// Jan Frederickx (Agathocles)
// Jan Frederickx (Agathocles)
We all know Agathocles, and i’m sure we also all read few interviews with them already. That’s because, maybe, just maybe, they have a lot to say? Well, at least Jan (AG) has got a lot to say. Here’s the log.
Greetingz belly boy, how’s life overthere?
Cheers Thomas, how are you. Ha, really great to be doing this interview for you. Thanx for your interest. All is going well over here. Last week, the AG/LES BAUDOUINS MORTS split EP was released and we are all happy with this release. Other things are that I have been pretty busy with doing mail and getting some other releases planned. So all is going well, really well. Thanx for asking.
I’m not going to ask to introduce yourself, every living creature on this planet must at least ever heard of agathocles, and i’m sure you’re pretty bored out of that question by now. So, what did you do today in this nice weather?
You are right, the wheather is nice today. I have taken a day off from work and have started doing mail. There’s so much mail around here in my room which I still have to take care off. Hm, this afternoon, I think I will be taking a swim because it’s so good wheather. And after that, I will do some more mail. And tmorrow, back to daily work for my job…Introducing AG, if people have internet, they could check out www.agathocles.com, there’s some biography on this site of AG.
A few months i was really amazed to hear that Burt stopped drumming with you guys. I mean, he’s in the band for as long as ik now AGx. Anyway, why did he leave and are there any hard feelings about that matter between the two of you?
The political and ideological views of Burt on one side, and mine and Dirks on the other side, did not match anymore. Also Burt seemed to get a totally different view on music and DIY-ethics, so it was best to part. No hard feelings, but totally different feelings and lifestyle and ideology.
Who’s the new drummer? His face really looks familiar to me, so i presume he also play(ed) in other bands before AGx?
Hahaha, really Thomas ? Does the face of our new drummer Roel look familiar to you ? Yes, he has played in some other bands before, but I don’t really think you know these bands. He used to have a little projectband with Dirk, our guitarplayer, but that was just for one gig, I believe (I am not sure). Our new drummer is called ROEL, he is about 22 years old, great responsible guy, killer drummer, he has the heart on the right place and sees things in a « red » way, if you know what I mean, hahaha. Roel has fit in the band very well, right from the first time when he got in the band (in August 2002, that was). Roel and Dirk used to live at the same student-home in GEEL where they were both studying. Roel is now working as a socio-cultural worker,just like me. Great guy ! You have to meet him.
I can’t ignore it, you’re a big example in my life. Not as an idol or anything. But your way of writing and the subjects you’re dealing with in lyrics, really were a guide to find my own way. Is that a reason to write those lyrics? What do you try to achieve with them? Do you think it’s a good cause that people can relate to what you say?
Thanx for your nice and motivating words, Thomas. That’s one of the best things to hear and to keep me motivated. Cheers to you. Yes, ofcourse I am really honoured and proud that our lyrics and ideology have been some kind of a guide for you to find what you were looking for. What more do we want to achieve with our lyrics ? Our lyrics are very important for us and with these lyrics, we wanna open up some horzions, we want people to know about a lot of other things going on in the world instead of the big media things. It seems that more and more our lyrics are based upon Belgian politics and Belgian events. Surely now that we have those liberal bastards again in the governement. Why do I say liberal bastards ? Because they are only there to put more money into the pockets of the rich fucks who don’t need it. Tax-reduction is what they say, but what the fuck, for who ? I don’t feel anything in my pocket and the people who don’t have anything surely don’t feel it because they don’t have to pay taxes.Yeah, speaking of a hidden agenda. Still stupid Belgium seems to want these blue bastards in the governement.
The war in Iraq, everybody has an own well-thought opinion about it i think, but what really amazes me is the contradiction between Iraq and Liechtenstein. While the US is bombing Iraq to end dictatorship and set democracy back, the inhabitants of Liechtenstein approve a law to end democracy and give more power to the ruling class. Do you understand this? Now, will the US start bombing them too?
There’s no oil to be found in LIECHTENSTEIN.so the USA and the capitalist league don’t give a fuck. But I don’t think you can compare LIECHTENSTEIN to IRAQ. It’s a totally different matter. But take a look at ex-Yugoslavia in the 1990’s, how long did it take for the UN and the USA to get there to « so-called » liberate the poor oppressed people ? They did not want to get involved because there was nothing to be found which could enrich their greedy hands. Besides, liberating the poor oppressed people is a big lie, it’s only to ensure the economical valuable means which can be found there like oil,… CIA has always been supporting extreme-right dictators in Latin- and South-American countries, so why should we believe their lies about liberating people from a dictator ? If there’s one country which would need to have a communist revolution it would be the USA.
At some parties you see a girl kiss someone else then her boyfriend, she gets all sorts of names thrown at her. When a boy does this with 5 girls, he’s the hero of the night. What do you think of this kind of behaviour?
It’s a narrow-minded attitude if you behave like this. It’s just so typical in this macho-society where women must do this but can’t do that, and men can do this or that when they want to. A typical patriarchal way of acting which we don’t need. The example you just mentioned is just a small, quite harmeless one, but what do you think about women which don’t get supervising jobs in big companies just because they are female ? Fucking discrimination. And if you know the thoughts of our beloved (hahaha) Vlaams Blok-party on this matter, you know the future for women is not that free and bright at all.
What do you think is the motivation of so many people to ‘believe’ in a god (or more gods)? How is it possible that so many people blindly follow the ones that set these restrictions and laws of religion?
State and religion go hand in hand. They need eachother. On one side, religion promises better times after death so people forget the bad situation in their daily life. A good thing for the state because the state doesn’t have to take care off active minds which want to create change. On the other hand, the state gives organized religions money to expand their religious organisation in Belgium it is like this. So what we have here is a nice example of the old bread-and-games tactic of the olf Romans.Made to keep the people silent. Liberation from state and religion is the only way to achieve full-awareness and to create change to make it possible that a lot more people could live a decent life.
I have this idea that you’re not in big favor of cencorship. But do you think it’s good to cencor certain things, and if so, would you mind giving some examples?
Good question… I don’t agree with the censorship going on in many ways but on the other hand, I do think that some kind of propaganda should be boycotted and shouldn’t have the chance to be read by people. With this I mean that a lot of incorrect information is being spread as « the truth » and many people believe it. Ofcourse every kind of information is coloured, is subjective and comes from a certain kind of direction. But things like negotianist propaganda, homophobic litarature,…these things are just based upon lies, upon hatred, so I do think these things should be « censorred » in one way or another. But still Thomas, a difficult matter to which it is difficult to say just YES or NO. It depends on the content of the issue, I think.
Is there a difference between violence in public, during war and during gigs? What do you think of those ‘violent moshing’ dudes at some gigs?
Violent moshing to hurt people should be banned at gigs. Ofcourse it’s fun to have a slam-dance going on, but people should take up their responsibily and take care of eachothers. And I know this is possible. Yes, I do think there’s a difference between violence at gigs and during wartime… During wartime, people are sent to war to fight the wars for politcians who causes it. At gigs, people who are looking for fights and start fights are responsible themselves for the violence. Fuck macho-cocks who are looking for a fight during gigs. We surely will not miss these arseholes.
I remember a story when some nazi’s entered to building where you were playing. What happened that day?
Ha yeah, this happened some years ago. Well, some nazi-pricks were rasing their arms, shouting sieg hail and shouting at us that we were leftist rats (they were right about this, hahaha). We friendly asked to stop their bullshit, but they didn’t. So fights broke out and they got kicked out. Outside the club, these fuckheads started damaging cars and all that so the organizer called the cops. And yeah, the pigs in blue came. And guess what, after telling them the story the cops told us that we had provocated these nazis and that it was our own fault.hahaha, can you believe that? ..speaking about fascist cops don’t give a fuck…
About 20 – 30 years ago most punk / grind bands were all socially / politically aware – but later on it all became more divers, first of all the big boom, tons of different styles (which i think is a very good thing) but also the message changed into facism, intollerance, sexism, homophobia, porn, … what do you think made the idea / message change?
This kind of extreme music has become more popular during the 90’s and is still getting popular with big labels releasing this kind of music, these bands coming on TV, playing on big festivals and all that. I think the more people involved in this kind of music, the more different ideas/ideologies get involved. And yeah, sad but true, intollerance, homophobia,…set foot on this kind of music. Grind/mince finds its roots in the extreme 80’s metal and extreme 80’s punk with a socially and politically aware ideology. But like all kinds of music, things change when it becomes bigger. Just look at the OI-movement. OI used to be (leftist) working class punk, but look around and see all these nazi-OI bands. But still, the struggle for social equality continues through some grind/mince bands.
What does ‘mince core’ mean for you personally? Did AGx invent this name and what is it’s origin? Why Mince Core?
Yeah, we thought of this name back in the 80’s. Why ? Well, because we wanted that people know AG as a socially and politcally aware grind-band. For us, MINCE means socially and politically aware GRIND. We took this MINCE name because around 1988, the first gore-grind bands like CARCASS released records and we did not want that people saw AG as a gore-grind band or something. TO MINCE means « to cut up », it’s a synonime for TO GRIND.
I’m not going to ask how old you are, but do you still remember your childhood? How was that? Where you active in the UG-movement back then? What are the very first records you ever heard?
My childhood…I guess I have had a real good childhood. I stayed a lot at my grandparents place because my parents were working. And at my grandparents place, there was also an uncle living. He collected vinyl and when I was 7 years old, I think, he gave me some BLACK SABBATH and LUCIFERS FRIEND records because he did not like it, hahaha. I guess these were my first records. Around the age of 11-12 years old, I started to write to bands, first only Belgian and Dutch bands because I could not write English, and later to bands from all over the world. Around that time, I also started my first zine. Ha, guess what, it was called « SATAN-zine ». Later this zine became MAYHEM MASSACRE-zine, which ended in 1987. I really liked doing the zine, but could not continue because of all the work for AG.
Were there lots of changings during the years? Personally and in general.
Changes?.You mean in my life ? Well, the older I got, the more interested I got in politics and social items. The lyrics became more and more critical about social and political matters, more leftist/anarchist/syndicalist. That’s why I also went to study social work, which makes me now a social-worker, hahaha. My views on music and DIY-ethics have never changed. In contrary, I can say that they have become more radical. Why more radical ? Because it’s still the same old fucking show…People start to conform without any reason when they get older. This isn’t the way, I think. At least, not for me.
You certainly know what you’re talking about – why do you think so many people just follow the easiest way and choose for facism and intollerance? Don’t you think it’s a vicious circle for them to support some political parties?
I think there are a lot of reasons why people support extreme right, become intollerant and so on. Many people become like this because they hear this and they hear that…Rumours and populist talkings by extreme right movements make people insecure, and that’s why people go for extreme right. It’s an irrational feeling of insecurity and the extreme right parties are taking advantage of this. On the other hand, you have those really hard-to-the bone fascists who totally believe what they stand for…and there’s only one solution for them. Gather them and bomb the fucking bastards. Am I sounding rude ? This is just what they have done in the past and still are doing in some parts of the world. AN EYE FOR EYE, when you are dealing with these pieces of shit.
Labeling people is a prove of narrow-mindness…is that true? Why do people call themselves vegetarian or vegan? I think lots of people stop eating meat without even knowing why. Is the reason important to you?
I have my own reasons to stop eating meat, and yeah, I do think that the reasons why you are doing it are important. People can do it because it’s a fashion, which will only lead to an elite-attitude of vegetarianism or veganism, a hollow lifestyle. But what the fuck…About labels, mankind needs labels to make their lifes more easy. When you use labels, you can put more structure in your perception of other people. It is less confusing this way. But constantly labelling people without looking what a person is really alike is ofcourse fucking bullshit. A label is about ONE charachteristic of some person, and as we all know, the personality of someone consists out of many different things. Lets keep that in mind before labeling someone of a group of people.
ALF uses violence to give power to their message. Would you ever get agressive to make your point? What do you think of ALF and all the actions organised for their benefit?
I agree with the aims of ALF. Direct action is one way, like many other ways. I really admire the people involved in ALF actions. OK, I don’t agree with all their actions, but their goals are really worthy. Yeah, I do think that violence is sometimes needed. But it depends on the situation and to be honest, I really can’t think of any good example right now.
I wasn’t really sure it was you when i first emailed you. Years ago i could only contact you by normal mail. When and why did you decide to use the computer and internet for contact and communication?
I still don’t have internet and email at my own place. But I saw that a lot of friends of mine had email and also at my work, we started to use email so I decided to make a hotmail-address. I do see the advantages of having an email address, for example if you need some papers for the customs very fast, but I still prefer snail-mail. I guess I am an old fashioned person but snail-mail is something special, I think. All emails look the same, letters don’t. But hey, I really do see the positive of emailing as well.
On the AGx / Abstain split you had 4 songs of ‘computer-hate’ (Artificial Intelligence – Warmachines rolling on – Society of Steel – Computerphobia). Is your opinion on computers changed over this period of time? (recorded in 1997)
I still see the dangers of computer-mania. How far will it go when we give more « jobs » to computers ? Will the time come when computers will have to take responsibilities ? The computer-branche has created a lot of jobs for people, but on the other hand, computers have taken away many jobs which were first done by human beings. Another thing I am really scared of is this e-goverment-thing. With the cross-bank-computer-network here in Belgium, big brother is watching us more and more, invading into our private lifes. Another thing is that governement and banks are encouraging (and I guess later « forcing ») people to do their paperwork on computer using email and all that. Why ? For many people like older people, people who are not that familiar with computers, it’s a hell of a job to do this. Doing paperwork like taxes, insurance, is already a hell of a job when it’s being done the old way. Governement and banks and others are making the bureaucracy even more un-accessable for people. These are just a few of my concerns among many others.
I’m afraid this is it for now, if you have more to add, feel free to do so. New releases coming up? Thanx for the interview and take care!!!!
Cheers Thomas, thanx a lot for doing this interview with me and for showing interest in AG for all these years. Cheers for the nice, thought-provoking questions. Good luck with all your activities in the future. Keep up the good work. About new AG-releases, we have just released AG/LES BAUDOUINS MORTS split EP, AG/GODSTOMPER split EP and AG « Keep mincing » single EP (not the double EP with the same name). Some new AG stuff that can be expected soon : AG/MAD THRASHERS split EP, AG/ROT IN PIECES split EP, AG/UNHOLY GRAVE split CD, AG « Razor sharp daggers » LP (yes, finally the vinyl-version) and AG/CHIMAERA split EP. We will also be playing on some festivals abroad and in Belgium this summer. If people wanna check out our website, then go to www.agathocles.com . If you wanna contact me, write to JAN AG, ASBERG 8, 2400 MOL, BELGIUM or you can email our drummer ROEL at roel_agathocles@hotmail.com. MINCE CORE FOR PASSION, NOT FOR FASHION.
Interview conducted for FishcomCollective, somewhere in 2003. Read all about Agathocles on their website at agathocles.com