Rest in Peace to Filip Fuchs, passed away on January 9, 2016 at 40 years old. This is a bit of a memorial text I wrote for him.
It originally came with a bunch of pictures that I couldn't figure out how to post here.
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I woke up
yesterday morning to a message that Filip Fuchs passed away, succumbing to
liver cancer, leaving behind his partner (recently turned wife) of 20+ years
and their three young daughters.
I suppose that shouldn’t be shocking; Filip was wrought with health problems
over the course of his life. And I had already cried in 2012, when Lotus Fucker
went to Europe and Filip collapsed and was hospitalized just two days before
our leg of the tour with See You in Hell, forcing them to cancel. I got the
message in Lyon and was just so worried and stressed out that I broke down in
tears on the spot. But thankfully we got to visit Filip in the hospital in Brno
a few days later. He seemed to be in high spirits and was so happy to see all
of us, and of course he was bemused to see that I too required a hospital visit
with yet another torn ACL. This time around I’m crying again but there is no
relief, I won’t get to see my friend again.
I met Filip through Zach Howard. Zach was already in touch with him, trading
records and videos and zines, and had released a collection CD of the early See
You in Hell records. I was already a fan and always had so much respect for See
You in Hell as a hardworking band that did everything ‘the punk way’, as I saw
it. When I started writing Filip as well, I had the idea to invite See You in
Hell to the USA, to tour with Lotus Fucker and xBrainiax. We pulled it off in
2011, and over the last few years we would share plenty of other experiences
together and became close.
I loved Filip. I would consider him one of my best friends. We wrote novels
back and forth over e-mail, and whenever we were together, we could talk for
hours about punk, about politics, about life. He was a constant source of
wisdom, inspiration, guidance, and comedy for me. I valued his opinion more
than almost anyone else’s in my life, and I sought his opinion on just about
everything. People like him, with a clear-cut vision and uncompromising
dedication to their passions and beliefs, are fucking rare in the human race.
It made him an irreplaceable figure in the modern punk scene. He will be missed
and never forgotten.
---
I love this picture of Filip because, by unintentionally playing into the
‘shots fired’ meme, it also kinda unintentionally sums up one of the most
important and influential parts of Filip’s personality. Hanging out with Filip
was a constant ‘shots fired’ moment because he was brutally honest and he was
brutally punk.
Filip loved punk, deeply and passionately, dedicating a lot of his life to it,
in bands, in zines, in gig organizing. But more than that, he believed in punk.
He believed that punk is important, that DIY is important, that punk ethics and
politics are important. This was one part of him that inspires me the most, and
this was a big part of how we always saw eye-to-eye on just about everything.
Filip was also brutally honest, which some people found aggravating but I found
immensely humorous. He loved to complain and he was never afraid to challenge
those around him for not living up to a pure notion of DIY ideals or not living
up to their own potentials. I always found this refreshing, but I couldn’t help
but have a laugh sometimes too. One of my favorite memories of Filip was when
he made a big speech at the See You in Hell/Lotus Fucker gig in San Jose CA
about how American punks don’t know how to be hospitable (truth), American
punks are rude (truth), American punk scene basically sucks (not true), etc. I
mean he was pretty eloquent yet straight-forward, I’m not doing his points
justice here, but you get the idea.
But of course San Jose was also a gig where we get the deluxe treatment from
our angelic gig organizer Stephanie, with a great dinner, great breakfast,
comfortable place to stay, lovely company, etc, a real proper treatment. And we
laughed our asses off after the show as we chowed down and gave Filip a proper
roasting and amidst all the laughing we jokingly made him apologize to
Stephanie and sing the praises of American punk, which was a pretty hilarious
moment in and of itself.
---
Of course all the beliefs in the world don’t mean much without action, and
Filip had no shortage of that. Filip talked the talk but also walked the walk,
a combination that made him highly influential in his regional community and
also made a huge impression and influence on me.
Being from the Czech Republic afforded Filip’s bands no inherent international
acclaim or “hype”, Filip definitely felt this and it played a big role in
shaping his outlook on punk. There was no spotlight, no hookups, no given
loyalty or reputation the way countries like Japan or USA receive. But See You
in Hell toured the entire planet Earth, had domestic pressings of their
releases in numerous countries, and became a well-known band on the
international level, basically putting Czech hardcore on the map for a lot of
people. This was always accomplished in a completely DIY style, as punk as
possible, without any compromises, entirely through hard work and dedication to
punk.
Filip, and the rest of See You in Hell, were always making connections,
building relationships. With an encyclopedic knowledge of punk and
never-ceasing curiosity and drive, Filip and his bandmates constantly sought to
both bring Czech punk to the rest of the world, and bring the rest of the world
to Czech punk.
Filip worked tirelessly to promote Czech punk to the rest of the world. He
released records highlighting their regional scene, and traded them all around
the world. He wrote long scene reports for MRR (an institution that he
cherished and valued immensely), culminating in writing a short book about
Czech hardcore history. He had an endless number of penpals that he wrote and
traded with, spreading stories and information about Czech and Slovakian punk
scenes.
But in equal amounts, Filip promoted the world of punk to local Czechs. Behind
the scenes, he sorted releases for cool foreign bands on Czech labels. He
brought cool foreign bands to the Czech Republic, from Vivisick and Systematic
Death to Lotus Fucker and Ruidosa Inmundicia. He organized tons of gigs. He had
a zine the size and scope of which rivals MRR, entirely in Czech, with a focus
on international bands and foreign tours by Czech bands, always with tons of
pictures, scene reports, descriptions, documentation. And of course, the zine
was bursting with record reviews.
Filip was a key personality in Czech and Slovakian punk music, but also in the
international punk community, by being a centralized bridge between his “small
redneck country” as we’d joke, and the rest of the world at large.
---
But I know Filip would not want to focus entirely on punk, because he believed
strongly that punk is more than just a music, it’s a politic, it’s a way of
life. And Filip walked this walk too. He worked as a lawyer fighting in
solidarity to help the disenfranchised Romani in his locale. Of course a big
chunk of his zine was dedicated to political discourse and news stories. He was
active with protests and outspoken in his beliefs.
---
My personal favorite story of Filip, and perhaps how I’ll always remember him,
is when he got his nickname “Two Fingers Chelsea”. When See You in Hell started
playing Japanese hardcore-style punk, it requires a good amount of guitar
solos, but Filip was never good enough to play the solos correctly night after
night. So us Lotus Fuckers would always joke with him, “oh you play like
Chelsea…if Chelsea only had two fingers!”, which always made everybody laugh.
And Filip would just kinda chuckle in that nervous childish chuckle he did and
make some remark that punk isn’t about being great at your instrument, that’s
only for metal (truth).
Underlying this, something I really admired about Filip, was that even when he
wasn’t good enough at playing guitar to really nail every solo perfectly, he
went for it anyway. He never let something like “skill” hold him back. He had a
vision, he knew quality, he loved punk, and nothing was going to stop him from
that expression. And in the same way, he never let being from an uncool
country, or his health, or communism (He was old enough to have tons of
fascinating stories of discovering punk when Czechoslovakia was a Soviet
country, and how the punk scene (and society) had changed throughout the
radical social upheavals of the fall of communism and the birth of the Czech
Republic. And I loved hearing them) stop him from being punk, knowing as much
as he could about punk, and making punk happen. He had a drive that was almost
without peer, fueled entirely by his love for punk.
I will always remember Filip as one of the most intensely dedicated and
passionate individuals I knew, and our conversations, our shared experiences,
his beliefs and values, will continue to shape mine and inspire me. For years I
ask myself “what would Filip think about this?” as I try to gauge my own
actions or opinions, and I know I’ll continue to wonder that.
I’ll never forget my hardcore brother Filip. He will be missed and loved for as
long as I’m still alive.
-Kamikaze Dan