Universal Peace

Szymon Brzezowski - wywiad.

2011-03-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

Wywiad ponizej to wynik wymiany kilku email'i z wokalista jednego z fajniejszych polskich zespolow, Identity. Zawsze lubilem jego poprzedni zespol Second Age, gdzies tam pewnie sa zdjecia z gigu w Katowicach, na ktorych widac mnie podrygujacego do coveru BOLD granego przez SA. Od jakiegos czasu chcialem zrobic wywiad z Szymonem i ciesze sie ze wreszcie sie do tego zabralem. Zaluje tylko ze musial =o to byc zrobione droga email'owa bo mam przeczucie ze o duzo lepiej by to wyszlo na zywo z dyktafonem. No coz, przynajmniej nie musielismy robic tego listownie...

1. Czesc Szymon. Powiedz cos o sobie na poczatek. Co sie u Ciebie dzieje ostatnio?

A nic. Wrócilismy dwa dni temu z krótkiego wyjazdu z Capital i jestem generalnie zmęczony. Przedświąteczna sraczka. Najpierw to jedzenie robisz, potem je wpierdalasz, a na koniec się zastanawiasz skąd opona heh. Poza tym staram się ogarniać i realizować w jak najlepszy sposób codzienne – być może prozaiczne - sprawy.

2. Spiewasz w Identity, zespole, ktory wielu uwaza za najlepszy Polski produkt eksportowy. Mysleliscie o tym zeby jakos sie zareklamowac poza Polska i wyrobic sobie dobra renome? Myslisz ze byloby to mozliwe w ogole? Ostatnio React! records oglosili ze wydadza plyty zespolow z Rosji i Ukrainy, wiec czemu Identity nie mialo by znalezc wydawcy w USA badz Zachodniej Europie? A moze po prostu szkoda zachodu?

Dziś nawet rozmawiałem z Pawłem z IOH recs. żeby szepnął tu i ówdzie o nas przy okazji rozsyłania promosów. Aczkolwiek zbyt wiele sobie nie obiecuję, bo umówmy się – nie jesteśmy zespołem wybitnie pracowitym i produktywnym. Co nie bierze się bynajmniej z olewania, ale głównie z problemu odległości + natłoku innych spraw. Pasztet siedzi w Warszawie, my tutaj. Nie mamy po naście lat, każdy ma swoje sprawy, praca, rodziny i trudno – nawet chcąc - zająć się konkretnie zespołem, który w efekcie funkcjonuje okresowo. Tak sobie mówiliśmy, że spoko, raz w miesiącu my się przejedziemy do Warszawy, raz Pasztet wpadnie do Wrocławia. Ale w tygodniu robię przez 10-12 godzin dziennie. To dla mnie dość przykre, ale więcej czasu spędzam bez dziecka niż z nim. W efekcie mam 8 dni w miesiącu + kilka wieczorów, które mogę sensownie zagospodarować i muszę wybierać – albo swój gig, albo pójść na czyiś, albo znaleźć czas dla dziecka. I prawda jest taka, że hardcore może poczekać, a Jasiek zaraz mi powie, że 'sorry tato, teraz to ja nie mam czasu'. Pewnie szkoda, bo chyba faktycznie najgorzej to nie wychodzi, rozumiemy się jako ludzie, lubimy ze sobą spędzać czas. Ale w życiu są rzeczy ważne i najważniejsze. To nie jest kwestia jakiejś tam regulaminowej hierarchii, tylko problem, że tak powiem, emocjonalny. Po prostu mimo, że lubię grać, chodzić na gigi itd. to jednak zawsze żałuję tych chwil kiedy nie ma mnie w domu.
Nie ma też co się oszukiwać - w świecie zespołów jest tyle, że towar eksportowy do szczęścia niepotrzebny. Przy bardziej metodycznym działaniu może i na Zachodzie Europy coś by się wskórało. No ale musielibyśmy grać próby, koncerty, a na razie trochę zażenowani jesteśmy grając setny raz 'Malfuntcion', bo nie jesteśmy w stanie chociażby nowego coveru zrobić. Poza tym wystarczy nam granie w Polsce, ludzie nas dobrze przyjmują i – jak sądzę – doceniają to co robimy.
Ja jestem zadowolony z tego co osiągnęliśmy. Przy czasie i energii jaką mogliśmy na to poświęcić nie mogę mieć pretensji o nic. Epa wyszła lepiej niż się spodziewałem, myślę, że to naprawdę dobre wydawnictwo, zarówno muzycznie, jak i jeśli chodzi o standard nośnika – winyl, papier, grafika, strona edytorska. Bez bufonady – wygląda to dobrze. Tutaj maksymalne propsy dla Agaty i Pawła za ryzyko, są chyba tak samo zadowoleni jak my. Mam nadzieję, że wyjdą na swoje.

3. W jednym z wywiadow z toba przeczytalem ze wyrosles z mowienia ludziom co maja robic. Rozumiem ze chodzi Ci o czasy kiedy byles w Second Age. Nie wydaje Ci sie ze wlasnie teraz, kiedy jestes starszy moglbys akurat przekazac cos pozytywnego mlodszym scenersom, jednoczesnie nie brzmiec jak wiedzacy wszystko 17 letni bufon?

Pewnie tak. Ale to bardziej kwestia jakiejś tam pokory, może też maniery. W sensie, że dziś jak już mam coś powiedzieć, to wolę być w zgodzie ze sobą a nie z etykietką. To chyba bardziej uczciwe. I szczere. Jak ktoś będzie chciał posłuchać - świetnie. Nie – też dobrze. Myślę, że nie każdy może się ustosunkować do rzeczy, które doświadczam. To są dość specyficzne, osobiste sprawy w kilku przypadkach – bo nie przesadzajmy, że wszystkie teksty to traktaty filozoficzne hyh. Ja też z kolei nie jestem aż tak skory, żeby się z tym uzewnętrzniać na każdym kroku. Wyrosłem z przekonania, że kawałki, które nie są o wegetarianizmie, są bezwartościowe, choć mój stosunek do tej chociażby sprawy jest jak najbardziej posi. I mogę to powiedzieć ze sceny, ale nie chcę robić z siebie tuby do mielenia sloganów. Oczywiście fakt, że piałem o edge przez tyle lat, a potem skompromitowałem – używając nieco dosadnego określenia - w pewnym sensie wszystko co mówiłem, ma wpływ na pewną powściągliwość i raczej skupienie się na sobie.
A zespół to taki acting out – mogę wyrzucić z siebie trochę emocji. Zarówno próbować je opisać, czy zapisać – co idzie ciężko z reguły heh – ale bardziej też chodzi o fizyczne wypromieniowanie nagromadzonej energii. Ruch, napierdol.

4. Teraz pytanie troche osobiste, nie musisz odpowiadac jesli nie chcesz. Jednoczesnie chce zaznaczyc ze ja w zadnym wypadku nie oceniem Cie czy cos takiego. Jakis czas temu przestales byc straight edge. Jak to sie stalo? Byles sxe dosc dlugo, wiec to na pewno nie byl typowy przypadek "kumple zaczeli pic piwo no to ja tez musze"? Ta decyzja dojrzewala w tobie czy moze podjales ja pod wplywem naglego impulsu?

Hmm... To pytanie na dłuższy elaborat. Ale jak ktoś chce poczytać... Do dziś to wszystko próbuję sobie jakoś poukładać. Heh, to trauma jak po wychodzeniu z bardzo długiego i zażyłego związku, w którym coś od pewnego momentu było nie tak. Myślę, że optyka zaczęła mi się zmieniać wraz z przyjściem na świat mojego syna. To wydarzenie pozwoliło, czy wręcz zmusiło mnie do przewartościowania wielu spraw, poprzestawiało hierarchię. Wiesz, inne rzeczy stały się nagle ważne, pewne sprawy zeszły na drugi plan, co nie znaczy, że zacząłem straight edge deprecjonować Zacząłem się między innymi - być może trochę bezwiednie - zastanawiać nad swoimi motywacjami jeśli chodzi o bycie edge, jaką wartość wnosi to do mojego życia, jednocześnie czując frustrację i brak fundamentu. Zaczęło mnie uwierać takie pytanie 'a dlaczego nie?'.Nie potrafiłem sobie na nie odpowiedzieć. A raczej nie potrafiłem odpowiedzieć 'dlaczego jestem edge'. Dojrzałem do takiej konstatacji, że straight edge było, częściowo, w moim przypadku formą wzmocnienia osobowości. Nie wiem, być może nigdy nie byłem w tym szczery. Od samego początku, od liceum, kiedy to było dość wygodnym sposobem, żeby się wyróżnić. Wiesz, w tym resorcie konkurencja była minimalna, więc się można było wozić. To do mnie dotarło, gdy ludzi wokół przestało to kompletnie obchodzić. Pije, nie pije, kogo to jebie, wszyscy mają ważniejsze sprawy. W pewnym sensie podobnie jak ja. Nie na zasadzie 'o, tera to mogę se poużywać, bo jest jakieś wytłumaczenie, a wogóle to edge jest dla frajerów'. Moje myśli, potrzeby absorbowało co innego. Zacząłem czuć wyimaginowaną presję. Mogę śmiało powiedzieć, że byłem uzależniony od opinii. Zresztą dalej mam z tym jakiś tam problem. Sytuacja była idiotyczna, bo nagle zacząłem się bać ostracyzmu, piętnowania, utraty jakiejś tam iluzorycznej pozycji. A z drugiej strony zastanawiałem się co ja jestem komukolwiek winien, mam swoje życie, swoje potrzeby, zobowiązania wobec bliskich, siebie i nikogo innego. Czułem dużo złości. Jak ten osioł rozmyślałem się 'no ta, ale co ludzie powiedzą?' Wiesz, ja przez tyle lat myślałem, że będę kurwa drugim Cappo hehe, a tu nagle jeb. Kurwa, wtedy do mnie dotarło, jak fatalnie to wszystko rozgrywam. Nie wiem, czy ten selling out to nie był taki po prostu oczyszczający bunt przeciwko czemuś, co w moim – podkreślam – świecie stało się dogmatem, czymś, co przestałem rozumieć i z czym sobie nie radziłem. Jakąś etykietką, która mnie towarzysko zabezpieczała, choć te moje relacje z ludźmi były ewidentnie źle ułożone. Byłem niewolnikiem opinii, choć przypuszczam, że moja osoba mało kogokolwiek obchodziła. Wiesz, ja przezywałem, że ludzie będą gadać o moim złamaniu ostrza – co zresztą i było jakoś tam skomentowane, pewnie ktoś tam też coś gadał za moimi plecami - ale jakoś nie pokojarzyłem, że tak naprawdę mało kto się mnie kiedykolwiek o rzeczy dla mnie ważne pytał, interesował się tym. Zresztą towarzysko jakoś w hc się nigdy nie odnajdywałem. Tu panuje niby silny etos przyjaźni, załóg etc. Dla mnie to był trochę taki enturaż, ale chyba nie coś namacalnego. Prawdę powiedziawszy nie wiem, czy mogę powiedzieć, że miałem tu choćby jednego przyjaciela. To słowo w ogóle mocno nadwyrężane. Mam może z jedną, dwie osoby, z którymi czuję jakąś więź, rozumiem się, mogę pogadać. Znam kilka osób, które są wartościowymi ludźmi, ale z którymi się po prostu raz na jakiś czas widuję i z którymi fajnie jest poprzebywać, ale to trochę za mało na jakieś głębsze relacje.

Z drugiej strony chwilami z pewną cichą zadzrością myślę o ludziach, którzy są edge i – być może – odkryli w tym sens, którego chyba nigdy do końca nie znalazłem. Albo, który gdzieś po drodze pogubiłem. Choć takich typów jest niewielu, kilku być może, bo tak poza tym to specjalnie nie widzę jakichś autorytetów. Bo to, że ktoś jest X lat edge to nie jest dla mnie wartość sama w sobie. Ludzie w ogóle lubią sobie te wszystkie łatki przyczepiać, żeby dorabiały im trochę tożsamości. Jak obedrzesz paru typów z 'edge', 'punk', 'hardcore' + kilku shirtów, to co zostanie? Ja się właśnie bałem, że w moim przypadku niewiele.
Czasami chciałbym wrócić do tego dreszczu, który mnie przeszedł, gdy pierwszy raz usłyszałem YOT. Nawet nie muzykę, ale samą nazwę. No ale to jest przekleństwo wspomnień heh, bo dziś jestem innym człowiekiem, z innym bagażem doświadczeń.

5. Tak jeszcze troche ciagnac ten temat. Teraz chyba latwiejsze jest to cale "sprzedawanie sie" niz kiedys? Sam pamietam jaki "out cry" byl kiedy nadeszla wiadomosc o tym ze mlody Fakir przestal byl straight edge. Zreszta sam bralem w tym udzial, co patrzac z perspektywy czasu, nie jest czyms czym chcialbym sie chwalic. Jedni by powiedzieli ze jest to kolejna oznaka tego ze hardcore teraz jest taki rozwodniony i dzieciaki nie dbaja o wazne sprawy, co moze i jest po czesci prawda. Ale jesli chodzi o straight edge to dla mnie jest to taki pozytywne przejscie do spogladania na sxe jako osobista sprawa jednostki, ktora mysli samodzielnie niz budowanie jakiegos ruchu, ktorego ludzie sie trzymaja bardziej ze strachu przed napietnowaniem niz ze szczerej checi uczestniczenia w nim.

Pytanie co to są te ważne sprawy. Perspektywa jest zmienna. Bycie straight edge samo w sobie o czym świadczy? To można interpretować na setki sposobów. Brać pod uwagę aspekt społeczny, osobisty, ideologiczny. Znam taki edge, z którym w życiu nie chciałbym mieć nic do czynienia. I jest ten, w którym uczestniczyłem, i z czego jestem dumny. Dlatego nigdy nie traktowałem tego jako sprawy 'ważnej' w sensie obiektywnym, absolutnym, uniwersalnym. Nie wiem, czy akurat to, że ludzie przejmują się faktem, czy ktoś jest edge, czy nie, można traktować jako dowód poziomu jakiejś głębszej refleksji w dzisiejszej scenie. Hmm, nie wiem, czy kiedykolwiek pokusiłbym się o konstatację, że dzięki straight edge świat jest lepszy. Dzięki temu, że jest mniej najebanych rodziców katujących swoje dzieci tak. Ale straight edge nie robi kogoś z automatu porządnym człowiekiem. Jak ktoś jest chujem, to mu nucenie Judge, abstynencja i iks na dłoni w zaprzestaniu takiej czynności nie pomogą. Dla mnie to miało i ma wymiar osobisty. A ewentualne plusy dla otoczenia to wartość dodana.
Mnie się jakoś specjalnie ten numer z Fakirem nie podobał, w sensie taki inkwizytorsko-donosicielski klimat – jak to Ty, to bez urazy hehe - ale też bez przesady, nikomu nie przypisywałem chuj wie jak złych intencji, raczej ot takie tam złośliwe jaja. Znam chłopa, w porządku człowiek. Ale akcję z HYE traktowałem też trochę na zasadzie 'mieczem wojował...', biorąc pod uwagę cały sztafaż, jakim operowano na Górnym Śląsku w drugiej połowie lat '90 hyhy. Kurwa, no zawsze jest tak, że im bardziej górnolotne deklaracje, tym bardziej głupio się z nich potem wycofać i na takie czy inne oceny trzeba być przygotowanym. Tym bardziej jeśli się coś robiło niejako publicznie. I mówię to też za siebie.
Mnie nie było łatwo zrezygnować z edge głównie na osobistym poziomie. Na zasadzie 'mieć ciastko, czy zjeść ciastko'. W pewnym sensie istotą życia jest dokonywanie ciągłych wyborów i rezygnowanie z jednych rzeczy na rzecz innych. Z jednej strony szanuję stałość opinii w wielu przypadkach, ale jeszcze bardziej wolną wolę. Byle być w zgodzie ze sobą.
No i takie sytuacje na pewno uczą pokory. Sam oceniasz i będziesz oceniany. Shall be judged.

6. Polska to ciekawy kraj, zgodzisz sie? Jak oceniasz nasza ojczyzne na przestrzeni ostatnich 20 lat? Co Cie przygnebia najbardziej a co daje nadzieje na lepsze jutro?

Przygnębia mnie 23% VAT, który nam tu wszystkim dojebią od stycznia. Nie ukrywam, że wkurwia mnie właśnie sfera zawodowa. Mam własną małą pracownię projektową – architektura, trochę dizajnu - i nieodmiennie odnoszę wrażenie, że ten kraj jest tak konstruowany, żeby się nie dało normalnie i uczciwie pracować. Poza tym irytuje mnie moje pokolenie dorobkiewiczów, dla których najistotniejsze tematy to ich plastikowe SUVy i ogrzewanie kominkowe w dworkowym domku katalogowym zasyfiającym krajobraz. Tak, poczucie estetyki Polaków mnie rujnuje psychicznie. Ten kompletny bajzel przestrzenny. Krasnale, jakieś solaria, wulkanizacje...
Z drugiej strony nie wyobrażam sobie wyprowadzki - choć czasami myślę, żeby to wszystko pierdolnąć i wyjechać do jakiejś Nowej Zelandii. Ale wygospodarowałem sobie tutaj kawałek przestrzeni i staram się wykorzystać ją jak najlepiej. W swojej pracy mam też jakiś tam minimalny wpływ na kształtowanie otoczenia, więc staram się z tego zrobić dobry – choć to względna kwestia – użytek, coby tylko nie narzekać.
Lepsze jutro? Wiesz czyją matką jest nadzieja heh. Dla mnie jutro to problem jak wychowam moje dziecko, jakie będzie miało dzieciństwo i z jakim bagażem pójdzie kiedyś w świat. Nad tym pracuję, a wierz mi, że to największe wyzwanie przed jakim możesz stanąć. I pewnie też największa obawa - jak się spiszę. Próbuję mu dać jak najwięcej wsparcia i miłości, bo wiem, że od tego zależy, czy sobie w życiu poradzi. I w zasadzie moje rozważania o przyszłości sprowadzają się do tego.

7. Powiedz mi jak bardzo lubisz plyte In My Eyes "Nothing to Hide"? Wedlug mnie to najlepsza plyta tzw. "old school revival", zgodzisz sie?

Ja nie wiem, czy to nie najlepsza płyta w ogóle hehe. Łączy w sobie wszystko to, co w hc najlepsze. Nie wierzyłem, że może coś takiego powstać. To taki punkt kulminacyjny. Kapitalni muzycy i jeden z bardziej łebskich kolesi przy mikrofonie. W moim osobistym rankingu chyba nic nie przebija tego longa. Ta płyta zamyka pewną epokę. A ten zespół był wyjątkowy. Jak kupiłem ich pierwszy long 'The Difference Between' to nikt nie słyszał jeszcze o opcji odsłuchania na ms hehe, Więc wziąłem w ciemno – chyba od Tomka Shinga na Good Riddance w Eskulapie - przeczytawszy jakieś tam recenzje i ady. Tyle wiedziałem. Był głód na kapele grające tradycyjny straight edge hc. Wtedy stwierdziłem nawet, że jakaś dziwna okładka jak na tamte lata hehe. Tzn. wiesz – oczekiwałeś live shotów itd. A to nawet nie przypominało stylu Pussheade. W domu odleciałem, wrzuciwszy to w nocy po powrocie. To była inna jakość. Przed nimi nikt tak nie grał. Po nich też. Przyszli i odeszli w dobrym stylu. Jeśli mógłbym sobie życzyć jakiegoś reunionu, to oni są na topie listy.

8. Patrzac na scene hc w Polsce teraz i porownujac ja do sceny powiedzmy w roku 1997 - jest lepiej czy gorzej? Co jest fajniejsze teraz a co bylo fajniejsze wtedy?

Jest kompletnie inaczej pod kilkoma względami. Chyba głównie ze względu na internet i swobodny dostęp do wszystkiego. Coś niebywałego, jak sobie przypomnisz '95 z pisaniem listów, przegrywaniem kaset etc. Dzisiaj byłem u rodziców, gdzie zostało całe poddasze moich klamotów i siadłem sobie w tym pogrzebać. Trafiłem akurat na listy, które ludzie do mnie pisali... Mam sporo rękopisów różnych dzisiejszych scenowych prominentów, emerytów wręcz hyh. Nawet myślałem, żeby to wszystko poskanować i porozsyłać tym ludziom. Bardzo fajne pamiątki. To było też takie bezpośrednie. Wołąg pisze na papierze 'jak chcesz możesz mnie również łapać na cośtam@cośtam'. 'Rónież' kurwa hehe. Ktoś sobie dziś wyobraża życie bez netu? Dzisiaj trudno mi za wszystkim nadążyć. Kompletnie nie mam czasu ani siły, żeby wyłapać te nowe zespoły, których kilka codziennie wyskakuje w sieci. Odnoszę wrażenie, że ludzie są trochę zmęczeni tym szumem i próbują jakoś wrócić do bardziej prostych sytuacji. Stąd chyba np. ten dość nagły powrót do demotejpów – może trochę sztuczny imho, bo w przeciwieństwie do winyla, którego pozycja być może przez sekundę jedynie była zagrożona, ich wartość wydaje się być wyłącznie sentymentalna. No ale o to chyba chodzi. Fajnie, że ludziom się chce, a nie tylko wjebać kilka numerów na ten przechujowy myspace. Choć przypuszczam, że sporo osób, które dziś na gwałt kupują magnetofon, całkiem niedawno wyprzedawało swoją kolekcję kaset hyh. Ale luz. Grunt, że ludzie mają z tego przyjemność. Żeby nie było - ja swój zbiór wciąż z sentymentu trzymam, choć rzadko korzystam, bo nawet nie mam gdzie tego na co dzień składować.
Z drugiej strony nie ma co też popadać w martyrologię, że kiedyś to był opór, a teraz łatwizna, pomijając, że są ludzie, których uznać można za prawdziwych kombatantów. Dobrze, że przepływ informacji i materiałów jest swobodniejszy, że ludziom, zespołom, muzyce, pomysłom jest się łatwiej przebić. Kurwa, jakie to było święto kiedy Adam Szulc ruszył z distro STC, gdzie na dzień dobry było raptem 5-10 edge cd's i to jeszcze takich, powiedzmy, nie pierwszoligowych. Dziś, jak mówię, ciężko nadążyć. Nie ma co się oszukiwać, że jest pewien przesyt. Pomijam fakt, że ze względu na obowiązki większość gigów mnie omija, ale i tak jest ich tyle, że nie sposób tego ogarnąć. Z pewnym sentymentem można pomyśleć o jeżdżeniu po różnych pipidówach na koncerty. Ensign w Krotoszynie dla 10 osób hehe. Ta partyzantka dawała może więcej dreszczyku – tłukłeś się na gig załatwiony na list, telefon stacjonarny. Nie wiesz, czy kapela dojedzie, bo komórek ot tak dostępnych nie było, granice z kolei tak.
Fajne jest dziś to co i wtedy było fajne – dobra muzyka, sensowni ludzie, fajne pomysły na życie. A słabe też to, co zawsze – mody na jakieś bzdury.

9. Z tego co mowisz wynika ze prowadzisz dosc nerwowy tryb zycia. Laczenie pracy i zycia rodzinnego sa pewnie dosc stresujace. W jakis sposob sie relaksujesz i rozladowujesz?

Kurwa, nie ukrywam, że mój zawód jest przechujowo stresujący. Mam kolegę architekta, 37 lat, jeden wylew, jeden zawał hehe. Odpowiedzialność kolosalna. Z jednej strony gąszcz jebanych polskich przepisów, z drugiej strony obawa, żeby komuś się coś na łeb nie spierdoliło. Albo nawet to, że się jebnę w projekcie, zamówione drzwi nie zmieszczą się na budowie i będzie pytanie – kto buli. Na szczęście do tej pory nie miałem takiej akcji, ale ile kurwa nocy nie przespałem w nerwach, to moje.
Z drugiej strony lubię swoją robotę, chcę ją robić porządnie i to też zajmuje sporo czasu i energii. Czas wolny to kwestie banalne – czytanie, filmy, muzyka. Wyspać się rano, zjeść coś dobrego, zobaczyć jakieś fajne miejsca. 7 lat temu wyjebałem z domu telewizor, żeby móc bardziej wartościowo spędzać czas, bo miałem tendencje do uzależnienia od tego gówna.
Mój syn jest teraz w takim wieku, że sam mogę też znowu poczuć się dzieckiem. Mam z kim oglądać n-ty raz Gwiezdne Wojny, Indy'ego, budować lego, czytać Asteriksy, Tintiny, jeździć na rowerach bez celu. Wszystko to, za czym tęsknisz z dzieciństwa. Ale szczerze, to zajebiście lubię też gotować. Serio, znajomi myślą, że jestem zjebem – chyba taki polski stereotyp, że facet przy garach - ale nie mam z tym problemu. Sporo czasu spędzam w kuchni, totalnie mnie to relaksuje. Co zresztą widać hehe.

10. To by bylo wszystko. Chcesz cos dodac od siebie?

Dzięki za Twój czas. Nie będę zapraszał na koncerty, bo gramy ich tak mało, że byłoby to bez pokrycia heh. Ale jeśli gdzieś w Twojej okolicy zobaczysz info o Identity i będziesz w pobliżu to wpadnij powiedzieć 'cześć'. Kotek twierdzi, że sprawiamy wrażenie buców. Zapewniam, że tak nie jest.

United Youth

2011-02-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

I heard about this band few months ago. They just released they demo back then which was posted to download on various message boards. It sounded OK and I liked it but what really drew my attention to this band was that it was formed of very young dudes. I don't know how old they are but judging from their pictures and videos their singer can't be older than 17. It is so great to see kids that young playing hardcore and doing some positive with their lives and the age when most of their peers look for any occasion to get stoned or drunk. I hope that United Youth will record something more than just the demo and that we will hear of them soon. So far they seem to play shows here and there and enjoy what they're doing. And they are doing it really well - check out the video below. You can't go wrong with Warzone intro and Agnostic Front cover at the end of your set.

What a vegan person really thinks / Co naprawde mysli weganin...

2011-01-21T03:34:00.001-08:00

This text is copied from The Guardian website which is my favoured news paper. I found this piece quite amusing and also true to some degree.

When I eat with one of my carnivore friends, I usually find myself helplessly distracted by their food. I stare at it on the plate: ham on a pizza, chicken in a salad. And then I watch it disappearing into their mouths. Normally, I have to pull myself back into the conversation.

I stare because I'm fascinated by the fact that these intelligent, thinking people actually eat the flesh of dead animals. This seems to be the point at which their ethics vanish. They recycle, eschew the use of cars, buy fair-trade coffee and bananas, use environmentally friendly detergent. But when it comes to the moral and environmental issue of meat consumption, their desire for food they enjoy the taste of, the sensual pleasure it gives them, overrides any ethical considerations.

I was raised a vegetarian and have never tasted meat, so I don't crave it. I do miss the macaroni cheese, cream cakes and milk chocolate I had to give up five years ago, when I acknowledged my own hypocrisy and became a vegan.

Now, I avoid having meals at the homes of my meat-eating friends. I'm uncomfortable with the hassle that feeding me causes them, and the inevitable awkward conversations about food. I wouldn't express my real views, as I know I would offend them. I could never tell them that their lack of conscience about what they eat creates a barrier between us. Or that it means we will never be quite as close as we could be.

Ten tekst jest skopiowany ze strony The Guardian, ktora jest moja ulubiona gazeta. Jest on troche zabawny ale takze prawdziwy do pewnego stopnia.

Zazwyczaj, kiedy jem, z ktoryms z moich jedzacych mieso przyjaciol, jestem rozproszony przez ich jedzenie. Wpatruje sie w ich talerze: szynka na pizzy, kurczak w salatce. A potem patrze jak ono znika w ich ustach. Zwykle musze sie zmusic do powrotu do rozmowy.

Wpatruje sie, poniewaz jestem zafascynowany faktem ze Ci inteligentni, myslacy ludzie jedza ciala matrwych zwierzat. Wyglada na to ze w tym punkcie ich etyka zanika. Segreguja smieci, unikaja uzywania samochodow, kupuja fair-trade kawe i banany, uzywaja przyjaznych dla srodowiska detergentow. Ale kiedy przychodzi do moralnych i srodowiskowych kwestii zwiazanych z jedzeniem miesa ich pragnienie pozywienia, ktorego smakiem sie rozkoszuja, zmyslowa przyjemnosc, ktorej doznaja przesciga kazde etyczne rozwazanie.

Bedac wychowanym jako wegetarianin i nigdy nie probowalem miesa, wiec mi go nie brakuje. Tesknie za makaronem z serem, ciastem z kremem i mleczna czekolada, ktorych musialem sie wyrzec piec lat temu, kiedy zauwazylem swoja hipokryzje i zostalem weganem.

Teraz unikam jedzenia posilkow w domach swoich miesozernych przyjaciol. Nie czuje sie komfortowo z problemem, jakim jest zywienie mnie i nieunikalnymi rozmowami na temat jedzenia. Nie wyrazilbym swoich prawdziwych pogladow, bo wiem ze bym ich obrazil. Nie potrafilbym im powiedziec ze ich brak sumienia tworzy bariere pomiedzy nami. Albo ze z tego powodu nigdy nie bedziemy sobie tak bliscy jak moglibysmy byc.

Maciej Wnuk aka Miszczu

2011-01-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

Znam Macka juz od paru lat. Poznalismy sie w UK na jednym z hc gigow i jakos od tego czasu trzymamy kontakt. Maciek to dosc specyficzny gosc, ktory raczej nie interesuje sie tym co jest akceptowalne a co nie na scenie hardcore. On zawsze mial swoja wlasna wizje tego jaki hardcore chce tworzyc i ogolnie "pierdoli konwenanse". Moze nie zawsze sie z nim zgadzam, a czasami wrecz jestesmy na kompletnie odleglych biegunach ale pomimo tego potrafimy sie dogadac i znalezc wspolny mianownik. Na dodatek M zrobil 3 zine'y, czyli wiecej niz 10 przecietnych hc Czesiow razem wzietych, spiewa w hordzie o nazwie Last Dayz oraz wspolprowadzi Ratel Records.

1. Na poczatek przedstaw sie tym, ktorzy Cie nie znaja. Powiedz cos o sobie co bys chcial zeby wszyscy o tobie wiedzieli.

Siema, jestem Miszczu, dla mamy i taty Maciek, ale poza nimi rzadko ktoś tak do mnie mówi. W marcu koncze 25 lat, a w HC tak świadomie jestem gdzieś od 2002, wcześniej po prostu „słuchałem” VOD, Biohazard i AF… Robiłem w sumie 3 różne ziny i na razie w tej kwestii jestem trochę wypalony. Od jakiegoś czasu z ziomkiem i bratem staram się prowadzić Ratel Records, ale wytwórnia ta, nigdy nie będzie czymś poważnym. Mam też zespół o nazwie Last Dayz i gramy hardcore. Sam od czasu do czasu robie z bratem koncerty we Wrocławiu i u siebie w Świdnicy. Jestem na maksa zajarany HC i czasami zaczyna mnie to już wkurwiać wiec po cichu liczę na to ze mi się w końcu znudzi i się trochę ogarnę.

2. Od jakiegos czasu spiewasz w zespole Last Dayz. Jak do tego doszlo i dlaczego chciales spiewac w zespole hardcore?

Jak wspomniałem wcześniej, pisanie zinów na razie odłożyłem na bok, a z drugiej strony nie mógłbym tak po prostu nic w tym wszystkim nie robić. Dodatkowo, okoliczności jak mój powrót z emigracji stały się sprzyjające do stworzenia kapeli. Na tą nie miałem dokładnego pomysłu, ale miałem paru znajomych, którzy chcieli w tym kierunku coś zrobić. Ci nie znali się nawzajem za bardzo wiec z każdym z nich pogadałem i jakoś w styczniu 2010 zagraliśmy pierwsze próby. Niefart polegał na tym, że każdy z nich grał na gitarze, jednakże Wąski w ramach kompromisu wziął się za perkusję, na której pogrywał sobie z nudów od paru miesięcy, a Pawłowi zapewniłem gitarę basową, która miałem już od lat i i tak nic z nią nie robiłem – jemu nietrudno było przestawić się na bas. Jędrek z kolei, mając doświadczenie w graniu w kapeli (Bloodstained) został przy gitarze. Początki były chyba dość zabawne, bo Wąski średnio sobie jeszcze radził na garach, a ja z kolei nie miałem pojęcia o byciu wokalistą, inna sprawa, ze możliwości wokalnych to ja nie mam za bardzo hehe. Dlaczego chciałem śpiewać? Przede wszystkim chciałem po prostu spróbować mieć kapelę, a z racji tego, że jako jedyny nie umiałem na niczym grać, to tak zostało. Nie pchałem się na siłę na wokal, ale z drugiej strony zawsze miałem jakąś wewnętrzną potrzebę ekspresji, a w formie dźwięków gitary nie potrafiłbym się w żaden sposób wyrazić, z kolei chłopakom idzie to całkiem nieźle. Ja po prostu skakałbym pewnie z tym basem jak zjeb, a tak mogę powiedzieć, że dobrze to czuję.

3. Ratel Crew - chuligani? Prawicowi ekstremisci? Paczka dobrych kumpli, ktorzy wspieraja sie we wlasnych dzialaniach? A moze cos jeszcze?

Hmm, nie powiem za chłopaków, bo myślę, że nasze wizje tej ekipy też mogą być nieco rozbieżne, podobnie nie chciałbym, żeby ktokolwiek postrzegał nas pod każdym względem w formie zbiorowej. Spoko jak ktoś zauważa, że gdzieś tam Ratel Crew zrobiło zabawę na gigu czy coś w tym stylu, ale każdy z nas ma swój własny światopogląd, stąd nie podciągałbym już na pewno całej ekipy pod chuliganów czy prawicowców. Zaledwie jeden z nas ma do czynienia z kibicowskim światem, niektórzy, w tym ja, okazjonalnie chodzą na mecze, tym bardziej nie grzejemy się ustawkami czy czymś takim. Ta prawica to też trochę mit. Z tego co wiem Jędrek ma bana na Rozbracie, gdzie kolektyw na podstawie jego wypowiedzi na forum internetowym (!) zdecydował kiedyś, że nie życzy sobie Bloodstained na swoich włościach hehe. To pozostawiam bez komentarza. Sam często na swoich plakatach umieszczam karykatury skinheadów z flagami Polski, co jest niekoniecznie właściwie interpretowane wiec tu też rodzą się niepotrzebne domysły, ale to już nie mój problem, niech ktoś się tam ciśnieniuje jak go to mierzi. Z drugiej strony, czy któryś z moich ziomków cieszy się na widok bandy Wietnamczyków okupujących polskie miasta, czy też nie, Simonami Molami z Erasmusa plądrującymi damskie akademiki, lub niekoniecznie jara się falaflem u Turasa, zaręczam tu że w przeciwieństwie do wiecznie manifestujących swój antyrasizm internetowych hardkorowców, którzy często jak przyjdzie zmierzyć się z rzeczywistością, udają że problemu nie ma, na moich koncertach czy innych gdzie jest Ratel Crew nie ma chuja żeby byli jacyś naziole czy inne tego typu zjeby.

Sam mam wyjebane w politykę i nie potrafiłbym się nawet określić czy jestem prawicowcem czy lewicowcem czy chuj wie co jeszcze. Nawet nigdy nie próbowałem się nad tym zastanawiać, bo na każdą sytuacje mam swój pogląd, lub tez mam wyjebane. Polityków jak już, mogę jedynie na swój własny sposób ocenić czy mają trochę oleju w głowie czy są kompletnymi idiotami, stąd czasem pchając się w schematy i określanie, bywa, że prawicowe pomysły mogą mi się podobać, a czasem wręcz odwrotnie. Proste jak sranie. Ratel Crew to dobra ekipa kumpli zaangażowanych w scenę hardcore. Jest zajebiście, ale to nie będzie trwać wiecznie – mimo wszystko, okres tej bandy to dla mnie najlepszy czas w scenie.

4. Ogladalem jedno z koncertowych nagran LD, na ktorym doradzales zgromadzonej publicznosci zeby "jebali panstwo". Skad ta niechec do organow panstwowych? Jestes anarchista? Jaki ustroj polityczny bylby tobie najblizszy?

Jak wspomniałem wcześniej, nie po to mam rozum, by nadać sobie jakąś etykietkę, anarchisty, lewaka, czy kogoś tam. Podobnie, ja nawet nie wiem do końca co to są te wszystkie ustroje polityczne, liberalizmy, konserwatyzmy, socjalizmy i takie tam wiec terminologie zostawiam zainteresowanym polityką. Wierzę, że każdą sytuację jestem tym samym w stanie obiektywnie ocenić bez tych pierdol, o których musiałbym poczytać w książkach/gazetach, a jedynie sytuacje życia codziennego (bezrobocie dotykające moich najbliższych, ceny paliwa, żywności, kolejki i chore sytuacje na poczcie, kolei czy urzędach, utarczki z policją itd.) i najbliższe otoczenie są dla mnie pewnym wyznacznikiem w ocenie polityki państwa i krytycznego ustosunkowania się do niej. Dlatego gadając te swoje mądrości ze sceny, jestem szczerze wkurwiony aktualnymi sytuacjami z życia zwykłego człowieka i na prawdę nie potrzebuję tu znajomości mechanizmów polityki czy jej zależności z ekonomią. Złość i rozczarowanie rodzą się przede wszystkim z mojej niemocy w tej tyradzie zwanej „pożyj sobie u nas w Polsce” i zwyczajnie wkurwia mnie jak kolejne chuje w rządzie, jak zwykle w interesie ludzi podnoszą akcyzy na paliwo, podatki, zwiększają wydatki na administrację jednocześnie niewiele robiąc by uporać się z patologiami jak KRUS i ZUS, służba zdrowia, panoszącym się wiecznie klerem i innym syfem. Ja sam jako obywatel Świdnicy dostaję remont placu przed katedra w centrum miasta na który poszły miliony, a do chuja to nie podobne teraz. Wszystko jest fajnie rozodzielone pod stolami, a wiecznie uśmiechnięty prezydent miasta cymbał, paraduje pod rękę z biskupem po kolejnych wygranych wyborach lokalnych. Na moim blokowisku, gdzie mieszka z 8 tyś ludzi nie ma żadnego boiska…

5. Podczas koncertow dosc czesto krzyczysz "polski hardcore", "polska scena". Skad to podkreslanie polskosci sceny z ktorej sie wywodzicie? Chodzi o wspieranie lokalnych/polskich zespolow czy kryje sie za tym nutka szowinizmu?

Nacjonalizm w pozytywnym tego słowa znaczeniu. Żyjąc w UK udało mi się zobaczyć naprawdę wiele występów lokalnych kapel, na których zabawa była rewelacyjna. Płyty też się tam źle nie sprzedają, nie widzę wiec problemu, by w Polsce zaczęto doceniać to co nasze, a naprawdę nie mamy czego się wstydzić. Dobrych zespołów jest u nas na tyle, by w każdy weekend odbywało się w tym kraju z 10 koncertów gdzie grają wyłącznie polskie zespoły. W sumie szczerze chciałbym, żeby odbywały się przede wszystkim małe gigi z naszymi bandami plus kilkanaście gigów naprawdę wyróżniających się zespołów spoza PL, a pewne biedy jak to co wciskają organizatorom niemieckie bookingi to powinny być odprawiane z kwitkiem na granicy, bo szkoda czasu. Ogólnie jestem bardzo zadowolony ze stanu rzeczy, w którym ostatnio jakoś naturalnie odbywa się w naszym kraju niewiele koncertów robionych jakimś chujowym zespołom zza miedzy, a za to zaprasza się 3-4 nasze grupy z innych miast, nawet z daleka, mimo sporych kosztów. Niestety niektóre ekipy z uporem maniaka robią gig jakimś nikogo nie obchodzącym, często nawet w ich własnym kraju, gamoniom, którzy po prostu napisali maila, że chcą zagrać w ramach swojego eurotour koncert za 150euro (przecież to tak niewiele). Tu nie zabronię robić takiemu organizatorowi gigu, ale radziłbym się zastanowić jaki jest jego sens? Przyjdzie 40 osób, pewnie bardziej na piwo niż dla muzyki, atmosfera jak na pogrzebie, a na koniec ta kapela powie ze w PL pizda, a nie hardcore hehe. Spróbuj ich zapytać czy Tobie nie odwdzięczą się potem koncertem… Polskie ekipy wydają się nie rozumieć, że wspierając to co nasze będzie tu tylko lepiej. Ja zrobię koncert zespołowi z Poznania czy Warszawy i mogę liczyć na to, że i oni zrobią mi gig u siebie czy po prostu przyjdą nas wspierać jak u nich gramy. A pewni głupole, którzy zrobili 20 koncertów każdemu co nie trzeba będą do końca się głowić czemu nikt ich samych nie zaprasza do siebie. Wytłumaczą sobie, że taki Last Dayz gra gigi, bo jest jakiś hype na nich, a oni przecież nie będą się tak lansować i wolą robić za tych niedocenianych. Albo będzie pierdolenie na forum, że jak to możliwe, że takie Identity nie dostaje takiego przyjęcia na jakie zasługuje, a na ich koncert przychodzi 15 osób? Może dlatego, że w mieście X ludzie mają już za dużo koncertów „hardcore”, bo przecież dopiero co grała tam jakaś mosz-maszyna z Włoch supportowana (uwielbiam ten wyraz) przez bezwzględny posi oldschool z Portugalii, a dzień wcześniej grała niesamowita brazylijska Uganga tworzona przez ex-perkusiste legendarnego Sarcofago, a i zaraz przecież będzie jeszcze prawdziwy but na ryja w postaci niemieckiego beatdownu. I dlaczego jakiegoś małolata ma w takim wypadku obchodzić polski skład, skoro tu taki przepych? Daje niby abstrakcyjne przykłady, ale tak to właśnie czasem wygląda i z LD chyba nie doczekam się zaproszeń koncertowych z kilku miast, mimo tego sprzyjającego hype’u hehe. Niemniej, takich koncertów jakie zagraliśmy w Gdańsku czy Olsztynie życzę wszystkim ciężko pracującym polskim zespołom.

6. W 2010 w Polsce obrodzilo dobrymi zespolami, zgadasz sie? Ktore sa twoimi faworytami?

Myślę, że masz rację, choć rok 2010 postrzegam głownie przez pryzmat omawianej powyżej tendencji wzrostowej jeśli chodzi o wsparcie lokalnych kapel. Widziałem fantastyczne występy Death Row, SSF, Stone Heart, PRD czy Castetu i to była dla mnie największa zajawka. Chociaż wiesz, tych debiutów wcale nie jest tak wiele, chyba że coś przeoczyłem… zdecydowanie wyróżnia się Desperate Times, które na początku średnio mi się podobało, ale odkąd mam kasetę leci bardzo często. Był Taut, który po chwili już zdechł, z kolei projekty jak Heritage czy Iron to Gold, choć świetne muzycznie, nie dają mi jakiś większych nadziei na intensywniejszą działalność, wiec ciężko się ustosunkować. Podoba mi się demo Thug Life, poza tym powstał kolejny poznański zespół czyli Word is Mine – myślę, że to może być niezłe. Sam czekam na debiut Sick Shit, który o ile dostatecznie wspierany, nieźle namiesza. Częstochowski Get Out może okazać się spoko – z nimi gramy niedługo to się przekonam. Załoga roku 2010 to bezwzglenie 3MHC – stare wygi jak Osiol, Filas (Zatruta Krew), Olsen plus banda niepokornych już nie do końca małolatów przybyłych tam z Bartoszyc, Wałbrzycha, Suwałk itd. to na koncertach ekipa nie do rozjebania. Liczę na bardziej intensywną działalność koncertową teraz.

7. Na przestrzeni kilku ostatnich lat zonglowales swoim zyciem pomiedzy Polska a UK? Obecnie zyjesz w Polsce - co tam porabiasz? Jakie rzeczy z ktorymi spotkales sie w UK chcialbys zobaczyc w Polsce, a ktore wolalbys trzymać z daleka od polskich granic?

Tak jakoś wyszło, że nie miałem co ze sobą zrobić i tak sobie migrowałem. Tutaj mam niby firmę, ale w sumie tylko na papierze i zaocznie kończę to, co zacząłem w UK czyli studia. W dziedzinie szkolnictwa, kwestii porównawczych wole nie poruszać, ale tak dla zobrazowania to trochę jak z vege żarciem – tam w UK, w lodówkach marketów masz wszystko czego tylko zapragniesz, a u nas wciąż te jebane suche kotlety sojowe hehe. Tak naprawdę, mimo że to zaledwie 2 000km i wciąż jeden kontynent, to życie tam i tu to dwa różne światy – zarobki, mentalność ludzi, pogoda, spędzanie czasu wolnego czy skończywszy na tym co mam na talerzu. Ogólnie w kwestiach porównawczych Polska wypada na spory minus, ale ja też jestem wielkim malkontentem i jak to się mówi „wszędzie dobrze gdzie nas nie ma”, wiec tu też nie jest tak źle chyba. No i hardcore jakby u nas taki lepszy trochę, co nie znaczy, że tam nie bywałem na świetnych koncertach.

Co chciałbym trzymać z daleka od naszych granic? Kiedyś zastanawiałem się czy ta wielokulturowość się Wielkiej Brytanii opłaciła i myślałem, że wolałbym, żeby sprawy u nas w tej kwestii pozostały takie jakie były (masowa imigracja do Polski to i tak tylko kwestia czasu), ale z drugiej strony jak patrzę w kółko na te zjebane, polskie wąsate ryje i żyję w tym hermetycznym środowisku, codziennie stawiając czoła tej naszej mentalności, naszym przywarom i ogólnie tej całej „polskości”, gdzie komuna zrobiła swoje, a 50% ludzi to mentalnie dalej w tym klimacie, to przysięgam chciałbym żeby wpadł tu taki wielki Murzyn i wszystkim wpierdolił. Koniec końców, można się w tym „naszym” polskim syfie udusić czasami. Z drugiej strony, to mam wrażenie, że spora część takiego kompletnego ciemnogrodu wypierdoliła z PL właśnie do UK i dobrze, bo ja się tu nie muszę z takimi męczyć. Jakich typów ja tam w te kilka lat regularnie poznawałem, to mógłbym książkę napisać...

8. Jak myslisz, czy tak zwany "hardcore lifestyle" moz byc pogodzony z normalnym zyciem? Posiadaniem rodziny, normalnej pracy i tak dalej?

Hmmm dlaczego nie? Masz zaraz obok kolegę Fakira Młodszego i chyba doskonały przykład, jak bycie HC zgrabnie wkomponować w życie rodzinne (wspólne wypady do Belgii na koncerty, czasem samemu robi jakiś gig, ostatnio jakąś płytę rosyjskiej kapeli wydał… szacunek), nie wspominając o starszym z braci Tkaczyków który ma 41 lat i jedzie z Castetem na pełnej piździe. Małżeństwo z Eye For An Eye, które regularnie gra koncerty, to też chyba nie jakiś pojebany przypadek hehe. Na pewno z czasem priorytety stopniowo się zmieniają, ale tu to nawet żony czy dziecka nie potrzeba, a wielu młodych i tak z czasem leci w kozaki lub jeszcze gorzej - w jakieś indie czy inny syf.

Praca? Czasem chciałbym w sumie popracować w jakiejś jebanej korporacji. Mam wrażenie, że wtedy dopiero doceniłbym swoją odmienność w pewnym sensie. Wiesz, szedłbym rano do tej tyry, zupełnie jak dotychczas na magazyn czy do sklepu z najkami, tyle że w garniaku, odpierdalał robotę, bluzgając pod nosem na współpracowników i szefa, a potem wracał do domu i znów byłbym sobą, a na weekend koncert – czemu nie? W sumie to mam wrażenie, że nawet tego mi trzeba w tym wieku już. Na studiach, które robię mam pełno takich ambitnych społeczników, którzy dla mnie są wszyscy tacy sami i nienawidzę ich szczerze może właśnie za to, że ja wciąż jako jedyny tam nie pasuję. Mają te 25-30 lat i pną się po szczeblach „kariery”, dorabiając dodatkowe kwalifikacje. Na przerwach gadają o tych imprezach i innym badziewiu, które mnie nie obchodzi (szybko skumali, bo po zaledwie paru miesiącach przestali mnie gdziekolwiek zapraszać hehe), a tak naprawdę widzę ich jak wjebali się w coś, w co ja się nie dam nigdy wpierdolić, bo dla nich taka robota w korporacji to właśnie ta cała kariera, a dla mnie będzie to jedynie praca, zupełnie jak ta w magazynie. A wszystko co najlepsze jest właśnie poza nią.

9. To tyle na razie. Chcialbys cos dodac na koniec?

Wojtek, dzięki za wywiad. Mam nadzieję, że ten nie odstraszy długością. Zakładaj rodzinę i bądź hardcore bo hardcore rządzi! Wy co to przeczytaliście, wspierajcie polski krank – kupujcie płyty i dopingujcie nasze zespoły. W imieniu swoim i innych organizatorów zapraszam na koncerty, a członków kapel nie tylko na te na których sami grają. Oi!

What is hardcore? / Co to jest hardcore?

2010-12-23T02:34:00.000-08:00

I was flipping through my copies of I Stand Alone zine (one of my favourite zines) and I came across this interview with Scott Vogel from the time when he was in Buried Alive. In this interview he gave this fantastic answer to "What is hardcore?" question. I remember when I read it for the first time I just couldn't believe someone was able to put it in such an amazing yet simple way. It just combines everything what I thought about hardcore at that time. I decided to share Scott Vogel's answer, because it is very inspiring and I think every hardcore kid who enters into the scene should read it.

"Hardcore is meeting a kid from halfway across the world for the first time and feeling like you have known him or her for all your life. Hardcore is driving eight hours when you are flat broke to see a band most people would say that can't play their instruments and that you can't understand their singer. Hardcore is knowing that your phone bill will kill you. Hardcore is road trips, touring and meeting people.

Hardcore is a teacher. Teaching we are all equal, that colours or sexual preferences don't matter. Hardcore teaches that animals are not ours to kill and to open your mind and question everything.

Hardcore is moshing in your bedroom. Hardcore is energy, emotion and anger. Hardcore is that feeling when I see or hear new band that sends chills down my spine."

Przegladajac swoje kopie zina "I Stand Alone" (jeden z moich ulubionych zine'ow) natknalem sie na wywiad z Scott'em Vogel'em z czasow kiedy byl w Buried Alive. W owym wywiadzie dal ta fantastyczna odpowiedz do pytania "Co to jest hardcore?" Pamietam kiedy po raz pierwszy to czytalem nie moglem uwierzyc ze ktos byl w stanie wyrazic to w taki wspanialy i prosty sposob. To po prostu podsumowuje wszystko co w tamtym czasie myslalem o hardcore. Zdecydowalem podzielic sie z odpowiedzia Scott'a Vogel'a poniewaz jest bardzo inspirujaca i wydaje mi sie ze kazdy dzieciak, ktory wchodzi w scene powinien ja przeczytac.

"Hardcore to spotykanie dzieciaka z drugiej polowy globu po raz pierwszy i czucie ze sie znalo go badz ja przez cale swoje zycie. Hardcore to jechanie przez osiem godzin, bedac kompletnie splukanym, zeby zobaczyc zespol, o ktorym wiekszosc ludzi by powiedziala ze nie umie grac na instrumentach a ich wokalisty nie da sie zrozumiec. Hardcore to swiadomosc ze twoj rachunek za telefon Cie zabije. Hardcore to podroze, wyjazdy na trasy i spotykanie sie z ludzmi.

Hardcore to nauczyciel, uczacy ze wszyscy jestesmy rowni, ze kolor albo preferencje sexualne nie maja znaczenia. Hardcore uczy ze zwierzeta nie sa po to zeby je zabijac i zeby otworzyc nasze umysly i kwestionowac wszystko.

Hardcore to moshowanie w twoim pokoju. Hardcore to energia, emocja i zlosc. Hardcore to to uczucie kiedy widze albo slysze nowy zespol, ktore wysyla dreszcze wzdloz mojego kregoslupa."

Minor Threat

2010-12-21T08:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I read a very interesting piece about one of my favourite bands called Minor Threat. Those who know even a little bit about punk and hardcore do not need any kind of introduction to this band. No-one can deny the status this band has on the hc/punk scene. They did change the face of American punk during their 3 years of existence and inspired many bands that came after them. I remember how blown away I was by them when I listened to their complete discography CD which I was given by my friend. I dug everything about them - the music and lyrics (obviously), pictures in the booklet of the CD. I even liked the way they were dressed - thanks to them I ditched my combat boots and replaced them with a nice pair of sneakers. To this day that band influences thousands of kids around the world in a positive way, making them think for themselves and that is something only a few bands can do.

Best vegetarian song / Najlepsza wegetarianska piosenka

2010-11-29T07:46:00.001-08:00

Forget about No More or Cats and Dogs. This is my favourite song that promotes vegetarianism / veganism.

Zapomnij o No More albo Cats and Dogs. To jest moja ulubiona piosenka, ktora promuje wegetarianizm / weganizm.

Zakaz palenia.

2010-11-29T03:12:00.001-08:00

No i mamy zakaz palenia w miejscach publicznych. Cieszycie sie? Ja bardzo i nie interesuje mnie wasze biadolenie o rzadzie, ktory wchodzi z butami w wasze prywatne zycie itd.

In Polish / Po polsku

2010-11-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

I decided that from now on some of the post will be written in Polish language. I also decided to start posting again. Probably not very regularly but from time to time I hope to share something that's on my mind.

Zdecydowalem ze od teraz, niektore posty beda w jezyku polskim. Jednoczesnie zdecydowalem ze zaczne znowu postowac. Prawdopodobnie niezbyt regularnie ale od czasu do czasu mam nadzieje podzielic sie tym co siedzi mi w glowie.

Don't hate each other. We're family.

2010-10-19T03:50:00.000-07:00

Ignite are one of my favourite bands. I don't care much for their recent releases but records such as "Past our means", "Scarred for life" or "Call on my brothers" were on a very frequent rotation in my teens and early 20's. I still like to listen to those records form time to time. I just came across this cool video to one of their best songs called "Embrace". Hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

IGNITE - "Embrace" from Revelation Records on Vimeo.

Speak the truth

2008-11-15T17:58:00.000-08:00

This what you can read below is a speech given by Robert F. Kennedy at City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio on April 5, 1968. Although what was said then dealt with the specific events that were happening in the USA at that time, I think that a lot of stuff in this speech is universal and apply to times we're living in right now.

"This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.

It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.

Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.

Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

"Among free men," said Abraham Lincoln, "there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs."

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again."

Skrewdriver sucks, you know what I'm sayin'?

2008-11-13T10:33:00.001-08:00

This post is inspired by something I read on howsyouredge?com today. Click on the link to find out more. Now my 2 cents.
I'm usually not into telling people what they can or can't do. I just don't feel like anybody who has the ultimate knowledge to say what's right and what's wrong for anybody than myself.
On the other hand it plainly pisses me off when others try to do the same to me or when I see them doing that to others. And when it take a form of discrimination it just boils my blood.
Now, the way I see hardcore and straight edge scenes is that they are places where we can spread a positive message to the world. A message of equality. The color of your skin, your gender, sexuality etc. don't fucking matter over here.
So the message is simple: If you are a racist or a neo-nazi scum then there's no place for you in our scene. Pack your stuff and leave.

Edge Day entry

2008-10-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

I went edge the day after my high school graduation party. After four years of being a drunk punk I decided to become a clean punk. I made that decision when I was waking out of the club where the party was held. I don't really know what triggered it. Probably I was just tired of boozing and smoking cigarettes but I needed something to pull me out of that, so straight edge seemed like a good tool to do that. That was year 1999. I was already into punk and hardcore for about 4 years when I decided to go drug free. I remember when I first learned about straight edge and thought that it was a totally stupid idea and there I was, 2 or 3 years later going that same path that I made fun of before. Life's strange sometimes.

I was 18 at that time so I guess that wasn't the usual age that most of the kids become edge, but I think it actually worked in my advantage. I was almost an adult and I wasn't under pressure of any of my friends to become sxe. I made that decision totally on my own and I stuck to it to this day. It's not that I think it's my greatest accomplishment ever but I'm still pretty proud of the fact that I'm straight edge. I'm proud but at the same time I don't look down on anybody who doesn't go the same way as I do. I'm just happy for myself that I was strong enough to hold on to it.

I wasn't always that way. As a young adept of straight edge I felt that straight edge is an answer to anything. That kind of thinking got me into a lot of stupid arguments over the years which from the perspective of time look so childish it makes me embarrassed. I guess I was just naive and too young to understand few things about straight edge and life in general. Also the whole vibe that was going on at that time in the scene I grew up in had an influence on me as well. I know that it's easy to blame the others but not yourself but that's how I see it. That's how it was in that whole militant straight edge movement and I took that attitude towards others who didn't exactly embrace it.

Anyway, few years passed by and I grew out of that mindset. I think one of the turning points for me was when I took part in a conversation about some person that broke edge and one of my friends said that in his opinion when someone breaks edge it's a signal for him that that person can't really be trusted as a friend as well, because if someone couldn't hold on to the straight edge they probably couldn't hold on to their friendship either. That's when it hit me how stupid that whole us vs. them attitude was. I understood that instead of building a community it destroys it. What kind of friendship is it when we turn our backs on our close ones only because they start to drink. No wonder so many so called edge breakers stops going to shows and loose interest in hc in general, when all we do is pointing fingers at them and make jokes about them behind their backs. The thing is that we don't know what can make someone break edge. It can be just ordinary boredom or just the fact that the person doesn't want to be edge any longer because it isn't for them But sometimes it can be some deeper problem like depression over something etc. What kind of friends are we if we see our friends getting into heavy drugs or drinking and instead of asking "Hey, are you OK? What's wrong?" we say "Dude, you're not edge any more. We can't be friends now."

Over the years I've learned, that for me straight edge isn't the goal as itself. It's just a base that I can build the rest of my life on. It's a tool that keeps me focused on achieving all the other goals that I set for myself in my life. In simple words it's not were I ended, it's where I started from and continued to grow. And even though it really sickens me when so many people turn it into something ugly that I can't even relate to, at the same time I see so many awesome sxe kids that keep their hearts open and that makes me "still proud to be straight".

WS.

Playlist:
YOT
Floorpunch
In My Eyes
Over The Line
Step Forward
Ten Yard Fight

Straight Edge 2008

Blog fuck up

2008-10-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

Something went wrong with my blog and I had to delete it. I saved all the posts (well most of them), created a new blog under the same name and posted them again. They are all posted today but they appear in the same order as they were posted originally.
I'm working on some good stuff at the moment so keep checking back.
Take care.

WS.

A light in the dark

2008-10-09T15:46:00.001-07:00

Recently few friends of mine who were in so called informal relationships decided to formalize them and get engaged / married. I'm not a big person on a marriage (I guess I don't really care) but seeing them taking that step and knowing them as people I can't help but feel happy (for them) and hopeful.
Why hopeful? Well, we all know that rate of happy marriages to unhappy / ending in divorce marriages is in favor of those second ones. I guess we've all seen them in our lives. People ending up in marriages for all wrong reasons and splitting after few years, feeling that they've wasted them on person they didn't really care that much about. Or what even worse staying together for many years in spite of all the signals telling them that it's not gonna work. I've seen husbands and wives literally hating each other and hurting each other everyday and what saddens me the most, hurting their children exposing them to all that hatred and violence (not necessarily physical one), damaging their young minds and hearts.
Now knowing all this plus all other bullshit that people bring on each other everyday it really doesn't make me see the world in bright colors. In fact I am very pessimistic if it comes to thinking of our future, but seeing those few people that I got to know, share some time with, exchange thoughts and love it really gives me a little bit hope that there still is this little light in our dark, dark world. Seeing how they treat each other, how they take care of each other and how they love their partners it gives me small idea of how they might pass all that to their future children and how they might raise them. And knowing that their kids will be raised as good and caring people. Knowing that they and their children wont dive into that crazy, dark, materialistic state of mind that so many of our peers do, gives me a little bit of hope that maybe, just maybe there is a good future for us in the end, because I'm sure that there's more people like that somewhere out there.

(Interview) Aram Arslanian and Stephen St. Germain of TFS

2008-10-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know me personally it's not a secret that I dig The First Step a lot. It's definitely one of my top 5 bands in today's hardcore. Even top 3 I think. That band has anything that I'm looking for in a hardcore band. Great music with is rooted in the late 80s bands sound and amazing, well thought lyrics that, every time I read them always find something new in them that catch my attention and makes me stop and think for a while. While being in Barcelona for a few days I had a chance to catch their show, which sadly might be one of the last of theirs shows on the old continent. I decided that it could be a great opportunity to ask Stephen (vocals) and Aram (guitar) a few questions. I'm pretty happy with how this interview has turned out, even though I didn't prepare myself very well for it. I love the last bit of it when Stephen, Aram and Fred (who joined us later) start talking about Youth Of Today and just totally forget about the tape recorder. It almost makes you feel like you are with them in that room listening to their conversation. I wish those guys all the best with their future and I only hope that there will more bands like that in hardcore.
All pictures by Patrycja Gagan

Q: Let’s start with clarifying the rumour about The First Step breaking up this summer. Is that true and if so what’s the reason behind this?

Stephen: That’s the way it’s looking right now. Everything is great with the band but we sort of came to the point where we feel that we did everything we wanted to do as a band. We’ve made so many good friends and have so many good memories. We want to end the band on a really high note instead of sticking around for too long. Not that we’re really afraid of that, because we’re not a band that care if people like us or not. We just feel that it’s really time for us. It’s not the same thing when we broke up the band before. It was because things got really shitty with some of our close friends and we just didn’t want to do it anymore. We were losing more friends than we were making. Now we just know it time to stop it. If we all still hang out together in like 3 or 5 years or something like that, somebody will say “Hey let’s play a show”, maybe we will.

Q: You’ve gained Aram from Champion on a second guitar. Did you approach him or he approached you about it? How did that change the band?

Stephen: We’ve known Aram for a really long time. We toured with Champion a bunch of times and around the time when “Promised kept” was coming out we had a period when we didn’t see them quite as much. Once we were doing a tour with Go It Alone, we toured from Seattle down the west coast and then back up to the Rivalry showcase which was going to be second to last Champion show. Aram asked “Hey guys can I come along with you?” and we said “Sure”, because he’s a good friend and it’s always great to hang out with him. We’re always really bad about bringing too many people with us, because we just want to bring as many friends of ours with us.

Then, at some point Aram asked “Hey would you guys be into me playing a second guitar for this trip?” and since we never had a second guitarist we agreed and it worked out really awesome, it sounded very good and so it stayed that way.

So now we have two guitarists which is really cool. In my opinion Aram is really good at playing guitar. I’ve always liked the way he played guitar. Over time he went from being a rhythm guitarist to a guy who wants to try different stuff but still keep it really hardcore.

Also having Aram in a band has been really great because with me and Aaron is like... We are the only two left from the original line up. We’ve known each other for so long, which is good in a way, but also we kind of pigeonhole each other, like “I know what this person is like” and “I know what this will come up with”. So it was nice to have someone like Aram, who is very strong willed and he’s not afraid to tell you how he feels. So he comes in and gives us a third set of eyes on a situation. He helped a lot and he’s a very positive addition in every way. This is my favourite period of the band.

Q: What do you do besides being in TFS? Do you study or work?

Stephen: I teach language of arts (which is reading and writing) in middle school. I teach kids who are around 11, 12 years old. I really enjoy it, I get a lot of time off work and stuff. Other than that I’m a practising Buddhist so I spend a lot of time studying, reading and meditating. It’s hard sometimes to work and have other responsibilities and find time to do that stuff, but it is my real goal and motivating factor of my life. Also I just try to hang out with my friends as much as I can. I’m just a simple dude you know.

Q: I want to ask couple of questions regarding Buddhism. I read an article a while ago that said that Buddhism is slowly and quietly becoming a huge thing in North America. Have you noticed that maybe? And what do you think about it? Is it real or is it just a trend?

Stephen: It does seem to be growing in a lot of ways. I think - and this is just my opinion on things – it feels like a lot of things in America are changing. A lot of people can blame that on George Bush and present stuff. People are starting to question things that they’ve never questioned before.

This is going to sound weird and I don’t feel this way, but there’s sort of a mentality that a lot of Americans have grown up with, that America is a good, great country. Not in a nationalistic way though. And I think that in the last 6 or so years, with the war in Iraq and America as a country started look at itself and realize that there’re a lot of things that we don’t like about it. So from that perspective there’s a certain amount of people who say that this old way is working so much. So I think if you’ve seen an increase in people looking into other philosophies for life I think that has something to do with it.

One of the ideas in Buddhism is karma, which in a nutshell says that the actions that you perpetrate will come to fruition, whether they are positive or negative, at some point. That doesn’t mean that if I hit someone they will do something to me right away. It could be 10 years from now. So in a sense, the idea is that if Buddhism is to grow anywhere, there’ve been causes and conditions from karma that have created that situation. So if there’s a large amount of collective good and that karma comes to fruition then you’re going to see better things happening. I don’t know if that makes sense to you.

I don’t think it’s becoming trendy, I think it’s slowly growing. Unfortunately, in any religion that has good idea you have people that want to attach their identity to it. For example, Christianity gets a lot of bad reputation in a lot of ways but there are people who follow it very devotedly and there are people in Christianity who are scumbags. So you can find people like that in any religion.

Aram entered the room so I focused on him for a little bit.

Q: I asked Stephen about you joining the band and how it changed The First Step. So I want to ask you how do you feel about being in TFS? How different is it from being in Champion?

Aram: I like being in The First Step and it’s a lot different than being in Champion. Champion was really set on touring all the time and really trying to get our message out and going full force all the time. It was super intense all the time. It was intense love but sometimes it was intense frustration. In TFS we still try to get our message out but it’s the vibe is a little bit different. We would be an hour late for the show because we stopped somewhere to get some vegan food. We would eat so much ice cream that we feel sick before we play but we still play really hard. It’s super fun and really relaxed vibe but it’s also compassionate. It suits me well with where I am in my life right now, when I feel so much conviction about straight edge and vegetarianism but it also allows me to be more relaxed and have more fun.

Q: You guys are so spread around the country. How do you manage to practice and get together to play shows? That must be kind of difficult to organize all that?

Aram: We still manage to play more shows than most bands that live in the same city. We play 3 different shows every month. It’s either me and Greg flying to the east coast or Stephen, Aaron and Fred flying to the west coast and we’ll meet in some location and we rent a van and go to the shows. I’ve been n a band for 2,5 years, during that time we’ve been to Guatemala, Europe twice, toured both west and east coast like crazy, we’re going to Japan in June.

The whole idea is that people always have those limitations on what you can do in hardcore, like “oh I can only be in a band until I’m this age because of collage” or “I can only do this because I have this much money”, but the idea is to go across this. If you’re willing to be really passionate about your band and work hard on it and figure out how to do things you can do all those things. I literally live almost as far away, geographically in North America as I can live from the other guitar player but we always play shows every month.

Stephen: We don’t really practice tough. In the last 4 or 5 years we only practiced maybe 3 times. Going back to what Aram said. I remember when our demo had just come out and we played east coast constantly, every single weekend we were in the van. And we thought “Let’s go to west coast”, so we contacted some people we have met and... It was actually Todd Jones, a guy who we became friends with, was like “Dude, your band is really good but don’t come out here on a demo”. We were like “Fuck it, let’s do it anyway”. We wanted to play and it was one of the most fun trips we’ve ever had.

A lot of people get to a certain point after they played in a band but they have other responsibilities, are married or anything else and they say “I can only do this and anything more”. But maybe you can do all that but you need to find other way. Maybe you can be in a band that tours 8 months out of the year but maybe you can do some really awesome stuff and really satisfy yourself and give something back. Sometimes people have those blinders, I have that a lot. We have that song “Greater Vision” that’s kind of about that.

Aram: I get as much satisfaction as I got from touring with Champion or playing with Betrayed. We never see each other apart from when we’re playing shows but I talk to those guys on the computer or on the phone every day. I feel more connected to these guys then to some people that live down the street from my house, because we just refuse to put any boundaries on ourselves. It’s not just hardcore kids, but people in general are so willing to accept boundaries. Look at your scene in Poland, you guys were like a pretty isolated place when hardcore/punk first came around and you guys ended up with a pretty, fucking crazy hardcore scene, especially in the 90s, you guys had all those vegan sxe bands and all.

I think that hardcore and straight edge is so much about overcoming anything like that. Not letting anything to hold you down.

Q: In that song “Something Inside” there’s a line that says “I know it’s easy to care when the scene is on top and there is so much there...”. Did hardcore scene seemed dead to you at that time? I guess you may say it has grown and has change since then. Do you think it’s changed for the better?

Stephen: You know hardcore always goes in cycles. I think more than anything, my perspective might have changed. At that time when I wrote that song the American Nightmare thing was really big. I liked AN for what they were but I couldn’t stand all the posers and everybody jumping on that hype. It just felt so foreign to me, all those razor blades and stuff. I’ve learned to be more compassionate towards whatever people will do in hardcore. I will always prefer certain things over another.

At the same time, since we’ve been in a band and we’ve written that song we had periods that I really liked and we connected with people very well and shared a lot of good stuff with them and there were times that I felt that there was nobody. Right now to me it feels like there are a lot better bands coming out and a lot of possibilities. People started to learn from the past, take the ideas from back then and make them their own and start to actually reinvent hardcore. They starting to do something very original and at the same time very traditional hardcore sounding, which is something that I definitely prefer. There’s this band Mindset that we’re good friends with and being around them makes me feel that things are going to change in a positive way.

Aram: In hardcore a lot of bands sing about the cold reality of life and all those things and majority of people in hardcore bands are fairly young, you know. I’m not saying that people don’t know that because of their age, because some of them definitely do. But I think it’s kind of cool thing to sing about at the moment. It gives people a lot of credit too. It’s weird because people now tend to like the harder bands now. Look how many people is hyping The Icemen now. Literally 10 years ago nobody cared about that band. Their records are cool, I’m not a dising that band but what I mean is that it’s always cooler to have that dark outlook and I don’t really have a problem with those bands. But I’m like “OK, but what are you really saying?”. Everybody knows life is hard. Nobody in the world, doesn’t know life is hard. Some people know how hard life can be and another people just observe how hard life can be. I think it’s weird to get up on the stage and yell “Life is hard, I come from the streets, blah, blah, blah...”. I’d rather get up on stage and say “OK, all this shit is happening and this is how I’m working on it and how I’m overcoming it and maybe you could do that too”. Talk about vegetarianism, veganism or creating some sort of change in the world. It’s kind of fucked up, sitting around and complaining how shitty things are because it doesn’t do any good for anybody.

Q: Another lyrics related question. “Not trying to save the world, just doing my part”. Does it mean you don’t want to change it? hardcore bands always have been singing about making a change in the world. Maybe not on a large scale but at least those little changes. Can you see those little changes happening?

Stephen: I actually wrote that lyric as a response to a comment that someone made “man those dudes just trying to save the world” that meant to be like a dis. That lyric came out as an exact thought because nobody in this band is trying to save the world. It’s not our mission, but at the same time as human being I think we have a responsibility to do the best we can with the time we have. I think we all individually know what our best is, what we can give and what we can do. That’s really simple, it’s just that, we try to do our best with what we’ve got. Maybe it will help to change the world in a positive way or maybe it will help change just one person but we gotta try. That’s the most we can do.

Q: Hardcore bands always have been singing about making a change in the world. Maybe not on a large scale but at least those little changes around us. Do you think that’s possible? Can you see those little changes happening?

Aram: I think it’s totally possible and I see those changes. Let’s say somebody writes a song about straight edge and is not straight edge anymore, right? 20 years later people are still singing that song, covering it and are excited about it. So even if that one person who wrote that song and maybe wasn’t really feeling it anymore but the song has actually created a change. So every time you write a song about making a change and doing inspirational things in life and even if you give up on those things, that is still there. The more people are out there doing positive things, putting good vibes out in the world, supporting each other, those things are real and even if you’re gone afterwards those things still exist. I think it’s weird that people have this final view of good dibs and good thoughts and good actions. Like “oh I helped and got nothing in return. I should care just about myself...”

Stephen: People want to see results right away. If they do something good they want to see a result next week or something. If they help a person they want to see their life changed and if it doesn’t happen they say “oh fuck it, it’s not worth it”. They are impatient. I think the idea of changing the world is that it has to be a domino effect. You change one person’s life, you help them in some way, that changes something in them and then later on the line they help someone else and it goes on and on. If you had like the vision of someone to step back and look at this whole thing you could say “wow from this one thing that this person did it had this huge effect”. But we can’t see that.

Aram: We need a greater vision dude. For real. For example I do a drug and alcohol counsel for people and that’s the slowest process you could ever imagine. I’ve worked with people for 5 years that are still using drugs every day but they still made huge changes in their lives but only we can see it because we’ve been with them for that time. You gotta be patient and kind. I honestly think that even while walking on the street we should try not to be rude and stuff. Perfect example of that is that dude at the airport today I was ready to just blow up at him because we were going to get fucked over. I totally restrained myself and he ended up actually helping us and was really cool. So, if I yelled at this guy and put that bad attitude out there that would be fucking hard but also he would be bummed out and would be in a bad mood. So these little things actually make things better.

Q: A friend of mine made a comment about the song “Pursuit of happiness” where you sing “There’s nothing wrong with material taste, just see it’s true worth and understand it’s place”. He said that for him it seems like an excuse to be allowed to buy more and more stuff and at the same time to be seen as a spiritual person. What do you think of that?

Stephen: Well that part of the lyric was admitting that I and the other guys in the band are just human beings. We buy a pair of sneakers that we like but we don’t actually need. Fuck, we’re hardcore kids. We own more stupid t-shirts than we ever could possibly wear and...

Aram: I don’t need 11 copies of “Break down the walls” but I have 11 copies of that record.

Stephen: The thing is that this song is about the idea of the attachment to things. You don’t have to Ghandi or some kind of monk to have no possessions. You can still be so attached to things and not have anything. You can be attached to one t-shirt that you own. It doesn’t have to deal with things is has to deal with you and your relation with those things. If things are just things to you then they are just things, material objects. If you can freely give them to people and they are not the source of attachment and frustration and anger for you then that’s fine.

Aram: I think it’s like the difference between obsession and appreciation. If you appreciate something, you can appreciate it but you’re not obsessed with it. You can live without it, not have it. You appreciate it, you like to have but if you’re obsessed with it you have to have it.

Stephen: I look at myself and I went through a period of really collecting records and t-shirts as a straight edge hardcore kid. But over time I myself realized that I love Youth Of Today but I don’t need another YOT t-shirt and if I have 4 of them then maybe I’ll give one to a friend. And that actually feels really good to do that. All of us after a while start to see that you can buy things but they won’t truly give you happiness. After we realize that we can own things and we can give them away.

Q: I want to ask one more question about the Buddhism thing. A lot of your lyrics are inspired by it and you talk about it in interviews. I wanted to ask if you’re not afraid that you may create like a trend in hardcore to be Buddhist. I know that it’s probably not going to happen on a scale like it was with Krishna stuff but I know at least one person that became Buddhist because of TFS influence. Wouldn’t you rather keep it low key so it was avoided?

Stephen: Hmmm... I’m trying to think how answer it... That’s a good question. Here’s the thing, I am just me and when it comes to Buddhism and the teachers that I listen to and learn from, those people in my opinion are genuine masters. They are literally enlightened beings and I’m not. So I have to be very careful with things, because I don’t ever want to come across, even accidently, like I know all about this, because I don’t. I’m simply walking the path and I have a long way to go. So I never want to come across as like I have an answer and you should follow me or something like that. That’s why I personally try to keep it low key. I’d much rather talk to someone one on one and I had, over the years couple of kids coming up to me and asking about it and about a book to recommend. Yes I can do that, but I wouldn’t want to get up on stage, ever and profess to have found the light because it’s not that simple and I’d also be dead wrong. I don’t have the authority to say that basically. I’d be kidding myself if I thought I did. From that sense I don’t think something like Buddhism would become a trend in hardcore like Krishna. At the same time any “ism” has that potential. Also a part of it is that hardcore kids in general, and I put myself in the same mix, I really quick to identify themselves with things like that. Like I am straight edge and that means this and I’m vegetarian and that means this. And that’s totally cool but when it comes to something like spirituality, that’s such a grey area. You can call yourself a Buddhist and you can be so far from walking the path that it’s not even funny. You could call yourself a Christian and be the worst example of the follower of Christ. When it comes to spirituality it’s not as white and black as things like straight edge and vegetarianism and other sort of isms that are in hardcore. When Krishna got so popular, people jump on this idea but then so many people over the years started to question it and see that they got into it because their friends got into it. That is one thing to be like really aware of and careful with when it comes to religion and hardcore, and with any kind of spiritual path, any kind of self awareness. Those things aren’t cheap. Accepting big spiritual type ideas, whether it’s Christianity or Buddhism or Krishna or whatever, if you take that in a really selfish way you can really take a horrible view towards life and to people. I went to college with a lot of people who were Christian and they took that thing about loving your neighbour and all that and made it a really perverted thing. I don’t mean perverted sexually, but just this thing that couldn’t be any further than what it supposed to be. So that’s something to really watch out for.

Q: OK now something lighter. What is the best Schism Records release?

Stephen: I’m gonna go for the underdog here and say Wide Awake. Most people would say that they are like second peer. They’re not like Youth of Today or Judge, but when I heard WA for the first time i was like “you gotta be kidding me, this band is so awesome!”. It just made me want to just jump on a base drum and hit the base pedal and I can’t play drums at all. To me Wide Away gets tagged as sort of cheesy, youth crew straight edge band but that record fucking kicks ass. And the name Wide Awake is awesome. You’re not just awake you’re wide awake. I think it’s an incredible record.

Aram: Judge. I have a Judge tattoo. Definitely Judge, man. That record just ripped my heart it literally ripped my heart when I first heard that. I think it’s so awesome, so furious and arrogant. I think that when you’re young you’re supposed to be that arrogant and it’s OK to be arrogant at the young age.

Not hating but totally believing in what you’re doing is the right thing. That’s what brought me to hardcore and straight edge.

Q: Last question. Can you list all Youth Of Today records from your most favourite to the least favourite?

Stephen: I think that a horrible question because they are all awesome. If you ask me on Monday it can be BDTW if you ask me on Tuesday it will be WNITA.

Aram: I think that’s an excellent question and I’m gonna lay it down for you. “Break down the walls” – absolutely my favourite YOT record it has everything I love about this band. It’s got that total “we can change the world” attitude, which is almost like arrogant and I totally dig it. And “Free at last” is almost my favourite Youth Of Today song. So BDTW, fuck yeah! It’s literally a flawless record. It sounds amazing, it looks amazing, the lyrics are incredible. Heads down!

“Disengage” seven inch – I listen to that seven inch, like literally, almost every day.

Stephen: If I had to take one YOT record to a desert island that would be “We’re not in this alone”.

Aram: Dude I’m not done. “We’re not in this alone” and then “Can’t close my eyes”. They are almost tie. I love both of those records. The thing that kind of hurts my ears about WNITA is the drums. I heard the rumour once that when they recorded that record...

Stephen: It’s true.

Aram: Is it? Ok, so when they were recording this record they did the drums first and then when they recorded all other instruments the drums got erased by mistake so the drummer had to go back and re-record it one more time after the guitars and everything was done which should be never done. It hurts my head sometimes when I hear all those weird little things.

Stephen: It always depends on my mood. In certain mood “Disengage” just scratches me right in my itch you know. Like my man Fred would agree, I think “WNITA” is my favourite. There’s something about everything from “Flame still burns” – people counted us out but here we are, fucking back. And then “Chose to be”, oh my god! If I was a violent person I’d just mosh everyone to it. Then a song like “No more” it’s just incredible the way they brought across vegetarianism.

“Break down the walls” is the second. The song “Break down the walls” – I don’t know how Porcell made that noise in the beginning of it. It sounds like something mechanical. And the drums on it are so NY hardcore.

And then after that probably go “Disengage” and “Can’t close my eyes”. “CCME” was probably the first YOT record I heard and I’ll forever love the song “Crucial Times”.

Aram: I think you should ask Fred that question.

Q: OK, Fred you want to say something?

Fred: I went to a show in Connecticut and there was that guy at the table selling YOT records and I asked him which is the best one and he said that probably “We’re not in this alone”. That was probably my sophomore year of high school I’d wake up early every single morning so I could listen to that record before my friend would pick me up for school. I couldn’t believe a record could be this awesome. It was just purely, insanely awesome. I still get the chills when I listen to “Flame still burns” when he says “it’s gonna take more than you fucking got” and he’s just growling. I could never get sick of that record.

And the drum thing? Being a drummer, I notice that but sometimes you let things go.

Then I talked to my friend and was like “Dude the YOT record that I got is the best one”. And he said that “BDTW” is the best one, because he got it at the same show, from the same guy. So I went to his house listen to it and was like “Oh my god! This a totally different vibe!”. Every riff is like upwards, well not everyone but you know what I mean. Still you can tell that’s it’s the same band with the same message.

Aram: Let’s talk about the “Disengage” seven inch for a second.

Stephen: When you listen to the song like “Envy” you don’t think like “Hmm, I wonder who Ray Cappo is talking about?”, you know that Ray Cappo is talking about Ray Cappo. He’s like “I am fucking envy”. It makes me wonder what exactly happen that he’s singing about. That’s the coolest thing about this 7 inch is that it’s so brutally honest as far as Ray goes. He’s not talking about the fucked up dudes in the scene, he’s talking about the fucked up Ray Cappo that he wants to change!

Aram: Dude, what about the end of the song “Envy”? “When the damage is done! No one...” ( here Aram imitates playing the drums). So heavy man! And then it goes like “Enough, enough, enough...”. And that’s the last Youth Of Today song and you’re like “Holy shit!”. If YOT ever recorded an LP in that era and all the song were like that I can’t even imagine what a record would that be. I don’t think a record that amazing could exist.

Fred: But if you’re in the mood to mosh...

Aram: Right, which I am.

Fred: What could be better than listening to “Expectations”? That is the perfect song to mosh to.

Stephen: I had this friend who was so whipped by his parents. He told me that after a week of practising for the show that his parents wouldn’t let him go. Like a day before we were supposed to leave. His favourite YOT song was “Expectations” because, like that part when Ray sings “Your expectations are too much. Get off my back, get off my back!” He always thought that towards his parents but he never actually said that to them. I always think of him when I hear that song.

Aram: We had this total head banger dude. He loved bands like Agnostic Front and he always laughed at us for listening to bands like 7 Seconds. But he loved “Disengaged” seven inch and unexpectedly his favourite song was “Modern love story”. And that song made him rethink his actions because he was like a total jerk and had no respect for anyone. And we were like teenagers then. So I thought “What band can do that?!” Fucking fantastic band!

Good friends, stage dives, high fives...

2008-10-09T15:38:00.002-07:00

Few days of last week were all about the core. It all started with 2 Sick of it All shows in London that I attended. SOIA are one of my favorite hardcore band, so when I found out that they were going to tour UK and play shows in small clubs I couldn't miss that.
The shows I went to were pretty cool. The only bummer was that they focused more on playing newer songs instead of old gems. I pretty much have no idea how the last 2 Sick of it All albums sound like and I kinda hoped that they would play more older songs since all the shows were club shows. Well, we can't have everything in life. I had my share of good time at those shows.

After SOIA madness I packed my bags and headed south to Barcelona, Spain. The main reason of that trip was to see The First Step playing one of their last shows on the old continent. I heard rumors that they might be breaking up this summer so I didn't want to take my chances. Also I have a few friends down there so it was another good reason too. It was really great to see all those people again and chill a little bit. Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in Europe. I love pretty much everything about it. The weather is almost always good, hardcore kids down there are really awesome and enthusiastic and just the whole mentality of people living there is different then in the northern part of Europe. I think it has something to do with the amount of the sun they get, I bet that I wouldn't get that angry and frustrated so often if I could chill out in the sun that much.

I (and a friend of mine) stayed there for 3 days and my man's, Julio, place. Julio's friend Sarah from San Fransisco was visiting him at the same time so there was 4 of us hanging out (apart from the time when Julio had to work).
The show was on Sunday in some tiny venue, which was a youth center or something like that. The place was almost perfect for such a show, the only bummer was that stage was too little to stage dive, but some dudes managed to do that too.
Before TFS two local bands played, Cinder and Out Come the Wolves, which were pretty decent and made some kids sing along and bust some mosh moves.
TFS set was just nothing short but amazing. Stephen was giving some really great, short speeches in between songs and everyone was having a great time when they played their songs. The temperature inside was almost unbearable but it was not enough to stop us from having a blast and dance to one of the best songs in modern hardcore.
After the show I did an interview with Stephen and Aram which I hope to put on here very soon. I think it turned out pretty good. In the end it turned out into one, huge Youth Of Today talk in between Stephen, Aram and Fred (TFS drummer).
The First Step once more proved that they are definitely one of the most important bands in our scene at the moment with important and positive message. I only hope for more bands like that.
This trip made me realize one more time how cool hardcore scene is. There's no other place like that in the world. I only sent one email and I was hooked with a place to stay and great people to hang out with, who share common ideas and view on life with me. People that I can talk about so many different things that I don't normally talk with those who aren't involved in HC.
Thanks for that to all of you who shared that time with me.

Some pictures from the trip.

Barcelona hardcore knows what's up.

Vegan Ice Cream - choco and coconut combo. Awesome!

Gabi - Don Corleone of Barcelona Straight Edge.

Spanish edition of Sneaker Freaker. Fully backed. Too bad it's in Spanish.

My man Julio and me. We just came.

A little video preview of the interview with The First Step. Stay tuned.

John McKaig interview

2008-10-09T15:38:00.001-07:00

John McKaig is awesome! He's 49 and he's a vegan straight edge dude who loves hardcore, good food and hangouts with friends. He teaches art, travels and takes pictures. He sometimes hits the mosh pit when Terror is playing. I love that guy (no homo)! Here's what John had to say to few of my questions.

Q: OK for starters please tell me a little bit about yourself. A little bit from the past and a little bit from the present.

A: I’m an art teacher at a small private arts school in Michigan, US. I’m a hardcore kid still, and if I didn’t have to work, I’d still be doing the same thing – teaching art, doing art, going to shows, taking photos, going to the beach, eating vegan food, etc.
I grew up with an aunt and uncle and two cousins after my parents died when I was seven. Those cousins are sisters to me, and I have two ‘real’ sisters and a brother as well. We are close and talk pretty regularly. I was a pretty boring, regular kid, but I knew that I wanted to do something bigger with my life, so I joined the Navy right out of high school, mostly because I didn’t know what else I wanted to do, but I knew that I had to leave the house and do something away from home. I’ll talk more about that later.
After the Navy I went to art school in Ohio, then to Vermont to work for two years, then to graduate school in Syracuse, NY, where I became involved in the punk/hardcore scene.

Q: I want to hear about how you got in touch with hardcore punk? You're the oldest person that I know that is going to shows and is still involved in this community, so please there me how did it all started for you?

A: So, I think I found it like everyone else ... through friends in the community. It’s funny, I still talk to those first punk kids that I met back then in 1987-89; Niels Hobbs, Noah and Kerrie Cunningham, DJ Rose, Karl Buechner, Guav, Scott Smith, Jen Sullivan and others. It’s funny how the core of the scene back then is still involved and consider themselves “hardcore kids” or “punks” or whatever, and are all doing amazing, positive, creative things with their lives.
I still go to shows because it’s where I feel the most at home. I just fit in there, y’know? I think that it’s the same feeling for a lot of people that go to shows – the hardcore scene becomes a family in the truest sense of the word, and as long as there are like-minded souls around, that family is the most vital thing in our lives. When a hardcore scene “works”, it’s the best thing there is – something real, honest, vital and a source of energy and belonging that doesn’t exist in so many other areas of life.

Q: I also know that you were in the US Navy. What made you join in? What positive and negative impact had it had on your life? Were you in a real combat?

A:I joined when I was still a kid in so many ways, and I don’t think I really knew what I was getting into. It was the strangest experience in my life. I met so many different people, and have a couple friends from that time that I still keep in contact with. There were times when it was the most boring experience, and then I would have the most difficult or most exciting thing happen out of the blue. There are too many stories from those times to talk about all of them here. Suffice it say that the day I got out of the Navy was the happiest day of my life.
I was on an aircraft carrier (USS John F. Kennedy) the whole time, and it’s the most unnatural living situations you could imagine. I slept in a room with 60 other guys. You had to stand in line for … everything (take a shower, eat, get an aspirin, get off the ship on liberty, it was noisy and smelly all the time, etc.) There were cool people on the ship, and there were totally evil people there too. I learned a lot about the world and life when I was in, and I think that I came out really sure about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go and what kind of person I wanted to be. Being in the Navy was a life changing experience, and I honestly don’t know what my life would be like now if I hadn’t had enlisted. I experienced and witnessed disturbing, brutal behavior and events, and I also experienced kindness and humanity and saw things that I never thought I would have.
We weren’t involved in “official” combat, but we participated in “aggressive actions” against a few countries, most notably Libya, when I was on board. These were, of course, never part of a declared “war” or anything, and stuff happened that most people will never find out about, simple because it wasn’t legal or declared, etc. I saw people die, I fought fires (I was on the at-sea fire fighting team – the NFP – and we had to train all the time and respond to drills and actual fires, which there were a lot of). I also had to work in an office and prepare paperwork and transportation for everyone getting transferred or discharged from the ship. This was a big responsibility for someone who was only 17 or 18 years old, and it forced me to “grow up” pretty fast. After folks found out that I had these big responsibilities, I gained a lot of friends in influential places on the ship. This resulted in my getting special “privileges” on the ship – better food, better medical treatment, more access to supposedly “secret” places on the ship, etc.
Like I said, there are so many stories I could tell about my time on the ship … I’ve put up some of them on my journal if you want to read them (mckaig. livejournal. com).

Q: Ok so you're an art teacher now in from what I know one of the best art schools in the USA. How did that story of your life start and how did you get to the point you're at now?

A: When I was in the Navy I realized quickly that I wanted to be an artist and an art teacher, and I applied for admission to colleges when I was still on the ship. When I got discharged, I was in art school two weeks later. It was the best feeling in the world. I just had to do art, read books, right papers, and live in a dorm room with only two other dudes. Heaven.
I’ve always been good at drawing, and have been drawn to using a similar subject matter (the portrait/figure) for some time. I feel that it has connotations and meanings that I can relate to and that communicate a sense of spirituality and empathy that I want to convey. When I was in class in undergraduate school in Ohio I just seemed to be drawn to the teaching situation – I enjoyed most of what I was doing in school, and I felt that the program I was enrolled in was teaching me interesting processes and ways of thinking. So, I just wanted to be involved in the studio and to learn about art history and contemporary artists and art issues, and it seemed natural to talk to students at lower levels about these interesting things.
I was teaching at Syracuse University after grad school, but it wasn’t paying very well and I wasn’t getting good – or any – benefits, so I looked for another job and this opportunity came about. So, I reluctantly moved to northern Michigan to beginning teaching at a new school. It was very hard leaving everything in Syracuse – friends, hardcore shows, family, etc. But, I just couldn’t afford to stay anymore. I wasn’t able to pay my bills. At my current job, my students are very advanced in their abilities, and they work hard. It makes work very rewarding. It’s a little artistic “community” – Music, dance, theater and creative writing are also taught here, so it’s a very vibrant and intensive environment. Plus, I get summers off and go to the beach every day except when I go to shows in New England or Syracuse or wherever. Teaching is the best gig.

Q: Do you think that some of the values that have been passed onto you through hardcore helped you in being a better teacher?

A: Absolutely. I have met so many progressive, intelligent people in the scene, people that have provided a good example for me as far as general life lessons, and how to encourage people to get involved in new things. My friendship with people like DJ and Karl and Guav has been the source of so much enlightenment. These are all engaged people, so when we talk it’s often about substantial subjects, current events, social issues, etc. It’s from these people that I learned about vegetarianism and abstinence from drugs, etc. But mostly, I see in the hardcore scene people that come from humble beginnings that are aggressively trying to figure out their place in the world, and doing something to change their situation and the situation of their community – I know that you understand what I’m talking about. Think about the seminal hardcore bands from the last twenty years – bands that talk about the personal, the political, etc, in ways that are honest and challenging and … angry. These attributes – aggressively challenging what is going on around us, remaining positive in the face of so much resistance – are used in various degrees in the art studio. You have to be aggressive, honest with yourself, and positive if you want to create something that is able to communicate with your audience in a substantial way. That is what I submit to my students on daily basis, and that something that I learned from being involved in the hardcore scene.

Q: As a teacher do you focus only on teaching art or do you also get involved in other aspects of your students lives? Do they come to you with their problems etc?

A: Yeah, our school is a pretty tight knit community, so we are all on top of each other in some ways. Since my students are at that age when they are trying to figure a lot of things out (16-19), they come to me with their freak-out problems. I think that there is a strong familiarity between the students and the faculty in our department, so many of them come to us with whatever is going on with them. Also, you can imagine – we are regularly encouraging them to communicate ideas in their artwork that are often personal and substantial, so it’s not too much of a jump to talk to us about those same issues in a daily conversation.
I often talk about contemporary issues in art-making in class. If you are not familiar with these kind of issues (much of contemporary art is basically involved using various media to communicate ideas that haven’t been addressed previously, in ways that often use more accessible and more vernacular media). Dealing with issues that involve social and political situations, environmental issues, etc. are now common to what it means to be an artist. Since this is increasingly becoming the situation, I often address issues related to these larger situations concerning politics, social upheavals, environmental destruction, etc., and how other contemporary artists are addressing these issues. This area of interest is intriguing and empowering for me as a working artist, so I encourage them to be engaged in this way as well.

Q: What is your biggest passion in life apart from art? Tell me something more about it if possible.

A: Wow, that’s a biggee. I guess it would have to be … my connection to my friends and family. I am intrinsically a very social animal, so even my artwork reflects this in many ways. I find ways to be around those that are interesting, funny, positive, etc. It gives me ammunition to deal with the problems that I (and all others) face day-to-day, and of course this all has a direct connection to being involved in the hardcore scene. I talked about this before. Also, and I’m sure you know this – I love to eat. DJ says that food is my passion. It’s definitely one of them anyway.

Q: Do you still give speeches before the shows? How did you come out with that idea? It's pretty uncommon I have to say.
Have you ever been booed or something like that? What was your reaction to that?

A: I started doing it because I booked a show onetime when this band was acting stupid and saying disturbing things on stage, and people were yelling stuff at them and staying stupid things back, so I got on stage and diffused the situation that encouraged the people at the show to take the higher road – I asked them to wait till the band was finished and then talk to them afterwards and to challenge them on what they had said on stage, etc. I think that I was used to directing people in some way (from my teaching experience), so it just seemed natural to me, and I was encouraged when people gave me their undivided attention, and then mostly did what I had asked them to do.
It just started this idea for me about how I wanted shows to be. I didn’t want hardcore shows to be just another way of kids venting and being stupid and acting aggressive. I didn’t want to put my heart and soul and sweat into something that was going to rapidly fall apart, so I started just bringing up bigger, more substantial issues – just to keep people focused on (what I thought) were more important things than just running into each other at a show. I didn’t the shows to be just another way to absorb mindless entertainment – there’s already plenty of that all around us. I just knew that the hardcore scene had to be something better and more vital than all the rest of the bullshit that’s shoved down our throat.
The only time when someone really heckled me or confronted me was when I was talking (at a Fugazi show with about 1,000 people there) about the reality of tobacco use, and how it puts money into the pockets of corporations that don’t care about anything except making money off of the misery of others, and how I had seen two people die from smoking and how horrible and painful their experiences were. Some kid lit up a cigarette right in front of me and was blowing smoke in my face when I was talking. I just let him do his thing, and continued talking. When I was finished I got this big roar of applause from the folks there, which felt good – that I had reached them with something to think about. I just tried to let my ideas and actions speak for what I wanted, and let the assembled people make up their own minds. Later on, I got a couple emails from people that told me that they quit smoking because of what I had said, and of course it made me feel good about how things had transpired.
I guess it just reinforced for me that individual people can do a lot if they just do it the right way, and remain honest and transparent about their motives and actions.
The best experience I had was before The Promise played at one of my New Years shows in Syracuse. I talked about an event when I was about five years old – about how my father and mother had disciplined me when I had misbehaved (in a very positive way that I still think about on a regular basis), and about some very evocative memories of their amazing example and how I saw that strong parenting being exhibited by my friends DJ and Sue with their kids. I said that I hoped that everyone there found someone in their lives that would be that example for them, and I encouraged them to be that example for those around them. It was a personal and humbling moment, and after I finished talking people applauded and hugged me, and then we all went off for the Promise. One of my favorite moments ever.

Q: I remember reading one of your speeches where you said something about the state of hardcore. What is the state of hardcore nowadays in your eyes? Has it improved in the past few years or hasn't?

A: I don’t think that it’s necessarily improved or regressed lately, it’s just changed. I think that most of your readers realize this, and maybe they even sense this where they are. I think that, just as always, it’s somewhat regional. Some places have really strong scenes for a long time, some places go through waves of progression and regression, and some places have shows or scenes that are very sporadic. I think that I still see real hardcore scenes and kids out there, and so I feel that there will always be like-minded souls out there that are trying to do the same thing that I am.

Q: You're pretty tight with the guys from ExC. I want to ask you about your opinion on their hard line stance on veganism and straight edge. Do you think that maybe if they took less militant approach of things they would have convince more kids to the ideas the were promoting? In other words has ExC done more harm than good to the vegan sxe movement?

A: No, they definitely have not done more harm than good. I know of so many people that have learned about vital social and political issues from listening to Earth Crisis and going to their shows. All of those guys are some of the main architects of the progressive nature of the hardcore scene as it exists today, in my opinion. I think that very often their lyrics were taken out of context and used in ways that they did not intend. If you ever talk to Karl or Dennis or Scott, for example, I think that you will find them to be compassionate, intelligent, funny, engaging people, and are far more multi-dimensional than what you might think. I think that their “militancy” is what converted so many people – Earth Crisis remained such a consistent force for positive change for so long, I think that if they would have watered down their message it would have not have had the impact that it did. By the way, they are all still vegan and straight edge to this day, from the first show that they played 19 years ago. How many other bands can you say stood by what they were talking about for that long?

Q: What are the pros and cons of being a nudist?

A: Well, as you might imagine, being a “nudist” is something that is misunderstood, at least here in the U.S. I consider myself a “naturist” – that is, I think of my body and how it’s revealed in the context of a philosophy. Gymnosophy is an actual term that applies the opinion that the human body is inherently wholesome and proper, and that no part of the body is obscene. I believe that there should be no effort to conceal the body except when it is practical (to protect one’s self from the elements, as a consideration to others that are an accepted clothing only area, etc.). There is no practical reason to conceal the body in situations where it is obviously appropriate to do disrobe – at the beach, in the park, in one’s own home with friends and family, etc. If you think about it, wearing clothing does not really conceal what your body looks like. We can all tell – usually – what each other’s bodies look like, and what sex they are, with their clothes on. Clothing doesn’t really hide any personal secrets. There are only two sets of “equipment” for people, and the obsession with hiding our bodies only contributes to – I think – the unhealthy sexualization of so many areas of our culture.
Here are some random thoughts concerning this subject:
- I often use depictions of the human body from art history when instructing my students about their own work and their connection to their artistic ancestors, but, oddly, there is revulsion to the depiction of the body in a more contemporary situation, or a negative reaction when it is discussed that our students use the nude human form as a subject matter. There is a hypocrisy between what is accepted and unaccepted by even my own students. This, I think, is a result of the unhealthy and disturbing way in which modern popular culture limits the depiction of the human form. Since, when it is depicted, it is usually in an overtly sexual context, then that is (wrongly) the only connotation attached to it. I submit that this unhealthy and inconsistent attitude towards the human body is the primary cause of this disturbing attitude; i.e. that nudity equals sex.
- Americans seem to have a particular problem in this area. We seem to be ashamed of, and at the same time, intensively interested in the human body and sexuality. It’s this strange combination of Victorian era mentality coupled with daily use of internet porn. The problem with porn, I think, is that it “de-contextualizes” the human body. It over-emphasizes one aspect of the human body, and does so in way that even doesn’t require nudity, but implies that it is. It also turns something that is inherently beautiful and wholesome (sex) and turns it into something that is forbidden and sleazy. There are, as you may know, many areas of the world that do not have this contradictory attitude towards the human body, and consequently these other countries don’t have the problems that Americans have with body/self esteem issues (especially in girls or young women), and don’t have the same problem with sexual crimes and disjointed attitudes (mostly by men) concerning what is proper behavior in a sexual relationship, etc. I also think that this relates to the many men’s extreme homophobia – They have this reinforced, disjointed view of what is expected of their role in a sexual context, and of what the body is “used” for, that when they are confronted with someone who does not fit this stereotype, they overreact. The overemphasis on hiding the body has, in many ways, resulted in more problems related to people’s attitude towards the body. If it was a matter-of-fact situation to see someone nude in a park or a beach or at home, than the depiction of the human body wouldn’t be “used” in ways that de-contextualize the actual beauty and wholesomeness of the body.
- I go to beaches in the summer that are mostly clothing-optional, and surprisingly (to an outsider) there are families, adults, children, and older couples – in other words, all kinds of “regular” people. There have been extensive psychological studies that have looked at families where children are raised in a nudist-friendly environment, and they found that these children are just generally more well-adjusted. They have better self esteem, they are better and smarter when in different social situations, and they are more mature and engaged with what his going on around them. In other words, they understand at an early age what is important – it’s not what people look like that matters, it’s what they do. When I bring friends to a nudist beach, they assume, as you might imagine, that there will be all kinds of weirdos around, doing all kinds of weird sexual things, etc. What they find out is that their impressions are just the opposite of what the reality is. Most of the “clothed” beaches I go to are rowdier, more sexually charged, louder and more inconsiderate of the situation. At all the nude beaches I go to, they are quieter, more casual, more respectful, etc. More chill, you might say. Again, the removal of clothing does not equal overt – or even subversive – sexual behavior. When the people – or, especially children – are exposed to nudity in its proper context, than what is emphasized about each person or situation is the more important thing, not the sexual nature of the human body. Even though sex and sexuality is a part of life, in this situation it is put in its proper context.
- The emphasis on clothing and accessories relates to our culture’s emphasis on the trivial and surface, not what should be emphasized – what is substantial and true and wholesome. In my opinion, fashion is about vanity and shame and living in denial. My adherence to a lifestyle of veganism and abstinence from drugs and alcohol is based on these beliefs. I try and dwell on what is proper and true – not on what is trivial and shallow. My gymnosophist philosophy is in complete alignment with these ideas. Our bodies are amazing machines that are ALWAYS beautiful and proper. An extremely influential American artist and art teacher named Robert Henri said “There is nothing more beautiful or profound or revealing of the laws of nature than the nude human form. It is among all people, not just artists, that a greater appreciation of the nude human form should develop. When we appreciate the nude human form, we will no longer have any shame about it.” He wrote this in 1910.

Filip Hermans interview

2008-10-09T15:37:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to my entry about Justice I present you a short interview with one and only Filip Hermans, a guy who handled vocal duties in that band. He also co-runs Powered Records, which is one of the raddest hardcore labels going on right now. I thought it would be cool to ask him few questions about Justice and how he feels about things now when this band is done. Hope it gives you some idea about the guy and his band. 2, 3... Justice!

What are your feelings after the Saturday's show from the perspective of a person that played their last show with a band that lasted 5 years?

It was a very hectic day cuz I had 2 records (the new Justice Live and Learn LP and the True Colors Perspective 7") coming out, and playing a last show besides that. We were also in charge of the whole show so it was kind of crazy at times. Friends from all over came, unfortunately I wasn't able to hang out with them a lot cuz we were just running around with our cell phone making calls, carrying boxes of records and merch. But they know I love them all so it's all good. It's weird that it's all over now, I watched a couple of videos on the internet and it's unreal. I'm gonna miss this band and I don't really know if I made the right call to end this band but I definitely feel happy about how Justice went out. 800 kids in a room, going off for your band. Unreal.

What are you going to focus on now? The rest of a band is in Rhythm To The Madness, what about you? Are you going to start a new band or just concentrate on Powered Records? Or maybe you have something else going on?

RTTM is just Stief and my brother Klaas, Sike and Daan fill in whenever they can, they keep rhythm section crunching. I'll be laying low for a while. I'll be at all RTTM shows, moshing and stagediving. I'll be focussing on Powered Records but I have a lot of things going on so I'll be busy enough I guess? I'm planning a couple of hiking trips with friends, gonna visit a couple of friends abroad. Re-evaluate my life and start from there.

When you look back what was Justice main purpose of existing? How has it changed through that whole time?

The main purpose was for me the music… I loved playing out, rehearsing, recording. Throughout the years we all got better at what we were doing but we always kept moving on. Every record was a new challenge, if you compare the Look Alive 7" with the Live and Learn LP… it's at first sight 2 different bands but not really after all cuz in our heads we never changed. I'll also value the people I met on the road… made a lot of friends and a couple of them will be for life (what’s up Ian Wiles). Me and Stief kind of grew up with this band so we owe a lot of our views, insights and ideals on this band.

Some say that Justice was a European Mental. Both bands had that goofy style when they started, both bands recorded an album ('Planet Mental', 'Escapades') that was totally different from their previous material and there're some more, smaller similarities. On what level was it intentional and just pure coincidence?

We always bonded with Mental… def one of our brother bands. I don't think we were a goofy band, same goes for Mental. We sure had fun but when it came down to it we were pretty determined to do this band. It wasn't a joke or something, we weren't fake angry like a lot of bands, we weren't posing, that's my opinion. Maybe the contrast with most bands was big cuz at the time the most popular bands were about being tuff or slitting your wrists or being satan’s sidekick while they just went through the same life as us.

Why did you play that Bruce Springsteen song before you started playing at your last show? What's the meaning behind it?

Me and Stief love Bruce Springsteen... he is the boss. We talked about it and we agreed on using this song, somehow I can relate to the lyrics and the vibe.

"They declared me unfit to live
Said into that great void my soul'd be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world"

Would you say that after releasing your second LP your popularity dropped a little bit? Was that drop of popularity any factor while making the decision about putting Justice into the grave?

Not at all. Maybe we turned down a couple of kids but those kids were at the wrong address if they were looking for a band that would write the same record over and over again. Nothing wrong that but we did this band for ourselves not to please a crowd. Every record, every evolution just happened very natural. We never really cared about popularity so why would we care now. And we also don't measure popularity of the movement of the crowd. If people watch and take it all in that's good enough for us. Our music wasn't your everyday hardcore and still we did pretty good so we really couldn't complain.

Is there any particular thing in Justice past that you'd do differently if given a chance to re-do it?

I think the Escapades record is a little bit misunderstood. When I look back on the recording process I didn't feel too good at that studio and a couple of weeks before the recording sessions we had to switch drummers. Daan is the best drummer I know and he did what he to do but if we could have created the songs with him there would have been a huge difference. Him and Stief in one room was insane, they don't talk… they feel each other. So if we could re-do something I'd say the escapades record… it's good but it coulda been so much better.

Who are elephant skins? I kind of never understood what you meant by calling yourself that.

That's something Spoiler came up with I think. You gotta give your crew a name so Elephant Skins(after the Justice song) it was. If I have to drop names of the ESposse I'd go for: Klaas Voets, Geert Hollanders, Kevin Alen, Erik Tilburg, Bjorn Dossche, Hingie, Packo and maybe a couple more… our numbers were bigger at times but a couple of them lost interest in hardcore but that's okay. People change… but I'll stay the same.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Thanks for doing the interview. You have a good blog going… would read again! The things I said between songs were pretty ridiculous but every show I played, or every effort made came out of my whole heart.

We got no future, we got no hope

2008-10-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

This entry is inspired by a post that I read on one of the message boards I frequently check. Yeah those things are useful from time to time and there are days that you read something interesting there.
Anyway, back to my entry - sometimes I hate hardcore and I wish I was never introduced to that scene. Why do I hate it? Because every time after I go to an awesome show where I meet some great people, where I hear something inspiring being told from the stage that gives me this feeling that we can overcome this world, where I dance and stage dive, after all this I have to come back to this ugly, reality where everything seems so dull.
When you enter into the hardcore scene you're exposed to this whole new world, where you get along and connect with so many people, where you share ideas and generally just have an awesome time but at the same time somewhere on the back of your head you know that all this is going to end and we'll have to come out and face the shitty outside world. Sometimes I wish I didn't know about all this, that this outside world was all I knew so I didn't have to struggle with myself trying to face my bullshit job, shitty boss and ignorant people around me. It's kind of like in that movie 'Matrix' when Cypher betrays Neo and Morpheus and decides he doesn't want to know about the fact that whole humanity is slaves to the machines and wants to come back to Matrix without this knowledge so it didn't haunt him.
But at the same time I am so freaking happy that I know about hardcore because it helps me cope with all the troubles I meet in this world. It helps me keep my guard up and not let myself being dragged to my knees. Thanks to hardcore and the strength it gives me I face this world with hope for better days for myself and my close ones.
And I know all this sounds naive and idealistic and it's not all black and white but I guess sometimes we just need this teenage naivety and believe that we’re doing some kind of change in our lives otherwise we could easily just give up already.

“Don’t forget the struggle…”

It's begun - no turning back!

2008-10-09T15:35:00.000-07:00

Shameless self promotion alert!

I've always wanted to do something more (cliche I know!) for hardcore than just going to shows, buying records and shirts etc. I did a zine once but that's nothing really worth mentioning so I still had this desire to make my mark in hardcore. Since I don't really see myself doing a band I decided to do a record label. I joined forces with my good buddy Pete and that's how City to City (I live in London he lives in Warsaw, hence the name) Records was born. We had big plans which soon fell through and after releasing a demo for Come Undone we kind of went into hiatus untill I got to talk to my man in Sweden, Kalle, who sings for a band called Go For Broke.
GFB has just recorded new material so I suggested that CTC would put that on CD together with their older songs that were released on 7" by Take The Risk record last year. Kalle and the rest of GFB were pretty enthusiastic about that project and that's how we got ourselfs our next release - Go For Broke - 'Traditions' CD.

Check our myspace page if you are interested and add us as your friend > www.myspace.com/citytocityrecords
Also visit www.myspace.com/goforbrokecrew and listen to some GFB tunes. And finally if you like what you hear buy the CD.

lived and learned

2008-10-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

So, last Saturday me and few friends of mine went to the last Justice show. Kinda weird that they are done...
This band for the last 5 years was a signature of the European hardcore scene. If you asked someone from outside of the old continent if they know any current Euro hc bands there was 99% chance that they will mention Justice.
That band always caused very extreme reactions. For some they were a joke band, not real and just another band that was cool to hate for others they were the best thing that happened to Euro hc in a long time.
Personally what I've always admired about those guys was the fact that they just didn't give a fuck about opinions of others. They did whatever they wanted and didn't ask anyone what they think about it. They set their goals and then went for them. They recorded an album (Escapades) that they wanted to record, an album that was totally different from what they did before even though they must have known that it would turn a lot of people away from them.
I remember that in the beginning I didn't take that band too seriously myself. I thought they were just another hc band that plays good music but doesn't have any substance to it. That has change after one show when Filip made a little speech about vegetarianism (I'm sorry but this topic is still important to me) and they were selling those Go! Vegetarian shirts at this show for the first time. After that I decided I need to keep following what that band does and what they're about.
I think that I like their later stuff (from the second 7" onward) more than the earlier one. Even though I really struggled with how the vocals sounded on the 'Escapades' LP I enjoyed the music and the lyrics much more. It all just seemed much more mature and deeper.
I have a few fond memories tied to this band that include some of the best road trips with the best friends of mine, a very particular house show in Mile End (London), or a bedroom mosh session in the middle of the night brutally stopped by our neighbor.

I don't know how to end this entry so I'm just gonna leave you with this video below. If you were there it's a chance for you to relive those moments one more time. If you weren't - "I feel sorry for you".

JUSTICE - Farewell

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Bjorn Dossche interview

2008-10-09T15:33:00.002-07:00

I remember that first time I saw Bjorn it was in a year 2000 at the festival in Ieper (Belgium) when he sang for his band The Deal. After that every now and then he would be seen by me in different locations, mostly at the hardcore shows all around Europe. He road dogs for many bands and also sings for Rise & Fall which is one of the hardest bands that European hardcore scene has to offer now a days. Even though I've never had a real conversation with him I decided to ask him a few questions about his life and such. You can read it all below.

1. OK firstly tell me something about yourself. How old are you? Where do you live? What do you do etc?

I'm 27 right now. I will be turning 28 in April, which is kinda bizarre. I live in Ghent, Belgium which is also known as the city of cities. I haven't had a real job in a while but currently though I'm looking for one. Other than that I just read a lot, hang out with my friends, chill, watch movies etc. The regular you know...

2. You sing for Rise&Fall and also road dog for several bands that tour across Europe (and America?). I guess you spend on the road huge part of the year. What impact has it had on your life so far?

Yeah in the last couple of years I've been on tour a lot, which is something I've always wanted to do so that is awesome. Rise And Fall's been doing a lot of touring since around the time we put out "Into Oblivion" and whenever we aren't on tour I love road dogging for other bands. I guess being out on tour is my favorite place to be, for a lot of reasons. I love immersing myself in hardcore like that, being surrounded by people you can relate to and talk to without feeling like a total outcast/weirdo, I love the live shows/vibe as well. Plus it definitely is kind of an escape from "real life" (it just has to wait sometimes).
The impact on my life that is has had has mostly been good. I feel like I've become a richer person mentally, due to seeing what I've seen, experiencing what I've experienced with all the different types of people I've been on tour with. At times it has made me feel detached from the home front and whatever the "real world" is, but I don't know if that always is such a bad thing. The only real downside obviously is the financial aspect, being broke all the time.

3. Are you in a relationship with anyone? Constant traveling must have had some kinda (negative?) impact on that part of your life, haven't it? How do you cope with that?

Well, I've been together with this amazing girl for a little over a year now and she is really cool with me being away on tour a lot, although obviously it is hard at times for both of us. She also lives more than 3 hours away from me, in a different country so even when I'm home it's not always easy to hang out but we've managed to make it work so far. The fact that she is really independent and has her own life and interests definitely helps.

4. When on tour, do you get a chance to explore different countries/cities? What places do you like to visit the most?

You get to see a different city every day, but a lot of the time all you get to see is the venue and the area around it, which kinda causes you to judge a city by that and by how cool the show was (which ain't that fair). But yeah sometimes though there's more time and you get to do some exploring, shopping or hanging out which is always cool. Some of my favorite places to visit in Europe are Paris, Switzerland, Dublin, London, Manchester, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Berlin and Prague. It's hard to pick only a few.

5. Out of the present hc bands which one(s) catch your attention the most and why? When checking out bands what do you pay attention at first? In other words what a hc band has to have so you'd be into them?

I have a pretty wide and varied taste in music and also in hardcore. In order for me to get into a band that definitely need to either have a fresh, interesting or innovating vibe to them or they should be extremely skilled at playing something unoriginal yet efficient, if that makes sense. Lyrics are real important too. I don't expect everyone to be as good/creative with words like let's say Walter S. but I hate dumbed down, unimaginative lyrics. Most importantly, I love lyrics that are "real", the ones that make you feel that what is being said carries true weight.
As far as present day/newer hardcore bands go, some of my favorites are: Blacklisted, Fucked Up, Converge, Justice, Mind Eraser, World Collapse, Cold World, Shipwreck, Rhythm To The Madness, Ceremony, Union Town, Iron Age, Vogue, Trash Talk, The Mongoloids, Bitter End, 108, Have Heart, Soul Control and there's definitely more that I left out.

6. Can we say that you're a full time hardcore kid? If you were given an opportunity to take a different path in your life, for example a good career, would you take it?

My state of mind is hardcore nearly full time. And at times it seems like the life I live, is that way too. However the reality of it all is that somehow we all got to make ends meet and do what we have to sometimes.
I'm sure that when I'm older that at some point I'll kind of settle down and get a decent, well paid job... but that'll probably not affect my state of mind. A good career though, I don't think that's in the cards for me.

7. How would you describe a hardcore state of mind?

I would say it's the kind of attitude that makes you think about how awesome Madball - "Set It Off" is in the middle of an overcrowded bus, with little kids crying and screaming and old ladies pushing you aside. Other than that to me it's just knowing that you are a different person with different insights and ideas because of the music and scene you grew up in. Feeling out of step with most of the world, most of the time. I also think hardcore has made me more of a critical, independent and conscious person with a certain will to get things done and to live life on my own terms.

8. I wanted to ask about the R&F merch and the images you use for your records' layouts which often involves some satanic motives. Is that some kind of anti Christianity statement or just a fascination with that kind of art?

It is parts of both. There's a fascination with that kind of imagery that we all share and at the same time it's something that makes people stop and think as well, sometimes. We are not anti-Christian or satanic in the sense that we worship the devil or whatever. What we do like to do is use that imagery to question certain ideas and values. I believe in true individuality and finding strength within yourself and the ones near and dear to you, the things I believe in and value sometimes resemble Christian values and sometimes not at all. So basically by using images of an icon such as Jesus, I would like to think it will stimulate some people to think about some of his ideas and the effect that his church and their doctrine has had on our world.

9. Tell me something about your hc/punk education. How did it all start for you? What drew you into that scene?

Sick Of It All - "Just Look Around" is the album that started it all for me. I was a thirteen year old young and wild metal head with a Slayer shirt and a mullet. I bought that record on a whim because it had gotten a raving review in a metal magazine I'd read. When I came home and listened to that album I was floored but how energetic, angry and intense it sounded. It was heavy, but in a totally different way than the metal I was listening to. From there on I got into the bigger hardcore/cross over bands at the time (early - mid 90's): Biohazard, Life Of Agony, Agnostic Front, Suicidal etc. A little later on, when I was 15 I got into the more underground shit as well... Strife, Undertow, Gorilla Biscuits etc. I decided that I was straight edge and I started going to shows too. Congress in a small town called Deinze was my first hardcore show, November '95. I was drawn in by the energy and anger that surrounded hardcore, the lyrics that I could relate to, the whole hardcore aesthetic... It was a whole new world; no one else seemed to know about it.

10. Belgium is now famous for bands like Dead Stop, Justice, True Colors, Restless Youth, Rise&Fall and many others that are inspired by the more or less traditional hc. But not that long time ago the whole H8000 scene was raging hard. How do you remember those times? Do you feel any kind of sentiment for the bands like Liar, Congress, Arkangel and others?

I surely remember those times well because that was the era I got into hardcore and since I didn't live too far from the notorious H8000 area (the most western province of Belgium, area code 8000) most of the first shows I went to were H8000 shows. It was an awesome and inspiring time, shows were huge and you could see things grow month by month. I still love what I call the Holy H8000 Trinity... Congress, Blindfold and Liar. Those bands always stood out for me. Albums like "Blackened Persistence" and "The Other Cheek" (Congress), "Falls Of Torment" and "Invictus" (Liar) and "Asteroid 164" (Blindfold) are crucial material if you ask me. Some of the bands that followed in their footsteps were good too... Spirit Of Youth (their second incarnation that is), Vitality, Regression (the demo) etc.
However; I do think the H8000 thing only applied to a certain time and place and a certain core group of people. It is no longer relevant today, as much as some bands wish it was and try to claim the whole thing today. (Arkangel's from Brussels, great band though).

11. Any last comments or statements?

Thank you for the interest in how my mind functions. Support the bands that you feel deserve it... 2008 looks like it is going to be a good year. Be safe everyone. Peace.

Is Anybody There!?

2008-10-09T15:33:00.001-07:00

This entry will be about one of the most incredible hardcore bands I've come across - Alone In A Crowd.
This band was formed by Jules Massey (Vocalist), who sang for Side By Side before. After SBS had broken up he wanted to form another band.
He recruited a great team of players for that project.
They were:
Lars Weiss (bass player of SBS and another great NY band Uppercut) on guitar
Howie, who later on was in the first incarnation of Moondog (pre-Quicksand) was playing second guitar
Carl Porcaro (guitarist of Breakdown and Raw Deal) on bass
Rob Sefcik (drummer of Uppercut) on drums

First time I heard about this band was by the time Al from Contrast Records has decided to re-release their 7", formerly put on by Flux Records. My good friend Adam has played me some mp3's from the only show that AIAC played. Once I heard what Jules was saying from the stage I knew that this wasn't just an ordinary band. Jules was set to voice his opinion on the current state of hardcore scene and was not afraid to do that. The record was released by Flux Records, which wasn't a real hardcore record label. I guess by that they wanted to distance themselves from the scene a little bit. I bet that pissed some people off.
Below you can watch two videos from their only show that they played at The Antrax club in NYC in 1988. I bet some of you have seen it before. Those of you who haven't, watch it closely and listen to what Jules is saying. He gets straight to the point and doesn't give a shit what people may think of him. Tight!

It's for life - explanation of the blog name

2008-10-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

Just in case someone's wondering why this zine/blog is called "It's for life" I have a little piece written for you.
It definitely doesn't have anything to do with being edge, vegan or any of that kinda stuff, for life. Come on I'm not 18 anymore and I know that people change no matter what.
Anyway, over the years of involvement with hardcore/punk I've noticed that once you get in contact with that scene it stays with you for good. You may stop going to shows, you may not buy records anymore, you may not know the names of the current bands but all those ideas, all that spirit that hardcore has injected into you stays with you. It's kind of like a virus which never leaves your body. It can be inactive for some time but it's still there in your body.
I've met some so called washed up guys, who dropped out of hardcore but once they found out that I listen to that music they always start talking about it, telling old stories and remembering the names of older bands. I always notice that spark in their eye when that happens and then I know that they still have that virus inside them.
And then, when we carry on with the conversation I find out that some of them are still drug free, some of them still don't eat meat, others still care about important political or social issues etc, etc. I want to believe that all that's because of hardcore. That thanks to that scene they aren't so miserable or rotten like other who don't have any idea what Youth Of Today or Gorilla Biscuits is. I'm not saying that only through hardcore you can be a decent man. There's plenty of awesome peeps out there who never even heard of that thing called hardcore/punk and there's also a lot of dudes with all the pressings of Alone In A Crowd who are just plain douche bags.
I believe, that in most cases, this scene has a huge, positive impact on those who are exposed to it. At least I know that it had and still has in my case.

Quote of the day

2008-10-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

"Now, for some of you it doesn't matter. You were born rich and you're going to stay rich. But here's my advice to the rest of you: Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything but they can't buy backbone. Don't let them forget it."

Next time someone tells you...

2008-10-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

... that vegetarian/vegan diet is boring show them these:

Chicken pieces with mushrooms, baby corn and mange tout in sweet and sour souse. It goes well with the wholegrain, brown rice. It's all vegan and fucking delicious.

We kill but not with our hands. It’s done with through our demands. Taking part. Not using our minds. I’ll leave those traditions so far behind. Because I know that’s blood what they bleed. Why kill what we don’t need. I won’t be ignorant.

Soul Control Euro tour wrap up

2008-10-09T15:28:00.000-07:00

Right after they went back to the USA I emailed SC and asked them few random questions about their Euro tour. I hope to see those guys again soon, because they aren't only playing in one of the coolest bands around at the moment but are just great dudes overall.

Jim (guitar):
How was Europe in general?
It was good. Hit or Miss depending on the spot but it was def worth going.

The best place to hang out in Europe?
Prague was the most beautiful place to see, Warsaw was the best hang because of the dance party.

What do you definitely want to do next time you are in Europe?
See more of the cities we play.

What you definitely don't want to do next time you are in Europe?
Spend 18 hours on a ferry!

Best food on tour?
There was a great stew in Munster, that stands out for me. Berlin and Rosswein too. Warsaw was awesome too.

Worst food on tour?
The entire UK.

Favorite person of the tour?
Everyone but Eric from Soul Control.

Least favorite person of the tour?
Eric from Soul Control.

Final thoughts.
Nutella Sucks!

Matt (vocal):
How was Europe in general?
Europe is a beautiful spot. Being American, my favorite part about traveling around Europe was seeing buildings and sculptures that are far older than anything we've built in the US. This being my third time in Europe, it was incredible to be able to hit up a few corners I've never seen (Spain, Finland, Ireland).

The best place to hang out in Europe?
Prague CZ.

What do you definitely want to do next time you are in Europe?
See at least one museum and more stage dives.

What you definitely don't want to do next time you are in Europe?
Come home in debt.

Best food on tour?
Some tofu soup in Germany.

Worst food on tour?
Some _______?? soup in France.

Favorite person of the tour?
Foster (BL) and Bjorn (RAF)

Least favorite person of the tour?
My German buddy who sucks at video taping.

Final thoughts.
Thanks to Jim for not letting me go insane.

Anthony (drums):
How was Europe in general?
Europe was great!

The best place to hang out in Europe?
Didn't have much time to hang really but on a day off we were in Prague, and saw some amazing sites. I ventured off on my own in the morning and found a local bakery where I had the best doughnuts I've ever had in my life.

What do you definitely want to do next time you are in Europe?
Next time I'm in Europe I'd like to bring a sleeping bag. I'd also love to see Europe in the spring or summer.

What you definitely don't want to do next time you are in Europe?
I don't want to do so many arena shows. I'd love to do just a small club tour and really feed off the energy from the crowd. I don't want to do barriers next time either, I just want it to be very intimate and accessible for the audience.

Best food on tour?
Cherry Cobbler someone made.

Worst food on tour?
France dropped the disco ball on the food. And pea soup in any form is terrible unless my Mom made it.

Favorite person of the tour?
This hardcore kid who was singing along and dancing during our set.

Least favorite person of the tour?
This ignorant sound guy who was a pain in the ass.

Final thoughts.
I tell everyone at home about the awesome show we had in Poland! And how we all lost our minds dancing and laughing after the show! It's something I will never forget!

Eric (bass):
How was Europe in general?
Europe was all over the map. I mean that in both a literal and figurative sense. The tour was sort of a booking experiment, with us serving as the guinea pigs. The best part of the tour was the company we kept. Our friends in Blacklisted and Shipwreck are really genuine people, and there's a lot to be said for spending day in and day out in the company of good humans.

The best place to hang out in Europe?
I really enjoyed Prague. It was one of the few places we got to explore for more than 20 minutes, and it's a really beautiful part of the world.

What do you definitely want to do next time you are in Europe?
Make sure that I'm not touring with a band!! It's an amazing experience to get to travel and play music every night, but the combination of the two doesn't allow you the time to really take in the culture in most places. So, next time I'm in Europe, I'm hoping it's strictly for travel purposes.

What you definitely don't want to do next time you are in Europe?
Play music so much that I don't get to see anything.

Best food on tour?
That's tough, because we had quite a few nights where the food was really good. If I had to pick though, I'd say the horseshit stew and stale bread we had in France was at the top of my list. Also, the cheese that is still stuck to that venue's disco ball was obviously delicious. Fuck France.

Worst food on tour?
I think I covered that already.

Favorite person of the tour?
Our driver Ondra. Easily one of the nicest people ever, and anyone who can put up with our bullshit for that long is a better man than I am.

Least favorite person of the tour?
James Connolly. That's a no brainer though. Dude sucks.

Final thoughts.
Thanks to Kyle @ Rivalry as always, this band wouldn't be shit without him. Thanks to Blacklisted for taking us on tour with them and being an inspiring entity. Thanks to Shipwreck for being sea sick. No thanks to Jim Connolly.

You are who you will yourself to be.

2008-10-09T15:27:00.002-07:00

Soul Control are one of those bands that really get your attention. They started a little over year ago and as they say themselves it was all a bit crazy for them. They put out 3 records, toured on west and east coast of the USA, they came to Europe as well.
I follow them since I heard their demo for the first time and I was really stoked when I heard they would come over to Europe. Then I thought that it would be great to asked them a few questions and see what they have to say about themselves and some other things. What you see below is the interview I did with Jim (guitar) and Matt (vocal) after their show in Warsaw (Poland) on the 9th of January 2008.
Live pictures by LaszloPaprika.

OK, let’s start.
You’re in Europe on tour right now. Have you ever been in Europe before?
What do you like or dislike about the old continent? Did you get any chance to hang out in any of the places you played in?

Matt: I came twice. Once, when I used to play bass in Verse and another time just doing merch with Have Heart.

Jim: It’s my first time ever. We don’t really get much time to hang out. The only time we had some time to do that was in Helsinki in Finland and that was nice. Other than that it’s just sleeping and driving.

What made you start Soul Control? Was there any significant reason for that?

Jim: It was an accident.

Matt: Yeah, me and other guys in the band had a little side project going on back in the 90s, which coincidentally his (pointing at Jim) band, What Feeds The Fire ended up using a lot of the parts for their own songs. After that we hadn’t really hung out since like 2002 and last year we started hanging out and thinking maybe we should start playing again. He (pointing at Jim again) lived upstairs and he would yelled down the basement whether the songs sucked or nor. Finally they all sucked, so he came downstairs, we switched places and that was Soul Control. It was that kind of a band we’ve actually always wanted to play in.

Jim: We were just hanging out again and once we switched the instruments, that’s just what came out. We used to be real active in hardcore in the mid 90’s and wanted to do something again.

What do you mean by being active in hardcore?

Jim: They used to book shows, I used to book shows as well. I did a zine here and there.
That was my favorite time. We didn’t know each other at that time but we all went to our first show in like 1994 just in different parts of the country.

How did you both got into hardcore?

Matt: Through skateboarding.

I think that is the most common thing in America. Whoever you ask how they got into hardcore they mention skateboarding.

Jim: I’ve never skateboarded in my live. I went on a field trip and I was late so I had to go on the bus with the kids I didn’t know. We started talking on the bus, we hung out and after that we stayed friends. After that, I think it was my fifteenth birthday, they said “oh we want to take you to these shows we go to” and I had a blast there. From then on I just went to shows whenever I could get a ride.

So they did you a huge favor huh?

Jim: Yeah! They took me there, they made me stage dive, they made me mosh, haha!

Matt: I just wanted to add one more thing about why I wanted to do Soul Control.

Yeah, go ahead.

Matt: As far as the lyrics go it just happen to be a crucial point in my life. A lot of things were changing, my whole mindset about the reality. I felt like I really had to write about all this and put it out there, because I’m sure in a few years from now I may have the answers to the questions I ask in my songs. Maybe I’ll go back to them and write some new songs.

When I read your lyrics I get that impression that you feel an isolation from the society or the culture we live in. I can’t exactly name it. Is that correct?

Matt: Yeah, almost that and even further than that sometimes isolated from myself. Almost like a split selves but not like a multiple personality. Like I’m here at this hardcore show and this is oneself and then I’m at home with my family, and I’m at college and I walk around the street etc. Every single place I go I feel like this separate self from another one. I might be wrong about it but I feel that a lot of my peers feel the same way. They are not able to know how to interact in certain social situations because they don’t feel as comfortable or something.
A lot of our songs deal with expressing our deepest creativity and I wish in every single aspect of my life I could put out the same kind of creativity. The same kind of energy that I put out when I’m at the hardcore show is when I’m writing or doing anything but a lot of times it’s just like a mental block and I know that is all a part of one whole.

Jim: The reason that people might misinterpreted it as feeling isolated from the world is because he’s always talking about “I”. We never say “you”, we never say “we” in our lyrics. Everything he talks about is about yourself. The first thing that I picked up after I read his lyrics is: You have to focus on yourself. You have to focus inward before you can project anything outward. It all starts here and once you can figure out this, then you can go there. So it’s not so much of isolation. That’s what the title of the record “Involution” means. It’s like an inner revolution, working on yourself. You start with yourself and then you end with yourself. It’s also a mathematical equation, when you apply the equation to the problem it brings everything back to number one. So everything starts here and then it comes back and ends here.
So, he’s just trying to talk about what he’s starting right now. He’s starting here and then maybe once he figures it all out he can go and work on you and we.

Matt: When reading a lot of hardcore bands lyrics I understood their intentions but sometimes if you’re saying you and you’re not talking about yourself in reality it’s just a rejection of what’s in yourself. You can’t truly understand something outside of yourself unless you understood it within yourself. So, if you hate something that means that at some point you’ve experienced that kind of thing.

Tell me something about the meaning of the band’s name.

Matt: The name Soul Control can be taken in some kind of spiritual or metaphysical sense or if you trace back the meaning of the word soul, you’ll find out it just means mind. So it can also be read as mind control.

How do you understand the word soul? Do you believe that we have immortal souls?

Matt: I feel like the whole aspect of the soul is a lot simpler and also completely incomprehensible. I don’t really want to dive too far into that. Symbolically, in a lot of cultures we just take things for what we know from this. Like, oh soul it must be like this table but it’s invisible. But to me it just supposed to be about the mind.

Last summer I went to the Verse show in London and their singer Sean was saying that there’s some wave of new bands that start talking about important topics. He dropped your bands name while saying that. Do you see Soul Control as such band?

Jim: I don’t see it as a new wave. It’s more like a wave that dived down a little bit and now it's going up again. Everything in hardcore goes in cycles. I don’t think we’re reinventing the wheel. Lyrically, yes we talk about different things but we’re not very political band. Sean feels we’re important just because we’re talking about something else, but we never set out to be the band that changes hardcore.

Matt: My interpretation of what Sean’s saying is that it’s easy for a band to look at what’s worked in the past and use that to their advantage. Piece together songs to like almost control the crowd by what they know. But that’s not really expressing yourself, it’s like rehashing certain parts to get kids to mosh or whatever. I feel that truly expressing yourself and how you feel completely is extremely important in hardcore.

Jim: Lyrically and musically you can’t be afraid to do something that isn’t hardcore. When we sat down and started writing songs we had no idea how we were going to sound like.

I might be mistaken again but I feel that your lyrics are based on some religion or philosophy.

Matt: Err, not quite. We all have a huge spectrum of beliefs. I wouldn’t say religion because to me that word portraits a lot more political sense. I prefer the word spirituality. It’s more like I experienced the subjective connection with everybody and everything instead of some religious dogma.
But the lyrics are more like my experience with mixed philosophies and my spiritual past. I wanted to write them in a way that anyone, no matter what personal philosophy the may take or subjective spiritual experiences or whatever their beliefs may be they can take it in like almost universal way.

You’re not involved in any religion then?

Matt: At this point if I meet somebody who’s into Krishna Consciousness or Buddhism or Sufism or whatever I’d like to be able to connect with them because to me it’s all the same. It’s just different words from different cultures. When they’re speaking about Krishna or Buddha it’s just different names for the same energy.

Another question’s gonna be political. This year there are presidential elections in America. Do you pay any attention to it? Do you vote?

Jim: I voted every 4 years and I usually vote in my local elections. But we, as a band try very hard to stay away from any political questions. I haven’t decided who I’m going to vote for yet. I still have to do some research. I’m not too happy with anyone right now.

Why do you avoid the political questions?

Matt: Our band isn’t really political based.

Jim: I don’t want to alienate anyone. I don’t want someone to feel like ‘Oh they’re voting for this dude those guys suck’ or ‘Maybe I should vote for this guy because they are going to’.

The word freedom also appears in your lyrics a lot. What kind of freedom do you mean? Do you consider yourself free?

Matt: Interesting question. I think I’ll have to go back to what I said earlier about freedom of expression, freedom of action on my own.
It’s almost like err… OK, here’s a good example. We have a certain path, certain routines that we take every day. Even right now we’re on tour. We think that we’re completely free, we got away from work and all that. But at the same time are we really free? Sometimes we’re being frustrated with certain things and we’re supposed to be in the situation where we’re free to express ourselves but all of the sudden we are… I don’t know…

Jim: It’s mainly it’s just a freedom to be. That’s what’s I’ve been taking from his lyrics. Feeling like you don’t have to hold back and just creating what you want to create and not being afraid to do so. In a song ‘Fear and freedom’ that’s the main topic. You’re who you want to be. You feel free to create and then create whatever you want and just don’t worry of it and that’s the freedom of creation aspect of it.

Matt: A lot of times people, including myself, get hold back by the past experiences, because that’s all that I know. So what is the present? The present is always the past unless you can really step outside of your circle of comfort. That’s why it’s important, when we’re talking with other people to listen to what they’re saying and not just wait for our turn to speak. Because when you listen to what someone else is saying, they might say something that when you might wake up the next day your mind is going to take an actual step forward. So you’re going to think a little bit further in the future instead of being based just on your past. That’s another part of the whole freedom aspect.

I want to ask about one specific fragment of one of your lyrics. What do you mean by “I live in the basement of my mind, and I choked on this dust for so long”?

Matt: That’s exactly what I mean. That whole song is about continuously living in the past and never stepping outside. The dust is the memories.

Jim: The basement of your mind is the back of your head. You’re always thinking about something that’s already happened and dwelling on it and it gets to the point when you’re almost choking on it. That song is about getting out of that, focusing on what’s happening now.
Stop dwelling on the past, don’t choke on those memories just move forward.

Matt: I got the whole shadows thing (‘Dance of shadows’ is the title of the song – WS) from Carl Yung. He was a philosopher and psychologist. He spoke about the shadow which is just the impression of the things that we find not so pleasure about ourselves.

After this tour what’s next for Soul Control in store?

Jim: Finish writing the new record. Then we’re flying to California to do some shows with Trash Talk and Verse, then we’re doing the Rivalry showcase with Ceremony and other bands. I guess it’s also Betrayed reunion. It’s Allegiance last show as well, so we all want to be there. Then we flight back from that and the morning we get home we start recording the new full length for 2 weeks. And then we take a break. It’s been a very crazy year. When we started we only planned on playing some local shows and everything just spiralled. We toured all summer, we put out 3 records now.

OK, last question – Into Another or Quicksand and why?

Matt: Into Another!

Jim: Quicksand! They were actually good.

Matt: Ooh, he’s the only one in the band that doesn’t like Into Another. They were very innovative, I love Ritchie’s lyrics.

Jim: Walter is awesome. I love all his bands. And Quicksand is the best band from that era.

SC shirts from the collection of my bro Patrick

Pictures for you to check out

2008-10-09T15:27:00.001-07:00

From the Blacklisted / Soul Control / Shipwreck show in Warsaw (Poland).

Blacklisted

Shipwreck

Soul Control

More to see at LaszloPaprika Photo Blog
Also check My Love My Way Photo Blog

Come Undone

2008-10-09T15:26:00.001-07:00

Come Undone are a post hardcore band from Warsaw, Poland. They take what's best from hardcore and rock, mix it together and make some great music out of it. I'm a fan since day one and always try to support what they do.
They have just released their debut MCD called 'Parts' and also a new demo which was recorded in December 2007.
Go to their myspace page and listen to some tunes they have there. If you like what you hear order a CD or two from them.

www.myspace.com/comeundonerock

Casualties of the core

2008-10-09T15:25:00.001-07:00

That's my hand after Blacklisted / Soul Control / Shipwreck show. I don't even remember how it happened. It's all swollen and sore. Nonetheless I had a great time. I met so many people who I haven't seen in ages. It was so awesome to catch up with all of my friends.
Also I finally had a chance to see one of my favorite polish hc band, Come Undone. They played a good set regardless of the drumming problems they had.
Soul Control, Shipwreck AD and Blacklisted also played. It was my first time seeing SC and they blew my mind. So much energy and power. It was even better than listening to them from the CD. I didn't see Shipwreck AD because during their set I was interviewing Jim C and Matt from Soul Control (it will be posted here once I write it down from the tape). Last band was Blacklisted. It was so good. They played all my favorite tunes. Bjoern, the singer of Rise and Fall, who roadie for them on this tour, did a guest appearence during the 'Eye for an eye' and George looked like a lunatic again. Great band.
So stoked on seeing all these three bands in London in 10 days.

Record scores:
- Soul Control 'Involution' LP - Euro tour press out of 250,
- I Rise/Soul Control split 7" - friends press 12/100

Right now I'm chilling at my parents house. I sleep in my old room, it's kind of weird because all my posters and stickers has been taken down. It looks nice now, haha! My mom made me some delicious vegan, chocolate chip cookies. She rules.

I'm painting a picture of a world where no one has to struggle

2008-10-09T15:24:00.001-07:00

Tonight I went to my first hardcore show this year. It was Verse from the USA and To Kill from Italy playing. I'm not much into the To Kill sound but they played an OK show. They all had fever and cough but they still tried to give everything on stage. That's dedication!
Now moving on to the main reason I'm doing this entry. Verse. They are definitely one of the hardest working bands in modern hardcore scene. They've put one 7" on Contrast Records (I think it's sold out so hit ebay if you want to get it) and two LP's on Rivalry Records. They tour constantly in America and Europe. I must admit that I'm not much of a fan of them when it comes to listening to their records but when I see them live it's all different. They have so much passion and energy that it would be enough for at least two more bands. Their vocalist Sean always has some interesting things to say about hardcore scene, modern society and it's sickness or political situation in United States or generally in the world. He's definitely not afraid to speak his mind and take a stand on topics he cares about.

Last time they played In London I actually did an interview with Sean, but we did it on the street outside the venue and the traffic sound made it impossible for me to write it all down from the tape. It sucks because it was pretty cool interview.
Anyway if you don't know Verse I recommend you this band. Check out their music and lyrics. Go to their show if you have a chance to do so.
The video below is done by me with my shitty camera. If you search youtube you will find some more watchable videos of Verse.

The Anti-Matter Anthology

2008-10-09T15:23:00.001-07:00

In the 90's hardcore straight edge scene really evolved comparing it to the 80's. Many different and new ideas were injected into this community. Some of them were shitty, some of them were great. The music evolved as well. Some bands went into more metal sounding, some into softer sound and some into something that it's hard to describe. People involved in sxe and hardcore started to get more and more into topics like politics, animal & human rights, ecology, religions etc. They were doing benefits, printing pamphlets, flayers and zines. Among all this was born the Anti-Matter zine. It was created by a guy named Norman Brannon aka Norm Arenas. This zine was definitely different than most of the publications that popped up around that era, mostly because of the interviews that were printed in Anti-Matter. They didn't have the usual "how was your tour?" or "how your next record will sound like?" type of questions. Norm dug deep into the minds of the person he talked to and always got out something interesting.
Now when all the issues of this zine are out of print the clever guys in Revelation decided to compile most of the interviews into one book. And they did a great job with it. The book is packed with great pictures and interviews with such persons/bands as Mike Judge, Porcell, SOIA, Snapcase, Outspoken, Sunny Day Real Estate and many more. If you have some spare cash that burns a hole in your pocket than I suggest you spend it on this book. I guarantee you wont be disappointed.

If you live in America go to Revelation Records web store
If you're from Europe go to Reflections Records web store

Last Item - The Final Damage

2008-10-09T15:21:00.002-07:00

This is a long overdue release. One of the best hard core bands that came out of Poland has their final record out. If you are into bands like Judge, Right Brigade or Cro Mags you should like it. That is of course if you can get pass the fact that it's not a new hyped band but just a honest and actually good hardcore.
Check their myspace and judge for yourself: www.myspace.com/lastitem
To order a CD email these nice folks who put it out at Get By Records - getbyrecords@gmail.com

Aaron Bedard of Bane

2008-10-09T15:21:00.001-07:00

I heard Bane for the first time when they played my hometown back in Poland. Don't remember what year it was exactly (2000?) but I do remember that that band made a huge impact on me. Every Bane's record is packed with great music and incredible lyrics that make you question things, make you believe that there are still people out there not corrupted by greed and hate. I always look forward to any Bane show I have a chance to go to. This past fall Bane were touring Europe again and I had a little chat with their singer Aaron Bedard. I think it turned out pretty sweet. Read on. (Pictures stolen from Bane's myspace page)

WS: Maybe first tell us something about yourself?

AB: My name is Aaron Bedard, I sing in Bane and I’ve been travelling and touring with them for like 8 years now. That’s mostly what I do, travelling with Bane. I live in the United States in a city called Boston. I play poker and I hang out with my friends.

WS: I want to ask you about this song of yours called “Snakes among us”. Is it about some particular band or about group of bands?

AB: This song is about this mindset that was becoming very popular back then of bands to see hardcore as sort of gateway to something bigger. People were starting bands just to become big. To do something like Saves the Day did. They saw that there are bands that play some aggressive music, that they were getting famous and that these bands started out by playing hardcore shows. I saw people that started bands not because they were siked to play music, and wanted to play hardcore shows and be a part of this very special community. They were just using it as a stepping stone. They would play small shows for a little while and become popular and they would stop playing small shows.

WS: So when you wrote that song did you have Save the Day on your mind for example?

AB: Well I mean STD was like hardcore kids when they first started. I don’t really think STD really expected to become what they are now. Our first tour back in ’98 was with Save the Day, after our first record came out, and they weren’t thinking that they were going to be famous. I think that that happened sort of naturally but I think after that happened to them a lot of younger bands started out by thinking that they could go the same way. That’s what I wrote about like just bands that are completely insincere and don’t have emotional or passionate connection to smaller stages and they just wanted to become famous and fuck lots of girls.

WS: How would you define a hardcore band? What in your eyes makes a band a hardcore band?

AB: I think the most important thing is having something important to say, having something to stand for beyond the normal bullshit that music is written about. I think that hardcore band is just more aggressive punk band you know. Hardcore band just takes those roots of being super opinionated and super rebellious and tries to (couldn’t figure out what Aaron said here) as far as playing it faster, playing it heavier, screaming louder but still hopefully having something important to say.

WS: Can you tell me what the song “Can we start again?” is about?

AB: I wrote it, because I’ve been into hardcore scene for a long time and I was just looking around and was noticing a lot of bullshit going on. A lot of pettiness, and lot of stupid shit like people judging other people because of their clothes, gossip and like all those cool cliques. And I started thinking when I first started coming out to the shows, did that exist? Or was I just so young and so excited about being a part of something new that I didn’t really feel it? Or has it changed? Was it better then when I was a kid? Was it more about music and not giving a fuck what you look like and just coming out to shows and dance and having a good time. So I was just trying to figure out, has it always been this way and I just didn’t see it, because I was young or has something really changed? Has it gotten worse? Because back then there was just this feeling of excitement and optimism and it didn’t matter how you looked like and how long have you been around for, any of that bullshit.

WS: Which one of the Bane songs is most important to you? Which one has the biggest meaning?

AB: They are all from such, a different periods of my life. that they just reflect times that I’ve been in. Like “Give Blood” was a really fun record to write because I was just much excited about everything that was going on. The record that came out before that was a little bit darker because I was dealing with my relationship falling apart and some friendships falling apart and I just sort of had a lot of demons inside me then. And then with “Give Blood”, in that part of my life, the band was starting to do well and we were touring all the time and I was just feeling very excited about all that and I think that record reflects that a lot.

As far as individual songs that stick out to me is that song from “Give Blood” called “A place in the Sun” which I’m really proud of and on the new record there this one called “End with an Ellipsis”. I feel that they express what I tried to express very well and when I go back and read those lyrics I feel that I really did a job well.

WS: Do you have any lyrics that you don’t fell that way about them? That you would change?

AB: Yeah, there’s a song on a new record called “One for the Boys” that I just wrote about poker that I wish so much I haven’t done that. I feel like I don’t have that many opportunities to say something really important and I kind of wasted that one. I think that’s the only one that if I had a chance to do over again I’d write about something more serious, because I have other stuff to say. It’s not like I was out of ideas I just thought it was kind of cool because that was just the point of my life when I was really excited about poker and I wanted to write something for the guys that I spent my days with. It was like an inside joke. It’s written with a language that if you don’t play poker very seriously you won’t even understand. Now looking back, we never played that song live, I don’t feel that anyone apart from the poker players would have a connection to that song.

WS: I wanted to ask about that comic stripe on “The Note” layout. What’s the idea behind it? I kind of couldn’t figure it out.

AB: Sure there was an idea but what we did is we took it and then we had it go backwards, so the first thing you see is actually the end of the story. If you read from back to front you have this guy who wakes up and everything is great in his life. He’s got this beautiful garden and he’s got a girl and he’s got this boat and everything in his life is going really, really well. And then you get to the middle and you see somebody who’s bursting out of the window on fire and hands him that note and runs down the street. Then the guy reads it and we don’t know what it says, but whatever it is makes him to go into a crisis of his faith. His whole believes system is turned upside down so on the next pages his kind of dismantling everything that he got. All the good things in his life are falling apart because this note has changed the way he looked at everything. He breaks up with his girlfriend, he sinks the boat, he rips the wings off his friend and then when you’re on the front cover he’s just laying on the street with this note out of his reach.

WS: Last time I saw Bane playing in London you were giving a speech between the songs and someone from the audience shouted to you to shut up. Does that happen often to you? And how do you deal with that kind of things?

AB: It happens sometimes, not a lot though. When it happens I just do what I did that day you know. I was a bit upset because I hate being interrupted and I have kind of bad temper. I don’t have planned out things that I say from the stage so it’s really for me to sort of loose my flow you know. So when I feel that all is going well and I’m making a point that I’m trying to make I don’t want anybody to fucking scream - shut up and fucking play!

It always drives me crazy and I just always try to point out the fact that we’re here for more than just dance around. That music is really loud and aggressive and I don’t like the idea that nobody is really going to be able to get a message to it all if I don’t explain what the songs mean. This message is as important as a part of the show as the mosh part or the stage dives or whatever. These songs mean something and we want to talk about it.

So yeah anytime when someone knocks me out of my game like that I always yell at them you know and just try to make them look stupid you know like “Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do? You paid here to come and watch the show, you just going to stand there and I’m going to do whatever the fuck I want”.

WS: Do you see the world or the society as us v them? I mean the hardcore or punk kids against the mainstream or the rest of the people?

AB: Not in the sense when I really feel like we’re having any chance of winning any sort of a battle or anything. It’s just sort of like small subculture that hopefully will smart you up a little bit so you’re prepared to deal with all the bullshit that’s going to be thrown at you. I don’t feel like we’re some movement that going to have any impact on things. Things are fucked up. Everywhere you look people are lying to you and everywhere you look people trying to steal from you and just fucking shove their bullshit down your throat. I feel like when you’re a young kid and you get involved in hardcore and this helps you to keep your guard up and get ready to face the world that is kind of hard and unforgiving.

WS: Do you believe in making a change in this world? And how do you thing we’re able to do that?

AB: The way that I think about it is that this is my world, this little area around me. And this is that I can govern. So when you come to my world I’m going to try to treat you the way I wish the outside world would treat me. That’s how I make my impact. I can’t change anything except that comes in contact with me. I try to be helpful, I try to be respectful and I try to live my life in this little circle around me the way that I wish the world lived. I hope that everybody that I come across with can be effected by that in some positive way. That they can see that you don’t have to be a dick or you can be excited about music and skateboarding and fucking hanging out with your friends when you’re 25 years old or whatever. And I think that’s the way you make those tiny changes in the world.

WS: Why can’t you “stand looking at grown ups, never mind talk to them”?

AB: I just think that the way that they live their lives is kind of sad and embarrassing and like they’re missing out on a lot of things that I consider the point of being alive. Things like, you know having fun and connecting with others. All that shit that feels so exciting when you’re 18 years old doesn’t have to stop when you’re 28. Like you don’t have to go and get married and have a house and kids. You can continue to live a more inspired life than just coming home and moaning about your job and worry about your mortgage.

WS: Do people ask you things like “oh what are you going to do with your life?” and stuff like that? What do you say to them?

AB: Yeah they do of course all the time. I tell them that I’ll figure it out. I know that I’m smart enough and I’ll be able to get by. It’s not like I’m going to be starving on the streets. I can write well and I’m smart enough to be able to figure it out.

WS: Did you go to college?

AB: I didn’t. I didn’t even graduated from high school. I dropped out after two months of high school. All I wanted to do when I was 16 was skateboarding.

So for the next ten years I was skateboarding and going to shows.

I’d read books you know. I read good authors. I wasn’t dumb. I learned things I just did it on my own I didn’t need some teacher to teach me these things. There probably some stuff that I could learn in high school that maybe would make my life easier but I think I did fine without it. I think I led more exciting life.

WS: What was the most attractive thing in hardcore when you found hardcore that made you stick to it.

AB: Just the energy and the anger and that there was something weird going on.

WS: When was it?

AB: It was 1985 just before the whole youth crew movement really, really broke. There was just some urgency in the air that I couldn’t find anywhere else. The music was just something I’ve never heard before. It was so fucking extreme.

WS: I don’t know if you read that book or saw a movie called “American Hardcore”, but few people who are in it say that hardcore died in 1986, which is like a year before you got into hardcore. Any comments on that?

AB: Half of those guys got back together and do reunions over the last few years. They just want to be able to own it you know? They want it to be theirs and they get to decide when it ended, but obviously it didn’t end. It’s still going on right now. It’s doing fine and there’s a lot of bands that are doing important things.

WS: Over the years our scene has been touched by some various ideas. We had Hardline, then Krishna core, Christianity etc. Do you think that they did some kind of damage to the scene or they brought something good into HC?

AB: Personally I don’t think it was very healthy for what punk rock used to be about. But maybe for some people it was. I can’t speak for every punk kid. I don’t think that those things were necessary to get involved. I don’t think that spirituality really is going to help and guide you through this crazy world, least not in an honest way. Like believing in something what somebody wrote in some books few thousands years ago and have that be the book of your life. It’s kind of like going thru life with a blindfold on a little bit. Always thought that punk rock was always an opposite of that. Take that blindfold off and find out your own purpose of life.

In the same way I see things like hardline veganism and violent straight edge and all that stuff that is taken to the extreme. I think that it gives kids that get into that for the first time a bad taste in their mouth about what it is. If it is brought to them a little bit more gentle and a little bit more diplomatically maybe it would make more sense to them. When those very extreme opinions are just shoved down your throat, like “it’s my way or you’re wrong” then it makes you go opposite way. I feel the same way about straight edge. I don’t think it’s going to work for you when it’s forced on you. I think it comes to you quietly and slowly and then it make sense and you realize this is a healthy way to live.

WS: Speaking about straight edge. Bane was a straight edge band once and then you stopped labeling your band that. What happened?

AB: Yes we were when we first started out and were putting out our early 7 inches we were all straight edge in the band and we were pretty excited about it. But it was never a big part of our message. I never felt like telling people what they should be doing with their lives. I was a little older when the band started and I didn’t really have anything left to prove as far as straight edge. It wasn’t like when younger kids start a straight edge band, because they are young and they are very excited about those ideas and they just try to represent this thing that they are into.

And what happened was that our drummer broke edge and he had to deal with a lot bullshit because of that. A lot of people was coming down on him and there was all this gossip and a lot of friends of ours were disappointed about it. People knew him as a great guy and then suddenly there was some big deal that he wasn’t straight edge anymore. So we had to make a decision, like kick Nick out or stand with Nick. We decided that this band wasn’t going to be about straight edge anymore. And I was actually excited about it this fact because it felt like maybe there were people that were into us just because we were a straight edge band, we were getting up there with X’s on our hands. I wanted it to be more inviting for everybody. I’m still straight edge and if you want to talk about it I have a lot of opinions on the matter but I don’t think that Bane collectively has anything in common with they way we live our lives as far as straight edge. There’s still a bunch of people in a band that are straight edge but their opinions on it are different then mine and it just didn’t feel like we had one big thing we could all stand behind. I was kind of excited that Nick broke his edge and we could stop being so blindly accepted by those kids. I wanted people to like us for other reason than that.

WS: Once I heard you saying that one of the happiest days of your life was when you heard that Bane stopped to be cool. Can you say something more about that?

AB: There was a time when we were the popular band that younger kids were getting into or whatever and we stayed a band for so long that we weren’t that anymore. You can only stay that for a year or two. Then suddenly there were new younger bands that were cool. We call them “hype bands”. The bands that everybody gets excited about and that you’re seen as crazy if you aren’t into those bands. And it was nice to not be that band because now we know that people that come to Bane shows they’re not doing to be cool, they’re not doing it because there’s this big buzz about us and everyone is talking about us. They are coming because they have some real, personal connection with the band. I thought that was a better thing even if that meant playing to less kids and if that meant the reactions were maybe not as crazy as they were before but at least it was more honest. They understand what we’re really trying to do. We’re not trying to come and put out a 7 inch and make everybody go crazy and then just walk away from this. It’s all more real for us.

WS: Do you consider yourself as a politically oriented person? Like do you vote and that kind of stuff?

AB: I voted the last time, every time before that I didn’t vote out of protest. I used to have pretty strong belief that by voting and putting my name on the ballot I was agreeing that the system works and I’m willing to participate in it. And I didn’t even like doing that. System in America is so fucked and it’s so depressing that I didn’t want to play by their rules. In America when it time to vote there’s a saying that you vote for the lesser of two evils. I don’t want to vote for evil, I don’t want to rise my hand and be like OK I’m going to support evil number two so I didn’t vote. But I just couldn’t stand the thought that George Bush is going to be a president again.

WS: But he won.

AB: I know! Everybody that I know, literally, voted against him. Every friend I have was devastated by that. People were like getting active and tried to get him out of there and we couldn’t do it. We couldn’t stop it. It was really depressing. It’s hard for me to stay too political. I think the world is wrong and I think that the way the country is run is completely fucked up but I just don’t know what to do. I’d rather be up there blowing up buildings then holding a sign and I can’t be blowing up buildings so I just to what I can on a very small level. I try to just live a life that makes sense to me.

WS: As an American you’re not really proud of your country are you?

AB: No, I’m completely the opposite. I’m disgusted by my country and some day I’d be OK with leaving it. Like there’s nothing there that makes me feel any sense of pride.

WS: Do you often get judged by the fact that you’re American?

AB: Yeah it happens, especially when we are here in Europe we’re always judged as a typical violent, idiotic Americans. Everywhere we go and people hear our accent they immediately put us into that one category. What I regret is that I don’t usually have the time and I can’t speak their language so I can’t explain to those guys that I hate their guts as much as they do and I wish I could change them. It just so happened that I was born there, and all my family is there and it’s hard to escape. I feel that if everybody would take their time to get to knows us they’d realize that. On our last tour in Europe that we did we had this driver, I think he was from Czech Republic and he was very politically motivated and very conscious. We might have been the first American band that he’d driven and he had this image in his head that we were going to be those loud, arrogant assholes. And it took him a while to realize that we’re not like that once he got to know us on an individual level. I sat with him in the front of the van and talked about political issues and how fucked up America is and through that he learned not to pass that judgment on us based on our nationality.

WS: What do you consider the scariest thing in the modern world?

AB: What scares me is that in the time when we can exchange information so quickly and so widely and the internet has made anything and everything possible. And it feels like we just keep getting dumber, like the things that we’re entertained by are mindless. It just doesn’t feel like we’re utilizing this ability to communicate and exchange ideas and exchange opinions that we can do with a snap of a finger. We’re not utilizing it for any sort of progress. We’re not even staying still we’re going backwards. In America people make mistakes at younger and younger ages like 15 years old are getting pregnant etc. It doesn’t feel like we’re learning from our mistakes, we just keep finding new mistakes to make. Things aren’t moving in the good direction.

And then you step a little bit further and look at the whole political situation and how we have this complete maniac who’s not afraid of anything. He’s not afraid of Korea, he’s not afraid of Iran, he just flexes his will on anybody and when you think about it’s like “God, what the fuck man? China may finally be done with our bullshit and all of the sudden there will be bombs dropping in my backyard”. When you really think about the mess that we’re in and how many people we try to push around and force our will on them it does scare me. I’m glad I don’t have a kid and I don’t have to worry about what it’s going to be for him in like 40 years. When I see young kids and babies I feel bad for them I don’t feel like they’re growing in a world that’s going to be very fun to live in.

WS: You don’t have a hope that the situation may somehow get better?

AB: NO! And it sucks because technology keeps advancing and we keep becoming smarter and smarter as far as how we can control the world around us and it’s nothing getting better and just keeps getting worse.

WS: Bane has been around for over 10 years. How do you see yourself in the next 10 years?

AB: I don’t know. I look ahead 2 years and I have no idea. This band almost broke up this summer. Our bass player left and he’s been in the band since the very beginning. He dropped out of this tour about 3 weeks before be came on tour. We have never, ever played a show without him and when he told us he couldn’t come here it felt like the bad was going to end. We almost felt like it wouldn’t be worth it to do this tour without him. And it scared the shit out of me. When I thought what it was going to be from like 6 months from now. Like I don’t know what I’m going to do. Am I going to get a job or I’m going to play poker for a living in America or tour with bands, be like a roadie or tour manager or do merch.

When I look ten years ahead? Dude I just feel like worried and I try to have some faith that I’ll find the way to be happy. That’ll just figure out what works for me. I have a very good survival instinct I think. I can figure out my way through the situations as they come to me.

But I know it’s not going to be like a conventional life. I know when Bane ends I’m not going to find a wife and have kids and be happy with my office job. It has to be creating, speaking out and trying to continue to live a life that I’ve always lived. And that is totally born and bred from punk rock, loving music and loving the bonds that I make with my friends. I’d hate to lose that.

WS: When you look at the hardcore scene today, what bothers you the most?

AB: what bothers me the most is the whole tough guy, crew mentality. If there was one thing that I could erase that would be it, this whole mentality of intimidating young kids.

When a 15 years old kid who first starts coming to the shows, that’s one of the most sacred opportunity that you could ever be given. That changed my life and to think that there are these violent, scary people that can fuck your first experience with hardcore in such a negative way it drives me fucking crazy. It drives me crazy to think that some young kid is going to come out and not be able to have the same experience that I had when you’re just completely overwhelmed and in love with that new way of life that you find.

WS: Wasn’t it dangerous and violent when you've first gotten into hardcore?

AB: Yeah, but it never felt like 10 guys were going to jump on you and beat you up. It felt like maybe you’d get hurt while dancing or something but it never felt like if you said something to the wrong person or didn’t threat them with the right amount of respect that you’d get beaten up by a whole group of people that are like proud of how badly they beat you up. They are feeding on it.

WS: When all that started?

AB: Well, FSU was around when I first started going to Boston for shows. Then after long time it just became more accepted now and they exists in every city in America and it became much bigger and much violent. Things have just progressed and in order to really have people talking about you and have people to be really afraid of you, you need to go this extra mile to be that much more horrifying. So the violence is more real now. Somebody got killed last year at the show.

WS: Has Bane ever had any problems with these guys?

AB: This is going to sound like a lie but it’s the truth. We have been so lucky, I don’t know why, but most of those guys seem to not be interested in what we do and they just don’t come to our shows. I’ve never been able to figure it out, because they know we’re outspoken and they know we have so very strong ideas and we get up on stage and talk about them and we’re not going to be easily intimidated.

I don’t know maybe they have some amount of respect for us because Bane has been around for so long. You know, some of the older FSU guys, who are high up on that game are people that used to see Bane when they were younger and they used to be in bands that we have played with. They know how much we don’t want that bullshit at our shows.

But at the same time we have to carry ourselves with certain way, we have to treat the right people with respect. There are certain things you have to do to keep them feeling like they have to prove something to you.

Some of them on a one on one level are like the best dudes. They really love hardcore and have been around since we’ve been around and we’ve all grown up together but you get them in that element and they become very, very scary people.

If I could erase one thing from hardcore that would be that whole mentality of us versus you.

Walter Schreifels interview

2008-10-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

I don’t think Walter Shreifels needs an introduction to anyone who is somehow connected to the hardcore scene. He played a solo show in London earlier this year (January) and was kind enough to let me ask him a few questions about his old bands, living in Berlin and his recent work. Enjoy

Q: So, recently you’ve moved to Berlin. Tell me something about it. How do you like it? What do you do there?

A: Oh, I really like it. I play some shows. I’m able to play more shows in Europe in general, because it’s easier for me travel. It’s very exciting. I love playing in Germany, I Love playing in Scandinavia. I did a tour in Spain, now I’m in the UK.

Q: Comparing Europe and USA what do you find better over here than in the USA?

A: I find certain things better. What I really like, especially in Berlin, people are like… it’s more free, America is more conservative. You have more police on the streets and stuff. England (comparing to the rest of Europe) is a little more different, it’s much more like the USA, but the rest of Europe is more chilled out.

Q: I heard a lot of good things about the GB tour you did in the US last year. Kids really liked it and enjoyed it a lot. How was it for you guys as a band which played those shows? It was kind of long tour like 2 months or something?

A: We loved it. I think that’s why it went so good. The reason why it went good was because we enjoyed it and I think that’s the best.

It wasn’t that long. It was only about a month. It was meant to be longer but we shorted it. We didn’t want to make it a work. We wanted it to be fun.

Q: Now the euro tour is coming up right? Are all the dates set up? Are you guys going to play in clubs or just big festivals? I heard you are going to play Download festival here in England.

A: Yeah we’re doing an euro tour. The dates are becoming set up, it’s not finished yet. It will be mostly club shows, I think it’s only a few festivals. We were going to play Download festival be we decided not to. I think we’re going to play couple of shows in London.

Q: Has hardcore in some way shaped you as a person?

A: It taught me how to make music in the way I’ve always wanted to do it. It definitely shaped the way I see music and the way I feel about it. I think it’s about people and that interaction between the artist and the audience. The thing about hardcore is that people are able to express themselves and bring it directly to the kids. And I like that, and that’s what I always wanted to do.

Q: How does touring looks now when you play as a solo artist. It’s obviously different than when you’re in a band with 4 other dudes.

A: I travel with my girlfriend. We rent a girl and just go around. There’s not so many boy

Q: Recently I came across this zine called “Three Records”. The idea is that the girl who made it asked her friends to pick 3 records that had the biggest impact on their lives. A lot of people mentioned GB “Start Today” LP there. I wanted to ask you what would be your picks. What records had the biggest impact in your life?

A: I guess I could just make up on the spot. I really like U2 “War”, The Smiths “Hatful of Hollow” and Minor Threat “In My Eyes” EP. I think all I do is a little bit of mixture between U2, Minor Threat and The Smiths. I guess I’d throw The Beatles in there, somehow.

With the U2 I really liked the way the music was so groovy, and the lyrics were so impassioned and I related to that. With The Smiths I liked the guitar and the vocals, it was just very interesting. I’m into the Morrissey’s solo stuff. Maybe not into the newest things he did, but the first few records and then I kind of lost track. The last album, didn’t really rock me too hard.

And Minor Threat were just amazing. I was too young to see them, but I saw Fugazi first shows and they were incredible.

Q: What do you think about the way they handled their shows? Like throwing people out of the show for not acting the way they’d want them to.

A: I don’t like that. It’s just not my thing. I just don’t like to be told what to do. The thing with Fugazi is that they go crazy on stage and they freak out, there’s like this violence to it. If you’re going to put out violence you’ve got to expect violence to some degree. I don’t think they are dicks for dealing with it how they do it, but for me… I just don’t want to tell people what to do.

Q: Do you like his new band The Evens?

A: Yeah, it’s great. I love it.

Q: Let’s talk about your solo career that you’ve started. How’s it going so far? You have that mini CD done, right? What’s going to be next?

A: Yeah, I made that mini CD just for my live shows. What I wanna do next is… I’m working on an album, that’s almost finished, and put it out in the UK, Europe and America. I have some record labels that are interested, but I haven’t picked the one that I want to do it with.

Q: Is it going to be an indie label or a major?

A: it’s going to be an indie one. If it a major, it’s cool but I’m not shooting for it. I think it needs time for people to understand that.

Q: Yeah, I guess. I mean it’s just you and guitar right? It’s something different than the stuff you did before.

A: No, the album is not just me and guitar it has more elements to it.

Q: What about this unreleased Rival Schools album that float around on the net. Is it going to be put out officially?

A: This is just a demo. This isn’t finished record. It may sounds like and album but the lyrics and the guitar parts are not totally tight. If it meant to be an album I’d work harder on it. What I want to do is pick the best songs and make an album, like a new album that really, really meant to be an album. It’s not going to be the next thing I do but it will be there in my head and I will try to do some rehearsals with the guys and try to get that thing going.

Q: This Moondog ep that was released as downloadable mp3 files, is it going to stay that way?

A: I want to put it on vinyl, and maybe CD, but I really want it to be on vinyl, because I think that would be cool. Doing it digitally was just the easiest way to do it.

Q: I heard opinions that people weren’t really into it, because it was just mp3’s not a record that you could touch, you know?

A: Haha, I’ll work on that. I thought that was very modern of me to do it that way.

Q: Ok, now I want to ask you about some thing I heard one time. You may find it funny (or not). Is it true that you talked Porcell into smoking pot at the Morrissey show?

A: NO! That’s bullshit. Porcell made up that story for straight edge people… there’s this one article where he makes me up like his pot dealer. I guess that’s pretty cool… yeah, it’s true.

Q: OK, true or false?

A: Yeah! I was like we’re going to the Morrissey show. Let’s get stoned!

Q: Ha, ha. OK, I guess that is just another hardcore rumour. Let’s move one…

Is “Bicycle song” a real story?

A: Yeah, it is a real story. My bike got stolen, I got it back and then it got stolen again.

Q: How did you get it back?

A: It’s such a crazy story. There was this stranger that I locked up his bike. I bought a lock and locked up the bike that I knew was mine and I left a message with my phone number. He phoned me and we worked out a deal and I got my bike back. I gave him my bike that I had at that time but I didn’t care about that much and he gave me my bike back.

Q: Who’s that person Arthur Lee from one of your songs?

A: Arthur Lee was a lead singer of Love. He just passed out last year. Love is a great band. You should look it up on the internet. I think they were more popular in England than in the US. They had very beautiful songs and very interesting lyrics.

Q: What kind of music is it?

A: Errrr… it’s like a psychedelic folk. It’s like 60’s… kind of like connected to The Doors a little bit.

Q: What about this website www.unitedbywalter.com? How did it start?

A: It’s a guy in Minneapolis that runs it. I’m not running it I do interviews with him sometimes but it’s an unofficial website. My website, www.waltershreifels.com is coming soon.

Q: How about your last band Walking Concert? Is it done?

A: Yeah. I had all these different band and I just felt like I want to do music under my own name.

Q: OK, that would be all I think. You have anything else you would want to add?

A: Not really, just thanks for the interview man.