Interviews: With Honor

Reader Miss Branded sent us the following interview with Victory Records hardcore act With Honor.

The band released the acclaimed This Is Our Revenge last year and will be touring with kindred spirits in Strike Anywhere and A Global Threat.
You can click Read More to check out the interview.

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So what do you like to talk about most when it comes to
the new record?

Jay- We, like to talk about the fact that it’s different but
our hearts are still in the same place. We just wanted to explore some new
things and bring-out influences we had growing-up

Think this place is sitting well with everyone?

Jay- I think it’s a little new to tell but so far we’ve had
positive feedback

Jack- I think everybody in the band feels that this is
probably the record we like the most and it’s not easy to say that all the
time. So yeah, for us I’d say it’s been going pretty well

Jay- Yeah this is the first record that I haven’t hated in
two months

Jack- Yeah you always say we should have done this or that or
we should have done that differently but no… I think it’s 90% good in my mind
(laughing)

Jay- I think we’ve found our style… I think we finally know
where we wanna go. Whether or not people will like it…? is a different story
but we’re happy with it.

Through the album you see quoted quite a bit the title, that can be taken lots of different ways. In what context do
you want it to be?

I think it kind of dawned on me on tour and I just was realizing that hardcore was such a crazy subculture, that people don’t understand. You can go out on the road and live in a van for months at a time and people will put you up and help you out, support you… and you meet a lot of friends.

Jack- It definitely can be taken a few different ways… I
guess it’s up to your interpretation, especially with the artwork. But I think
it was kind of our way of saying there’s more alternate ways of enjoying your life
besides just having a dead-end job and trying to use different media like art
and film and writing and music obviously to enjoy your life.

Is, a lot of what you’re explaining now… explain the
pictures & artwork in the album; typewriter, the paints?

Jay- Yeah pretty much, man explaining himself outside of
mainstream culture. I think it kind of dawned on me on tour and I just was
realizing that hardcore was such a crazy subculture, that people don’t
understand. You can go out on the road and live in a van for months at a time
and people will put you up and help you out, support you… and you meet a lot of
friends. There’s a lot of face to face interaction with people. Like people
that you’re playing with and people that you’re playing for.

Jack- It’s an intelligent music scene versus a mainstream scene
which is almost like force fed music; whatever’s on the radio you need to like.
Two months later when it’s gone, you don’t even know it’s gone because you’re
force fed another single or another hit or… So you get to like what you want to
like…

Jay- To us ‘This Is Our Revenge’ didn’t mean necessarily
this is our revenge as a band but we meant this is everyone’s revenge; this is
the hardcore scene, this is the punk scene. The whole scenes revenge against
doing what society wants you to do instead of being a faceless person that is
unhappy everyday, kind of finding your little niche.

You quoted ‘the human body can bare immeasurable pain and
yet recover, wounds can heal but once your spirit is broken everything falls
apart’…

Jack- You know- I think about my parents and how my dad has
so many dreams of doing so many things but it’s almost like he doesn’t have the
will to do it anymore. It’s almost like if you have those dreams and you want
to do something. You just have to find it in yourself and you just have to do
it for the rest of your life versus maybe being miserable and unhappy.
Something that you just need to get out, it has to do a lot with that.

In your CD booklet there’s, lots of other quotes and
writings throughout, do you guys get inspired a lot through reading?

Jack- You know? I am not much of a reader even though I
really should…

Jay- I was actually an English major I majored in English
Literature but I don’t write any lyrics, Todd writes all the lyrics. The only
thing I wrote was the lines you see in the CD briefly. It’s weird because I was
really into writing growing-up. I used to write fiction, I got my degree I went
out got my job and I wasn’t even applying what I had learned. I was actually
just doing sales for a newspaper and that’s when I left. I started pursuing
music. So for me, it was kind of hard. For me, I have to put 100% into one
thing so right now its music and hopefully in the future one day I’ll be
writing again.

On your first song, you clearly mention people
complaining about what they don’t have. Think this has become our modern-day
plague…?

Jay- Yeah, I think a lot of people have a lot of excuses for
why they can’t do what they want to do. So I think what you have to do is just
take whatever you have and run with it. That’s what we’re saying instead of
just sitting around and wishing your life was different, go out and make
something of it.

Jack- Really, if you want something work for it nothings
technically impossible if you don’t want it to be. It’s easier to just sit
around and complain about stuff but its getting off your ass and actually doing
it… is what makes it different.

The song ‘A New War’ comes off different than other songs
on the record… did you feel it had to be addressed?

Jay- Todd wrote that but… I know he took a trip to
Washington, D.C because where we recorded was twenty minutes away.

Jack- Yeah he came back and obviously there’s a war going on
for awhile now and it’s definitely something that affects all of us. Whether
you’re driving down the road looking at gas prices or friends that want to join
the army, you worry for them. I think it’s refreshing to get a song that’s a
little political and make kids think about something else aside from broken
hearts and things like that. It’s good to touch-base on everything that affects
your life and that’s definitely something that affects his life. I think that
it’s great that he wrote the song. Lyrically I think it’s one of the best songs
on the album.

In ’20 Strong’ why would; some may never understand why
20 kids in three vans will never be the same… spring 2005?

Jay- We had a couple crazy adventures but we were all sworn
to secrecy

Jack- We made some pretty good friends in those weeks. I
think the longest tour we’ve probably ever done is six weeks. It was just such
a learning experience and we got really close to some people. Obviously, if you
share your lives with twenty people over six weeks it leaves that impression on
you.

And who were these bands?

Jay- Bane and Comeback Kid, we have a little dedication to
them. It was an emotional kind of ending of the tour at the end.

Jack- And I think Todd was going through a lot… a lot of
crap right before we left. Some pretty heavy stuff so I think that’s why he
will always remember that tour. Just the people that he was around that helped
him get through it and everyday wasn’t miserable cause we were playing shows
all the time and your friends are always around you.

Jay- It’s kind of a built-in support system.

Jack- It’s like going to therapy everyday

Jay- Yeah right, hardcore therapy

Missing home, is it a constant struggle for both of you?

Jack- Depends on what’s going on back home I guess. You know,
when bills start stacking-up you definitely want to get-out of there quick

Jay- You wanna go where the creditors can’t find you.

What’s your next tour; Stretch Arm Strong?

Jay- Yeah we’re going to the UK in January with Stretch Arm
Strong

Jack- Scotland and Ireland
Did working with a producer for the first time on this
record kind of throw you off since all the other times you had full control?

Contrary to popular belief none of us have women’s jeans and none of us wear make-up.

Jack- It was humbling I think…

Jay- Yeah it was a little stressful, honestly. Cause you get
kind of like a hardhead about your music; this is my creation, this is my baby…

Jack- Not that we had to change everything, it was more
working things out making them flow better. Transitions, just the simple stuff
that we’re like part to part to part, he made things flow a little better and
obviously work a little better with Todd lyrically. Versus a whole mishmash of
different things he definitely kind of strengthens us out on a few things.

Jay- I think he helped us out a lot in the end. I think this
is our best record. He helped keep a theme through the songs without having a
bunch of riffs thrown together. And a lot of things we’ll write the music for
without the vocals in mind per-say. So this time everything came together into
solid songs instead of being a bunch of stuff.

Jack- Its weird having a third party look so much into your
music

Jay- It was cool cause he was a hardcore dude, it wasn’t
like he was a producer that didn’t know what we were going for. And he was in a
band that we respected, he was in Battery. We were really into that band
growing-up that helped.

Was doing a video something you’d really envisioned to do
with ‘With Honor’?

Jay- There’s was a few times we were supposed to do a video
but things just never worked out. It was something that we’d kind of hoped we’d
get the chance to do. I think the best part about it was, there was this club
we had grew-up going to shows in Connecticut and it closed down for a couple of
years and it just re-opened. It’s actually called Club Hypnotic now, it’s a Hip
Hop club and the guy just started allowing shows there every two weeks. When we
asked him to do it, he was really excited ‘oh yeah, a hardcore band doing a
video, yeah definitely!’ So it was really cool getting to go back to where we
grew-up and do a video there.

Jack- It was nothing crazy obviously it was one day, we
wanted something to be able to show that live performance feel, show people
what we’re about. Being that a live show is something that we do everyday on
tour and it’s a big part of the band. I think that the next video will probably
have a little more going on. It was definitely awesome to do it.

What do you honor most about playing these hardcore
tours?

Jay- The chance to share your music with people face to
face, the studio is awesome but live is where you get your kicks. Meeting new
people too, it’s really important to make new friends.
Jack- It’s music that we love playing, if we weren’t on tour
we’d probably be in a practice space playing it for nobody but now we have the
chance to play it for two-hundred kids a night. We travel for free, I eat
everyday…

Jay- We eat better on tour than we eat at home… (laughing)

Jack- It’s stressful being on tour sometimes obviously
because you do miss home, you’re so close to five other people but we play
hardcore music for a living… there’s nothing like it

Jay- Even when we’re scrapping by, it’s still an awesome way
to be scrapping by.

Any responsibilities in the band aside from your music,
you’d never be willing to give-up?

Jack- I got a few that I want to give-up, somebody else
working on the van every once in a while (laughing). It seems like I could
never give-up trying to give some image to the band as far as design goes…
trying to get something on a t-shirt to show who we are. Obviously it’s really
hard… I never want to have a pink shirt with purple writing cause that’s just
not us so it’s a struggle to get imagery for the band.

Jay- Jack’s pretty much designed all of our merch from day
one. So as opposed to farming out people he’s kept control of that aspect which
is really cool.

Jack- You got the P.R job now…

Jay- Yeah I don’t know how that happened… but somehow

Jack- I just stopped returning emails so I lost that job

Is it in your plans to play another 450 shows over the next
few years?

Jay- Hopefully, if people will have us we’ll keep playing.

Jack- If not we’ll just play 450 practices for no one…

Jay- For our merch guy…

Any secrets?
Jay- Contrary to popular belief none of us have women’s
jeans and none of us wear make-up. We’ve heard the wildest rumors about our
band. People told me ‘oh yeah those guys they wear women’s jeans.’ Really we’re
just a bunch of regular joe’s wearing crappy baggy clothes playing hardcore
music we grew-up on. There’s a lot of misconceptions that is un-based that I
truly think is hilarious.

Jack- We’re probably the five most average dudes ever. You
roll with the punches