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Mihoen

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Who are we?

We are MIHOEN!, we're from Utrecht (fifth largest city of the Netherlands) and have been around since May 1996. From the beginning we have been with the four of us: Arno-vocals, Irmin-drums, Pepijn-bass, René-guitar. Musically we have been influenced by bands like Lärm, DRI, Los Crudos, 97a, Wilbur Cobb and ofcourse Seein'Red. MIHOEN! stands for uncompromised, ultra-fast, hardcore-crust-punk.

Our lyrics deal with issues that make us wonder, irritated or just plain and simpel stark raving mad. Think of things like institutionalised religion, xenophobia, sexism, fascist/ racist idiots or any other oppressing behavior. We also write stuff with a direct political angle like the unification of Europe or the power of multinationals (globalization).

To put it shortly, we are one of those bands with 'an opinion' and apparantly we belong to the leftist-political-hardcore-punkscene. This was never a choice or a wish and who knows, it might not even be true. Because when do you belong to a scene? To be honest, this is not of any concern to us. We have better things to do, like real contact with real living and breathing human beings, no matter what scene they belong to.

What do we do?

We do it ourselves. Why do we do it ourselves? Well, we can give you about five reasons (there are probably lots more , but these come to mind first):

1. We don't want to be dependent. Autonomy is the keyword. This is now a conscious decision, but it originally stems from an inner urge to be self-reliant and to be able to work on every ground.

2. If we do it ourselves, others can not fuck it up for us (we just do that ourselves as well).

3. It's often cheaper.

4. We want to know everything and you learn the best by doing it yourself (compare us to a bunch little kids: "why?", "how does this work?"). DIY is the best school of learning.

5. It undermines the commercially based economy.

What do we do ourselves?

Lots of things, but we'll stick to the music issue. We like to thrash around and release a record every now and then, either on our own label; "In The Wok"-records or with the help of people we know as friends (Balowski Records, Kick 'N Punch). And again, we like do to as much of it ourselves as possible, that's why everything takes so fucking long ("Alright guys, here we go again, let's silk-screen, cut, fold and glue 1000 record covers!"). Simply put; under no circumstance do we want to be dependent on record companies, managers or whatever money-grubbers you have out there. We will always try to realise our ideas on our own, so that every record we put out can be justified for a full 100%.

Where do we like to do it ourselves? (O.k., too easy: in bed or under the shower?)

In places that have something to do with independence and self-reliance: (Ex-) squats (like the ACU or the Kortsluiting, kind of our second homes), some hall above a bar where somebody has taken the initiative to get something off the ground, a barn in a village somewhere in the Czech Republic, whatever. The atmosphere, the people…it just seems to work so much better than being part of the regular programme of a subsidized youthcentre, because we (often) feel out place there. Add to this that we find direct contact with our audience of very high importance. We prefer to play not on stage but on the same ground as the audience. We are human beings, not some rock-gods longing to be worshipped. And if we're talking about scenes anyway than to us the important parts are those that survive when subsidies (=dependence) are taken away.

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