Photo by my UK-based homie Natedog

I found this interview as I’ve been searching through my back catalog of work. This was an interview I did with SOIA’s vocalist LOU KOLLER (one of the nicest guys I know!). This article hasn’t seen the light of day ever! It was meant for a zine that was never released… I’ve been finding a whole lot of conversations never before seen! Lucky you guys! I’ll post ‘em as I find them :)

Do you still consider yourself not to be a singer? When I interviewed you a few years back you told me you hated your voice and couldn’t sing.

Nah, I still can’t sing. I can scream in key, that’s about it.

Do you have a title for the new album?

The title for the album that we’ve been throwing around is Life On The Ropes—just dealing with life in general . We have a bunch of song titles. You want a couple of them?

Okay.

There’s one called, The Innocent and there’s Relentless, Paper Tiger…

That’s a pretty interesting title.

Paper Tiger, I think it’s a quote from the 1960s or 1970s China said that ‘the US is nothing more than a paper tiger, it looks all ferocious but there’s nothing to it.’ The song really has nothing to do with that I just chose the name Paper Tiger ‘cause it’s more about the way how punk is perceived now, how it looks or scary and that but there isn’t really nothing to it no more. At least I’m meaning in the mainstream media.

SOIA’s Live In A Dive album, in my opinion, is one of the best recorded live albums I’ve heard—it really catches the energy of your shows. Where you happy with the way it turned out?

Very, we set out when we were asked to do it and we talked to Mike about it we were like ‘we don’t want to be like No Use For A Name and the other band and do a thousand over dubs and have it in a place that’s very sterile and in a place where the audience can’t get near us, that’s not what our shows are like’. So even though my voice is as raw as hell on some of the tracks you know that’s just the way we wanted it, my only complaint that I have about it is that they should have had the mics open more, the ones over the audience ‘cause you can barely hear them. You do get the sense of the energy though, that was a big thing when we decided to put it out. It had to catch the energy of the show. It’s gotten great reviews and it’s selling pretty well.

I read a post Armand put up on your site saying how the fans were really happy with the end result of the live record and how it did catch your energy and he said that you guys may take a more live approach to recording on this record?

Yeah I hope so but I don’t want it to come out…I think that was the mistake with Call To Arms. When we put out Call To Arms we went for a more live approach and it was less produced and I think if we can combine the two so it gives it more weight and clarity of a good produced album but I want to keep the energy of the live album. We’re already arguing about that now, we’re going to demo tomorrow ‘cause we’ll play one of the new songs and me, Pete and Armand will go ‘that’s great’ then Craig will go ‘no that’s too fast’ or then somebody will say ‘we’re playing it too slow’ and we argue about how it’s going to sound live.

When you go about writing songs do you have a process or does it just happen?

We kind of just fell into it. Pete usually writes his music all by himself and then I write the lyrics to his songs and then when he brings in the music we’ll see if we can switch anything to improve on it. Armand usually just writes complete songs with music and the lyrics which makes it harder for us to say ‘well you know you should change this part to this’, but he’s very open minded so it’s good.

Do you ever get writer’s block?

I’ve been having some lately just because of all that’s been going on in the world. I’ve written a couple of songs already about being angry about it, over the course of our career I’ve written songs about being more aware of what’s going on in the world and sometimes I just feel like ‘well I’ve just wasted my time, look at the way the world’s going’. Craig was talking about that today, he was like ‘what’s the point of screaming our heads off about this stuff if the other generations still just do what ever the hell they want.’

In other interviews I’ve read you say that you wanted to try to offer ‘viable solutions to some of society’s problems’?

We’re trying as best we can. I think the best solution for those things is just common sense and open-mindedness.

In the same interview you commented that ‘money is a necessary evil’, you pay your rent and do all that stuff with it but do you think it can be used for good?

Definitely. Look at places like, compare Canada to the United States look what the government does with their money to help the people. Even places like Germany, we go there to a friends apartment and he’s like ‘this is subsidized by the government’ and they’re paying like a fourth of the rent you would pay in America. It’s just the way to use it you know.

Are you a spiritual person at all?

I try to be, I think there’s something out there, hopefully guiding us. You’ve got to have spirituality, it’s not like spirituality like worshipping a deity, it can be spirituality of just being cool with people and treating people the way you want to be treated, I think that’s kind of spiritual. That’s how I feel about it. People can be anti religion and I can totally understand that but like I said it’s not about worshipping a deity.

On tour what’s one of your favourite places to play?

My personal favourite is Japan ‘cause I’ve always wanted to go there since I was a teenager because I love their pop culture, like their comic books and movies. Playing live in Japan is great. We’ve had some amazing shows in Argentina and different places in the US. Our strongest fan base is in Germany and Holland and England’s picked up a lot too. We miss Australia and New Zealand too, the shows we did there were fucking amazing…it’s just the flights and getting there and that’s where money comes in, you know, it doesn’t rule our lives however it kind of hampers it or you know determine what happens”.

Do you sightsee when you tour or just see the inside of vans, record stores and clubs?

[laughs] That’s pretty much just it right there. The first few tours of Europe we did a lot of sightseeing but now you know sometimes we’ll choose places we want to go or if there’s something cool at a museum we might do that but pretty much it’s just hanging around with the people we’ve met over the years. We were lucky that last time when we were in Australia that someone took us to a park where kangaroos run free. That was great just hanging around with these giant kangaroos hopping up next to you.

What’s one of the most interesting people that you’ve met in your travels?

That’s a hard one; there are just so many personalities we’ve met in so many different countries that are cool. I’m talking people we’ve met from places like Brazil or Mexico City where people are dirt poor, they really have nothing and they’re just totally into your music and they totally know what you’re talking about. In places like Sweden kids have more money than I’ll ever have and they’re also down with what we do and they’re making bands and stuff like that. Kids that use to come see us play and now they’re in bands like Refused and International Noise Conspiracy, The Hives and it’s great ‘cause we did festivals in England and those same guys were standing on our stage watching us play while the Foo Fighters were on the mainstage, it makes you feel good.

You have a son. Do you think he’ll grow up to be in a hardcore band like Dad?

I don’t know, I’ll try and discourage him [laughs].

Do you guys work out to stay healthy while you’re on the road?

I use to but not really. I use to ride bikes and stuff. For the past month me and Pete have been going to the gym together. Pete’s always been into that, you know stay in shape and get fit for the up coming tours, we’re not getting any younger.

What’s one of the coolest souvenirs you’ve got on tour?

People give us banners that they’ve made. Personally I just pick up rare toys that I love from Japan or when we went to Mexico and saw the pyramids they had there they had some really cool statues.

At your shows, as most hardcore shows I’ve noticed sometimes the pits can get a little violent. They also seem to be pretty male dominated.

Yeah, I think it scares the girls off a bit, I mean who wants to go to a show and get beat up you know. It is a release of energy but it should be more respectful and a lot of the time it depends where you are some places it is some places it isn’t, some places the girls don’t give a shit and they’ll get right in there too—in those places the men are more aware of it.

I read an article once where you said when Sick Of It All first started, Agnostic Front inspired you. Who inspires you now?

A number of bands. I still get inspired from bands like Good Riddance I just love their lyrics, even though they don’t sound anything like us. Anytime a good CD or record comes out I get into it even if it’s not like so much our style, I think the new AFI album is amazing, it’s leaps and bounds beyond anything they’ve ever done and it makes me want to make a good record. I just want to make something that I’m that proud of and can get psyched listening to it.

What’s your feeling when you see people with SOIA tattoos?

Very proud, it’s one of the things we joke about. As soon as we sit down to write an album and we start writing stuff and we’re not too sure about how it’s going we say ‘if I was listening to this and had a SOIA tattoo would this song make me want to cover it up?’ [laughs]

On the subject of tattoos, I noticed you have a Japanese symbol on your forearm, I was wondering what it stood for?

It stands for spirit or soul; I got it when I was like seventeen. I also have a SOIA dragon on my left shoulder. I always plan to get more and I come up with these good designs but I just never find the time to get it done. I get offers on the road but I’m scared because I’m like, what if this guy really isn’t that good and he fucks me up?

I noticed a common theme in interviews with all band members and it’s that you all share the belief that people should be more open-minded.

That’s what hardcore was to us. I got into I guess the same as a lot of other guys do is the aggressiveness of the music and the imagery, it wasn’t an image though it was the way they looked, tough guys with tattoos and they were angry at the world. I was this skinny guy without any tattoos and I was angry at the world and that’s what I got into it for. I only liked aggressive music then but as I progressed I got into bands like Bad Brains which open my mind up to reggae music, you just progress.

Why do think people are so closed-minded?

I think in the hardcore scene it’s just the fact that once a scene starts to get exposed to other things people want it to be a certain way. If you got into hardcore when Bad Brains were around you’d think hardcore sounds like Bad Brains, spiritual and energetic but if you get into it say with like Hatebreed you think all hardcore has to be tuned down death metal and they don’t want to hear the Bad Brains, ‘that’s not hardcore, that’s punk’. They should open their minds to other experiences. I guess it can be scary opening your mind to other things.

Do you think unity is a realistic concept for the punk and hardcore scenes or is it just an idealistic pipe dream?

I think individually yeah. You can go to a job with someone that’s the total opposite of you and you can hang out and joke around and be cool, but if you had a whole group of people like you and a whole group of people that were total opposites you’d clash all the time. You wouldn’t be able to have that one-on-one experience. I remember there use to be rivalries between NY and Boston, there were just these legendary fights between so and so and this band and that and we were invited up to Boston by this band and we all hung out and it was the greatest thing ever. It’s the same with the whole East Coast vs. West Coast thing—we go hang out with bands like Rancid and Pennywise and then they come hang out with us. There’s just this fictions rivalry of bands and styles. When it’s one-on-one everything is cool.

On the Live In A Dive CD-rom component there’s a mini interview with you guys and you talk about hardcore dancing. What’s your favourite style?

[laughs] I wish I could do the ‘spiritual kickboxer’. I use to be able to do it but now I can’t kick my legs up as much. I also like ‘pickin’ up change’ that’s a good one.

Since I was a little girl I’ve always been fascinated with New York, I’m yet to get there though, if I came visit you where would we go and what could we see?

We’d definitely have to catch a hardcore show. CBGB’s have started having shows again. When I use to go down there it use to be really scary but now there’s like five star restaurants nearby. Across the road there use to be this dirty deli where you’d be to afraid to buy a drink because you thought you’d get sick, now it’s a five star restaurant.

You and I are both big comic fans, what’s your current favourite comic?

Right now it’s Captain Marvel from Marvel Comics, it’s written amazingly.

What’s one of your greatest achievements in life?

I think the longevity of SOIA!

What’s something you want to achieve?

Opening up places for more bands to play. We want to go to China! I know there are bands that have been there but I don’t think hardcore has been represented in China yet.

Isn’t it a little dangerous to play places like China, because of all the laws and politics involved?

Yeah, we’ve had offers to play places like Indonesia and China and they’re all saying ‘if you come in you’re going to come in as tourists and you’re going to play on borrowed equipment at rehearsal studios because if you have a tour there’s going to be so many restrictions.

SIOA are currently streaming their latest album at: http://www.myspace.com/sickofitallny.