« ATC Souvenir »Interview par Tiphaine Deraison /Portraits : Florian Chamare
"Nothing to prove", "don't forget your roots" or "one life one chance", are hymns sung but mostly tattooed. At the origin of these very ethical gimmicks: H20, the New York leader in hardcore melody since the end of the 1990s. Very tattooed, the singer returns to the H20's and the ones he wears on his body. Meeting.
A lot of fans get an H20 tattoo done. How do you feel about that? I'm a fan too! I have a portrait of Madonna, I have a tattoo of Jay Z and I may have 30 bands tattoos on my legs, including Agnostic Front, Sick Of It All, Madball, 7 seconds, Descendents,...all those bands that inspired me. If kids get a tattoo of an H20 motifs, it means they're inspired by us. When people have our logo or words inked in their skin, it's like wearing an emblem. They believe what you believe in and it's a message. I myself have the tattoo from H20's first album because it's my favorite, it's a classic now.
What words or phrases did you get tattooed ?
I have a lot of words, I have like "Straight Edge", "P.M.A", but the one I like best is certainly "End Racism" on my back.
How old were you when you did your first tattoo?
18 years at Peter tattoo's house on Long Island, in New York in 1988, I was excited and nervous to get a tattoo. It was a group tattoo and over the years it aged badly so I had it covered by another one of the same group. I quickly became addicted and wanted more. In 2012 I got up to 36 tattoos!
Who's your tattoo artist?
I have four tattoo artists: CIV (singing: Gorilla Biscuits, CIV), Juan Puente, Luke Wessman and Dan Smith (Captured Tattoo), CIV is in New York (Lotus Tattoo, ed.) the others in California.
Are you close to your tattoo artist?
We're really close. I've known them all for a long time. I've known CIV for 20 years. I was definitely one of the first people he tattooed in his apartment in the Lower East Side on 9 street. He tattooed my stomach, he did a lot of things on me, I was the first person he tattooed lip on, I was his guinea pig in a way. I have a lot of Chris Garver tattoos too. Most of my tattoos have a meaning and a history, some are completely crazy by the way! I have an E.T. tattoo because it was my favorite movie when I was a kid and I even have a Breaking bad tattoo : the TV show.
Which tattoo is the most important to you?
The portrait of my son I had done on my thigh. Then, my Madonna tattoo because I love this singer since I was a kid, it's a tattoo I showed her when I met her!
What is your favorite sentence and why did you get a tattoo?
I have a lot of words I have like "Straight Edge", "P.M.A" I really have a lot of words but the one I like best is certainly "End Racism" on my back.
The title "Heart on my sleeve" (excerpt from "Nothing to prove", 2008, ndlr) talks about the negative look in general on tattooed people, do you mean your own experience?
It is a speech to defend people who are tattooed and who are immediately judged by others. People who think it's funny to pretend to be a criminal or a nobody because you're tattooed. All these are stereotypes, there will always be some on tattoos. I wrote this song from my own experience whether it was when I was younger or now. When I do interventions in school, children ask questions when they look at me:" what ! you say you've never touched drugs? But you're rock'n' roll, with lots of tattoos, that's not possible!". I look like a tattooed monster, but I'm just a normal person!
The album "Dont forget your roots" is an album in which you pay tribute to a certain number of punk-hardcore bands, are you nostalgic of the Hardcore old school?
I think this kind of hardcore has changed my life, all these mythical songs, I've been listening to it since I was a kid! But I also listen to a lot of Hip Hop, Coldplay, pop music, not just hardcore and I really like Rihanna for example! I listen to all this crap as well as my son listen. But when I listen to hardcore it's all the old bands like Ramones and all the stuff like that. I like Cruel Hand, Trapped Under Ice, I like Backtrack, Wisdom in chains, these are the 4 bands that I currently find great.
In this album "Don't Forget your roots" what is your favorite song and why?
Um, that's a good question! I really like Embrace and the song we're covering because it's a band I saw live and bought the album when I was a kid, it was Minor Threat's Ian McKay's other band, so I was really impressed and I really like this record because it's very emotional too. It was a bit like the first ones, it was really original to have this kind of emotional songs, what else... the Clashes or Gorilla Biscuits and the title "New Direction"...
Why was it important to make this album?
It was important because I wanted to make a record where today's kids can understand what we were all inspired by, because there are really many kids now who don't know the bands that are the root and that inspired this music and this movement, so I thought about making this record so that the kids could see what style of music influenced us and got us into it! It's also a way to thank these bands who took us on tour with them as Social Distortion for our first tour. It was really cool to do this record and I really want to do a second one, a "part 2" because there are a lot of bands we couldn't include.
You play Sunday, which is a very personal song about your experience as a father and with your own father it is not difficult to have to sing this song every night?
Yes, it is. And it takes me guts, every time I sing that song, it disturbs me a little bit. I love this song and I'm very proud of it, a lot of people are attached to this song, they write to me to tell me about it and it's certainly my favorite song. She talks about life and death and the difficulty of becoming a father when you haven't had one. For me to grow up without a father it was difficult because no one took me fishing for example. I was only 3 years old when he died, I had to talk to my friends and ask them some questions that are normally those we have with his father. My friend Freddy from Madball is one of the ones who took me fishing for the first time," he said. It was totally cool. My mother raised three boys on her own and I used to go to my grandparents' house on weekends. They took care of me but my friends took me to shows every weekend, we went to these concerts in Providence, Rhode Island and New Port. I grew up with punk-rock music and then it became a family. When I was 18, I went to New-York, slept on the sofas or apartment floors of different friends who hosted me and took me with them to concerts, it was really exciting to be part of this hardcore scene, it's really my family... and when I talk about family it's not just the blood family it's also the friends. They have always been there. I think a lot of kids get into the hardcore scene when they have a difficult, destroyed family life. They find themselves a new family in hardcore, they go to shows and they feel better understood.
As a Straight Edge for over 20 years, what could you say to someone who would tell you that you can't talk about drugs because you've never touched them in your life?
There are so many kids in high school who are much more experienced in drugs and alcohol than I ever will be. All I can tell them is that I have known and seen the effects of the drugs around me. I even lost friends to drugs and alcohol. Besides, not everyone around me is Straight Edge.
You created the association PMA all day for a positive mental attitude, it is an organization that does prevention in schools and high schools to fight against drugs. Can you explain to us what his activities and philosophy are?
The first to mention P.M.A. was Napolean Hill (naphill.org, ndlr) in his books in 1960. Then the Bad Brains were inspired by him to do the song "Attitude" where they say: "we've got PMA". They wanted to introduce this philosophy into the hardcore movement and that's how I heard about it myself. To have a Positive Mental Attitude is to get out of negative thoughts. You do good things around you and good things happen to you in return. That's what I explain in schools. I tell them about my experience, being Straight Edge, being a father, a musician, punk-rock music. It's not so much about hardcore as it is about what you can become and how to achieve it. I'm not lecturing them, I'm not a cop! But sometimes I find myself facing kids who confide in me because they have no one to talk to. When I was in school, I was lucky enough to be accepted by friends who didn't care if I drank or not. I would like them to understand that they do not need these drugs to be cool or successful.
In the song "What happened?", you say:"fashion before passion" it is a real hymn widely used that speaks openly about the ethics of today's bands, do you think it's a reality today, fashion comes before art and music?
It's a reality today! And not only in hardcore. We didn't make an album for a few years and when we came back, we noticed that there were people who didn't have to work hard to be in a band since the kids were already crazy about their sponsors and merchandising. They just have to worry about getting the perfect hair, clothes and movements on stage! It looks like something set up from scratch. While other groups are only interested in passion and integrity. So I ask myself: is there really a message or is it just to make money? We love music because we feel connected to the band! Not to see if the guys who play are cute. It's cool to have nice clothes I like Nike I'm a guy who likes sneakers, but it doesn't matter who I am, if I take them off I'm still me: Toby. The same thing happens in hip hop. I love new school hip hop but I have trouble with people who do it just for the money and not the love of what they do. Personally, we're old, tired, but we love playing live on stage, playing our music and trying to inspire other people, that's really what matters most to us. To build the history of music, to continue to know and maintain the roots of this music. This is what motivates us and should motivate everyone. Last night we were in concert and we were playing some songs, covers, as we sometimes do. We asked the audience, who knew the group we were covering (a cover of Les Clash - "Radio Clash"). There were maybe 3000 people and nobody raised their hands... nobody knew about the Clashes; nobody knew the song or who wrote it. It really shocked me! (Interview made during the Persistence Tour 2013, Paris, Bataclan) Toby Morse's tattoos in the picture are: Back = End Racism, CIV, Lotus tattoo Scott Da Silva (CA) and Juan Puente (CA) Son's face = Juan Puente (Atlas Tattoo, Portland) H20 tattoo = Chicago tattoo 9B Knees = Tattoo Lotus VIC No Smoking by Dan Smith, Captured Tattoo PMA, Bad Brains tattoo, Dan Smith from Captured Tattoo The Madonna by Josh Moody NyC Joey Ramone by Juan Puente (Atlas Tattoo, Portland) Miss Swoosh by Juan Puente (Atlas Tattoo, Portland) Drug Free by CIV, Lotus Tattoo Verbal Assault Eyes by Dan Smith, Captured Tattoo
