Looking It In The Mouth - The Gifthorse

This is the first published version of this article (essentially unedited - good or bad, I don't know). Look for it all nicely laid out and pretty in the next issue of Death Before Dishonour magazine! Wherever you are, make sure you check these guys out when you have the chance. They are definitely one of Australia's best bands!

Scottish expatriate and local tattooist Stevie Scott, guitarist and one fifth of The Gifthorse, Brisbane’s new saviours of melodic punk-rock is adamant about how his band is represented. A strong worded and strong willed individual, I first met with Stevie (on his fifth cup of coffee) for this article towards the beginning of this year. Due to various delays on this piece, we caught up again more recently so he could add to our already in depth conversation some specifics about their debut album, which is out now on Poison City records.

Moving to Australia in 2005 and taking up residence at Brisbane’s Wild At Heart Tattoo, Stevie proclaims a lifelong love of the genre that The Gifthorse happily fall into. “The first gig I ever went to was a Leatherface show, and I was 12 or something – my dad took me to see them. All my life I’ve been a huge fan of Leatherface and Frankie’s work.” Working with Wade Larkin (drummer), it wasn’t long before the two bonded musically. “Wade was the first guy I ever met in Brisbane, three days after I got here.” Stevie recounts. “I guess a year after being here I met Shane [Collins, vocals], ‘coz he came into the shop. He and Crispy [Chris Anning, guitar] were putting a band together, and we decided we were all into the same kinds of music, and we thought ‘Why not try it? Just have a go and see what comes of it.’ We didn’t expect anything from it, we just thought we’d do it for a laugh.” When bassist, Adam Brady joined the fold, the unit was complete. Stevie looks back on the band’s relatively short existence; “The type of music we’re playing isn’t revolutionary, it isn’t new ground at all. As things have progressed… it’s just gotten easier and better and we’ve become closer. I guess because it’s not popular, what we’re doing, we kind of have to stick together in a certain way.”


Despite not being ‘popular’ in the wider sense of the word, there has been a lot of underground murmurings and anticipation of The Gifthorse’s debut, not least by the band themselves. “We had a lot of fun recording this album,” says Stevie of the long, and at times arduous process of putting together their debut. “Jimmy [Balderstone (A Secret Death)], who tracked the album really encouraged us to try everything we could to get the best out of the songs, which was great. We used lots of instruments we hadn’t in the past, like slide guitar, violin, and glockenspiel.” Stevie explains how the band had a very solid idea of what they wanted the overall product to sound like. “Our friend Sam Johnson (Coué Method, Lead Sketch Union) mixed it for us. I flew down to Melbourne and started mixing with him at 11am and at 5:30am the next day it was finished! Without breaks! Sam’s a fucking machine! Seriously, he went above and beyond for us and we love what he’s done!” By the time this article goes to print (provided there aren’t any more hurdles for the album) you will be able to hear just what Stevie means. Always brutally honest, he acknowledges one of the questions musicians often ask of themselves with new releases; “I guess we could always do better. I think the minute you believe you’re ‘the shit’, you’re fucked.” It’s this type of positive spin on their experiences that continues to define The Gifthorse.


Of course, the other major defining aspect of the band is their live show, which has proven to be consistently fun and energetic, from the small local shows to big international support slots. “We have a good connection with people live because I think people can relate to five big drunk dudes spilling their guts! People trust our imperfections!” He says this with good humour. “It’s impossible to capture that kind of energy on record. In the past we have kept it simple and did exactly what we do live - mistakes and all! We realised this time we had to add more to make up for that lack of energy.” Stevie gives a little insight to what exactly people can expect on the new album, and how he feels the band has progressed from their early demos. “We have explored the types of chords we use more; one of the things that makes The Gifthorse sound a little different from other punk bands is our use of drone notes. Chris and I tend to hold on to a note and move the chords around it. As the guitars are never totally in tune, the note we are both holding pulses and becomes almost hypnotic allowing the listener to hear melody that isn’t really there! Haha, the secret’s out! That sounds a lot more pretentious than it actually is. Just as Stevie and Chris have mastered their own sound in the world of their chosen genre, so has The Gifthorse provided strong, honest and heartfelt lyrics – almost a prerequisite for this style of punk rock. Stevie offers to shed some light on what their vocalist, the infamous (or infamously good looking) Shane Collins has explored with his words on the album. “This is by no means a definitive answer but I feel he tends to point out what is wrong with the world by singing about his own shortcomings. He leaves them open enough so people can apply their own situation to the lyrics. I get the sense – from his lyrics – that life is hard but we can all do better.”

With this release, the band will finally be hitting the road on a formal tour, having up until now focused mainly on their hometown and Melbourne, flying between the two and fostering a camaraderie with many of the bands down there. “We are really excited about this tour because we are going out with our friends from Melbourne, Daysworth Fighting, who also have a new album coming out” Stevie explains. “Melbourne has been really good to us. The people there have shown us so much kindness. It feels like our second home! We were lucky enough to do a small east-coast tour with A Death in the Family, which was the drunkest – I think – any of us have ever been!” he laughs. “We kind of had to keep reminding ourselves it was really happening. They are one of our favourite bands and it was a real honour they even asked us to join them. We would come of stage feeling pretty good about how we had just played and then those guys would get up and blow our fucking minds! We would look at each other stunned and just mouth ‘fuck’. They are that good!”


Having played in bands for quite a few years now, in a very different cultural environment to what we have in Australia, Stevie offers an interesting perspective on what this country’s punk scene has to offer. “I guess being in Australia... there’s just not enough places to play, or that are not viable to go to. When I played in bands in Europe, we travelled. Say you went for a week, you’d go to 7 different countries.” This, however, isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and in fact is what gives our scene its unique strength. “In the UK, it’s taken more for granted” he says of the scene he grew up in. “Kids here, it seems like they want it more. There’s a real hunger for it here, because it doesn’t happen all the time. So there’s just a feeling of sheer excitement when something does happen, and it’s a joyous occasion. It just seems like more of a big deal when there’s a good show on. In the UK it happens every night, in every town, with big bands as well, so you don’t get the real want and hunger for it, that you do here.” This is especially true for Brisbane’s small scene, which, while enjoying some growth recently, often has revolved around recognisable groups of individuals who attend shows or play in bands. Stevie recognises this aspect as neither a positive nor a negative, rather, just another element of our own musical community. “Even in the eighties, in America, you’d have these scenes like Washington, Florida, LA – wherever - you’d have these scenes where there was nothing there, they couldn’t do anything else. No one else would put [their bands] on, they wouldn’t get big shows; they’d have to make something for themselves, which is where these DIY ethics come into it.” There is sense of worldly experience in his voice. “If you’re not given these things, you have to make it yourself and what you put into it is what you get out of it.”

This statement seems to represent well The Gifthorse’s work ethic – with the band working from a wealth of experience. Rather than let this experience jade their eyes or gestate into resentment towards a more youthful scene, the band, as Stevie explains, are ready to open themselves up to more possibilities or opportunities that they may have passed on in their formative years. “We didn’t set out to achieve anything, but at the same time, we want to achieve everything. If something comes our way then we won’t turn it down, we’ll just do it for the experience. There have been a lot of things we’ve done that a lot of people have questioned and a lot of people have made fun of us about, which is fair enough, I can understand that. I would have said the same things five years ago when I was an angry punk kid.” He speaks about the band with a level of confidence that speaks to the resolve the band has to be true to itself. “I think we’ve made a conscious effort to take ourselves out of our comfort zone, like playing with big bands. Most of the time we’ll look back on those shows and go ‘Why the hell did we do that?’ We don’t really gain anything from those shows, we’ve never made money from this band, we’ve never gained any extra fans or anything – it’s not like we’re that band. If anything we’ve had more bad experiences from these shows than anything else.” He explains all of this with no sense of bitterness towards what he is describing. “What we’re doing,” he continues, “isn’t popular, or it isn’t fashionable. When people start offering us these big shows or opportunities we’re going to take them to see what it’s like. We don’t really believe it can go huge or anything, but we just like to see where we can take it and the kind of situations we can put ourselves in.”


To give these allusions to experience some specificity, it’s important to note that the members of The Gifthorse have been involved in a multitude of bands that have been very significant to the Australian underground. These include Just Say Go!, Crimson Hellkite, From These Wounds, Asleep At The Scene, Razorhurst to name a few. “We know the past mistakes we’ve made with our bands” says Stevie. “I can only really speak for myself, but in Santo Caserio [Scotland], we’d turn down things and we would really be obnoxious about things and if it wasn’t suited to our politics, we wouldn’t do it. It got me nowhere. I was always playing to the same people. It was the same message every night to the same people who had already heard it a thousand times from a thousand other bands. This time I think we’re conscious of that, and we’re more open minded to try these things out. We’d never change anything about ourselves or anything about the type of music we play – we’ve still got that. That’s the best thing we could have taken from the DIY punk scene.”

With the contemporary preoccupation with aesthetic in hardcore and punk, Stevie’s comment regarding fashionableness, and conformity in its various disguises, is a significant one, especially at the grass roots level. “We’re very aware of the state of a lot of the hardcore bands here. There’s a lot of metal masquerading as hardcore. It’s like faux hardcore, that really irritates me – there seems to be a lot of that here. It’s something that I held dear for a lot of years, growing up, and to see it bastardised like that really upsets me. I guess we kind of do what we do as a response to that, by cutting the bullshit and just being regular dudes that play melodic rock music.” As a band that bases a lot of importance on honesty, and in correlation to this point of view, I asked Stevie if The Gifthorse held a conscious message. “I think our biggest message is that we don’t have a façade and there’s no bullshit with us. We don’t really want to have to try and fool anyone – we don’t want to buy into a type of fashion for kids to think we’re cool, or anything like that. I think the message is just that, really. There’s no bullshit.” Despite having the assumption that, at least immediately, the majority of kids would turn there noses up at bands holding the values that The Gifthorse does, there is a rising popularity in this style of punk rock (defined in part by bands like Leatherface and the No Idea label). Stevie weighs in on this too; “I think kids just need something to sing along to. Everything before this last couple of years has been really emphasising the screaming and the discordant music, which isn’t a bad thing. I don’t have a problem with that, I used to play in a band like that. I think kids just need something to sing along to and make them feel good about themselves sometimes.”


Throughout our conversation, Stevie has stressed the fact that the band carried no expectations in their conception, and still don’t, as well as their collective consciousness on the cultural and aesthetic obstacles their music faces. It is probably this consciousness that has made all that The Gifthorse has achieved that much sweeter, and what is communicated to those that have become their fans; the fact that, no, this isn’t what’s cool, but it is exactly what they want to do. Stevie tells me about their first show. “It was the first time I’d ever been able to have that outlet of doing something I really, really love. I’d never played in a band like this before. That goes for all of us, it was the first time we got to do that kind of band and do it live and have our friends there.” The Gifthorse manage to bring back a sense of community to the local punk scene, something that hasn’t been as present in the past couple of years. This is a testament to the power of honest music and a band refusing to operate on a different social tier to the people who come to watch them. Stevie leaves us with this simple, but often overlooked notion. “I think my favourite thing about The Gifthorse is probably how we’re kind of a unit. Like, no one would fuck with us, because there’s something else there. It’s not just a band, it’s a group of friends. I see it as not just being the five of us as well. There are so many other people that are involved in that, people who were there from the start.”

New Maps - Mere Theory (2007)

This interview is quite old now, but when Catalan Atlas was released, it was one of my favourite albums for 2007. Likewise, Mere Theory, in my opinion, have always been at the top of the ladder when it comes to melodic emo-rock in Australia. Please visit their myspace: www.myspace.com/meretheory (this is where the photos came from too).



Sometimes things just don't work out like you thought they would. If everything fell into place in this world, Mere Theory would, by now, surely be one of the iconic bands of Australian independent music. Three years ago they released their second EP, Disengage, for the now defunct but perpetually revered Building Records. Since then, in the band's dormancy, time has seen many followers bloom, and many fail - however, not all of them are, plainly and simply, the genuine article. I got in touch with guitarist, Nigel Black soon after their new album, Catalan Atlas was released last year. Since then they have shot a music video and embarked on an extensive tour with Horsell Common and Trial Kennedy.

It's been 3 years since your last release, and you've been laying low for most of that time. Was the process of getting a new vocalist and dealing with that aspect of the band the main reason for the gap?

We wanted to take our time consolidating the lineup. There were a number of talented vocalists that we tried out, including our first singer! Between recordings we continued to play shows at home and across the country, and we used the slab of that time to write and record Catalan Atlas. The decision to take Chris into the MT line-up was a unanimous one, and he has lifted the band in terms of mateship, and of course playing and writing music. That said we’re a band that never stops songwriting or playing shows. We are currently writing for the second album.

At what point did Chris Mellow join Mere Theory?

Chris joined MT in January 2006. It was an interesting time for the band. Chris was the only singer I personally asked to have a shot. Years ago he approached the band to be our singer, but it wasn’t the right time, but he became a friend and he was also a die hard fan that would do anything to lead MT on stage. At the private acoustic audition I did with him he knew more of our songs than I did! We recorded the final three vocalists both on 4 track and video, and there was no comparison, he was our man.

How do his lyrical and vocal techniques and themes compare to what you were used to with your previous vocalist?

It is refreshing to have Chris's input, and he has a unique voice. As songwriter I may put the skeleton of a song structure and melody line down, then pass it over to him, I wait to hear it come back, and most often its surpasses my vision of how good it could sound. He gives me chills at times. Our talents and personalities mix well, I really enjoy creating for him and with him; he drives me to be the best I can for him and the band in regards to song-writing.
Chris and I will sit for many hours debating the meaning of words and concepts. It’s always different and always interesting, sometimes it takes months, and others times 2 hours. Chris may request a feeling or a sound and I will go at it to try and capture that mood or theme though guitar and other times I will have a melody for vocals in mind and he will try to capture that for me - in the end we meet in the same spot. Once agreed its the right part, we move on, then re-write again and again until its refined enough for demoing or recording.


Why did you decide to release Catalan Atlas on Boomtown Records? What were your other options for this release?

We were approached by a number of labels but we had built a friendship with the Boomtown guys through our relationship with Behind Crimson Eyes. Over a year or so it grew and developed into real interest, the guys backed what we were doing and we decided to release the album with them.

In your own words, how does Catalan Atlas compare to your two previous EPs? What do you want listeners, new and old, to get out of this album?

Catalan is a much more refined collection of songs, and the recording process was more advanced in terms of the studio we used (Sing Sing in Melbourne), the instruments we had access to, and our personnel. The band was at a new level of playing and writing, and we had a unity in the band that we had longed for, making for a strong performance on all fronts. I guess we were confident and we had our sights set and locked.
It was also the most enduring project I have ever worked on. There was a lot of blood and sweat. Our plan was to go in and record the album in eight days flat, like The Pixies. We ended up tracking over 10 or 12 days. After that I hopped in for the mix which usually involved a 12-16 hour day, with a couple of all nighters for good measure. I hope people enjoy the album. We had fun making Catalan Atlas and I think it shows in the listening. We feel happy it’s getting great reviews across the country.

You also handle the visual side of the band – why do you choose to handle your artwork internally?

I feel the music and the artwork go hand in hand. It’s a natural relationship to me. I am a graphic designer and a songwriter and I see direct parallels on many levels; structure, story, texture and so on. Music and design are my greatest passions and for me there could be no other way to do it. We have always been a DIY band and so of course it carries through to our artwork.

What was the idea or concept behind the Catalan Atlas art?

The artwork and name of the album were inspired by the Catalan Atlas of 1375; a marvel of medieval mapmaking. The atlas reflected the state of geographical knowledge of the time. I drew a parallel between this concept and the building of an album recording, compiling everything we know or feel we need to express at that time; so it is a captured time piece.

You seem to be equally influenced by both hardcore or post-hardcore music as well as emo and melodic rock. Why do you think your own music comes out closer to the latter, in terms of genre?

It always seems hard for people to describe our style. We maintain that we are a rock band and we have a range of influences, including the genres you mentioned, but we go well beyond those genres in our search for inspiration. I’m a big movie score buff, and Chris loves hip hop, so our influences vary greatly. I think what is most important to ask is what do you hear? How does the music make you feel? What does it make you think? For us, just to have people enjoy our music is the greatest gift of all.

You guys are pretty much at the forefront for Australian bands in terms of your chosen style of music. What other Australian bands are you currently getting excited about?

Always love the Gyroscope lads' music, and the Blueline Medic guys put out a great new album this year. Responder and My Disco are great Australian bands, and we got to play with A Death In The Family the other week. We’re looking forward to playing shows with Repeat Offender soon.


In your years as a band, no doubt you've seen a lot of other bands come and go, and various shifts in the Australian scene. What do you think have been some of the most important (positive and negative) changes for Australian punk/emo/hardcore etc?

As long as people keep making music and art and strive for a new sound or creation the scene will thrive. Our scene is a descendant of another scene and that was of another and it will continue like that. We’ll have a problem if we ever get stuck and stop the creative evolution. I think there are many great things about the interet, and also many bad things in terms of creativity. Some things are sped up and many things are stunted. I often think, would something like jazz be able to develop in the modern climate? I’m not so sure, nothing could stay underground for more than an hour now, which I think is sad, but I like to hope there will be a new jazz, a new punk, you know? Something that transcends classification. One thing is for certain though, with so much music in our modern world people are hungry for new sounds and that’s really exciting!

Many thanks,
Nigel.

Death Is More Perfect Than Life - Modern Life Is War

Isolation may be the greatest adversity to creativity. By the same token, it can also be the greatest stimulus for those who recognise it, and obsess about how to overcome it. Enter Modern Life Is War, from Marshalltown, Iowa. Derived from their isolation (not solely their geographical isolation), the notions of obsession, frustration and a quest for the true meaning of ‘counter-culture’ have been the calling cards of this band over their few short years together, and now they have folded. Vocalist Jeffrey Eaton posted a blog on the band’s myspace calling for the final interviews he will ever do for Modern Life Is War, and with the gift of hindsight, provided an insightful, at times bleak, at times incredibly optimistic discussion of the band and its outlook on the creative cultures that shaped it and its individual members.

On the 19th of February, 2008, Modern Life Is War officially announced their break-up. To the dismay of many lost souls who had found a home within their desperate and intellectual music and words, the band stated that they would be doing their final U.S. tour over the months of March and April, playing their final show in their hometown on April 26. For many – at least for those of us here on the other side of the world - first word of MLIW came in the form of their Deathwish Inc. release, and second full length Witness, and the bursting emotion of the song D.E.A.D.R.A.M.O.N.E.S., pushed as the flagship for that album. Thankfully, with this came promotion for their earlier work, the My Love, My Way album, and also their self-titled 7”, all of which provides as much to punk music as the other. Their final album, Midnight In America was released late 2007 on Equal Vision Records, once home to many hardcore bands pushing for something more, but more recently focusing on what some might call the ‘safer’ world of emo-rock, especially after they hit oil with Coheed & Cambria. Despite that, EVR provided a home for MLIW and sent them out on the road with more support than ever before, and the new album showed no compromise on the part of the band, for any reason.

Midnight In America sums up the MLIW legacy in an appropriately abrasive and haphazard style, yet with a sense of class and humility that has engendered them as the genuine and outspoken representatives for a generation of young people searching for meaning and purpose in Western society. “To me, we hit our stride as a band with MIA” says Jeffrey, “I was happy with the way my vocals sounded for the first time. We had more fully incorporated influences of rock, punk, blues and folk. My lyrics for MIA are far wider in scope. We had a recording that sounded good for the first time.” The symbolic significance of this band often overshadows the plain fact that they are just that – a band – and Jeffrey is not shy about venting his frustration over how difficult it has been to successfully and clearly communicate the band’s message in the past. “Witness was an important record for us... no doubt. It was a pivotal time - do or die. The band was in shambles - everyone was miserable, no one got along. I did all my lyrics last minute. With all the bullshit it seemed there was barely any chance we could make a decent record, but we were so obsessed with making it that we just didn't let each other quit. We pulled it out by the skin of our teeth. MIA was more about having our heads on straight and making a really good record and having a good time doing it.”

Witness, indeed, was a very important record, as it was what truly broke MLIW into a greater audience, and it was the album that gave us the song D.E.A.D.R.A.M.O.N.E.S. Leading up to the album’s initial release, Deathwish Inc. used that song in particular, almost as a flagship for the band, and it became the catchcry for the herd of new MLIW fans worldwide. Jeffrey rejects the idea of this song being anymore important than any other, despite how iconic it has been made externally. “Nah” he says simply when asked if he did view this song to be as epic as it has been lauded. “I had the concept and title already in my head, and the guys played this song that sounded almost like a pop punk song and I knew it would be perfect for it.” He continues, thoughtfully; “To me, it was kind of a ridiculous song. I wrote all the lyrics in five minutes, final version. The other music they were writing for Witness was infuriating me because I thought it was too dramatic and too slow and strange. I thought it was really good and interesting music, but I was like ‘Hey fuckers, my voice sounds like shit and I cannot ‘scream’ like a metal dude and I can't ‘sing’ like an arena rock dude and you guys are writing these four to six minute melodic ballads and I can't do shit to this!’ They were all really stubborn about it. When they wrote the music that became D.E.A.D.R.A.M.O.N.E.S. I was like ‘Well at least I know how to do vocals to this one.’ So I threw the shit together and sang it the next day and didn't really pay it any mind because at that point I didn't think the record would ever actually be finished, recorded or released. I don't think of it as a song that defines what our band is about. But I do think we are the sum of all of our music. We were about trying to be the best band we can be – not writing hit singles.”



Jeffrey attributes part of this experience to the different dynamics in the band that came in the form of new guitarist and bassist, Sjarm 13 (formerly of Razor Crusade) and Tim Churchman, respectively. “They both brought something different to the record than Matt or Chris would have” details Jeffrey; “I finally had someone in Tim who could contribute to the vocals on a record, and I think he did a fucking killer job of it… I think his performance on bass and vocals on MIA is fucking killer… The way Sjarm worked with John was really good but very, very different than the way that Matt and John would have worked together. Sjarm is less technical but has a good ear and instincts - he is a rocker.” Jeffrey stresses, however, that these two new recruits affected Modern Life Is War more than ever just through their presence rather than their performances alone. “Around the time we were writing and recording MIA and those first couple of tours - things just seemed so much brighter than they had ever been before. Sjarm is just a really fun and positive guy to be around. He really lightened up the atmosphere within the band just by being himself and making us laugh and being such a character. Tim came in as a wild card. He has a lot of piss and vinegar in him. He is a great guy and brought some controversy and excitement and real aggressive power to Modern Life Is War.

Not only did MLIW’s sound progress on Midnight In America, but also their visual representation by way of the album’s artwork. Gone are the gritty and earthy colours and photographic motifs of their previous albums, replaced by a very basic and bold black and silver colour theme. “The cover is the Cornskull. A local artist named Darius came up with that and I like it a lot. To me it just represents Iowa and rebellion and the inevitability of death.” The inside spread exhibits a crowded scene of deer-headed men with art-nouveau floral ornamentation in an almost Victorian style – bringing the darkness of the music into a more tangible dimension, however, as Jeffrey explains, the band themselves had no part in directing this outcome. “The collage on the inside is pretty much just [Darius] digging the album and trying to represent it visually in some way. It's definitely an abstract representation. I wanted it to look very different visually than our old ones and it definitely does.” A reflection, perhaps, of the resolve the band had in making this particular record, and at the very least, just another aspect that sets MLIW apart in a genre that too often finds itself limited, and justifies it by way of ‘tradition’.

Jeffrey shows no doubt in his resolve that MIA is his band’s most triumphant moment – and he should know. “I was happy with the way my vocals sounded for the first time. We had more fully incorporated influences of rock, punk, blues, folk. My lyrics for MIA are far wider in scope. We had a recording that sounded good for the first time… It satisfied me in a way that none of our previous records had, and I think it's our best. It's the end of our journey. In my mind - we arrived.”

Behind the scenes on this crowning achievement was one of post-hardcore’s great personalities, producer J. Robbins. Not only has J. Robbins produced albums from some of punk rock’s modern heroes, including (but not limited to) Against Me!, Murder By Death and None More Black, as well as notable artists encompassing a wide variety of genres, but he has been involved in the music scene (see; Government Issue, Jawbox, Burning Airlines, etc), and consequentially the business for many years. There’s no doubt has experienced first hand many of the issues younger bands maybe facing when they come to him. It makes sense that MLIW found his studio an inviting and nourishing choice of environment for their swan song. Jeffrey elaborates; “J. is great. We went to him because he has helped make a bunch of killer records and there doesn't seem to be an expected "sound" from a J. Robbins recording. It is clear and punchy but not too polished or overproduced. I sent him a copy of Witness and then I talked to him on the phone when we were exploring our options for that record and he was really nice and personable and seemed to genuinely understand our band and had a big interest in working with us. It just seemed perfect for what we wanted to do - which was to sound like Modern Life Is War, and not record at a place or with a person who is doing a lot of bands that we get lumped in with.”

Also involved on the final record, and attributing even further to the band ‘not being lumped in with others’ is fellow Iowa native, Brooks Strause. A country and folk artist, Brooks Strause contributed to the album’s final and title track, bringing to a head (along with the band’s version of folk tale Stagger Lee) the subtle influences of blues, roots and country that has always been present, just under the surface of Modern Life Is War’s music. “[Brooks] is just a good friend of ours going back many years. We wanted to take him out on tour and I wanted him to sing on the record. We worked together on the lyrics for that song, spending a couple days together and just talking. So he came out and sang his part and helped us out with some other stuff on the record and then did a tour with us after the record had been made.” Of the band’s personal investment in American blues, roots and/or country music, Jeffrey says their incorporation of it stylistically definitely does not come from a conscious effort in their songwriting; “We really like Will Whitmore and Brooks Strause and The Beat Strings and Old Scratch Revival Singers and I think at some point that just found its way into our sound.” Stagger Lee is the song on Midnight In America that stands as the not-so-subconscious nod to MLIW’s folk influences, and has it’s own story, which Jeffrey is all to happy to delve into. “The first recorded version is by Mississippi John Hurt, but it dates back way further than that. Alan Lomax published it in 1910, but it's based on a true story that happened in the late 1800's and was probably first a prison ‘toast’ - which is like the first rap music. When that song came out some kids were like ‘What's with the shitty Nick Cave cover?’ Which is a classic example of someone who is not a student of music publicizing their moronic opinions. That song is an American tradition and we just wanted to be a part of that tradition. There are countless versions of it out there if you are interested. My friend Cam made me a mix of like 27 versions of the song and told me that we should do our own.”



The issue Jeffrey has hinted at in regards to the band being lumped into categories they may not be comfortable with is the tip of a whole other iceberg that the band felt the need to breakthrough in the between time of Witness and MIA. Jeffrey became very conscious of the issue at hand during the band’s time with Deathwish Inc. Some would say the band’s move to Equal Vision seemed like a very left-field choice with the direction the label had been taking in recent years. The band issued a statement, detailing that the support EVR could provide meant the band could stay on the road for longer, playing more shows in more places. While the validity of these statements remain as true as ever, Jeffrey’s perspective on their situation implies there was more fuelling the decision. “EVR has been so good to us. I really can't say enough good things about them. It was an improvement over Deathwish for us even though a lot of kids couldn't see that. When you are on a label like Deathwish or Bridge Nine you are ‘part of something’. We didn't really want to be part of a specific group like that, and it was reflecting upon our band way too much for my taste. We didn't want people to think of a label or a certain group of bands when they think of Modern Life Is War. We wanted them to think only of our music, lyrics, layouts or live show. I think Deathwish was something that seemed attractive to us and once we were in, didn't like it and wanted out. They helped in building our band through the Deathwish name and image, but I didn't really like that very much.” In so much as acknowledging this, Jeffrey emphasises the level of importance the band placed on self-expression and individuality once more, and the desire for which that could not be distracted.

It may seem that Jeffrey is being discriminate in his criticisms of Deathwish Inc. as a label, however he hastily disproves this theory with an attack on the business of music as a whole. “I learned a lot” Jeffrey says, of hitting the national touring circuit at such a young age. “The music business is ugly and vicious and shitty. I am by nature a very trusting person and I am still that way - but I am much more cautious now... and I am not only talking about big labels and booking agents and huge venues. The same goes for people. At one point I was forced to realize that even though I didn't see myself as someone ‘cool’ some people did, and I had to realize that sometimes people weren't being nice or generous just out of the kindness of their heart – they were doing it because I was the singer of this band. Sometimes it was with bad intentions – and sometimes not. And once I realized that I was seen as someone special or a ‘cool’ person, I also had to realize that exploiting that position is wrong. There's a lot of grey area in there, but I guess [it’s] basically just [me] being a naive and trusting kid from Iowa and then going out into the world in a serious way and realizing that not everyone is open and honest and shooting you straight. Anyways, I still maintain that I was never above anyone we played to in any way. I am a fan of so many bands; a lover of music and a student of music. That's the important thing – and I had my little chance to connect with people on that level. But this time instead of me being the one in the audience or me being the one in my room listening to a record, I became the one on the stage and the one making the records. It's a circle and that's what I tried to communicate in a lot of different ways through the band.”

MLIW has toured with a wide cross-section of bands that vaguely and not-so-vaguely fall under the vast umbrella of ‘hardcore’. So with the outlook Jeffrey has detailed, the question is raised about how the band dealt with being on tour with bands such as Trap Them or Outbreak compared to tour with He Is Legend and Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster. “That was a really fun tour,” says Jeffrey of the latter; “because it was totally outside of the back-patting circle that hardcore can often be. We came in there as the ugliest and meanest and most DIY band… and we had no one's respect at the start of the tour. A lot of the kids hated us because we offended them or they hated our music or my shaved head or just because they didn't know who we were - and that was just so fun to play against people and fuck with people. Hardcore bands should play where they don't belong more often. It's fun and more challenging than playing for a bunch of kids who already ‘know what’s up’. But it's also awesome to go on a tour with a bunch of like-minded kids like Outbreak or Spanish Bombs and just be a fucking pillaging gang of highway pirates.” In terms of which situation Jeffrey personally would prefer, his truly open-mindedness and ‘straight-shooter’ attitude shines through stronger than ever. “I think there are only two kinds of music: good and bad. In Iowa while I was growing up everything was mixed up. The first time I ever went to a ‘hardcore show’ was one I played in Modern Life Is War. Up until that point it was all mixed genres and that's all I knew. When we play in Iowa it's always mixed up and that's how I like it. Hardcore is a great network of bands and promoters and venues and labels and kids - so that makes touring very accessible and that's awesome and we took advantage of that network. I just love music and some of that music is hardcore. I think Trash Talk and Trap Them are kick ass bands in the same way I love other bands we played with like The Beat Strings, Brooks Strause, Old Scratch Revival Singers, Bouncing Souls, Sioux City Pete and the Beggars, The Explosion, Young Widows, Strike Anywhere, William Elliot Whitmore, etc. We have more in common with our friend’s bands from Iowa than any hardcore bands. Once we got going we made a conscious effort to play with all different types of bands at all different types of venues and settings.”

Anyone familiar with Jeffrey Eaton’s lyrics will know his non-musical influences are just as eclectic as his favourite bands, as outlined above. Many of MLIW’s songs have paid tribute to literature both contemporary and classic; Martin Atchet and Young Man On A Spree, and of course Jeffrey’s toast to the likes of Charles Bukowski and Hunter S. Thompson in These Mad Dogs Of Glory, amongst others. When asked if he sees literary influences just as or more important than other bands or singers, he replies; “I don't really see a difference in a lot of ways. An album full of good lyrics is just like a good book to me. It's all communication and connections between people. When I was 17 I didn't give a shit about reading a book and there was no way I could sit still long enough to do that – but I was definitely digging the words coming out of my speakers. When I started listening to music I keyed in on the lyrics and the words and vocals instinctively. Once I got a little patience and balance in my mind and happened across a couple of great books, I started on another journey with that.” Despite this, however, Jeffrey insists that he doesn’t “have two books to help people” and insists on any individual finding their own path in terms of gaining knowledge and different perspectives on the world. He elaborates; “I guess I just think that kids should try to get an understanding of what came before them. What is war really like? What was it like to live during the great depression? Try to conceive the suffering of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. People are just so sheltered. Media is sensationalized. Look into history and what is going on currently in the rest of the world. Find out how other people live… Talk to your grandmother, go to the library, travel to foreign countries, use your mind, watch documentaries – if you have a desire to know what's going on outside of your little bubble you will find a way.” The questions Jeffrey poses are obviously ones that have driven him to accumulate more knowledge and a greater understanding of the world, and it is this that has fuelled his own insightful, incisive and at times prolific lyrics.

This gives way to the broader vision of the band, and their inherent intensity – something that has defined them in both the critical press and their various label press-releases, and has been made obvious by now (if it was not already) that is a completely organic aesthetic brought on by the five individuals involved. When I brought the question of where these feelings come from and how they translate it into any one song to Jeffrey, his immediate response was that he didn’t like to answer that type of question. He then proceeded to give me the lengthiest response in the whole interview. “Speaking only for myself, I have always had this big urge to communicate the way I feel to people since i was a little kid. I went through some troubled times inside my mind and that happened to be the MLIW years and so I just made all my troubles and questions into song lyrics. The guys that play the music are all intensely individual and solitary to some extent. The only thing John wants to do is play his guitar loud – he never leaves that zone. He doesn't party. He doesn't drink. He isn't straight-edge. He isn't hardcore. He isn't punk. He is a quiet guitar man. He communicates through that thing. Our old bass player, Chris, I think injected a lot of that feeling into the band. He has one of the heaviest minds of anyone I have ever met and he played bass like that. Even if it was only two notes or one note, he played it like his mind.
“Matt, our old guitar player lives in the house with John, Tyler and me. He is in his room right now playing guitar. He must play guitar like 20 – 30 hours a week. He is actually doing the last tour with us since Sjarm is in Holland with his girlfriend.
“Tyler is the person in the band most like me. He has debates going on inside his head all day long. He spent his entire youth observing things and rarely taking part.” Just the fact that Jeffrey felt the need to profile each guy that has been involved in the band in order to answer this question shows yet again just how much MLIW not only praised but relied on individuality and expression. Jeffrey continues; “I think that's the thing that made our band a little different. We weren't the cool, fun-time dudes starting a sweet band so we could be a part of a social circle. It was very individual, very obsessive. We each did it because we felt like we had to, even if all of our reasons were different. None of us were casual about it. That's one thing I could say about hardcore punk music; it should never be casual – and you see a lot of bands that are casual. Like, the dudes are all tattooed and everything and they are on a cool record label or whatever – but you see them play and you can tell that they don't have to do what they are doing. They are doing it because it's fun or it makes them popular with a certain crowd or it helps with their self-image. They are playing it cool. Not taking chances – not saying too much that their words might be embarrassing, not taking chances musically for fear that they wouldn't be seen as a certain type of ‘HARD-CORE’ band. They got the clothes, the jumps, the friends, the chicks, the t-shirts – but they are casual and therefore completely full of shit and should immediately quit making music.”

In the fast-fading twilight of MLIW, I can’t help but muse romantically that this somewhat premature death of a band mirrors some of the personalities, both real and fictional, that Jeffrey himself addressed through his lyrics. For example, Hunter S. Thompson and Charles Bukowski were two of the harshest critics of contemporary society and popular culture, but through this criticism and scrutiny, they developed popularity themselves, fuelling self-destructive and self-sabotaging behaviours. Jeffrey, true to his style, is quick to quash such romantic comparisons, and not without valid justification. “We never really became that popular. We were playing to very small amounts of people in a lot of areas of the country right up until the end; 10, 15 kids at a show. Not all of them even necessarily giving a shit when we were playing. A huge turnout for us at a headlining show is 200 people. There were a few when we headlined and there were more than that, but they were isolated shows. 200 people would maybe be 5 nights out of a month-long headlining tour. The strength of our band name was always a lot stronger than our turnouts or record sales. Anyways, I think the only thing that fuelled the disintegration of the band was that we felt like we had done what Modern Life Is War needed to do. Once I got that feeling, going on would just be like taking a free ride just because I can - and that would really ruin a lot of the things that are sacred to me.”

By the same token, Jeffrey assures me that the break-up is not a way to avoid becoming ‘comfortable’ or to create struggle for himself, or any other member. I am more into creating something that I am into, rather than struggling against something I'm not. A lot of hardcore is ‘Fuck this, fuck that, I don't do this, I don't do that’. I've never understood the point of all that. It's like ‘Okay... so what do you do?’ And then people call it positive hardcore and they are singing about not drinking and getting stabbed in the back or how it sucks that things changed. What's so positive about that stuff? It's just positive cause they have sports haircuts and athletic shoes, or what?” Not losing the irony in his rant, Jeffrey returns to the main point; “The only thing I am really against is boredom and wasting time. I wanna skateboard, learn guitar, sing, dance, work, paint, read. I want to create and have fun and do productive things. Why the fuck is this generation glued to computers and scripted reality TV shows? They live vicariously through others on TV and invent a different personality and look for themselves on the computer. It's so fucking lame. Life is so short - I just want to live my life. I'm not going to live through somebody else and I'm not going to try to be anything I'm not. I just don't want to be a part of this shallow, spoiled generation. I'm a generation terrorist.” With all the things he maintains he wants to and will do, Jeffrey lets nothing slip of his, or anyone else’s future plans in music after MLIW, however he does make the reassuring statement that none of them are “done with music”.

It has been proven in the past that a band whose end is perceived by its wider audience as being premature can be elevated to an epic or legendary status post-humously. Cases in point being Botch, Orchid, Refused, or American Nightmare/Give Up The Ghost. With the tale laid out before you, one could potentially foresee the legacy of MLIW taking the same route. Rather than try to sum this idea, and thus the entire article up myself, I feel Jeffrey came up with a very cutting leaving statement, and one that should remain timeless. “I don't know if something like that will happen or if it's something that you can predict” he says, in regards to the above idea. “I addressed the way I feel about that kind of mentality in These Mad Dogs Of Glory. Bands are just bands. People are just people. There should be no mythical status. When you take away that idea, you are empowered! That idea keeps you from starting a band, writing a book, being an artist – you think you'll never be good enough. No one is good enough. It's just that some people are obsessed and are willing to work endlessly for their obsession and some people are not. I want our band to be remembered as normal kids who had an obsession, who worked hard and didn't follow anyone's rules. Modern Life Is War. It means that there are all kinds of things in this world trying to take the power away from you. This band was about making people realize that they have the power. If you look at us as heroes or idols or a myth you have missed the point.”


Since this interview took place, guitarist John Eich has been married, Jeffrey Eaton is writing for skate mag Juice in California, and bassist Tim Churchman has been more and more busy with his band Spanish Bombs (also feat. members of Ceremony - check it out!). All photos taken from www.myspace.com/modernlifeiswar.