IE: What’s up Dima? Can you tell our readers about how 5 white dudes from all over the world came together to form Spill Your Guts in China of all places and also a little about the band and its members backgrounds?

Dima: China is a really weird place. We all moved here for different reasons (between 2006 and 2012), and ended up staying for things totally unrelated. Me…Dima (vocals, Russia) works in logistics, Adam (bass, Canada) brews signature coffee, Tyler (drums, Canada) makes custom bicycles, Chris (guitar, Australia) works with circuit boards and Martin (guitar, Denmark) runs a metal bar. Shanghai is a big melting pot of cultures, backgrounds, influences and most importantly attitudes.

Until 2012 there wasn’t any hardcore scene to speak of in Shanghai, and an overall weak heavy music scene in general. There were a few metal bands, a couple metalcore bands, but that's about it. Nothing that any of us were used to before we each moved to China. Finding good live music has always been a problem here in general, but even more so for anything with a heavy downbeat.

All of us come from different musical backgrounds; old school hardcore, metal, grindcore, punk rock and deathcore. We all missed being able to go watch a killer band tear it up in a small venue, so we thought, "what the hell, let's try writing some stuff ourselves". It's the same attitude that has helped push hardcore music into countries all over the world - if you want something, don't wait for somebody else to do it for you - do it yourself.

And that's kind of how it happened. We started jamming, writing songs, and in April 2012 we played our first gig to about 15 people. Since then we've self-recorded two EPs, released both of them on CD, made a ton of merch and have played every opportunity handed to us. We've been all over China, played dive bars to sold out overwhelmingly large outdoor festivals - and we have no intention of slowing down.

The hardcore scene in China is on the rise. New bands are forming every month, international bands are starting to come here to tour, more kids are turning up to shows, and we can feel the traction of something awesome. It's great to be a part of it. At the same time we try to educate locals here about hardcore music world wide, sharing albums and videos that we've been into for years. Who knows what will happen from here, but so far it's been one wicked party!

IE: Is China now home for everyone in the band or do you think some or all of you will eventually move back to your home countries?

Dima: Oh yes, we all plan to go back to our countries or to some new places at some point. China is a great place to get a good work experience or to start your own business; we are all living here to work on our future lives.  We are very grateful to the local hardcore community for letting us join their family and be a part of this little but passionate and fast growing scene. We’ve made many good friends and supporters here. But when it comes to a regular everyday life, you will always be a guest, a foreigner, a “lao wai” (as locals call foreigners) here. There’s no way provided by the Chinese government for foreigners to get a Chinese citizenship. Even if you’re married to a Chinese person, you’re still living on the visa, only the visa type is changed. Add to this severe air pollution and a pretty bad situation with the ecology in general. That’s one of the main reasons why we have so many changes in line-up, people come here for work and leave when they’re done.  But we’re still here and don’t plan to leave soon, keep the party going!

IE: Outside of the underground music scene how do you like living in China? How are you all treated by the people in your everyday lives and has everyone learned at least a little Chinese or is there enough English being spoken for you to get by from day to day?

Dima: As mentioned above sometimes it’s great, sometimes not that great, but in general people treat foreigners well, especially if you can speak the Chinese language. People here are very friendly, but still suffer from the old stereotype that all foreigners are very rich, which sometimes causes some misunderstandings and racist bullshit, but it can happen in any place. We all can speak Chinese, you can get away just by speaking English (in big cities it’s everywhere these days), but being able to speak Chinese makes your life much easier here and lets you use the gems of modern life in China like taobao.com and 24/7 McDonalds delivery haha. 

IE: You mentioned to me that the bands musical backgrounds range from old school hardcore, punk, grindcore to deathcore and your sound shows almost a little bit of everything in there. How hard or easy has it been to get everyone in Spill Your Guts to sit down and write songs where you can all be satisfied with the finished product and do you feel there is compromise from everyone when it comes to writing what you guys have been writing up until now?

Dima: I can’t explain how it happens, but, regardless the differences in musical tastes, our song writing process always goes smoothly and natural. Usually someone brings a riff or two (or an almost finished song) and we change it around, add or remove parts until everyone in the band is satisfied with the sound. Everyone contributes their ideas and we pick the best sounding ones. And hardcore has always been the base and the glue that keeps all those ideas together!

IE: What does the band plan on putting out next and when should we expect it out?

Dima: Last spring we recorded two songs for a 7” split with the Russian hardcore band Broken Fist (http://fatalityrecords.bandcamp.com/album/broken-fist-prophecy). The records are being pressed right now and should be ready anytime soon and will be released on Fatality Records (https://www.facebook.com/fatalitymoscow, http://fatalityrecords.bandcamp.com ). And after 2 EP’s it feels like the right time to start working on our first album!

IE: I read in an interview that your drummer throws up before all your shows. What's up with that?

Dima: It helps him to headbang faster and not to barf while we play!

IE: Spill Your Guts are playing the China Hardcore Festival on Aug 23. What are you expecting out of that show and is this fest a yearly event?

Dima: This is the show we look forward to the whole year! This is going to be the third China Hardcore Fest ever and the third time for us to play at it. From what we’ve seen in the past two years, it is definitely going to be the show of the year in China!  The hardcore scene is still growing here. Most of the bands are based in Beijing and there are only a few in other cities, where local scenes are tiny and kids get maybe 3-4 shows a year. So all these “hungry for a good hardcore show” kids will be flying from all over the country to Beijing to take part in CNHC fest. Both fests in 2013 and 2012 were sold out. And we’re expecting the same this year!

Check out the video from CNHC fest 2013 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yET9DGYQTZE

IE: You guys played a Southeast Asian tour just a few months ago. Can you tell us more about it like where did you play, how many shows did you play and where were some of the better shows? How is it getting around from country to country?

Dima: This was our first tour outside of China, we played three shows in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Singapore. All shows were really good and different!  In KL we played at the DIY venue called “Rumah Api” which is also a community place for local punk kids to hang out. Two-story building completely covered with graffiti and punk/hardcore/metal show posters, with a record store on the second floor and a live venue on the first. Kids told us that the name translates in English to “House Of Fire” which precisely describes what was going on there. No windows, no a/c’s, only a couple of fans and the Malaysian summer made it the hottest show we’ve ever played! But regardless it was super fun!