PUNCH
YOUR FACE
Punch Your Face is the very
substance of hardcore wraped up with a heavy metal attitude. Matty Bones,
the band's guitarist, is here to help us meet with the band. For further
info you can visit the band's website of course or the demo sections of
the zine where you can read a review of their 2 track demo. But beware,
Punch You Face are nasty...!
1.FIRST OF ALL POINT OUT THE MOST
IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY AND INTRODUCE YOURSELVES TO THE
READERS...
I think the most important event
in our history, was not being arrested by Texas state police after getting
pulled over in the Houston area. Lets just say there was enough contraband
in the car to end our careers indefinitely. We got lucky and walked away
but that was a truly important and lucky moment for us. PUNCHYOURFACE is
myself, Matty Bones (guitar), Frankie Mittz (guitar), Jerry IB (Vocals),
Luda 6'1 (Vocals), Myke Diesel (Bass) & Justin (Drums).
2.FILL US IN ON THE BAND'S RELEASES.
YOU RECORDED A DEMO LATELY. GIVE US SOME INFO...WHERE WAS IT
RECORDED, HOW LONG DID IT TAKE
YOU TO FINISH IT, WHO WAS THE PRODUCER, ETC? ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FINAL
RESULT? DO YOU THINK YOU MANAGED TO FIND YOUR PERSONAL SOUND?
We have a 2-song demo CD that has
been out for a while and we just released a live from CBGB's CD.
That's got live versions of all some of the new songs we got like "Warzone",
"New York", "Famous" & "Fight Song". There's an Agnostic Front cover
on there also. The 2 song CD took 1 night to do the music, another
to do the vocals and another day to mix & master. We're all happy with
the sound, I think it captures our sound well but I know when we finally
get into the studio again to do an album its gonna destroy that CD.
3.YOU DESRCIBE YOUR STYLE AS A MIXTURE
OF NYHC AND DEATH METAL. FROM A SAMPLE I LISTENED TO I FOUND YOUR MUSIC
TO BE REALLY AGGRESSIVE AND THRASHY BUT SINCE I HAVEN'T LISTENED TO OTHER
SONGS OF YOURS, I CAN'T FULLY EXPRESS MY VIEWS. SO GIVE US YOUR OWN DEFINITION
REGARDING YOUR SOUND AND NAME SOME OF YOUR MOST BELOVED BANDS AND ALBUMS.
Actually we consider ourselves
straight up NYHC. Half of us have metal backgrounds but we try to downplay
that for this band. Jerry, Frankie & Myself are still in Internal Bleeding
and use that as our metal outlet, instead of making PUNCHYOURFACE a complete
metal/hc band. I agree with the aggressive comment and the thrash parts
are just hints of our metal influences showing through. We put all of our
focus on writing beat downs & sing alongs, which is more relevant to
hardcore. We all like a wide variety of music but some band favorites are
Madball, Skarhead, Boxcutter, Agnostic Front & metal bands like Dying
Fetus & Suffocation. I think if you heard the newer songs you
would realize we are heading down the hardcore path.
4.THE STRANGE THING WITH YOUR BAND
IS THAT YOU HAVE 2 MALE SINGERS. WHY? DO THEY EXPRESS DIFFERENT FEELINGS
AND THOUGHTS? HOW ARE THEIR ROLES DIVIDED?
I don't find it too strange; I
always liked dual vocals. When we started we had a 3rd singer as well but
it didn't work out. The band G.F.Y. (which Myke, Luda & myself were
in previous to this band) had 2 vocalists as well. Instead of males I do
wish we had 2 females singers. That wouldn't work well though; the rest
of us would wanna bang those 2 sluts out. I think the vocalists' roles
are split by the sound & tone of their voices. They both have their
unique style. Luda is more mid/high scream style & Jerry is low mid
brutal style & both will break away from their style and do other shit
too. Both can actually hit some notes during some chorus' as well. They
work to complement and contrast each other as well as hype up the others
part. It's cool to see them do their thing together live.
5.WHERE ARE YOUR LYRICS REFERRING TO
AND HOW IMPORTANT ARE THEY FOR YOU? WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO
WRITE LYRICS AND WHAT CAN TAKE
THE INSPIRATION AWAY FROM YOU?
When Jerry writes the lyrics I
think he just takes a look around, absorbs what's there then reflects what
he feels. Our songs are basically stories about us. It's about where we're
from, how we live, the drugs we do, the people we hate, the people we befriend,
how drunk we get, the bitches we fuck. We basically hustle and do what
we gotta do to keep this band going and that is the basis of the lyrics.
6.HAVE YOU DONE MANY LIVE SHOWS? CAN
YOU SHARE SOME OF YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCES WITH US? DO YOU
HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS IN
THE NEAR FUTURE?
We played our 1st show in July
2003 and by the end of the year we did over 35 shows. We love playing shows,
that's what we're all about. Since we've started playing out we played
just about every weekend. We took a few weeks off to write some new
shit and we were all so bored and fiending to play a show. I think playing
out is our biggest addiction. We already did a show in the new year
and we got a few more lined up for January & in February we got a lot
of shit we're planning on doing. Definitely some touring in February.
7.WHICH ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?
Touring is about it. Hopefully
we'll put out another studio recording in the coming months. Internal
Bleeding will be hitting the studio in March to do a CD for Century Media.
It's gonna be called "Hatefuel" and people will be able to hear the metal
shit some of our members do. Otherwise it's not to get arrested, over dose
or get any more bitches pregnant on the road. Unfortunately all of these
have happened already & hopefully won't happen again.
8.WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE THAT
DOESN'T KNOW YOU, IN ORDER TO INTRIGUE HIS INTEREST? WHICH
IS YOUR MOST APPEALING ELEMENT
ACCORDING TO YOU?
Hi Stupid!! That usually
intrigues people when you first meet them. I think my most appealing element
is that I'm burnt so I get along with all kinds of different people.
9.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT
WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
Emotionally it would have to be
some form of release, like an orgasm or something else cathartic. Yeah
our music is violent and heavy, but it's like that so we don't have to
carry those emotions with us. If it was a painting, it be that one with
the 6 dogs playing poker. Each dog would represent one of our members and
I'm sure instead of playing cards we would be around the table playing
with sniffable substances.
10.WHICH DO YOU THINK IS THE BEST AND
WHICH THE WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC, ACCORDING TO YOU? WHERE DO YOU THINK
YOU NEED FURTHER IMPROVEMENT?
The best part is playing shows.
The worst part is setting up and breaking down the equipment before and
after a show. Only way I can see improvement is when we hire the crew of
Mexican midgets to roadie all our shit around. We've been talking about
it for a while but those mexi-midgets don't work for as cheap as one would
think.
11.ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK
YOU GOT THIS FAR? IS THERE AN ELEMENT OR A DESCRIPTION THAT YOU SEE GETTING
REPEATED IN ALMOST ALL THE REVIEWS YOU RECEIVE?
From what I've read the reviews
have been favorable. We see people mention bands like Madball & Skarhead
as our influences, but also say we have our own way of going about the
NYHC sound. The most repeated thing in the reviews is complaints that the
demo is only 2 songs.
12.YOU ARE IN A SEARCH OF A LABEL.
DID YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST TILL NOW? WITH WHAT CRITERIA WILL YOU
SELECT THE LABEL YOU WILL SIGN
WITH?
We've talked to a few people who
mentioned doing a CD, which is cool, but I think the main thing we are
looking for is tour support. We just wanna be out on the road and it would
be nice to have a label that would back and support us on that.
13.LET'S SUPPOSE THAT WE LIVE IN A
WORLD WITHOUT MUSIC. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN SUCH A CASE?
Hmm, dude I don't even know how
to address that. I guess if the world had no music I wouldn't know
what I was missing but if I heard music and then went deaf and couldn't
even feel the vibrations of music like a deaf person does, I guess I would
be permanently disappointed. Music & playing shows is better than any
other drug to me. But it's fun to mix the music & the drugs oh yeah
& sex too.
14.IN WHICH MOVIE SOUNDTRACK WOULD
YOU LIKE TO HAVE TAKEN PART OR HAVE COMPOSED?
American Bukkake 10 has a kick
ass soundtrack. I would love to be the guy who hit pre set beat 69 on the
Casio keyboard. That man made an audio masterpiece.
15.WHY DID YOU NAME THE BAND PUNCHYOURFACE?
ARE YOUR MUSIC AND LYRICS A PUNCH IN OUR FACE? IF YES, EXPLAIN HOW?
Our first pick was the Hymen Hammers
but there's some Canadian band with that name, fucking Canadians. The name
could be seen as a lyrical and musical punch in the face as you mention.
Plus it just sounds like a heavy band. I don't think an Emo band would
work with a name like that. Also it says a lot about us, we're all like
to play music, party, hang out but if you step to us, talk shit, fuck with
one of the crew then we're gonna punch your face, enough said.
16.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK
YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
Thank you for doing the interview.
If you want further information on us check out our website www.PUNCHYOURFACENYHC.com.
You can go on there to get the latest news and tour dates. You can also
buy merchandise from the site too, we got hoodies, t-shirts, belts etc
in all sorts of designs & shit. Also if you hear of us coming to your
town, come to the show and bring your virgin girls, food, drugs or hook
us up with a place to crash. We're a bunch of broke ass mutha fuckas. Aight,
later bro thanks again for the interview.
Nick "William_Kidd"
Parastatidis
|