-What's the meaning of Peter Pan Speedrock name?
Well, they got the name before my time; I think Peter came up with it. People were always telling him:"quit playing that rock&roll music; It won't get you anywhere! Get a normal job and grow up!". But Peter decided to 'not grow up'. Now, the 'Peter Pan-Syndrome' is a medical term they use for people who don't want to grow up. And that's why he chose the name Peter Pan.

-How would you describe your sound? Which groups had influence in your style to define it?
Peter Pan started out with a heavy, stripped-down, guitar-rock sound, with an 'alternative' touch to it. After I joined the band, we got rid of the 'alternative', turned the amps up to 11, and soon progressed towards the straight-forward, in-your-face actionrock we now call 'Speedrock'. To avoid any more misunderstandings surrounding the (somewhat strange) bandname, we added this term to it, which resulted in the final Peter Pan Speedrock. Our sound is often compared to Motörhead & AC/DC, which is kind of a compliment, but I think we got a lot more punk than those bands. And even a little rockabilly here & there. And we got a much dirtier sound too. Actually there's a lot of bands/artists that influenced us; From Motörhead & AC/DC to The Stooges, DevilDogs, Zeke, The Sonics, Turbonegro, Hellacopters, Butthole Surfers, RocketFromTheCrypt, Supersuckers, New Bomb Turks, Dwarves, Meteors, DementedAreGo!, Rev Horton Heat, etc.etc....simply all great Rock&Roll, Punk & Hardrock-bands. -Your lastest album is a rock and roll tribute... ¿What is born the idea to make this records?
It's just a collection of songs that we've listened to a lot (driving to & returning from shows), and who were amongst our favorites for years. We just thought it was fun to play & record them ourselves. And yes, it's also a tribute to a lot of bands that influenced us. Especially the more obscure ones. I mean, ofcourse everybody knows LedZeppelin, TheMisfits or SocialDistortion. But there's a lot of (younger) people in our audience, who've never heard of bands like BloodOnTheSaddle, ButtholeSurfers or ElvisHitler. And since those bands are important to US, we thought our audience should know about them too.

-In your songs... What do yourself consider more important: the lyrics or the music?
Well, mostly the music comes first, and the words are added kinda 'last minute'. However, on the last album 'Premium Quality...' we paid a lot more attention to the lyrics. Actually, we're not really a 'message'-kind of band. We mainly sing about the good things in life; Sex, drugs & rock&roll; you know the story. I guess the only 'serious' point we want to make is that disco or techno, or whatever you wanna call it, is all just a load of crap. Computerized bullshit that people Should not like! They just don't know it yet, so we're here to tell them. Listen to the song 'Machines Ain't Music' by one of the great thinkers of our time Mojo Nixon, and he'll tell you all about it:"No matter how much you remix.....You can'tT make disco rock&roll!" Especially in Holland, where we're from, people have to wake up; this techno-crap is all over the fuckin' place. It's hard to find some decent rock&roll in Holland nowadays. The situation is pretty serious.

-What is the ideology punk according to your point of view? 
Actually, I never really thought of myself as being 'punk'. Although I love punkrock music, 'psychobilly' or just 'rocker' would describe me better. I was never really into the ideology-side of punk; the fact that I ended up in the 'punkrock' scene, is something that just happened. I never really thought about it. I just always went for the stuff I liked to do best, regardless of people's 'good advice', and this is where it got me.

-How is being rock music today in the Holland? and tell me about any group you like... 
Well, we can't complaint. We're doing well at the moment. Lots of shows & lots of people. For an 'underground' band we're pretty well-known; we're in the magazines so to speak. But that does not mean that Holland is a good country for Rock&Roll. Not at all. For example bands like The Hellacopters & Turbonegro, who are 'underground' rockstars in countries around us like Germany or Belgium; in Holland not many people know them. They can do a 2 week tour in germany with 800-people venues, selling out most nights, and at the same time do 2 small shows in Holland, that won't be anywhere near sold out. It's sad to say, but the dutch audience is not really into rock&roll.
 A lot of damage was done by the house or techno-invasion in the 80's & 90's. That fucked up the whole live-clubcircuit. Because all the venues wanted to make money, they all turned their saturday-night into 'dance-nights'. So when you went to see a liveband on a saturdaynight, the show would be over at like 11.00, and you were kicked out, so the hordes of dance idiots could come in & spend their money. And all that really sucked. It's good to see that less & less people are showing up at those nights. Maybe they're finally starting to see how boring this whole dance-thing actually is. 
 However, in spite of the 'bad' rock&roll environment, there's still a lot of good bands at the moment. Bands like The Spades, The Nitwitz, 69 Charger, the Collywobbles, The Shavers, Wiseguy, The Riplets, The Apers, Discipline, Tech9, Beans, MilwaukeeWildmen and lots & lots more, are all doing a very good job; it's safe to say that the scene is healthy. -What is it more important for The Peter Pan Speedrock as a band: to do good gigs or good songs/ albums?
We're a real live-band. Playing live is what we like to do best, but in order to get shows, you need good albums to make yourself known. So the 2 things have to go together; you need both. Playing live for a few hundred people who go totally crazy, is the best fuckin' thing in the world though!

-Which is the band you've played with that has surprised you the most. And disappointed?
The funny thing is that every time you play with a band that you've always looked up to, once you get to meet them, they're just normal people. Weird but true. It makes no difference if they're in Motörhead, Nashville Pussy, Zeke, Rose Tattoo, or whatever. The only one we ever met who really acted like an asshole (over-the-top rockstar attitude), was Glenn Danzig. But hey, he's entitled to be an asshole. He's earned himself the right to be a dick.

-What do you know about the rock scene done in Spain?
Well, it must be pretty good, because all the cool bands tour there. And there's a bunch of fine recordlabels from Spain (like Munster, or Safety Pin). And I heard that Tony Slug of the Nitwitz, is considered a living 'punkrock' legend in your country (he told me so himself, haha). In fact he really is a legend; still going strong since 1978 in bands like The Nitwitz, Loveslug, Hydromatics and the legendary BGK (who even toured the USA with the Dead Kennedys a few times), but people in Holland are too stupid to see. At the moment he is also in eindhoven all-black überpunkband THE SPADES. Tony rules! However, I can't say that I know many bands from Spain. Los Ass-Draggers were from Spain weren't they? And half of the Pleasure Fuckers. But do those bands still exist?

-What do you expect of your lastest album?
Hopefully Suburban can arrange licence-deals in other European countries, so we can start touring there as well. Germany & Belgium won't be a problem, we're already doing well overthere. We just want to get out there & rock all over europe (and the states too if possible). And if the record is everywhere, the shows will follow. That's how it works out for us  everytime: we slowly build up an audience by endless touring. Ofcourse that's not the fastest way to do it, but it's definitely the most fun!

-What can explain about Suburban Records?
They started out as a record-distributor, not a label. So when they started the label, they already knew all there is to know about the record-business. Also they are relatively small; they do not have hundreds of bands to worry about, so they can really focus on the bands that they sign & work with. We're very happy working with them; this next album will already be the 4th released on Suburban, so... -What has been the worst shit that has ever happened to you in these years  on stage.
They started out as a record-distributor, not a label. So when they started the label, they already knew all there is to know about the record-business. Also they are relatively small; they do not have hundreds of bands to worry about, so they can really focus on the bands that they sign & work with. We're very happy working with them; this next album will already be the 4th released on Suburban, so...

-How can be explained the music of Peter Pan Speedrock in few words?
With one of my old bands we once played on a festival in Belgium, for about 700 people, and they hated us só much, that after one song the whole place was completely silent, except this one guy who yelled 'YOU SUCK!' Not very nice, now was it?

-Which are your ten disks preferred of the century twenty?
That's a very difficult question. To come up with a list of 100 favorite records would be a piece of cake, but to name only 10 turned out to be a mission impossible, so I ended up with 13. And that's the best I can do. Okay, here we go:
 1. DEVIL DOGS - SaturdayNight Fever
 2. TURBONEGRO - Apocalypse Dudes
 3. MOTÖRHEAD - Ace Of Spades
 4. STRAY CATS - Rant'n'Rave With The...
 5. THE METEORS - In Heaven
 6.  THE HELLACOPTERS - Supershitty To The Max!
 7. THE CULT - Electric
 8. SOCIAL DISTORTION - White Light, White Heat, White trash
 9. DEMENTED ARE GO! - Kicked Out Of Hell
 10. HANK WILLIAMS - 40 Greatest Hits (double-album)
 11. THE DWARVES - ...Are Young & Good Looking!
 12. MOJO NIXON - Whereabouts Unknown
 13. ROKY ERICKSON & The explosives - Casting The Runes   (live)

-Is there anything I haven´t asked and you believe we should know?
Go for it! And keep on trying! Even when everybody thinks you're a complete lunatic. Just keep-on rockin'! You know, all-in-all it took me more than 15 years before I finally got somewhere, and ofcourse we're still nowhere near being wealthy rockstars, and we probably never will be; but we do have the best fucking job in the whole wide world. We get to party, travel, drink, party even more, drink even more, etc,etc, and on top of it all; we get some money for it too! What more could you possibly want? Believe me! I can see us still doing this in 50 years, rockin' on stage & setting our wheelchairs on fire!

-To end, you can freet, say what you wont, etc, etc. 
Yes, there is: In about 2 months (march 2003), we're gonna record our new album (so it should be out just before the summer). And it's going to be produced by mr. Kurt Bloch. He produced a.o. The Devil Dogs' 'SaturdayNight Fever', The Supersuckers' 'Evil Powers of Rock&Roll', Zeke's 'Dirty Sanchez', and the first 2 Nashville Pussy records, to name just a few. Needless to say, we're lookin' forward to that. And with the new album, we're going to tour Spain for the 1st time. At this moment it looks like The Nitwitz will probably be brave enough to take us along on one of their next trips to Spain.  So, until then, keep on rockin' & rollin', and see you very soon. Cheers!

(on behalf of the rest of the band) Bartman.

Oficial Web: Peter Pan Speedrock

Label: Suburban Records

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