Free Mr. Bond:
Interview with Team FreeMrBond

2,126 words

The year 2016 has special significance in Dissident Right circles.

To a Dissident Rightist, “2016” is more than just a 365-day time span during which the most unlikely things were made real by the most unlikely of personalities. To us, “2016” is more than a moment in time and space. To the Dissident Rightist, the mere utterance of “2016” conjures up a collage of emotions and memories. We remember a feeling, an aesthetic, an attitude, a certain kind of romanticism and optimism.

Nothing like 2016 had been seen before and nothing like it will ever be seen again. It was the spirit and energy of an Alt Right on the move, when seemingly impossible things were happening all around. Britain had left the European Union, a reality TV star had managed to defeat the entire political and media establishment by running on a quasi-White Nationalist platform, and a hitherto niche online political scene known only to the most extremely online was being talked about publicly by Hillary Clinton.

There was a diverse array of characters responsible for bring about that ecstatic 2016 party vibe, ranging from intellectuals like Jared Taylor to satirists like Andrew Anglin, and from meme makers like A. Wyatt Mann to the podcasters at TRS. And then there was Trump, obviously.

But if there was one person who truly embodied the zeitgeist of 2016, it would be Phillip Hassler, a man better known by his stage name: Mr. Bond. Mr. Bond did not make 2016; he was 2016 made flesh.

Mr. Bond was not a blogger, a podcaster, or a YouTuber. Mr. Bond made racist parody songs. Racist parody songs are not where you would normally expect to find a movement’s zeitgeist, but Mr. Bond’s songs did something quite extraordinary. He took all the memes, all the slang, all the talking points, and the ideology of the Alt Right and combined it with a complete disregard for optics, integrating it all together with such fluency and precision that his music became the Alt Right’s soundtrack.

Mr. Bond garnered a fair bit of attention outside our circles. The Southern Poverty Law Center mentioned him in an article entitled “The Alt Right’s New Soundtrack of Hate,” for example.

Most parody songs are also typically performed by musical mediocrities with the novelty doing most of the heavy lifting. They are fun to listen to once or twice, but once you know all the jokes, there is no need to ever return to them. Mr. Bond was different. In addition to being laugh-out-loud funny, his songs legitimately rocked and were so sublimely executed — he was a better rapper than most of the people he was covering — that they hold up to repeated listening. It was funny and good music, and he put so much of his personality into it that he ended up sounding less like a copy of someone else and rather like something entirely new.

Mr. Bond was also as prolific as he was talented. Between 2016 and 2019, he released a total of 91 songs for free on the Internet, averaging one every two to three weeks. You can hear all 91 of them here.

I didn’t know Mr. Bond personally, but from what I understand, he was a peculiar fellow. It was hard to tell how much of him was real and how much of it was a comedic persona he had created. This was made even more confusing by the fact that he wrote on social media and message boards in the exact same off-the-charts, power-level way he wrote his songs. If Mr. Bond was playing a character, he really committed to the role — and yet there were times when he seemed keenly clearly aware of his own ridiculousness (I mean, he was a rapping Nazi).

Starting in 2018, Mr. Bond became progressively disenchanted with the Alt Right’s direction. He felt betrayed by TRS after the infamous Wifegate incident and would continue feuding with them for years afterwards. He then switched his allegiance to The Daily Stormer before falling out with Anglin over something or other. He then became a devotee of Patrick Little.

Generally, Mr. Bond had no use for the movement’s increasing focus on optics and was contemptuous of anything less than explicit National Socialism. If anything, Mr. Bond’s lyrics became even more inflammatory and extreme as the remnants of the Alt Right turned toward more strategic forms of messaging. His last song, released in the summer of 2019, was a tribute to Brenton Tarrant.

I don’t know how much of this was sincere outrage or if Hassler was just staying in character as Mr. Bond. What made his persona funny was that it was so over-the-top. A rapping Jared Taylor would not have been as funny. Much of the humor came from Mr. Bond taking purity-spiraling to absurd and comical levels, such as his insistence that it was imperative that people having even 1% Jewish DNA should be exterminated.

Mr. Bond eventually ran out of people in the movement to disavow and went into semi-retirement. Afterwards, his only movement activity was posting on The Purity Spiral message board.

For a couple of years, it seemed like the Mr. Bond story might be over. But then on October 9, 2019, a 27-year-old German would-be Brenton Tarrant copycat named Stephan Balliet drove to a synagogue in Halle, Germany intent on streaming a massacre of Jews. Balliet played Mr. Bond songs as he drove to the scene. The authorities then began a search to find the elusive Nazi rapper.

On January 20, 2021, Mr. Bond was arrested at his home in Carinthia, Austria and has been charged with promoting National Socialism — a serious offense in Austria — as well as multiple counts of copyright violation (a serious offense to Jews worldwide). Ten days later, Mr. Bond was moved to Josefstadt prison in Vienna, were he has remained for the past year as he awaits trial.

Finding out more about Mr. Bond’s situation has been difficult. He was still undoxxed at the time of his arrest, and the media only reported his name as Phillip H. This left fans and well-wishers unsure as to how they could support him.

However, a collective of Mr. Bond fans known as Team FreeMrBond has dedicated themselves to doing whatever they can to liberate the Alt Right’s greatest poet from ZOG imprisonment. Through their tireless efforts, they managed to discover Mr. Bond’s real name and have managed to make contact with the man himself, as well as his legal team.

I spoke to Linney K. Randall of Team FreeMrBond for an update on the situation.

When did you first discover Mr. Bond’s music?

In 2017, I came across a few songs on YouTube that were in the recommended videos list. A very pivotal year for me, as this is when I first watched TGSNT, Hellstorm, Eisenhower Rhine Death Meadow Camps, and other notable documentaries.

Where were you when you found out that Mr. Bond had been arrested?

I was at home when I saw the post in a Telegram channel. I instantly went to find out more information on the Internet. This is where I came across the freemrbond website and sent an email offering to help.

What made you decide to start this project?

I am not the one who started the website or fundraiser, another musician, Teknein, did.

He had the following to say: “Being punished for music is unjust, as a musician, I looked at this as a ‘what if this were me’ situation.”

I became part of the small group that makes up team freemrbond because I believe that as a true National Socialist, we are a family, and it is our duty to take care of our own. “My honor is my loyalty” resonates with me on the matter.

Can you tl/dr us on what kind of charges Mr. Bond is facing?

Austria has the strictest laws regarding “hate speech,” “anti-Semitism,” “promoting National Socialism ideologies,” etc. In fact, they have an entire separate set of laws called the Prohibition Act, and a court (Constitutional Court) for these cases.

He is facing up to 20 years in prison for incitement to hate, promoting National Socialist ideologies, facing fines for copyright infringements, and basically whatever they can pin on him — they will.

Along with Jazzhands McFeels and Murdoch Murdoch, Mr. Bond was one of the last big figures from the Alt Right’s golden age who still had not been doxed. None of the English-language media stories about his arrest gave his name, either. So how did you go about learning Mr. Bond’s identity?

His name was stated as “Philip H” on the Austrian news site Der Standard, as found here.

We searched for close to nine months, chasing down every lead, reaching out to as many people as we could . . . Until his trial is over, I cannot divulge how I came across his information. I will say that the story is wild, humorous, and worth waiting to hear.

You have said that you have been in contact with Mr. Bond’s legal team as well as the big man himself. Seeing that you are soliciting donations for his defense, what proof can you provide that you are in contact with either Mr. Bond or his defense team?

As I’ve said in the statement I released, there are links that will take people to the PDF file of his “Accusations File,” which I’ve translated from German to English. I’ve also redacted certain personal information regarding family members, because this was released to help him, not dox him.

That document alone should be more than enough proof for anyone questioning that contact has been made. All one would need to do is simply search the data protection laws on the Bundesministerium’s website. Nobody outside of Austria would have access to this file.

(((They))) obviously don’t appreciate this file being made public, as two out of the three links to the sites I uploaded the file to have been deleted (my MEGA and Dropbox accounts were both wiped out and permanently deleted without warning).

Did Mr. Bond give you any indication as to how he is being treated in prison? Is he doing okay? Has he become the leader of Josefsadt Prison’s Aryan Brotherhood?

He is doing well, yes. In fact, he’s stated that “There is nothing this regime can do to me that would take away my smile.”

I have asked the social worker handling his case how he is doing physically and I was told he’s in good health as well. And due to his mail being monitored and censored, he hasn’t been able to let me know if he’s the leader of the Aryan Brotherhood, haha.

I would guess he’d have a more unique and prestigious title like “Propaganda Minister of the Fourth Reich,” anyway.

What were you able to learn from Mr. Bond’s legal team? Are they optimistic?

His legal defense (Dr. Martin Mahrer) says, “We are optimistic that we will get a better judgement and that I will fight hard for Philip.”

I always assumed that Mr. Bond was a character and that the whole Mr. Bond project was some sort of performance art. The idea of a rapping Nazi itself is absurd and the songs are clearly meant to be humorous. Do you know if there is any hope that Mr. Bond could make a defense based on the idea that his songs were satirical?

One would think so, but after looking at the laws in Austria, unfortunately the satirical aspect of his music simply doesn’t matter in the case.

What can people do to help Mr. Bond?

Donate to the freemrbond fundraiser, as he has stated that he’d accept financial help for his legal fees.

Write a letter to him, just don’t be stupid and draw swastikas all over the paper.

Back up his music, and play his songs.

Share the link to the file and the statement with as many people as possible!

To write to our guy, address your envelope as follows:

Philip Hassler 175.335
Justizanstalt Josefstadt
Wickenburggasse 18-22
1080 Wien
Austria

And don’t include anything else, as he can only receive letters right now.

Also, January 20, 2022 will mark an entire year that he has been imprisoned in-remand, without a trial. He has also informed me that he is only allowed five minute-long phone calls per day.

Is Mr. Bond allowed visitation? Say someone is travelling through Europe and just happens to be in Vienna. Can they swing by and visit him in prison? If so, what is the process for setting that up?

I haven’t checked the prison site very recently on that, but the last I read about it, they had all that big lockdown, and then again for all the unvaccinated only. So if you can provide proof of vaccination, and don’t have a criminal background, visiting him shouldn’t be an issue.

*  *  *

Counter-Currents has extended special privileges to those who donate $120 or more per year.

• First, donor comments will appear immediately instead of waiting in a moderation queue. (People who abuse this privilege will lose it.)
• Second, donors will have immediate access to all Counter-Currents posts. Non-donors will find that one post a day, five posts a week will be behind a “paywall” and will be available to the general public after 30 days.

To get full access to all content behind the paywall, sign up here:

Paywall Gift Subscriptions

If you are already behind the paywall and want to share the benefits, Counter-Currents also offers paywall gift subscriptions. We need just five things from you:

• your payment
• the recipient’s name
• the recipient’s email address
• your name
• your email address

To register, just fill out this form and we will walk you through the payment and registration process. There are a number of different payment options.