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An Interview with
Matyi & Pinky
Of





SZÉKI KURVA

Matyi:  Hello, I'm MC Ludas Matyi and I'm responsible for guitar, chatting and conducting the whole sorry mess.

Pinky:  Hello, I'm Pinky, I'm the singer and contrary to popular belief I'm quite shy and friendly.

Last Sigh:  What is the history of Széki Kurva thus far?

Matyi:  Me and our old singer Beáta formed the band in Hungary in 1992, after listening to loads of Hungarian folk music and also Hardcore Rave, and talking about combining the two. Eventually we moved back to London and recruited a few more like-minded people around us; then we spent about two years just messing about with ideas before releasing our first EP on our own cassette label FGZ; and then we messed about a bit more before finally deciding to play live.

Last Sigh:  And, how would you describe the music you make?

Pinky:  L-O-U-D. Well, my Dad likes it, except for all the swearing.

Matyi:  International Mongrel Music! Other descriptions we've had aimed at us are Technopunk, Székimuffin, Turbofolk, and "a bloody racket".

Last Sigh:  You are Hungarian, you live in London, and you use Japanese Manga characters to represent the band. Of what nation is Széki Kurva anyway?

Pinky:  English, mate, and we're proud of it.

Matyi:  There's no Hungarians left anymore! They all either got deported or killed off. Now it's two part-Gypsy Essex boys, an Indian Essex girl, and an Arab girl.

Pinky:   I have a hazy recollection of getting into the band. All I remember is singing songs to Matyi at a party and being recruited.

Matyi:  Pinky is our old guitarist's brother's fiancée, so we kept bumping into each other at parties. Actually we couldn't stand each other when we first met, but one night I was so drunk I didn't care so I asked her whether she could sing. She was so drunk she didn't care either, so it sort of went from there! And before she even joined the band properly, we did Karaoke duets together, stuff like "Stand By Your Man". 

Last Sigh:  How many people are in Széki Kurva anyway?

Matyi:  Four -- me, Pinky, DJ Assassin who does the turntable scratching and the programming, and Miriam the Soundgirl.

Last Sigh:  And, how do you work together in writing/composing your songs?

Matyi:  Me and Pinky write the lyrics, and me and DJ Assassin write the music.

Pinky:  We just get pissed and come up with whatever.

Matyi:  A bottle of wine for her, a crate of beer for me and a notepad = lyrics. I suppose you'd better hear about our influences, which are...

Pinky:  Vocally, my influences are Madonna, Jello Biafra, Baby Spice, Mary J. Blige.

Matyi:  ...and my influences are -- Jello Biafra, Johnny Rotten, KRS-1, Márta Sebestyén, Bounty Killa, (Both of us) -- Sonny and Cher! Musically, Széki Kurva's influences are

Pinky:  Dead Kennedys and The Butthole Surfers.

Matyi:  More like -- Hungarian Dance House music, Serbian Turbofolk, Jungle, Ragga, and anything else we hear when we re walking down the street.

Last Sigh:  Could you tell us something about Széki Kurva's activities aside from making music?

Pinky:  No. :)

Matyi:  We have a sort of armed wing called The Little Goats, which some of us are in, and we go round terrorising music industry people. Doing Situationist stunts and stuff. But we can't talk about it. :)

Last Sigh:  I know that you run a radio station amongst other things?

Matyi:  Yeah, Kicsi Róka Rádió, which means Little Fox Radio. It's a very short-range FM pirate station, and we play jungle on it. We should be getting a bigger transmitter pretty soon so we can annoy more of London.

Last Sigh:  What are your thoughts on the British music climate at the moment, and the record industry as such?

Matyi:  Not much! It's all sewn up by six major companies and they're cutting their own throats at the moment with stupid pricing and dealing. But we stay well out of it, on the sidelines, because we've got our own labels and our own distribution network, and we own all our own work.

Last Sigh:  Each of your CDs comes with a manifesto. Could you sum up what this is about? How have you in the past, or intend to in the future, actualized the doctrine of this manifesto?

Matyi:  Put simply, that manifesto is there to inspire our listeners to join the Széki Massive, start their own bands, their own labels, their own fanzines, whatever. And then run it for themselves. The underlying philosophy is "If you don t like what you're seeing on the news or hearing on the radio, make some of your own". We actualize the doctrine of this manifesto every day simply by being ourselves, and refusing to be owned by anyone. And by doing the stuff we mentioned above (which we can't talk about!)

Last Sigh:  All your music is available to download from the Internet as mp3 files. Would you care to comment on your feelings regarding mp3 files? How do you expect to survive economically, when you give away your music for free?

Matyi:  Surviving economically -- for a start, we all have day jobs! Also, this isn't about a salary for us, and never has been. It's not quite correct about the MP3 files by the way -- they're Cerberus Digital Jukebox files and you have to pay for them by credit card. So we do get quite a good cut back from that. I recommend that to any band out there. As for my feelings regarding MP3 files -- I don't give a fuck what fans do. Some of our Massive bootleg our stuff onto CDR and give it to their mates, which is fine. The only problem with that is that they don t get to see the artwork!

Last Sigh:  You have just released a new CD mini-album (your third so far on Iris Light), how is this release different in your view from your previous releases?

Pinky:  Fearless Vampire Killers is more melodic than the last two. More tunes!

Matyi:  It's more of a musical, like South Pacific. Cause that's our new direction :)

Last Sigh:  How did you end up on Iris Light anyway?

Pinky:  He just rang us up, and...

Matyi:  Pretty much! Adam Sykes heard our track "Bond Averts World War III" played down the phone to him by a mate -- he went mad, said he had to put out everything of ours forever, and rang me up. I immediately said yes, because I had nothing better to do and the last two labels to chase us were bullshitting hippie twats. Adam is a stand-up guy who means it.  

Last Sigh:  Do you have any live shows coming up?

Matyi:  We're doing one a month every full moon at the moment, but they're low-key, in London clubs, because we're working out new material and a new way of doing the live sound. Then, next year, maybe we'll go out on tour supporting bigger bands. 

Last Sigh:  Could you give us a brief description of what a Széki Kurva concert is like? Judging from your music, it sounds as if it could be a pretty lethal affair. Is there for instance any truth in the rumor that you bring firearms on stage?

Matyi:  We used to wave guns about and stuff, but we're leaving that behind for a bit so it doesn't become a cliché. And we're buying more guns, too! Bigger ones with more ammo capacity. Generally our shows can be a bit risky in terms of flying glass and guitars and plates smashing, but people who come to see us should know what to expect. There's no dividing line between the audience and us on stage, we get out of the audience and then we're all over the place. It ain't the fucking Bluetones and that's for sure. It's actually more like The Prodigy meets Margarita Pracatan.

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Contact: Szeki Kurva

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Contact: Iris Light