interview with R.C.Sullivan

R. C. Sullivan are a punk rock band with hardcore influences from Groningen and Leeuwarden, or to put it simply: the northern part of the Netherlands. Recently, they released their next EP called Masquerade. Their way of releasing songs is set in the form of singles or short-track carriers. This EP was released in cooperation with several publishers, and I thank not only the band, but also Engineer records.
Alan - I Welcome the land of tulips.
Edo – Don't forget cheese and windmills. And clogs. We prefer the land of Plzeň.

Alan – You formed in 2012? Why have you gone down the path of releasing singles and EPs?
Edo – There's a number of reasons for that, all equally bad. The band has evolved over the years. We had some changes in our line up in our early years (singer, drummer, bass player), and with those changes came a shift in genre, moving from hardcore more to the punkrock side. Impatience, short term planning, instant gratification, to name some more. But we've always wanted to release our latest and greatest. Since we're all working family men maybe we haven't been the most productive. I guess it would take us the better part of two years to write and record a full length. And nowadays with streaming services you can see what people are listening to. Most listeners listen one or two songs and they move on. Singles seems to be a good choice with modern day attention spans. But that's all to say we've been too lazy thus far to put out a full length. Honestly though, if you'd still believe it, we're working on that right now.

Alan – About your work. So where exactly would you place it? A combination of styles?
Edo – Hard so say these things about yourself, but surely we find ourselves in the line of the great musicians: the Rolling Stones of Jimmy Hendrix. No, to be honest we like to think we combine the best of the (skate)punk and hardcore era's of the nineties (to the best of our ability). Bands like 88 Fingers Louie and As friends Rust are great examples of bands that influenced and continue to inspire us. We try to stand out a bit musically en lyrically. So we have a lot of variation and small details in the songs. Don't preach to the choir, but leave some room for interpretation.

Alan – A 4-track CD called Masquerade was released this year. Multiple labels were involved in the release. Was that the intention? Or did you negotiate with them yourself? Or did the labels connect with each other? What about Engineer records – David?
Edo - We did talk to the labels ourselves. DIY until we die! We figured we recorded some really cool songs and any help getting them out there would be appreciated. We were really happy to find three labels to help us out, so thanks to David (Engineer Records (UK)), Gert Jan (The Shield (NL)) and Christian (Dr. Skap Records (DE)) we were able to release our EP. These guys make the scene happen and keep the bands and music alive. So check them out. There's lots of other cool bands and releases on their labels!

Alan – As I wrote, there are 4 tracks on the CD. Can you give us a brief overview of what it's all about? And the musical side, if possible.
Edo - I would say it's pretty clear that this EP is about life not being all that great sometimes. Our lyrics, all written by our singer, usually focus inward. They're about the person in its environment. A lot of bands bands are pretty vocal about for instance politics or the state of the world. We like to focus more on how that world affects the individual. Modern society gives us a lot of virtues, like individual freedom. The downside is you have to deal with a lot of shit on your own. We'd like to leave some room to interpretation to the listeners, but fair to say that current times, dark as they are, have their reflection on the subject in our lyrics. Deep stuff huh. Musically we like to do write songs that we find to be interesting even when you listen to them ten times. A lot of small details that matter and make the songs stand out. On this E.P. We made the structures simple and more, for lack of a better word, catchy. Definitely more catchy than earlier work. The songs are more recognizable, but still stand out as their own. Of course the main ingredients are fast beats, melodic guitars and a small dirty note very now and then.

Alan – How is playing in the Netherlands? And have you been outside The Netherlands (Holland) before?
Edo - The Netherlands has lots of cool places and bands to play shows with. It has taken some time, but it looks like a younger generation is standing up at the moment. Young people are into live (and loud) guitar music again. Wich is great, because us 40 something punk-rockers aren't going to be around forever. But you can definitely notice that people come out to small bars and clubs again to see bands play. On the other hand, during and after the whole pandemic, a lot of venues closed their doors for good. Governments that pictures pretty much all culture as 'just leftist hobbies', while cutting budgets of any subsidy to help keep open venues, didn't help either. So while we still find places to play, it's hard work sometimes. There's always a lot more bands than there are venues to play at. Playing outside of The Netherlands is the best thing. We're in such a small country, so we can get pretty much anywhere within a couple of hours. We've played in Denmark, Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. If we go out of the country we always try to make a little weekend tour out of it. We stink up a rental van for a couple of days and we're back at the office on monday. The pictures alone are always worth the ordeal.

Alan – Are Anarcrust still doing a festival in Dordrecht? We went there 20 years ago.
Edo - Haha, you'll have to ask them. There's lots of festivals with great punk/hc line ups. I've never heart of a festival in Dortrecht though.

Alan – Did you ever get to play in the Czech Republic or Slovakia? And do you know any group from these two countries?
Edo - We did play in the Czech republic once. Cant say we've really met other bands there. A short story about our time there: we got to this venue, couldn't be more than a few square meters. The staff didn't know we were coming. The owner (and booker) showed up late and still had to repair the PA. We had to help clean out a room in the back of the bar where we could put our backline and play our show. Three people showed up (because they happened to walk passed the bar), and we ended up sleeping on a kitchen floor, where the girlfriend and baby daughter found us the next morning without knowing we were gonna be there. This was years ago, but we still talk about that night. Obviously we would love to visit again and see if we can top that night.

Alan – If you had to name the top 5 bands that are reflected in your work, what would they be?
Edo - Though you might not hear these influences directly and a top five is like asking us to name our favorite child: As Friends Rust, 88 Fingers Louie, Bane, American Nightmare, Propagandhi and (number six) the National. Though if you ask other band members you'll probably get another list. I know at least one wouldn't name The National.

Alan – Masquerade - after listening I would say that it is slightly different from your previous work. I find it more vocal, with a lot of elements of harder emo hardcore, as it was in the first half of the nineties. I can also hear more of the guitar.
Edo - I would say you are correct: our earlier work was more guitar oriented and didn't leave enough room for those nightingale vocals. So we made these songs a bit more open in structure and didn't fill every seconds with a guitar noodle. I thing the result is more coherent songs where the vocals and guitar stand out more because there is more contrast.

Alan - How has this change been received by fans of R.C. Sullivan?
Edo - We've been getting a very positive response. This EP has gotten a lot more plays than any of our other stuff. It's also gotten us a couple of very cool shows and attention from people in the business'. This motivates us strongly to keep this direction obviously.

Alan – In the future, are you thinking of putting all the songs you have on one CD? Long CD, double LP?
Edo - Who knows what the future holds. We plan on making more songs and getting them out there. Not sure about a double LP though. Maybe we could do a 'Best Of' album? We have indeed started on new material, with the intention of a full length being our next release. Anyway most of the listeners are on streaming platforms these days. But aside from that, we will probably keep releasing things on vinyl.

Alan – Are you preparing something interesting for the listeners? For your fans?
Edo - We are gonna play a lot of shows. Hopefully do a weekend tour this winter. Lets hope we get to meet some new people and bands and get our music out there.

Alan – Thanks for the interview, and if it goes well, in 2025 we could perhaps see you in Czech Republic or Slovakia, at some festival.
Edo – Thank you! It would be our pleasure! In the immortal words of Wayne Campbell: “if you book them, they will come”.
answered Edo Slump (The guitarist)
https://rcsullivan.nl
https://www.engineerrecords.com