Patti (Cut My Skin) – entrevista

Patti é a irreverente vocalista dos Cut My Skin, excelente banda punk rock de Berlim.

Bastante activa em palco, segura das suas ideias e extremamente forte nas mensagens que transmite através dos temas da sua banda, desde cedo, nos primeiros tempos da extinta banda Scattergun que marcou um estilo muito próprio, que se lhe reconhece facilmente.

Com Cut My Skin, lançou três albums, “Reflexion” (2003), “On The Edge” (2004) e “Nasty” (2006), para além de vários singles lançados e de participações em compilações.

Para a conhecer um pouco melhor, o Billy News entrevistou Patti e pediu-lhe para falar um pouco do passado, da situação presente com os Cut My Skin que estão bem activos (este Verão actuaram em vários festivais e há poucos dias com Jello Biafra) e dum futuro bastante próximo… aquele futuro que afinal parece existir.

Para manter a originalidade e significado real das suas palavras, manteve-se o inglês, afinal o idioma optado por Patti para cantar os seus temas (podem recorrer ao tradutor no início do blog).

Billy- Patti, it’s a pleasure to talk with you. Scattegun was (and still is) one of my favourite bands and had two great albums. What memories did you have from those times? Did you still have contact with the guys from the band?

Patti- yes, with Hardy (guitar) i had contact again , after some time in between, because he did join CMS for a while in 2005 . we needed a guitar player , so we wouldn`t have to cancel the France Tour & afterwards he stayed with us for about 2 years, but we don`t have contact anymore. The opposite is Frank , the former bass player. I keep in touch with him since the breaking up of SCATTERGUN regulary & we meet & do things together. None of the drummers are around so far........

Well, of course I have good & bad memories, but mainly good. It was the first time for me that we were really into it & releasing records, which i never did with my bands i had before. Luckily signed by Label Boss Horst of Nasty Vinyl, who sadly did pass away in 2005. We had a great teamwork & a lot of good & crazy times together, but after 7 years there were some personal troubles & we decided to split up & stop the whole thing !

Billy- How did you started Cut My Skin, you spend a lot of time far from music, rehearsals and gigs, before having this band as a solid project, or not really?

Patti- no , not really !

I didn´t want to stop this band, but there was no other way. For me it was 100% sure that i would search for new people as soon as possible & that i would keep on working with Horst - Nasty Vinyl. So i asked him if he would bring out my new band & he said : “Of course I will, because if you`re in it , it must be good “

I was stunned by this answer, cause i know that he also had to calculate the money thing. So it was a great honor & joy for me , that he trusted me so much & actually he booked us without hearing one fucking song before.

2002 was the end of SCATTERGUN & april 2003 i met Malik, a guitar player with whom i made & prepared several songs before the other members joined one by one from mouth to mouth propaghanda, papers & flyers. We recorded & released the REFLEXION of CMS in Sept 2003 , so you see there was not too much time in between.

Billy- The topics about the lyrics usually reflects some ideas about society, authority, organisations, politics, the ‘peace and war struggle’ all over the world, individuality and rage. But in some songs we can find a lot of personnal feelings. All the lyrics are yours or sometimes have a participation from other members of the band?

Patti- no , they are all mine.

About the topics that you mentioned so i guess you`ll have a rough idea what I`m all about.....but to summarize it:

I am Anti- fascist, Anti- sexist – Anti- racist, Anti – spezisism, ( so many Antis – but the world is bad...), Feminist , Animal rights, Inviromental supporter, Anti- homophobia, A.L.F.......

In general i would say:

I love the nature & the earth , but i hate the people. I hate people who cause destruction & despair to any kind of living creatures, or violence against any earthlings !

I believe in equality, which unfortuanatly is not the reality in this world.

Actually the R.A.S. CD was the first time for me when i did sing something that somebody else wrote. Melody & lyrics are by Ray, i only changed some tiny parts , so it would be more my style.

In the RECKLESS album with Mallorca Punx & with german POPPERKLOPPER they gave me the music & I wrote the harmonies & lyrics for it.

Billy- The band always have the preocupation and usually refers to defend ideas and some organisations like antispeciesist action, child healthcare, enviorentment, the respect of women (and in general) and racism (you played in Potsdam Anti Sexist Open Air, just a few days ago). Did you think it’s important to transmit it live in your gigs, or it depends if it is a special event dedicated to some of this ideas?

Patti- We always do it !!! politics don`t need a certain event, we always have to spread the word against injustice !! I don`T care if people don`t wanna hear it - we all should open our eyes about what`s going on in the world. I mean , this is why i go on stage. Of course i wanna have fun !! But i think it`s ridiculous to sing about drinking beer for example – this is what I do & I don`t have to sing about it ! at least in my opinion.......there are.more important things to raise the voice for.

Billy- From some of your videos that I saw, the band always had great ‘simbiose moments’ with the audience acting live, with people shouting, you jumping from stage towards them and singalong, with a lot of movement in the crowd. In studio, how do you transmite the same feeling to the songs, when you’re recording? What did you do to be inspired and feel the same rage?

Patti- oh , not easy to say. Of course it`s not a comparism to the feeling of life performance, but i think the rage is already in it. Otherwise we wouldn`t have created it like this. Inside of me it`s always there., the rage. The problem in studio is, that it mostly it sounds much too nice. All the dirt is gone. It´s like all the machines did suck all the power & dirt out of it. I never had a 100% satisfying result so far. The way I sing & i hear it live onstage for example is never given back on the bloody record. that`s a pity. All this years I use my own microphone, which i always use, don´t takeI need to hold it in my hands , so i can move like i always do, so the power comes out from deep down. Imagine me standing stiff singing into nothing—i would need a orthopady to cure my neck afterwards. I guess it`s also a thought of control, -I`m used to do it like this, i feel more comfortable, don`t have to care about the machines, my position where & how to stand ,move etc........just concentrated on the main moments.

Billy- Do you have recent songs and did you test it live? Any chance for a new record soon?

Patti- for we had drummer change again – now John is with us , with his heart & enough time !- we couldn´t do so many new sonx , cos we were busy practising the old ones to have a whole set together , so at least we could go on touring. But we already have some material , which we did play live several times. Guess it`s good to always have a good mixture of old sonx that the people know & a few new ones to check the reaction. So far it was cool. The plan is to record in November, so the record will be out for fucking X-mas. I don`t know if we make it , but for sure , we`ll record end of the year, half of the sonx are finished & as far as I`m concerned we got a brilliant mix of musically styles so far & some very fast bombs amongst it ! J sonx so far “ Destruction Of The Wild” , “Burn My Diaries” , Rape is war”, Love In Parts” , “I Hate Them All” , “Manipulate” , “No Way Out”, “Red & Black”.

Billy- German punk scene is very effervescent and active, many years ago. Can you tell me about three or four german bands that you specially like, that are still playing nowdays?

Patti- HASS ; SLIME;TOXOPLASMA are some of the older Bands. Also I like a lot BITE THE BULLET , AZRAEL, POPPERKLOPPER, OBTRUSIVE, SCOUNDREL, MÜLLSCH, REJECTED YOUTH; DAISY CHAIN ,STOPCOX,-only to mention some. Mostly we`re friends anyway !

Billy- Beside the band, you’ve made some recordings as a guest of several projects. The last one was with Malta Punk band R.A.S., how was it? It’s gonna appear in some future record?

Patti- Hell yes !!

I mentioned before about how the songs were done, besides that it was great ! I really love & enjoy spontaneous decisions, actions, ideas.......Ray did ask me end of may `09 if I would like to sing some parts. No doubt about that i took a flight to Malta in june ( anyway for a holiday to see him) & we did try out all the songs 2 times before we went to the studio of drummer Steve & recorded the whole thing in 14 hrs. No complaining about this & that , tiny things- we just did it. It`s raw like it came out ! Steve did the final mix meanwhile & the guys are about to finish the CD sleeve.

When it`s done I`ll send you 1 & for sure you`ll get more infos on the page. Also I wanna distribute it here a bit , so you can always contact me to get some. I`ll make a blog for it on myspace then

Billy- Cut My Skin are gonna play in Force Attack Festival (in Rostock) in 2th August. It’s always a pleasure to play in front of 15 000 or 20 000 people, I think. Generally, do you prefer gigs with both kind of audiences (150 or 15 000) with obvioulsly different perspectives, or not? Tell me your opinion about that...

Patti- yeah , we did play Force Attack again. Unfortunately on sunday. For being there already since thursday you can imagine how hard it was. After already 3 days & party nights & the heat. I thought i die in the tent. At 7 a.m. i was burning & stuck to the sleeping back, no way to rest anymore..... but what am i telling you ? you are more used to weather like this ha ha

It doesn`t matter. I`m not more nervos or take it more serious , when we play in front of 10.000 people. I mean , I prefere a good & intense party concert in front of 100 people , rather than having 6000 bored persons in front of stage. Last friday we played a great show with JELLO BIAFRA which was sold out. There were about 1000 people & the atmosphere was brilliant. That`s perfect then.....

Billy- Final question, in this moment Cut My Skin is not a well-known band in Portugal, but I’ve received feedback of many people that did check your myspace page and like it a lot, some of them told me that is ‘one of they recent favourites bands’. That means that your sound easily catch punk fans. I’ gonna ask you to leave a message to your fans, here in Portugal...

Patti- We`ve never been to Portugal before, so of course we would like to play there one day. It´s always great to discover new countries & get to know other people for making friends & develop the Punk network around the world.With the release of the new record , we are also looking for a label that will distribute us & the records, CDs. Also we need someone who`s gonna do the booking for us, getting a tour together etc. So if you know anybody , who would be interested, please contact us. We`re greatful for any help !!!

Hopefully coming to Portugal soon , I`m curious about your Punk Scene!!!!

Keep up the spirit & STAY WILD

Thanx especially to you Billy for your support & helping us out with translation & playing our music XXX

Actualmente, os Cut My Skin são Patti (vocalista), Pete (baixo), Ollie (guitarra) e John (bateria).

Podem ouvir temas e obter mais info sobre esta banda acedendo a…

http://www.cutmyskin.de/

http://www.myspace.com/pattypattex

...EVERY SCAR DID MAKE ME STRONGER !!!!