Can you talk a little about this tour, it's the first show tonight, what's your feeling about it ?

Oh it went bad for us. We are not used to doing this you know. We usually play small clubs in London, Belgium and Holland also. For us this is really big. It's a big thing. So we get nervous. But we enjoyed it. We loved it, but musically we didn't played very good, we were scared you know. The thing about this tour for us, we are learning the way of the big stage. And all the bands, they are helping us. They are givin' us confidence.

As it was the first show of this tour you may had too much stress for this opening night ?

We left London yesterday at 6.00 pm and we arrived today at 12.00 pm. So we travelled all day and night so we're tired and whatever.

How many shows do you have on this tour ?

We are doing every shows apart tomorrow in Munich where we're not playing. Except this one, we are doing everyone of them, that's about 17 shows.

So you have many shows to come?

Yeah it's great, it'll be going better and better. The first show today it was bad
for us. Now we have to get better. Next time we won't give a shit we'll just play.

Have you met the other bands before ?

We played with Madball before a few times. SwormEnemy some of the guys when they played in London stayed at our house, in Pierre's house. So we know those guys. Backfire we know. Ignite we've played with them before. And it's great, these guys are helping us. They play big stages all the time. They are used to that, they told us when we got wrong. Theo from Gangstyle records told us we sucks, but it's good for us, because we know we have to do better. We have to try harder. It's good. I like that.

Can you talk about your new album "Universal Struggle" ?

We are very happy with album.

Where did you record it ?

We went to Denmark. The same studio that did Born From Pain. Very good production. And musically, it took us two years to write the album. Because me I play drum with The Business, Mickey the guy with the mohawk plays bass with us. We also play with the Deadline. Every guys has different bands, so this time it took a long time to write this Knuckledust album because everybody was doing everything else. But we came with the album and we're happy with it, no doubt. The production of the album is really good, the studio was great, it was worth doing it.

How long did it take to do it ?

It took us 12 days. We worked really hard. We did a lot of stuff. We tried everything with drums, guitars, bass. We had to take stuff away because there were too much. But it's good to do that. Last time the album came out and we whished we had done more. This time we did so much we're happy with it, the artwork is really great also.

So your completely satisfied with the result ?

Yeah we're really satisfied this time. The only problem is that we have to do something better the next time. That's the only problem.

Can you talk about the cover of this album ?

Yes, the cover was my idea. Where we lived in London everybody get mugged, stabbed or hurt. You know just by walking down the street. I'm sure it happens
in Switzerland too and in France definatly. I'm sure you guys understand. So the lyrics in the album are a look to where we live. The cover represent somebody who just have been mugged. He has been taken his money, his wallet. And the back of the cover is the guy who stole the money, he's at home worship his hand and the money is on the side. That's just a reallity that shows this cover.

Now you're on Gangstyle records, how did you came to it ?

It's a familly for us man. We are very good friends with Theo. He's one of the only guy who helped Knuckledust in mainland Europe. When we needed shows, Theo gave us shows. And Rob and Karl from Born From Pain, they work for Gangstyle and we're really good friends with them for years. So I asked Theo, when Knuckledust will do an album with Gangstyle Records ? And he said whenever you want so it's like ok, let's do it ! So he came with the contract and we did it.

In the Hardcore scene there's one word that always come back, it's "family"?

Yeah, it's an important word. With Knuckledust now we're on the road a lot. And with the other we really become familly it's a really good thing. . And also, I don't think we should separate the new bands. They should be part of the family too. If you can trust them and then you're friend and that they mean Hardcore, why not should them be part of the family. I don't like when people say that because we're a family, you're not allowed to be part of it. I hate that. Everybody should come along so. Definatly with Gangstyle they've got an open mind. If you're a new band we have no turning back you know. We'll play show with them, we'll help each other out, they become part of the family. That's the thing for me. When a band help me on the mainland, I'll help him in London. That's what
we'll try to do and it works good. That's how it should be !

But you are one of the famous hardcore band in Uk, so it helps ?

The thing is that a lot of bands in the UK, they come, they play hardcore and they go. And I think that Knuckledust stikes in people's mind because we've been going for seven years. And when people say Uk Hardcore they say Knuckledust it's because we've been here for seven years, we've always been there and we'll always gonna be there. There a lot of good UK bands and I hope they'll stick around now. This time we got a good chance to make UK bigger on the mainland.

When we talk about the world situation in 2003, there has been some major hit between the english and french politiciens?

See, this kind of thing is above my life. I can do with you guys as friends, I don't care where you're from. When it come about war and politics, I'm not good at that stuff. If I start to talk to you about politics I'll make a fool of myself. If Tony Blair disagree with France, I'm still gonna be friends with my french friends. There's nothing to do with me. I'm still gonna listen to french bands. I've always thought that Hardcore is anti politics. We don't write politics so why should we agree with what our politiciens do, we should just do Hardcore. And Hardcore has it's own way of doing things, we'll always go against politiciens anyway. If politiciens say now one we hate Belgium, everybody in Hardcore will go and make shows with Belgium. We do not want to make politics with Knuckledust,
we just do Hardcore.

Do you think that with bands like, Hatebreed, Born From Pain…
Hardcore has taken a new breath ?

Yeah definatly, Hardcore is coming back. It died. Especially in Uk, Hardcore was dead like 2 years ago. But now it's coming back. It's a good thing but also I see that not lasting very long. I just hope that the bands that are here now will stick around for a long time. But unfortunately they won't. Some of them won't. Some will come, some will go and we'll get a whole new bread. At the moment UK hardcore is very good. In UK you see people come to Hardcore shows and it's very good. It's good for everybody specially for the new bands. When we started there were very few people at the shows, now news bands can play in front of good crowds, that's good.

Do you have any last word to conclude ?

Thanks for the interview.

Interview O.S. & Tataye
Traduction par Tataye