This is an old one from fall 2006. Never got published, better late than never, I guess.
Metal Mark/PROCLAMATION
What's up in the life of Metal Mark currently and how are you doing?
I recently played a couple of Devo tribute sets with my once-a-year band. We all live hundreds of miles apart, so we practice 30 or so songs on our own and then practice once together as a band just before we perform. It can be a little unnerving, but we do pretty well in light of the obvious limitations. Our website is http://www.spudboys.net and we have a MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/spudboys . This may not sound very "metal," but you'd be surprised how many lovers of extreme music also appreciate Devo (Devo was a HUGE influence on Siege--they will tell you that themselves!!); besides, I discovered Devo before I discovered heavier forms of music.
Why did Proclamation broke up and what has happened in your life musicwise after that?
Over a series of events in a short period of time, it became evident that Proclamation had run its course. We hadn't written any new tunes in a year and a half. Lee (one of the guitarists) told me he wanted to write songs where we would "have chicks in the front screaming along like they do for Bane," and I began looking quietly for a replacement for him. That's not to slight Bane, but it was so far away from what we were, musically, and the type of lyrics I write. In fact, lyrically, I really wanted to get out of scene politics and into larger issues--there was nothing further I wanted to say about being straight edge and how the scene should be. On top of this, we were all becoming pretty jaded about the hardcore scene in general. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that has anything to do with hardcore at all anymore, and it's certainly a more peripheral passion of mine these days. Some of the guys were really discouraged about how little headway we made...not getting onto any shows where there was any turnout, not drawing any crowd ourselves after 4 years, and the general indifference that our CD received in the Boston area despite overwhelmingly positive reviews from all over the place. After one particularly sparsely-attended gig, Lee announced he was going to quit--this at the time where our other guitarist Matt was going off to school out of state and we were going to continue as a 4-piece during his absence (at least until I could find someone to replace Lee)--and then a couple of days later Nate (our drummer) announced he was also going to leave after completing our scheduled gigs (he also cited frustration over our lack of headway). It seemed logical to end it at that point, so to coincide with Matt's winter break, we scheduled our last show that December with a bunch of bands we liked: A.C., PTL Klub, Last In Line, Down But Not Out, Days Ahead, The A-Team, Final Awakening, and a couple of others, including Think I Care. In my mind, it was an amazing show and a good way to close the book. The only thing that would've been better about it would be if I hadn't been the one who booked it--I was busy stressing about details for much of the 9-hour show.
The following spring and summer I was busy hammering out details to remix our Bridge 9 releases and compile a discography release for Life Sentence Records; once that was out of the way, I formed a band with Seth from A.C. called You're Fired ( http://www.myspace.com/yourefiredboston ). We'd talked about it for over a year beforehand, but our schedules finally lined up to do it. It's really fast hardcore and very political, mostly concentrating on the corrupt nature of the shadow government and championing the rights of individuals. The lyrics of one of our songs have been misconstrued as racist; however, anyone willing to examine the facts of my life and politics on a rational level would know better. I wrote and recorded "My Foreign Policy" before I got more information on the bigger picture; these lyrics have since been re-written.
In the spring of 2003 or 2004 I had the opportunity to jam with Kurt and Rob from Siege for an afternoon, which was awesome. I wish I'd recorded it. Siege is the best Boston hardcore band ever, period, so playing their songs with them was mind-blowing. This was going to be a step toward a Siege reunion, but it never materialized.
In October of 2004 Seth was found unconscious. He was comatose for a month and suffered a lot of nerve damage. His road to recovery was going to be long, so You're Fired was put on hiatus. It is in large part due to Seth's recovery time that we only have one 7" released to date (he's the guitarist); but in September we played our first show in over 2 years and we're hopeful to write and release more material.
In November 2004 I joined some friends to form a death metal band called Soon To Be Dead ( http://www.myspace.com/soontobedeaddeathmetal ). The music was very much in the vein of Dismember with some Autopsy thrown in for good measure. I don't write gory lyrics, so the lyrics were a lot more shadow government themes veiled in a more poetic style. This band ended abruptly upon our guitarist joining the U.S. Army in June 2005. I'm not sure what he was thinking...
In June of 2005 and July of 2006 I helped my friend Billy Fraser lay down some early-Revelation-catalog-worship down in Texas, where he lives. These tunes also have some almost crusty overtones in some of the chord progressions. The lyrics openly reflect our love and praise for Jesus Christ. The project is currently called Perseverance; I hope to find a label to release these 10 songs, but Billy and I need to put our heads together on that.
Proclamation was once called “Boston's Most hated.” Why?
It was because of our open disdain for scenesterism. We didn't play the stupid fashion games; we offended some scene "important" people, and things got derailed for us shortly thereafter. We took the title for ourselves; it seemed appropriate, and it was a nod to Cleveland's Confront (Matt and I liked them), who claimed a similar distinction in their own scene.
What were your influences for Proclamation? Musicwise and lyrically?
I would say that musically, One Life Crew and Infest were big influences from 1998 to the end. Lyrically, I admired the militant nature of A Chorus Of Disapproval and Earth Crisis, although I didn't borrow from either band. Earth Crisis' lyrics became more and more intense as time went on. "Slither" tackled some DEEP things...way beyond what everyone else was doing, and I maintain that album is by far their best...but I digress! Performance-wise, I was really hoping to deliver a bit more like Kevin Mahoney of Siege (Siege's "Drop Dead" was the last song we ever recorded), but we never got to the next batch of songs to try that out.
What do you think about the Boston hardcore scene, past and present?
I'm proud of Boston's legacy of so many great hardcore bands. Siege, PTL Klub, Jerry's Kids, Last Rites/Negative FX, early DYS and SSD, Psycho, Slapshot, Sam Black Church, Wrecking Crew...many of Proclamation's contemporaries such as Ten Yard Fight and In My Eyes, The A-Team, Close Call, Down But Not Out--all of them, just excellent. This doesn't even speak to the more metallic bands like Converge and early Cave In. And although I'm not really in touch with much that's going on presently, Mind Eraser is a mind-blowing band. Just devastating. Bones Brigade is another great band--skate-obsessed straight edge kids playing furious music--but they recently broke up!
Any opinions on Boston Beatdown?
The filmmakers can document whatever they want. Regarding FSU, I never understood how "talking shit" warrants physical assault. Some of my friends have been beaten by FSU members for this offense. People should have freedom to speak their peace without fear of reprisal. Given FSU's visual identity and methodology, I'm not sure how they differ from any other street gang except that they're hardcore kids. The perception of violence seems to have followed FSU from its early days to the present--read up on all sides and decide for yourself if you think this is coincidence. I might add that no FSU member has ever been confrontational or otherwise rude to me. I'm not opposed to BB in principle; I just hope that curious parties don't mistake these videos as representative of all facets of the Boston underground--there are several scenes existing simultaneously.
Do you feel that coming from Boston has any particular affect on individual when it comes to playing in a hardcore band?
Hmm. I don't know. A lot of Boston bands have members originally from other cities or states. For every outstanding band here there are plenty of mediocre ones. Maybe the local musical heritage and common respect for some of the classic Boston bands helps to shape the sounds from here.
What is hardcore to you?
Speaking idealistically, it's a platform to speak my mind, and--hopefully--a community of open-minded people willing to facilitate change in a world that has plenty that needs fixing.
You are still Straightedge. What did it what it mean to you in the beginning and what does it mean to you now?
For me, it's always been a healthy lifestyle (bodily and spiritually) that fosters productivity and alertness. Early on, I strove to bring everyone around to it. At some point I realized that there are bigger issues that are of more immediate importance, like the shadowy plot for a one world government slave state. At its best, sXe is a form of positive peer pressure around which kids can rally and find others like themselves who aren't interested in following hedonism and self-destructive habits in general. At its worst, sXe is a judgemental, elitist mentality--almost a legalistic, religious zealotry, and totally divisive, which runs contrary to my convictions. I try to follow Jesus; therefore, the idea of "rulekeeping" for its own sake is repugnant to me. Even in Minor Threat's "Out Of Step," Ian said it's not a set of rules...so, other than for the sake of drawing battle lines, what's the point of making absolute rules out of what's otherwise just a good idea?! Over time, many formerly-simple things have become more complex in nature. Over the course of 25 years, Ian's idea of straight edge has become unnecessarily complex.
Current favourite bands?
Napalm Death, Suffocation, Seemless, and of course Devo. Celtic Frost's new "Monotheist" album is probably going to be my favorite of 2006.
Any famous last words?
Question authority. Seek truth. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and thank you Kimmo for your support of my old band!
Proclamation at Myspace.
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