Blvd. Of Death

Ifound out about HCPP through a fanzine that my friend Kasper (of Redemption Denied fame; interviewed somewhere else in this zine) gave me after the One King Down tour back in May 2019 (woah, time flies…!). It was a super interesting small fanzine dedicated to Carl The Mosher, a legendary NYHC figure that has played in bands like Dynamo, Underdog and The Icemen. Some months later I listened to Edoardo’s (the guy behind the fanzine and HCPP) band on Spotify and since I really love NYHC (especially the 80s / 90s / early 00s scene), Blvd. Of Death stuck on my mind and I kept listening to the demo on repeat. It’s been a while since the last time I interviewed a band from Italy, so here you are!

Interview conducted in late March 2020. Pictures provided by the band.

blvdofdeathhc.bandcamp.com hcpprecords.bandcamp.com www.instagram.com/edohcpp

Hey Edoardo! Thanks for being part of this zine. Please introduce yourself!

develop mental disability nurse. I’m a HC singer during the spare time lol.

First things first, I read your name for the first time through the HCPP fanzine about Carl the Mosher (NYHC legend, having played in Dynamo, The Icemen, Underdog, etc., he passed away in December 2013). What’s up with this zine?

HCPP FANZINE aka the Carl The Mosher issue is the best thing I did in my life. I’m so proud of how it came out. It’s an entire zine reflecting the legacy of CTM, told by the people who know him best and some of us who knew him a lil’ bit. As I said on the intro of my zine, I don’t understand why Carl’s so rarely mentioned as other members of the NYHC all of fame and it sucks. That’s why I did this tribute!

You seem to be super passionate about old NYHC and New York in total. What attracts you the most to those years? What are you favorite underrated bands of the time?

NYHC! There’s no other scene on the planet with an energy that can compete with! Underrated bands / records from the time?! Let me think...

Breakdown - Plus Minus, Fit Of Anger both demos, Absolution rehearsal demo ‘88.

HCPP is also your label. Tell us some more info about it? How did you decide to release that Dynamo live tape? Any plans for future releases?

There’s no much to say about HCPP Records (just needed to get a name before printing the tape, it’s not a real label lol). While chatting with Justin P, I asked his permission to make that tape for the NYHC lovers like me and you. He said: go for it! This set included 2 unreleased trax + some classics. All songs have been remastered by my man Will Hirst (Restraining Order, Violence To Fade, Maniac) at Gate 4 Studio and they sound sick! You can download the whole set for free via bandcamp!

Being a 90s NYHC aficionado is also obvious in the band you sing for, Blvd. Of Death! When did you form the band and what’s the story behind it? Where are you based and who else is in the band? Btw, why did you choose that name?

few years ago and then I asked my paisans to help me out on jamming some new songs that I had in my fridge and I were thrilled on the final result so why not to do a new band? A few days later while chatting with Freddy Alva (New Breed Tape Compilation, NYHC Graffiti Book; ed. check his interview in this issue) I sent him some preproduction so he said: ‘That’s mid - 90’s Queens Style, so Blvd Of Death aka Queens Blvd could be a cool name.’ So yeah he came with the name!

Your first EP was released by Edgewood Records in USA, also home for Trail Of Lies & Dead Heat, among others. Are you happy with the feedback so far? Any plans for playing a NY show in the future?

I love Richmond HC. It’s the best current USHC scene in my opinion. All those bands, labels including Edgewood Records represent the real NYHC Style attitude revival of our era. When I got the final master from Arthur Rizk (ed. producer – Cold World, War Hungry, Eternal Champion and more), I immediately asked some help to my boss Craig at Edgewood to spin that shit around the States and he was cool with it. We def psyched on how it came out,

guys did an excellent job and promoted well the EP around USA.

You originally come from Switzerland, according to your FB info. When did you move to Italy? How’s the scene over there nowadays? It seems that after a long dry period, more & more hardcore bands come from Italy nowadays? Are you also connected to the Swiss scene, too?

I was born in Geneva but my mom and dad are 100% Italians. I returned to Italy in 1995 when I was 9. About Italian hardcore bands let me think... In a time where not much keeps my interest Mother and 3rnd7er are doing cool things. To be honest with you I’ve never been connected with the Swiss HC scene. Please send me a few names to check it out, thanks!

Sometimes I wonder if we (me included) overestimate the past and create a myth around it and on the other hand underestimate the current scene and bands… What do you think about this?

Look... Ok, here’s what I’m thinking. A lot of new bands are overestimated. So much people on that preach support fanzines but never buy em... Support your scene but never buy a records... I’m tired of those fuckin posers. HC has turned into social media HC shit, and seems like HC kids are just waiting for the next hardcore drama just to make wood from the fallen trees. Hope em are just short term tourists...

By the way, do you follow any reunion shows? Which show was a bummer for you and which is one you’ll never forget. Judge was definitely disappointing for me, for example… What’s your stance on the reunion shows in general?

I missed most parts of those late reunion shows

since they didn’t played around my area... From what I’ve seen on pics and vids my 2 fave shows are Altercation at BNB and Alone In A Crowd in Philly!

Back to Blvd. Of Death, what’s your plans for the future? Any tours when the pandemic ends? With which bands you would love to share the stage / tour with?

I don’t want to make plans and illusions but I’ll try to book 4/5 shows in December (USA East Coast). A band that I’d love to share the stage with? Icepick!!! Goldrush forever!

A question I couldn’t leave out… How hard is living in Italy nowadays? Of course, the whole world is affected by this fucking virus, but it seems that Italy is affected the most till now in Europe with more than 6,000 deaths already (update: the deaths in early May 2020 were close to 30,000). What about the future? How hard will it be to get back to normality?

Except for healthcare workers, work and social life is largely at home now, but there’s real unity in the country’s shared sacrifice. Right now it’s like those kinds of movies when there’s a virus of infections of some kind. It’s crazy. Dear Italy get well soon! I’m sure you’ll rise again.

Stay safe bro! Need your top5 of 90s NYHC to end this with a bang!

Thanks Apostolis!!! It changes time to time but it’s always in the same ball park.

Right now is: Breakdown - Blacklisted Cold Front self titled LP Crown Of Thornz - Mentally Vexed Everybody Gets Hurt - N.Y.H.C. demo Show Of Force - The Wildfire Studios demo

United & Strong is a hardcore band based in Berlin. Since their inception in 2001, they have played shows in 25 countries in 3 continents, while having released a bunch of cool records / EPs etc. I met Chris 5 years or so ago and since then we have become friends and meet a couple of times a year! He is definitely one of the last persons I hugged or shaked hands with before the quarantine, since me & my girlfriend stayed at his and his girlfriend’s place in Berlin in early March 2020. Besides being a super nice guy, he fronts UAS, one of the most hardworking yet underestimated hardcore bands in Germany. Read his great answers while listening to UAS’s latest album called ‘Colorblind’.

Interview conducted in early April 2020. Pictures provided by the band.

www.unitedandstrong.de www.unitedandstrong.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/uasHARDCORE www.instagram.com/unitedandstrong

Hey Christian! How’s life in Berlin nowadays? Do you remain United & Strong in front of the pandemic?

Hi! I guess it is the same like everywhere, staying home and reducing all contacts. That means we are not rehearsing or meeting as a band. But we try to work on some new stuff during that break.

United & Strong started back in 2001, almost 20 years ago. What motivated you to start a hardcore band and what empowers you to keep going on?

The motivation wasn’t the same for all of us back then but I can speak for myself that I always wanted to be more part of the scene than just going to shows, I wanted to play shows, go on tour and have something to say on stage. What keeps us going, and here I can speak for all of us, is the friendship and the joy of playing shows, sharing the energy with the audience, meeting new people, still have something to say and having an outlet of the daily grown up life with all responsibilities we have in our jobs or as being parents. This is all worth the effort you

You have a reputation of playing the ‘weirdest’ (even though I do not agree with the term) places in the globe. Do you use hardcore as a vehicle to visit the world, too, or you just want to spread your ideas to far away from home places?

It is definitely the fascination of playing places where most bands don’t go mixed with a big interest in the Ex-Soviet Union and basically all countries that have been behind the iron curtain. Only playing shows in Germany might be lucrative and you can earn a lot of scene points but it can also become boring. If you want to be a real tough guy band playing heavy breakdowns you should cross a border between Ukraine and Moldova in the middle of the night with a van full of equipment and merchandise or play a show in one of the most dangerous favelas of South America. Playing shows in clean German youth centres in front of your wannabe gangster beatdown friends does not make you tough.

Have you ever been in a dangerous situation while on tour? What’s the hardest place to play a show and from which place do you have the funniest stories to share with us?

We have been in lots of nerve wrecking border crossing situations, we can make a zine with all those stories. Most of those situations turned out to be quite funny. Which wasn’t quite funny was when we got attacked by Nazi hooligans in Bulgaria in 2009 after we broke up our set because of their presence at the show and them saluting Hitler.We packed our stuff while being kicked, spit and insulted. When we were about to leave the backyard I told our bass player to better close the window where he sat. Just few seconds after a stone hit the glass beside his head. The window did not break and we left being chased by them through the city.Another scary situation happened after the first show we ever played in the Ukraine. A kind of military jeep followed us to a gas station where immediately everything shut down as soon those guys stepped off their car. With their hands on their guns they told us they were ‘special’ police taking us and all our stuff. Our friend with Russian skills had to negotiate with them and at one point I asked him how much money he has in his wallet, it was just 20€ so I told him to show them his wallet in hopes they just take it and leave. They did and we kept on driving terrified and traumatised over night to the next show. Booking a tour in Morocco without any personal contact was one of the harder challenges. We basically didn’t know if there will be a single show of the three ‘booked’ ones and if anyone will show up at the airport. In the end it turned out really great, we played all 3 shows without any bad story to tell. A funny story happened during our Brazil tour. We played this beautiful beach town, half open air just beside the beach. Perfect day, perfect show. We stayed in the house of the promoter where he lived with his parents. The family is all asleep and we are also getting ready for bed using the toilet for all kind of businesses. After Bianca’s big business there was a massive problem, she just couldn’t flush it away. So we all get in the bathroom to help her. Because as good guests you don’t want to leave unfinished business. But we couldn’t make it with the water from the toilet so we searched the house for a bucket without waking up anyone but couldn’t find anything. All we found was a big vase standing in the living room. We filled it up with water and solved the problem.

What differences do you notice when touring areas like east Europe or Brazil compared to a laid out tour in mainland Europe?

The big difference is that we are very spoiled in west Europe, it is easy to set up shows with places like youth centres supported by the government, squats or subcultural venues. In eastern Europe you rarely find those kind of places and the promoters and scenes need to be creative making their own places or renting disco clubs, pool billiard saloons or even a bowling place. We played all kind of different venues there. To be a little exaggerated I would say in supposed fucked up countries compared to the west we often play in very fancy venues, while in the west you end up playing in fucked up squats. One thing that was always special and touched me the most in Brazil and Russia is that people show so much respect for you that you actually came all the way to play for them. Something you will never experience in west Europe where you are supposed to be so fucking thankful as a band that you can actually play.

Even if you are active for so many years, playing good music while representing positive vibes and a stable socio-political stance, UAS was never a hyped band to come out of Europe. Why does this exist in your opinion and how frustrating is it for you to see new overhyped bands jumping in big tour packages or getting all the big bands’ support slots? Did you ever try to become bigger?

Very difficult question and hard to answer without being subjective. I will give it a try. Hardcore is a young and fast scene. Most bands exist for a short time with achieving relatively much in that short period. So if you do not make it as a band during the first few years, you will most likely not become a hype band that will be put on big tours, labels and so on. We obviously are not that kind of band because we exist since 2001. So at this point the train has left for us as we say in Germany. On the other hand, we never really forced to become bigger in terms of hype, labels or booking agencies. I mean we tried 15 years ago but at that time we were just not good enough and not experienced enough. Which might improved over the years but instead of kissing asses, making friends with people just to push the band or becoming a member of the ‘cool guys club’ (quote of a wise guy called

Carl), we did our own thing. Touring uncommon places, not going with the trend music and style wise and only making friends with real people who mean something to us. Being objective we have to admit that we are maybe just not good enough, that we do not invest enough time in the band, in the song-writing, in recordings or in building a network with people from the ‘industry’. It is easy to sit at home old and grumpy and blame it on the hype bands. On the other hand, there is not much we should complain about in terms of what we achieved as a band. Playing 25 countries on 3 continents is not that bad.

There’s a big change in hardcore nowadays; many bands following the Turnstile sound or mellowing down, getting more poppy, you know. There’s also a nu-metal revival filtered through hardcore, as far as I can see. It’s not necessarily bad, I really enjoy a bunch of this kind of bands. What about you? Is old school not cool anymore?

It is hard to tell what old school is nowadays with this big retro hype in the hardcore, fashion and the skateboard scene for instance. The 80s are cool, the 90s too and tomorrow it might be something horrible from the 00s. I never thought we are old school or anything but I guess we are

just because we are close to our 40s. People always followed trends and there will always be a certain sound and ways of dressing or even moves in the pit and on stage fashionable. We also copied that when we started. But we stuck with it and the new kids catch up with what is fancy now. That’s how it goes, I guess. I personally do not like it when things are mellowing down and I never really liked nu metal, when I got into hardcore we only laughed about Slipknot, Korn and whatever was on MTV while we listened to Madball, Earth Crises or Disembodied. That was heavy music by all means. But since there is also a 90s revival of the heavier sound in the hardcore scene I am fine at least with those kind of bands.

You are vegan / straight edge and UAS is openly an antifascist band. How up to date are the alternative lifestyle and politics in the hardcore scene? How hard is not to fall into clichés and really talk about social change?

We always tried not to fall in any cliches and therefore I never called myself straight edge although I never drunk or took drugs in my whole life. My diet is plant based but I still have shoes with leather so practical I am not a real vegan. But anyway, back to the question. In the hardcore scene there are a lot of rules you have to follow, same goes with being antifascist or antisexist. It is something you just have to say on stage and people can nod their head, check. But after the show you will call someone who pisses you off a faggot. Or you proclaim to be against consumption and exploitation but you have a big sneaker collection at home. I wish the scene was more reflected and honest. It is hard also for us not to fall into those mentioned cliches but at least try to be true to yourself and practice what you preach.

Moreover, you have Bianca on drums, how hard is for a girl to be a member of a hardcore band nowadays compared to the past? We usually see girls in the shows, but hardly on stage (unless they are stage-diving). Do you think that patriarchy is an issue in the hardcore scene?

It is an issue in the whole world and it always will be. This world is fucked because of men ruling it. Obviously there is a little change in the whole society and topics like equal payment or metoo are much more present than before. In the hardcore scene you can definitely see more women than when we started but it is still far from being equal. Having Bianca in the band taught us a lot about patriarchy and we could experience sexism first hand. You cannot imagine how much shit she took, guys telling her that she played well but she should use a solarium against her white legs. Or the classic situation that she is told the food is just for the band. And small things like bands or promoters introduce to us but not to her. Even in 2020 I cannot see that those things will change. I mean Bianca is a grown up woman with two kids, she couldn’t care less of guys giving her shit.

Besides enjoying hardcore, you are a big skateboarding fan. Top 5 of skate clips we should all check on you tube? Do you also skate?

You already asked very good questions but with this one you won my heart. I am not a nerd but I love skateboard videos and I still have my VHS collection in my shelf with all the classics of late 90s and early 2000 videos. Those were the golden times for skateboard videos, you waited for years and when it came out you watched it over and over again. Nowadays I watch each day a new clip with amazing skateboarding perfect filming and editing. So it is very hard to pick out favourites. My all-time favourite skateboard company is Toy Machine. Especially their videos from the golden times are legendary. So please check out ‘Jump Off A Building’ and ‘Welcome To Hell’ by Toy Machine. For the Ex-Soviet flair please check out the videos by Patrick Wallner, a recent film by him is called Hotel Uzbekistan. An already legendary online clip is the Gravis part by Dylan Rieder. One of the best skateboarders of our time. He passed away because of leukemia a couple of years ago. The last outstanding clip I saw is Jarne Verbruggen’s ‘Professional Life’. Crazy skateboarding and lots of humour! I still skate and I would say from March till November I try to skate at least once a week.

I guess we covered almost everything. Thanks for your time!

Thank you Apostolis for the interview and your support!