I found The Backstreet Abortions from UK at Instagram and they aroused my interest very fast. I had to listen, and wow... all of a sudden I've got a new favorite band. The mix of pure punkrock and classic anarcho punk makes me overwhelmed.
Hi, please start with an introduction of the band Hello we are The Backstreet Abortions! Me Jesse on vocals Biff on guitar , Kev on drums , and Les on Bass How would you describe your music? Can you try to pick 3 bands that you’ve been influenced by and explain why? I guess we are punk rock. Biff writes the music to fit my lyrics most of the time. Devo who’s message and sound is a big influence on me and how I look at things, Motörhead I have been into as long as I can remember. Angry Samoans and the Exploited short to the point songs influence the way I write lyrics. There is so many bands and hip hop artists that mean the world to me , but the way our music sounds I would say those three have more of an influence. You are obviously pro-choice and pro-abortions, what is the public opinion about that in England? I am from the US but have lived in the UK last 17 years, I have had an Abortion in both countries. There was a very big difference, in the Uk they are free and easy access , as it should be. In America not as easy and now getting harder as you see on the news, I am worried for girls back home in the States. That’s why I started to write lyrics.
How come that you focus a lot on this question? Are you involved in any compounds as well or do you just stick to the music and to express your thoughts that way? I think it’s the most important thing in the world not being forced to breed. Abortion is freedom. I wouldn’t be happy or where I am today if I was forced to have those unwanted pregnancies. This is of course a question about women’s rights, can you feel that the society are heading in the right direction even though we’re far from being equal? I have always felt I was equal even if I’m not in some peoples eyes. No one is going to stop me from doing what I want to do. I feel that if we really want to attack the people that keep women down we should start with religion. Well back to the music, God’s a pig was released in 2018, what are your plans for the future when it comes to new records and music? We have some new songs we are working on, two already in the set. The rest of the band are also in The Varukers, last year was really busy for them. This year we will have some time to do stuff. What do you think about the UK punk scene today? Any bands you will recommend? It’s great super friendly everyone looks out for each other. Butcher Baby, Circle None, Overload and the Blue Carpet Band are some great newer bands
Here's an interview with Corporate Citizen. My questions has been answered by the entire band so I had to shorten it down a bit. If you are into melodic hardcore you will probably like this San Diego band with strong influences from the 90's hardcore punk scene. Here we go.
Hello Corporate Citizen, please introduce the band Steve O: I am Steve O’Brien and I play guitar. Bob: I am Bob Meder and I sing Dan: I am Dan Achin and I play drums. Mike: The “New Guy”. I play bass I wrote in the review that your music sums up four decades of hardcore, do you agree? How would you describe your music? Steve O: I always love seeing the references to the DC bands (Minor Threat, Fugazi) when it comes to describing our music. The style of guitar and structures of the songs were heavily influenced by the DC bands. Our style of music sits between what people would consider traditional hardcore, melodic hardcore and post-hardcore as well. Bob: I totally agree with Steve but would add that some of the stuff we do with vocals can be reminiscent of the 90’s Epitaph and Fat Wreck bands as well. Dan: I come from a little bit of a different background than Bob and Steve O’Brien. I spent the first 26 years of my life in Omaha, NE and when I started playing drums I was into metal. I got into Hardcore, Punk and Ska late, and even though I really like Hardcore bands like The Gorilla Biscuits, Judge, Killing Time, and Ignite, I probably identify more with 90s Punk and Ska. What was your ambitions when you formed the band? Steve O: Bob, Dan and I were all in bands with each other previous to Corporate Citizen. When Bob reached out to me about playing again I was psyched since we were always on the same page in terms of music. Plus he is a great frontman and brings a lot of energy. Dan is a great drummer who can also help with the songwriting. It was a perfect foundation to start a new band. You pick up a lot of influences from the 90’s melodic hardcore scene, what was the best with that era and how do you think that the scene has been developed from that time until now? Steve O: I was lucky enough to play a lot of great shows in the NYHC scene in the 90s in my previous band. To me the 90s were a great time because you had bands like Quicksand, CIV, SOIA and then H20. All blending together the great elements of the Bad Brains, Cro-Mags and AF. Kid Dynamite is a perfect example and a band I take a lot of inspiration form when coming up with a riff. Fast, hard and melodic. Bob: I think the era of 90’s melodic hardcore was especially cool because you had a lot of bands that were pretty uncompromising in their style and sound that were able to reach a very wide audience. To me the best bands from that era were H20, Pennywise, Pulley, Bad Religion, Bouncing Souls, Kid Dynamite, Avail, and Strung Out to name a few. Mike: I think the melody is the best part. There is always melody in music. Some groups utilised it better than others, but in the 90’s it reached a new level. In my opinion that whole metal core scene is what killed the melodic hardcore. It’s nice to see melodic hardcore coming back. How is the San Diego punk scene? Any good venues or bands you can recommend? Bob: The scene is doing well! There a bunch of promoters who really want to build a scene here. Venues are always popping up but the most popular are probably Tower Bar, Brick by Brick, The Observatory, and the Belly Up. But there are smaller places like Legacy Brewery that are always willing to host a punk or hardcore show. San Diego is full of great bands right now. You should check out the Spotify Playlist “San Diego Punks United”. It showcases a lot of the great bands that are currently playing around here. Some of my favorites are Wanted Noise, Gut Punch, Skipjack, Fishing For Chips, War Fever and Bossfight. Dan: There are definitely a lot of really cool bands in the San Diego area right now and for the most part, everyone supports one another.
What have you released so far, and what response have you got? Steve O: We recorded the “What Would He Do?” EP that was available on bandcamp. That was the real start of Corporate Citizen. Due to a lack of a guitar player, I had to switch from bass to guitar and play both instruments on the recording. When we released our full length “A Brief Moment of Sanity” we had a full band and the songs benefited from it. Bob: Pretty much everything we have seen has been really positive. It is nice to see that people like what you are doing. Are you satisfied with El Topo Records and your collaboration? Will they be involved in the future as well? Steve O: When we recorded “A Brief Moment of Sanity” we believed that it was worthy of a wider release. Through our friends the Midnight Block we sent the recordings to Carlos at El TOpo and he really liked them. He agreed to handle all the online distribution (Bandcamp, Spotify, etc.) for the record. We still put out the vinyl version and cassette ourselves but in concert with El Topo. Carlos has been really supportive which is what you want in a label. I noticed that a majority of your gigs has been local, do you have or will you play outside California in the future? Steve O: In a perfect world we would be on the road a lot more. We are all in the same situation where the needs band has to balance with our lives. Everyone in the band has a family and full time jobs which makes touring a bit of a challenge. Bob: if we could pack up all the kids and wives and become travelling gypsy musicians we would but I don’t think it is in the cards right now.
So what about the future, do you have any plans? Steve O: We are already working on a new record with the new line up. With Steve Diaz and Mike Ruggerio in the group we can now expand the sound of the songs. This will create a texture that you don’t always find in a hardcore band. Bob: I am especially excited about the next record. The demos Steve has put together sound so rad already and i can’t wait until we can set aside time to really hash them out. I think the next record is going to be really freaking good. Dan: I agree, we have high expectations for the next album and adding in some new members is going to broaden the range of influences we bring to our sound. Mike: Make music! Like I said earlier, it's been a while….Im excited for the future!
Hi The Nilz, please introduce the band Hi I'm Eddie Nil, vocals & all round Gimp. On bass we have Chris Dahmner, drums Backdoor Gary and on guitar Scaley Dick What was the plans and ideas when you formed the band? I'm not sure there was much of a plan but the idea of forming the band probably came about through our want of something more exciting for Irish Punk, there was no band that really excited us, there where & are really good bands but no one as edgy or exciting as us live, thats being very honest not arrogant How would you describe your sound and is there any special bands that have influenced you? I've always thought its up to others to describe what sound we have, I think when you're as close to it as we are your perception can be skewed somewhat, as regards Influence we have tons. I think the major influences we have are The Dwarves, Refused, The Bronx & obviously Turbonegro
You are from Dublin, what can you say about the local punk scene? It's not really a movement if you don't move, we have some terrific bands in Dublin but crowds tend to be a little subdued, I'll admit it is getting much better though we've recently had a few crazy gigs You have this project called Buddycore, what is that about? Buddycore was set up to really create a DIY network around Ireland so we could bring bands from around the country to Dublin and in turn send bands from Dublin to different collectives around the country that we are connected to, we've branched out in recent years to bring bands such as Zooparty, Existenz & The Headlines from Sweden plus a few bands now from Germany, it also means we get to go gig in those countries, we also set it up to give the younger bands somewhere to cut their teeth and get involved as well, we're not total degenerates, well... Your music videos are very spectacular, what is the thoughts behind them? Would you say that the videos describe you as a band? We've always loved making videos but have always been of the mindset that they should be either funny or make you uncomfortable in someway while watching them, we did one video where it's just clips from one of our performances, that one is probably my least favourite as its in no way esoteric or disgusting, we love a bit of filth What plans do you have for the future? After this years Buddyfest (which is a 2 day gig we run each year) we're going to take a break from gigging for about 6 months or so, to write & record our debut album, we have a lot of it written at this point but we've been quite busy this year gigging so we need some time to work on them, after thats recorded we hope to come back to Sweden for a couple of gigs with our good mates Existenz Is there anything you want to add? Do drugs, Eat Ass, Die fast https://www.facebook.com/thenilzmusic/
