OBSCENE EXTREME – 2011/2012
- Posted on 27-01-2012
New year, new festival, but first, some thoughts around the 2011 edition of Obscene Extreme.
Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us Curby. How did OEF 2011 go?
To be honest, it was the greatest volume ever…all bands played as promised, we had a great pre-show with Freak fest for the first time and also the weather was really a beautiful summer one. So a perfect year for all of us I guess.
Once again you managed to keep the festival in a nice and friendly atmosphere, why do you think this is? Knowing that other festivals have experienced some unnecessary violence and stupidity, OEF seems to be free of this, any thoughts on the matter?
It’s all about fans, about people…all of us have to wait the whole long year for OEF so then everyone is just happy to be there and enjoy every single second of our festival. I believe we can keep this atmosphere every year…we don’t have millions of security guys and stupid rules that you have to follow…we just want to enjoy that weekend in peace with friends from all around the world that enjoy the same thing, extreme music…actually it’s very unique that people from crust/punk, gore, grind, to metal heads can respect each other there as you can see on many forums it’s very aggressive and surely stupid…I mean that fight among styles and so on…it makes no sense at all…we hope that we can help to have once a good scene with people that think about their life more than once…simply smart and proud fans.
There were some heavy hitters in the band roster this year, any personal top 5 gigs this year for you?
Yeah, I had so much fun this year!!! It was great I have seen lots of bands and it’s not that natural…I really enjoyed BENEDICTION, BRUJERIA (what a great happening at the end of their show!), ROTTEN SOUND, VARUKERS, LOCK UP, DROPDEAD…you see it’s six now hahaha…also MINCING FURY were great and full of energy, even at the end of the whole fest, or the first band of the whole event BUT!!!
You expanded this year and included some more freakish activities in the total package, have you gotten any comments on this?
Not much really, but atmosphere at the Freak fest was simply awesome!!! It was a super funny and cool evening, check our gallery, we had some really wicked and a little bit obscene games hahaha…the fans were not shy but they really followed our motto To Be Freak Is Not Ok, To Be Freak Is Super!!!
Next year OEF have already announced some big names, how early do you begin booking bands for the upcoming year?
Well, one festival ends, another one just begins…and it’s more and more difficult to do good festival as almost every festival wants some exclusivity for territory or for some kind of special show…so it’s more work than ever to grab money for bands as they want to get more every year and actually the budget for the whole festival is bigger and bigger every year…but on the other hand still lots of fun in it as for example this year grind bands from Saudi Arabia and Tunisia contacted me and I’m really happy that grindcore is there as well…
Are you getting any response, good or bad, from the local community when you bring so many "strange" people to a small town like this?
Some good, some bad of course…but in general people from Trutnov like OEF and their fans as they are very open minded and friendly to natives…and that’s the best for fest and for everyone…it means a lot to me when fans represent our fest/community in a positive way! I remember when I visited Trutnov city info point last time and I gave them a few OEF posters and flyers a dude from that info point told me "Yeah, it’s a cool fest with cool people, they got me free beers last time" hahaha…we also don’t have any problem with city government and so on…sometimes some of us leave garbage on street and on parking place which is a little bit rude, so people if you listen to me, please take good care about our reputation in Trutnov and keep this nice city tidy!!!
The mix of grind, death metal and crust brings a lot of different people together, knowing what has happened with other festivals (extremefest), will you stay true to the choice of music, or will you engage in a musical expansion also?
I really like what we do all the time…it’s simply my music, I love it since ages…I’m involved in this scene since beginning so I’ll follow it till end…I’m just fan like everyone else and I want to support my music…I believe we could sell more tickets with black metal bands and trendy bands but it’s not our interest. I simply follow my favourite music and I believe people will like what I choose every year for them…
The festival has both a preparty and an afterparty, are you also involved in this? If so… tell us a bit about this? if not… sod it:)
Well, afterparty is kind of a "super cool" idea I had few years ago hahaha…I was like, come on let’s continue that madness and add one more day, something different, that’s why club show…I do that afterparty with a huge help from Oef crew as I’m really tired on Sundays after festival. You know it’s just do you think you had enough? No way, let’s do the last party and it’s kind of smaller club show with good atmosphere and just really die-hard OEF fans go there and enjoy it…it’s very relaxed after so many great shows at OEF and it’s more about meeting friends for the last time that year…so also some bands that stay that night in Prague just go there and drink some beers…for example BRUJERIA this year…
You also engage personally in Obscene Productions, feel free to tell the readers about this as well.
Well, I have been running Obscene productions for 17 years and I had a mailorder also a few years before…it’s something I really like, another tool how to support and help good bands…it’s pretty hard these days but I still keep grinding. Right now I released our OBP 099 record – it’s live CD from Czech thrash legend DEBUSTROL – Vyznani Smrti Live! So our next one is 100! I don’t have much plans what to release in future but if I find some good band I will go for it…
Do you know from which country most of the non Czech audience comes?
Uffff..what I question…not 100% sure, but I think Germany or Poland as they’re really close to the Czech republic…but above all we have supporters from all over the world!
Give our readers 3 top reasons to travel to OEF in 2012.
You want something absolutely different? You want your life’s experience? You want to meet people that like music like you from all around the world? Then you don’t need to think anymore, go to OEF and have fun!!!
and finally two questions that are unavoidable:
What is Curbys favorite band of all times?
Very hard question!!! Probably NAPALM DEATH as I still remember when I heard their "Scum" for the very first time…I’m writing now about it and I still have goose bumps, it completely changed my life…I was like : Fuck! That’s the music I was waiting for!!! It’s still great band, with cool lyrics and ideas and they’re active all the long years so they have my huge respect!!! Also CARCASS is my very favourite band, BOLT THROWER, EXTREME NOISE TERROR…and from "younger" bands surely NASUM and ROTTEN SOUND!!! And I can’t forget ABBA!!!
Can I play there in 2012 with Grotesque Hysterectomy…?? The bands third album is being recorded as we speak:) ((my first album with these guys))
https://www.facebook.com/pages/GROTESQUE-HYSTERECTOMY/132832273459676
www.myspace.com/grotesquehysterectomy
Pretty sick death metal dude!!! Unfortunately I have booked lots of death metal bands already so need some crust/grind now! Anyway will try for next year!