My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

• Comprehensive health care program
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Ne parlano: Laura Balbo, Anna Fabbrini, Salvatore Natoli con i curatori e gli autori Enzo Colombo, Marco Ingrosso, Paolo Jedlowski, Gianmarco Navarini, Paola Rebughini.

Find more information here

Ne parlano: Laura Balbo, Anna Fabbrini, Salvatore Natoli con i curatori e gli autori Enzo Colombo, Marco Ingrosso, Paolo Jedlowski, Gianmarco Navarini, Paola Rebughini.

Find more information here

Come appare la Val Trebbia agli occhi di un “forestiero”? Il fotografo genovese Enrico Pelos ha percorso gli antichi sentieri della Val Trebbia e documentato i suoi diversi paesaggi nei suoi libri di foto-trekking Paesaggio Fotografico di Liguria, Passeggiate a Levante e nella guida Alta Via dei Monti Liguri. 

La prima domanda e’ dovuta: quando e come sei entrato in contatto con la Val Trebbia?

La prima volta che sono andato in Val Trebbia è stato per la più classica delle gite, quasi “doverosa” per un genovese: una gita in compagnia di amici a Torriglia e al lago del Brugneto.

Avevi gia’ avuto modo di percorrere i sentieri della Val Trebbia ritratti nel tuo libro prima di eseguire il servizio?

Ho iniziato a fotografare in Val Trebbia, e quindi a interessarmi ai posti, alle persone e alla storia della valle, per la ricerca di luoghi, itinerari e soggetti che presentassero un certo interesse fotografico. Ho continuato a percorrerla poi, con un certo impegno, in occasione della realizzazione delle fotografie pubblicate nella guida ufficiale dell’ Alta Via dei Monti Liguri. L’Alta Via passa sui confini della valle nelle tappe dalla Scoffera, alla Sella della Giassina a Barbagelata, ma è raggiungibile dal fondovalle da alcuni sentieri di variante. Il libro è uscito nel 1999 ed è stato seguito da un Cd-rom multimediale nel 2000, di mia produzione e per conto dell’UnionCamere di Genova.

Antica mulattiera per il Monte Antola (credits: Enrico Pelos)

Sono poi tornato in Val Trebbia altre volte e negli ultimi mesi ho percorso alcuni itinerari descritti e fotografati nel mio nuovo libro Passeggiate a Levante, ovvero:

• Al Monte Antola da Casa del Romano
• Al Monte Antola da Bavastrelli
• Le fioriture del Pian della Cavalla
• Al presepe di Pentema da Torriglia
• L’anello del Lago del Brugneto,
• L’anello di Fontanigorda ai monti Gifarco e Roccabruna in Val Trebbia

Ci sono molte località che mi hanno colpito in modo particolare, ognuna per suoi aspetti peculiari. Non faccio nomi di paesi o città perchè dovrei forse citarle tutte facendo così torto a qualcuna, sia nella parte ligure che in quella piacentina. Cito allora alcuni posti: il monte Antola e il lago del Brugneto, il “Bosco delle Fate” di Fontanigorda, luogo “magico” e “stregato” tra faggi, castagni e rocce scure, tanto caro al grande poeta Giorgio Caproni che gli dedicò la famosa poesia Ballo a Fontanigorda, la zona dell’ex mulino di Trebbie Burche, le spettacolari anse del Trebbia, l’incontro con il fiume Aveto e poi i panorami dalle alture di Fontanarossa e di Zeppado.

Fontanigorda, il bosco delle fate (credits: Enrico Pelos)

Il sentiero che mi ha colpito di più è quello che porta da Fontanigorda alla vette dei monti Gifarco, con la curiosa spada di San Galgano sulla cima, e Roccabruna, dalle cui sommità si hanno, nelle giornate limpide, dei panorami eccezionali che spaziano sulla Val Trebbia, sulla Val d’Aveto e fino al mare. L’itinerario è molto interessante anche per le particolari conformazioni rocciose, geologiche, e le rilevanze naturalistiche che s’ incontrano lungo il percorso.

Hai mai pensato a un libro fotografico che ritragga i paesi della Val Trebbia e la vita quotidiana nelle diverse stagioni?

Si, e infatti l’ho già iniziato molti anni fa ma la bozza è ancora nel cassetto, pardon nel computer, con alcuni capitoli già scritti e fotografati e altri accennati che aspettano di essere sviluppati.

Il monte Gifarco e i suoi boschi multicolore (credits: Enrico Pelos)

Alcuni tuoi lavori sono stati esposti a Montebruno, puoi parlarci di questa mostra?

In Val Trebbia ho fatto tre mostre, tutte a Montebruno intorno agli anni 2000, grazie all’interessamento per le mie foto dello storico Giovanni Ferrero e all’entusiasmo di Federico Marenco, a quel tempo sindaco di Montebruno (e con il primato di più giovane sindaco italiano). Le mostre sono state organizzate nell’ambito delle celebrazioni per l’anniversario del volo sulla Val Trebbia di Sophie Blanchard. Giovanni Ferrero ha infatti pubblicato il libro Sophie Blanchard, Amazzone del Cielo e il sindaco ha curato l’organizzazione del festival Il Volo di Sophie Blanchard in Mongolfiera, che celebrava l’atterraggio a Montebruno di una delle prime donne della storia a volare in mongolfiera.

Mostra Alta Via dei Monti Liguri Montebruno (credits: Enrico Pelos)

Le mostre Vita e Cultura Lungo l’Alta Via dei Monti Liguri e Vie della Fede e dei Pellegrini in Liguria furono allestite, per una settimana e in due anni consecutivi, nell’ex refettorio del santuario di Montebruno, un bel salone a volte con un importante affresco dell’Ultima Cena. Il pubblico fu numeroso e interessato alle foto e agli argomenti che suggerivano al punto che la mostra sull’Alta Via, che in alcune foto ritraeva proprio i monti sorvolati dalla Blanchard vista dalla popolazione semplice di allora come un’ “apparizione”, venne ripresentata l’anno dopo e allestita nei locali messi a disposizione dal Comune.

Il pubblico alla mostra di Montebruno (credits Enrico Pelos)

Vista attraverso gli occhi di un fotografo, pensi che l’Alta Val Trebbia abbia un fascino particolare in quanto a paesaggio?

L’Alta Val Trebbia ha veramente un fascino particolare ed è una delle più belle valli della Liguria. Dai suoi monti si possono fotografare distese di boschi multicolori in autunno, panorami con paesini incastonati nei monti innevati d’inverno, splendide fioriture primaverili e aspetti estivi interessanti lungo i fiumi o il lago. Ma anche la gente può narrare molte storie interessanti e vale la pena di fermarsi e trascorrere un pò di tempo “fotografico” per ascoltare i loro racconti che possono darti suggerimenti, che non trovi su nessun libro, per fare delle belle fotografie. E poi per uno influenzato dai libri di Kerouac percorrere la Statale 45 è sempre un pò  un’ “esplorazione” o una “rivisitazione”, come per Caproni, e dietro ogni curva può esserci una sorpresa.

Il lago del Brugneto e il Monte Antola (credits: Enrico Pelos)

Quali sono i tuoi progetti futuri e i tuo sogni nel cassetto?

Forse un “Passeggiate a Levante II” se il mio libro incontra il gradimento da parte dei lettori e degli escursionisti. Una collaborazione a un libro su Genova e, come sogno nel cassetto, un libro fotografico di grande formato e per il quale ora devolverei parte del ricavato al fondo per gli alluvionati di Genova e delle Cinque Terre dopo gli eventi di questi giorni.

Links

http://www.enricopelos.it

http://passeggiatealevante.it

http://www.liguri.net/portappennini/

http://www.staglieno.it

Nota: fotografie del mulino di Costamaglio in loc. Trebbie Burche e foto al mulino a doppia ruota di Ottone e a quello di Calendasco (Piacentino) sono pubblicate ne Il mulino di Neirone (Lulu publishing, 2007),  foto di località della Val Trebbia sono presenti in Paesaggio Fotografico di Liguria (Italiano e inglese ed. Lulu Publishing 2006 ). Altre fotografie sono presenti sul web  sul Portale degli Appennini e dei Monti Liguri.

What does Val Trebbia look like seen through the eyes of an “outsider”? Photographer Enrico Pelos walked the ancient routes of Val Trebbia and documented its different landscapes in his foto-trekking publications Paesaggio Fotografico di Liguria, Passeggiate a Levante e in the guidebook Alta Via dei Monti Liguri. 

The first question is quite traditional: how and when did you discover Val Trebbia for the first time?

I visited  Val Trebbia for the first time on a trip with m friends, the classical trip (almost an obligation for a Genoese person) to Torriglia and lake Brugneto.

Did you already walk the routes of Val Trebbia portrayed in your book before shooting the pictures for it?

I started shooting in Val Trebbia, and become interested in its landscapes, people and history because I was looking for places, itineraries and subjects with a photographic interest and value. I continued my visits later while I was shooting the pictures published in the official guidebook Alta Via dei Monti Liguri. The Alta Via (high route) runs along the borders of the valley in the Scoffera, Sella della Giassina and Barbagelata stations of the walk, and can be reached from the bottom of the valley through some side paths. The book was published in 1999 and was followed by a multimedia CD in 2000 produced by me and supported by UnionCamere di Genova.

The old mule track to Monte Antola (credits: Enrico Pelos)

I then went back to Val Trebbia other times and in the last months I walked some of the itineraries described and portrayed in my new book Passeggiate a Levante, among those the routes to:

• Al Monte Antola da Casa del Romano
• Al Monte Antola da Bavastrelli
• Le fioriture del Pian della Cavalla
• Al presepe di Pentema da Torriglia
• L’anello del Lago del Brugneto,
• L’anello di Fontanigorda ai monti Gifarco e Roccabruna in Val Trebbia

There are many places which impressed me and they all have their distinctive features. I don’t want to name particular towns or villages because it would mean naming all of them and not making justice to some, both in the Liguria and Piacenza areas. I will just quote some sites: mount Antola and lake Brugneto, the “Bosco delle Fate” in Fontanigorda, a magic and bewitched place of chestnut, beech trees and dark rocks, all very dear to the great poet Giorgio Caproni who dedicated the famous poem Ballo a Fontanigorda to these woods, the area of the old mill at Trebbie Burche, the wonderful canyons of the river Trebbia, meeting the Aveto river and then the panoramic landscapes you can see from the top of Fontanarossa and Zeppado.

Fontanigorda, il bosco delle fate (credits: Enrico Pelos)

The route that impressed me the most is the one leading from Fontanigorda to the tops of mount Gifarco, with the peculiar sword of San Galgano on it, and Roccabruna, from whose top you can see, in sunny days, beautiful panoramas over Val Trebbia, Val d’Aveto and all the way to the sea. This route is very interesting also due to its peculiar rock formations, geological features and naturalistic elements.

Have you ever considered creating a photo book portraying the villages of Val Trebbia and their daily life in different seasons?

Yes and I started it already some years ago but the draft is still in my drawer, or better said in my computer, with some finished chapters and the relevant pictures while others are still waiting to be developed further.

Mount Gifarco and its symphony of colours (credits: Enrico Pelos)

Some of your works were on display in Montebruno, can you tell us something about this exhibition?

I organised three exhibitions in Val Trebbia, all of them in Montebruno around 2000 and thanks to the interest of historian Giovanni Ferrero and the enthusiasm of the former mayor Federico Marenco (who back then was the youngest mayor in Italy).  The exhibitions were organised in the frame of the events linked to the anniversary of the Sophie Blanchard‘s flight over Val Trebbia. Giovanni Ferrero published the book Sophie Blanchard, Amazzone del Cielo while the mayor organised the festival Il Volo di Sophie Blanchard in Mongolfiera, celebrating her landing in Montebruno. She was one of the first women to fly a hot air balloon.

The exhibition Alta Via dei Monti Liguri Montebruno (credits: Enrico Pelos)

The exhibitions Vita e Cultura Lungo l’Alta Via dei Monti Liguri and Vie della Fede e dei Pellegrini in Liguria were organised for one week, for two consecutive years, in the former canteen of the sanctuary in Montebruno, a beautiful room with arched ceilings and an important fresco depicting the Last Supper. Many visitors attended the exhibition and showed interest towards the pictures and the topics they portrayed. The response of the visitors was so good that the exhibition took place again the following year. Some of the pictures showed the mountains Blanchard flew over and it is worth noticing that the people who saw her back then thought of her as an apparition of the Madonna.

Visitors at the exhibition in Montebruno (credits Enrico Pelos)

Do you think Val Trebbia has a particular charme landscape-wise seen from the perspective of a photographer?

Alta Val Trebbia surely has a particular charm and is one of the most beautiful valleys of Liguria. From its mountaintops you can take pictures of multicolored woods in autumn, landscapes with tiny villages dotted in the snowy mountains like little pearls in winter, the beautiful blossoming of spring and interesting elements in summer all along the river banks or around the lake.  People too can tell you many interesting stories which are worth listening to because they can become source of that kind of inspiration, which you will not find in any book, that will allow you to shoot beautiful pictures. Then, for someone like me who is fascinated by Kerouac,  travelling along Route 45 is always a way to “explore” and “re-interpret” his books, as it was for Caproni, and a surprise can be hiding around every corner.

Lake Brugneto and Mount Antola (credits: Enrico Pelos)

What are your future projects and hidden dreams?

Perhaps a second volume of “Passeggiate a Levante” if my book meets the appreciation of the public and trekking lovers. Also a cooperation for a book about Genoa and, as a hidden dream, a big-sized photographic book whose earnings I would now partly give to the victims of the floods which hit Genoa and Cinque Terre in the past days.

Links

http://www.enricopelos.it

http://passeggiatealevante.it

http://www.liguri.net/portappennini/

http://www.staglieno.it

Note: pictures of the mill in Costamaglio in loc. Trebbie Burche and of the mill in Ottone and Calendasco (Piacentino) are published in the book Il mulino di Neirone (Lulu publishing, 2007),  other pictures of Val Trebbia are to be found in Paesaggio Fotografico di Liguria (Italian and English, ed. Lulu Publishing 2006 ). More pictures to be found on the website Portale degli Appennini e dei Monti Liguri.

In all the label worked with six Canadian hardcore bands on eight different releases. Here is the rundown:

ODS001 1998 – Ignorance Never Settles – Within the Vast Realms of Dying (split with Incision) 7″
ODS003 1999 – Confine – The Beginning of the End CD
ODS016 2002 – In Dying Days – Life As a Balancind Act CD
ODS023 2002 – Boys Night Out – Broken Bones and Bloody Kisses CD
ODS026 2003 – In Dying Days – After the Fire CD
ODS028 2003 – Jude the Obscure – The Coldest Winter CD (with Defiance Records)
ONR040 2006 – Rosesdead – Stages CD (with Black Box Recordings)
ONR042 2008 – Boys Night Out – Broken Bones and Bloody Kisses LP (with Forge Again Records)

So when you first formed the label, where were you located? And how far from the Canadian border was that?

The label was started in Williston Park, NY, which is located on Long Island. I believe it’s about 8 hours from the Canadian border.

Right because you were still in SkyCameFalling. Did you tour with the band to Canada?

Yes, we did one show on our very first tour in Ottawa. We booked the tour ourselves so we were pretty excited that we actually were able to go to play there.

Who played there, if you can recall? And did you see any other shows while up there at that moment?

It’s been quite a long time, so in all honesty if I named any bands it would just be me guessing. I am fairly certain that Matias, from Buried Inside, did the show. Unfortunately we were in and out so we did not have a chance to see much else. I remember being concerned about crossing the border.

Why is is that so many bands have problems crossing the border when they come and go from Canada? I constantly hear stories of memebers not passing through, more in the 90s than now. It would seem legit for a band to come play a show no?

We actually had heard a lot of stories so I think we were more scared than anything else. For the most part we used the excuse that we were just crossing through to Detroit every time but once. We tried to go the legal, working paper route on one occasion which unfortunately was the only time we were delayed several hours and almost denied. I assume they caught on to what bands were doing by sneaking in and playing and eventually tried to put a stop to it.

What was the first Canadian hardcore record you heard?

It was more than likely Chokehold “Content with Dying”.

That’s in the top 5 classics of Canadian hardcore. When you decided to do the Godlike Communication Group around 1997, you originally contacted Confine for a compilation. Did you also contact other Canadian bands for this?

I think I originally intended to release a compilation. I’m not sure exactly what bands I was hoping to include but I am pretty sure it was the first few artists from the original ODS releases like Ignorance Never Settles. A lot of the bands I communicated with was over vic-chat, which many of you remember as the Victory Records chat room. It’s where I first started talking with Mike Charette of INS.

They were going through their Bloodlet type of phase. And you were lucky enough to release their split with Incision. Did you find it funny that there was also a pre-Grade band also named Incision? It was a little confusing for me the first time I read about Incision, trying to figure out if there were actually two bands, one from the states and one from Canada, but the one from states was doing the split with the Canadian band…

I actually did not know about that Incision until after the split was released. I am not sure exactly how I became aware of it but I do remember seeing ads after the 7″ was already out for a re-released 12″.

Yes that was the Grade/Incision split in around 98-99 from Workshop Records. It was a vinyl issue of their second demo from 1993. What side of the split do you feel did better? Ignorance Never Settles or Incision? Were more copies sold in the mid-west or in Canada?

There were only 500 of the records pressed. Most of those copies I ended up trading with other labels rather than selling them. With the label being so new at the time and bands also being fairly new (at least in the states), I was really just trying to get the name out there.

I never actually heard early INS so I can’t really be sure exactly how that material stacked up against their earlier material. I was amazed by the Incision track as well as their demo. The INS material definitely reminded me of Bloodlet or bands of that ilk. The bands definitely complimented each other really well and I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

Both bands were really great indeed and matched perfectly. So in 1999 you once again contacted Confine about working with them. Did you also want to work with Avarice (who also shared a member of Ignorance Never Settles) as they had done the split with Confine that you loved oh so much!

I dont remember if I ever communicated with Avarice with the intent of releasing a record for them. I am not sure why exactly. I did like the split as well as their demo. Actually the first time I remember hearing Confine was on the split when Skycamefalling was staying at a house that Avarice had stayed at a few weeks earlier.

The Confine record you released actually featured four new songs and three songs from the mentioned split. Why did you or the band decide to have those on the CD rather than just have a short EP of only new songs?

I am not sure who suggested it or how it came to be but what I do recall is that the topic was the subject of some drama. I was under the impression that the label who released the split, Red Star Records, had given the okay for the tracks to be used. Years later I came to find out that they had not. I never communicated directly with them which was obviously my fault as well so it was definitely a bummer when I learned that they were upset about the situation. I am sure the record would have been fine with just the new tracks. I dont think there were any ulterior motives.

In 2002 you released In Dying Day’s second EP “Life As a Balancing Act”. How did you first hear about this band? Was it because they released their first EP on Re-Define Records, who were supposed to release the last Confine EP in 2000?

Yes, it definitely was through the Re-Define EP. I was really impressed with them and contacted them almost immediately after hearing it. I was already friendly with Phil who was also in A Death For Every Sin. Phil explained to me that they were thinking about signing with Good Life when I offered to release a record for them.

That’s right, they had a live performance featured on one of the GoodLife videotape compialtions.

I think they also had a song released on one of the Good Life samplers too.

You think they were enjoyed in the states, or most of the records were sold in Canada?

I know they had quite following in Canada. I definitely think the first EP gave them quite a bit of exposure here in the states. Unfortunately the crossing the border for touring was always troublesome so they definitely were not able to tour as much as they could have. Still, I definitely think they were poised for something great. It’s a shame they never reached that point.

Boys Night Out only had their EP “You Are My Canvas” prior to you releasing their first ep “Broken Bones and Bloody Kisses”. How did you catch their breeze and what made you want to sign them up?

Scott Sheridan, singer of Blue Skies Burning, who helped me out with the label from time to time, happened to hear of them. He sent me the links to check them out and honestly I was floored. There was something about them that was really unique. At the time the whole singing/screaming thing really hadn’t caught on and the fact they blended it more pop/punk with hardcore and dark imagery really appealed to me.

I instantly called Ferret after contacting them and he was just as floored as I was. So we worked out a deal that they would sign to Ferret and ODS at the same time.

That’s really cool! I didn’t it was done at the same time! How did the release of “Broken Bones and Bloody Kisses” come through?

Well I emailed the band and we chatted on the phone. Once Ferret heard You Are My Canvas he was on board so we set up a show for them in NY and they came down and played and we all agreed on an ep with ODS and full length(s) with Ferret.

I had them come down to Long Island to record at a studio here. I picked the 3 songs for them to re-recorded since I really loved those tunes and they recorded 3 new ones they had written.

How many pressings of that album have been made over time?

Somewhere around 10,000 I think, give or take a few thousand. It was by far ODS most successful release.

In 2003 IDD were ready for their last EP “After the Fire”. How did that go down?

IDD was already breaking up which I was bummed about. They had a pretty big buzz going at the time, they played Hellfest. But getting into the states and touring was always tough. So that side of things never came together. And in my opinion, it really slowed that buzz down. They had the tracks written and asked if I would be into releasing them. I really loved the band so I agreed. We did one pressing and much like any release that comes out after a band is broken up, it was a slower seller. But I am happy I did the release.

I gotta tell you, the first time I heard the next release, Jude the Obscure’s album “The Coldest Winter”, I was blown away. Canada really had the best noisecore/mathcore bands. Apart from Dillinger Escape Plan and The Chariot, we had it all in the 2000s (Spread the Disease, Maharahj, Buried Inside, The End, The Abandoned Hearts Club, The Separation Suicide, etc)! How did you first hear of JTO?

JTO was first introduced to me by Portland who worked for Ferret. They had received a demo from Jude and didn’t really have the time/money to work with a new band so they sent it my way and I was blown away by it.

The album was recorded before you signed them?

Yup. It came together pretty quickly once their signing was announced to the actual release.

I believe this was the first time you co-operated with another record label to release an album? It was pressed and distributed by Defiance Records in Europe?

Right. Defiance and I were always sharing new releases. They were good guys and I really loved a few bands on the label. They came to visit in the states and we met up. I gave them a Jude record and they loved it so they asked if they could release it in Europe, which I agreed to.

Alright now Rosesdead’s album is actually my all time favorite Canadian album. Its such a masterpiece! They were already signed with BlackBox Recordings when you co-released their album “Stages” with them, how did you get involved in the picture?

Well I was a huge fan of Fordirelifesake, and when I found out Wedge was doing another band I contacted him. They put me in touch with BlackBox and I asked to license the record for an official release in the states. I loved that record. Definitely another one of my favorites. There is a certain feeling that record conveys.

The last thing you released from a Canadian band was the LP reissue of Broken Bones. This was after the band had broken up, what made you decide to reissue this?

So Justin from Forge Again always wanted to release BNO on vinyl and I guess he attempted to contact both Ferret and ODS some time ago. Unfortunately for whatever reason, we never actually ended up discussing it and Ferret was not really licensing their records for vinyl anyway. So when Justin and I actually did sync up, we decided to release it together. We took advantage of a deal that United had for vinyl, which basically was a set number of records on any color vinyl they picked and we went with that for a pretty limited run.

So what was the pressing info for that release?

First press was around 500. Then there was a second press which included some 180g copies and a few other colors.

Thanks for this great interview Chris! Any last words on working with Canadian bands?

Canada always has always been churning out some incredible bands. I feel fortunate to have released those records and worked with those bands. I am excited to hear what the next generation of bands will sound like.

The Redstar catalog:

RSR001 Garbagedrink – Storyforest CD (1995)
RSR002 Avarice – Demo tape (1997)
RSR003 Avarice/Confine – split CD (1998)
RSR004 The Sound and the Fury comp CD (1999)
RSR005 Dead to the World/Kid Gorgeous – split CD (2000)
RSR006 Darker Day Tomorrow – No Sleep in Forty Days CD (2000)
RSR007 Budget Sampler: It’s All About the Money comp CD (2001) with Goodfellow and Surprise Attack

Let me start out this interview by saying that it’s a huge pleasure to finally do this, after trying to trace you down for a couple years now! Redstar was an amazing record label! What is the origin of Redstar Records, and how did you guys come together?

Brendan and I met in high school in Hamilton. He played drums in the school jazz band and in a couple of indie rock bands. He was acquainted with some friends of mine, and we met through them. Hamilton has a great indie scene – everyone sort of knows everyone – so it was inevitable that we met, and that’s how it happened. In terms of founding the label, Brendan founded it with his indie rock band so they could release a CD. The name of the label was a not so veiled reference to communism. Basically, each person, through pre-ordering a CD, would communally pay for a large percentage of the record’s manufacturing costs and, in return, they would get two additional CDs to sell to some other friends who, hopefully, didn’t go to our school. If they sold their two CDs, they’d get their initial investment back, and people in other places would know about the band/label. It was a communal idea with a capitalist kick in the ass. But it worked out well for them. For small labels, “worked out well” meant you approached breaking even. That’s what you hoped for.

In the next few years, as Brendan was involved more and more in the hardcore scene, and in playing in hardcore bands, he wanted to have a label to release this music. I pointed out that he already had one, though it hadn’t been used for a while. In the meantime, we were running a distro through Sonic Unyon Records that sold hardcore records at shows and by mail order, and we needed a name for that too, so we used the old name and moved into a new genre. The label was something I could contribute to. I had time to do it. I wasn’t in a band and have no musical talent. Brendan worked, played drums in Avarice and Ignorance Never Settles, and commuted to and from the University of Guelph. I was just working and going to McMaster. Our first release was a demo tape for Avarice, and then we put out a split CD for Avarice and a band from Oakville called Confine.

The Avarice demo is now a forgotten release, mainly for the reason that it was so horribly recorded (according to the band), and you mentioned that it was a very DIY type of release. How did you and Brendan team up for this tape release? How many copies were made?

The demo WAS badly recorded. It was done in a studio in downtown Hamilton that a guy ran out of his basement. We could barely load all of the equipment down there. It was tiny. The guy who ran it ended up specializing in hardcore bands, not that he intended to, and not that he wanted to, but his equipment was so bad and his room was so small, that the only music that could even begin to hide the poor recording quality had to be loud, thrashy, screamy, and heavy. A lot of incredible music came out of that place. Left for Dead recorded all of their songs there. Chokehold recorded their Tooth and Nail 7″ there. Haymaker did some of their stuff there. Ignorance Never Settles recorded their demo there which, remixed and remastered, became the split CD with Mark of the Devil, and the song for their split 7″ with Incision also came out of that session. It’s too bad, because all of the songs on all of those records were great, and they would have benefited from better production – although it’s hard to say that anything about those Left for Dead songs could be improved. But the studio was incredibly cheap, and bands could do a lot of takes and not have to worry about how much it was going to cost, so it was a great place for bands to go, which is likely the only reason anyone went there – aside from it being local.

I think we made about a hundred copies of the demo, at the most. We had some CD-Rs of the songs made, and then we dubbed all of the tapes on as many tape decks as we could get our hands on. Brendan and I did as many as we could at our houses, and the guys from Avarice were dubbing them too. It was a collective effort that took a long time. We did the typical handmade, photocopied black and white inserts – totally inspired by the Left for Dead demo, on the same brand of cassettes they used too – and just kept making them and selling them as they played shows. We did the layout on a really slow computer and it took ages. Brendan found the cover photo in a book of photography documenting the casualties of the two World Wars and we really liked it, so we scanned it and he modified it in Photoshop.

Most of the songs on that tape were good songs, and the band re-recorded many of them for the split CD with Confine. When Brendan and R.J. recorded the Avarice songs for the split 7” with Daemon’s Jaded Passion, from Germany, they re-recorded another song from the demo so, in the end, there was only one song on the demo that wasn’t re-recorded, because it was the worst song on it. So it didn’t make sense to make the demos anymore. Why would anyone want poorly recorded, slower, sloppier versions of the songs when better ones were available?

I saw on a very early design of the Avarice/Confine split cd the label was spelled “Red Star Records”, and it also had the catalog number of “CD 001″. Was there some changes of the spelling of the label name during its run? And how come the original design was labeled as “CD 001″ while the released one was “CD-3″? Why was this artwork never used?

The label was always Redstar Records – spelled that way – so the spelling on the early design was a mistake. In terms of the catalogue number of 001, that was also a mistake. When Gordie Ball, who played guitar in Confine, and James Hamilton, who later went on to do Re-Define Records, did the layout for the CD, they weren’t aware that Redstar had already released an indie rock record, or that our first hardcore release – admittedly amateurish – was the cassette we did for Avarice. The Avarice/Confine split CD was our third release, so we asked them to change that.

The early design wasn’t used because, frankly, a couple of the guys in Avarice didn’t like it. I think Gordie did the artwork for the cover, and James did the layout, but what we ended up with was so much better, I’m happy we didn’t use the early design. James and Gordie were a bit frustrated to go back to the drawing board, but they did a great job on the second layout and, from a design perspective, it is much more unique and creative. The first design was pretty plain, and it was similar to a lot of things in the scene in those days, but the second one is aesthetically more professional. Gordie’s sketch on the final layout is darker, and we really liked what James did with it. Those two guys are really creative people. Back then, Gordie was a solid guitarist, a great artist, and a terrific photographer, and he’s probably even better now. James is a computer genius. Literally. And he’s one of the most creative people I know. He can paint, draw, you name it. The nicest, kindest, most sincere person you’ll ever meet.

The split with Confine and Avarice was incredibly well received both in Canada and the states as well as Europe, getting Confine signed to OneDaySavior and Avarice to Alveran. How do you look back on this fantastic release? There was also some issue with three Confine songs that were reused on their OneDaySavior album “The Beginning of the End”?

The record WAS well received and, please don’t take this the wrong way, but we knew it would be. The songs were recorded by Fred Betschen in Buffalo, New York. This was a huge step forward for both bands. Fred had recorded so many great hardcore bands – Snapcase, Slugfest, Zero Tolerance, Brother’s Keeper, Despair – so Avarice and Confine were really excited to work with him. Acacia had just recorded their Untune the Sky EP for Goodfellow Records with Fred, and SeventyEightDays were working with him on their Trustkill Records EP, Revolution Through Anonymity, and when we heard those records, we knew that our bands would be well-suited to his production style, and we couldn’t wait to hear what he’d do with their songs. When we heard the recordings for the first time, we were blown away and we knew we had a great record in our hands. We couldn’t wait to get them back from the pressing plant. That was always simultaneously the best and worst part about running a record label. When you got the copies from the pressing plant, you were always thrilled. We always had good experiences with that. But waiting to get the records? Torture.

We knew that the CD was a quality release, but we were definitely surprised at how quickly we sold them. We pressed 1000, and we sent them all over the place. Chris Logan at Goodfellow Records was our hugest supporter, and our most valuable ally. He had lists and lists of contacts at distributors all over the world, and we shipped boxes of records to anyone he recommended. We didn’t get ripped off by anyone on that first CD, and we learned to trust the people in the scene to help us out. And they did. Overwhelmingly. Sadly, as time went on, things didn’t stay that way, but it was a great initial experience – completely positive. The bands played a lot of shows, and did some small tours, and they sold a lot of records themselves. Everyone who runs a label wants their bands to tour more, but we were pleased with what they did, and we couldn’t support them financially in any way, so wherever they could play, whenever they could play, was really a bonus for us. We did some advertising in zines, but only if they promised to review the record, and we made up some flyers to hand out at shows, and we sent out some tapes of the CD for college radio play. Our distributors sold the records quickly. The reviews certainly helped, and the advertising didn’t hurt, but we certainly didn’t expect orders for the CD to come in from all over Europe and South America – even Australia. But word gets out in the hardcore scene, and that’s what happened with that record. I don’t think we could have done better. Selling a thousand CDs was a good accomplishment. It was our first professional release, and we knew a lot of bigger, established labels didn’t sell that many copies of some of their records, so we were happy.

The thing with Confine re-releasing three songs on the Beginning of the End CD they did for OneDaySavior was that they pretty much killed our CD off. We were hoping to repress that record, and to keep it in our catalogue going forward, which we would have done had Confine not re-recorded those songs, or had Avarice not broken up. But, that being said, Confine paid for their own recording, so they were free to do what they wanted, but we were disappointed that they didn’t really talk to us very much about it beforehand. It seemed like it was a done deal by the time we heard about it. I wasn’t angry with them. I understood their position. They wanted a solid record that they could tour behind, and that would stay in print, and they got one. I was, however, quite angry with Chris Tzompanakis at OneDaySavior because he didn’t ask us, or even talk to us about it at all. He was re-releasing three songs from our record to beef up what was essentially an EP for his label, which meant that he could sell it for a higher price and it wouldn’t cost him a cent to do that. It would make pure profit for his label. I thought that was pretty unethical, and he didn’t see it that way, and we were involved in a fairly heated e-mail exchange that lasted some time, but, in the end, he sent us some free copies of his records, and we sold them, and that was that. In hindsight, the irony, of course, is that Confine was about to break up anyway, and the title of their record pretty much summed it up. So it was much ado about nothing, because we wouldn’t have repressed the CD either way, as things turned out. It’s a shame that Confine wasn’t able to release the CD they recorded after The Beginning of the End. Neil, Sparky, Gordie – nice people in a great band. If anyone has a copy of that record, or if it’s floating around online someplace, I’d love to hear it.

Now the next release for Redstar was the mind blowing compilation “The Sound and the Fury”, which features one of the most amazing line-ups I’ve ever seen: Another Victim, As We Once Were, Avarice, Chokehold, Chore, Dead Season, Dead to the World, The Death of Us, Every Time I Die, From Here On, Ignorance Never Settles, Kid Gorgeous, Left Behind, SeventyEightDays, Sinclaire, Sinsick, Subsist, The Swarm aka Knee Deep in the Dead and Withdrawn! How did a masterpiece like this come together!? And who was the band that did the bonus song at the end?

The compilation was a huge leap for us. We weren’t just releasing Brendan’s music anymore, although two of his bands are on the compilation. Since you asked, the band that recorded the bonus song for us was The Swarm. They gave us that as a special treat and we thought it was hilarious. The compilation was also the first time I took a bigger hand in the label, as I’d made a lot of contacts with the bands by doing shows in Hamilton and by distributing the Avarice/Confine CD. We’d done the first Every Time I Die show, in Hamilton with Buried Alive headlining and Kid Gorgeous as support, so that’s how those bands got involved. They recorded blistering songs. We were floored by them. And Chris Logan liked Pincushion so much, he signed Every Time I Die for Goodfellow immediately after he heard it the first time, as soon as we got the CD-R in the mail, and he released The Burial Plot Bidding War EP for them shortly afterward. Buried Alive were going to give us an old demo song, and we were really excited about that, but even though Scott Vogel really pushed for us, the other guys in the band didn’t want to release the song. Then they were going to record a cover song, but that didn’t materialize either. That was the only disappointment with the record. We’d done a lot of shows for them, and they were easily my favourite hardcore band at the time – it would have been incredible to have them on it.

But we got Another Victim to do it – they’d played a show in Hamilton with Endeavor and they gave us a song, even though we didn’t know them very well. That would change, obviously, when we got the opportunity to do the Darker Day Tomorrow record, and then we got to know a lot of people in Syracuse. Avarice went back to Fred Betschen and recorded a song with their new lineup, but with Chris Colohan from Left for Dead/The Swarm doing the vocals, and that is one of my favourite songs on there. Sinsick was basically the Burst of Silence guys giving it another go, and they were a short-lived Hamilton band. We met Dead to the World through Mike Charette of Ignorance Never Settles, and they played a show with Disciple in Hamilton, and we became close friends with their drummer, Mike Jeffers – the hardest working man in hardcore. Period.

From Here On sent us a CD-R, looking for a label, but by the time we got around to writing them about it, they’d already broken up. Some of those guys went on to form Between the Buried and Me, and they signed to Victory, selling a ton of records. But they said we could use a song, and the song we picked was absolutely crushing. There are so many great songs on that record. The Swarm track, Lament, is my favourite song they ever recorded, and the Subsist track is an epic metal masterpiece. The Chokehold song was ancient, and pretty bad to be honest, but a lot of people liked it and we got a lot of letters about how happy people were to hear them record a Breakdown song. Chris only gave us that so we could sell more CDs, and we appreciated it. Europeans love Chokehold, and they ordered the record like crazy. We got money orders from all over the place because of that song. I know Chris hated the song, and Jeff Beckman was disgusted with it, but it helped us a lot. We also wanted a new SeventyEightDays song, or an unreleased one, but they had already broken up, and they didn’t have anything in the vault, so Chris gave us a previously released one, as the Canvas EP was already out of print, and it was the title track and the best song on that CD.

The Dead Season, Chore, and Sinclaire songs are out of place on what is basically a metal record, but I love those songs. They were well-recorded flawless rockers. Sinclaire signed to Sonic Unyon shortly after that, and Chore got an offer to demo some songs for Revelation Records because of their song, but they stuck with Sonic Unyon. They didn’t like hardcore and they weren’t a hardcore band. But they are one of my favourite bands, and they deserved to be much more successful than they were. As a side note, they recently reunited, just for fun, and played their two biggest shows ever – opening for Alexisonfire and Wintersleep.

I did the layout for the compilation with Sandy McIntosh at Sonic Unyon, and it took a long time. I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but we had a lot of ideas and we finally came up with something we were happy with. Brendan was in Guelph, e-mailing suggestions, and we mastered the record with my friend Toby on his computer in his parents’ attic. It was all totally DIY. We did everything ourselves with that record. Everything. We had a record release show at a two-day festival in Oakville at a community centre. Many bands on the compilation played that show, doing the songs from the record, and I think we sold 150 of them in two days there – maybe even more. We sold out of it quickly. We ordered 1000, but ended up with 1120, and we sold every single one of them. We thought about repressing it, but so many of the bands had released the songs, or had plans to release the songs, on records of their own, so as much as we would have liked to keep the CD in print, it just didn’t make sense.

But, at this point, the distributors we had were working really well for us, and we were lucky to know so many honest people. Tim and Mark at Sonic Unyon hooked us up with a pressing deal that saved us a lot of money, and we were fortunate to know them too. We ended up renting an office in their building – they gave us a huge break on the rent – and we shared it with Goodfellow Records. My parents were happy I was moving all of those boxes out of our basement, and Brendan’s parents had stuff stashed away at their place too. Chris and I started working at Sonic Unyon around then as well. At the time, it seemed like we lived in that building. We worked at Sonic Unyon during the day and at our own labels at night, helping each other with whatever we could. And Brendan was there on the weekends working away too. We had a lot of fun together doing that stuff.

Two bands from the compilation, Kid Gorgeous and Dead to the World did a split for Redstar in 2000. How was this split received and how did it compare to the Avarice/Confine split? I also read that there was supposed to be a special edition repress of this split in 2001 that featured an additional song from each band, was this ever released?

That CD was another successful one. We ordered 1000, and I think we got 1100 or so. We sold all of them. It was well received. It got good reviews in all of the magazines that reviewed it. I’m not sure how to compare it to the Avarice/Confine split CD. I did the layout for this one again, again working with Sandy, and I took a lot of photos for it, so it was more in-house, in terms of my involvement with it. Fred Betschen played a part in it, as with the Avarice/Confine split. He mastered the record, and he did a great job with it. He also recorded the Dead to the World songs. Kid Gorgeous recorded their half with Doug White at Watchmen Studios, who’d also worked with some heavy hitters: Another Victim, Buried Alive, Every Time I Die, Disciple. The record sounded slick. Both producers were always good. You could depend on them to deliver a quality recording. We were pleased with the way everything came together with that CD.

Kid Gorgeous was a solid band, and Brendan and I liked them a lot, but they didn’t get many shows outside of their area, until much, much later, and by then they’d already replaced their drummer twice, and their vocalist once, and I think a guitar player or bassist – or maybe both. It’s a shame too, because they had the chops to be a bigger band. But, I have to tell you, my favourite experience from that record, and from running Redstar, was getting to know Mike Jeffers, the drummer from Dead to the World. He played drums in Union before Dead to the World, so he was no stranger to touring and to working hard. He is a true hardcore kid through and through. His work ethic is incredible. They toured behind that split CD non-stop. They played everywhere and anywhere they could. Every weekend they were off someplace. They sold more records for us than any other band we had on our label. I mean, we always sold out of everything we pressed, but they sold a lot on their own, aside from what we moved through selling records at shows, through our distributors and through mail orders. It was a big help to us at the time. If every band was made up of guys like Mike Jeffers, running a label would be a piece of cake. He was always appreciative of whatever we did for them. We did a lot for that record. We did a lot of press, a lot of radio, and we advertised it in a lot of magazines. It was distributed by every major distributor at the time, and by a lot of minor ones. You could get it anywhere. Mike found it in huge record chains all over the place when they were touring. He was so pleased with that. But, sadly, not everyone is like Mike. So many bands think it’s up to you to sell their records, and not up to the band at all. Their job stops at recording. Once the record comes out, it’s up to you. What nonsense. And then they’re on you to print posters for them, and stickers, and shirts, and who knows what other stuff, but they don’t tour, they don’t play many shows, and you can’t argue with them. What’s the point? This always frustrated Chris at Goodfellow too, because Chokehold was in a van every time they had the chance. It paid off for them. It’s sad that Dead to the World couldn’t maintain a solid line-up. They had three or four different vocalists, and I don’t know how to even guess at how many guitarists and bassists they’d replaced before Mike finally packed it in. When their LP came out on Stillborn Records, the label run by Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed, they got a lot of good press, and they could have been a bigger band than they were if they’d just been able to keep it together. Poor Mike. He had a chance with that band, but he couldn’t keep people working as hard as he did. And we certainly knew what that felt like.

About your last question, we may have planned a special edition of that record, but I’m not sure we would have actually gone forward with it. My memory of this is hazy at best. I think Dead to the World had already broken up, and Mike had already formed his new band, Herod, by that time. Kid Gorgeous had already signed to Uprising Records, and they were going to do a big tour for their new CD, so perhaps we thought they might have sold more of our CDs if we re-released it, but I can’t imagine we would have done that. We might have re-pressed the original version of the record so they could take it with them, but I’m not sure that we would have done even that. We were already working on the new Darker Day Tomorrow CD by that point. I assume Kid Gorgeous would have recorded any new songs they had for their Uprising CD. We may have floated around the idea of including each band’s songs from The Sound and the Fury compilation on an updated version of the split CD, but that would have meant that each band would have had to re-do the vocals on those songs with their new vocalists, as both bands had already replaced them by this time, and to include a song from each band with a different singer than the ones featured on the original version of the CD would have been terribly confusing for any listener. We also would have had to make a new master plate for the CD, and we would have had to make new films for new artwork, so although I think we may have talked about doing that, I’m not sure it would have made financial sense to do it. Especially with Dead to the World dead to the world..

“No Sleep in Forty Days” was the only full length album (apart from the indie band) released by Redstar. Was there a special approach to this?

Yes, it was our only full-length album. Darker Day Tomorrow had already released a short EP on Alone Records. It had three songs on it, and a short interlude. Brendan and I liked the idea of split CDs because, essentially, you got a full-length record with two bands on it for only a few more bucks than an EP. When you got an EP, it was nice because bands made sure they recorded their best songs for it – think of Burnt by the Sun’s self-titled EP, or Dillinger Escape Plan’s Under The Running Board, or Disciple’s No Blood, No Altar Now – great records, but, unfortunately, an EP was always nearly the same price as a full CD, and it was only half the length. Plus, from a label point of view, if you released a split CD and one band broke up, you still had one band to sell the CD for you – which wasn’t possible with an EP. And, in hardcore, bands were breaking up all of the time, so this made a lot of sense to us. You can see what I mean from the other split CDs we did…

But getting back to Darker Day Tomorrow, their first CD was actually only their demo tape re-released on a CD with new artwork, so they were looking to do a full-length. I’d known Tony from when he played drums in Another Victim, and I bumped into him at a few shows in Buffalo and Syracuse, and he gave me a copy of their demo. I really liked it, and I thought it would be great to work with him, because he was another guy like Mike Jeffers – he’d been around the scene for a long time and he knew about working hard. He’d played in a lot of bands and he knew the ropes. He is another stand up guy. Always appreciative of everything you did for his band. He told me that he thought we worked his band harder than any other label he’d worked with before, and he’d worked with some big ones before us in his other bands. That was a huge compliment. The other guys in his band were creative, and they were really smart, socially aware people. They had great ideas for the record. They were professional to work with. They did an intro and an outro on the record, which was pretty cool for a hardcore record. We loved the songs on that CD and it was a progression from the Damnation-esque songs they had on their demo, although you could obviously still hear that influence behind what they were doing. That seemed to echo in a lot of what was going on in Syracuse then. But on No Sleep in Forty Days they used a lot of different guitar effects, probably inspired by Earth Crisis I’d imagine, and we were thrilled when we got the CD-R. I mentioned before that Doug White recorded it, and we were happy, as always, with his work.

I read that you had t-shirts made for this release? Was it the only merch made, and was this the only time you made merch for a band on the label?

In terms of your second question, we did make shirts for them for this record, and we made stickers and posters too. We pushed that record harder than we’d pushed anything before it because people knew these guys were in good bands before, so they were interested in seeing what their new band was doing, and we knew they would be. Distributors ordered more consignment copies of that record than any of our previous records, and they sold them more quickly than any of our others. I think the music on the record was a huge reason for this. They were older guys and experienced musicians. We also knew a lot more about what WE were doing by this time, and our contacts were well-established and we had more of them by then. Dead to the World sold way more records on the road than Darker Day Tomorrow did, but Darker Day Tomorrow sold more records through our distributors. But DDT also played some big shows with bigger bands, and the word got out about them too. Mike Jeffers talked us up to Tony at a show in Buffalo, and he called me afterward, saying, “You have to fucking sign these guys. They played here last night and they were great.” So that was that. In any case, we sold out of their initial pressing of 1200 copies, but they ended up breaking up pretty quickly after their next record came out on Lifeforce Records, so there wouldn’t have been any point in repressing that one. Do you see a pattern developing?

Back to the second part of your question, we had made a few t-shirts for Avarice, but we didn’t make merch for Kid Gorgeous or Dead to the World, aside from some giveaway stickers promoting the CD. Dead to the World made their own merch because Mike knew their band would make more money that way. And they did. They had so many different shirt designs, and all different kinds of merch. That was all Mike. The business-minded hardcore kid with the work ethic to do it all. I’m not sure if Kid Gorgeous had their own merch when that CD came out. I’m sure they must have had some at some point, but I honestly don’t remember. We also made shirts and stickers for the label. We sold a lot of those shirts. I don’t know how many.

When and who came up with the idea of the 3-way split-label compilation “It’s All About the Money”? Which of the bands on the compilation came from Redstar, and what was the goal with this sampler? The majority of the material was non-exclusive, or was planned to be released by the labels in the future correct?

The compilation you’re talking about was a low-budget sampler that we did with Goodfellow Records and Surprise Attack Records from Erie, Pennsylvania. We all came up with the idea together. We’d talked about doing it for a long time, as we wanted to work together on a project. Eric had always distributed our records, and Goodfellow records, in the States, and Chris, Brendan and I had distributed his records here. At the time, we were still looking to get wider exposure for our labels and bands, and we thought selling a cheap sampler CD, charging enough to basically cover our costs, was the best way to do that. It was a CD in a plastic sleeve with a black and white glossy CD insert – the typical one fold CD booklet. It was much cheaper for us to press the CDs and booklets separately and stuff all of CDs into the bags ourselves, so that’s what we did. And, yes, it took a long time to do it that way, but it saved us money, so we did it. I did the layout for that with Sandy again, and everyone was pleased with it. I loved how clean and simple it looked. We used photos that a hardcore kid took that he posted on his photography website, and he was happy to have his art on someone’s record.

We didn’t sell them through our distributors, as mailing them out would have cost us too much. We gave them to our bands to sell, we dropped them off at local record stores, and we sold the majority of them at shows. We sold most of them to people standing in line outside, waiting to get in to see bands play. It’s embarrassing to say, but I’ll admit that sometimes we didn’t even go to the shows at all. We kept boxes of the CDs in the trunk, and if we saw metal dudes waiting around to get into some show, we’d grab a box and try our luck. It was only two bucks, in Canada that’s only one coin, so most people were willing to take a chance on it. It worked well for all three labels – we certainly had more visitors to our websites – and we did sell more records via mail order following its release. The title, It’s All About the Money, was a reference to the fact that we were selling them so cheaply, we wouldn’t make anything at all by doing it. But it was cheap advertising – better than doing expensive ads in magazines, that’s for sure. I can’t remember how many we pressed, but I think it was 3000 – a thousand for each label.

All of the songs on that CD were on records that had just come out on our labels, or that were coming out soon. We were excited to have a new Poison The Well song on it, as they were absolutely huge then. Trustkill was cleaning up with their records. I’m sure that’s one of the main reasons we sold so many of those sampler CDs. And, the funny thing is, I don’t think they ever ended up releasing the 7” they were supposed to release with Eric. I think it was supposed to be a split 7” with Throwdown, actually, but I don’t think it happened. The Redstar bands were the ones on our label I’ve already mentioned, except for The Swarm. We took their song from The Sound and the Fury compilation CD we’d released. They weren’t ever on our label, but not for lack of trying. We talked to Chris Colohan about releasing a CD of all of their vinyl-only releases and compilation tracks, but he said he thought Var at No Idea should do that, if anyone was going to do it, and we agreed, as he had done a lot for them, and he had spent a lot of money on The Swarm. But I don’t think that CD ever came out either. I wish it would have. I have digitized versions of those songs that I downloaded someplace, but they don’t sound very good…

After both splits and the full-length sold out, and both of those compilations doing extremely well, the label ended? How did it end? Were there any releases that were supposed to come out but didn’t?

The label ended for a number of reasons. The first nail in the coffin was that Brendan’s new band broke up very abruptly. After Avarice and Ignorance Never Settles finished, he formed a new band called Funerary. That was an amazing band. He played drums, Chris from SeventyEightDays/Chokehold was on vocals, Christian McMaster of The Swarm/Left for Dead played guitar, as did R.J. from Avarice/Ignorance Never Settles, and Tom Piriano, soon to be a founding member of Cursed, played bass. They played metal influenced hardcore. We were listening to a lot of At The Gates, Carcass (Heartwork-era), In Flames, Soilwork, Meshuggah, Converge, and a bunch of other metal bands – and Logan had just signed a similar sounding band, Shogun, to Goodfellow. But Funerary was great. Really technical. But they broke up, and Christian was already playing in Haymaker, so that was that. Brendan was upset. He’d put a lot of work into that band. And the other guys were upset too, especially Chris. He said it was the best band he’d ever been in, and he wrote good lyrics for those songs. I know he would have loved it if the band kept going. I was disappointed too because Redstar was going to release their first record – it was going to be a five or six song EP – and then they were going to see where that took them. They probably could have done a record for any label back then. They had the talent, that’s for sure. Obviously that didn’t end up happening. Redstar also had plans to release a full-length CD for Rise Over Run, who’d just released a split CD with Society’s Finest on Goodfellow (Chris already had a full release schedule planned and bands he’d committed to, so he couldn’t do it for them), but we didn’t have the drive to do anything after Funerary broke up, and they were fine with that. They ended up releasing that CD on Ironclad Records, which was run by one of the guys in Unearth, so it was probably better for them anyway. They also broke up soon after.

Around this time, I stopped working full-time at Sonic Unyon because I got a full-time job teaching English and History, and that job, between preparing lessons and marking papers, left very little time for anything else. I’d always wanted to teach, and I wanted to do a good job with that, and if you want to do a good job doing that, you have to put in a lot of time. I certainly did. Brendan was on his way, or soon would be on his way, to do his Masters Degree in Engineering at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and he was going to have his hands full with that. As you can probably imagine, that’s a pretty tough task. We talked about the future of the label, and it seemed like it made sense to pack it in, but I guess we didn’t conclusively decide that. I sent out an e-mail to everyone we’d worked with letting them know that we were calling it a day, and then Brendan sent me an e-mail saying he was planning to continue the label on his own. I didn’t have a problem with that. I was happy he was going to do it. It was his label at the beginning, after all. He wrote me a cheque from his line of credit for the small balance I had on my line of credit, and he started to make plans for the next release, which was going to be a CD for a band called At The Mercy of Inspiration, which played music inspired by the same bands Funerary was inspired by – Tom from Funerary was also in that band – but Brendan didn’t end up releasing their CD. I’m not sure who released it. I think someone did. Brendan ended up selling the rest of the stock we had, and that was the end of the label. It made sense to stop then. Chris was doing really well with Goodfellow Records by that time, and he had a lot of releases planned, and we were happy for him. We still went to shows and we helped Chris whenever and however we could, and I still worked here and there at Sonic Unyon in the summer and on the odd weekend when they needed someone to work in the store, so we were still contributing to things. I still did shows occasionally, including a few for our friends in The Swarm when they started Cursed, and for Tony from Darker Day Tomorrow when he started The Funeral, and for Mike Jeffers when he started Herod. It was great to help old friends. Why wouldn’t you?

During my stay there, I got sick with fever, cough, and colds (why do they always, always have to come together?) due to lack of sleep and fatigue. Add that to the fact that I’m not eating a lot lately because my appetite went MIA.

Anyway, things happen for a reason right? And these are what I learned:

1. It takes compassion to take care of sick people.

You don’t have to be in the medical field to nurse someone back to health.

2. Grandparents are special people.

They’re old, they’re fragile but they will appreciate the small things you do for them. They’re acting like a child all the time and they need comfort. Remember, they were the ones who took good care of us when we were kids, it’s time we give the gesture back to them.

3. Nurses are cool.

And some of them can be really good friends. And some you can have a good laugh with.

4. Always ask questions from your doctors.

After all, it’s your body that is on the line they are examining.

5. Blood is definitely thicker than water.

Need I say more?

You should also check out HOW CAN THEY INTEND TO HEAL for more Ontario (and Canada) hardcore.

The Beginning Of The End (1999)

Tracks:

01- Misguided
02- The Beginning Of The End
03- The Disease
04- In The Name Of
05- Believe The Lie
06- Mend
07- Death’s Head Revisted

DOWNLOAD!!!

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The Disease (2000)

Tracks:

01- The Distraction Of Dissemination
02- My Anecdote
03- Moral Abomination
04- The Disease

DOWNLOAD!!! 

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Le mie paure di non trovare un mezzo per passare il confine sono state smentite subito. Dopo appena qualche passo sul binario, una folla di autisti mi è venuta incontro per offrirmi i loro servigi. Ho scelto l’autista più brutto e l’ho seguito dopo avere chiesto il prezzo: 5 con le dita. 5 mele? 5 euro? Tugrug, Youan, cammelli. Non sapevo. Alle elementari la maestra mi ha insegnato a specificare sempre l’unità di misura. Forse qui non hanno maestre come la Grazia. Immaginavo 5000 Tugrug, ma è saltato fuori essere 50 Youan. 5 Euro circa per passare di là dal filo spinato. Il parcheggio della stazione è pieno di jeep e quella del mio autista è una Toyota. Mi accomodo e inizio a riempire i moduli che trovo sul sedile e sparsi per tutto l’abitacolo. Nella mia fanciullesca ingenuità di viaggiatore europeo mi guardo intorno e penso: “cinque posti, cinque persone”. Non è così. Uno dopo l’altro si intrufolano nella jeep tante di quelle persone che sembra di essere in una puntata di “Scommettiamo che…”. Alla fine ci ritroviamo in undici più l’autista, che nel frattempo è cambiato. Non male per quel certificato che omologa il veicolo per cinque persone, ma qui non ci badano. Chi nel baule, chi fra il cambio, chi in braccio ad altri ci stiamo tutti. Tutti tranne la comodità. Per quella proprio non c’è spazio. Nelle ore di fila che precedono il mio ingresso in Cina (ce ne sono volute tre e mezzo, alla faccia della Lonely Planet che diceva che si faceva prima) mi ritrovo ad osservare il nuovo autista. Mi ricorda troppo Tyler Durden. Almeno la sua versione mongola. Occhiale da sole a specchio, giacca di pelle blu e stivali di pelle rossi. E’ solamente meno figo di Bradd Pitt, ma il personaggio c’è tutto. Inoltre è abile nel suo lavoro. Con i suoi sottoposti è severo e secco negli ordini, ma con le guardie è docile come una vacca al pascolo, sorride sempre e ammicca con tutti. E la jeep avanza tra la folla. Una colonna umana che attende il controllo documenti mongolo, passa la terra di nessuno con ogni mezzo e rifà la coda per il controllo passaporti cinese. Sembra di stare in un film. Le guardie hanno le stelle rosse sul colbacco, i ladri le jeep. Land Rover, Land Cruiser, jeep russe e giapponesi. Nessun europeo, al solito. Certo, qui c’è solo autentico volgo. Gli europei sono ricchi, pagano di più e il confine lo passano in treno. E’ una bella esperienza. Mi fa capire come si sta dall’altra parte della tv. Non siamo in zona di guerra o in presenza di clandestini, ma a parte questo è uguale alle immagini dei telegiornali. Stipati all’interno di un mezzo e poi in fila per il verdetto. Puoi passare. Oppure no. Io sì. Welcome back to China!

…e noi?

Noi ci spartiamo i pezzi di terra versando sangue, facendo guerre, noi dichiariamo con non so quale diritto – questo è nostro, quello è vostro, e guai se ci metti piede se non ti ho dato il permesso, piuttosto stai nel tuo paese e muori di fame! -
I più forti riescono a stabilirsi su terre fertili, buone, redditizie. Gli altri…rimangono là come dei fessi. Degli altri non ci interessa, non siamo noi, sono altrove. Peggio per loro. Dimentichiamoli, se nessuno li considera non fanno nemmeno notizia. I nostri giornali non ne parlano, i telegiornali non ne parlano, quindi si dimenticano.
Abbiamo inventato la politica, con la quale decretiamo cosa è giusto e cosa è sbagliato, manco fossimo degli dei. Qualcuno dirà che è necessario avere le leggi perchè l’uomo ha bisogno di essere guidato, perchè senza leggi andrebbe tutto a rotoli. Le leggi le abbiamo nel CUORE e da SEMPRE, e chi dice di non sentirle è un FALSO e mente a se stesso. Non serve scriverle per interpretarle male. Sarebbero troppe, e le parole non basterebbero per esprimere un sentimento di giustizia. Sarebbero sempre insufficienti. Creare le leggi è far sì quindi che esista l’ingiustizia.
I confini di stato sono recinti fasulli e inutili. Manco fossimo delle bestie che devono essere rinchiuse!
Grazie alla loro esistenza persone stanno male e altre stanno bene.
Grazie alla loro esistenza in una parte del pianeta si può inquinare, in un’altra no, dimenticando che l’aria è sempre la stessa e se ne infischia dei confini, lei va dove vuole, dove “tira il vento”.
Confini, limiti.
L’aria non ha limiti, se il mio vicino inquina io respiro la stessa aria.
L’acqua non ha limiti, se il mio vicino inquina un fiume, o un mare, io berrò la stessa acqua, la stessa acqua evaporerà e pioverà sulla mia terra, farà crescere le mie piante avvelenate, fonte del mio cibo.
Che senso ha avere gli stati? Avere politiche diverse?
Che senso ha avere confini di stato?
Che senso ha sentirsi proprietari di fare ciò che si vuole sul “proprio stato”?
L’Italia non è nostra, è del mondo.
L’Australia è anche nostra, come è nostra l’africa intera, con i suoi problemi e la sua fame.
Prendiamone atto, cominciamo a pensarla in grande, da Aironi.
Un unico stato, ritorniamo a Pangea.

Giacomo

Nel suo libro “La Polvere del Messico” Cacucci mette insieme racconti, storie, esperienze riguardanti il paese nel suo insieme. Qui di seguito trascrivo alcune frasi dal capitolo intitiolato “Baja”. La Bassa California é il Messico piú vicino a noi che stiamo nella “Alta California” com’era chiamata la California quando questo era ancora suolo messicano, e forse é anche ila parte di Messico per noi piú accessibile in maniera diretta. O almeno lo era fino a qualche anno fa.

“Una nebbia calda, spessa come un liquido lattiginoso, che sale dalla terra arroventata appena il sole si spegne, e inghiotte le palme altissime e i pennoni delle barche. Lasciandomi alle spalle la periferia di San Diego, il fiume di fanali rossi diventa un’occhieggiare [sic] sporadico, lo stesso cui sono abituato nelle malinconiche pianure degli inverni padani. Ed é una sensazione strana, ritrovarmi avvolto da questo biancore tiepido a pochi metri dal mare, dove le notti si ripetono invariabilmente estive in qualsiasi stagione.

Una trentina di chilometri piú a sud, l’autostrada si intasa nell’eterno imbottigliamento del confine: venti milioni di transito all’anno, oltre alla marea di clandestini che nessuno é in grado di quantificare, e contro i quali si progetta uno sterminato marciapiede di cemento liscio che permetta alla border patrol di attraversare la nebbia su piccole moto veloci. Ogni notte la caccia riprende, incessante e metodica, con un senso di inutilitá che si legge sulle facce dei poliziotti insofferenti.”

Sono stato nelle zone di confine tra Stati Uniti e  Messico piú volte, Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila. Non sempre, non tutti, ma la gente in genere sorrideva quando scopriva che ero italiano. Dagli innumerevoli posti di blocco, dove soldati di appena 18 anni che imbracciavano terrificanti fucili automatici volevano parlare di calcio o della “rosca”, la torta dell’Epifania che avevo sul sedile della macchina, alle persone nei villaggi sperduti sulla Sierra Madre Occidental che chiedevano cosa ci facessi lí e com’era il mio paese. Posti incredibili, a volte. Dove a volte, giá  alcuni anni fa, prima che le cose precipitassero ai livelli di oggi, venivo consigliato di non percorrere certe strade (la park ranger americana a Lukeville, Arizona, che diceva che sí, la statale 2 in Messico era piú breve ma perché non ritornare sull’interstate 8 per San Diego, che era molto meglio? oppure i locali a Creel che, saputo della mia intenzione di attraversare la Sierra Madre Occidentale per poi scendere nello stato di Sonora, sostenevano che no, era meglio rientrare a Chihuahua e poi a El Paso), ma poi insomma il senso dell’avventura e la bellezza dei posti mi costringevano a dover prendere decisioni difficili. Le cose sono cambiate di recente, come sanno tutti coloro che leggono i giornali, ed é diventato molto pericoloso viaggiare in auto nelle zone di confine ed oltre, ed é un peccato, perché il Messico ha numerose zone relativamente poco battute dal turismo di massa, ed era possibile muoversi in maniera abbastanza tranquilla.

Nel frattempo possiamo continuare a leggere i lavori di Pino Cacucci, le sue incredibili storie che ci fanno sognare ad occhi aperti, da San Isidro Futbol a Demasiado Corazon, ed altri ancora.

La Polvere del Messico

(seconda edizione ampliata), ed. Feltrinelli

Un muro non basta. Un muro non bastava. 750 kilometri non erano sufficienti ed eccone allora altri 250 per arrivare alla cifra tonda tonda di 1000 km di muro!!!1000 km è una cifra che fa un certo effetto. Sono tanti. Sono troppi. Costruiti con la scusa della sicurezza ma che sicurezza e pace non porteranno. Il nuovo muro verrà costruito sul confine con l’Egitto per impedire a dei disperati provenienti dall’Africa di entrare in Israele per trovare un futuro. Nell’ultimo anno ne sono entrati 4300 e quindi si è pensato di costruire un muro per una spesa di più di 372 milioni di dollari = 86000 dollari a disperato!!!
Se ne parlava da tempo, è già in costruzione da tanto, solo oggi ne parla così un video del Corriere.it
Coniugato al presente : un muro non basta, nel futuro : un muro non basterà ! 1000 km. sono davvero tanti ma mai abbastanza per impedire ad una umanità senza speranza e sofferente di far arrivare il proprio grido di disperazione fino al cielo. Sul piano orizzontale un muro può bastare ma sul piano verticale non riuscirà mai a far tacere le bocche perchè anche se taceranno i disperati…le pietre, gli ulivi tagliati e la terra ferita grideranno di fronte a Dio !

Chasing Suns
by: Lee Mintz

There exists a home

in a land undefined

By word nor by sound

a lost page of blank line

And though I may dwell

in its spacious confine

It’s a torturous existence

without your home next to mine

This landscape bleeds emotion

pools raindrops obscene

It grows salted and withered

its wounds grow unseen

I froze fast in your fire

wandered lost in between

My sweet darling ember

and our horizon pristine

Darkness descends tearing sleepless asunder

bringing a beating heart still

An infant still lives fading faster toward slumber

under walls of concrete will

No one tear shall flow from this sorrow

chasing endless suns of sanguine spill

I now live lifeless life borrowed

keeping pace with harsh words

“the end, until…”

there it is
every single line has relation to something she and I did together, something she said to me, characteristics of her, or something that happened between us and i feel that this is my best poetic work to date. i hope you agree.

RJ Larente would come in as a second guitarist in November 1998 and Simon Bryun would leave the band in early 1999. Influences from Deadguy, Converge and Cave In were being incorporated in the new writing style. They played a couple shows as a four piece, with Brendan on vocals, but that really didn’t last long, and they broke up that same year, only having been around for about a year. Having already signed a contract with Alveran Records out of Germany, RJ and Brendan went in studio as a two piece to record the final material. RJ would play all guitars and bass, while Brendan would do drums and vocals. Chris Colohan was invited to do vocals on the song “Count Me In”, this song was also used on the Redstar Records compilation “The Sound and the Fury”.

The final recording was hastily compiled and released as a split 7″ with Deamon’s Jaded Passion on Alveran Records, by that time it was 1999. The split sold out quite rapidly and was repressed by Alveran,  who refused to send Avarice any pressing of the album, citing a lack of touring as a bullshit reason. There was some talk of Redstar releasing a discography CD but nothing ever came out of that.

http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/wellerville/403/amus.html

The band took a little while to get their new sound together, and their first recording was released on Logan’s own label, Goodfellow Records. The “Canvas” ep was an immediate hit in the local scene but didn’t grow much outside Ontario due to little shows being played outside the province. The cover art was done by Chokehold guitarist Jeff Beckman.

Trustkill Records owner Josh Grabelle had been wanting to work with Chokehold for some time and really liked the new band. He signed the band for a three record release contract in late 1997. The band would record their second ep “Revolution Through Anonymity” at Audio Magic Studios in November of that year, and got Matt Jones to do the artwork. The album was released on CD and 7″, and a load of merch (hoodies, shirts, long sleeves, posters) and get ready to embark on a tour with Boysetsfire and Brother’s Keeper. Matt Jones (who also had the touring van) quit the band right before leaving, and various bassists would fill in for the tour. Starting with Christian McMaster, then Matt’s cousin, Jamie Beckman, and finally Gordie Ball. Renting vans along the way, the tour took them from Buffalo to Syracuse, NY for Hellfest 1998, through Erie, PA, then North and South Carolina, Philadelphia, down to Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York City.

After the tour, the trio (with no bassist) started working on a full length album. Logan and McMaster started doing a death/grind side project named Funerary with Brendan and Tom Piraino who would go on to merge into At the Mercy of Inspiration. The band would only do eight shows, but it was enough to make 78 Days fade away.

SeventyEightDays – Discography

ti penetro
animo ignoto
disegno di te
geografie impossibili
saldo nella mente
l’aspetto di un corpo
che non vivo
non odoro
non sfioro
non conosco

ma ho
io ti ho
nell’oggi di questa idea malsana
purezza di gesto
saggezza di un forse
colorato e preciso
il futuro che oggi vorrei

parole
liberi discorsi
intrighi che saziano
la fame d’amore

voglia
possessione
mistero
scoperta
gioco
disastro
sublime dolore
per eccelso piacere

resisterti è un gioco
malvagio
crudele
senza tregua
incessante spina nel cuore

ma è gioco
debolezza di giovane donna
sono io
che m’invento un te
con cui poter domani
giocare ancora.

c’è un giorno
in cui devi credere
perché quello successivo
ti pentirai di non averlo fatto

c’è il giorno
che ti devi arrendere
perché alla fine
la vita vince

c’è un giorno
nel nostro divenire
che segna una leggera
linea di confine

in quei giorni
quando sai che sta per accadere
siediti
e lasciati raggiungere

in quel giorno
quando l’inevitabile ti coglie
ringrazia il tuo Dio
perché la vita avrà il suo senso.

in quei giorni
solo
respira.

When the work of the corporation was primarily the organizing of manual labor, markets were local and slow to change, and the knowledge base upon which competitive success depended was stable, a unitary hierarchy of manager atop manager made a lot of sense. The information needed to run the business was limited and could be easily channeled in one upward or downward flow. Workers did the work, and managers did the thinking.

But this is a reality that has disappeared from most industries. Markets are dimensioned globally, rules change faster than some competitors can master them, and brainpower counts for much more than brawn. Most organizations, though, remain keyed to the old realities. Few hierarchies have even kept up with the need to build in change by linking each of their limited number of levels with the time horizons of greatest importance to the company.

A more serious problem, though, is the lack of rethinking about how a business needs to organize its intellectual capital, its knowledge workers. It is ironic, and wasteful, that while “knowledge workers” (technical professionals and other holders of graduate or postgraduate degrees) are making up an increasing proportion of the work force in many industries, the organization structures in which they work remain more the products of Industrial Revolution than of the information age.

Knowledge, especially which can affect the company’s future competitiveness, used to be confined to the research and development lab or to the strategic planning department. Now, as information systems-driven service industries assume a larger share of many economies, knowledge about the capabilities that provide competitive advantage is much more widely dispersed than was ever necessary in traditional manufacturing companies. No single information channel can contain it all. And even traditional product makers are changing. Fewer manufacturing jobs are directly involved in making something; more are concerned with planning what to make, how to make it, and how to keep customers happy after the product has been purchased. The intellectual demands on front-line workers have increased tremendously. The narrowly skilled assembly jobs have been replaced by the more knowledge-intensive positions of the factory automation technician.

Requirements for more intellectual value added have escalated up many organization hierarchies. Networked data bases, expert systems, and almost never-ending flow of new personal computer software have significantly expanded the scope and the nature of the contribution possible from many mid-level employees. This is not an unmitigated blessing, though. It has also seriously polluted the management role in many companies, making many into high-level doers instead of managers, increasing the role’s fragmentation, and making it brittle rather than strong and load-bearing.

This situation will only worsen as economic pressures lead to increased management delayering. Companies with eight to ten tiers of management will find it necessary to organize around four or five. The number of subordinates per manager will have to sharply increase. Middle managers will find themselves with less and less time to master these new white-collar productivity enhancers and to make the intellectual contribution their businesses increasingly need.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight