I interviewed Uprise at Fieldsboro on January 4th 1997 during either Floorpunch or Ten Yard Fight’s set. I think it was Ten Yard Fight actually, because I was angry we missed Floorpunch on the way home. My ride wanted to leave early for some insane reason. To miss Floorpunch?!? The lowest blow had to be having to listen to The Descendents on the whole ride home. Yeah I really want to hear Silly Girl while we drive in the opposite direction of the best band in hardcore. Thankfully, I got a car a few months later.
Interview is with Matt, Steve, and Greg. Photos are copies because I gave the originals to someone to use in their own fanzine and they were never returned…
Some of these pictures were taken by me and others were taken by Casey Kulas
Who’s in the band?
Matt-Okay, I’m Matt, the vocalist, Steve on drums, Frank Pooch on guitar, Drug Free Mike Z on guitar, Greg Rise on bass.
So you got a demo and a 7” coming out?
Matt-Originally in September of 1995 we released the Bustin Out Of Morris County demo which had four songs on it. It doesn’t say it on the demo, I just call it that.
That’s awesome.
Matt-If you heard it, you probably wouldn’t like us anymore
Steve-We didn’t know what we were doing, we just wanted to get something out
Matt-Only Steve knew what he was doing. Nothing against the other kids in the band.
Hardware said it was the first generic demo they’d heard in a while.
Matt-Just kick us while we’re down don’t you…just kidding
Well now, I know you’re good
Matt-Now we’ve gotten a lot better, a couple guitar player changes, basically it’s been me, Steve, and Greg the whole time. Mike joined the band in March maybe and with him we recorded the Positive Youth On The Rise demo which has six songs on it, three of which will be on the 7”
On Orphaned
Matt-On Orphaned Records
Cool
Steve-It should be out early February
Matt-Yeah, early February
So what’s Morris County like nowadays? When I lived there I remember seeing some skinheads around…
Matt-In north Jersey there used to be a big skinhead population; that was like late eighties
That’s when I lived there
Steve-A lot of sincere, dedicated kids
I used to live in Hopatcong
Matt-That’s where our guitarist is from
Yeah!
(At this point, some girl talks to Matt for a couple minutes)
Lots of girls dancing tonight
Matt-Yeah, it was cool
I was dancing and there were like girls all around me. It was cool.
Matt-Cool
That’s what I want; more girls, not just for the sake of more girls…
Matt-It’s like the 7 Seconds song Not Just Boys Fun, hardcore is for everybody
I notice with the new school kids the girls just stand in the back and hold their boyfriends bags. Fuck that.
Matt-People shouldn’t be coat racks. They should go to shows to have fun.
Greg-They all just bring book bags to shows to show off their vegan patches.
Yeah what’s up with all the Earth Crisis patches?
Matt-They suck anyway. But we won’t talk about that…
(We go on to talk about crappy Victory bands. Anyway.)
So the 7” is coming out?
Matt-Yep, six songs, three new
What do you think of the whole metal thing?
Matt-Metal
Sucks
Matt-Yeah, we’re a hardcore band. What do you think, Steve?
Steve-Well, some metal is good…
Matt-He likes some bad bands
Steve-The only thing I have to say is everyone should be open minded
Metal’s metal, hardcore’s hardcore
Steve-People shouldn’t be like “this doesn’t belong here”
Matt-I think it sucks. We take our influences from hardcore bands, not metal bands. All my favorite bands are not hardcore bands by any means but I’m not coming to band practice saying “let’s put a little piano” and shit, you know what I mean?
My favorite musician is John Coltrane
Matt-It’s good to be a talented musician because then you can put your talents into hardcore
TAPE ENDS…SWITCH IT OVER
Matt-Okay, Greg, what were you saying?
Greg-I was saying Matt curses too much
Matt-Sorry about that
Greg-He needs to work on his cursing problem…we apologize for Matt’s cursing problem
Matt-What’s wrong with that? I have the mouth of a trucker
Who gives a fuck
Matt-Exactly
Who gives a shit
Matt-Who gives a fucking shit. I get a little excited when we play, what the fuck?
The bands are excited tonight. That’s good because I see a lot of bands and I want to start dancing but they aren’t moving so I’m not moving
Matt-If the band doesn’t like what their playing how can you?
Closing comments?
Matt-Look for our record coming out on Orphaned Records. Six songs. Basically support all the New Jersey bands. Ensign, Floorpunch, 97a, Hands Tied, One 4 One, Backlash. Thanks for the interview, keep an open mind.
Greg-People should appreciate what we have because others don’t have shows.
Matt-Hope everything’s good.
Fatal error: Declaration of Social_Walker_Comment::start_lvl(&$output, $depth, $args) must be compatible with Walker_Comment::start_lvl(&$output, $depth = 0, $args = []) in /home/signifyi/public_html/wp-content/plugins/social/lib/social/walker/comment.php on line 18