Erich Keller's last Fear Of God interview.
Questions by Pig Havok (Pleasant Valley Children vocalist).
Taken from Dingo Baby issue 3 (published 1989).  

Do you think most people who like Fear Of God genuinely like you, or just pretend to because noise like yours is so hip?
I certainly hope people like us from the heart, but it's clear to me that we are mainly liked because our music is so brutal, and that's pretty 'hip' at the time.  The whole noise thing got totally out of control with big sellers such as Napalm Death, and I don't think this 'scene' is heading towards the right direction.  We, as Fear Of God, try to stay away from that trend, but it's obvious we're misunderstood by most who bought our EP.
If you got offered a deal with Metal Blade or Roadrunner, would you accept?  What do you think of punk bands who sign to labels like these - do you think people have grounds to call these bands 'sellouts'?
To set this point straight, I'd have to make you aware that we turned down offers from labels like Earache or Nuclear Blast, so it won't surprise you when I'm saying that we never would sign to any label and of course not to any metal label.  What do I think of bands signing to such labels?  If a heavy metal band signed to such a label, they're just practising what they are - heavy metal, but if a punk/hardcore band does, it's obvious that they are sellouts, especially when they used to sign slogans like "Money Stinks" (DRI), etc.
Do you ever think about mellowing your sound to make it more accessible to more people?  Could you see any point in it?
I do not say that we ever will stay the same as we are now.  All of Fear Of God have various musical tastes, so I could imagine playing a totally different sound from what we're doing now like, say, melodic hardcore.  What we would never do is to make our sound more 'accessible', i.e. trying to sell more records.  But I don't think Fear Of God will ever 'mellow' its sound as it's exactly those brutal and aggressive sounds that make us enjoy ourselves in Fear Of God.  Osi, the drummer, and I are currently searching for other members for a more hardcore orientated band, but we would never do that under the name of Fear Of God, and with the members we have now, as our tastes differ too much.  Besides, I think that Fear Of God got more brutal soundwise during the last 18 months, and our new stuff is on the one hand more improved, and the other way more aggressive and rougher.  We have definitely found what you could call an own style.
Why such simple lyrics?  They obviously don't take you a lot of time to write.  Are they not important to you?
Did you ever try to write lyrics in German?  My mother language is not English and I never learnt English in school, that's why our words are much simpler than they could have been.  But lately my English went through some progression, and I hope that the new lyrics are better than the simple old stuff.  That's also because I got away from the stereotype lyric contents such as animal rights, etc.  I'm enclosing two newer lyrics (one of which, 'World Under My Fingernail', was reprinted at the end of the original article) and I hope you will take notice of the progression.  To me, the lyrics are more important than the music, as we could play any sort of music and I still would enjoy it.  But I couldn't sing any sort of lyrics and be happy with it.
Does 'Punk' still mean something to you, or do you think it's just a load of irrelevant bullshit?
Would it disturb you when I said that 'Punk' never meant anything to me?  I know it sounds very Punk Rock when I say that all this labelling is bullshit, but I do think exactly so.  You see, when I hear (the word) 'Punk', my brainwashed grey cells show me a picture of some stupid idiot wearing an Exploited T-shirt, while yelling "Anarchy" and carrying a bottle of booze.  So is labelling good or what?
Is Fear Of God just entertainment, or are you trying to reach people with your ideas?  Is the band your only positive thing, or are you active in other ways?
When we started the band we were young and full of ideas, and ideals, like the animal rights stuff.  I became vegetarian because of Fear Of God, and I know Fear Of God turned many of our friends into vegetarians, so we did achieve something with our ideals first.  But as we became 'bigger', we realised that 90% of the people who heard our music were only interested in the fast music.  Also we went through changes, so Tschösi, our guitarist, is not interested in the hardcore scene anymore, Osi turned from a noise fanatic into a melody fanatic, and I realised that there's many other things than music, books and movies etc.  I think that Fear Of God is pretty disillusioned with the hardcore scene.  Our lyrics remain idealistic, but in a more realistic way.  As far as activities go, Dave seems to be pretty busy with his Animal Rights stuff (he's the band vegan, and chief idealist), Osi plays in several other music groups, and I run a record label (Off The Disk), a fanzine (Megawimp) and a mail order.  Tschösi, I don't know.
What do you think the future is for punk/hardcore in the next ten years, and where will you fit into this?
Hardcore has its future, that's for sure.  As long as there are caring and deaf people (ha ha!), there will be a hardcore scene.  Too bad you can also say, that as long as there's frustrated kids who want to impress others by their bad taste, there will be a hardcore music scene.  Where will I fit into this?  I will try to keep my interest in this movement going.  Maybe in ten years, Fear Of God are the leaders of the new atheist church, we will have our own TV station and wear Napalm Death T-shirts?
Anything you'd like to say about Fear Of God or the Swiss scene?
Yes, if you're into fast music, please don't write!  Thank you Pig Havok (this ain't your real name, is it?) (Nope, it's really Bertram Cauliflower - Ed., ho ho) for this interesting interview.

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