Nieuwe Koekrand

The Nieuwe Koekrand (“new urine-sediment/faeces-deposit under the edge of a toilet-bowl”) became a very influential magazine because of the hard and dedicated work of Johan van Leeuwen. A nice guy that I’d gotten to know in the second half of the 80s. We never met but wrote each other quite some letters (sometimes very personal) over the years, until he died of a brain-tumour (Feb 7th 2003, at the age of 43)…

Johan also authored 2 books (in Dutch). Johan Was Punk And He Knows It (1997) – subtitled “the not so ordinary life of Johan of the Koekrand”. And Punk Als Verzet(je) (“punk as resistance”): a review/inventory of Nederpunk in the 80s; bands, venues, zines (2002).

He’d joined the editorial staff when the Koeckrandt (old spelling) was still a “punk-rasta paper”. It appeared quite frequently and was packed with interviews, info, articles (politics, art, etc.) and reviews (Johan also ran the original Konkurrent mailorder in its early days). It would be an impossible task to sum up all of the contents and to pick one representative item wouldn’t give due credit to this zinester extraordinaire. Editor from the early days, Diana Ozon, gives a “complete” listing on her website…

Michael Kopijn took it upon him to scan a big part of this historical treasure and I strongly urge everyone who reads Dutch to indulge in it. Anyone else can dig her/his way through the pics, art, cartoons, etc. Michael also wrote a brief history in English.

To get a more indepth idea of the zine’s history and Johan’s motivations here’s an interview that Mat Aerts (Limbabwe, Venlo) did with him for Piss Off zine in 1985. This is my translation:

 

Mat: First of all you should tell us when you started with the Koekrand.

Johan: About five years ago – it has been around for more than five years: other people used to do it but five years ago I got involved. At first together with the people who started it, like Dr. Rat [Amsterdam graffiti-artist; R.I.P.] and the people of Ozon [punk-poet Diana Ozon was the founder of the punk-club DDT666 located in a squat where the editorial office of the Koekrant was located.]. Later I continued it on my own, that’s when it became the Nieuwe Koekrand. Just to indicate that it’s a bit different from what it used to be. It used to be just rasta and punk, well yeah, and rasta wasn’t my thing anyway, so it became more punk and political and all that.

Mat: I’ve also seen some old issues of Koekrand but there’s indeed a strange evolution. There were issues of Koekrand that contained punk only and then there were some with completely different things in it…

Johan: Yes, rasta and…

Mat: I can even remember a Koekrand that had almost only pictures of ‘Theater Of Hate’ [British post-punk band].

Johan: At that time it was already my Koekrand; it depends on what you’re experiencing yourself. At a certain point you had punk and then ultra [short for ultra-modernist; Dutch post- & art-punk movement] came up, that happened a lot in Venlo, Amsterdam, Nijmegen and Eindhoven, and most punks liked that too. It wasn’t by chance that there was a lot of ultra in Oktopus [Amsterdam youthcentre], but that quickly became annoying, there wasn’t much behind it, except for new music, and then there was music like ‘Theater Of Hate’ and the like, that also stemmed from old punk bands. I started to like that, I still like that music, but those bands are now so generally accepted that it makes little sense to write about it in the Koekrand. Currently most of the new things comes from punk and hardcore. Sometimes a modern band is covered but that’s because a lot of people who read the Koekrand enjoy something like that. It’s not just hardcore enthusiasts who read the Koekrand; in the end it’s not a hardcore magazine.

I’ve been doing the Koekrand for five years now, before that I messed around with other magazines [Toilet zine]. But that Koekrand from before those five years was a Koekrand with a ‘c’ and a ‘k’ and ‘dt’ at the end, and a ‘c’ in the middle; some kind of stencil-art thing and all that. I never liked that. When I joined the Koekrand it was more of a fanzine and not so much art-oriented.

Mat: You’ve been part of the punk scene, or underground, for many years now; you’ld have to have a certain vision on that stuff, right?

Johan: I don’t have a distinct opinion about punk, it’s like people mess around a bit, it will continue. Punk goes with ups and downs; at the moment we are probably at a decent acme, while it was nothing two years ago. It’s also related, I think, with other currents in music mainly. Economically things haven’t been going that well lately, and punk has a lot to do with politics, especially for me; that’s also the reason why, for example, many people from the squat-movement feel related to punk. But I know people who are only punk because of the music or the atmosphere that surrounds it, that’s kind of synchronized.

Mat: Does that have something to do with each other: music and politics?

Johan: Well, of course it hasn’t got fuck-all to do with one and other. Well, perhaps everything, maybe nothing, I mean uhh … before that happens; I have a certain political opinion and I think that a certain kind of music fits that well, somehow, I can imagine that people will also like folk music or Jordaan [quarter of Amsterdam] music [sentimental or melodramatic songs of life] with accordion, and with political lyrics. For me that’s the way it is: I like punk music, and I like politics, and you combine that; I notice a lot of people are combining these.

Mat: Can you see a ‘youth movement’ separately from music at the moment? After all, the ‘youth’ spends most of their money on music.

Johan: That’s indeed how it is, but whether you can see it separately… It used to be; and what is a ‘youth movement’?

Mat: What is ‘used to’?

Johan: Before the war or so. The nazis sang songs with about thirty at a time, that was of course also a youth movement… But nowadays many young people are interested in music and so on because it’s a culture that probably fits young people. Fewer people are attracted to painting than to music. That’s why punk is also much broader, you have groups of anarchist painters who daubed all over the city. Besides the Koekrand I also do the Konkurrent mailorder… Apart from that I have done very little, but there are plenty of things that I can still do; what you just said: you do get a certain vision and that vision is of course also a kind of experience or something; in the meantime you know how things will develop or something, you can better see that in advance, and know how people will react to it. You can also undertake other things; set up labels, organise concerts, but I hardly get involved with that, I’ve had little time for that in the past, I had to work. But in the future I will no longer have a job, and then I can focus on other things. The Koekrand and the Konkurrent are simply intertwined, it has a lot to do with one and other.

Mat: The Koekrand is the leading punk magazine in The Netherlands.

Johan: Yes, I hear all kinds of people say that, but you shouldn’t forget, I am just sitting uhh… Well, you know, perhaps that’s all because the Koekrand has been around for such a long time. Many people might think “the Koekrand is up to speed about cartain things”.

Mat: But there’s also a lot in it.

Johan: Yes, but I can’t judge myself. I mainly do it on my own, and Charlotte [Smits; Johan’s partner and mother of his son Rutger] does a few more things, but in the last issue not that much anymore either actually. And you notice that when you have been working on it for a few months, that is when you’ve read things through three or four times, you perceive that as nothing anymore, you just forget about it. When an issue has come out, I prefer putting it in the closet, then I don’t even feel like distributing it. I would’ve already forgotten that issue, I’ld already be working on the next one. I hear people say that there’s a lot in it, but when I compare it to the MRR, it contains very little.

Mat: But you can compare the Koekrand with the MRR, but then limited to the tiny Netherlands. I think a lot of bands also send you a tape or record for a review in the Koekrand.

Johan: I’m not into that myself. There are bands that send a record or so, usually bands that I don’t know. See: a band from Amsterdam never send anything because they know that I don’t appreciate it, I just feel silly; tonight I got free entrance because I’m Johan of the Koekrand, somehow that’s not correct, what status does one get when working on the Koekrand? You also notice that bands are flattering you, and after every gig these guys come up to you like ‘I would like an interview’, then you think, ‘fine, I’ll do an interview with you, but then I feel abused somehow. Not that I don’t want to do that interview but I think it’s silly that people see you that way. I’m just doing something and it’s also quite dangerous, you know, when you… You write something about a band and it turns out that everyone takes it as the truth. That’s simply not true. What is in the Koekrand is what I think about it, and that’s all, nothing more to it. If someone else disagrees or if other people think it’s stupid, then that’s just very normal, and then you should just say it, I think, then you should admit it. It is nonsense to say ‘it was in the Koekrand so that’s how it is’. I have absolutely no clue about music, I know what I like but I really don’t know anything about music or anything. There are bands that I like very much but people shouldn’t hang on to that. Of course it’s nice that people have the idea that the Koekrand is important or something, I do also like that myself, just as someone likes to play in a famous band, but I do think it’s scary, for myself, because you can do a lot of things wrong; and not only that: I notice that most contacts with people are not honest or something, they just act nice to me because I’m Johan of the Koekrand. Kind of like they only act nice to you because you’re the bassist of ‘Pandemonium’, or you play for ‘B.G.K.’ or something. People who normally wouldn’t talk to you but that you see very often, and then suddenly find out that you’re from the Koekrand and Konkurrent, and start acting nice to you, come to have a chat with you every time you meet them. But I’ll just continue with the Koekrand because I enjoy making a magazine like that and because there are also other people who also like the magazine.

Mat: Do you call yourself punk?

Johan: Yes, well, I don’t know. I do think so. I don’t know what punk is. For example, I no longer say whether I’m punk or not. If I say yes now, tomorrow fifty percent of the people will say ‘what he says is nonsense’, the other half says ‘it is true’. When I did an interview for the Agenda (Amsterdam nightlife magazine), they also asked ‘are you punk yourself’, then my first answer was ‘I probably won’t be because I vacuum every day’, and then it turns out that that is what a lot of people remembered. Everyone still goes like ‘hey dude, you vacuum every day’, I think that says everything. When is someone actually punk? I mean uhh… I also wash the dishes every time I’ve eaten, I don’t leave it on the counter for two days.

Mat: Is that punk: leaving the dishes untouched for two days?

Johan: I don’t know, for some people it is.

Mat: Damn what a mess at those punks’ homes.

Johan: But coming back to the question what is punk. I like punk music, get along well with those people and don’t think it’s strange. I don’t think punks are weird, I do like all those characters walking around and acting wild. I just hope they’re still like that at the age of 30 and 40. Unfortunately it’s quite age-related. I’m 25 now myself and begin to put things into perspective, but I do sometimes still have an exciting feeling when I watch a punk band, and I hope that the people who’re 17 and 18 who’re walking around here tonight with their mohawks, throwing beer and pogoing, will have that same exciting feeling at the age of 30.

Lately I started to like real hardcore more and more, that’s because I have the feeling that that’s the only music that is honest. All other music has already been corrupted by the media. That other music is also hust in temporarily. When the craze is over, everyone will have forgotten it, but punk always keeps brawling on.

The conversation continues this way, we chat a bit about the popularity of the ‘Dead Kennedys’, etc.