Interview: Mudfight

What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?

Dominik´s father studied classical guitar and so there was always music in his house. For Alex and me (Max), our parents also were the ones, that showed us rock music for the first time, ranging from the Beatles and The Rolling Stones to AC/DC and KISS! 

When Max was in primary school, he became big fan of the chart hit „Boulevar of Broken Dreams“ which ended up on him becoming a Green Day fan for live! And with Green Day, punk rock was not far away!

Because we are all very young (21, 19 and 18), we go to school / univeristy and make music as a hobby besides. 

What do you like to do when you're not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

We love to hang out with each other and our friends, and this is where most of our life experiences come from! So the stories of the songs are the product of the things we love to do, like going out on the weekends!

Also Dominik works a lot in web design and Alex goes to a design school. That helps a lot with being creative. The good ideas always come when you do something different!

How long has your band been around?

In the final constellation, we have been around since April 2019, the first line up started way back in August 2018… all in all, we are a very young band!

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

We are from Gmunden in Upper Austria, so this is the place we feel most related to and where we are already well known! 

Except from friends, the skatepark and the local record store, named `Good Things´, the city itself influences our music in that way, that most of the stories told in our songs, happened there!

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you.

The name `Mudfight´ comes from the legendary Woodstock 1994 set of our idols from Green Day, which ended up in a big Mudfight! Like the show in 1994 It means freedom and having fun to us! 

Tell me about the best and worst shows you have played.

Since we are only together for such a short time, we have not played that many shows yet, there really was no „worst show“, but there was a best show! 

In January 2020 we opened up for local street punk / hardcore band `Heckspoiler´! 

The atmosphere literally was nuts, and the rather small venue was completely full – there was no space left! An awesome show with awesome people!

Tell me about your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you haven´t already?

The small venue in January, a bar in a container, was our favorite venue to date, however there are so many places we would love to play: Ranging from skateparks and the venue for punk festival SBÄM-Fest „Alter Schlachthof Wels“ (Wels), to Gasometer (Vienna) and Nova Rock! 

A small dream of Max would be to play 924 Gilman Street! ^^

If you could play any show with any lineup who would be on the ticket?

There are so many great artists, we would love to share our stage with… but in a dream lineup that would be: Green Day, AC/DC, The Bombpops (Max is a big fan), Descendents and many more…

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band?

„Believe in yourself, and never stop doing what you like to do! Act instead of talking!“

If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?

„Do the f**ing things you wanna do! Believe in your dreams and fight for them!“ We all should have done this earlier…!

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

(Max) The upcoming song „Safe Zone“, because it addresses my problems I have in social situations, it is a very personal song… 

Of the released ones, I would go with „Torn Away“, it tells the unlucky story with a girl, and the energy the song lifts off, just lets me forget that!

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

Our favorites to play are two yet unreleased ones (one coming in June) called „Flash In The Pan“ and „Another Boy“… the most requested ones are probably „Wasted“ and „Dry Mouth“ of our first single!

What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

Most of the time, Max (Bass/Lead Vocals) and Alex (Guitar/ Vocals) write some riffs or lyrics, and then we all come together and add the spices to the song. We might change the order of the song parts, the lyrics, add lead guitar and bass fills until we say: Wow! That sounds awesome!

We get inspired by so many things, but mostly off personal experiences, problems and other artists we love! 

What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

Emotional experiences, like in so many punk songs! Ranging from fears, failure, being a complete loser to girls and relationship problems! 

Important to us is, that everyone can interpret his own experiences in the lyrics, they have no „correct“ meaning, they are variable!

Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?

We often have disagreements about something, but since we are all good friends, we stay over something like that, and we know when we did something wrong and can apologize to each other! That is the key, we think! 

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that´s coming up?

Because of the CoViD-19 pandemic, we have to postpone (or cancel) all of our shows we had planned, but we will look after replacements, like online streams!

And before we forget it, our new and first EP `Safe Zone´ is coming out on the 12th of June, 2020 via SBÄM Records and on all streaming platforms!

Go to our Instagram and presave it now, to win some merchandise!