suicides an option

This is a real old interview. Keep in mind that I'm not re-editing or updating anything. Since this review a bunch of shit has changed, including band members, and they have released a smokin lp also on the same label. Cop it.

SOCIALCIDE is Zach from WASTED TIME's other band that he sings in. Pretty cool dude. They put out a demo “sick of the pressure” which was recently released as a 7” on EVEN WORSE outta Holland, who also collaborated with KANGAROO RECORDS to release their new 7” “burn in hell, Bundy”. They play fast hardcore that I would most closely compare to DYS and early Boston hardcore, with a little bit of a NYHC feel and snotty pissed vocals that help to set them apart.

Who's in the band now and what do they play? Who got axed and what for? SOCIALCIDE is currently: me (Zach Pearce) - vocals, Adam Katherman - guitar, Matt Parsons - bass, Matt Hammond - drums, Simone Koussa - guitar. Me and Adam are the only original members. We started out with this kid Chris on guitar and Kyle on drums (me Adam and Kyle were in a band together when we were in highschool). Kyle got kicked out after our first show for being stuck up his girlfriends ass and flaking out of practice constantly. We got this longhaired metalhead fatboy named Taylor to fill his spot, and Adam moved from bass to 2nd guitar and i got my friend (at that time) Jordan to play bass. Chris quit cause he felt like he didn't have enough input or some shit, and lost interest. Then Jordan quit cause he's basically a pussy who wants to sit on his ass and do drugs all day then play music. Parsons is a good friend of mine and I couldn't think of another bass player around the southeastern Virginia area so i asked him if he'd want to play with us and he was down. We then kicked out the fat fuck Taylor for being another useless flake, and got Matt Hammond from Richmondtown. Thought we'd add another guitar since Chris quit too, so i asked my bud from highschool Simone. Here we are.

Where are you guys based out of? Is there much of a scene outside of Richmond? We all live in different places. I'm in Moyock, North Carolina. Adam is in Norfolk, VA. Simone, Chesapeake VA. Parsons is in DC and Matt is in Richmond. We practice in Richmond which is the central location for the band at this point. As far as scenes in Virginia, Richmond is a good spot. maybe even one of the best places on the east coast. Virginia Beach used to be kinda cool, but everyone moved to Richmond and the people that are left don't really do shit for the ‘scene’ and most of the bands have died out around here. The jock shit is flowing, but that's a different scene in itself, that we aren’t apart of.

I kinda got the impression from talking to you that you're the guy behind SOCIALCIDE. Do you write all the music or are the other dudes involved? Yeah. I write all of the music and 80% of the lyrics (adam the other 20%), and I take care of almost everything else. It's me and Adams band though. We started it, and if me or him loses interest then it's over. I’ve always opened the idea to past members to contribute, but they would write 1 song or 2, and it would get shot down then they would cry about it and quit. Which is fine by me. If you want something done you have to take care of it yourself most of the time.

Is SOCIALCIDE a straightedge band? You seem to be the only guy I've encountered outta Richmond who wasn't totally shitfaced. Do you even consider yourself straightedge? We are not a straightedge band. Nothing wrong with straightedge bands, except that 99% of the new ones are watered-down garbage. I personally am straightedge (and so is everyone else in SOCIALCIDE, but it wasn't always that way with past members), and could care less what anyone else wants to do with their life, as long as they don't involve me in any way if it's something extreme.

What bands would you say influence your songwriting? Do newer bands ever inspire you or just the classics? Old New York and Boston hardcore bands, definitely. Early and late 80's. bands like KRAKDOWN, YOUTH OF TODAY (cant close my eyes), LOCKJAW, LIFE'S BLOOD, DRI, DYS, etc.. I like alot of new hardcore punk but i would say the older stuff is more of an inspiration for the band.

Is it weird that both your records have been released by European labels? Do you think that helps the band or have you noticed it hurting you on this end of the world? Not necessarily weird. It surprised the hell out of me when Noel hit us up to be on EVEN WORSE. We were definitely down for working with him from the start even though he/his label is based out of the Netherlands. It has its on and offs. like, exposure on the other side of the world is awesome, but the US distribution lacks and people have to pay more over here for our 7" if they're not buying it straight from us, which kinda sucks.

In the song about Ted Bundy theres a lyric about “killing a bunch of whores who fucking deserved it.” Do you guys hate women? It seemed to me that the scene, at least in Richmond, was pretty apolitical or maybe even anti-political. Is this a reaction to anything goin on in punk or just the way you dudes are? We don't hate women, just most teenage girls. We aren't a Richmond band, but I'd say RVA has it's fair share of uptight assholes. Lots of pretentious artschool PBR drinkin’ trackbike homos that need to get a fucking life. But that probably doesn’t even relate to what you had experienced in Richmond. I don’t know, I don’t live there. I'm not at every Richmond show. I don’t care about politics or if anyone hates my band(s) and won't check out our records. I play music for me.

So you used to be in TARPIT? What's the deal with that? I was friends with Mike Lawson, the singer. Dave from IRON BOOTS quit (he played drums), so Jason, the bass player, moved to drums and they needed a bass player. Mike asked me if I'd be down and i said yeah (this was early '05). I played with them up until September of that year then quit cause it wasn't really my thing. I think I did like 3 one-week tours with them and quite a few Virginia beach shows. Never played on any of the recordings.

What do you guys got in the works? We're going to be on 3 upcoming compilation 7"'s. No bullshit volume 3, and 2 others on COWABUNGA and STRESS DOMAIN records. We plan on recording around 13 songs this winter for an lp. We actually started recording it over the summer with Taylor on drums but it didn't come out right and now he's out of the band, so it'll be the end of the year by the time we'll make it back in the studio. As far as shows, we might be doing some sort of week or two tour with NIGHTSTICK JUSTICE this december (eastcoast---we're playing THIS IS FOR YOU FEST in florida so it'll revolve around that), or in the spring possibly. Who knows.

Anything else you wanna say in there to wrap it up? Shout outs?
Nope.

COOL

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