Interview #4: Dom Romeo

I traveled recently to A389 HQ and spoke with Dom about a wide range of things: Pulling Teeth, Day of Mourning, his label, the upcoming anniversary show, Bavarian police cavity search adventures, disposable underwear mishaps, Night Tigers (the Slumlords German metal high concept band that never was)... The usual. I wanted to interview him not only because he's been in a wide range of bands that have resulted in an even wider range of experiences, but also because he knows how to tell a funny story like few others do. I was not disappointed on either front. Enjoy.

Interview #3: Stickman, Volume II

From nearly the beginning of my involvement with hardcore, I can always remember hearing wild stories about Stickman. They usually involved some insane fight story that no one would believe if it was told about anyone else, but with him, it seemed as though it might be plausible. After the first Stickman interview was published, a surprising number of people requested that I do a follow-up interview with him. "Did you ever ask him about Coal Chamber?" "What's the deal with him hating Pantera?" "I heard he disarmed a man with an Uzi..." There was a list of stories that I'd been secretly wanting to hear about in detail anyway: some that he'd told me about already, but most that I'd never gotten around to asking since we became friends. All of the requests that I was getting for a follow-up interview gave me the perfect excuse to do just that. The result is a solid mix of stories that I've been waiting years to hear. A genuine thank you is again due, of course, to Stickman for spending his time talking with me about the stories that follow. Enjoy.

Interview #2: Rev. Paul Bearer

I met Paul last year at a very small (and awesome) Joe Coffee show in Wheeling, WV. I could easily go on for pages about how excited I was a few months ago when he graciously offered to do this. To say that Sheer Terror is my favorite band is possibly the understatement of the century. Burning Time is named after a Sheer Terror song, as are most other things in my life that I have to name. But this isn't an essay about what a nerd I am, it's an interview with Paul Bearer, and it's hard for me to act unexcited introducing it. When Sheer Terror was announced for this year's This Is Hardcore Fest, it seemed fitting to conduct the interview right after the weekend's festivities had concluded. Paul and I sat down after TIH 2010 came to a close and discussed lots of different things. Paul certainly had nothing to hide. [Editor's Note: In this instance, the phrase is meant literally, as he was in only his underwear for the interview. Such an eccentric visionary he is.] Enjoy.

Interview #1: Stickman

I spoke with Stickman of Fury of Five/Boxcutter/being hard fame recently about his experiences in hardcore. He was a natural choice for me to interview, since I've been made fun of by friends for years for quoting Fury of Five lyrics most of my waking hours, forcing others to listen to Boxcutter nonstop on road trips, etc. He was kind enough to freely and candidly answer all of my questions and let me use his interview as the first one on the blog. Enjoy.

Introduction

I started this because hardcore is very important to me. I want to do all I can to get a thorough picture of hardcore itself, as it was and is--a sort of oral history that stretches from its beginnings up to today. However, being in my early 20s, my range of experience is limited (both by age and geography, among other things). These interviews seek to open windows for others who are also passionate (or just curious) about this phenomenon of ours by providing a view of hardcore as it's been experienced in the lives of my participants. I'm very fortunate thus far in that a lot of intriguing people with all sorts of compelling (and oftentimes wild) accounts of their time in hardcore have volunteered to do this for me. It's only fair that I share some of them.

I will try my best to offer interviews with a variety of people who have had interesting and unique experiences and "careers" in hardcore throughout the years, whether playing the role of band member, promoter, longtime fan, photographer, or any combination of roles in the community.

What makes my interviews different? I feel that e-mail interviews and similar formats tend to elicit canned responses and limit the scope of what is shared. My aim here is to get a holistic view of hardcore, so I'm opting to audio record all of my interviews. From there, they're transcribed word-for-word (all the "uh"s and "you know"s and everything). For the research papers I'm doing, they are quoted and used in full. For the purposes of this blog, they'll be cleaned up here and there, but only when necessary, and never in a way that would disrupt the original meaning.

It is my policy to keep the content of the interviews, as well as the identity of the interviewees, private until (and only if) the interview is published on this blog. Some of the participants prefer to remain anonymous and won't be on here; some I want to save specifically for my papers; others have consented afterwards to allow me to make the interviews public on this blog.

Enjoy.