No War But Star Wars!!! In Defence interview

So a few years ago i got a friendly email from Ryan who runs Bezerker Records outta Minnasota asking me if i wanted to help co produce a split 7 inch between Party By the Slice and In Defence. I hadn't heard of either band at the time but said yes as it was a food wars 7 inch. Pizza vs Tacos!!! Both bands are as great as each other but i feel in love with In Defence. Straight up NYHC mixed with pisstake lyrics. Fast forward to last year i was at Ryan's house in Twin Cities hanging out for a week and had the chance to see and meet In Defence live. One of the funner shows i've been too in my life. Great band and amazing dudes. I got Ben Crew to answer some question for me as i believe everyone should listen to these boys! Check it out

GIJ : Give us a brief history of IxD?

BC: In Defence played our first show at IS THIS ART OR IS THIS PUNK FEST in 2006 but we started the band with songs I wrote back in 1989, when I was in middle school. Some say we've "progressed" since then but I think our songs and our message is still pretty simple and straight forward. I wanted to play in a band modeled after the style of music I use to listen to as a kid... East Coast style hardcore punk & crossover thrash like Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags and SOD but with a humorous/sarcastic attitude. Kind of like Crucial Unit, RAMBO, Crucial Youth and Weird Al Yankovic. As tough as we might TRY to sound on record we are pretty big wimps. If I ever talk trash to you during a show I don't mean it in an offensive way. Don't get mad or take it seriously. We're interested in joking around and having fun, not fighting! If we heckle you... we'd expect you to heckle us right back.

 

GIJ: what is your fav ID release?

 

BC: I think our some of our best songs are on the "Party Lines & Politics" LP. That came out earlier this year on Profane Existence. But the record that sums up the legacy of the band is the TACOS vs PIZZA split 7" with us and Pizza By The Slice. We wrote a song about how much better tacos are than pizza and everyone got up in arms about it. It became this big movement within the punk scene... which is the better post-show party food? We would preach about it at shows. We'd have food fights. One kid even cut his head open on a taco shell. I guess you could say we invented TACO-EDGE. People either love us or hate us for it but that's what they pay attention to. When we try to write well thought out songs about serious issues nobody cares. So fuck it. Gotta give the kids what they want, right?! And the kids, at least the cool ones, want TACOS!

 

GIJ: you guys are a well traveled band, whats your fav city in the US to play and what was the best show on the European tour?

BC: We've toured around the US. a bunch. There is only a few states we haven't been to... like Alaska. But we've been to thirteen countries in Europe and played a handful of shows Puerto Rico. We hope to tour Australia, Japan and other countries that will let us cross their borders. We can't get into Canada. Some of our dudes are banned from there. We've had awesome shows all over... and we've had crummy shows too. It goes with the territory. But I think the "punkest" show we ever played was when we took over a Taco Johns while it was still open. The kids went nuts and were diving off of tables. The customers were freaking out. It was awesome.

 

 

GIJ:

Best find in dumpster when on tour?

BC: Once we found 15 boxes of uneaten pizzas in a dumpster. We were stoked to find them there because that just proves our point... pizza is garbage!

 

GIJ: do you guys ever eat pizza?

BC: It's funny that you ask because sometimes we do. Some people get mad because of our strong held belief about the taco. However, just like Jesus took on the sins of the world when he died on the cross so to are we taking on the sins of the scene when we eat pizza. Sometimes we have to sin (eat all the pizza before others get a chance to) so that those around us will not be faced with that evil temptation.

 

GIJ: what other bands do you guys play in?

BC: Right now Jimmy (guitarist) plays in a black metal band called FALSE, a thrash metal band called THE TERRORDACTYLS and a crust band called DRESDEN. Jeff (drummer) plays in a doom band called LUNGS. I use to play in 1-2-GO! CREW and DAME DEPOSIT with Felix Havoc (Destroy, Code 13, Havoc Rex). Our old guitarists Marc Hard, from Amsterdam, was the touring guitarist for GREEN DAY during their first trip to Europe. Another one of our old guitarists left In Defence to tour manage and do sound for bands like BARONESS and MUNICIPAL WASTE.

 

 

GIJ: You got three film clips at the moment which one was the funnest to make?

BC: We'll the "Call More Dudes" video at the Taco John's was a blast but we didn't plan that. That show just happened and Ryan Sinz from Dios Mio happened to have a video camera and decided to document the chaos. He put the music video together later. The other two "Don't Call Me A Moshist" and "Black Metal Mania" were a bit more planned out. Our drummer Jeff oversaw the creation of those. During the "Black Metal Mania" shoot we had a bunch of people in corpse paint walking up and down the street waiting for their turn. We were out in public so the neighborhood people were freaking out, walking up to us wondering what was going on. One women was walking towards us with her kids. When she got close enough to see us and what we looked like she turned around and walked back the other way.

GIJ: So we are waiting for you guys to tour australia, how much do you know about the land down under?

BC: I like Kangaroos. I like alligators. Does that count?? Hang on... give me a second to look it up on Wikipedia.

 

 

 

 

Get Your Freak On

A while ago i asked a group of my friends, from all parts of this planet what their all time fav album was to get freaky too. I was pretty surprised that most of the albums where hip hop and rap albums mainly cause most of my friends listen to punk and hardcore. Just goes to show catchy bouncey beats get the mood happenin quicker then circle pits and blast beats!

 Slighty Stoopid's Chronchitis was picked by a long time drummer/all round good guy reason being "Its reggae and sets the mood"

 Dr Dre's the chronic was picked by another drummer reason being "Good beats to fuck too"

 Everyone remembers nsync this is where JT started out! My homie Ryan from Canada picked this "cause i play all the love songs then bye bye bye when i'm done"

 Q tip Amplified picked by yours truly. Reason being this album has by far the best flow of songs in any album of any genre. Chilled out to sexy beats to chilled out to catchy. It's all good from start to finish, just how sex should be!

 D'angelo Voodoo, Newy brother picked this "good music for good lovin"

 A long time friend has spoken of "the mindsnare challenge" which if you don't know or havn't heard is when you put this album on while getting intimate with a lady or guy friend and go as hard and fast or slow as the drums on this album and see how far you can get before giving up or cumming. If your a fan of mindsnare you'll understand that this can be a bit of hard work as the album is filled with straight blast beats to breakdowns to fast as fuck punk drumming. Good luck!!

90's techno at its best. My bro Kieran picked this cause "the venga bus won't be the only thing thats cumming" He even wanted me to include a pick of him so here he is!

So do yourself a favour and try getting your freak on to one of these albums and let me know how it goes, or just listen to them cause they are all pretty epic in their own way. Other albums that get the mood happenin include All Day by Girl Talk, The Predator by Ice Cube, Dude Ranch Blink 182 and i'm sure you could try city and colour, cancer bats or any of that shit if you wanna bag a hipster which at the end of the day no one really does so don't bother. Until next time peace love and respect and look out for girls in jeans they make us go round and round!