Samsara interview/an interview with myself.

Here's a couple of things I did for  Pee Zine #39. Released some time in early 2007 I'm pretty sure? 

There's an interview with dave from the mighty SAMSARA and then an interview that Pete did with me about Give Blood Zine. I haven't actually read through this interview again (and I don't really have any urge to) but I think some of my replies are overly PC and a bit dumb. Please forgive me when I start going on about how boobs shouldn't be in hardcore zines, because in the 08, I really couldn't give a fuck.

Samsara interview

First up, what's been happening with Samsara lately? 
We just finished pre-production for our album about 2 weeks ago, which went really well…so now going to record it proper in about 3-4 weeks. We played with Hatebreed in Sydney last week too which was awesome. Playing the Picture The End album launch coming up in April and also supporting Agnostic Front late April which is going to be sickkkkk. Stigmaaaaa. 

How did you guys get together to start Samsara? 
During the final Within Blood tour Brad and I were talking about doing a new band. We had some time off before our last shows, so we asked some friends if they wanted to play, which was Luke and Leigh from Horsell…we then went and saw Baina sing for Her Nightmare one night and thought it would be cool to get this guy in the band and we asked him and he said cool. Since then we have got Brett who played in Day Of Contempt and sings for Shotpointblank on bass and Tim from 101 Words on drums. 

You and Brad (the other guitarist) played in Within Blood before you guys formed Samsara a few years later, how does playing in Samsara today compare to playing in Within Blood in the late 90's? Do both bands feel similar? How has hardcore changed in that time? 
Within Blood was very New York influnced, Agnsotic Front, Madball, Cro-mags, Judge etc whereas in Samsara we have taken those influences and added other elements, more metal and heavier hardcore, bits of everything. Within Blood was more straight up . In Samsara the riffs are changing a lot faster and are heavier. We still write the same, Brad is a machine when it comes to riffs and I add mine here and there and then we compile them into a song. Hardcore has definitely changed, a couple of us are older and have seen it change before our own eyes, some for the good, some for the worse, but hey, as long as everyone is there for the right reason and diggin the music that's cool. I think its awesome that bands can play to big crowds and shit really goes off..i just hope they don't get too spoilt and take it for granted coz hardcore music was always underground, that's why we got into it and not every show is going to be packed full of people going off., so just enjoy it…and don't rely too heavily on myspace…it is a great tool to get your music heard by people all over the world, but its not the be all end all of it…I could write a book on how everything has changed..but that would be boring as fuck….haha…. 

You did your first full tour with Perth's From The Ruins a couple of months ago now, how did it go? How did the kids react to Samsara? Was it hard being on tour without a release to sell? 
That was our first national tour and it was great for us. Sometimes there were good crowds and sometimes not but we had fun hanging out with the Ruins and Fever dudes and the people that were at the shows got right into every band. I think we went down well , not sure, we just concentrate on givin 100% ourseleves, if people dig it cool, if not that's cool too. It might have been different with an album out, which was supposed to be the case but I wouldn't say it made it harder, it was good for us to get our name out there to a bunch of kids that had never heard of us. 

Is it a good feeling to see kids in other cities getting into and enjoying your music? 
Totally…it's the best feeling..they don't have to ya know..but seeing some people goin off pumps you up even more, we are stoked when it happens. They don't have to be in the pit going crazy either to enjoy it, some people like to sit back and watch a band..we are very lucky to be able to play our music to other people outside melbs and don't take it for granted. 

How do you think the new songs you've written compare to those on the demo? To me the older songs feel like straight up Hatebreed meets Madball kinda stuff whereas the newer stuff has a heavier more metallic sound to it… 
Its been a while since the demo so our writing has developed as a band , we always like to mix things up a bit , from straight up to metal to whatever works.. We feel the songs are a lot stronger now we have spent some time demo-ing them for ourselves..you can still tell its Samsara. Tim's drumming is different to what Leigh's was and we are totally into his playing…so that has helped the songs take their course. 


I can remember you saying that you hope to have your album out in March, is that still the plan? Have you decided on any specifics about the release yet? (the name of the release, producer, amount of songs on it etc.) 
Well we just finished pre-production so I would say we will be recording in April with a June release. The national tour put us back a couple of weeks and always around xmas and new years its hard to get everyone together so we took a couple of weeks off which was ace..not sure on the name of the album yet, it will probably have 11 songs on it and we have almost decided where to record. Going to mainly produce it ourselves and use an engineer we used for the pre-production, as he understands where we are coming from in relation to our sound and the feel we want on this record.. 

I was talking to Tim (drums) while I was down in Sydney for the tour and he said you've got like 20 songs written, is there any plans to use some of the songs for a split 7" or something like that in the future? 
Yeah we wrote a stupid amount of songs, I think like 15-16 all up, then will pick 11 for the album so may may record the rest and use them for a split release down the track…we have been speaking with Against about a split with them, so we'll see what happens. 

You've done one tour now, when are you hoping to hit the road again? Being a band with older members, I'm guessing that work and other life commitments make it hard to find time to get on the road? 
Yeah it does, we don't want to take over the world and do 3 month tours of Australia playing every regional town in between cities, that's not us..I think these days you don't have to play all the time. We have plenty of friends in bands interstate and when we get a chance to play with them we are stoked coz we also get to hang out..we probably won't hit the road nationally again till the album drops as that is our main focus at the moment. 

I heard that you had some problems with security at an all ages show in Melbourne a few months back, what happened there? 
Yeah it was dumb, just un-educated security, which I've seen a million times before. They have to learn to let the kids go when they are getting into it. They aren't there to cause trouble, just letting out aggression and having fun, but bouncers don't understand this sometimes, which can totally ruin the show. They were going to pull the plug on the show until we had a word to them and the police that turned up, who were actually really good about it all and when we said lets keep playin the police were fine with it…kids went nuts after that..it was some sick shit…. 

The drummer from Most Precious Blood filled in for you guys when you supported Madball, how did that come about? Was it cool to jam with him? 
Jamming with Colin was awesome..he is a friend of Bretts, our bass player and when we were offered the show for Madball we couldn't do it as Tim our drummer had busted his hand (moshing to Dragonforce...hahaha)..Brett asked Colin who was here for a while chillin with his girlfriend so he was like yeah I'll do the show…he learnt the songs real quick..like 5 in one jam and the rest in another..such a good dude..total chiller and we learnt a lot from jamming with him…he is a great drummer… 

Australia is producing some awesome hardcore bands these days, what Aussie bands are you psyched on at the moment? Any newer bands kids should be checking out? 
So many awesome bands going round at the moment…most everyone will already know but I am psyched on Jungle Fever, looking forward to the new No Apologies record, Dropsaw, new Parkway will no doubt be brutal as fuck, new 50 Lions, new Her Nightmare…our good mates in Mindsnare have a new record coming up…so much to look forward to..Throw Your Bombs are doin some good shit too..they have improved a lot over the past few months. 

Heavy music as a whole is getting pretty big in Australia at the moment, do you think the commercial interest is starting to make it more about the image and less about the music with some bands? 
Each to their own I reckon, some things I am down with and some not so down with…hardcore was never meant to be commercial…although if a band can make a living off it good on them , if they get to travel the world, or Australia and do well out of it without changing their ethics, all good.….some bands do worry about the image too much and not the music but with like any scene, once it gets flooded, the crap is easily washed away…and the bands that are true will still be around. Look at Mindsnare, been around 10 years and they just do their own shit, not worrying about trends. Bands should be grateful that they get to play to good size crowds most shows coz it may not last forever…. 


Lastly, you were able to do a lot of different things with the band in 2006, such as recording an amazing new track for the latest Trial and Error comp, touring the country, and doing some cool support shows. What was your favourite Samsara related part of 2006? 
Getting you into the Sydney over 18s show…hahaha…just writing the album really and hanging out with mates at shows, local and interstate, that I don't get the chance to see that often anymore…. 

That's all I've got Dave, any last words? 
A big shoutout to everyone who comes to shows, lends gear ,gives us a place to crash..puts out zines, supports the scene and Nigel from Trial And Error for waiting so fucking long for us to put our album out.. 

an interview with myself (by Pete Pee)

1. Hey Chris, can you tell the PEE readers a bit about the birth of GIVE BLOOD zine? What makes a young dude from the Queensland coast get off his arse and spend his time and cash on publishing your own zine?
Hey Pete, Give Blood started in February (or maybe March?) of 2006. I went into a local independent music store to pick up a CD and through chance I ended up leaving with a copy of the second issue of Brisbane’s amazing Sharpend zine. There was a rant in it about kids doing more for their scene by putting on shows, doing zines, distros, bands etc. and that was the spark that got me going. It sounds corny but I’d always wished I could give more back to the music I loved and doing a zine sounded like a way I could make that happen. I don’t play any instruments, I wasn’t really old enough/didn’t know enough people to do shows and I certainly didn’t have the money to start a distro, but looking through that zine I thought ‘fuck, I can do this’. I had never seen another zine in my life at that point in time. I got into contact with Sean from the Sharpend, got some general info off him, sent off my first couple of interview requests a week or two later and when bands actually replied I was kinda locked into it. So it all just went from there. 

2. From reading the impressive first issue it’s obvious to me that you’re a massive BANE fan. Was coming up with a name for your zine a difficult thing to settle on or were you always planning on naming it in honour of BANE’s album?
Haha I am a big Bane fan, I never listened to them THAT much but just singing along to their songs is amazing, it’s gonna go off when they hit our shores in April! Aaron knows how to write deep lyrics. Anyway, the name kinda just slotted in I guess. I was listening to Bane a lot at the time and the first reply I got to an interview request was actually from them, so it seemed right to give the zine a Bane related name. I think the name is a bit weird but I can’t even remember having any other good ideas I thought of using. I think ‘For the Record’ was another idea, but that seems kinda worse haha

3. You came out swinging with your very first issue, I’ve gotta say it’s overall quality and content is one of the most impressive first issues for a new zine I’ve seen for a while. The first ish of PEE zine was shithouse! What or who inspired you to put so much effort into producing a pretty slick debut issue?
I don’t know really. I normally expect a lot of myself from things I do, so I guess the same philosophy applied to the zine as well. I mainly just wanted to release something I could be proud of, something I hopefully wouldn’t look back on in a year and say ‘what the fuck was I thinking?’ The fact that I didn’t even know if the zine would ever continue past the first issue kinda helped that view as well. With a good first issue I could have stopped doing the zine and at least felt like I tried my hardest doing what I did. I also didn’t want to spend a heap of my own money printing something that was half arsed or kinda shit.

4. Do you think there’s not enuff punks motivated enuff to put something back into their scene like producing a fanzine, putting on a d.i.y show or starting a mail order distro?
Yeah I think so, a lot of kids aren’t even willing to actually go to the store and buy CD’s, so why would they bother putting a few hundred dollars or even more of their own money into doing something to help the scene? A lot of kids today seem to be happy to just show up to every big band tour that comes around, buy a tshirt and then probably go home and listen to music they didn’t pay for anyway. But whatever, that’s their choice. The guys who actually care enough to put in some of their own time and money to help get this music out there seem to be doing a good job around the country at the moment anyway. So the due respect goes to them.
Looking at it from a different perspective, there’s a lot of teenagers getting into hardcore/punk at the moment and being only 17 myself, I know what it’s like to feel like you can’t really do anything. All the guys in the bands are older, all the people that seem to be organising the shows are older and the occasional distro guys you see are always older as well. It’s hard to feel like you can really make a difference when you’re 1 teenage kid. There would certainly be some younger kids who are like ‘fuck, I wish I could give more back to this music’ but they hold back on trying because it seems hard to do anything when you’re in high school and probably only make $100 a week working some shitty job on the weekend. It’s not always a case of motivation; it’s a case of what younger people can actually do. I think any young teenager (14,15,16) that makes the effort to go every show they possibly can, buy the merch of touring bands and actually buy most of their music despite making jack all money is motivated enough for someone of their age.

5. Once you decided to start a zine what was the most difficult thing you came across whilst trying to get your first issue off the ground? Any unexpected stumbling blocks along the way?
I’m not sure actually haha. My first issue was started ages ago now but I can only remember it coming together smoothly. Some things took a while to get back and I ended up with heaps of reviews to do towards the end (which was boring as fuck haha) but I think everything came together pretty easily. I feel pretty lucky when I hear other zine guys talk about all the headaches they’ve gone through for their zines.
I think the biggest problem I had with the first issue was the fucking printers. I was really happy with the print job they did but the idiots originally put the covers on the wrong side. The middle pages were on the outside and the first and last pages were in the middle. That’s just shit. I got the zines back on Wednesday and my mum had to fuck around on Thursday trying to get these zines back to central Brisbane (she works in Brisbane, but not in the city) so they could get fixed for me to take to Sydney for Hardcore 06 the next day. They came back mainly fine, but the guillotining was off and it looks like they replaced some of the hard covers that probably got damaged being pulled back off with cheap flimsy ones too. I’m never going back there again.

6. Have you found record labels, bands and stores supportive of your zine from the beginning? Any negative experiences so far?
As a whole, I think everyone’s been pretty supportive so far. Some nice record labels have sent me promos and all the stores/distro’s I’ve contacted have been pretty cool about wanting to stock my zine. Some bands don’t reply to interview requests but that can’t really be helped, I’m not expecting every band in the world to be interested in doing an interview. Most of them are willing to do interviews over the net or in person when they’re in the area and that rules. Bands take ages to get interviews back sometimes and you can’t get in contact with them etc. but it’s always come good for me in the end. A couple of guys from bands did tour diaries for Give Blood#2 as well and that’s great. It’s nice to see that guys care enough to contribute something interesting to my zine. 

7. Can you give us a heads up on what things are like up there in Caloundra, do you have many bands / shows / a scene there on the sunshine coast? Or do you have to travel down to Brisbane for most shows?
Over the last year we’ve started to get some regular shows on the Sunshine Coast. A couple of older mates of mine started putting on all ages shows in Noosa and Buderim and it’s evolved from being Brisbane/Byron bands like Just Say Go!, Provoke, Powerslam and Neck Up to touring bands like Outbreak and Carpathian. It’s great. There’s also another guy doing shows around here under the name ‘Orion Entertainment’, he more covers the metal/emo/metalcore thing that kids love these days but I went to one of the shows and its okay. It’s nice to see kids getting into local bands. The Sunshine Coast has some local bands but most are generic emo or metalcore bands so there’s not really anything worth mentioning haha.
I travel down to Brisbane (and sometimes even Byron Bay) a lot for shows. The Brisbane underage scene is massive but the lack of venues means sometimes the closest all ages show is in Byron. Brisbane has become kind of a shit place for most touring bands these days. From what I’ve heard (and have seen with my own eyes), whenever a big band like Parkway or Prom Queen play like 500 kids come out of nowhere to see them but then the Warpath and Hard Luck played in Brisbane, I was sneaking into a show with probably less than 30 payers. It’s shit. There’s too many kids up here that don’t care enough about hardcore to just go to a show for the sake of seeing new bands.

8. So how long have you been involved in the punk / hardcore / metal scene?
I started listening to a lot of hardcore bands in the middle of 2004, before I went to my first hardcore show about 6 months later when I saw Terror and Last Nerve in Byron Bay at the start of 2005. So I’ve been going to shows regularly for just over 2 years now. I’ve been more ‘involved’ in the scene for the last year or so because I was doing this zine haha. 

9. I’ve been asked this one plenty of times, so now it’s your turn: with the popularity of e-zines these days do you think print zines are relevant or have a future? 
E-zines definitely have a lot of things over print zines, such as the removal of printing costs, easy updating of news/content, less focus on design work once the site is built etc. but I don’t think they have anymore of a future than print zines do. 
If more kids these days knew about print zines/had easier access to them, I’d say they’d be more popular than they are, but hey that’s life. The easier alternative will always be more popular. Print zines are more interesting because they are able to be a lot more creatively designed. You can do pretty much anything with a cut’n’paste zine layout, but on a website you can’t really do that. 
I think the fact that Death Before Dishonour magazine exists shows that print zines will have a future. If a publishing company is able to believe that a large scale magazine based on punk/hardcore/metal culture can be profitable then surely their must be a market out there for real print zines. This market is just waiting for something they don’t have to pay $10 for haha. I think the amount of teenagers doing zines these days (such as Steph from Cross the Line, Tom and Fil from Thrillhouse and myself) is a good sign for the future. It’s not just the older guys who wanna be involved in the zine community. Lastly, I think shitty street ‘zines’ with full page colour ads, articles about rave parties and 4 question, quarter page interviews with bands are more damaging to real zine culture than e-zines will ever be…

10. With every band, punk, weirdo, cat, dog, and dodgey clothing label having their own myspace page these days, why should punks give a fuck about picking up a zine and reading it when they can post their own blog online and moan about how shit their scene is?
Because zines rule. I’ve been able to get into a lot of cool zines in the time I’ve been doing my own and it’s such a great art form. Self distributed press allows people to do things that fucking rule but wouldn’t work in a commercial sense. They also allow people to cover bands and types of music without having to worry about whether it will shift units. What I’m getting at is, when you remove the commercial backing and just fund it yourself, you are open to a whole bunch of opportunities. You can literally do whatever the fuck you want to do as long as you can put it on paper and copy it. That freedom is why people should give a fuck about zines. You’re not getting sold opinions that are made to cater to a mass audience; you are getting sold honesty on a much more intimate scale.

11. I asked Sean Sharp End this one too coz I think it’s important, should punk zines feature pix of hot naked chicks? Or guys if that’s your thing...  
In some ways: yes, in other ways: no. If you’re looking at it on the surface level, why not? People can put whatever they want in their zines. If they like naked chicks then they can put ‘em in, I won’t complain. But I wouldn’t put naked chick in my zine. I think with any genre of music that falls below the mainstream radar we’re already fighting against preconceived stereotypes of what it’s actually about. 
Heavy music has that stigma of being associated with violence, dirty lyrics, making kids go shoot up their schools etc. and I don’t think that putting porn into a zine is worth it when you think about the problems it can cause. It seems like I’m overreacting, but all you need is one dipshit parent to see dirty shit in a zine their son or daughter has and it can escalate from there. It just doesn’t seem worth it to me, a pic of a few girls boobs isn’t gonna educate anyone about a band or a world issue or anything else that is important in the long run. Porn is easy enough to google anyway…

12. What’s your selection process for the bands you feature on the pages of your zine? How does a band reading this get themselves a GIVE BLOOD interview?
Mainly just shit I’m listening to at the time, bands touring or interviews I think would be cool I guess. Like for example, the Poison the Well interview in the second issue was just an idea I had at work one night. I thought ‘hey, interviewing Poison the Well would be cool if I could get it’, so I tried to hook it up and yeah, it got done. I did a few in person interviews with touring bands for the second issue as well, so a band being in the area always helps haha. I also try and get interviews with bands I love that I don’t think have much of a fanbase over here, it’s nice to help people out. Hmmm if a band wants to get in Give Blood it’s great to be able to hear something first, so get in contact with me and just get me something to listen to. I’ll review anything I get sent (with reason), so if you do that you’ll at least get a review haha. And maybe an interview if I really dig what I’m hearing…

13. So what's been the most rewarding part of publishing your own zine?
I think the most rewarding part of doing a zine all comes after an issue is finished. Being able to hold it in my hands and know that it’s my own work is fucking amazing. Going into my local music store and seeing my own zine on the zine shelf rules too. But overall, the most rewarding part about doing a zine for me would have to be having people get in touch to say that they like what I’m doing. Having people take time out of there own day to say ‘hey, your zine is cool’ is rewarding, and it’s great to know that people care about what I’m doing and want to see what I’ll do in the future.

14. What’s your hopes for the future of GIVE BLOOD zine?
I hope to get as many things as I can done in 2007. I’m deferring my uni enrolment for a year so I can work full time to save some money and do everything with this zine I want to do. The third issue of Give Blood will be a split issue with the Sharpend Zine and after that I’d love to go back to the roots so to speak and do a fully cut’n’paste designed issue and maybe even an all Australian issue after that. 
At this point in time I can see Give Blood ending when I head off to Uni in 2008, so we’ll see how it goes. For now I really just want to keep producing something that kids will like to read and also something that I find enjoyable to create. If it ever becomes too much of a chore, I’ll probably end it.

15. How can folks get their grubby mitts on a copy of GIVE BLOOD?
Give Blood is available a couple of ways. When the second issue is done it’ll be available by mailorder directly from me for $5, so just send me an email or myspace message at givebloodhardcorezine@gmail.com or myspace.com/givebloodhardcorezine and we can organise you sending money and then me sending out a zine. One day I’ll learn to use paypal and you’ll be able to send cash that way…
The other way is through stores, I was kind of slack with the first issue but I’m hoping to get issue #2 into a lot of independent record stores and distro’s around the country, so definitely check the myspace page for updates about the zine’s availability. It’ll probably be available online at www.staytrueonline.com (an online clothing store that a mate of mine owns) at some point too!

16. Thanx for the chat Chris, any last words or folks you wanna thank?
A massive thanks to you Pete, thanks for letting me interview Sasmara for your zine and then interviewing me as payment for it (even though you didn’t have to!), thanks for the nice review too. :) Thanks to Sean Sharpend for always being a massive help, dude rules. Massive thanks to anyone that reads my zine haha. Be yourself, think for yourself and stay positive… I’m out.