1- You have played/are playing in a fuck load of bands, did you grow up with instruments in the house or is music something you got into later on in life?
I grew up in music loving family. Nobody actually played any instruments, they all just loved to listen and be a part of the music. I never even touched an instrument until I was in about the 8th grade and some friends of mine wanted to start a band asked me to play bass. I bought a bass from the pawn shop that week and just started listening to songs I liked and trying to copy what I thought the song sounded like. The first song I ever learned to play was "London Dungeon" by The Misifts. After that I moved to guitar and would sit in my room after High School listening to Earth Crisis "Destroy The Machines" from start to finish learning to play every song.
2- I recently watched a youtube video of Terror playing on the Firestorm Tour and it looked as though at any minute instruments were to be put down and fists were to be raised, as something was going on with the security, has this happened? and if so does Terror have a 1 in , all in code of ethics? haha!
Nothing serious happened on that tour at all with bouncers at any of the clubs. It has absolutely happened in the past though with Terror and other bands I've been a part of. I'm trying to keep a new level of cool over myself when situations like that start to break out these days. I can't be dropping my guitar and jumping off stage throwing punches anymore. I can't afford to end up and jail and I have no health insurance so I definitely can't afford to end up in the hospital, from self inflicted injuries of course. I don't know it all and I can only speak for myself, but when someone puts their hands on you in a threatening manner you want to return the aggression. I'm not saying that anytime a bouncer touches you or gets in your face you should smash him and his whole team out and shut the show down. There's a time and place for everything. Sometimes you should brush things off and other times you should make things happen. But like I said, I don't know it all so I can't tell you when to make what decision. I just know how I feel myself and how I need to react. I've worked security before and I well know that there's a respectful and non-offensive way to take control of a situation. Most bouncers though are just knuckleheads that probably got bullied as kids and just lose control when they have that position of power. Hardcore is hardcore and in my opinion it was truly never meant to be bound by anyones rules, even the club the gig's taking place at. BUT if we as "hardcore kids" are going to accept that the gig is going to be in a certain place then we also have to accept that we may have to compromise a little to avoid a total disaster. I could easily go around the world to every club and have it out with every bouncer we encounter, but then who would let us play their club after that? What would happen? What venue would be willing to host a hardcore show? So who really knows what to do. Fuck it, smash out anyone you want I guess. I'll just do me.
3- You're on tour 10 months out of the year, how do you do it and maintain, 1- a relationship at home and 2- your sanity?
I have a long distance relationship. Bi-coastal and international. I live in California and she leaves clear on the other side of the continent in Quebec City, Canada. Being on tour so much actually helps out with amount of time we spend together. Any time the band gets near the eastern half of the continent she'll come down and meet with us and tour with us a bit. She's a true road dog. I even brought her to Europe with us once. As far as my sanity, are any of us who are involved in this hardcore thing truly sane in the first place? I really don't think so. I've wanted to travel the entire world since I was a kid and now I'm able to do that all while playing sweet gigs and making great international friends like yourself along the way. I love this life.
4- You are one of the not many (that i know of) African American guys in a touring hardcore band, are there many brothers over there into the core?
There's a few that I can think of off hand. 2 parts of Trash Talk are "brothas". Rashod the drummer of Bracewar too. There's a few of us here and there. We're definitely the minority though. When you come from an African American family you can easily understand how not a lot of us will end up migrating towards hardcore. Living with a Black family is truly a different world. Me and the 3 dudes I mentioned are planning to start an all Black band. Expect to be shocked.
5- The Damned, The Shamed... Give us an exclusive low down, what should we expect?
New Terror record due out this summer of '08 on Century Media Records. Expect some people to love it and some people to hate it, the same old story and cycle of every band and record. We recorded an album that we think is awesome and that has so far had nothing but positive feed back from all the dudes that we care about. A step up from the last record and all that typical stuff. There's a couple of shredding guitar solos this time around which I think is great. A couple of songs will probably surprise some people but most of them will make you want to mosh the world in my opinion. What it comes down to is that people just need to listen to it and decide for themselves. But either way, we're going to continue doing what we do. While those people out there that hate us are doing their usual talking, we'll be over in Australia gigging with you and the rest of our friends and partying at the beach with jellyfish. While the nerds are at the computer typing away, we'll be in Russia or maybe Brazil playing a sweet gig for people that truly care. I love you Pete, no homo, and your band. You're a solid dude. Mosh the world.
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