STRENGTH WITHIN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MELISSA RUSSELL
WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/strengthwithinband
COUNTRY: United States STYLE: Hardcore

ONE CAN HEAR A LOT OF OLD SCHOOL HARDCORE INFLUENCES IN YOUR MUSIC, BUT HOW WOULD YOU SAY THE BAND HAS TAKEN THOSE INFLUENCES AND MADE THEM SOUND “CURRENT”?

DAVID: When we first started the band we all decided we wanted to go back to the earlier sound of hardcore with every aspect of the music, from vocals to instruments. I grew up in the 90’s hardcore scene with a lot of music that wasn’t extremely technical but it was filled with a message and was just fun music. We wanted to create something that was filled with energy and kids could have a good time to. One thing that was important to me was that the music was able to stick in my head and have a catchy element to it.

I have nothing against all the shredders out there blazing a new trail in guitar skill and technicality. It is just not really what we are trying to go for. As far as making it “current” there are definitely aspects of our music that include the new-school “beat down” or whatever style you want to call it. We write music that we like and that pumps us up, I think age might also bring us forward some as we have some younger guys who come from the new-school of hardcore and add that new stuff into my old ears.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE BIGGEST “TREND” MUSICALLY AMONG HARDCORE BANDS THESE DAYS?

DAVID: I guess the breakdown is becoming something that gets out of hand with a lot of hardcore bands anymore. Discords are ruling the genre in a lot of places. I don’t want to sound like a hypocrite here…We have a lot of breakdowns ourselves but I think how you use them is pretty important in your music. What is your goal behind it? Are you just dropping a 45 second sludge breakdown because you figure out something else? I love breakdowns. Just used in the right context.

HARDCORE IS ALSO ABOUT BRINGING A POSITIVE MESSAGE TO PEOPLE THROUGH MUSIC. DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE REACHED ENOUGH PEOPLE SO FAR WITH THAT MESSAGE OF STAYING POSITIVE AND LIVING A STRAIGHT EDGE LIFESTYLE?

DAVID: I am not sure if we will ever feel like we have reached enough people with our message. Everywhere we go we see people who have so much crap in there life and are struggling just to make it through the day to day. Some of the stories I hear from people about things going on just makes me cringe inside. I don’t understand how we can do some of the things we do to each other in this world.

Some people take this as a weakness because we as a band care about the ones who are broken or messed up but our values and beliefs call us to care about those who are hurting. I have been through a lot of things in my life and the only way to get past the hate and everything else I deal with is to put other people in the front. I know the other guys feel the same, if we didn’t we wouldn’t be out on the road all the time away from friends and family trying to hopefully shed some light in a dark places.

THE HARDCORE “SOUND” HAS ALSO INSPIRED MANY SUB GENRES LIKE METAL CORE. WOULD YOU SAY THESE GENRES HAVE CAUSED HARDCORE TO BECOME HEAVIER OVER THE YEARS?

DAVID: I would have to say yes to that one. Yes, because I believe that in people’s minds hardcore is a ton of different genres anymore. When we first started we got compared to some crazy different styles of bands. I think one of the funniest things was when I read someone comparing us as a band to “Winds of Plague” and “Suicide Silence”. I have nothing against either of those bands but to compare us to them is kind of ridiculous.

I would never think of us as one of those bands but with the new generation of kids a lot of the boundaries in what “Hardcore” is have been generalized into one massive group. We are from where “The Devil Wears Prada” started off, they actually played some of there first shows maybe 2 minutes from my house and because of that we constantly get asked when we are adding a keyboardist…which is never.. Hardcore as a whole is getting heavier simply because defining what is and isn’t in the hardcore genre is getting harder and harder to put into place.

IS YOUR FIRST FULL LENGTH TITLED "WORDS TO SPEAK OF" AVAILABLE YET, AND ARE THERE A FEW SONGS THAT FANS WILL RECOGNISE OR ARE ALL THE SONGS NEW?

DAVID: It currently is not available yet. We are not entirely sure if we are just going to release the album on our own or shop it out to labels. We get a lot of messages asking for it and more than likely we will end up releasing it in January either with a label or without. We are very proud of it and I think it is a strong release from start to end. As far as songs on it, we definitely have the more popular ones on it like “Grave Digger” and “Stand United” but we also have some news ones on there that I think will surprise some people.

HOW MANY TRACKS DID YOU FINISH FOR THE ALBUM AND WOULD YOU SAY THE RECORDING PROCESS WAS AN EASY ONE?

DAVID: Our recording process is really enjoyable. Our drummer Travis has his own studio in his basement where we practice so if we write a new song then we can record it right then and really take it apart and make sure we are happy with each part of the song. It makes it where writing new songs is pretty enjoyable because unlike other bands that have to wait months to get into the studio and lay down there stuff we can have it within a week of writing it.

As far as tracks go, we have around 16 tracks as of now that could go on the album that will probably be taken down to 12 when it finally comes out. Some of those are re-done tracks from our earlier EP we released a year ago and those probably will not be on the record.

THE BAND ANNOUNCED IN AUGUST THAT YOU HAVE ADDED A SECOND GUITARIST, CHRIS CHAPMAN TO THE LINE-UP. THIS MUST HELP A LOT WHEN IT COMES TO THE SONG WRITING PROCESS?

DAVID: Chris has been a big help to us all-around as a band. He brings in an element that we were headed towards before but were still just skimming the surface of. Chris is all about the fast punk side of hardcore and he constantly is coming into practice with parts written that push us to explore that side more. If we would let him he would have the D-beats in every song. Dude is awesome hahaha.

IF YOU GUYS LOOK BACK AT THE “ROAD” YOU HAVE TRAVELLED SO FAR, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST ADVANTAGES TO BEING A D.I.Y. BAND?

DAVID: Honestly the best part of it is that everything rests on us. I don’t have to worry about other people falling through on what they say they are going to do. We take everything we are a part of very professional and unfortunately that has not always been returned. Nothing upsets me more than when people are unprofessional and end up letting the ball drop. D.I.Y. ethics are so lacking in the hardcore scene a lot of times and it has always been the way to do things for me.

Getting your name out there comes easy to a lot of bands with labels and stuff. We have been working hard to get our name out there. A lot of fans are responsible for a lot of what we have from requesting us to venues and promoters to posting Myspace bulletins and stuff.

HAVE ALL YOUR SHOW EXPERIENCES BEEN GOOD OVER THE YEARS OR IS THERE A PART OF THE WORLD THAT WILL NEVER SEE YOU GUYS AGAIN?

DAVID: Honestly we have been treated well pretty much everywhere we go and we continue to play pretty much anywhere. Sometimes it is frustrating because we realize when go to certain areas there are going to be 10 fights during our set and our set will get cut short. We don’t really stand for all that, but with our sound it is almost expected to deal with it at times.

WHO ARE SOME OF THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE YOU HAVE MET WHILE OUT ON TOUR, AND IS IT ALWAYS INSPIRING TO BE ON STAGE AND SEE PEOPLE “CONNECT” WITH YOUR MUSIC AND WHAT YOU ARE DOING?

DAVID: We have a lot of good friends from other bands that it is always awesome to hang out with them. We met some lady in Kentucky that wanted to trade some chickens or corn for merch that was pretty crazy. Also we played a house show one time that was filled with moments that were pretty interesting. We walked into the house and the person at the door started yelling “Can someone please get me a line of Xanax”. That night was filled with stuff that has yet to be reproduced in our touring.

There is nothing better than seeing people sing-a-long and connect with the words in the songs. I think all of us get pumped when we come into a new venue and people already know all the words and chants. We played last night and had some good friends of ours from Louisville drive almost 2 hours to see us play that is inspiring to have people care enough to drive that far to see us and they inspire us to keep going.

ANY OTHER COMMENTS OR PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO THANK?

DAVID: Thanks to you for the interview and the interest in us. Thanks to all the people keeping the scene going and working hard on booking shows. Thanks to the kids who come out no matter who is on the bill and show support to the venues and bands. Thanks to those who have every helped us in anyway. Peace.