Roger Miret.AS LONGTIME FRONTMAN front·man n. 1. also front man A man who serves as a nominal leader but who lacks real authority. 2. Music A leading singer with a group. for NYC's hardcore band Agnostic Front Agnostic Front are a New York Hardcore and crossover thrash band formed in New York City in 1982. History Formed by guitarist Vinnie Stigma (formerly of the Eliminators) in November/December 1980 with Diego on Bass and Rob Krekus on drums. , Roger Miret Roger Miret is an American rock vocalist best known for his work with the hardcore punk band Agnostic Front and his major contributions to the New York City hardcore scene (NYHC). Other projects Miret has been involved with are Roger Miret and the Disasters. has rightfully earned the status of legend and leader. Make no mistake though; Roger isn't one to respond to expectations. His newest band, the Disasters (Hellcat Records Hellcat Records is a vanity record label based in Los Angeles, California. The label, an off-shoot of Epitaph Records, was started as a partnership between the owner of Epitaph, Brett Gurewitz from Bad Religion and Tim Armstrong of Rancid, the latter of which is generally ), have a sound all their own and it comes out as pure rock and roll tacked to stories and visions of the East Coast. Here's how Roger sees the big picture. Tell us how the Disasters got started and what they're all about. The band actually came about after we recorded our studio album. I got some friends to play some songs I had written and then we took it into the studio. Since the record came out so great and we were so happy with it, we decided to become a band. That was in 2001. In 2002 our self-rifled album Roger Miret and the Disasters came out on Hellcat Records. Now we're in 2005 and the second album, 1984, was just released. So there was never a conscious decision to do a side project from Agnostic Front? No. No plan. I don't like to think of it as a side project. We're out there as hard or harder than Agnostic Front. I would say a side project would be a bunch of guys A Bunch of Guys (BOGs), or Group of Guys (GOGs) are terms used by counter-terrorism officials to refer to small, self-organizing terrorist cells.[1] BOGs typically have little to no contact with global terrorist groups like al Qaeda, so they independently plan and that put together one album, do a tour, and then that's it. I think we can comfortably say that the Disasters has earned the credibility of a real band. We've been on the road for three years now doing our thing, and it's different than Agnostic Front. How is the second album, 1984, different from the first? I think it's better. Every band's second album is a progression. Or at least I like to think so. Me and Rhys Kill (guitar/vocals) wrote a lot of it. Our second record was written more as a band. We all rehearsed for a whole month before recording. It wasn't just like, "Okay, meet me in the studio." So it sounds like a band that has been together awhile, which we have. It's got more rock and roll roots; it's real and it's honest sounding. It's still got toughness and Disasters cliches. Total East Coast, total New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . Describe your song writing process. I never sit down to write a song or write lyrics for no reason at all. When it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to write a song, the music goes first. I hear what the guitar is trying to say and then I give it one line or one word, and from there I take it into a whole song. I don't just sit there Don't Just Sit There was a television show on Nickelodeon that first aired in 1988 and lasted for three seasons. The show was a talk show mixed with a comedy. Out of Order was the house band on the series, they would later get to sing on the show as well as participate in and write lyrics and then put them to music. It's the other way around. Historically, the East Coast punk scene has been really tight. Is it still that way, even with so many people now getting into it? I think it's still pretty tight. I could tell you that back in the day it was tighter, but it was also smaller back then and so everyone knew each other. It was also more family oriented. But I'm living for today. I still like what I see. What's unique about the East Coast punk scene, besides the toughness that the harsh weather breeds? I'm from the ghettos of NYC NYC abbr. New York City NYC New York City , so obviously that's going to be reflected in my lyrics and me. West Coast has its hard spots too, though. You find rough neighborhoods in LA and San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden . I think the major difference is that the West Coast has all those palm trees. Every time I go to LA I feel relaxed because of those trees. My goal in life is to live someplace some·place adv. & n. Somewhere: "I didn't care where I was from so long as it was someplace else" Garrison Keillor. See Usage Note at everyplace. with a palm tree. It gives me tranquility. You can't talk about the Disasters without talking about hot rods. So let's talk hot rods. Two of the guys in the Disasters are members of Rumblers Car Club. There're several Rumblers chapters--Los Angeles, San Francisco, NYC, Orlando, Albuquerque, New Jersey, and then there's the Nomad chapter. Disasters are into hot rods, rock and roll, and punk rock. That's what we know. That's what we like. Any of the guys in the band into skating? I was never much into riding 'em--but I did use them to hit people over the head. I think our bassist, Brian Darwas, was into skating. In the beginning skateboarding wasn't a big East Coast thing. Now there are a lot of skateboarders. But back in the day the streets were just awful, so you might skateboard to get from point A to point B, but, basically, it was a weapon. As a New Yorker, are we going to see you in a Yankees hat tonight? You know, every time we come here they try to get me into that whole Boston versus NYC thing. The truth is I hate sports and I hate jocks. But to lay it all down, I don't think there was ever a curse--I think they just sucked for 86 years! I'm not going to say I'm glad Boston won, because I'm going to back up my hometown Yankees, but hey, Boston worked hard. Maybe now they can get over this curse bullshit. I was starting to think that everyone here also believed in flying saucers. Last words Last words are a person's final words before death. For a list of well known last words, see or use the link at right. Last words may refer to:
Thanks for doing this interview. Thanks to Thrasher thrasher: see mimic thrush. thrasher Any of 17 species (family Mimidae) of New World songbirds that have a downcurved bill and are noted for noisily foraging on the ground in dense thickets and for loud, varied songs. , it's a great magazine. They've always been supportive of true punk rock. Thanks to everyone for checking out the Disasters. |
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