Bane interview

I was looking over some of my old interviews trying to find something cool to put up and I guess this is probably the place to start, this is the first interview I ever did for my first ever zine, the first issue of Give Blood zine (whose name was of course taken from the bane album). Looking back on it over 2 years later, I still think it's one of the best interviews I've ever done and I still think that the interviewee (Aaron Bedard, vocalist of Bane) is one of my most respected people in the hardcore scene. He was such a rad dude to talk to when they toured, shit, I asked him what they were going to play one of the nights and he literally said 'what do you wanna hear man?', I was so dumbfounded that I just said the 2 most stereotypical Bane songs I could think of haha.

Bane has been a part of the hardcore scene for a long time, you’ve seen the rise and fall of a lot of great bands but you guys have stood the test of time. (You’ve been going for 10 years or so now I think?) What do you think has made Bane last as long as it has? And how do you feel about the changes in the hardcore scene that have happened since you started doing Bane? 
I think the reason we've lasted as long as we have is that we've just managed to have enough other things going on in our lives that it never became like a job or the one thing we were all focusing on...we've just tried to keep it fun for ourselves and just stay creative and excited about things...never really loosing sight of why we started the band to begin with 
As for the changes there have been so many, the scene and the kids are changing all the time which is totally natural with a scene that is made up primarily of younger kids who are always changing themselves... some of the bigger changes are just how popular and marketable this sound has become...people can play really aggressive/heavy music these days and headline big tours and make a lot of money so that’s sort of strange...to see kids we know, kids who are basically HC kids on Mtv or in magazines...and another thing is just the popularity of message boards and sites like Myspace where it is so much easier for the masses to get information around...which can be both good as far as a great way to hear new bands/find out about shows and whats going on but can also be bad because its so easy to talk shit and spread rumors and just tear things down 

Carrying on from the last question, I read in an interview with you in Australia’s Blunt magazine 
that you struggle with the idea that Bane is closer to the end than the start and you know its going to have to end sometime, does this mean that you feel Bane wont be around much longer or that you just know the band can’t be active forever? 
well there is no definite end in sight right now...we leave for a tour to Europe tomorrow and will tour this summer with Modern life is War, outbreak and This is Hell early this summer...we are already discussing what we'll do in the fall and have talked a little bit about possibly trying to write some new songs next year..we are all still excited to be in Bane and love playing shows and being on the road and hanging out with new people...but the reality is that we're all getting a little older, 3 of the members are married and have houses and it just feels obvious to me that its going to have to end sooner rather than later...but we haven’t spent much time discussing that and the way it looks now we should still be a band into 2007 and we'll see where it goes from there 

I have heard that Bane has a very active stance against violence at shows, what does this involve? And what do you guys do if kids start dancing too violently or a fight breaks out at one of your shows? 
its tricky because there is a rumor spreading that Bane is anti-dancing which actually couldn’t be further from the truth we love when kids go crazy at our shows and dance hard and dive and sing-along..that is all such a big part of why we still love doing it is that energy and aggression and release... we just have a problem with people intentionally hurting one another...people who come out just to felx how tough they are or intimidate younger, smaller kids...just that whole meatheat mentality that has become so acceptable at shows today...that has nothing to do with dancing or relating to the band in anyway, its just macho bullshit that we do try to stay outspoken against while onstage..we just want to create an environment where EVERYONE can have fun..not just the select few who are the biggest or kick the hardest 
As for fights, we just stop playing and warn everyone that we're not gonna put up with that bullshit and will walk off stage before being the soundtrack for a bunch of idiots beating on kids...it always shocks me that people are surprised or impressed that we do that because honestly it just seems so fucking obvious and like something every band who cares about hardcore or the kids who come to their shows should be doing 

I know Bane touring Australia has been rumored for a long time and you mentioned in the reply to my original interview request that you hope to get down here sometime this year, anymore specific details on when us Aussie kids can expect to see Bane? And also if you can, what has kept Bane away from Australia all these years? 
still no real details on that we keep getting different information and it keeps getting moved around...i know the booking agency is just trying to find the time that will best for us...but yes we are very excited to come there and see for ourselves what its like, every band that goes there goes back with nothing but the most amazing things to say and we really would like to see it all for ourselves...none of us have ever been...right now the rumor is maybe in September, but we've been hearing different things for so long that i'm not gonna believe anything until i see our name on some fliers down there.. but I’ve got my fingers crossed 


Also another last comment about the Australian tour, can we expect to see ‘Can We Start Again’ in your set list if you come over? Cause I know its old but I can’t be the only person wanting to be able to help you sing that singalong! 
yeah we'll definitely play that..its one of 3 or 4 songs that we play pretty much every night and is just so unbelievable to all of us that we have this song that kids seem to connect with and enjoy singing everytime we play it...we are very lucky to have a song like that and still enjoy the hell out of playing it wherever we go (you should hear em in japan!) 

Bane spends a lot of time on the road, how does this life contrast to normal life? And when a tour ends and you get a break are you glad its over or are you eager to get back out there? Also any good tour stories you can share with us? 
the tour story question is always so hard to answer cuz there are so many of them and they are either really long or don’t translate that well on paper but yeah through the years of touring we have had our fair share of cool/crazy/scary/unbelievable things occur...one that leaps to mind is in 2002 we went to Europe and played a squat in Hamburg Germany and Billie Joe and Tre from Green Day just showed up...Green Day was in town promoting some album and they read in the paper that a US hardcore band was playing at this squat where they used to play when they were first starting out so they decided to come check it out...it was a surreal thing seeing Billy Joe just out there in a crowd of about 75 Germans and totally rocking out to us.. afterwards he hung out and was real down 
to earth and had some very nice things to say about our band...that Tre guy was pretty fuckin crazy though 
As for getting off tour you are always happy to be home and with your girlfriend and friends and sleep in a real bed and eat your favorite foods and do all the shit you missed when you were on tour...but for me that lasts about 2 weeks before i start to get restless again and anxious to leave it all behind to get back out there and tour..i guess it must be pretty much the same for all the other guys cuz it seems like every time a tour comes around we're all pretty much ready to crawl back in the van and go...we'll see how much longer that will last

I know that your bass player Pete came up with the concept (and colored in the illustrations) for the artwork for your latest album the note, do you know how he came up with the concept? Cause I have to say I love it, the contrast of the 2 sides, one with the destruction and the other with everything perfect.
yeah he's an incredible artist and we're so lucky to have him and not have to go to any outside sources for our graphics. he and i knew we wanted it to be a very visual layout  
real different from Give Blood but just as ambitious...so we kicked around different ideas trying to find some sort of simple little ominous story we could tell through a series of pictures...we came up with that dark little tale and had our buddy Dave Maganero come up with the drawings and then pete went to work doing his magic with computers and colors and all the subtle things he does and i think it really came out better than i ever imagined...for another great layout of petes check out his other band Silent Drive...their lp Love is Worth It is absolutely breath taking to look at as well as listen to...one of my favorite records of the last 10 years

The artwork for your album before that (Give Blood) was done completely by you guys. Were there any reasons why you wanted to move away from having a separate design company do the artwork for your albums? 
yeah the guy who did the layout for It All Comes Down to This completely fucked it up and ripped us off and it was a complete nightmare that ultimately ended up severing old friendships...the thing just came out looking like a disaster and it still makes me sad every time i look at it because it could have been a really powerful layout if the fuckin idiot had just listened to our instructions...so after that tragedy we just sort of made a pact to not put ourselves through that shit again...to keep the graphics in house and anything we did or failed to do would be on us..we would have no one else to blame or congratulate and i would recommend more bands take the same route and just do things themselves...the tools are out there and its such a sad time when soooo many records look exactly alike because the same 2 or 3 guys are doing all the art work...its really not that hard to just come up with an original idea and execute it...i feel like if i see another skull or blood stain i'm going to throw up 

You entered Bane when the other Aaron (Aaron Dalbec of at the time Converge) had already been playing around with the idea for some time, what made you become so interested in Bane to start off with? And did you ever think it would take off like it did? 
we just wanted to make a hardcore band...Aaron wasn’t too thrilled with the amount of creative input he was given in converge and he was a very talented kid who had a lot to say musically and was looking for an outlet, something that would be a little more hardcore and free form and fun so when he layed that concept out for me and played me the batch of songs he had been working on naturally i got very excited i was excited to see what we could make of it. I honestly had no idea that we would ever be around for as long as we have or had the great fortune to tour as heavily as we have or make the amount of great and lasting relationships we've made simply because of this band...somedays i still have to just stop and shake my head when i think of how it has all turned out 

Speaking of Aaron Dalbec and Converge, I noticed that he was in the credits for Converges Jane Doe album as one of the guitarists. When did he leave Converge to focus on Bane? And how did it work when he did both bands? 
well when he was doing both bands we just toured a little less and sort of always knew that Converge was his main priority and when they needed him he had to go but fortunately they didn’t tour all that much back then and his being in both bands never really posed much of a problem at all...im really not sure what records he played on or didn’t i stopped keeping up with that band after Halo in a Haystack 

On The Note Bane seemed to move in a more experimental direction in some ways (spoken parts, a singing section, and even a piano section) did you guys intentionally try and steer away from just straight up hardcore on the record or did the songs just turn out that way? 
well i dont think we've ever been a typical HC band who played by the rules and did things in a very A-B-C style...as far back as our demo it feels like we've been taking a few chances melodically and just sort of following our instincts as opposed to doing what we thought the scene expected from us...with Give Blood we did a lot of untypical things and Brian Mcternan our producer really brought that out in us and just made us feel comfortable doing whatever the fuck the song needed to be its best...and seeing that record come out as good as it did and people being as impressed with it as they were when it was time to do another record we just had a little bit more of a fearlessness or sense of adventure to how the songs would come out...we were definitely excited to try some new things and just push ourselves in different directions...while at the same time still staying a hardcore band and not trying to get on the radio or sell a bunch more records or anything...we really have always just done what feels right to us when it comes to song writing and never once worried about what 
anyone else would think or say or expect... it always felt like if we were just honest with ourselves then people would see that and respect it 

Banes lyrics have always inspired me in many ways, the themes you touch on in your lyrics are great and written in a really honest way without many metaphors to get in road of the message, how do you manage to write lyrics like that? What inspires you? And what do you try and cover as far as your lyrics go? 
i really just try to work out issues that i'm wrestling with...demons or fears or disappointments...all this stuff starts to build up inside me as i'm sure it does in everyone and i sort of just know i need to work it out somehow...find a way to articulate what’s going on deep in my brain and in doing that it sort helps me to sort all kinds of stuff out...gets me to a better place... its a lot like the way we write songs...i just try very hard to be honest with myself and let it all out on the page...not holding things back or hiding behind some safe image or say a bunch of shit that’s been said a million times before.. 

Any bands in the hardcore scene at the moment that really have you really interested in what they will create in the future? (or even just bands you think are great now?) 
fuck yes...there are so many young bands i'm hyped on right now...it feels like a very exciting time for hardcore with so many cool young bands who seem really passionate about what they are doing...it feels like the phase of looking pretty up there and singing about heartbreak and suicide is finally passing and we're getting back to a place where we are not afraid to stand up and speak out and fight for something other than the cost of fucking hair dye 
i will forget a bunch but heres a short list of bands i'd encourage anyone who loves hardcore to check out: Have Heart, Guns Up, Verse, Sinking Ships, Cold World, Justice, Ruiner, FC5, Down to Nothing... I also got a listen to the new Terror lp the other day and that sounds amazing also 

Lastly before we go I wanted to ask something that I have always wondered since I got a copy of the Give Blood album, who does the full on screamed and almost indecipherable vocals present on a couple of tracks (the big gun down is one of them) on the album? 
thats Zachy J...he's been doing screams on pretty much all our releases and then he went and shocked everyone by actually having this amazing singing voice as you can see on the Silent Drive album (also some great screams) and the verse he sings in Swan Song 

Thanks so much for your time man! Any last comments/thanks/shoutouts? 
nah man, thanks for the interview, sorry it took so long, i hope the answers aren’t too long and that don’t have too many type-o's hopefully we'll see you under very very soon 
peace