Interview with Life In Your Way

Interview with John Gaskill and Dave Bullock . Cologne . Underground . 2005 . Solidstaterecords.net

Life In Your Way - Making Waves

Punk76: Can you please introduce yourself to the readers?

John: Yeah hi, my name is John and I play drums in the band Life In Your Way and this is Dave, he plays the guitar.

Punk76: So it's your first time in Germany?

John: Yes, it is!

Punk76: And how long will you stay and when does the tour end?

John: The tour ends... December 18th. I think its the last show today. So we were here over three and half weeks.

Punk76: And do you like the European countrys, especially Germany?

John: Yes, really! It's been awsome so for.The kids are crazy. It's a big change from the US, I mean touring in Europe. Everyone is taking care of us (laughs). It's a nice place to stay. Every day we meet nice people while we practise and we get dinner at every show.

Punk76: Something else: Where do you come from?

John: We come from Manchester, Connecticut. It's a small state. Not directly from Conneticut but around the area of Connecticut.

Punk76: And now you are a band I think.. since five or six years ?

John: Yeah, the band started in 1999. Back then we were some kind of a metal-core band.

Punk76: Yes, I read something about it.

John: Yeah, we went throuh some member changes and started with the whole melodic sound. But the line up that we have up now, has the been always the same, since we started the melodic thing. I think almost about two years now. Together we wrote the whole "Ignite And Rebuild" record, it's cool (laughs).

Punk76: Cool. Can you tell me more about the music, I mean in year 2000 Life In Your Way was more like a metal-core band and now it's more hardcore influenced, or what? How would you classify yourself?

John: Yeah, Yeah! I guess that is how we consider ourselves: As a melodic hardcore band. So our kind of hardcore today has many metal influences. But we are not so determined, we only wanna make great music, that's what it's all about. Our music got infected by so many sorts of music. All us grew up on different style of music. Some of us grew up on hardcore, on metal, on indie rock and emo and rock 'n' roll stuff, so yeah, that definitely shows reaction in the sound of our band.

Punk76: Is It possible to name some bands, that influenced you or brought you through your high school time? And which bands do you like to listen to?

John: Now it's your time Dave!

Dave: For me, yeah I started playing guitar at the age of 13 and I was really insert in the classic rock stuff, you know Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and I got into the punk a little bit, I didn't really got into hardcore, It was a change for me when I was 16 or 17 years old and I'm 20 right now so three years ago. And yeah, I joined Life In Your way about a year and a half ago. That was pretty much listening to a lot of hardcore metal stuff, that reflect what I do right in a band like Life In Your Way. The bands that influence me now are definitely...melodic bands like Strung Out, Pedro The Lion,...what else...Further Seems Forever a lot, all these stylistic punks. Yeah they influenced me personally and I like them very much- yes!

Punk76: And what about you, John?

John: (laughs) Yeah I'm the drummer. For me, I got into the hardcore and punk scene when I was like eleven years old. I started skating and that is the music that comes with it, so I got into the early Epitaph and Fat Punkrock sounds and you know I got into the Midninety's Hardcore stuff and since then, you know, as I've got older, I was opened up for more, you know? So I mean, now I listen to everything from Punkrock, Hardcore to Jazz to all the IndieRock Stuff. So Far...Yeah! And for me as a drummer the biggest influence is the drummer from Further Seems Forever. I like his style a lot and yeah I'm a big Strung Out Fan.

Punk76: Both of you mentioned Further Seems Forever. I heard something about that they have broken up? Is that really true?

John: Yes, I heard it too, but I think they have a few more shows left.

Punk76: Oh, the last time I heard of them was when the new record, I think it is called "Hide Nothing", came out. But I like the old stuff more than the new and I love the songs from Chris Carrabba.

John: Yeah, Chris was the singer of Further Seems Forever and he was very cool. But then he was doing Dashboard Confessional as a side project, you know about the rest: He left the band...

Punk76: So, please tell me something about your music, especially the lyrics. What are your lyrics about? Love and Death? Like the typical emo and hardcore stuff?

John: (laughs) Hey man! You know, I'm just the drummer! The best person to ask for is our vocalist. Ask Josh, he's definitely a very humbled kid and I think our vocalist come across with his lyrics, he's a incurable person. And his lyrics are about life. There is so much in life you have to go trough and Josh tries to do descripe it. He want it to drown it into more positive backround. He tries to push people forward. Yeah, his lyrics sounds very hard felt, but he's an optimisic person...

Punk76: Is Life In Your Way a full time job for you?

Dave: No, of course not! We do not earn enough money with the band. We all have other full time jobs at home. We are open for it, I mean to do it full time but in the past we did not make good money with the band.

Punk76: What are your jobs beside the band?

Dave: Yeah, everyone from the band does the same thing. Construction, building and working at houses.

Punk76: Yeah, nice. But I think it will grow bigger and bigger. I got a copy of your record "Ignite and Rebuild" and showed it to my friends, you know most of them love rock music too and they all were surprised and as they heard that you will come to cologne for seven euros entrance. They all wanted to come.

John: Thats awesome man, I appreciate it.

Punk76: Okay, I thank you very much for this interview, I appreciate it and wish you good luck for the show!

John: Thank you very much, thank you for this opportunity!

Life In Your Way - Threads of Sincerity (Live)

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