Checking In With ... Sam Trapkin

Checking in today we have Sam Trapkin guitarist from alot of people's (including me) favourite current core band Trapped Under Ice.







Yo! So we've been home for about a month now after a very busy summer. Everyone's been readjusting to living at home, back to work and everything... Justice is keeping the venue of Sonar as secure as possible, Ben's interpreting heart monitor readings, Klipa is making that bankroll at Andy Nelson's BBQ (where does it all go?....oh yeah, beer & weed), I'm doing freelance design work right now, and yo...we got a new bass player. Richmond VA's Jared Carmen, certified bass ripper/professional diver from Down to Nothing joined about 2 weeks ago. We've played 4 shows with him since we've been home and it's been awesome. He can shred and is a lot of fun on the road.



We've played about 5 shows since the end of September, and gotten to play with some awesome bands including Numb (from Japan), Creepout (from Japan), Stout, Terror, RazorBlade HandGrenade, Face the Panic, On Broken Wings, Rhinoceros, Crowd Deterrent, Backhand, Gaining Ground, Backtrack, and Suburban Scum to name a few. We've also been real busy writing. We're working on songs for an LP that we're hoping to have out sometime around April of 2009. We have a good amount written now, and are hoping to record early next year. Everyone has been contributing to the songwriting and riffing out non-stop. We'll be putting it out with Reaper Records. Patrick Kitzel has always held us down and we're all very happy to be working with him and the Reaper team.



Future Plans:November 28,29,30- Weekend with Forfeit/Mongoloids to NJ/Boston/CTDecember 12,13,14- Weekend to VA/TN/NC January- US tour with Dirty Money, Reign Supreme, and Full Blown ChaosFebruary- hopefully recordSpring/Summer 2009- tour to promote LP



Thanks to everyone that has helped us/continues to. We're all looking forward to getting back on the road next year and putting out some new shit. And thanks Pete! this blog rules.

Russ Rankin (Only Crime, Good Riddance)

1- Firstly, how stoked are you that Obama got in? What do you think this means for your country?

I didn't vote for him (I'm a registered Green Party member) but I am happy that he won. My big problem is with our entire election process and the fact that we don't have a free press in the U.S.

2- Good Riddance was a band for good on 14 years, you guys did alot, what are some of the ups and downs that come to mind when you think of the band. And what do you think of a couple bands around right now (not mentioning any names) that sound pretty much exactly like GR, but are playing stadiums and getting played on commercial radio?

There were tons of highs and lows - we were so unprepared for what we became and the work it took and the toll on our personal lives. It was, however, a tremendous opportunity and a rewarding experience that I'm sure enriched all of our lives in various ways. As for bands who "sound" exactly like us who are playing stadiums I really haven't heard any.

3- Only Crime, 2 records down and a whole heap of tours, hows it all going? Do you ever look back at the drums when your playing live and think, "fuck, iam in a band with Bill Stevenson"!?

Only Crime is slowly gathering new material for or 3rd album and will be touring Europe in Jan/Feb 2009 with No Use For A Name. And yes, I have caught myself doing that many, many times.

4-What not many people may know about you is that you are proudly straightedge and vegan, which i always think is fucking cool when an "older" (sorry, haha) dude sticks to his beliefs, in a scene that is filled with people that change trends with the wind. Have you ever x'd up? and what band, if any, prompted or helped in your decision to go straightedge?

Haha... I used to X up all the time when I was going to the hardcore matinees at Gilman Street in the late 1980's. I'd go see bands like Rabid Lassie, Unit Pride, Hard Stance, No For An Answer, Insted, Youth of Today, Bold and countless others and I'd X up and then wake p the next morning with big X's on my face from sleeping on my hands.

5- Coffee or ice hockey, if you had to pick one, as in you were never allowed the other as long as you lived, which one would it be, and why?

Hockey because it is the greatest thing ever GO DEVILS!!!!!

Straight Edge Revenge!

Fuck yes.

Checking In With ... David Foster

I wanted to let the awesomeness(is that a word? it is now) of Sweet Pete's i/v sink in for a few days, but iam excited on some new ideas and couldn't sit on this.

I am going to introduce a new segment to this blog (fuck i hate that fucking word) called "Checking In With ...". Basically what ill be doing is checking in with friends from around the globe whether they be on tour, in the studio, at home, on holidays (vacation for you American fucks), etc, etc, and seeing what they are up too.

Iam excited about it and i think it will be cool.

So to kick things off we have David Foster, guitarist in Blacklisted.

Here Goes

We are over halfway into the Have Heart,Ceremony,Blacklisted,Let Down _U.S takeover. Tonight while in the middle of a 20 hour drive from Seattle to Denver we found out that Barack Obama has been elected into the office as President. This is a major historical event for a number of reasons. Pretty exciting day for America. The tour thus far has been a major success on all realms, getting to see some of the best bands in modern hardcore nightly. As Pat Flynn of Have Heart stated, its almost like a buffet of modern hardcore. I'm not sure if I wouldve phrased that the same way, but the point was understood. We played a few great california gigs at the famous chain reaction and gilman st. The first was on halloween. Let Down had some great,creative costumes, I had my good friend Slash guitar tech-ing for me, even though he was later found wasted in the dressing room, and Have Heart came out as the Blue Man group, full bald wigs painted blue. Toast from ceremony was charles manson. The next night at gilman was a riot, capped by Davey Havok of afi doing project x's straight edge revenge with ceremony. Tour has been fun so far and should continue. We have chicago's convicted joining us soon, then get back to the east coast. Life is good. No complaints apart from the van's new found oil leak. PEACE!

Sweet Pete (In My Eyes, Boston Straight Edge)

1- Ok, In My Eyes, you guys did what not many hardcore bands can pull off, skipping the EP format and going straight from doing a Demo to an LP(The Difference Between), which ended up being one of, if not the best core records of the 90's. Was this a conscious decision, and a firm belief and confidence in what you guys were doing? or was it just that you had enough songs and thought lets do it?

I am glad you asked this. We wanted to do a 7” first, but Revelation asked us to do an LP as the 7” format is hard to make money back on. We were a little hesitant to do an LP as we did not have enough songs, but we got talked into re-recording some of the demo songs for the LP. In hindsight I wish we did not redo those demo songs as I feel they’re much better on the demo than on The Difference Between. The one thing I hate the most is my voice on the version of ‘This is Our Time’ on the redone version on the LP. That was the last song we recorded vocals for and it was 3am and I had been singing all day. I really just wanted to go home and do that song later, but we had to have it done that night, so I just said “Hit record and I’ll do it in one take and that’s that.” If your readers do not know or have not recorded, you usually do ‘punch ins’ on vocals that do not sound right or you actually do a few lines at a time and then take a break and do more so that you do not have to just belt out an entire song at a time. I was so tired and wanting to go home that I just did that song all at once in one take and did not even listen to it as I just went home. When I heard the vocals I was pretty upset with how weak they sound, but it was my own fault for being stubborn/tired and wanting to go home.

2- I remember when "Nothing To Hide" came out, hearing stories of a backlash of sorts from kids in the states saying that "the mosh parts" were gone and that it was a "rock" record. Is there any truth to that?

Nothing to Hide is a 100% Straight Edge HARDCORE record. People can have their opinion on if there is enough MOSH or if it is ROCK, and that does not bother me. We (IME) set out to write a record that we liked and would listen to. We did not set out to write a ‘rock’ record or let’s lose the mosh. We just ended up with songs that we liked and put it out there with no expectations. We knew it sounded a little different than our other stuff, but we never thought it was so far off that people would say it was not a hardcore record. We heard a little here and there about it being too melodic, too little mosh and whatnot, but it was 95% positive response we got for the LP in reviews and live when we played the songs. To this day it is almost split 50/50 between people telling me that The Difference Between is better than Nothing to Hide and vice-versa. Mostly people tell me that they love both LPs, but they like ___ one better. I am happy with everything IME put out and I can say it was always Straight Edge Hardcore no matter if it’s the demo, TDB or NTH.

3- Looking back at the legacy that In My Eyes has left are you 100% happy with everything that you achieved? Are there any regrets? and would you do another band again? or is it true what you told me that you would never do another band again because nothing would be as good as your time in IME?

I am 100% satisfied with what IME did. Could we have done more? Sure. Could we have done another record? Sure. Do I have any regrets that we did not? No. We started out 5 friends playing straight edge hardcore and ended 5 friends playing straight edge hardcore. We toured as much as we could, made some good (subjective) music, met a lot of cool kids all over and I made friendships that last until this day. Kids still email me, talk to me at shows about IME and I see IME shirts being worn all over the world. That blows me away and the kids have no idea how happy that makes me. I am not jaded like “Oh, that little band I did 10 years ago *yawn*” I will talk about IME to any kid that wants to as it was a big part of my life and one I am proud of. There are still tour stories from IME that to this day I can think back about and laugh or enjoy retelling to anyone who wants to hear. I still talk to all the guys from IME from time to time and we are still friends to this day. That is the most important thing. As far as doing another band that is pretty much out of the question. I loved doing IME and think I did and said what I wanted in a band and now it is time to go back to just being a kid at shows. I was into HC for over 10 years before IME started and it is coming up on almost 10 years since IME broke up that I am still involved in HC. I just really have no desire to be back on stage. I never really miss it as being in a HC band is not like being a rock star, so I get the same feeling of being at a show as I did on stage. Singing along in the crowd or stage diving is the same to me as being on stage with a mic in hand. I love touring and have been touring the world since IME broke up with bands like Mental and Have Heart. I have toured more since IME broke up than I did when we were around. I love going around the world and meeting hardcore kids as we all share a special bond that can not be described to the outside world.

4- Have Heart, the younger generation of Boston Straight Edge keeping the flame alive. When you’re on tour or just at a show with those guys do you feel like a father figure? haha or just another one of the guys?

I just feel like one of the guys. They never treat me any different or like an elder. I not only tour with those guys, but they are some of my best friends and I hang out with them in Boston all the time too. I may be way older than them, but when we hang out it is not different than peers hanging out. Have Heart are not only a great band, but great kids too and for anyone who may wonder if they live up to what they portray in their music, I can 100% tell you they do and then some. They are some of the most sincere and genuine kids I have ever met in hardcore. I can’t say enough good things about this band and what they have done for Boston hardcore and straight edge hardcore in general.

5- You’re an older guy(sorry, haha), but you are still siked on the edge and core, what keeps you involved in this crazy thing that is the hardcore scene? and how long can you see yourself at shows stage diving?

Hardcore was and is my family. I feel in love with hardcore at a very young age and growing up without a dad and then having my mom die when I was in my teens it made me turn to this alternative family that was the punk/hardcore community. I still get the feeling inside seeing a good band play today that I did when I first went to shows in ’83 and ’84. As far as straight edge is concerned I just see what drugs and alcohol does to people and I want no part of that in my life. I have no problem with people doing what they want, but being drug and booze free just works for me. I was into hardcore for a few years with the message of straight edge around me before I really thought about it and decided it was for me and the way I wanted to live my life forever. How long do I see myself stage diving? Hmm….well, I hope forever. Shit, I will be 40 in January and don’t see myself ever stopping going to shows or stage diving. Hell, I had a kidney transplant in 2006 and my doctor told me that I should not skate or have any hard contact (sports) for a few years. I was skating and stage diving again 3 months later. It was to the point where Pat from Have Heart and Sean from Verse took me aside and were like “Dude, we know you love to stage dive, we just don’t want to see you die at one of our shows” You can’t keep me from stage diving for 2 years. Fuck that! I’d rather die at a show doing a dive than sit around and feel the music inside and not get that release of diving. Most people think I don’t mosh anymore and sure, I am not on the floor as much as I used to be, but if you catch me in the right mood I can and will hit the floor. I have pretty good cardio and can mosh a whole set for a band if the mood is right.

XXX

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.