BETON ARME - Hard hitting Oi! from Montreal, QC

BETON ARME are a new Oi! band from Montreal, Quebec. Questions awnsered by Prestone(vocals) and Fabio (bass).

1. Who are Beton Arme, age, occupation, hobbies, little known facts...?

Prestone: I'm the lead singer in Béton Armé. I also play in Force Majeure, Ibrahim et les dompteurs de tigres and an upcoming project called Silex. We're all living and working in Montreal. We've been jamming together since January I think. 

Fabio: I'm the bassist in Béton Armé and also in Silex and i work in construction around the city of montreal. 

2.For us Anglo's, whats does the band name mean, and what are yer lyrical topics so far? Yer cassette artwork is classic, who's idea was it and who drew it up?

B.A: Béton Armé means reinforced concrete in english. Oli, our guitarist, thought about this name a long time ago and kept it in case he started an Oi! band someday. To me, it represents how important it is to stick tight to our friends and to be indestructible. This is what a good part of the lyrics are about. It's also about how we don't like traitors and hypocrite people around our crew! One song (Quartier Populaire meaning working class neighborhood) is about our hood in Montreal called Hochelaga who has been going through a gentrification process over the past couple of years now. As for the artwork, we asked out good friend Leo from Paris to do it (you can find him @undefeatedsun on instagram). He’s worked on numerous projects including Bromure’s À la Roquette release aswell as doing a bunch of flyers for our other friends at Une vie pour rien records. He’s incredibly talented and it was awesome working with him. Needless to say, we were also very happy with the results. 

3. You guys instantly make me think of the Chaos En France compilations without being derivitive at all, aswell as (obviously) RIXE come to mind. Is this coincidental, or do these bands make up a good portion of your influences as a band? Are there any genres outside French Oi! that you find inspiring at all, or are you purists?

Prestone: Yeah exactly! I'm a big fan of the Chaos en france era! Bands like Camera Silens, Trotkids, Collabos, Komintern Sect, No Class and more. Our biggest influence for BA is Nabat's LP Scenderemo nelle strade, which came out in 81. This explains why we like to play raw riff and sing some of the lyrics in Italian (Fabio, our bassist is Italian). We covered Asocial oi! at our first show! New french oi! bands such as Rixe, Squelette, Bromure, Condor are the kind of sound I listen to the most. Outside of BA style, I like The Janitors, The Clichés, No Heart, Last Crusade, and Hard Pressed. All of these bands also have a big influence to us! 

4. What's the Oi! scene like in Montreal and Quebec as a whole these days? Can you tell us the best and worst things about it? Have you playing outside MTL yet, and if not do you have plans to?

B.A: We’ve got so much new sick bands in Montreal! You just have to look at Lsc Records on bandcamp and you'll understand! The good side of it is that we have friends from other punk scenes coming to our shows. So that brings a new sense of unity to the scene. Also, we recently found a new venue called Atomic Café in Hochelaga. Don't really know for the worst side of our scene, it’s been mostly positive lately haha. 

5. Do you prefer the classic bands, or the new breed? With a short description, give us yer top 10 of current/new bands.

B.A: We would say both, honestly. There's good new stuff influenced by old school bands these days! Our ten favourite current bands are: No Heart (catchy oi! stuff and rough vocal), Squelette (Agressive french oi! - Big inspiration for BA lyrics) Rixe (agressive french oi! aswell) , Coupe Gorge (Hardcore/oi!, solid new release), Bromure (Very typical french oi!), Ultra Razzia (Friends of us, old school oi! sound), Rogue Trooper (Cool mix of hardcore and oi), Fuerza Bruta (Spanish lyrics and hard oi!), Ultra Sect (reminds me of templars stuff, very good) and Legion 76 (Nice guys who knows are to play solid oi!). 

6. What does the future hold for Beton Arme? As far as releases, tours, gigs etc and how can we get copies?

B.A: For now, we want to play a couple of shows in Montreal and other cities around aswell. We also want to play in Europe in maximum a year. As for the band, we have new t-shirts and we are working on new stuff for a potential LP! I think there are still a few demo tapes on sale, ask LSC Records on Facebook or Bandcamp!

7. Closing comments?

B.A: Thanks you for that interview and keep up the good work man!

ROGUE TROOPER - Oi! from Amherst, Massachusetts

ROGUE TROOPER are a hardcore influenced Oi! band from Western MA in the states, with a 7" out and an LP soon to follow. Questions answered by singer Cole.

1. How and when did Rogue Trooper form, and how did you end up choosing the name? 

RT started with Shane moving out to Western MA from Boston. Him and I played a few times and ended up settling on an oi/skinhead hc style project as it was a sound we were both interested in. Ethan got added for the demo and Andrew just after that when we started playing gigs. Rogue Trooper is a Subculture song. It’s my opinion that you’re never going to have a good band name so if you can settle on something that no one hates you did pretty good. 

2. You guy's come from western Massachusetts, what's the scene like there for gigs, bands etc? Do you get out of the area to play very often? 

Only Ethan and Andrew are from out here, Shane and I are both from Eastern MA. The music community is very strong for a rural area, but since it’s a college town it definitely ebbs and flows as many people move in and out. There are a lot of interconnected scenes, and I think in general it seems to generate mixed bills which is cool. 

3. What are some of yer favourite bands from the area? Is the scene tied into Boston, or quite separate?

There are a lot of good bands, some of our favorites are Tortured Skull, Corrode, Dirt Devil, Lendl, and Gay Mayor. There is some cross over as it’s a small state, but Boston has cracked down heavily on DIY venues so we see a fair few Boston residents at western shows. Of the bar and club type shows we mostly have to go to Boston or New York to see bigger bands.

4. To my ears anyway, you guys seem to verge on hardcore style wise in addition to more straight ahead Oi! anthems like "Boots On The Ground" and "Army Of One". Which of the two genres would you say is more of an influence on the band, and what bands would you say are a collective influence on you boys?

Definitely hardcore. We have all been in hardcore bands since high school and that sound is the one we are familiar with. While we all like a lot of 80s Oi I wouldn’t say we have any specific loyalty to the genre. I think we all have felt a pull toward writing more rnr style songs. I can only speak for me, but I always loved Oi lyrics about boots and what’s in the heart of a skinhead and shit. All the songs about putting on the stuff are my favourite. I guess the skinflicks have always been my go to on that tip.

 5. Is there any lyrical themes to yer lyrics, be in personal, political, whatever? Are you a fan of bands with a political agenda, or not so much?

This most recent record ended up being much more political than I originally intended, I ran out of songs about lacing up after the 7”. The title of the album “class decline” I think is a good description of the industrial malaise that characterizes a lot of the mill towns out here. I do think the skinhead tradition of being proud of working culture, and addressing issues affecting working people is an important one inside the punk and rock umbrella. I hope some of my lyrics pull from that. Ethan and I are both carpenters so I had to throw in at least a couple songs about being on the job site. As far as music politics in general, I definitely want to let people know where we stand. If you’re playing skinhead music in 2018 you can’t be a fencewalker about white nationalism. We’ve had some people like that at our away games. Nazis can eat a gun, don’t come to our gigs.

6. You've got an LP coming out soon on Rebellion Records, based out of the Netherlands. How did you come to get hooked up with them on the album, and is there a North American distributor aswell or is it solely a European release?

I like that American Oi blog that Mano does. I sent him the demo to review a couple of years back and we got to talking about Rebellion potentially putting out an LP. Big thanks to Mano and Wouter over there. 

7. What does the future look like for Rogue Trooper, as far as plans for releases, tours etc? 

I would love to get to Europe at some point, but I am content playing locally with whatever touring bands we can help out. We live in a great spot for doing weekend tours since Boston, NYC, Philly, and DC are less than a days drive away.

 8.What would yer dream line up for a gig look like, with all active bands?

Steel Pulse, Judas Priest, Rush, and Rogue Trooper at the VFW hall in Hadley MA.

 9. Final comments?

Thanks for the interest and to anyone who has given us a listen. You can hit us up for questions or merch at Roguetrooperband@gmail.com