West Dyke from Stuttgard, Germany

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF ...
We are West Dyke from Stuttgart, Germany, 4 dykes playing Rock, Punk and HC. Tine plays guitar, Catsch plays the drums, Rike plays bass and Franzi sings and plays sometimes keys.

HOW DID YOU MET AND DECIDED TO FORM A BAND?
We know us all from the local dyke scene. Franzi always made music. She used to play in the same band like Tine – Burning Batter. They both knew that Catsch plays Drums and Rike decided to learn bass to join us.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE NAME "WEST DYKE"?
Oh, that's a stupid story really! In the South of Germany carneval is kind of traditon in some cities. So we decided to go to a carneval happening and we dressed up as cowboys... The evening ended in a drunken fiasco – Catsch even had a scuffle with some homophobian guy... So we found the word „West“. And dyke I think explains itself. With this name we wanted to make clear we are not an all-girls-band but a dyke band. That's a difference.

WHAT ABOUT YOUR SONGS AND WHERE DO YOU USUALLY PLAY?
Franzi writes the texts, the song developes in the band room. Our texts are lesbian, political and personal. The places we play are either dyke places or alternative places like squats where homos are welcome.

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE GERMAN DYKE SCENE ? IT'S SEEM GO THROUGH KIND OF SCENE ...
It's true there are different scenes in Germany. In the South of Germany the lesbian scene is more conservative – in events they want „nice“music and cabarett. That's somestimes a little difficult for us... In Cologne and Berlin it is different.

DID YOU PLAY IN OTHER COUNTRIES? IF YES, WHERE AND HOW WAS THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE?
We played in Switzerland – in a squat in Basel. That was really really great! We had a big party all together. In autumn we will play in Nantes on a riot grrrls festival. We are looking forward to this event, also getting the chance to hear other bands. And perhaps we will have the chance to play in Italy ;o) ?

DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF AS FEMINISTS? WHAT CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT FEMINISM IN GERMANY? ARE THERE A LOT OF WOMEN WHO CONSIDER THEMSELVES AS FEMINISTS?
Yes – we are feminists. In Germany a lot of women do not like to say they are – cause it sounds old fashioned and men hating. For us it means to reach the aim to be total equal to men. And thats what we want. I think a lot of heterosexual and lesbian women think there is enough done – so why feminism? But i believe there is still a lot to do.

HOW MUCH IS IT IMPORTANT TO BE AN OUT DYKE BAND AND HOW USUALLY REACT AT THAT?
For us it is important to let people know that we are a loud and tough dyke band – and therefore different to girl-bands. And as we only play in places where people are tolerant – we did not have any problems yet. Also colleagues at work and heterosexual friends think it's ok. They sometimes only have problems with our music style... So withWest Dyke we did not have bad experiences yet. But with Burning Batter we did – we had a band room in a big building with other (only men) bands. They made sexistic discriminating graffity on our door – like fuck those lesbian bitches...

DO YOU HAVE OTHER PROJECTS BESIDE WEST DYKE?
Yes – Catsch plays also drums in another (mixed) band called „Nine o'clock“. They make accoustic guitar dominated music. Rike plays bass in a 3 persons project called relais III. They make electro acustic songs with German texts. Franzi had a hip hop project called f dakini together with a gay friend. She also makes a solo project called fish produktion. That's electro music. And she plays keys and sings at relaisIII. Tine used to play guitar at Burning Batter. So you see – we all come from very different backgrounds...

FUTURE PROJECTS?
We had a visitor from Israel a few weeks ago – she's a real West Dyke fan who found us via internet. That was a really good experience to hear about the Israeli dyke scene which is very small and where are many problems of being discriminated... So she invitied us to come to Tel Aviv and make a concert there. And as soon as the political situation calms down – we would really love to play there. Another thing we are making at the moment is our new cd. We record everything by ourselves as we have enough equipment. And even if the quality is not that high like in a studio – we really prefer doing it our own way – with no stupid guy at the mixer who knows everything better.

http://www.westdyke.de
kontakt@westdyke.de