Where It Ends Zine

Ian Geiger of Overlooked Interview

2012-01-01T12:46:00.000-08:00

I sat down with Ian Geiger who sings for North Carolina's Overlooked. You can listen to there new sevin inch single "Someday Never Came" below, but if you want to hear more of their music, click here.

Overlooked - "Someday Never Comes" Seven Inch Single by WhereItEnds

If you like what you hear, order the record here!

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What's up Ian? How've you been as of late?

Not bad man, been working on getting 2012 lined up for us and working on some new stuff. This year was pretty rough so the past few months have kind of been our recovery period I guess you could say, and just getting ready to gear up and hit 2012 even harder.

Hell yeah, so how did Overlooked start up?

I played in a few bands and filled in for a few bands prior to this, but nothing ever seemed to work out or add up the way that I wanted it to. Starting Overlooked was a way to do things on my own terms with like-minded people. I pretty much wrote our demo by myself, and then recruited our old drummer and our guitarist. We’ve basically worked from there, and since then we’ve gone through a few member changes, had our share of good luck, bad luck, everything in between.

Well that’s almost bound to happen you know? What's the Overlooked lineup looking like as of now?

Well now we are probably at our most solid lineup, everything just makes sense now. But myself and parker, our guitarist, are the only original members at this point. Jared is our second drummer and Lenny used to be our roadie and he just kind of ended up playing bass for us after Tyler left. That makes him our third or fourth bassist, something like that. We’re really happy with how everything is working out though, we are all best friends so it just makes sense better than it ever did.

Can you tell me a little bit about your bands discography?

We’ve put out a 7" EP, an online EP, a 7" single that just came out, and were writing right now for our split with Another Mistake. Our first 7" we wrote within the first few months of being a band and recorded it right afterwards, but it took forever to come out. We had to wait almost like 8 months before we could really work off of that record and start touring in support of it, but once it did we started hitting the road as much as we could. We went through some lineup changes and kind of worked out some kinks, and then hit the studio and recorded our online EP and the single.

That split is going to be awesome, I love that 7" that they put out on Like Glue Records. That label and Nick who runs it, is awesome. Have you checked out any of their releases?

Yeah that is a really great label that is doing a lot for the southeast and the midwest, Nick puts a lot into that label and really loves hardcore. It seems like every band they work with end up moving onto even bigger things, and it’s really awesome to see something like that. That Written Off/Out Crowd split is a banger for sure, both of those bands are on point.

Yeah, both sides of that split are bangers. You guys are putting out a new seven inch on Brad's Gang records, who have put out some awesome records. How'd you guys get hooked up with Brad's Gang?

One of my old bands toured with the guys who run Brad’s Gang like 3 years ago, so when this label got started up it was inevitable that we would end up working together at some point. We had been kinda stagnant and were unsure of what we were doing release-wise, so I asked if they were into the idea of doing a really small run of 7" singles and it just went from there. It’s been super casual and great to work with them, I’m really pumped on how everything came out.

How's your new seven inch compare to your previous material?

It’s every aspect of this band that we aim for, but better. It’s faster, it’s angrier, and it’s heavier. We sat on these songs for a while and were able to work out every little thing with these songs and make them the best we could, so they represent everything that Overlooked is as a band. I’m not ashamed of our first 7" at all, it just could’ve come out a lot better in retrospect, and this new stuff definitely represents us as a whole much better.

Are you guys planning on touring within the next year?

We have a weekend in February coming up, then planning on a two week run of the east coast/midwest at the end of February or the beginning of March. After that, is all up in the air, but we have every intention of being on the road this year. We would love to hit some fests, and are actively trying to make that happen. We have a lot in the works, so hopefully well be everywhere that we wanna be to this year.

Do you plan on releasing more material in the future, like an LP?

Like I said earlier, this upcoming spring we have a split coming out with Another Mistake from Kentucky. We are super lucky to have Twelve Gauge Records from San Francisco putting it out, and I think it will go over really well, at least I HOPE it does. As far as an LP goes, I don’t know if we are the type of band to ever really do an LP. We’ve talked about it, but I just don’t know to be honest. I love releasing 7 inches and smaller stuff like that. I have always thought that EP’s, singles, and splits were the coolest releases a band can do. But in a few months I’ll have knocked all three of those off of our band bucket-list, so maybe an LP will come..who knows!

So what do you think about the current hardcore scene? What are the pros/cons to you?

There are a lot of different types of bands doing big things right now..heavy bands, fast bands, whatever. Lots of mixed tours and different scenes working together, so that’s definitely a good thing. There definitely isn’t a shortage of bands, or of kids even. It’s just that for whatever reason, even in this internet age, its somehow still borderline impossible to get kids to come to shows. Either they claim to not know about them, or complain about price, or something. But to be honest, I feel like kids are too afraid to step out of their comfort zone when it comes to shows..which with these mixed tours is cool because some kid might be 15 years old and saw some kinda bigger hardcore band on the Warped Tour or some shit, and when some band they jock is on a tour with two or three other straight up hardcore bands that he’s never heard of before, he’s more likely to check them out. So I guess what I’m trying to say is the people that are coming out are cool, the bands that are playing are cool, it’s just a matter of getting MORE people to support what’s going on around them and take note of what’s up.

Yeah it's the same way everywhere almost, especially kids complaining about shows. Do you guys have any solid venues in your area?

North Carolina/South Carolina are kind of just one collective scene, so if a show can’t happen in one town, it can probably go down within a few hours of it and most of the same kids will attend. But as far as Wilmington, we have a great venue called The Soapbox, but they are starting to stray away from doing hardcore shows. It sucks, because I’ve seen and played some of my favorite shows there and would love to keep it that way, but things change I guess.

Is there anything else you'd like to say my man?

Thanks Jim for doing this interview and to anyone that read this and has checked us out. Shout outs to the NCHC, Jihad and Twelve Gauge Records, Brad’s Gang Records, Life to Live Records. Listen to Another Mistake. Hardcore rules, hopefully we see everybody soon.

"Hardcore Merch" by Brian Murphy(How's Your Edge, TeeTillDeath.com)

2011-11-11T09:30:00.000-08:00

"Hardcore Merch" by Brian Murphy(How's Your Edge, TeeTillDeath.com) was featured in Where It Ends Zine #3. Enjoy. (That's Brian in the red shirt, diving during the In My Eyes set at Edge Day 2009.)

As styles in hardcore music go in cycles so does taste in hardcore merchandise. What is king shit today can be just shit tomorrow. But that’s the name of the game, I suppose. Just like one style of hardcore can't stay at the top forever, one bands merch can rule the roost forever. People will always love generic youth crew and Uniform Choice 4 sided tees, but other flavors burn hot for months or years.

Running TeeTillDeath.com over the past few years, means I have seen some trend come and go. Here’s a break down of some of the cycles I've seen over the last few years.For those with short memories, fear not. I plan on keeping all my examples relevant to the last 3 years.

Let’s start in 2009 with Have Heart. As you may recall, Have Heart broke up in 2009 which made ALL of their merch worth its weight in gold. Final show shirts were selling for outrageous prices on ebay, despite not selling out at the gig. Of course, these prices dropped once the band put up the numerous leftovers on their online store. But for roughly 3 months surrounding the last gig, Have Heart merch was the merch to have (to sell). These days the prices are much more reasonable. Shirts can be had for $15-20, which is way better than the $60-65 some were going for previously, but not all of the shirt prices fell off. Certain fest tshirts still command high prices. But that last show tanktop? Don't spend your whole paycheck on it. You can probably get it for the cost of a slightly expensive lunch. Cha-ching.

More recently, say late spring 2010 into early winter 2011, Trapped Under Ice was KILLING it merch wise. They were selling a ton of great merch, and flipping was off the chain. The secondary market TUI windbreaker sales could have fueled a tour van for a few states, big ones at that. There were days where two or three windbreakers would all end at once, each of them cracking that $100 mark. I feel like one even went to $120. Crazy. Fast forward and the prices are again reasonable. I imagine the jackets sold new for anywhere between $35 and $45. You could probably get one on ebay for $50-$60 now. That's not terrible, right?

That brings us to today -- the beginning of fest season. Fests are amazing. I frequently refer to them as Merch Bloodbaths. It's inevitable. Every band, every label, every outlet (ttd included) will have something for sale. It's intense. And one thing I've learned about fest season, wait it out. If you you couldn't make it to the fest, wait 8 months, then buy on ebay. Just wait. The day after the fest, ebay will light up with "fest only" merch. People will go buck and bid like maniacs. However, if it's something incredible, sit back a few months. Wait for the fires to cool, then pounce on a deal. It almost never fails (think about the Smoke With Cali Have Heart tee. They've come WAY down in the years following that fest). Trust me on this one. Just wait it out.

Of course, some classic hardcore merch has never gone out of style. A Youth Crew 88 shirt will always look crucial. A Smorgasboard Records tshirt will always be classic. And you'll never be able to purchase a judge schism longsleeve with miller tags on ebay for a bargain. Actually, I shouldn't say never. You may luck into one: a misspelling, a bad listing, an eager to sell ebayer. It can happen, and it does happen. But chances are, you're going to have to fight tooth and nail for it. That's just the way it is lately.

Classic items never go out of style, while trends come and go. And the most important thing to remember, buy what you like. I know it sounds low and stupid, but seriously, why are you buying some limited merch from a band that you don't even like? Support the bands you love, and give high fives to the rest. Let the next kid in line who loves that band buy the merch.

Justin Ogden(Let Down/Wrong Answer) Interview

2011-11-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I interviewed Justin Ogden, who sings for Wrong Answer from Pennsylvania. He also used to play bass in a band called Let Down. Enjoy.

What's up Justin? How are you doing?

I am doing pretty good right now! I am writing this from a kid's kitchen, somewhere in Indiana at like 3 AM. Everyone else is asleep and I am up computing.

Now I just wanted to start out by saying that your set at This Is Hardcore was rad as hell. There was a stupid amount of kids pitting when you opened up with "The World Is Empty". What was that like for you, especially since you were playing the same day as Youth of Today and H2O?

Well for us (I think I can speak for the whole band on this one) it was cooler because of YOT and Ringworm, I haven't really given H2O a second thought since I was 15. But yeah man it was fucking awesome, it was cool to be one of the local bands that people actually go off for, not like one of the ones in years past who just got a slot out of pity, or as a hand out to see what we'd do with it. We’ve been really lucky over the last year or so and also put in a lot of work and it's always nice to see people appreciate your efforts and stuff like that. It was a really special moment for sure - I considered trying to get my parents to come out because they've never seen this band (they saw let down twice though) but I was kinda nervous, didn't know how the set would turn out, and just didn't want to deal with any potential headaches from the situation. But now I wish I had. But yeah, Ringworm and Youth of today... Man. In an ideal situation that's what I’d like our band to sound like, in a blender.

What other bands did you enjoyed/excited to see at the Fest?

Beware, Face Reality, Underdog, Mother of Mercy, Title Fight, Dead End Path, Nails, All Else Failed, Stick Together, Damnation A.D, and many more. I would have enjoyed Agitator if I had arrived early enough but I’m a dummy.

I remember during Agitator's set Marty said something about you not being at the Fest or something so you couldn't sing your part in "Force Fed Lies"! hahaha, But what's your opinion on Force Fed and everything that surrounded that band?

Oh jeez. Well whatever, first of all I showed up to the fest way late because I’m a dumb idiot but yeah, my opinion on Force Fed? This is a long one. I mean I’ll go so far as to say that my opinion on force fed probably differs greatly from Marty's opinion on them. See for Marty, Force Fed was a band that was around as he was starting to transition more from metalcore to actual hardcore, and since he was always into being straight edge that was a band whose message he really got into and like, believed in or whatever. So for him it was like a slight, like he put his faith in them and they disappointed him, or whatever. At least that's what I’ve gathered from conversations I’ve had with Marty on the subject.

Now obviously my thoughts on force fed come from an entirely different perspective. Force Fed was a band that myself and a lot of other older hardcore kids kinda helped out because they were the only band playing actual hardcore that seemed "legit" or like they "had a chance" that had new people in it (not some combination of the people from let down/mother of mercy and war pigs). The fact that they were straight edge was a big bonus, so my friends and I went out of our way to push them, help them out, whatever. Right away I pretty much knew that they weren't exactly what we were all pushing them to be. Their singer seemed legit, their bass player was a nice guy but everyone knew that he was just being straight edge to go along with the crowd, as he would talk openly about how much he missed smoking weed and how cool it was (despite singing in another short-lived straight edge side project - by the way, there's rumors this dude broke way before FF ever ended) and their drummer was a late-bloomer 'know it all' type who figured he had mastered hardcore after he had been playing in such an illustrious and well-respected band for all of six months. He was already over everything hardcore and especially Force Fed related long before the band ended, I remember over-hearing many whiny conversations with this dude on the subject of how annoying it was to go on tour. Well, not even go on tour. Like drive somewhere and play a show. Justin, the guitar player who now plays in Stick Together, was and remains to be a stand-up dude, and is still straight edge.

In fact that's the part that sucks about the whole thing, is that when you criticize Force Fed the only person who ends up hearing about it is Justin, because the singer and bass player have literally nothing to do with hardcore anymore and apparently just spend most of their time high/drunk or whatever, and the drummer is now in a frat or something and has applied his ego and know-it-all attitude to his future career in risk management or whatever (see the Dead Kennedy song "terminal preppie"). So like, when you dis force fed, it flies under the radar of the people you're actually targeting and ends up just annoying the one dude in the band who didn't do anything worth being dissed about.

But anyway, I have no epic feelings about force fed. They did their thing, they tried REALLY hard to be some craaazy straight edge outfit (would start shit over people drinking near them, constantly dis other local edge breakers, have ingenious stage banter that at one time consisted of 'fuck all the edge breaking faggots', and other stuff like that) - basically they were like a shit that let down took that wouldn't flush down the toilet. Then, after all of that, they turned into everything they made fun of. I think that's worthy of ridicule but it's not like I find it personally offensive. If those dudes would have taken the shots people gave them when they turned out to be hypocrites and just kept doing what they were doing (being into HC, playing in bands, booking shows in the singer's case) then nobody would have much of a leg to stand on when it came to making fun of them. But of course, their entire personalities and set of interests changed when they weren't claiming edge anymore. Go figure.

A lot of people think I have beef with those dudes just because they broke edge or something, and the truth is I don't have any beef with any of them and I don't wish anything bad to happen to them, but... How do I put this? It's kind of like swinging a big chain around, when you talk to the talk and can't back it up. Be prepared for that chain to come back and hit you in the face, kind of like when Keith Gallagher was moshing to Mother of Mercy playing 'Swinging the Chain' at their record release show and hit himself in the face with a chain. Like if I stood by your side and laughed with you at the people who were exactly like what you turned out to be, why wouldn't I laugh at you too? Straight edge means the same thing it did to me in 2002, 2006 or 2010. I'm not the one who changed. And it's bigger than just 'dropping a label' or something, when it coincides with your entire personality and set of interests changing. And obviously that would affect a friendship.

So Wrong Answer was so supposed to tour out to Sound and Fury this year, but you guys had to cancel because of money problems if I'm correct?

Yeah we don't have a car, between us as a band. Like I don't mean we don't have a band van, I mean that none of us even has our own car. For short trips we can usually borrow Kevin’s dad's car, and for longer ones we've been lucky enough lately to be helped out by Marty from Agitator (he played bass for us on our five day Canadian jaunt last month, and this time around he just let his us borrow his car while he rides in the van with the rest of his band). So I would have had to rent a car, and upon looking at the tour we ended up with I realized that it wouldn't have been worth the extra cost of a car rental. Because it was around Sound and Fury time, a lot of bands were touring, so a lot of the shows would have been with shitty bands like Doubledealer and other smaller touring bands trying to do their thing, so I figured instead of turning those shows into two or three tour packages we'd just sit it out because honestly it probably means a lot more to all of those kids to be able to go out and play that fest than it does to me (and I damn sure wasn't going to fly out to California for $150 hahaha)

Also kind of right before we were going to leave I found out that my girlfriend had been cheating on me for several months with a good friend of mine and we broke up, I lived with her and the plan was to really bust my ass at work and come up with enough money to move the fuck out, asap. Well, here we are a couple of months later and I still live with her. The idiotic escapes of a desperate man.

You still did the Canadian dares of that tour with Revenge right? Was it your first time being up there, well at least with Wrong Answer?

We had done a weekend in Canada before, when we played London and New market Ontario with agitator (and then did buffalo NY). I had been to Toronto a couple of times with Let Down, and had accompanied Force Fed on some trips up there too (LOL). I tried to go to Canada with mother of mercy once but they got rejected at the border, plus I’d been there on my own plenty. I actually grew up in Whitby, Ontario which is a suburb about a half an hour outside of Toronto (shout out to all Durham hardcore kids, especially my homies in head check). So yeah it was kind of familiar territory but I really love going out there and playing. Four of the five days were with Revenge, it was the end of their full US tour. I'd never met those guys and was only familiar with their music in passing but they were nice dudes and were fun to play with, the shows went well and I feel like our bands complimented each other nicely. The Kemptville, Ontario show was probably the coolest show we have ever played.

So since you've been posting tour updates of your Midwest tour with Agitator, I won't ask anything about it really other than, Marty got shingles before tour?

Yeah man Marty’s disgusting right now, I think the blister-y part of his shingles went away so now he just looks like someone was whipping him with a belt or something. He said that it's not contagious if you had chicken pox when you were younger and I had that shit in kindergarten so I’m not scared of him or anything, but yeah pretty gross. Apparently he's in pain from it too so if you see Marty, be nice to him.

Your debut 7' "The World Is Empty" came out on Harvcore Records last year and you guys made a music video for the title track. It turned out awesome, and it was one of the few hardcore bands who did videos like that in the last year. The only two I can think of would be Terror and Xibalba. What made you guys want to do a video in the first place anyways?

I kinda forget what our original motivation for doing that music video was, I didn't really think much of it at the time, and I just thought it'd be something dumb and funny. My friend Dan was going to school for a/v shit and had a really nice camera, he agreed to do it for free and I came up with some half-baked idea for a plot, so we go ahead and did it at the Halloween show last year. I think that if I had any intention at all, it was to kind of get that song more out there because I didn't think it would be any fun to play live if people didn't know the words (there are a lot of words in it and I have to sing them really quickly, if I don't have any help I’ll usually be on the ground wheezing by the end). So yeah it really wasn't something that a lot of thought went into, I had this beat ass script that we didn't even use, all the 'acting' parts were done in one take I think, and the performance is from an actual show. I didn't script any mosh or choreograph shit or have the band play to a track or anything like some other joke ass music videos, I think that shit is so corny and lame and is really visible in the real product. We played the song twice and even that was a mistake because the second time everyone just kinda stared at us like we were idiots. Everyone in the video is a friend of mine and mostly just went off to be nice, I think if people knew the video was going to be as big as it was, it would have been even crazier. But at the time we were like a second or third rate local band and nobody thought much of it haha.

Wrong Answer "The World Is Empty" Music Video

While on the topic of music videos, I read something that during one of Agitators sets on that tour you just did, there was a rap music video shot?

Yes that was actually this past evening, these dudes were filming a rap video and wanted some crazy shit going on in the background so the shot parts of it during our sets, in particular during agitator's people started going wild and throwing all this shit around, while these dudes were rapping with their backs to them. It was pretty goddamn crazy and I really hope I get to see this video someday to witness the outcome. Also noteworthy - these dudes filming this video were vice lords, so Agitator, the band that brought you the record 'Enter Vice Lords', finally got to cross paths with some real vice lords hahaha.

So at This Is Hardcore you guys played a new song off you're new seven inch that's going to be coming out on Six Feet Under Records. What are the details on that record?

It's going to be a four or five song EP called "Cross a Black Cat's Path", we have like four songs right now and we're just writing as much as we can right now, then we'll pick the best shit and go in and record it. We really didn't restrict ourselves musically with this, the deal with WA has always been that we write whatever music and lyrics we want and it is what it is, no "in the vein of" or "for fans of" shit. I don't know what songs are actually going to end up on the record but I do know that out of the songs we have so far, we have like straight forward moshy shit, then we have a song with an Ink and Dagger part, and a song that straight up sounds like embrace. I'm pretty excited to fiddle around with these songs some more and come up with the best EP we can, and also to put in serious work on the lyrical side of things. Luckily, I’ve had plenty to say lately.

So everyone asks you and your band this question, but for the people that really don't know about it, but what is your or the "Wrong Answer" definition of what naughty youth crew is?

I think it started off as something totally different than what it is now. I started saying it just to try to define what we were doing, because in old reviews of early Integrity stuff (say like the off the bat demo or something) people would refer to them as 'dark youth crew' and there was something about that term that always struck me as being cool. So Integrity/Ringworm are huge influences on us but instead of pulling from that perspective that a lot of bands do where they're like 'oh well here's some downtuned hardcore with metal leads and some totally evil lyrics about how messed up and crazy I am, we're kind of approaching it more along the lines of 'let's play shit that's fast and kinda dark, with a punk edge to it'. Just going for a different set of influences than most bands influenced by integrity, reaching back a little farther I guess.

The other influence behind it is that like, for me personally, and also a lot of other kids I know, like we're dudes that were very into youth crew hardcore, from the inception of that style in the 80s with all those rev bands to the 90s revival to even bands like count me out in the 2000s, I just love that style, but I’m not like a youth crew revivalist dweeb with a pos top haircut and a bold shirt on, trying to fit the mold of some dude on the back of a record from 23 years ago. I'm just myself, I was a bad kid growing up, I didn't fit in at school, fucked up things happened to me and I’ve done fucked up things to other people. I'm not some clean cut person - I’m not a misanthropic, apathetic dickhead either and I’d like to think that I do more good than harm in the long run, but yeah. So naughty youth crew also evoked that for me in the beginning, just being into a wide range of hardcore including youth crew shit but not being restricted or trying to play some role. It also coincides with our vibe in general - I tackle serious topics in our lyrics but try to have fun with it in a live environment, we're not one of those 'roll around on the floor and watch me act crazy' bands. I want people to go off and have a good time when we play, it's honestly important to me.

It's come to mean something different I guess, like now I think of that term, "naughty youth crew" as just a name for everyone that gets what we're doing. We're not an easy band to pin down, I don't think. It's pretty easy to deduce our influences but I don't think we sound like a rip of any band, past or present. Nor can you put an easy label or attach a gimmick to us, which seems like a popular thing in today's internet-based hardcore world. A lot of the time I feel like people expect/want WA to be a straight edge band and are disappointed to learn I’m the only one, like that somehow makes our band less worthwhile than some other band whose members aren't going to be straight edge the year after their band breaks up. If you feel that way, fuck off, we don't want you to like us anyway. You are a mindless pissant. But yeah for everyone who gets what we do, who doesn't need a convenient label or a gimmick to appreciate a band and can just appreciate music for what it is, everyone who can catch our vibe and of course all my friends, we baptize you the naughty youth crew, worldwide.

Alright, so tell me what is so great about tumblr? You seem to get a crazy amount of odd questions all the time.

I guess if you just type out long responses to most of the questions you get asked on tumblr, people will keep asking you more and more of them because they like the idea of being personally responsible for someone investing a lot of time and effort into typing words on a computer. Well just to warn all of you, I’m an extremely fast typist and writing a bunch of words on a computer screen is my idea of a good time, so it's no sweat off my back! Haha. But yeah I mean tumblr is just a tool to express yourself like any other one available. Some people just use it to re-post a bunch of stuff and take glamor shots and stuff like that, and that's cool if it's what you're into. For me, I think it's a cool way to share a part of my life with people through words and pictures, and because there's a community aspect to it (somewhat like Facebook) it comes in with a built-in audience - which motivates me to keep doing it. I didn't get a lot of attention as a child.

What's the weirdest question someone’s asked you?

People say a lot of weird stuff to me about 'my potential' or something like that, I’d say something along those lines because it's so awkward to hear and I don't know what the hell people expect me to do with myself hahaha. Other than that, most of the weirder ones are probably my friends fucking with me.

So how many times have you been asked in let's say, the last two years "When is Let Down going to play again?" or "Will Let Down ever play again?". I'm sure at some point it gets tiring hearing that.

A good number of times I guess, I mean especially in our area. I mean I get tired of hearing it only because I always have the same answer, which is like "I don't know" to both of those. There was a time when three of us were dead set about playing again and just drew didn't want to do it. As time goes on the idea of a reunion seems less and less likely, but under certain specific circumstances it could be pretty cool. I think most of us are on the same page that we want it to happen as like a sudden surprise/not as a main draw on a show or anything. That way we wouldn't be trying to cling to any fading popularity, and it would be in the spirit of everything let down did. But yeah I’m proud of Let Down and what we did, those were the best times of my life and I’m still as straight edge as ever, and as long as everyone else is, I’ll always be down to play again under the right circumstances.

Also your bet with Sausage is still good? Correct? The one about everyone still being edge?

Yeah both he and Robby were pretty sure I’d be the first to break out of Let Down, jackasses. We are all still straight edge and the band has been over for more than two years, pretty good so far! Hopefully that continues forever.

Anything else you'd like to say?

Boy, I’ve said a lot! If you read all of that, thanks! And thanks for the interview! Check out my tumblr: http://glaciersofice.tumblr.com/.

Shout out to my true friends who have had my back and put up with my bullshit through a year that has taken a serious toll on me, you know who you are and although I don't always show it, I love you and I wouldn't be here without you, seriously.

Check out Beware and Black Feathers, two great up and coming bands from my area.

Listen to Never Healed.

Philadelphia Straight Edge XXX

Dwid Hellion(Integrity, Holy Terror Records) Interview

2011-09-03T18:15:00.000-07:00

Back in the spring, I got the oppurtunity to do a small interview with the great Dwid Hellion of Integrity. It was featured in Where It Ends Zine #3 which is now basically out of print. Enjoy.

Going to jump right into this, So here we go. Humans are filth; although this is a blanket statment, history has shown this to be true. Though altruism still exists, whether through the acts of individuals or groups, I see these acts as insignificant gestures; to me, the greatest act of love, and mercy, would be to eviscerate those we love in one fell swoop. Do you believe that one human's terrorist is another's hero? Or is it our human duty to spill the blood of those who contaminate our presence with squalor (genocide, religious desecration of human rights, etc; I believe heroes do not exist, nor have they ever; only inspirations.

Yes, "Terrorism" is almost always viewed as a heroic act by the "terrorist". The terrorist sees himself as a revolutionary, a hero or a martyr and rarely as something negative. My interest in annihilation is not for random carnage, but to free our imprisoned souls. This can only be achieved with the total extermination of all human flesh.

So moving on, now in the past you've said in the past that you make, is the music that has been playing inside your head. Has that music inside your head changed over the years?

All of my recordings vary in style and sound. For the most part, my influences have not altered much since I began recording. I would say that my current music is more extreme and aggressive than that of my past records. And hopefully less accessible to the mainstream public who have polluted and contaminated our audience.

So as of late, Integrity has been very busy release wise, with The Blackest Curse LP, the We Are The End 7', and the split with Rot In Hell. What's next for Integrity? Are you going to focus on your other projects?

The Blackest Curse was recorded in 2008, so that is actually an old release. VVe Are The End, Love Is The Only VVeapon, split with RIH are more recent. Last week Integrity released a new LP, 'Detonate VVorlds Plague' and a CD collection of that LP along with several 7" recordings and compilation tracks from 2009-2011. The CD collection is titled, 'Thee DestroyOrr'

While speaking of other projects, you've been working with the dudes in Pulling Teeth in the form of what you guys are calling Integriteeth.

That was a promotional recording to promote the Mighty Sphincter release of 'Resurrection' on A389 Records. It was just a one time occasion.

So you're in your forties now if I'm correct, how has life and your outlooks changed since say when you first started Integrity? Or even since you released "In Contrast Of Sin?"

The humans will always betray and disappoint. That will never change. Rats in a flesh prison. In Contrast Of Sin ep was my 1st record, but I would say that Those Who Fear Tomorrow was where i was able to properly convey my feelings through music.

So recently you've indulged yourself in film making. How have you been able to express your visions through filmmaking that you couldn't express say through your music?

I started making videos in 2001 and continue to experiment within that media. I think video with music can be a rewarding experience, but it can also be detrimental to the way I create music. You can lose the interpretive aspect of music if you reveal too much.

So a few years ago you started releasing music through Holy Terror Records. Has releasing records on your own label opened up your eyes to another side of the music industry that you wouldn't necessarily see as an artist?

Holy Terror records began in 1997 we released a few records and went dormant for more than a decade. Before that I had a small record label called, Dark Empire records. I have always known the music industry is not complimentary toward the musician, and self releasing is the only way to be fully satisfied with the record.

You had the opportunity to release Charles Manson's music, which is quite interesting stuff. How did such an opportunity arise?

ATWA contacted us. They said Charlie was very interested in working with Holy Terror. We were very honored to be approached with this offer and we are very proud to have released the ep.

Are there any upcoming releases on Holy Terror you are excited for? Or even any other releases throughout music industry that you are looking forward too?

Holy Terror has a split 7" with PARASITE (japan) and VERMAPYRE that is now available as well as the before mentioned new Integrity cd and 12" lp. These are available at our website, www.HolyTerror.com Also on our website is a free music download section which contains a rather large amount of Holy Terror music

Thank you Dwid for taking the time to answer these questions!

All the beast,

Mike Vickers (Abomination) Interview

2011-08-08T14:29:00.000-07:00

What's going on Mike?

The usual. Yourself?

Doing good man, keeping busy. So how did Abomination start in the first place?

Abomination crawled out from hells womb and took beastly form under the floorboards of a Mission Hill apartment back in 2009. Four-piece at that time, it was, Jesse (scholar/criminal*/bass), Zach (engineer/bike-enthusiast/guitar), B-Mac (automotive technician/uninhibited bluntness/drums) and me (graphic designer/Satanist/vocals). We all lived there together and pissed off every neighbor within a mile radius, and not just with the electric hell we were oozing out from the basement. Gathered in a dusty haze of asbestos, lead paint and rat excrement, we practiced long and hard with the goal of creating sonic evil in the most primal form. Metal riffing. Hardcore mentality. Doucey (endless party/bearded menace/guitar) wasn’t their for the bands inception, but since he has joined, anybody in the band will tell you, Abomination didn’t truly begin until he plugged in at his first practice with us.

* Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

So you described my brother as an endless party, that's a great description for him! What did he bring to the band when he plugged in at that first practice?

Doucey not only made us heavier, but he really matured our sound. He writes amazing riffs and does it almost in an instant. He has a distinct style that really helped define our sound. We wanted to take the band in a blacker, doom-ier direction and that is the shit he knows how to write. He also works really well with Zach. They each play their own style but the way they compliment each other is a big reason why we sound the way we do.

Band aside, Doucey has become one of my best friends and he is a great drinking partner (as long as you can pick up his tab)

He sure is a gentleman! haha So, You recorded a four song demo back on 2009, in which you recorded vocals in a bathroom?

Released in the clutches of the Swine Flu hysteria, it was mockingly titled “Swine Fool”. The four songs were later re-recorded and released on the EP, “Dark Corner of the Mind”. Basically, we were really anxious to show people what we were doing, and we wanted to play more shows. We didn’t have the money for studio time so we did it DIY the best we could. That consisted of a weekend, swearing in front of a broken computer, fumbling with scotch-taped mics, screaming in a shower stall, and consuming enough energy drinks to kill a large predatory animal. It will forever be one of my fondest moments with the band.

Then in early 2010 you released a new EP entitled "Dark Corner of The Mind", what are your lyrics based off of on the record? Maybe sort of a song-by-song breakdown?

My lyrics are to be viewed as short stories where I aim to make the listener part of the plot. I strive for them to hear, see, smell and feel what I am saying. Songs like “Soulless Creatures” and “Parasite Paradis” for example, are simply buffets of repulsing, fear-laden imagery, with no other purpose then to drag the listener through the depths of inner terror. Songs about the Christian feared apocalypse (“Pale Fate”), A demon escaping hell to torture humanity (“Godless Monstrosity”), and the power to take life from those who don’t deserve it (“Bringer of Death”), all serve this similar purpose. When writing I tediously piece together lines and carefully weave in words that I feel will evoke strong imagery. The lyrics are based off the horrors that lurk in the dark corners of my mind (see what I did there). I take great interest in this darkness because when brought to the surface, it reminds me I am alive. These blackened thoughts are something we all have, but most want to dismiss as insanity. Rather then suppress them, I let them fester into words and we make music to accompany them. As humans we are all instinctively attracted to the rush of fear. I happen to be a junkie.

What would you describe a fear junkie like yourself as?

In using that term, I am referring to my constant purist of knowledge. I am very interested in the concept of fear, and what it means to fear something. How do we manifest fears? What are the things that drive us into cold sweats, make our heart beat wildly, or cause us to loose control? Where do these fears lurk within us, and what does it take for me to rattle them awake? I think its fascinating how the mind works, and how we react to fear. It is amazing what lengths we will go to fight our fears and yet how longingly we strive to bring them to life, however dramatic they may or may not be. Anyone can comprehend threats of violence, that’s not the fear I’m talking about. I don’t look for danger; there is no question why there is fear in physical harm. I am fixated on the fear I don’t yet understand because it is in searching for these fears, you learn a great deal about yourself.

On that note, what would you say your greatest fears would be?

If I told you, I would be exposing a weakness. This world is survival of the fittest.

I personally think Abomination is the perfect blend of darker metal and hardcore, but how would you describe your sound?

This is a very interesting question to ask me, based on the current state of the band. I am going answer carefully and the best way I can.

Abomination is like an unsuspecting idiot who bought a baby snake that turned out to be an Anaconda. And recently, we were awoken in this reptile’s coils, gasping for air, as its hinged jaws swallowed us alive. Originally we created something we weren’t ready to handle. Only in recent months have we tamed this serpent into a weapon we are wielding with acute precision. Fully describing our sound is tough, because what you hear on “Dark Corner of the Mind” is not the full realm of Abomination. “Dark Corner of The Mind” was our absolute best efforts for the time, we put a lot of hard work into that record, but it actually hasn’t nearly sustained our appetites. Since that record we started practicing very hard to write the style of music we want to play, instead of only making a close attempt at it. We’ve started crafting a sound that has gradually transformed like the stages of a Recluse Spider bite. Uglier. Blacker. More Pain. It’s rearing a gruesome face with a smile of pure evil. I’m talking about music that scrapes across your skull, tears at your moral fiber, leaving you intoxicated with sin. We sound like we mean it, because we do.

You guys are doing a split with Villain that will be out soon, are the new songs more metallic compared to the songs on "Dark Corner Of The Mind"?

Metallic is an interesting word that is up for interpretation. So to be fair, I will say “yes”. But I will also tell you what that means to me. The two songs coming out on that split are best described as stepping-stones from “Dark Corner of the Mind” to a sneek peek into our future. Since writing the songs for the split, we have continued to plunge even deeper into darkness, bathing in the blood of our old stuff. It’s no question that you will hear Abomination on this split, but the more metallic you will be hearing, is a stronger influence from Black Metal and Doom.

So in meaning of more metallic, you have more of a Doom influence in the veins of Electric Wizard, who I believed if my memory serves me right you covered? And how good is the new EW? I can't stop listening to it!

We covered “Return Trip”, one of my all time favorites. We will have more great covers of this nature to come.

Recently we have taken a much heavier influence from Electric Wizard, and many other similar bands. I have always been a Doom-monger but it is finally seeping into the music because the rest of the band is starting to get it. Electric Wizard, in my eyes, epitomizes the ideals of heavy music. It is much more dynamic than simply what you hear. Electric Wizard is an experience into a dimension where gravity is non-existent and you can feel sound as it pummels you deeper and deeper into the black caverns of you consciousness. They make reality move slower, time melts off their guitar strings. You can feel their riffs shaking your mind free from the grips of this world. Electric Wizard is a powerful drug, and in simply listening you catch a contact high that will have you tripping harder than anything you can buy on the street. The epic saga only continues with the latest release of “Black Masses”. The wizard has yet to disappoint.

From my understandings, you wrote a song about Richard Ramirez, what about him made you want to write a song about him?

We did. The song is called “The Night Stalker”. My interest in his story started back with a gift from my sister, a cheesy paperback book called, "The Killer Book of Serial Killers". The book basically gives you an abridged version of the lives and crimes of America’s most infamous serial killers. After reading the portion on Ramirez, I was for obvious reasons, extremely fascinated. A Satanic serial killer known for listening to heavy metal, if he wasn’t already real, it’s likely I would have just made him up. I have always taken strong interest in the occult, and songs about serial killers/murderers have been written by some of my favorite bands, “Dead Skin Mask” by Slayer was about Ed Gein, "33 Something" by Bathory was about John Wayne Gacy, and Church of Misery, well, they have songs about them all. After reading an amazing biography by Philip Carlo, I knew Ramirez was the perfect subject for Abomination’s own murderer’s anthem. The lyrics detail, a disturbed individuals un-quenchable thirst for violence and a insatiable lust for Satan. It serves as a reminder, “Lucifer dwells with all of us.”

So you are a Satanist, what drew you to being a Satanist and how does it play into your daily life?

Simple question, big answer.

I was raised into Roman Catholicism. I was baptized, received the communion and confirmed Catholic. For 17 years I attended church regularly and completed all the CCD schooling. I have read much from the Bible, the Gospels, and the Sacred Scriptures. I am not embarrassed by this past, I have no regrets but rather I am very thankful for it. Everyone is different and for me, I had to be blind before I could see. My distain for Christianity is a direct response to years of actually being apart of the Catholic community, years of unanswered questions and years of unanswered prayers. My opinions are backed by actual experiences and knowledgeable perception. I tell many people, I have "seen the light", and that is, there is no light. I broke free from the church when I was old enough to make my own choices and smart enough to confidently begin thinking for myself. I have a first-hand understanding of what it is to live the Christian lie and feel the lambs wool blind my vision. I can confidently tell people how important it is to seek their own truth, because I have found my own, and I have never felt more liberated. I never claim to be right, but I will always do what’s right for me. Christianity is fueled by misconception and greed, its doctrine is contradictory and misguided and the majority of its practices are outdated and ignore logic and more importantly science. It's agenda falsely claims freedom but it actually enslaves, debases and strikes fear into its followers. It is no more than a crutch for those who live in hypocrisy. I normally sum up my opinions on how I feel about Christianity with one quote: I will always do what's right, no matter what anyone tells me, I don’t subscribe to Christianity where I’m expected to do what I’m told, regardless of weather its right.

I was also not satisfied with simply being an Atheist, Atheism is not a religion. Religion when not used interchangeably with Christianity and stripped of the subsequent counterparts that follow, is truly a beautiful thing. The basic ideas of religion, I find almost an instinctual need as a human being. People void of education on the meaning of "religion" still manifest their own belief systems. I believe using the word religion to describe these beliefs, just means they are derived from an established doctrine. My issues have never been with religion in the broad sense of the word but rather only in Christian religion, because I have personally been affected by it. This is where I found Satanism. Satanism is a religion by nature because it has its own dogmas and ceremony. It is still important for me to have more than just an intellectual understanding of my life and that is why I seek "Satan" for guidance towards a Left-hand path.

I am neither a humanist nor an atheist. I am a Satanist. I do not "worship the Devil". Any belief in supernatural deities is ridiculous. I am my own "God". My heaven and hell are of my own creation here on the only real plain of existence, Earth. Being a Satanist means I have recognized Satan as my symbol of rebellion to the Christian Church. Satanism is the code in which I live by, I question. I do not view my carnal and mundane desires as "sins", but rather I embrace them. Indulgence over abstinence without compulsion.

That is an extremely abridged version of my personal philosophies. I have many issues going public with the full magnitude of my beliefs because quite frankly not everyone can understand, and I don't wish to make them. I do however, strongly encourage people to seek me out (after a show or what have you) if they really want to talk more in depth about actual Satanism and not reverse-Christianity.

In the hardcore scene today, where there are so many bands who are doing exactly "evil hardcore", not trying to bash anybody but you know what I mean. But how do you compare your band to these other so called "evil" bands?

Abomination is not a gimmick. When I make references on stage or in lyrics to Christianity or Satanism, it is complete sincerity, it is not for shock value, and it is certainly not following any trends. I see and hear a lot of new bands using Satanic imagery, pictures of LaVey, The Sabbatic Goat, Pentagrams, so on and so fourth, and truly it just makes me laugh. I am certain most of them couldn’t tell me the meaning behind the pentagram, or the origins of the Goat of Mendes, or even where 666 originates from. I make these assumptions based on how the bands carry themselves, their lyrics, and how they choose to use this imagery. A Satanist knows these symbols very well, for they distinguish who we are. It is easy to see who is sincere and who is trying to push buttons. In the same breath let me add, I am only defending Abomination’s legitimacy, because we sincerely claim to be. I have no problem with these bands unless it is discrediting my own agenda. I am well aware there are an innumerable amount of bands using Satanic imagery, that aren’t Satanists, i.e. my favorite band of all time, Slayer. So again, let me reiterate, I am only answering the question of comparing Abomination to many other “evil hardcore” bands, many of which I am a huge fan.

For the most part you play shows with mostly hardcore bands, so how would you say you fit in with those types of bands, and what kind of reaction do you get?

Recently we have been getting great reactions. We have been playing higher on the bill, and I see more kids coming out and singing along. It is truly a great feeling, we work really hard on this stuff, so to see kids enjoying it just as much as us, is a feeling that is hard to describe.

We do play a lot of hardcore shows, and actually we have been trying to get out their more with some local metal/doom gigs in the area. We live near some great venues that have shows of that nature weekly (Great Scott, O’briens/Midway Café). We want to share this stuff with those crowds because we write music with them in mind just as much we do the punks. Nothing will ever beat a hardcore show, kids flipping of each other’s heads, PFC dance crew, and everyone punching their friends, but I’m always down for the metal heads and the drunken head-bang to. Basically we’re trying to get more Doucey’s into us.

So speaking of O'briens, you guys are playing their soon along with playing a few other gigs close by in the next month or so. Are you excited to play shows with bands that don't necessary come from the same background that you do?

I am fucking psyched and so is everyone in the band. We are really hoping these gigs open doors to similar gigs for the future. Sean from intheshit, is a great guy and frequently lends a hand to booking us out here, so we owe a lot to him.

So you guys have played some pretty crazy shows, so lets talk about that show that you had at Bentley and the madness that went down!

That Bentley show was one for the books. I think Future-breed captured some of the madness but unless you were there and caught a pizza crust to the dome, you can’t really understand the chaos. To sum it up, If it wasn’t bolted to the ground it got thrown. Steel chairs were swinging, barrels were tossed (and ran across), and it was raining trash, all the while I was wearing a homemade crown of thorns. It was all in good fun, and the promoter loved us, as for the rest of the university…well we won’t be playing there again.

So you mentioned earlier that you are a graphic designer, what do you do specifically? Do you have a piece that you've worked on that you especially like?

I am. I work at an advertising agency in downtown Boston, as a Junior Computer Artist. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say who our clients our because I just spent the last questions talking about Satan. So to cover my ass, I will simply say, I get to work for some amazing high-profile clients, and it is a one in a life-time opportunity.

I have 2 lives as an artist, my career and my personal. At work I do all that I can to meet the clients needs, and completely separate my personal life from the work. At home I work for myself, and that is the work I especially like. I get to do a lot of cool stuff for bands, shirts, flyers, album art, etc. I recently did the artwork for Villain’s “Trouble At Home” 7” and it was an honor.

And that about wraps it up, thanks to Mike for doing this, and make sure you check out Abomination!

Record Of The Month: "You Won't Find Peace" - Powerwolves

2011-07-26T17:04:00.000-07:00

Formed by members of Harder The Fight and Watchfire, two great bands that made Merrimack Valley hardcore what it is today, Powerwolves absolutely blew me away when they self released there demo in 2010. They dumped a good chunk of change into making over 500 copies of there demo, in which they gave away for free. That investment started to show when the band began playing shows in the Merrimack Valley area, there reactions kept getting bigger and bigger. After hearing a couple of new songs they were playing live, I was pretty excited when they said they were going to record a full length this year.

All of the work they had put into the band since they recorded the demo, payed off in a bigger way than anyone could have expected. That being that there debut full length, "You Won't Find Peace" would be released in August on Panic Records. That hard work also really shows off in the eight blistering tracks that appear on "You Won't Find Peace". It starts off with one of my favorites, that being "Behind This Face". That track, and a good part of the record, reminds me of Trial (who Timm from Panic Records plays guitar for), if only they decided they wanted to mix the metallic influence of The Hope Conspiracy, into there sound. The album simply does not let up, minus the instrumental "Welcome To The End".

You can stream a new song below called "They Keep Us " off of "You Won't Find Peace" that will be out soon on Panic Records. Make sure you make it out to Powerwolves Record Release show as well, on Saturday, August 27th at Anchors Up! in Haverhill, MA. It's the Anchors Up! 3 Year Anniversary Show, and the best part about it, is that it's a free show! It's Late Nite Wars last show, and Such Gold, Word For Word, Pitfall, The Bonus Army, Villain, Think Again, Reckless, The Nasty and Roadrage are also playing the show. So make sure you mark your calenders and most importantly pick up a copy of "You Won't Find Peace" out soon on Panic Records!

Powerwolves Facebook Page

"They Keep Us" by Powerwolves:

They Keep Us - Powerwolves by WhereItEndsZine

Stream: Rude Awakening-Demo 2011

2011-07-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

Now when I heard that this band was jamming together almost a year ago, it was hard for me not to be excited. Next thing you know it's July and out of nowhere comes Rude Awakening, hailing from Merrimack Valley come hitting hard with a four song demo that will be put out be Arrest Records on CD and Cassette Tapes. only way I can truly describe there sound is if Right Brigade decided that they wanted to play some jams with Terror. These four songs clock in at just under six minutes and I'm sure they will have you wanting more. I'm going to call it now, that this is my favorite demo of year, by far. Check out the stream of the demo below and check out Rude Awakening's facebook and bandcamp pages for more info!

Buy the demo from there bandcamp page: http://rudeawakening.bandcamp.com/

Other Links:
http://stereokiller.com/rudeawakening
http://www.reverbnation.com/rudeawakeninghc
http://www.arrestrecordsnh.com
Rude Awakening Demo 2011 by Rude Awakening

Stream: Abomination/Villain "Masters Of The Hunt" Split Song Premiere and Shoe City Records Update

2011-07-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

For me, "Masters Of The Hunt" Split featuring Abomination and Villain (Shoe City Records) without a doubt in my mind, will be the best split seven inch that comes out in 2011. I'll start off with the Abomination side of the split, and how there two tracks on "Masters Of The Hunt" are two of the heaviest songs you'll hear this year, in every way possible. The only way to describe it is, a fusion of Black Metal, Sludge, and Doom played with a hardcore mentality. On the other side of the split you have Villain, who released one of the best seven inches of 2011, "Trouble Of Home". They deliver two tracks that top everything, lyrically and musically, that they've released so far. It's Marlborough Hardcore at it's absolute finest and there tracks "Straw Dogs" and "Fist Fight in the Parking Lot" show that. Villain's vocalist and one of the men behind Shoe City Records, Philly Sips had this to say about "Masters Of The Hunt":

"My thoughts of the split are simple, it shows the progression and change that both bands are going through. It's a stepping stone split if you will. We both recorded tracks to show how we are changing as a band and what we are looking to do hence forth. It's not a drastic change of style or music in any fashion but both our bands believe we have hit our niche as bands and we want to put out a release to show the change and hopefully people will welcome it with open arms. This is what is going on now, if your down with that Shoe City sound, cool if not, thats cool too but its just what we do. Keep your eyes peeled for other upcoming releases such as another split with Villain and Snakeface from Australia and then a few full lengths from both bands in due time. Thanks for all the support." -Philly Sips

Below you can stream a new track from Abomination and Villain off of "Masters Of The Hunt". There is also free downloads of previous releases from Abomination, Shoe City Records and Villain. If you like what you hear you should go over to the Shoe City Records store and buy some records HERE. Preorders for the "Masters Of The Hunt" Split will be going up soon on there as well!

Guillotine by Abomination:

Guillotine - Abomination by WhereItEndsZine

Straw Dogs by Villain:

Straw Dogs - Villain by WhereItEndsZine

Free Downloads:
Abomination - Dark Corner Of The Mind
Streetsweeper - S/T (7" on Shoe City Records)
Villain - It's Rough (Full Length CD on Arrest Records)
Villain - Trouble at Home (7" on Shoe City Records)

Free Download: Word For Word Live at Welfare Records 4-28-08

2011-06-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

In August, Welfare Records will be releasing Word For Word's "Live At Welfare Records: Saturday April 26th, 2008" on 8 Track which will be strictly limited to 50 copies! Word For Word's vocalist Johnnie Limit says "It's a cool thing for kids to collect" about the concept of it being released on an 8 track.

Where It Ends presents you with the exclusive stream and free download of "Live At Welfare Records: Saturday April 26th, 2008". If you like what you hear, make sure you go pick up some of there records or merch in the Arrest Records Webstore HERE!

FREE DOWNLOAD!

Word For Word Live at Welfare Records: 4-26-08 by WhereItEndsZine

Mike D'Antonio(Death Ray Vision, Killswitch Engage, Overcast) Interview

2011-06-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

So I got a great opportunity to do an interview with Mike D'Antonio, who for most people reading this(I hope), would know him from playing bass in the almighty Overcast. He is more well known now a days for playing bass in one of the biggest bands in the current day "metal" genre, Killswitch Engage. He also currently plays bass alongside members of Cannae, Overcast, Seemless and Shadows Fall in the thrashy hardcore band Death Ray Vision. You can stream there new EP "Get Lost or Get Dead" at the end of the interview!

Hey Mike, how are you doing? So I'll start this off by talking a little about the new band your in, Death Ray Vision. How did DRV start up in the first place? DRV is sort of what people would call a "supergroup" band. But to me it seems like a group of long time friends playing fun music. Would you agree?

Exactly.
I had some demos kicking around, and out of boredom, I started sending em to my friends to see what they thought. From the get-go, Brian and Pete were very interested which gave me great hope that we could pull something together. Colin stepped in on drums and Zack followed on second guitar soon after. DRV is very "back to basics" for us, and it feels great to play that same aggressive music style we grew up on.

So I've been describing your sound to people as a good mix of hardcore and thrash. So with that being said, what would you describe your sound as?

I guess that is pretty much it. We are influenced by all the stuff we listened to as kids in the 90s.

What bands would you say influenced your sound? I know you guys have been playing a CroMags cover live, which totally rules. You should cover Leeway....just saying haha

Yeah. Cro-Mags, Bad Brains, Agnostic Front, Leeway, Madball, Integrity, Ringworm, Swiz, Deadguy, At The Gates and Slayer.

Sounds a lot like what I listen to these days, haha. Well moving on to some other things about DRV, you guys have been playing alot of local shows as of late, what shows do you have coming up? I heard you're playing that Harvest show in Revere which is going to be awesome!

Everything is very DIY at the moment, so we are just doing shows on the fly. The Harvest show seemed like a great fit for us, so we were excited to be added to the bill. Deathrayvision.com has all the show updates.

You guys played one of your first shows at this years New England Metal and Hardcore Fest along side the likes of Biohazzard, Blood For Blood, Bury Your Dead, Terror and Trapped Under Ice. How did you enjoy the fest? Were there any bands that you specially enjoyed seeing/checking out?

Metal Fest is always a great place to showcase your band. We were excited to be a part of it, and stoked on the turn out. I saw my boys in Times Of Grace on Sunday. All in all, NEMHF 13 was a pretty rippin time.

Now you guys self released you're new EP, which is awesome and I really respect that. What made you guys want to self release it and not do the release with a smaller label?

We basically wanted something out by our 1st show so people would know what we were up to. We recorded, mixed, mastered and put out the EP in 2 weeks. It was a rush to be able to have something so fresh come out right away. It is definitely nothing I am used to… and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Eventually it would be nice to get some distribution on a future LP, well see how things work out.

Now on to some other stuff, you played bass in the almighty Overcast. You, Brian and Pete all played in that band for those who don't know. But is there any plans for more Overcast shows in the future or have you guys put Overcast to rest for good?

It would be cool to do something for the 20th anniversary (holy crap). But there are no current plans.

Damn, that sure crept up fast! A few years back Overcast reunited to play shows and recorded a record that was released on Metal Blade Records. You played a good handful of shows including Bane's 10th Anniversary show, and a few headlining shows including one at the Upstairs at the Palladium in Worcester. What would be the show that sticks out to you the most out of all the shows Overcast played during that time?

The first time Overcast reunited to do Metal Fest was the most heart warming thing I have ever done. People really showed us the love that we never had in that band. That show prompted us to play more and release the Metal Blade record.

What you're most well know for is being the bassist in Killswitch Engage. What has been up with the band as of late? You've been off the road for a while since Adam is out with him and Jesse's new band Times Of Grace.

KsE needed a break. Badly. Now, a year later, it is time to kick things in gear again. Currently, everyone is individually writing demos for the next KsE record. There is no release date yet, but I would assume it will be out early 2012.

Speaking of Jesse, last year there was a string of shows that you guys reunited with Jesse for a selection of songs and even played as 4 piece with Adam on drums. What was that like for you getting to play some songs you guys probably haven't played in a good chunk of time?

It was amazing. There was a certain charm to that incarnation of KsE, and it brought back a rush of cool memories. Those songs are fun to play, and Jesse was the cherry on top.

I would personally love to see that happen again sometime in the future, you guys should make it happen at the Palladium or something. Killswitch with Jesse, Shadows Fall playing all the old records, Overcast, and Death Ray Vision. It would be pretty sweet.

We have been discussing a big Mass Metal type show (or shows) including all our friends. There is a good chance it will happen as long as the touring schedules jive

I know you do design work for bands and other things such as the New England Metal and Hardcore Fest. Do you have a favorite piece that you've ever designed? Or something that is more personal I guess you would say?

I really like how the new Crowbar record "Sever The Wicked Hand" came out. They are my favorite band, so it was a dream come true to help them out with that. I couldn't have asked for a cooler project!

Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Thanks to everyone who took the time out to read this, and thanks for the interview.
Look for Death Ray Vision playing at a venue near you.
Watch for a new KsE record next year.
Keep an eye out for a massive Massachusetts type show (or shows) in the near future

Alright, thank you Mike for doing this interview!

Thanks for the interview Jim!

<p>&amp;lt;a href="http://deathrayvision.bandcamp.com/album/get-lost-or-get-dead"&amp;gt;Get Lost or Get Dead by Death Ray Vision&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;</p>

FocusedxMinds Interview

2011-06-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

This is an interview with Drew, who plays guitar for FocusedxMinds. They are one of the best edge bands out there today, and have a new seven inch "Stay Focused" out now on 6131 Records!

Hey Drew, how are you doing?

I'm doing great man! Just relaxing and getting everything together and ready to hit the road for the summer. One more day at home, get me outta here.

So let's talk about your new record that's coming out on 6131 records? How would you compare it say to your demo?

We're really excited and happy with "Stay Focused". It's definitely, in our opinion, the best music any of us have put out with any band we've ever been in. Compared to the demo...well three of the songs are our favorite ones from the demo, just re-recorded and sounding a lot better. The three new ones are really cool in our opinion. I think they definitely show progression as a band, in songwriting and stuff. Some of the parts go a little harder than demo stuff, some is a little thrashier, but it still sounds just like us. We can't wait for it to be out.

How did you get hooked up with Joey and 6131 Records? Did he find you or did you guys find him?

It's a sweet story actually. We were on a weekend tour with our friends in Big Mouth. We had just finished playing our 3rd show ever and we were driving six hours home in an awful snow storm. We got an email basically saying like, "Hey there, I got your demo from Walter from Rotting Out and loved it. What are your plans for the future?". We saw it was from Joey at 6131 and seriously freaked out haha. Apparently Walter got ahold of our demo we sent to Hellfish and passed it along, which is so awesome, and yea, we went from there explaining we wanted to release more music and tour as much as we could afford to. Things flowed from there and 6131 decided to give us a chance and gave us all the support in the world and it's been amazing.

So 6131 is based of the West Coast, and you are from Milwaukee. Is that the reason you guys went out on that west coast tour with Swamp Thing?

Yep. Joey from 6131 and I had talked about how tight it would be for us to do a Cali weekend. He hooked it up, found bands to do it with, booked the shows, everything. Best dude, best label.

How did that go by the way? How did kids react to you at the shows?

It was unreal. Seriously crazy. Each night was awesome. Kids sang along at all the shows, kids moshed at all the shows. We thought we'd had some pretty crazy shows in some local areas and stuff, but the San Francisco and Pomona shows blew those away. We never thought in a million years we would have kids stage diving, piling on, moshing, and circle pitting to our band. I saw a kid flip off a speaker monitor one night. It really blew our minds and was a real dream come true to be honest. To see kids doing that for our band when we're 3,000 miles from home in a place we'd never played was just unreal. Best weekend ever, thanks California.

While on the topic of the West Coast, can't forget the fact that you're playing Sound And Fury. Are there any bands that you are specifically excited to play/see?

We're soooo excited for S&F. A few of us have attended S&F in 2007 and 2010, and it's been a dream to play, so we're stoked.

Obviously super excited to see the big names like Trial, Over My Dead Body, Suicide File, Ringworm, that is gonna be amazing. Especially Trial, who are a huge influence on us. But we're also extremely excited to see some of our best friends in the Midwest show the West Coast just how awesome No Coast Hardcore is...Expire, Venia, Noose. Gonna be awesome. On top of that, seeing our Cali friends in Downpresser, Sleep Walkers, Twitching Tongues, Rotting Out, A&O, and Xibalba will rule...stoked for Hardside, Rock Bottom, Agitator, Doubledealer, Not Sorry, Oblivion, Violation....we're excited for every band to be honest. I'm personally really looking forward to seeing the poppy bands too like Joyce Manor, Maker, Settle for less, and Such Gold...all amazing bands.

And also while we're talking about fests, you're playing East Coast Tsunami in Reading, PA. How did you guys get involved with that fest? I had some friends who went down last year and said it was pretty awesome. And I'm sure you guys are excited to be a part of it!

We're all very excited for ECT! They actually approached us. We got an email asking if we would want to play the 3rd day. We knew we weren't gonna have a shot at This is Hardcore this year, so we were all over it. Gonna be so awesome playing with Trial and 108 and getting to see Blood for Blood. We can't wait!

Now tour starts up pretty soon for you guys and your hitting up the West Coast again. Is it your first time going to alot of places around the US?

For sure, both as a band and individually. I've personally had the pleasure of doing a ton of traveling around the US, but we're hitting a lot of places on this East Coast/South tour with Bent Life that I have never been to like New York, the southern states, and Texas. So that rules. And yea, we'll be hitting the road again in July with Venia and Hardside out to Cali and back for Sound & Fury. Gonna be a crazy summer.

You're heading out with Bent Life on tour for a bit. That band is awesome, I his listened to them for the first time today. How did you guys get together with them for the tour?

Bent Life are AWESOME, and everyone needs to know it, stop sleeping, and start pitting. I've known dudes in that band for a few years from when they were in another band Hercules. FxM played with Bent Life back when we first started and they kill it live. We talked about how awesome doing a tour would be, and sure enough, we made it happen. It's gonna be a crazy month. Between how dumb we are and how crazy they are, I doubt we'll make it home alive. LISTEN TO BENT LIFE.

Now on to some other things, let's talk about Milwaukee. How about, what's good in Wisconsin in general?

Ummmm....well...haha. No, I dunno, Milwaukee is a really cool and chill city to live in. A lot of the benefits of big city living without all the awful hassles like mad traffic and junk. Wisconsin in general is pretty boring, but there are cool areas and a lot of really rad wilderness places.

What is the scene like in Milwaukee and throughout the rest of the state?

Honestly not great, but it is greatly improving and we're stoked on that. Milwaukee used to have a HUGE metalcore scene and shows were insane. When that died off we kinda had a melodic hardcore thing going on, but that died off too. Now there are very few bands, and our scene seems to suffer from a weird divide between younger kids into current hardcore and older dudes with weird attutudes. We do our best to play to both crowds when we can and try to promote a sense of unity when we can. That combined with our extreme lack of affordable venues and stuff makes Milwaukee's scene rough.

However, it's getting a ton better. More and more bands are realizing that coming here can be fun and awesome, and we've been trying our best to get "bigger" bands we meet and play with to come here. A lot more kids are coming out to shows when they happen, especially from the suburbs, which is rad. We might start doing shows in my basement if the one venue here is booked up, so that's cool. Things are getting better, all of us in FxM are doing what we can to make sure that continues.

Now I once read that there was a bigger venue in Milwaukee that is across the street from Jeffery Dahmers apartment. Do you know anything about it?

Hahahaha, yea that's The Rave. It's a HUGE venue that has multiple parts...ballroom for HUGE concerts (Ke$ha, Morrissey), big stage area (Hatebreed, bad metal shows), downstairs (some decent tours, mostly bad metal shows), and the bar that occasionally gets sweet shows like the recent Terror tour. It's not a place anyone can book at, it's like for bands with agents and stuff. As for Dahmer, it wasn't his apartment, it was the Ambassador hotel that he had a room in or something like that. He murdered a few people there I think, tried making a dude a sex zombie or something awesome hahaha. Wisconsin has a real history of crazies and serial killers, it's tight.

Last but not least, what is straight edge to you, and how has it influenced you and your band in a larger way than what is shown say through your bands lyrics?

Straight edge, to me, is a direct objection to the mainstream mindset that polluting our bodies, minds, and lives is normal and right. It's an everyday attempt to live a healthier, cleaner, more focused life. It's a personal statement of strength in convictions, in treasuring my mind and body, and having total control over my own life. It's a social statement that you don't have to follow a culture of consumption and self destruction to be happy and fulfilled. Straight edge is living every day of my life striving to be the best person I can be and remaining above the influence of a world that wants nothing more than to hold me down.

As for influencing us outside just our lyrics, I think it shows in all of our personal lives. We're all far from perfect, but we all make an attempt at being the best people we can be and being a positive impact on those around us and those we meet. We by no means will ever force our ideas on anyone or look down on them because they disagree, and we've had people that are far from edge tell us how we have like inspired them and how they connect with our songs even though they're not edge, and that's awesome to me. Being able to connect with people both like minded and otherwise is a great experience.

Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Free your thinking, really look at the world around you and use your head. Don't just accept what is immediately available to you or what is fed to you daily, look into things and think for yourself.

Pay attention to the Midwest! Midwest hardcore is killing it right now and it's awesome seeing people finally paying attention to a great area finally. Listen to and support Bent Life, Big Mouth, Expire, Venia, Written Off, Kicked In, Agress, Steppin Stone, and Smoke Coke.

Thanks a ton for the interview!

GO VEG, STAY EDGE

Record Of The Month: "Walls Closing In" - Agitator

2011-06-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

Dave Sausage and Six Feet Under has hit the jackpot again with great seven inch releases this year. First with Expire's "Suffer The Cycle" and now Agitator's "Walls Closing In". The follow up to 2010's "Enter Vice Lords" that came out on Harvcore Records, is all that you would want out of this band, and more. After all the bullshit that was said on the Bridge Nine board about the lyrics, Marty (vocals) has stepped up big time. If you haven't read the interview that Marty did with Linebreaker Zine, where he talks about the lyrics on title track of the record, you should probably check it out here. From the intro to the last song "Two Faces", there is no shortage of metallic riffs in the vein of Merauder and even Slayer. My personal favorite riffs would ironically be the first and last tracks on the album. Those being the intro and the final riff of "Two Faces", which has an awesome black metal vibe to it. Also, you can't forget all the awesome guest spots that appear on this record. They include Justin Odgen from Let Down/Wrong Answer on "Force Fed Lies" , and last but not least, the almighty Joe Hardcore from Punishment/Shattered Realm on "Walls Closing In".

Make sure you pick up "Walls Closing In" from Six Feet Under Records HERE! They also have merch available from Cold Cuts Merch which you can scope out HERE. Also there record release show is July 9th at Broad Street Ministries in Philadelphia, PA with Trapped Under Ice, No Tolerence, United Youth and Beware(members of Mother Of Mercy and Stick Together). If you are on the West Coast, they are flying out to play Sound And Fury in July in Santa Barbara, CA. Also they are playing Day 4 of This Is Hardcore Fest in Philly on August 14th alongside the likes of Killing Time, Madball and Reach The Sky. Keep up with the latest shows and info from Agitator on there facebook page.

Stream Agitator's new song "Social Chameleon" off of "Walls Closing In"

Social Chameleon - Agitator by WhereItEndsZine

Streetsweeper Interview

2011-05-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Here's my interview with Mark(Vocals) and Harry(Guitar) of the Boston based band Streetsweeper. This interview is also included in Where It Ends Zine #3!

What's up guys? Can to introduce yourselves?
M: My names Mark, I play the microphone in StreetSweeper
H: I’m Harry, I play guitar.
So how did Streetsweeper start up in the first place?
M: Once upon a time I met Cy Barkley and Harry at a party in December 2007. From that point forward, a great event occurred where the three of us starting jamming on some mean stuff. Back then Cy and Harry wrote the riffs while I was on drums. Through that year we came up with 4-5 smash hits (two which ended up on the demo and one on the forthcoming EP). We never played any shows or anything because we had difficulty finding the ever elusive bass player. Instead we went into hiding for two years and finally resurfaced in late 2009. By then our dear friend Mr. Barkley moved back home to Nashville, TN. Harry and I went on to getting our songs back in order and with that got our good friend Ryan to fill the bass position and cut a 4 song demo that came out early January of 2010. We brought our buddy Vlad to play drums. We just recently added Eric of
Pitfall/Poor Sport on second guitar!
H: I had met Cy in like March 2007 from a post he made on B9 about finding other Boston kids to start a band with. We had jammed a few times over that summer with a different drummer who sort of disappeared. We were very happy and lucky to run into Mark.
You guys are heavily influenced by Leeway, so what drew you both to Leeway in the first place?
M: Before Harry and I got back together to (re)start StreetSweeper, Leeway was a band that I’ve “heard of” but never gave time to really listen to them. With that said I give all credit to Harry for getting me into them. Ever since I’ve been a big fan, we used to bump Leeway all the time, especially back when we used to “party”.
H: I have to similarly credit Cy for really showing me the awesomeness of Leeway. Those are some of the best riffs in hardcore history. The “Desperate Measures” LP is full of crushing grooves and Mark and I would listen to “Who’s To Blame” over and over to get pumped before we jammed or wrote shit. That is the party soundtrack.
I know Harry especially loves NYHC, so what are you dudes favorite NYHC bands(other than Leeway)?
M: I’m gonna credit Harry once again for getting me into a few NYHC bands that I didn’t know of such as Terrorzone, they are up there with the favorites. I’d have to say that my go-to bands would be TERRORZONE, 25 TA LIFE, DISTRICT 9, BREAKDOWN, and UNDERDOG.
H: Reagan Youth and Gorilla Biscuits are two of my favorite bands, period. Aside from that I love Judge and that 90's shit like Merauder, Bulldoze, 25 ta Life and so on. Some people like to laugh about 25 ta Life now because Rick certainly beat that horse to death (pun intended) but most people would agree that band put out some bangers back in the day.
Harry, you said that your band is for fans of Lord Ezec shouting out "Xavier" in Juggarnaut(Crown Of Thornz). Personally my favorite song by them, can you hear the footsteps?
H: That song has some of the most vicious groove in hardcore history. That said, I listen to Skarhead more than COT. Thugged out old school hardcore. One minute the dudes are saying “LET’S BUST THIS SHIT OUT NIGGAS!” and the next second they’re shouting “Oi oi!” I love it.
YES! haha, So how did you guys come up with the name? Reminds me of Dump Truck!
H: A few years ago I started expressing some reactionary views about crime and street trash in Boston, and my friend Matt said that if I ever ran for office, my campaign slogan could refer to me as the “Streetsweeper.” So that phrase was kind of stuck in my head and when it came time to name the band, we agreed it was a short, straight up hardcore name that fit our style well. My mom thinks we could have done better.
Speaking of Dump Truck, I heard Morgado is doing the artwork for the new record? How'd you guys get hooked up with them?
M: Our buddy Phil really knows how to get us top talent for our EP artwork. He’s also responsible for putting out this masterpiece that we will bestow on MA Hardcore.
H: I have no idea how this happened, Phil works magic.
Now let's talk about that new record, it's coming out on Shoe City Records, which is Philly Sips(as mentioned in the last question) from Villain's label. How would you compare it to say your demo?
M: What does Philly Sip? Anyways to break it down for you real quick, it’s a lot faster, complimented by some nice thrash parts and big beats.
H: This EP is definitely faster than the demo. The demo had some crossover elements but they are a lot more apparent in the new songs. At the same time, we kept some of the slower heaviness of the demo as well as the more straightforward hardcore punk sound. Since we recorded the demo, we’ve been figuring out just how METAL we want to go and while it is absolutely important for us to remain a hardcore PUNK band, we definitely incorporated some thrashier elements as well as some moshier stuff.
I heard Philly Sips himself and another special guest added some vox to this record?
M: Oh yes he did. So were in the studio, 30 mins before we needed this part to be done, I have no lyrics, Phil doesn’t even know he’s doing it, I call Phil him to do the part. 20 mins later he’s at the studio with 10 minutes to spare so we could brainstorm some lyrics on the spot. Just a real clutch team player. Other than him, Harry elected himself to be a special guest on the record.
H: We had originally planned for Mike from Abomination to do guest vox but he couldn’t make it out at the last minute, so we got at Phil.
That’s pretty damn awesome. Now let's talk about the demo, you recorded it with Doug Free(Rival Mob, Free Spirit) and DFJ of (The Rival Mob, Mind Eraser, Mental + a shitload of others).Any reason why you guys didn't do more material with him for the new record?
M: The mobsters are busy guys and with the timing of this record we didn’t get a chance to collaborate with them. Though we still have a lot of steam left in this band so we might work with them again in the future. On the flip side, I did some past projects with Ian from Echoroom so we decided to give him a go. I gotta say, Ian is very consistent with his work, very good place to go for any type of recording. Bands in the area! If you are really good, think you are really good or are just plain horrendous. Do yourself a favor a get in with the Echoroom. You final product will sound great no matter what.
H: Doug was actually the one who first mentioned recording us, and Justin came along with him when the time came for it to happen. We really owe them both a lot because they helped us make a great-sounding demo that got a great response and is something we are very pleased with and proud of. They really helped us a lot. Anyway, Mark and Ryan had recorded with Ian a few times before and have a good relationship with him, so we figured it would be worth it to record with him and hire his services so we could take our time and get everything just right. Ian is definitely an excellent producer/engineer/whatever, very professional but extremely chill and down to earth and we really urge bands to check him out. We wish him the best of luck in the future.
I heard there's a Canadian weekend with Coke Fiend in the works, what's the scoop on that?
M: Hmm I think you stumbled upon a comment thread on the Sweeper’s Facebook page. I’m not 100% sure what’s good with that as of now. Easy Way Out from Ontario is having a record release and Coke Fiend asked us to get down with it. So as far as I’m concerned, we’re locked and loaded to do it whenever the date comes up. Any one who hasn’t checked out Coke Fiend, please do. One of the best current MA Hardcore bands out there right now.
Do you plan on doing anymore touring in the near future?
M: Once our schedules free up a big we would love to get around to east coast. Stay tuned on that.
Has there been any local shows that really stuck out to you so far?
M: Our first two shows Buckingham Palace and Anchors up in January of 2010 were top notch. The Wrong Side show at Anchors up might have been one of our best sets. Doug filled in for us on bass and shredded as usual.
H: Doug played in like four bands that show. As far as shows that we haven’t played, the New Lows record release was excellent and there have been some great shows at the Chop Shop.
Now what's with Streetsweeeper being a Boston band and you've only played Boston once?
M: Your guess is as good as mine Jim. However we are at the Democracy Center on March 18th for the Coke Fiend Tape release w/ Alert, Villain, outlast and a few others.
Hopefully more will come our way. All you Bookies in and around the Boston area, we are here for you to play.
H: Boston is weird. There seem to be two main groups that we and a few other bands aren’t a part of and thus do not get on those shows. The Marlborough kids have shown us love from the beginning and we’ve been lucky to get on good shows at Anchor’s Up. To certain people out there, stop faking the funk and start reaching outside your comfort zone.
What are your thoughts on the PFC?
M: A fascinating group of individuals who love their Chins Garden.
H: Pure Fucking Core. Like I said, they’ve been with us from the beginning and have really shown us love.
Anything else you'd like to say?
M: Thanks to you Jim for doing what you do at Where It Ends, supporting us and all the other bands in this scene. Also big thanks to Ryan and Brendan at the Chop Shop for letting us practice there and giving everyone a place to come enjoy a nice show and a drink or two.Shouts to Phil(and Vill), Streetsweeper-Abomination Drinking club, Coke Fiend, the PFC, all you cats for supporting us, picking up merch and hopefully getting into the new tunes to come.
H: Thanks for everything you do Jim. You are in it to win it! Shout outs to everyone without an ego or attitude. “Never can we be all the same but we all make up the scene!”
Thanks to you both for doing this interview. Check out 3 new tracks from Streetsweeper's new seven inch coming out soon on Shoe City Records!

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://streetsweeper.bandcamp.com/album/shoe-city-7"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;SHOE CITY 7&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; by STREETSWEEPER&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Where It Ends Zine #3

2011-05-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a while in the making, and finally Where It Ends Zine #3 is being released!

Featuring:

Integrity(Interview with Dwid)

Death Before Dishonor(Interview with Bryan)

Outlast(Interview with Dave)

Streetsweeper(Interview with Harry and Mark)

Abomination(Interview with Mike)

TeeTillDeath(Column)

Josh Lyford(Short Story)

Future Breed(4x6 photo)

That's What She Said Zine #4 & Where It Ends Zine #3 Release Show:

Friday, May 20th

Villain
Raindance(aka Outrage)

Poor Sport

Bastardswine

Hockey Dad's

Foxfires

$10

Doors at 6:00 pm

At Anchors Up!

58 River Street

Haverhill, MA

Uriah Thomas(Dead End Path) Interview

2011-04-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

This is an interview with Uriah Thomas, who sings for Dead End Path from good ole Wilkes Barre, PA. This interview was featured in Where It Ends Zine #2 that came out in October 2010 and I believe we did the interview the month before this!

WIE: Hey man, how are you doing?
Uriah: I'm doing pretty well, can't really complain. It's 3:05 am and I'm sitting on my bed. Just got finished listening to the new Free Spirit 7" now I'm jamming the Uniform Choice "Region Of Ice" EP. I do not understand how kids didn't like this record when it came out (ROI/Staring Into The Sun), mind blowing to me. Everything this band put out was awesome (debatable i guess). I slept on UC for awhile but I'm catching up now.
WIE: I have yet to get my hands on that Free Spirit record, I can't wait to check it out. So, What Else are you up to?
Uriah: We just got back from a full US tour with Backtrack and Fire & Ice a couple weeks ago. We toured out to California though the midwest and back through the south. The tour was an amazing and eye opening experience. We've done alot of weekends and one short tour previously, but this was different. This was literally our lives for 3 1/2 weeks and the whole experience was really great. California was awesome, the weather was great. You woke up every day and had to put on a sweatshirt, once the afternoon rolled around you could get away with shorts and a tee but once night came it was back to sweatshirt temperature. It was a relief from the 100+ degree days in a sweltering van. Loved it. Plus we ate In N Out everyday and anyone who knows me, knows that's my shit (sorry animals and animal lovers). Sound & Fury was really fun...
WIE: Well, I wanted to ask about that, how was the Sound and Fury expierence for you guys?
Uriah: Dude, it was awesome. The way the tour worked out is we got to California a day before the fest started and we didn't play until Sunday so it was basically just three stress free days of chilling before we played. A great weekend of hanging out with our friends and making new ones. As far as playing goes, it was a blast to play and kids went crazy. I wasn't sure how it was going to be since we played in between two bands who weren't really "hardcore" bands per-say but it worked out fine and it ruled. We did really well all around, kids like it and we sold a ton of shit so i can not complain at all. Our first time in California really couldn't have gone any better. There was some bullshit that went down the third day I could have done without but whatever...
WIE: Want to explain your view of the events that went down? And did you end up at the Sound and Fury house show?
Uriah: Ok, let me set the scene. Backtrack just started playing, literally first song. Kids are going apeshit and everyone is having a good time. I'm moshing and I look over and see a Harley next to me in the pit. I don't know why i felt this way but I didn't even think twice about it honestly. It felt almost "normal" or common place (which obviously isn't the case) like "hey there is a motorcycle in the pit, yeah that happens all the time", in retrospect it was very surreal. Apparently one of our friends from Santa Barbara made a bet with this other dude that he wouldn't ride his motorcycle into the venue, through the crowd and into the pit. The dude called his bluff and did it. Security handled that particular situation and other situations that weekend terribly. Every incident involving security that weekend could have easily been avoided. When you have a power hungry minimally paid security staff and 900 kids who don't give a fuck, it has potential to be a volatile situation...and it was. It was stupid, nothing really more to it. As far as the after show goes, it was a perfect example of how cool hardcore is. With only a couple hours notice a slamming gig was put together and literally hundreds of kids showed up to this little residential neighborhood. Cops shut it down obviously but it was cool while it was happening and I'm glad i got to be a part of it.
WIE: That's crazy, It sounds like a shit show security wise. Any bands that your were excited to see? Or even any bands that impressed you?
Uriah: Hostage Calm, that band rules. I guess thats sort of a weird answer but that band is legit. Their new record is incredible and their set at S&F was awesome. Also War Hungry playing a song on Cold Worlds set was really cool. I ended up missing a couple bands I really wanted to see cause I had to make record covers which is a bummer but overall every band that I watched that I wanted to see was good..
Alright well, do you want to explain how Dead End Path get started?
Uriah: Our bass player and I wanted to start a heavier type of hardcore band last summer. So while I was away on tour with a friends band, he got everything together and organized. We practiced a handful of times when I got home, wrote the demo and recorded it September 1st of last year. Jason our drummer, Foose our bass player and I have been playing in bands together for a couple of years and we knew Ryan our guitar player from going to shows and shit. It really all came together perfectly. Our friend Jamie (of Title Fight fame) sometimes fills in on second guitar if he's not on tour or busy doing cool shit that Jamie does.
WIE: Jamie is a good dude and so are the rest of the dudes in Title Fight. Your demo has a guest appearance from Alex from Cold World. And on your new seven inch, Dan is also a guest on that record. Well not to point out the obvious but you dudes close to the guys in Cold World if I'm correct?
Uriah: Yeah they're our good friends and they've done A LOT to help our band out. It's something we honestly really appreciate. We love Cold World. Dans part on the new record rules, he was really siked to do it and I think it turned out awesome.
WIE: Yeah that's definitely one of my favorite parts on that record! What's up with those guys anyways? I wish they would play more shows!
Uriah: Well Dan just had two twin babies recently, plus another baby and an older daughter so he keeps busy with them. Alex is currently in law school so that obviously keeps him busy. Haroun lives in Michigan and Scace lives in Arizona so yeah them getting together to play "regularly" isn't really an option as much as I wish it was. I also think that them playing shows few and far between is cool because when they do get together to play, it's usually pretty crazy.
WIE: Yeah, I watched the videos from there set at This Is Hardcore and it looked pretty crazy. Also on the new seven inch you had Bob from Mother of Mercy on one song. Mother of Mercy is so goddamn good. They're on Bridge 9 and are also recording a new record from what I've heard.
Uriah: Yeah Bob is one of my best friends so he was an obvious choice to sing on a song. His part sounds soo cool and natural. I love it. And yeah they just finished recording a new record, and i think it's going to blow people away. That band is unbelievable, one of my favorite bands period.
WIE: Yeah, i can't wait for that record. III pushed the envelope for them so I hope the can do it again. So speaking of your new seven inch, want to talk about that a little?
Uriah: Yeah, we recorded Death Walks Beside Us in mid March with local recording mastermind Joe Loftus. We spent two days on it and we all couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Everyone that's heard it has really been into it. I love it and and everyone in my band likes it, so not to sound like a dick, but that's all I really care about. Everyone in the band got closer so writing the record was actually really fun. We all knew what we wanted to do with it and how we wanted it to sound. I feel like I also stepped up my lyric writing. All in all I'm really happy with the it and I know everyone in the band is really happy with it. To have a record we're 100% satisfied with is a great feeling.
WIE: That's got to be a great feeling. How'd you guys get hooked up with Sam at Triple B records?
Uriah: We met Sam BBB while on tour last winter. He came up to us after we played a show in Orlando and said he wanted to do a record with us. That was a great moment for me personally. Knowing that someone cares enough about something I'm a part of to want to be a part of it themselves is amazing. Sam rules. We couldn't be happier being a part of the BBB family. The thing is, he really cares about every record he puts out, he puts everything into the releases he does and it shows.
WIE: He does, just look at the releases he's done like the Bane 7' and the Rival Mob Demo 7'. Well you mentioned your tour with Backtrack and Fire & Ice earlier, So you guys have any plans to tour soon?
Uriah: He really does, just look to the new Free Spirit ep for example, it looks incredible. As far as touring goes, now that school started again we can't really tour again until winter break but we already have some really cool stuff planned for over winter break so hopefully that gets announced soon. Since we can't tour for the next couple months, we're gonna take some time off and write a new record. We're not really sure if it is going to be an EP or and LP yet (most likely an LP) but it's going to be a bit different than anything we've done before so I'm really excited to write and record that. We also got offered to do Europe a few times so I'm hoping we can do that next Summer. That's my ultimate goal.
From what I’ve heard Europe is awesome. What do you mean by saying it will be a bit different? If you know what I mean?
Uriah: It's hard to explain but we've all just grown as musicians and people and I think our writing reflects that. We're all into different things and each person brings something new and original to the table. It's going to be a hardcore record, thats for certain, but our approach might be a little bit out of the box and unconventional. It's hard to say this early what it's exactly going to sound like though
WIE: I can’t wait for some more new DEP! Are you guys in any other bands?
Uriah: None really worth mentioning. The band + our roadie maddog and - our guitar player Ryan were in a nyhc cover band called Jail Of Depression. We only played two shows but that was fun. We covered Outburst, Breakdown and Cro-mags. I'm also trying to do something with maybe a Straight Ahead and Alone In A Crowd influence and also trying to do a post hardcore band (eventually). Being in a band that sounded like Quicksand would be awesome. Those are just ideas at this point, DEP is our main priority obviously.

WIE: That's awesome though! What bands from your area are you currently into?

Uriah: There is a couple new Wilkes-Barre bands I'm really into. Stick Together is Hoodrack from War Hungrys new band, check them out. Also, dudes from Title Fight and Cold World have a new band called Disengage. They have a new ep called "Look Back" and it fucking rules. Times Up from Doylestown rules (although they just broke up very recently). There is a really young band from WB called United Youth that I think is going to turn alot of heads. All young kids, average age 16, playing Side By Side style hardcore. I also love Rival Mob and the new Free Spirit record. I love the direction hardcore is going in 2010...

WIE: That Disenage EP is pretty good i have to say. I can’t wait to check out United Youth too! What's the scene been like in Wilkes Barre?

Uriah: It's strong, we have alot of young kids getting into hardcore right now and it's a "positive positive positive scene", for real though it's a good time to be a hardcore kid living in Wilkes-Barre.

WIE: Are their any stable venues that book shows?

Uriah: That's really the only problem right now with shows in this area is a stable venue. We have a firehall that we book at "steadily" but no place to really call our own yet. We have lots of people out looking everyday for a new venue and i'm sure one day, hopefully sooner than later, we will find one.

WIE: Hopefully you do find one soon! Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Uriah: Thank you soo much for the interview dude, sorry it took a minute to get everything together for it. Shout out to the United Youth Crew, Back To Back Records, Sam BBB and the Boston crew! Listen to Into Another and Supertouch and be on the look out for the new WAR HUNGRY LP!

WIE: Alright I’ll be on the look for it! Thanks Uriah!

Ely Castillo (Bitter End, Hardside) Interview

2011-04-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

Here's my interview with Ely Castillo, who drums for Bitter End and Hardside from San Antonio, Texas. Check them both out on their upcoming US tours!

Hey Ely, how you been?

Chillin man, I've been good dude you?

Me too, been busy working on my next zine! So I 'm going to jump right into this, sowhat did you do with the small amount of time you've had off between tours?

Well, I really don't get to do a lot of touring cause I have a daughter and a wife so that takes a bunch of my time, and fucking work bro. I work at a hospital,

but when I do tour its like work too but I get to hang around my best friends and do our thing on stage so its all good.

What kind of gig do you got going on at a hospital?

I'm actually a what is called a sterile processing technician, I sterilize instrumentation for the surgery cases, and I've seen some wild shit man.

About a week ago, Bitter End and Hardside went out on a Midwest tour with Take Offense. From what I heard, you aren't out on that tour, but what is it like to pull double duty?(He also plays drums in Hardside)

As far as doing double duty with both bands its a little hectic at times when we have shows together but other than that I manage to pull it off. I wish I was on this

current Bitter End/Hardside tour.

Back in December, Bitter End got the chance to do some touring with Madball, how did that tour go for you guys? And what was it like?

Man that tour was off the fucking hook dude !!! Madball are some cool down to earth guys and it was an honor in a way to be able to tour with them. I had a fucking great time, you know doing our thing every night and opening up for them was really cool. And every night they killed it !!!!!!

That sounds awesome, I must have been wild. What has been the best tour that you've been on?

The best tour I've ever been on or done had to be my first tour I was like 18 or 19 at the time, Iron Age/Bitter End east coast tour with some Canada dates, mind you I didn't have a fucking clue about touring and it blew my fuckin mind!!!! Funny thing while we are talking about this, it was my first time going to a strip joint ever, in Quebec, and some dude says to us "Come on in!!! You get more contact than American football so come on in!!!!" Good times. I mean who the fuck gets a chance to go on tour at that age now a days? know what i mean?

Yeah man, that is wild. I don't know many people who were under 20 when they went on their first tour. What are your upcoming touring plans whenever you get the chance to do so? I heard Born Low and Hardside are doing some touring, are you going out on that tour?

Yeah man Zane told me about that tour or it's in the works or something of that nature it be cool to do it cause Born Low is chilled as fuck, and I dig that band, but like I told Zane if Bitter End has something lined up than that comes first so it's still up in the air? but I'd like too.

I respect that, so while talking about Bitter End, your new record "Guilty As Charged" came out last summer on Deathwish Inc, how did you guys focus your writing efforts compared to your previous records?

Guilty As Charged, (one of my best performance recorded wise to date.) as far as focusing on writing it, that was kind of tough, Deathwish was like yo guys you gotta put out another record and you know keep the ball rolling, so me and our ex-guitarist Griff started laying down the riffs with the help of Jacob and my drum parts all came together and bam shit got done. Mind you I listened to a lot of Sepultura and Pantera while in the process of creating this album so you can hear all the influence in the album. compared to Climate Of Fear, I think as a band we progressed and started to experience a lot different stuff in the studio and at practices so it was interesting to write this album and had fun doing it.

That rules, especially the Sepultura part. Igor Cavalera is an animal on the drums, he never ceases to amaze me. If you haven't checked out the new Calvalera Conspiracy record "Blunt Force Trauma", you gotta. It will blow your mind. Getting back on track though, so from the same recording sessions I believe, you recorded a track that was included on the American Hardcore Compilation. I just want to say, that song is absolutely killer! But to get back on track, how did you guys choose that song for the comp instead of any other song that was recorded for "Gulity As Charged"?

Thanks man, I like that song too, not gonna lie its the best song off of that comp,(that's just me). You know we actually went back after Guilty As Charged was released and went into the studio months later to write it there with no practice or anything. We just started fucking around with some riffs and put a little magic into it and it was done on the spot, we went for a different approach on this song obviously, you know heavy as fuck with some cool clean parts and it came out great. Man, I was so blazed up, I was chillin back and listening to the track and thinking, "This is a banger for sure.".

It sure is a banger, and in my opinion the best track on the AHC! So when do you guys plan on getting back into the studio and recording some new material?

For now man we are just going to ride it out and dwell on this record, play more of the new songs live and see where this new record takes us, it'll be a while before we get to go back in the studio.

So I want to talk about Hardside a little bit, so Hardside also put out a new record "Crucified" on 6131 Records, now how do you compare that record to the demo?

Crucified is pretty cool, we wanted more singing involved in this EP and our guitar player has the lungs for that, so we him to pull that off while playing guitar too so it worked perfect, the demo is cool for what it is but I think this is more of what we wanted it to sound like. ala Leeway.

It rules though, and Zane kills it on the vocals as well. So what kind of kit are you rocking as of late?

I'm rocking a PDP kit made by DW, it's pretty good and gets the job done, but I would like to get sponsored by some cool drum company!

That would rule, I wonder if any current hardcore bands have drum sponsors....hahaha. Last question and this one is pretty random! What's the best pizza you've ever had and why?

Um best pizza? I'm gonna have to go with New York style pizza, it's great dude. Um San Antonio TX doesn't really have great pizzerias, but ask me about Mexican food, and our Mexican food over here will kick any Mexican food's you've ever tried, ass. It is authentic and legit, and really man I don't care for pizza that much.

Anything else you'd like to say?

I have a project going on where I sing be on the look out for the demo soon, if you like (Life Of Agony, Type O Negative, Alice In Chains) style, we will see how that comes out. Um shout outs to Madball and crew, terror and the K.O.T.F. crew, Agnostic Fronts new record stoked about that, um S.O.I.A and crew(play more songs off of "Just Look Around") and shout outs to Pitchfork NYC and thanks to everyone who has been there for Bitter End from day one, you know who you are. Hardcore lives in 2011. I'm out Ely Castillo.

Thanks Ely for doing this interview!

United Youth Interview

2011-03-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a short interview I did with Chris Takacs who plays drums for United Youth.

Hey man, what's going on?

Nothing, writing pizza and eating music.

Could you introduce yourselves?

I'm Chris and I play drums. TK on bass, Adam and George on guitars and Dana on the mic.

So what's good in Wilkes Barre right now?

Angelos pizza and babes.

So how did you guys all meet each other?

We've all been friends for a while.

When did United Youth actually start up? You released your demo this fall, but from my understanding you guys had been playing for a little while before the demo dropped?

The idea for United Youth came in mid August, and we played a couple songs on a couple sets before we recorded the demo.

How would you all describe your sound? Most kids with bands your age only play this generic type of hardcore. In the case of United Youth, you guys definitely don't play anything similar to what other kids your age are playing.

We wanted to bring back 80's NYHC type shit.

So pretty early on you guys got together with Back To Back Records. They are basically my favorite label in hardcore right now. They pressed your demo on tape correct?

Yeah, we're good friends with the kids who run Back To Back.

Then there was also a split live tape with Disengage, that not a lot of people know about. Want to elaborate on that a little?

We played one song on Disengage's set at their record release in late August, and our short set was recorded. We produced a small quantity live tapes for the BBB showcase in October.

So word is that you guys are going to be doing a new 7 inch as a split release from Back to Back and Lockin Out records. What's the details on that? How did you guys hook up with Lockin Out?

Details will be released soon.

What should people expect with the new 7'?

Fast, in your face, NYHC influenced hardcore.

Back in October you guys played the first day of the Triple B Fest at Anchors Up in Haverhill, MA. Was that your first show out side of PA?

Yeah it was. It was actually our first official show as well.

How did it go?

It was good. People moved around for us and kids knew our lyrics so it was pretty cool.

You also recently just played New York City with DYS and Antidote. That must have been the biggest show you guys have played so far. It must have been pretty awesome to play with those bands.

Yeah it was sweet to play with both of bands, and meeting new people.

So on to some other stuff, you are all young, are you all still in high school?

Yeah, we're all in high school, besides our guitarist George.

Do you guys have any plans to tour, or is school just holding you guys back from doing so?

We're gonna be doing a couple weekends in March and April, and we're gonna work out a tour for this summer.

What else have you got on your plate?

Secret Stuff.

Anything else you'd like to say?

We hope to play Boston soon! Shoutouts to Back to Back Records and WBHC

Mike Puffer(Alert, Too Deep Until Now Zine) Interview

2011-03-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

Just recently did an interview with Mike Puffer who sings for Alert and also puts out his own zine called Too Deep Until Now!

Hey Mike, how's it going?

Pretty good man, just finishing up this paper that is due tomorrow.

What have you been up to as of late?

Just a whole lot of school and hanging out. The weeks seem to fly by so fast these days. I go to school in Western Mass and I hang out at my girlfriends place in Boston on the weekends. I haven’t been able to skate as much as I would like to due to the shitty winter we have been having. When I’m not swamped with schoolwork I mostly just kick it indoors and watch some movies.

What's been up with Alert? Are you guys planning on recording a new record?

Yes, believe it or not we have been working on this record for over a year. It’s so crazy how many setbacks we have had and I can’t believe that we are even still a band after all the roadblocks we have had. It seems like time after time we have just had weekends and shows that didn’t come to fruition. We have a Midwest weekend planed this May with a cool new band called Enough and possibly something this summer with Stick Together. The new 7” titled “find your way” hopefully will be out this Spring.

It was announced in the fall of last year that Alert signed to Six Feet Under Records, how did that come about?

I think it was just Dave Sausage liking out band and wanting to help us out. Dave is a great guy and is dedicated to his label and putting out some great hardcore. It is an honor to be on a label with an amazing roster.

Now last time I saw you guys, Brendan from The Rival Mob and countless other bands, is now playing drums for Alert. Is this a permanent change for you guys?

Well our original drummer left about a year and a half ago and Brendan decided to help us out since he liked our sound and straight edge exuberance. It was cool having him in the band. He was like the cool older brother. Brendan felt that he was holding us back because he was never really able to commit 100% due to being in a bunch of other projects and having a serious job. He is no longer in the band and now we have this kid Jake playing with us. Hopefully we will be able to do more along the lines of touring.

Now, Alert is a straight edge band, so what is straight edge to you personally?

Straight edge has meant different things to me at different points in my life. Right now it is just a way to keep my mind clear and free of substances that can oppress and enslave the mind. I like staying healthy and I have no desire to fuck up my mind, body and waste money on disposable drugs.

How is being edge reflected through your lyrics?

The new 7” has a few songs dealing with the subject matter. Find your way is basically about how people can take control of their lives and leave behind a past of addiction. I feel that straight edge is a great stepping stone to get clean but it is not essential.

So Alert got the chance to play with Floorpunch in Philadelphia. What was it like for you guys to share the stage with them?

It was great! A dream come true, besides the whole day proceeding being a complete stressful disaster (Keith forgetting his wallet at home, getting stuck in traffic for 3 hours and almost not being able to play) Floorpunch has always been a band that puts on a great show and this one proved to be no different.

So you do a zine called Too Deep Until Now. What made you want to do a zine in the first place?

Basically just because I love paper Zines and I wanted to make a Zine that I would want to read. My first issue came out about three years ago and I decided to make another one because I had plenty of spare time and I had all the resources at my hands such as free paper a printer, glue and scissors at my schools library. I feel that paper zines are becoming a lost art in Hardcore. Online zines are great for getting the word out to a large group of people but there is something more special about having something that is tangible and something you can hold in your hands and flip the pages to.

Now you've done two issues so far, what do you have planned for your third zine
Do you have a favorite interview that you have done? My favorite one that you've done would be the one you did with Rifkin of Bad Seed/Stick Together.

Issue 4 should come out this spring and will be my first full page Zine. I think my favorite interview I have done so far would be with Remission from South America. It should be in the 4th issue.

So you always ask some awesome questions towards the end of your interviews about favorite bands and such. I decided to do the same thing for your last bunch of questions, so here we go! Chain of Strength or Youth Of Today?

Youth of Today without a doubt. No other band can match their energy. Youth of Today is a perfect example of what straight edge hardcore should sound like.

Are you heading to Tejas or So Cal to hit up any of the Youth of Today shows?

Yeah I’m going to Cali to see YOT. Well the purpose of the trip isn’t just to see YOT but it’s pretty much just a vacation and that’s one of the things I’m doing. I have never been to California before so it should be fun. My friend Zack and I are flying into San Jose, staying in Santa Cruz, skating a bunch of local parks then hanging out in San Francisco for a day or two. We are then heading down to LA to hang out and stay with some friends. Honestly I’m kind of over reunions. After being let down so many times. Don’t get me wrong I will most likely go nuts for YOT but I would rather see an awesome new band over a bunch of wash ups that haven’t been relevant in the Hardcore scene for 20 years. (Not saying this applies to all bands that do reunions)

Jealous of that entire trip, sounds like a blast! Now you said you would rather see newer bands, so what's on the top of your list of new bands to see?

I like seeing Mindset, Stick Together, No Tolerance, Waste Management, Free Spirit and Face Reality. Chances are if a band is playing 80’s style straight edge hardcore I will like it.

Best band from Western Massachusetts(past and current)?

Past would either be Deep Wound or Wishful Thinking. Come to think of it Western Mass has had some great bands at one time. As for current there haven’t really been any bands that have caught my attention as of late. I know there are a bunch of younger kids trying to start bands in my area but I don’t think that they know how to get established or get shows.

Dream show?

If I could somehow get a time machine and get any band from any given band at any venue it would have to be…

Minor Threat
SSD
Straight Ahead
Youth of Today (BDTW era)
The Abused

At CBGB’s

Best shirt you own? And how did you get it?

Not really sure what the best shirt I own is. I have a cool Mouthpiece long sleeve that Keith gave me that I wear a lot.

Best skate video you've ever watched?

Blind-Video days
Santa Cruz-Speed freaks
Powell-Public Domain
Powell-Ban This

Mostly just into the classic style of skating. You know before Mountain Dew and the X-Games ruined it.

What setup are you riding on your board now, that being deck/trucks/tape/wheels?

Currently I am riding a local company out of Vermont’s deck, some old school Santa Cruz bullets, Bones Reds, Indy trucks with some no name grip tape and hardware.

What are your local skate spots anyways?

Downtown Springfield is a lot of fun, there are tons of parking garages with little curbs to skate. The Springfield courthouse has a nice steep bank. And there are a few good local parks.

Any places you dream about skating at?

Pretty much the classic spots where skating all began. Pretty stoked to skate Derby this summer.

Anything else you'd like to say?

Check out Caught In A Crowd, Coke Fiend, Outlast, Face Reality, Stick Together, Enough, Mindset and No Loss

Slim B of Bury Your Dead Interview

2011-03-03T20:12:00.000-08:00

Here's my interview with Slim B who plays guitar in Bury Your Dead. He also used to play in Blood Has Been Shed and Hamartia.

Hey Slim, how are you doing?

Awesome man, it's cold as shit out and I'm drinking pumpkin coffee posted up on the couch with my two hellhounds so I can’t complain.

So there's a lot of things that have been going on as of late in the Bury Your Dead camp. I'll start off with that you're now not part of the Victory roster. What are your thoughts on your time with Tony B/Victory?

Where do I begin? I mean it’s bittersweet I guess you could say . . . Who didn’t grow up listening to the bands on victory like Hatebreed, Strife, Earth Crisis, Integrity, Cast Iron Hike, Skarhead or one of my all time favorites Blood For Blood. So when being approached by the name associated with all the bands I grew up listening to it was kind of a no brainer. Like every relationship it started off strong out of the gates with allot of excitement on both our parts. But to be completely honest I felt like instead of signing every tom dick and Larry the label should have focused on the bands that they had and gotten behind them 200%. That’s what really broke it for me; I’ve never been one to talk shit but is there really a band called “ The Bunny The Bear or Dr.Acula “ . . . .

How did your signing with Mediaskare Records come about? Was it something that was planned once you were off Victory?

We had worked with them from a managerial standpoint a few years ago, so it seemed to be a comfortable place to put out this type of record. We didn’t want to have to call 7 people in order to get 1 answer. Don’t get me wrong the staff at victory treated us like gold and there are some real jems over there but like everything else it takes one bad egg to ruin the bunch.

So it was announced just recently that your now ex-singer Myke Terry had "quit" the band. What were the circumstances around that?

If anyone knows anything about this band its that we go through members every now and then as well as vans hahaha, this was just a situation that couldn’t be avoided and came to a head. We had taken quite a bit of time off since getting off of the last tour in March / April. I came home and started working on new material as well and taking the chance for the first time in 10 years since starting this band to do me for once. I didn’t want to worry about getting everyone on the same page, or book plane tickets or tours, I just wanted to go the beach and ride my Harley, hang with my family and friends who I barely knew anymore. I ended up adopting another pit-bull and just focused on getting healthy both physically and mentally. But to answer your question Myke didn’t quit the band he was forced out of the equation due to contractual issues between his “ management “ and Mediaskare.

You recruited your former singer Mat Bruso to come back and sing for the band. Was that you/Mark's doing or was that brought upon by Mediaskare as Myke had said in his statement?

His name was on the original contract for this record. So I don’t want anyone to get it twisted. I just didn’t feel it necessary to respond to the press release, I feel like he took it upon himself to release all the information about what we had going on as to where I didn’t have to say anything, and I sure as shit wasn’t about to get into a public finger pointing match with a friend for people to talk shit about on a message board. He’s doing his thing and I wish him the best of luck. Mat was the definite go to as far as the person who was going to sing over this material. I mean like all of the people who have been in this band, you put in time with someone like that and making the connection again both personally and musically was like he never left.

So with that being said, Bury Your Dead just recently wrapped up recording your first album since 2006 with Mat. How would describe the sound of the record compared to the recent material you put out with Myke singing?

Every record I have written for BYD has always focused on being as heavy as possible first before anything else. Having said that, all the records I have put out have been what I wanted at that time. A lot of shit happens in 10 years and it has influenced me writing and otherwise. This record is pretty much a back to basics approach to what this band started out doing and has never stopped, which is to make a record that we love first and use that as a vessel to travel the world and tour together meeting amazing people and seeing awesome shit. So stylistically this is a BYD record in every sense, but I think what people can expect is a non-stop banger. 11 songs that will fuck your face hahahaha.

I've heard the new record is called "Mosh & Roll" When is it planned to be released?

There is no release date set as of yet, but potentially looking sometime at the beginning of summer. Due to the fact that Mat is a teacher now we can only tour on summer vacation and snow days haha, I never thought I would have ever had to say that wow . . . . fuck it .

Also I just recently found out that even though Mark Castillo played drums on the new record, he is now not part of the band and has joined Crossfade. Are you bummed by Mark leaving the band and do you have a replacement lined up?

Yeah man Mark has moved down south to play for them, aside from being my best friend he’s also the best drummer I know so they are lucky they have him. I have a couple dudes in mind, no one will ever replace Mark but they will be playing drums for the band for the upcoming shows and tours.

It was just recently announced that Mat is making his live return to BYD at the New England Metal & Hardcore Fest. You guys are playing material from the first 3 albums, has it been a while since you've played songs like 33 RPM and others off of "You Had Me At Hello"?

That’s actually going to be our first show back in almost a year, and several since Mat has taken the stage with us. We are putting together a really awesome set for that show, The Palladium is a special place for us as are the people involved, Scott Lee, Leah, Moose and everyone else who make sure that hardcore and music in general have a place to play no matter what. 33 rpm might be on the set list, and by might I mean most likely.

So it was announced a few weeks back that Blood For Bloods is play NEMAHF right after you guys play, how stoked are you on this? As this is there first Massachusetts show, in over 6 years! Is it going to be different for you personally to see them with Billy from Biohazzard on guitar/vocals than if Rob ends up playing the show?

Yeah as soon as i heard that they were added I was blown away . Blood For Blood was always a band that i looked up to growing up and only had a few chances to play with so I am just looking forward to seeing how a room of that many people are going to react . It will definitely be a little weird seeing them without Rob if that ends up being the case but none the less looking forward to it .

Do you guys plan on playing more shows and maybe even touring after NEMAHF? I know you're restricted a little bit by Mat being a teacher.

Like I said we will be touring over the summer both stateside and overseas so that will be great to get back on the grind and get back in the van.

So let's jump gears a little bit, now what's been going on with your side project "The Loveless"?

The LoveLess has been something that I have been working on for about 3 years now with one of my best friends Shane (Cannae) . It’s been a huge outlet for me musically and personally. Lyrically I touch on allot of things that I have dealt with first hand, whether that be relationships, losing family members while touring, or just day to day life shit. Our goal for the band is to give people something to relate to and hear and say wow that applies directly to me, regardless if it was written about something completely different. To be honest the past to records have reflected allot of the type of melodies you will find in this project, almost like I was subconsciously spilling parts of one thing into another. Over the next few months we are going to be launching the official website, as well as all of the other social media outlets, twitter, face book, myspace, as well as a video, so keep your eyes open for that.

Are there any other bands you've been working on during the off time that you've had from Bury Your Dead?

I have been doing a bunch of projects myself working with some hip-hop artists writing songs and collaborating. I try to keep my self as busy as I can musically, since it isn’t something I can just shut off. I think if people knew half the shit I have on my hard rive that I have written they would but surprised.

You were in a few bands prior to BYD, the one that primarily sticks out in my mind is Hamartia. You released one record to my knowledge and in my opinion really came before its time. For those who don't know about them, could you talk a little bit about Hamartia?

Well that’s a trip down memory lane. I still to this day have people asking me when we are playing a reunion show, I don’t think that will ever happen as cool as it would be. For the people who know about the band they have always been fans of that record, for me it was the first thing Mark and I worked on together starting our lifelong non-sexual partnership. Bury Your Dead actually started in Hamartia’s practice space. While the rest of the dudes would go and pick up pizza and wings mark and I stayed behind and wrote songs ha-ha. The band had a strict rule “ NO SIDE PROJECTS “ thinking that it would take the focus off what we were trying to do as a band. Later we found out they had been working on a little thing of their own that was later called With Honor and also signed with victory, funny the way things work out.

You also played in Blood Has Been Shed for a good chunk of time. The band featured Howard and Justin (now both whom witch are now in Killswitch Engage). What was your time with the band like?

BHBS was a band I grew up drooling over, they were literally the heaviest band I had ever seen, I mean there were five dudes all 200 lbs plus and big as fuck. They would role out to a show in a conversion van with them and all the equipment in it and get out, in one felt swoop bring the most of any band at the time into the venue and bring the place down. I was drawn to every aspect of the band from the music to the sheer size of the dudes, I told myself I would play for them at some point, almost setting it as one of my goals. Even to say I was a part of the band for a year is an honor.

Now back in 2008 BYD was involved in a van accident in Canada. You ended up getting the worst injury of all of the guys in the band resulting in you missing a tour supporting Five Finger Death Punch. How have you been since after the crash? Have you had any long lasting affects?

Yeah waking up on the backbench of the van and realizing after all the years and all the close calls, the shit was about to get very real very fast. You always hear it happening to other bands and every time say to yourself “ fuck man it’s only a matter of time “. We flipped six or seven times into a ditch in the middle of a Canadian highway, while this was all happening my leg went through the huge side window and I was luckily able to pull it back through the glass before I lost it completely. After coming to a stop everyone quickly got out of the van when I looked down at what resembled what used to be my leg and realized I wasn’t going anywhere. I knew it was bad but when the dudes each took a turn coming to the van to see what kind of shape I was in and would just say “ oh my god “ or “that’s fucking bad dude “ I was like . . . . . . umm . . . . . I couldn’t agree with you more hahaha. I was in the hospital for 3 weeks back in the states after having emergency surgery to re attach my Achilles tendon and close the rest of my lacerations, then confined to a bed for almost 3 months after that. I have good and bad days but I don’t try to ever use it as an excuse for why I can or can’t do something. I just tell people I got attacked by a shark in Australia hahaha.

Now BYD has toured on all kinds of tours, has there been a favorite tour that you've been on that really sticks out to you in your mind?

I think it will always be a mix between Ozzfest and Terror for all of the same reasons, most which I can't talk about.

What do you like better? Touring in a Bus or Van?

Touring in a bus has its perks like sleep and some sort of personal space but to be completely honest there’s nothing like packing all your dudes in a van and getting it done. It just makes things soo much more personal, going through the drive through is way easier too.

What are you riding for a bike these days?

Right now I have an 83 Iron head that I have chopped to shit, I don’t even have a speedometer on it so I never actually know how fast im going. I can honestly say there is nothing better than getting on that thing and filling the tank and just forgetting about the world.

Have you been on any road trips on the bike as of late?

I wish, my battery died about a month ago and the weather has been acting like a bitch so I'm just waiting a few more weeks until I replace it and get at it. I forgot that it's winter 5 months out of the year here! hahahaha.

One last question, how did you get the nickname Slim in the first place?

I was always a big dude; I guess it’s like how big dudes get the name tiny.

Anything else you'd like to say?

I back the fact that people like yourself take the time to know about a person like myself and all the other people you interview. Not asking me questions like “ So what’s the name of your band? “ but asking shit that actually pertains to what I do and what I and we are about. I think people lack that personal touch these days . . . so touché my dude.

I'm out!

All right thanks Slim for the kind words and for doing this interview!

Jim Hesketh(Champion, ON) Interview

2011-02-24T11:16:00.000-08:00

Here is my interview with Jim Hesketh, who sang for Champion, and currently sings for ON. It was conducted back in September 2010 and it ended up being in Where It Ends Zine #2. Check it out here for the first time online!

Hey Jim, How are you doing?

I'm fan-fucking-tastic!

What have you been up to as of late?

Well Jim, mostly I work at Whole Foods. I'm a produce team leader and it keeps me awfully busy. This summer has also been the most active ON has been since our inception.

A while after Champion broke up you started a new band called ON. How did ON start?

Well, basically some dudes from some bands started a new band that I was quite into. The singer fell off and they asked me. It really worked out because everyone accepts Adam all live in the same neighborhood. Me and Aaron even work in the same store.

Was ON meant to fill the void that was left after Champion broke up?

Not for anyone but me. I missed doing a band, playing shows, sharing what was on my mind. But as far as what champion did, ON was something completely separate.

So you guys released two, 7 inches over the last couple years and also a full length that’s like a combo of the two 7’s?

Well yeah, the full length is actually just the two 7"s on LP format. We wanted to make it easier to get all the songs.

With ON, what kind of lyrical content do you cover compared to the songs you wrote while you were in Champion?

Well Champion was a straightedge band. A lot of champion songs were about that. ON is not a straightedge band and most of the songs are more just other shit that happens to be on my mind. Most of the songs are more just other shit that happens to be on my mind.

So ON just did some touring overseas, you want to tell me a little about that?

Last summer we did 5 weeks in Europe with Get The Most and Common Cause. It was such a great tour. We went to fucking Russia and that was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Our shows in Spain went really well so they invited us back to play this spring. We did 4 shows in Spain and Portugal and played the Fire and Ice Fest in Barcelona. It was a really good time. Barcelona hardcore knows how to party.

You guys also flew out to the East Coast to do a weekend tour with Mindset and Get The Most. How did that go?

It was a good time. Get The Most and Mindset are 2 killer bands. Each show was stacked with hardcore's finest. The drives fucking sucked and I hate east coast weather, but it was rad to see old friends.

You got the chance to play with Hands Tied, which was one of there first shows back. What was that like?

So, Tim interviewed me for double cross right when ON started. I don't know if you read double cross but it rarely has anything to do with current bands so it was sort of an honor. Needless to say Tim and ON have a little bit of a history. Hands tied announced they were getting back together and set to play the Haverhill show. One thing leads to another and they wound up playing the whole weekend. It just added to the sweetness that was the weekend.

What's next for ON? Will you guys ever become a full time band like Champion?

ON will not likely become a full time band. There is a full length LP in the works. Bands like Black Breath, Devotion, and Circles will be playing more shows though.

Alright, so moving on to some other things. Its been almost five years since Champion broke up. What's that time been like for you?

Just really figuring out my life. Champion was so important to me. It was all I ever wanted to do. Then it was done. I settled down and got a job. I am a team leader at Whole Foods and that take a lot of my time. It's kind of weird man. It went from meeting new people everyday, seeing friends, hanging out with my 4 favorite people in the world, and people shouting my words from the crowd, to going weeks without seeing anyone other work people. Sometimes it seems like a complete different lifetime.

What were the reasons behind Champions eventual breakup?

There were a couple reasons. Champion had become a job and we were working our asses off and making decisions like a business but I was still broke. We made enough money when we were on the road but as soon as we took a break I was miserable. A lot of it was because we were just worn out. Andy had decided to go back to school. In the planning process for the follow up LP we were planning on trying to make some moves to increase our exposure so we could be more sustainable as a band, sell more records, make more money and be more comfortable. Something just clicked with us while we were in Australia. We were afraid that some of these “business decisions" we were making were going to taint what was so special about the band to us.

What was that last show like for you?

It was really fun and really sad. It was cool to have so many friends and strangers in one room celebrating the end of something that we had created. There was a lot of pressure to end everything we had created in 7 years in one show. I think the DVD did a wonderful job in capturing how emotional it was and summing up what we were about.

What were you thinking when your face got busted open during the last show?

I thought I had lost my eyeball. Seriously. But I knew that there were so many people there from far away places, film crew, our friends, I couldn't just end the show, I had to push on. It was really painful but champion was the most important thing I had done with my life and I literally made a decision that if I lost my eye that it would be worth it. Sounds ridiculous now because everything healed fine, but that's what I was thinking. I spent 8 hours at the emergency room with another kid from the show who got hurt, instead of spending time with my friends.

So on to one last subject, how did you get into hardcore in the first place?

Skateboarding. Some older kids I knew gave me a Black Flag and Minor Threat cassette tapes. Everything was so underground and yet it spoke to me. I was alone a lot as a kid. I was never the cool kid and I didn't have a relationship with my family. I remember sitting alone listening to those tapes for hours. Just like every other kid, I spent many hours at the record store looking at record covers and liner notes trying to research more and more bands.

How did hardcore influence your choice to be Straight Edge?

I was stoned listening to Undertow one night after I had dropped out of high school. Maybe it was a weed induced fantasy but I knew I had hit a bottom in my life. Hardcore introduced me to straightedge, I had an option. I had a choice, and I knew then, that for me, if I wanted a better life I needed to change my ways.

What does straight edge mean to you?

Straightedge to me is a statement that there is another way. That's it's okay not to drink. I don't think that people should live sober to obtain a title, but I do think it is a means to a positive life.

Last few questions, do you have any all time favorite bands or records?

I have many. My favorite varies. Right now I am listening to Terror "Keepers Of The Faith". That song is one of the best hardcore songs since new direction. Also the new comeback kid is killer. Devotion is getting a lot of play. The new Interpol ;)

Any newer bands you've been listening too?

Praise is the best new band in the whole fucking world.

I agree! Anything else you'd like to say?

Follow my blog http://www.Jimhesketh.blogspot.com

Thanks from one Jim to another for doing this interview!

Coke Fiend Interview

2011-02-22T18:58:00.000-08:00

Here's my interview with Andrew Budwey(Guitar) and Brendan Long(Vocals) of Coke Fiend.

Hey guys, what are you up too?

Andrew- Not too much, we just finished up our first EP and have been preparing it for release with our buddies Devin and Cody at Section 8 Records, other than that we have a few shows coming up, our record release show on March 18th in Boston. Hopefully doing a weeklong summer tour, possibly with Streetsweeper and/or Villain? Brendan sets that stuff up so I’m not too sure.

Brendan- Jerkin Off ! ....no seriously....alot of stuff, the EP is coming out march 18th, and we got a bunch of shows coming up in the month of march

So how did Coke Fiend start up? You guys originally had a different name if I'm correct?

Brendan- I hope your ready for this because its a long and complicated story......

Coke Fiend's earliest form took shape in late 2008. My previous band Couldn't Care Less had split up that summer, and after a few months out I wanted to do something else, one reason being that, as fun is CCL was for me, it never really fufilled the creative vision I had... or really fit into the sub-genre or style of hardcore I was/still am into. A friend of mine, Mike V. from nearby tiverton wanted to start an earlier sounding, youth crew oriented kind of band...he wanted to call it BRAIN DUMP, and that was the name that we went with. The band orginally consisted of myself, Mike V., Mike Agostini and Mike Foshey. Shortly after that we picked up a 2nd guitarist, an old jr. highschool friend of mine Brenden Pavao.. we had 2 mikes and 2 brendans. it was confusing...practices and members were sporatic for the first year. Brenden P. lost interest and left, he was replaced with Andrew. We did record a 3 song demo with the orginal lineup that never got released. it was good, but just was'nt the sound we wanted. Right after that, creative differences and lifestyle changes led to 2 of the 3 mikes leaving the band, which left us with myself,budwey,and foshey. Also at that time budwey was still writing songs and playing guitar in MYSELF IN SHAMBLES, and just about every member of that band, Matt Curnyn,Matt Sanders,Sean Maze had all filled in on one postion or another for brain dump practices in 09. In that time we mangaged to record another demo, which is what is on that "just a taste" tape we had out.The whole thing fell appart in mid 09 when Mike Foshey announced he was unable to fit the band into his college schedue. In january I approached Andrew about finishing what we started, and told him i wanted to change the name. We agreed on the name and promply wrote and recorded 4 new songs with Mikey B, formerly of P.O.W. on drums, Sean Maze on bass this time around...shortly after that the band broke up because Mikey temporaraly relocated to Chicago this past summer and Sean wanted to focus on writing for Myself In Shambles (now performing under the monkier "The Culture Sound:) Lucky for us, Mike Foshey had re-considered and offered to get back on the drum kit if we were willing to work around his school schedule. We replaced Sean with Spencer, who has been with us for about 3 or 4 months now. This is by far our most perminant and solid lineup to date, beleve it or not...

Man that's some confusing stuff you've got going on right there! You just released a new demo, is that the extent of your discography or have you released anything in the past?

Brendan- We recorded some stuff in early 09 that never got released. 3 really heavy tracks, sounds like well, i couldnt even tell you. 2 months later we layed down a 4 song demo that was put out on myspace, and then we recorded 4 more songs in early '10. the "Just a taste" tape was the first actual hard-issue of the first 4 song demo and the CD version we have out is a compilation of both demos. We just got done recording a 10 song EP with Trevor Vaughan, who has done all our recordings to date, it's called FRAME DAMAGE, and is going to be released very shortly by Section 8 records. First on cassette, later on 7".

I love the boys over at Section 8! How'd you get hooked up with them?

Andrew- We’d known Brian and the Caught In A Crowd dudes for a while, Cody plays guitar for them, and we’ve known Devin from shows as well. Devin was looking for bands for his label and I shot him a message after we’d heard nothing from any labels we sent the record to. He was into it and we went from there. After all, I’d much rather put out my record with friends of mine than a label from another city or scene, I would love to have put something out on Lockin’ Out or Revelation or whatever else put out my favorite bands, but at the end of the day that’s not our deal, what made those labels cool was what they had going with their friends and what was going on at the time, and I’m not trying to revive anything or cop someone else’s thing.

Brendan- Devin has been a pal of mine from shows and everywhere else around the way for about 5 years running. My old band Couldn't Care Less did a ton of shows out on the cape, and alot of off-cape shows with cape bands, it was all in the timing, him and cody were starting a label and we were looking for someone to drop the EP. like Emeril... BAM!

You guys also recorded an exclusive song for my comp, the "Massachusetts Is A Coffin Compiltion", which I absolutely love. You guys even said it's the best track you've recorded to date, why does it stick out as the best to you?

Andrew- My main influences are youth crew bands and mid 2000’s stuff like Stop and Think, and I think that song just perfectly entails what I strive to be as a band. It comes through in earlier stuff too like One Way Street, but that song just fuckin’ nails it for what I wanna do

Brendan- I've just been a tad more aggitated lately and unlike the more easy going "fun" sound the Ep has, we took things in a direction that is slightly more "upset". But don't get me wrong this band is still all about fun. I just hate everyone, especially people who arent grateful for what they have in life.

So alot of people say you guys sound like the A-Team, but a helluva lot of kids have never heard of them. So for those people, who was the A-Team?

Brendan- Wow. I take that as a huge compliment. The A-Team is probably one of my all time favorite bands to date. They we're a hardcore punk outfit from Worcester circa 2003. I was lucky enough to have gotten to see em a couple times...they put out a 7" called Clusterfuck on Painkiller Records, that record is pure gold. They also cranked out a full length called "A is for Asshole" which is equally as good. I'm pretty sure i gotta wait another few years to ever catch that band again, ask Phil from Villain, I'm pretty sure theres some kinda deal where they wont play a reunion show until theyve been done for 10 years.

You seem to have alot of influence from Lockin Out types of bands, is that were alot of your influences that are reflected in your sound come from?

Andrew- I would say about 50% of it. I love Stop and Think and Righteous Jams, those are two bands that rule and above all, the music is FUN. That’s not the whole picture though, I worship at the alters of Judge and Gorilla Biscuits, and I think that shows. Slapshot is in that mix too, absolutely. That’s probably the whole picture, but those Lockin’ Out bands play a part for sure.

Brendan- I listen to all kinds of music, and more specifically, all kinds of hardcore, however I will be the first to make my nod to the "almighty loc", I mean, it's Boston, we are grew up around here, and ya know, how people from NY love the Yankees and people from Boston love the red sox, natually I'm going to be biased to what I came up on..I was lucky enough to have been at a couple Mental gigs a few years back as well as Righteous Jams and that whole group of bands. I think it's actually kind of funny how kids that live all over the country and the world have nearly almost, if not allready dubbed the bands on that label and bands that we're related to the era, along with current bands influenced by that sound into its very own little subgenre. It's actually pretty cool.

While on the subject of Lockin Out, what are the top 5 best Lockin Out bands?

Andrew- 1. Stop and Think 2. Rampage 3. Mental 4. The Wrong Side 5. RJ’s

that’s a tough question for sure. That is definitely not a list set in stone, but more what I’m feelin right now

Brendan- wow. bands? thats a hard one because I don't really thing they ever put out a bad record. I really enjoy Rampage's L.O.D. LP, Everything RZL DZL has put out on the loc is great and if i had to actually put something in a #1 spot honestly i'd say Mental's live on WERS 88.9 set that is on the cd version of Mental YO! is amazing

You guys also recently played a show down in Middletown, RI with Free Spirit and Waste Management. Rampage ended up playing a surprise set at that show, how did that come about?

Andrew- I dunno, I guess they were all there. I heard rumors before but I didn’t really give it much thought, so it was probably planned. It fucking ruled though, that’s for sure.

Brendan- We got asked to play a gig. So we did. As far as Rampage...Craig from WM plays bass for rampage, Ben and Josh P live around the area and i'd guess they came to see Free Spirit and from what i gathered one of the other WM dudes knew all the jams, it was a 100% spontaneous thing...at least i think ? Ether way it was excellent.

So how have shows been going for you guys?

Andrew- Pretty ok, we don’t really get an amazing reaction usually but we’re not really a hardstyle band so I’m not expecting people to be knocking each other out, I don’t dig that anyways. I hope maybe when the record drops people will be more into it. We do this for us though, I’m not trying to win any hardcore popularity contests, haha. Overall we’re happy, we meet awesome people all the time and have a lot of fun.

Brendan- Eh, i guess you can say hit or miss, we've had a few awesome ones and and few weird ones, we actually got booked to play a goth night sharing the bill with a bunch of industrial bands....it was hilarious.

I heard something about you guys might be doing a Canadian weekend with Streetsweeper? Confirm/Deny?

Andrew- That’s a maybe, if it happens it’ll be this summer, the spring kind of fell through as passports are a pain in the fucking ass and also expensive.

Brendan- There is an American Invasion to ontario in the works involving Us, Villain and the sweeper boys....the streets of Welland are very dirty and need to be swept..., ask Bo or Will from EZ Way Out...

You guys planning on touring once "Frame Damage" comes out?

Andrew- Maybe for like, a week. All of us work too much and have other shit going on, so we could never hit the road hard but we’d like to start hitting other cities, ie. DC, NYC, wherever. Fuck it. We’ll play anywhere

Brendan- I would like to do an actual tour of the east coast, but aside from weekend giggers, any kind of extended tour would have to be planned out far in advance and right now is almost impossable. We are all 45+ hr a week working stiffs, and Mike is in college as well as working full time. I am the head mechanic at a local car dealership, and spencer is the "maitre de" or head waiter for all you non-smartypantses at his cousins restaurent and works 70+ hours a week. A Cali weekend is feesable, but as far as a full US Tour or Europe...doubtful as of now.

Anything else you guys would like to say?

Andrew- Shout outs to you & Where It Ends, New Reality and the Reality Crew, Phil & Villain (NEW RECORD RIPS), Streetsweeper dudes, Darkwoods, all of our friends. I always forget people, they know who they are. Peep the Massachusetts Is A Coffin comp, OBVIOUSLY great bands on there for sure. Isn’t it a free download? Do it. Also, we’re not an edge band, but please don’t do drugs. Be nice, support bands, and don’t be the fucking loser texting during someone’s set. Peace.

Brendan- Coke Fiend, the band's name if you didn't get it was a joke. None of us do drugs. 2 of us are edge, 1 a recovering alcoholic. I absolutely despise drug use in excess, or drug use outside of psychical reason, some would argue with me that there is NO psychical reason. I've lost a few really close friends and fairly recently my father to complications surrounding addiction to prescribed medication. We're not a political band, but if there's going to be one thing that we DON'T stand for, that would be the doctors all across the country prescribing drugs like Oxycontin,Percs,Zoloft,Adderall, etc etc like they are fucking candies in order to get a hefty kick-back check at the end of every month from the drug companies. fuck that shit. it's killing everyone.

Thanks for the interview dudes!

Andrew- Thank you!