
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."