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.
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