interview with Reject The Sickness

Have any of you played in other bands? Yes we have, We played in bands like Invictrius, Ascendancy, Atropos, consul, Powerstroke

How is it that you started playing music? Well, I started at a very young age. My mom encouraged me to go to music-school when I was 7 or 8 years old. I finished music-school when I was 18 years old.

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?  Ruben van der Beken: guitar 1980 Floris desmet: bass 1989 Jannick Govaert: drums 1988 Pepijn Desmet: Lead guitar 1984  Guy Vercruysse: vocals 1979

Did you make music even when you were young? I had my first metal band when I was 14 years old

Where are you from? Gent / Belgium

What year did the band form? 2010

What's your style of genre? melodic deathmetal, progressive influences and a little bit of core

What inspires you? Most of our lyrics are inspired by my job. I work as a social worker. I try to get inside the head of our teenagers and try to look through their eyes and how they cope with the horror that was done to them. Then I reflect this back on me and how I would solve a problem like theirs. lyrics are aggressive but it's fiction. It's how I come to peace with my job.

How often and where do you rehearse? I have my own home-studio, where we play once a week. we try to learn our music at home.

How have you developed since you started with the music? trial and error. Getting older makes music more mature. (in my case)

Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Well Pepijn teaches martial arts, Ruben is a car freak, and I am a producer too.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? It would be nice to have a booking agency. we just signed our full cd and lp to mighty music. maybe via that release we can find a booker. It's not necessary to have a booker, but it can definitely help to get you out of your own country

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that?

our demo was first a Do it yourself. then we were picked up by deathwake (a belgium label that trades music). now the 8 track demo is re-released through headshot records and shall be available worldwide.

Our full cd is just signed to MIGHTY MUSIC. it will be available worldwide at the end of November. digital, CD and LP

What made you decide to make this music? well I grew up with metal friends, and I stayed a metal fan. although I do produce other stuff too. this is the music I like the best. it gives me wings. we make melodic death, prog. Pepijn and me make the music. I think we could never get this result without each other. It's not that we said, ''well let us do this kind of metal music''. it eventually became what it is today, a mix of styles we really dig.

Have you done any covers live? Never, you should play your own shit.

What language do you sing in? English

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? We played empty venues, we played full venues…The story of every underground band.

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We do switch in our sets, depending on the venue, the place we are on the bill. But don't switch on the spot, because we play with click tracks and live samples.

Where have you played live this year? We played a lot. mostly in Belgium, but also Germany, Netherlands…

Where do you plan to gig the coming year? We would love to do a European tour, but it's not that easy for us. Our daily work makes it hard to just pick up an go. But I'm sure we will be on the road again in 2016.

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Well, I'm a merch-whore… so for an underground band, we have too much too sell. haha. we have trucker caps and 7 different shirts…

Where can people buy your merchandise? they can do it via our website: www.reject-the-sickness.com

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? Well, you can't kill them for that. As long as they buy tickets for shows. Although I think you should support a band and buy their shit. You can download our demo for free at our soundcloud, but you can also buy it. I can tell you we have more downloads then we have sales… I hope people will buy our new upcoming full. I buy everything I like on vinyl. if there is no download link included then I download the shit too. I'm not going to buy the same record twice…

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? We are a small band, I have no fucking clue. merchandise has become expensive and tickets to shows too. I also organize local shows, but it's hard to get a lot of people to these shows. actually we regularly hear people say that 8 of 10 euro's is a lot. with that in mind, it's not that easy to sell your merchandise too… This is a link to cloudburst metalfest: www.cloudburstmetalfest.com

What do you think of my work? You are a blogger. you spread the word of metal. all hail the metal-blogger :p

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? I hope people do check out the band after reading the interview.

Do you have any role models or idols? some of us are really into Bolt Thrower, Volbeat, Black Dahlia Murder, Kalmah, Moonspell…

Why do you think that they exist? Because they are great…

What have been your biggest obstacles? Not getting drunk before a gig, In the beginning it was all about that, party party party. but I realized I performed much better if I was sober. So now we just drink after the show… haha

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Well, love your underground. don't talk behind the back of other local bands. help bands out eventually they will do the same to you. organize gigs. be realistic… love your friends, family, kids… stop eating meat (haha, sorry I'm the only veggie in the band)

Do you have any new material? Yeah we have a new full, chains of solitude. it will be available through Mighty Music. you can check out our 1st videoclip taken from the new full cd/lp. track: hopeless. https://youtu.be/EeurW-smbMc

What are your web sites? How can people reach you?

www.reject-the-sickness.com https://www.facebook.com/rejectthesickness https://www.reverbnation.com/rejectthesickness8

https://soundcloud.com/reject-the-sickness

What are your plans for the future? We will continue to write music. playing gigs, having fun. hopefully we can play some festivals. hopefully we can do bigger gigs.

Do you have something to add? Thanks for the interview, Don't 'REJECT THE SICKNESS'

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