Tag Archives: hardcore

Interviews, Various

(interview)H2O about present, past and future!

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H2O are one of my favorite bands in hardcore punk and have been since my childhood days and it was a very special day for us when we got an opportunity to do an interview with them at Punk Rock Holiday in Tolmin this year. We talked with Toby and Adam and this is what we said for this zine.

We are here in Tolmin with Toby and Adam from H2O. We last saw you guys like 13 months ago in Zagreb. What has happened in the life of H2O as a band since then?

Adam: Well, lots of touring and that is kinda that, well we have a new live guitar player from the band All For Nothing and I think as far as H2O that´s about it!

Toby: We played Indonesia for the first time, like two weeks ago and it was awesome, we´we never been there before.

It is always exciting for me to meet the new cultures and people.

Toby: Yeah it was awesome and we are also very excited to be back here tonight and we are touring South America in the next month.

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That´s like third time you´re playing here at PRH if I am not mistaken?

Toby: Yes, it is our third time playing here.

So, you´ve been around the scene for a while and have you noticed some changes in the hardcore punk movement, like I noticed there is much more violence and negativity than the previous years or decade?

Toby: Honestly, not at H2O shows. If anything, there is less fights, I haven˙t lived in New York for years, I live in Los Angeles, we all live there. New York is always gonna be our home, we represent New York hardcore, it´s where we started, it˙s our roots, but like I said, as far as being part of the scene, we are part of the H2O scene, everywhere we play it´s always positive vibes and if we go to a city or a town where there˙s violence, we obviously always stop the show. The fights don˙t make sense, it got nothing to do with our lyrics, our message. A lot of bands are singing songs with messages like beat each other up but we are not like that. As far as Croatia, the last time we played there it was like a really great show.

Are you promoting ten years of Nothing To Prove album on this tour?

Adam: Yeah, we are!

 

For me it is an awesome record, for me it has the same meaning and significance as Start Today by Gorilla Biscuits.

Toby: Oh wow! That˙s huge!

That Gorilla Biscuits record was for me the first old school hardcore record that I have heard as a kid. In 1992./93. when I was like 15 or 16 years old I started with Biohazard and similar bands, and then all of the hardcore kids in my town heard Start Today record and it was different, meaning faster, melodic and with positive lyrics not like the other bands had for instance, if you shoot me, I shoot you, we kill you too. It had a message that I could relate to. The first H2O record also had a great impact on me as a kid when I heard songs like 5 Year Plan or Surrounded, so are the lyrics still important to you as they have been like 25 years ago?

Toby: Oh yeah, all those lyrics are still important to us as a message, we˙re just older now. We´re the same people, only now we have more responsibilities in our lives, more grey hairs and stuff. All that stuff we still believe cause that˙s our life.

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Rusty still plays guitar?

Toby: Fuck, yeah! He´s 54.

So he is the oldest in the band?

Toby: Hell, yeah!

What is your opinion about the people who were always the loudest in the scene like patting themselves on their chests, shouting look at me, I˙m hardcore and then overnight they suddenly start to talk crap about everything they were, about the scene, like they put their past under the rug like they are ashamed of their past in the scene, leave their brothers and sisters. In my opinion they were never really into that in their hearts.

Toby: 100 percent! You answered it!

Adam: The slow burn is always better than a flare in the dark if you know what I mean!

Those who were the loudest were the first to fall!

Toby: Yeah, they were never really 100 percent into that!

Hardcore is definitely not about who has the biggest collection of cds and records. Croatia is a very poor country, average workers pay being like 500 euros or less. In my building there lives an old lady who has a 50 euro retirement fee and she digs through the garbage at night to find something to eat, so I don˙t have much, but I give her some money that she has bread and milk at least. That is hardcore for me. Helping.

Toby: That is fuckin awesome, dude!

I also saw that you go to schools to kids, to tell them stories, so say something about that.

Toby: Yeah, I am telling them about being a Dad, about being straight edge for all my life, growing up in punk scene and skateboarding, my friends who got addicted to stuff. So, I am just telling them my story, you know what I mean? And a bit different than kids who come to see H2O. I am not like trying to get them to listen to my band and to say hey I˙m a tattooed freak. I´ve been into punkrock all my life, but I never tried smoking, drinking, drugs, you know? It´s like everything I learned from hardcore, it changed my life and I am trying to inspire those kids.

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I am going to ask you one more question that probably a lot of people asked you through the years, but here it goes, have you ever betrayed the edge?

Toby: Me? Fuck, no!

O.G. of life, eh?

Toby: I never tried anything in my entire life! Never! And I never will! Untill death! I am one of the last of these motherfuckers, dude!

I read that book by Roger Miret, I don˙t know if you read it?

Toby: Yeah I started to read it. My wife read it. We love Roger, he is our big brother.

You have been lifelong members of the NYHC scene, was it really so much violence in the early 80-ies, I mean that book has some really scary shit in there.

Toby: Yeah man, that˙s true! I was told all those stories by those guys. I didn´t move to New York until like 1988, but back then was still crazy, CBGB´S  and that was a crazy time, man!

Adam: So, to answer your previous question, compared to those times, hardcore definitely got less violent.

Toby: Yeah, those guys used to wear chains to beat each other up on gigs.

Adam: So, definitely less violence now compared to back then.

Toby: There was definitely something about New York back then that was scary. You went to the shows like to CB´s and it had that vibe, like don´t vibe into that guy, there was that aura of, I am not saying that was a cool time or anything, it had an edge. Don´t fuck with that guy, don´t say hello to that guy and stuff.

So it was exciting but at the same time terrific.

Adam: Yeah, definitely.

Toby: But, there was also, cause I was a roadie for Sick Of It All and then my band started, I saw Agnostic Front and all those bands raised H2O like new generation and they were like NYHC family.

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H2O basically started as a soundcheck band, right?

Toby: Yeah, exactly! It˙s very true man! And here we are now!

I love how you mix hardcore with melody, besides the positive message it˙s also pleasing to the ear- I did some interviews already this afternoon but I was so excited about the interview with you guys being one of my all time favorite bands, so I was nervous as fuck.

Toby: I hope you´ll like the show tonight!

Adam: You´re doing great! Don˙t be nervous, ever! We˙re people like you, man!

That would be it! I really thank you!

Toby: Thank you! I really appreciate you taking the time to speak to us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews, Various

(record review)PROBATION-“Fucked by Life”(WTF Records)

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Time for something harder to grace the pages of this zine, namely the review of the new e.p. by Probation  If you  are a fan of harder and more dirtier side of hardcore punk you came to the right place. The record is out on mighty Wtf Records. Read on!

PROBATION - FUCKEDBYLIFE HR

Hailing from Limburg Noord area, these Dutch trio plays a dirty mixture of hardcore, sludge and some d-beat thrown in for good measure. This record contains 6 tracks of bleak despair, hatred, autoirony garnished with black humour and sarcasm. The titles like “Life Sucks, Kill Yourself”, “Imperial Needle” or the title track imagine the lyrical themes well, don˙t they? The songs are mainly fast paced with almost crusty old school d-beat sound turned into modern hardcore punk but retaining that dirty and greasy vibe in the production and also easily changing pace into lower downtuned sludge core stuff. For me the best song on this record is “Wrong Answer”. This record is one more proof of greatness and versity of European hardcore punk scene.

7,5/10

Facebook links:

https://www.facebook.com/weareprobation/

https://www.facebook.com/wtfrecordsdistro/

Web:

https://www.facebook.com/wtfrecordsdistro/

 

Interviews, Various

(interview)Black Light:”. A part of people just repeat the same mistakes over and over.”

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Black Light are relatively new band from the Italian scene that manages to mix hardcore with their metalic roots and thus playing modern hardcore sounding good, aggressive and fresh. This is the interview I did with the guys for this webzine. It is a premiere interview in Croatia for the guys in the band, so enjoy!

FOR A START, PLEASE PRESENT IN A COUPLE OF WORDS BLACK LIGHT TO THE READERS OF THIS ZINE.

Of course. We are a metalcore band which was formed in 2012. by brothers Nicholas Casarin (guitar) and Mattia Casarin (drums). The band started from a hardrock style, then passed through a thrash metal phase, before turning to metalcore in 2015 . Our main inspirations are bands like Asking Alexandria, Miss May I and Architects.

YOU RECENTLY RELEASED THE NEW SINGLE FROM THE NEW E.P. TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT THE NEW RECORD, THE RECORDING PROCESS, THE SONGS, THE LYRIC THEMES. DO YOU HAVE A LABEL SUPPORTING YOU OR ARE YOU STRICTLY BELIEVING IN THE DIY ETHICS?

Yeah, so, our forthcoming EP “Set Yourself Ablaze” was recorded at Golden Factory Studio, it took four months to write it. We all were far from each other when we did, except for the brothers, of course! We released “Map Of truth” with the idea to make our audience taste the EP, which is very united and has a main core which could be heard in every song. The lyrical theme is kinda rebellious. It talks about disillusion, about the rejection you could feel when you start to understand how the world works. We are now signed to label Sliptrick Records and moved to their headquarters in Liepāja, Latvia, to work on our musical future with them.

YOU PLAY METALCORE USING BRUTAL AND MELODIC VOCALS, WHAT IS CLOSER TO YOUR HEARTS, METAL OR HARDCORE? DON` T YOU THINK THAT METALCORE SOMEHOW BECAME POPULAR A WHILE AGO AND EVERY BAND TRIED TO JUMP ON THE BANDWAGON PLAYING THIS STYLE?

Maybe some did, but not everyone of them. You can find many variations in this kind of music, starting from the melody/heaviness balance change between deathcore, metalcore and post-hardcore. By the way we don’t think it’s the first metal style to  feature melody and heaviness together. Before it, alternative metal and nu metal were doing it as well. We just think metal innovates itself because of the musical culture every generation brings to it.

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DO YOU GUYS TOUR? DO YOU HAVE ANY MERCH? WHAT ARE YOUR EXPERIENCES PLAYING LIVE IN ITALY COMPARED TO THE OTHER COUNTRIES IF YOU PLAYED OUTSIDE ITALY? 

We’re preparing a tour which will start in the next months. We’ll start from Tapper Club, Tallinn, where we’ll warm the crowd up for Betraying The Martyrs on August 3rd. We can’t wait for that!

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE RISE OF RIGHT WING AND FASCIST TENDENCIES IN EU AND THE WORLD? IS POLITICS IMPORTANT IN YOUR LIVES? WHAT DO YOU DO FOR LIVING? HOW IS LIFE IN YOUR PART OF ITALY?

We think that people who have this kind of beliefs should really have experienced fascism. They probably wouldn’t think the same way now. Politicians in Italy are really fucked up and corrupted, and when it comes that way, people look for extremes because they think it’s a “radical change to establish order”. But it’s an illusion. And it’s exactly what gave to guys like Hitler and Mussolini the tools to access power and manipulate everyone in the past. A part of people just repeat the same mistakes over and over. That’s what we think. Besides that, we don’t really care about politics. Like, every one of us does in his personal way, but we’re not a political band and don’t talk about it in our lyrics.

HOW IS THE SCENE IN YOUR AREA? ANY GOOD BANDS AND VENUES AND ZINES? IS THERE MANY ARGUING, QUARRELING IN THE ITALIAN SCENE BETWEEN BANDS? DID YOU BELIEVE IN SCENE UNITY MYTH WHEN YOU WERE KIDS?

We recently worked with Italian webzines like Metallized and Italia Di Metallo, and we recommend them to everyone who wants to read good stuff about metal music. A big venue we performed at was Circolo Colony in Brescia, which unfortunately closed, but was was at its times by hosting bands like Testament, but also metalcore ones like Veil Of Maya, and Betraying the Martyrs. The biggest Italian venue you could find is probably Legend Club, but we’ve never performed there. By the way, I think that, except if you’re a huge band, or if you’re well-know in your town, Italian metal scene is too small to create quarrels between bands. The audience is not big enough for that. What people like to see live there are hardrock classics like Ac/Dc, or their beloved Italian singers like Vasco Rossi, Zucchero and Ligabue. This makes cover bands have way more success compared to newborn or growing ones, and to metal bands in general.

SINGIN IN ITALIAN VS SINGING IN ENGLISH, WHAT IS BETTER?

English, of course! I personally love this language, I find it very expressive, even if Italian is too! but if you wanna go international and make your music accessible to the whole world, English is always the best choice.

HAVE YOU EVER DONE SOMETHING THAT YOU REGRET UNTIL THIS DAY? HAVE YOU EVER BEEN VIOLENT AND BEAT UP SOMEBODY OR HARASSED SOMEONE FOR NO REASON?

Never for no reason. We’ve all done stuff that we regret, I think that’s kinda normal. But we always had a reason. It probably wasn’t justified every time but when you bump into a situation without expecting it, you instinct and emotions try to solve the problem as fast as they can. It’s hard to always think about the best reaction to have when stuff just hits you in the face.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

Honestly I don’t know about when my bandmates did. But personally, the last time I cried was when I had to let go someone I’m really close to. I think that as a musician, and someone who will move a lot, it’s gonna be my every-day life, but I’m not used to this yet.

THAT IS IT FOR THE FIRST TIME, DO YOU KNOW ANY CROATIAN BANDS OR HAVE YOU PLAYED WITH ANY? THANK YOU!

Honestly we don’t know any, but if you have some good ones, we would be glad to listen to them! We’re always up to discover new music from every country in the world!