Interviews

Every Time I Die

Interview with Mike on Oct 1, 2005 by Archive Bot

Every Time I Die, from Buffalo N.Y. have surged in popularity to become the poster boys of sassy metal-influenced hardcore, where style and one liners can trump honesty and meaningful statements. Riding at the crest of this swelling wave of interest, ETID have dropped a new disc, Gutter Phenomenon, out on Ferret Records. They are also in the midst of their first headlining US tour, out on the road with Boston’s The Red Chord, and Oakland’s High On Fire.
 
Punkbands.com writer Greg Weissel stepped onto the ETID tour bus, a megalithic construction complete with a huge TV screen and a laptop and Sidekick lying around. Singer Keith Buckley was showing off a brand new pair of authentic alligator skin boots, and the rest of the band were either carrying shopping bags from upscale SF stores or out the door on their way to the local electronics store. Clearly life is good for ETID. 
 
Four blocks west and two blocks north, close to a hundred homeless people sat in UN plaza, a very visible reminder of SF’s extreme homeless problem. The dichotomy disturbed me, even though ETID’s good fortune has little to do with a city they are visiting’s poor. I wished that the hardcore scene somehow could create a better world for everyone, not just for those we choose to worship through music.
 
I sat down with Mike aka Ratboy, ETID’s genial and unassuming drummer, to pepper him with questions before he had to leave to salt his dinner before show time.
 
 
punkbands.com: Does Every Time I Die ever tire of giving hilarious answers to stupid interview questions?
 
Mike: Nope.
 
punkbands.com: Both Last Night In Town and Burial Plot Bidding War have been reissued with different artwork - why is that?
 
Mike: Burial Plot Bidding War was reissued without our consent.  Basically our old label just sold it to another label and they put it out.  We didn’t want it to come out again.  As far as Last Night In Town goes, they just wanted to reissue it just because it was our first Ferret release, and they thought kids might be into it.  They gave it a fancy cover so kids - it actually helped sell, because kids saw the new cover and were like, ‘Oh, is this different?’
 
punkbands.com: What are your feelings on the concept of the rerelease?  It seems like they are often motivated by purely financial reasons.  Like “buy it again kids, it’s different!” That seems kind of shady.
 
Mike: I personally don’t care about that CD at all. I’d be happy if they hadn’t rereleased either of those.
 
punkbands.com: What’s the best lie ETID has ever told on stage?  I once saw Keith tell an Oakland crowd that an old song was written about the time he accidentally shot his girlfriend in the eye with a bow and arrow.  That never happened.
 
Mike:  That would be a Keith thing.  Actually, yesterday in Hollywood was pretty good.  Keith said he’d like to thank the California Raisins for coming out tonight.  it wasn’t technically a lie, but it was a total absurdity.
 
punkbands.com: What’s the worst thing you’ve lost at a truck stop on tour?
 
Mike: What I ate the night before.
 
punkbands.com: ETID has tons of style, style, style.  But do you see your band as one of substance, a message, as well?
 
Mike: I don’t know.  I think we just have fun.  I don’t think our music has much of a message, our lyrics maybe.  As far as us just doing our thing, we write what we want, we play what we want, we have fun.  If music can’t be fun and entertaining and expressed as an art form, then it’s not for the right reasons.
 
punkbands.com: Were you a punk kid growing up? 
 
Mike: I was a hardcore kid growing up.  I loved the Victory Records catalog back in the day.  Earth Crisis, Snapcase, Strife - all those bands. 
 
punkbands.com: What morals and life outlook did you take away from being immersed in that scene?
 
Mike: Straightedge.  A lot of bands from that era influence our band to this day - Deadguy, Bloodlet.  It was a good time in music I think.  Everyone wasn’t as jaded, I think.  Cool bands would come out and people would go see them just to go to a show.  Now it’s like, they don’t like one band, they won’t go to the show, or if it’s not four awesome bands they won’t go to the show.  Back in the day it was awesome - in Buffalo at least.
 
punkbands.com: If ETID was a fad diet, what could you eat?
 
Mike: Jamba Juice, chicken, corn and peas, and whole wheat bread.  No one on the Every Time I Diet is allowed to eat french fries.  I just think they’re gross.
 
punkbands.com: What’s has been the reaction on this tour to the new songs and how does that reaction compare to the one you get from playing the older ones?
 
Mike: It’s hit or miss.  Sometimes kids are really excited, the first two songs go over really well.  The newer songs later on in the set, the kids just kind of take it in I guess.  The old songs go over way better, but our CD is so new that we’ve expected it.  We’re out here playing the new songs live so that hopefully kids will; buy the new CD.
 
punkbands.com: How has this tour been with such different styles of metal and hardcore collected on one stage?
 
Mike: I think it’s awesome.  I would personally like to see more diversity.  Like get a really weird band that people would not understand why they were on the tour.  High on Fire kind of was that band, but not so much.  I think diversity is what people need, they need to have their eyes opened to different kinds of bands.  If you go see the same four metalcore bands or the same four hardcore bands, it’s just overdone.  You need to have something different.  Even if you don’t like it, it’s good to just freshen your ears with something new.
 
punkbands.com: What was the best thing you got out of the Sounds Of The Underground tour this summer?
 
Mike:  Hopefully some new fans.  I expected it to be a really diverse crowd, but it was like an Ozzfest crowd - not that open-minded people.  Throwdown would play, and they would go over really well because it’s just ‘fast part,’ ‘ breakdown.  It’s real easy to take in.  But we’re more of an all over the place band.  We’re not as straightforward as those kind of bands.  You either liked it or you hated it on that tour.  I think we won some people over.
 
punkbands.com: Last time in SF, you opened for Dillinger Escape Plan here at Slim’s, and the pit was dead.  How are you planning on making people dance?  Can you force them somehow?  Point a gun?
 
Mike: I think it’s the signs that are up here.  They’re scaring the kids.  There is a sign that says no moshing.  I think they’re kind of threatening the kids.  I think that if those weren’t up...  I think if they want to move, cool.  If not, I personally think having the first four rows singing the lyrics is cooler than a huge pit.  You know, kids knowing the music rather than just beating the hell out of each other.  Kids can get into it however they want, it’s all awesome to me.  We wrote the music for ourselves and other people enjoying it is incredible.
 
punkbands.com: How do kids in Buffalo say goodbye?
 
Mike: I think ‘later’ is the key word.  That’s pretty much it.
 
punkbands.com: Alright.  Later.
 
Mike: Later man.
 
 
Although I did not ask Mike about his bandmates opulent spending in the face of so many needy, it was disturbing that he openly stated that ETID can be seen as a band without any greater message than ‘have fun.’  His nonchalance towards the ‘reissue for purely profit-based reason’ was disappointing as well.  The show, however, was great.  But punk music cannot exist in a void.  The two realms - the social and the socially conscious - must converge and coexist rather than cancel each other out and leave the status quo unquestioned.