Februar 13th, 2007

ABOUT

Ever wanna know what we are actually all about?
What our review policy and advertisement rules are?
And how you can pay for a feature of a song by your band on our not existing CD supplement and all the other shit?

A few things people might want to know about TRUST FANZINE (print-HC-Punk-Underground Fanzine, first issue summer 1986, since then bi-monthly Germany-wide, never missed an issue) answered by publisher Dolf, Jan and Daniel

Please note: Trust is in german language. This FAQ here is just for a wider audience.

1. What the hell does Trust Fanzine want?

We like to meet and get to know people/bands/artists/sports/etc. that do what they do out of passion in the first place. People who believe in a underground culture and are aware that most of the stuff that is sold nowadays under that flag is total crap only made to make money. We also look for subscribers, since TRUST is actually a print fanzine. And, if you feel you can write and relate, get in touch. To put it with Fugazi’s words: “Never mind what they’re selling – it’s what you are buying”.

We still think that HC-Punk should be „more than music“ and really nailed down straight to the point in all brevity we mean this:

FOR STARTERS –
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION RATHER THAN PART OF THE PROBLEM

Eat vegetarian ★ live atheistic ★ be fair and honest ★ don’t believe everything the media tells you ★ be critical ★ have your own taste ★ don’t buy so much shit you don’t really need ★ reuse & recycle ★ avoid cars – bicycle, start uncommercial networks ★ live professional ★ don’t charge human beings by race, gender, or where they come from (most poeple are shit, no matter where they come from), but based on what they do and believe. Fuck fashion and don’t forget to party and have fun.

If you think that this list means that we don´t like people who own a car etc., you are either very young or very dumb. In the first case we would like to know you, in the other case we are very sure we already know you and choosed not to know you better.

This is not a set of rules. It does not mean that we don´t take interviews submissions or don´t love bands/people who express different or opposite principles in their lives. We weren´t, aren´t and probably never will be yours „100 percent-always-in-every-situation-perfect“-correct people. You would actually be surprised how „tolerant“ we are (new problem: too tolerant?). If you look for those kind of perfect people, you will have a very very long search in front of ya and we kind of doubt that we will ever find them (in the punk scene).

2. What is the homepage of Trust all about?

Well, this is basically the online version of our print fanzine which has been around forever (1986, i.e.) and on a two month basis continues to cover all aspects of the music we love and the stuff that comes along with it. The focus has always been somewhere between punk and hardcore, yet trying to avoid the pitfalls of a narrow minded music taste by occasionally listening to something else.

3. I understand that you have an online archive with columns, book reviews and interviews from older issues. Why is there no layout like in the print version?

There`s excerpts from every issue, usually 3-4 band stories/interviews as well as stuff by our columnists, book reviews, and gig dates. We do consider our print issue to be our main focus (and we don`t water it down by handing out freebie cds either) so the online interviews and such do not contain any layout and it`s meant to be that way.  It`s all in german as nobody has the time to translate, sorry.

4. How do you select your gig dates?

At this point we print/list what we like. If you do shows/are a band we strongly urge you to send us the dates. As always: shows get cancelled. That`s not our fault, so before driving three hours please call the venue.

5. Did you write the German Trust Wikipedia-Entry? And is there an English- or Spanish- or French-…Wiki-Entry?

We did not write the German entry, but it is a correct text about our zine in German, see here please.
Currently, there is no English (or any other language) entry, but hey, maybe you can help us out be arranging the english (or any other language) entry?

6. What are your advertisement policies in print and online?

First of all: Trust is financed through ads. We are happy that you are interested in running an ad in our pages in print or online. We think that we offer ya a cool oppurtunity to advertise in an honest and truly independent fanzine which is nationwide available in all major train station newsstands. Through adverstisement you support old school print Punk/HC/Underground counterculture, cool!

Online Ads: Banner ads on trust-zine.de are available for a monthly rate. Ask AdBustin` Dolf through dolf[a]trust-zine.de

Print Ads: The ad deadline is the 15th of every second month. The magazine comes out around the 1th of the following month, the cover date is the same month (e.g., January 15 would be the deadline for the issue, which hits the streets early February).

Policy, Layout, Prices, (International) Payment: Ask AdBustin` Dolf through dolf[a]trust-zine.de
Please note in advance: Of course advertisers get a sample copy with the ad. Running an ad in TRUST does not mean that you`ll get a (good) review or have your band featured in the magazine. We choose our features based on what our writers and editors want to include in the magazine, not on who buys an ad.

7. Where do I send my records, tapes, Vinyls, DVDs, CDs etc. for a review in Trust Fanzine to

Send in all your releases to:

Trust Verlag
Dolf Hermannstädter
Hamburger Straße 243
28205 Bremen
Germany

BUT please read these few words on our review policy before sending off! Better ask before sending!!! dolf(a)trust-zine.de !!! THX!!!

8. I wrote a book, published a new issue of my fanzine etc. Would you review it, do you trade etc.?

We like to read – your stuff too, may it be fanzines or books etc. We don´t review ebooks. We try to review all material that reaches us and fits our agenda (Punk/HC/Underground, StreetArt/Art, Boardsports and humanistic-emancipatoric politics). Although we can´t garantue that every submission will be featured in our pages. Please no follow-up calls and mails!

All in our pages reviewed books and fanzines will get the issue with the review inside automatically but only if you provide us a street adress (if there is no such adress in the zine, promo-letter for the book etc.: we won´t email ya anymore and ask for an adress). And you must agree that the adress will be published at the end of the review. Our distro master has it much more easier then. Please send your stuff to the adress in the impressum

Attention: English books and fanzines will be reviewed in English so that you will know what we think about your publication.

9. You can buy TRUST in many main train central station Germany wide – Isn`t TRUST selling out ? Why don`t you support the underground?

We are the underground, so why should we not support ourselves, that’d be stupid. We do support the underground and would prefer to only use cool outlets (mail-order, stores, people selling it at gigs, etc.), but unfortunately most kids buy it at the train stations. It is also good to find people who like what we do but otherwise would have never heard about us.

10. I heard your zine sucks! You are not covering the real Hardcore-Punk-music, you only listen to Fugazi, No Means No and strange free jazz.

You might have heard that, but it is not true. We not only cover hardcore-punk-music but we have always covered punk/hardcore/underground music, also some strange/experimental stuff here and there, but most important, the music the people at TRUST like to see published. There is a wide varity of people working on the zine, so naturally they have different taste as well as different age – therefore people also develop.

11. I haven`t read a single issue of TRUST since 1991, but I think that your zine is half-dead: you call yourself underground but you have ads from big companies, your review staff covers major label outputs, you have a barcode and all your writers don`t look crust punk anyway!

That is where the problem starts, how you can think about an underground publication like TRUST if you have not seen a copy in many years. It is true, we have (once a year or so) a major label ad and we do cover all kinds of good music; the barcode is a tool, so workers can work less. And for the look, dude, don`t judge a book by its cover!

12. Why is TRUST a zine of and for the students? What subjects did the publisher studied?

We are not a zine for students or non students; we don`t care if, or if not. I can ensure you, in the TRUST staff there is people who have studied, still do or never have. The publisher did not study.

13. Who were the founders/publishers of TRUST in 1986? Who is it today?

Besides Dolf Hermanstädter and Mitch Alber (who are active with Trust till today) it was a mix of several people. To name a few: Thomasso Schultze, Armin Hofman, Anne Ullrich. Some left later for other Zines. Dolf is the sole publisher today.

14. Tell me, is there a difference between TRUST and the big German music magazines?

Yes, we feature what we want; the others feature what the music industry wants them to feature .

15. Why is the layout so boring? Don`t you guys have an access to the newest layout programmes?

We don`t think the layout is boring, it is constant. Mitch did the layout (often alone) from 1986 to 2008. He wanted to keep it minimal, clear and stay to the old school glueing instead of using layout programmes. Since the end of 2008, André is at the helm of it and uses new layout programmes. Unsurpirsingly, the same three people in Germany who said that Mitchs style was „unprofessional“ are now of course dissing the skills of André as „too slick and too professional“.

16. Why do you feature so many bands I never heard of? You are too avant-garde for me.

Then maybe we are the wrong publication for you. There are people that want to read about what they see on their favourite music TV station or site, in other words, what the industry wants them to read. And there are people that want to discover new interesting bands, they read TRUST. We are not avant-garde.

17. Why do you feature so many bands I have heard off? You are too mainstream for me.

Then maybe we are the wrong publication for you…. just kidding. Because in TRUST you really get to read what the bands have to say in length, most of the times and only if they have something to say. We can not be too mainstream, that is like “too pregnant”, you either are or you are not, we are not.

18. Is that true that there was a photo-split issue with Trust and Maximum Rock`n`Roll in 1987? Wow, did you make other special issues since then?

Yes it is true, unfortunately it is sold out. No, that was the only one. Well, we had a few “theme issues” about music and drugs, sex and music, work and thirty years of Dischord Records, just check the index. You can acutally see the TRUST/MRR photo issue as a good scan and read online the MRR-Interview with Trust from December 2012 here

19. Why don`t you have CDs with the zine?

For the same reason we don`t have flip-flops or beer with the zine. We want to publish a fanzine, a CD is always a by-product, but nowadays it is the main reason people by a magazine, we think that is a problem and therefore we never had a CD with the zine and probably never will.

20. Why is your homepage so lame?

You probably have not seen it since its relaunch in March 2007 – so you better open your fucking eyes.

21. Why don`t you do an interview with my band? We`re around since so long!

Why not, if any of the TRUST staff writers is into doing it, it might happen… get in touch

22. Why did you give us such a bad review from the best band from our label? We wanted to run an ad inside trust!

We give you a good review if we like your music, no matter if you do an ad or no. Therefore we expect that you also run an ad, if you like, no matter how good or bad the review is. Take it as it is.

23. I heard that most of the staff are male and old, means over thirty, even over forty – how can you write then about a youth culture like punk?

Some of the older staff writers are indeed old. But we also have young people, as well as female writer. Because some of us have been young 25 years ago when punk was still a culture, not a product like today, and therefore we are qualified to still write about it. And, some of us are still young in mind, you’d be surprised.

24. So TRUST never had a CD coming with the mag, but I hear there was some flexis in the earlier years?

Correct, we dont have a CD for good reasons, we publish a fanzine and we are not a label. Here is a overview on the 7″s:
Trust #12 Barn Av Regnbuen – `Helter og Kurker’ ep Flexi with Cover.
Trust #13 Trust-Vinyl with Raped Teenager Flexi (some are left over, get in touch with the HQ).
Trust #17 Trust-Vinyl with Destination Zero Flexi.
Trust #19 Trust-Vinyl with Alien Boys.
Trust #20 should have had the Spermbirds “one sided” 7″ (hard disc) but all you got was a card saying in german “there is no single included”.
Trust #23 Haywire/Nonoyesno 7″ harddisc.

25. Where can I read online more about Trusts history, present activities… ?

Razorcake Fanzine did a long interview with Dolf and Jan in May 2013, it is in English here
(based on an Interview from Plastic Bomb Fanzine with Dolf and Jan published 2013)

26. How will the future of Trust fanzine looks like?

We have no fucking clue. We`ve been doing this for long so I guess there`s no reason to stop.

27. I want to write for Trust…

Send something! Make hardcore a cocktail again.

28. Allright, but about what excatly is Trust about, like what are your deeper emotional feelings?

Please read this text out of Trust # 68 in 1998 as most of it is also today relevant (in German only, sorry).

29. Is TRUST now the oldest punk fanzine? 
No but after the end of Maximum RocknRoll fanzine it looks like Trust is the longest existing punk fanzine in the world which is coming out regulary bi-monthly. We are totally aware that other publications from that era also exist!

Do you want to get in touch? Write us an e-mail.