Instructor is a new band from Brussels, Belgium bringing you hard vibes like Kickback and Cro-Mags adding their own take to the current crop of bands exploring late 80s New York Hardcore. Born out of wanting to power up a French-speaking Belgian HC scene, which has long been overshadowed by it's Flemish counterpart, this group also started putting on DIY HC-Punk shows in their city, putting Brussels HC back on the map!
The Demo tape is out now on QCHQ. Check out the vibes here: https://qualitycontrolhq.bandcamp.com/album/demo-2019
What was the vision for the band when you started writing tunes and then came together as a band?
There was not much happening around anymore and we really wanted to get things going and make hard music again.
You sound heavily influenced by late 80s NYHC like Breakdown, Dmize, but also I'm hearing early Kickback. I also enjoy that's it just the right amount of complicated with a good dose of 'young and dumb' which makes great HC in my book. What are some of your fave influences and also current bands?
Breakdown and Kickback are huge influences for us. We’re really into all these NY bands. We also like less intellectual stomping Oi and hardcore. Our current favourite bands are from the UK. We’re quite excited about Nosferatu, and Trap from Toulouse too.
The band are also a collective who put on shows in Brussels at the awesome Cobra Jaune. You even did a Belgium Hardcore logo with the bar's logo. Tell us a bit about the space and what's great about the Brussels scene right now.
We’ve been booking shows for a while, and now do it under the name A Place In The Sun. As YDI’s record, the name is a bit ironic. We chose it because the venues we host shows at are always located in the sketchiest parts of Brussels and the places don’t look idyllic. The Cobra Jaune is a dive bar that used to be a famous darts club, but now they host awesome Congolese and Brazilian parties. As there were no more venues for small punk shows in Brussels we started doing things there. Some of our shows were followed by Brazilian or Congolese after-parties. Then we had 15-year-old skinheads and Congolese guys coming to our shows and dug the mix. We love the fact that this old bar under a bridge became a hotspot for punk here. So we re-used their former darts logo which looks sick anyways.
Apart from that, there isn’t a lot of hardcore or punk in Brussels. But it’s great to see that things are now starting to change and new kids are coming out to shows.
Bigger bands get to play at Magasin 4, and there are a few arty squats in which we don’t waste our time.
What is happening with the band soon? Where can people see you live and what's next?
Since we’re booking Nosferatu and Kaleidoscope at the Cobra Jaune on June 19th we decided it would also be our release show. Other plans for shows include Paris, Toulouse and London. We’re writing new songs with more mosh parts so we’ll hopefully record again soon.
Flyer by Nicky Rat
