BAND: This Is Hell
INTERVIEWER: Chris Hazel (chrish@bandvibe.com)
INTERVIEWEE: Rick Jiminez of This Is Hell
DATE OF INTERVIEW: 01.27.08

BAND MEMBERS:
Vocals: Travis ReillyM
Guitar: Rick Jiminez
Guitar: Chris Reynolds
Drums: Dan Bourke
Bass: Johnny Moore

Chris: Who am I talking to and what is your role in the band?

Rick: I’m Rick, I play guitar for This Is Hell, and yell back ups here and there.

Chris: How has the tour been going so far?

Rick: The tour has been cool even though it’s a different type of tour for us. You know it’s not a straight hardcore tour, but it has its hardcore vibe and I think that’s why we are on this tour, we bring that to the tour.

Chris: Have you been enjoying the experience and having a good time?

Rick: It’s been fun and we get to play some venues that we played previously, and we get to play some venues that we never played before which is always fun. We get to play some new cage and old cage all in one tour. We get to hang out with our real good friends, Cancer Bats, that we don’t get to see that often because they are from Canada and hang out with our friends from Gallows who we see even less because they are from the UK. Travelling the States is always fun, especially getting out of the North East in the winter because it is always miserable this time of year. Yeah it’s been fun and we are Psyched we were able to make it back out to California which is always one of the best places to play.

Chris: You guys played here at the Chain Reaction before in the past have you not?

Rick: This summer before last we played The Chain Reaction twice. We played in Alpine twice and the surrounding areas like LA, Pomona, and Corona. We played San Diego yesterday and we play San Diego a bunch of times. California is very much like New York where there are a bunch of stops in one state with different scenes but than also people are traveling from one city to next. Where as in smaller states you just need to make one or two stops on a tour.

Chris: How would you compare the hardcore fans from West Coast versus East Coast?

Rick: I think the differences are subtle. The overlying traits are simpler and not just from city to city but from person to person. If hardcore is used as label it is such a flux and a constant change in the frame reference which is why I think hardcore is so healthy in so many different ways. So it’s hard to say how a San Diego hardcore kid is different from a Boston kid. I don’t know man, that’s a hard question.

Chris: Generally speaking, how would you say people from the West Coast differ?

Rick: Every one is lay back and I guess that is a California and West Coast thing oppose to an East Coast thing. I think people are very chill and very lay back, but not as opposed to a Southern thing were every thing is slower. It’s not like it’s so lay back here that things are slow, which is a good thing. I’m from New York, and I can stand it when stuff goes so slow. When I’m trying to order a bacon and egg and cheese sandwich and some one is taking two and a half minutes just to get my order right. (Big laughs all around)

Chris: How important are the fans to This Is Hell?

Rick: The fans are extremely important. First and for most we do the band, right these songs, and play to each other for our selves; for the sake of getting it out and we have things we need to say. Even if there was no fans and it was just us playing in the basement and writing theses songs. That is the most important part because it is like our therapy and our out let. So that is what it is unto it self, but if there was no fans and if no one wanted to see us than we wouldn’t be able to travel as a band.

Chris: So you are not in it just for the sake of being in a band?

Rick: When you travel around in a band it’s kind of like, not for the sake of…Hey I’m this cool guy or like pay attention to me, I’m big and important and I’m on a stage.

Chris: What would you say is the most rewarding part about being in a band?

Rick: When you travel, especially when you are in a hardcore band because there is no money to be mad in hardcore, the reward is playing in front of people that care about you, care about your music, and care about what you are saying. They care so much so that they are going to come out and see you play and the lyrics that means so much to you also means so much to them. That energy exchange is very important between us and the fans. We are saying some thing that is giving some one else a voice. It’s this whole other level of validation of what we are doing. Going on tour is not all fun and games. It’s not easy but that sacrifice of throwing your life at the turmoil because what you need to say is so important. You needing to get this out every day is so important. Relating with people to the point where they say we go threw life, and we go through the same miserable stuff that you do, and the only way that I can get that out and not go crazy is to play this song. Some body else saying I under stand and I feel like that, it’s so great. Some body else is putting it into words and I’m going to get in your face too and scream it because it means that much to me as well. That is what validates the band existing out side of just playing for our selves.

Chris: Would you say hardcore fans are more loyal compared to other fans of other genres simply because there isn’t about the money? Because it is all about the love of the music?

Rick: Absolutely, loyalty in general is a very big part of hardcore. I feel that it is a characteristic of some one who is into hardcore and that their band loyalty and that ideal version of loyalty that a band looks for goes hand in hand. That is one of the main things that I was so attracted to when I first got into hardcore. It wasn’t just about what is on the surface. It’s all about this song shredding and it’s all about the music and lyrics moving me. For example when kids dance and mosh at a hardcore show. When I first started doing that it wasn’t because…hey, that looks cool so I’m going to do that. That style of dance and movement is so perfect that it complements the music. All these characteristics made me go against the grain of what you are suppose to do in life, to do this hardcore life which to me is way more valid than a nine to five job on so many levels from living life to the fullest every day. My life revolves around forming friendships with people that I know are rooted in the same things that my brain is also rooted in.

Chris: I’ve always felt that moshing and dancing in the pits is a healthy environment and a healthy way of getting out and expressing all that negative aggression so that kids don’t do some thing in the real world they might regret, do you feel the same way?

Rick: It’s funny because I’ve actually thought about this so much and I’ve done my research on this. Lee Harvey Oswald is the guy who supposedly killed John F. Kennedy and I’ve done a lot of reading about him and I’ve watched documentaries about him. I automatically pose this question just because of the way my brain works and how hardcore has effected me. This is in my opinion in the most solid case, but if Lee Harvey Oswald had hardcore, would he have had a better lie and would he have killed JFK? I don’t know if you know much about him and his life?

Chris: No I can’t say that I know much about his life?

Rick: His childhood up bringing is so similar to 90% of the hardcore kids I meet with adopted with parents that don’t care, brought up with abusive parents, and broken homes. It’s cliché but he grew up with a some what dysfunctional family and doesn’t know what to do with him self. He goes out into the world way early than he should have and gets into trouble. Lee Harvey Oswald tried different things like communism, which especially back then when communism was the worst word in America and if you expressed any interest you would get black listed. He went through that, joined the military and it wasn’t for him, and traveled the world. His brain just didn’t work quote un-quote how your brain is suppose to work. I feel that this is the nature of hardcore kids; that there is some thing different about them that separates them. Lee Harvey Oswald started acting out and doing things that were a mix of almost looking for attention, trying to make a name for him self one way or another, and also just trying to find him self. He did all these extreme different types of things just trying to find out who he was. By no means am I trying to justify him killing some one, especially the president.

Chris: Maybe what you are saying is if Lee Harvey Oswald had an outlet like hardcore, maybe then he would have not killed JKF?

Rick: Absolutely, I feel like who knows? Maybe some one who is like a big hardcore icon? Maybe like Rojer Myra? If Rojer Myra from Agonist Front didn’t find hardcore, maybe he would have gotten into gain violence and done some real messed up stuff? I grew up not in your typical family up brining by any means. I grew up as a minority in rich white Long Island and I was not rich and I am not white. I was this angry metal head minority and it wasn’t healthy for me because I was ready to tell any one to screw off and fight. You know, do things that just aren’t right but with hardcore I was able to focus my aggressions so much more and honestly I feel that I would have wounded up in some serious stuff if I didn’t find hardcore.

Chris: So hardcore was a positive influence on your life personally?

Rick: I’ve gotten some many positive things from being able to focus my aggression and my miserable type of feelings. We talk a lot about it on the new album about how I am a manic depressive and I am dipolar and if I didn’t have hardcore to let that out I don’t even know what I would do. I’ve had this but I didn’t talk about it freely until recently. The thing is that I knew that this was my deal, but I was always afraid to get it diagnosed because I didn’t want to have this label on me and then let it effect me much more. However, if I kind of know than I should really find out, and it has actually been quite empiring. At this point, this is who I am, this is how I feel, and I don’t take medication for it but I deal with it. I know other people feel miserable, I know other people have extreme mood swings; I know other people need an aggressive out let, and I’m going to put it out there for them.

Chris: The new album you guys just recorded, do you know when it comes out?

Rick: It comes out February 19th and we will have both the CD and Vinyl out on Trustkill Records and the album is called Misfortunes. For me it is very important for the music to reflect the lyrics and visa versa. It’s very aggressive, it’s very dark, and it is very human. We are very realistic about our out look on things and we don’t sugar coat any thing on the album, we go head first into it. We aren’t afraid of dark feelings and dark emotions and so this new album deals with those issues.

Chris: Would do say that is what is behind the band’s name, This Is Hell?

Rick: When the name came up we all took it a different way but with the new album, I hope that this will further get the across. For the first two years of the band every one was asking how we got the name and it is from a line in a Abbott Castello song but the idea behind the name is so dark and the idea behind the name is that we aren’t afraid to be realistic about singing some thing dark.

Chris: So the new album Misfortunes reflects that dark feeling and not being afraid to talk about it?

Rick: You are dealt the hand that you are dealt and you deal with it or don’t deal with it. We have a song called Fearless Vampires and the song is about all this dark stuff and how we go head first into it and we use the band as the outlet to relate to people. That makes us feel good and it’s cool to have that and being able to write about that.

Chris: So what’s after this tour? Rick: We are home for just under two weeks and then we head out on our headlining tour with Elysia, Ruiner our friends from Maryland, and Solders which is me and Dan the drummer from This Is Hell. We are real excited about this tour and we’ve wanted to tour with Ruiner for a while and it is always cool going out with Soldiers because it us but just bringing a couple more friends along the road.

Chris: Is there any thing you would like to say to the fans and readers of Bandvibe?

Rick: We appreciate the support and because I know we do some things that some times seam atypical of a hardcore band so some times that deters straight hardcore kids from wanting to continues to support the band. Hardcore gets to the point some times where you want to keep a band that is just yours and I fully understand that thinking and I get bummed out when certain bands do questionable things to quote un quote get bigger. Getting bigger or getting to the next level was never any thing we cared about but we do these things that maybe go against the gain because we want to get our massage across and we feel that our message is that important to get across to as many kids as possible. We played a show today that is a non hardcore show and we want to play in front of kids that we as a band might be the first hardcore band they ever see. We appreciate every one’s support especially hardcore kids because that is who we are and to the other kids that aren’t, it’s amazing because it is some thing different for them. We are very applicative of our spot in life and every thing we get to do is awesome.

For more official information on This Is Hell, please log onto:
http://www.thisishell.org/
http://www.myspace.com/thisishell

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