Month: November 2015

Jusska – L’homme de l’ombre

Jusska, when you first hear this band name, one instantly drifts towards Scandinavian sounds but less is true. Hailing from the Antwerp area in Belgium, this three-piece is on a mission to deliver groove back to heavy music. Taken the lead from bands such as Vola, Karnivool and Deftones, the Belgian trio decided to brew their own conjuncture of the wall of sound. Brick by brick the notes build up to create a trip into the inner depths. Angst-driven lyrics will guide the listener through the maze of inner demons up until confronting them. These first three tracks are now available and more tracks will be released working up to their debut album. Let Jusska guide you through the shadows with “L'homme de l'ombre”.

 

– Barbara Maes

Earthside

Jamie van Dyck of cinematic rock band Earthside recently took the time to chat with us about the band’s upcoming debut full length “A Dream In Static”. The record has been released on CD and digitally on October 23rd, 2015, with a vinyl release to follow. Read the interview below! 

1.    Thanks for joining us today. From my understanding, Earthside came about as a progression from your previous band, Bushwhack. Can you tell the readers a bit about how Earthside was formed, and the decision to record a full-length record came about, even before you played a single show?
Jamie van Dyke: With Bushwhack we felt like we’d run our course both creatively and we felt like we hit our ceiling as far as what we could accomplish. Almost like our history was holding us back. We wanted to just start anew, I think there was a stigma attached, in Bushwhack we had just been in college the whole time and in different locations, and I think it was symbolic more than anything. Also, we felt like that name had kind of worn off on us, so Earthside felt like something we could re-define ourselves with, re-invent ourselves with and we were looking to make more ambitious music and we felt that another element of disappointment with Bushwhack was we felt that the local scene we were part of couldn’t really propel us any further than it already had, so we wanted to also take a different approach which was sort of incubated for a while so we could make the record we want, make the connections we want, the collaborations we want, work with the people we want, and build it up sort of silently and in the background, and then just appear as “Hey, we’re Earthside!”. We’ve been working on this for a while and it kind of feels like a project that’s already on the scope of a national act. You know, a label signed act and just jump on the scene right away like that. It seemed like a lot of other bands that had some success, it feels like they came out of nowhere and it made us wonder if maybe the model of just grinding the local scene isn’t the best thing for us and that the best thing we could do is really showcase our compositions and our creativity and make the record we really want and write the music we really want and then take our time with it and really hone it, and then just show up as like “Hey you’ve never heard of us, but this is what we can do.”. That was our approach.

2.    I think a lot of times the bands that do start small in the local scene and build up from there tend to get a following, but they don’t get nearly as big as the acts that just come out of nowhere – which is what you’re planning to do. Of course you’ve released two songs already of “A Dream In Static”, namely “Mob Mentality” and “The Closest I’ve Come”. If you go on YouTube, they have over 50,000 views between the two of them and the video alone for “Mob Mentality” which came out about a week and a half or two weeks ago has about 15,000 (now 25,000) views which is insane for a band when this is the second song you’ve ever put out.
JVD: We feel that way a little, yeah. We’re pretty excited about its initial launch for sure, the reception out of the gate has been really great and it obviously helps when you have a guest vocalist like Lajon from Sevendust and I’m sure there’s a decent chance your line of questioning was going to go there at some point, but having some headline worthy things in there; working with an orchestra, the dancers. I think the early adopters and the sites that cover our kind of music were really enthusiastic. Having them fully backing us right out of the gate has really helped us reach a lot of people very quickly.

3.    How do you think you can capitalize further on the success of this video and who you’ve been working with to create this masterpiece?
JVD: Well first of all, thank you (laughs). Second of all, oh man, how would I capitalize on it? I think it depends on what you mean, right now obviously we’re doing it to propel us into the album release and with the album there will be more people involved and that will help; the other vocalists and other collaborations and other songs that can also go to work for us. As far as this video and this song, I think it really shows the breadth of what we can do and that we’re really, really ambitions and that we like reaching out and collaborating across disciplines, across genres. That way, I think it sets us up to do whatever we want in the future, creatively, which is very important to me. I don’t want to be a band that’s pigeonholed as “they do this.” A lot of bands have a sound and I don’t know if we even have a sound, somebody could say that’s a weakness, but we have an ethos. We have something about us that says we’re this creative enterprise that goes where our hearts and our ears want us to go, and we’ll do whatever it is that we feel musically turned on by. I think “Mob Mentality” sets us up to either go in a more film score direction, to continue to collaborate. This time it was with dancers, who knows what other visual artists we might collaborate with, Maybe we score a film at some point, maybe we go in a more classical direction, maybe we go in a more traditional rock direction, but we’ve laid the groundwork where any direction at any moment is possible and I think we like having that artistic freedom.

4.    You describe yourselves as cinematic rock, is that part of the film score idea, or something different?
JVD: It’s at least an acknowledgement that our music naturally would fit in that realm in a sense that it’s highly emotional and dynamic. Therefore I feel like we have the tools to paint an emotional arc or tell a story with our music. The difference between scoring a film and writing these pieces is our music comes first in these cases, so we can tell whatever story we want with our music and then any visuals that come around it are basically sound tracking us. I think by showing at the same time the whole palette that we have, the colour palette of sound and dynamic and emotion that we have available to us, it does mean that the inverse process is possible too where somebody comes to us with something, whether it be a film or some other visual art or non-visual art, and we can then take our music and be inspired specifically by whatever object or enterprise or project it is and map our music onto that. Kind of react to what we’re seeing or feeling based on that.

5.    If you scored a movie in the past, which do you think it would have been, or which would you have preferred?
JVD: It depends on if it was me scoring it by myself or Earthside as a whole with our rock band instrumentation. I’m trying to think of my favourite movies, what would we have been appropriate for. Doing the first Matrix movie would have been sweet, but the soundtrack that already exists for it is also sweet. Or like Memento, or something like that; something that has the action but also the psychological aspects. I think that combination, where it’s a psychological thriller aspect, that genre would be a good fit for us where there’s intensity but also a cerebral aspect to it.

6.    I think Memento would be a great choice, especially how it all plays out since it’s a huge mental time-warp basically.
JVD: We would musically want get in on the mindfuck, so to speak [laughs].

7.    Can you give us a quick description of the musical experience of each member of the band?
JVD: Frank, Ben, and I were the original three so I’ll start with us. Frank and I grew up together, so a lot of our upbringing musically was through each other. He and I both took lessons at Suzuki, he actually started on violin and I started on piano, and then he moved to piano and very quickly got better than I did and I moved to guitar [laughs]. We were in bands together ever since we were, like, 10 or 11. He went to college at Berklee College of Music for a year and a half before feeling like it wasn’t the right fit for him, but I’m sure he got a lot out of that year and a half. He moved on to Hampshire where he explored music on more his own terms. Hampshire College is a more laissez-faire style school as far as letting you have a lot of academic freedom.I did music at Yale, where the music department had very much a 20th century classical feel to it as far as the composers they would expose you to like Ligeti, or John Cage, George Crumb, composers like that. I’d never been exposed to that, and at first I kind of resisted it because I felt like they really didn’t respect the rock music that I was really obsessed with, and I felt like the rock music I liked was as high brow because it was Porcupine Tree and Radiohead, stuff like that. I felt like they were still not fully respecting it so it was kind of a push and pull. Actually, “Mob Mentality” came out of that experience of them finally acquiescing to let me do rock projects and me saying “Well if I can do a ten-minute full orchestration, maybe you’ll take it seriously.”. This project actually came out of wanting to prove to Yale professors that rock music could be more cerebral than they were giving it credit for. By that time I think they had come around and I’d come around that they just wanted what was best for me and wanted me to see what I could gain from learning about that music and I was not insecure anymore about how they felt about my music, so I was more open to it. That was a little detour there from your question, but it was the story of how “Mob Mentality” started, it was my senior thesis, so it was worth nothing. Ben, at age three, he was in a day-care and he got kicked out of the day-care because they thought he was so disruptive and ADHD. He just kept banging on things and they were just like “this kid’s maybe like violent, he’s got anger issues, definitely ADHD, we don’t know he hasn’t hit anybody but he just keeps bashing things, and we’re just like afraid to have him around the other kids.” So Ben’s parents were very concerned, they took him to his paediatrician, who actually happened to be my paediatrician growing up too, who I also adored. The paediatrician talked to Ben about it, and observed him, and talked to Ben’s parents about it. I believe the story goes, the paediatrician said to the parents “Well, I have some very concerning news,” I don’t know if those were the exact words, very serious news and they’re really terrified “Oh god what is it?” “Your son is a drummer. You’re going to need to buy him a drum set, you’re going to need to wall off a part of your house or a room in your house, soundproof it as much as you can, get him drum lessons, yeah he’s afflicted and it’s bad.” Sure enough, the paediatrician was right because now Ben is a phenomenal, phenomenal drummer. Not a super violent angry person at all, he just likes to hit things in rhythm, and hard. So it’s funny our paediatrician when Ben was like three or four was able to nail him that well.

Ryan is four years younger than me, and three years younger than Ben and Frank, and we only met him in the last five years, so his upbringing we know a little less about. He’s a multi-instrumentalist and plays probably an instrument in any string family you can come up with. He just finished recently at Hart School of Music, University of Hartford’s music conservatory; I believe it was a music technology program.I should say about Ben, for most of his life he’s been just a drummer, but one change from Bushwhack to Earthside is Ben has been much more involved in the creative process and learning about music outside of just rhythm and meter, getting more into harmony, melody, timbre and composition. It’ all hands on deck now in the compositional process now, which is awesome.

8.    Thank you for giving us that insight into each of your lives.
JVD: I think I gave you more than 30 seconds, but oh well.

9.    That’s totally fine, I think the story about Ben will be big a hit… No pun intended.
JVD: (laughs) Oh yeah, I was going to say! Right on.

10.    Thank you so much. The record drops on October 23rd, and it’s called “A Dream In Static”.
JVD: We hope you all love it, we certainly do. It’s an up-and-down journey, so we’re going to take you for a rollercoaster ride of emotions when you check it out. If you have an hour to immerse yourself, we ask that you please do. Let yourself be emotionally vulnerable to the ride we want to take you on. Thank you so much for having me on, James.

 

– James Cross

Elegies

Sheffield, UK has been the hometown to many great musicians, from Bring Me The Horizon to Artic Monkeys and it still remains a breeding ground for great bands. Elegies can be considered to be one of those up and coming Sheffield-bred talents. With a new EP that just hit the streets it's time that we at RMP Magazine interviewed Elegies to find out more about the new release and what the band has been up to lately.

 

  1. Congratulations with the release of your EP, Deadlight Disease. It's been for out some weeks now. How has the response been?

Thank you! The response has been great so far to say it’s only a 3-track but we have had the sort of response we were looking for setting us up for our future plans.

 

  1. You released the new EP on Hassle Records, a label that leaves you in good company, like Lonely The Brave and Frank Iero. How did you get involved with Hassle?

We were first contacted by Hassle after we had some exposure when we released “Throne”, the single from “Daylight Disease”, and after performing in front of a few of their representatives at a show in London the rest is history.

 

  1. Elegies recently did a tour in August, it was called the Road To Nowhere tour. You even made a tour video, how did this idea come forward to feature the glamour of touring?

We never intended on making a specific tour video for our time on the road in August. Aiky (bass) has some camera equipment so we just filmed as much as we could between the six of us and he managed to throw it all together so we could show people what we'd been up to.

 

  1. I believe I even heard the X-files theme song in the background, any fans in the band?

In all honesty I don’t think any of us is a huge fan of the show. The theme song just seems to be a perfect backdrop for Ben (guitar) who is X-tra ordinary.

 

  1. You also went to Leeds festival this summer. How was the experience?Leeds festival was great. We managed to score backstage passes which gave us the opportunity to see some of our favourite acts of the weekend side stage. There was that and getting particularly wavy with all the festival-goers. We left our van in the backstage production car park which seemed impossible to get back to at 6am the next day as security was tight. We all tried to sleep off huge hangovers while the Saturday acts and staff were preparing for the day ahead. When in Rome, right?

 

  1. You even got to watch Kendrick Lamar perform, is the band influenced by hip-hop? We managed to see Kendrick side stage and it was probably the best set we saw. Not just Kendrick but also his live band. An incredible set played by incredible musicians. We try and take a lot from hip hop down to Dayle’s (drummer) rudiments to the way we lyrically try and tell a story.

 

  1. You also released a great video for the song “Throne” from the new EP. A real storyline with a suited guy getting kidnapped by the band wearing balaclavas and all black clothing Where did the idea come from and how is it linked to the song?

 

We’re glad you like the video! The idea came from us not conforming to the 9 to 5 regime which is expected of lads like us who aren’t studying or starting a ‘professional’ career. The idea to kidnap and force someone to watch us came from thinking about the film Clockwork Orange as we wanted to try and bring someone around to our way of thinking. The video doesn’t necessarily link with the song lyrically but it has a strong specific message and the target audience should sit down and listen.

 

  1. Can we expect the balaclavas and black clothing to becomepart of your stage outfit?

I doubt we will be wearing balaclavas when you see us play live, as we don’t really plan what to wear, but I’m sure we’d be up for it if it floats your boat.

 

  1. Elegies consists of six persons and holds two vocalists. Is it hard to keep the band in line with quite a large group?

Having six members has its ups and downs. Sometimes agreeing on certain things can take a while as keeping everybody happy can prove difficult. Fortunately, we are all on the same wavelength and we all know what we want so it’s just a case of going out and getting it.

 

  1. Or what about putting six guys in a cramped van for a long time? No fights or quarrels involved?

To be honest we can’t recall any arguments during our time on the road but maybe there will be at some point? The only reason we could see an argument occurring is about who gets the best sleeping space but who cares where you sleep when you’ve drank and smoked yourself to sleep?

 

  1. For the release of the new EP you made some great mock-up posters featuring the old 'devil weed' quote. So you all like 420 in the band?

Yeah the majority of us do like a smoke. Marshall (guitar) seems to stay away as he prefers a drink but the rest of us will smoke ‘til we are bone dry and looking for more. It has a big influence on “Daylight Disease” and if you look closely at our EP you may see more than meets the eye.

 

  1. Elegies has been a band for over two years now, things are going steady and good. Any big plans in the nearby future?

We have been constantly writing and developing ourselves ready for 2016. You’ll all have to wait and see.

 

– David Marote

The Black Heart Rebellion

The Black Heart Rebellion has been turning heads for some time now; armed with a their third release “People, when you see the smoke , do not thinks it's the field they're burning”, this band from Ghent, Belgium, is continuing on their own path. Passionate about their music and aesthetics, making sure that each element that forms The Black Heart Rebellion is progression. A path that has crossed with fellow city inhabitants and like-minded souls of the Church Of Ra. RMP Magazine recently had the chance to delve a little deeper into their strong conviction and what THBR makes what it is now.

 

  1. The Black Heart Rebellion sounds self-explanatory but still: what defines ‘a black heart’ and how does it ‘rebel’?

I don't think it is that easy to define.Maybe what bounds us together is that we are very eager to create something that actually matters, although to us. We do not see this band as a ‘job’, nor as a way to spend our free time, but as something that actually has to happen for the five of us. From the moment we get on a stage or start playing the music, we realise what it's all about.

 

  1. For the new release you're working with Ghent-based record label and shop Consouling Sounds. What led you to them?

I guess we met each other at the right time in life. The people at Consouling are just like us: 100% dedicated with what they are trying to achieve. They don't manage their label and shop from a commercial point of view only, the passion for music and the search for likeminded people brought us together I think.

 

  1. Your previous release “Har Nevo” was a shift in sound compared to your earliest work “Monologue”. Has the band sailed into new territory with the latest release?

With “Har Nevo” we succesfully discovered new ways to express ourselves. The use of different instruments and the way of singing learned us we should never stop with questioning ourselves, and always try to improve what we do or why we did something. With the new record we started from those main ideas that had been formed after recording “Har Nevo”. So we went further and deeper on some of those items, to create the sound that felt right to us.

 

  1. The Black Heart Rebellion has gained close ties with the whole Church of Ra, including bands as Oathbreaker, Wiegedood, Amenra and Syndrome. You've played shows together and toured together.How did this kindred connection come forward?

The same as for example the connection with Consouling; we share a same interest in expressing ourselves through music, video art, photography. The output, as in 'the music itself', is just the result, not the main goal. It is the way of creating the music, of 100% giving yourself to the music that bounds us.

 

  1. You've toured Russia with some of fore mentioned bands, a country that doesn't receive too many Western bands. How was the experience?

Great, we met people who can actually be really grateful with what we are doing.We met some people who came from the upper north part of Russia and had to drive for two days to come the concert in Moscow!

 

  1. You had records released in Japan with the previous albums and even played Japan. How does a Belgian band end up in Japan?

Just by an amazing guy who is named Kimiyuki! He had the guts to release our music in Japan just by hearing it on the web, and putting a lot of time and money into it. After that he asked us if we would be interested in performing the music live. Some months later we were actually sitting on the plane to Japan.

 

  1. For the new album I've noticed pictures flying around where it seems you are in the process of making a video. Could you let us in on what's coming?

The song deals about a feeling of disconnection of something that has always been very evident. It has a feeling of solitude. We tried to do the same with the video. We started from some sort of scenery that should feel very familiar, but yet you start looking to it from other perspectives. Nothing is what it seems.

 

  1. Arts and its various incarnations seem to be close to the band, TBHR has even provided the musical background to a theatre production. Any plans in the future to do more collaborations with other artists?

It would be nice to write a soundtrack someday. Movies have always been a big inspiration for us during the writing process of the songs. To write music especially for a specific movie must be quit inspiring.

 

  1. The visual aspect of the band leans close to other Church Of Ra's projects, from dark to light and back seems to be a central theme. How do you see the aesthetics of the band?

I think we are a very visual band. We try to create images with the music we make, so it is evident that we put a lot of effort and detail in the actual visual output of our music, like the artwork of the LP or CD, poster design, and so on.Just like the music, an image can bring a certain overwhelming feeling. We try to find or create that feeling that goes with the music.

 

  1. Most band members hail from other long-gone bands, but are there any current projects that are gaining ground or about to emerge?

Right now we are focussing on the new record, and the coming months we will be very busy with live shows. So in the near future there won't be any side activity I suppose.

 

– David Marote

Lionheart

Hard work pays off, or at least that is what we are taught when we are growing up. This also applies to the music industry, but often gaining popularity walks hand in hand with growing in a direction you don’t want to grow. Does this mean that you’ve got to sell out if you want to see the world and grow as a band? No, it does not! Lionheart is a band originated from northern California and they are determined to keep doing things their own way.

  1. I just saw your show here on Ieperfest, really great show. What did you think of it yourself?

Thank you. Yeah it was a great set, really awesome. We had to play really early in the day, so we were all kind of, I don’t want to say nervous, but maybe apprehensive on how the set was going to go. I think we probably had one of the best sets yet today on the main stage, so I feel really good about that. I’m very appreciative to everybody that came out to see us play, that’s really cool and we had a lot of fun.

  1. You mentioned on the stage it is the second time that Lionheart is playing Ieperfest, tell us about that experience?

Yeah, it was in 2008. I think we opened the main stage that year if I remember correctly. Or maybe second or something, but it was okay. Not as good as today, because it was the first time we came here and nobody really cared. Not a lot of people showed up, compared to this time it was nothing.

  1. What do you think of a festival such as Ieperfest?

I think it is a great festival. But I’m not vegan, so I wish it wasn’t all vegan [laughs]. I just wish I could get a fucking hamburger, but it is cool. I think veganism is cool if you are into that, but I just think it would be awesome if they had some options for people that didn’t necessarily feel the same way. Other than that, Ieper has a great fest and I hope we will play it again. Maybe you could sneak me in a hamburger [laughs].

  1. Well maybe you should try one of the hamburgers on the fest. I’m not vegan myself, but I would trade any typical festival burger for one of those caterings right here. They are real nice you know.

Actually the waffle sandwich place is very good. I got some Indian waffle sandwich, very very good.

  1. Haven’t had them, but I’ll check them out later. We were talking about festivals. If you had to choose about a festival show or a venue show, what would you choose?

That is a hard question. Obviously festival shows are great because we play for exponentially more people, you sell a lot more merch, and you reach more people and stuff like that. Of course festival shows are great, what band wouldn’t want to play Ieperfest? Every American band that I know from home that never went to Europe, talks about on how much they would like to play Ieperfest.

  1. Really?

Yeah of course, a lot of people know about it in America. It is very big there, so of course you would want to play there. But on the other hand, club shows are also very cool because then you know everybody is here to see you play. You can really look people in the eye and meet some of them afterwards. Just hang out and stuff like that. You can play what you want to play. So I honestly think that it is unfair to compare them because they are totally separate entities. Fests are amazing for what they are and club shows are amazing for what they are. When we are on tour you can combine them. Play club shows all week and in the weekend some fests, so that makes for a very cool mix.

  1. I believe it is fair to say that Lionheart is a hard-working band. You guys tour a lot and stuff like that, but is it also fair to say Lionheart is a DIY band?

Yeah I mean the last record came out on Fast Break Records in the States, which is a really small label. They are just some friends of mine which I known for years, one of them is Tony. He is a really nice guy so I offered to help him and he put it out. This is really just a part-time band, everybody does it for fun. It is not a career, it is not a job, it is nothing like that. We write exactly what we want to write and I sing exactly what I want to sing. We are not trying to be anything we are not, no bullshit. We do it just for fun and so yeah, we put it out on a small label because fuck it. It ended up going really well and that is why we are here.

  1. So do you think Fast Break was the best choice because of the freedom you get as an artist?

Yeah, we just recorded the album, send it in and they’ve put it out. It was just like that. So yeah absolutely. I wouldn’t do it any other way. Just like I said it is not a job, we don’t have any aspirations or anything. We do it for fun. If I can’t play what I want to play then fuck it. I’m not doing that.

  1. Do you think that Lionheart could become something that you would want to life from?

No. Honestly, we did it like that in the past. It was our job and we toured like nine months out of the year. But I think when you do it like that and you do it as a main source of income, there is no way that you create. It alters the way that you operate. You don’t write a riff because you like the riff, you will write the riff to pay your rent or to pay your cell phone bill. This changes the riff because you are less likely to take risks and to write things you want to write, because you’ve got something to lose. Right now we don’t have anything to lose. When we put out ‘Welcome To The West Coast’ we didn’t had anything to lose. We did whatever we wanted to do with that album. I don’t care if zero people are about the album, or a million people are about the album. It doesn’t change my day to day life. But when you are a band and that is how you pay the rent, you will end up writing the same album over and over. That’s because you are too scared to do something else. For me, I’m doing it for fun. Honestly, it is more enjoyable. It is the love of my life and I love playing music. When I can do it freely and do it for fun, the money is not important.

  1. It is cool that you can keep it that way. Let’s talk about the album ‘Welcome To The West Coast’. There was a song that popped out lyric-wise. I’m talking about the song ‘Hail Mary’. Are you a religious guy?

Not really [laughs]. It is funny because when you see all the YouTube comments on that song, everybody is like: “Ow fuck religion”, bla bla bla. All this corny shit is really childish. But no, I’m not like a religious guy. Maybe I believe in god, maybe I don’t. I haven’t figured it out yet. But that is not what the song is about. It has nothing to do with that, I just think the imagery is cool. If you really pay attention to the lyrics [sighs]. If Tupac can write a song called “Hail Mary”, I can also write a song called “Hail Mary”. It doesn’t mean that I’m religions. Do I believe in God? Maybe I do believe in God but not necessarily in religion. I believe that there is something out there or maybe I just want it to be, but I just don’t believe in religion.

  1. Another song I found peculiar was “Rest In Power”. What is it about?

When I was a teenager, one of my best friends died in a car accident. The song is about him, his name is Francis and was 18 years old when it happened.

  1. I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t know why but by reading the title “Rest In Power”, I’ve gotten the idea it was a patriotic song, about soldiers who fought and now are resting in power.

Oh no, not at all. My brother in law was a soldier though. I’ve had a lot of family who served the army, but this song is just a homage about my friend who passed away.

  1. Back to the band, you guys are labelled as a hardcore band. I get the feeling that there are more influences than just hardcore in Lionheart’s music. Is this something that comes naturally or is it like a choice that you make?

I think it is both, because I think it is a choice not to limit ourselves. Whenever you are inside of a genre, the only way to stay inside that genre is to follow rules. To be a hardcore band, album after album, you will have to sell your soul and you will have to play by numbers. You’ll have to play exactly this, exactly that way, exactly all the time. It is the same with punk music, same thing for metal, same thing for indie. To be part of a genre, you follow the genre’s rules. I don’t care about the genre at all. I got into music because music in general saved my life. I had a hard time as a kid, but music in general got me true. I loved punk, I loved rap, ska, rock, and it really didn’t make a difference to me. I really enjoy playing hardcore, but if I find a riff that I like or a way of singing that I like, I’m going to do it. If someone doesn’t like what I do, they can just fuck off, I don’t care. Hardcore to me isn’t following that exact set of rules. Hardcore is just being you. The most hardcore person I know in the world is my mom and she doesn’t give a fuck about hardcore music. She is more hardcore than anybody in this building.

  1. Why do you feel like that? What is hardcore to you that makes your mom hardcore?

Why do I feel like that? Because she worked three jobs and raised two kids by herself. She never tried anything to be that she wasn’t. She taught me about hard work, about not giving up, about being loyal, about loving your family, about protecting your family and about being you at all times. I’ve heard a million bands sing about these same things, I heard them in the lyrics but I’ve seen them in my mom. You know, hardcore is not even music to me, it is a thing that is bigger than that and it should be bigger than that. It is not a breakdown or some hard riffs. I think it kind of sucks that in any genre or subculture, they eventually make their own boundaries and their own rules and with that inclusion comes an exclusion of other people. I think that defeats the initial purpose of that subculture. It is a bummer, honestly. Yeah, that’s hardcore. My mom is way harder than me, for 100%. I could never do the shit that my mom did. I could get a million tattoos all over my body and sing a million fucked up lyrics, but I’ll never be as hard as my mom.

 

  1. Wow, that’s one hell of a statement. I do believe that some people lose track on what hardcore is. This is real.

That is real dude, straight up.

  1. Anyway, if we look at Lionheart as a band for a second. Is there something you would really like to accomplish with the band, any goals or such?

Honestly, it is hard to say because I feel like I’ve already accomplished so much more than I thought I would. Just to meet someone that has my lyrics tattooed on them is incredible. My favourite thing in the entire world, the best thing that ever happened to me, is that when somebody talks to me after a show and they share a story with me of a hardship that they overcame, just because they listened to Lionheart. That is the coolest thing in the world to me. When I started this band I only wanted that to happen one time. Because when I was a kid Blood For Blood saved my life. When I was at my lowest point, the Blood For Blood lyrics got me through that. When I started a band, I was like: “Man, I just want to have that impact on one person, I just want one person to relate to my pain and to feel better about their pain”. Once I got that, I felt pretty good. So, I don’t know. Of course there is stuff that you want to do, play bigger fests and bigger shows and all that. But that is not really a goal, it is a wish. I didn’t ever really thought about that, so it is interesting you ask me that, but I think I’ve actually hit my goals to be honest.

  1. That is cool. It is very noble of you to think like that.

It is very cool man. It is very humbling to meet someone and that has these things to say to you. After you have somebody cry to you and tell you how much a song means, a festival doesn’t mean anything. I think that I’ve already done what I wanted to do. I’m very grateful. There is more to life than playing music, there is more to life than playing shows or selling merch. It doesn’t matter, because after this everybody goes home and they pay their bills, they go to work, they get in fights with people or have arguments with their girlfriend. This is just such a small part of life, there is more to it. So when you meet somebody and you affect them outside of this life… What more do you want? Anybody can climb on stage and play a big show, play for a bunch of people and not give a fuck. But to affect someone outside of here and to affect a change in a person’s life, I think that is insane. It is mind-blowing. Most people go their entire lives without ever doing that, so that is incredible. It is a very humbling feeling. After that I don’t know what you could possibly want more.

  1. I can imagine. We’ve come to the end of this interview, so do you have any exciting things happening in the future of Lionheart?

Yeah, very exciting. We are going to put out a full-length album, the first full-length in four years. We are going to put it out in January and we should be back here in February, touring. So I’m very excited about that. It will be very cool.

– Rob Watson