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.

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.

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.

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.

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!