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Chad from Strife checks in, gives us the low down
Last year I was finally able to have Strife play Philadelphia. In the 90s there were 2 separate cancelled Strife shows that always left a hole in the heart of the Strife fans here.
The show was incredible and one of the best all year.
I had to get them for TIH this year and I am really excited for their set next weekend.
Chad checks in and breaks us down with how Strife feels about TIH, why they still do Strife and if they’ve got some new material on the way.
Last year you played sound and fury and did a short East Coast tour, now you’re playing TIH 2011, what was the motivation to get active again?
In addition to the East Coast we also went to South America and japan in February of 2011. Right now we are in Europe playing shows for 2 weeks before our last stop at TIHC. The only motivation for us to continue to do this is it’s what we love to do. We have been a band for 20 years now but even longer than that we have been our closest friends and there is nothing better than getting out there and playing the music that you love and spent years of your life putting together and playing to a scene that you love above all others. These guys are and have always been my brothers through best and worst. We all have jobs, we all have bills to pay at home yet I can’t help but think how fortunate we are that circumstances in our personal lives allow to continue to come together and do shows year after year
What bands are you guys looking forward to seeing at the fest this year?
Unfortunately we don’t arrive until the 13th, but we are totally looking forward to seeing our friends in Terror & Bittter End, Blacklisted with the original line up, Bane (I will finally have a chance to replace my Bane hoodie that I lost years ago), Damnation A.D., Betrayed, Maximum Penalty, District 9 (with Todd from Warzone) and you can’t tear me away from the Resurrection reunion. I checked out the remixed songs for the discography coming out on Deathwish and that shit sounds amazing, I have always loved that band. It’s really hard to choose what bands exactly since Joe put together the best line up for this year. We fly back to Cali Sunday but I hope it is late enough to check out most of the bands. I’m sad that we are going to miss all of our friends playing Friday though. I’d love to be there for that show. We saw Youth of Today and Mouthpiece out in Pomona, Ca last month and it was awesome. H20 is always a great time & of course our friends in Ringworm and Nails. Super bummed we can’t be there on Friday.
Is there a thought to writing new Strife material?
You’ll just have to wait and see 🙂
Would you bring back the old victory days or are you guys happy with hardcore today?
I think Hardcore, like all other forms of music, evolves. Every time we get to check out a new band.. it’s already like having that same feeling all over again, and we get the opportunity to play with newer bands quite often. If you are able to go on Thursday be sure to check out Bracewar and Foundation. We played with them and I loved both their sets. It’s great to go out to shows these days and see a younger band up there doing their thing and keeping Hardcore going for the next generation of kids that just might be getting in to it. I can’t really classify what we were doing in the past or label it as Victory years. What we did and continue to do on a whole is about Hardcore and the scene as a whole as well as a lot of great bands that came out of that era from when we were on “that label”. I’m honestly more happy with our band now, more so than I have ever been. We took a long break after being forced in to a crazy touring schedule and all kinds of different shit at that time that kept us from being the band that we loved and losing sight of the fun of doing this band. There’s nothing business about what we do these days and unfortunately back in those days that’s what some people around us tried to make it, and it drove us apart.Â
Nowadays we get up there and have more fun, smile and laugh more than we ever have before. I wouldn’t change a thing.
What can we expect from Strife at TIH this year?
Basically Joe didn’t even have to ask us to play this year. We were all about it since we played Philly last year and were hoping that we would get the chance to be a part of it in 2011. I got an email from Joe a couple of weeks ago that basically said how happy he was that we were able to make it work and get out there for the show and I wrote back that we were totally hoping we would get the opportunity to play. We’ve been looking forward to it since we left Philly last year and can’t wait to get back there. It is one of the greatest festivals in Hardcore. From us, you can expect nothing but giving it our all. We’ll put everything we have in to it, and who knows, you might even like us ;). Above all else, be sure to come up and say hello, hang out and lets all just make this a great year for This Is Hardcore 2011.