

"Prosit!" goes to all the people, who helped us in Czech, also to those, who danced with us during the gigs. Live your life, use your head!

[last updated: 2005-02-11]