Push to Fire Interview with The Donots

Push to Fire Interview: The Donots
by Suzy Harrison

The Donots are Ingo Donot (singer), Alex and Guido on guitar, JD on bass and Eike on the drums. We catch up with Ingo to find out more about the longevity of the band, life on the road and his take on the modern pop punk scene.

How did you get together as a band and when?
We started out in late 1993 with a slightly different line up. We were a bunch of bored kids covering our favourite bands such as The Clash, Bad Religion, Sex Pistols and stuff. When Alex and Eike joined the band things got more decent and we started working on our own material. For the first 5 years we were completely DIY when it came to booking shows and releasing two albums before we got signed by Sony/BMG and licensed by Burning Heart Sweden in 1998. In 2005 we started our own label business in Japan called "Solitary Man Records". We're licensing bands to Japan which aren't available over there officially and got to release great artists such as Placebo, Dropkick Murphys, Toy Dolls, Boy Sets Fire and many more. In 2006 we hired a bunch of lawyers to get us out of the deal with Sony and afterwards we started "Solitary Man Records" in Europe, too. We have released 2 albums and a bunch of EPs ever since and are taking care of the Donots all by ourselves again. A lot of work but surely the best feeling in the whole wide world to be in complete control. Sleep is the enemy and coffee's our best friend by now, haha!
You've been together a long time... what do you think has allowed the the band to survive this long?
I guess we don't take ourselves too seriously as people but we're taking our music dead seriously. We try and surprise ourselves with every new album, add new bits and pieces to our style when recording and we just love travelling, being on tour and making new friends. We had never planned for the band to be our job - it just happened in the course of time and we really cherish every single moment we're having together. We never paid any notice to cheap trends and always followed our own path. It always helps to know what you want. And sometimes it helps even more to know what you DON'T want. We always try to be accessible for the kids, we're not one of those haircut bands and we're laying it all on the line when playing live - even if that means breaking arms or legs (which also happens every once in a while). People tell us they're always coming back for our shows because the audience is always part of the band when we play live. That's quite a nice compliment, isn't it?
You've toured with a huge number of bands including Blink 182, Millencolin, No Use for A Name; which was the craziest tour you did and which bands would you love to go on tour with again?
We have played more than a 1000 shows to date in all Europe, in Japan and tiny parts of the states and all of which have been really special or cool for various reasons. Only recently we got invited by Green Day to support their whole German Tour which was an absolute blast. The band and crew were super nice, the audience was just great and we found ourselves a lot of new friends on those shows. I still keep great memories of the UK tours we did with Millencolin and Anti-Flag, with 3 Colours Red and Hot Water Music. It's about time we came back for some more shows because the kids in the UK have always been really supportive and nice to us! Also one of my best touring memories is playing the Punkspring Festival in Japan together with Rancid, The Buzzcocks, Me First and many more in a sold out stadium for 20000 kids going absolutely crazy... Good times!
How would you say your sound has progressed over time? Would you say that the way you write and the music your produce now is very different to the earlier albums?
I guess we started out as a punk rock band but we have always tried to develop our trademarks and add new bits and pieces to our sound. We are still writing pop songs with a lot of energy, sweat, blood, piss and spit in there but we experiment a lot more with additional instruments in order to maximize the intensity of every single song (e.g. using a tuba on the fastest track of the new album, called "Dead Man Walking"). Back in the days we paid a lot more attention to an overall album sound. Nowadays we focus much more on every single moment we're capturing on an album. I'd say we are a rock band with a punk rock background but there's so many more influences in our sound nowadays. We're paying tribute to new wave stuff, folk/singer songwriter and of course classic punk rock.
You are often described as a pop punk act; do you agree with this description and if so do you have any opinions on modern pop punk and original pop punk?
I don't think that "pop punk" really matches our sound but then again I don't give too much of a fuck about labels anyway. I mean: What's in a name? If you check us out live you'll find that we are a rock band with punk attitude. There's only so many pop punk bands which I really like. And those are the original ones, not those new trendy "how do you like my crazy haircut"-kinda bands. Green Day are still brilliant and relevant today. For the rest I'd rather listen to the Descendents, Face To face, Jawbreaker, Samiam, NoFX or Bad Religion, not that so-called "new" stuff. I hate the fact that nowadays bands would spend much more time on their make-up, their hairdo and some pseudo-cool name for their style than on developing their sound and really playing. C'mon - it's punkrock! Plug it in and spit it out!
Which punk bands today do you think are worth people checking out (in addition to yourselves of course!)?
When it comes to punk rock I've found myself listening to old stuff a lot more recently (The Clash, Kid Dynamite, Spermbirds, Ramones, Propagandhi, Gorilla Biscuits etc.) but there's at least a bunch of bands out there which are definitely worth checking out! I really dig contemporary stuff like Bannerpilot, Gallows, Thrice, Sharks, Gaslight Anthem, Alkaline Trio and so on... But usually I'd listen to metal like Slayer, Pantera or Metallica, indie stuff like New Order, The Cure or Arcade Fire and country like Johnny Cash...
What's the hardest thing about touring and what do you do on tour to stay sane?
I guess all the waiting is a real drag at times. You find yourself killing time a lot when being on tour. Coffee, alcohol, jogging and movies help me stay sane. At least I'd like to pretend it's like that...
Do you prefer to play gigs in small venues, large venues or festivals?
I like the small clubs for the communication and sweat, the large venues for the space onstage and the big festivals for the "wow!"... We get to play all size venues which is the best part of playing live! It's all in the mix, isn't it?
How's the current tour going?
Actually we are playing the biggest headlining shows in our 16 year history at present which makes us really proud considering the fact that we are on our own label! The shows are absolutely amazing, the atmosphere is absolutely cool, the feedback from the kids is overwhelming and the drinks are still for free... It's a love thing!
Are you looking forward to your tour dates in Japan? Have you toured there before and how does the music scene in Japan differ to Europe?
We can't wait to go back to Japan. It's sort of our 2nd home from home. Japan is one of the best places to tour in this universe, I suppose. Everybody is so nice and respectful, shows are always packed with kids going absolutely apeshit and we have been over there for 5 tours already. The kids even bring their own ashtrays to shows - go figure!
'The Long Way Home' was released last month. How's the reception been for the new record?
We've had amazing feedback for the album which makes us really proud. People have told us that the album is growing every time you push the repeat button on the stereo... We put such a lot of work and sweat into the making of the album. Would be great if we could find ourselves some new friends in the UK, too... Please check it out, folks! Thank you so much!
How long did it take you to write and produce the record?
We can't really measure it in days but let's just say we spent the better part of last year to record it. We went into the studio on weekends, played shows and festivals in between, reconsidered everything we had recorded when coming back into the studio. We had some 90 demos lying around, cut them down to 17 recorded songs and put 12 tracks on the album in the end. Surely a long way home...
What are your plans for 2011? Any plans to come to the UK or play any festivals in Europe?
I hope we get to come back to the UK for a bunch of shows. We are looking for good opportunities to do so. If anybody feels like setting up some shows for us, please get in touch with us for sure! We'd love to come over... Also we will be playing a bunch of festivals in the summer before we get to work on the next album. It's gonna be an exciting year. Just like every new year... I can't wait!
Thank you so much for the interview, thanks for reading this and thanks for your interest! Please check out www.donots.com, myspace.com/donots or Donots Facebook for info and tourdates! See you soon! Cheers.

Thanks to Owen for organising this and thanks very much to Ingo for taking the time to answer our questions! We have enjoyed hearing Ingo's responses to our questions and wish the band the best of luck with the tour; hopefully we'll be able to catch them live in the UK sometime soon! Promo photo by Erik Weiss.

Push to Fire Interview: The Donots by Suzy Harrison The Donots are Ingo Donot (singer), Alex and Guido on guitar, JD on bass and Eike on the drums. We catch up with Ingo to find out more about the longevity of the band, life on the road and his take on the modern pop punk scene. How did you get together as a band and when? We started out in late 1993 with a slightly different line up. We were a bunch of bored kids covering our favourite bands such as The Clash, Bad Religion, Sex Pistols and stuff. When Alex and Eike joined the band things got more decent and we started working on our own material. For the first 5 years we were completely DIY when it came to booking shows and releasing two albums before we got signed by Sony/BMG and licensed by Burning Heart Sweden in 1998. In 2005 we started our own label business in Japan called "Solitary Man Records". We're licensing bands to Japan which aren't available over there officially and got to release great artists such as Placebo, Dropkick Murphys, Toy Dolls, Boy Sets Fire and many more. In 2006 we hired a bunch of lawyers to get us out of the deal with Sony and afterwards we started "Solitary Man Records" in Europe, too. We have released 2 albums and a bunch of EPs ever since and are taking care of the Donots all by ourselves again. A lot of work but surely the best feeling in the whole wide world to be in complete control. Sleep is the enemy and coffee's our best friend by now, haha! You've been together a long time... what do you think has allowed the the band to survive this long? I guess we don't take ourselves too seriously as people but we're taking our music dead seriously. We try and surprise ourselves with every new album, add new bits and pieces to our style when recording and we just love travelling, being on tour and making new friends. We had never planned for the band to be our job - it just happened in the course of time and we really cherish every single moment we're having together. We never paid any notice to cheap trends and always followed our own path. It always helps to know what you want. And sometimes it helps even more to know what you DON'T want. We always try to be accessible for the kids, we're not one of those haircut bands and we're laying it all on the line when playing live - even if that means breaking arms or legs (which also happens every once in a while). People tell us they're always coming back for our shows because the audience is always part of the band when we play live. That's quite a nice compliment, isn't it? You've toured with a huge number of bands including Blink 182, Millencolin, No Use for A Name; which was the craziest tour you did and which bands would you love to go on tour with again? We have played more than a 1000 shows to date in all Europe, in Japan and tiny parts of the states and all of which have been really special or cool for various reasons. Only recently we got invited by Green Day to support their whole German Tour which was an absolute blast. The band and crew were super nice, the audience was just great and we found ourselves a lot of new friends on those shows. I still keep great memories of the UK tours we did with Millencolin and Anti-Flag, with 3 Colours Red and Hot Water Music. It's about time we came back for some more shows because the kids in the UK have always been really supportive and nice to us! Also one of my best touring memories is playing the Punkspring Festival in Japan together with Rancid, The Buzzcocks, Me First and many more in a sold out stadium for 20000 kids going absolutely crazy... Good times! How would you say your sound has progressed over time? Would you say that the way you write and the music your produce now is very different to the earlier albums? I guess we started out as a punk rock band but we have always tried to develop our trademarks and add new bits and pieces to our sound. We are still writing pop songs with a lot of energy, sweat, blood, piss and spit in there but we experiment a lot more with additional instruments in order to maximize the intensity of every single song (e.g. using a tuba on the fastest track of the new album, called "Dead Man Walking"). Back in the days we paid a lot more attention to an overall album sound. Nowadays we focus much more on every single moment we're capturing on an album. I'd say we are a rock band with a punk rock background but there's so many more influences in our sound nowadays. We're paying tribute to new wave stuff, folk/singer songwriter and of course classic punk rock. You are often described as a pop punk act; do you agree with this description and if so do you have any opinions on modern pop punk and original pop punk? I don't think that "pop punk" really matches our sound but then again I don't give too much of a fuck about labels anyway. I mean: What's in a name? If you check us out live you'll find that we are a rock band with punk attitude. There's only so many pop punk bands which I really like. And those are the original ones, not those new trendy "how do you like my crazy haircut"-kinda bands. Green Day are still brilliant and relevant today. For the rest I'd rather listen to the Descendents, Face To face, Jawbreaker, Samiam, NoFX or Bad Religion, not that so-called "new" stuff. I hate the fact that nowadays bands would spend much more time on their make-up, their hairdo and some pseudo-cool name for their style than on developing their sound and really playing. C'mon - it's punkrock! Plug it in and spit it out! Which punk bands today do you think are worth people checking out (in addition to yourselves of course!)? When it comes to punk rock I've found myself listening to old stuff a lot more recently (The Clash, Kid Dynamite, Spermbirds, Ramones, Propagandhi, Gorilla Biscuits etc.) but there's at least a bunch of bands out there which are definitely worth checking out! I really dig contemporary stuff like Bannerpilot, Gallows, Thrice, Sharks, Gaslight Anthem, Alkaline Trio and so on... But usually I'd listen to metal like Slayer, Pantera or Metallica, indie stuff like New Order, The Cure or Arcade Fire and country like Johnny Cash... What's the hardest thing about touring and what do you do on tour to stay sane? I guess all the waiting is a real drag at times. You find yourself killing time a lot when being on tour. Coffee, alcohol, jogging and movies help me stay sane. At least I'd like to pretend it's like that... Do you prefer to play gigs in small venues, large venues or festivals? I like the small clubs for the communication and sweat, the large venues for the space onstage and the big festivals for the "wow!"... We get to play all size venues which is the best part of playing live! It's all in the mix, isn't it? How's the current tour going? Actually we are playing the biggest headlining shows in our 16 year history at present which makes us really proud considering the fact that we are on our own label! The shows are absolutely amazing, the atmosphere is absolutely cool, the feedback from the kids is overwhelming and the drinks are still for free... It's a love thing! Are you looking forward to your tour dates in Japan? Have you toured there before and how does the music scene in Japan differ to Europe? We can't wait to go back to Japan. It's sort of our 2nd home from home. Japan is one of the best places to tour in this universe, I suppose. Everybody is so nice and respectful, shows are always packed with kids going absolutely apeshit and we have been over there for 5 tours already. The kids even bring their own ashtrays to shows - go figure! 'The Long Way Home' was released last month. How's the reception been for the new record? We've had amazing feedback for the album which makes us really proud. People have told us that the album is growing every time you push the repeat button on the stereo... We put such a lot of work and sweat into the making of the album. Would be great if we could find ourselves some new friends in the UK, too... Please check it out, folks! Thank you so much! How long did it take you to write and produce the record? We can't really measure it in days but let's just say we spent the better part of last year to record it. We went into the studio on weekends, played shows and festivals in between, reconsidered everything we had recorded when coming back into the studio. We had some 90 demos lying around, cut them down to 17 recorded songs and put 12 tracks on the album in the end. Surely a long way home... What are your plans for 2011? Any plans to come to the UK or play any festivals in Europe? I hope we get to come back to the UK for a bunch of shows. We are looking for good opportunities to do so. If anybody feels like setting up some shows for us, please get in touch with us for sure! We'd love to come over... Also we will be playing a bunch of festivals in the summer before we get to work on the next album. It's gonna be an exciting year. Just like every new year... I can't wait! Thank you so much for the interview, thanks for reading this and thanks for your interest! Please check out www.donots.com, myspace.com/donots or Donots Facebook for info and tourdates! See you soon! Cheers.
Thanks to Owen for organising this and thanks very much to Ingo for taking the time to answer our questions! We have enjoyed hearing Ingo's responses to our questions and wish the band the best of luck with the tour; hopefully we'll be able to catch them live in the UK sometime soon! Promo photo by Erik Weiss.