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by James Damion
Brimming with curiosity after consuming and reviewing the band R.C. Sullivan's four-song EP “Masquerade,” I reached across the Atlantic to Lennart, the band's guitarist, in order to glean a bit more information about this melodic hardcore band that intrigued me in a number of ways. The quintet originated in the Northern Netherlands towns of Groningen and Leeuwarden, and consists of Jared (vocals), Lennart (guitar), Edo (guitar), Joris (drums), and Jan Jaap (bass.) The group reminds me of many of the melodic hardcore acts of the past and present that appeal to my love of reflective music.
Q: Congratulations on the EP. “Masquerade” sounds incredible. Has it been making the rounds and getting heard?
Lennart: Thanks for the compliment! We like it too. Yeah, more than any of our previous work. Never enough of course, but we've had some air time on Dutch radio, made it onto some well listened to playlists on Spotify, gotten some mentions on podcasts. And of course we've been selling the 7” at shows.
Q: Forgive me for asking a rather general question. I had to look up the name before knowing myself. What’s behind the name? How did you learn about the character, and why did it fit the band’s name?
Lennart: A friend of ours is kinda into history. He told me the story about Roy Cleveland Sullivan, and it always stuck. So when the time arrived to name the band (way back in 2012), we went for it. So, with some regard for truth, here’s the urban legend: Roy Cleveland Sullivan was a ranger in Virginia. He got struck by lightning 7 times. That must be a record, right? Even more unbelievable, he survived. As rangers do, he also fought multiple bears in his life, according to Mr. Sullivan himself. Winning every fight with ease! You might consider Mr. Sullivan a superhero. But when he reached the age of 71, heartache made him take his own life. We always thought that a story like that deserves some credit. Naming a punk band after him was the best we could do.
Q: You’ve been a band for quite some time. Why such a minimal amount of recordings to represent your years together?
JJ: You calling us lazy or something?? Not that you're far from the truth, but do you have to be so confrontational? Isn't it more about quality than quantity? In all seriousness it's multiple factors. Most of us have been in the punk scene since the 90’s. So even in 2012 most of us were already combining work, family life and a band. So we are kinda juggling priorities. We've had a couple of lineup changes during the years (drums, bassist, vocalist); those always take time. It might be a bit tiresome to drag up the ol' pandemic again, but the whole lockdown didn't help. Not with productivity nor with motivation. Just before it hit we put out an EP ('Caution', everyone should listen to it, it's pretty good) and we had an entire promo tour planned. That all got sent to the can of course. It really took some time to get the engine fired up again. But it's running now for sure! We're still promoting Masquerade, but even during production of this EP we have started work on our full length, so you've got that to look forward to. We'll show you how productive we can be!
Q: Yes, I’m calling you out on your failure to flood social media with weekly Bandcamp releases and unnecessary announcements. I also call you on your 90’s, boasting by boasting I’ve got a good decade on you.
When I contacted you about doing an interview, you mentioned that Lennart would do anything to avoid doing one. Though I can’t blame him. I’d love to know if there’s a particular instance that triggered that feeling?
Lennart: As I am typing the answers, I would call bullshit on this one! JJ clearly needed an excuse to make himself look better.
JJ: I will not confirm nor deny. Although it is true that some of us are more comfortable in the spotlight than others I guess. I need my confirmation. Look mom, I'm in a band!
Lennart. Such allegations must have their origins. Before we decide on any fisticuffs, let’s make this official. Who is best equipped to be the band's representative?
Q:There was also the mention of an upcoming birth. Congratulations again. Do you care to share the results? Healthy? Boy? Girl? Any idea how that addition will affect the band going forward?
Lennart: We added a healthy girl to the offspring of the band. She is the latest addition, but all of us have kids ranging from 0 to 14. Some of them are even growing up to be the next generation of punk rockers. I would say it won't affect us too much. Maybe the first year or so Lennart can't play all shows, so we contracted one of our buddies to step in and play the guitar and bust some moves on stage when the little one has cramps or whatever. So we’ve got that covered.
Q: Here in the U.S., booking shows and finding a consistent spot to host shows. What’s the situation?
Lennart: Part of the question seems missing, perhaps? Did you mean to ask if this was hard to do over here? Yeah, it is. I think we're in that place where it's very cool to be asked to play a show somewhere, and because it doesn't happen that much we're always very excited when that happens, haha. But the vast majority from the shows we play come from a lot of mailing and contacting the right people, venues, bars, etc. It's a lot of work, but playing shows is the best thing really. So we'll play pretty much anywhere we can. The venues are certainly there, all across the country.
Q: You’re right. During my first decades of going to shows, I think we took the number of regular venues available for granted. Seeing most of those hosts disappear over the years was a shock — a vivid reminder that nothing lasts forever. I wanted to get a current window into what it’s like being in a band and finding consistent venues or spots to play live music. Do you often find yourself playing gigs with bands from other European countries? How easy is it to cross borders?
Lennart: We certainly try to make it happen. The Netherlands isn’t as punk rock or hardcore-minded as it used to be. Some towns still have a vibrant scene though. Maybe most fans in the genre are the same age as us and prefer going to festivals (or stay at home on the couch over going to local live shows. However, we aim to play in different countries. Germany is awesome and of course close by. But we’ve been to Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic as well. It's always nice to meet new people either in bands or hosting shows. It always amazes us how welcoming and friendly people are to a couple of strangers from abroad. Traveling is easy still, to most countries in Europe anyway. And it's always cool to play with or play host to bands from across the border too. There's always bands from other countries touring around The Netherlands, sometimes we're lucky enough to play with them and make new friends.
Q: What attracted you to the melodic side of Punk and the elements of hardcore that make their way into your music?
Lennart: We've all been little punk-rockers in our teen years. We grew up in the 90's and all of us were on the 'alternative side' compared to our peers back then. The fast beats, the melodic tones and the “fuck you attitude” is every teenager's cup of tea, right? At least it was for us and the people around us when we were young. And though sometimes hardcore and punk seem like two total different things, is always been connected for us. I think what's been bleeding through in our latest records you could call 'going back to your roots'. The skatepunk from the Nineties or the metalcore from the Zeros all have their voices. I guess all the bands we listened to have an influence on the way we write music.
Q: I was listening to the EP just yesterday and noted how each of the four songs stood out so strongly to me. (Not easy considering the amount of media/music I consume daily.) I wanted to ask if there was anything specific that inspired you to create the music and, perhaps more important to me, the lyrics? What were some of the bands that influenced to form your own? Ones that informed the sound you wanted to produce?
Lennart: We all have a fondness for bands that stand out of combined genres like As Friends Rust, Bane and 88 Fingers Louie. I wouldn’t say we wanted to sound the same, but we’ve always really liked bands that take a different approach to the genre. And I think we all grew up with the local bands in mind. Bands that are long gone and mostly forgotten…
Q:What are some of the notable bands you especially enjoyed sharing the bill with?
Lennart: Oh too many to name! A couple of weeks back we had the privilege of playing a hardcore show with Get Some and Boneripper (whose vocalist produced our EP and who just released their own full length). It was a jampacked venue and the crowd was wild. But to name a few others: Darko, Rebuke, Antillectual, Drunktank, Sun-0-Bathers, Grofvuil, Blagged, Ink Bomb (but that's later this year), Rocket Fuel, Heck, to name but a few. In July we opened for Life of Agony, which is absolutely humbling and probably (surely) our biggest show to date. I mean, we used to listen to them when we were in our early teens. How cool is that?
Q:Do genre-specific names matter when booking shows?
Lennart: Not really. I think most of us like a broad range of music with a preference for bands. So we are happy to play with anyone and for any audience. The audience might care though...
Q: You’ve been together since 2012. Bands seem to last a lot longer than they did in my day. Have you achieved most of the goals you set out for yourself back then?
The goals certainly changed over the years. From 'just having fun' to having the goal to release our own material and physical product (vinyl,) to 'this is probably as good as it gets', to 'hey we might actually still be heading somewhere at our age, let's write a full length'. When we started, as stated before, all of us were working family men. This certainly helps with the longevity, as there won't be anyone saying 'I can't pay the practice room this month'. And we all know what that kind of shit leads to eventually. So I would say, yes, we've achieved most goals we've set, and we're always aiming to take it a step further. So far this has been a good year in that respect. I think the biggest change was the switch in vocalists. Our current singer, Jared, made us more focused towards those goals. We’ve since changed up the musical style and our ambitions have grown somewhat. So from the release of Caution in 2019 to Masquerade in 2024 we upped the ante. Striving for more and bigger shows, actually making an effort for (social) media attention and paying more attention to details in songwriting.
Q: What’s next for the band?
We’ve got some cool shows coming up and are writing new songs. I wouldn’t be surprised if by this time next year we’ll be playing some cool festivals, right?? So catch us at a local venue while you still can! And, like we said, we've been working on new material, and slowly but surely our full length is starting to take shape. So keep an eye on that too.
For more information, visit rcsullivan.nl or rcsullivan.bandcamp.com.
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