1.Furious greetings of Perú, Nevin! How going the things at Struggle Session?
Greetings from China! Everything in the world of Struggle Session is going great. We’re busy preparing to visit that other Great Wall on your side of the world. We’ve heard that Trump can’t stand for anyone to have anything better than what he has and wants a wall even bigger than China’s. China’s Great Wall didn’t keep the Mongols out but hopefully the greatest wall in the world will do a better job at keeping drunk American’s from ruining Tijuana. In all seriousness though, we believe in the freedom of movement for all people and are against all national borders. This July we’ll be playing on both sides of the wall with 25 shows in the U.S., Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. It will be our first time performing in North America and are excited to meet the bands and audience there!
2.Tell us how is form this destructive band of loud fast hardcore called Struggle Session? Hows been the begings?
The band formed in 2016 in Beijing, China. I had been living here and involved in the underground scene for awhile and the other members all arrived from their respective countries, Oliver from the US, Alfie from Australia, and Aaron from Canada via Morocco. We quickly bonded over a love for hardcore and the local Beijing punk scene and decided to get together and see what we could do. We had all played in bands before and it wasn’t long until we were averaging a show a week and planning tours around the world. It’s been a really fun time and very lucky that the four of us were able to meet in the way we did.
Our first release was in 2017, a split LP with the South China band Die!ChiwawaDie! We had recoded a demo and had it mixed by a friend in Sweden. It was originally just to get the songs down but we liked the results so much we decided to release it ahead of our Spain and Morocco tour. We then released two split 7”s in 2018, one with the Korean band Arryam and the other with Brazil’s TEST. After our South American tour we were approached by a label in Beijing, Dying Art, to release a tape. We gave them all of our songs plus three more we had recorded with a friend in Korea. Now we’re getting ready to release a new 7” the tells the story of our 2018 South American tour. The 7” contains 33 songs in under 10 minutes and was super fun to write. It’s a mix of stories and inside jokes from our tour and the artwork, done by our friend Riot in Kunming, is amazing!
We all come for different countries and different backgrounds and bring a diverse set of influences from across the punk, hardcore, and metal spectrum. I’m the oldest and draw a lot of influence from 80’s US hardcore-punk as well as 90’s hardcore and power violence such a DS-13 and SPAZZ. Our bassist, Alfie, is influenced by grindcore, Japanese bands such as Melt Banana, and his local Australian scene. The drummer, Aaron, has played in a whole range of hardcore and tech-metal bands and was influenced by the Toronto scene as well as bands like Punch. The vocalist, Oliver, is from New Jersey and draws from a lot of the post-2000s hardcore, deathcore, and black metal scenes. The mix of influences has allowed us to create music that I don’t think any of us would have made on our own.
5.Some members of Struggle Session have another project parallel?
Yes, our bassist still plays with his Sydney synth-grind band Scrotal Vice and tours internationally twice a year. Aaron and I play in a Beijing-based d-beat band called MAI, and Aaron also plays in NYHC / crossover style hardcore band called Return The Truth. Oliver is working on a new project with some friends in New York, but it’s still super secret for now.
6.Nevin explain some more about actual hardcore scene from your city and recommend some bands.
The Beijing hardcore scene is going through a pretty interesting time with a lot more crossover metal acts and some newer styles coming in that didn’t exist in China before. A lot of the older bands draw from street-punk like Demerit, or from NYHC like Unregenerate Blood. The younger bands though draw from a much larger range of styles, we have thrash bands like Tumour Boy, d-beat bands like D-Crash, sludge bands like S.H.A.S., and fastcore acts like the Diders. There are also a bunch of punk bands and everyone shares bills making for diverse and fun nights.
7.Struggle Session knows hardcore scene of Southamerica?
Last summer we played 33 shows in South America including one in Hensley Bar in Lima. The tour was one of the most amazing experiences for all of us, covering seven countries including Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Panama. We were able to see a lot of local bands and meet some incredible people along the way. We only began to scratch the surface of what is happening in South America but what we saw blew us away. Some of my favorite acts that we played with included TEST (Brazil), Hauser (Brazil), Avitacion 101 (Montevideo), Rancho Aparte (Argentina), Karne Krua (Brazil), D.E.R. (Brazil), Hez (Panama), Los Crustaceos (Chile), Ruinas (Argentina), Dettonacion (Argentina), Intenta Detenerme (Chile), SAQRA (Peru), Zen/Aku (Colombia), and Aphorism (Brazil).
8.Stuff available of Struggle Session at the moment? where punxs can find the stuff?
Our physical releases are all available in China through record stores like IndieMusic and internationally from Far Out Distant Sounds and our bandcamp. I know this is hard for fans in South America as shipping from both China and the U.S. is really expensive. Our new EP “Sudámerica Ruido y Amor” will be released on tape by several South American labels including one in Peru. We are also looking for labels to do tape or CD release of our 2016~2018 discography. As for digital all of our music can be downloaded for free from bandcamp or streamed on Spotify.
We hope to survive this North America tour and then write our first full-length in the second half of the year. We’re planning a Japan tour in December and then who knows. We would love to get back to South America or do a more extensive tour of Europe. No matter what we are looking forward to making more noise and hanging out with friends around the world. We’ve met amazing people traveling in places such as South America, Morocco, Spain, and Korea and a lot of them have become close friends.
10.Last words Nevin and thanks for your time in this interview,something you want to add?
Thanks for interviewing us and keep it diy!
Cheers!
https://strugglesession.bandcamp.com/
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