Words with Reid Black

Hi Reid, first, tell me about these 5 new songs Into Another just released, how did it all come to life ?


The songs came about because the reunion shows went so well. We enjoyed playing music together and the idea of creating new material became more compelling as time went on. I’m happy to see the band chasing the art again.

How did you end up in that band and what does it mean to you ?


I was approached by the organizers of the 2012 Rev25 shows and by Brian, the other Into Another guitarist. Underdog and Bold were already booked to play the fest and so the thought was maybe Drew and Richie would be interested in playing a couple Into Another songs with Brian on guitar and me on bass. At this point, Peter still hadn’t resurfaced so Brian and I taped ourselves playing a few Into Another songs with Craig from Ignite on drums. I thought it was a longshot but would be fun to put ourselves out there and see what would happen. We got a positive response back after some suspenseful waiting and then it was on !
Into Another is one of my favorite bands. It‘s an honor to be in the band now and be making music with those guys. I also feel responsible to help preserve the legacy of Tony Bono. I try to faithfully play his basslines on the old songs and reference his style for any new material we work on. Random fact: The very first show I ever played, with Eleven Thirty-Four in 1994, was opening for Into Another. Coming around full circle is quite surreal. In the end though, I’m just happy to see the band active again. If I wasn’t in the band, I’d still be there at the shows, in the audience.

Can you remember a bit your time in Eleven Thirty-Four ?


Eleven Thirty-Four was my first fully functioning band. First shows, records, tours, etc. So yea, I remember quite a bit since everything was so new. Brian was also a member but he had prior band experience. We got toured the US a couple times and Europe once with Ignite. Also played a show in Hawaii (which obviously isn’t a normal tour stop for bands). I also played my one and only gig at CBGB’s with that band. We played a couple reunion shows over the years just for our friends. I met someone, years and years later after the band was done, who told me that his go-to soundcheck riff was an Eleven Thirty-Four riff. That was pretty cool.

What about other bands you played in, which ones stood out ?


I’ve played in lots of bands over the past 20 years and have never really stopped doing so. I’ve played lots of different styles of (rock) music and playing different instruments too. Looking back, I’m happy with a lot of the music I’ve made.
The Third Degree is one previous band that stands out for me. It was a three-piece Motorhead / Black Flag hybrid or something that lasted from about 1998 to 2001. I played really distorted bass and we played really short sets. That band was my first step away from the small pond of the hardcore scene and out into the real world.
Another was a psychedelic band called Innaway. I played guitar and keys for that band so memories of our shows and tours involve me moving and setting up lots of gear. Recording with Innaway was actually enjoyable. We had our own studio so we spent a lot of time honing our songs and recordings and tinkering with old equipment. Nerd alert: On our last record I was able to record with a real Mellotron. Made me feel pretty legit. Nerdier alert: It’s even catalogued on the Planet Mellotron website.
These days, along with Into Another, I play guitar for a band in San Francisco called Steakhouse. It’s a little Western-y twang mixed into some krautrock and post-punk. One friend referred to it as “music that could be in a Quentin Tarantino movie”.


How did it all start for you to play music anyway ?


I was an impressionable kid in the 80’s so seeing all those metal dudes on MTV with their white high tops, big hair, and Floyd Rose tremolos made me want to play guitar. They looked like they were having fun.


What was the meaning of hardcore for you ?


In a few sentences ? I don’t know. Musically, maybe stripping everything down. Less musical wank, less theatrics. Culturally, maybe embracing the DIY mindset and keeping the “I could do that too” vibe alive. I think accessibility is one of the most important things hardcore offers.


Did you feel concern with the straight-edge philosophy ?


No, not really. I never was straight edge. A lot of my friends growing up were straight edge and some still don’t partake. I’m not an extreme person so I never felt the need to sway toward one side or the other.


Which artists and thinkers inspired you the most in your life ?



I’m a big Brian Eno fan. All the music he was involved with back in the 70’s was insane: his solo records, the Fripp & Eno records, the Berlin-era Bowie stuff, Roxy Music, his work with Cluster and Harmonia. Pioneering stuff. His music from that era really opened a lot of doors for me.
But he’s a thinker too. I like his musings on the pursuit and creation of art. How random it can be and how accept and embrace that. I have a set of Oblique Stratégies. I’ll pull cards from the deck when working on music sometimes. Or even for non-music related activities.


How do you spend your time besides playing music ?


Music has been taking up a lot of my time and energy lately. Which is good but can also be tiring. Besides that, I work full-time as a mechanical engineer. When I can fit it in I like to travel (not for music or work), exercise, hang with my friends, and enjoy the city of San Francisco. There’s lots to do here.


Do you know France and do you feel concerned to some degree by European culture ?


I‘ve only visited France once; way back in 1998. The World Cup was going on there and I was in Paris for France’s quarter and semi final victories. It was very festive. But it wasn’t until I was watching, from a pub in London, France celebrating their World Cup finals victory and Parisians flooding the streets that I realized I should’ve stuck around for a couple more days !
Oh and I got bad food poisoning there. I’ve eaten a lot of questionable foods during my travels so it’s funny that First World France was the one to take me down.

Words with J-B Thauvin

 Hi J-B, how did you fall in the hardcore / punk movement at first ?


Rather simply, at first because in Orléans, in the 80s, there was a real excitement around this environment (Rock / Punk / New Wave) that we could cross crests in town and realize that the punks were not these "miserable" which we could see in movies on TV, quite the opposite !!
Then because by moving closer to this environment, I fell on very cool people who made me discover a great deal of groups and allowed me to attend and to participate in the organization of tons of concerts.
And because in any case, I was never able to support the soup which we are of use on the radio or on TV !!!


What is the story behind the formation of Burning Heads ?


Like all groups meet Jacky playing music, sharing the same desires and somewhat similar musical tastes (two buddies neighborhoods, a great guy came to Orléans to finish his studies, a "son" ready to send wood and debit valves ...).
In fact, Burning Heads rose on ashes of groups having stopped little before.. Orleans is a small town, and when you roamed at concerts, you often crossed the same people. Two guitarists, a drummer and a bass player available at the right time, an alchemy that takes place around the Australian rock, punk 77 English and Californian melodic hardcore that shows its face ... that's it !!

 What are the strongest moments you lived with the band ?


Replacing Jal, the former BH bass player, which always gives me a sense of guilt more than twenty years later … At that time, I was already going with them, being a roadie, a driver... When the band began to take off in '93, after the 1st album, everybody had to be available 100% for that. It was necessary to choose between work and playing with the band when it was possible, weekends, or to play as much as possible and to work when we could. I was available for that and I do not regret it !!!
Otherwise, Philippe's departure, the guitarist (replaced by Fonfon then now Mikis for more than 10 years) and the big questioning on the future of the band...
More cheerfully, when you have the opportunity to play with bands you're fan of for a long time and that the guys come to see you after the concert to congratulate yourself, fuck, that puts back to you a boost for 20 years !!!


 Have you got a favorite album ?


You mean of the band ? No, I don't believe so.
I like very much the fact that we were able to put out albums essentially "Reggae", it is small challenges we give to ourselves and it is cool that we manage to realize them.
I also like that the last album is a double album, we wanted to do that for a very long time. Then I am very proud of the tribute which arrives. When I learnt that it existed, I thought at once it was a joke, that a tribute was a tribute for a dead band... But when I saw what it was really, namely the first album resumed in full with a different band for each song of the album, Woh, even if I did not play on this album, I understand the dimension of the project and yeah, it is so cool !!
In fact it is stupid to wait that somebody or something isn't there anymore to pay him tribute, it is like bringing flowers on the grave of a deceased, it's better to offer him as long as he is alive, that will please him ... when he died, it's too late !!!

 How do you see the future of the band ?


How will be the future ?
We always played in this band to be able to make concerts, to travel and to meet buddies, it is the first one of our motivations, as long as we have some energy for that, we shall continue to make it !!!
And for the moment, the projects do not miss, they will come true, or not, but this is what motivates us (an Opposite tour with Zenzile, maybe some dates in Japan where we still never went...).


What is your appreciation on the evolution of the French scene since the beginnings of BH ?


What you're asking me is a bit hard: it's to give you my appreciation over almost 30 past years (Burning Heads began in 1987 !!)...
Not easy to answer, there were so many evolutions these last 30 years. Burning Heads put 3 years before being able to put out their first one 45t (in 90 thanks to Label Black and Black of Angers), my children made up their first piece with their band yesterday and it is already retranscribed on computer…We passed fanzines photocopied with cassettes compile to the musical magazines with Cds to fanzines on the Internet with streaming and download and you also feels the effects at the level of the stage and of the public. At the end of 80, the beginning of 90, the time of Fanzines, there was quite a lot of small concerts with concerned people, but not a great deal of places adapted to make them. Concerts in bars, some squats or other improvised places concert halls for the opportunity. We could see dark Punk / Hard Core bands of various countries and an interest started in France for this kind of music. The biggest stages were kept by groups of alternative punk in this time. During the 90's, there was Noir Désir and the Nirvana boom, relieved by TVs, radios and musical magazines. I think that opened the ears of quite a lot of people to rock music and big guitars, there was quite a lot of people in concerts, it is the beginning of the SMAC in France (official rooms of "Amplified musics"). The Punk / Hard Core scene develops, full of bands form and there is a good network of connections in particular thanks to the circles of very active fanzines, relieved by the magazines which emerge, the possibility of expressing himself either in bars, or in little better organized rooms. Radios, TVs were a little less sensitive to show French bands (who sing in English !!) in some broadcasts.
2000/2010, that goes bad a little...
Internet develops, we can have access to everything and we find ourselves lost right in the middle …
It is also the strengthening of "all security", laws on the noise, on the gatherings. It becomes harder and harder, not to say impossible, to make concerts in bars. Nothing has to exceed : the sound, the number of entrances for a place, the hour of the beginning, end of the evening... Everything must be normalized. Fewer small places for concerts mean fewer small bands, fanzines "paper" do not exist almost any more, magazines stop one after the other, anymore of underground music on the TV (fortunately, some radios always resist !!). That, more the purse which is far from being stretchable, not easy to fill rooms !!
At the same time, the accessibility to the music is enormously simplified, there are more and more practice studios, the price of instruments fall not bad (bottoms of the range are not very expensive, thank you the Chinese small children, but for really rotten quality, thank you the businesses men !!), and the bands which manage to emerge really have a very good level !!! On 2010, I have the impression that it gets better. The upheavals of Internet begin to be digested. We find fanzines, groups, music on the Web. Even if it is not obvious and even if it is necessary to know a little where to look, networks are there. People begin to meet, again, rooms begin to open towards the small structures, the small assos. We return, I think, towards a more human side, more DIY while incorporating the existing structures.
Even if that doesn't remain obvious yet to put up small concerts, there are many bands only asking to go out of their premises.


What is your appreciation on the evolution of the French scene since the debuts of BH ?


I don't see special peculiarity in France. The Punk / Hard Core scene is international, in all the countries, there is a small part of the population which feels concerned by this movement and which tries, with great difficulty, to make it live against all that we would like to gull him.
There are countries where it's more or less easy to make it, countries where the commitments are much more intense (where to be a punk is to risk jail, not to say death !!) but together we fight in our scale to be able to live in a world about which we know it could be a better one.


To what extent were you or not influenced by the straight-edge movement ?


I found out soon enough that movement through bands that claimed as such. I was really attracted to the energy they gave off in general, but I do not necessarily attaches great importance to the words in the sense that I do not like being dictated to do or not do things ... But I still feel close to these ideas, even if I was not able to take all being younger, what bothered me most was (always) on one side some fundamentalist of some people.I do not drink alcohol, do not use drugs, I'm a vegetarian and live with my wife (and only) for over 25 years. I do not claim myself Straight Edge. I smoked, drunk, drugged myself and I stopped. That may be so that I am as tolerant, as it is above all a personal choice that in no way prevents spending good times with other people, Straight Edge or not.


Who are the people and bands who have decisively influenced you?


Without being pompous, but it is the truth: Burning Heads ...Around 15-16 years when I started hanging out a bit in the concerts in Orleans and listening to punk rock, see the band in concert was like a revelation, an opening to a musical style, positive energy that gave us Pierre wanted to play together (DDT, in 88, later replaced Doud Pierre on guitar / vocals in Burning Heads / 89).In general, the first love are those that remain etched in the heart: Liveage of DESCENDENTS turned my head (the melodies, power, emotion, speed), ALL / DESCENDENTS, the kind of bands you played back 30 years later and you continue to discover !!!Rude Boy, the film about the Clash, as the Clash, this is also my first love.Dag Nasty, DI, Adolescents, Hüsker Dü, Poison Idea, Rorsharch, Bad Religion, Born Against, Minor Threat, Snuff, Doom, Suicidal Tendencies, ...And many others !!!

 What is the meaning of playing music for you ?


I think music is my reason for living, anyway, I owe it a lot for what I am today.
Music is the soundtrack of your life, it can be a piece like this, it can be the song of a bird, a natural or industrial noise. This is something that comes to you for a moment, brand emotions and makes you stand out shalt hear again.
To share his music in concert provides a form of wellness: already between us because it means we managed to create something that we like musically and that is able to capture it, then with the one who listens and takes pleasure in doing so.
It's also a great way to bring together people to unite around a stage to be able to share, discuss, have a good time, to remake the world and seek the meaning of life.