Novi Sad Punk Oi! - Serbia never walk alone

Torniamo nel nord della Serbia per conoscere i Vrsnjacko Nasilje, Oi! Punk Band che ormai da circa 10 anni calca i palchi di diversi Festival nazionali ma anche europei...

RTC) How and when was the band born and the members, tell us the hystory of band 

VJN) Idea for the band was born in Autumn of 2017. At that moment, old bands of me and bass player Ljuba (The Bayonets and Rex Union) haven't been active for a while, and we were thinking  that old school punk bands are missing in our city, so we've tried to change it. 

We had our first rehearsal in February 2018. In that first year we recorded two demos and played 7 gigs, including the last one with Stars & Stripes and we stopped. Then, during covid we started again, with the new guitarist, and here we are...

RTC) How can we call your style of playing? which are your musical influences?

VJN) Simply, oi!/punk. Our biggest influences are British Oi! and punk bands from the early 80's, but you could notice some elements of garage rock'n'roll, d-beat or old school hardcore in some of our songs.

RTC) What are your lyrics about? what do you stand for?

VJN) Our lyrics are a mixture of personal and social/political topics. I mean, we are clearly on the left political spectrum, but we avoid using cheap slogans. In our lyrics you can feel the anger, anxiety, and sometimes feeling of hopelessness, caused by living within a bunch of bigots in a time of brutal neoliberal capitalism.

RTC) What's your favourite beer or alcoholic drink?

VJN) Beer, definitely. Dragan, our guitarist loves rakija (Serbian domestic brandy) but I avoid that crazy shit.

RTC) Speak about the Oi! and Punk scene in your Area and Country

VJN) Oi! scene was strong in our city in Novi Sad in the 90's. After that, there were few bands leaning to an oi! sound who were part of the local punk/hardcore scene.

At the moment, there's a straight edge hardcore revival in our town and it attracts some young ones. It is not necessarily my thing, but those kids are coming to our shows and getting active in the scene. Anyway, our scene is pretty small so we are all sticking together, and there are not many divisions. For example, on the same gig you can see post punk, metalic hard core and streetpunk bands.

RTC) Can you mention the most important gigs you did?

VJN) We have done about 30 shows so far. Sounds like a cliche, but we 've enjoyed those shows equally. I mean, it is cool when you play a big open air festival with Cockney Rejects, but playing some dirty club/squat with no stage or DIY punk festivals like Monte paradiso or SAWA is more our style!

RTC) Do you suggest us other bands in your country ?

VJN) Of course, there are some good bands, but they mostly consist of old farts. In Belgrade there are Kpax, Statico, Urlik etc, and in Novi Sad De Limanos and Kalo at the moment. There is much more, but these are the first that came on my mind.

RTC) How much works (CD,LP Etc.) have you released ? I know that soon release a new album, speak about this

VJN) We have 2 demos recorded in 2018, as I mentioned. You can find them at our bandcamp page: https://vrsnjackonasilje.bandcamp.com/  .

We still like those songs, especially from the first demo (a.k.a Black demo), and I think it would be hell of the 7", so labels, if you wanna take a risk, and give it a go with dirty oi! in Slavic language, here is your chance!

Also, we have a live album released on the tape by our friend from the label Ljubav & Bes, with 10 songs from our set from the local festival called Streets against Fascism.

And you are right, we just recorded 12 songs for our debut LP. Just to sort out things with our label, we will start to promote it very soon, so be aware!

RTC) Do you go to Stadium ? is yes, which team you support ?

VJN) I think we could care less about football. Although, I was part of the local ultras group for many years, supporting FC Vojvodina. Nowadays, I can't relate to tycoon thieves in management of the club and drug dealers on the terraces who have strong ties with the government. It's not only the situation with my club, it is literally every club in Serbia. 

RTC) Do you know italian scene ? what do you think about ?

VJN) I am very much into the Italian scene. Nabat is my favorite, and I like Erode a lot. And some 80's hardvore classics like Negazione and Stigmathe. I have a lot of that stuff in my records and CD collection.

Talking about current bands, I find interesting Sempre Peggio, Iena, Tigre, Stiglitz, Golpe etc.

RTC) So, the interview is Over, say something to ?

VJN) Thanks for giving us a chance to spread our message to the people abroad.

And hopefully in the future we could cooperate with people from the Italian scene.

Un grazie ai ragazzi di Novi Sad per averci regalato un altro scorcio, un'altra finestra sulla scena in Serbia e per averci raccontato la loro Storia.

Vi consiglio di andare a ascoltare i loro lavori sulla loro pagina BANDCAMP , e noi... see you next fucking time...

Cheers & Beers