AGNOSTIC FRONT : 25 years of Victim in Pain

AGNOSTIC FRONT
by Jason Walsh

In this second decade of the 21st century, the godfathers of New York Hardcore celebrate their 25th anniversary milestone. AGNOSTIC FRONT, who have continued to remain an inspirational and driving force in the underground hardcore scene, in tribute to their amazing longevity, have re-released their first album and EP, “Victim in Pain/United Blood.” These groundbreaking hardcore classics feature the two distinct original lineups, both of which feature frontman Roger Miret and guitarist Vinnie Stigma, while “United Blood” is backed by the late Ray “Raybeez” Barbieri of WARZONE notoriety and Adam Moochie and the rhythm section of the “Victim in Pain” consists of Rob Kabula and Dave Jones.

In February, following the release on Bridge 9 Records, the “classic” AF lineup from “Victim in Pain” played for the first time together since 1984 at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Old school veteran Roger Miret took the time to talk about the current reissue, reunion, and future of AGNOSTIC FRONT, one of NYHC’s most important institutions

Tell me about re-releasing “Victim in Pain/United Blood” on Bridge 9 Records. Why did you guys decide to do this now?
Well, it was about time. It was 25 years later once we release it and I couldn’t think of a better place to do it than with Bridge 9. They’ve been really cool and we do a lot of underground singles and stuff with them and they really cater to the underground hardcore so we thought that would be the appropriate home for it.

So when you decided to do this, did that idea of going back to the original lineup, did that have anything to do with it? Which came first?

No, the album came first and to be honest with you, I haven’t had any contact with Dave Jones, the drummer, since 1984 or around then. So I thought just do the album and that was it, then I decided to do a show and I decided to try and find all the original members and that’s how it came across.

What was it like reconnecting with Rob (Kabula) and Dave and asking them if they would be interested in doing this? How did that go over?

It was great, man, because Rob, we played together with Rob in Epitaph years, in that lineup we had Rob. In the beginning, Rob and even Adam Moochie, the original bass player from “United Blood,” we were in contact with them. The only person I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get was Dave Jones. Miraculously, Dave Jones contacted the label and then it all fell into place.

Where has Dave been all these years? What’s he been up to?

Well, he unfortunately went through a terrible accident and which left him out of doing things for many, many years, but he’s recovered from that and he’s doing much better, thank god. But that’s pretty much where he was at, recovering from a horrible accident, a wreck with a tractor trailer.

Wow…that’s horrible.

Yeah.

So were you guys looking to take this lineup and tour. I see you have some dates in Europe coming up.

No, no. We just wanted to do one show with that lineup.

Oh, that was just a one-off. I see.

Yeah, that was a one shot original lineup show. We’re doing the whole “Victim in Pain” set and most of “United Blood.” We’ve incorporated it into our set list so when we play, we’ll most likely most of the times, we just start with “Victim in Pain,” we’ll play the whole album front to back, and we continue on with the rest of our set, so we’re incorporating it. We did a 25-year anniversary set list, with the original lineup, with the original guys playing it. That was a one-off show that just happened.

Gotcha. So when you guys are heading over to Europe, this will be you, Vinnie Stigma, Joseph James, Pokey Mo, Mike Gallo, the guys you’ve been toruing with in recent times.

Absoultely, absolutely.

So tell me about heading over to Europe. I looked at the list of dates and I thought that’s a long time to be over there and a lot of shows. Are you excited about it or do you look at that like “that’s a lot of shows.”

Yeah, and well, it is a lot of shows but we love Europe. It’s been a second home…it’s always been great. What we do is like what we do here in America, we separate parts. In the olden days, we would tour for anywhere from eight to twelve weeks, in America and in Europe. It just gets really hard doing the eight-to-twelve-week straight tour, so we break it into parts. We do two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks in America in four parts and we’ll go home, because we’re family men too, you know, we have children so we have to keep that in mind too. Then we’re doing the same thing with Europe, we’ll do four weeks here and then we’ll come back and do two weeks here, come back, and do another two weeks here, y’know, instead of going all out for the whole 8, 10, to 12 weeks, which is kind of hard when you’re raising a family.

And that’s the important thing. A lot of bands when they hit the road, they don’t have families. You guys have been doing this for a long time, so going and doing a big tour and to take that time to go back and hang out and chill with the family, that’s important.

Absolutely, you know. Like I said, we have family, we care about them, we love our family. It may seem like we’re doing a lot of crazy tours is only because we can just split it up in certain ways, because we are family men.

That’s cool and it’s good management of your time it sounds like.

Yeah.

So after the European tour, what’s going on for the rest of the year? You guys going to record? I mean how do you follow up “Warriors?” That was like the greatest record of all time.

You know that’s something we have to deal with. You always got to try to deal with following up what we’ve done, but I’ll tell you what though, we’ve got about a good solid eight, nine songs right now for our new record and it’s going to give “Warriors” a run for its money.

Nice.

And I’ll tell you, there are a lot more sing-a-longs on the new record. I think “Warriors” is the perfect record for us because there was a true representation of AGNOSTIC FRONT today and how we are together as a group and how we write together, because that was the first time we let everybody write. Ever since “Warriors,” I’ve given the confidence to the rest of the guys to go ahead and write, not only musically but lyrically. I thought they did a great job. They came to the plate with some good stuff that you know, if it’s good it’s good. We feel the same…they’re on my team so I gave them a little more freedom and I think with “Warriors” they really proved themselves and now we have a different way of writing, you know.

Does it feel better at this stage in your career and with the band to collaborate on that kind of level?

Oh, absolutely. I think this is the best the band has collaborated in its history, I think, to be honest with you. During “One Voice,” we had really good collaboration with Matt Henderson, Craig Setari, and Will Shepler. We had some really good, solid collaborations, but then it’s been a little chaotic before then and after then. It’s been a little wild, but I think this is the first time when these guys have been able to collage all our entire history together.

My last question for you, Roger. 25 years later. Is this still fun for you? When you have a show are you still genuinely excited about the entire experience?

Yes. It’s still fun. If it wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t do it. It keeps me alive, it keeps me young, keeps me motivated. I mean look, this has been my life, it’s been my…pretty much it. It’s been my life and something I have a passion for and I adore and I can’t see my life without it. It’s kind of hard to look and think if I don’t have this music around me, where would I be. I’m blessed and lucky enough to have taken it this far, but I hope I can take it further. As long as there is a demand for AGNOSTIC FRONT, I’ll always be here. You know, I’ll always be involved with music somehow, someway, ‘til the end like I say.