Nightmare o reality? Dis means war! If you need your monthly ration of d-beat raw punk, Just a Nightmare Zine is the one for you, a real d-beat raw punk assault without mercy! This time I had a some long and in-depht chats with Alex (formerly active in Disease), the mastermind behind Just a Nightmare Zine, nothing better than a fanzine totally faithful to Do It Yourself and focused on d-beat and raw punk. In the past few months he has already published ten issues of the fanzine filled with interesting interviews with bands like Giftgasattack, Besthoven, Warvictims, Framtid and many, many more. Long live fanzines, long live Just a Nightmare Zine and let’s not forget that Noise means friendship!
Hi just a Nightmare Zine! I stumbled across your project recently and I must admit I was immediately fascinated by this zine. Can you tell us how, when and why you decided to start writing and printing a fanzine like this?
Hey, thanx for showing interest in this small D.I.Y zine.
Just A Nightmare wasn’t intentional. At one point in 2018, i decided to do a talk with a friend of mine, Per, but in something like a more formal format like an interview. Although it was just a friendly talk. There was no intention this to be the start of something that’s called Just A Nightmare these days.
That’s why that conversation took 2 years till we are done. We would’ve done few questions, then totally forgot about it, then do few more and again forget about it. There’s a lot of different moods in that issue cause it was done slowly in 2 years time.
This will become the 1st issue of the zine that came out in June 2020 and will include the bands Per have taken part in, Giftgasattack, Warvictims, Martyrdod, Agrimonia, Kirai, Honnor SS etc..
As far as why i started, i’m not really sure, i think i’ve had on mind that every punk bands interviews are just a scratch at the surface. The same questions asked over and over again, kinda qeneric. I do love that as well, but i just wanted to dive a bit deeper and to get a glimpse of peoples lives.
Why they do what they do, what was their life path, their struggles, the things they love and hate to do, and just their daily life.
So, it was never cause of the Corona, it was just the time to do it.
Why i decided to do it in a physical form and not digital? I’m also not sure.
Maybe as most of the things i do in life, if i can chose the easier or harder way, i’m always a fuckup and go with the harder one and put myself into more shit ha!
The name you chose immediately gave me the impression that it was meant to be a sort of homage to Disclose, but maybe I’m wrong. Can you tell us about the choice of the name of your zine?
Disclose and Kawakami are without a doubt an endless inspiration for me, no matter if it’s zine or some other project. The name came out spontanious as everything else in the beggining of this zine. I think its a nice reflective vision of the content that’s inside of it.
From what I could read and understand you define Just a Nightmare as a fanzine dedicated to d-beat/Raw punk in all its forms and incarnations. How come the choice to dedicate and focus on this specific genre of punk music? What were your first approaches with this genre?
When i was a kid the internet was not a thing back then, and in a thrid world countries it came even later then in the most of the rest of the world.
So when i was around 9 years old a heard Nirvana from a friend of mine older sister.
One day i went to a CD store with my dad and saw a Nirvana CD at the shell, i don’t know why i decided to buy it.
And thats how it started, the story with the music. After that, i kept searching for more and new ‘extreme’ music. I discovered bands like Exploited, Dead Kennedys, Disorder, Chaos Uk. As well as bands like Ramones and Clash, but i never liked them, although all the local punks were crazy bout em.
One day, one of my older punk friends called Savo gave me a Discharge tape. I can say that this was my first real encounter ever with D-beat. Then i bought the Final Blood Bath CD from a local record strore. After that, the descovery of new dbeat badns just continued and i got more and more into it.
So i think this is the answer as well for why the dedication of the zine for raw punk.
In the last years there seems to be a sort of fashion/revival of raw punk/d-beat around the world and often you end up getting lost among the many releases that crowd the scene. Which are your opinions about this explosion of bands dedicated to play “raw punk”? What do you think are the best recent bands playing d-beat?
D-beart raw punk was never a trend and will never be. Occasionaly there’s a wave of new bands every now and then which i think it’s great.The more bands the better no? Time will prove which bands will last and leave a mark.
I think it’s really good when there are new bands making new noise.
I just don’t like when some make it out of joke and boredom and it’s not serious. Which can be noticed in their music most of the time. I do respect dedication and being sensire in what you do. Todays world gives opportunities for everyone to make their own part. So sometimes punk is made by people that are not punks and do not live it.
The more recent bands i like, some that comes on my mind right now are – Physique, Zodiak, Hellish View, Kritik, Temor, Löckheed, Affect, Progress, GLÜ, Anti-Metafor, Detesto, Collapsed from Indonesia, Burning//World, Better Reality, the one man project Forclose is great, End Result, PissSniffers,just to mention a few, i am also looking forward for a debut release of the Japanese ‘No’, and of course-the amazing Heavy fucking Nukes with Earth Crust Displacement!
You’ve already published ten issues of Just a Nightmare full of interviews with a lot of extremely good bands, how do you choose the bands to interview?
Yes, i decided to make it as a monthly zine. Since most of the zines comes out on every few months, why not to do something that will come out every 1st day of the month.
I wasn’t sure if that’s possible but time proved it is.
The goal that i made to myself as a challenge was to do 10 issues. So, that mission now is complete.
I do interviews with people/bands that i love. Everyone that i have done interview with have played in more then 1 band. So the zine covers every band that the person has been involeved with.
What aspects do you prefer to dwell on when you find yourself interviewing bands? Do you prefer to deal with more political issues or with more personal issues related to the more musical side?
I consider it all. Although the main aspect is the persons life i do the interview with . Since the kid days to very present today. So yeah, all aspects are involved, more or less, depend on that persons life. Obviously since we cover every band that the persons has been part in, music aspect in the zine is mostly covered.
What band do you dream of interviewing and publishing on Just a Nightmare? And why?
The one bend and person that i will never be able to do an interview with and i love to, is of course Kawakami and Disclose.
If you had to choose your favorite issue of the zine from those published to date, which one would you choose and why? And which interview are you most proud of?
Every issue is special cause every person that i have talked to is different. All of these people are different in their own unique way. No life story can be a bad or borring, quite opposite, they are all very interesting and challenging for me to do. That’s why i do it.
I don’t want to look at this zine in a way of achievement, cause for the people that have taken part in it is very personal. I just wanna look at it as a sensire punk work, those people have influenced me in one way or another.
I am just the one asking the questions. It’s the people that do the zine. It’s their story. I just put it on paper.
And they all have one thing in common and that’s punk. They are all true raw punk warriors!
When you decided to start writing and publishing the fanzine, were you inspired by any other punk fanzines in particular?
I was inspired to do this in a physical zine format cause that is the thing that i can most connect with. Punk has always had a connection and sharing through the zines.
But what really inspired me to do this in the very essence and the core of its meaning was the peoples life stories.
What does it mean for Just a Nightmare Zine to be part of the global hardcore punk scene? What does punk mean to you?
I would like to think that when I do something I love, I really put dedication and focus in it, and im really glad that the small cyrcle of punks that know this zine, like it. This zine is not a big one, it’s pretty much isolated and small.
But considering the content in it, maybe that’s just the way it should be. As the years go by, people has been changing and life gets different. Generations grow old and new younger ones come. It is the cycle. Everyone have their own opinion on what punk is for themselves. Some are here to stay, other just come and go.
Punk is sacred, it has always been and will always be. That’s the way I want to perceive it.
It’s the way I live, the things I do and why and how I do them, it’s freedom and understanding. It’s friendship, sharing, caring and unity.
What are the biggest challenges and greatest satisfactions you’re encountering in keeping alive a project that is certainly as challenging as Just a Nightmare Zine?
The possitive exciting challenge is to catch and do every issue on time ha!
I do understand that the talk we do in the interview is very personal, so i’m serious when we talk about delicate subjects or periods in these peoples lifes. The bad challenge is to cover expences the for printing it, post mail these days is fucked up even more then usual cause of Covid, but it’s not a reason to stop till i can meet end to end.
Point-blank question: what are your five favorite punk/hardcore records of all time? And what bands are currently out there that you think are really good?
For this talk that we have now these are the top 5 records:
Disclose-Nightmare Or Reality/A Mass of raw sound assault/Neverending war/Once the war started
Framtid-Under the ashes
Disaster-War Cry
Discharge-HNSNSN.
No Fucker-Conquer the innocent.
Decontron S/TWait!? Is that already more then 5?!
Some bands that are great and i haven’t mentioned already, D-Sagawa, Dispose & Kajsajuntti, Disable, Absolut, Svaveldioxid, Ambush, Besthoven, Contrast Attitude, Cønditiøn, Singe & Tortur, B.E.T.O.E, Avslag, Hellish Inferno, Bipolar from Greenland(the only punk band from that country that i know off), Final Slum War.
If I understand correctly, Just a Nightmare Zine is a project intimately tied to the raw punk/d-beat band Disease. Can you tell us about what the Macedonian hardcore/punk scene is like?
Yes, you got it correct, I also take part in a band called Disease, and all of the members together with the vocalist of Born for slaughter are also the ones behind the band Angza.
Marce the drummer, also plays in Arlekin, and he and the vocalist Fixa both take part in Stagnator.
Spagi takes part in Transhunter and Goli Deca.
The punk scene in Macedonia at the moment is very small. No punk bands around. But at different points in time the scene was better or worse, so I guess these last few years we are in the worse period. Or the worst ha!
There’s been some really good punk bands in the past like New Police State, Tank Warning Net, Bloody George, FxPxOx, Disclass.
Today is different, there are separations between the crews which devided the scene even more, caused by some specific people.
But it is what it is.
I keep myself focused on the things we do, trying not put too much thoughts on the bad things in the local scene.
We have come to the end of the interview, this space is completely free and you can use it to write anything you think is valid.Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions. Long live Just a Nightmare Zine, make punk a threat again!
Thank you too Stefano for taking your time to do this.
Life is sometimes better sometimes worse, at the moment these are some fucked up times that we go through and none really know when or will this will end.
Take care for each other and stary safe.
Noise is friendship!
Stay Punk!
