In Schweinfurt I had the chance doing an interview with Tim from Ensign. It was their last day in Europe, after touring 5 weeks straight those guys were sort of exhausted but never the less Tim took a lot of time doing this interview and here we go...
Ploedi:
Would you first like to introduce yourself.
Tim:
I'm Tim and I sing for Ensign.
Ploedi:
How was the your with Sick Of It All?
Tim:
It was really good, it was us, Indecision and Sick Of It All. It was just different as it was on a bus and all the shows were really big. It was a lot of fun, I mean we've known those guys for a really long time and they are good friends of us so that made it all the more like fun to be on the road with them. And the shows were just like so packed the only thing that was a little weird was that the Sick Of It All crows is really kinda mainstream right now so you play in front of an audience you usually don't play in front of and then we came back and didn't know if those kids would come out to see us and it didn't really work out. Some kids did from the Sick Of It All tour but a lot of those kids are just into Sick Of It All. But as far as the tour went it was definitely a lot of fun.
Ploedi:
Are you writing all the lyrics?
Tim:
Mhh, I write about 90 % and then our bass player writes a song or our drummer...
If anyone in the band wants to write some lyrics I try to let them because it's good to get different perspectives in the songwriting and the lyrical content. What we do when they write them I read them and when I agree I'll sing them.
Ploedi:
Do you consider Ensign being a political band?
Tim:
I wouldn't say we are political, well I'm sort of a political person like the band itself, some other members aren't concerned with politics. Mostly I try in my lyrics to get across the point that nothing's specific, everyone knows that the system is fucked up, everyone knows that every government is fucked up, everyone knows that every country is fucked up in some way. And to try and look beneath like what we're handed. You know the American Media like for example, what they hand is never true. But the American public swallows it up like the whole truth. And what I'm trying to say is like look beyond that you know. Like the Media is feeding us that there is a war in Croatia and Serbia, this fucked up war torn country. Ok now the media is telling us that. Now look into yourself and see what the real story is. We went down to Croatia and it was like one of the nicest countries we've ever been. So basically my only political stance is to believe more into yourself than the lies people feed you with.
Ploedi:
You talked about the war in Yugoslavia, what do you think of this war? Do you think it was good throwing those bombs or do you think it absolutely wrong?
Tim:
Here is the thing I run into being an American citizen...We got the perspective that without NATO's involvement and without the dropping of the bombs the slaughter of the refugees would keep going on and we were getting reports in the media like "10 000 people slaughtered, 15 000 people slaughtered" and that's all you hear. Now when I went down there and played. Kids were like "No, it's not like that, it's an internal struggle in the country but it's no mass genocide". So I don't even have an opinion on it because I don't know the real facts. And that's what sucks, not being able to find out what the truth is from where we live. And then coming over here seeing what might be the truth. So it's hard to form an opinion to say yeah, we are right or we are wrong or NATO's right or NATO's wrong because I don't know because the American political system and the American media system is geared towards supporting the government they aren't
gonna go against the government so their stories are slanted so that everyone
rallies behind the government. So I can't even say what is up because I don't know enough about it.
Ploedi:
Talking about the song "Winner takes it all". What's it actually about what's your opinion on the current Hardcore scene?
Tim:
I wrote the lyrics to that song and it was just kind of about some of the older guys in the hardcore scene. Well I'm an older guy in the scene, I'm 29 and I've been there for a long time but I'm not like a famous guy in the scene, I'm just a kid who went to shows. But some of the more prominent people who used to be in bands seem to abuse their scene status. It was written about somebody specific and it was like all these kids blindly follow these like icons of the scene. And these people they are following aren't any better that anyone else you know. They make themselves be like so much higher in the food chain of like the hardcore scene. It's also about somebody's reunion bands getting together and the singer has got like a big mouth and you know "Oh Hardcore is not as good as
it used to be and bla bla bla". You know Hardcore today is as good as it was to me in 1985 or 1984 and when I got into. It just exciting, there are as many good bands I met just as many kids with a total dedication to it. So I mean this song is just about these few people who kind of abuse their status and their power to try make themselves feel better and look more powerful within the Hardcore scene but in reality the Hardcore scene shouldn't be based tears, we should all be equal and like just because you are in a band doesn't mean you are any better then the kid who's up front singing along. Just because you do a Zine doesn't mean you are any different then the kids who are in bands. You go to the Hardcore/Punk scene to get away from like the bullshit of the outside world, the bullshit that goes on in school. That was just our statement against those people who try to make themselves better than everyone else.
In Schweinfurt I had the chance doing an interview with Tim from Ensign. It was their last day in Europe, after touring 5 weeks straight those guys were sort of exhausted but never the less Tim took a lot of time doing this interview and here we go...
Ploedi:
Would you first like to introduce yourself.
Tim:
I'm Tim and I sing for Ensign.
Ploedi:
How was the your with Sick Of It All?
Tim:
It was really good, it was us, Indecision and Sick Of It All. It was just different as it was on a bus and all the shows were really big. It was a lot of fun, I mean we've known those guys for a really long time and they are good friends of us so that made it all the more like fun to be on the road with them. And the shows were just like so packed the only thing that was a little weird was that the Sick Of It All crows is really kinda mainstream right now so you play in front of an audience you usually don't play in front of and then we came back and didn't know if those kids would come out to see us and it didn't really work out. Some kids did from the Sick Of It All tour but a lot of those kids are just into Sick Of It All. But as far as the tour went it was definitely a lot of fun.
Ploedi:
Are you writing all the lyrics?
Tim:
Mhh, I write about 90 % and then our bass player writes a song or our drummer...
If anyone in the band wants to write some lyrics I try to let them because it's good to get different perspectives in the songwriting and the lyrical content. What we do when they write them I read them and when I agree I'll sing them.
Ploedi:
Do you consider Ensign being a political band?
Tim:
I wouldn't say we are political, well I'm sort of a political person like the band itself, some other members aren't concerned with politics. Mostly I try in my lyrics to get across the point that nothing's specific, everyone knows that the system is fucked up, everyone knows that every government is fucked up, everyone knows that every country is fucked up in some way. And to try and look beneath like what we're handed. You know the American Media like for example, what they hand is never true. But the American public swallows it up like the whole truth. And what I'm trying to say is like look beyond that you know. Like the Media is feeding us that there is a war in Croatia and Serbia, this fucked up war torn country. Ok now the media is telling us that. Now look into yourself and see what the real story is. We went down to Croatia and it was like one of the nicest countries we've ever been. So basically my only political stance is to believe more into yourself than the lies people feed you with.
Ploedi:
You talked about the war in Yugoslavia, what do you think of this war? Do you think it was good throwing those bombs or do you think it absolutely wrong?
Tim:
Here is the thing I run into being an American citizen...We got the perspective that without NATO's involvement and without the dropping of the bombs the slaughter of the refugees would keep going on and we were getting reports in the media like "10 000 people slaughtered, 15 000 people slaughtered" and that's all you hear. Now when I went down there and played. Kids were like "No, it's not like that, it's an internal struggle in the country but it's no mass genocide". So I don't even have an opinion on it because I don't know the real facts. And that's what sucks, not being able to find out what the truth is from where we live. And then coming over here seeing what might be the truth. So it's hard to form an opinion to say yeah, we are right or we are wrong or NATO's right or NATO's wrong because I don't know because the American political system and the American media system is geared towards supporting the government they aren't
gonna go against the government so their stories are slanted so that everyone
rallies behind the government. So I can't even say what is up because I don't know enough about it.
Ploedi:
Talking about the song "Winner takes it all". What's it actually about what's your opinion on the current Hardcore scene?
Tim:
I wrote the lyrics to that song and it was just kind of about some of the older guys in the hardcore scene. Well I'm an older guy in the scene, I'm 29 and I've been there for a long time but I'm not like a famous guy in the scene, I'm just a kid who went to shows. But some of the more prominent people who used to be in bands seem to abuse their scene status. It was written about somebody specific and it was like all these kids blindly follow these like icons of the scene. And these people they are following aren't any better that anyone else you know. They make themselves be like so much higher in the food chain of like the hardcore scene. It's also about somebody's reunion bands getting together and the singer has got like a big mouth and you know "Oh Hardcore is not as good as
it used to be and bla bla bla". You know Hardcore today is as good as it was to me in 1985 or 1984 and when I got into. It just exciting, there are as many good bands I met just as many kids with a total dedication to it. So I mean this song is just about these few people who kind of abuse their status and their power to try make themselves feel better and look more powerful within the Hardcore scene but in reality the Hardcore scene shouldn't be based tears, we should all be equal and like just because you are in a band doesn't mean you are any better then the kid who's up front singing along. Just because you do a Zine doesn't mean you are any different then the kids who are in bands. You go to the Hardcore/Punk scene to get away from like the bullshit of the outside world, the bullshit that goes on in school. That was just our statement against those people who try to make themselves better than everyone else.
