Interviews

Anti-Flag

Interview with Chris #2 on Dec 3, 2007 by

Last February, Anti-Flag had to call off several dates of their tour when bassist Chris #2 discovered that his sister and her boyfriend were murdered in Pittsburgh, PA. In order to help raise money for the organization which helped him through this awful experience, Anti-Flag recently released a 12-track EP, A Benefit for Victims of Violent Crime.

By: Michelle Stoffel

Can you tell me a little about this EP? Why you're doing it and the meaning behind it?

Chris #2: I'd like to start with this: I haven't done many interviews about the EP and talking about it. A lot of people know already that the impetus for the EP came from the death of my sister. I found out she was killed in February of this year and you know, not really knowing what to do with myself. If I stumble over words or if I don't speak as eloquently as I should I really apologize, it's just really new territory for me. I'll do my best but ultimately, we had songs leftover from the For Blood and Empire sessions and the Center for Victims of Violent Crimes was helping my family when we were going through the death of my sister. Trying to find some way to give back to these people who were good to us was part of that. I also wanted to give back to the kids, and when I say ‘kids' I mean those in the punk scene, that were really great to me as an individual and us as a band. I can't believe how many letters I've gotten, high fives and hugs at shows I've gotten. I think that was really an inspiring silver lining to a really dark cloud.

So are all the songs b-sides from For Blood and Empire?

C2: I think some of them were used as b-sides and some of them weren't released at all. With For Blood and Empire we were really looking at it as a conceptual record and those songs did not necessarily fit in the concept of the record. I believe that some of the songs on this EP are better than songs on For Blood and Empire but it just did not make sense with the message we were going for with that record. We really worked to make each song transition well into the next and make a lot of sense with each other not just be a collection of songs on For Blood and Empire. Also, we recorded both sets we played in Pittsburgh and Mr. Smalls Theater in Millvale at the end of the War Sucks, Let's Party tour. A lot of songs come from that, there's five of them. They're just random ‘hits' from our catalogue, if you can call them hits. [laughs] That was a joke by the way.

So it's 100% that's going to charity?

C2: Obviously, everything after cost. In these days its relatively cheap to manufacture CDs. That was another reason we wanted to keep it amongst ourselves. That's one of the things RCA, our record company, was really good to us about. They wanted to release the EP but we wanted to make sure that it was in our hands and that our friends were working on it and taking care of it and it was a little more of a home grown piece and not a larger piece, I guess. That's also why we made it a limited pressing, we wanted to sell them as quickly as possible and get the money in the hands of the people that needed it. Hopefully, these songs are a sort of gratification that can exorcise some of my demons and help me move on a little bit.

Can you tell me a little about the Center for Victims of Violent Crimes?

C2: They're a whole organization that deals with many things, not just death. They help people who are victims. They use the word ‘victim' in its real sense. My niece and nephew whom my sister left behind, to me those are the true victims of the crime and essentially they're working to help them. So they do a whole, wide spectrum of things, community outreach programs and helping people deal with tragedies such as our own. They're a really good organization and their Web site is cvvc.org and I suggest people check ‘em out and if people don't like the band, there's a donate tab right there, you can donate directly to them.

You guys have become increasingly politically active in the real world, like you've helped push legislation through and even with this EP, as opposed to a political band that isn't really active in politics outside of the punk world. Was there a point for all you guys where you felt you had to make an impact outside of your music?

C2: I think that's what we always tried to do at every level. We've just been lucky enough to have the band grow as much as it has. I joined the band in September of '98; the first record was released in 1996 and they had a different bass player. I went to their shows and I saw that band and I saw them having an impact on the local scene and working to eradicate some of the inequality that was happening in our scene in Pittsburgh at that time and working hard at it. I thought that was amazing and that's why I loved the band so much.

I think that mentality is still there, the level of impact we have...we were fortunate enough to have it grow. I think the ethics have always been there even if you go back to the song "Fuck Police Brutality," if you go back to the time that song was written, Pittsburgh had the highest police brutality rate in the country so, they were paying attention to what was going on around them, they just hadn't left Pittsburgh yet.

Now that we've toured the world, we're able to pay attention to what's happening around the world and hopefully have some impact on it or arm someone with the information on the subject so that they'll have an impact on it. I think that that, ultimately, is the bigger goal for us is to write these songs that'll-not to change subjects on you-that's something that we're really doing right now with this record, writing about the bigger picture, the personal side. Dealing with what happened in my life with my sister, emphasized this now more than ever. There is a real personal side to politics, whether it be your family member that has to live in the ghetto because the social standards and economic policies of this world keep them there or whether it's your father who's an alcoholic. The politics of the world effect us in our personal lives, always. So we're definitely taking and putting a focus on that on this record way more than we have and there's far less of the statements about what the Bush administration is doing. People who listen to Anti-Flag already know what our stance is there. That's where we're headed for that. That kind of answers your question.

There's a song on the EP, "Corporate Rock Still Sucks" and the message boards around the internet punk community are already talking about that. So I was just wondering about the specifics on that song, and is it a reference to Kurt Cobain?

C2: In a sense it is. I remember being thirteen and seeing him wear the corporate rock sucks shirt and the corporate magazines suck shirt and I thought that made a lot of sense to me. I think corporate rock still does suck. Are we corporate rock? We're signed to RCA records, but I think that, yeah, it's supposed to be ironic but at the same time I felt like that song was for what it's worth, was this Beatles-inspired, four chord turns into Beatles meet Sex Pistols riffage and has lyrics about the corporate "stooges" of the world-and I used air quotes there, you didn't see them-but in a sense we are in that same battle as the guy who probably writes on punkbands.com or punknews.org that has to go work at BP everyday or that guy that works at Wal-Mart stocking the shelves. We can't escape the corporate indoctrination because we all are a part of it. Acknowledging that fact is the first step working toward eradicating it. I can read the comments now. Honestly, I know that we do and I know that every band does. That's the beauty of the internet. Like I said, I've been in the band since 1998 and the internet did not have the same impact as it does now. You never had immediate feedback to what you're doing. Tt's created this we-need-it-now environment. I try really hard to take a step back from it, but it sucks you in like a tractor beam.

Every band I've interviewed, there's been some discussion of the impact of message boards and I think it changed my opinion of them pretty drastically.

C2: Yeah, I mean it totally hasn't. You shouldn't ignore it. Those are the people who are paying attention to what you're doing. That's why I love this band, either you love it or you hate it but you can't be indifferent and that feels good like we're doing something right.

I want to thank Ian and Vanessa for setting this up. I especially want to thank Chris for talking about something so emotionally difficult and giving me an update on our shared hometown.

Visit http://www.cvvc.org