Between The Lines

 

 

 

Between The Lines are an oldschool hardcore band from Belgium.  I first heard them when we did an Against The Grain split CD with them on
Funtime records.  A very cool band with a great sound.  Their new CD Wake Up Call reminds me of an updated Age Of Quarrel sound. Great stuff.
See the Wasteland Zine review here.  I met these guys when they came to Fatso's in north Arlington NJ to check out Against The Grain. Good people.

Euro HC bands get little or no attention in the United States, unlike their metal counterparts, who enjoy huge successes here.
Do yourself a favor and buy Between The Lines' CD.  There are a whole generation of Euro HC bands which we have missed out on.

 

February 2004, an interview done with Pieter of BTL via email:

 

By Chris D'Alessandro
 

Wasteland Zine:  Where is Between The Lines based?

 

Pieter BTL:  Between the Lines is a band from Brasschaat, a village near the city Antwerp in a small country called Belgium. 

I think there are about 4 HC-bands in Brasschaat and a few punk-rock bands, but there are a lot more bands in the neighbourhood. 

 

We have a youth centre here where BTL and a few other bands rehearse.  It’s a cool place, a lot of bands played there in the years. 

A couple of friends and me organise gigs from time to time.  We started that because we wanted to see cool hardcore bands in our hometown. 

Vision, Inhuman, Blood for Blood, Cause for Alarm, Loved and Hated, Hot Water Music, Fastbreak, Shattered Realm, American Nightmare

and a lot of European bands played there.

 

WL:   What record label are you on and what is your latest release?

 

BTL: Funtime records (www.funtimerecords.com) released our full-length called ‘Wake up Call’ in Feb. 2003 on cd, another label called Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio

 released the vinyl version of ‘Wake up Call’.  In 2001 we did a split cd with Against the Grain from New York (I think you might know them). 

That cd also came out on Funtime records.  There unfortunately isn’t a vinyl version from that release.  We also did a 7” (I think that came out in 1998)

and a two demos.

 

Now (Feb. 2004) we’re writing new songs for our next release, probably a MCD/7”.  At this point we don’t know which label is going to release it,

 but we have a few options.  We’ll do some recording in march and then we’ll see who’s interested.  Funtime and R’n’Rradio are still interested. 
Between The Lines

WL:  What style of hardcore do you play?

 

We play the style of hardcore we all like, NYHC.  It’s not that we choose that type of hardcore when we started, it just happened. 

Our main influences are Cro-mags, Killing Time, Sick of it All, Agnostic Front (One Voice-era), Leeway, Breakdown and a few more NYHC veterans. 

To me the mid-eighties NYHC-bands are fantastic.  Those bands had something special, they created something new and had all great personalities

(John Joseph, Jef Perlin, Paul Bearer, AJ, Anthony KT to name a few).  A lot of the recent bands seem to miss that.  

WL:  Why do you think European hardcore bands have not broken through in the United States?

 

BTL: Difficult question.  Maybe because the old US-bands are more original than European bands (see previous question).  I really don’t know. 

Maybe there are more influential American HC-bands.  A lot of European bands just try to sound the same as US-bands.  No problem with that,

but why should American HC-kids listen to a copy of a band when they can listen to the original.  I’m not saying that every European band is a copy,

I’m just thinking of reasons why so little European bands have broken through in the US.  I must admit that most of my favourite HC-bands

are American bands.  Michiel (guitar) and me have often asked ourselves this question, but we don’t really have an answer. 

Maybe you can try to answer this one Chris, help me out here.

 

There are a lot of cool European HC-bands though.  You have to check our guitar player’s other band: Dead Stop.  They’re really good. 
 


WL:  Why is it so much easier for U.S. hardcore bands to tour Europe than it is for Euro bands to tour the U.S.?

 

BTL: A lot of European HC-kids want to see American bands.  Almost every time the US-band on a bill headlines and not the European bands. 

And there are a few good HC-booking agencies here in Europe who put up tours for US-bands.  I don’t know if US kids really want to see European bands. 

You guys have so many good HC-bands over there.  Maybe there’s something in the water, haha. 

 

WL:  What kind of Amps / Guitars do you use?

 

BTL:  The two guitar players use a Marshall.  Seb plays on a JCM 2000 TSL 100.  He has a few guitars, but most of the time he uses his

Gibson Les Paul for Between the Lines and sometimes his IBANEZ S.  Michiel plays on a Valvestate 100.  He plays on his GIBSON SG (from ’75) for BTL.

 

My bass is an IBANEZ SR760 and my amp is a HARTKE 2115.  After looking very long for a cool and payable sound, I’m pretty happy with this.

WL:  Who is the biggest guitar influence?

 

BTL:  Aha, good question, let me think ‘cause there are a few

 

 

Bass players:

 

 

WL:  Do you know this character named A.G.? (LoL)


BTL:  Cool guy!  When we asked Against the Grain to do a split with us (because Michiel and me really liked their 7” and Mentiroso cd),

we mailed AG.  After two weeks we totally forgot we mailed him, but after 3 months we got an email from I guy calling himself AG and he seemed

to be the singer from Against the Grain.  He let us know that he was interested in doing a split, but he still had to ask the rest of his band. 

So we sent him our recordings and he was really enthusiastic about them.  After a year of mailing and arranging the split was finally a fact. 

Cool that Against the Grain wanted to do the split with us.  We’re still very thankful.

 

After that we kept in touch and there was even talk that we were going to do a small tour together.  Unfortunately that didn’t happen. 

I still hope that Against the Grain will come to Europe one day.  AG is a cool dude, but lately he doesn’t answer all his mails.  I think he’s always

out and chasing girls with Kabula, !  AG, if you ever come to Belgium we’ll drink Hoegaerden (AG loves Hoegaerden). 

Seriously, hope all is well with the dude.


WL:   Thanks for the interview. What is your contact information (web site etc...)  

 

BTL:  Thank you for the interview!

 

You can contact Between the Lines here: btl_hotline@hotmail.com or pc667@hotmail.com  The url to our site is: www.dive.to/btl 

Or you can write us a letter or send us hate mail at this address:

           

            Between the Lines

            Hanendreef 77

            2930 Brasschaat

            Belgium