1)Well, i’m not exaggerating with saying i’m still totally blown away by your band’s 2003 Demo, but let us do the official shit first, so what is your position the band and how many years are you into playing an instrument and writing music? What do you guys do, when you’re not playing with your band?!

Thanks for the kind words man, seriously, it really means a lot…as far as the official band info goes…I’ve never been talented or disciplined enough to learn how to play an instrument, or sing for that matter, but I try to scream and keep in rhythm…Joel and Bart play guitar, Chris plays bass, and Isaac plays drums. I’m the only one in KTD who hasn’t been in a band before, everyone else has been doing it for a bunch of years. I think we’re pretty regular dudes outside of the band, we like to do normal stuff, except for Joel, who spends his days hunting and gathering as a caveman. Isaac is in 3 other bands (our friends ALLEGIANCE and OUR TURN from the bay), and Joel and Bart are in a metal band called EMBRACE THE END.

2) What makes me go so nuts for your band is the incredible amount of sincerity. You guys pull so much emotion into your songs, it’s almost unreal. Please tell me which bands had the biggest impact on yours and how the songwriting process is like!

I think one of our biggest strengths as a band is the diversity of our influences and personalities, and I think that shows in the music. Of course, we’re all into hardcore…I think that bands like stay gold, carry on, champion, the comeback kid, and of course gorilla biscuits and minor threat are all bands that we agree on but Joel has always been into metal and stuff like that, Bart listens to a lot of pop punk and more melodic stuff, Chris likes street punk and oi. Isaac is definitely the most crucial member of the band, he listens to a ton of hardcore. As far as writing songs and stuff, Joel writes most of the music, he’ll come to practice with a riff and we’ll all work on it together. When it’s ready, we’ll make a tape of it and I’ll go home and put lyrics to it.

3) Unfortunately i hadn’t the chance to read your lyrics yet, so what are they about? Do you think a hardcore band has to write about political or social issues to keep alive the “message” of hardcore/punk music?!

Well, I don’t really have an agenda when I sit down and write lyrics, it’s just a way for me to put into words how I’m feeling at a particular time. I don’t sit down and say ‘I’m gonna write a song about this or that.’ I’m not a very political person, so that element isn’t really there in our songs. I’d rather focus on personal issues rather than social issues, but that doesn’t mean that everyone else should do the same. Hardcore should be about how you feel, so if a band is passionate about certain things or has a specific political platform, more power to them, as long as they are sincere about what they believe in. Too many times people will hear someone’s opinion and take it as gospel, which I think is unfortunate. But if a band can inspire a kid to go out and educate themselves on a certain issue, I think that can only be a good thing.

4) With bands, such as Modern Life Is War and The Comeback Kid traditional hardcore is heading in new directions, meaning there’s a lot more melody in the mix, so why do you think the MELODY is starting to get more and more important?

I got into hardcore through listening to skate punk and fat wreck bands in jr. high, so I’ve always been into melodic stuff. When I would think about doing a band before KTD, I always planned on it being somewhat melodic. With bands like CBK and MLIW, they came out and put out such quality records, it was bound to influence kids, and I think we’re seeing the results of that right now… it seems like there are too many melodic bands coming out to count, which isn’t a bad thing, but it definitely seems to be a trend. I think hardcore is cyclical, things come and go, and the whole melodic thing is no exception. Hopefully it sticks around and these bands keep progressing and putting out quality records.

5) A few months ago Wrench wrote on the Stand&Fight homepage, he feels like “a hardcore kid in a metalcore scene”. Would you agree with that? Do enjoy stuff like emo or metalcore?!

I don’t know man, I remember reading that somewhere a while ago…but Southern California does have a lot of bad metal-core bands haha…I guess he was just frustrated with how things were going. I respect Wrench for what he’s done but that statement isn’t something I really identify with. Music is music. I guess he was referring to the lack of sincerity within that type of scene, but I don’t think it’s fair to paint a whole type of scene with that broad a brush. I mean, there are a ton of cheesy, cliché metal-core or emo bands out there that don’t seem to have much heart, but the same could be said for a lot of the paint by numbers posi bands out there, or tough guy, or melodic bands…that’s just going to exist with any type of music. I can appreciate any band that has heart and an feeling of sincerity, regardless of what type of music it is, emo, metal-core, or whatever. Like I said, it’s all just music.

6) Ensign recently released a cover-album including a ton of classic hardcore anthems. If you would have the chance to do something in the same vein, which songs would be most definitely on that record?!

We’ve had more than our share of arguments about covering songs, so this one would be tough haha…like I said earlier, I think there’s certain bands we’d all agree on…GORILLA BISCUITS, MINOR THREAT, 7 SECONDS, BATTERY…stuff like that. If it was up to ME though, I’d definitely want to do a STAY GOLD (I know they JUST broke up but whatever haha) song, probably some LIFETIME and/or KID DYNAMITE, I don’t’ know…Joel would probably make sure there was some sort of EARTH CRISIS, CRO MAGS, or SKARHEAD song, Isaac would want to cover something by UNIFORM CHOICE or NEGATIVE APPROACH…actually, we’d probably end up breaking up before the record came out- we’d be fighting way too much!!!

7) By the way, what do you think of the albums title „Love The Music, Hate The Kids“? Would you agree with that?

Man I don’t know, I try not to get too involved with that kind of stuff. I think what people overlook a lot of times is the fact that hardcore kids are just as messed up as every other type of people…with any group of people, no matter where you are, there’s going to be problems and disagreements, drama etc…you just have to try to kind of stay away and do your best to not get involved. I mean, people have enough problems to deal with without worrying about what TERROR’S next record is going to sound like or what label HATEBREED is gonna be on. It’s just kind of silly to really worry about it.

8) Talking about the “Scene“, what were the best/worst trends you’ve witnessed over the past years?

I don’t know…does friendster or myspace count? That whole thing is kind of silly. I shouldn’t really say that since certain members of our band may or may not have profiles on both. I guess that’s not necessarily a scene trend.

9) I fear, this question may sound a little ordinary, but even though hardcore is not a contest I’d like to know which band you consider to be the best of the moment!

Hardcore’s not a contest?!?!? Haha Man, there are a TON of rad bands coming out right now. I know the rest of the band’s answers would be different, but there are too many to just name one. Some of the records I’ve been jamming lately are: CHAMPION, THE COMEBACK KID, ALLEGIANCE, THE ANSWER, TIME FOR LIVING, WITH HONOR, THE PHYSICAL CHALLENGE, OUR TURN, VERSE, GO IT ALONE…there are tons more.

10) You guys belong to the Rival Rec. family, an up and coming label I’m really psyched about, so how is working with them?

We couldn’t have picked a better label or dudes to work with that RIVAL/Kyle and Zach. They have helped us out more than we could have ever imagined, with everything…we really wouldn’t have been able to do a lot of the things we’ve done so far without them. It is awesome to work with a label run by dudes who are just hardcore kids, both of them have been in bands and know how it is. They are really doing things the right way, we couldn’t be happier. And the RIVAL roster is just getting better and better. It is amazing to be able to be on a label where you genuinely like EVERY band on the roster.

11) Final question: what are your future plans, personally, as well as what the band concerns?

Personally, I’m going to try to enjoy the summer before I have to go back and finish school, which I’m definitely not looking forward to. As far as KTD goes, we’re hoping to go out east this summer, as well as going up and down the west coast sometime too…other than that, we’re just going to be focusing on writing songs and having fun. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us…check www.killingthedream.com and www.rivalrecords.net for updates on shows and everything else.