TRUE LOVE

interview with DOMINIC of TRUE LOVE

This interview was originally published in Plead Your Case Fanzine Issue #11, February 2015. Regular text is PYC, bold text is Dominic.

Introduce yourself and what you do in the band.

My name is Dominic and I am the singer.

Tell me a bit about your most recent record and how the reception to it has been.

It's called NEW YOUNG GODS and it was recorded in the spring of 2014 in two places: music in Chicago with Andy at Bricktop Recordings, and the vocals recorded partially at Bricktop, and then the rest were recorded with chris Trestain here in Detroit. I think the reception has been pretty incredible. I mean of course we hoped people would like it -- we feel humbled by the kind words.

What other bands are the members of True Love involved in?

A lot of other bands. Alec plays guitar in FREEDOM, sings in VISION QUEST, and sometimes plays in ONE BY ONE. Derrick plays drums in NO DIVISION, plays guitar in ONE BY ONE and will be singing for the upcoming TRY. Joe plays bass in NO DIVISION. I'm sure at any point I could answer, one of them is starting something new. Restless souls.

Your favorite Detroit band ever?

The Supremes, absolutely and with zero doubt.

Carry On or American Nightmare?

AN, but it's a hard decision to place Carry On in a number two spot. Maybe they are 1 1/2.

Some newer or current bands that have you excited about hardcore in 2015.

So many, but the ones that come to mind immediately are NEW VISION, FORCED ORDER, and TURNSTILE. HC has got me more stoked in '14 and '15 than I have been in years. There are so many bands out there just fucking KILLING IT. it's like, for too long you went to shows and just watched the bands get in a power stance, and the singer just kinda walks back and forth and that sucks. I know not everyone is an athlete, myself included, but if you're not going as hard as you possible can, what's the point? what makes anyone want to watch you?

What is hardcore like in Detroit right now? who are some bands from the area to keep an eye on?

It's actually badass. Like any scene, there is a general ebb and flow, and right now we are definitely in a FLOW. There are new kids at every show; some good, some bad -- and I hope it continues. We have some great venues, the newest one being THE SANCTUARY, which I think is going to be the spot for medium to smaller sized shows. There's the standby Favs FREEDOM, BUILD AND DESTROY, and RZL DZL. There's a new sick as fuck rabid junkyard dog punk band featuring James from FACE REALITY and boys from FREEDOM called SPIKED COLLAR. Nicky Freedom also fronts ONE BY ONE with boys from TRUE LOVE and FREEDOM. Also, definitely check out BREAKING WHEEL, OUT OF HAND, and SPITBACK. Keep on the look out for DHC... It's a hotbed of infinitely talented people.

3 things that really annoy you right now in general and 3 things that make you really happy?

Three things that really annoy me are the future, going to work, and cold weather. Three things that make me happy... cereal and cartoons (that's one thing to me, one beautiful entity), going to the movies, and warm weather.

Future plans for True Love?

Right now we're working on some stuff. Hopefully we can get that out ASAP in the near distant future. We want to tour when we can, it can get hard because the things you need get in the way of hte things you want. Some of us are in other bands, some of us have jobs we can't get away from.

Last words/shout outs?

Shout out to the straight edge, the kids, loving what you can, and people who support us.

PROTESTER

interview with CONNOR DONEGAN of PROTESTER

This interview was originally published in Plead Your Case Fanzine Issue #10, January 2015. This interview was conducted outside of Churchill's Pub at the Miami date of Protester's tour with Public Suicide after FYA 2014. Regular text is PYC, bold text is Connor.

Hey man, Give me your name, age, and what you do in your band.

I'm Connor, I just turned 21, and I sing in Protester.

You guys are from DC? Did you grow up there?

No I'm actually from North Carolina and moved up to DC two years ago.

Do you feel like living in DC has made you more politically aware than the average kid your age?

Honestly, for me it's probably a little different since I didn't grow up there, so I wouldn't say that about myself, but I know a lot of people, especially younger kids, are more aware because their parents are politicians or whatever. There's definitely a lot of politics in the air, but I don't think living in DC effects me as much as it does other people.

How is living in DC compared to living in North Carolina?

I love DC. It's the best city in the world. It's expensive as fuck, but it's sick. There's a lot to do, the area is nice, you've got Maryland and Virginia. You can easily go to Philly, New York City, Boston... Nothing's too far away. There's a lot of cool bands out of DC right now that I think are really sick and a strong hardcore/punk community, so it's got everything that I would really want in a city, so I love it.

That was gonna be my next question: What are some bands coming out of DC right now that you really fuck with?

My favorite is ZOOM. They're kind of new. It's dudes from Lion of Judah and Give. It's kinda like Bad Brains sort of, but it doesn't really sound like anything else. They're doing an LP on Youngblood that's going to be really sick. Give is one of my favorites. Public Suicide who we're on tour with right now is fucking awesome. There's a ton... Pure Disgust is awesome. Too many to list. A bunch of awesome DC bands right now.

You play drums in Red Death too right?

Mhm, I play drums.

What's going on with Red Death right now?

Red Death has a shit ton planned for 2015. We're playing Miami with the Flex in april so we'll be down here! We're doing a Full U.S. with them, then another tour going down to Houston for badass weekend. We've got an LP coming out on Grave Mistake records called "Permanent Exile". I think we're gonna do some singles eventually, but we gotta get together and flesh some ideas out and shit. There's gonna be a lot that Red Death is doing in 2015.

Right on. So how long has Protester been on tour so far, how long do you have left, and how's the tour been?

This is our 5th day, we have two left: Tallahassee, and Greensboro, NC. Tours been sick! This is our first time playing any of these places and they've all been really good. FL has been especially great. Miami was sick, Jacksonville was sick, FYA in orlando was fucking awesome, so it's been really cool.

Agnostic Front or Madball?

AF but Ball of Destruction is better than United Blood.

Breakdown or Outburst?

That's tough. I'm gonna say Breakdown based on that they have more material, but Outburst is obviously sick.

NYHC or Boston Hardcore?

Boston Hardcore.

Who's your favorite Boston band?

SSD but runner up would probably be Last Rights.

Who are some hardcore bands that have you excited about HC going into 2015?

FURY from California is probably my favorite new band. Depths of Reality from Mass is fucking sick. Big Zit from Indiana is fucking awesome, Blood pressure from Pittsburgh. All the DC bands I mentioned. Any Boston band; Chain Rank and all those bands are fucking sick. Too many to list. Hardcore this year and I'm sure in 2015 too was fucking sick.

3 things off the top of your head that really annoy you?

That its not this warm in DC. That my shirt is a little bit longer than my hoodie so it doesn't really work out that well ya know? And that I didn't bring shorts so I can't hit the beach tomorrow.

3 things that you think are really cool right now?

All food except seafood. The New England Patriots, and the NYHC book.

I just got that book for xmas and it's so sick!

Yeah I went to a book reading in DC that was awesome. I'm reading it in the van right now it's fucking awesome.

Best XXX band of all time?

Jesus... Jesus Christ... Okay I won't count SSD, Minor Threat or any of the early bands cause it wasn't as developed. So I'm gonna say Judge.

Okay i mean... that's the correct answer

Respect.

Last words/shout outs?

Thanks for taking the time to interview me!

7 ANGELS 7 PLAGUES

interview with MATTHEW MIXON of 7 ANGELS 7 PLAGUES

This interview was originally published in Plead Your Case Fanzine Issue #13, April 2015. Regular text is PYC, bold text is Matthew.

First off is a pretty obvious question: what was your first hardcore show and how did you get involved in hardcore?

I moved from Farmington, CT to Madison, WI in the fall of 1995 like two seconds before I was about to discover hardcore. Megan, this girl in our grade who used to wear Sick Of It All and Snapcase hoodies made a mixtape for my best friend Jeff (who eventually went on to play in With Honor, Ambitions, Misery Signals, etc.). It was like a bunch of emo stuff, and some pop-punk, but it also had like Youth Of Today, Shelter, and maybe Gorilla Biscuits on it or something. He and some of our other friends would send me mixes of stuff they were discovering, and I thought it was all so sick, and I had nothing to do as a freshman in a new high school with no friends, so I just devoured it all. Little did I know, some of the most legendary 90's hardcore shows in south east WI were taking place just a few miles from my house. i missed on those, but eventually I started venturing down to Milwaukee to see bands like Earth Crisis, Hatebreed, and VOD. Once I met friends from the scene, and we could drive to shows. it was pretty much on. Milwaukee, Chicago, and the Twin Cities were our shit. I was lucky enough to see Disembodied and Harvest a ton of times. Buried Alive played Chicago and Milwaukee like every month it seemed. Victory bands were always touring through here. It was a rad time.

7A7P Recently appeared and played a song in the encore for some Misery Signals shows on the Malice 10 year tour. How did it feel getting back behind the mic and singing those songs?

So, so great. I was actually producing a documentary about that tour called "Malice X," so I was planning to be on the whole tour shooting the shows every night anyways. Once I got to Vancouver to begin production they asked me if I wanted to do some 7A songs. I was pretty nervous, especially after their practice show in Vancouver when I saw how insane kids went to that Malice lineup playing the full record. I didn't think anyone would give a fuck about that 7A record. The first real show in Vancouver they brought me in midway through the set, and the reaction was pretty sick. The next night in Calgary they did it as an encore, and it went over even better. By the time we got to Milkwaukee and New York, kids knew it was coming, and it was mayhem. Felt fucking great to sing with my friends again, but more than anything, just to share a piece of the magic of that tour was incredible. So grateful.

7A7P was a pretty influential band considering you only put out such a small amount of material. Do you feel like the band lived up to its full potential? Is there anything you wish you could've done that you didn't?

Hard to say man. I definitely feel like I quit, and eventually the band broke up just before big things were about to happen. We never played big shows, we never had a sick tour when I was in the band, and I don't think they had any after I left. We were like Arrested Development or Friday Night Lights, we hit posthumously. And that's cool. That in itself gives the band life after death. Kids in Milwaukee still come up to me fairly often and say they're fans of the record, so that rules. I wish it would have worked out. The idea of touring and not finishing school was daunting to me, so I couldn't hang with that, and some of the relationships in that band were toxic. and heading for a crash, so I'm not sure in retrospect anything could have been different. I guess I regret not being a part of that big push of metalcore bands who enjoyed decent success there in the early 2000's. That could have been 7A I guess. But on the other hand Misery Signals picked that ball up and ran with it, and I got to be along on that ride as well.

5 records you'd consider "essential" hardcore records.

Yikes. We were just having a huge conversation about this the other day, about what gets presented to you in your formative years of discovering a genre, or an entire art form, and how if you aren't exposed to certain bands in that time, you may never come to appreciate them. With that said, I don't think I can give a universal answer, I'll just give you five hardcore records that were essential for me.

1. Minor Threat - Discography
2. Earth Crisis - Firestorm
3. Converge - Jane Doe
4. Refused - The Shape Of Punk to Come
5. Shai Hulud - Hearts Once Nourished With Hope and Compassion

Most of these records came out after I was already into hardcore, but those were the ones I guess. I'm also just going to throw a top 5 more mainstream records that pushed me toward punk/hardcore, years before I discovered it. I don't think bands like this get enough credit. They set the table for a lot of us.

1. Rage Against The Machine - s/t
2. Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire
3. Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
4. Nirvana - Nevermind
(no 5th record) I ran out.

7A7P was pretty ahead of it's time sonically. What bands were major influences on you guys?

Hmm. I'll try and speak for Ryan here, beacuse he, Matt Matera, and Jared were really the brains of hte music. Deftones might be number one. White Pony came out like right when I joined the band and was gigantic for us. Cave In - Until Your Heart Stops for sure. I think Shai Hulud was big, maybe more for me than them, they and strongarm defined a genre I think. Poison the Well, Turmoil, Harvest. I personally ripped off Twelve Tribes so fucking hard vocally. I just pulled a few of their records out the other day, fucking fantastic band. Blood Has Been Shed was huge for all of us, just THE most massive shit. Martyr, who we played a lot with and before them Disembodied were huge influences on that sound. So many, Ryan would have so many more.

What musical endeavors, if any, were you involved with post 7A7P?

Nothing much. Burning Empires was an awesome hardcore band I did with all of my roomates about 5 years ago. Ryan from 7A sang, Hurley from Fall Out Boy played drums, Stu from Mis Sigs on bass. I'm really proud of all the stuff that band recorded. That was really Stu and Ryan's baby. Stu wrote about 99% of it I think. We only played like 15 shows due to FOB / Mis Sigs schedules, and Ryan and Stu eventually moved across the country before we got to accomplish much else.

Your favorite show you ever played.

Hellfest 2001. After I'd quit 7A, but they were without a vocalist for that weekend. It was after the big Compromise tragedy, and Jesse Zaraska sprinkled the ashes of his best friend on the stage before we played. The vibe was electric, and the show was insane. I've never seen video or pictures from it. I can remember looking out at the sea of kids and trying to find someone recording the show and seeing nothing. Kind of cool in a way actually. Thankfully I've got photos of me playing big shows with Mis Sigs to show babes when I need to impress them and shit.

Your favorite song off Jhazmyne's Lullaby and why?

Silent Deaths, Crowded Lives. First 7A7P song I ever heard, from before I was in the band. Hardest fucking intro, still holds up, would mosh to it right now if it came on in this coffee shop. No idea what the lyrics mean or what they were about but I loved getting mobbed by kids singing along to them.

Any last words or shout outs?

Shout out to Plead Your Case, and anyone out there who still makes zines. Shout out to Game Of Thrones. Shout out to Fast & Furious 7. Shout out to Pantera.

CODE ORANGE

interview with JAMI MORGAN of CODE ORANGE

This interview was originally published in Plead Your Case Fanzine Issue #6, July 2014. Regular text is PYC, bold text is Jami.

Whats up Jami? Tell me about Code Orange and what you do in the band.

What's up Lennon? Well, Code Orange is a hardcore band from Pittsburgh, PA. We started when we were 15. I play drums and sing. 

You guys have a new record coming out very soon. Give me some details about that?

Well the record is called I Am King. I think it's the best thing that we have done by many miles and I'm really excited about it. It comes out September 2nd.

Hell yeah. You guys recently got off of a tour with BANE which is pretty huge. How were those shows? Was there any particular city or cities that really stick out for having a great reaction for you guys?

We only did a week but straight up every show was awesome. 3 of them were in Florida and htat is why. We love FL. Reaction wise all the shows were awesome, the new songs we were playing got pretty wild without even being out, so that is exciting. We love [Bane] as a band and as people. They were really the first "bigger" hardcore band that took us under their wing and really helped us, accepted us, and became friends with us. We would do anything for them.

That's awesome, I'm glad FL treated you guys right. I feel like when most people talk about PA hardcore htey talk about bands from Philly or Wilkes-Barre, but not Pittsburgh as often. What is the hardcore community like in PGH currently? Who would you say is the best HC band ever to come out of PGH?

Pittsburgh is an amazing place. It is one of the only places to me that feels unswayed by trends and has for the most part always produced good, heavy music. There are so many good heavy hardcore bands right now like, Eternal Sleep, Unit 731, Steel Nation, Purge, (all of whom I'm putting out records for), Path to Misery, No Reason To Live, along with more traditional bands like Hounds of Hate and No Time. In addition there are so many great bands of the past like Built Upon Frustration, Enemy Minds, Zo, Unreal city and many more. Pittsburgh hardcore shaped who we are entirely as a band. It is boundary-less, limitless, unafraid and unapologetic, and though many of us don't sound the same, the idea that we can be those things is what pushes us.

You mentioned putting out some of those bands. Tell me about your label, how it came about, future plans, etc.

My label is called Harm Reduction records and it is through Deathwish Inc. The label came about when me and my friend Pat Klindon decided we wanted to put out genuinely heavy and interesting records that other labels may not be interested in initially as they may be a bit unaccessible even from a hardcore standpoint. We wanted to Harken back to the era of hellfest and even 90s victory bands and kind of try and capture that metallic hardcore kind of sound in a way thats different from what other labels are doing. We wanted to put out bands that are kind of doing what I explained above: not putting limits on what they wanna do, but most importantly wanted to put out bands that are crushingly heavy. Our first five releases are a Drown (heavy Buried Alive style hc from texas) 7", a Unit 731 (smart beatdown from pgh) LP, a Torn (members of Advent) 7", an Eternal Sleep 7" and the Steel Nation LP. 

Very cool. I'm unbelievably pumped on the new Steel Nation record. Speaking of 90's era Victory bands... what's your favorite record to ever come out on Victory and why?

Probably Buried Alive - Death Of Your Perfect World just because it's my favorite hardcore record of all time. It's gotta be that or Satisfaction, but there are a million great ones from that period of time.

DOYPW is definitely in my top 3 hardcore LPs as well and would be my pick too so respect. What are some current or newer hardcore bands that get you really siked on hardcore.

Your band Blistered (no bs). Twitching Tongues, Harms Way, Incendiary, Axis, Discourse, Forced Order, Angel Dust, Drown, Eternal Sleep, Lifeless, Freedom, tons more - there are so many really cool bands right now to me of all different kinds of hardcore.

Hell yeah thank you haha. Alright, Cro-Mags or AF?

Mags

Ringworm or Integrity?

Integ but very down with the worm

Favorite NYHC record

80's = Age of Quarrel or Blood Sweat No Tears. 90's = im going with Master Killer or the Burn 7".

I understand you're a wrestling fan... Who's your favorite wrestler?

I've been a wrestling fan my whole life. Some of my favorites of all time are Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Brian Pillman, CM Punk, and Shawn Michaels.

So to wrap things up, other than the new record coming out, what are some other future plans for Code Orange?

After TIHC we are doing a tour in the fall that we are super excited about. Then we will see what happens! We are gonna push this record as hard as we can. 

Hell yeah, that tour is gonna be real cool. Any last words/shout outs/disses/whatever?

Shout out to you, you rock. Shout out to the straight edge.

PUT IT ASIDE

Interview with ELLIOTT FLIGNOR of PUT IT ASIDE

This interview was originally published in Plead Your Case Fanzine Issue #12, March 2015. Regular text is PYC, bold text is Elliott Flignor.

Hey Elliott what's up? Introduce yourself and the other members of Put It Aside.

Whats up Lennon? I'm Elliott Flignor, I sing for Put It Aside with Bob J on guitar, Island Andre on Bass, and Jesse Inman on drums.

Describe PIA for someone who's never heard you. What are your direct influences?

I've always wanted to cover ten yard fight and one day me and Andre decided to start a band we could do that with. I wanted the TYF sound but also wanted to play faster music and sound more pissed off than Wrench.

That's sick. You guys def have the TYF Vibe going on. What other bands are the members of PIA involved in?

Jared and Jesse are both in HIT LIST and about 15 other bands, and Andre is in guilty conscience.

Best action movie of all time: Predator or Terminator 2?

Finally the real questions. That's a trick question the answer is First Blood.

Dude no way. You'd take Stallone of Arnold?

Overall Arnold has more badass movies but first blood takes the cake for me. Plus Stallone's Italian.

Okay well Predator or T2?

Both are sick but Predator for sure. Can I go with predator 2?

I was about to ask if you fuck with Predator 2.

Me and maybe 5 other people do. It's a wild movie but I fuck with it heavily. Danny glover whoops a predator in hand to hand combat and is given a pirate's pistol as a reward. Bad ass shit man.

Action movies are so much cooler than rap-metal ass horror movies. Anyways, how's the hardcore scene in South Florida right now?

Agreed. South Florida is in a cool spot right now. We have a lot of really sick bands coming up and whole new generation of kids coming to shows and it's beyond exciting. We have a few cool spots for shows but since the Talent Farm closed down we've been looking for a place to really call our own and I think it'll be coming soon.

What're some newer or current bands that have you excited about HC in 2015?

It's the first time I've really been excited about new bands since 09, the golden era, but lately i'm stoked on a few different bands including God's Hate from Cali. Steel Nation is finally putting out their 2nd LP and the new Spine record is some badass shit. Also extremely excited to hear new music from South Florida's own Day By Day, soon to be everyone's favorite new band, I guarantee it. 

The new Day by Day is certified G shit. Okay Ten Yard Fight or Floorpunch?

I gotta go with TYF, one of the first bands I really got into and definitely a favorite.

Boston HC or NYHC?

Gotta go with Boston, even though a lot of my favorite bands are NYHC

What does the future hold for PIA?

We're gonna be recording for a 7" within the next month and I'm stoked. Unfortunately, me jesse and Bob all work together so touring is tough but we hope to get out at some point.

Thanks for the interview man. Any last words/shout outs/disses for Chooch?

Thanks a lot man. I want to shout out Blistered and Axis for touching as much as humanly possible and making people see that Florida is the best place for hardcore and shout out to all the corny assholes from up north who like to talk shit on it. chooch is drinking a bud light talking about smoke ring tricks as we speak.

LEFT FOR DEAD

Interview with CHRIS COLOHAN of LEFT FOR DEAD/THE SWARM/CURSED.

This interview was originally published in Plead Your Case Fanzine Issue #13, April 2015. Regular text is PYC, Bold text is Chris Colohan.

We'll start this off with a fairly obvious question: What was your first hardcore show? How did you get involved with hardcore and what was the scene like in your town when you first started attending shows?

In retrospect, it was small but felt huge and wild and new. My first show was in 1990 or 91, a mash up of bands from our high school, one of which was a really early Chokehold. It was like jumping into a wood chipper, and I haven't looked back yet.

When I listen to LFD, the lyrical content of so many of the songs feels so relevant and contemporary. Since a number of years have passed since those songs were written, do you still feel compelled by and passionate about the same issues you did back then?

For sure. There's not a lot I've written that I don't feel like I connect with still, even things I was too young to put into more tactful words. The drive behind them was/is always the frustrations about the hypocrisies of the world of people that you're born and socialized into and it's false sense of order - and fundamentally that doesn't really change, or at least my world looks pretty similar to what the cynical teenager saw, if not even more vindicated the older I get. I hated technology depersonalizing people, hated people defaulting to convenience or pleasures that someone/something else had to pay the price for, hated authority that didn't deserve it, didn't want to be zoned out by either literal or social drugs (from TV to religion), hated seeing useful ideas demonized and suppressed to keep the status quo, and was paranoid as fuck about being watched and catalogued. I don't think there's one thing on that list that isn't exactly what it still looked like or worse, or that I don't still see in everything and want to scream about in one way or another. 

I've always thought that The Swarm A.K.A. Knee Deep In The Dead was a really interesting band name. Is there any particular reason or story behind why you went with the "A.K.A." part as opposed to just "The Swarm"?

No, we just had two and couldn't decide so we went with both.

You currently play in Burning Love. What's going on with that band? Also what other projects are you currently involved in, if any?

Two of the 4 of us are in school at the moment so the last year has settled down a lot in terms of tour, but we just got the new 7" Down So Long out on Deathwish, and we're going to write a 3rd LP this year for Southern Lord. Pat (guitar) plays in a few other bands, I've got a few side projects in the wings but with no set ETA's and I've been getting some writing done and published as I've been meaning to for years. I'm working on that a lot right now.

List 5 "essential" records that you would give to someone to help them fall in love with hardcore.

Jerry's Kids - Is This My World
Integrity - For Those Who Fear Tomorrow
Disrupt - Unrest
Void/Faith split (VOID SIDE)
Necros - Conquest For Death

Are there any newer or current hardcore bands that you find yourself particularly interested in?

I think because it's so easy post-internet for people to punch in the most tasteful coordinates of the moment (I think we're doing druggie shoegaze, 1987 performance art, or washy 1993 indy rock this year), and come out with exactly that rather than really going out on a creative limb of their own, I don't even look at newer hardcore by wether it's technically good but wether it's naturally occurring as music or art, I often get more out of a band of 17 year olds living in a vacuum in the middle of nowhere opening a show for one night that I'll never hear of again, than I do out of 90% of the buzzy hardcore out there. But that said, I like being pleasantly surprised and proved wrong about that when it happens.

It's rare for bands to have a particular "mascot" so to speak that is so synonymous with a band name the way the "goat man" is synonymous with Cursed. What is the story behind this character and how did he become so intertwined with Cursed's imagery.

It's a bit of a Wizard Of Oz thing. The He-Goat is the incarnation of the devil that appears on a hilltop for about 3 seconds in an occult ritual in an old british horror movie. It's a really arresting image and especially creepy because it's so obviously just a guy in a partial goat suit. So on a totally superficial level it's just a great iconic horror image (of way too many that I've ripped off for band art), but on an allegorical level it doubles for the way that music like ours is a partial mask you put on to vent your genuine worst thoughts, when you're not necessarily that person underneath.

3 things that annoy the shit out of you?

When people whistle but they aren't whistling anything, Dry sand in between my toes, John Leguizamo.

3 things that really make you happy?

Really busted or dead shopping malls or department stores, for some reason. Killing Joke - MMXII. Harry Dean Stanton.

Your favorite records to come out in 2014.

Only Lovers Left Alive OST. 
Behemoth - The Satanist
Swans - To Be Kind
Timber Timbre - Hot Dreams
Protomartyr - Under Color of Official Right

Your top 5 films and your top 5 books.

Shit, that's a tall order. You could set off an ocd avalanche and a flow chart with that one, but off hte top of my head here are 5 of each that I think are great

Films:

The Pusher Trilogy (Refn)
The Spirit of the Beehive (Spain 1972)
Damnation (Bela Tarr 2006)
Rolling Thunder (1977)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)

Books:

Paul Bowles - Let It Come Down
Sartre - Erostratus (short story from The Wall)
Elizabeth Smart - By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept
Norman Mailer - An American Dream
Paul Auster - In The Country of Last Things

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview.

Thank you for asking. Answering questions like these makes me think about this stuff for myself.