A couple of years ago, Long Island, New York’s Crime In Stereo turned more than a few heads with their third full length album, the facetiously named Crime In Stereo Is Dead. The album saw, on a basic level, a drastic change to their ‘Nitro Records’ melodic punk style, however one that had been subtly working its way into their music since their previous, I, Stateside. On a deeper level, …Is Dead actually took what the band had already established as a unique take on melodic punk rock and hardcore and incorporated into it elements of grunge, shoegaze and experimentations in noise. April 26, 2009 they played a show in Brooklyn with hardcore giants Bane and Have Heart. The show itself was a true testament to the varying styles and generations operating in the hardcore scene today. I was lucky enough to have the chance to speak to Crime In Stereo’s vocalist, Christian about their retrospectives on …Is Dead and what he is looking forward to next for the band.
Their recent Selective Wreckage release of b-sides and unreleased material serves as a path between I, Stateside and …Is Dead, exhibiting the growing presence of grunge and shoegaze influences that have gradually, and consciously worked their way into the music. Christian elaborates on this growth. “We’ve grown a lot as musicians, but the music was growing faster than I was and I needed to step back. I took a bunch of vocal lessons and got myself up to par with where they were. The way I am singing now is how we always wanted to portray ourselves. We’re still carrying a deep message, being the band that we always were, just a little bit more melodic with a little bit better song structures. We’re stepping in the direction of being musicians as opposed to a bunch of dudes who like music. That’s the best way I can describe, we’re all dudes that love music, and this record we wanted to be musicians. I feel like we did that and the next record, which we start recording next week, is a progression of this. It’s the raw feeling of Stateside, it’s the experimentation and song structures of Dead, and then some. We make music for us, it’s all a learning experience.” The experimentation Christian speaks of is what has really put CIS in the spotlight recently. He continues; “We kind of stepped outside the box and said ‘Let’s not write a record for hardcore kids, let’s not write a record to get big, let’s just write a record we feel.’ Halfway through that recording we were like ‘Wow’, we were really proud of what we were doing, really psyched on it.”
I was interested to find out how they approach their live shows these days with the new songs they have written and the conscious inclusion of different musical elements. Especially with a lineup like that of tonight, playing alongside four or five bands that are loud, fast and aggressive, it starts to make CIS stand out more and more. What’s surprising,” says Christian in response, “is that some of the softer songs we have are the ones that the clichéd, super-hardcore dudes love most.” He makes it clear that they don’t get wrapped up in self-consciousness over such issues, and go about being a band and playing shows the same way they always have.
Specifically, bands such as Nirvana, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine were brought up as ‘non-hardcore’ influences having a large impact on CIS’s musical future. Christian explains how he feels bands like these and hardcore share common ground, and where CIS fit into all of this. “We’ve always portrayed ourselves like a hardcore band. We’ve always put on our own shows in Long Island, we’ve always picked hardcore bands to play with us. I think when dealing with emotion, bands like that are on the same level as hardcore bands. It is just oozing out of the chords they’re playing, and that’s the connection. People will hear our band and be like ‘That’s not a fuckin’ hardcore band”, but it’s moreso in the message than in the melody of the chords. It’s moreso in how you carry yourself as a band. People will always take different things completely differently from how you want them to, but no matter what we do – the heart of our band is in hardcore and punk rock music.”
Their new album (which, mind you, isn’t even recorded at this point) looks to become one of the more anticipated records for the coming year, and already there is speculation over what to expect. Christian gives a little bit away about their writing process so far. “There’s a huge grunge influence in the newer songs. We’re putting the songs together as a band and then going into the studio, whereas we’ve used the studio in the past as the platform where we’re like ‘Okay this idea, then that idea.’ We’re going in there with structured songs so I feel like we already know how the record is going to be, and I’m so excited. We’ve always been a studio band, and this record I feel is a live record.”
Just as their musical direction is turning heads, so have their lyrics. Creating surrealist, dreamlike empires out of words, the depth and poetry that exists in CIS’s lyrics are endlessly engaging and again set this band apart. Christian sheds light on the writing process; “Alex is like the ‘blueprint-dude’. He writes the songs… I come up with a lot of the melodies, he writes a lot of the lyrics. He is an amazing writer, not just a lyricist – like stories, comics – he’s amazing. I feel like if you’re a band you want to portray yourselves as best as possible. I write,” he says flippantly, “I do all that stuff, but you want the best thing for a song. We’ve been doing it, me and him, for so long – once we start doing vocals it’s just me and him and our producer, and we live in a studio – and it’s gotten to the point where I know what he wants before he has to show it to me. Now, he just hands me something, I read it, I’m floored and I’m like ‘Okay, roll tape.’ We’ve gotten past that whole ‘thing’ and it’s just like what’s best for this band. A lot of people in other bands have egos and shit like that and they don’t want their egos trampled on. I’m not about that. I’m about this band being the best that it can possibly be, and if that means our guitarist has to write the lyrics then I am 100% fine with that. Songs that he writes – I look at them and I’m like ‘That’s my life!’ How the fuck does he do that? Sometimes I feel like he goes into it looking – like there are a few parts in songs that are spot on things I have gone through. Sometimes I almost feel like he knows my brain – he knows how I am and the things I have gone through. Those songs are just as much me as they are him.”
Coming from the punk rock hotbed that is Long Island has had and continues to affect the band as well. Home to two of the biggest punk/emo acts in recent years (Brand New and Taking Back Sunday) as well as countless local acts that have had impact on the Tri-State area’s various scenes, Long Island remains the band’s home and Christian has an ostensible sense of loyalty to it. “It’s a sense of pride when you have national bands from your home town – especially guys like Brand New. I’m super close and Alex is super close with those guys. They carry themselves, as big as they are, so humbly, and they’re so nice and they’re so into what they do. I was in England and I was at a dance club and they were playing Brand New and I just had this sense of pride, like, that’s Long Island. That’s our upbringing, what they’re singing. The experiences they had are how they’re able to write those songs and that’s our life. I feel nothing but a sense of pride for that shit.” With that, and their demonstrated ambition, it had to be asked if the band, and Christian personally longed for the same level of success to represent their home. “I want to see and do as much as I possibly can. If it comes to a time when we get to that level, I would not look back for one second.”
Speaking to Christian, although a brief conversation, has given me the impression of a band comprised of young individuals, largely unmatched in ambition. This ambition extends to both their music and their career view. Playing live tonight, they exhibited a prowess and confidence that seems to be matched in the way they approach each day as a band. Christian leaves me with this statement, and a sense of closure – for now; “I’ll tell you something right now; I’ll play in front of anyone, even if they don’t want to hear me. I’ll sing to anyone I possibly can, I want everyone to hear what we have to say.”
Most of these photos were taken from the band's myspace, the other few were taken by me.
I was interested to find out how they approach their live shows these days with the new songs they have written and the conscious inclusion of different musical elements. Especially with a lineup like that of tonight, playing alongside four or five bands that are loud, fast and aggressive, it starts to make CIS stand out more and more. What’s surprising,” says Christian in response, “is that some of the softer songs we have are the ones that the clichéd, super-hardcore dudes love most.” He makes it clear that they don’t get wrapped up in self-consciousness over such issues, and go about being a band and playing shows the same way they always have.
Specifically, bands such as Nirvana, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine were brought up as ‘non-hardcore’ influences having a large impact on CIS’s musical future. Christian explains how he feels bands like these and hardcore share common ground, and where CIS fit into all of this. “We’ve always portrayed ourselves like a hardcore band. We’ve always put on our own shows in Long Island, we’ve always picked hardcore bands to play with us. I think when dealing with emotion, bands like that are on the same level as hardcore bands. It is just oozing out of the chords they’re playing, and that’s the connection. People will hear our band and be like ‘That’s not a fuckin’ hardcore band”, but it’s moreso in the message than in the melody of the chords. It’s moreso in how you carry yourself as a band. People will always take different things completely differently from how you want them to, but no matter what we do – the heart of our band is in hardcore and punk rock music.”
Their new album (which, mind you, isn’t even recorded at this point) looks to become one of the more anticipated records for the coming year, and already there is speculation over what to expect. Christian gives a little bit away about their writing process so far. “There’s a huge grunge influence in the newer songs. We’re putting the songs together as a band and then going into the studio, whereas we’ve used the studio in the past as the platform where we’re like ‘Okay this idea, then that idea.’ We’re going in there with structured songs so I feel like we already know how the record is going to be, and I’m so excited. We’ve always been a studio band, and this record I feel is a live record.”
Just as their musical direction is turning heads, so have their lyrics. Creating surrealist, dreamlike empires out of words, the depth and poetry that exists in CIS’s lyrics are endlessly engaging and again set this band apart. Christian sheds light on the writing process; “Alex is like the ‘blueprint-dude’. He writes the songs… I come up with a lot of the melodies, he writes a lot of the lyrics. He is an amazing writer, not just a lyricist – like stories, comics – he’s amazing. I feel like if you’re a band you want to portray yourselves as best as possible. I write,” he says flippantly, “I do all that stuff, but you want the best thing for a song. We’ve been doing it, me and him, for so long – once we start doing vocals it’s just me and him and our producer, and we live in a studio – and it’s gotten to the point where I know what he wants before he has to show it to me. Now, he just hands me something, I read it, I’m floored and I’m like ‘Okay, roll tape.’ We’ve gotten past that whole ‘thing’ and it’s just like what’s best for this band. A lot of people in other bands have egos and shit like that and they don’t want their egos trampled on. I’m not about that. I’m about this band being the best that it can possibly be, and if that means our guitarist has to write the lyrics then I am 100% fine with that. Songs that he writes – I look at them and I’m like ‘That’s my life!’ How the fuck does he do that? Sometimes I feel like he goes into it looking – like there are a few parts in songs that are spot on things I have gone through. Sometimes I almost feel like he knows my brain – he knows how I am and the things I have gone through. Those songs are just as much me as they are him.”
Coming from the punk rock hotbed that is Long Island has had and continues to affect the band as well. Home to two of the biggest punk/emo acts in recent years (Brand New and Taking Back Sunday) as well as countless local acts that have had impact on the Tri-State area’s various scenes, Long Island remains the band’s home and Christian has an ostensible sense of loyalty to it. “It’s a sense of pride when you have national bands from your home town – especially guys like Brand New. I’m super close and Alex is super close with those guys. They carry themselves, as big as they are, so humbly, and they’re so nice and they’re so into what they do. I was in England and I was at a dance club and they were playing Brand New and I just had this sense of pride, like, that’s Long Island. That’s our upbringing, what they’re singing. The experiences they had are how they’re able to write those songs and that’s our life. I feel nothing but a sense of pride for that shit.” With that, and their demonstrated ambition, it had to be asked if the band, and Christian personally longed for the same level of success to represent their home. “I want to see and do as much as I possibly can. If it comes to a time when we get to that level, I would not look back for one second.”
Speaking to Christian, although a brief conversation, has given me the impression of a band comprised of young individuals, largely unmatched in ambition. This ambition extends to both their music and their career view. Playing live tonight, they exhibited a prowess and confidence that seems to be matched in the way they approach each day as a band. Christian leaves me with this statement, and a sense of closure – for now; “I’ll tell you something right now; I’ll play in front of anyone, even if they don’t want to hear me. I’ll sing to anyone I possibly can, I want everyone to hear what we have to say.”
Most of these photos were taken from the band's myspace, the other few were taken by me.
