Inside Amplifest 2014: Vvovnds

Flying over from their homeland Belgium for an exclusive show, VVOVNDS will unleash their whirlpool of sonic hatred, fast guitars and unconstrained violence all over Amplifest. Their first demo alone was impressive enough to grant them a slot at Holland’s Incubate Festival, but now that Hypertension Records paired VVOVNDS with their fellow countrymen Amenra – who played Amplifest in 2012 – for the first installment of their “The Abyss Stares Back” series of splits, and with a first full length in the works, the band is all set to grab the underground scene by the neck. Blackened hardcore punk with all levels to the maximum – the faster the better, the angrier the better. Can you handle it? We just had a chat with them:

What do you expect of the Amplifest audience?
Kristof: I want them to explode during our set… Blood, sweat and tears…

We like surprises, but what can we expect from your show?
Kristof: Have no expectations…
Simon: We’ve been writing some news songs during the summer and might play some of those for the first time.

What band do you really want to see at Amplifest?
Jenci: Urfaust, Swans
Kristof: Pharmakon
Simon: Very curious about the secret band.
Pieter: Peter Brötzmann & Steve Noble

If you had to pick a band or a musician of this Amplifest edition to play with who would it be?
Jenci: Pharmakon
Kristof: Pharmakon
Simon: Swans
Pieter: Swans

What records have you been listening to lately?
Jenci: The Lowest Form – Negative Ecstasy / Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Let Love In / Lust For Youth – International / Dawn Of Humans – Blurst Of The Birdfish / Dead Neanderthals – Prime
Kristof: new stuff from: Failures, Death from Above 1979, Pharmakon, Iron Lung
Simon: Total Control – Typical System / Young Widows – Easy Pain / Ty Segall – Manipulator / Failures – Decline And Fall
Pieter: Moon duo – Circles / Wreck and Reference – Want / James Blackshaw & Lubomyr Melnyk – The Watchers / Fat White Family – Champagne Holocaust / Failures – Decline and fall

Enough about music, Amplifest is also about other arts. What books have you been reading and what movies have you been watching lately that you want to recommend?
Jenci: “The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century” by Joel F. Harrington / C’est arrivé près de chez vous (best belgian movie ever)
Kristof: Anything by Haruki Murakami, Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers and anything by Charles Burns…
Movies… Sons of Anarchy season 7 – the final ride just started… who needs movies?
Simon: Currently going through 1Q84 by Murakami and enjoying every second of it.