Said and Done interview

With the release of the 'Endless Roads' ep Said and Done have truly found their own style. No wonder the record is well received worldwide. The band just came back from a tour in Southern Europe and vocalist Pim recently finished his own fanzine. Reasons enough to shed some more light on these youngsters from Brabant.
'Endless Road' has received lots of good reviews. People compare you to Underdog or say you're the band putting European Hardcore on the map, did you ever expect that to happen?

Ofcourse we didn't expect that! Man! We're just some kids from a small town in the Netherlands. When our drummer and I started jamming together back in '99 we never expected something like this to happen. At the very best we would play some shows in the local venue without people walking away.

These days we are getting compared to such great bands, I almost feel ashamed. It's unreal. Not only Underdog, but also the Cro Mags and Leeway were mentioned a lot. It's so strange, I mean those bands are nothing but amazing. I listen to those records all the time.

As for saying Said And Done are putting European hardcore on the map... It's a great compliment, but it's untrue. We're just doing our own thing. It's bands like No Turning Back that are putting European hardcore on the map. They're out there all the time, giving it all, making sure everybody knows exactly what's going down in Europe. Or the lovely Brabant area to be exact. Anyway, let there be no mistake though, we're really flattered with all the positive feedback we're getting. It's great to hear people talk about our band like that. It keeps amazing us. Don't think that will ever change.

Critics who have seen your shows do say the band live is not the same as on recordings. Personally I think you all come over a bit to nice in person to be so angry on stage. Is that something you have worked on as a band, or doesn't it bother you as much?
Critics, schmitics. I don't know man. I personally think we're just as "angry" on record as on stage, or as "nice". I don't care that much to be honest. To us it's not about being as angry as possible. It's an outlet, not an act. We're not puppets on a string putting up a show. We're just doing our thing. We always give our best, no matter how many people there are. I will be the first one to say that shows were people are moshing or singing along or whatever are more fun though. It creates a good atmosphere, energy flowing back and forth. You know how it is, you've been on that stage yourself.

'Endless Roads' was recorded in De Studio with Dirk Miers, previous record Everyday was recorded at 195 with Patrick Delabie. Why the change of studio and producer? What is the main difference between Miers and Delabie?

Well the sound of Studio 195 fitted the stuff on "Everyday" great if you ask me. And we always had a blast working with Patrick but we just wanted to try something new. We wanted a bigger, heavier sound for the new songs. We absolutely LOVED working with Patrick Delabie at Studio 195 though. He is a great guy. I would love to record something with him again someday.


As for the differences between Dirk and Patrick. To me it felt like Patrick was more focused, more into the project he's doing at the time. Dirk did a great job, but was gone to do some other stuff now and then and let his assistant do the rest. Not that that wasn't okay or something, it all worked out right, but it felt differently. I don't know, I'm really satisfied with both recordings. Soundwise I'm going with Endless Roads, producer wise I would pick Patrick.

Anyway, we wanted to try something new and so we did. We're really pleased with the result, the sound we ended up with fits the new songs perfectly. Ofcourse there's always room for improvements but it was good to change settings for once. I don't know if we'll record at De Studio again next time, or go back to Studio 195 or maybe try something new all together. We'll see. Only time will tell.

Going back in history, Said and Done in the same line-up started out as Stab Back, very soon after releasing the Stab Back record you guys changed the name and the sound of the band. How did that decision come about and wouldn't it have been better not to release the Stab Back material but wait six months and only have the Said and Done songs out?
No, I don't think so. It was just all part of a natural progression. The Stab Back MCD was from 2005. Before that we did release two demos. We did pit out "Everyday" with Said And Done in 2007. That's a bit longer than 6 months. Anyway, I never thought of it like that. It wasn't a "sudden" change or something for us either. At the end of the "Stab Back era" (to give it a name) we already had songs that would later become Said And Done songs. "Wake Up" from the "Everyday" album was written right after (or maybe even before) we recorded "Breaking Out" with Stab Back. It was just the fact that all new songs were starting to sound like that and I no longer felt like abusing my voice like in Stab Back. Aside from that we got to hate the bandname, people were taking it the wrong way. Not like we intended it. But then again, maybe it was a bit naive from us to pick that as a bandname. Anyway, all in all that made us change the bandname, to make it feel more like a fresh start. I think we did right, we can't complain you know.

You all originate from small villages in Brabant. How did you come in contact with hardcore? The band also started out because of a lack of better things to do? Have some of the bandmembers ever considered moving out of Brabant?

First thing first: Moving out? Whaat? No dude! Never haha. To be honest, I have no idea. We never talked about any of us moving out or something. We all have our lives here. We've got all we need right here. For now, we're bound to Brabant. Anything can happen though, we'll see.
As for how it started it out? I think it all started with Nirvana man. I got in touch with that band through someone who was helping building our house, he had a Nirvana tape of a liveshow. It took me some time to get into it (I was used to crappy top 40 house like "the lalala song") but when it did hit me, it did hit me hard. It made me want to pick up a guitar myself, write my own songs. So that's what I did. Joost (our drummer) was the son of my parents friends and when they got together one day we just started to jam (aside from my guitar stuff I also picked up a second hand drumkit (from the same guy that got me in touch with Nirvana)) and we liked it that much that we never stopped jamming. Skip forward a year or maybe two and that's where I ran into Erik (Gio, who was the guitarplayer of No Turning Back at that time), he asked me to come to their show the day after. And that's what I did. I loved it, the energy, the DIY aspect, no boundaries between the band and the crowd. Everything. It was great. I was hooked. Still am. It was never about "a lack of better things to do" though.

You just came back from the second tour in Southern Europe. Do you see the difference between the first tour, like more people knowing the songs or attending shows? And is there a difference between shows in Spain and in The Netherlands?

We had a blast! And yes, there was a difference, more people knew our songs this time. In France people even knew the newest songs. They were singing along to almost all the songs. Really cool. Hooray for downloads I guess ;) I really loved the first time we went over to Spain because it was all new, but this trip was a lot better show-wise.


As for differences between countries, yeah there are I guess. I think we play our best shows outside of the Netherlands. I don't know why. People are more into having a good time in Spain instead of the "we're here to judge you"-crowd in the Netherlands (I'm guilty to the exactly the same thing myself) probably. You know the "arms-crossed, watching the band" kind. In Spain and France people were tearing the place down. But then again I don't know if I'm capable to judge that on a couple of shows. Maybe we just played the right shows over there. I don't know if that's the case at every show, there are always differences between shows. You have good and bad ones.

You're also the main man behind Pressure Release Records. How did that come about? Don't you think tapes belong to the past and are there any new releases scheduled?
Aah that was just Rob and me talking on MSN some night. You know, the usual talk, about how much we both love the Cro Mags and stuff like that. Some months before that conversation I mentioned to him that I wanted to do a small label or something. He was doing Light The Fuse Fest at the time and I think he was still involved with Light The Fuse Records as well. Anyway, he wanted to release the Tenement Kids demotape with Light The Fuse, but the rest of the guys of the label didn't want to do a tape. He just said to me "Isn't that a good band to start your label with?". The rest is history, I loved the idea as much as I loved that Tenement Kids demotape.

As for tapes belonging to the past? Is that a serious question? I mean a lot of stuff in hardcore could be labeled as "a thing of the past". I don't know. I love tapes. I love vinyl. I don't think it's a thing of the past. You're putting out a demotape with State Of Affairs yourself as well man ;)

As for any new releases coming up. At the moment none whatsoever. We had a pretty cool idea that fell through, maybe that's going to happen sometime later when we all have more time, but I don't know. We still have the We Are Idols from Poland and Maaswater Veenlijk from the Netherlands demotapes for sale. Both really cool demos if you ask me. Not your typical hardcore or something, but that never was our intention. We'll see, maybe in time we can do some cool new stuff. Bands can always contact us ofcourse, if we're totally blown away by a demo I can promise you we'll put it out for sure.

The Endless Roads vinyl version came with a free download. The first record on Shield to be released like this. Was this an idea from the band? Do you think this will be the future of (hardcore) music?


Yeah that was an idea of mine. You see labels doing this everywhere now. I think 1917 Records was the first hardcore label I saw doing it. Deathwish jumped aboard pretty fast and now pretty much all labels are doing it or have atleast plans in that direction. I contacted Gert-Jan of the label about it and he liked the idea, I think all his new releases will get the same treatment (if the bands agree) but I'm not sure.

If it's the future? Yes I think so. I mean, our 7" was put on a blog the day after it got released, so you're not going to stop downloading anyway. So why fight against it? Just give it to em, the more promotion the better. People that picked up your 7" will still do it, people that didn't but downloaded it will still do that. And maybe some people will pick up the 7" or MCD when they hear the MP3. The best thing though is that people know the words to the songs, making live shows a lot cooler.

Can you tell me a bit about your fanzine. What can readers expect, why did you make it? How long have you worked on it. Were there any setbacks and can we expect a second issue?
I'm so glad I finally did it. I had plans for one for a long time. I even started working on one called "Glory Days" some years ago. But I never managed to finish it, I just didn't know how or didn't had the time, you know how it works. But it's done now, it's out there. The feedback it's receiving is really great. It makes me wanting to do another issue. I'm not sure yet, but I guess there will be another one. If not I'll probably do an online blog or keep doing interviews for asice.net or something. We'll see.

As for the content, it features more personal, in-depth, longer interviews than you usual read in zines I think. At least that's what I tried to do. Inspired by the almighty Anti-Matter zines. I was missing those kind of interviews from other zines. I love reading those zines don't get me wrong, but reading the same questions over and over again about the new record gets a bit boring. The people behind those bands have way more interesting stories to tell (well... most of the time).
I worked on it for a couple of months. From the beginning of 2008 till the day before we left for Europe with Said And Done when I picked up the zines from the printer. That's like half a year I guess. There were no real big setbacks aside from re-doing some layouts a couple of times because I wanted the font to be bigger and the actual printing was giving me a bit of an headache. Oh and ending up with a price of 4,50 was more or less a setback too. I'm not making any money on it, but I thought that was a bit much. I originally wanted to include some label ads for free, but with that selling price I decided to contact labels for some money. I hated to do that but luckily enough the kind people of Shield Recordings, Reaper Records, Dead And Gone Records and Reflections Records kindly agreed. Now I can sell the zine for 3,50. So kudos to them! For the next issue I'll look into that stuff a bit better or just print some more zines. We'll see.

When is Said and Done going to conquer the rest of Europe and the USA?

You tell me! We did a couple of trips through Europe now, probably more to follow. But we're all working or in school so we can't leave whenever we feel like, we have to use our free days wisely. Anyway we talked to some people about an USA trip and hopefully we can put that into magic next year as well. Would be great. Maybe some small trips again. I would love to go back to the UK and France as well.
As for now we're writing new songs (got a couple ready to go) and learning Henri (from Maaswater Veenlijk fame), our new drummer for half a year, all our songs. Yeah, that's right. Joost, our drummer, the dude who I jammed with for years is leaving us for half a year to check out Taiwan, to learn. We're all going to miss him for sure. The good thing is, Henri is a really cool dude and things will work out for sure. He was with us on our trip to Europe (not drumming yet) and he blended right in. The two rehearsals we had so far went great. We'll use the summer to learn him all the stuff so we can blast ahead full speed again after the summer.

Anyway, I guess that's all there is to tell at the moment, thanks a lot for giving us the chance to speak out man. Good luck with your blog Rold!

Myspace:Said and Done
Label: Shield Recordings