In between some stagedives at Ieperfest last month, we were running around and bothering roadies in order to find our very soon to be interviewed chosen one. What seemed like waiting for Godot drastically changed when suddenly a guy showed up, eyes covered with sunglasses and wearing this non erasable smile on his face. ‘I just had a vegan cupcake’, he said. ‘With banana, it was so good…’.
Jona Weinhofen, rocking the guitar for IKTPQ, former member of Bring Me The Horizon and Bleeding Through. Your name is actually German sounding...
Jona: Well, i have some family that are Dutch and German speakers. But unfortunately I don't speak any of those languages.
Then let's just stick to English.
Jona: it would be a very boring interview otherwise
(laughs).
The band has been out of the game for a while: In 2007 it was announced that IKTPQ would disband, in 2011 there was a comeback. Now, how does it feel to be back?
Jona: It feels nice. We've actually been easing into it. We made an announcement in 2011 that we were back together, but since then we only did two Australian and one European tour.
This summer we played two festivals and then there is the Never Say Die your planned. Up until last December I was in another band as well as some of the other guys. So it's hard to write a new album with all that going on. Right now we are all free and focused on the band. At the moment we are recording our new album in Sweden. After this show we go back to Sweden to record our new album.
You guys seem glad to be back, how do the fans react to your comeback?
Jona: it has been quite a long time since we toured full time, so we have definitely lost a bit of hype. The fact that we were in other bands helped IKTPQ in some way I think. If we would have quit and not have been doing other bands, not so many people would care about IKTPQ at this moment.
The response to our comeback has been very nice until now. The next step will be how people react to our new material. Because people easily criticize new stuff that bands come up with. I don't know if people will enjoy it or think it's different or maybe they will still see it as the same old stuff.
What do you think the new album sounds like?
Jona: It feels normal to me, just like the last album we made in 2005. We had some line-up changes, but actually it's me and our original guitarist Kevin who have always written the music. So musically not so much changed. We have a new vocalist, Jamie, who has been playing bass and guitar in bands before too. I think it sounds cool and I hope people like it. We'll see what reactions will be like.
Are you playing any new songs at Ieperfest today?
Jona: Just one. We only have one that is really ready to play. Everything else was still a mess until three or four weeks ago. Then sat down in the studio and sort it all out. We might play another new song on Never Say Die in October. Otherwise probably not until next year when the album actually comes out.
The music might not have been changed much, but there was a quite big line-up change. What did that do to the atmosphere on tour and on stage?
Jona: we're all a bit older now. The youngest of the band is 25, the oldest is 32. There was a time that we were all 19 to 22 years old, so we were partying and hanging out a lot. Now it's a bit more boring
(laughs). On stage we try always to be very energetic to not look boring. Sometimes we even sacrifice sounding good by moving around a little more. We like to have fun. It's not that we're the stadium rockband. Not everything needs to be perfect.
Are you familiar with the concept of Ieper Hardcore Fest?
Jona: Prom Queen counts four vegans and a vegetarian, so this is quite important for us. I had been a vegetarian since I was 15 or 16 years old and a year after I turned vegan. At that age I started going to hardcore shows and met all those people that were vegetarian or vegan. The more I learned and discovered about it, the more I realized that this was something I wanted to do myself.
Now I've been vegan for 13,5 years, so I am always curious to see and hear about other vegans in other parts of the world.
You are an Australian band playing Europe. In what way does the European crowd differ from other crowds?
Jona: They give you a warm welcome. It seems people here in Europe, in most parts at least, they take music more broad. For example in Australia there would be a group of people at one show, that wouldn't go to see another band. All that is just because they want to stick to certain styles. Over here in Europe people seem to be more accepting. Here at our shows we see people going from metal to hardcore to whatever. Shows here remind me of the shows in Australia when I was younger. It used to be more diverse, the crowds. People in Australia are going a bit too cool for certain bands or styles. They seem to just stick to a couple of favourites and that is all.
You actually were in the middle of a new metalcore revolution, because you are in IKTPQ and you also have been in other bands like Bring Me The Horizon and Bleeding Through.
Jona: we were just a bunch of young guys that discovered some new bands like for example Poison The Well, Hatebreed. We liked the melody of some of the bands we heard and inspired by that we just tried something. I don't think we are doing anything new, before us there were other bands doing the same stuff in their way. We just were like 'we like this, so let's try to sound like that as well'. But I guess now it's exploded and there is a lot more bands that are into that style of music. It's pretty cool that we were one of the first bands, especially in Australia, to come up with it. Nowadays there is definitely a lot of bands that are doing it as well.
You've been on tour a lot of times. What is the craziest thing that happened so far?
Jona: One time I was in Los Angeles playing a show with Bring Me The Horizon. Right after we finished there was a shooting right outside the show, just across the road. There was lots of police, they asked us to leave our bus and we weren't allowed to get back to the crime scene for six hours. It was in the middle of the night. I don't think anybody died, but that was pretty scary. In Australia situations like that are extremely rare, especially right outside the front door. Touring can be sometimes scary. You don't know about the places you shouldn't hang out or that are controlled by gangs. Luckily never anything bad happened to us.
Talking about gangs: Are you familiar with the courage crew?
To be honest I don't know too much about them. I understand that they are straight edge group of friends. I know a couple of people that are in Courage Crew; some people of Bleeding Through were members of the crew at the time I was in the band. Also some other friends of mine are part of courage crew. They are awesome.
Good to hear something about the other side of the story. Earlier this year we interviewed someone who informed us about this gang and the fact that they beat fans and bands up.
Jona: Well I actually don't have any bad experiences with them. But I heard some upsetting stories. Actually, once in Saltlake City there was a straight edge gang during one of our shows that only came there to beat people up. That was pretty upsetting. That night five or six people ended up in hospital. That was not courage crew, I'm not even sure if it was a real gang. Fact was they were 30 people beating up others for no reason.
The front of the main stage will soon be packed with people to see you play tonight, but which bands are you going to see today?
Jona: I was just watching Length Of Time before the interview started. They played my favourite song and in the middle of it the power got off. That sucks. But Evergreen Terrace is still playing today, it's the band which we did our first US tour with. They are friends of ours already for a while now. I'm going to check out Integrity as well. When I was younger I used to listen to them.
Anything else you want to be revealed on Brutality Blog?
Jona: It's kind of rude, but our guitarist Kevin actually has a
reeeaaaal big penis. But he's got a girlfriend, so hands off!
Is he going to show it off on stage?
Jona: if there is someone going naked today it will be me. The weather is great.
'You could stick that up my nose, now you have to put in your mouth'
I Killed The Prom Queen
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/iktpq
Myspace:
https://myspace.com/ikilledthepromqueen
Don't forget to hit Jona up on Twitter!
