Blacklisted

There's nothing to say really other than Blacklisted are one of my favourite hardcore bands around at the moment. They recently did a European tour with Rythm to the Madness and George was kind enough to answer my questions.

You guys are currently touring Europe for the first time since you released "Heavier than Heaven, Lonelier than God" in April. I think it's fair to say the record is different to your previous releases (although still plays like a blacklisted record) and you have used a whole number of different sounds on the album; guitar pedal effects, feedback etc. Overall it comes across as a fairly unique sounding hardcore record, would you say then that this is the record you've been looking to make through Blacklisted or did it happen without any sort of pre-planned ideas?

I dont know if its the record Ive been looking to make. We created it in the time we had set to create it. Its what we came up with. Nothing was planned. That record for me is a vibe. Its a time and a place. Now that I am done with it I dont know what to do. I havent listened to it, I play the songs and that is it. Maybe I should be looking forward to making a new record, But who knows if that will even happen. Its kind of disappointing writing records, You put time into them, They come out and that is all its over.


You've said in an interview before that the record "The Beat Goes On…" was done to kind of tour off and keep you guys on the road. You're still known as a band that seems to be constantly touring but did you aim to do more with the latest record?

We just wrote and that is what came out. Like I said above there was no planning, It was just done in the time we had. Looking back I would have loved to do more because also like I said above, Who knows if I will ever get the chance.




Would you say that there is a slight bit of pressure on hardcore bands, especially ones who are fairly big, to make sure that there is something "different" about the way they sound? With there being so many bands around in hardcore and more and more different sounds being replicated I get the feeling that bands nowadays have to evolve much faster in order to survive and keep people interested.

I feel the opposite. To be successful you have to replicate the same sound over and over. Hardcore is a very fickle genre, They do not deal with change very well. However in blacklisteds case, there was no pressure, We are just a band like anyone, It was just another record which too us is another documentation of our lives and the path we have been on for however long we have been doing this band.


I was wondering if I could ask about some of the lyrics on your last couple of records. Especially over the last couple of records the songs seem to deal with a lot of your own personal issues and thoughts. Would you ever feel vulnerable or apprehensive about being so honest in front of what is effectively a crowd of thousands?

I feel vulnerable everyday. While creating each record I have been really apprehensive. I find myself arguing with myself throughout the whole creation of the record. I love hardcore. It has been great to/for me. But it is a scene made up of all critics, So I hate putting myself out there because its not like people deserve it, They download it, Criticize it until we put out the next record and all the while they are sitting in their parents computer room eating their parents food while I am on the road not even knowing how I am going to eat next. Its a sad world the one where we live in. Where the realest people starve and the most false of people get to watch it from a small screen and give their two cents anytime they feel like it.



The song "Setting Sun" off "Peace on Earth, War on Stage" ends with the line "You're no setting sun, you're no setting sun, please don't pretend to be one…" and I think when I saw you play once you mentioned how it was turning the idea of the song "The needle and the damage done" by Neil Young on its head, suggesting that not every junkie is a sympathetic tragedy. The song seems to be draw a lot from your own experience of people and drugs, do you hold this view for all junkies or is it specific to someone in your life?

I dont hold that view. That song was written with alot of anger. I wish I would have thought about it more, But I was just so frustrated I put it all out there. I know that in this life there is no such thing as a person who can not be saved, So if that is going on in you or anyone you knows life be there for them. That is all you can do.


You re-recorded a couple of songs off of that 7" and I wanted to ask in particular about "Memory Layne". On the "Peace on Earth…" version it ends with the line "How do you rise when all you know is the downside?" but on the full-length version you seem to reiterate "cause all I know is the downside" . Was there any reason in particular for the adjustment?

We wrote those songs fairly quickly the first time around, So after playing them for a year or so we decided to re record them so they could be recorded more along the lines of how we were playing them live. I liked that line at the end I thought it was a great way to get my point across. Im glad I got to re do it.


When Blacklisted play you often declare "I love you all.." or something similar to the crowd and in other interviews of yours I have read you've signed off with something like "take care of each other". Although this doesn't seem too extraordinary, it marks a slight difference from many bands who only seem to be able to focus on or express hate. Do you think that sometimes the angst of hardcore can sometimes be directed more within itself that towards the outside? I have read that you feel people are often too negative towards each other behind a computer screen, on a message board etc…

I think hardcore is built on angst and I would never hate on that. But when people are just judgemental for the sake of being judgemental I find it pathetic. Especially when they are judgemental on people that are really out there putting it on the line while they sit at home and do nothing. However I wish that everyone would take care of themselves and those around them. Because these people around us. That is all we really have in the world, Your whole life is based on the relationships you have. Its a cold life to live when you have no one. I guess I just hope people realize that and try to reach out to each other. Make a connection..


www.myspace.com/blacklisted

www.imwithblacklisted.blogspot.com

Down To Nothing

This is the first interview I have done. I interviewed the singer, David, when they played in Kingston in May. Considering Down to Nothing are a big, touring band in hardcore now and I had never done anything like this it was pretty cool for David to still take the time to talk to me.






This is the first time you've been back to play in Europe since "The Most" came out. How have people taken to the songs off that record?

Surprisingly good. Usually it takes a while for a new record to get out and for people to get into it. So far on this European tour, those songs have been some of our best, craziest songs. So it's been cool.

I was wondering how you feel about touring Europe and playing "Home Sweet Home" which kids always seem to love, but kids in the UK or Germany have no idea what Richmond is like. Do you find it weird or hard to understand why they can go off to that?

My friends back home always say the same thing. They're like "I see videos of you guys playing "home sweet home" in somewhere like Germany, what's that like?" and it's not really weird, it's kind of a good feeling, a bunch of people singing along about my city so it's cool. There are people in Germany and Poland who don't even speak that great English and they know it word for word, more than people back home do, more than people in my band do!

One of the first things I noticed after listening to "The Most" was how heavy the riffs were and a kind of late 80s influence. Was that something you intended to do with the record or did it just come out naturally with the song writing process?



Yeah it just came out naturally I guess. If you listen to Save it for the Birds, Splitting Headache after that and all of the splits you can kind of tell it gets heavier. We hadn't released anything for a while so we just started writing songs and it came out like that which was cool.

I also noticed that the lyrical content of the songs was a bit more varied. There are songs like "Serve and Neglect" which address police corruption and "No Faith" about religion. For you personally was that something you wanted to do, address a whole number of ideas?

Not really they're just things I'd been wanting to sing about. When I had the songs to write them to it's just what came out.

There's also songs on the record like "Along for the Ride" and "Well Deserved" which are more about hardcore today. It seemed like you were frustrated at some parts of the hardcore scene. What is it that can get you down about the scene?

"Along for the Ride" and "More Deserved" I guess are pretty similar. "Along for the Ride" , when I say that line about riding coattails it's about so many bands nowadays that don't work for anything. We fucking got shitted on so much when we were younger and worked our asses off to get a show and now there's these bands, we didn't have myspace and all that stupid shit either, so all these bands find your tour dates online and then just come to all the shows pretty much. It's like, earn your shows you know? Like every other fucking hardworking band has done. Same with "Well Deserved" that's about how any bands now can just record a demo, put it on myspace and then they're the new shit. A year and a half later none of them even go to shows anymore, they're done with hardcore. That's what that songs about.

I guess you guys are one of the more renowned straight-edge bands around today. Nowadays there's so many different views about what straight edge is and what it entails. There's people with a really hard-line view and people with the complete opposite ideas. Do some of those different views frustrate you as well?

Yeah definitely. I mean, I've been at parties before and they'll offer me a beer, "yo can I get you a drink?" and I'll be like "no, no thanks I don't drink". They keep asking again, "You wanna go smoke?". I'll be like "No it's cool". They'll say "Oh are you straight-edge or something?" When I say yeah they'll be like "Oh so your gonna come and fucking beat me up now?". I'm like "No I'm just chilling, talking to you". You know? There's people that give it a bad name like that, it sucks that violence got so associated with it. It's embarrassing somebody's gonna think of me as some fucking dumbass. Just because I don't want to do drugs doesn't mean I want to fucking beat up somebody or carry brass knuckles. So that shit sucks. It's so stupid, you're trying to be nice, it's how society is, people offer you drinks, people drink. It's fine if you don't want to do it you just have to be like "no thanks" not "no I'm fucking straight edge, fuck you!" That shits dumb, fucking grow up.

"The Most" was your second release on Revelation Records, home to legendary bands such as Judge, Inside Out and Gorilla Biscuits. Do you want to see yourself or could you see yourself having the same influence as them in ten years or so?

I would love to. Who knows if we would, that'd be crazy. I don't wanna think about it, I'll just try and do my thing. I still can't believe we're on Rev. It's not even that cool, but it is you know? In reality, it's not that cool of a label to be on but at the same time: Warzone, Judge, Gorilla Biscuits. It's sweet. That'd be cool. Who knows?




So what have you been listening to this tour, anything in particular?

The new No Use for a Name record, we listen to that every day. New Trapped Under Ice. Lately I just got into Lilly Allen, I'm a little late but I love it.Are they any other bands around now who people might not have heard of that you'd suggest to check out?Yeah, check out a band called Swamp Thing, they're from Richmond. They're young kids on 6131 records. 50 Lions from Australia. Cruel hand from Maine, I know they were just here. There's a bunch of good bands now.

http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lm15c3BhY2UuY29tL2Rvd250b25vdGhpbmc=