LIAR
This interview, done by Jan in September 2000, is with Hans Verbeke.
Hans is the singer for the cool Belgian band Liar...

Jan: Please give us a short introduction about yourself, Liar, your clothing company and your job at Goodlife...

Hans: My name is Hans Verbeke, I'm turning 31 this year, I live and was born/raised in Kortrijk (Belgium), I'm the singer for the band Liar and I run a sXe clothing company called 24. My every-day job is at Goodlife Recordings, I'm responsable for the promotion and some mailorder and much more. I enjoy this very much.

Jan: What's the idea behind 24 clothing being a sXe brand? Sort of a new alternative on X-ing your hands?

Hans: 24 is something I started with this year, but had for a long time in the back of my head. I did previous efforts in this style, but none of those have been so good and satisfying as this one. 24 is pretty much all about sXe and drug free related stuff mixed with nice and original graphics. To me personally every effort to show a drug free lifestyle to the outside world is important, and there's tons of merchandise in the hardcore-scene that has a cool and important message, but I see that there's lack of creativity on the graphical front. If you do some research, there's tons of cool stuff available, and that's what I wanna offer to the people. A cool and goodlooking design on a piece of merchandise. I got the help of Dave Quiggle from the band Disciple and Mike Ski is gonna do some stuff for me as well..he's doing the nicest artwork possible and people seem to pick it up.
I love old SF, mob, action movies..alot of 70's and 80's designs will be used in my upcoming designs... even original vintage iron-ons from back in the 70's will be used. I just designed custom made iron-ons with images from the movies Goodfellas and Donnie Brasco, but with a 24 logo on it, full color on a ringer shirt, I totally love it, and I'm sure alot of people are gonna love it too... I totally love StarWars stuff, so I used the drug free stormtrooper which has become legendary in the meantime. I try to design stuff that I would buy myself, stuff that I'm 100% behind. It's sXe to the bone, but nice and cool. It's definitely not an alternative for the X on the hand, I still recommend X-ing up as well.

Jan: Which records really make you go wild ?

Hans: I love alot of stuff, from metal to hardcore to punk to 50's stuff... lately I listen to alot of hardcore again, good bands like Stretch Arm Strong, Brother's Keeper, Judge....  metal...Mercyful Fate, Living Sacrifice, Destruction, Agent Steel...  punk...Vice Squad, The Clash...

Jan:  In your column in the first issue of The Paper you wrote the HC-scene has been going downhill lately and you try to motivate people to do more constructive things. But what kind of change would you like to see first?

Hans: I would like to see more action and less talk about certain people. I don't think we can and will change the world with the hardcore community, but I do believe that we can create a better vibe and mood. It can be so much more interesting and enjoyable for all of us. People need to take more risk in doing things and accepting that most things in life aren't always easy and smooth. Every HC kid should book shows in his/her hometown. Why bothering if your band seems to go nowhere, put out your own 7" or cd then. That's how we did it 10 years ago... dare to take the risk, support each other, don't wait till the big day comes and a bigger will put out your band, to book your band or to do whatever... if you think the scene sucks and all zines and labels do suck, make it better yourself, make your own zine, start your own label and speak out if you don't like something, that's the best way. People need a kick in the butt sometimes. I'm 31 and I'm organizing for over 10 years shows now, and alot of people think I got it all easy and sweet, but believe me... things where so much rougher back in those days. I'm happy with how I evolved with things in my life.

Jan:  Do you think spirituality or religion can have it's place in Hardcore?

Hans: Of course... religion on itself is OK... it's wrong if people are harming other people because of that. Because there's no bible that says that you should preach injustice, hatred and discrimination.The bible talks about forgiveness and loving your fellow human beings. And only in case of self defense it leaves the options open... like the old testament says...eye for an eye; while the new testament speaks about turning the other cheek. It's open for improvisation, and that's dangerous, people do misunderstand things and are practicing things the wrong way. That's the reason why alot of people are opposed to religion. I used to think like that years ago, but some stuff sparked my interest, and I met alot of nice and inspiring people that do believe in God and are nice and aren't even preachy about it, and that's what I like. Religion can have it's place in hardcore. Alot of people are too bothered with useless issues if it's OK to tolerate religion in the scene yes or no, but aren't questioning the growing of sexism in our scene with shitty labels like Victory Records who did an ad in a porn magazine, aren't questiong the racism in the scene with stupid bands I won't name here... aren't questioning the random violence at shows especially in the U.S, where people got beaten or stabbed to death because of some testerone filled tough guy...

Jan: But don't you think it's great there's a certain diversity in the HC scene ? Of course it's stupid Victory places their ads in shitty porn mags and all but personally I wouldn't have felt myself comfortable in a scene where everybody was on the same level of awareness about sXe , animal rights etc...  I mean , all this diversity in morals , ethics and opinions forces people to have more respect for different-thinking people and that's far more important than forcing your personal beliefs on someone.
In other words: the HC scene can be a place where embracing morals / sXe are seen as a given , how do you feel about that?

Hans: I have to agree with you that we need different morals, statements, beliefs and ethics... but some codes are needed in this scene.... else what's next... getting away with fascism, racism etc... I don't think we should tolerate any form of sexism in our scene, I don't think it's right that a label as Victory, which is obviously the biggest "HC" label on this globe, is doing actions like this; a label like this should use their position and status more to be positive and to be educative and not acting like whatever dumb major label without any morals. And that's the case here; there's no spine or feeling with hardcore anymore, all morals and original ideas have been forgotten and this is just a stupid action.
And us kids should speak out against stuff like this, a band like Boy Sets Fire delivered the soundtrack for a hard-porn movie called "The Legacy"... this is so fucked-up... I wouldn't even have expected something like that... BSF had always the image of an outspoken more PC band... now they are just corporate and left their morals behind... I can't believe this is happening, years back a global boycot would have been the answer, but today's scene is blind and lazy and swallows everything, this is how I feel about today's HC scene... I'm talking about the majority of HC kids.

Jan:  What's your view on the existence of a God , lifeforce , whatever...

Hans: As for myself I'm not sure what to think, I definitely believe in a higher lifeforce that reigns and controls all things on this earth, I don't know if we need to call it God or not, but I have strong beliefs in natural powers and spirits and afterlife etc...

Jan:  In some old Reflections zine you talked about fighting demons in life. How would you define those demons which restricted your life in the past ? How do you see them ? ..an evil force , sort of weird creatures ?

Hans: It seems you did quite some research on me... with demons I meant the poisons that where an obstacle in my youth and the poisons that influenced the behaviour of the people that where responsable for my education and preparations for life. I learned some stuff the hard way and pretty fast, as a kid I remember being always one step ahead on lessons in life, because of the not so good situations at home sometimes. Hardcore and sXe have been the best things for me in my life, I experienced things so far that I wouldn't had experienced in the life I was living then.

Jan: Personally I see Liar as a 100% METAL band but with positive / thoughtful lyrics... Do you use Liar to "infiltrate" in the temporary metalscene to introduce some metalheads to a more uplifting lifestyle or are you more focusing on the Hardcore-minded audience?

Hans: Nobody in Liar really cares about the metal-scene itself, we all love metal and listen to metal a lot, and we do visit shows from time to time, but we have no intentions in playing on a lot of metal shows, it's all so different... we have played shows with Cradle Of Filth, Benediction, Bolt Thrower... but it's all differently organized and it's a scene where we wouln'd feel home. Most of the time the organizers act like real scummy people and they treat you very badly. HC is where our place is...

Jan: Your vocals definitely have evolved since the "Invictus" record. On the last Liar record "Deathrow Earth" we even could hear some clean vocals. Can you tell us something about training your vocalistic skills or is it just something that comes through the years?

Hans: After a couple of records it's pretty normal as a band you're trying some different stuff. I didn't train my voice or anything, it just seemed to work, next recordings will have more experimental stuff in it on the vocal part of things and also the musical part will be a bit different, which doesn't mean we're slowing down or something, just a litlle more hardcore elements in the newer stuff, more sing-along to direct lyrics and words people will feel related with and feel comfortable with.

Jan: By the way , does that Liar / Earth Crisis project I heard about still have a future??

Hans: It's called 'Project Provoke' and might happen one day... it will be fast and furious stuff with different people involved.