Interview

OFFICER JONES AND HIS PATROL CAR PROBLEMS

Samedi 13 mai 2006

1.Who's OFFICER JONES AND HIS PATROL CAR PROBLEMS? Why did you chose such a
name. Isn't it too long to use for an internet research?

Officer Coppers: We have Kris Deweerdt on vocals, Nic Placklé on guitar, Tim Sels on bass, Wim J.M. Coppers on drums and Vincent Tetaert behind the boss sampler, microkorg keyboard and other unimportant small electric devices. When we started out, we needed a name for our project.

Our singer at that time (Stijn Govaerts) just came up with “Officer Jones And His Patrol Car Problems” out of the blue and we all agreed that it sounded almost as crazy as the music we wanted to make, so we kept it. As time went by, we got used to the name and even started to involve it as a lyrical theme. That was pretty much the point of no return, so we kept the name and decided to live up to it.

Nobody in the band cares about how easy our name is to conduct internet researches with, so if it is too long, try a search for Coalesce, penis enlargement or Mastodon.

2.The band plays dressed as policemen. Who's the Officer Jones then? Is it Kris because he is the toughest of the band? Do you dress like this just for fun or is there kind of a joke against policemen?

Officer Coppers: First of all, we don’t dress like this for fun, neither is it a joke against policemen. We wear our uniforms to honour officer Curtis N. Jones. Officer Jones roamed the streets of Pensacola, Florida and died after his car left the road and struck a building (June 27. 1980). Nobody in the band IS officer Jones, we – as a band - serve and honour him.

3.I often heard comparisons of your music with BOTCH. Do you agree? Do you
have other influences, or are you just a BOTCH rip-off band? ;-) How would
you describe your music to your grandmother?

Officer Coppers: Semtex magazine recently reviewed us and according to them we are in fact a complete Botch ripp-off. We think it’s mighty strange to steal everything from Botch and at the same time some people hear Converge, Knut, Keelhaul, Mastodon, Children Of Fall, The Dillinger Escape Plan, ISIS, Old Man Gloom, . . .

Anyways, needless to say we are not a Botch rip-off band. We like Botch a lot and our guitar player bought Dave Knudson’s amp, because he needed an extra amp for stereo effects and it was cheap. But that’s the end of the line.

Ooh, and we don’t even bother to describe our music to our grandmothers.

4.Your band seems to get more and more exposure in Belgium. You even opened
for THE DILINGER ESCAPE PLAN. You play constantly...But never in Wallonie?
Did you play outside Belgium already? You have also played the Ieper Fest
2005. You're into success soon! Maybe rock stars?

Officer Placklé: So far we’ve played a shitload of shows in Belgium as well as in the Netherlands, Germany and The Czech Republic. We’ve had a tour in the UK scheduled last year, but because our drummer broke both of his arms, we had to cancel all those shows.

I think we play as much in the Wallonie, as bands from Wallonie play in Flanders. Don’t ask me why, but it seems that it’s a bit of a different scene. We played one show in Liege a couple months ago. We didn’t expect it, but it was really good. So if you’re from la Wallonie and you wanna book us, great! Get in touch.

5.For you, is the underground scene something important? Being DIY? Are you
active in other projects like bands, zines, shows organisations...

Officer Coppers: Officer Tetaert plays the guitar in Amen Ra, and officer Deweerdt sings in a nameless tough guy band with other VIP hardcore kids. Sels and Placklé used to play in Cast-Down and Coppers sang for Reply. Everybody played in numerous bands before we all found what we’ve been looking for in OJAHPCP. Deweerdt also organises small DIY hardcore shows every once in a while.

We do believe that the underground scene is important. We are grateful for all the opportunities we’ve gotten so far and we’ve met a whole lot of friends on the road. It’s crazy to drive 10 hours to east-Germany, play a show and drive the 10 hour trip back home, but we love it.

Officer Placklé: I sometimes have mixed feelings about this. Hardcore stands for diversity, rebellion and trying to do something out of the ordinary. It’s a pity most hardcore bands don’t translate that in their songwriting too. There are still a lot of hardcore kids who are very narrow minded and will only listen to old school hardcore or crust. There’s so much more out there. It just doesn’t fit their image. Fuck that!

6.What do you think of the Belgian politics against refugees? I guess some of you have already been on protest in Votem or other such « closed centre »?

Officer Placklé: As much as we would like to discuss politics and the general Belgian attitude about refugees, we’re not going to do that in the context of an OJAHPCP interview.

7.I don't even know what are the subjects of your lyrics? Is it just personal emo diaries? Is there a political scheme? Or disillusioned views on life?

Officer Coppers: As we’ve mentioned before, Curtis N. Jones is our lyrical theme. All our lyrics deal with his feelings, what he thought about the city he served, his colleagues and about himself. We use officer Jones to state our mind about certain subjects but we are in no way a political band. We are 5 individuals with our own ideas about certain topics and don’t feel the need to write music about that. Instead, we try to keep the listener curious about who officer Jones and Amos Cross were and what Palafox is.

Those with a watchful ear and eye could stumble upon some surprises while surfing the internet or looking closely at Memorial’s layout.

8.Your new record is out on LP via Mashnote Rec and on CD via Isclear Rec. Tell us a bit more about it. What's your relation with the labels. Friendship or whatever? Is it important for you to have a good relation with your labels? Something that would go on a « more than just music » idea?

Officer Coppers: We didn’t really know the people at Mashnote or Isclear when they asked us to sign their label. In a small hardcore-scene with DIY record labels it’s normal that we’ve got to know everybody involved in Mashnote and Isclear. We consider them friends until we start talking about money, credits and royalties.

It was important for us to find a record label that knew what we wanted to achieve as artists, lyrically and musically. Mashnote and Isclear both help us out in any way they can and we couldn’t possibly ask for more, now can we?

Officer Placklé: We knew from the beginning that they were small labels who are just starting out. For Isclear we were their first release. The distribution is not always that great and we have to handle our own tours, so in that department there’s room for improvement. But we don’t blame them, we knew what we were getting into.

9.What are the best Belgian bands, zines, and labels actually for you? And if it wasn't Belgian ones, which one would it be?

Officer Placklé: This is a very difficult question if you don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. There are a couple of bands we like that are worth checking out, like Rise and Fall, Amen Ra, the Setup, Trouble Loves Us, Autumn Delay, the Sedan Vault, ...
As far as labels, you have Mashnote, Hypertension, Conspiracy, Delboy, ...
I don’t really know about really good flemish zines. My all time favourite zine is still Second Nature.

10.I have a very stupid question...We in the French part of Belgium have
stupid jokes about French people. And they do have the same ones on us. Do you
also have stupid jokes on Dutch people? Tell us one if there’re some.

Officer Coppers: We do have jokes on Dutch people, but they are too politically correct to be funny.

Officer Placklé: I can only think of one stupid one: How many duthcmen does it take to screw in a light bulb? 5, one to hold the light bulb and four to twist the ladder around. I know it sucks.

11.What are the next plans for OFFICER JONES? Some more car problems, or some tours, split records?

Officer Placklé: Right now we’re still very much in the process of promoting the ‘Memorial’ album. We’re trying to do as many shows as we can and maybe some tours to Germany, France and the UK. We’re also busy writing new material, but we don’t know yet what the next thing is we’ll put out. Maybe a mcd. We’ll see.

12.One last question to Kris and Coppi: « would you try again to start a band with such lazy and fucking bass player like me? » ;-)

Officer Coppers: Haha, I’m sorry, I am spending all my spare time behind my desk and drum kit, studying and OJAHPCP is a full time thing for me. Feel free to ask Kris, if he’s not making art or break dancing, he might scream a couple of words in a microphone for you.

13.Ok, now I leave you the last words...Bye and hope to see you soon playing more over Wallonie.

Officer Coppers: Be sure to check out these websites http://www.ojahpcp.com // http://www.myspace.com/officerjonesandhispatrolcarproblems // http://www.mashnote.net // http://www.isclear.net, let your hair and beards grow long and stay metal!

Thanks Julien, take good care and we hope to see you soon, over there or over here.

TU AS AIME ? PARTAGE !