Rockezine.com interview with Boy Sets Fire on Dec 09, 2002

with Nathan Gray on Dec 09, 2002


		So how has the tour been so far? How have things worked out with the other bands? It’s been great, it’s been a lot of fun, we’re ready to go home, but it’s a lot of fun. This is our last show of the tour. We’ve brought Death By Stereo with us because they’re friends of ours and we like their music.
		So you have already played with them before? Oh yeah. And we also brought La Par Force out because a couple of the guys were in a band we’ve toured with before here in Europe. They are from Bavaria; they were in a band called Static 84 before. We toured with them the last time we were on tour, and they’re out now with their new band, so...
		Your new album will be released April next year, but recently you’ve released the ‘Live For Today’-EP. Why did you choose to do that, because some of the songs on the EP will also be on the new album? Basically, we did it because we wanted some new songs to play live and we also didn’t want people to forget about us, because we hadn’t put out anything in almost three years, so we wanted to make sure people knew we were still around. And if we waited until April 1st, which is the day it’s going to be out, we wouldn’t have any new songs when we were going on tour
		There are three new studio tracks and three live songs on the new EP. Why didn’t you put out an EP with new songs and a live-CD, for instance? We thought it might be ridiculous to put out two separate things in such a short amount of time, but also we only wanted to put out ‘After The Eulogy’, ‘Rookie’ and ‘Handful Of Redemption’ as live songs, because the first two are our best live songs as far as reaction goes. It wasn’t really planned out, it was more like ‘Hey, let’s do this!’. There wasn’t too much thought put into it, we just wanted some new songs to play.
Nobody wants revolution if it’s not going to be fun.		You donate part of the money you make with the EP to two organizations, D.R.U.M. and the Center For Constitutional Rights. Can you tell us something about these organizations? We’re supporting both of these groups, not only with CD-money but also with money from the show where we recorded the live songs. They are fighting racism in the U.S. against Arabs since 9/11 and they’re also working for constitutional rights; because ever since that happened, our government has been trying to take away certain rights from the people by telling them that it is going to make them more safe, which is bullshit. You can’t trade freedom for safety; it doesn’t work.
		From your lyrics, I get the feeling freedom is very important to you. Absolutely; it should be to everyone, whether you’re from America or any other part of the world. It’s one of the most important things you can have; it’s to be able to do what you want to do and not to be told what to do by someone else.
		Looking back, how do you feel about the Victory-deal? I don’t look back on it at all. We had a one-off contract, just for one CD, and when the contract was up we said ‘Goodbye’. We couldn’t do it for them anymore. We looked for other labels, found Wind-up and signed with them, so I don’t even bother looking back or talking about Victory.
		Isn’t Wind-up part of Sony Records? In the States, Wind-up is a very large independent. They license out the albums to Sony in Europe. It’s weird, because in the U.S. we are on Wind-up and in Europe we are on Sony, but our only contract is with Wind-up, so we are not really ON Sony, they just put out the record here. They’ve licensed it to Sony so that they don’t have to deal with the distribution.
		In some of your lyrics you take a strong stance against capitalism. Did you have to justify working with a major label to yourself? For myself, no. I find it very different. If you want to live without capitalism, without doing anything wrong to anybody, you’d have to be naked in the woods wiping your ass with a corncob. It’s almost impossible. I think that everyone is a hypocrite; everyone does things against what they say. It’s just trying to do the best you can and to make the best choices that are going to make our music and our lyrics get out there to more people so that we can actually do something and change something.
		We’re not here as a hardcore fashion, we’re not here as a hardcore statement, we’re here to change lives and to make a difference in the world. And in order to do that, you get out to more people, because no one out there is going to fucking listen to you if you’re not on MTV. I want to sell out arenas, I want to start a revolution, I don’t want to start a little show, not anymore. I want something to happen, I want something to change in people’s lives.
		Is Boysetsfire a means to vent your political opinion or is the opinion something to add a little extra to the music? The music and the message are the same. It all came together on the exact same time. When Josh and Chad, the two guitarists, were forming the band; that was their goal. To do both, and put them on the same level of importance. You can’t have the band without the message and you can’t have the message without the music.
You can’t really have technology without the good and the bad side. Except for bombs, they’re pretty much just bad.		In the back of the booklet from ‘After The Eulogy’, you give a list of web pages you support, including that of filmmaker Michael Moore. What do you think of his latest production (Bowling For Columbine, on the role of firearms in U.S. society. -JK.-) I haven’t been able to see it yet! It came out in the States as we were leaving and it has been out here for a little bit, but we’ve been so busy that I haven’t been able to see it. I’ve just read his book ‘Stupid White Men’ and that was fucking hilarious and a really good book. He is a really funny guy and I really like him. Because of people like him, I got involved in politics. People who can make politics fun, amusing and irreverent again. And make it feel like something I want to be involved in. Because nobody wants revolution if it’s not going to be fun. That’s why people who exclude the sex, drugs and rock & roll from their revolution are going to loose. Those are basic things, it’s what people want, it’s fun.
		What type of deal do you have with Wind-up? Do you have a multiple-record deal? Yes, we’ll be on it for a while. We’ve never signed more than a one-off with any label, we’ve continued with labels and done more one-offs, but we’ve never done more than a one-off until now. We’ve signed with them for a couple of albums and it’s a good deal. We have 100% artistic freedom and we get the final say in everything, so it’s really cool.
		Since we are an online magazine, what do think of the Internet in general? Do you think it turned out to be a good thing? I don’t know. I don’t do computer-stuff too often. I check my email, I go on the message board every once in a while and postl; and I don’t know, download porn. (laughs) I don’t do much with it; I’m not very computer-savvy. I don’t know much about computers. The Internet has brought good and bad, just like everything else. Just like any other technology, there’s always the good and the bad side. You can’t really have technology without the good and the bad side. Except for bombs, they’re pretty much just bad.
I just don’t see the difference between innocent victims dying in the WTC and innocent victims dying by a bomb in Iraq...		Speaking of bombs, what do you think the near future will bring? I don’t know, but it’s scary. I’m more afraid of my government than I am of anywhere else. I think our government is slowly becoming a terrorist government and I think it’s ridiculous that they say they had no idea this was going to happen. When you have bombed twenty-one countries since World War 2, you’d better be sure something like this is going to happen.
		You can’t fuck with people like that and not expect some kind of blowback. It’s just ridiculous, and they knew this was going to happen and it just gave Bush power. I just don’t see the difference between innocent victims dying in the WTC and innocent victims dying by a bomb in Iraq. Either way, the victims are innocent and the people who did it are terrorists.
		To wrap this up: The new album will be out in April? Yes, we will have thirteen songs on it, all new, with the exception of the three songs that are on the EP, and a hidden track. That’s a song called ‘With Every Intention’ and it’s probably as close to a ballad as we’ve gotten in a long time. We put it as a hidden track, since it doesn’t fit well with the rest of the material, but we like it a lot, so... But all the songs for the album are done; we’ve recorded and mixed them and everything. When the album comes out, we’ll do a U.S. tour and then we’ll come back here and play some festivals.
(Jasper Klein)