Five For Five with Henk De Vries of Icepick
Thanks again to social media, i've "known" Henk for quite a while. He has a SICK record collection and plays in a rad Dutch hardcore band (recently re-united) called Icepick. They've played with Power Trip, Gorilla Biscuits, Cockney Rejects and a tonne more, and will be playing with Judge (!!!) in September. If you haven't, do yourself a favour and check them out (they are way better than the Jamey Jasta "Icepick"). In the meantime, Henk answered a few questions for me.
1. Tell us a bit about the scene you came up in and how it shaped your musical tastes.
I grew up in a very small village with no real music culture or whatsoever. But I got my love for music definitely from my mom. She always had the radio on, and some of her favorite bands were Creedence Clearwater Revival, Queen, Abba, Black Sabbath, Buddy Holly, etc.
When I was in elementary school, there was a friend of mine which of course had an older brother that was into Hardrock/Metal and he played guitar, and I always thought that was really interesting. Fast forward a year or two, in 1991 to be specific, there was this heavy band called AC/DC that had a huge hit with the song Thunderstruck. And because of that song I wanted to learn how to play the guitar as well. So I got a guitar for my birthday and that older brother gave me guitar lessons. He even taped me stuff from bands such as Iron Maiden, Motörhead and Saxon. And from then on I was hooked, and was really eager to find out about more and more Hardrock and Metal bands. So I went from AC/DC to other bands like Metallica, Misfits, Bad Religion, Bad Brains, etc. Eventually I really got into Hardcore music, and til this day all those classic Hardcore records still have a soft spot in my heart. Even though I have a very varied taste that goes from Classic Rock to Extreme Death Metal, I still get goosebumps listening to records from bands such as Inside Out, Life's Blood, Antidote and Slapshot.
2. What is your "White Whale"?
You know, for a while now I have the Discogs app on my phone and it's a perfect way to registrate a wantlist, and right now I seriously have more than 1000 items on that list. Although I have never been about collecting all sorts of different pressings of a particular record, but there are definitely some in my wantlist, so I can keep an eye out if one pop's up for a reasonable price. But that kinda explains that huge wantlist. I guess I could really narrow it down to like 100 records, and there are some real white whales in there. Anyway, if I had to pick one white whale it would be the Powerhouse - s/t 7" on New Age Records on blue opague vinyl. I always loved that band and besides the test pressing, I own every different version of this 7", but still need that one on blue. For some reason I managed to come across all those different versions, so it would be really nice the top it off by getting this blue, uhm, white whale. I believe there are only like 50 of these. So really hard to come by!
3. What are your 5 desert island albums?
This is such a tough question to answer, because I have atleast 50 desert island albums I guess. But I am just gonna keep it simple and write down the first ones that pop in mind:
• The Misfits - Walk among us
• Bad Brains - Rock for light
• Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green river
• Van Morrison - Tupelo honey
• AC/DC - Powerage
4. Most recent LP you have purchased?
Sodom - Persecution mania lp (Steamhammer Records)
Finally found a copy for a very nice price, and it wasn't even an online purchase but at a local shop! We finally have some recordstores in town again, and I found some really cool stuff in the second hand bins over the last months.
5. What band or artist would you like more people to know about? (Icepick counts!)
Well yeah, years ago I used to be in this band called Icepick (not the Jamey Jasta one, we were first actually) and recorded a demo with the band. After that I left the band, but years later they asked me to join the band again. Right now we are working on a full length, which will hopefully be out late 2019. We have close to 10 new songs now, and it's the best the band has ever done I can say. So definitely stay tuned!
I am really picky when it comes to new Hardcore bands, but there are definitely some worth mentioning like Chain Reaction (Belgium), Illusion, Mindforce, Ekulu (USA), Blvd of Death (Italy), Tied Down (UK), Weight (Norway), Pressure Pact, Savage Beat and Trumpets of the Apocalypse (Holland).
Thanx for the interview!