New band alert! Lazy Class from Poland recently released their debut EP "Better Life" on CD themselves to gain a name for themselves. It worked out, because soon these extremely catchy tracks will be out on vinyl! Time to have a little chat with guitarist Wiktor to introduce his band!

 

Hi guys! First of all, thanks a lot for doing this interview! How is everything going? Please introduce yourselves to our readers!

Hi There. Everything is going well, Thanks! We are Lazy Class - four piece oi/street punk band from Warsaw, Poland. Band lineup is: Eryk - vocals & guitar, Wróbel - bass, Nowyk - drums and me - Wiktor - guitar and sometimes vocals.

 

You guys are still a pretty young band, so it would be silly to ask about the band’s history. But Lazy Class isn’t the first band you guys played in. Can you tell us what other bands all of you were in, what musical style it was (or still is) and if you got any releases out with those bands?

Yes, Lazy Class is not our first band.  As it goes ‘bout me I used to play bass in two Torun (city in north-central Poland) based bands:  Good old days and Core Ball. First one is quite old hardcore band, they started in 1998. I've joined them at 2005 and I left the band in 2011 when I decided to move to Warsaw. I've put a demo, full length, MCD and split CD w/ Only Attitude Counts with them. If you like old school HC in a vain of NYC bands like SOIA, AF or Cro-Mags you should also like Good Old Days. Core Ball was more hc/punk band with a bit of 80' US hardcore sound. We've put out a full lengthCD. I also left the band at 2011. Both bands are still playing so check them out!  Right now besides Lazy Class I'm playing in hardcore band called Wounded Knee. We have released demo and 7'' ep. New record is coming up in October.

 

Eryk used to have his band Striptiz but it ended when he moved to Warsaw two years ago. Then he joined Warsaw Dolls - glam punk 77 band of our friends.  They’ve released couple of demos and one full length.  Later he also joined The Lunatics - punk rock band that will be releasing their fourth full length this September.

Wróbel used to be bassist for B.D.K. - quite popular street punk band from Pomerania. They have released two full lenghtCDs and lots of demos. They played they last show in 2009. He also has been a singer, bassist and leader of The Damrockers. Cool punk 77 band with lyrics in local pomeranian language - Kashubian. Thay had two full lengthCDs. Right now he is a singer in another punk 77 band called Inhalators. As for now they released 4 tracks demo.

 

Nowyk played drums with Warsaw Dolls for a while but he was kicked out. They said he can't play drums so he was a perfect match for Lazy Class haha.

 

So more recently you guys started Lazy Class, why did you decide to form a Oi!/streetpunk band?

When I was a teen I had a band supposed to play oi/street punk. Actually it was shitty punk with really terrible ska parts. When this band disbanded Istarted looking for people to start a new oi punk band.  It was in 2001. So it took me 12 years to form this band. Meanwhile I had few attempts but they never last longer than 2-3 rehearsals. So when my friends Eryk & Nowyk were forming a brand new Oi! band and asked me If I wanna play I was a bit skeptical but I gave it a chance and it worked out!

Oi!& street punk are genres whichI was always into, so it was natural that I want to play such tunes.

 

This summer you released your first EP by yourself called “Better Life”, can you tell us a bit about the recording and writing process and what the four songs on the CD are about?

Nothing special about writing process. Someone brings a riff or two to rehearsal and if we like it we work on song based on it. That's all.

We have recorded our ep in Inhalators rehearsal room and it was done by Wojtek, Inhalators guitarist. It was DIY and not very professional session. Mixes and mastering was made by Czaja, guy who stays behind sound of lots of polish hardcore records. He did a great job!

 

As it goes to the songs. First one, "Better life", is a bit PMA song about heading a problems in life with a head high and living your life the best way you can. Everybody has experienced some darken days but there is no reason to give up. Especially when you have friends and family that will always support you.

 

Next song "violent world" is about modern western society where everybody just want to use you for their own profits. Society in which ruthless and mean individuals are those who wins.

 

Another one is "He'll never return".  Typical punk anti-war song about greedy politicians who sends another young & naive kid believing in pride, his country and honor to war that has nothing to do with these values. It's just money, oil and dominance.

 

Last song "Kiedyś" is a bit nostalgic one. It's about times where we were kids and our main activities were playing football, hanging out with mates etc. No one cared about all those "adult problems" like earning money, jobs and so on. Good innocent times.

 

You guys have sent out the EP to some zines and labels, how have the reactions been so far?

Yes, we've sent it to some places. As for now all the reviews are good or very good. People seemed to like this ep. We are very surprised and happy with all this positive feedback.

 

The intention of you guys was to get these songs out on vinyl as well, from what I heard Rebellion Records will release the songs on a 7”, excited?

Yeah, that's true. We are very excited! Rebellion Records is a well known and one of the best oi/punk labels in Europe. We are really proud that we will be in one label with all those great bands.

 

With the exception of the song “Kiedys” the three remaining tracks on “Better Life” are in English. What direction you want to go in in the future when it comes down to the language you sing in? Aren’t you ‘afraid’ the lingual barrier would become too high to be released by international labels with songs in your native tongue?

At the beginning we decided to write most of our songs in English. It's easier. Polish language is not the most melodious language in the word if you know what I mean. In my opinion English is also the original language for punk rock and it sounds best in this kind of music. And of course it helps to overcome this lingual barrier. English is a new Latin.

 

Right now "Kiedyś" is our one and only song in Polish. We have one more in plans and that’s all for now I guess.

 

Some of my favorite Polish bands are the groups that started out in the 90’s like The Analogs, Rezystencja, Horrorshow and Ramzes& The Hooligans. Do you feel influenced by Polish bands like this or would you say other bands, from perhaps other counties, influenced Lazy Class’ sound?

All those bands you mentioned were very inspiring for me back in a days but I think Lazy Class music is more inspired by US oi/street punk on one hand and some 80' classics on the other. I've always been much in to American scene, oi/street punk & hardcore, and Eryk also likes this sound - he's all time favorite band is Rancid for example.  We are also very interested in a today's oi/street punk scene. There are a lot of great and inspiring bands around like Marching Orders, Bishops Green, Lion's Law or Booze and Glory just to name few.

 

How is the scene in Poland these days? How are the shows over there? Any bands you could recommend?

It's hard to say there is something like oi/punk scene in Poland right now. There are few shows and few bands but it's all very small. Worth checking, in my opinion, are old bands like Bachor, The Sandals and HorrorShow. There are also some new comers: Glory Days, Blitzed(they start as Blitz cover band but they lately start writing their own songs) and Max Cady - they are my favorite, agressive, hardcore fueled street punk with good lyrics in Polish. The Analogs are still active but they grow bigger than punk rock scene and they are now quite popular rock band. Good for them that their music is still good piece of punk rock.

 

There are also some "apolitical" oi/punk bands that have nothing against to play for and with some Blood &Honour fucks, but they are not worth to mention.

 

What do you want to achieve with Lazy Class? Where do you see the band in five years?

Five years is too distant period of time but I hope we will still record and tour in 2019! Right now we are going to record 6 new tracks in a few months. Four of them will be our new ep and two of them will probably appear on split 7'' with Max Cady. After this we will start working on our full length. Besides this we want to tour as much as possible so if you dear reader are making some shows in your city get in touch with us haha.

 

Final question, and I have to ask this… how did you come up with the name Lazy Class? And why did you decide to name your band so?

Haha I knew you’d ask. We had some brainstorm in a band after first rehearsals to find a proper name. We had couple of ideas but Lazy Class sounds very catchy for us and it's not too serious name. We like it. Even if it's not going along with our lyrics which are mostly serious.

 

Okay that is it! Thanks a lot for your time. If there is anything you would like to add to this interview, feel free to do so! Cheers!

First of all big thanks for your interest in Lazy Class. We really appreciate it! Hope we will meet on some gig someday. Remember to support you local scene by going to shows, buying records and just keeping the flame burning! Cheers!