CALORIS IMPACT - Hardcore Punk Defying Genre Boundaries ! (Austria - HardCore/Crust - Interview with .. the WHOLE band !).

Hello ! Can you introduce yourself and tell us how it all began for you - your encounter with this musical universe, what appealed to you, what fascinated you, and what made you want to get into music?
Rebeca: I got into Music by the power of Teenage Dream projection into the Universe or by accident?! What fascinated me was Wendy O. William (Plasmatics) screaming “Its my life and I do what I wann a doooo”, jumping off a Bus and exploding everything on Stage.
Christian: Hey, name's Christian, and I play guitar in CALORIS IMPACT. I started playing music when I was 13 years old and discovered punk rock through the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games, I am pretty sure—Specifically, "Police Truck" by the Dead Kennedys and "You" by Bad Religion were fascinating to me. How could anyone play that fast? In my teens I started to play in different bands, and I never stopped, I guess. Nowadays I listen to all kinds of music, but punk rock definitely shaped my early playing.
Pauli: Hello, I'm Paul, and I was introduced to the heavier side of music by my dad when I was about six years old. I remember being extremely fascinated by the song "Supernaut" by Black Sabbath, which is still one of my favourites. Just like Christian, I also spent countless hours playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and discovering punk rock through those games. "No Cigar" by Millencolin will always stand out to me—I simply love it. I started playing guitar when I was seven with one goal in mind: being able to play the main riff of "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath. Spent a few years playing classical guitar, took a break, got an electrical guitar as a gift and took some lessons. I put guitar aside for many years until I reconnected with a friend in December 2015. That's when I first joined a band, The Snub, which was still developing at the time. Through the people I met there, I was finally introduced to hardcore punk, and the speed and rawness of the genre made me never want to do anything else.
Metti: The first time I knew I wanted to play an instrument was when I saw someone playing the Styrian Accordion on the street at the age of 3. I always loved to just watch and listen, that’s where I pick up and learn a lot. Which action produces which sound and so on. So I started to play this instrument at the age of 5, later also picked up my Dad’s guitar and then started to hit the drums by the age of 9. I draw musical inspiration from a vast variety of music and experiences. When I started to go to shows and play my own first ones as a young teenager, I knew that this is a passion I want to pursue and develop further. I really got hooked on punk music of any kind, yet I love to encounter new musical experiences over and over again. The possibilities seem endless.

Tell me about the band... How you met - the current line-up - past experiences - and above all - WHY the need to form THIS band?
Rebeca: Caloris started in 2019, most of us were recent Bandless and had a classic situation of: a friend told a friend that, a friend is currently searching for a new band
project, a couple of beers later, there you go, a new band! We roughly knew each other from concerts, but neither of us was really tight friends; our music tastes were also quite varied, I think that's why we started with a very open-minded approach to the Music style. As long as Punk was in it!
Afterwards, we fell in love with the freedom of mixing and stirring from different music styles, which is one of our most noted characteristics in the critics.
First lineup had Peter on the Drums and Böffi on the Bass; Together we made the 100% D.Y.I. “First Impact”, two splits; In 2023 right after the release from GEOID, our first album in vinyl format, Metti joined in the Drums until this day; In 2024 shortly before the Tour, we shamelessly kidnapped The SNUB’s guitarist, Pauli. These changes provoked an even bigger diversity in the music, a game that we all love to play together. We all agreed that this band is the place to experiment with things you wouldn’t in other bands. We create everything together like a big Jigsaw, it's so much fun to have such freedom of expression in the Band.
Christian: We started back in 2020, a month before the pandemic hit. Back then, I got asked by Peter and Böffi in a local bar (both are not in the band anymore) if I wanted to form an HC punk band with them. I was like, "Yeah, sure," but did not take it too seriously. Six years later, it's still going! The lineup changed since then because of different reasons—life, mostly. I could not be happier with the current line-up though! I think this band has a unique twist on "traditional" HC punk; we like to mix things up quite a bit and experiment with things you would not hear in this genre a lot—odd time signatures, weird rhythms, and influences from all kinds of styles.
Pauli: I can’t exactly remember when I first saw Caloris live, but I was a huge fan immediately. It was very different from the punk bands I have seen before, still super energetic and powerful and Christians guitar work really stood out for me. Who would have thought that I would be a part of this amazing band one day? I got to know Rebeca, Metti, Böffi and Christian through many Gigs we played together with The Snub and I really enjoyed their company on the road and in the venues we played. In 2024 I was asked to help out for the upcoming tour and since it was a Caloris Impact + The Snub Tour I didn't even think once about saying anything else than yes, told them of course i’ll do it and bought a bass guitar one day later. I am still super happy about that decision and enjoy the Bandlife very much!
Metti: When Peter decided to leave Caloris Impact in early 2023, they right away asked me if I wanted to join them on drums. I’ve been knowing Böffi since we met at a festival in Austria back in 2007 and I first met Rebeca at a skate park in Graz in 2019, where she told me that she’s looking for people to start a new hardcore band. Since I was not living in Graz by that time, I couldn’t join a new project back then but hey, here we are now. I’ve been playing in several bands with different genres since I had my first band starting in 2003, but I’ve never been that happy and satisfied with a musical project than right now.

Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all cost ?
Christian: Our old drummer came up with "experimental punk." I am okay with that, but I feel like we are more on the "HC punk with experimental twists" side of things.
We also have a good amount of prog stuff in our sound, but not too much. I am a huge fan of Rush, projects like Octopoulpe, and jazz stuff like Charles Mingus or Charlie Parker, but also of raw crust punk and D-beat—that might be the reason for my weird riffing haha.
Pauli: Any Riff that gets played in our practice room has the potential to form or end up in a song of ours, and it still sounds like C.I, which I think is a beautiful thing! We are not stuck in genre ideas, some parts might not be punk in a sense but in the end it always sounds good to me and I’m very happy with this approach to songwriting.
Everybody’s involved, every opinion matters to all of us and we manage to incorporate almost all ideas into our songs.
Metti: I feel it’s always quite difficult to describe your own stuff, since everybody hears, sees and feels things differently. We have multiple influences merged together in our music, as the musical background of each member is quite versatile and different. Still we meet at the same place very often. This is what makes it so interesting to create new music together. We somewhat carry the same spirit, that’s what makes it feel whole for me personally.

Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences ? How important are the lyrics for you ? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics ?
Rebeca: Yes, lyrics are important to us. Have you seen the size of our Lyrics?! Now, seriously, Lyrics are written by Christian (Guitar) and me; Some are very straightforward and some, due to the together writing, get very Methaphoric; One can make several interpretations out of it; We mostly stress topics like Humankind, life, injustice, Human and animal rights, anti-capitalism, environment, etc... Important to us is to make clear that we are part of all that, we are not better than anyone and we want to motivate everyone to be a better Humans, to show compassion and have the courage to change.
Christian: Most lyrics come from Rebeca and me. For me, lyrics are super important. The topics range from personal stuff all the way to political messages and/or random stuff. You will not hear too many "I hate the government" songs, though. I feel like our music, our way of doing things, and the circles we roam in speak for themselves when it comes to our political views. The changes are that you already know what sucks in this world when you turn on our tunes.
Metti: Musical influences are everywhere. I feel like I’m picking up music like a sponge. Sometimes it’s quite hard to say where it comes from, but somehow I transport my feelings to whatever instrument my hands are on at the moment. By playing together with other people, your own skills develop further and you might find yourself in a place you have never had imagined before. Very crucial to me personally have been live shows. Especially the ones I have attended in my teenageyears. All that energy; from the bands, from the audience, from the most different places and venues… On stage or off stage, in the audience or behind the scenes.This is where the magic happens.
Pauli: Nowadays I listen to all kinds of music, it depends on the time of the day, my mood, the weather etc. Inspiration comes through all those different sounds, combined with the people i spent time with or the places i visit, very hard to say exactly! Since we review all the lyrics together (I am not very involved in the actual writing process) I know everything by heart and they mean a lot to me. Otherwise I would not feel comfortable on stage!

About the band's discography... Imagine someone who doesn't know your band at all and wants to get interested in.. Which release would you recommend to start with, and why?
Christian: I would recommend our newest split with THE SNUB. It is called "The Life," and you could see it as an EP or as an LP split. That is the first release we did together as the current line-up, and it really shows who we are as a band these days. Shoutout to THE SNUB by the way!
Metti: I’d recommend to do a time travel and listen to our upcoming album which will be released in autumn 2026. But to get the whole overview, go to our bandcamp or subvert page and listen to all releases chronologically to experience the 
development.
Pauli: Bandcamp is the place to be, I would recommend listening to “THE LIFE” first because it was the first Release with the current line-up!

About your latest release ?
Christian: We were in the studio recording our second LP earlier this year. In my opinion that will be our most exciting release so far. Everything seems in the right place and at the right time musically. Even though we were in the studio, it will still be a DIY-release. Probably with many Distros/Labels contributing. That's the way to go for us!
Metti: The upcoming album will be the first full length in our current line-up after our split with The Snub last year. We again teamed up with Markus at Doom Studios Linz and recorded it in four days in March 2026. Hugs and kisses to you Markus, we love you. It also again got mastered by Role at Tonmeisterei in Oldenburg. We will release it on Vinyl as well as digitally on our Bandcamp and Subvert page and who knows, maybe someone will be doing Tapes again also. So stay tuned.

Future plans ?
Rebeca: Diving in the artworks for the new release, and enjoying the upcoming shows to the max.
Christian: This year we will tour all the way to Greece and circle back through the Balkans. Also we go to Switzerland and play some killer festivals. It is going to be a wild one! After that we will release our LP and go from there. Our friend JP (Octopoulpe) will be here in summer for a private house-party, that will be a highlight for sure!
Pauli: Continue playing a lot of shows, having a good time and enjoying what we do. As Christian said, lots of stuff is coming up!
Metti: Keep on playing and creating new music, travelling to known and unknown places, meeting new and old friends and remaining (or even expanding) the joy within the crew.

Your most insane dream with the band would be?
Rebeca: Well you know what an insane dream is? Not to have to mix band stuff with working schedules ahahha…all the rest seems pretty sane to me!
Christian: Probably touring south east asia and/or south america. Both have been dreams of mine. I love the raw subculture in Indonesia – I have some friends from over there. Also Malaysia and Japan would be super interesting. It is definitely on our bucket list!
Pauli: Japan and/ or South America Tour and riding a boat to a venue would be sick!
Metti: What Rebeca, Christian and Pauli said.

Your BEST & WORST concert - as a band - and why ?
Rebeca: Best show, definitely the Monday show on the 2024 Tour, some Squat in Lausanne, we just played with our homies The Snub and the local Bands spontaneously jammed and dropped the best Party of the tour. I think the odds of having a kick ass part on a tour Monday just blew my mind!
Worst show, hummm I have to say that I cannot remember a terrible show, the whole band is very supportive, even if something went off, we could see the positive sides; I did not enjoy paying for my own beer in some shows in the UK tho ahahha oh yeah the 2025 Tour that I got super sick and can’t remember half of it…it was fun tho!
Christian: Best? Probably the squat in Lausanne, Switzerland. Monday show—crazy night for sure! I liked our trip to the UK in 2024 and all our Balkan adventures. Other
than that, we had soooo many good experiences on stage!
Worst? Hmm, I would not say that it was bad, but we played on a huge stage in northern Germany last year in front of four people or something. It was not bad as I said, but it was definitely a strange experience, still fun though! Shoutout to "punk4punx Hollen" Our van broke down literally in front of the venue, our singer was sick, and the organizer was selling hats next to the stage. That was so unreal haha.
Pauli: The first show in Vienna with Caloris was definitely a highlight for me, I was nervous and unsure about how it will go but I remember feeling super comfortable on stage with my bass guitar and just having a good time! Everybody gave me a good feeling and my bandmates are simply very good at what they do, that helped out a ton too. I cannot remember a bad show, the experience in Northern Germany was a little weird as Chrisitian said but still a good story that I love to tell friends and family from time to time.
Metti: I don’t carry a best/worst list. I’m having a hard time with rankings anyway. We’ve already had so many great experiences with the band in the past years and even bad situations often turn out to be cool in the end. It’s just about going with the flow sometimes ;).

Next live-appearance(s)
Christian: I am writing this in June 2026, so next up are Vienna, Wagenplatz Tübingen, Passau, somewhere in eastern Germany and a few more.. I cannot wait!!
Metti: Wagenburg, hell yeah! I’m also very looking forward to our release show(s) in November.

Some words on your local scene - bands you're friends with and you'd like to name?
Christian: There were times when I felt like I was one of a few who would organize DIY shows in Graz. These days things have changed so much, and the "scene" is better than ever. So many new bands and projects—we miss a real autonomous center though, with practice rooms and sleeping places! Shoutout to SUb for still existing after that many years though! There are too many bands now to name them all. I am super impressed by "Prunknelke"; they certainly feel what DIY should be.
Metti: It’s very cool to see the young generation getting more active again. There’s a bunch of young bands appearing and they’ve got some energy. You also see more and more young people at shows again. That’s a nice development.
Pauli: I feel like we are blessed with our scene in Graz at the moment. There are a bunch of really good bands, many different genres but still the people are connected, there are good friendships and we help each other out a lot. I like “Tired” and would suggest you check them out, awesome people and kick-ass music!

Last word is yours..
Rebeca: We are Caloris Impact from Planet Earth. We are no different than you, so let's all have a good time and try to be better humans every new day, shall we?!
Christian: All our music is free on Bandcamp. Feel free to download, share, and even make your own physical copies (we would be happy if you sent us a copy). Of course, we are super happy with donations. We pay for everything ourselves and have never signed with a label, and that's a good thing too. Let this music never become a commodity!
Metti: Pick up an instrument and start a band! Go to live shows! Live!
Pauli: Support your local scene, go to shows and enjoy (maybe from the second row) the music, the people and everything around the beautiful DIY space!