Random thoughts: Too bad this band broke up last year. They were one of the few hardcore bands that mattered any more.
They’re Unstoppable Blacklisted know true meaning of hardcore
By Jason Schreurs
I’ve written about lots of hardcore/punk bands trying to capture the essence of the hardcore scene, and how it has the ability to bring people together under the common desire to scream out against the injustices of the world. But explaining hardcore to someone who doesn’t understand it is a tough one, especially to older generations who look down upon kids who listen to loud, screaming music and complain about the anger and negativity of the lyrics. If only we could get George Hirsch, singer for Philadelphia’s Blacklisted, to set them all straight. “Positivity lies in the person…” begins Hirsch, “but anger is a natural emotion, everyone feels angry, or just aggressive at some points in their lives. I don’t write much about the positive sides of things, mostly because I really just don’t feel positive about the state of things in my life. I’m pessimistic and I’ve grown to realize and understand it is OK to feel like that.” Blacklisted’s latest CD, a collection of their earlier material previously available on the rapidly disappearing vinyl format, has the rather bold title of We’re Unstoppable. And while that kind of title may rub some people the wrong way, this one actually has a message of perseverance and dedication. "Hardcore is unstoppable,” explains Hirsh, “no one person is above or below it, anyone can be into it, anyone can hate it, you have a choice, and we just chose to love it, I guess… [The album title] does have a bit of ego involved though, because it is like a laugh in the face of people that tell me or any of us we can’t do something. We can do whatever we want…” Even with mainstream acceptance of bands slogging what is being passed off as a hardcore sound (Ontario’s Alexisonfire immediately comes to mind), true hardcore bands like Blacklisted, inspired by underground hardcore scenes in places like their hometown of Philly, aren’t as interested in mass appeal. Instead, they focus on reaching out to those who are already questioning authority, and creating an abrasive sound that forces people to perk up and take notice. “As long as you are doing what you are feeling, someone out there will understand,” explains Hirsch, “and if 100 people hate it, but five really felt what you were saying and feel as though they can relate, then you’ve done justice to hardcore in my eyes.”
Random thoughts: Cursed broke up last year. Shitty deal. And all that stuff about them being really loud when they played live? Not an exaggeration. At all.
Throat lozenge, anyone?
Damaged vocal chords and busted eardrums with Cursed
By Jason Schreurs
Cursed screamer Chris Colohan is sounding like he blew a gasket or two on the Toronto metal/hardcore band’s recent jaunt through Europe and the US. And as long as he hasn’t completely annihilated his throat, he should be good to go for their upcoming batch of shows heading back across Canada.
“I don’t want to have to go to the doctor, but I’m sure I’ll find out one day,” says Colohan. “But it’s our hearing that’s probably going to go first.”
True enough. Cursed, featuring longtime members of the Toronto hardcore scene and bands like Left for Dead and The Swarm, has become known for being one of Canada’s loudest bands, often bringing with them more guitar and bass cabinets than most eardrums can handle. But it’s Colohan’s raging vocals that sound the most inhuman.
“I kind of have to wreck my voice to make it work. I have to fuck it up and then it’s okay,” says Colohan about his unique technique and corresponding devil scream. “I don’t think I ever knew what the hell I was doing and I don’t really think I do now. I just kind of scream my fucking head off and the chips fall where they do.”
Complimenting the band’s Motorhead meets Black Flag mayhem this time out is a nasty, dirty, raw (and completely analog, to boot) production sound for their second full-length, aptly titled Two, on Goodfellow Records out of Hamilton.
The throbbing racket comes courtesy of one Ian Blurton, best known for his production work with The Weakerthans, and the latest in a long line of his own bands, C’mon. Who, incidentally, Colohan has roadied for in the past. Cosmic Cursed connections, indeed.
“[Blurton] just has a really good grip on what we’re already trying to do and helped us focus into something a little more… I can’t say polished, because nothing we’re ever gonna do will come out that polished, but we’re all really happy with the way it turned out,” he says.
When Cursed hits town Tuesday, one thing avid record collector Colohan looks forward to, besides a soothing cup of tea, is a visit to Turntable, Victoria’s most authentic vinyl emporium. But better make that a short visit.
“That place is dangerous,” he laughs. “I’ve got to be careful with my money when I go in there.”
Random thoughts: Chord Magazine is now defunct (or on permanent hiatus), but this was part of one of their Warped Tour issues. Geoff Rickly was a pleasant chap, and really, really wanted to talk about his "grindcore" project, United Nations, which didn't end up coming out for another two-and-a-half years. That, my friends, is why you never let an artist push your story angle.
THURSDAY
A tale of two cities merged as one
By Jason Schreurs
Back with a monumental new album called A City by the Light Divided, Thursday will be one of the main draws at this year’s Warped Tour. After spending a year and a half away from the limelight, the New Jersey quintet has emerged with an album that challenges their anxious listeners. And while it might not dispel their “depressing-core” tag, A City by the Light Divided will definitely reward those who invest in it.
“I was reading this book called I Hate Myself and I Want to Die in the bookstore the other day, and it was listing the most depressing songs ever,” says a surprisingly cheery Geoff Rickly, “and in the last chapter it listed who was going to carry the torch or whatever, and it said, ‘There are a few bands who are very depressing, especially Bright Eyes and Thursday.’ That just made me laugh. I felt like I was in good company.”
The singer spent the past two years warding off breakup rumors, but claims the band’s future was never in question. Touring for five years straight before, during, and after the release of the stalwart War All the Time took its toll on the members, but picking up after an extended break to start work on their new album came naturally, especially after locking in with noted producer Dave Friddman (The Flaming Lips, Sleater-Kinney). The choice of Friddman came in small part from Rickly’s love of Sleater-Kinney’s most recent album, The Woods.
“I loved the production on that album because it was so daring to be that crazy sounding,” explains Rickly. “And when I heard the live version of [Sleater-Kinney’s] ‘The Fox’ I realized it was the noise that made the song so rocking. Without it, it seemed very anemic… Now our record actually has a lot of the characteristics of the stuff I love and listen to all of the time.”
Fridmann and the members of Thursday hammered out A City by the Light Divided in six weeks “instead of the seven months it took to record War All the Time,” stresses Rickly. The band came away with a record that should make a natural transition this summer at Warped.
“The noisiness of the record is more like we are live, so it’s more suited to us playing it live,” says Rickly.
The new album was actually planned as a double album, reflective of the duality of human nature. Each disc was going to represent a different side of humanity. But plans to pursue the double album were scrapped when Rickly had an important revelation.
“We were working on the record and I remembered listening to Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness when I was a kid and thinking, ‘This song kind of sucks. I’m not into this part and I really want to hear the song that comes three after this.’ I mean, I’d love to have all of the extra songs as b-sides, but I remember thinking if they had made just one record, it would have been their best record. It would have killed Siamese Dream. But because it was a double, it didn’t.”
After selecting the key songs from each record the band was pleased to discover the theme of duality remained; a tale of two very different cities fueled by human nature. They also had a slew of b-sides to release later.
“Even though we condensed it down to one really good record, there were five songs from the first disc and five songs from the second disc. So it was still very much a record about duality. After we realized that, Dave Fridmann had us record an instrumental in the middle. So it turned out, in a really cool way, to be the record we had originally intended to make, just shorter… and better,” laughs Rickly.
The question is will longtime fans latch onto a record so textured and noisy? There’s already been backlash from those who prefer the band’s cleaner production sound and simpler songwriting on earlier albums like Full Collapse.
“People’s expectations are colored with nostalgia for something they already love. But I think we’re getting better. I think Full Collapse almost sounds like a cartoon compared to how vivid the new record is. Maybe people will only accept our new records once they become nostalgic for them. So, eventually we’ll have records that people like,” he jokes.
As for playing this year’s Warped, Rickly is excited to get back on the mainstage of a festival he believes is stronger than ever.
“If you’d asked me last year, I probably would have said I didn’t know how vital [Warped] is. But this year I feel like the lineup is so strong and so good, and kinda classy, so I’m really impressed with them for putting this one together.”
Random thoughts: Flex Your Head was a great hardcore website to post longer Q&As from interviews I did for print mags. They have since changed to a simple playlist blog for the radio show of the same name. In the case of this interview, I specifically bent Chris Hannah from Propagandhi's ear for an extra half hour about metal, just because it was awesome to talk to another skid about old thrash, and because I knew Hannah would be more than willing.
PROPAGANDHI
By Jason Schreurs
When I recently got asked to write about Propagandhi for a metal magazine, I decided to use the opportunity to chat with singer/guitarist Chris Hannah about growing up on metal and the ‘80s thrash that helped shape our formative years. Hannah and I both spent our ‘80s youth huddled around the stereo, decked out in hilarious looking metal t-shirts, listening to Slayer, D.R.I., Venom, and the likes. Unfortunately, metal has taken a turn for the worse since then, especially in the past few years when everything classic has become trendy. The result? To be cool these days you have to pay $30 for a retro Iron Maiden t-shirt and play in some shitty metalcore band that’s a mess of classic thrash, hardcore, straight edge, and whatever else you can find to throw in the blender. Luckily, some of us older metal fans are happy with keeping things simple, and, as Propagandhi prepare for a new album, we can expect them to deliver something that should be the anti-thesis of my most hated genre, the aforementioned blender-core.
I spoke with Hannah by phone in late June, 2004 from his home in Winnipeg.
When did you first get into metal and how did it affect your teenage years? I lived in a very small community outside of a small town in Manitoba. At the time, it was like 1982, everybody was into Def Leppard and Priest and stuff, so I was aware and kind of interested in that, but I didn’t really like the people who liked it because they were a bunch of fucking bullies. Then I went to a record store and I looked at this one record, it was Venom’s Welcome to Hell and I couldn’t believe the song titles. There was a quote on the back about “we spit on your God” and I was like, “How can they sell this? Is it legal?” I picked it up, paid for it, took it home, hid it, then listened to it later. I couldn’t believe the recording and I thought there was something wrong with the record. But then I was like, “This is unbelievable. This is what I’ve been waiting for all my short life.” That’s how it started. At the time I would shop for anything black with a pentagram on it, that’s how I would shop for records. So it was like Slayer, Bathory, and that kind of stuff.
You might have even ended up with Motley Crue’s Shout at the Devil by mistake. Luckily every kid had that before I did. I liked a couple of songs on it but, I dunno, it wasn’t my thing. It wasn’t evil enough for me.
To me, metal seemed so untainted back then. There’s a line in one of your songs [“Back to the Motor League”] off the last album about “riding a 10-speed with feathered hair” or something. Everybody was so nerdy when they were into metal and it was so fun. But now metal is just another trend for the cool kids. For me, Venom and Slayer and the two Metallica records were super underground. Not everybody liked Metallica back in 1984.
Nobody liked Metallica back then. You got beat up for liking them. Ya, and it was super exciting. Then there was the sub-level of metal that I discovered through Metallion Magazine. They had an address for a band from Windsor, ON called Wicked Angel and I was like, “You can write to a band and they’ll answer you and give you a tape?!” So I discovered tape-trading and started writing to bands overseas like Necrodeath and Tankard and they’d write me back and I couldn’t believe it. And, like you were saying, it just felt pure and like it was real people making the craziest music they could.
I’ve always seen a lot of parallels between the D.I.Y. punk/hardcore scene and that metal tape-trading scene and I try to explain to people that they are very close. That metal and punk/hardcore are from the same kind of mindset. But it’s hard, especially for the more politically correct people, to convince them of that. Absolutely. And I think there are lessons to be drawn about the trajectory that both the scenes followed. In the late ‘80s, metal started getting popular and all the majors started swooping in, buying it up, and putting out crappy records. And the same with the punk scene; it was vibrant, political, and underground, and then in the ‘90s along came the majors and bought it up and watered it down. It was all gone and the good stuff was underground again.
Propagandhi have always been high purveyors of metal and trying to turn punk kids on to the good metal bands like Venom and whatnot. In today’s scene, metal is very trendy. You’ve got pretty much every pop-punk that band has gone and changed into a metalcore or Iron Maiden influenced band. What do you think of that, and do you want to sort of shy away from metal because of it? I don’t know… I know exactly what you are talking about. To me all of this cheap, digital shit that’s coming out doesn’t even sound like bands making real music. It’s like parts of music kind of taped together. Old metal seemed like it came straight from the heart. When you listened to Gary Holt in Exodus playing a riff, he was trying to figure out the most crazy riff that would make him go fucking wild. Now it just seems like it’s the paint-by-numbers approach. Now it’s more about getting a sound than getting a feeling. But there’s exceptions to that and I’d even include the last couple of Tragedy records in that. They have an excellent metal feel but it’s a total hardcore band. But it seems like it’s real. To me, Tragedy is more of a good metal band than a lot of this processed California metalcore stuff.
Ya, or a band like From Ashes Rise, or bands like that who sound like they are coming from the heart and they’re not just trying to throw as many things together as possible. What really bugs me is the blender-core where everything is thrown in and there’s all these bits and pieces but it just doesn’t make any sense. There’s no songs, there’s no verse or chorus… I’ve gotten to the point now where if I see these young SoCal bands wearing Iron Maiden t-shirts I just want to choke them. Ya, like they went to the boutique and fuckin’ picked out their outfits and it’s the same philosophy for their music. It’s music from a boutique instead of from their heart.
I actually saw a picture of this metalcore band called The Procedure, who I know nothing about, and the guy was wearing a Blasphemy t-shirt and I thought, “Hey, that’s pretty cool.” If you’re going to wear a metal shirt in your band photo, it might as well be a Blasphemy t-shirt, you know? Wow.
So what’s your prized t-shirt that’s sitting in your closet all ratty from your childhood? Do you have any left? I’ve found pictures of shirts that my mom had thrown out over the years. I had a hilarious white Death sweater at one time. It was the most ridiculous sweater I’ve ever seen.
Like a sweatshirt or…? Ya, like a sweatshirt your mom would wear. It had a Death logo on it and the spelling was wrong on the back and stuff.
Nice That and I had a very sweet Venom metal shirt when I was a kid. My mom threw that out when I wasn’t looking.
Ever go back through the old high school annuals and look for the bangers wearing the metal shirts? There’s actually a guy wearing a Venom shirt in my Grade 8 annual. That’s pretty wicked. In my school pictures my mom wouldn’t let me wear metal shirts, but all the ones at home are just me sitting there in a fuckin’ Razor shirt when I’m 14 and my fuckin’ tiny, skinny legs are sticking out from the bottom of the shirt.
[Chuckles] So you guys had a run-in with Paul Baloff [ex-singer of Exodus – R.I.P.] a few years back, eh? Was it you and [bassist] Todd? Ya, we got to meet him. Actually, we were in San Francisco and there was a Warped Tour, that horrible, horrible, horrible event that occurs every summer and travels around the earth destroying music, and we knew one of the bands playing and they let us come in and check it out. The band, uh… Papa Roach was playing and we were backstage, like, “Who are these guys?” Then I look and there’s this little guy standing in front of me in an Exodus jacket and I’m, like, “Fuck, that guy looks like Baloff!” And I said, “Todd, this is Paul Baloff, man. I’m pretty sure,” and he says, “No, it’s not… no, it’s not.” Then our friend walks by who lives in San Francisco and he’s a metal fan and he says, “You know who that is? That’s Baloff.” And I’m like, “I knew it!” We went up and talked to him and he was super stoked when we were telling him where we were from and that we listened to him when we were kids. It was pretty neat. And then he died like a year after that.
It must have been quite a thrill to meet someone like that. I don’t think I’ve met any of the big metal icons from my youth. I met Danzig once [nervous laugh] but that wasn’t too much to talk about. Ya, Baloff was cool. We got to meet Joe Rico from Sacrifice. He actually came to one of our shows and we were over the fucking top on that one because that was our favorite band growing up.
Ya, they were one of my faves too… still are, you know? You can still put on Forward to Termination or Soldiers of Misfortune and it’s just great. So that must have been pretty cool, meeting him. Ya, that was the best. I’d emailed the Sacrifice website or something and he actually emailed me back and I couldn’t believe it. I told him we were playing and after the show he came up and I was like, “No way!” And now I’m waiting for the Sacrifice reunion show.
Me too. I’ve heard you say a couple of times that you couldn’t believe when they emailed you back or that you saw them. Why do think it is in the metal scene that we’ve always got this icon vision of these guys, even though we’ve talked about the fact that they are just regular guys. We could tape trade with them, they write us letters, but there’s always that higher kind of vision of them, whereas with punk, especially with DIY bands, they are more approachable. Is that a necessary part of metal, do you think? I guess it depends on the band and where you’re from. Probably for people who lived in Toronto it wasn’t such a big deal to see Joe Rico or Rob Urbinati from Sacrifice hanging out at a show. But when you’re from Winnipeg and it was one of the bands you didn’t even dare write because you loved them so much, and in so many years the guy just became this mythical figure in our minds, when he actually emailed back it seemed like the circle is complete. A part of my life has come to fruition. I don’t know, I’m making a bigger deal out of it than I should.
And you realize there’s kids out there that say the same thing about you guys. If you were to write a letter back to some kid that was a Propagandhi nut it would be the same kind of thing, right? How does that make you feel? That would make me feel weird, I guess.
Do you run into that sort of attitude from fans? Uh, I think there’s so much exposure to punk bands these days and the bands tour so much, and the bands generally aren’t acting like rock stars, that people are more acclimatized to meeting people in bands. I think, I don’t know. We don’t really come across like that.
But then again, neither do a lot of the metal bands either. We’ve just built them up as being these mythical creatures, but you talk to the guys in Razor and I’m sure they’re just as down to earth as the guys in Propagandhi. Ya.
You guys do a little take on Priest in the “Cointelpro” song. Did you hear anything back about that from their people at all? Oh no, never. I don’t know if a lot of people really noticed it. You were talking earlier about lots of pop punk bands doing metal and after we finished the song we were like, “Fuck, are we just lumping ourselves in with this retro punk movement, or whatever the fuck, this kitsch stuff,” but…
Ya, I guess it’s whether you want to do it because it feels right or are you worried about what the reaction might be. As a fellow guy who grew up on metal, it just brought a smile to my face. Ya, it felt right to us. But, no, Rob Halford never came over or anything.
That reminds me, when Halford came out of the closet a few years back I kind of assumed metal people were going to be homophobic and really brutal about it. But the reaction he got was really good, and I was wondering if maybe metal dudes aren’t as stupid as people make them out to be. There’s a lot of intelligent people out there. Ya sure, there was always the thinking contingent of the metal scene. But every scene’s got the goons and I think the general imagery that metal was giving off was more of a macho, warrior imagery, and it’s not rocket science to connect the dots that it might be a little less open to new ideas. It was predictable that Halford would keep it in the closet. I think it would have damaged him, especially in the ‘80s metal scene, where in my mind as a 15-year-old I would have said, “What! He’s gay!”
Ya, times were different back then. It wasn’t the time for it. But at the same time, you say metal is really macho but it’s also very homoerotic. A band like MANOWAR, I mean, that’s some pretty sexy stuff if you’re into guys. They would kill you for saying that.
Ya, MANOWAR are pretty hardcore, for sure. Have you seen any of their videos. Ya, their fucking DVDs.
Oh man, those are bad. I couldn’t even watch them, they’re just too intense. Okay, Christian metal and Satanic metal. Are they same thing or the polar opposite? Well, it depends. The black metal of the early ‘80s was brilliant and it changed my world view just that people could have such a radically unacceptable opinion and still survive and do things they love. That was an epiphany for me. At the same time, the early ‘80s black metal was largely Van Halen-esque, you know. It was just, “This is fun. We’re acting as crazy as possible.” Compared to some of the stuff that was coming out in the ‘90s that was more ideologically motivated, and I’m not saying it was bad music or anything, it just lost the sense of wildness and sense of humor that I really loved about the black metal of the ‘80s.
And bands like Venom and Slayer weren’t really Satanic. They were just doing it to get a rise out of people, which is great. Then bands like the Scandinavian church-burning bands obviously were a bit more serious about their Satanism. My personal experience was what Venom was doing with the Satanic imagery was very liberating for me at an important time in my life, and I can imagine the same for young people who were introduced to the black metal of the ‘90s. But maybe the ‘90s stuff didn’t resonate with me so much because it was so serious and ideologically motivated. It seemed more rigid.
Plus, we were older too. It’s not like when you’re young and you think, “Satan is cool!” You’re a bit past that. To me, Christian metal is so safe and so mainstream and status quo that it’s the polar opposite to the Satanic stuff. Especially when you compare a band like Venom with a band like Stryper, it was the opposite end of the spectrum. For sure, and even back then I had the impression that the Christian culture finds out what is cool and tries to inject Christianity into it. They adopt the trappings of a subculture and try to create converts that way and I find it super cheap. It’s not for the love of the culture, it’s for the love of Christ.
You’ve done some covers over the years. You’ve done Venom, you’ve done Cro-Mags… Have you done any others or do you plan on doing any more? I don’t know if we would ever record them or play them, but sometimes by ourselves we’ve been doing “Sprit of Radio” by Rush. It’s fucking fun to play. Um, Raw Power’s “You Are the Victim” from Screams from the Gutter. It’s just fun to rip those out once in a while. “Technocracy,” [by C.O.C.], of course, which is one our favorites to play. We play that one live sometimes. We were actually going to compile a record of covers and then Jord was like, “Fuck, this is a stupid idea, man. All these bands that do covers records, it’s fucking disgusting.” And I was, like, “Ya, I guess you’re right.”
It is pretty lame. Obviously, if Propagandhi did one, I’d be stoked because I like the band, but I’ve gotten some that have just been horrible. Just that cheap kind of… I don’t know, there’s something almost insidious about cover records now, so Jord put the kibosh on that idea and in retrospective I thank him for it.
Let’s talk about Propagandhi for a bit. You’re working on a new album? We’re working on about 10 songs now, so it’s coming along. Apparently it will be out the first Tuesday or second Tuesday in February. It will be on G7 [Welcoming Committee Records] in Canada and Fat [Wreck Chords] will do it everywhere else.
But you’re not in the recording stage yet, right? No, we gotta figure out how the fuck that’s gonna unfold. There’s a guy in Vancouver you probably know, Blair Calibaba, who we’ve been talking about doing it, but we’ve gotta pin down a time and a place, so…
You can’t do it yourself? Because I know you’ve been really involved with all the records you put out. I’d be into trying that, but I don’t think Jord and Todd would have as much confidence in that yet. I haven’t really proven myself to them, and I guess it would be nice just to have somebody doing it for us who was confident and we’d just worry about playing the tunes.
Will there be some hints at metal on the new one at all? With the last record, some of the songs reminded me of old Megadeth or something, like Peace Sells-era Megadeth, especially that last song on the last record. How sweet of you to say Megadeth.
Was that a conscious thing? No, they were just tunes and riffs. We’re a little better at our instruments than when we first started, you know. The first record was literally the first songs we ever wrote and it was around the time we discovered Bad Religion and stuff. Things are getting more towards the goal we always hoped to get towards. We want to put out a record in the spirit of Motorhead where they don’t consider themselves a metal band, they’re not a punk band, they’re just a rock band. We just want to put out a record that you can’t really stick into those categories but it’s fuckin’ heavy and fast. Sort of in the spirit of the Zeke records where it’s not necessarily hardcore or metal, but it’s fuckin’ raunchy. I don’t want to paint it to be this speedfest, I mean, most of my songs are, but the depth and dimension of Todd’s songs is gonna give the record a good feel. He’s got some different stuff going on this time, so…
I love his stuff. “Natural Disasters” is one of my favorite songs. Ya, me too. I love that one.
You mentioned Bad Religion. When you guys first started out, and even now, a lot of your songs were very poppy. People could still say they are pop-punk or whatever. So did that come from listening to Bad Religion and NOFX and all the SoCal bands back in the day, or...? It was mostly Bad Religion and maybe a bit of NOFX. When me and Jord started we wanted to sound like Sacrifice, C.O.C., and Kreator mixed together, and a bit of D.R.I., and then I heard a Bad Religion record and was like, “Holy shit, this is cool.” So we did what we thought was an approximation of that.
Do you feel now that you are realizing that sort of sound, or is it just Propagandhi and warped into its own thing? I’d like to think it’s just more of its own thing. Melodic elements still really appeal to me, but I think the pop-punk scene is dead. No one should listen to that. No one should encourage that music to continue to be made anymore because it’s been done and overdone. I’m not really aware of too much originality in that department anymore. Maybe there is, I just don’t have my ear to the ground, but it’s very painful for me to hear most of the stuff that came out after the big pop-punk explosion of the early ‘90s. It just doesn’t have the same feel for me anymore.
The same could be said for all the metal that’s coming out these days. All the metalcore and the cheesy “Swedish” stuff. I think what you’re looking for is the spirit of coming from the heart and being aware of what got you where you are, but creating something new too. That’s the bottom line. Any music is good if it’s from the heart. If it’s not from the heart, it’s going to be apparent to people at some point or another.
What’s the secret to playing from the heart? It’s a process of self-realization. Reflecting on why you’re in the band and what you really want to do. Is this really how you want to express yourself? People are in bands for so many different reasons and it’s not up to me, of course, to tell people not to make music because they have different motivations than I do. I just think better music is made when people do it with integrity and do it for very pure reasons.
You guys only do an album every few years, so I guess you’re feeling the pressure that Metallica felt back in the day after Justice or whatever. Do you feel that pressure? No, not really. We’ve really never understood or bought into the idea that you’re supposed to put out records every year or two years. Music isn’t the only thing in our lives, there’s lots of other things going on. We never really think about it too much. After four years, we usually have a bunch of songs together and there we go. If after four years, no one is interested anymore, so be it. I read an interview with Rob Urbinati from Sacrifice the other day and the guy was asking him, “What happened after your last album? Why did you guys kinda just disappear?” And he was like, “Well, I guess our music just wasn’t in time or in tune with what people wanted to hear. People wanted to hear death metal and we didn’t want to change to death metal.” He was so matter-of-fact about it, and that’s how I feel. So be it. If people don’t like what you’re doing, or don’t like the time-frame that you put records out, fuck, what can you do? If you do anything else, you’re not being honest.
For more info on Propagandhi and G7 Welcoming Committee Records, the record label they help run, check out www.g7welcomingcommittee.com
Originally published in: Monday Magazine
Posts
