I was very fortunate to do an interview with Bayonne, NJ’s THROUGH THORN AND BRIER. This hardcore band plays tight and heavy and will rattle your bones. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Through-Thorn-and-Brier/192796371505, http://ttabhc.blogspot.com/ and http://throughthornandbrier.bandcamp.com/.
PE: What/who got you into punk / hardcore at first? What styles/types of punk / hardcore did you listen to at first and do you still listen to those types/styles today?
TTAB: We were all playing in small bands in high school that were going nowhere, and we quickly learned the type of music we wanted to create. The fact that we were surrounded by ordinaries really got us fueled and into punk and hardcore. The raw energy and passion we found in it was exactly what we wanted to capture in our music. We draw huge inspiration for bands like BLACK FLAG, THE MISFITS, CONVERGE, TRAGEDY and NEUROSIS. These bands, along with genre’s like d-beat, black metal and doom all helped mold the way we sound. Some might consider us a metal band, but at heart we are a hardcore punk band.
PE: How did you guys get together?
TTAB: We’ve all been friends and hung out since high school. We all shared a connection to music that we couldn’t really put our finger on. Finally, Justin and Mark started to play together in college and formed the foundation of TTAB. Ali and Peter joined shortly after and the sound of the band became more refined and the realization of where the band could go became clear.
PE: What kind of jobs do you guys have?
TTAB: We’re all slaves to the 9 to 5 grind, which makes the time and effort put into this band more important to us. It’d be a dream come true to tell our bosses to fuck off and just concentrate on the band 100%, but it’s currently not paying the bills.
PE: Who does the writing of the music / lyrics, and what kind of process is it?
TTAB: When it comes to writing our music, we are all participating. We’ll bounce ideas off each other and watch them evolve. We like to challenge each other. Mark handles the majority of the lyrics, with input from the rest of us as the songs progress.
PE: What kind of lyrics do you guys mostly write about and why?
TTAB: The lyrics are broad in terms of subject matter. With this new 12″, the songs range anywhere from something violent to something beautiful. The album isn’t conceptual, but there’s definitely a dark, underlying theme.
PE: Do you play a lot of shows?
TTAB: We play as many as we can, as often as we can. With the release of our new record, we’re really trying to push for as many shows as possible. Stay tuned.
PE: Best show that you’ve played?
TTAB: The first few shows we played as a full band in our friends houses we’re some of the best. The couple we played at 198 Orient in our hometown were ridiculous.They made us realize we wanted to do this all the time.
PE: Favorite songs to play?
TTAB: We love playing our new music the most.
PE: Least favorite songs to play?
TTAB: Honestly, we don’t have any songs we don’t enjoy playing.
PE: Favorite beer/least favorite beer?
TTAB: Ill Bill’s Chill IPA is the best. Nectar of the god’s type shit. We don’t like Murphy’s Stout. That junk tastes like motor oil.
PE: How long did the recording take? Any stories about the making of it?
TTAB: We recorded with Adam at Timber studio in Bayonne, NJ. It took a couple of weekends to get the whole record down. This was our second time working with him, so our confidence and the consumption of pulled pork sandwiches were at a maximum level.
PE: Any more new releases coming out in the future?
TTAB: We’re currently working on news songs for some splits we plan on releasing ASAP.
PE: What is available now and where can we get it?
TTAB: We just released our new ’12, which we have available for order on
WWW.TTABHC.COM
We have homemade tapes of Failure Prone available at shows too.
PE: Any shirts/pins/patches available?
TTAB: We just ran out of our first run of shirts, but we’ll be printing a few new ones by the time this interview hits the net. We have a bunch of pins and patches that you can just grab at a show or we’ll throw some in when you order a record from us online too. Keep your peepers peeled.
PE: Where do you see the band going in the future?
TTAB: Hopefully pretty far. We’re going to keep trying to push ourselves in the writing process of new music and put out some shit that will blow people away. We just want to keep playing as many shows as possible and eventually get a full U.S. tour going too.
PE: Anyone vegetarian/vegan?
TTAB: In the past yes, but not currently. Even though we’re not, we encourage everyone out there to consider and dabble in alternative diets and lifestyles at least once in their lives. Variety is the spice of life, and something as simple as what you eat can drastically change the way you live and help you better yourself.
PE: Any causes you’re into?
TTAB: Human extinction.
PE: Any funny or strange stories from your last tour?
TTAB: Our last tour was with our best friends LASTLETTERS. The tour and shows were pretty non-eventful. Nothing really crazy went down, but there were a lot of “this story doesn’t leave the van” type anecdotes. It was our first real tour though, and it got us all fucking stoked on the lifestyle.
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