The following article was published in N-SPHERE March 2010 issue.
More as a preface than a first question, in order to familiarize our readers with Pinoreks: who is behind this project and how did it come into being?
Well, we’re just four friends making music for some time. We started more than 10 years ago with some sipmle three–chord–punk–stuff, fooling around with simple songs and ideas. We had no idea and no special plan, what kind of music all this would develop to, we just did it on a good level.
What does “Pinoreks” stand for and what led to choosing it as a band name?
The word “Pinorek” is a very slang–like word in some areas of Germany. It refers to small and insignificant little things. Insignificant enough to not even have a real name. First we performed under this name just as a joke but step by step people got us to know better and so we didn’t want to change it anymore. Basically we identify with this name on a certain level: we don’t take ourselves too serious or important – we’re just Pinoreks.
Are you/have you been involved in other bands or art projects?
Oh yes, we all made/still make music in different projects or bands. Our music taste is highly diversified, which is why we make different music in all our projects. If one is really interested in making music he can’t get enough of it. It’s like a drug. The more you use it, the more you want…
Your most recent album is entitled “There Is Hope”. One of the tracks that stand out includes the following: “war games/you play your war games/your fucking war games/but not my war games”. Do you think that through music, a band could engage actively with certain political and social issues?
We recently released a new album called “indifferent topics”. “There is hope” was released some time ago as a 12″ vinyl LP, the recent album is released as CD. Anyway you”re right. Our recent album contains a track named “war games” which contains the lines you quoted. We’re not entirely sure about what music can really do with people’s motivations and beliefs. If one hates the colour green he won’t start to worship it just because we sing about… But let’s not underestimate the emotional impact that music has on people. We’re always thrilled about how our music goes directly to people’s hearts and legs, making them singing, shouting or dancing. Perhaps this is he true meaning of music: touching people’s hearts, not their rationality.
Later on you mention “you have to break the rules/to finally beat your enemy/you have to study his behavior/to get your victory”. These ideas could be more or less linked to the punk movement, also implying that solutions can be achieved through collective means. Would this notion apply in our time as well, considering that people are more and more inclined to passivity and self–sufficiency?
Indeed, the basic idea of this track was borrowed from the punk movement of the 70’s. But it also fits for our times, maybe also for he future. What we say in this track is: Move your ass! If you want to change something you have to leave all conventional ways. If you want to change a system, you have to be outside of it, not captured inside. Therefore it doesn’t matter what kind of “enemy” you want to fight. If you want to fight media – don’t watch it, if you want to fight politicians – don’t listen to or believe them, if you want to fight any industry – don’t buy their products. Surely, it is easier to lay back and abandon oneself to the comfort and intellectual convenience that we all get to see in TV daily, but if you want to change something you have to use your own mind.
Quite contradictory, the album unfolds with “you try to speak/but a fist’s in your puss/what you need is what you get/you try to swim/but concrete’s on your feet/what you need is what you get/you try to fuck/but your cock is cut off”. Would this denote impossibility of action or more likely being in a constant struggle?
See, songs are created under different circumstances. None of our songs contains the whole, the one and only truth. This song actually is rather a kind of menace to anyone who thinks that he can act without getting any consequences. Everything you do has a cause and an effect, even if you sit at home silently. That doesn’t mean an “impossibility of action” at all. It rather means a constant struggle and a responsibility for the results of your actions. You always get the reward for your actions: a kiss maybe, or a kick in the ass.
A predominant theme in your lyrics also seems to be the never–ending cycle we, as humans, are part of. Would this be relevant in the context of music and genres as well? Would you argue that musicians are stuck in a historical loop, bound to repeat what others did twenty/thirty years ago, or do you think that this “repetition” brings along reinvention as well?
A philosophical question, not easy to answer, especially as I don’t really “write” the lyrics. They just come to me during our rehearsals. If new chords or song structures are introduced to me I try to “feel” what this new stuff could be about, I try to get into the music to search for its emotional message. If I find it, the words and the inspiration for rhyme, verses and refrains comes from alone. Surely, everything, including us, is a part of “becoming & decaying”. Relating to music this would mean, music styles, rhythms, melodies… all this is coming and going like seasons. May be good things of each period survive, others not. And coming generations discover what was lost, reinvent it and develop it further in order to recreate something new. For us it is not relevant if we get stuck in any loop or de facto create something new. We just do, what we like to do. If this has new music as a result it is ok, if it sounds like a “musical quote” from former times it is ok as well. We didn’t release any cover version, but we’re surely influenced by a lot of music from the past 20 or 30 years. The main thing is to be authentic, just oneself.
“all things have their season and in their times all things are passing by/a time to be born and a time to die”. Do you consider that human beings are conditioned by fate and faith or more by circumstances?
Probably each of us four musicians has a different point of view concerning this question. I myself, I am not sure. Aren’t “circumstances” and “fate” the same? Isn’t the difference just, that one is a religious explanation, the other a secular one – but both fort he same chain of events that makes us what we are? See, I do a lot of ZEN meditation, empty my mind and let time and things pass by. All watched in contemplation. And, finally, I found that it doesn’t matter if things happen now, later, or never…
What are your opinions on the existing movement in Berlin? There seems to be a lot going on from very different areas, a complex blend of goth/postpunk/punk/industrial events. Are you part of that also as audience?
Honestly, we are not involved in any movement as far as we can see that now. Berlin is a melting pot, indeed. There are flowing together hundreds or thousands of ideas, millions of people. And yes, we have connections to some people here and there. But we have too much our heads in the clouds to see what’s going on right under our nose.
You’ve recently performed together with Twisted Nerve and almost performed with Romance, the latter being considered part of the new gothic/postpunk revival. Do you think we could also talk about an increase in the number of new bands in this area in Germany?
Same problem as in the question before – we simply don’t know…
“you are not of our kind/you’re stupid/you’re blind/we are not of your kind/we’re stupid/we’re blind”. Does a musician get through the composing process to a state of alienation, or by creating something, he is able to send his message across and create a “we”? How does this tie in with the polar us/them concept?
Well, sometimes I feel like a lighthouse, standing in a stormy night on a cragged coast and sending a light beam out into the infinite dark. There seems to be noone to understand or even see that light. And yes, there is a certain state of alienation which is to be felt sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. Sometimes even the stage in a crowded venue can be the most lonely place on earth. The singing and dancing audience sometimes gives an illusion of “we” but after the light is on again and the show is over I see again “them” and “me”. There are not many people with whom I share a real “we”, you know.
During the creative process, are you influenced by “new” technologies (samples, effects) or do you opt for a more old school approach involving “classic” instruments (guitars, drums etc.)?
On stage we use only what you see: usual instruments with no special effects or samples. We don’t like to carry a lot of unnecessary equipment with us. We simply use what hundreds and thousands of bands used before: one drum set, one guitar, one bass, one voice. In the studio, of course, we some more electronical stuff to fully produce an album.
You’ve had a pretty energetic performance at Slaughterhouse in Berlin recently. Any chances for your fans to witness more of that soon/in the near future?
Thanks! Sure, we will play again, but I can’t remember the exact dates yet, but we will announce any show in advance on our myspace site.
What would your listeners expect from future Pinoreks’ releases? Anything you’d like to reveal?
I can only reveal the truth: We don’t know. We already work on new songs but without having any special concept – that would only limit our creativity. We never tried to follow a certain style. We just let things develop freely.
And a last question to fit our magazine’s concept: how would you describe Pinoreks’ sphere and what elements would be part of it?
Wow, that’s the most universal question we were ever asked. So, the answer is universal as well. Well, I think our sphere is made of love and hate, it is made of light and darkness, above and below. Our sphere contains the rainbow, the beauty of youth, life, death and all inbetween. Our sphere has space enough for gods, beasts, man and what has been made of them all. In our sphere you find false and right, air, water, earth and fire, blood, piss and puke. You meet oceans and deserts, hope and despair. And after all, finally and at the very end, behind day and night, sun and moon you find yourself.
questions & photo by Diana Daia
Full article here.
