Unpublished Interviews (part 2)

Sorry I've been away for a bit. Here's the other interview I did for my failed zine with False Security. Re-reading this evokes a certain amount of chagrin on my part, not because of the band but because of the realization of how stand-offish/combative/irritatingly opinionated I used to be. Some my questions come off as unnecessarily confrontational and poorly formed in their approach.

I'd like to think a lot has changed about me since early 2005, and no, I no longer really care about nor do I have any substantial beef with message boards, hipsters, crusties, California, etc.

As far as the band goes I no longer have a copy of the False Security demo as I lent it to a friend whom I soon lost touch with. I think if this band stayed together they would've been really good. As you may know both Chris and Golnar donned suits and went to work at Maximum Rock 'N' Roll, they also played in the short-lived Modern Problems. Rumor has it that both Chris and Golnar are slated to appear in the next season of "I'm From Rolling Stone." After a year spent taking peyote and wandering through the Texas desert, Ben returned to New York to go to grad school. Ben also logged time in the infamous porn-grind band Sex Drive when he flew through Austin on a speed bender, tapes have yet to surface. Spencer was last seen chugging Jamaican table-wine on New Years while blaring Scott Walker.

1. I guess I'll start with the basics, how did you guys get together
and decide to form a band?

BEN: Golnar and I were already in TIME TO DIE, but that was more or
less defunct, and we had always talked about doing a d-beat band that
would only play the poppy, mid-tempo TOTALITAR tempo, and I knew Chris
from being "around," as well as writing some reviews for Kill From the
Heart. I think about Golnar as a sort of all-time top five friend, and
Chris and Spencer have known each other forever, but at the same time
there is a really good dynamic between each ofus, which is not the
case with most bands. There usually is an "odd man out," or some sort
of faction, whereas we are just a bunch of friends who tend to let the
jokes and hanging out get in the way of practice.

GOLNAR: I learned how to play drums by playing in a band with Ben,
which probably didn't help his poor sense of rhythm! We decided to ask
Chris if he wanted to play with us, since both Insurrection (Chris'
band) and Time To Die (nee Gorefist - Ben/my band) were on the verge of
breaking up. Spencer was a mutual friend and the natural fit for the
False Security. He is the funniestpersonanyofushasevermet!



2. Where there any extra musical reasons for choosing to play the
style that you play? Reasons beyond, "we all like this type of music?"
in an era when most USHC/ punk equates to meathead attitudes,
mediocrity, and/or ripping off TRAGEDY, deciding to sound like
TOTALITAR seems like a statement.

BEN: The way I think about our music is best summed up by the band
name. "False Security" is a great ARTICLES OF FAITH song, and on the
other hand you have great Swedish HC band NO SECURITY. So those are our
two "official" influences, sort of like d-beat with a USHC sense of
melody. Chris definitely has an AoF tattoo, and I don't think he is a
meathead. For my part, I ripped off a lot of the vocal parts from
listening to SKITSYSTEM on the way to class, and then scribbling down
lyrics during lecture. There is also an ILDJARN vocal part, and I'm
sure the dudes in TOTALITAR are not rocking to "Strength and Anger." We
definitely did not want to rip off TRAGEDY, though, which is
exclusively the property of Connecticut.

GOLNAR: All of my reasons for being in a band are musical. I love
simple, straightforward raw hardcore punk. If that is a statement, then
so be it.

CHRIS: I don't think there was much of a calculated attempted to sound
like a certain band or style - we ended up sounding the way we do cause
we all like it, I think. I wouldn't say deciding to sound like
"band-A" is more of a statement than deciding to sound like "band-B".
The real statement would be deciding to be original! (Which I guess we
failed at, ha ha.)
Also, just as a matter of personal taste, the US scene in the last
couple of years has been the best I've ever seen it. Having so-called
"Tragedy rip-off bands" is a hell of a lot better than the NYHC/Victory
Records rip-off bands that were big in the mid/late-90s or the
play-with-your-back-to-the-audience screamo trend that was popular a
few years ago.



3. How has the response been to the demo so far? Have your live
performances been well recieved?

GOLNAR: We are really big in New Jersey and Texas.

CHRIS: Well we pretty much gave the demos out to people we were friends
with, so unsurprisingly the response has been fairly positive. The only
review of it that I've seen was in MRR, and I remember it was pretty
good. As for the handful of shows we've played, I thought the first
one was great; all the ones after that were played on borrowed
equipment and without much practice...



4. Demos tapes and cassettes seem to be of dwindling importance in the
punk scene: Distros rarely carry demos and despite many zines
championing them they are generally hard to come by. Compare this to
the underground metal scene where tapes play a significant role. Why
do you think punks have lost interest in this format?

BEN: I don't buy that many demos, but there have been a lot of good
ones recently. CALL THE POLICE, LEBENDEN TOTEN, SKITKIDS, MIDNIGHT, NO
FUCKER, BACTERIA, SLEEPER CELL, and DISCLOSE all put out good cassettes
in the last two years. I think the only metal tape I have bought is the
"Forest Poetry" cassette. What I find weird is when bands press their
demos to vinyl right away. That is such a rockstar thing to do, because
you haven't had any time to gauge whether people will still want to
hear that stuff in six months. A demo is basically a mission-statement
from a band, and I don't think you need to rush to vinyl. The Japanese
have it right, I think, with putting out tons of demos before you move
onto to comp tracks, and then finally maybe you put out a 7" after
years of existence, instead of shooting your load right away.

GOLNAR: I think demos are still important in punk. The problem is that
bands are far too eager to put records out, and because there are so
many (often mediocre) records to keep up with, it would be nearly
impossible for the average punker to keep up with demos as well. This
keeps demos somewhat regional, which is not all bad — punk is regional.
More bands should definitely take the time to hone their chops and put
out some demo tapes before they go on tour, put out an LP, etc. I would
add to Ben's list of recent good demo tapes: The Pedestrians, Hue &
Cry, Maradikt (sp? - i'll check on it..), Gasmask Terror, Hjertestop.


5. New York went from having a great hardcore/punk scene in the
eighties to having virtually no punk scene in the nineties, why do you
think that happened? The same decline of punk happened throughout the
US as a whole during the same period. Why do you think some places are
able to maintain a thriving punk scene while others must struggle to
stay afloat? Feel free to reference Japan and Scandinavia in your
answer.

GOLNAR: New York's tiny punk scene is a mystery to me, one of life's
unanswerable questions along the same lines as "Whatever happened to
Italian hardcore?" I think the lack of a scene in NYC has to do to some
extent to the social and economic makeup of the city, as well as its
landscape. New York punks have to contend with the lack of affordable
housing (which means fewer young kids with the means to be active NYC
punx), not enough space to practice, and few regular places to have DIY
shows. Unlike cities like Chatanooga or Madison, Wisconsin, a great
deal of time and energy has to be spent in New York simply working
enough to get by. I live in San Francisco, a city with 1/10 the
population of NYC and probably 20X the number of punk rockers. Who
knows why. Though through it all, New York has always had great punk
bands from the Ramones to Urban Waste to Kraut to Citizens Arrest to
Distraught to Balance of Terror, and will continue to have them in the
future. Big ups to Brooklyn!

CHRIS: This is a complicated question... In general, I think a good
scene is, to some degree, the result of a small number of very
dedicated people - a responsible, savvy booker, an inspiring band, or
simply someone willing risk having shows in his or her basement. Also,
as Golnar mentioned, there are the questions of resources and cost of
living. Though I can't say from firsthand experience, I've always
heard that Scandinavia, and Western Europe in general, is more tolerant
ofany activities that can be passed off as "cultural" or "artistic",
to the point where bands can play at government-sponsored youth centers
and bands have, in the past, received government subsidies for touring.
In addition, squatting is much more prevalent and a healthy welfare
program makes it relatively easier to be a fulltime punk rocker.
Maintaining a punk scene is a struggle anywhere, though, and it's far
easier in New York than, say, Southeast Asia.
New York has always had the advantage of being a sort of magnet for the
surrounding areas – Long Island, Upstate NY, New Jersey, Connecticut
and beyond. Non-residents make up a significant, often unrecognized
portion of the scene. And while New York punks frequently get burned
out, frustrated, or simply find it too difficult to make ends meet,
there are always new people moving here with fresh ideas and ambitions
to make something happen.



6. What do you think the future holds for hardcore? Do you foresee
another schism akin to what happened in the '80s, with certain bands
(FROM ASHES RISE, DAS OATH) signing to Larger labels and getting write
ups in the Village Voice? Does the recent TO WHAT END? record herald a
new rise of emo? With the number of terrible pseudo-mainstream bands
claiming to be punk/ hardcore and the somewhat esoteric history and
nature of punk do you think DIY hardcore will survive/ still be
relevant in the coming generations?

BEN: A few years ago, "punk" as a term and a look, was almost the only
way to be cool. People called JAY-Z and THE BEATLES both punk, and yet
LIMP BIZKIT were labeled hardcore. The allmusic review of MINOR THREAT
actually talks about LIMP BIZKIT in a really weird way, blaming them
for nu-metal, I think. Punk has been so thoroughly assimilated into
normal music that you don't even notice anymore. ELVIS COSTELLO, HANOI
ROCKS, and IRON MAIDEN all have a relation to punk in some way,
musically. I think that there has been a decline in mainstream posing
recently, so that when I look back to my early zines and there was a
lot of complaining about EDDIE VEDDER having a mohawk, that stuff isn't
happening as much anymore. People don't want to be punks anymore.
People nowadays just want to drop acid, I think. As far as the separate
issue of DIY hardcore, I can't imagine TO WHAT END? making it big, and
I think the huge thing nowadays is hippies, like THIS BIKE IS A PIPE
BOMB or AGAINST ME. On the other hand, I guess there are a lot of
metalcore kids who are going to want to listen to good music in a
couple of years, and where will they go? Maybe they will start
listening to raw punk or whatever is going on in DIY punk then? Anyways
I'm surprised that DIY HC outlasted thrash metal, and so it's anyone's
guess how long it will go. Thrash Metal is so totally dead that it
serves as a warning to any genre about the lifespan of underground
music.

GOLNAR: I don't know what the future holds for hardcore, but sadly it
seems that there will always be bands who lazily or egomaniacally want
to abandon DIY. When will they learn that DIY ethics will outlive them
all?! I hope that DIY hardcore and punk will remain relevant in the
future—I can't imagine this music ever losing it's relevance for me.

CHRIS: Punk has a pretty timeless appeal since it taps into universal
teenage (and beyond) themes like alienation, dissatisfaction with the
status quo, conflicts with authority, and so forth, and the DIY model
also allows for punk's survival when big business loses interest and
moves on to another profitable musical trend.


7. What do you are some of the obstacles present in existing as a punk
band on the east coast, that aren't exactly present elsewhere in the US
(read: California, and to a lesser extent Portland)? I know one of you
(Golnar) lives in California and the rest of you have at least visited
there. California seems to be flooded with bands (though most suck)
and has a very strong scene as compared to the east coast. Why do you
think this is? (After all most of the best bands of '80s came from the
east coast.)

BEN: California had DIATRIBE, ICONOCLAST, and CRUCIFIX, dude! Also they
had METALLICA whereas NYC only had ANTHRAX. Yuck! To answer your
question, the best music will always come from the south: KYLESA, COC,
THE DICKS, MORBID ANGEL, MDC, KORO, and NOTA.

GOLNAR: Unfortunately, I don't think we were around long enough as a
band to run into any real obstacles one way or the other. While it's
certainly true that NYC has fewer punks than other large cities, the
punk rockers there are among the most dedicated in the country, so I
think we would've been OK in terms of support. It's also true that the
West Coast has a very strong and vibrant scene, though bands out here
face similar problems: not enough venues, not enough money, etc.
Also, I don't know if I can say that most of the best bands of the 80s
came from the East Coast. I'd have to double check, but I don't think
I even like any NYHC between the Kraut LP and the Life's Blood EP. I'd
take the Adolescents over Agnostic Front any day. Though, the debate
over coasts is probably a moot point, as the best US region of the 80s
is the Midwest: AoF, Negative Approach, Zero Boys, Die Kreuzen, The
Fix, and on and on.

CHRIS: Probably the biggest obstacle, at least in NYC, is the high cost
of living, followed by the lack of consistent places to play. However,
living on either coast probably presents fewer obstacles for
maintaining a band than pretty much anywhere else in the country. The
Northeast in particular has a number of large cities within relatively
close distance to each other, allowing for easy and frequent exchange
of both bands and audience members. And while NYC is expensive, places
like Philadelphia and Providence are nearby and offer cheap places to
live.



8. Some punks expect the HC scene to be an overt political movement, do
you think punk can or should be expected to serve such a purpose? Your
lyrics are of a socio-political nature so I'm curious about your
thoughts on the "music scene as political resource" belief held by all
those kids on the PE board?

BEN: When I was in high school, CRASS were really big for me, not in
terms of learning, but just because they were saying things I wish I
could have thought up. Obviously if you played "Feeding of the 5000"
for Rush Limbaugh, he would not suddenly recant his conservative
viewpoints in the face of the overwhelming logic of CRASS. DISCHARGE
lyrics were great because they walk this perverse line between anti-war
documentation and sort of gory voyeurism. It is no coincidence to me
that a lot of early early death metal cites DISCHARGE as an influence,
because they have more charred corpses than anyone. I'm not sure what
people expect out of a punk band when you want every song to be a
lecture. My lyrics are almost exclusively (for this band) about the
level of altered reality that the ruling elites have set up, where all
the cards are stacked against truth and disclosure. Although TOTALITAR
don't translate their lyrics, I imagine this is what they would be
like. If we were playing a different style of music, I would write
totally different lyrics. For the most part, I think political lyrics
fit the music, but if you want to learn anything you should read a
book. But obviously it fills some gap in these people's lives to get
patted on the back about hating Bush when they listen to
third-generation ANTI SECT clones.


GOLNAR: I don't expect punk politics to change the world, though I feel
a profound amount of alienation from the "anti-PC" culture that has
become fashionable in punk these days. Bullshit shock value posturing
has no place in my life. I am sick of people thinking that they are
pushing the envelope by invoking 3rd grade levels of homophobic,
sexist, or racist nonsense. On the other hand, I don't think punk has
to be overtly political lyrically to be good, or to be punk. I think at
it's best, punk is too irreverent to be a movement with finite borders
or a definable agenda.

CHRIS: I think of the hardcore scene as more of a community than a
political movement. A 30-second hardcore song is definitely one of the
worst formats for complex political ideas – if I want to educate myself
I'll read a book, not a record sleeve. I particularly resent people in
the punk scene who use radical politics to feel better about themselves
by looking down on or criticizing others. That said, I have no problem
with bands expressing political opinions in their music. If done well
and with sincerity, it can be very powerful and inspiring.



9. Do you think there is an inherent danger in using the punk scene as
one's sole cultural guide/reference point?

BEN: I don't think any of us are guilty of that. I think that the
problem would be getting disillusioned in punk, when you find out that
(like anything) it doesn't have all the answers. There is a really good
TRAGEDY interview in #40 of Profane Existence, where they talk about
how people expect punk to do all these things for the world that it
just isn't capable of doing. That said, Todd Burdette does not know who
FIONA APPLE is.

GOLNAR: The punk scene can be very insular and very insulating, which
has led certainly led some punkers to lose their sense of perspective
on the world around them. Luckily, that is not true of anyone in this
band—I think we manage to maintain punk rock as a healthy part of our
lives.

CHRIS: Yes.



10. I understand you recently played with Finnish legends RATTUS when
they toured the US? Where you in awe or did you just mistake them for
U2?

BEN: I really admire those guys for doing a DIY tour, and playing ABC
No Rio (on a weeknight no less). DISCHARGE, on the other hand, played
at CBGB with all sorts of goober bands, and I thought that was a real
sell-out of the scene they came from. RATTUS on the other hand probably
didn't make much money but they played an all-hardcore set and were
very nice. We also had the opportunity to play with Finnish band FORCA
MACABRA, and that was a real treat as well. That said, I get so nervous
about shows that I still haven't registered that we got to play with
one of my favorite ever Finnish bands (RATTUS), but they were great
(and I have a picture of you headbanging during their set).

GOLNAR: I think that Rattus are a huge favorite of everyone in the
band, and it was super fun to get a chance to play with them. They were
absolutely incredible! One highlight was seeing the drummer bathe in an
oversized sink after their set in Philly.


11. What have you been listening too lately?

BEN: BESTHOVEN, NAILBITER, ZOE, the new AXIS OF ADVANCE, and JUDAS
PRIEST.

GOLNAR: Over the last few days I've listened to the DV8 7", TOZIBABE
7", RIP - No Te Muevas LP, ENDLESS NIGHTMARE - 7", BESTHOVEN -
everything, SADO-NATION 7", VIOLENT MINDS - everything, BURIAL - 7",
KAJUN SS 12", among others.

CHRIS: Mostly early 80s hardcore. Some recent bands I like are Direct
Control, Strung Up, No Hope for the Kids, the Repos…



12. What's your favorite CCR record?

BEN: Green River.

GOLNAR: Hardest question yet! Probably Green River.

CHRIS: Pendulum is not only my favorite CCR record, it's also
indisputably their best.



13. Are there any plans to record any new material or play some more
shows? Will the band continue to function now that one of you has left
New York, or do you plan on becoming the next DIATRIBE?

BEN: I still don't know myself. That is Chris/Golnar territory. I am
ready to rock any time, anywhere, but I'm holding off on the False
Security tattoo for right now.

GOLNAR: I guess being the next Diatribe is not so bad, but I don't
think our demo is quite as good as that, so hopefully we'll get a
chance to tour or record some more and really create a lasting legacy!
(note: sarcasm)
I really love every member of this band, and couldn't imagine playing
music with people whose company I enjoy more, so hopefully we'll work
something out. Oh, and if we had a logo, I'd get a False Security
tattoo for sure.

CHRIS: In the hopes that this interview is not totally irrelevant to
all but the handful of people who already know about False Security, we
would like to stay together long enough to at least record properly and
play some more shows. Who knows?



14. That's it, closing comments? Are demos still available? How can
you be contacted by the inquisitive reader? Thanks for the interview?

BEN: Our new lyrics will be so Proustian you will shit your pants.

CHRIS: If anyone wants a demo, write to me at
killfromtheheart@yahoo.com - I still have a bunch of blank tapes and
covers. And yes, thanks for the interview!


-all photos stolen from Al Quint