BOY SETS FIRE
Our first interview with a tape recorder instead of doing the stuff by e-mail !
Sinapu members Leonore, Jan and David caught up with Nathan Gray,
singer for BoySetsFire, right before the show at the Melkweg
in Amsterdam on November 2nd 2000. The following is the result....

 

Sinapu : Is there a big difference between the European and the American hardcore scene ?

Nathan: Not so much in that, like, as far as the people it's all pretty much the same. With the exception of squats in Europe do work, as opposed to in America where there's nothing much to it. The squats are cool over here. They have shows and stuff. In the US there's squats but it's not really like a political thing or a thing to do shows or anything. It's just like a bunch of people hanging out and they're dirty and they do drugs and that's about it. It's not really anything cool. Also, bands get treated a lot better over here. You always have food and a place to stay and stuff like that. In the US a lot of people don't even bother asking you if you need a place to stay. And if you need some food it's like "Oh well.. there's a restaurant down there... have fun". And the promotion for shows is pretty bad as well. It's bizarre. It makes you wonder, like, do people want to put on shows at all ? Do they wanna make any money off the show ? It's like "Screw it, I'm sure two people will show up by accident". I don't understand the purpose to that.

Sinapu: One of our friends went to the US and saw your show and he said a lot of boys were crying on stage. But you don't see that around here, huh ?

Nathan: Isn't that beautiful ? It's like The Beatles, you know. Hahaha.

Sinapu: Are Europeans more sober ?

Nathan: Sometimes. American kids are more likely to be more emotional with everything. They freak out and fly around. Europeans seem to be a little more... reserved. It's not necessarily like, a bad thing; they just tend to be more reserved. And more so in certain areas than others. In Sweden for instance everybody is like, stiff as a board. But most of the German shows we play, people go off; in the UK they go off. I haven't seen anybody crying their eyes out, but, you know, they're freaking out and jumping around, so...

Sinapu: Could it also be just a language problem ?

Nathan: Could be, yeah, absolutely. Could just be like that they don't get what's going on or understand the message.

Sinapu: Just before you signed to Victory Records, one of the band members stepped out and...

Nathan: No, we kicked him out !

Sinapu: Ah... well, we heard that he stepped out because you were going to sign to Victory. Like a principal matter or so.

Nathan: Yeah, that's the rumour but it's totally not true. He was going to sign to Victory too; then we kicked him out. It had nothing to do with that. That's a ridiculous rumour that's going around.

Sinapu: OK. Glad we straightened that out. Next question: the song Unspoken Request is about rape and there's another song about the society having too high expectations of women. What do you think about these things ?

Nathan: If we're gonna attack political and social issues, too many guy-bands that attack certain issues shy away from women's rights issues and stuff like that. Maybe it's because they don't think they can be an authority on the issue, but I mean, why not ? And maybe this is.... no, it ís a bad thing, but... a lot of people don't listen to girls in the hardcore scene. I'm not saying it's right, but this is what happens a lot of times. Girl bands are treated like novelties; it's like "Oh ain't that cute: girls playing music". And so a lot of times, women's issues aren't brought in the forefront of hardcore because of that. And maybe with us, or with other guy-bands doing it, more people pay attention. Not only to us, but also to other women who have something to say.

Sinapu: Sinapu is a zine that's run by christians. How do you feel about christianity in hardcore ?

Nathan: It's fine. People in the band like me, Josh, a couple of people have some religious convictions that may lean towards christianity in some ways, but uhm... either way, I don't really care. As far as some institutionalized religion, if you wanna do that: fine, I really don't care. I don't háve to listen to you, you know what I mean ? Honestly it gets on my nerves when people bitch and complain about christians or religions in the scene. 'Cause if you don't wanna hear it: don't listen ! I mean, don't go to the shows, don't talk to the people ! It's not being shoved down your throat, no one's beating your ass and making you listen. I think it's fine. Everybody should be able to express a viewpoint. Or even on a more extreme note: when it's horribly offensive and it could possibly hurt people, do something about it ! Instead of just bitching about and complain about it. It gets so stupid after a while. Not only with that, but with any issue like religion, or who "sold out", or whose girlfriend is going out with who... Everybody's got a stupid opinion and if you're not a zealot about it, you don't have an opinion and you suck, you know. Most of those people need to get, I don't know, maybe a good drug habit or something. It's annoying, just annoying.

Sinapu: Do you have a special sympathy towards any religion ?

Nathan: Not really. I grew up in a christian household. My dad's a pastor. Fortunately, it didn't make me bitter though. My parents have always been cool. I didn't grow up bittered towards God and stuff like that. I'm pretty open to it all.

Sinapu: I heard that two members of the band are into communism ? Can you tell something about that ?

Nathan: Yeah, it's me and our guitar player Josh. I can't speak for him, but when I was growing up, I was about 16 when I started getting into politics - and I'm 28 now. A lot of my push in politics was more leftist minded stuff and I started reading it. I read a lot of stuff but that's what attracted me. Reading about older protesters like Abbie Hoffmann in the 60's and Jerry Rubin and stuff like that. Especially people who mix leftist politics with like, real funny shit. Who could be funny and in the same time inspire people. And don't alienate them like, make people go "I don't wanna be part of the revolution if I can't have fun". So actually Josh joined first 'cause he's been a communist for years, even before he joined the party... just very pro-communist. I had a lot of issues in communism and anarchism; had a lot of beliefs in these areas and I just joined up with the communist party 'cause most of the stuff I was really into. And it's nice to have backing. To have other people that are like-minded and open-minded. I don't know anybody in the party that just toes the party line. There's always discussion, there's always changing of certain things so that's great.

Sinapu: Your new release, After The Eulogy, contains more extremes. It goes from really poppy to really metal... was it your intention to do that ?

Nathan: No, honestly, ever since we've been together we've had like the hard and the soft, because.... we wouldn't know what else to do. It's something like "OK, we like all this music and it's... ah well let's throw it all together". So it ended up being just a mishmash.

Sinapu: Don't you think nevertheless it has more extremes now in the music ?

Nathan: Only because of the production. If you listen to the other stuff there's that stuff too, but it's really hard to tell in a lot of ways 'cause the production is horrible. With the heavier songs, you don't hear like a chunk-chunk.... it's more like a horde of mosquitos... zzz zzz zzz you know... It's more the production that especially makes the harder songs sound harder.

Sinapu: Imagine you're not the singer of your band, but an editor of a big magazine. How would you describe the band then ?

Nathan: Oh shit !

Sinapu: OK, thanks.

Nathan: Hahaha, right.... no, I don't know.... schizophrenic ? If I were to listen from an outside view I would say there's something terribly wrong with these people. The difference between the songs After The Eulogy and When Rhetoric Dies... it's like evil moshy craziness and then poppy, John Cougar Mellencamp sounding. I would probably wonder what the hell they were doing.

Sinapu: I read somewhere that the new CD is about a "youth movement being put down by those empowered"?

Nathan: To an extend. It's not just that though. A lot of the CD we talk about politics and stuff. Now, with this one, we try to do it in a way... still, lash out on big corporations and stuff like that but at the same time turn inward to the scene where we're from. Be like: "What are we doing, guys?". Like I was saying earlier about the little things that we always complain and moan about , about who sold out and bla bla bla and meanwhile... there are really important issues going on in the world, real issues that need to be confronted, which we sáy we do in our zines and our bands and we pet each other on the back like "Oh you think that way ? Me too, cool !" and then like, go watch The X-Files or something...

Sinapu: Thanks for the interview. Do you have any last words ?

Nathan: I never do. I'm horrible with that. Every time I've done an interview, and I'm dead serious and I guess this actually ís my last quote then, but every time I've done an interview... last quotes, last thoughts... stumped. Never know... never know what to say.

Sinapu: OK... good luck with the show.

Nathan: Thanks.