This interview was given by the members of Nuclear Mutants to the French zine Riot & Dance, possibly in 1996, and was republished in 1997 in the British zine Ripping Thrash.

NUCLEAR MUTANTS

are a punk band from Cyprus who to be honest I've not heard anything by, as this interview was supplied by Anthony from French zine Riot & Dance, so thanks a lot to him, and as we never hear anything from this Island, I found this interview interesting, I hope you do too….

YOU FORMED THE BAND ONE YEAR AGO - WHICH CHANGES OF MEMBERS DID HAPPEN SINCE THE BEGINNING AND WHY?

The group was formed more than one year ago by members of APOSYNTHESIS and LOST EXISTENCE (R.I.P. both bands). The original members were Charis, Giannis, Kypros and Irene. After that, Irini became pregnant so Eva joined in. Kypros also left in order to join a heavy metal band (he never had it in his blood). We tried a lot of other guys but finally the group ended up in this form: Charis (bass), Irene (guitar & vocals), George (guitar), Giannis (drums) and Eva (vocals)

NOWADAYS, TV AND NEWSPAPERS FOCUS ON CYPRUS BECAUSE EEC WONDERS IF CYPRUS AND TURKEY SHOULD OR NOT ENTER THE COMMUNITY. WHAT’S YOUR OPINION ON THE SUBJECT AND ON GENERAL POLITICS OF THE ISLAND? (I MEAN SEPARATION TURKISH/GREEK DOMAINS)

First of all, the European Community for us (the way we understand it) is a huge conspiracy where a group of people want to govern Europe. So fuck European Community. LIVE FREE!!

In the case of Cyrpus, it’s just a fight between Turkey and Greece about who’s gonna take the biggest piece from the ‘pie’ (island). Fuck them both! Death to all bosses! We want to live free in a united world (by the way they say that we are Greek Cypriots but we are citizens of the world)

WHAT’S THE RESULT FOR YOU AS A PUNK BAND BEING GEOGRAPHICALLY ISOLATED? (CONTACTS WITH SCENES AROUND THE WORLD)

We cannot say that we are geographically isolated because if we were you could not read this interview. But of course, things could be much different if we lived in a bigger country like the US. We think that we would have more opportunities to promote our work to more people. We have a lot of contacts around the world especially in England and the US. The internet played a great role in that!

WHERE DO YOUR GIGS FIND PLACES? (UNIVERSITIES, BARS, GIG-ROOMS..) ARE YOU CONFRONTED TO STUPID ASSHOLES (SEXIST OR RACIST, VIOLENT FOLKS) ?

To find a place for concerts in Cyprus is very difficult. The main reason is that punks in Cyprus are very few in number, so nobody permits us to play in their pubs or gig-rooms. Fuck them! What we do is to rent a hall or play in some friend’s basement. Because our beliefs are against the beliefs of the majority of Greek Cypriots (the government is continually feeding a hatred against the Turks) we have a lot of assaults by racists and people who belong to the right wing parties.

WHICH BANDS DO YOU APPRECIATE MOST? DO YOU KNOW ANY FRENCH BANDS? (EXCEPT THE TAPES)

We appreciate all the bands that still have their minds active, they are sincere, and have never signed up in a multinational corporation. The only French band we are familiar with (and this is before you sent us the tapes) is ANOMIE, who are fucking great!

CAN YOU FIND PUNK MATERIALS (TAPES, ZINES….) IN CYPRUS AND WHERE FROM?

In Cyprus, it is very difficult to find punk material, that is if you are new on the scene. For us is very easy to find this material because we already have our contacts and there is always the internet.

DO YOU KNOW ANY ALTERNATIVE PLACES IN NICOSIA? (ANARCHIST, ECOLOGIST, ANTI-FASCIST COLLECTIVES)

No, there are no alternative places in Nicosia now. Five-six years ago there was a place (Underground Rockclub) where you could listen to all kinds of rock music. It was not the kind of alternative place we have in mind. Two years ago Charis, George and some other guys rented a place in order to transform it into a anarcho-punk-hardcore kind of pub but this effort has failed because of lack of money. Now, there is an ‘organisation’ in Nicosia called Nicosia Anarchists who they don’t have a place to meet but they are well organised.

AS FOR THE GIGS, IS IT DIFFICULT TO FIND A PLACE FOR REHEARSAL AND A STUDIO TO RECORD YOUR SONGS?

It is difficult to find a place for rehearsals because we don’t have money to rent a place and also for the reason that we play loudly and the neighbours don’t like punk rock at all, they always kick us out. As for the studios you can understand from this: £360 per month is considered to be a good salary for Cyrpus. Studios may even ask £300 per song.

WHO WRITES THE LYRICS INSIDE THE BAND AND WHAT ARE THEY INSPIRED BY?

Lyrics are mostly written by Charis, Giannis and Irini and are easily inspired by the shitty world we live in.

IS IT IMPORTANT TO SING IN ENGLISH OR DO YOU INTEND TO WRITE SOME SONGS IN NATIVE LANGUAGE? (GREEK OR TURKISH? SORRY, I DON’T KNOW….)

We think that the language used is not so important. What is important is the message you want to express from the songs. The reason we decided to express ourselves in the english language is because we don’t want to limit ourselves only to the Greek audience but to expand in other countries as well and for that cause English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE FOLLOWING BANDS? HEYOKA, DEAD KENNEDYS, NECROSIS, SPICE GIRLS.

HEYOKA: fucking great! What else can we say?

DEAD KENNEDYS: great music, great lyrics, although they sold themselves out (or their company, who knows?)

NECROSIS: We know the Turkish group: “Together United We’ll Win”

SPICE GIRLS: Pieces of meat ready to get fucked out. HA HA HA! Ask something serious, man!

ARE YOU AT SCHOOL OR DO YOU HAVE OTHER ACTIVITIES IN DAILY LIFE? WHAT DOES COME IN YOUR MIND IF I SAY CLASS WAR?

Irini and Charis are now at college trying to become psychoogists (know your enemies before you fight back). George is working as a carpenter and Giannis is working as a computer engineer. Charis also likes motorcross and kick-boxing a lot. Irini likes to play the guitar also. George also likes motorcross and Giannis likes a Russian girl called Catrine (HA HA HA!)

Class War - if you mean it as it is described in Marx’s theories it will not exist in an anarchist society as we dream it, for the simplest reason that classes would not exist. Cooperation is the base of all.

IS IRENE’S BABY HEALTHY? WHAT’S HER/HIS NAME?

Irene and Charis’s baby (the name is Leda) is very healthy and an excellent disaster. She breaks everything that stands in her way. She likes punk/hardcore very much and she has created a new dance which will be very popular in 16 years from now. Now she’s 14 months old.

NOW I LET YOU THE LAST WORDS (PROJECTS…)

Now, we are preparing new material in order to release a compete album in the next few months. We have already had some proposals from some underground record companies but we are not sure about anything. DIY is out of question for now because as we explained above money always avoids us.

Stay on your beliefs, united we will one day create the world we all dream of. ANARCHY.

NUCLEAR MUTANTS / c/o CHARIS / 14 ARTEMIDOS STREET FLAT 12 / 2058 STROVOLOS / NICOSIA / CYPRUS.