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By Dyma from Ukrainia - Feb. 08

Who is Bökanövsky now?

Clément : Hello dyma. Bökanövsky is four friends. I was starting to organize some gigs in Toulon, three years ago, Pierre went at one of them, and asked me if I would like to play with him. At that moment I was (trying) screaming in a band called Tetsuo. So I couldn’t play with him. Not more than two month after that gig, I didn’t play anymore in Tetsuo, so I’ve called Pierre again. I was just starting the guitar, but Pierre didn’t mind and just wanted to play. We started playing together, him with is bass and me with my guitar. We found quite quickly a drummer. But he was more into watching soccer so he quite the band. We were againtwo. I met Coco and Romain on Internet, asked them to come at a rehearsal, and now we are together since that time.

This guys was from the begining?

Clément : Well we didn’t have any name when we were playing with the other drummer. So we can say yes, we are all playing since the beginning in Bökanövsky.

It’s first band for members of Bökanövsky?

Clément : For me it’s my first « real » band, Coco was singing in several bands but nothing serious I think. Romain was singing before in a melo-punk band before and Pierre played several bands before, and was singing in One more season héhé !

Pierre: And it’s the first band I play with, where all the members are ok to work in the same way, for the same goals. It’s so hard to find it!

Romain : Like Clement, it’s my first “real” band, I’ve play with some friends before, but nothing serious.

How did you found a DIY Punk / Hardcore scene?

Clément : Hum… Before I was living in north of France, I started listening to local band like Burn Hollywood Burn, Judoboy and then when I moved to south of France, I started listening to all sort of bands from hardcore, punk, to emo and screamo stuff. I think I really understand and realise what punk/hardcore was when I started to organise gigs in my town.

Pierre : Thanks to friends. One day you listen to commercial metal, the other you understand there’s something better and constructive like the diy one.

What bands make influence on your band?

Clément : It’s a difficult question, tons of bands influence us, and we all listens to tons of differents stuff. For me such friends like Daïtro influence me a lot, for what they are and how they run their band.

Pierre : Yes, since the beginning we can say we’re influenced a lot by Daïtro, Hyacinth, Saetia, Zann, Ekkaia, Envy, but we don’t want to copy them, even if it’s so hard to sound original!

Romain : I don’t find that’s so hard to sound original. I think we all put a part of ourself in our music, and, by the way, it sounds original. I think that it’s hard when you compose with your brain, but I’m not very friendly with this way… Music must be sincere and comes straight from our heart, nothing more, nothing less. But, of course we have influences, for this kind of music, I’m listening, for example : Burial Year, Buried Inside, Children of Fall, From Ashes Rise, Kaospilot, and many other bands…

Why it’s screamo / emoviolence?

Clément : Don’t understand your question If you ask why it sounds like screamo or emoviolence, well, we don’t think of it. We just make music, and we try to be as « personal » as possible.

Pierre : Look at the bands we like! It’d be hard to sound like a 77’s punk rock band or like a death metal one! I think we just love to play our music with passion and a lot of sweat and smiles! And we are very influenced by the DIY scene. We don’t want to only sound like a screamo / emoviolence band and we just don’t care about being classified in this or that kind of punk style!

Whot does it mean Bökanövsky?

It comes from the famous Aldous Huxley’s « Brave new world ». A story about science and society VS life, love and freedom. The best is to read it because it’s quite hard to tell…

Is diy ethic important for you?

Coco : Of course it is, I think we really feel strongly and closely connected with DIY, and at the same time we try not to stay closed under stupid principles and trying to be as most opened minded as possible…we’ve heard a lot of people using the expression DIY for everything that is made on their own but I think it is much more than this, it is freedom, passion, friendship something that gives a sense to your life, actually a certain way of life, it is not just making a frame for the portrait of your friend with used materials…and of course it is not only making music in the DIY way…

Pierre : As you say it, we believe in the DIY ethic, this word-ethic- is the most important thing since the beginning of this band. As coco said, it’s not only about making music by your side, it’s so much more.

What do you think about sellout bands with messege (like Rise Against, Rage Against the Machine)?

Clément : Well, I don’t know… I listened those bands for such a long time, and I think that I’m into punk/hardcore maybe because of those bands. When I listened to them, I was just like crazy, the music for me was unbelievable, and the lyrics was important. I don’t listen to them anymore, maybe I should.

Coco : I’ve never been listening to those two bands, when I was a bit younger all of my friends were crazy about RATM but I was much more into death and black metal so for me this band was something to male you jump against the wall of your bedroom wearing large pants and praising the Che !! haha!!

Romain : In fact, I was first a big fan of 88 Fingers Louie and after, of course, I have discovered Rise Against with “The Unraveling”. Today, it’s always nice to listen this record again. But, I have saw them in Milano two years ago, and I don’t like very the much the way they’ve chosen to take, but, it’s their choice…. Now, I’m thinking that these kind of band give the possibilities to kids (like I was) to come and discover a new kind of music, It’s maybe a gateway for DIY music…

What can you say about apolitic hc / punk?

Clément : Well, I’m not against that. I really love a lots of bands that are « apolitic ». I’m not a policeman to say what is bad from good. Apolitic or not, I don’t care a lot, if those guys have ideas, are nice, respectful, and are not assholes, well I’m completely into them. I just don’t like bands that are apolitic, and scream it in every corner, and are fucking assholes, and then use punk/hardcore structure to develop their band. But I don’t know, we are all assholes one time in our life. And we can change. So I’m sure one day those bands will change and act differently.

Coco : Like Clément said if those people are using punk and DIY network to make their stuff possible I have nothing against that but in return they have to respect other’s ideas and to be aware of what punk and DIY should represent for many people, who had made possible for them to play in this or that venue, who had spent its energy for them to have food…I guess sometimes it is easy to pretend to be apolitic when problems occurred …and I think that being apolitic is not really possible right now there so many things going on that you cannot really stay apart from the politics …

Do your scene have a problem with that?

Clément : In France, I don’t think so. A lots of bands are playing gigs and are apolitical.

Coco : The thing is that many people disconnect the politics from the DIY, for me DIY is something politics cause it is a choice against easiness, a way of life apart from what our society suggests. And the problem is that many apolitic hxc/punk used to play with fascist bands cause they just don’t care but that’s another story or a topic I’m not expert in!

You know, in Ukraine some apolitics guys and bands contact with nazis.

Clément : I didn’t know. But those apolitical bands are not playing in punk/hardcore scene in Ukraine right ?

Coco : Like here the same problem!

Pietro : Is the nazi problem only something about politic? I don’t think so. You can play in an apolitic band and be against any kind of fascism/nazism! Everyone learned at school what that kind of people are able to do and how stupid they are…it’s not only politic…it’s just life! When people bit/murder other people because of their homosexuality or their skin’s color it’s not politic, it’s just being against freedom and it sucks! So being apolitic and being against nazis bands or groups is just the normal thing to do!

Your lyrics try to says about problems in the world ans scene.

Clément : Yes, well the lyrics speaks about things that we are aware in our life. So it can be life, world, scene stuff…

Do you support some initiatives, activity out from punk scene?

Coco : Veganism is something important for me and I like to share with friends my vision of the animal exploitation and I try at the same time not to point them out cause this a personal choice, and I don’t want to stand under the banner of a vegan group, this is just my choice and something that had changed my life at a precise moment, helping to pass over a certain situation…then we also have the idea of a food not bombs in Toulon our hometown but we don’t want this to be only our initiative we’de like to make it with much people as possible , for them to realise how important they are and that all together we can change many things so we’re just trying to get some friends into that for the moment!! If not I’m really into the ecological cause and the way we treat our trashes…

Pierre : Ecological cause is my part! But not really involved even if I signed up in the greenpeace group a few mouth ago. But the most important thing is to tell people I know, I work with, that they’re wrong and they have to change the way they act. Communication is so important. And I just do the same with sexism, racism or homophobic behaviours.

About your scene in Toulon and France at all, maybe. Is it strong scene?

Clément : In toulon the scene doesn’t exist. Let’s say there is a lot of alternative bands. Some are good so are very bad. But most of the time people are talking on others people back, so it rapidly turns into « Dallas movie » héhé ! So I’m quite sick of this acting, so I’m not having a lots of contacts with all those people right now. I just try to go at the gigs when I can. And sometimes I see friends, sometimes not. In Toulon you have also another metal/hardcore scene, but we try to avoid those people.

In France, it works by city, some city’s are really strong, a lots of people are helping each others and they can do a lot of activities, gigs etc… Some others city’s are dead, but were quite active before, and some city’s were never active.

Have you unity in your scene?

Clément : I know a lots of people who are helping everyone to do gigs, touring, distro etc… So yes a lots of people are helping the others. But a lot of places are still inactive.

Coco : it is more than unity it is friendship and love !

A lot of politics?

Clément : Politics I think yes. But I think there is bad one and good one….

Coco : Like I said before, for me everything we do is politics, this is something we cannot avoid in our everyday life once we do live in a society…and for me every we try do with the band is in a way against politics and I think it is the same for most of the bands in here too…many people have something against this word (the scene) for me it is okay and it is something you must respect for everything that was made before, thanks to the scene we have many alternative in our way of life…

What about nazis in Toulon and France? Tough guy, violence in the pit, something like “no clit in pit”, macho pogo?

Clément : Well south of France, is the part of France where you have a lot of nazi. Our city was 20 years before one big city aimed by the extreme right wring. Now this time is over. But still some nazi and extreme right wring people are here. Like 2 month ago we played a gig in Nice, and 30 nazi came and we were stuck by them in the venue, and couldn’t go out… This stuff is maybe « normal » or arrives sometimes in russia/ukraine but in France it’s really RARE. So I think we have to be careful now…
Tough guy… Hum I don’t see them in gigs. But I know that there is a lot of them in Marseille, and in Paris. But didn’t saw them in shows where I went. They are some also in Toulon, but I don’t go to those gigs. Macho pogo, you have a lot, cause a lots of kids are coming to gigs, and just make a mess with the place and get drunk.

Coco : Honnestly we don’t have that much nazis in southern france , there are some people that got in jail for being nazis but maybe only one…the problem here is that there are many racists people that is to say many people supporting the idea of the national front party, they are not nazis they don’t say they’re nazis they just praise the national identity and those concerns a huge parts of the citizen of southern France…what they point is immigration from North Africa…and after the election the French government has created a ministry of the national identity which clearly is one idea of the extreme right wing…so not many nazis in souther france but hypocrisy at every corners!
Concerning the male chauvinism, it is not rare to hear people saying that hardcore is the question of the male…and this even from girls sometimes…and also many people pretending to be against macho but what they do in their everyday life is behaving like machos so…

Pierre : You know, the first time coco asked someone to stop his macho pogo when we were playing, everyone looked at him with that “why are you saying that?” in their eyes! Here, everyone concider that macho pogos without any girls in is normal…maybe our latin culture…but we just don’t accept it as we don’t accept sexism.

What are you doing in “life” out from punk\hc?

Clément : I’m the only one still at university, I go to class there and sleeps in class. I also have a part time job, and work in a « ear plugs » shop and it’s quite interesting, more than class. I also run a small label / distro named Désertion records. And I spend most of my time playing guitar and being a nerd.

Coco : I quitted my English studies for the second time cause I have a big problem with education…and right now I’m pretending to be looking for a job, but know that soon I’ll have to get a job … but yeah I have free time to read books, making drawing , creating , sharing a lot with my friend about everything well I’m just living and those last days I’ve decided with the support of Clément to run my own label (patchesvsbuttons.blogspot.com) so this is not really out of punk/hxc !!

Pierre : I’m working for 5 years ago with handicapped people but all my time out of work is for friends and music. I used to play couple of years with a gipsy jazz band but not yet. I actually play in a human beatbox and bass project, which is very fun. That’s all. But I hope we’ll be able to book shows in our town again very fast!

Romain : I’ve just finished my studies, and I’m currently looking for an interesting job… Like Clément I’m a nerd and I spent a lot of time behind my computer (but it’s a part of my work too…). I play drums as much as I can too, I sometimes try to learn guitar and bass. And I always listen music, mostly jazz, indie and hardcore music.

Please tell me something about your band members projects. I know about Eva 01 only.

Clément : I didn’t understand your question ? Cause members of Bökanövsky are not playing in Eva01. Eva01 is a band from north of France, we just know them a bit…

Coco : Clément and I have something in mind but we haven’t practiced yet but we’d like to do something with others friends from Toulon…

Romain : I’m playing in a experimental jazz duo in Toulon, with a friends who plays Stick-Chapman. Last year I was drumming in a Old-School HxC band in Nice, but this band is now in stand-by. We’ll see…

About your friends in scene? Wich bands you watch like friends?

Clément : Well it would be realy long to tell you everyone. But you should get an ear on our friends from Marseille (50km from our town) named The Third Memory. If you don’t know them, you have to, because they are just one of the best band I know at the moment : Daïtro, they are great people and play more than great music. Get an ear also on Lakmé, a band from Czech republic, Vegan straight edge emo punk !

Coco : And also Tesa from Latvia…With Engine Heart from Slovenia then there are people from Passengers and Parasites from Nice and also many people from Italy : Violent Breakfast, Cotidie Mori, Magdalene, Khere, Nagasaki Nightmare…and too many bands from France so that I would not take the risk to forget someone haha!!

About your gigs. what do you wait from gig? The best gig? The worst one? Problems with gigs?

Clément : About gigs, well we are always waiting to see people screaming with us, dancing with us, having the smile, and to see people talking with us. For me the best gig was in Italy near Arezzo, people were crazy, and we had a lot of fun, a lot of our friends were there, it was during our week-end tour with The Third Memory in Italy. We also had a great gig in Ukraine and Poland.
The worst one was in Toulon, more than a year ago… We were playing like shit, and i just got mad…
Problems with gigs… Well at one show some drunk guy was really bad with me, and I think if he didn’t stop we would have fight. After that, this same guy puted all is wine of the p.a board so we didn’t have anymore vocals…
Problems was also in Belgium when we made more than 6 hours drive, didn’t have nay food, nothing to drink, and the promoter didn’t want us to play more than 3 songs…
We also had that problem with nazi in Nice lately…

Pierre : We love to play with our Italian friends (Magdalene, violent breakfast, khere, Nagasaki nightmare) because they’re so crazy! The bests shows during the tour were in Ukraine and Poland : so warm, so crazy, a lot of fun and souvenirs!

Romain : Same for me, best souvenir was in Italy, Ukrainia and Poland. Worst souvenir was in Marseille ahahah !

About your European tour. Just tell your feelings after that.

Clément : The european tour, was our fist real tour. For me it was just really really amazing. Cause I spended more than 6 month to book every show. And going on tour with your band is like a dream for everyone. And it was true… !
But we had a lot of road to do, and we were really tired and stressed. But for me it’s one of the best moment in my life. I hope the next tour will be even better or as good as this one, and that we will be less tired and enjoy more.

Pierre : Friends, fun, road, exhausted times, exiting times, a wonderful travel, lot of good shows and good bands, this new friendship with Lakmé…

Romain : It was amazing, and no words can describe it ! Thanks so much to all our friends, and to Clément for all his work !

About your records, plans?

Clément : Our split with Tesa will be released soon now. Almost 2 years after we recorded the songs : )
We will record some songs for a split with Lakmé, and some others splits projects. And after that we would like to make a real full length. We will also try to tour Scandinavia this summer, but I don’t know if it will be possible, I hope !

Please tell something about Ukraine, scene, “Love kisses and hugs” ))

Clément : I realy wish to come back to Ukraine, the landscapes were amazing, and I would like to have more time to spend with Ukraine people and make the tourist in the city’s. My dream is to go the black sea one day. It’s like amazing for me !
Well i don’t know Ukraine scene at all… But i would be interested to know old and new bands.

Coco : Oh we can tell about the flue flue banana, about pocahontas and plus belle la vie , about pierre driving like shit in ukraine, about me being the best driver ever haha, about meeting Dyma and his friend in the streets of L’viv while looking for the venue!! About the venue that was something amazing and incredible with so many people so warmly welcoming, I did not know what to expect !!! About two kids asking the audience to act friendly while band playing…I really would like to come back and have more time to meet people and visit and learning about the Ukraine way of life!

Pierre : Simply the best show ever for us, so many souvenirs, crazy roads and too much but to young beautiful girls! We spend just 24 hours in Ukraine but it was so different from here that it seems to be a full week! Thanks to the bands we played with and to all the people who helped us to play, Dyma and of course YOU!!!

Romain : Ukrainian vodka kills me.