September 19, 2024 • 20 mins
In this episode, Josh sits down with another artist you should know in 2024 with the hardcore band, https://l.instagram.com?e=AT2o...
If you or someone you know is reading this right now and struggling with suicide, depression, addiction, or self-harm - please reach out. Comment, message, or tweet at us. Go to https://www.victimsandvillains... for more resources. Call the suicide lifeline at 988. Text "HELP" to 741-741. There is hope & you DO have so much value and worth!
This episode of Victims and Villains is written by Josh “Captain Nostalgia” Burkey. It is produced by Burkey. Music by Mallory Jameson (https://bit.ly/expandmal) & Purple Planet (https://bit.ly/ppcoms). Help us get mental health resources into schools and get exclusive content at the same time. Click here (http://bit.ly/vavpatreon) to support us today!
If you or someone you know is reading this right now and struggling with suicide, depression, addiction, or self-harm - please reach out. Comment, message, or tweet at us. Go to https://www.victimsandvillains... for more resources. Call the suicide lifeline at 988. Text "HELP" to 741-741. There is hope & you DO have so much value and worth!
This episode of Victims and Villains is written by Josh “Captain Nostalgia” Burkey. It is produced by Burkey. Music by Mallory Jameson (https://bit.ly/expandmal) & Purple Planet (https://bit.ly/ppcoms). Help us get mental health resources into schools and get exclusive content at the same time. Click here (http://bit.ly/vavpatreon) to support us today!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Four Victims and Villain's. My name is Josh. Today I'm
drawn by Matt.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
He is one of the members of the band Contact
from right here in Richmond, and they are fresh off
the release of their EP, Curse Breaker, and we think
that they are a band that you should know in
twenty twenty four. How are you doing, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Doing pretty good? Man? Thanks for thanks for having me
on and for noticing our little record that we dropped.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
So I'm kind of curious about this because I feel
I grew up kind of in the age of you know,
Sleeping Giant, August Burns, Red del Wars Prada.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
When like Christian metalcore was like as at its peak,
and you don't see a lot of Christian bands in
the hardcore metal core scene anymore. Can you guys talk
about some of the some of the standing out in
a genre that is not typically a Christian genre.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, yeah, So it's funny to hear you say that,
because I think, how old are you? I was thirty three, okay, yeah,
so you're like our basis age very I feel older
every day. I just turned forty, and it's funny to
hear I can remember the first time somebody referred to
the Devil Wears Praduct as like a Christian metalcore band,
and I was like, weird, why and they were like, well,
(01:35):
they don't curse, and I was like, I'm pretty sure
I saw them at Warped Tour, like telling girls to
shake their ass and like smoking cigarettes on like they
look like eighteen visions. And it was like such a
weird thing because I kind of grew up in the nineties,
you know, late nineties into the early two thousands, and
there was definitely like the tooth and nail thing. But
(01:58):
the more I read interviews and the more like retrospectives
that come out about that scene, the more everybody was like, yeah,
I don't know, I don't even think Christian metal core.
Christian hardcore was really a thing. We all were just
kind of like playing certain fests and on certain record labels.
It's like it's such a funny. It's like a thing
(02:18):
that's being retconned away. But yeah, we you know, don't really.
It's it feels pretentious to be like, we don't consider
ourselves a Christian band, because obviously the themes kind of
stick out, but you know, something that we try to
sort of stand by as a band. Is this idea
(02:42):
that this term Christian gets applied to a lot, right,
a lot of especially not great things in the West.
But you know, this guy Rob Bell one time said
that Christian is a really good noun, but it's a
terrible adjective because then you get like Christian bookstores and
(03:05):
Christian bands, and Christian plumbing services and Christian coffee shops
and Christian you know, politics and all this stuff. So
you know, while it's true for sure that like I
think the four of us would consider ourselves in you know,
the Christian tradition and sort of like students of Jesus,
(03:26):
and the the lyrics and the art are reflective of
sort of a more Catholic, mystic sort of contemplative tradition,
I don't know that I would necessarily consider us a
Christian band, And more and more I kind of like,
I'm not even sure that Christian hardcore was a thing.
(03:49):
It was like, actually maybe ever actually a thing, but
it is. It's tricky. It can be tricky to get
people to pay attention or to give you a chance,
because I think there is a lot of baggage with
whether it's yeah, Devil Wears Prada or all the way
back to like I don't know, strong Arm and some
(04:10):
of those bands in the nineties, all the tooth and
nail stuff, even like you know NXPX or you know
whatever Christian ska band. There's there's some sort of baggage
there that I think people, especially my aid, but but yeah,
down to like thirty, are still kind of carrying with
being I don't know, probably tricked into going to a
(04:30):
pizza party and then and then accidentally being at like
a church service or trying to see a metal band,
and there's like an alter call, So it can be
it can be tricky. I also think that like sorry,
you asked me like a forward question, I'm giving you
like a thirty paragraph answer. But I also think like
(04:53):
even the sort of faith stuff aside right now it's
just kind of hard or we found it interesting to
talk about anything kind of like big and existential, whether
it's spirituality or politics or whatever, because it's just kind
of that's not it doesn't seem to be what people
are looking for a lot of the time. But I
(05:16):
think that the folks that are, you know, really are
people who were interested in in bands like one oh
eight or Shelter or yeah, maybe like a strong arm
or even like a Shai hulud you know, have heart
had big sort of literary themes. I think the people
(05:37):
that are looking for that stuff are super hungry for it.
So we've really I think connected with those folks.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
And like you know, obviously bringing up the subject of
Christianity because the name curse breaker least it is often
referred to, and you know, as Jesus and what it
was done at the Cross, and.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You dig into the lyrically, a lot of.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
The the themes kind of woven into the record.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
It very much is kind of this not.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Not quite forward traditional Christianity or like an invitation or
anything like those, but kind of like an observation of
Christianity in terms of like politics and some of the
themes that the Bible talks about.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Can you guys, can you kind of expand upon.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Crafting h Christianity and like its relationship to like politics,
but also kind of done through the lens of like
traditional like punk and like hardcore like anti establishment type
of thing.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's good. So I think for us, you know,
a primary Ever ever since the sort of it's been
a problem for a long time, but I think the
event of Trump and trump Ism has sort of highlighted
the problem of Christian nationalism, this idea that for a
(07:10):
long time in this country, but also in other sort
of forms of Christendom, whether it's like the Crusades or
the Inquisition, Empire has always used faith to sort of
claim or try to manipulate the hearts of the people
into doing what it wants. Right, So you can use
(07:31):
an you can use a military to control people's bodies,
and you can use propaganda to control their minds, but
you really have to have your claws into religion to
manipulate their heart, right. So this is true of Christianity,
This is true of Judaism in places like you know,
a nation state like Israel. It's true of Islam. Sometimes
(07:56):
it's true Buddhism. I think it's Buddhism is a little
better at stand away from the Empire for whatever reason.
But so really, what we're trying to speak to is
is in that intersection of politics and faith, is that
they really if you're holding a Bible in one hand
and a flag in the other, something is inherently wrong, right.
(08:21):
I think at the core of Christianity, the reason that
in the first century before Constantine, that Christians were persecuted,
burned at the stake, you know, driven out of the
large cities in Rome. Was that they said, we don't
have a king, like do you know, Jesus is our king,
and so Caesar is fine, but he doesn't get to
tell us what to do. And that's anarchism, really, and
(08:46):
so it's pretty easy to make that connection between a
sort of anarchist meaning no archy meaning you know, we
we don't we don't subscribe to the idea of being
ruled over in an earthly sense. Making that connection to
punk is pretty easy. I think it is where again,
(09:09):
the Church and the Empire got into bed during Reagan
for sure, where the divergence really happened. I think that's
why the idea of like Christian punk or Christian or
religious at all, right, like religious or spiritual punk or
hardcore seems antithetical. Was because the rise of hardcore punk
were during the Reagan era, which is really, in my opinion,
(09:32):
where how we started on the series of unfortunate events
that led us to Trump. Right like Reagan, we could
still really be starting punk bands and talking about Reagan's
policies and his economics. That's where it really seemed to
become opposite, like how can you be a Christian and
(09:55):
be a punk?
Speaker 6 (09:55):
Right?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
But I think that that has a lot more to
do with Christian nationalism than it does is what Jesus
actually said or taught? Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah, yeah, And like.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
Even you know, kind of going to the flip side
of the record, a lot of the music for it
kind of feels like it feels almost like a record
out of time.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Crafting this like.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Almost like late eighties, like nineties, early nineties kind of
punk hardcore edge to it. What were some of the
influences for you guys in terms of crafting the instrumental
side of the record.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah, so Drew, who's the guitar player, is the primary songwriter,
and so he would probably speak to this more intelligently
than I would. But it's pretty all over the map.
But I definitely think it has everything to do with
being immersed in stuff that came out, you know, pre
twenty ten. You know, so probably on the older end,
(11:03):
a lot of Burn, their EP that came out in
the late eighties or early nineties band for New York, Burn,
we've been compared to a band called Outspoken that was
kind of an accidental comparison, but we went back and
listened to some of the Outspoken seven inches and we
do weirdly sound like them. There's a band called Unbroken
(11:26):
that I think we're real inspired by some of the
more I say recent it's twenty years now, but you know,
some of the more recent stuff would be like Verse
Have Heart, that kind of mid aughts hardcore that that
was pretty prominent at that time. So yeah, it kind
of I think it's just a diverse. It's a diverse
(11:50):
within hardcore. I think we have we have diverse influences,
but definitely within the sort of like bumpers of being
you know, hardcore bands, if that make sense.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Yeah, No, And so like I guess maybe I'm a
bit of a novice in this. I don't follow the
hardcore scene is probably as closely as I would something
like you know, death metal, little core, something along those
types of genres.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
And so I guess, like for me, like, do you
guys find.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
And this this is my ignes coming through, do you
guys find in crafting kind of these nostalgic sounds that
it it resonates a lot easier with people.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Oh, that's a good question. I don't think so. I
think it's actually it's been a little alienating in a
weird way. I think that like, sometimes we're writing songs
and I'm forty and Drew we're all in our thirties.
I'm the only one. I'm the oldest at forty. But
I think sometimes when Drew and I are writing songs,
(12:56):
we're kind of thinking like, oh, this is this is
almost like two standard, like this is just stock standard hardcore.
And then when we put the stuff out and we
interact with folks, you know, twenty thirty younger than thirty five,
it seems novel to them and even alienating because they
just they grew up more on the like metallic side
(13:18):
of things, you know, they're sort of starter bands, where
bands like yeah, maybe the Devil Wears Prod or more
metalcore or like Blacklisted or stuff that's just a little
more metal tinge. And so we found that it's actually
not difficult, but not easy to connect with folks because
(13:41):
what to us feels like not formulaic, but like pretty
stock standard, like, yeah, these are hardcore songs to folks
under the age of thirty five, are kind of like Oh,
this is weird. This isn't necessarily like what I'm hearing
or what I grew up hearing.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
What do you guys hope that people will tape from
Curse Breaker, whether that is either the more musical side
of it or the lyrical themes that are woven throughout
the course of the EB.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, that's good. Well I think, uh, for me, curse
I like that you made the Jesus connection because that
actually wasn't necessarily what I was thinking when I proposed
the name for the record. I was thinking a lot
through like breaking generational curses, so sort of like breaking
cycles and families, you know, so like if you grew
up with alcoholic parents being straight edge, or if you
(14:33):
grew up with parents that didn't talk about mental health,
you know, talking about your mental health. And so that's
one big takeaway is just hopefully people coming away with
a sense of empowerment that they can that they don't
have to be sort of slaves to whatever they would
they were handed or whatever, you know, cycles their family
has established that they can break those cycles or sort
(14:56):
of break those generational curses. I think just with all
of our stuff, it's about hopefully encouraging people to ask
bigger questions, to not just be concerned with themselves and
their immediate desires or issues, but to think more widely
(15:18):
about more existential matters like matters of purpose, matters of
you know, community, matters of justice, to just kind of
like widen our scope a little bit. In a very
hyper individualized, consumeristic sort of society that that we think
(15:40):
more largely about things like war and stuff like AI, Like,
you know, what what is the what are the repercussions
of some of the just like releasing AI to everybody?
You know, what is what is the algorithm in my
Instagram feed or my TikTok feed making me rather than
what am I making it? Yeah, So just kind of
(16:01):
like I think, trying to widen people's lens a little
bit to see or consider a bigger picture.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
So the last question I want to have is I
want to give you an opportunity to talk about the
upcoming tour dates that you have with the Victim of
Suffering and Infernal Gaze. You guys leave at the end
of this month, can kind of expand upon those tourism
where people might be able to find you.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, so big shout out to Victim of Suffering at
the in the spring, I endeavored to start booking a
weekend tour for us and it was just a total nightmare.
And then we played with Victim of Suffering and they
really kind of helped us out and sort of are
in a lot of ways taking us out on tour
(16:47):
with them, So big ups to them for helping out
some old guys. We're playing Johnson City, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia, Jacksonville, Florida,
and Raleigh, North Carolina. It is the twenty eighth through
the first, so Labor Day weekend. We're super excited, always
(17:10):
excited for a chance to go out on the road.
You know, I think our hope is just to play
for some new kids and make some friends and sell
a couple of T shirts. And we always kind of
joke that other guys our age and in our stage
of life like go kayaking or like go on brewery
tours or whatever, and we're this is just like our
(17:31):
version of that, like a dad weekend, although that's not
totally fair to Camp in our basis, who is not
yet a father, but uh yeah, man, we're just excited
to get out and have a good time.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So the album is called a Curse Breaker one more time.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
It is currently right now as of this interview, you
can only stream it on band camp quite correct.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
No, it's on Spotify and iTunes now, so we got
that figured out. Groovy.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
All right, Well, thank you so much. Be sure to
check out the Contact. Where can people find you guys online?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, mostly on our Instagram, So it's just Instagram, dot com,
slash Contact Hardcore and you can kind of link to
all the stuff, including the records from there.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
All right, we'll provide links for you guys in the
show notes. Hello Matt, Thank you so much. Be sure
to check out once again. The album is called Curse Breaker,
the band is called Contact.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Have a good one.
Speaker 6 (18:31):
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(18:52):
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(19:12):
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(19:35):
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Speaker 3 (19:44):
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Four Victims and Villain's. My name is Josh. Today I'm
drawn by Matt.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
He is one of the members of the band Contact
from right here in Richmond, and they are fresh off
the release of their EP, Curse Breaker, and we think
that they are a band that you should know in
twenty twenty four. How are you doing, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Doing pretty good? Man? Thanks for thanks for having me
on and for noticing our little record that we dropped.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
So I'm kind of curious about this because I feel
I grew up kind of in the age of you know,
Sleeping Giant, August Burns, Red del Wars Prada.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
When like Christian metalcore was like as at its peak,
and you don't see a lot of Christian bands in
the hardcore metal core scene anymore. Can you guys talk
about some of the some of the standing out in
a genre that is not typically a Christian genre.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, yeah, So it's funny to hear you say that,
because I think, how old are you? I was thirty three, okay, yeah,
so you're like our basis age very I feel older
every day. I just turned forty, and it's funny to
hear I can remember the first time somebody referred to
the Devil Wears Praduct as like a Christian metalcore band,
and I was like, weird, why and they were like, well,
(01:35):
they don't curse, and I was like, I'm pretty sure
I saw them at Warped Tour, like telling girls to
shake their ass and like smoking cigarettes on like they
look like eighteen visions. And it was like such a
weird thing because I kind of grew up in the nineties,
you know, late nineties into the early two thousands, and
there was definitely like the tooth and nail thing. But
(01:58):
the more I read interviews and the more like retrospectives
that come out about that scene, the more everybody was like, yeah,
I don't know, I don't even think Christian metal core.
Christian hardcore was really a thing. We all were just
kind of like playing certain fests and on certain record labels.
It's like it's such a funny. It's like a thing
(02:18):
that's being retconned away. But yeah, we you know, don't really.
It's it feels pretentious to be like, we don't consider
ourselves a Christian band, because obviously the themes kind of
stick out, but you know, something that we try to
sort of stand by as a band. Is this idea
(02:42):
that this term Christian gets applied to a lot, right,
a lot of especially not great things in the West.
But you know, this guy Rob Bell one time said
that Christian is a really good noun, but it's a
terrible adjective because then you get like Christian bookstores and
(03:05):
Christian bands, and Christian plumbing services and Christian coffee shops
and Christian you know, politics and all this stuff. So
you know, while it's true for sure that like I
think the four of us would consider ourselves in you know,
the Christian tradition and sort of like students of Jesus,
(03:26):
and the the lyrics and the art are reflective of
sort of a more Catholic, mystic sort of contemplative tradition,
I don't know that I would necessarily consider us a
Christian band, And more and more I kind of like,
I'm not even sure that Christian hardcore was a thing.
(03:49):
It was like, actually maybe ever actually a thing, but
it is. It's tricky. It can be tricky to get
people to pay attention or to give you a chance,
because I think there is a lot of baggage with
whether it's yeah, Devil Wears Prada or all the way
back to like I don't know, strong Arm and some
(04:10):
of those bands in the nineties, all the tooth and
nail stuff, even like you know NXPX or you know
whatever Christian ska band. There's there's some sort of baggage
there that I think people, especially my aid, but but yeah,
down to like thirty, are still kind of carrying with
being I don't know, probably tricked into going to a
(04:30):
pizza party and then and then accidentally being at like
a church service or trying to see a metal band,
and there's like an alter call, So it can be
it can be tricky. I also think that like sorry,
you asked me like a forward question, I'm giving you
like a thirty paragraph answer. But I also think like
(04:53):
even the sort of faith stuff aside right now it's
just kind of hard or we found it interesting to
talk about anything kind of like big and existential, whether
it's spirituality or politics or whatever, because it's just kind
of that's not it doesn't seem to be what people
are looking for a lot of the time. But I
(05:16):
think that the folks that are, you know, really are
people who were interested in in bands like one oh
eight or Shelter or yeah, maybe like a strong arm
or even like a Shai hulud you know, have heart
had big sort of literary themes. I think the people
(05:37):
that are looking for that stuff are super hungry for it.
So we've really I think connected with those folks.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
And like you know, obviously bringing up the subject of
Christianity because the name curse breaker least it is often
referred to, and you know, as Jesus and what it
was done at the Cross, and.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You dig into the lyrically, a lot of.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
The the themes kind of woven into the record.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
It very much is kind of this not.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Not quite forward traditional Christianity or like an invitation or
anything like those, but kind of like an observation of
Christianity in terms of like politics and some of the
themes that the Bible talks about.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Can you guys, can you kind of expand upon.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Crafting h Christianity and like its relationship to like politics,
but also kind of done through the lens of like
traditional like punk and like hardcore like anti establishment type
of thing.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's good. So I think for us, you know,
a primary Ever ever since the sort of it's been
a problem for a long time, but I think the
event of Trump and trump Ism has sort of highlighted
the problem of Christian nationalism, this idea that for a
(07:10):
long time in this country, but also in other sort
of forms of Christendom, whether it's like the Crusades or
the Inquisition, Empire has always used faith to sort of
claim or try to manipulate the hearts of the people
into doing what it wants. Right, So you can use
(07:31):
an you can use a military to control people's bodies,
and you can use propaganda to control their minds, but
you really have to have your claws into religion to
manipulate their heart, right. So this is true of Christianity,
This is true of Judaism in places like you know,
a nation state like Israel. It's true of Islam. Sometimes
(07:56):
it's true Buddhism. I think it's Buddhism is a little
better at stand away from the Empire for whatever reason.
But so really, what we're trying to speak to is
is in that intersection of politics and faith, is that
they really if you're holding a Bible in one hand
and a flag in the other, something is inherently wrong, right.
(08:21):
I think at the core of Christianity, the reason that
in the first century before Constantine, that Christians were persecuted,
burned at the stake, you know, driven out of the
large cities in Rome. Was that they said, we don't
have a king, like do you know, Jesus is our king,
and so Caesar is fine, but he doesn't get to
tell us what to do. And that's anarchism, really, and
(08:46):
so it's pretty easy to make that connection between a
sort of anarchist meaning no archy meaning you know, we
we don't we don't subscribe to the idea of being
ruled over in an earthly sense. Making that connection to
punk is pretty easy. I think it is where again,
(09:09):
the Church and the Empire got into bed during Reagan
for sure, where the divergence really happened. I think that's
why the idea of like Christian punk or Christian or
religious at all, right, like religious or spiritual punk or
hardcore seems antithetical. Was because the rise of hardcore punk
were during the Reagan era, which is really, in my opinion,
(09:32):
where how we started on the series of unfortunate events
that led us to Trump. Right like Reagan, we could
still really be starting punk bands and talking about Reagan's
policies and his economics. That's where it really seemed to
become opposite, like how can you be a Christian and
(09:55):
be a punk?
Speaker 6 (09:55):
Right?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
But I think that that has a lot more to
do with Christian nationalism than it does is what Jesus
actually said or taught? Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah, yeah, And like.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
Even you know, kind of going to the flip side
of the record, a lot of the music for it
kind of feels like it feels almost like a record
out of time.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Crafting this like.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Almost like late eighties, like nineties, early nineties kind of
punk hardcore edge to it. What were some of the
influences for you guys in terms of crafting the instrumental
side of the record.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah, so Drew, who's the guitar player, is the primary songwriter,
and so he would probably speak to this more intelligently
than I would. But it's pretty all over the map.
But I definitely think it has everything to do with
being immersed in stuff that came out, you know, pre
twenty ten. You know, so probably on the older end,
(11:03):
a lot of Burn, their EP that came out in
the late eighties or early nineties band for New York, Burn,
we've been compared to a band called Outspoken that was
kind of an accidental comparison, but we went back and
listened to some of the Outspoken seven inches and we
do weirdly sound like them. There's a band called Unbroken
(11:26):
that I think we're real inspired by some of the
more I say recent it's twenty years now, but you know,
some of the more recent stuff would be like Verse
Have Heart, that kind of mid aughts hardcore that that
was pretty prominent at that time. So yeah, it kind
of I think it's just a diverse. It's a diverse
(11:50):
within hardcore. I think we have we have diverse influences,
but definitely within the sort of like bumpers of being
you know, hardcore bands, if that make sense.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Yeah, No, And so like I guess maybe I'm a
bit of a novice in this. I don't follow the
hardcore scene is probably as closely as I would something
like you know, death metal, little core, something along those
types of genres.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
And so I guess, like for me, like, do you
guys find.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
And this this is my ignes coming through, do you
guys find in crafting kind of these nostalgic sounds that
it it resonates a lot easier with people.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Oh, that's a good question. I don't think so. I
think it's actually it's been a little alienating in a
weird way. I think that like, sometimes we're writing songs
and I'm forty and Drew we're all in our thirties.
I'm the only one. I'm the oldest at forty. But
I think sometimes when Drew and I are writing songs,
(12:56):
we're kind of thinking like, oh, this is this is
almost like two standard, like this is just stock standard hardcore.
And then when we put the stuff out and we
interact with folks, you know, twenty thirty younger than thirty five,
it seems novel to them and even alienating because they
just they grew up more on the like metallic side
(13:18):
of things, you know, they're sort of starter bands, where
bands like yeah, maybe the Devil Wears Prod or more
metalcore or like Blacklisted or stuff that's just a little
more metal tinge. And so we found that it's actually
not difficult, but not easy to connect with folks because
(13:41):
what to us feels like not formulaic, but like pretty
stock standard, like, yeah, these are hardcore songs to folks
under the age of thirty five, are kind of like Oh,
this is weird. This isn't necessarily like what I'm hearing
or what I grew up hearing.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
What do you guys hope that people will tape from
Curse Breaker, whether that is either the more musical side
of it or the lyrical themes that are woven throughout
the course of the EB.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, that's good. Well I think, uh, for me, curse
I like that you made the Jesus connection because that
actually wasn't necessarily what I was thinking when I proposed
the name for the record. I was thinking a lot
through like breaking generational curses, so sort of like breaking
cycles and families, you know, so like if you grew
up with alcoholic parents being straight edge, or if you
(14:33):
grew up with parents that didn't talk about mental health,
you know, talking about your mental health. And so that's
one big takeaway is just hopefully people coming away with
a sense of empowerment that they can that they don't
have to be sort of slaves to whatever they would
they were handed or whatever, you know, cycles their family
has established that they can break those cycles or sort
(14:56):
of break those generational curses. I think just with all
of our stuff, it's about hopefully encouraging people to ask
bigger questions, to not just be concerned with themselves and
their immediate desires or issues, but to think more widely
(15:18):
about more existential matters like matters of purpose, matters of
you know, community, matters of justice, to just kind of
like widen our scope a little bit. In a very
hyper individualized, consumeristic sort of society that that we think
(15:40):
more largely about things like war and stuff like AI, Like,
you know, what what is the what are the repercussions
of some of the just like releasing AI to everybody?
You know, what is what is the algorithm in my
Instagram feed or my TikTok feed making me rather than
what am I making it? Yeah, So just kind of
(16:01):
like I think, trying to widen people's lens a little
bit to see or consider a bigger picture.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
So the last question I want to have is I
want to give you an opportunity to talk about the
upcoming tour dates that you have with the Victim of
Suffering and Infernal Gaze. You guys leave at the end
of this month, can kind of expand upon those tourism
where people might be able to find you.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, so big shout out to Victim of Suffering at
the in the spring, I endeavored to start booking a
weekend tour for us and it was just a total nightmare.
And then we played with Victim of Suffering and they
really kind of helped us out and sort of are
in a lot of ways taking us out on tour
(16:47):
with them, So big ups to them for helping out
some old guys. We're playing Johnson City, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia, Jacksonville, Florida,
and Raleigh, North Carolina. It is the twenty eighth through
the first, so Labor Day weekend. We're super excited, always
(17:10):
excited for a chance to go out on the road.
You know, I think our hope is just to play
for some new kids and make some friends and sell
a couple of T shirts. And we always kind of
joke that other guys our age and in our stage
of life like go kayaking or like go on brewery
tours or whatever, and we're this is just like our
(17:31):
version of that, like a dad weekend, although that's not
totally fair to Camp in our basis, who is not
yet a father, but uh yeah, man, we're just excited
to get out and have a good time.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So the album is called a Curse Breaker one more time.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
It is currently right now as of this interview, you
can only stream it on band camp quite correct.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
No, it's on Spotify and iTunes now, so we got
that figured out. Groovy.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
All right, Well, thank you so much. Be sure to
check out the Contact. Where can people find you guys online?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, mostly on our Instagram, So it's just Instagram, dot com,
slash Contact Hardcore and you can kind of link to
all the stuff, including the records from there.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
All right, we'll provide links for you guys in the
show notes. Hello Matt, Thank you so much. Be sure
to check out once again. The album is called Curse Breaker,
the band is called Contact.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Have a good one.
Speaker 6 (18:31):
If you were someone you know is listening to this
podcast right now and you're struggling with suicide, addiction, self harm,
or depression, we encourage you guys to please reach out.
This is the heartbeat or why we do what we do.
Suicide is currently the tenth leading cause of death in
the United States, and as of this recording, there are
(18:52):
one hundred and thirty two suicides that take place each
and every day on American soil, and when you scale
back international, there are eight hundred thousand successful suicides. That
is one death roughly every forty seconds. So if you
were someone you know was struggling, you guys can go
to Victims and Villains and dot net forward slash hope
(19:12):
that resource is going to be right in the description
wherever you guys are currently listening or streaming this. There
you'll find resources that include the National Suicide Lifeline, which
is one eight hundred two seven three eighty two fifty five.
You can also text help to seven four seven four one.
You also have a plethora of other resources including churches,
(19:35):
getting connected with counselors, LGBT resources like the Trevor Project,
and also a veteran hotline as well.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Please, if you.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
Hear nothing else in the show, understand that you, yes,
you listening to this right now, have value and worth.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
We get it.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
Suicide, depression, mental health. These are hard topics and this
stigma around them doesn't make it any easier. But please
consider the resources right in the descriptions below wherever you
guys are listening, because once again, you have value and
you have worth, so please stay with us
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