For this installment of “One Shirt” we caught up with Wim Berchmans aka Steif the Positif. You may know him from his involvement in Justice, Loud and Clear Europe, Powered Records, Rhythm to the Madness, and his new band Joshua’s Song. I first got to know him in 2004 on the Mental 2004 EU tour and since then hes become of my favorite people in the whole world. The s/t Justice LP is still amazing and gets weekly play. Im proud to have him be part of this series.
“The only shirt I ever bid on on ebay was the AF ‘rejected cover art for CFA’ shirt. I lost the bid, so I never ever got a shirt off ebay.
I do however, love every shirt of every hardcore band I own, because, in most cases, I got them from trading shirts for shirts of my own bands during tours/shows, so there’s stories attached to them and I know, when I’m a worthy old man, who understands nothing of the modern world he’s living in, I’ll find a big box of shirts on my attic and go through them and think of all the great times I had.
America Rules – Steif, Me, Flip / Paris / Circa 2008
My absolute favorite shirt is the ‘regular CAF artwork’ AF tee. I got it from one of my best friends, Wim, who used to play bass for the Belgian band ‘True Colors’. He knew I loved that particular shirt and I was really stoked when he gave it to me one day. The shirt though, was in such a poor condition that we dubbed it ‘DE AGNOSTIC VOD’. Which translates into something like ‘the agnostic rag’. Nonetheless I wore it during a lot of shows of the ’04 – ’07 era, and I wore it during one of the coolest sets of my life; when Justice played CBGB’s in NYC. I have really fond memories of that day and that shirt was a part of it, so that’s also why that’s my favorite t-shirt.
Best AF record -> Victim In Pain
My favorite AF record -> Last Warning, recordings for their ‘final show’ in cb’s.”
Check out his new bands record over here at Quadrofoon Records
Check out his record label here Powered Records
stief is one of the best dudes. booked us a rad euro tour, let us crash in his sweet apt in antwerp for like a week, loaned us a great jcm800 when we were in a bind…just unbelievably awesome. the rttm lp is one of my favorite hardcore releases of recent memory and joshua’s song is great. can’t say enough good things about stief.
His apt in Antwerp does rule! I stayed over one night a couple years ago. Nice view.
great view.