Gender: Male
Age: 37
Sign:
Libra
Country: United States
Signup Date:
May 27, 2011 |
|
|
|
09/01/2012 05:07 PM
|
Saints of Chaos (Interview #4)
SAINTS OF CHAOS MAGAZINE INTERVIEW.
S.O.C staffer Andy Rotten recently sat down with Michael and Felix from The Cursed on their backstage break at Luigi's Fungarden, to discuss the current "High Voltage Punx" Festival which only features the best of the underground hardcore, post-hardcore, and punk bands, as well as details about their past experiences with their band, their first EP, crazy tour stories, and more.
Let's start with that's going on right now, how is the "High Voltage Punx" festival going? I figured it's pretty epic as from I can tell right now.
Felix: You could say that our mind's are equally blown. [Laughs]
Haha! Nice, I can only imagine how you guys feel. This is your first time being in one of these right? I mean, you guys must be f***ing stoked!
Micheal: Yeah man, the mini-tour has been pretty f***ing awesome. I think it actually exceeded our expectations. We didn't think people would've even given it much attention, but it's been insane. The underground scene is a much bigger movement than what we thought. I can't even believe the turn-outs on some of the days. After we did the signing at our booth last night, we just had the realization that sh*t was gonna be f***ing crazy.
Felix: Yeah! We could've had a f***in' show with just the kids from the signing at our booth. There were that many kids. We never even pictured ourselves being that popular. I thought we were gonna have like... no one. Maybe ten kids tops? [Laughs]
Michael: I'd just like to thank Ronnie for making this possible. This festival would never exist without him, and none of us would've really been here. It's nice to know that someone cares enough for the underground scene.
Yeah, I see that surrounding all this hype with fellow tour-mates, two of you have disappeared.
Felix: [Laughs] Oh yeah, Jeremy and Jason decided to roam around and meet some of the bands. We've met a lot of new people at High Voltage; they've all been pretty cool. It's nice to make friends with other people who have things in common with you. Just starting out, you know? Trying their best to get their name's out there a little more. Totally stoked about being here. It's even cooler when you meet others that are fans of your own band, haha.
Michael: Yeah, there's bands here that have literally just started a few months ago, but they've been so good, that they were thrown in this festival. Like, LowONgas, they're pretty much starting out. And kids love them, but their fan base isn't as big as some of the other bands, and some of the new fans just don't get into them much at first. I mean, they all watch and clap, which is awesome. It's just, I think it's gonna take a little time for them to grown on the fans.
Felix: It's so shocking, they put on such a crazy show, and it's such a different kind of sound. You just wanna watch and be mesmerized. They've got a lot of soul, and they truly won a spot in this scene, we're stoked for them. They're pretty cool kids, and we just know they're gonna blow-up big.
I can completely agree with that. I've heard of them before, and I actually interviewed them a few days back at Casa De Chaos. But, right, about you guys - I heard you guys have an EP and it's been doing really well since you guys decided to release it. Do you think there's any misunderstood songs in your album? Maybe people take the context presented the wrong way?
Felix: Yeah, there's actually a lot of misunderstanding with our music, but I'd have to say that most of the lyrics I write are pretty straight up. I don't know. Writing lyrics for The Cursed is very emotional, you know? My lyrics are a lot of emotions that I'm not proud of. I put everything into my songs, just all my pure and raw aggression. Like "Fifth Period Massacre," the song's about a kid who sees no way out but to take revenge. So he takes a gun to school and kills everybody. Point blank. But, the song isn't really condoning violence, I think. It's not saying that that's the only way, or the right way out. It's just about someone who just can't deal with it anymore. Someone whose parents' don't listen, whose school is a piece of sh*t; no one cares, the kids' are f***in' a**holes, and they make him wanna die every day that he goes there. No one talks about this sort of sh*t from the kid's point of view. No one asks what made them feel the way that they did? What drove them to destroy? And like, there's just so much sh*t going on, and people just like to pretend that it's not happening. It sucks, and I'm f***in' tired of it.
Have you ever even fired a gun?
Felix: Uhm, yeah. I've fired a gun, and I loved it. [Laughs]
Any other song you want to speak about?
Felix: There's "Murder was the Case They Gave me." I won't even beat around the bush with this one. It was written for an ex-girlfriend, which I'll keep the name to myself for the sake of privacy. But, this one's pretty straight to the point, if you just listen to the lyrics. I'm standing outside of her house, thinking about what my next move is going to be, clenching my fist as "my blood runs cold." I'm waiting for the day to die, and the night to fall, "I'll seize the day by the throat and watch it die." And then what happens next is pretty much f***in' brutal, and I know a lot of people wouldn't like it, but I rape her while I push her face into the dirt. "This one's for old times," "I'll take my time," "maybe you'll learn when the dirt fills your lungs." But then, I realize that leaving her alive after this would only get me caught, "oh the stories you'd tell." So then, I kill her, but before I do, I tell her a few last words, "I am your nightmare, I am the shape in the dark, I am your ending," and then I set her house on fire to get rid of any evidence. "I'm burning down your house now," "ashes to ashes." -- Then you know, "God knows, I've had better," is your happy f***in' ending. I guess. [Laughs]
I could tell you can hold a grudge. Haha!
Felix: [Laughs] I really f***in' can, but this isn't condoning rape and murder either. If I tell you to jump off a bridge, would you do it? I mean, the point is, I wanted to write songs from my gut. Something that means something, not just useless bullsh*t, you know? I actually would've wanted to play this one at our church back in Jersey, but uh... we don't go there anymore. [Laughs]
Are there any topics that you guys haven't covered yet in a song but want to cover in the future?
Felix: I guess something a little more positive, like sh*t would get better type of thing.
Michael: Yeah, a lot of kids hit is up about really serious situations they're going through. You know, thoughts of suicide, depression, a lot of f***ed up sh*t they're going through, and they tell us that they confide in our music. It helps them get rid of that anger and that lonely feeling. Like they aren't the only ones who feel this way about the world, we wanna keep them in mind when we're creating music.
Felix: Definitely, so I just wanna be able to write something that tells them not to give up. Like, life has been sh*t but if I could pull through, so could you type of thing. The world could f***in' destroy us, but we need to survive. We're no different from you guys, and I like to stand as the reminder that the world isn't better off without you. We live in f***ed-up and dangerous times, we have to break through and carry on. Remember, when life gives you lemons, start a f***in' band. [Laughs]
Wow, those are some deep words. Haha, well, are their any songs you guys are most proud of? Like one of those kind of songs that ten years ago you never could've imagined creating?
Felix: For me, there's one song that's not really on the EP, but it's called "One hundred Sleepless Nights." It was a change in the sound and the lyrics. We kept it a little more mellow and didn't do a lot of things to it. Usually our songs have a million elements, and tons of crazy sh*t. But this song we were like, "Okay! We're just gonna tone it down a bit." We just made it real simple.
Do you believe that you're challenging yourself and growing as a lyricist?
Felix: Well, yeah. I mean, you have to, right? I can't just be the guy standing up on stage, getting hurt, thrashing around, and jumping onto speakers and on Jason's drums. I can't just speak into the mic about anything in particular. I'm ready to do everything, and be everything that I have inside. I have a lot more to give. So much sh*t that inspires me. And honestly, and I'm hoping I'm using the correct wording here. It's not meant to offend the fans or anything, but I write for myself. I mean, my lyrics are being put out there to be interpreted however the f*** you want to. You know? And I make music for the kids, and I hope I can leave that imprint and have my lyrics mean something to them, but I'd be bored as sh*t if I wasn't writing for me. It's a really f***ed up way to put it, but yeah. I'd be bored as sh*t if I were writing for anyone else.
Like, I write about me. About sh*t that's happened to me, and sh*t that I've gone through and experienced. About how I feel about the world and society, and hell - even sh*t that's happened to my friends and sh*t. I don't write about some people I don't know and sh*t I don't know about - like cancer or whatever. I don't know anything about that, you know? I basically just write about the things I know. You can't be poetic in that case, you can't apply words to what you haven't experienced. You could be the best speaker of all time, but when you have no f***in' idea what you're talking about, people see right through that.
No, of course. It makes sense, it's your feelings, your emotions, not anyone else'. You can't write out the emotions of anyone else, but yourself.
Felix: My point exactly! At least you got it.
Would you guys ever want to sell out and be more than just an underground band?
Mike: We always get asked this question, and the answer's still the same. We feel happy with where we are. We can manage our own things, and just be ourselves. We don't have to censor anything and limit ourselves to anything. We can just chill out and do things in our own time, and we can even interact with our fan base so much better than any of those big, famous bands, you know?
Felix: Yeah, I mean - I rather shoot myself in the f***in' head, honestly. We've had so many offers, and it's crazy. But, I'm like, I rather die than be famous. I mean, those people think they're so cool because they're famous. If you're not famous, they don't even want to talk to you. There's so many people like that, and I rather not become part of that group. Like, I enjoy letting the fans be part of our world. F*** pretending like we're perfect, because we're not. We make mistakes, and it's nice to know that we're still loved despite our imperfections. We're loved for us.
Speaking of love, some of your songs are based on that, but they're really hard to figure out, like are they about love or hate?
Felix: [Laughs] They're whatever you want them to be. It's a "f*** you," or an "I love you so f***in' much." It could be, "I'm f***in' outta here," as much as it could be, "I'm never leaving you, you're my everything." My songs about those sort of emotions seem to border in between most of the time. Like, one moment they'll be all like, "get the f*** out," and then the next, it's like, "I can't live without you." I found out that love is one of the most important parts of hate, and vice versa. Like, you can't really love someone completely without fully hating them, at least at some point in your life. Hating everything about them, and understanding why you hate those things. That's what makes you love them so much. Love without hate isn't real. If that makes any sense.
Agreed. So, what has been the craziest thing to happen to you guys on tour so far?
Michael: I decided to down a bottle of NyQuil 'cause I was really sick about a week ago, and I couldn't stop throwing up. We got on stage and all I did was open my mouth and puke like f***ing crazy. A friend of ours, Tommy, from Lab Rats, had to fill in for me, because I was just all kinds of f***ed-up.
Felix: Haha! Oh my god yeah, I remember that. Oh, and we can't forget Jeremy. He's usually really quiet, but he got so sh*t-faced about two days ago, and he decided to skateboard around the park shirtless, and screaming "I'm a goofy mango!" At the top of his f***in' lungs, it was f***in' hilarious. [Laughs]
Michael: Hahaha! Now everyone calls him goofy mango boy. [Laughs]
Felix: Ahahaha! Yeah, oh! And what happened to me. F***, I'm always getting in some sort of f***in' trouble. So, I get really drunk, and I pass the f*** out, I don't even know where. But, I know I wake up to some kids woo-ing and some girl telling me to grab her titties. So, I'm like what the f***? Where am I? My eyes open up and I'm passed out in some van, with some blonde chick on top of me, nearly about to rape me, so I push her off and get myself out of the van, and she's all like, "what the f***?" blah-blah-blah. And I'm like, "dude, you're drunk," and she's all like -
Michael: I don't drink, I'm a virgin! [Laughs]
Felix: [Laughs] Yes! And then she like, stumbles out of the van after me and just starts throwing up SO much. Then she looks at me and is all like, "whatever! You were ugly anyways!" And walked off. Haha! WHAT. THE. F***.
Oh my god, really? Haha! That's crazy. Alright, at what point did the band begin to click? You know, like, when did everything begin to fall together for you guys?
Felix: It's been quite a journey for us. Like, we always wanted to start a band. It was a thing for me and Mikey. Our parents were a huge influence to us, and it was just the environment we grew up in. We always wanted to do something that people could dance to, but we couldn't help it - the moment we'd start playing, we'd just tap into being rockstars. Mikey and I played our first mini-show in the back of my parents' van at some church festival. Haha, it was Mikey on guitar and I was on vocals; our first band Shut up! And then like, when we finally grew up, and we ended up over in California; The Cursed happened. And like, we didn't just decide to make up some name and put together a band. It meant something to us, I had sh*t to say that I wanted to share with the world, and we gradually made our way up to where we are right now. We're like a family.
Michael: Yeah, and I think that's what's different about us. Even when we went in search for a bassist. We reached out to our fans, and I love that our fans are so dedicated. Jeremy was just our fan, and now he's part of our little dysfunctional family. Like, I remember he was all like, "dude, I saw you guys a year ago with my girlfriend at Pleasure Palace. You guys were just starting off."
Felix: Yeah, that was the first venue we played at, no one knew us, and people see us now and they're all like, "I remember when you guys were just opening acts, and no one knew who you were. You guys kept going and going and finally you guys are up here with the top bands in the underground scene and all these kids are here to see you guys." A lot of people don't notice it, but it's definitely crazy to think that we started from the bottom and just built up to having this f***in' awesome fan base that know our songs, our names, it's just a great f***in' feeling when you can hold the mic out and the crowd could sing your song without any help. It didn't happen overnight, and we know so many kids in our fan base as friends. A lot of them have been here since day one.
Michael: They basically grew up with us.
Felix: Yeah, pretty much. It's just crazy to see from playing to the 10 kids that knew who we were, until now.
What's is the next step for The Cursed?
Felix: Well, we're definitely gonna keep the ball rolling this time. We're not dropping this, not when we've gotten so far, you know? Hell, we might even come out with another mini-album. We've been thinking about it a lot, and we've also been coming up with new songs, I've been writing lyrics like crazy, lately. We have a little studio going on in our basement back home, so on our free time, we practice and do a lot of recording. And I always wanted to publish a lyrics, poetry, or comic book. Or maybe it could just be a little bit of all three, you know? I'm sure fans would like that. Haha, I have one that I'm slowly writing, my notebook is full of ideas, but it's still not ready enough for exposure. I mean, we're always looking towards the future, and putting our best foot forward, we try to make everything better than the last.
But, you know - we always keep sh*t fun. We don't really plan much of what we do, it just kind of happens.
Wow! Awesome, well, I should probably get going, being that I have to interview a few other bands too, haha. So, any closing words for the fans?
Felix: Don't do drugs.
Michael: Brush your teeth and eat your vegetables and always give twenty percent for tips. Don't do ten. Don't be that guy. Go twenty.
Felix: [Laughs] Oh! And wear condoms, but only on weekends though, 'cause Monday's through Friday's are definitely safe enough for unprotected sex. Everyone knows girl's can't get pregnant during the week. Haha.
Michael: [Laughs and shakes head] Worst advice ever...
-Interview by Andy Rotten.
Saints Of Chaos �
0 Comments
|
|
View All Posts
View All Posts
|
