Lou Koller - Sick of it All
Lou Koller - Sick of it All
By Rob ”Bubbs” Harris
The term “Hardcore” has been being tossed around much to loosely than would suit Lou Koller, the legendary tough as nails front man of Sick of it All. No, Lou is none too happy about frail little kids with legs as big around as my thumb dressing in clothes from the petite misses section of Target, with ridiculous haircuts and giant gauged earlobes, running around calling themselves hardcore. When SOIA were on the forefront of the NYHC movement back in the mid-eighties, nobody ever thought that things would come to this. I had a chance to speak to Lou about the release of the latest SOIA album, Based on a True Story, and about the infestation of the scene by less than lame mo-mo kids.
ME: Based on a True story is a killer record. How happy are you with the final product?
Lou: I’m stoked on it. I’m the one guy in the band that always worries about it being a good record or not. It usually isn’t until we start tracking the songs that I know that we are doing something right. I was concerned whether or not the old fans would still dig the new stuff, or if the younger fans would understand where the lyrics were coming from. When it’s all said and done though, it’s a Sick of it All album. No denying that.
ME: I’m not the type of dude that likes to go and talk about the album track by track, but one tune that I particularly related to was the opener “Death or Jail”. I have been down that road before and saw many friends taken away by one or the other. Was there any certain influence for that song, other than what I just said?
Lou: It was a combination of the music, which is very powerful, and the message. It’s not so much a statement as it is a question. It also has to do with shit that we experienced growing up here in New York. I had a really good friend pretty much all of my life that got into some bad shit and ended up killing a guy. A lot of people have come to that crossroad where they have to decide what they want to do with their lives. Some choose to straighten up, for the most part, and live normal lives. Others choose to keep going down the wrong path until they inevitably wind up in jail or dead.
ME: The title of the new record pretty much says it all. You called it Based on a true story because that’s what it is. You guys are talking about real shit. It seems to me that the hardcore label has been thrown around so much where it doesn’t really belong. A lot of the newer bands that are using the genre as a crutch are horrible. It’s like they aren’t tough enough to be a hardcore band, or talented enough to play real death metal. It’s all just a bunch of homos whining about chicks.
Lou: (Laughs) That’s it! I’m glad you said it. That is something that me and the guys joke about regularly. It seems that a lot of these younger outfits are claiming to be hardcore when they really don’t have a hardcore background, and they just aren’t good enough to play real metal, so they piggy back off of the bands that actually do it right. Most of those fuckers have never even heard of real HC bands like Minor Threat, Exploited, Blood for Blood, Agnostic Front, etc. They just put it on their myspace so that people will think they are heavier and tougher than they really are.
ME: That’s the thing. This new generation has no appreciation for the purveyors of the genre. In fact, mosat of them are the kind of douches that listen to a record while it’s popular and then forget about it because it got old and something new just came out. I’ll tell you what, I listen to the Cro-Mags just as much today as I did 15-20 years ago.
Lou: That’s true. There’s nothing wrong with bringing new elements and new styles into hardcore, but I still feel as if it should have some semblance of what the music is and was supposed to sound like. Our drummer said it best when he said that a lot of the newer stuff just doesn’t have any soul. It sounds like bands just toss together a bunch of random tracks because they know that a label is gonna pick them up for sounding like what’s popular at the time.
ME: A good example of what you’re talking about is Oceano. That band is the perfect example of a pointless fucking band.
Lou: I agree. I heard from so many people about how sick that band was and how they were the next big thing. Well, I wasn’t impressed. All I heard was breakdown after breakdown and inaudible vocals. That’s about it. When I was growing up and discovering new metal and punk or whatever, I wanted everything to be fast. Nowadays, kids just want to hear slow down tuned breakdowns so that they can do their fucking stupid karate moves in what is supposed to be a pit. Bands like Oceano do well for a few albums and go through a million line up changes, but after that, they fade away with the rest of ‘em.
ME: Ugh. Don’t get me started on that dancing.
Lou: We were also just talking about that last night. It’s like, I want to write songs that people in the crowd will go crazy to, but it’s gotten so ridiculous lately. I always loved the spontaneity of mosh pits, but now these idiots stand there and wait for their turn to flail around like a dumbass. It’s more like break dancing, where one guy goes then another. It makes me wonder sometimes if they are doing that because they are into the music, or just to make a mockery of it. I’m not sure which, but I don’t like it at all. If there are peoplpe mat a SOIA show, I expect them to go nuts accordingly. Run around in a circle. Bang your fuckin’ head. But whatever you do, don’t wait your turn to let loose. There is no pattern to thrashing the hell out. And these wierdos actually practice those moves too. Kind of makes you want to be a very amused, all be it disgusted, fly on the wall in those bedrooms.
ME: “Tommy, time for dinner.”…..”Not now, Mom. I’m practicing my hardcore dancing.” That’s funny. I actually knew a guy who was making fun of some dudes because they weren’t dancing the right way. I didn’t know that there was a right way to have a seizure.
Lou: (Laughs) It’s so funny because you can watch that shit on you tube. Those poor kids are so serious about it too. (Laughs)
ME: Well, since we spoke about the newer generation of bands and how horrible most of them are, are there any that you do dig?
Lou: There are a few here and there. I like some of Unearth and As I Lay Dying’s stuff, but that’s more metal core or whatever you want to call it. There are also a few bands like cancer Bats and Every Time I Die that you can tell have a solid punk or hardcore background and mix it with their own special blend of spices. Wisdom in Chains and My Turn to Win, from Pennsylvania, are also good examples of younger bands keeping the true hardcore flag flying.
ME: Lou, I could sit here and talk shit about scenesters all day and night, but I’m gonna go ahead and wrap this one up. Thank you for your time and your contribution to the music that I love so much.
Lou: Thank you for the interview. It was fun. Hope to see you on tour some time soon.
The term “Hardcore” has been being tossed around much to loosely than would suit Lou Koller, the legendary tough as nails front man of Sick of it All. No, Lou is none too happy about frail little kids with legs as big around as my thumb dressing in clothes from the petite misses section of Target, with ridiculous haircuts and giant gauged earlobes, running around calling themselves hardcore. When SOIA were on the forefront of the NYHC movement back in the mid-eighties, nobody ever thought that things would come to this. I had a chance to speak to Lou about the release of the latest SOIA album, Based on a True Story, and about the infestation of the scene by less than lame mo-mo kids.
ME: Based on a True story is a killer record. How happy are you with the final product?
Lou: I’m stoked on it. I’m the one guy in the band that always worries about it being a good record or not. It usually isn’t until we start tracking the songs that I know that we are doing something right. I was concerned whether or not the old fans would still dig the new stuff, or if the younger fans would understand where the lyrics were coming from. When it’s all said and done though, it’s a Sick of it All album. No denying that.
ME: I’m not the type of dude that likes to go and talk about the album track by track, but one tune that I particularly related to was the opener “Death or Jail”. I have been down that road before and saw many friends taken away by one or the other. Was there any certain influence for that song, other than what I just said?
Lou: It was a combination of the music, which is very powerful, and the message. It’s not so much a statement as it is a question. It also has to do with shit that we experienced growing up here in New York. I had a really good friend pretty much all of my life that got into some bad shit and ended up killing a guy. A lot of people have come to that crossroad where they have to decide what they want to do with their lives. Some choose to straighten up, for the most part, and live normal lives. Others choose to keep going down the wrong path until they inevitably wind up in jail or dead.
ME: The title of the new record pretty much says it all. You called it Based on a true story because that’s what it is. You guys are talking about real shit. It seems to me that the hardcore label has been thrown around so much where it doesn’t really belong. A lot of the newer bands that are using the genre as a crutch are horrible. It’s like they aren’t tough enough to be a hardcore band, or talented enough to play real death metal. It’s all just a bunch of homos whining about chicks.
Lou: (Laughs) That’s it! I’m glad you said it. That is something that me and the guys joke about regularly. It seems that a lot of these younger outfits are claiming to be hardcore when they really don’t have a hardcore background, and they just aren’t good enough to play real metal, so they piggy back off of the bands that actually do it right. Most of those fuckers have never even heard of real HC bands like Minor Threat, Exploited, Blood for Blood, Agnostic Front, etc. They just put it on their myspace so that people will think they are heavier and tougher than they really are.
ME: That’s the thing. This new generation has no appreciation for the purveyors of the genre. In fact, mosat of them are the kind of douches that listen to a record while it’s popular and then forget about it because it got old and something new just came out. I’ll tell you what, I listen to the Cro-Mags just as much today as I did 15-20 years ago.
Lou: That’s true. There’s nothing wrong with bringing new elements and new styles into hardcore, but I still feel as if it should have some semblance of what the music is and was supposed to sound like. Our drummer said it best when he said that a lot of the newer stuff just doesn’t have any soul. It sounds like bands just toss together a bunch of random tracks because they know that a label is gonna pick them up for sounding like what’s popular at the time.
ME: A good example of what you’re talking about is Oceano. That band is the perfect example of a pointless fucking band.
Lou: I agree. I heard from so many people about how sick that band was and how they were the next big thing. Well, I wasn’t impressed. All I heard was breakdown after breakdown and inaudible vocals. That’s about it. When I was growing up and discovering new metal and punk or whatever, I wanted everything to be fast. Nowadays, kids just want to hear slow down tuned breakdowns so that they can do their fucking stupid karate moves in what is supposed to be a pit. Bands like Oceano do well for a few albums and go through a million line up changes, but after that, they fade away with the rest of ‘em.
ME: Ugh. Don’t get me started on that dancing.
Lou: We were also just talking about that last night. It’s like, I want to write songs that people in the crowd will go crazy to, but it’s gotten so ridiculous lately. I always loved the spontaneity of mosh pits, but now these idiots stand there and wait for their turn to flail around like a dumbass. It’s more like break dancing, where one guy goes then another. It makes me wonder sometimes if they are doing that because they are into the music, or just to make a mockery of it. I’m not sure which, but I don’t like it at all. If there are peoplpe mat a SOIA show, I expect them to go nuts accordingly. Run around in a circle. Bang your fuckin’ head. But whatever you do, don’t wait your turn to let loose. There is no pattern to thrashing the hell out. And these wierdos actually practice those moves too. Kind of makes you want to be a very amused, all be it disgusted, fly on the wall in those bedrooms.
ME: “Tommy, time for dinner.”…..”Not now, Mom. I’m practicing my hardcore dancing.” That’s funny. I actually knew a guy who was making fun of some dudes because they weren’t dancing the right way. I didn’t know that there was a right way to have a seizure.
Lou: (Laughs) It’s so funny because you can watch that shit on you tube. Those poor kids are so serious about it too. (Laughs)
ME: Well, since we spoke about the newer generation of bands and how horrible most of them are, are there any that you do dig?
Lou: There are a few here and there. I like some of Unearth and As I Lay Dying’s stuff, but that’s more metal core or whatever you want to call it. There are also a few bands like cancer Bats and Every Time I Die that you can tell have a solid punk or hardcore background and mix it with their own special blend of spices. Wisdom in Chains and My Turn to Win, from Pennsylvania, are also good examples of younger bands keeping the true hardcore flag flying.
ME: Lou, I could sit here and talk shit about scenesters all day and night, but I’m gonna go ahead and wrap this one up. Thank you for your time and your contribution to the music that I love so much.
Lou: Thank you for the interview. It was fun. Hope to see you on tour some time soon.
