The Prowlers are the finest oi! band from North America. They are coming back to Europe this month so better get ready for them.
I hope you’ll enjoy this interview which has been made in march 2011 with singer Sylvain.
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT HISTORY OF THE BAND.
The band started doing shows back in 1999 and it was a 4 piece band. Over the years we decided to add a 2nd guitar because we believe it was more powerfull live. There has been a lot of change over the years and the fun part is no one ever left because of fights inside the band some people moved on with their life (kids etc...) or got into working in other projects. Right now me and Stephane are remaining from the original line up. The other members are Richard (guitard) Martin (bass) and John (lead guitard).
THE PROWLERS DIDN'T SEEM TO BE BUSY RECENTLY , YOU HAVEN’T EVEN PLAYED GIGS FOR SOME TIME AND NOW YOU ARE COMING BACK AFTER FEW YEARS OF SILENCE (I KNOW THAT YOU PLAYED FEW LOCAL GIGS)
NOW YOU SEEM TO LOOK MORE ACTIVE , RECORDING NEW SONGS, TOUR OF EUROPE ETC. WHERE IS THAT REBIRTH COMING FROM?
We stop playing for 4-5 years for several reasons related to our personnal life, but for Stephane and I it was a shame to finish the band this way and we missed a lot the brotherhood, playing gigs and making party around the world with friends. We did 4 shows since last summer and we are now going to Germany for 3 dates. We also want to tour again in europe later in 2011 maybe in the fall.
HAVE YOU GOT ANY PERSONAL CHANGES IN THE BAND SINCE YOUR LAST ALBUM “CHAOS IN THE CITY” ?
So yeah we did a few change since then, the album was recorded in 2001 so a few changes. What is fun of all that is that music remains the same and a Prowlers song 10 years later sounds about the same.
I KNOW THAT YOU’RE INFLUENCED A LOT BY THE OPPRESSED , ARE THERE ANY MORE BANDS WHICH INFLUENCED YOUR MUSIC AND THE BAND as a WHOLE ? (IF SO WHICH ONE AND WHY?)
We were always influence by older Montreal bands such as The Discords, Gassenhaur, Shock Trrops, Street Troopers to name a few. They made the skinhead scene what it is today and for this reason we need to carry the heritage they left us. Other than that musically we are also influenced by the old british oi! from the 80's, this is what we grew up on and we we started the band this is the type of results we were looking for.
MONTREAL ALWAYS HAD GOOD OI SKINHEAD SCENE WITH LEGENDARY STREET TROOPERS OR YOUNG ESCLAVES SALARIES WHATS HAPPENING WITH THOSE BANDS TODAY? CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR NEW SONG “NDG” DEDICATED TO THE DISCORDS? WHAT DOES “NDG” MEAN?
NDG is located west Montreal and this is where the older bands like Gassenhaur and The Discords were originally from. NDG stands for Notre-Dame de Grace and for us doing this song was to show our respect to The Discords. They came back in the early 2000 years and we had the chance to do several shows together.
As per Street Troopers and Escalves Salariés, both bands are no longer playing but they remain good friends of ours.
YOU ALWAYS MAKE CLEAR STATEMENT ABOUT FASCIST SKINHEADS. DON’T YOU THINK IT'S TAKING IT TOO FAR TO TALK ABOUT IT ? AS LOTS OF APOLITICAL BANDS THINK SO AND IT’S A PROBLEM FOR THEM TO MAKE CLEAR STAND AGAINST FASCISM ON SKINHEAD SCENE.
I dont really care what people think about us, we dont write about politics because I'm not a politician but we do support the Anti Racist side of skinheads. I have consider myself a SHARP forever but as for now we never really wrote on this. I think by seeing with the kind of bands we are playing, what kind of label we are releasing our albums it's really clear on what side of the fence we stand. As long as I'm not associated to right wing or racist band I dont care to play with an apolitical band. The problem sometimes with apolitical band is that they want to be able to play with any kind of bands. The day you decide to associate yourself with a right wing band or label, you are no longer an apolitical band. That's why I never pretend beeing an apolitical band even if our song have no politics in them.
LOTS OF APOLITICAL SKINHEAD BANDS IN EUROPE SEEM TO BE HANGING OUT WITH NAZI SCUM AND SUPPORTING EACH OTHER AGAINST THE LEFT WING . THEY LIKE TO CALL US (ANTIFASCIST SKINHEADS) COMMIE SCUM OR POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. DO YOU HAVE SAME PROBLEM IN CANADA? WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT SHIT?
It makes me laugh...When you know the origin of what a skinhead is, how can you be a racist or nazi? And why supporting them?
We also have that type of idiots in Canada but it is a seperate scene and we dont hang out in the same bars or concerts.
IS THE PROWLERS AN APOLITICAL BAND? DO YOU SUPPORT RASH?
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DON’T HAVE IDEA ABOUT THEIR HEROES LIKE STALIN FOR EXAMPLE, WHO KILLED MILIONS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE FOR HIS COMMUNIST DREAM. I THINK LOTS OF RED SKINS DON’T REALLY REALIZE WHO THE FUCK WAS STALIN OR LENIN.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT?
Like I said we can't consider ourselves unpolitical because we support left wing bands and labels and the whole anti racist scene. I dont really care about RASH, they respect the fact that I'm not a communist so we can work together. Nazi scum dont respect the fact that we aren't racist so I dont want to have nothing to do with them.
HOW IS OI! SKINHEAD SCENE LOOK LIKE IN CANADA NOWADAYS?
WHAT ABOUT NAZI SCENE- IS IT STRONG OVER THERE? DO YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH THE SCUM IN MONTREAL?
There's a few good bands but it's not as strong as it use to be, so that's another reason why I wanted to be back. There is a few nazis here and there and I guess there will always be some. We dont really see them. Montreal and Canada are overall very multi cultural so kids are now growing with a lot of immigrants around them, so the way I see it there will be less and less racism around us.
YOU TRAVELED TO EUROPE BEFORE AND EVEN RECORDED YOUR MCD FOR MAD BUTCHER IN GERMANY. HOW DO YOU SEE SCENE IN EUROPE COMPARING TO CANADIAN ONE?
European scene is way bigger and way more interesting. The problem in Canada is that the major city are too far from each other so it's very hard to get things organized. Toronto is 6 hour away and let's not even talk about Edmonton and Vancouver that are over 3 driving days away. Last time we were in europe we were able to do 5 shows in 5 days in 5 different contries, you will never see this happend on our side. People are way more involved in europe, people are buying records and going to concerts.
WHY DID YOU RELEASE YOUR ALL ALBUMS IN EUROPE? ARE THERE NO GOOD LABELS IN CANADA? HOW DID YOU GET IN TOUCH WITH MAD BUTCHER RECORDS ANYWAY?
We got in touch in Mad Butcher back in 2000 when they were here for a festival with Klasse Kriminale. We became good friends and they invited us over to record our first album (Hair Today Gone Tomorrow) and do some shows. We went back a few times and since we are very loyal people we continued working with them. They made us a good name and we got to meet great bands and great friends because of Mad Butcher.
In Canada there's Insurgence that has been supporting the scene by themselves for almost 10 years. We will work with them in the future as they will release our next split album with our friend Produzenten Der Froide. It should be released sometimes in April or May of 2011.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT TRIBUTE TO THE OPPRESSED CD? DO YOU LIKE IT OR NOT? (IF NOT PLEASE DON’T ANSWER HHAHAHAHA)
It's great and it was a great honnor for us to be on it.
DID YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH BEING A SKINHEAD? I MEAN QUESTIONS FROM PEOPLE LIKE “HOW DO FUCK YOU CAN BE A SKINHEAD AND NOT SUPPORTING STUPID RACIST POLITICS?”
OR MAYBE OPOSITE LIKE ATTACKS FROM MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY FOR BEING A SKINHEAD?
HOW YOU CAN SIMPLY EXPLAIN PEOPLE THAT NOT EVERY SKINHEAD IS A FASCIST TWAT?
Honnestly there has been skinheads in Montreal for 30 years so people get informed and we dont face these type of situation anymore. Or it might be that people dont give a shit anymore haha.
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE NEAREST FUTURE? I KNOW THAT YOU’LL GONNA RELEASE SPLIT EP WITH PRODUZENTEN DER FROIDE AND DO FEW GIGS IN GERMANY. ARE YOU PLANING TO RELASE NEW FULL ALBUM?
After the small tour in Germany we are getting back in writing new stuff, we would like to be able to record something before then end of this year. Also we would like to do a few shows in Europe but we can't do big tours anymore.
ANYTHING TO ADD?
beers and cheers to anybody that reads this.
