Mesa, Arizona’s hardcore quartet, Out For Revenge released their latest full-length Black Market Status, on Mikey Hood‘s legendary West Coast Worldwide Records in November of 2010 and have been received with open arms by hardcore fans and critics around the globe. StereoKiller.com named BMS the #3 User-Voted Album of 2010. Out For Revenge fuses a pummeling, double-bass ridden hardcore sound with socially conscious lyrics that saw guest appearances by the likes of Roger Miret (Agnostic Front), Mikey Hood (Hoods), Danny Northside (North Side Kings), and Eddie Dan (Beg for Life) accompanying vocalist Darin aka “Spyderdog” in the West Wordwide debut. Blow The Scene Editor Joshua Cohen recently caught up with Out For Revenge front-man Darin for an in-depth, exclusive interview. Darin brings BTS readers up-close and personal with Out For Revenge‘s current tour plans, lyrical themes, political views, favorite video games from the 90s, and much more!
Joshua BTS: Greetings! Thank you for taking time to answer a few questions for Blow The Scene readers around the World! Let’s begin by having you introduce yourself and declare your onstage weapon of choice with Arizona hardcore quartet, Out For Revenge.
Darin: I’m Darin or Spyderdog (either one is cool). I’m the singer in Out For Revenge
Joshua BTS: Out for Revenge’s latest recorded effort, Black Market Status on Mikey Hood’s WestCoast World Wide label recently received a nod from StereoKiller.com as one of the top 15 heavy releases of 2010. Congratulations! The hardcore community has taken a fondness for this record across the board. Did you expect such a well-received response when Black Market Status was first released?
Darin: Honestly we didn’t really know what to expect. We really poured our entire hearts and souls in to black market status, and just wanted to make the absolute best record we possibly could. So far it seems like its really resonating with people, and that’s an awesome thing! It’s a huge honor to know that something we created has so far had the ability to touch people and be relate-able the way it has. I just feel like we are really lucky. As for the Stereokiller thing, we were really pleasantly surprised by it. There was a ton of great bands on that list, and we were just super excited to be a part of it.
Joshua BTS: Get our readers up-to-speed.. When and where did you record Black Market Status? And how long had you been compiling material for this record?
Darin: We recorded the record at Avalon Audio here in Mesa Arizona, last year. Adam Teller engineered it, and he’s an absolute genius and a total pleasure to work with, which made recording way easier. Adam and I produced it, which was great. We both had a ton of ideas, and worked together really, really well. I had never produced anything as ambitious as Black Market Status, and he provided a lot of guidance which made a huge difference in the final product. We’re both sort of perfectionists too, which certainly didn’t hurt! As for the writing end of it, we wrote pretty solidly for about a year and a half. The record took about six months or so to make and get packaged and everything. It was a long process with a lot of sleepless nights, that’s for sure!
Joshua BTS: You’ve been quoted in recent interviews as saying that with Arizona becoming such a hot-bed for political and social unrest, Out For Revenge has taken on a more serious tone and Black Market Status sees the band leaving the jokes and laughs behind for some poignant focuses. What were some of the political and social focuses of the record?
Darin: While we were writing, the health care debate was really going strong and that one is really close to my heart. I have a “preexisting condition” and essentially its impossible for me to ever get health insurance i can afford, if at all, and that’s total bullshit. I do the right thing, I eat right, and take decent care of myself – there’s no reason iIshould ever run the risk of being put out on the streets, so that some dickhead CEO can still get his trillion dollar bonus if I happen to get in a car accident or something. The big financial institutions that fucked over this country were also announcing all their bonus’s right around that time too, and I firmly believe that all those people belong in jail, not getting in and out of a Maybach. I mean – Really? If I fucking sucked at my job as much as they suck at theirs, at MINIMUM I’d be fired, and that’s not even taking into account all the blatant theft that has gone on in that industry. Bottom line is – that yes, we had no choice but to bail them out, but the fact of the matter remains that they shouldn’t have been allowed to keep their jobs, or the wealth they have accumulated, and certainly not continue keep getting their insane paychecks. Those people should be in jail for the rest of their fucking bullshit lives (or at least until they pay us all back), and for them to turn around and financially reward themselves AGAIN on our backs is totally unacceptable. Plus think about how many good peoples houses these fuckers stole in the process!
Locally, the big issue was immigration. I’ll say with 100% certainty, that I’d rather have illegal aliens running around here then cracker-fuck-intolerant-Jesus-crazy-republicans. They do FAR less damage, and don’t steal nearly as many jobs. In addition, it’s a human rights issue. The Arizona legislation (all 17 pages of it….seriously its a total joke) basically gave cops the green light to harass anybody that’s not white. I mean think about it like this……you just get back from getting shot at in fucking Iraq, and you’re out trying to have dinner with your girl somewhere, and some shit-head cop wants to harass you for your papers trying to tell you, “you arn’t an American!” That kinda shit is totally unacceptable. The United States was founded on the melting pot philosophy and trying to cleanse a community like that is blatantly un-American and immoral.
Joshua BTS: Are there any grassroots organizations in Arizona or abroad that you feel more people should be paying attention to?
Darin: Not really. Arizona’s opposition to the wackos are outlandishly disorganized, and somewhat over the top in the self righteousness department and honestly somewhat hard to back as a result (this includes the AZ democratic party.. Honestly, nobody here who votes has enough common sense to listen anyway). I think people really just need to pay more attention to their surroundings in general. Apathy really allows insanity to spread like wildfire, and by the time the apathetic catch on a lot of times its too late to stop the crazy, and i really think that kind of exactly whats happened here in Arizona. Nobody has really seemed to wake up until recently, but unfortunately were now stuck with a crazy, crazy governor and state congress, and people are gonna have to learn the hard way to an extent. Unfortunately, there has already been so much damage done here that it’s pretty disheartening to think about where were gonna be four years from now.
Joshua BTS: As someone interested in politics both here and abroad, I’ve often noticed and have discussed, that it seems the American public is far more complacent than our European counterparts. I mean right now we have massive riots and protests happening in Egypt.. France and Italy have also been hot-beds for massive protests and riots numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Do you feel Americans are asleep at the wheel when it comes to issues like Health Care and Predatory Lending? And gun control is surely a hot topic in your neck of the woods with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords nearly losing her life with several others who did in a recent assignation attempt in your backyard. Controversial immigration laws in AZ are also a hot topic, we’ve seen even bands like Rage Against The Machine weigh in on and even regroup to draw attention to these very issues.. So tell us, what hell is happening in AZ? And what role do you see the music community playing in these issues?
Darin: I think American life does come with a pretty heavy dose of complacency by design for sure. It’s really easy to get distracted in this country right now. We got a million cable channels and the never ending abyss of the internet to kind of keep us at bay, plus life has just plain gotten really hard in the last few years. If you gotta work 8 hours at very low paying jobs (that don’t exist for many) to keep a roof over your head and food on your table its kinda hard to find the energy to chase our shady ass government around. I think that the explosion of entertainment based cable news has contributed to that a great deal too. Even when you are looking for news, you often times aren’t getting it. So, I do see a bit of ‘asleep at the wheel’ syndrome, but I also think there’s a pretty major level of contortion of what that really means.
I mean look at these tea party clowns. Those people work at it, but ultimately they aren’t getting what they think they are getting. They are blatantly getting led around by the same people that are supposedly raging against. Big business ultimately has too much power in this country and it will inevitably lead to its crash if we don’t start doing things like controlling lobbyists, and these PR firms that exist solely to distort the facts and feed tag lines and buzz words to anybody that will listen. What this country needs is more accountability and until that changes I don’t really see things getting too much better. As for the mess we got here in Arizona, we just got pancaked by everything all at once essentially. Banking, tech manufacturing, real estate and tourism were pretty much all we had going for us in this part of the country (Vegas totally included), and all those things went down at once creating a scattering effect. Mix that with the overwhelming presence of the uber-right (who aren’t equipped to deal with anything other then their wack job and hate-filled social issues) and boom!….problems.
People are really angry here, and I think a lot of the time they don’t really know why. Education is a major reason why we are the way we are here too. We in Arizona have the worst education system in the entire united states and they casts a pretty dark shadow over our future. With that said, I really think that the future leaders of this state are the kids you see at shows that are getting involved and doing things. It seems the kids in the hardcore scene have a lot more common sense then most of the kids i see running around. Bottom line is – there’s a shit load of great kids here with a lot going for em. There is certainly hope for this state and that’s where it’s currently hiding.
As for the gun control thing, its kind of sticky. Should somebody be allowed to walk around downtown in broad daylight drunk carrying an AR-15? Absolutely not! However if you come to my house and try and pull some shit on me or my family i firmly believe that its with in my god given right as an American to drop a fucking nuclear bomb on your face with out hesitation. I think this situation in Tucson is totally tragic and was totally preventable, and its absolute proof that you can’t have an arms free society for everyone, all of the time. This kid was clearly bonkers and all the warning signs were there. Under no circumstances should he have ever been allowed to buy a fucking sling shot let alone something high capacity like he had.
I really think there has got to be a happy medium when it comes to this issue, and that needs to be explored completely, otherwise we’re going to see a lot more shit like what happened. It’s a shame too. Representative Giffords is one of the only good politicians we have here in AZ. I can’t wait till she’s back and kicking ass in Washington once again!
Ill tell you though, this shit in Egypt is amazing! Its high time citizens started showing their governments who they should really be afraid of!
Joshua BTS: What does 2011 look like for Out For Revenge? Tour Plans? Any new recordings in the works?
Darin: 2011 is all about getting out there for us, and we’re going to tour as much as we possibly can. Look for a lot of West Coast/Southwest dates and hopefully an East Coast tour this summer, and lots of new merch! (We love making merch). As for new music, you are going have to ask Mike about that!
Joshua BTS: What are some bands that are exciting you right now? Share with us some of your current playlists.
Darin: Right now I’m really digging on Reasons and Dead Life from here in AZ, Domination from Cali, and xBeholderx from Denver. Also, Beg for Life, and Give em Hell, and Havenside on West Coast Worldwide are all super good. But I’d say about 90% of what I’ve been into recently is the euro stuff. Cutdown and Danforth both totally own, as does Onesta and Six Foot Ditch. I like Loyal to the Grave from Japan a lot too. It’s awesome how worldly hardcore has become, and non-American bands are totally killing it right now!!
Joshua BTS: Ok let’s shift gears for a moment into a few lighthearted Q and As.
Favorite arcade game as a kid?
Darin: Street Fighter II hands down!! Best game ever! I used to ditch school and hit the pizza place by the mall when i was a kid. I’d hit the parking lot, steal some hood ornaments, flip em to the rap kids, get some cash, and then eat pizza and hustle people on that shit all day long! Awesome times! Nothing is better then arcade games. I have an actual Street Fighter II arcade game.
Joshua BTS: You are about to be dropped off on a desert island for a full year with a solar powered dvd player and TV. What dvds you bringing with?
Darin: All the Fast and the Furious movies, anything with Steve Mcqueen or Clint Eastwood in it, Cool Hand Luke, all the Friday the 13th movies, Gone in 60 Seconds (new and old), the complete series of The Shield and Miami Vice, and anything from the 80’s with Steven Segal or the Governator. I also believe Dennis Rodman to be a highly underrated actor…haha
Joshua BTS: Tofu or Footlong Hotdog?
Darin: Tofu. I have Celiac Disease and hot dogs totally suck without the bun. Plus I can cook the fuck outta’ some tofu!
Joshua BTS: Remember that scene from The Good Son when the mother has the Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood in each hand, hanging from a cliff? You are now in the same situation, only you have ICP hanging from one hand and the front men of Brokencyde in other…You can only let ONE fall off into the rocky cliffs below (sorry)..Who stays and why?
Darin: Oh that’s easy. I’d dump the Brokencyde douches, and pull some Vanilla Ice/Suge Knight shit on ICP. I’d be ok owning the rights to their sugar-water-face-paint-empire.
Joshua BTS: Switching gears again.. We would like to thank you for taking the time to do this interview with Blow The Scene. We look forward to keeping up with your future endeavors and will definitely be stopping out to your next Philly performance! Any final thoughts or shout- outs?
Darin: Thank you! I want to say a quick thanks to everybody that comes to shows and supports hardcore, and everybody that keeps the scene going. It’s a ton of thankless work and you people deserve all the credit you can get. Also thanks to Mike [Hood] and WCWW, and its almost Valentines Day, so ill say to my girlfriend – thanks for putting up with the bullshit, and I love you baby! Happy Valentines Day!
Click the Icon Below To Stream “Machine” off of Black Market Status by Out For Revenge
Out For Revenge – Machine Out For Revenge – Machine
More Info at Out For Revenge Official Website and West Coast Worldwide Records
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HWoQkyV02w[/youtube]
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