Divisions Ruin I first heard Divisions Ruin from a compilation CD from Eric's (Easpa Measa) zine, "Two Headed Dog". Anyhow turning it on, I replayed the same tune about 5 times in a row. Now in this day and age, you don't do that very often. Thought it was outstanding, then at Churchill punk festival, Divisions Ruin were one of the best bands of the weekend (a long with Bleeding Rectum and Excuses... oh yeah and Toxic Waste) 1. So first off what did you think of the Letterkenny Punks Picnic/punk festival? I thought it was a damn good weekend. What have been your best gigs so far? It was fuckin deadly , fair play to jasper and the rebellious jukebox crowd! we had just been on tour in Finland and came straight from the airport to the gig the same day so we were exhausted, but definitely one of the best gigs we've had. Our other favourite gigs would probably be the kopi in Berlin and zoro in Leipzig last year in Germany, and probably Means to an end fest in Bradford this year. But I'd say we pretty much always have a good laugh playing. 2. Were you gigging around europe? was it hard to go about it, any other gigs outside of Ireland planned? We've been really lucky with getting away, and we've managed to have a load of crazy adventures in Europe in the last year and a half. We went to Europe for nearly a month fairly soon after getting together a demo. Our first gig outside Ireland on that trip was wit Massmord(swe) in Liege(belgium) and that's where we met Phillipe(contrazt! records), who then Sorted out the 7 inch and German tour last November wit Down to Agony(spain). Then this summer we headed over to Finland for a couple of gigs with Khatarina(Fin), which was insane! As regards gigs planned outside of Ireland, I think the plan is to just go away as much as possible in the next while. 3. How do the rehearsals go for you? What kind of place do you play in? I always found Dublin so expensive for rehearsal space. We have a lot of fun practicing cos we're all friends and we get to hang out, drink beer//coffee, write tunes, and play ping pong(yeah, ping pong!). We're part of karate klub, which is a collective practice space that's been set up by a bunch of the punks in Dublin in response to the Fuckin rip off Dublin rehearsal studios! We've got a pretty big place now and we're set up pretty well at this stage thanks to loads of effort(and money!) from people involved and benefit gigs we've put on to get money for the space. its really amazing to have actually gotten it together and carved our own place out for DIY projects and music. 4. How is the ep selling? It's a damn right corker, any more releases planned sometime soon? We still have a few 7"s left, we've managed to sell a few at gigs and that alright. The Ep was a co-release by Contrazt! In Germany, Acclaim collective in Japan, Cesspool in Ireland and Humilidad y Honestidad in Spain and they all seem to be happy enough with it too. We're doin a split wit our friends Easpa Measa, another Irish band that we all really like (they're amazing!). Its recorded and all, just needs to be finished up and sent off. It'll probably be out early next year sometime. 5. What do you think the Irish scene at present in 2008? What are your current favorite bands? Do you think the politics in the diy musick scene has taken a back seat these days? The Irish scene is thriving at the moment, There really is a lot of great bands around, most bands end up a bit different than other countries, probably due to isolation from other scenes or somethin. Also there are a good few bands that are managing to get out of Ireland and go touring recently. Some of our favourite band doin stuff at the moment would be bacchus, complan, carosah, easpa measa, crowd control, and Only fumes and corpses. So check them out! We also have some other bands going ourselves that are doing a lot: Kidd Blunt, Droppin Bombs and Ended. Yeah, politics has definitely taken a much smaller role in the way the DIY scene here operates, there seems to be a fairly big backlash against things that are seen as overly "PC" or "right on". That's not to say that there isn't political stuff going on, for example Seomra Sproai social centre(who just got a new space!), or the Karate Klub, and not to mention the tonnes of people who are out organising shit or puttin on gigs wit DIY ethics. 6. You have the final word Generic krust messers for life, average till death! thanks, Sean http://www.myspace.com/divisionsruin