ADAM BLAKE of NYHC band H2O & LILY of KR have a chit-chat!

Posted on Jan 28, 2011 / Posted by Lily Howell /

Ahhh, what a pleasure it was to chat with Adam Blake, bass player of New York hardcore punk band, H2O. After debating over who was experiencing the worst weather and why masses of birds are falling from the sky, Adam let me in on his experience of growing up listening to metal and punk, told me his favourite punk bands and that he has Duran Duran on his Pandora…

You’re a part of the hardcore circuit.  Can you tell me how and when you got into the scene?

Adam: The band or myself?

Lily: Well, both.

Adam: The band is probably more interesting.  Basically H2O was formed in 1995, and I joined in 96.  Interesting, because I think at that point it was when the metal influence had really entered hardcore.  You know, there was that really, like, almost a death metal scene to a lot of the vocal styles and brutality was kind of the order of the day, which is great, I love brutality.  I love brutal music, I think it’s great, but at the same time when H2O came out, the influence pool was a little bit different, maybe a little before that, you know, more like DC hardcore which is always very melodic for the most part. California hardcore and its punk rock, and a lot of the early New York bands that – maybe not to the average casual listener but if you get into the new hit melodies and this band like Gorilla Biscuits were just like melodic geniuses and I think we just sounded really different you know.

As far as how I got into hardcore, mine is really… I was a metal head straight up.  I was like a little satanic metal head in Ozzy Osbourne t-shirts with really long hair and then one day my friend brought home a Gorilla Biscuits record and we all got really, really drunk and it was just so much fun to listen to and so positive and the energy was great and then it just started… you start listening to the bands that they listen… that they were affiliated with.  Because we used to scour people’s thanks lists on records to see which bands you should check out.  You know you’re like, oh, who did they thank?  Oh they thanked this band, oh let’s listen to them.  It will be like, well who did they thank, and you’re kind of, you know… I grew up in England so that’s how we kind of found out about bands and then…you know, it was like I’m going to have to join an American band and move there… hardcore has been, I guess, what I did for a long time.

Lily: It’s interesting you say you were into metal and then you listened to an album and that got you more into the punk hardcore music.

Adam: Yeah I did, because a lot of the stuff I liked, at least the metal bands I liked…I found in hardcore this kind of get up and go energy, you know?  Like I was never into super dog shit in terms of metal.  I was into like, fast riffs with breakdowns

and kind of a guts chorus that you kind of, sing along with and get into. Hardcore has all that and more and it also has, you know – a lot of bands have a really good message.  I like Slayer as much as the next guy does but there’s something to be said for getting a little more educated and a lot of hardcore kind of – at least it put ideas out there into my world that maybe I wouldn’t have been exposed to if I hadn’t listened to those bands.

Lily: I think when a particular type of music resonates with you, it feels great and I think music like metal and probably hardcore too… it’s powerful music.  When I was a kid I listened to like the 80s new wave…I was mad for Duran Duran.

Adam: We love Duran Duran. I’ve got Duran Duran station on my Pandora.

Lily: Oh really?

Adam: Yes.

Lily: I was mad for them, and my sister slowly got me into Motley Crue and that kind of thing and then I got into Metallica and Anthrax and I don’t think that kind of music ever leaves you.  It’s like it gets into your blood… and there’s some kind of release in it too.

Adam: I agree.  I think it’s healthy.  I mean, especially at that point.  It’s kind of an interesting way to get influence in your life, I mean, because when you’re growing up you’re going to have well, basically two major sources of influence.  You’re going to have your family and your friends really influence your world view, and the media will have some influence, and in degrees depending on how right into it you are, and then you have art, and you know, for one, maybe art’s like a pretentious term but even like the lowliest hardcore band is making art.  Maybe they don’t think they are but they are.  So that, and you know, some of these people like I said, there was ideas that I was exposed to about being straightedge which I was for a long time, and actually am again now – vegetarianism, unity, open mindedness, acceptance of other people regardless of how different they are to me.  These ideas were all thrown at me through music, and they’re all ideas that have impacted my life in a very positive way.

Lily: Isn’t it good that you were exposed to them when you were young?

Adam: Yeah, sure. I mean because if you’re doing something that isn’t cool, that all your friends say isn’t cool but there’s a band that you think are cooler than your friends are and they’re doing it, then you feel like you have allies anyway.

Lily: What are some of your favourite bands from the forefathers of punk?

Adam: My favourite bands from the forefathers?  It’s weird, like I really – I mean I’ll just let you know, I won’t give you a long story.  I love The Clash – I mean The Clash is incredible… an incredible band.  I think Bad Brains is an incredible band, and then I think Minor Threat is an incredible band.  I actually think

Fugazi is an incredible band.  A lot of the California stuff I didn’t really get too in to.  I kind of missed the boat on that.  I love the Descendants though. I love Social Distortion.  I love – you know, I love Agnostic Front, the Cro-Mags, War Zone.  Moving forward a few years, you know, Judge, Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, Killing Time, Sick Of It All, massive, huge, amazing.  There are tonnes of bands.  It’s hard to list them all you know.

Lily: Yeah, but you know someone who reads the interview will maybe go back and listen to them now because you’ve mentioned them.

Adam: Oh that would be great.  That would be the ultimate, prove that this is a good interview.

Lily: If you could choose three musicians, dead or alive, to play with in a dream band, who would it be?

Adam: Oh that’s a good, that’s really good.  Tiki Fulwood would be my drummer.  He’s the drummer for Funkadelic. He is an amazing drummer, wow.  Wow, I think anyone would sound good with him, which is kind of why I would want to play with him.  It would be great to play with Johnny Marr from The Smiths, he’s great, and fuck, that’s really hard.  There’s too many.  Oh there’s too many people.  I guess HR from the Bad Brains would be great.  That would be a weird band actually.  Wow, that would be real, kind of, all over the place. Bob Marley would be amazing.

Lily: You’ve got quite a band there.

Adam: Yeah.  I don’t know.  Sorry, there’s too many people.  I feel like I’m at a candy store and there’s too much to pick so I’m actually, no – I can’t eat anything.  I just can’t choose what I want.

Lily: Just leave them there and admire them?

A: Yeah.

Q: There’s one thing I love about the heavy metal scene and that’s the sense of community that seems to be evident all over the world

A: Yeah, yeah, of course.

Lily: Would you say that was evident in the hardcore scene as well?

Adam: Yeah, I mean, I’ve spent most of my life on tour.  You know, I’ve seen it first hand and it definitely exists you know, and I think it’s awesome.  I think we’re all – all at one point, no matter where we end up in life, we all relate to being the outcast. And we all relate to suddenly like this epiphany that, wow, I’m not just by myself.  There’s these people that – they like what I like.  They like me in some fundamental way, and I think that that is a really, really healthy thing for someone to realise that, and I think worldwide, it doesn’t matter where you are or who you are, if you’re into this music you came to it usually because of that.

Lil: I totally agree Adam. I grew up in the metal scene in my city and there was such a sense of acceptance.

Adam: You go to shows and it’s like all of sudden you’re like, wow, my people.  You know, it’s like going to church for some people I guess, or a kind of therapy for some people or maybe a combination of all that. But you go to a show and it’s like you’re where you’re supposed to be with the people you’re supposed to be with.

 

Lily: Now, besides Sound Wave Festival in February March, what’s in store for H2O in 2011?

Adam: More touring, covers album coming out, and the shows.  Hopefully, lots of shows. That’s about it.

Lily: Did you say it was a covers album?

Adam: All covers. All other people’s shit.  I’m excited.

Lily: You’ve toured here before and from that experience how do Australian audiences differ from, say, American, if at all?

Adam: They’re awesome.  We loved it.  It was just like – I mean, it’s like, we were just saying, there’s a universal community.  It’s great.  It’s great everywhere and Australia’s no different and we’re really excited to play because it’s been way too long.

Lily: What’s the most rock star think you’ve ever done?

Adam: Banged two chicks at once – I’m kidding.  That’s kind of rock star though. I just told my friend that I have two hours of Australian press today.  That’s pretty rock star.

Lily: Yeah, that’s pretty rock star. I think if you could see it in a Spinal Tap movie, then it’s a bit rock star.

Adam: Then I’ve got lost backstage, you know, I’ve had all kinds of things go wrong and I’ve turned my amp up to 11.

Lily: Right. Thanks Adam. It’s been great talking to you.

Adam: You too, bye bye.

Catch H2O along with a helluva line-up at this year’s Soundwave Festival. Check their site for details, by clicking the banner above.

-L

Tags: Bob Marley, Cro-Mags, Descendants, Fugazi, Funkadelic, Gorilla Biscuits, H2O, interview, Judge, Killing Time, knobrock, Sick Of It All, Social Distortion, soundwave festival, Spinal Tap, The Smiths