We're HITCH and though many didn't notice until recently, we've been around for about 10 years now. Hell yeah… Back in the days, when the skateboarding era around Kortrijk (K-Town) had given away the last of its surprises and impregnated us with the vibe of its soundtrack, three of us decided to form a band. We soon stuck with 'HITCH' as a name (taken from the road movie 'The Hitcher' with arch bandit Rutger Hauer playing a psychokiller hitchhiker).

Not long after we formed the band we started recording 'Triggered Backwards' (MCD/7” on MACHINATION / GOODLIFE) and went on tour with that EP. To date, all of us prefer to never hear it again, but it just goes to show that the zest and spirit were there from the beginning, even if our fingers were still busy putting up the virgin struggle with our fret boards.

Somewhere towards the end of the nineties we teamed up with Xavier B. and DELBOY RECORDS. He put out our first full length "Out of the light, into the fire…" and a subsequent s/t 7 inch. By this time, we'd been all over Europe about 8 times on full tours and twice that many times on smaller tours. We got to play very cool
gigs and drank the odd beer with bands like THE FUCKING CHAMPS (US), JR EWING (SWE), PLEASURE FOREVER (US), THE FIRE THEFT (US), VANDAL X (B), FAVEZ (CH), VAZ (US), SWEEP THE LEG JOHNNY (US), TRISTEZA (US), GRADE (US), MORNING AGAIN (US), C.C. DUSTERS (US), CHOKEBORE (US), DON CABALLERO (US), REIZIGER (B), AT THE DRIVE-IN (US), METROSCHIFTER (US), 31 KNOTS (US), MILEMARKER (US), ATOM AND HIS PACKAGE (US), MILLIONAIRE (B), KARATE (US), LUNAR (CRO), ANALENA (CRO), BLUTCH (B), ENDSTAND (FIN), OXBOW (US), THE LOW FREQUENCY IN STEREO (SWE), NEGLECT (US), FUCK (US), BARDO POND (US), AINA (ESP), BLUETIP (US), KEROSENE 454 (US), CAVE IN (US), ENGINE DOWN (US), ASH (IRL), RYE COALITION (US), TRANS AM (US), THE PAPER CHASE (US), PART CHIMP (UK), CURSIVE (US), GIRLS AGAINST BOYS (US) and a whole bunch of other superbly cool bands. Some of them became great pals…

In 2001, Carl - our original bass player - agreed to a job in China and left the
band. Paul - a guy we knew from Thee Plague of Gentlemen and Nahende Vernichtung - took up the vacant spot. Only two months in the band, we dragged him with us to Zaghreb, Croatia, for the recording of our second full length 'Monolith'.
This album was released by DELBOY RECORDS for Europe and by our good friends of Haymarket Riot (who run the Chicago based DIVOT RECORDS) for the US. That's how we also got to tour in the States for the first time (in 2002). American label What Else? Records also released a limited Hitch/Haymarket Riot split 7” while we were on the road. In Europe, we did a round trip with the blistering Tight Bros. From Way Back When (USA, Kill Rockstars Records / RIP) to support the same album.

When we're at home, we just work on our stuff and try to finish the studio we
rehearse in. We nicknamed it the 'MOLOKO BAR' (yep, a Clockwork Orange reference) and it already served its purpose well. With the help of our sound tech Hein and Pedro - a friend of ours - we recorded 'Trails are Ablaze!' there. After the 'Monolith' record, we decided to part ways with DELBOY RECORDS and got in touch with another bunch of musical fanatics called KINKY STAR RECORDS. They first put out a cool 7 inch (red wax) with songs we recorded in Chicago at Ghetto Love Studios with Dale Meiners and were pleased enough with the result to release 'Trails are Ablaze!' as well. Two singles were taken off the album and did very well on national radios, topping the ARRIBA!- chartlist on Studio Brussels for weeks. The video for ‘High heels’ was in high rotation on JIM, TMF and Dutch MTV. Ever since ‘Trails..’ been out, we've had a busy year with shows focusing mainly on Belgium (Playing Dour Festival for the fifth time (!), Pukkelpop (Main Stage), Botanique opening up for ASH, touring with PART CHIMP (UK, on Mogwai’s Rock Action Records), HAYMARKET RIOT (US) ...)
In march ’05 we toured the US again and played the highly acclaimed South by Southwest 2005 Festival in Austin, Texas and The Canadian Music Week in Toronto, CANADA. Inbetween these festivals we played about 17 clubshows (with bands like The Paper Chase, Haymarket Riot and Call Me Lightning).
In the works are a split 7” with our homies in AMEN RA (if you do not know them, you will soon..), on Vlas Vegas Records (VV003), a NEW FULL LENGTH album somewhere at the start of 2006, a European tour.

So you see, after 10 years, we still manage to get our hands full. And it’s still a lot of fun. Olivier just started a new band with some friends called MONUMENT and Mich is still playing in GALATASARAY, a 12-piece eclectic (post)rockband, who released their second full length album in apil ’05 on Vlas Vegas/BANG!.
Rock!