JUMPCUT - Just jump, will ya?!

Jumpcut is 5 piece German Hardcore band, formed in 2017 with a plan to rule the World... or play aggressive and energetic Hardcore the way I like! Either way, the chaps are very, very cool! 

Check it out... read their words, and enjoy their sounds. Peace!

Jumpcut Official Bandcamp 

Welcome, gentlemen! How are things now that your first EP has been released? Explain me something: how are you going to promote an album, with world pandemic? You are screwed ahahah

Thank you for having us, first of all. Things are going well and we are glad that you enjoy the EP. The idea of recording and to put some songs that we all love on an EP and unleash it to the world came up long before covid but when things got more into detail and the days of recording were set, we couldn’t really know that that concerts would be impossible to organise for an unknown period of time. So we thought maybe people would start to get aware of what we had been worked on for such a long time by pushing some songs each with powerful videos. In “Naked Lights” for example, we present ourselves and give a glimpse of how much fun it could be to get together with our friends and fans for a show. Besides the videos, we started to promote our songs with some help from other platforms like Instagram. Getting in touch with band promoters helped our music achieving a huge range of listeners – the EP was even in the “Heavy Metal Workout” Playlist on Spotify. Today, looking at our Spotify Insights and seeing that people in the US in places like NY and LA frequently listen to our songs makes us incredibly proud! Unfortunately, we had no chance to play our record in front of real people yet but we will tear down all stages as soon as we can!

The EP was recorded during the first wave of the pandemic? In what way: in person or remotely? Anyway, my congratulations for what you have achieved!

Thank you! The EP was recorded during the first wave of the pandemic therefore we had to record separately along our producer Ruschi. Even though all of us had separate recording days, had to wear masks and no chance of listening to the recordings during the actual process, Ruschi managed to make us feel as close to the real experience as possible. He worked his heart out and had us listen to the work of each member and also sent some files and tunes each night to have us be part of the progress which was really exciting and phenomenal.

Besides having “recording-shifts” for our safety, we really had to do our homework before entering the studio because rehearsing together is also a bit difficult with a virus flying around everywhere. Due to this fact we created guiding tracks and then had different shifts practicing each tiny beat to perfection to achieve the best possible along with our producer. It was really worth working with Ruschi and Room 89 Studios and we still had a blast although the pandemic did its best to try and kill the mood.

We've already lost ourselves a little: who are JUMPCUT? Where do JUMPCUT come from? Who is each member of JUMPCUT? These usual questions ahahah

Jumpcut is a five piece hardcore band based in Paderborn Germany. The tricky part is to explain where Paderborn is located, so we keep it short and say kind of in the middle of Germany.

Jumpcut was founded in 2017 by Nico, who is our singer and does a great Job designing shirts and putting the work in creating videos, artworks and basically does almost everything, and our bass player Alex, who is a genius at doing all the prerecording stuff on computers and also plays a really tight and heavy bass.

Both had a prior band and wanted to start playing hardcore music. They approached Lukas, Nico’s brother, who was playing guitar in his own punk band “Lattengerade” at that time but also interested in playing something raw and new.

Nico and Alex used to work in the same cinema as a part time job like our drummer Tobi and knew that he really was into playing heavy music as well since he also played in a metalcore band.

In early 2020 the second guitar player Adrian joined the band just before the recordings of “Forever Today”. Because of that we all really have the highest respect for what he has achieved. Four out of five Jumpcuts have known and written the songs during 2019 and 2020 to create a unique and fitting style and Adrian just jumped right in. He is a good friend to all of us and wanted to play heavy stuff, too. So he showed up to rehearsals, shredded some amazing riffs and that’s when the magic started to happen…

Hardcore and Germany are two terms that go well together, right? A muscular Hardcore, and always willing to break teeth, and drop some kicks in the pit. But, your sound has, in the middle of flips and stage dives, a melody that sticks. Can I hear some Melodic Death guitar riffs? Uhm.

Haha, well I do not know if I would call it Melodic Death but we try to balance our sound and add melodies and harmonies to create more depth. We all enjoy heavy music but also want to be entertained. We have a huge variety of different influences that inspire all of us to write riffs.

A Jumpcut song is basically juggling around with different parts, riffs and ideas and we try to put as much effort into it until all members are happy with the outcome, therefore melodies as well as punky parts are included in most of the riffs.

What are your influences? Musical and lyrical.

We have a lot of different influences. Probably every nuance of hardcore, metal and punk music plays an important role in our composing processes. To name some important bands that certainly have a deeper impact on our inspirations: Turnstile, Touché Amoré and Comeback Kid. We wanted to create a sound that is heavy, getting people into circle pits moving their asses and at the same time somehow melodic to find the best way to express our feelings – good or bad. People told us that some of our songs are easy to remain in their ears for days, which is a huge compliment!

Our lyrics are, mostly, based on our views on society or personal backstories. Nico likes expressionist poetry and tries to take up its graphic imagery to wrap a message in energy and atmosphere.  When it comes to the impact of a specific band, it would most likely be Bane. Their words provide clean answers for more or less every question in life.

What is the concept behind "Forever Today"?

Our take on music is the idea to capture authentic emotion. Since that is hard to put into the pattern of a song, we sometimes create moments of informality or disharmony. Everything can work as long as it feels right and fits an emotion. To talk lyrics, “Forever Today” is also about celebrating the moment, but also about making good use of it. If there is something, you want to do, do it, but do it today.

How is the German Hardcore Punk scene going? Strong, and consistent? You are the voices of Paderborn. Which Hardcore Punk bands do you think are fundamental to listen to?

Things are going well in German hardcore. Especially in our small little “Paderborn scene” most musicians really used the Pandemic to work on creative output and record new music. And I think that is what most of the wonderful artists we know did. Either you profit from it and create something in this challenging time or not and we’re happy that most of the bands we know accepted the challenge and made use of their time to work on new and hot stuff.

There are so many talented and good bands we are happy to be friends and share stages with but to give you a few names, we would recommend Giver as one of our top favourite bands to listen to and play with. They are amazing musicians with an absolute unique sound! Besides Giver, Tides Denied are really awesome with their punky vibe along some catchy riffs and DIY attitude. And finally, you need to check out Slope who are about to create a new dimension of hardcore punk. We had the chance to play a show with them in Paderborn back in 2018 and the energy they bring on stage is an experience you don’t want to miss in your life! We’re also very exciting to see how far the boys will bring it with their next album release!

I do not know to what extent you are politicized, but since you are German, and not wanting this interview to focus on politics, let me ask you: what is the current political situation, especially with regard to the Extreme Right? Does the Hardcore Punk scene continue to unite against the scourge of Fascism, which grows across Europe?

To say something positive first, it actually seems like the upswing of the strongest party of neoconservative or even alt-right politics in Germany has come to a temporary end during the pandemic. Since some of their favourite topics like immigration became less popular in media, they try to catch people who are in doubt about the pandemic or climate change. It is still devastating to watch these anti-educational tendencies on the rise. Also, fascinating that stupidity and xenophobia go hand in hand, just like there was some kind of correlation. We do not expect that to disappear. People with their sick ideas crawled out of their holes and believe that society is ok with them again, they are no longer afraid to display their racism. That is the most terrifying outcome yet. We are proud to say that the scene is very well-positioned against fascism and racism, but also sexism. Many good people and many bands take action like public statements or charity events. We do not want to leave any doubt about our mentality.

It goes a little in the direction of the relevance that Punk Hardcore has always given to politics as an element of music. I do not know if you think that Music should be kept away from Politics, or if you are of the opposite opinion. I suppose the Pablo Hasel case is not unknown to you, right? What is your opinion regarding this Censorship of Art.

That is a tough question. Politics will always be a key element of punk culture and of course punk and hardcore music. We consider ourselves a political band as well. Maybe we need to distinguish between arts and activism. Censorship of art is an instrument of fascism, but activism can definitely cross the line of what our democracy has to bear. As much as we do not want anybody to silence our voices, we sure as hell do not want every Nazi shithead be allowed to violate the constitution loudly, not in politics, not in arts.

How can we consider this pandemic as a marked moment in the History of the World in the sense of changing mentality? How does this pandemic see the world in a different way?

First of all we should regard this pandemic as an repayment of nature, as an consequence of destroying and exploiting forests and the animal´s living space. This “it´s all there, just take it” mentality brings us so close to habitats of wild animals, that viruses can spread easily. We should be honest while considering this crisis and the increasing climate change as handmade by human beings.

Furthermore is this situation a chance to be thankful for the people and things we still have, also moderate because we have to disclaim so many things we love to do, like meeting other people face to face without masks and germicides, playing concerts and so on.

As musicians, what changes did you have to make, in your routine, to be able to compose, rehearse? I suppose concerts, zero, right? And at a professional level (or do you live from music?)?

New music? Album? Is it planned for a distant future, or about to leave?

This whole situation really is a punch in our face as a band since we are not allowed to get together to rehearse anymore. But still there is some work in the background, new songs are already in the pipeline and are very likely to be a part of a future album! Lukas and Adrian constantly work on new guitar sounds and they sometimes get together to play them during jizzy-jam sessions trying to figure out how the sound could work out when everybody else will be around. Besides JUMPCUT we all have our job lives, so the music remains our passion in which we try to create sounds we all love to listen to and nevertheless it helps also to compensate stress which we probably could not release anywhere else.

And we have come to the end of this moment. Last words, gentlemen, please!

For sure: The fact that a bunch of people in Portugal might care about our music or what we have to say is just incredible, so thank you so much for having us! We would love to play some shows in your beautiful country one day. And finally, greetings to our friends in Porto-based groove metal band Equaleft. Check them out, if you have not already!