Who is Travis West?

Travis West is just a good friend of ours who is locked up. You have a friend locked up, you want him out know what I’ saying. And that’s all I am going to say about it.

Did the demo make the record?

The entire demo is on the new record, but we re-recorded everything. The demo is a year and a half old now. We went in and basically put every song we know on the album. Every song we have played since the beginning, from the first song we wrote to the one we wrote a week before the album came out. It’s the whole demo all re-recorded. We lost members, things have changed, people have changed so we made it a point to start fresh from right now; today. (Reality Check from the demo now re-recorded and Born on the Outside, which Furious Styles just wrote, are featured from Life Lessons currently at the Furious Styles MySpace.)

Any cameos on Life Lessons like on the demo?

Dre from Donnybrook sang on the demo on Words of a King. On Born on the Outside we had our friend John Pettibone who sang in the band Himsa, Undertow all sorts of stuff; he has been in Botch and around a lot of Seattle hardcore bands since the 90s. He is a good friend of mine, we are best friends so we had to have him come down and sing on it.

Life Lessons? The title of the new record.

Well, you know, that’s our baby right there. We put everything we could into it. Every song we have written, everything you need to know about our band in general. Lyrically a lot of songs people can relate to. Everything from political things like, “I don’t like white power!” So we got a song about that. Personal things in my life dealing with everything from drug addiction to everyday life shit. Stuff people can relate to, we are regular guys, we have regular lives. I go to work everyday. I try not to do drugs everyday. Things like that. I try to fucking being a better person, living a more positive life you know what I am saying? And that’s what you will hear on this fucking record. Bring yourself up. Don’t let no one bring you down. Don’t let life bring you down. That’s it!

Is this the first national tour for the band?

Yes this is our first US tour. We have done 2 west coast tours by ourselves and this is the furthest East we have ever been, today.

What I just saw in there was neck rocking thunderous hardcore. So much pop and spring in the kick. What would you clarify your style as there are a lot of trends again and what people want to call things and on record there is a lot of flavor in the hardcore you bring and in there live, it came across pretty straight up hardcore just now.

Basically I wanted to start my perfect band. I have done a lot of bands before. We have all been in a lot of different kinds of bands: punk rock, hardcore, grindcore, metal all sorts of stuff and I grew up on Biohazard, Madball, bands like that since I was a little kid and we basically with this band are just trying to do the stuff that we love. I have listened to Biohazard since I was in 5 th grade, since I was 10 years old; 14 years ago and they have stayed my favorite band since then. I wanted to do something like that with a lot of hip hop influence I guess because I listen to a lot of hip hop too, but we’re definitely…..I listen to a lot of hip hop, a lot punk rock, a lot of hardcore, a lot of metal and you know everything I hear everyday goes into what we are doing. Everything is in influence.

D interrupts: What new hip hop you listening to?

I got the new Jeezy and I got the new NAS.

Jay?

I like the Jay- Z record. A lot of people I know don’t like it. After about 15 listens I definitely like it a lot.

Punk/Hardcore same thing? Synonymous for you or no?

I have noticed definitely now, today, the “punk rock scene” and “hardcore scene” have seemed to have separated, but on a personal level I have always, I spend time at both. I will go see punk rock bands, skin head bands, hardcore bands, metal bands; I like all of it you know what I am saying? I consider myself a punk rocker. I grew up on punk and hardcore and metal, but my way of thinking is definitely 100% punk rock.

Tell me about Hand of Hope records? SEA based?

No, Hand of Hope is based out of Florida, we’re from Seattle. Hand of Hope is a subsidiary of Eulogy Recordings. Let me think of who else used to be on that label; Unearth, Shattered Realm, Hoods. Hand of Hope is like a smaller subsidiary type label of that bigger label; they have Donnybrook, us.

On the road any real cool things you have witnessed? Venues, scenes, anything some kids are doing? Anything you have witnessed that is just whack?

My favorite is house shows, really small shows. There is a place we play in San Leandro, CA; it’s right next to Oakland. It’s run by a bunch of kids who have shows in their garage and when we did the west coast tours we always stopped there first. It’s always our first show on tour and it’s a fucking blast every time. The whole neighborhood comes out and everybody goes nuts. They treat everyone great and its probably my favorite stop on tours so far. Now we are heading out east here and I am going to get to see a whole lot of places I have never even been before. The furthest east we had gone before was like, Las Vegas or no; Denver, Colorado was the furthest east we had gone. I have gotten to see a lot of new scenes and meet a lot of new people and there are great scenes all over. Denver, Colorado was awesome. The San Leandro kids out in the bay are fucking awesome. We even had a blast in Boise, ID; we played for 15 kids, but it was 15 of the fucking coolest kids in the world. I can’t wait to see where I will go next, it’s going to be awesome and it can only get better.

Top hardest dance parts of all time:

Madball Set it Off

SOIA We Want the Truth – the intro to that song makes we want to fucking kill people period, it’s the hardest thing I have ever heard in my life. I listened to it in my store the other day at work and I put it on repeat and by the end of it I realized I had been sitting at work and I had listened to it for 3 hours straight.

Strife - it’s a toss up between multiple songs on the second Strife record because I’m from SoCal; I grew up in Southern California and when I was a little kids Strife was the fucking band. I still listen to the second Strife record, even in the van today. That shit is fucking hard

BiohazardState of the World Address – we cover that. Everybody backs Urban Discipline, I’m, like “Yo, State of the World Address.” We didn’t play it tonight, but we cover that song on tour.

In closing:

We are going to be on tour as long as we can. 99% chance next tour we are going out with Black My Heart from Boston. We’ve been talking to a lot of friends about what we are going to do this summer, nothing set in stone yet. You’ll know when it happens and we’re plan on being on the road the rest of the year.

What’s your beef with technology?

That is a line from State of the World Address, Biohazard; it’s the third line in the song. We were sitting there and we’re like, “it’s an internet website, why don’t we just throw this fucking Biohazard quote up there.”

MySpace?

MySpace is both bad and good you know what I’m saying. These days it makes a lot of bands lazy, but it can also help you out. There was a point where you couldn’t just book your tour off of a fucking computer, you had to know people and call people to book a tour. Nowadays, I know I said it makes bands lazy, but I in turn use it myself. I booked 2 tours in a fucking weekend off it once just hitting cats up on that thing. And it gets your music out there, a lot of people get to hear your demo. People like me who don’t know shit about the music industry or how to distribute shit and you can put it up on line and anybody can go get it and download it for free. They get to hear what you are doing. You want to be a band, you want to be heard.

 Shout outs:

Shout out to FSU. Shout out to everyone back home, back in Seattle. We will be home someday I think. Shout out to all the bands we are out with Hoods, My Chidren, My Bride. Everyone should come out on this tour and check us out and see what we do; see how we do it in Seattle.