 
There is a big bunch of violent, aggressive and
unmelodic modern hc bands wasting
our time, wasting our money. Some of them can't find an
end, some of them better end at
the beginning. However, that's a quite
pessimistic opinion of the current scene... on the
one hand' very exaggerated but on the other hand
there is some truth in it. Nevertheless,
there's a young powerful band, hailing from the
middle of nowhere with a huge amount
of aggression and emotion, so take a look in the
mirror and stop mistreating yourself...
listen to what Modern Life is War has to
say!
How did the band start you guys are kind of out there in the Midwest,
whatis your scene
like and how did you all get into hardcore?
First
off, my name is Tyler and I play drums for Modern Life Is War. We started the
band
2 years ago and we’d all been friends for a
long time. It’s not really a question of getting
into ”hardcore” as it is how we got in
punk rock. We all started get into the underground
music scene when we were young and realized that
we could do it too in our little town and
we started bands and put on shows and went from
there. We started writing songs and
found a sound that fit us best which would
best be described as hardcore/punk. There’s
not much of a scene in Iowa but there are a lot
of good shows in near by cities like
Minneapolis and Chicago.
"Modern Life is War"... there seems to be more behind, what does
it mean for you?
I interpreted your name as a conflict between the
opressed, modern, one way society,
you can call it "superficial living"...
nowadays you're just taught to get rich, buy nice clothes
and blablabla and on the other side I see you as
thoughtful, maybe some kind of depressed,
rebelish people. What's your own interpretation?
Well,
Jeff (our singer) came up with it and his thought was that you have to look out for
yourself in a world full of people who want
something from you or who could potentially
take advantage of you. The name just stuck
and doesn’t have some deep or amazing
meaning. I think everyone can have their
own interpretation about what it means to them
but in the end it’s just a band name.
I read this question in another interview' but I think it's quite
interesting to ask the same
again' cause depression seems to be a theme in a
lot of hardcore songs...do you think
hardcore is a place where people with depression
can come and kind of have a "group"
like therapy. Or do you think it is kind of
an act for suburban white kids to feel like life
is worse then it really is for them.
As a
band we feel that whining and complaining about something or portraying some kind
of ”tough-guy” image isn’t really
accomplishing anything. Everyone has their problems and
if you don’t offer any kind of hope it just
gets a little redundant and pointless. Jeff writes
about the problems and things people deal with in
life while also offering some hope and a
light at the end of the tunnel.
I for myself come from a rural area... maybe comparative to IOWA, but I
know how hard
it is to start your own rock band when you live
right in the middle of nowhere even if there
are some positive aspects' nevertheless do you
prefer living in the city or in a small, nice,
little village?
I’ve only lived in a small town but I think there are positive aspects of both.
We live in a
nice, semi-quiet and peaceful place but sometimes
you feel a little isolated from the rest of
the world. I’ll probably move to a
larger city someday soon but for now playing in the band
and finishing school are priorities.
There's another "famous" band from IOWA called Slipknot and they
seem to be pretty
pissed of everything... anyway they make
"hard" music and they realized a dream of many
kids: they are rockstars now. What are your
dreams?
Our
dream is for this band to put out good records and maintain respect and dignity and
just have fun. We’re not doing this to
make money and it’s nice to have people who hold
the music you make close to their hearts.
We want to tour everywhere we can and write
great songs and look back on it and be able to
say that we did things the right way and for
the right reasons. Money can’t buy the
feeling of when someone tells you how much your
band or record means to them.
In the record sheet I read that you're a quite young band... so how many
years do you guys
carry on your shoulders?
We
range from 20-24. For hardcore bands that can actually be kind of old, haha.
Musically you combine a mixture between a whole bunch of bands such as The
Hope
Conspiracy, Terror and old S.O.I.A stuff' but
there must be more, so do you guys still
have any idols or just influences?
We
don’t listen to much modern ”hardcore” and they really don’t have any
real direct
influence in our sound. I love bands like
Black Flag, The Clash, Husker Du, Bad Brains
and I think that those bands influence us more
than anything. In reality, we just sit around
and write songs and put them together and they
end up the way they do. We all listen to
a wide range of stuff and we don’t try to
sound like anyone one particular band.
Lyrically you guys cover a lot of interesting themes, even historical
ones.
Do you guys haven any agenda, and what makes you
write the way you do?
Jeff
writes his lyrics from his own standpoint. As I said before, the lyrics deal
with
problems everyone deals with while offering a
sense of hope and future. His only agenda is
really to use writing lyrics as a form of
catharsis and also so that people can relate to them
and find meaning in their own lives.
What about touring, when can we expect you guys in Europe?
Reflections Records is setting up our tour for June/July of this summer. Keep checking
back
to our website (modernlifeiswar.net) and Reflection’s
website (reflectionsrecords.com) for
more details as it gets booked.
For the end' short question round:
Straight-edge or drug-dependent?
Neither.
Mainstream or Underground?
Both.
Coke or Pepsi?
Both.
Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera?
Both
at the same time.
Thanks for the interview!
text: frankie
|
