SKANEWS Webzine - SKAOS Interview & Story

SKAOS
Interview & Story - June 2001

SKAOS presents: Porno '75

It's been fifteen years now since SKAOS appeared live on stage for the very first time. And while many famous skabands are things from the past, the seven boys from Krumbach are undoubtedly still one of the best international ska acts.

In the years 1987 - 1990 the excessive stage show that merged fun and professional entertainment was an entirely success. Continued touring introduced the band internationally. They toured the UK with the legendary 'Bad Manners' and the concert at the 'I. international ska festival' 1988 in London was only one of the many highlights in SKAOS history. Many releases and appearances on radio- and television followed. The locations grew like the audience and the wild live acts became a trademark of the seven swabians.

Following a nearly five years long stage-absence during 1990 - 1995 SKAOS was able to pick up the thread of success with an altered line-up and gained cult state again by constant touring through Germany and participating on many significant open air festivals.

Up-tempo hardcore-ska, fat horn section, groovy rythms and occasional flirts with reggae, rythm'n blues, punk and rock'n roll are mixed up to get the typical SKAOS-sound and are still raving up old and new fans.

In 2000 SKAOS releases again a new record enjoyable for everybody. 'Porno 75'. Danceable beats, hooklines that go straight to your ears and the powerful horn section prove, that making 'good music' is the goal here. A varied record with something for everybody. The SKAOS-classic 'South African Struggle', first released on the 1986 EP 'Inside' was rerecorded in a new style. 'My Cucuzza' from Louis Prima, a song of the forties, was covered with a lot of charme and the swing cracker 'Swinger Club' gives a special note to the release. As being known for satisfying and sudorific live preformances, newbies and experts can look forward to a hot dance season with a band being one of the best of it's genre.

Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Too Late
3. Come And See
4. Open Up Your Legs
5. Swinger Club
6. Porno 75
7. It's alive
8. Boosting Blaster
9. Jump Up
10. Don't Care About Them
11. Cucuzza
12. Backdoor Baby
13. Ride On, Ride On
14. South Africa
15. Stay With Me
16. A Global Warning

The Skaos Story written by Alexander Köpf

The Dawning of a new Ska-Legend
More than 10 years ago Skaos rushed over an improvised stage in a garage of a farm in a little godforsaken place near Augsburg during a punk festival. It was the first "Headliner"-job for the group. As the concert should finally begin and after appearing of some punk groups and the Dutch Hardcore-Legend BGK, the police turned up and wanted to stop the concert, which was, of course, not permitted. The result of this act: an overtaxed organizer, a few hundred of excited punks and skins and a damaged police car. As Skaos came to the decision to enter the stage without permission of the police, the situation seemed to be escalated: after a few minutes the mob raged violently but peaceable in front of the stage. Although the Gig continued only thirty minutes (the time in which the police switched off the electricity) it was clear to all eye- and earwitnesses: Lauren Aitken had German grandchildren.

And the result was as follows: The seven boys of the Bavarian town called Krumbach near Günzburg won the third place during a talent competition of the Bavarian broadcast with their song "South African Struggle". They were allowed to be on stage in the Alabama hall of Munich in the course of a
great festival and the "Invincible Seven" did not miss this opportunity.
With their spice sometimes also self-willed interpretation of the very fast Ska sounds of the English revival-bands around the English TwoTone-Label, Skaos forced an open door of the public and got promptly the offer to produce the first EP called "Inside" (New Tone Rec.).
Unfortunately, the first drummer Jah Hug didn´t survive the success of this disk because of his suicide in winter 1985 before starting studio recording. Because of intensive presence on German stages, the band´s popularity grew to a new unexpected level.

On the first LP "Beware" (Unicorn Rec.) Skaos have been still in the tradition of British acts like Specials or Bad Manners with turbo-blast, uninterrupted pushed of Elli´s guitar-beats, a cheerful vibrated sound mixed with wind-instrument parts and with stylistic trips in Calypso, Rhythm´n Blues and Rocksteady. The fact that Skaos have made use of Reggae elements in its sound is not only a funny style inversion (at least Reggae resulted from Ska), but is a characteristic of the band.

Ska music is live music. This has especially been using from the beginning. The band´s stage presence, combined with joy and professional entertainment without contradiction was now well-known to everybody also outside the region (especially after publishing of "Beware"). Skaos made trips through the United Kingdom together with the band Bad Manners. The absolute highlight of the Skaos-history was during the "1. International Ska Festival" in London. Legendary labels like "Unicorn" or "Blue Beat" published samplers with Skaos participation following in broadcast- and television programme. The halls grew with the public.

Catch this beat
In 1989 the second LP "Catch This Beat" (Pork Pie/Vielklang) was produced, which shows new elements of music. This ones, coming from Reggae, flew back into the original music. Skaos resisted all temptations to influence its characteristic sound by using commercial compromises. Instead of using Ska-influenced pop at mainstream like other bands in the Ska scene, the band tried to stimulate traditional Ska with ist own style elements. The result was the important success of the LP "Catch This Beat". Five international samplers with Skaos participation were produced in 1989. During the
Independent Days in Berlin 1989, The SFB recorded a concert of the band which was also partly broadcasted live. In the meantime the wild live-acts have made Skaos famous in Europa.

On top of its previous career, the band changed itself when guitar player Elli intended to live in Spain for an indefinite time. Chaos instead of Skaos. On 30.12.90 the band dissolved. Its last concert was during the "Skankin´ round the Christmastree" festival in Aachen.

The Legend is back to live
During four years the previous band members met sporadically in their village. The result was the first public concert in February 1995 which was sold out. The reunion gig in the "Kerosin" in Augsburg was an important success. The publication of the CD "Back to Live" should document once more the development of the band and should shorten the time up to the publication of the new album. It contains also the complete recording and some of the recorded live songs by SFB (mentioned above). The band was born again. It was obviously during its "Claus-Tour 95/96 and considerable open air festivals in summer 96, that the band haven´t lost its explosive show on stage. For younger fans, it was a good opportunity to become acquainted with the band, which has influenced decisively the European Ska scene of the Post-TwoTone-time. Stay Rude

INTERVIEW JUNE 2001

Skanews : "Musical influences"

Skaos : "Ska, Reggae, Punk, Swing, Rock 'n Roll, Calypso, and all other good music"

Skanews : "Can you talk me about your first record "Inside" (production, reissue,lyrics etc...)"

Skaos : "we recorded this maxi (4 tracks) 1986 in a small studio (walrus studio) in augsburg. It was produced by skaos and 'new tone', an upcoming agency we worked together for several years. The four tracks written by skaos are 'ska skank down party', 'hey neighbour', 'it's you' and 'south african struggle'. 'south african struggle' was our first hit and the lyrics of this song is about the apartheit problem in south africa."

Skanews : "After "Inside" you released your first album, beware, in 1988 on Unicorn Records. Can you talk me about this record.

Skaos : "the beware album we recorded at the marilyn studios in munich and was produced by skaos and peter botzenlechner (...alias 'la bonte', whoever this guy really is). the lyrics are about love, death, horror, cowboys, special agents and nice girls. the influences for the songs on this album are pure ska and reggae. this album was promoted by unicorn records in london."

Skanews : "How do you meet Mark Johnson and Unicorn ?"

Skaos : "as far as we can remember, the 'new tone' guys made the connection in 1987. unicorn was a well known ska record label at that time. mark johnson invited us after finishing the beware album for a 2 week tour to great britain together with bad manners and bimskalabim from US. this tour was a real hard but a very good expirience for us at that time."

Skanews : "What are your memories from Ska fest in Sir George Robey ? (public,television, bands like Bad Manners...)

Skaos : "this ska festival at the sir george robey was really a great experience for us, playing together with all the famous bands like bad manners, laurel aitkins, prince buster, the trojans etc. on the first london ska festival. a compilation from this festival called 'Live in London - the London International Ska Festival' was released by Blue Beat Records with all the bands on playing at that festival."

Skanews : "In 1989, you released a second album called "Catch This Beat" from Pork Pie.

Skaos : "this album was a new step in our skaos-life. from the lyrics and the sound it was more or less a continuing of what we did on beware, but we can still remember the big fun we had during the recording of this album in the vielklang studios in berlin together with Matzge and Maso (the one and only!!). with the song 'bonehead' on this record, we clearly pointed out our point of view concerning the neo-nazi assholes we saw a lot on our live-concerts at that time. with 'living in bavaria' we outed ourselfes as bavarian beer drinkers."

Skanews : "At the same time, Unicorn also released this "Catch This Beat" album with another sleeve..."

Skaos : "we do not like this sleeve..."

Skanews : "What are your memories about Ska years from the end of the 80's bands, Unicorn, Skank, Blue Beat...)"

Skaos : "special brew, fat buster bloodvessel, german homegrown, schwule englaender, good parties..."

Skanews : "The band feature on lot of sampler in the end of the eighties..."

Skaos : "we do not know on how much sampler we are on. most of them are pretty good like the 'Skankin' around the World' compilations from unicorn or the 'ska, ska, skandal' samplers from vielklang."

Skanews : "Why the band split up early 90's ?"

Skaos : "we found out that we had different point of views concerning our future sound and that made it very hard for us to do new songs. that's why we decided to end up here before producing any bull-shit-sound."

Skanews : "The band back in 95. With the original members ?"

Skaos : "no, we restarted with a new drum and bass section which gave us a lot more flexibility for new influences. our idea was to keep ska as the basis of our sound, but to be fully open for other influences to make the sound more interesting also for non-ska-freaks. We had the intention to spread ska sound all around the music world."

Skanews : "Can you talk me about your Back To Live album..."

Skaos : "to be honest, on the back to live album released 95 we have live tracks from the end 80s. so this album does not mirror our new sound idea of the 90s. we released this album as a connection to the good old end 80s of skaos. during our euro-tour this year (france, italy, slowenia, swizerland, spain) from where we just came back we recorded a new live album which should be released in the next month. we think this album will give you a complete indication were skaos stands today."

Skanews : "In 1996, Ham & Eggs was released. Can you talk us about this record"

Skaos : "crutial record, one of the best we ever did. the recordings of this album started more or less as an experiment. we mixed up different styles with ska... and it worked!"

Skanews : "You have a brand new album now.

Skaos : "the newest album is called 'porno 75'. on this record we've mixed i.e. heavy guitar riffs with straight forward off beat and swinging brass sections. all based on off beat of course. we also rearranged our very first hit 'south african struggle' on this record. from the the one drop old ska sound of 'open up your legs' over the heavy metal guitar riff on 'jump up' til the italian love song 'my cucuzza', a cover from Luis Prima, you find lots of different sounds on here."

Skanews : "Lots of differences between end of the 80's ska scene and today ska scene ?"

Skaos : "it is difficult of say what exactly has changed. the ska guys are still as good guys as they have been in the 80s. for sure we realized that one thing on our live concerts is different from the 80s to nowadays: today there are no more nazis or boneheads in the crowd of the live concerts (and we are really thankful for that!). maybe one reason for this is that the todays ska scene is more sensitive about that garbage."

Skanews : "Can you talk us about your concerts in France"

Skaos : "during our euro-tour we played in paris, rennes and toulon, and all that gigs were really great. the french guys are absolute crazy. for us it was really more than fun... fantastic!"

Skanews : "What are your plans for the next month ?"

Skaos : "first of all we will come back to france (festival near strassbourg) for a big party beginning of june. for the rest of 2001 we will have some showes here in germany and end of the year/beginning
of next year we plan to start to work on our next album which should be out end of next year."

Skanews : "If you have other things to say..."

Skaos : "if you want more information about skaos visit our homepage under www.skaos.de. Thanks to all who love our sound and to all helping us to make the hard ska life easier. Special thanks of course to the adolf gottschrank foundation in krumbach (germany) and all hoellenhunde."

Interview released by JP-Boutellier/ Skanews.