I'am an Artist

So, last night i did my first tattoo.

I think this is the beginning of big things for me in the industry, but you be the judge from the finished product picture. (more pics up one day)

Luke "Crew" Dolan (White Male Duminance, The Dead Walk, Life Love Regret, Arms Reach, X-Claim, Pitfall)

1- NCHC, as in Newcastle Hardcore, not the other one, haha,you were there from the very beginning. How awesome was it to be a part of something that you and your friends created and watched grow? What were some of the bands that you first think of when you think NCHC? And also what were some of the questions that a very young straightedge youth crew you and Chippa asked Ian Mackaye when he came through Newcastle with Fugazi?

When I first started going to shows in 93' there were no hardcore bands in Newcastle, let alone a "scene". I mean there were bands that had HC influences and a few older guys that collected records and stuff, but the closest thing we had to HC were melodic punk bands like No Reason and Big Men Fly, or thrash metal bands like Angry Earth Mutha. It was a really small and tight knit underground scene, where these bands would play with grunge bands, ska bands, or garage rock type bands, simply because there weren't enough people to splinter off into different scenes. Me and Chippa would go to these shows and dream of doing a straight up HC band, something really in your face and unapologetically HARDcore. We didn't want to fit in with the long hairs and pseudo rock gods, we wanted to emmulate our idols Minor Threat and Youth Of Today! Occasionally bands from Sydney like Minute Minder and Toe To Toe would play Newie and we got to be mates with a couple of the guys in Minute Minder. We would jump up and sing Side By Side covers and stuff with them which inspired us to start jamming with a few skater mates from school. That band became what I consider the first ever NCHC band, Disengage. Originally it was going to be me and Chippa on dual vocals but I got booted out before the first show haha. Anyway Disengage started playing and me, Craig Edge, and a couple of my other mates from school would go to shows X'd up, heads shaved & moshing like lunatics haha. The older punk crowd didn't know what to make of it but we didn't give a fuck and it slowly started to catch on with the younger crew. New bands started forming like Pitfall, Shutdown, Anomie and Nihilst and a true hardcore scene emerged when we started to put on our own shows, make up our own demo tapes, do our own zines etc. It's fucking rad to look back on it now and have people acknowledge that we started something, a self sufficient HC scene that's been going strong for almost 15 years now. As for what we asked Ian Mackaye when Fugazi played Newcastle in 93', well the photos on the White Male Dumbinance myspace say it all... how could we ask him anything with a mouthful of his nuts??? hahaha

2- Pitfall was def one of my favourite bands as a kid, and Ben from Parkway still has his signed Pitfall shirt, haha.What does that band mean to you now thinking back on it? And how awesome was that last show at the Black Box? My leg almost fucking snapped in 2 when the biggest dog piles occurred directly on top of me! haha

Pitfall will always mean a lot to me as it was my first band and I had been busting my balls to sing in a band since day one. I'll never forget how stoked I was when Rod Pack told me they kicked out their old singer and asked me to do it after a Poison Bruno gig in which I jumped up and sang their GB "Hold Your Ground" cover. The first show I did with Pitfall was at the Hunter On Hunter with maybe 25 people there haha but I wouldn't have cared if there was 2 people there, that first night I sang with my own band it was a dream come true... and I've been an addict ever since. I'm proud of what Pitfall did in terms of putting NCHC on the map Australia wide and we were also one of the first bands to have outspokenly straight edge lyrics in a time long before SXE was remotely cool or trendy. The last show was actually at Hardcore Superbowl 97' at the Iron Duke in Sydney and the Black Box show was a reunion maybe a year or two later? Anyway yeah the Black Box show was off the hook with kids traveling from all over just to jump on top of each other and heckle my crooning during "Torn Between" haha.

3- Whilst in Arms Reach you became quite politically correct, haha, even saying some things in zines that got you into a little hot water. Do you look back now and think what was i so wound up about? Or is it just one of those things that happen when you are growing up and doing bands?

The first 2 years or so of Arms Reach was great, we had so much fun and managed to find a balance between politics and balls out hardcore without shoving our views down peoples throats. The last year of that band is difficult for me to recollect because somewhere along the way I lost my fucking mind and became a self righteous cunt haha. I think what happened is hardcore became an unhealthy obsession for me, I mean I had nothing else going on in my life and the band became a vehicle for my growing closed mindedness and blind ego. I had this distorted view that you could talk shit about your friends bands and make fun of them but at the end of the day everyone would still be cool and want to hang out with each other haha. I mean yeah part of it is just growing up and trying to figure your own shit out and I think I expressed that in songs like "Seasons For Growth" but then you have songs like "Run For Your Fucking Life" what the fuck is that about? haha. I'm in two minds about that era, part of me is still that shit stirring, arrogant cunt which can be healthy in such an arse kissing, non threatening environment that is hardcore today but you have to have the tact and wisdom to pick worthy adversaries if you're gonna choose that path, not just being a prick for the sake of it which is just boring and lame.

4- Life Love Regret was fucking intense, everyone knows what the band was about, and the first few shows i saw you were fucking INTENSE, but do you think due to the lyrical content the band had an expiry date from the start? Also,The Dead Walk has now finished up after a solid 4 years as a band, what are some highlights from both bands?

LLR definitely had a pre-determined shelf life and unfortunately we stuck around a little past our use by date haha. In truth I could've quit the band after the first few shows and been completely satisfied as nothing could match the intensity and validity of the first few shows we played. LLR was like the closure of a fucked up chapter in my life (that incidentally started in the later AR days) and the highlight of that band would easily be the first show we played at Hornsby PCYC. To be singing those lyrics for the first time in front of an audience was such an incredible emotional and spiritual release I remember being on such a high that I couldn't sleep that night. The Dead Walk! was a long overdue fuck you to all the prolonged self pity, indulgence, and inner band turmoil of later day LLR and was all about bringing it back full circle to embrace and celebrate fun, simple hardcore. The culmination of this was definitely the tour we did with Ringworm and Mindsnare which was basically a bunch of old fuckers playing hard and partying harder every fucking night... definitely one of the most amazingly fun and wild couple of weeks I've ever had.

5- Fuck iam just thinking you have sung in alot of bands,haha, but your newest band, White Male Dumbinance could quite possibly be my favourite. I think it has touches of every band you and Chippa have done, plus more. What are your goals with the band, and will there be more genius lyrics like that found on " I Dont Think So Honey"? Also, like me you are getting older, haha, but continue to do hardcore bands. What keeps you involved with the core?

White Male Dumbinance is like Life.Love.Regret playing Infest covers. How long can a band like this last? Well if you were to sit in on one of our practices you'd hear Chippa and Murray argue about the price of dildos in Thailand until they almost come to blows. I'm not even kidding. I'm stoked we finally got the 7"s released and we're playing Melbourne on New Years Eve with Extortion which should be killer but beyond that, well, anything's a bonus. At 33 years old I've come to the conclusion that I couldn't quit hardcore even if I wanted to haha. I think once you've been into something for so long, for better or worse, it just becomes part of who you are. I mean I just found out today that Gorilla Biscuits are touring Australia in December and I shit you not, I put on "Start Today" and moshed around my room with my dog for the entire album. Is that normal behaviour? No, of course it's fucking retarded and juvenile but at the same time it's kinda rad that I can still get so pysched on the prospect of seeing one of my favourite bands and I'm not completely jaded.

David Wood (Terror, Down To Nothing, Murder Weapon, Game On)

1- Murder Weapon, shit was hard as fuck, blatant Set If Off rip off and all! haha. Was that your first "real" band? Did you guys tour much? 

hahaha, blatant madball and no warning rip offs. Shit was mad fun. Down To Nothing was already a band, we started in 2000, Murder Weapon started the fall of 2002. We could never pull it together to do an actual tour, but we did do a lot of weekend shows. Always some long drives because we only had 2 days to do the shows. We played some cool gigs though.

2- DTN, in my opinion "The Most" was one of the best core albums to come out in the last 5 years. You guys have done a fuckload, but recently have chilled out alot, i know that its hard now with you doing Terror, etc, but do you think DTN is done? Or will you just continue to do stuff when you can? 

Thanks man, we put a lot of hard work into that record, and into our band as a whole in the last few years. People are busy doing some other things right now, but Down To Nothing has worked to hard and come to far to just call it quits right now. We still got a lot things we want to do, and we have some new songs that are our best yet. So we're just going to play when we can right now, do small tours, and hopefully make it back to Australia one more time.

3- While on DTN, do you think you were the "wildest" core band out there? I know you got up to some wild shit on tour, haha. Name some things that you guys did that you think went a little bit too far. I can name one, haha...

Looking back at some of the dumb shit we've done, I'm gonna have to say yes. We're so stupid dude. We almost got deported from Australia for absolutely destroying our hotel. We've shot off roman candles, smoke bombs, and bottle rockets, inside of our van, with 7+ people in it, WHILE driving! Vandalized some of the craziest things, stolen the stupidest things you can imagine. I don't know how we haven't gotten our asses kicked, or put in prison.

4- Whats the deal with Richmond, until i just googled it i didnt even know where it was, haha. But all you dudes seem to love the place and every band from there writes songs about the place. More importantly, are their waves at Virginia Beach?

Richmond is a really small city with close suburbs surrounding it.Very chill place, very old, very historical. If you mixed Philadelphia PA and Austin Texas together, and then shrunk it, you would have Richmond. A beautiful river called, The James passes right through it which makes for great fun. Some of the earliest settlers to find the Americas sailed up the James..So you can imagine all the history.
Richmond is also dead in the middle of the east coast. 2 hours from DC, 4 from Philly, 6 from NY. You have to pass through it to go south too, so we get a lot of good tours coming through. Virginia Beach has small ass waves, but it's all those kids have to learn on, and they don't take it for granted, so dudes can fuckin shred from there! It's pretty though :)

 5- You are now a fulltime member of the touring machine known as Terror. When/where was your first show and how is it all going? And how stoked are you to tour fulltime and be at hardcore shows every night of the week worldwide? 

It's really a dream come true as stupid as that sounds.. Terror was one of my favorite current hardcore bands you know, and I looked up to all those guys, so it's really weird to playing with them now, but fucking awesome as well. I just finished my first tour with them, it was 2 months long, all across the States, and Canada too. My first show was in Joplin, Missouri and I was SO nervous! I played bass in Murder Weapon, and hadn't really played much since we broke up. So it was a big change going from singing back to the 4 string. I love it, we got a metal tour coming up, then some shows with Gwar, and then Suicidal Tendencies, and then Europe with Sick Of It All and H20 and a bunch of others. So pretty much I'm in Heaven right now.

Matt Miller (Most Precious Blood, Photographer)

1- MPB, Whats up? Are you still a band? New Record? Tours? Getting Ross?

Yes we are still a band. we are really spread out right now though. Im living in Atlanta GA. Colin lives in DC. Justin is holding it down in Brooklyn, Rachel is in Maryland, and i think Rob sleeps in a janitors closet at Bally's gym in either Philly or Albany.
But yes we are still a band, but not nearly as active as we were. I think our flavor of CORE was passed in the wind, and we dont fall into the all over print, flat brimmed hat mosh scene , or the black fingernail poslish stupid hair crowd, so instead of us playing shows where noone gave a fuck and getting back in the van to reflect on said shitty show for the next 6 hours till we hit the next town, we decided to not tour full time anymore. and to be honest, we havent done much since. It's hard to get all of us to take time off from work and get together and fly out to meet up and shit. Its harder being a part time band than it is being a full time rock machine i tell ya!
but yes, we are working on a new record. all the jams are tracked and we are waiting on rob to get pissed off enough to get in the studio and tell everyone in the world how much he hates them. he is a fucking animal.

2- You moved from NYC back to your hometown of Atlanta a few years back. Why was that? and what are some good and bad points of each place?

Once we decided to not be a full time band, i felt there was no reason to live in NYC. Its a rad place for sure, but you live in some tiny apartment that youll NEVER own, live paycheck to paycheck, ride the stinky subway, and eat at the same 4 spots you always eat at. i just felt like i didnt take atvantage of all that nyc had to offer. i didnt go out to bars, and i didnt really care that much about staying around. everything felt like a pain in the ass to do. like you would meet up with friends to go eat, wait 2 hours for a table, eat, then there was nowhere to go, everyones apt was too far away or too small to hang out in, so then youd just get back on the train and go home..ugh!

I moved back to atlanta with my lady who got a rad job out here tattooing at 13 roses tattoo. We bought a house , have 2 cars, 2 vegan pitbulls , and life is fucking so good! i love it here, although itd be nice to have a beach or a lake or something , being land-locked sucks!

3- Your photos are fucking awesome and your blog is cool as shit. Is there a secret to taking such good pics? Or is it just your fancy camera?, haha.

man i hate that question. people see my photos and ask...yo what camera you use....like youd ask DaVinci what paint brushes he used, and if you got those same brushes, your shit would look like his. i know that most people dont realize that its lame when you ask that, but it kind of is...haha.
but anyhow, i started creeping up on being 30 this year and i decided that i needed to get serious about some sort of career, and i knew i loved taking photos, so it was time to get serious about it. I know my craft has grown leaps and bounds in the past year or so, but the hardest part is getting paid. i never thought you had to be a business man on top of taking good photos, but its so fucking easy to get taken atvantage of. noone ever wants to pay for photos. its so annoying. gear is fucking expensive , and its really time consuming to get the right photo and to edit all them shits!
but ive been working hard at taking my photography to the next level.
if you want to take a look, check my blog.

www.thefivemilegrace.com

4- Coca-Cola, i know you are a huge fan, do you think anyone else in the world consumes as much of the product as you? and what attracted you to the company in the first place?

Man. coca cola and the South go hand in hand. i was raised on that shit. and its totally the reason that ive gotten so damn FAT! but yea, Atlanta even has a coke museum. you should come check it out! It was invented in atlanta, and the first bottling plant was here. im sure ill get a coca cola tattoo one of these days. its just so damn refreshing!!!

5- Have you been surfing much lately? You were awesome that day in Sydney when you gave me a lesson.

Oh man. I'll never forget. you woke me up so early in the moring to take me out surfing. mentioned i needed a wetsuit, and that i could wear one of yours(keep in mind im a fat fuck and pete looks like a small g.i. joe) so somehow i squish into the wetsuit and i cant put my arms at my side or bend over. somehow you shove me into the car and put the coffee table, oh, i mean my surfboard ontop of the car and we head to humiliation, i mean my surfing lesson. we get to the beach and all these dudes are shredding and come up to say hi and to gawk at my dumbass in a tiny wetsuit. we tried for a couple hours and i get nowhere near standing up on that goddamned thing. it was fun, but ive never felt more out of my element. but theres gonna be Round 2 when i come out there in October!!!

NA Last Show

Tickets are on sale now.

Adam Riser (Lone Wolf, Betrayed, Love Is Red, Traitor)

1- One of your first bands had the faggotry meter going of the richter scale straight away for me with the name, Love Is Red, haha. Judging by the kids that like that band here in Australia i would not be down. But tell me the deal and what that band meant to you.

That band matured me is so many ways as a musician, and a person. We started that band in my basement when I was 16 years old. It took us a few years and a few member changes to fully develop our sound, but in the last year or two of that band we actually were reasonably successful by hardcore standards (booking agent, headlining shows, good turn-outs, video on MTV, etc). I think we confused a lot of people with our name sounding like some pussy indie band but our music being heavier and aggressive. We weren't a youth crew band that was putting out 7" vinyl EP's, nor were we a metal band that kept it "brutal as fuck". We had a hybrid sound to our music, so our audience was always mixed and diverse. It seemed like towards the end a few more younger kids were getting into us, and many of them even after the band broke up. I'm not so sure why that was; I'm more sure of the fact that we worked ridiculously hard to be taken seriously as a hardcore band coming from the southeastern part of the United States (a region definitely not known for producing many hardcore bands) and it was frustrating for us at the time to see bands getting record deals after only being around for 2 months and not evening touring, after we had spent years touring on a demo CD and 2 shirt designs. I think ultimately we were all just burnt out on sacrificing all our time, money, and efforts into a project that couldn't sustain our needs as individuals, and as a band. I cringe at most of the music that was written in that band when I listen to it, but at the same time I'm proud to have accomplished what I did in that band at such an early age.


2- You moved from "the depth south Alabama" (said in hick accent) to the best place in America (in my brief time there i made that decision) How great was the day you moved to HB? and why is HB the best place in that crazy country of yours?

I had nothing left for me in Alabama. So in the spring of 2005, I packed up all my shit and moved to Orange County, California with no real intentions other than just starting fresh. I didn't immediately live in Huntington Beach; at first I was in Buena Park, which is the northern-most part of Orange County. Luckily after a year of living there I scored an amazing place with great roommates right near the beach. To me, Huntington Beach is the best place I could live. Everything I could need or want is super close and attainable.....beach, good waves to surf, the majority of my friends, healthy and delicious food options, affordable living, endless entertainment, perfect weather...you get the idea. It's infinitely different than where I grew up, but definitely fits my style of living much better.


3- You played in Betrayed for quite a period of time, and got to tour the world with that band, but were never really credited as being a member. How did you feel about that? Where you cool with it cause those were Todd's songs and you were just happy to be playing and touring like the secong guitarist in Green Day?haha or did it annoy you?

Todd was kind enough to let me hop in the band really without knowing me. Given that the line-up was made up of guys who played in some of my favorite hardcore bands, I was thrilled to be a part of the project. From the beginning, Todd made it clear that he was going to handle all the music writing, and that it was a band that he and Aram wanted to do as friends. I welcomed the idea of me not having to do anything except learning the songs, show up at the shows, and have fun. It was the easiest gig in the world, and I was fortunate enough to travel and see places that I'd never get to venture to without being a part of a band like that. I've been asked a lot about what's up with me not receiving much credit with my affiliation with Betrayed; it's something that doesn't really matter to me. Like I said, I knew from the get-go that it was Todd and Aram's band, and I just helped (hopefully) bring some sound and energy to the live show. I had fun and consider it a privilege to have shared my time with 4 guys who I not only have a great deal of respect for as musicians, but as people. I don't need a text acknowledgment on a record to know my own worth. I know the part I played and that's all that matters.


4- Lone Wolf, no shit, one of my favourie current bands along with TUI, IA, etc. Whats up with the record? Is it ever coming out? And will you ever tour? Maybe with different members so that its an actual possibility? Or are Mark and Martin Lone Wolf through and through?

Lone Wolf started as just a project band. Bo Thomson approached me between watching episodes of LOST, saying we should do a heavy band. I was totally down for the idea and began putting together some songs. After most of the songs (the ones appearing on our EP) were written, we solidified our lineup by adding Mark and Nick. Martin later hopped on board too. It sucks that Lone Wolf is and probably will remain a band that moves at an ultra sluggish pace. Due to Mark and Martin staying on the road with their bands and staying busy just with life in general, it makes it nearly impossible to practice, much less play shows. I make up for it in the meantime by never ceasing at writing riff after riff and song after song. I think I have enough demo songs written right now for almost 2 LP's. Now the goal is just to find the time to fine-tune those songs and get them tracked in the studio. I suppose first we should be concerned with getting our 7"/EP released. The EP, entitled "Hallucinogenic Fate", will be out in a matter of weeks on Words of War records. It will be a 7" and digital download-only release. The songs crush hard as hell, and are just a glimpse into the sonic demolition that's ahead. We're hopefully gonna do a week-long tour in January with our Canadian buddies in Modern Crimes (A Perfect Murder members).


5- Lastly, i have to talk about our day trip to "Florida" (San Diego) that day. What was meant to be a 2 hour max drive took 6 hours plus. Was that the worst day of your life? and if you had a knife would you of buried into my stomach?

Goddamn, that day was awful. It took us 4 fucking hours to navigate through a stretch of highway that should have taken us 20 minutes! By the time we arrived, I only had time to order and eat a burrito (which was might delicious, but couldn't cover up the overwhelming taste of FAILURE) and then drag your ass off the wave pool, just to turn around and get stuck in another 4 hours of traffic. And THEN drive to Santa Barbara after the show, which was another 2 hours or so. I seriously hated you for talking me into allowing us to go to San Diego, even though it made no sense to go that far out of the way. And then you had the fucking nerve to do your "vocal warm ups" sitting in the car next to me. Even if I had a knife on me, I wouldn't stab you in fear that you might actually make noises even MORE annoying than the ones you were already creating. I think the only good thing your warm-ups produce for you is the ability to call people "faggots" from the stage during your set. I thought it was cool to see Paint It Black moshing and singing along to the No Apologies set at Sound & Fury though.

I have nothing to prove.

I have been busy as fuck of late and have had no time at all for this blog.
Today was Fathers day and i ate so much at an all you can eat breakfast this morning with my Dad that i have not and wil not eat anything else today or tonight, thats awesome.
Anyway, what this blog is all about, 5 q's, there will be alot more in the coming weeks.
I have a short list of people, and they will be getting sent questions.
So i/v's will be up straight after they get them back to me.
Check your emails.