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Ian MacKaye

How do you divide your time creatively? Is Evens, Dischord, and the spoken word stuff all you're doing right now?

Well, it's more than enough for me actually. I'm always super busy so it's not like I'm twiddling around like "Oh I know, I'll write a song for the Evens." Actually I'm always working really hard trying to find time to actually play guitar because there's so much work to do for Dischord.

I mean everything that I've ever done, I'm still basically involved with, which is an aspect of the so called do it yourself culture. You take a responsibility for something and you kinda have to look after it. So I'm still dealing with Teen Idles, I'm still dealing with Minor Threat actively. I talk to the Minor Threat guys regularly. Fugazi, obviously, is an enormous amount of work still. Like looking after the catalogue and looking after the archives. Right now as you're calling I'm going up the stairs to get these computers turned on because I'm converting all these live tapes to digital files. We're trying to make a website. We have 1000 live shows recorded and we're gonna try to make them available to people. Always that kind of work. Dischord is a lot of work.

I don't really do spoken word in the sense that most people think of spoken word. I do question and answer stuff, which I think is a really amazing way for me to get to spend time with people. I just like doing it. I like talking to people. It gives me an idea of what people are thinking about. I don't do as much of that as regularly as I'd like to, but I am always open to going out.

Right now I'm standing in the archive room at Dischord house. For the last year I've been involved with getting all my various collections into some kind of order. So I have all the master tapes, all the history of Dischord master tapes. I have all these Fugazi live tapes. I have all the Fugazi practice tapes. I have 500 live Fugazi videos. I have probably 1000 photos of the last 30 years of DC punk rock. It's really quite a bit of work. Since I've been home for the last couple of years - Amy and I have a kid, I have a year and a half old son - so because we're not travelling at the moment I've had an opportunity to really dig into this stuff and try to get this stuff into some kind of relative order.

So to answer your question, yeah, I'm fucking busy.


Do you think it's fair to say that it's important to you to keep your projects distinctly separated? Like you'd never play a Minor Threat song as Fugazi.

Yeah, because Minor Threat and Fugazi were different bands. They're not my bands. I'm a member of those bands. It wouldn't be fair to the members of Minor Threat if Fugazi did a Minor Threat song, and it wouldn't be fair to the members of Fugazi if they're doing a Minor Threat song. It's like this. I think of bands as relationships. So let's say you're going out with somebody and you have something you like to do with that person all the time that's sorta like the thing that you do together. Then if you break up and you're going out with a new person you wouldn't just do the same thing. It just doesn't work that way. That's really the way I feel about bands. The music that's created in bands is not the product, in my case at least, of me saying like "Here's what you have to play. I'm writing all the songs and you're just my backing musicians." What the band is doing is a relationship. The chemistry between the members of the band, the creative contribution, the ideas, the energy that comes out of the relationship is responsible for the unique sound. So doing a Minor Threat song with Fugazi or a Fugazi song with Evens just wouldn't make any sense. It's not the right thing to do.

Frankly, I don't have any regrets. I love all the bands I've been in. I don't feel like I wouldn't want to do those songs, but the truth is that I try to live in the moment. I think Minor Threat was an amazing band, but I'm not gonna play Minor Threat songs. I'm not gonna do it.


What do you think of the ATP Don't Look Back shows where they get bands to play one of their old albums?

It's an interesting idea, but the way I look at it it's like, when the band was writing that music they wanted to make music together. It's a product of a kind of creative energy. But if a band's broken up, not playing, doesn't really wanna work together, and then are somehow lured out of that to do this really specific kind of presentation then it's almost like they're not doing a show, they're doing a recital. Furthermore, being somebody who's made records and played concerts, when you do a show there's a kind of pacing where things kind of culminate. You play and at the end of the show hopefully you're really in tune with the audience and you're in the heart of the music, so the songs you play at the end are usually the best songs because you're all working together at the point. But on a record quite often the songs at the end are like, "Oh yeah, here's a couple other songs."

I saw Devo play here. They played at the 930 Club and really it was interesting to see them. They were playing their first album back to back. The first thing that occurred to me was that the show was $45. The record is 40 minutes long. So people are roughly paying a dollar a minute to see the show. That's the first thing that occurred to me. The second thing is that when they're playing some of the songs are amazing, they're great and there wasn't like a bad energy on the stage, you didn't feel like they didn't wanna be there, but you did feel like the show kinda hit its crescendo then at the very end they came back for an encore of two songs, the last two songs on the album. Really they're not that exciting songs. They're good songs, but they're not the best songs. So there's just something odd about it. I'm not particularly judgemental about it. I just wouldn't do it. It's not the way I think about music. Music is living and present.

People say to me like, "What do you think of todays music scene? How do the bands today compare to the bands of yesterday?" I mean, I cut my teeth on those early bands and that's where I get a lot of my inspiration, but I actually believe that a band today is much more important than any band from the past, because bands from the past cannot change things, but bands today can. They may not be kicking my ass at the moment, but that doesn't mean they're not the most important thing. They are the most important thing. Now is where things can change.

With a band like the Evens for instance, I love that band but a lot of people are like, "Ah I don't get it. It's just not that interesting to us." I understand that, but my from my point of view it's as punk or more punk than anything I've ever done. I'm comfortable with going to a place where people are scratching their heads. I like that because something is occurring. Most shows that are called punk shows today, or especially with the ones where they play the record, it's not that something unexpected might happen, you know exactly what's going to happen. You know what you're supposed to do, you know what songs are gonna be played. It's just so antithetical to the way I think about music. To me, a great show is when the band and the audience work together to create a real moment. You don't know what might happen. Sometimes it can be a little scary. It doesn't have to be dangerous, but you're just not sure. It's disorientating, because something is occurring that nobody can control. I like that. That's what I like.

I have seen thousands and thousands of bands. In the last few weeks I've seen 5 or 6. They're good bands. They play great. Their songs are perfectly fine. But really there's no surprise for me. I mean come on, take a fucking chance. We know you've got it wired, but once you've got one thing wired you've got to take a chance. Look at Fugazi for instance. If you look at our records, we always were pushing ourselves to take chances. We kept trying to make music that we felt was interesting. And we felt really deeply appreciative of the fact that the audiences were willing to go with us. Like, "Yeah, let's fucking mix it up." People say, "Why do you call it an indefinite hiatus? Why hasn't that band broken up?" The reason we feel it's more of an indefinite hiatus is that after being in a band for so long and essentially becoming a family it just seemed absurd to say like, OK the store's closed, because we're not a fucking store. The truth is, I talked to Brendan and Guy yesterday. We talk all the time. We see each other regularly. You asked me about my creative work, at the moment I'm working with Brendan. He's working on a soundtrack for a documentary and I'm working with him on that. We're really tight. So in my mind with Fugazi, whether or not we actually play a show or make a record together we will continue to be creative and continue to try to fuck with the form and do things that we think are unexpected.


What do you think of bands who play in the modern context basing their sound on early 80s bands?

I think that they have their place, but you have to remember that in 1980 or 79 when I first got into punk there were plenty of bands who were doing rockabilly and like Buddy Holly music. Those people fill a certain kind of void. As an 18 year old kid or 17 year old kid at that time I appreciated those bands, but it's not the kind of music I was gonna make. I wanted to make my music. I wanted to create the now. I had friends who were in like garage bands or they dressed like that. I like that music and in its own right it was kinda rebellious and punky, but ultimately it's a bit of a straitjacket because it's almost like you've created an environment that you can't really escape. So bands that are taking a sound and saying, "this is where we're coming from," it will give them a leg up, but then it will be a handicap, because it will be hard for them to escape. Everyone's just gonna be like, "well they're just that kind of band." If I was a kid I would take everything that's been given to me, I would be inspired by it, and then I'd try to return the favour. And actually, as a 47 year old, it's exactly what I'm doing. I take what's come before me, I'm inspired by it, and I try to return the favour by creating something new. I'm just a fucking punk rock motherfucker.


What do you think of the idea that for some people DIY is a safety net? Like it's easy and fun, but it's not realistic.

I actually think it's fine. I mean, people live their lives any number of ways for any number of reasons. With those people I don't think like, "You're not paying your dues." That's not my style. Everybody has to navigate their lives and their music, and their situations on their own. I can't be judgemental about it. When you say like they use it as a safety net, it's like sure, maybe for the time being that's what's gonna happen, but at some point they might break out of that. Like for instance, when I first got involved with punk it was sorta like, wow I can just be a part of this thing. I didn't really know, I was just learning. I was like, "OK I guess I'll get a leather jacket or something." Like anyone coming at something new you come at it from a rudimentary point of view. Hopefully you end up, by getting involved in that, understanding what the possibilities are. So I'm sure there's some people who get involved with DIY and are like what's in it for me? Then they don't wanna do the work and at some point they bail. That's OK. Who cares? That's not an issue. Whether they call it DIY or not, people who are really jumping in to their work or their creativity, there's always those people too. It doesn't really bother me, I guess that's the point. It's not like I wish these people would get out of my world. They're welcome. Everyone's welcome to the world, I don't care. I mean it's tricky. I understand your question. If we had a pot of tea between us we could really get into it, but it's a tricky thing to deal with in a one question one answer way. It's an interesting idea but it's difficult to talk about in a brief time.


Like doing this interview right now, it's not really going to be of any benefit to you. Is it still important for you to do things like that for the little guy?

Of course. If people are curious, if they want to ask me some questions, I like to make myself available. It's more interesting for me. I don't know why on earth somebody would want to be in a position where they have a press person doing all this stuff. Put it this way, let's say I come to Glasgow and I can't find anywhere to play, I'm gonna fucking write you like, "Yo, remember we talked? Got any suggestions for me?" It's just how I get to know people. The same way you're asking me questions now, Thurston Moore was interviewing me in 1983 or 82 for his fanzine. Just some kid. And the same way that you might be a fan of one of my bands, Rick Rubin was in a band called Hose in the early 80s and he was a big fan of Minor Threat. They're just people and I'm open to talking to anybody. It's not like I'm thinking, "I hope he pays off and becomes famous." Really I just like talking to anybody. I like people.


It seems like that's something you, Mike Watt, and Henry Rollins all have in common.

I think for all 3 of us the idea of access was really important. The fundamental of punk rock was breaking down the barrier between the barrier and the audience, so I kinda feel like this is part and parcel of that. I think Mike, and Henry, and I all share that. Like the idea of breaking down the barrier. Then as we've gotten older and got varying degrees of popularity or ways people perceive us, I think it's still important to make ourselves available to people. We're interested in humans.


Big thanks to Ian.

Mike Watt Interview

How's it going?

I just got back from Italy. I did two weeks there with two Italian musicians. Did six gigs and recorded an album called Il Sogno del Marinaio. It means, "the sailor's dream," in Italian. These are guys that just kinda met by accident in the experimental scene. Like a lot of young people, they actually started with punk. That's a lot different than my reality. There was maybe the Stooges and Captain Beefheart of course, but I come from arena rock. My first gig was seeing T-Rex. I didn't find out about clubs until punk. I only knew about arena rock.

But yeah, I've been doing a lot of this lately. I've got maybe 12/13 records in the pipeline. The last ten years I've been doing too much gigs as opposed to recording stuff. Gigs are important, they're the main thing. Even when we started the Minutemen, me and D. Boon, we decided we'd split the world into two categories: there's gigs and flyers, and everything that wasn't a gig was a flyer to get people to the gig. I really dig the moment, and playing, and punk taught me all about that, but work's important too, especially when you get to middle age and realise that maybe you aren't going to live forever, and so these things will be here after you. In 11 days I turn 52. I never thought about being a middle aged punk rocker. I didn't think about it, but that's what I am.


What's the deal with the album based on Hieronymus Bosch?

That was an opera with Tom Watson and Raul Morales [the Missingmen] called Hyphenated-Man. And you know them little creatures in the Bosch paintings? Well, some people got an idea maybe those things are just pictures of proverbs and sayings. I don't know 500 year old Dutch or Flemish y'know so I just made it up. It reminded me of the Minutemen. I had to deal a lot with the Minutemen because of the We Jam Econo documentary. When D. Boon got killed it was hard for me to listen to that music and stuff, but then I had to for this thing and it was like, hey this is interesting, these little songs. So this third opera is made out of 30 little songs. I was thinking of the Bosch thing, like all his paintings are made of all these little paintings in a way, so that's kinda a similarity.

Also I used Wizard of Oz. In middle age you think about what the fuck is it about to be a guy and shit. What's life about? That's what Dorothy was trying to do. You notice those dudes, the scarecrow, the lion, the tinman, they're the farmworkers before the tornado. Y'know, to have courage you need a badge and the wizard gives him the shit; to be smart you need a diploma. She's just looking at the trips dudes go through to be men.


How come you play with so many different people?

I do that stuff with a lot of cats because it's good training. Especially with people you don't know. You're totally unfamiliar with their style, so you have to rethink your instrument. It's weird to stay punk, cuz when it first happened to me I was just out of high-school, 18 years old, 1977, and it has this profound effect on you. But as years go by, it still has an effect on you but the experiences aren't like those first ones. So I try to keep the ethic of that first experience. Just do it. Like all those punkers, writing their own songs, maybe not knowing how to play that well but still doing it. They're up there with their friends, they got a band, they're expressing themselves through the music and provocative whatever. I love that feeling. I don't wanna be nostalgic or sentimental. I can't bring that back. But I can make the ethic of that live by making journeys with music. And then, I don't know how it happened, but I get to sit in the classroom of all classrooms and play with the Stooges. It's something I never would've guessed in my life. They're very interesting. Now there's another thing where I'm playing Ronnie [Asheton]'s bass lines now.


Yeah, what's it like now you've moved onto playing Raw Power?

We did the first gig about a month ago in Sao Paulo in Brazil. That was a pant-shitter man. That was scary. I told Ig it was sorta like a skateboarder who was barely hanging on cuz he's trying some wild stuff. James ain't played in a long time, so he's getting back on the horse and Ig told us before the gig, "I'm gonna take it easy." He did not take it easy. His work ethic is just so strong. He just goes for it. I would probably follow him down a garbage disposal. It's just infectious. You get caught up in it. To me it's very easy to see why there would be no punk scene without the Stooges. That's primary source, that ain't second, third, fourth, fifth hand. Sitting right in the classroom, playing with them, that was a trip.

This new thing, there's a lot of emotion for me playing without Ronnie. Ronnie was the reason I was in the band. I was in Florida with the Secondmen. In Tallahassee, Florida I get a call from Ig, and Ig says, "Hey, Ronnie says you're the man." Which was the trippiest fucking phonecall I ever got in my life. For us especially in So-Cal, our punk scene was pretty small and we're spread out over like 150 towns. When we came up to Hollywood, Stooges was like the one common thing. All weirdos from different parts. The uniting force was the Stooges. That's a trip. Finally I'm the youngest guy in the band.


What would you pick out as the highlights of your career after the Minutemen?

Well, the Stooges for one. That was a fucking mindblow and a half. Actually getting the chance to keep playing. Every gig I try, sometimes I stumble, I get afraid, but the high points…somebody after a gig, "Hey man, I had a dream last night and D. Boon was there. He gave me a guitar and said 'play'." This guy wasn't even born until after D. Boon died. Wow, he didn't even tell him what song to play, just told him to play. This kid's gonna write his own tune. In some ways the high point for me is just sharing in the fucking mindblow, the joy, the possibility, people being fired up and wanting to do shit. That seems like a high point because they're letting me share with them on that.

Actually, fIREHOSE. eDFROMOHIO coming to my town and wanting to make a band. That was pretty intense. I thought noone wanted to hear me after D. Boon was killed. Actually, the first thing I did was Thurston [Moore] asked me to play bass on Evol. That was a big highlight, man. Like, "What, you want me to play without D. Boon?"


I wanted to talk a bit more about the bass and how it's this thing you got so into, but it wasn't really your idea to get into it at the same time...

I didn't fucking know what it was. They're so far away I didn't fucking know they had bigger strings. See in the pictures they look kinda like a guitar. You know there's only four of them cuz of the tuners, but you didn't really know what it was. Music is a lot more accessible to people now. I was in a retard age in a lot of ways. You could tell on the albums that almost every band had a bass, so we knew that was an important part of the band. His ma told me, "you're going to play bass." She wanted us to play after school. It was after I moved to the projects, where I met D. Boon. There wasn't a lot of guns yet, it was the early 70s, but she wanted us in the house after school. In those days you couldn't think of gigs or anything, like playing the Forum or Long Beach Arena. It was crazy. You never had a club situation so you never thought of gigs. It was just something to do. You never thought of songs either as a way to express yourself, you just copied off of records, and it was very hard for me to hear what the bass was on the records. There was one Scottish guy I could hear who was very influential, Jack Bruce, from Cream. You could hear him. Then there was an England guy, called John Entwhistle, you could hear him. Then the way RnB music was, the guitars would be small. James Jamerson, I could hear him. And Larry Graham in Sly and the Family Stone. Then another England guy, Geezer Butler, from Black Sabbath. I'd confuse it with the guitar, but those are my early influences. I think the bass is the best thing to be in a band, so I thank D. Boon's mother very very much. People go to the bathroom, they look at the tiles. I look at the grout, the stuff the puts the tiles together. That's what bass is like; we're like glue to stick the stuff together. I've done several experiments where I just bring people the bass line, the first one was that Ball Hog or Tugboat but the idea goes back to the Minutemen, where I thought if the bass player knew the song then anyone could play. So bass is very key to me. I know for some folks it's something you add later, in fact there's some bands now that don't have bass players and I'm thinking, that poor lonely kick drum, nobody to be married to.


Were you happy with the way We Jam Econo turned out?

Those guys, Keith and Tim, were too young to see the Minutemen, so actually the story was kinda them finding out about us, asking these people who were playing during those times. Then there's a lot of footage of us just playing. A lot, y'know. I didn't know that existed. People were sending that in to them that had filmed it. That was a trip. It looks like D. Boon wants to jump out the screen. I like that. I sound like an idiot sometimes. Maybe the talking was too spacey some times. I wasn't trying to be spacey; I was trying to be understood. I tried my hardest and I think those guys did a good job. I've been surprised by all the cats interested in it. Even musicians who can play really well. Back in the old days people who could play well thought punkers were dicks and shit, but nowadays it's way different. I'm glad that thing came out. D. Boon gets to play for people, that's the main thing.


How did it make you feel to be making something like that?

A lot of people ask me that. It was just the attitude of Keith and Tim. They seemed so sincere about it. I thought they should be the cats. It felt weird in a way but the focus is that D. Boon can play for people. And they've got parts where he talked. I also thought that if people saw that three guys like us could make a band, they'd see that anybody can make a band. Not like we were the greatest band, but if these three dorks from Pedro can do it then other cats can too.


Do you think the ethic of punk is something that most people tend to lose as they go on?

Well maybe, but I don't wanna talk down on anybody. But there's people that still have it, and people coming on with it. Young people are very important. And it's trippy about the bass, cuz it's always this search for the right notes not the most notes. So some cat just learning how to play can write a righteous bass line. Yeah I'm a little biased, but when I see a band the first thing I focus on is the bass player. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to them after the gig and the dude's just started playing. Cats just coming on the scene, they will have this fire.

Actually, it goes for almost any work. You see people who lose the fire, lose the passion, they just punch the clock. That's just a danger of human existence. Punk opened up my eyes to that. Man, it changed my life. And I don't look at it as a stepping stone. It's so fucking important, so why would it go? There's something about it that can keep living in you, and you see it living in other folks too. It wasn't the style of music, it was the state of mind. When that sickness almost killed me I was being treated by doctors, but that last round of pills they gave me was over the phone. They didn't even see me. They had lost the fire for their jobs. They took me into county and there was some young intern doctor, Dr. Hopkins, and he was, "We're gonna go to town. We're gonna get this, Mr. Watt." The dude saved my fucking life.

So it's all kinds of work, bass, skateboarding, doctoring, building, painting, poems, all this stuff, you gotta keep the fire. Like if you think of Rimbaud, he wrote poems for only two years and they're great poems. But then Alvin Jones, he plays a gig a week before he dies, aged 75 or something. Some people are in it for the short terms, some long term. It also has to do with choice. It's hard for me to be responsible. I feel I owe the scene a big debt, but it's hard for me to change other folks. In a way, I wouldn't want people trying to change me. Although sometimes I'm so glad I have been changed, like from the movement.


What do you think of the idea that punk can die?

No way, no way. It's usually cats who can't fit in that make their own world. That helps down the road to make people fit in, but not in a fascist, hierarchy way, in a creative, sharing the dream way. Not in an oppressive or coercive way. That's the vision I see in it. Sometimes, you gotta get with your buddies and put together a fucking expression trip. Some dudes do it with painting. I know this from Patty Boon, it ain't just the bass, but that's where I found it. Fuck, I found it. D. Boon's ma put me on it. It's strange about life. A lot of shit you can't guess. That's why I think some of the knowing is just by doing. Just bouncing it off each other with respect not to copy and be xerox machines. But God, there would never have been a Double Nickels without Hüsker doing Zen Arcade. I know there's a movement, I know there's a connection. I don't know the connections exactly, but there is something about it. Some kind of fabric.

Why do you feel like you owe a debt to the scene?

Because everything I'm operating on now, getting all excited talking to you on the phone, is because of that scene.


Do you feel like by making Minutemen you were kinda repaying that debt?

Maybe, but I don't think the debt ever gets repaid. There's new cats joining in. It isn't just stale, all in the past. People have worked to keep it living in a strange way. I mean, it keeps morphing and changing based on the dudes, right? It's not some museum thing. There were certain bands in those days, and I like that stuff. But when I talk about the movement I'm talking about more of a dynamic thing that keeps on going. It was fired up then, but maybe there's resonances and reverberations from earlier movements. Patty Boon taught me about Dada and Futurists. There's some crazy ass shit 60, 70 years before us. Somebody once told me the only thing new is you finding out about it. Y'know, what can you do about it? What you can do is what's possible with your dream in your head. You can't fix circumstances, time and shit like this. Sometimes I talk to young people, some young people say they were born in the wrong time, and I try to tell them, "No, you were born in the right time, which is your time." It's always easier to look back a bit, but you can't change what's already happened. It's already been done. It's kinda good about the now-days because there's possibility, y'know. Dudes can do shit.


Henry Rollins told me back in the day punk was more of a dirt road, where now it's an 8-lane freeway. Do you think that's accurate?

Oh yeah. It was more of a dirt road because, fuck, remember arena rock? I know from the Stooges that there was a club scene from garage bands in the 60s, but that all got lost. It kinda had to be reinvented. This thing about, "Just do it." In those days they didn't have arena rock, they didn't have anything. Young men in the early days, they sent you off to war and shit. There wasn't this idea of the teenager and rock n roll until the 50s. They still hadn't put together the idea of bands yet. Bands were just kids trying to express themselves, because there wasn't a lot of radio, there wasn't a lot of TV, they were professional musicians who had to go play for people. I would agree with Hank, but, OK there's that reality, but there's also the reality of the ethic. So maybe the new fanzine now is the internet. So you can have ways of communicating without some motherfucker setting up a tollbooth or a minder to filter your thoughts. You can still go directly. To me that's the same ethic as the fanzine. The idea of putting together bands and writing your own songs. I don't think that changed. The way you can deliver it changed maybe. It became popular, man. That surprised the fuck out of me. I thought punk might be a little thing on the side, on the fringe, y'know. But man, if you're a young person now almost a couple of years in high school are expected to be your punk ones, right? Yeah, that's something I never would've guessed. It was such a small scene. But if you think of the idea that anybody can make a band, how could that go old-fashioned? Movements go through cycles and trends, but with punk the same core values seem to keep running through.

I did a few Warped Tour shows, and one of the stages was called Hot Topic. I found out Hot Topic's a place at the mall where you can buy punk clothes. Haha, our idea was you made your own clothes. But that's ok, whatever. These things are funny. I don't think it should totally bum you out. Think about Little Richard, Tutti Frutti. Pat Boone sold more Tutti Fruttis than Little Richard did. How did that happen? That was 60 years ago. So this ain't a new idea, this idea of some stuff changing because of new technologies or some stuff getting co-opted, but I'm talking more about, and I think Hank was too, about core values. They can still exist because they're in the heart. They're in the mind. They're just finding different ways of being expressed depending on the individuals doing it. Or small groups of inspired minorities, like Emma Goldman said.


Did you ever feel like in punk or local scenes or whatever the audience would sometimes have a lot of reservations and not really know how to respond?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of a hipster vibe? Yeah, that's when things get a little cynical and people think everything's figured out. They lost like the child-eyed wonder, being fired up. It gets all rusted out and corroded. That's when you can tell a scene's getting a little bit too social. People aren't doing enough work, and they're talking about it too much. People are worried about social things and not taking chances. But, y'know, all humans go through this. I've seen it everywhere, Hollywood, anywhere. You just get this thing sometimes where people think it's all been done. It's hard to control their lives. That's where those people are at. That's their scene. So you've just got to get together with your cats and get that fire going, you know what I mean? Maybe lead by example. It's weird how all these things work with humans. I don't have it all figured out, but I know I felt something happen when I was with the cats I was getting the band together with. Sometimes that's kinda only the world for a little bit. At least to get that expression out and stuff. Then when you take it to other folks I think that's important too. But it is trippy thinking about how they're going to react to this. It isn't even their real reaction. Maybe they're thinking of the dude standing next to them, hey what does he think I think? It's peer pressure. You think it's just a grade school thing but it seems like it goes through the whole trip.

Thanks to Mike and Howard.

School Jerks

What do you all do aside from the band?

Ben: Nothing important. Playing in this band means a lot to us and making it actually happen with no money, equipment or a vehicle and making records that we're happy with actually takes a lot of time and effort. Lots of people do bands and are also normal productive members of society with real jobs and education. Lots of bands also suck.

Ivan: I agree with Ben. That being said, both Erik and I are in University right now. But yeah, we just really try to be active in the process of making our band one that we can be proud of. There’s a lot we could do as a band to function differently to make our lives easier, like passing things off, such as recording, on to other people with "studios”, but it’s more rewarding to try and get the best results from our limited means. That’s not to say that it wouldn’t be nice to have something like a band fund of more than a few mere dollars, but School Jerks being as self-sufficient as possible is something we try to take seriously.


Did you get shit for putting the picture of the kid drawing the swastika on your 7"?

Ben: No, which is really cool and actually kind of surprising. I guess I expected too little of people after some of the ridiculous reactionary attitudes I've experienced from people who call themselves punks. People seem to get it and understand that we’re trying to make record art with a narrative and not just imagery (shocking or otherwise)


There's a lot going on in Toronto in terms of punk. How into the local stuff are you?

B: Although there’s a lot of bands coming out of Toronto that are getting a lot of attention and operating on a certain level, it doesn't really reflect the local scene. There’s not to much in the way decent punk shows these days. In the last year things have been really dead, but it really changes fast, a year ago there were tons of new bands and a house that did shows every week, and one year before that there had been nothing. As far as bands that have come out of Toronto in the last few years, I think Reprobates and Bad Skin are pretty cool.





Luke: Not too many bands are like our band but there's still plenty. Good anything is hard when you have record nerds who know it all, or people that don’t listen to good bands because of the nerds. Hard balance. Great things happen sometimes so I’ve got nothing to cry about.

I: There is a lot going on in Toronto punk in some aspects, but there’s a lot lacking in others. That Toronto has popular bands that get a lot of attention from the States and overseas has been for better and worse. A lot of bands have benefited from the help of that attention and gotten opportunities like touring and working with established labels outside Canada, but I think it’s also fostered an attitude that’s lazy and can be really misguided about how much work being in a band can be. A lot of bands in Toronto visibly operate with very little effort and are happy to coast on their status and approval from within Toronto or outside. There’s a very vibrant “party” and bar scene in Toronto which sometimes gets linked to punk music, and I think that keeps a lot of people uninvolved and uninterested in making the scene in Toronto a bit more active.


Do you think the city and its legacy is responsible for you making this kind of music?

L: The Viletones have so much to do with this band when it comes to bands that came from here. Listen to Viletones.

B: As far as the musical legacy of Toronto we've definitely been influenced by local bands whether its 70s bands like the Viletones or the Ugly or the bands that were around when we were young. Bands like Career Suicide and Fucked Up and the scene they were part of were an influence on us not so much musically but in terms of actually getting out there and putting together a band that was raw and punk and fast and fun rather than the kind of "challenging" and "extreme" but ultimately boring and inaccessible punk/hardcore that was around that time (early 2000’s).


I guess California and its music is probably a bigger deal for you guys though. Is that the kinda punk that you got started on?

B: We definitely take a more obvious influence from Californian bands but we're into and take an influence from punk regardless of when and where it comes from, which I think has to do with the how we got started – listening to every kind of good punk we could get our hands on and discovering more and more old bands of every punk sub genre.

L: The bands we sound like don’t have anything to do with the bands we listened to when we were 12, though Ivan listened to waay cooler shit than me and Ben - Blood for Blood and shit.

I: Guilty as charged. Blood for Blood are still my favorite band to listen to when I’m getting inked.


What's the best band ever and why?

B: Ramones.

I: Ramones.

L: Thin Lizzy cause of The Ballad of a Hard Man.





Thanks a lot to School Jerks.

Henry Rollins Interview

What does it feel like being elevated to a legendary status over time to the point that you're a cult hero to a lot of people?

I don't really pay attention to anything like that. I don't think anyone thinks I am legendary or anything. I certainly don't deserve anything like that.

Does it feel to you like the creative climate is different now from how it was in the early 80s? Like do you think Black Flag or some equivalent could happen tomorrow?

I think those days were different than what's happening now as things were a bit more uncharted. There were a lot of rough areas out there where now things are an eight lane highway by comparison. I think Black Flag had at least one ingredient they only made one of and that's Greg Ginn, that's the big deal with that band.

How did you make the move into shows that are just you talking? Did you have to practice or was it a case of just doing it?

There's really nothing to practice. I do think things through and run things in my head but I just go out every night and hit it. I guess every night is practice for the next night.

Do you wish more artists you like would do it, maybe so you could get a bit more insight into them?

I only want people to do what they want. I don't know if all of those people would necessarily be all that interesting. Just because someone writes good songs, doesn't mean they are someone you want to hear speak. I know some very great songwriters who can't form a sentence without putting you to sleep.

Do you have any role models in that area of your work? Who's your favourite?

I draw a lot of inspiration from Lenny Bruce. Past that, there are a lot of people who are/were very great onstage. Carlin, Pryor, Hicks, X, Obama, there's a ton of great speakers.

So you just got back from Indonesia. What kinda stuff were you doing out there? Was it travelling or charity or something else?

I am in Bangladesh now. I am out on my own for two months, all over the world. Indonesia was interesting, a lot of poverty but friendly people. I have been all over the place, just wandering around in strange neighborhoods.

Are the USO tours a pretty important thing for you? How come?

They are definitely important. I think it's important for soldiers to have multiple ways to stay connected with the world, they can get really cut loose from planet earth. One of the best things is to be able to make some of these people laugh.

It seems like a big part of your writing style is observing average people, and making something poetic out of that. Do you think that comes from punk?

I think it comes from basic curiosity. I know that punk rock is supposedly the music of the real people or whatever but “real” people drink beer and watch NASCAR. Many of the people who made the great punk rock songs were anything but average. None of my very average schoolmates liked punk music. They thought it was gay, actually.

Pin from Insomnio

So Insomnio just broke up. What happened?

Pin: Just broke up, sometimes it happens.

What are some of the highlights of your time with the band?

Pin: For me, all the times Insomnio played were incredible. We only played for 3 years and since the start lots of people wrote to us with interest in our songs and our music. There have been so many good shows. One of the highlights is to have had the offer to go to the USA for a tour with Brandon (No Way Records). In the end we didn’t go because of other problems but, man, I don’t really know too many bands from here who have had that opportunity. I’m very happy about the way this band has gone.

Was it difficult to get going as a band because you come from Spain?

Pin: Maybe it is difficult for a Spanish band to get albums or to get people listening outside the country, but I don’t really feel this way. It’s absolutely true that in Spain people used to listen to very different kinds of bands than in the rest of Europe, but a lot of people here like our band, and I’m very proud about it because too many people from other countries think this kind of music is not very usual in Spain, but there are a lot of punks, skinheads (anti-fascists) and rockers that listen it.

What were your lyrics about?

Pin: I wrote the lyrics in different moments and at different times. The first song I wrote was You’re Walking on the String, I think. Sometimes I wrote when I was bored at work, sometimes with friends, sometimes in my house, and sometimes when I was on drugs or something. I hope people enjoy it, but they’re just some words I wanted to write in a special moment.

How do you feel about the hardcore scene in Spain?

Pin: I don’t like most of the bands in the hardcore scene in Spain, and in too many other places. For sure there are good bands here, but I think that bands are more interested in being accepted in their scene than playing what the want to play and making more good and exciting music.

Are there any local Spanish bands that not many people know about who you'd like to bring some attention to?

Pin: My city, Zaragoza, has had a lot of good punk bands since the 80's. In the 80's there was IV Reich, one of the best in the country. In the 90’s there were good bands too, Animales Muertos was one of the best. Later in the 00’s there was an amazing band called Kuarte Reich but now they’re not playing any more.

Thanks to Pin. Check out Insomnio's myspace here.

Logic Problem Interview

How's the tour going so far?

Seth: Yeah, it's been cool. Our van broke down in Munich for a few days but we made the most of it. We met lots of cool people and it's been pretty awesome

Daniel: I don't think we've had any problems that most people don't have on tour. We fight, the van breaks down, we fight some more. Normal tour shit. Then everything goes fine.

Has there been a highlight?

Seth: There's been a few. In Sweden the sun never went down. We played on a medieval estate in Holland in basically what was originally a chicken coop. It was very tiny and there was about 60 people packed in there. There was free alcohol for everyone. It was just a party. We played with Insomnio and Brat Pack. That was our last show on mainland Europe. We had a blast. Everywhere's been a blast so far though.

Cameron: We played the biggest show of our career in Prague I think. With Limp Wrist. There were hundreds of people, it was insane. People were naked. We saw a lot of penises. That was the highlight of the tour right there.

Where are you guys based?

Nick: Raleigh, North Carolina.

Are there any underrated bands you'd big up from Raleigh?

Seth: Shards, Plague, Devour, Double Negative.

Nick: Double Negative seem really underrated in Europe compared to the US but they're like the best band I've ever seen.

Cameron: As far as hardcore they're the biggest band in Raleigh. Whatever Brains are fucking amazing too.

Seth: We have a lot of bands and they're pretty different so that makes it a lot of fun.

Cameron: And it's always like the same 10 people.

How did the band get started?

Seth: Me and Nick started it. We lived together for a while and we kinda wanted to do something different from everything else in the town we lived in. Everybody listened to Bridge Nine kinda bands. Nobody listened to faster hardcore. They listened to slow, chuggy hardcore. We were kinda sick of it so we started that. Then I moved for college up to Raleigh and we met Daniel through the internet.

Daniel: No, I met you at shows. They'd made a practice tape of songs that they'd written together and I thought it was awesome. My old band was breaking up at the time so it was just sorta good timing. Then I suggested Cameron as the singer just cuz he's like obviously a rockstar. He's born to do it.

Cameron: Yeah, they found the biggest drunk in town. The rest is history.



Did it take a while to get going?

Nick: Yeah, cuz I live 3 hours away. We don't practice very often so it took a while to get the wheels rolling.

Seth: I dunno. It felt like once we started it went pretty quick. Within the first couple of months we recorded a demo tape.

Daniel: We had a demo before we'd even played any shows. I think we'd been practicing for about 3 months. Then we recorded a 7" after we'd been a band for 6 months.

Cameron: You can definitely tell with the demo that they had all these songs and gave them to me and I just like wrote them all in one night. I think the lyrics are pretty horrible but they worked for the time.

What do your lyrics tend to be about?

Cameron: I think we've got into a groove of our music and lyrics and how they go together. We don't have typical punk songs like "fuck the cops" and shit.

Daniel: On the LP I started writing lyrics. Before it was all Cameron. I think the reason I started writing lyrics was because I thought his were so good. He was developing this sort of aesthetic where I think he was dealing with lots of different topics but he was always approaching it from the perspective of how it affects human beings psychologically or epistemologically so I just started trying to write lyrics in the same vein. So if a topic interests me then I just start to think about how it impacts your brain on a fundamental level. I feel like the aesthetic of our band is psychology.

Cameron: I think the name Logic Problem and the lyrics definitely go together. It makes sense. When I first started writing lyrics that I liked I'd just be reading something then pick out lines that I liked and construct something around that. I wouldn't say I was ripping things of from books or stealing things, but having something I liked and then working out everything else from that.

Daniel: Yeah, he kinda taught me to write that way too so when I realise there's something that I'm interested in I'll start to research it and usually a line will stick out. Then it's just like putting the rest of the puzzle together.

What kinda stuff do you have going on aside from Logic Problem?

Daniel: We all play in other bands except for Nick. I do another band called Devour. It's kinda more of a crust punk or Japanese hardcore band. I also do a label called Sorry State and I put out a lot of stuff from North Carolina and all around the world, including Cameron's bands which are fucking awesome, Shards and Plague.

Is it hard to balance the time between projects?

Cameron: Yeah it sucks. Like I work full time and do all three bands so like I have to go to practice every night and I get out of work really late and that's my night. I sleep all day or write songs. My girlfriend dumped me cause I was doing too much music stuff. Sucks but it's good song writing fuel.

Are you the singer in those other bands too?

Cameron: No. I play drums in Plague and I play drums in Shards. Me and Seth kinda have a band that I play bass in. Then I play bass in a Misfits tribute band.

What are they called?

Cameron: The Misfits.



Thanks to Seth, Daniel, Cameron, and Nick. Check out Logic Problem.

Interview with Joe from ANS

How come you guys love skateboarding so much?

Because its just too much fun! What else is there to do on a hot summer day when you're sitting at a gas station waiting for directions to a show and there just happens to be a ditch right next to it? It's something that you can do and don't even have to be very good at to have a damn good time. It's just awesome!

What's better: ripping at a pool or at a show?

That's hard to say. They're two pretty different feelings. I always get a bit more satisfaction out of playing drums for 30 minutes than I do out of skating around for however long. There's just nothing better than throwing all of my energy into some drums and raging.

Tell me about the ANS boards you made.

The boards were definitely awesome. Every time. We've had 3 different runs of the boards with 3 semi-different shapes, and my favorite was definitely the 3rd, which actually had a nose unlike the other ones. The first run which was made back in 2005, I think, had a big nose and a big tail, and didn't have as much concave as the later ones. It also had an image screened on the bottom that wasn't really done too well, but it looked pretty cool. The second run was a little more simple, no nose, a lot of concave, and no image on the bottom. Those ones we sprayed and stenciled a bunch and they came out pretty damn cool. The third run had a smaller nose than the first one and all the concave of the second, and still no image on the bottom. those ones also had two sizes, there was a 10.5 model and an 8.5 one, and they were both pretty badass. They were made by Factory 13 custom skateboards out of Ohio, same dudes that make all the JFA boards...that makes them waaaaaaay bad ass.

Tell me a bit about surf music.

I just love surf music in general, instrumental and vocal. While instrumental stuff is definitely my jam more than vocal stuff, I still like 'em both a lot. Surf music just has a super positive happy feel to it while still being mellow and relaxing. There's nothing like driving with the windows down and the sun blazing with the old tremelo-y tone of some old fender amp coming out of your stereo. It calms everything and just makes everything OK.

Who's the best?

Probably my favorite surf band will always be the Ventures, simply because they covered so much ground. they have a version of almost every surf song out there, most better than the bands who originally wrote 'em.

How long have you been playing drums for?

I've been playing for almost 12 years now.

Favourite drummer?

I've never really paid that much attention to other drummers outside of the punk community, and mostly i only pay attention to my friends. Probably the only drummer that stands out to me other than my friends would be Zach Hill from Hella. That dude is absolutely insane.

Aside from ANS, what other stuff have you got going on?

Other than ANS I drive bands on tour all the time, and it keeps me on tour almost 9 months out of the year, which doesn't really leave too much time for other bands and whatnot unfortunately. But at least it keeps me on the road, which is definitely awesome. As for other people in the band, Andrew also plays and sings in a band called Stymie (who have an LP coming out real soon, and should be doing an east coast tour this July!), Mark plays guitar in Seasick from New Jersey (who's going to Europe in June, then a full US tour in July/August, and they have a new 7" coming out soon), and Chris just graduated college in Texas and is working for a school there now.

What's the next ANS release going to be?

The next ANS record is probably going to be the split that we're doing with Agoraphobic Nosebleed, which is going to be on 5" vinyl on Tankcrimes Records, and 3" mini-CD on Relapse Records. After that we're doing a new full length LP that's going to be out on Tankcrimes over the summer.

Closing Words?
Don't get lame!



Thanks Joe.

Grave Mistake Records Interview

Can you give me a summary of the history of Grave Mistake Records?

Started the label in 2002 when I lived up in Maryland. I moved to Richmond in 2003 and kept the label going. It has always been a conscious decision to keep Grave Mistake locally oriented, which is why the majority of releases are from Maryland or Virginia bands. This will be my seventh year doing the label, to date I have 30 releases with another 6 or 7 planned for the first half of this year alone. I just put out 3 7"s and a CD (Deep Sleep, Psyched to Die, and Time to Escape), and I have two more LPs (Government Warning and Wasted Time) and a handful of 7"s (Logic Problem, The Ladies, Bad Advice, Southside Stranglers, and The Ergs) due out by summer. This is by far the busiest the label has been.

How did you go about your very first release?

It was a split release with Mike Riley who does Firestarter and Toxic Pop (we have since released several more records together, including the Psyched to Die that just came out). The record was a split 7" with his band at the time, Looks Like Rain, and a band from VA called The Infamous. Mike took care of the vinyl, I made the covers at the copy shop I worked at at the time. We did 500, split down the middle. We did like 3 different colors, and i think 3 different covers. We were definitely in the "more versions = more sales" state of mind ... but it was also fun to do limited stuff, so I don't regret it. Slowly but surely I was able to sell or trade them all away... problem was both bands (who were virtually unknown anyways) had broken up by the time the record was in circulation. All in all it was a good first release, helped me learn the ropes as well as how to work around problems with doing a release. I'd say it was a good start to a seven year learning process...

So you've just put out 4 things at once. Was that a lot of work? Tell me a bit about them.

Yeah it was, pretty stressful but I've learned not to get too worked up. The main thing was getting the PTD and Deep Sleep records (and cd) ready in time for their tour. Everything fell into place, and I got help from people to get CDs made, covers done, etc etc in time. Of course since we had a deadline, that's when the problems happened. We had to reject the first test pressings for the PTD 7", which delayed the record like 3 weeks. Deep Sleep had some mixing issues with theirs and got me their recording a little later then they wanted to, so I didn't get the 7" order off til a lot later then I wanted. But thanks to Beth at United Record Pressing all of the vinyl for both releases showed up in time for their tour. We had some issues with a master CD for the Deep Sleep CD, but Dan at Mammoth Sound was able to overnight me a new master. And that was already cutting it really close but thanks to my roommate Sean and the fine people at Copycats Media, we were able to get them in about two weeks and in time for their tour. Also Mike Riley was able to print up inserts, posters, covers, and limited sleeves for these releases and that was a big help too. The Time to Escape record (the one I didn't need by a particular time) was problem free for the most part, but the art got delayed so I had records like a month before I had covers... but that didn't really matter since they aren't really an active band right now.

Now that everything is pressed up and ready, I've been spending the past three weeks (five now, as I'm finishing this interview) making sure all of my mailorders are shipped out in a timely manner, getting the new releases to distros and doing trades with other labels, and I still need to send out review copies but I hope to get to that this week. I can't figure out what is more stressful and time consuming, before the record comes out or after.... either way it's an accomplishment and definitely worth it. Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing it.

But anyways ... the Time to Escape 7" is sort of a posthumous release. The guitar player moved out to Portland, and they sort of dissolved their current lineup before recording which is why brandon from Government Warning/No Way Records played on the 7"... Psyched to Die is a newer band from New Jersey with members of The Ergs!, For Science, Forward to Death, Splitting Headache, and a bunch of other bands... this is their debut release and they seem to be very well received. I think Dirtnap Records will be doing their next EP which is awesome. The Deep Sleep 7" is their third, and it rules. Definitely along the lines of their last record (Manic Euphoria), a bit different from their first record but they got two new members in between those first two releases so I think that had something to do with it. Also we put all three 7"s on one CD, so that's 21 songs and that came out great too.

How do you decide whose stuff you want to put out?

Usually it's just if I really like a band and think they are good, and I like the people, I want to work with them. There isn't much to it. As I said, mostly I stick with local bands and friends bands because I'm usually more interested by that then some random band of strangers. It makes it a lot more personal, thus more rewarding.

Is there anything you've released that you're particularly proud of?

Honestly I'm proud of all of my releases. I'm really excited about all of this new stuff for 2009... the four releases that just came out and the new Wasted Time and Government Warning 12"s (also because I played on both records). My favorite releases are usually the ones where the band is excited. It's weird, some bands are really excited about putting out records and others don't get as into it. Since I'm on the "production" end of things, I'm always excited about creating a record and the whole process from recording to artwork, stuffing, mailing, etc etc. So when the band is as excited as I am then those are the releases that stick out.

What's next for Grave Mistake?

Up next is a repress of The Ladies first 7" (originally pressed on Riff Raff Records), Logic Problem "No Center" 7", Wasted Time "Futility" 12" and discography CD, Government Warning "Paranoid Mess" 12", Government Warning "Executed" 7" . Those are all due out by June. Then hopefully later this summer The Ergs! "Thrash Compactor" 7", Southside Stranglers 7", Bad Advice 7" and maybe a repress of the first Cardiac Arrest 7". Then, who knows...

Big thanks to Alex!

Brutal Knights Interview

What's the story of your band?

We were some people who weren't in a band together, then we started one. The bassist and drummer left and were replaced by The Others from Lost (do they have that show in Scotland? If not, please replace "The Others" with Daleks, or "William Wallace's army in Braveheart" or "Oor Wully". Pets have come and gone and some of us have moved. Albums have been released and tours have been attemped.

What's the best thing about being a Brutal Knight?

The parts where we're living our lives outside of doing the band. Also, writing the lyrics and making the band angry at how stupid the things I'm singing are. Having them veto songs about Baby Wipes while supporting songs about being basically an adult baby.

Are you psyched for your Europe tour?

We are psycho for doing our Europe tour! It's going to be crazy but fun, like your friend's dad, or perhaps your dad's friend.

You lost a bassist after 18 days of touring. How are you going to survive 5 weeks?

We're just gonna think about how bad our boys in the military have it, while eating delicious sandwiches. That should probably keep things on an even keel. Also, we hug this bassist more.

Is this your first tour outside America?

No. Second European tour. The first time we went was extreme. We learned a lot about the struggles of European punks. They were nice and treated us well, although they occasionally pranked us. One time they took us to a focus group instead of a concentration camp!!!!?

What are you looking forward to most?

Finding out what Macedonia is, and eventually coming home and cleaning my room. I will put up a map of Macedonia on my wall upon return.

What's your next release going to be?

Total Rebellion. European release, then we add a bit more to it and put it out on American soil. It will be dedicated to the Obama administration and the concept of Hope as an aphrodisiac. The cover will be bukkake-oriented and scratch n' sniff.



Thanks to Nick. Brutal Knights!!

Interview with Martin from Career Suicide

What's the history of Career Suicide so far?

Considering that the band has been going on for eight or nine years now, there’s a lot of historical ground that could be covered. Sticking to the more relevant facts… Career Suicide was born of a number of irrelevant local bands that we’d all been playing in together for years. We got our proper start as Career Suicide around 2001. Soon after we recorded our first demo in our original drummer's basement in something like ten minutes. We almost abandoned the recording altogether as we couldn’t figure out the 4-track recorder, which was due back to the rental shop within half an hour of us finally recording a single take of the songs.

There was never much acclaim for the band locally in the first few years, but thanks to a string of release that were surprisingly (to us at least) well received and a series of short touring stints out of town we got quite a bit of attention, relatively speaking to the hardcore/punk scenes of course. Within a few years we had a few releases out, played regular shows around the US and Canada, and by 2003 even completed a tour of Europe. We continued to play and record over the course of the years and add to the discography, all the while going through a few changes to the line-up. We even made the cover of Maximum RocknRoll at some point.

In 2005 we did our first tour of Japan, which felt a bit like a surreal accomplishment considering we hadn’t started the band even with expectation of releasing a single record! 2006 was likely the most active year for Career Suicide, with tours of Europe (Winter), the United States (Summer), and Japan (Fall) all in one year. Mind you, none of these tours were longer than two weeks each. We all had work, school and other band commitments, so extended tours have never been an option; or really a desire, to be honest.

If memory serves (I’m terrible with dates), in 2006 we also finished the recording of our Attempted Suicide LP. This was our second full-length record, leaving a full three year gap since the release of our first self-titled LP. Relative to our other releases, which were usually recorded at the last possible moment and at a lightning pace (the first LP, with 20+ songs was recorded and mixed in something like two days) we spent a full six months recording Attempted Suicide. Naturally those six months equated to a lot of breaks between recording/mixing/mastering sessions, but that provided us a lot of time to reflect on the songs and keep working at them. The result was very noticeable, at least to our ears, and I can say for the first time that when I listen to this record, as opposed to any of the others, I don’t hear much of anything that I would have liked to do differently. With other releases it has almost been painful to listen to them for the first few weeks because all I can listen for are the “mistakes” or parts that we could have done better.

Another big boost for this record was the guest drumming of Brandon Farrell (of Direct Control/Government Warning/Municipal Waste). I don’t have the musical vocabulary to properly describe his incredible talents as a punk drummer, but sufficed to say that he really added a dimension to Attempted Suicide that I don’t think our other records had approached until then. The LP got a lot of attention, which was nice, and funnily enough even made top tens in national industry magazines in Canada, winning album of the year in one. Larger labels even approached us about licensing it to them.

Because of other commitments and quite honestly, being a bit burnt out on all the activity of the previous year, we weren’t too active in 2007, especially not relative to the attention the record was getting. In 2008 we were itching to get back in the recording studio and laid down three songs to what would be released as the Cherry beach EP for our UK/Ireland summer tour. This tour turned out actually to be the longest one we’d ever completed with 16 shows in 16 days.

Which bring us to the time of this interview, where we are finalizing plans to record a proper version of Cherry Beach with four songs: two re-recorded versions of tracks from the tour EP and 2 new ones. Beyond that we’re approaching that three year gap again since we last released an LP, so I imagine another shouldn’t be too far off. We’re also working to set up a European tour for the summer of 2009, but it’s still in its preliminary stages at this point.

Biggest highlight?

As I mentioned in my previous answer, when we started the band we never did set any goals for Career Suicide beyond writing songs for our own enjoyment, so the whole experience has been a bit of a highlight, to be quite honest. Having been a life-long fan of music and long time record “collector,” one of the most exhilarating moments for me came with our first vinyl release. It was a race between our first EP (on Kangaroo Records, from Holland) and the Toronto Omnibus compilation (on Schizophrenic Records, from Canada). Test pressings for the comp arrived first and when I put the needle to the vinyl and heard our songs play through my stereo for the first time, it was a pretty magical experience!

Any lows?

I’ve got nothing significant to report, honestly. I suppose with the band always being more a “friendly” endeavor than a vehicle for any sort of musical success, coupled with the fact that everyone involved has always been humble, doing it just to write good songs and have a good time, it’s been a fairly smooth ride. Thankfully, we’ve never had much of the ego wars or dramatic disappointments that a lot of bands that have been around for this long have traditionally dealt with.

How did your UK tour go?

Great! It was easily one of our best tours yet. Haha, you’ll notice a trend of low expectations, but again we weren’t too optimistic about what to expect from this tour. Frankly, we’d always avoided booking a tour of the UK because of warnings from other bands and especially British people warning us that shows in the UK are low-key affairs without much reaction from the crowd. Our experience however was exactly the opposite. I’d say 14 of those 16 shows were not only well attended; the crowds were amazingly involved and appreciative. As a hardcore band you really feed off that kind of energy when you perform and we had a great time.

Anything interesting happen in Glasgow?

Aside from being in Glasgow for the first time in my life, you mean? Within 20 minutes of our arrival I witnessed a heroin deal, a fight, and bought a Pringle sweater at a used shop, not understanding why a used sweater should cost 20 pounds, knowing as little as I obviously do about Scottish fashion, haha. The show was cool, someone brought us fresh pizza and Indian food which, despite being vegan, was good, and we even found time to go to a record store and wander the city a bit, which often is more than you can hope for when you are on tour.

Any plans to come back?

We would absolutely love to. There aren’t at the moment any concrete plans for when we could come back next, but ideally within the next couple of years we’d love to do it again, even if only a shorter stint as part of a wider European tour.

How about the Japanese tour?

Haha, how about it?

Any weird shit happen there?

Lots of shit! Like I said, the first tour was pretty surreal. None of us had ever been to Asia before, and having been groomed with a massive respect for Japanese hardcore, we were definitely in awe of being there. Our first show was actually scheduled for the day that we arrived to Tokyo. Considering the pressure to arrive on time, naturally there was some mechanical problem with our plane before take off, so our 15-hour flight from Toronto to Tokyo was delayed to the point where we were bound to miss sound check. You need to understand that missing a sound check is a major no-no in Japan and often can result in a band not being allowed to play the show. As you might expect, the Japanese have all kinds of strict codes that are unlike how a punk show would be run back home.

Long story short, we arrived at Narita airport after a delayed 15-hour flight and needed immediately to snap out of the shock of being in Japan as there was still a two-hour trip to downtown Tokyo by train ahead of us. By some miracle we navigated the maze of the airport and train schedules and made it to the proper train station where the very stressed out, and by that point severely drunk, members of Forward had been waiting for us to finally show up.

We rushed by foot from the train station, dragging our luggage, gear, records and merch behind us down the narrow streets of Tokyo trying to take in the amazing sights while we raced to the venue. As if this wasn’t all over-whelming enough, to finally arrive at the club after this marathon and see Career Suicide written on the front of the club headlining this show was just over the top. Add to this that when we walked into the club, we found it so packed that we had to hoist our luggage over our heads to make it through the crowd, push our way to the stage and quickly set up to close out the show.

The reaction from the crowd was mental. Normally it’s hard to put on a good and energetic show after so much sitting around and air travel, but the response from the audience was totally overwhelming. I’m still shocked/flattered every time we go to a foreign country and the audience is singing along to our songs. Anyway, that was just the first show! Both tours of Japan were great for us… the first tour for the wonder of getting to play in Japan to great crowds and with great bands; the second tour for all those reasons and also for the opportunity to really get to see a lot of the country, as we even got to play a show on one of the southern Islands!

Are you guys working on any new material right now?

After many delays, we should have the proper recording of Cherry Beach completed within a few weeks. Once that is released we’ve talked about another EP to coincide with our upcoming summer tour. We don’t really operate by any schedule, but speaking for myself, I’m really itching to start working on new songs and playing more shows again.

Is it hard to keep the momentum up with Career Suicide what with other members being involved in pretty demanding projects?

It absolutely is, but it has its benefits too. We’re all really busy people with all kinds of commitments, so with less time to spend on Career Suicide we just focus our energy elsewhere. Just in terms of music, CS members have been involved in numerous side-projects, so we’re keeping busy until the band can pick up again.

How's Toronto as a city?

I love it. I used to go on for years about its faults with many attempts to move away, but have always ended up coming back. And the more places I get to visit in the world, I have to say, I love living in Toronto more and more. Sure it’s a relatively young city, it’s not especially famous for it’s geography, architecture or culture, but it’s a really livable place with a great balance of all the things that it’s not especially famous for. In other words, you really can find everything in this city, even if it’s not necessarily the best in the world. In terms of punk… there’s always been a lack of all-ages venues, and the scene’s gone through it’s ups and downs, but there’s never a shortage of stuff going on and in all the years that I’ve been involved, periodic waves of new faces have always showed up to keep things going and interesting. I suppose though, if you spend enough time anywhere big enough, you’ll find your niche, and discover the ‘diamonds in the rough’ that aren’t immediately apparent to visitors and you make it your own… that said, I’m not planning on moving anywhere else.

Does it get you pumped to have so much awesome music being made around you?

Totally. And a little healthy competition is a good thing… it causes you to keep trying to raise the bar and do everybody one better with your next song/record/show/art work/etc. Everybody goes through phases when they are more or less moved by the happenings in the scene, but it’s always really refreshing when someone puts out a great new record and it snaps you back and inspires you to create something new yourself.

Are there any hidden local gems not many people are into?

In the age of the internet, I really don’t think there are… it’s funny how there are people half-way across the world that know more about the local gossip of the Toronto scene than I can even keep track of, haha! That said there really are some people doing a lot locally in Toronto these days to breath new life into it, from promoters to bands. For examples check out: Stuck in the City for all the stuff that Greg is up to, as for bands we’ve got a whole new crop of kids doing stuff like Molested Youth, and check out our drummer Dave’s side-project Deaf Mutations, where he sings.

Any shoutouts? Closing Words?

Thanks for the interview, Alistair… and thanks to everyone that still supports us and takes the time to keep up with the band after all these years… it still dumbfounds and means the world to us!

Thanks Martin.