Interview with This Is Hell - Podcast 77

yo what's up this is rick from this is hell and you're listening to sound scene revolution

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brand new interview for everybody this week with uh rick from the band this is hell they are on trust kill records maybe you've heard of them um basically we uh sat and talked with them recently outside of their show in berkeley uh about the band it was a while back so i'm kind of a little foggy on what exactly we talked about but i do remember we were at some point interrupted by a muslim guy who wanted to let me know he's not a terrorist and so that's good i felt that was good information no anyhow so uh we're gonna play oh we do have a giveaway this week we have a very important giveaway where we will be giving away a copy of the this is hell split with cancer bats on a seven inch vinyl record it is red which is ironically supposed to be the cancer bats color so i don't know how we got this because we picked it up on tour with this is hell we also have a first pressing of their album misfortunes on orange vinyl which is out of i believe 300 and something uh where they're already out of the first pressing orange and yellow so the only way to get now is on red so uh you want to pick this up you get the opportunity uh we'll have instructions on how to enter at the end but uh before we get into that we're gonna play the interview we got a song off this is hell's latest lp misfortunes uh i don't know what track we're gonna play now but we'll figure it out but enjoy that and then we're going to jump into the interview so uh check it out

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nice say hello uh hello yeah i don't know normally we do more than one person so it's kind of like introduce yourself but oh well i'm rick all right play guitar in this is hell singing soldiers drive the van a lot watch a lot of wrestling say things that are offensive too often hey that's that works out that makes for good uh entertainment oh yeah it does by the way so we can so you know this goes on the internet so if you want to say anything a lot of people are like radio friendly so you don't got to worry i don't know all right yeah i should not say yeah you can say anything you can say yeah because it goes on the internet don't worry about it all right cool cool so fuck there you go now that we've gotten that out of the way um i guess the first place to start is if we can just get a brief history of the band how you guys got started and all that all right um we started in may of 2004 um the original lineup we were all doing other bands yeah at the time we're doing um backup plan scraps and heart attacks subterfuge thieves and assassins uh we're all all doing different bands um and we we started this held as a side project like on a whim like um we wanted to do like a band that was fast but also like really heavy yeah which is um the only band that was really doing that was that we were in was subterfuge but like me and johnny were playing subterfuge but we broke up earlier the year before um we had started thieves and assassins which is more of like a melodic hardcore band um scraps was fast and heavy but uh not in the traditional sense of what we wanted to do yeah and backup plans same thing they were a fast band they were a heavy band but they were still more of like a you know melodic hardcore band so we started this held just like on um you know as a side project and um it was just like you know short simple fun recorded uh our demo about three weeks after we started um we figured like what the hell we'll get it pressed yeah like um the cds press made some booklets and everything and uh went on tour each one of us went on tour with a band at a time uh over the whole summer and we had the this all demos out yeah and we essentially got rid of all those demos just on like i guess it was about like a three or four week period of time oh keep it down um easy there buddy so that was cool you know um the band just kind of like gained momentum we just got psyched on it like as we were getting more psyched on doing that actually you know like i said the band was getting getting momentum we were uh at the same time i think each of our other individual bands was falling apart for one reason or another yeah you know like um like at heart i i need to play aggressive music and the band i was playing at the time like wasn't aggressive enough for me musically i wasn't relating to it lyrically and i was kind of just getting like detached from it and i was like bummed me out real hard and um backup plan was just going through trouble as far as you know so scraps as far as finding solid lineups for people that want to tour all the time yeah so we got back from that tour each one of the tours essentially like yo let's do it let's tour this is hell you know and um me and johnny toured with thieves and assassins a little longer while this hell did the first tour um and then after that it was like kind of like i was i was done yeah with what i was doing you know and like i just wanted to do this hell is what i was feeling you know musically you know so um we essentially the first this is hell tour didn't have the original this hell lineup yeah which is kind of weird but um you know so essentially we started touring with you know the original line we started out full time in uh december 2004 and it was just you know from that point on it was like this is what we want to do yeah we started writing songs more seriously writing lyrics more seriously um toured constantly yeah we did um i always mess this up i'm pretty sure it was three or four u.s tours a euro tour and a canadian tour all on demo um before you had a full like yeah yeah it was just like um cdr demos and like makeshift packaging and we had it released on seven inch through run for cover records yeah um from there we did an ep with state of mind records and just toured the fuck out of it yeah um and i think it was uh i guess the um the end of 2005 we uh signed with trust kill we looked for a while because we knew like we were already busting our asses doing so much for ourselves we weren't going to settle with the label yeah like wasn't like oh any label that wants to do this you know so we you know really kind of like took our time deciding on a label we decided to sign with trust kill and you know um within two months we recorded sundowning had it out that may continue to do the same thing you know we just toured constantly constantly um you know the cycle you know we toured i guess for about two years and just went and recorded um misfortunes this this fall yeah and put that out about uh two and a half weeks ago and um this past summer uh we got chris and john in the band because uh jeff our original bass player and original um you know original member uh he's got engaged he's getting married you know he went back to school he's going to um school to be a doctor so we got like i said johnny who was in thieves and assassins with me he was in subject with me for eight years you know it was just like natural it's like this was the first band i ever did that was serious without him anyway yeah so it's like you know it was great to bring him into the fold now he's um you know he's been like my best friend forever so it's like perfect to have him in the band you know he writes almost all the lyrics for the band um and uh you know we parted ways with our guitar player last summer also and brunt and chris so now we have this which essentially is our our second official lineup but it's great it's like a solid lineup we're all like on the same page good times cool now you like almost everybody in the band has been playing for over 10 years yeah various other bands so how has it felt because i mean you guys have obviously you've worked really hard with this band but i mean you've also come up like really quickly for i mean considering the number of different bands that you've played in i mean yeah yeah it's it's really really weird because like i said um first uh subterfuge we started in 1996 i think it was like one of the first days of january 1996 and um backup plan backup plan started um out of a band called clump and you know they've been essentially they were playing since like 98 99 you know backup plan started i think 99 2000 um and you know we even did both of our first full tours together was backup plan subversion you know nobody gave a shit you know and like um travis played in a bunch of other bands you know starting from like 2001 like so we've struggled for years and years and years um and even struggling on a small level like so my first band we played five years before somebody we didn't know came to see us and it was funny because we actually made a big deal about our five-year anniversary show and it was like oh whatever like we just kind of put as a tagline for ourselves we were proud that we were playing the band for five years and that show we saw like four kids and one of them was actually dan who plays in this is hell and soldiers now which we didn't know at the time um like we don't know these kids and they're here for us and they're like like moshing like like this is crazy so um like that's like a such a small victory you know but add on top of that the fact we like with tour and nobody would come we'd lose so much money constantly and even just like getting people to like pay attention to your band book your band so hard for so many years and um we started getting it going a little bit when we were doing tours with other bands before this is hell but um it was still nowhere close to easy it's not like you know none of the bands really had like hype per se scrapped heart attacks did a little bit you know um but when we started this is hell and we started doing stuff with this is kind of like this is weird you know like why do people give a shit about this band like out of nowhere it's like and um it's so so strange like somebody did uh wrote our bio for for us um but it was something that we knew but some we knew like loosely yeah so when they're writing our bio they're like saying oh and you know travis and chris from scrapped heart attacks and um you know dan from the backup plan and as if people cared about those bands like listing all the other bands yeah and it goes long island hardcore stalwart rick and it's like i've been in in a trillion bands you know i've booked shows i've been you know doing all this shit for years but to be put like that yeah by somebody else like it's i i'm flattered and it's cool and i would you know love that people you know think that like you know appreciate the you know everything i put into hardcore yeah but at the same time it's it's so revisionist history you know is that people make it like backup backup plan did so well long island for the last year of their existence you know um subrefuge like killed it on long island like absurdly but only for like the last like two years that we played yeah you know two years might be a long time but two years in eight year history yeah it's kind of it still blows my mind that like you know any of our bands might have some type of like long island hardcore legacy and you know i might even be you know blowing myself up right now just because it's like i'm proud of what we've done and my friends have done towards it yeah but um the initial internet hype and just you know border mouth hype we got with this as hell was was absurd the fact that we you know got rid of a thousand demos on you know three separate tours that wasn't even for that band then we went on a tour and sold out of our first pressing of a record before the end of the tour it's like what the fuck like it's crazy but um you know that's also the especially with the internet the nature of uh the nature of hardcore now yeah it's very like what's new when you know quote unquote nobody knows about it we're in actuality like what does everybody think is cool right now you know and we were one of those bands and it was like oh you know this hell is cool buy the record this and that the other thing and um kind of usually that happens and then the band will put out an ep and break up yeah after that and um yeah essentially what we did is we put out the seven inch and people went crazy put out the ep and we still had a little bit of hype you know and i'd like to think that wasn't just hype that it was like you know word of mouth hype then people come and like see us it's like oh this band is important it's cool but you know like i said i know the cycle kids you know it's i i hate to say it sometimes but you know underground music because should i stop or no no no my mic was fucked up my man underground music tends to fall into the same trend traps as mainstream music here and there yeah but um and we definitely felt that because well after we did the ep we wanted to put out a full length on a label you know like a bigger label yeah and not like oh we want to cash in there's no cash to be made in hardcore but we wanted to do something that was going to be able to um make us like do this full time yeah you know and that's not like we need to make money we need to make sure that people are going to come to our shows like consistently throughout the world and the only way it's going to happen is you have better distro you're not going to get better distro unless you have a bigger label and a lot of people don't understand that and i understand that people don't understand that because they're not in the place of a full-time hardcore band yeah um even kids that like go to shows constantly going to a show constantly isn't putting like your personal life and even you're like you know life on this earth at risk and and it is that type of risk because like i know we i've flipped my van you know i mean i've like looked at my wallet and been like i have one dollar i'm not planning on having any money for a couple days and i need to eat you know so it's a different way of thinking but um and we definitely had some backlash with that like oh you're putting out a you're putting out another record like why don't you guys break up yeah but you're putting out a record on on a label especially a label like trust kill which is like you know it doesn't do just hardcore yeah it's a little you're one of the bands that kind of stand out a little bit on the way yeah yeah um so like we got that with that last album you know i'd like to think we you know increased our fan base yeah you know and not like oh we want to you know be this huge band you know we obviously we are feel like our message is important so we want to get people to relate with our message plus you know playing shows the more people is fun if those people care we played shows the you know 3 000 kids that don't care and that's not fun but um i'm going off on a tangent i don't remember what the initial question was it's all good don't worry about it too much i was gonna say uh you guys did sounds on the other ground for a little bit didn't you yeah yeah we did for two and a half weeks and i was thinking about it how did that go because um that's such a that's an odd package to or like all together yeah it was weird it was kind of those things where like um the history of the tour yeah you know like was always at least like two or three hardcore bands yeah yeah and um i guess it was 2006 we played um just the jersey date and it was like terror play converge played um and it was so awesome yeah it was like um you know a couple hardcore bands a lot of metal bands and it was a big stage but it was you know the energy was still there it was like i think like 5 000 kids there god damn and it was like kids you know because there was some of the hardcore bands kids that normally come to see us yeah came to see us and terror and converge see the hardcore band yeah so i was like yo this is sick yeah um because i know like one of the first years i think mad ball played yeah so i was like oh all right this we got the offer to do it like fuck yeah you know only two and a half weeks because i knew if we got off do the whole thing regardless of who's on it i would have went crazy because i can't stand that environment for that long but like we did the one-off it was cool do two and a half weeks so it'd be cool and then we got the official lineup and it was like a few bands i liked yeah but not necessarily like i didn't like feel good about like oh like we're gonna do real well on this tour you know don't necessarily mesh too well yeah but it was kind of like we've done some weird things so it's kind of like you know let's let's give it a try you know if we could be the kind of uh the ambassador hardcore band to these kids like they come to see you know a band like darkest hour or job for a cowboy yeah so it's like all right they like you know in my opinion good bands and heavy bands and aggressive bands you know like we're a heavy aggressive band too we're just you know we're different yeah so we're gonna take a quick jump out of the interview there and play uh some more music from this is hell uh again stay tuned for the end we have a chance to win uh their seven inch split with cancer bats on red vinyl and their lp misfortunes on orange vinyl and uh yeah so you'll want to stay tuned to learn how to enter all of that uh other than that this is a track off of this

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saw sick of it all i saw sick of it all warp tour i was like you know like i wasn't going there to see a band you know i was going to see bouncing souls and um you know like i knew about hardcore but i wasn't like a straight up hardcore kid now like i said i'd never saw sick of it all before and it was kind of like ah like this this is it you know so i was like oh maybe we'll be that band for the tour and you know i don't really know on that tour if it worked out like that and you know like i said i hate playing on big stages can't stand the barrier can't stand the security guards but you know it was a learning experience it was awesome to play with darkest hour those guys are great it was awesome play a job for cowboy those kids are cool um bands awesome acacia strange same thing like awesome guys you know we made friends um heavy heavy logo you know band we would never in a million years wind up on a tour with and it was like these kids are fucking awesome like so much fun um so it was we had to take take the good with the bad yeah um obviously we lost so much money on the tour and we're not we're not the type of band that can lose money yeah so that sucked you don't have a lot of padding in that area no no but um you know like i say take the good with the bad you know we've done some other things that were like weird for us like we did a couple of glass jaw shows um i think that was the end of 2006 or maybe that was in 2007 i don't remember i think that was the end of this past year yeah but um uh those shows are awesome yeah like on all levels the energy was great kids were great sold a lot of merch you know drives were short so we didn't lose money driving um earlier or the summer of uh 2006 i think or my years are all fucked up now i don't remember it's all kind of a blur at this point but we did a short tour of bayside that's way way like not our our genre but it was so awesome like those are like you know good friends of ours you know one of my favorite bands so it was kind of like yeah let's do it and it was so cool cool you know kids were psyched we went into that tour like all right we're gonna just by compared to like bayside and like valencia and spitalfield we're gonna be like hatebreed yeah on these shows so i was like you know what we're gonna be the band that when i would go with like my girlfriend years ago my ex-girlfriend years ago i would go to a show she wanted to see yeah and i would sit there and like hold her jacket and just be like whatever then like for some reason like a heavy band would play that would be like just so psyched i'd be like hold my jacket i'm gonna go mosh and i was like we'll be that band like all the kids that are like one here like how you're but it was like it wasn't even just that it was like you know i think bayside for some reason has like a hardcore crossover but um maybe just because they're just such a great band you know you can't deny them no matter what you listen to in my opinion but um went over great on that tour i don't really understand why but it was cool like you know dudes are into it you know the girls are into it we're not a girl type of band but whatever man if people relate to our message and want to get psyched on our energy that's all that matters to me you know i'm not going to be a snob like you know you must like look like me and listen to exactly what i listen to otherwise i don't you know that that's what i got into hardcore to avoid yeah so if they show up and they're into your band i mean yeah that's all that should matter you know cool so you guys uh misfortunes came out like you said about two weeks ago something like that on trusco um two questions first of all i guess the obvious what uh would you guys say is different on this album as opposed to on sundowning like do you do different approach songwriting anything like that there's a couple differences uh there's two different members so obviously you know like musically um it's going to be a little different we were able to um i hate to use the word experiment because it wasn't really experiment we were able to evolve um a bit more a bit more i think um then i think we may have had we not had the lineup change yeah um and then lyrically you know um on sundowning jeff our old bass player just wrote all the lyrics to that and on this album our new bass player johnny wrote most of the lyrics and i had a little hand in the lyrics too and um that was really cool because um i would write a song on guitar or i'd come up some of the song guitar and then we'd you know fill in the blanks or complete a song um musically and then a lot of times john would know exactly what the song was about even before like the lyrics or you know before i'd even talk to him just show him the song and i think it has a lot to do with the fact that like we've been friends for uh 22 years now you know we've done all these bands together and um he knows knows me so well you know and i know him so well and like so i could just play a song and he knows what i'm going through yeah you can put that into words and like i could be like oh i'm gonna you know this is the lyrics for this song and it fits into the whole album like this so i think you know just the album is last sundown it was personal yeah um it was kind of like personal reactions to you know outside where this album is very personal and it's like personal reactions to like our actions you know like how like our decisions the our thought process you know um just kind of the things your brain goes through um so i think it's it's it's more personal that way it's a deeper album and like i said musically we're able to like evolve and um like i said not really experiment we've got to do some things we didn't do last album which was really cool like um i think the intensity is just been upped like tremendously and um that wasn't like a conscious thing to dull it on the last album yeah you know we went all for it last album and you know i was so happy with last album and i'm never happy as you could probably tell on the new album but um i was you know as satisfied as i could get you know sundowning i said when that album was out uh essentially musically that was the album i wanted to write for years so i was nervous going through this album like oh like i have to compete with like what i did last time i was like happy with it and i was nervous about that until it was just kind of like i'm not going to think about that i'm just going to like write what i feel and then as the time you know came like we kept writing and writing i was just like going through shit that affected how i was writing so much you know that just like musically and lyrically the album just turned into just a complete like misery fest but i mean that's what we needed to get out and it was like great once i was like we were done recording and once the album was out i was like i didn't write it to feel better i just wrote because i need to get it out you know regardless of whether it's feeling better as far as we can talk about that on the album just getting it out is important regardless of whether you feel better or not and actually wound up feeling better which is cool and it was like my life took a couple of positive turns which i had no i thought we were gonna put out the album this miserable album you know people hopefully be able to relate to it yeah and be like all right other people feel this way and it's cool and that's still what i want but it would actually wind up being like therapeutic like i went into a couple of different situations just feeling like a weight was lifted off me and it was like i don't think i've been so down you know i'm gonna have my moods you know i'm a i'm a manic depressive you know i have you know you know i deal with things certain ways but it was it was definitely therapeutic i know that's what music's supposed to be but i kind of almost gave up on that because i didn't really ever feel as it feel about it so much as like you know a therapy is as much as i did as an outlet yeah if if those things can be different you know because i feel like somebody like oh this is my therapy i feel shitty i'm gonna do this i'm gonna feel better yeah i'd be like i'm gonna do so i don't go crazy you know i need to get this outlet out if i don't i'm gonna like walk down the road with a scowl and you know someone's gonna look at me the wrong way and i'm gonna stick my arm right knock someone out you know and just like you know it's like that much of an outlet and you know like i feel like that comes across when we play live too that's like our energy live you know it's um not just like hey we're playing this song let's have a good time or like i'm jumping i'm you know putting on a show it's kind of like you know we travel around and put our personal lives in like jeopardy yeah you know and in utter turmoil because we need that outlet and not just the emotional outlet of playing but like the physical outlet you know the action but um i think you know we had all that on the last album but it's just been so much more yeah the whole like the whole album i just think is so intense in whether it's like aggressive burst of energy or even on like a down depressive side it's still just so intense um and i like i think the last album had that but just not to this extreme cool yeah you were talking about uh performing live i know you're doing double duties on this with soldiers and this is hell how's that been going is that wearing on you yet yeah but i mean we we did this in december yeah and it was only two weeks and i was doing back to back yeah and um obviously two weeks makes it easier and back to back actually makes it easier also because once i'm done with one set my adrenaline's going you know i'm pumped up and i'm ready to go again on this tour a lot of times it's um a local opener soldiers then ruiner um eligia then this is hell yeah so i'll be playing with soldiers and i'll wind down yeah and like i'll chill sell some merch just kind of like like wind down and by the time like normally like i'm ready to go home and like sleep and just whatever it's like hey you gotta play again i was like ah fuck but um i knew what i was getting myself into and you know like uh it's not like i can't handle it you know it's it's a bitch on my legs my fucking legs are killing me you know um but it's it's awesome to have you know the that outlet twice yeah and to be able to you know express myself verbally and then chill and then express myself like with the guitar and like with you know in a different way soldiers is is aggressive in a different way that this is hell is aggressive definitely um and that dual outlet is is so good for me yeah you know um not to mention you know like above all of like the outlay and anger and everything like playing live is fun oh you know playing in a hardcore band is fun so being able to do it twice is awesome you know so um you know it's not the easiest thing but i mean whatever nothing the way easy isn't fun you know nothing's easy it wouldn't be worth doing totally man if it's easy it wouldn't be worth doing it and also if it's easy anybody can do it and i don't want to do stuff anybody else can do that's boring exactly so i think we're gonna wrap it up here so um anything else you want to say um you guys got the new amount tours anything you want to plug um yeah just check out misfortunes you know it's relatively new um check out the soldiers album end of days it's been out for a while and um i don't know order wrestlemania 24 and root for rick flair i know he's gonna lose and his career is gonna be over because it's a career ending match and it probably should be over he's had a long rear now come on yeah um he's 60 years old and i want him to retire with dignity but he's my personal hero yeah you know his uh and it's funny because this is actually like a serious thing his uh devotion to his craft is so admirable you know and it's not just like a lot of wrestlers stick around longer than they should yeah and it's kind of like they don't know what else to do like he has such a passion for what he does he has a great character and and yeah you can see it you know like he gets i love when he gets so emotionally involved in what he's doing that he that he starts crying and it's like you know i play i play these aggressive bands and soldiers is like the toughest band i've ever done i sing about like me being so pissed and and everything and i get when rick flair does a promo like sometimes it makes me like feel something when arn anderson and rick flair talking about the nature of their like business and everything dude rick flair has made me cry i'll say it on the internet there's nothing wrong with that and when he when he gets inducted into the hall of fame the night before i'm gonna be a mess i already told people i'm not watching it with anybody because i'm gonna start crying by yourself you don't want to you know but i'm having a huge wrestlemania party and i told everybody if you're if you're gonna ridicule me for crying don't show up don't go they're just it's just gonna cause problem yeah but um that's it you know check check out my bands i feel like my bands have have stuff to say important stuff to say cool and you know that's why it's important to me you know um you know check out all the bands we're on tour with because they're great guys great bands eligia ruiner and um check out my friends bands from home incendiary and ice age my really really close friends great bands really doing their thing so awesome sounds good all right thank you for taking the time no doubt man so that was it that wraps it up the whole interview with rick uh hope you enjoyed it he was uh he definitely he seemed a little nervous but he was a good dude and we were happy to talk with him and hopefully you enjoyed it and all that good stuff anyhow so like i said contest this week we have a copy of their split with cancer bats on red vinyl and a copy of their lp misfortunes on orange vinyl um if you're aware if you're a vinyl collector and you're aware of the clusterfuck that was the trust kill pre-order for this album you know that there were people who ordered it the day it came out who ended up getting second pressings of the album because i don't know what the fuck trust kill did on this but it was fucking unbelievably poorly done uh if anyone from trust kill listens you probably don't but uh sorry but i was not impressed with the way this lp was handled but it is a good lp and we got a first pressing out of it was like 350 on orange vinyl to give away so uh what you're gonna do you're gonna send us an email soundscenerevolutionatgmail.com you're gonna put uh this is hell uh uh contest in the subject line i'm sorry i'm looking at my little dog right now which is currently destroying a blanket on our couch and apparently in hunt of something but uh oh no it was just laying down it was just getting comfortable but oh no it's back up anyhow so uh put this is hell contest in there and i don't think we got into it too much but rick uh from this is hell huge comic book fan he did an interview with marvel.com actually before he did our interview not immediately before but like some period of time before and so uh we're gonna ask what is your favorite comic book character doesn't i think we might have asked this in another one i don't know but it doesn't need to be fancy just something to prove that you paid attention and so send that to soundscenerevolutionatgmail.com include name address pertinent information and we will pack this up and send it out to one lucky winner all right uh we'll be back next week new show hopefully uh we have it already recorded we just got to get it together and uh yeah there's another another track off of the uh this is hell's latest album misfortunes enjoy that and uh we will be back next week you

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