Congress are a Belgian band who were one of the pioneers of the European hardcore scene. They have just completed a tour of Japan, and filmed their first video.

Vicki: Was the filming of Fever rising as much fun as it looked?

Josh: Filming the clip was quite an experience! It was a dream come true, to envision a song is one of the things I always wanted to do with my band. We did the playback scenes in a medieval storing hangar, it had only one power source and we needed four or five for lights, so we had to cut the power-ranson...

Nevertheless, we kind of captured the darkness that we tried to describe in the lyrics. As for the movielike scenes: it was difficult to get to the castle because the old lady at the desk won't let us drive the car in front of the building. The area the castle is in is a reservate for endangered species so they didn't want modern culture screw up the evironment...But Dwid our director is a great smoothtalker so we did the shooting after all...

Vicki: Some of the samples used on Resurrection are terrifying in their intensity; do the samples inspire the songs or simply enhance to them?

Josh: The music/lyrics/samples for this album were synchronically done. After the songs were recorded, I checked my DVD's for fitting samples but kept the lyrics in mind, so nothing would be too busy vocally. We always did samples on our records but this time they're perfectly incorporated in the songs, simply because we put more time in it.

Vicki: What is your favourite TV detective series?

Josh: I'm not a big fan of detective series or TV in general but I loved Twin Peaks! I love anything by David Lynch for that matter!

Vicki: How is the hardcore scene is Belgium right now?

Josh: Well, it's growing day by day. In my area of Ieper there's over 30 bands playing on a weekly basis. I'm talking about mostly beatdown HC: Retaliate, 1 Outta 6, Core of Anger, Two minute Warning, Outcast but also old NYHC like Kingpin, One fine cast, Zero Tolerance. New popular bands in the hood are: Rise and Fall, record out soon, the Setup, DeathbeforeDisco... We have a strong scene again with very motivated individuals who do all they can to make the scene work.

Vicki: Do you think you could ever empathise with Cthulhu?

Josh: Well yeah, I really do believe that there's some truth hidden in this theory. The earth is warming up, floods in eastern countries, volcano bursts.. all these disasters could be some signs for the coming of the ancient gods... No seriously, there must be something related to these natural disasters, as described in Lovecraft's books.

What I really like about his theories or books in general was the fear he struck me with, no other horror-writer could do this besides Poe maybe.

Vicki: Congress were the reason that the term 'Edgemetal' exists, does this tag still fit as comfortably as it used to?

Josh: Edge stands for Straight Edge, a lifestyle none of us is still practising. Besides that, bands like Earth Crisis were way before us with this style but called it vegan straight edge not edgemetal... Many bands took the image and music of 'Edgemetal' and didn't say anything that made sense in their lyrics or only cared for their T-shirts and clothing brands. At this point, I was so dissapointed with the whole SXE-movement that I quit.

Vicki: From your site I notice one of Vez' favourite films is The Boondock Saints; has he inflicted it upon you?

Josh: No comment on that, haven't seen that one yet...

Vicki: Care to recommend a book?

Josh: Well, Lovecraft is awesome but because I'm one busy fella can't take time in reading lately so that's about it concerning books, sorry...

Vicki: How different is playing in Kingpin to Congress?

Josh: Well, I sing in Kingpin so to me that's the biggest difference. Kingpin is a hobby-band with buddies, we don't have the same discipline as in Congress. Also, the Kingpin-shows are those cosy, small club-gigs where everybody likes to chill or go wild to the music. We do support for Congress too from time to time, like a double booking if you will. To me, as a guitarist, I really prefer to play and sing better than just sing.

After 12 years, it felt really uncomfortable to stand there as a frontman without a guitar in my hands, now I can cope and try to do the best I can. Keep an eye out for our album by the end of the year!

Vicki: If you could be any origami animal what would you be?

Josh: An elephant definitely! Loved these animals from when I was a kid, maybe it's because I have big ears too and a big mouth?!

Vicki: Do you have any expectations from the upcoming shows in Japan?

Josh: Well, we support Integrity so my expectations aren't too high but I'm sure we'll do well. I heard stories from my old band Liar that they're pretty familiar with Congress so that gives me confidence. Even if it's a bit of a letdown, we went there after all didn't we? No one can take that away, I'd never buy a plane ticket to japan anyway so it's awesome that we could get there with the band!

Vicki: What would you trade your soul for?

Josh: Nothing! The soul is immortal, would'nt want to lose that!