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The Unseen are a band that will always have a special place in my heart…

Boston hardcore punk band THE UNSEEN have been crisscrossing the US for the past two months on the 2007 Vans Warped tour. Their latest studio album, Internal Salvation – a brutal follow up to the 2005 released State Of Discontent – sees the band really hitting their stride and keeping real hardcore punk alive. Vocalist MARK CIVITARESE chats from the road.

How’s Warped?

Today was pretty cool, it wasn’t a hundred million degrees out [laughs]. We left Florida finally. We’re in North Carolina and it’s a really nice day out, it’s not overbearingly hot.

How did it feel to be back in the studio for, Internal Salvation?

It was natural. It didn’t feel long between this album and the last album. It almost seemed like we shouldn’t have been back so soon. We went to the same studio that we’ve used for the last three records, The Outpost in Massachusetts. We’re comfortable there because we’ve done so many records there and the guy knows our sound. We knew what to expect from him and he knew what to expect from us. It didn’t even really feel like making a record, it was just like going to some where we always go and hanging out.

Tell me about the title ‘Internal Salvation’.

Originally I had a bunch of names, one of the last names I had was ‘Internal Disorder’. It fit along with everything that was going on at the time with the band – a couple of people broke up with their girlfriends – everyone was broke and a couple of the guys didn’t know how long they wanted to keep doing this. It takes a toll on you. The mood was very negative. Everyone was contributing and excited to make the record but at the same time everyone was burnt out from all the touring that we’d done over the last two years.

The album was originally going to be ‘Internal Disorder’ but then Pat our drummer was like, “That sounds too similar to the title of our last album, State Of Discontent. What about, Internal Salvation?” I thought that was cool. The same day – we’d been waiting forever to see artwork – one of the last pieces of artwork came in – the one we ended up using – once I saw the artwork and thought of the name that me and Pat came up with I thought it all fit perfectly. The artwork looks religious and the title is somewhat religious, even though we’re not religious at all.

What is it that made you want to sing for a punk band?

I always wanted to play music. Before I listened to punk I listened to heavy metal. It was really tough to play heavy metal, bands like Slayer, Motorhead and Metallica played so fast and in tune. When I was younger that was something that I just couldn’t do – I probably still couldn’t do it now [laughs]. Once I got into punk rock, bands like Minor Threat, The Sex Pistols and Black Flag I was like, “I could easily do this.” I could relate to it lyrically and I could relate to what it was all about. It gave me something to do. It made me reevaluate wanting to be in a band. I then actually went out and tried to actually be in a band.

Half of the bands that were around in the early ’80s were great bands but they couldn’t play their instruments at all. It’s something they just did. There was a lot of passion in it but there wasn’t a lot of talent. It wasn’t hard to learn Misfits or Minor Threat songs and from there my musical tastes grew into all kinds of other bands.

What feeling do you get from playing music?

Satisfaction and gratification, financially it’s not really that rewarding. We do, do well in the way that we get to travel a lot and get to meet lots of people. It’s fun, that’s why we’re doing it. I have a great time doing it. My very favourite thing to do is to be on stage for half an hour. It’s a way to let out anger and frustration. It’s something that I feel I was just pushed to do.

It seems as though you’re one of the most visible members of the band, is there any pressure or responsibility that comes with that?

Being a singer it’s usually the case. It has it’s ups and it’s downs. It’s a pain for people to be like, “Oh that’s the guy from the band.” There’s not just one person in the band, everyone is involved. The drummer is just as important as the singer. The Unseen wouldn’t be what it is if it was me by myself with completely other people. It’s something that makes me feel weird sometimes. I write most of the lyrics but I don’t write any of the music, Scott our guitar player writes almost all of the music – I wish he got as much recognition as I did.

How does it feel now that Internal Salvation is out and the band are getting a lot of publicity and are more in the public eye?

It feels weird, just yesterday we stopped at a supermarket and I was there getting groceries and I saw myself on the cover of Alternative Press. I thought was really funny. I’ve done a lot of things with the band and experienced a lot of situations but something like that is weird, being in a big family grocery store and seeing yourself on the cover of a magazine.

More people recognise you than before. At Warped tour, people will come up to me that I know don’t know anything about the band and they’ll be holding AP magazine and they’ll be like, “Oh you’re that guy, sign this.” I’ll sign it because it’s the nice thing to do but it’s almost like, should I ask them a question? Do you even know anything about this band? Do you know who this band is? Why do you want me to sign this?

The AP interview touched on some fairly personal things and it was quite revealing, how does it feel to have your life out there in the open?

I don’t really mind. I’m quite a private person when I’m not on stage or not doing interviews. I’m fairly quiet and not really that outspoken. I like to be away from everything. When it comes to writing music or doing interviews though I try to be as open and as honest as possible.

Music should be about something. Bands that just write about girls or stupid shit – I mean there is a place for that – but to me it just seems pointless. If you’re writing something you should try to say something, try to spread a message to other people or you should write something to get it off your own chest – maybe some people will understand that or maybe they won’t.

I’ve always written about things that were somewhat personal. On our first record there was a song, Too Young To Know… Too Reckless To Care which was about my step-father who was married to my mum for years and he just got up one day and bailed leaving her with three little kids to take care of herself. On the second record there was a song, Dead And Gone which was about a guy that my mum dated a few years after she got divorced and that guy ended up dying from a drug overdose. On Explode there are definitely songs that are personal and on State Of Discontent – Dead Weight Falls is a personal song. On the new record I tried to have some of the songs that were personal not come across as personal.

I’ve noticed that a lot of the new album comments on things that are going on in society that are really f*cked up, I was wondering when you were writing it if you stopped and asked yourself, what can I do to try and make the world a better place?

I didn’t just because I think it’s hopeless. I wish somebody could make the world a better place but I don’t think any one person can. It would take everybody coming together and trying their hardest to do that and I don’t see that ever happening. I don’t think human beings are capable of doing that. Human nature is to be really selfish and to basically climb over anyone you have to, to get to the top – that doesn’t go for every single person but it does go for the majority of the population. I don’t think there’s much hope.

With some of the lyrical content for the new record I wrote about stuff I either saw on the news recently or things I’ve seen in the past couple of years on the news. A lot of the songs have to do with crime or global warming. I tend to write about negative things. When a lot of people meet me they say, “Wow! You don’t seem the type of person who would write these lyrics.” [laughs]

Do you learn a lot while you travel?

Not really, not as much as I’d like to. When we travel we don’t really get to see much. It’s like turn up, unpack everything, set up, play, reload everything into the van then drive to the next town. Once in a while you meet people that tell you interesting things or you get a chance to stop and see landmarks but for the most part it’s just a lot of seeing things through a window really quickly.