Interview

Pictures

Stephen: So I noticed that you guys did a music video for the new song “instinct” (Check it out here). Did the band come up with the idea for this video or was it the director’s idea?

Thomas: It was a mix. We are always really into having an input on whatever we do, the way things look the way things feel and what they mean. We always had this idea of setting up a generator show in one of the main sprawling and picturesque toxic industrial wastelands of Richmond’s sort of late Victorian industrial periods. There are tobacco warehouses and old hydro electric power plants and a gas works that were abandoned and left to rot beautifully by the river. These have been features of our lives forever. In fact some of the earliest shows we ever put on were in a falling down barn way out on the western edge of the city. We even had kids come in from the city. Gwar played there around 1988 or 1987. Tons of great old 80’s punk and hardcore bands would come out and blow our minds. And all we did was get an extension chord and steal power from the farmhouse across the field (he laughs). We didn’t know there was a culture called DIY at the time. We just needed to find a space that was ours and to have shows. In my mind that’s the way “instinct” blossomed as a concept. We just wanted to set up and play in one of these really strange old buildings that was abandoned and kind of half owned by the city and the Virginia film commission somehow had keys to this gas works building. It was about to be closed down forever and make way for some crappy bullshit urban sprawl, city revival project for rich white people only. So we wanted to get in there and have a show and say goodbye to this amazing place. That was also a lead battery reclamation center where the toxic soil of that poor eastern part of Richmond city’s floodplain where a lot of poor working families are. It has just been left toxic by lead battery juice (he laughs) for like 25 years. It’s one of those many ecological disasters where if people don’t have money and there aren’t any progressive groups making a rucus about it, then no one does a damn thing to make people’s lives healthier. We got in there and set up a generator in the hottest weekend in July and had a show. A lot of the theme for the video was come up from Justin who was the director from Minneapolis, Justin Staggs

Stephen: Had you ever worked with him before?

Thomas: This was the first time. He has done work for the Fat Wreck Chords band, The Soviettes. He is really brilliant and had a lot of faith. He’s not like a cynical artist. He really looks at the song and its meaning. We had that little narrative about people stealing batteries and kind of a frightened vulnerable little kid actor stealing batteries from the remote control from his sleeping scary dad and then coming to the show and helping to light it for us when the power goes out. Which are lyrics in the song. The generator show that we had, the generator actually powered the lights for the video and the chargers that charged the batteries for the cameras. But at the same time it’s what they call a fourth wall in media. So we couldn’t do any of that stuff without the generator, so the generator show concept was also what we had to do. So instead of it being a story about a generator show it was actually like a documentary. So it really happened the way it looked like it happened.

Stephen: So did you play a full show or was it just that one song?

Thomas: No, we played a full show. It was great. The show was set up for the music video. We brought people out to this place which is kind of difficult to get to and interesting. And kids came out, maybe 80 to 100 people packed in that place. And my friend Robby from Anne Beretta, who was the bass play for Inquisition my old band. He saved our lives that day and drove around in his SUV and got all of our equipment and PA set up and hung out with us until 4 AM when the final show was wrapped. We had been there all day, about 18 hours.

Stephen: Was that around the same time you did the acoustic inquisition show?

Thomas: No, that was just September 24th. That was more recently when we did that. We did an acoustic benefit in Richmond for the Virginia Fair Wage Alliance, which is an anti poverty living wage group. So we gave all the money from the door for that. We played some Strike Anywhere songs and Robby did his Foundation band. Which is really great kind of roots country rock. It’s really good. And then Robby got on stage at the end and we tried to play some Inquisition songs.

Stephen: How did that go? I saw a video clip, it looked like a lot of fun.

Thomas: Oh that’s cool. As you can see from the video there are a lot of people out of their minds drunk and singing. Right after the Uproar song it kind of crumbled (he laughs). We tried to remember the sequence, but Mark who was the guitarist of Inquisition was in London and we though maybe he would be able to be in town. But at the last minute his tour with River City High got a few more dates added on. So he was still up in New Jersey but he was meant to be there and he probably could have helped us sort out the sequence and the structure of the songs a little better. Being that he wrote those songs. We dedicated it to Mark. We hope in the future that we will have him on board for the next Inquisition reunion.

Stephen: So will it be acoustic next time or do you think you guys will get together and play an actual electric show?

Thomas: I don’t know. We talked about trying to get together and play an electric show. But Mark lives in London, England and I live in Portland, Oregon. All of are busy with new bands and touring. So it is very difficult to think of a time when we all somehow would be able to be in Richmond at the tale end of the tour or beginning. Or something that would bring us to Richmond in the first place where were not working jobs between tours or touring with our current bands. So it was blind and sheer luck that we could schedule that acoustic benefit when we did and have Robby and me both be together. It’s definitely our intention to get all of us together and in some beautiful crazy world play an actual reunion show. But we just don’t really know how it can happen practically. We’d like to be able to plan it and get together and rehearse. Even if we had the random time to rehearse we would have to find another random time to play the show. A-F did a great job of re-mastering and putting out the record the way we always wanted it to look with an epic 12 page booklet. Robby got to put all of the old photos and I got to hand write all of the lyrics. All the things we didn’t have the money or resources to do in 1996 we got to finally do in 2006.

Stephen: Did you guys have any way to have that music out? Or was that the first time you could actual have a good distribution of that music?

Thomas: Back in the pre internet pre cell phone world of punk in the early to mid 90’s there was a lot of different kids coming to shows with milk crates full of vinyl records and a few CD’s. That’s the way it used to be. So you would get your music from the shows. And our record was distributed in this way and then revelation and no idea picked it up and were the big distributors of that record. A great vinyl only record label called 7 lucky records from here (Denver) put out a limited pressing color vinyl version of it that had slightly different liner notes that Robby wrote. And it was the original master. That thing came out in 2000 and strike anywhere took that on tour until the Italian police took the last few when we were robbed at gun point in Italy. That was the official last release of the original master of that Inquisition record. And then we got it re-mastered and redid the artwork between 2004 and 2005. A-F put it out and now it is indefinitely in print and soon there is going to be a vinyl version. Anti-Flag does it right. When I first met those guys they invited Strike Anywhere on a tour back in 2003. I said, “Hey! Why do you guys have the album cover of my old band all tattooed on your arms and ankles?” And they said, “Because we are going to put that record out”. (he laughs) They were already into it way back then. Something else really flattering and confusing is that a young man would go to our shows when we would play this record store in South Florida back in 1994 and 1995. A young man named Chris Carrabba would come to all of our shows. And later when Dashboard Confessional was just starting, he would play little bits of “Greta Brinkman vs. The City” (Inquisition song) in-between his songs. And now tonight as we speak he is playing across town in Denver. He’s just an amazing guy. I feel like my old band, in a small way touched a lot of people and we’ve just really been blessed and happy that those songs can continue to be heard.

Stephen: So when you used to go out to shows in this old barn, were there kids stage diving and crowd surfing like you see now at shows?

Thomas: There were some bee stings and two stepping. Like ’88 kind of original hardcore dancing. And a few tiny circle pits because we were on the second floor of a granary. We are probably talking about only a 40x40 room. A lot of the floor boards were rotting. There was definitely a lot of less organized dancing and definitely none of the windmills and brutal sports wear related dancing that didn’t exists back then. There was still definitely very hard serious moshing and stage diving. You could definitely have crucial physical catharsis without having dances where you just punch each other. Those are the differences I think.

Stephen: I don’t see too many bands sing into the crowd and interact with their fans too much anymore. And that’s what I love so much about seeing you guys. It feels like an 80’s and early 90’s punk feel that you don’t really get anymore at shows. I think Suicide Machines are the only other band that I have seen do that and the past few years.

Thomas: Well they are quite old as well (he laughs). They are still operating from the same outdated paradigm as we are. That’s an awesome band by the way. I think it’s just the way this music makes you feel and if you really believe in it, it’s not about the costumes and theatrics. That’s another style of music that you want to go see and be blown away by someone’s stage choreography and all that shit. This a lot more about sharing ideas and having a place where everyone can have mutual catharsis. And the psychological value of a punk show is just important as the messages that get spread. All that stuff is still why we are doing it.

Stephen: And the fans play off you at the same time, so if they are pumped up about the show that will get you guys excited to be there and play.

Thomas: Definitely. It’s human too. If one of the guys in the band is sick and they are dragging around because they have a fever and can’t see straight and threw up just before they put on their guitar, the fans will give them enough energy to keep them going. I think that’s the part of hardcore punk that can never be corrupted. That’s still the reason why we can do this after 7 years and Bane can still do it after 11 year and A Global Threat after 10. Except for This is Hell, this is definitely bands that have been around for a while:

Stephen: How was it to tour with these bands both legs of the tour?

Thomas: Awesome, so positive. We didn’t have Bane or This is Hell for the east coast leg. That was Ignite and Modern Life is War. Modern Life is War are really musically inspiring and incredible. They opened the shows every night and they just killed it. We’ve been friends with Bane for a long time. And this has been a dream since 2002 when we both toured with Good Riddance and met each other. It took so long to get it done I can’t believe we stayed bands long enough to finally tour together. We would always be like let’s call Bane and they would say “We’re in Europe” and then they would call us and we would say “Oh shit we are in Japan!” That whole thing could never happen and now it finally did. It’s like a childhood love affair revisited (he laughs). A Global Threat has been on the last three of our tours. We totally love them and think they are visionaries. We love the idea of having a diverse collection of bands to try to prove to people that is all one family still. This is a community whether you look like Charge from 1984 in Britain or whether you are wearing sports wear and a headband. This is beyond how you dress and it’s about a community of shared values and ideas. It’s about sticking your middle finger up in society and all this oppression. I think that buying into these divisions just makes us a marketable youth subculture. And we just play into the Hot Topic fashion stereotypes and don’t talk to each other and don’t recognize that this is our life. And it’s not just the guys touring the country living in trucks and vans but you guys. The people that look forward to the shows and pay the ticket price and help the bands by buying a t shirt. And they are dancing and singing along not being afraid of looking un-cool. Not being afraid to put your heart and soul into the experience. That’s the things that we are going to preach about from the stage tonight. We are so stoked and it’s such a positive experience to be with these bands. It’s definitely one of the best tours we have ever been on and we have definitely been on a lot of tours (he laughs).

Stephen: So I heard that your van broke down in Arizona and the other bands came to your rescue?

Thomas: Yeah they did. The truck filled up with smoke and we pulled off the highway in a flash going 80 mph. That was scary. We all ran out desert shoeless and grabbing all last minute things because we thought we were on fire. We ran out into the desert, stared at the truck for thirty minutes and then slowly walked back in to get our stuff out. Then we started playing hackey sack and football waiting for the cops to come and got a tow. And then we left our sound man Courtney in Phoenix to wait for it to get fixed six days later. We had to go to California and play some shows. So we rented a mini van and all six of us crammed into the mini van. And Courtney like a hero drove overnight to San Francisco at the last minute when the truck was fixed and brought all the stuff to us before we took the overnight drive to Portland.

Stephen: How have the new Dead FM songs been received during the tour? Have people been getting into those songs more since it’s been out longer?

Thomas: Yeah it seems like it. It seems like some songs maybe because of being on myspace have had a really good response. It hasn’t felt like, oh here comes a new song people are going to get a drink and chill. It’s felt like; here comes a new song what’s going to happen?

Stephen: I think people have been anticipating it too since it has been three years since they have heard any new material from you guys. I remember seeing you guys about six months ago at the Troubadour in Hollywood and you played two new songs. No one had ever heard them before but everyone was still really into it. They were all jumping around going crazy and loving the new music.

Thomas: Great, well thanks. We have seen that on this tour a lot. It’s been really exciting. It hasn’t felt like there has been a loss of momentum at all, it’s great.

Stephen: For me it seems like Dead FM is kind of a medium between Exit English and This Change is Sound. It still has the sing along parts and is a little bit melodic like Exit English but I think it also kind of brings back that super fast old school hardcore feeling that This Change is Sound has. It kind of brings it all together.

Thomas: For us it wasn’t really conscience that it would be a hybrid of the two. It’s a progression but it is sort of where we are out. We have written these songs the past 3 years. Some of them were written in the summer of 2003 and some of them were written in February of 2006. So there is a large span of time. We try to break our writing habits and just boil it down into what we are trying to sing about and how we want the song to feel. It wasn’t very conceptual it was just really raw and primal, the way that we laid it down. When we recorded it, the drums had no click track and we played all together. It has more of that natural speed that Eric has live. Exit English was a little more of a recording studio record. I think we had a lot of standardized studio techniques that we threw out the window for Dead FM. So we have a bunch of people singing along all the time in every chorus because that’s what felt good. I’m glad people like it. And we love Exit English too. There is something about that record that we could never repeat. It has this kind of like darkness and vulnerability that is really cool. It’s really important to us and we wouldn’t be able to make this without that. They are very close in some ways.

Stephen: So do you feel that you guys can experience the entire feel of this Dead FM album, now that you have played it live? Does that bring it together more?

Thomas: Yeah, but it’s different because we can only play three or four songs. We wish we could play the whole thing. But it’s just not something we can do to people quite yet (he laughs). I think that different songs have completely different moments and kind of transform the whole feel of it. But right now with “Sedition”, “Prisoner Echoes”, “Instinct”, “The Promise”, and “Hollywood Cemetery” you get a really interesting mix of the more melodic street punk influences and then the most aggressive hardcore songs ever. It’s cool, they fit into the set quite well.

Stephen: Are you mostly playing those songs or are you playing different songs from the album as well?

Thomas: We are just playing those ones. We sound checked with “How to Pray” and “Allies” and things like that but we are just going to have to keep touring. The songs have to sink in. People have to know it but we will come back and getting people into it.

Stephen: Pretty much right after this tour you guys are heading out to Europe with The Loved Ones. Have you had the chance to play with them before?

Thomas: We have. We did a tour with The Loved Ones and The Unseen on the East coast for ten days in February in 2005.

Stephen: What are your anticipations for this tour?

Thomas: It’s going to be awesome. We haven’t been to Europe in a year and a half. We usually go to Europe twice a year, more than the states. Most bands do. It’s really fulfilling because people have a lot more loyalty to bands and the counter culture. Kids don’t just fly through fashions and trends and then have an adult crash and then put all that stuff in a box in an attic somewhere. I mean they are still living it in Europe. It’s bigger than just youth culture. Generally Europe has a sense of holding on to things with meaning and not just going through the motions of buying what they are told to buy and getting out of something when they are told to get out of it. We would like to cultivate that kind of health for counter culture in the states and try our best with this idea of this tour for example.