Interviews

A GLOBAL THREAT

By Janelle Jones

   Having formed in 1997, undergoing their fair share of line-up changes (currently it's drummer Mike, vocalist/guitarist Bryan, and bassist John), and releasing three LPs (including 2002's hard-hitting HERE WE ARE on Punk Core), Boston-based A Global Threat are by no means new to the scene. Read on to find out what Mike had to say about the band, their material, Self Destruct (AGT/Unseen side-project), and more.

SKRATCH: Your socio-political lyrics are so central to the band. Do you feel the message is more important than the music?
MIKE: I know a lot of people view this band as kind of a political punk band, [but] I've never felt that we are. I think of political punk bands as bands that try to push their own views or agendas in order to try to make a change. As far as we're concerned, our lyrics are more like observations of how things are and what we see. I got into punk because of the music and I never really lost sight of that. It's probably why I'm still into it. Lyrics are important to me, but really it's the music that grabbed me first.

SKRATCH: From record to record, do you feel there's been a change or a progression in your sound and lyrics?
MIKE: Yeah, I think there has been. I think we're one of the few bands in the "streetpunk" scene that try to do that or are able to do that: to offer something new or different with each release. I think the lyrics are kind of more personal than on previous stuff. I think musically we've progressed; we're better songwriters and better musicians than we used to be.

SKRATCH: There are a couple of socio-political songs on HERE WE ARE, but like you said, most of the themes are more personal, like a lot about work and the whole rut that everyone gets into. You guys are very…anti-that? [Laughs]
MIKE: Right. Well, I think the lyrics on HERE WE ARE...they're kind of more about what's going on around you and how things directly affect you rather than talking about wider topics that affect everyone that you can't really relate to; more songs about what's going on directly around you, I think.

SKRATCH: What's the most important message you're trying to convey?
MIKE: I don't think we have one message we're always trying to put across. I think to do that is to kind of limit yourself, and we don't want to be limited with one message or one type of music, so I don't really think there's one central message that we try to push. I mean, we write about different things and try to keep things different.

SKRATCH: Right. Yeah, I didn't know if it was something like to not conform or just to live by your own rules
MIKE: Yeah, that's kind of my view of punk: it's kind of doing your own thing. But I guess we can all agree with that, as far as the band's concerned, doing your own thing and living the way you want to.

SKRATCH: Do you find that there's maybe one criticism that people have, that people maybe have the wrong idea of you guys or something—something that maybe you've heard and you say, "No, that's not true"?
MIKE: [...] There's not one criticism that I hear a lot of over and over. It seems a lot of people still ask about Mark. You probably know he was our second singer for awhile. I see a lot of things on the Internet about people saying that the band was better with him and stuff. That kind of pisses me off. I mean, I don't think one person's voice and, you know, five songs-worth of lyrics made this band that much better—so that's kind of annoying. It's nothing against Mark at all. He's a good friend. But for some reason...I don't know. A lot of people, maybe when they just get into the band, they assume he's still in the band or whatever; but the fact of the matter is he's been out of the band for like three or four years now, so that kind of gets annoying to deal with.

SKRATCH: And when he left, it was an amicable split?
MIKE: Oh, yeah, it was totally mutual. He just found he couldn't balance the time between us and The Unseen, so yeah, it was totally a mutual thing. We're still friends. We still hang out regularly.

SKRATCH: What were the early shows like back in the day?
MIKE: I remember every time we'd play a show and there'd be a live review of it in a magazine or something, it'd always say it was sloppy but [...] energetic. And I think that's how it was back then: we were pretty sloppy, but the shows were fun. They were usually out of control. There was a lot of people on stage. We were really on level with the crowd then, 'cause we were pretty much the same age [...].

SKRATCH: And you played the Holidays in the Sun festival in New Jersey last year. How was that?
MIKE: That was a good time. I don't really remember a lot of it, but we played (I think) the first day, and we got a really good reaction. And we stayed pretty much, [...] the whole weekend 'til it was over and just did a lot of partying and hanging out with friends. We were on tour a month before then, and everybody from every place we went was there. [...] It was fun. It was overwhelming, and I was glad it was over when it ended, but it was a really good time.

SKRATCH: Who were you most excited to be on a bill with?
MIKE: I'm not sure. Well, we played a show with The Exploited a couple months ago in Denver—that was really cool. I never would have imagined [while] listening to their records when I was younger that [eventually] we'd be playing with them, and so it was pretty awesome. We did a show. It was kind of big, [...] like a Holidays type thing; it was a one-day festival with like 20 or 30 bandsCircle Jerks and GBH and Murphy's Law were on thatand that was awesome, too. Those are some of my favorite bands.

SKRATCH: Do you have any new material you've been working on?
MIKE: Yeah, we have a bunch of songsI'm not sure how many, probably close to 10 that are written and we kind of demoed them on an eight-track. I don't really know, we just recorded them musically, we don't really have anyI don't know if Bryan has some lyrics yet, but we're looking for a new record label so I don't know. We'll probably try to find a new label and get a new record out pretty soon hopefully.

SKRATCH: Is there any particular reason you're looking for another label?
MIKE: I think, I mean we've seen the success The Unseen and The Casualties have had by getting on slightly bigger labels. We just feel that where we're at right now, we're not gonna get those opportunities to get better touring opportunities and get our music out to a bigger audience, so that's basically why we're looking for a new label. It's nothing personal against Punk Core; they've been a big help to us and it's a mutual thing, but we just don't want to limit ourselves to one particular audience. We can't keep touring with the same bands and stuff, so we gotta go to a place where there's a little more room to grow.

SKRATCH: What's going on with Self Destruct?
MIKE: Nothing, at the moment. [Laughs] It's become really hard to even get together and practice. I mean, the last time we played was Holidays. I can't even remember when we played before that. It's become a once-in-awhile thing—and even less now that The Unseen are getting really big and they're touring a lot, so it's hard to find the time to dedicate to that band. We do have some songs ready, but I don't know—we'll see what happens. Like I said, we just need to find a time when both The Unseen and Global Threat aren't touring, so that we can get together and try to get something done.

SKRATCH: Who'd win in a fight between Lux Interior of The Cramps and Charlie Harper of U.K. Subs?
MIKE: That...I mean, I don't know. They're pretty old, haggard, gnarly-looking guys. I don't know. Charlie Harper, probably? I guess?

AGT will "probably" be on tour with The Krays in January, so heed Mike's advice and "try to get a hold of tour dates" and "come out to the shows."

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