Tu ne le sais certainement pas mais j'ai sorti un fanzine en 2009. Cela parlait surtout de straight edge. J'ai réussi à remettre la main sur l'interview principale en version originale. J'ai pris vraiment beaucoup de plaisir à faire ce fanzine de A à Z en bricolant sur Photofiltre. Stupide, je n'ai même pas gardé un exemplaire pour moi.
1) Hi, would you like to introduce your band, his history,
each members (what do they do outside of the band, where do they live
etc…).
Okay, we’re Let Down, a straight edge hardcore band originally from
Chalfont, PA, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Bob is our singer, he
lives in Philadelphia on different people’s couches when he’s not
booking shows or doing stuff with Mother of Mercy. Kyle is our drummer,
he attends Temple University in Philly and also plays in Mother of
Mercy, I think he still works at the skate park around here. Drew is our
guitar player, he’s the only one keeping it real who still lives in
Chalfont, he graduated from college and is seeking a terrific career.
I’m Justin and I play bass, I’m the one filling out this interview, I
live in Doylestown, another suburb like 10 minutes from Chalfont and I
work in a flower shop. Trying to start a cleaning business and cop a
Jaguar in the near future.
2) How did you guys went into hardcore, your first show ?
My first real hardcore show was Reach the Sky in nearby Lansdale when
I had just turned 15. I think all of our stories about getting into
hardcore would mostly have the common bond that our area has always had a
strong local scene in one way or another, these scenes have gone
through a lot of phases over the last ten years but there have always
been cool shows happening around here with some regularity, and of
course Philadelphia has always had stuff going on. So like in other
places you would just start off listening to punk or whatever and never
really take it any farther than something you listen to in your bedroom
or on your headphones, around here if you’re into that stuff you’re
bound to meet other people and then someone will take you to a show and
if you’re into it you’ll just keep going and getting into more music
that way.
3) Well, why did you began a straight edge band, what straight-edge mean for you ?
When we started Let Down about five years ago, being a straight edge
band was THE most important thing - like in our scene it seemed like an
unachievable goal. At the time (like 2004) there were a lot of kids who
went to shows, mostly because they didn’t happen too often, but it was
like us and our friends and a core of like 20 people who were actually
into hardcore and then 150 “normals”. Finding a line-up of all straight
edge kids who were into hardcore required me to be the bass player and
I’d never even played bass before, I was just the only logical candidate
to fill out the band. I think we all have different concepts of what
straight edge specifically means to us but I think as a band we were
always on the same page about the function of a straight edge hardcore
band - we never set out to “enlighten” anyone or preach about
togetherness or any of that bullshit. Hardcore is supposed to be an
outlet, mostly we’ve existed just to channel our rage at drinking, drugs
and all that other bullshit because it really is pretty stupid and
obnoxious. Coincidentally, we did all this shit at a time in hardcore
when no bands were really talking about straight edge in the context we
were, so as time went on our goal was basically to be the Judge or
Floorpunch of the mid-late 2000s era.
4) You make a pissed-off hardcore who seems to be driven by anger, do you think that anyone could listen to your music ?
Hahaha good question! I guess people listen to our music, I mean if
you check on last.fm it shows that a few people listen to it every
month. When we set off as a band I think one of our goals was mostly
just to make a band that WE would want to listen to first and foremost,
and I feel like we’ve accomplished that pretty well. I’m not the kind of
person who can hang around listening to my own band but if I was
someone else (but still had my personality?) and heard Let Down, I think
I’d be into it, so that’s okay. We say a lot of shit that other bands
aren’t saying and I think that connects with some people, at least
that’s what they tell me. LD is the kind of band that people either
“get” or they don’t.
5) In the song ”Never Again” you say ”don’t try me again cuz
I won’t let it happen again” . I guess it deals with the guy who are
attempting to make you drink or smoke. In your everyday life is it often
happening, do the people around you understand why you are
straight-edge ?
"Never Again" is about a specific show we played in Chattanoogah,
Tennessee when we were on tour at some shitty punk house, this punk dude
was like holding a beer in Bob’s face when he was singing and Bob hit
him or something, afterwards the dude asked what Bob’s problem was and
Bob was just like "get the fuck away from me before I kill you", it
turned into this big thing where we thought we were going to have to
fight this whole venue, I think later Bob kind of wished he took it
further and actually took the dude’s bottle and smashed it in his face. I
identify with "Never Again" as being like, when someone gives you a
bunch of shit and then later you think back, even if you did stand up
for yourself which Bob and the rest of us definitely did, you’ll think
"the next time that happens to me it’s going to be different". As far as
people understanding us being straight edge, I can’t speak for everyone
else but in my life I don’t have a really hard time with it. Most of
the people I see on a consistent basis are people who I’ve known for
years and they know not to bother me about drinking or drugs or
whatever, I tend to use straight edge as a filter to keep me out of
stupid social situations where drugs or drinking are required to "have
fun" or whatever. I’m sure if I spent my time going to bars or parties
it might be something I hear about more often but I’m so far removed
from that it’s not even really an issue.
6) Well, in ”Different Way” you deal with a classic
straight-edge theme. A friend who give up with straight edge. Do you
think that edge break means face break ? Or more seriousely, do you
think that if a friend of yours is done with straight edge you won’t talk
to him again ?
HAHAHA “EDGEBREAK FACEBREAK!” Reminds me of the great faux-european
hardcore band XHEADWALKX. Anyway first off that song is actually called
“Different View”, not that it matters. I don’t think we ever really
played that one live. Personally, and I think this pretty much goes for
everyone in LD but like, I wouldn’t stop hanging out with someone just
because they broke edge, but for me like a lot of my friendships with
the people I know that are straight edge are based on the things we have
in common - going to shows, finding things to do that aren’t drinking
or whatever, so when that person breaks edge (and usually stops being
interested in hardcore pretty soon after) we sort of lose what we have
in common, then we’re not exactly friends anymore. That song is more
about just how people talk a good one and then a few years down the line
they become everything they once claimed to hate, and their words from
not that long ago are just a big joke. We’ve been a band for so long, I
can’t count how many places we would hit every time we toured and slowly
watch the straight edge population drop to zero, meanwhile we’re still
straight edge, still playing in this straight edge band with these songs
about it, must look pretty stupid to everyone to see us still doing the
same shit. oh well. I guess that’s the DIFFERENT VIEW or whatever.
(Justin, le bassiste, a répondu aux questions)
7) In Europe there is something who is raising this last
couple of years which is called ”Binge drinking”. It consists in
drinking as much booze as you can and in any places, beach, streets
etc... Is there the same things in Chalfont, PA ?
People everywhere love to drink as much as possible, so yeah I’m sure
it’s pretty much the same. I mean if you really think about it, life is
pretty pointless and the world is harsh or whatever and we’re all gonna
die alone etc etc so you can either be a BABY (WAHHH) about it and
reach for a bottle like everyone else or you can just say “fuck it” and
not to do that. We chose the latter option.
''Il faudrait instaurer la peine de mort pour les mineurs qui boivent''
8) In France there is a law who forbid the teen under 16
years old to buy alcohol or cigarets, what do you think of that, is
there similar law in Pennsylvania ?
Yeah in the US the drinking age is 21, which probably seems way high
to you europeans hahaha. Cigarettes is 18 but there’s no consequence for
“underage smoking”, I mean you get hit with fines and shit if you drink
but that doesn’t stop anybody, I’d say the average American teenager
starts drinking at like 15 or whatever. What do I think about drinking
ages? They should institute the death penalty for underage drinking. Nah
I’m kidding. Or am I?
9) You guys went to south-est France, how was it ? In the
north-west France there were a lot of guys who were so disappointed that
you didn’t came over here. Are you preparing a new euro-tour ?
A lot of people asked me about that because France for some reason
has this reputation in America for being really
snotty/rude/anti-american or whatever, I have to say that the people we
met over there were some of the nicest in all of Europe, although they
probably hate us now because our singer did some interview where he
talked about how the food wasn’t that great on the euro-tour and it
wasn’t a very good time. So yeah Marseille was kind of cool, seemed
like a weird scene, they apparently don’t get a lot of “real” hardcore
bands there, but they were nice kids. Obviously we would have liked to
play/see France, I’ve never been there so of course I want to see all
the sick landmarks, it just wasn’t in the tour plans for whatever
reason. Bummer. As far as another Euro-tour goes, I don’t think that’s
happening, the last one didn’t go so well and a lot of people are pretty
pissed at us over there, we do get a decent number of friendly messages
and stuff from euros so I guess some do like us but we’re not really
touring anywhere anymore so it doesn’t look like we’ll be back. The
European tour was pretty wack from our perspective - if we would have
gone out with a bigger band or maybe had someone different book it,
maybe we would have had a better chance but who knows. None of us have
any delusions about how big of a band Let Down is/was, we know we’re not
exactly a huge draw, but the whole thing with Europe is that you play
these venues that are GIGANTIC to like 30 people, but you’re on a huge
stage with all these “pro” lighting affects and a super professional
soundcheck/linecheck that you have to show up five hours in advance for -
it takes all the fun out of it. Back in the US, on the way back from
Sound and Fury we were playing basements and garages with War Hungry and
Swamp Thing to like 20-60 people a night and it was a great time. Bob
talked about how we didn’t have that much fun in a blog interview and we
got a lot of shit for it - whatever, we paid for our plane tickets,
between that and all the money we lost over there we were out like
$4000, I think we have a right to voice our opinion hahaha. A lot of
people said we should have just been grateful, but look - every American
band tours Europe nowadays, we were playing with shitty US bands like
At Half Mast that I had never even heard of before I saw them in Europe
at that point I don’t think they had ever even done a US tour before. If
you have a demo and a shirt and can afford a plane ticket, boom, you’ve
got a Euro tour. They probably did better than us too because just like
in the US if you get on your knees and blow the people you’re playing
for, you’ll sell some shirts. Whatever though, not like it matters now.
So to anyone in Europe who wanted to see us and didn’t get a chance to,
sorry - try to book plane tickets to this is hardcore! Get at me, I’ll
even let you stay at my apartment.
10) Thanx, for taking the time to answer my questions. If
you’ve got any messages to tell to the kids, any shout out, it’s now or
never.
Thanks so much for the interview, it was wacky. So the future of Let
Down is that we’re gonna do these OLC shows, then we’re gonna do This is
Hardcore fest in Philly, then we’re probably gonna do a last show in
our home town around the end of the summer and then we’re gonna hang it
up. Five years is a long time for a straight edge hardcore band and
we’re going out the same way we came in, still talking about straight
edge and still not giving a fuck what people think about us. So to
anyone who supported us in any way over the last 5 years, even if you
never even went to a show but just downloaded our records or whatever
and liked what we had to say, thanks a lot. That goes for everyone
around the world. Book a show, do a zine, don’t waste your time reading
or posting on the bridge 9 board. Straight edge now and forever. XXX.
Je vous laisse avec ce qui est pour moi, la meilleure intro de hardcore.
Let Down (TIH 2009, Phase 1) from
hate5six on
Vimeo.
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