Youth Of Today Interviews

XXX Fanzine #14 with Ray, John and Graham

Big thanx to Al Barkley for this interview, check out his Hardcore archive page for more interviews (original scans!),
mp3s, photos, pressing info and flyers: http://www.osxhc.com.

An Interview with: Ray - vocals, John - guitar, Graham - bass, from 1985/86, before their first full length was out.

xXx: Ok, so is it true that you guys are Nazi, straight edge, skin head types ?

John : As everybody says ....
Ray: We're not Nazis just everything else.
John: Ray's got a skinhead and we're straight edge.
Ray: But i'm not a skinhead. I shave my head because it's part of hard-core scene and stays with you and shows
other people that you're part of a scene.

xXx: Do you think that as a band it's important to remain part of a scene?

Ray: Actually, i think it's important to be part of an international scene. Actually, we're from nowhere.
John: We're mostly from New York, but we usually play in Connecticut.
Ray: There's no point in setting up scene barriers. All it's doing is keeping other people out. I don't go around saying
that Connecticut or New York hardcore rules.
John: It's good to support a scene but you don't have to shun away from other places or exclude people.

xXx: Do you see what you guys are about a national scene ideal?

John: Record labels are starting to put out bands from all over the county rather than putting out bands from just their home town.
That's really stupid. Dischord for example just done DC bands and won't do anything else even if it fits their style.
Ray: It's just more sectionalism. It's just like building a fence and instead of just saying "Ok we're all in the fence" all you're doing is
keeping people out.

xXx: Ok, how did this band form ?

John: Graham and Darren and me were in the Young Republicans and Ray was in Reflex From Pain and then, Ray and I were in
Violent Children which we got sick off. The singer and bass player had different ideas than we did as they wanted a more metal
direction.
Ray: We just had different ideas and we always thought that they did so we realized the difference so it was time for a split.
Graham was Violent Children's roadie and the day after they broke up, we grabbed him since he had a lot of the same ideas
as we did. By that time we had a definite idea of what we wanted to do.

xXx: Do you think it's important for a band of individuals to all have the same beliefe and ideas ?

John: I do. I think that a band should definitely have some beliefs and goals. I don't like bands that really don't stand for anything with
different members all being into totally different things.
Graham: Bands like that don't hang out with each other or anything like that.
John: We're all friends and if we were n't together as a band we'd be together anyways.
Ray: And they talk about other band members.
John: If you want any sort of unity in the scene around you, first you have to unite as a band.
Graham: Which we do.

xXx: Ok, what sort of music do you play?

Ray: Well, we basically grew up listening to New York and early Boston hardcore.
John: Hardcore, not fancy or excessive.
Ray: Like the old Boston hardcore that we were always into.

xXx: Ok, how is that you folks are pulled to that sort of sound ?

John: A lot of bands today think that they all have to be very different and that you have to play heavy metal to be creative.
We don't think that there's anything wrong with playing hardcore.
Ray: As long as it's good, powerfull hardcore. A lot of bands always talk about progression when it seems that they're doing is regressing.
You can always go forward in hardcore.
John: People always think that if you play hardcore you can't grow, but if you think that playing metal is a way to grom,
then all that you're doing is copping out. It's completely going straight away from the direction and the goals that the band
had in mind in the first place.

xXx: So you think that a "metal" direction is one that is a lot more regimented ?

John: Yeah.

Ray: Ok, look at SSD's new album. You can turn on the local ACR type rock station and listen to exactly the same type of music.
Is that progression? Honestly, that's the exact same shit that's been done for the past twenty five years.
Graham: When originally we thought that they stood for something totally different.
John: It seems as if a lot of their ideas were just totally false.
Ray: We're influenced by a lot of bands but when it comes right down to it, a lot of those bands didn't stand for what
we thought they stood for. We stand behind what we say and always will. We made up our minds as far as how we're
going to live and i really don't think that's going change very much.

xXx: Ok, so where do you guys see yourselves progressing ?

John: Learning new songs.
Ray: We're writing more intricate songs with more transitions and structure than a lot of the stuff we're doing or have done in the part.
We're doing to record a full album in the future as well. We've only been together a few months and since we all go to
college we've had a lot of problems in being a full time band.

xXx: How does that work out ?

Ray: I did all the booking for Violent Children as i knew who to contact and we were able to get a lot of shows pretty quickly.
We all can play really well before we went to school we all practiced and played a lot. In first, the day before we went to scholl
we recorded.
John: And we all go to school in the tristate area.
Graham: And Massachusetts.
Ray: What happened was that both John and I had a lot of ideas and we got together one night in Albany and polished up
what we wanted to do.
Graham: But even last nigh, at our first practice in quite some time we were still working on new songs.
John: It's a pain in the ass, but it's definitely worth it.
Ray: We're looking toward next summer when we get a full album and do a big tour.

xXx: What happened with you guys getting on the Positive Force label ?

Ray: I've always liked 7 Seconds from the first EP and lyrically, they've always been a big influence on me so when
they first came out, Violent Children played with them and i became friends with Kevin and Steve and the rest of the band.
Then, the next time they came out, we played and toured with them for a lot of their East Coast shows. They saw us, they
liked what we're about and they wanted to put out our record.
John: Atually, Positive Force is the only label i'd like to be on. It happens to stand for something ... It's a philosophy,
not just people making money. And we're all friends too.
Ray: Now that we're on Positive Force, we're going to help out other bands and get other bands on the label.

xXx: Like who?

Ray: Verbal Assault from Rhode Island. Also We may start a Positive Force, East Coast style.

xXx: Anything to close up with ?

Ray: Stay straight, hard and true ... (laugher)
Graham: Ray, are you harder than Pat from Uniform Choice ?
Ray: That seems to be the big question. I think it's going to be quite a showdown, but Pat's never been to CBGB's.

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