INTERVIEW
ZEITSTRAFE RECORDS
by Sascha Gill, January 2007

Hey Renke!

Renke: Hey Sascha!

First of it all, how are you?

I'm pretty fine, thanks for asking. I just came back from an amazing tour with Antitainment, Lt. Mosh and GTUK. It was a blast. Right now i'm sitting at home, listening to Oasis, answering your questions, living the good life...

Tell me a little about you and your label Zeitstrafe.

My name is Renke, I'm 25 years old and i'm living in Kiel which is a nice mid-sized town in north Germany. Zeitstrafe is my label and it was born in 2003. So far, there are eleven releases on Zeitstrafe.

How did you get the idea to start Zeitstrafe?

I set up Zeitstrafe because i wanted to release a 7" from a band called American Tourists which i knew for some years before even thinking about doing a label. When they got started in the first place i helped them out with gigs, releasing their demo tape and stuff. We were just friends, they had a band and i liked them a lot and tried to support them in every way i could. We were hanging out with each other, pretty much liking the same punkrock shit. So when they were getting a little bit more serious with their band it was kind of natural that i was releasing the 7". I was just the kid sitting in their rehearsal room, drinking their beer, so it was like: "Let's do a single. You do the music, i do the label...". There really wasn't an idea of running a label before that or some sort of "masterplan". Without the American Tourists, Zeitstrafe maybe would have never happened. After that single i got friends with Escapado, who sent me their demo because they wanted to play a show in my hometown. I set up that show and then they did a 7" with me and after that it just went on and on... That it's possible for a kid without any "business knowledge" to start a record label, that's just what i learned in DIY punk/hardcore. I was setting up shows, doing/reading fanzines, of course buying records as much as i could afford and just being a punk kid for years so i knew that you don't have to read tons of books about marketing stragedies and shit like that to run a label.

What kind of bands do you release in general?

Hm... I'm not sure. It somehow just happens. I can not imagine releasing a record by a band who i don't know in person, haven't seen live a few times and stuff like that. I mean, i really have to like the people who create the music i'm releasing. I have to like their attitude and their spirit. I'm not interested in releasing a record only because it might be a good business step. I just could't do it, it would't feel right. I'm not "planning" to release stuff, i'm just kind of like stumbling from one release into another. And i love that! For example with Lt. Mosh: They were playing a show with the American Tourists in Bremen and when i saw them i was just like: "This rules". I wasn't expecting anything and they rocked my socks off. It was an awesome live show, they seemed to have something that i could releate to... It's a "feeling-thing", you know? Sometimes you can not explain why you not just only like a band, but you love them. So pretty much anything goes when it comes to releasing records, there are no musical boundaries and no certain "Zeitstrafe sound". Of course i won't release something that includes homophobic, sexist, racist, fascistic and/or anti-semitic bullshit but that should be clear anyway.

Make a list of a Zeitstrafe released/related bands.

American Tourists, Escapado, Kurhaus, Lt. Mosh, Aussenseiter-PC, Matula. More to come soon...

I know you keep the DIY flag high! Tell me about that?

It's not that I keep up the DIY flag that high, it's just what I do, you know? I don't really think about it that much. Punk and Hardcore showed me that you can do anything. Want to see your favorite band live? Set up a show for them in your hometown and have just the best party. Got some thoughts that no one seems to give a shit about? Write them down in a fanzines and you might find people who actually do care, who feel the same way. Like Lifetime said: "Start a band, throw a brick, you're laziness just makes me sick", haha... For me DIY means being tired of waiting and getting connected with people who are also tired of waiting. When i started readingunderground fanzines for the first time when i was about 15 years old, it was so amazing. This whole little world of people being creative and building something, everything more or less unappreciated by the music industry. Small Bands with only a 7" out touring the world - this could't be possible without the DIY punk/hc underground. This still fascinates me. Allthose people being fucking tired of waiting, who want to start something even if they never did it before and didn't ask anyone else how to do it. DIY doesn't mean to me that i have to be dogmatic about doing everything on my own which is not possible anyway. It means that i choose my own destiny and Zeitstrafes destiny without giving a fuck about what other people think might be better for me.

Your label is based on "network of friendship" tell me what this means and what friendship means to you!

Well, i know that "friendship" is a big word. At least for me it is. I don't want to use it wastefully. Of course, not everyone who is involved in theprocess of releasing a record on Zeitstrafe is a friend of mine. Is everyone at the pressing plant my friend? Naah. So "network of friends" means to me that this group of people doing a record (primarily me and the band, plus maybe the artwork guy) have to completely trust each other, have to get along with each other very very well and it just has to feel very good. I don't choose the people i "work" with by focusing on their experience, knowledge or skills. I just have to like them and like what they do.

Tell me your "most proud of" record release?

Haha, this is like asking a father or a mother for their most "proud of" daughter or son. You just can not tell it. You like everyone the same. I'm proud of every single record i have done but maybe "proud of" is not really the right term. I'm just really happy with them, i still like them all a lot. Well, the "Turn It Down" compilation i'm maybe the least proud of because i wasn't involved in the realisation of it that much and there were a whole lotta other labels involved but i still think it's a very good record and it's for a good cause as well.

I know you try to release just vinyl, tell me what this black thing means to you?

Personally, i just like vinyl a lot better than CDs. I haven't got a CD player anyway, so... But that doesn't mean that i think that CDs are somehow "evil" or not punk or whatever. It's just my personal taste. I think LPs are more beautiful than CDs and they sound better (at least for my ears). I also don't try to release vinyl only, there are some CD/LP releases on Zeitstrafe as well. I'm not dogmatic about it. And people who like CDs better or even have no record player at all should have the same right to listen to all those incredible, breath taking Zeitstrafe releases as well...

Tell me about your mailorder! what kind of bands can I order and why can I order those bands on your label?

No romantic story behind the mailorder... In the beginning i wanted to buy records for less money because i bought a lot of records all the time. I realised that you just had to buy some more copies from each record to get them for some euros less, so i bought them and thought that i can sell the other records (that are not for me) to friends or other people. Now most of the stuff in my mailorder are records i traded with my own shit and i have to get rid of them somehow so there's this mailorder list.... But of course i'm not taking anything i don't like. Why you can order bands that are on my label? Hm, it's just this crazy idea in my head that after manufacturing an ass full of records, it would be cool to sell some too, so there's this option to order them on my website, muha.

What does politics mean to you ?

I think you can not seperate politics from punk/hardcore just like you can not seperate politics from life. We'are all surrounded by politics 24 hours a day so i can't really understand people who say that they don't care about politics and don't want them "around". How blinded can someone be? I could't imagine not giving a fuck about something that affects my life and everyone elses lives all the time. So of course i'm interested in politics. I think the really first time i got into politics besides school was on punk/hc records and in fanzines. I still think it's very important to self-reflect your own actions, question everthing around you and just recognize what's going on around you. For me, trying to be as anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic etc. as i can be - it's just the result of what i see. You don't wake up in the morning and be like: "I'm in the mood to be very political today!", but when you take a step outside your door you can not
help but think about certain accepted and appreciated behaviours that people in this country have. Same with being vegan/vegetarian - you see shit, you don't want to support it, you change yourself. Pretty easy. So politics for me is from what happens in a country on the other end of the world, to what is going on around me and where am i standing in this whole mess. You don't have to be a revolutionary or throw garbage cans all the time like Tobias Scheisse. Changing yourself means changing the world, said an old stinky hippie once...

How do you handle the artwork of a record you want to release?

Most of the artwork for the records i've released in the past were done by people i and/or the band know. Some stuff (like the lyric booklet of the American Tourists 7", the Escapado 7" or the Kinder spielen Tod Lp
compilation) i did by myself but other artworks were completely done by different persons. I really like doing cut and paste artwork stuff. In the end, it just has to look good.

Do you have any artwork on a zeitstrafe record you dislike or can't identify with?

Can't identify with: No. Dislike: Oh well... I won't backstab my own records, haha!

What´s the best and the worst thing about having a label of your own?

Best thing: I'm awful rich, baby! Worst: All those people recognizing me on the streets... Can be very annoying. I'm just kidding. It's not annoying. Not at all!

What will be your next release?

Good question! I don't have a schedule with all the nasty records that i will release within the next months. It's pretty certain that i will release the first Matula album. They are a great indie/punk/emo band from Hamburg and the record will come out in the spring of this year. The next Escapado album will also be released by me, but i'm not sure when it will be released. Maybe summer of 2007 or something. Besides that, there are some others ideas in my head but nothing is precise. For current releases just check my website.

Okay, thanx alot for answering and I wish you a lot of releases in the future! Anything else you like to add?

Thank you very much for doing this interview. I really appreciate it. And for all people who don't speak German: I'm sorry that most of the stuff written on my website is in German. For people who would like to get in contact with me: Just send an email! Maybe i'll change my website to "all-English" soon... Up the punks!


Links:

http://www.zeitstrafe.de