Crustcore and anarchist band MatraK AttakK are headed to South Africa this year with performances in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Soweto, and Cape Town. In line with their sound, their lyrics express extreme rage towards the many injustices in the world - from feminism and human rights to femicide, anti-fascism, decolonisation, and other deeply political and social themes. With lyrics like “histories of annihilation, coercion and abuse, are just a mirror of what governments told men about women's rights” in the song “No One Step Back” and “non c'e' fine alla sottomissione della donna e sangue odio umiliazione e 'peccati' che portano violenza!” (there is no end to the subjugation of women and blood hate humiliation and 'sins' that bring violence!) in “E Poi Sei Tu La Stronza”, the European based band consists of a fearless group of members that hold no reservation when expressing their anarchist views.
I’ve had the pleasure of putting together a few questions for the band members in hopes that through their answers, we can get a small view into the mind(s) of MatraK AttakK.
Cristina: A tough one to start, :)
Each punk has probably a different definition of what punk means. For us, it's something that is linked with how we see the world, being aware of all the injustices, trying to do something to change this, or at least ourselves.
To us it's even more than a movement, it's a lifestyle, it's difficult to put this in words as it's who we are. Every aspect of our lives could be considered as "punk" and we don't even think about it.
Who did the art for the “Herstory Untold” cover?
Cristina: This drawing is supposed to show the symptom of hysterical contraction according to the studies of Charcot, in the 19th century in the Salpêtrière, the hospital made to clean the streets of Paris. Where the alienated and the outcast were locked up and where the first studies about Hysteria were made.
Where did you guys meet and how did the band start?
Cristina: Depends who with whom! :)
The band is 9 years old but only me ( Cristina ) is there since the beginning. I met Py in 2017 in Belgium in another city where I decided to reform the band, when I asked him to join us at the bass. After he went to the guitar and then the drums. Depending of who was going away eheh. Not a lot of people can commit with a band playing this much!
We met Migou, that was bass player at the time in France when we were living with our ex guitar player. Last year he switched to guitar as our 4 years service guitarist left us :)
We met Roman in Tournai, Belgium long time ago and he asked me a lot about the lyrics and the band after our gig. He seemed really interested. We saw him at shows from time to time, but we met him back at a show in Britanny, France after Migou asked him to join us at the bass last year.
Can you describe your creative process? From writing the songs to recording them.
Cristina: Writing songs takes really long now, cause we don't want to do songs that look like each other and we start to have a age!
As now we don't live together we need to work more home and practice one or 2 days before touring!
Mostly one of us has a riff, makes the rest listen, then we decide if we keep it or change it.
After, we need to put breaks and bridges and we do this together changing a lot of stuff.
About the lyrics, I like the Saxon way of making lyrics: I just sing no words or almost no words just to fit the melody.
Then I sit and listen : the words appear with the sound of the words and the full text is there. Mostly coming from one word I fantasise during the practice.
Are the issues addressed in your music things you are going through? Real life experiences?
Cristina: The lyrics are mainly political, but of course nothing can be perfectly cleaned of own life experience and life! I hate talking about personal problems and sadness, it makes it so teenager-ish. I prefer to write about what goes on in the world. Of course with the point of view of me born where I am born with the life I had and with the background of the places where I lived and the lifestyle I had! You cannot totally erase the personal from what you write. That's why feminist lyrics come out so easily :) it's something that I cultivate since I was a child.
A lot of “Herstory Untold” focusses on feminism and feminist issues like abortion, femicide, and living in a patriarchal society. In the first song, Riappropriamoci, when translated by DeepLtranslator, a part of the song says “reinventing and destroying herself by rebuilding on the symptom, frustrations and traumas, paranoia, anxieties, sublimated in the sea of home forwarded flaming words on a silver platter, unheard by many and seized by few'' (I hope it’s been translated correctly). In your view, has society reached a point where women have full autonomy over their bodies or do you feel that it appears to be that way, but isn't?
Cristina: The translation is almost correct, as you got what it says!
No we don't feel autonomy over our bodies enough, but we are trying!
But it's true that society and politicians make it looks like we reached autonomy, and it's even worse, because it makes us appears hysterical, angry, like "you got what you wanted, you're too extremist".
That's like a hymn to feel autonomy and to be what we want to be despise what society tells us about what it means to be a woman in the place where you live.
Taking back as own all words used by sexists to make us feel bad, while those words could be ours. And be our richness, our powers, our strength to survive patriarchy.
In the song “Herstory Untold” you sing “How many of us, preaching equality and freedom, go out of our way to help people far away, but behave badly with those around us.” How do you feel social justice issues should be approached in a world with so much inequality? Many say we should focus on what’s in front of us, while others say we should tackle larger issues first. For example saying people in Africa should focus on African related social justice issues and people nearest to Palestine focus on Palestine. Do you think there is a way to manage both without overstretching yourself?
Cristina: I think we should all stretch ourselves a bit more..I mean, with those words I mean people making huge benefit for wherever and whatever, feeling great to help people they don't know because they do believe in their issue ex : Rojava, Palestina, Yemen
But then they ignore the problem of their sister, their dog, their family or close friends, covering their eyes with a veil not wanting to know that people need love and attention.
It's not easy to try to help or at least care about worldwide issues, as there are so many problems that you can't really get Into all of them and often just know the surface of these issues and with your point of view, defending where you live. But just focusing on your own issues could make us become selfish, self centered in a way, and could bring this racism, "my people, my country"
In that same song, you say “Chased through the centuries you haven't finished telling your story” How did you discover that music is how you want to tell your story? Did you have any musicians or musical influences in your life while growing up?
Cristina: Well this song concerns all women, trans, and not binary people whose point of view was never included in history books nor in the mainstream pop culture. Everything children use to learn on school has been written with the point of view of a hetero cis man.
But of course you got me, my story is inside all my lyrics, fragment by fragment in years of lyrics even with different bands!
I grew up mainly with metal, starting only around 18yo to go deeper into punk/HC crust and grind, just cause it seemed more open to women and the lyrics where way more interesting.
My favourite singers all time are Wendy o Williams and Dawn Crosby.
In a previous album, “What the Fuck is Under the Spotlight?” You have a song that mentions capitalism and psychiatry. Do you think capitalism has a direct link to our mental state and psychological disposition as people living in the 21st century?
Cristina: Sure it does. Capitalism is so inside us that we are getting sick of it. They should cut all the disorders of the DSM and make a only section capitalist mood disorder to talk about mankind.
We cannot stop thinking about consuming, we cannot stop thinking about competing, we cannot stop thinking about collecting, we cannot stop thinking about the fear of loosing our privileges.... And so on.
Fascism around the world is on the rise again. Do you think fascism has a direct link to capitalism and the patriarchy?
Cristina: Fascism, Patriarchy and Capitalism is a nice trio. They go hand in hand and of course they are related, but they are 3 entities apart.
Mostly conservative minds are into all 3 of them. Fascism and Patriarchy are even more strictly correlated than Patriarchy and Capitalism, this last one, became so huge that fakes artistically to embrace LGBTQI+ values, so that more people, even minorities, can work their asses off for them, so that minorities think they have been accepted by societies and keep on serving capitalism getting the illusion of acceptance…
And Fascism and Capitalism are holding hands, Colonialism is the expression of Racism, and we know that the main reason of invading other countries is to steal and exploit resources. It's all linked.
What would you say your political influences are? What introduced you to politics, feminism, and anarchical thought systems?
Are there people whose work also broadens your political views and shapes your writing?
Cristina: The first feminist books I read were for children. I come from a one -never-married-woman family with one grandmother and one aunt only.
I grew up with 60s and 70s white European feminism as I grew up in Italy and my mom was interested in this when she was young. I knew that in Italy we were reaching goals of equality just before I was born and as I was going to kindergarten and school, as the end of "the crime of Honor" was banned in 1981 what means that it's wasn't legal anymore to kill a woman because she commits adultery, and law pursuits against rapist were reinforced only in 1998...
So I grew up that feminism was normal, needed and legit, and who though differently was sick and not my friend.
Some authors I was familiar to in my tender years were Dacia Maraini, Virginia Wolf, Simone de Beauvoir . Later on I discovered Angela Davis, Emma Goldman and feminist fanzines of authors worldwide, that I was consulting on the internet.
When I was 15 I was a lot into anarchy and trying to get the academic differentiations, failing to understand some of them, I just realised that there's no anarchy without feminism.
Later on, And I started to read about the Stonewall revolts and discovering trans and non cis women authors loving immediately authors like Julia Serrano and Leslie Feinberg.
Of course all I read made who I am and how I write, but especially the fact of knowing what is sexism and misogyny on my own skin.
What do you say to people who say they are uninterested in politics? Who says it has nothing to do with them?
Cristina: Actually nothing. They do what they want. I mind my own business :P
It's too exhausting to talk with these people, they're too selfish and blind.
Of course politics has an impact on everybody's life, but a lot of people prefer to ignore it and live in a hypocrite world trying to reach a hypothetical happiness.
Who are your favourite artists in Europe right now?
Cristina: We're four individuals with different tastes and interests, so the list would be too long. From listening to music every day, to read a lot of books, fanzines, watching movies, architectures, paintings, …
Social justice and human rights issues are prominent in South Africa. In coming here, do you hope your lyrics/music will connect with South Africans and the issues we face as a country? From being the rape capital of the world to the extremely high femicide and gender based violence statistics.
Cristina: I just hope I'll meet people that have to tell me their story about what goes on in South Africa and how they feel living there and how and if they experience all those things you mentioned, but I am sure I'll reach some people also if they didn't read my lyrics.
Feminism is wide and not only from a country. We need to share our stories to grow stronger.
What are you looking forward to when you come to South Africa?
Cristina: To meet you all, and you that made such a good interview!
Of course we want to know everything about being born and living there and see your beautiful and also less beautiful places . Just sharing with the local alternative scene and discover what we don't know yet even if we'll just see a really small part of South Africa.
