Interview with Jaxon Craig from Safe and Sound

I first “met” Jaxon online hanging out on some of the FB swap groups. While a lot of the kids there seem to be pretty douchey, Jaxon seemed like a guy who was always courteous and respectful, in addition to having good taste (I think he bought a Champion 7” off me). When I checked out his band Safe and Sound’s first release “The Tides” I thought it was pretty standard…not great but also not bad for a first release, something that as a young band they could hopefully build off.

Well build they most definitely have. A few months back they released a new song called “Self” which channeled a lot of cool 90’s elements; spoken vocals, crunchy guitars, neat little harmonics, and introspective lyrics. That was followed a couple weeks ago by a video for another new song “Dream”, which deals with animal rights issues. By that point I knew I had discovered a new favorite so I needed to reach out to Jaxon to learn more about the band.

Their upcoming 7” “Embers Still Remain” will be coming out next month in the US on Life to Live Records and in Europe on Assault Records. They’ll be touring the US in March as well. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for one of the best new bands going.

Tell me a little bit about your background; your family, growing up in the Pacific Northwest, and how you first discovered art and music.

I have lived in Washington my whole life and I love it here. I have traveled to quite a few places and nothing compares to it. The Oregon coast is my favorite place in the world, I just love the beaches we have here they are mostly gloomy and surrounded by forests and that's very serene and calming for me.

I live about 45 minutes south of Seattle and have for most of my life; my family is mostly from here also. I grew up listening to a lot of music, my dad is big into hair metal and my mom liked pop music so I listened to a lot growing up but didn't get any exposure to hardcore until I was around 12/13.

What were some of the first shows you went to and bands you checked out that made an impression on you and who you'd say have shaped your understanding of punk and hardcore?

The first hardcore related show I went to was an Underoath show with my cousin when I was 13. That got my foot in the door. I used to be really into just any music that was heavy so my friends and I would go see this band called I Declare War that was a local deathcore band. When I was 14 I went to see them at the local all ages venue at the time in Tacoma called The Viaduct.

They played alongside some local hardcore bands and that's what really got me interested into coming out to local shows more often. The person that actually introduced me to hardcore and punk is not worth mentioning but the bands he showed me that really clicked were Champion, Ceremony and Gorilla Biscuits. Around the same time I found Have Heart and The Carrier on MySpace and got very into them. I love doing research on bands and topics so a lot of what I know has come from reading things online/watching YouTube documentaries or live sets/or reading zines.

Talk about the origins of Safe and Sound. How did you guys all meet, and who sparked the idea to start doing a band together?

The original Safe and Sound doesn't really exist anymore; Rusty and I are the only original members we have gone through 2 major line-up changes. The original band met through shows and Tumblr (haha) but that wave only lasted half a year or so. In the second wave we talked about tour almost off the bat and ended up doing our first one in the summer of 2013 in Western Canada.

Yeah I was gonna say, there seems to have been a huge evolution/jump forward from the stuff on "The Tides" to the new material (at least the couple songs that are streaming as of now). Would you say this is more you and Rusty wanting to try new stuff, the new members bringing different influences to the table, or a little bit of both?

I would for sure say a little of both. When we started we wanted to be a youth crew/melodic hardcore band. We always kept our own little melodic touch on things but we have just been progressing towards what we want to see being played more. We all love bands that took risks to be different; one of our major influences that we all love is Burn. They took risks musically and lyrically that we all respect so much so we have been heading down the path of a more 90's sound with our own touch on it. The new stuff is heavier also for sure which I think most people can get down with also.

In terms of message, obviously the video for "Dream" addresses the plight of animals and encourages people to consider veganism...how did you personally become inspired to go vegan? More broadly speaking, I know when I first started going to shows there was almost always a table with information on animal rights and a variety of other social/political/environmental causes, which is something that seems much more rare these days. How would you say we can get to a place where hardcore and punk can become more idea-oriented?

I have been vegetarian since I was 14. What originally made me want to make the change was PETA's "Meet Your Meat" video and also Food Inc., which was very interesting to me. Then I watched a documentary called "Earthlings" and that was what brought me to decide to stop consuming animals. What made me take it a step further was reading some vegan literature, one in particular called "Milk Comes From Grieving Mothers" that really opened my eyes to the dairy industry and how basically being a vegetarian is next to nothing in terms of actually liberating and helping animals.

The final push I needed was when I saw Morrissey live in concert for the first time. He played "Meat Is Murder" while clips of all sorts of animal exploration, abuse, and murder were being shown. The song ended with a black screen with a white phrase across it, "What's your excuse now?"

It was then and there I knew I needed to do everything I could to not take part in exploiting animals for my selfishness any longer. We have started distributing literature at our shows and we are actually all part of a vegan, straight edge, and radical politics zine press that is working to distribute literature at shows and to people seeking it.

I think we can get back to that point by educating ourselves. To become aware of what is really happening in the world, outside the walls of just our hardcore scene and to most importantly be pissed off about it. Voicing your opinion on things that you care about is one of the beauties of punk…to go against norms and to fight for things that you really believe in. Gather once said, "Punk is about doing what's right, even if it means going against the majority" and I strongly agree with that.

Aside from "Dream" what other things are going on lyrically with "Embers Still Remain"?

Lyrically the rest of "Embers Still Remain" is about turning over a new leaf. To build again when things have been destroyed. To come back twice as strong. I chose the title because even though something may have been extinguished; if even one ember remains it can spark again new life. Also the record closes with a bad ass straight edge song.

So the new record is coming out on both Life to Live in the U.S. as well as Assault in Europe. How'd you hook up with them and what else can you tell people about the release?

We did our last 7" with Life To Live and Dan is honestly one of the nicest and most legit humans ever so I was more than excited that was down to help out with another 7". Assault Contacted us after hearing "Self" when we put it online and Jan has also been really awesome about everything and I am just really glad we are having two labels that really care about our message and what we are doing and are supporting us by putting out our music.

A little more about the release, we will have a really cool recorded cover that I hope many people will dig, full streaming of the record will be coming very soon, physicals of the 7" should be available in the US by the end of February.

I know a tour is currently in the works that will bring you through a lot of the country. What places are you most stoked to play and who are you most excited to be playing with?

Very excited to be back in Texas, this time with Pulled Under who we are very excited to share some dates with, Florida will be awesome with Bind doing all of those dates and also I am very excited about playing in New Jersey with The Banner!

Bringing it back home a bit, the NW is obviously a region that has produced a lot of legendary bands. What current bands from the area would you say you consider to be your peers as well as bands from the area that inspire you guys?

A current band we did a lot with who just actually broke up was called Singled Out. We always pushed each other to do big things in and outside of NWHC. Carrying the torch currently are Red Scare and Moving On. Also continuing to carry the torch is TruexIdentity who are also doing big things with people who have done big things in NWHC before and are back for more.

Worst thing about hardcore in 2016? Best thing about hardcore in 2016?

Worst thing about hardcore in 2016 is it will be the year that we lose some great bands such as Bane and Foundation also that this will be the last Rainfest. Best thing in hardcore in 2016 so far is that Sound and Fury will be back!

Any final thoughts or parting words?

Parting words would be thanks to anyone that read this and has checked us out or will check us out because of it! Always remember your right to choose and your ability to impact this world.

Jams: https://safexsound.bandcamp.com/

Video for “Dream”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hclHfOtF_ro

Interview with Jeremy Nelson from Itto

I don't really remember how I heard about Itto, all I know is when I did I was thoroughly impressed. The 5 piece Chicago unit pretty much defies classification.....take the frantic energy of screamo, the complexity of math rock, and the ethics of hardcore, and that'll put you somewhere in the ballpark. Anyway, after snagging both their 10" and last years' 4 way split LP, I knew I needed to see them at some point, but had to miss them the last time they came through Michigan.

As luck would have it, at the end of November while in Chicago recording an LP with my band, I happened to notice they were playing  just a mile or two from the studio. After we finished tracking that night, I headed over to a house show and got to see the band in my favorite type of environment.....cozy little basement, fairly packed in, it was awesome.

I had a chance to introduce myself to both James and Jeremy that night, but I definitely wanted to know more, so I hit up Jeremy and the rest is history. The band is poised to drop their first LP this year, and it's certainly among my most anticipated releases of 2016. Don't sleep kids.

I always love to hear a little bit about people's back story, so talk to me about where you came up and how you eventually got connected to music. Were your parents, siblings, or extended family particularly into it or did you stumble into things yourself?

I actually came from actually pretty boring place. Springfield, IL. It's kinda like a suburb with no city. It's a boring place so I spent a lot of time indoors playing guitar and games. My pop was a big influence musically, he was always just playing guitar and singing in our living room. I would try to play his guitar and put it back without him noticing until he got me my own guitar. My dad has always been (and still is) in some sort of classic rock band...so def a big influence.

So how did you go from tinkering on your dad's instrument to getting into punk/hardcore/DIY? Is he excited that you've picked up his love for music, or do you get the sense that he wishes you'd play something more "normal", haha.

Yeah, we had an all ages DIY spot open up when I was in middle school. I went pretty frequently but never really understood the DIY ethos or anything until moving to Chicago. I mean, when I hear my pop talk about it, he's pretty proud that the songs are originals, LOL. My dad has heard me get into some pretty strange music so he's pretty exposed.

So how did you wind up in Chicago and what were some of the first experiences you had there where you were like "Yeah, this is it for me"?

I actually wound up in Chicago through Craigslist. I found a house and the girl on the phone said they had "shows" sometimes and asked if I was cool with that. I was desperate to move out of Springfield and I didn't really know what having "shows" actually meant. But yeah I pulled up to the house with my U-Haul and bands were loading in. The Reptilian was actually playing and they helped me bring all my shit in, LOL . That was a great night though. It was a Reptilian and Lautrec show I think. All the people there were super nice and I pretty much slammed 2 40oz and made friends with everyone I saw. I lucked out for sure.
FYI the girl on the phone was Anne and we ended up starting the band Suffix together

Damn, that is insane! So wait, did the Craigslist ad say anything about it being a punk house or hardcore kids or did the stars just literally align to where you fell in with the right people?

Yeah the ad didn't say anything about it being hardcore or punk shows at all. I think the posting was more looking for "college student" and "no weirdos". I was just looking for a cheapish place. They took me to a bunch of shows though. In like one week I had seen Couger Den, Hewhocorrupts, Native, Castevet, Locrian, Loin of the North. and a ton more. All the music was way better than music in Springfield at the time, and it seemed like every show I went to everyone was friends and there was a big sense of community.

Springfield had one place, and Chicago had like 10 places to go to for DIY shows so I was learning the city and meeting new friends super fast. Everything just kinda lined up.

So talk about Suffix a little bit. I've seen that name before but had no idea y’all were a Chicago band and have never checked it out. How was that band different from the music you'd been doing/had been exposed to growing up in Springfield? What were the highlights of Suffix in terms of shows, records, tours; just learning more about working in the context of a group of artists?

Suffix was me and some roommates having some fun. It got me hooked on touring. It was when I realized "Oh hey, all these cool people and friends I've made that have played at my house, I can like, go see them too". One tour was to Canada, that really got me hooked.

It's cool to hear you talk about community in a city like Chicago....being that it's so huge I would imagine it'd be pretty easy to feel lost and overwhelmed. How important has the underground/DIY community been for you as you've built your life there?

You are correct that the Chicago DIY community is super big, but you don't really get lost, it’s more that there are just always parts that you don't know about. And that's a good thing. There are so many different groups and new DIY spots come and go pretty quickly. I guess it just changes so much that it's always new, and gives you something to look forward to. It never seems stagnant like other scenes can get. But the scene has gave me a ton of friends, pushed me musically, took me to places all over the world, and it's something I've used as an outlet to help others.

Alright so talk to me about the origins of Itto. How did the five of you come together and what we're some of the common influences you guys talked about in terms of what you wanted to shoot for sonically?

We want people to hear us and be like "that's Itto". I was really pushing myself and the band to form our own take on hardcore. The thing I love about just dumb hardcore and pv is that all the riffs are interchangeable and most any punk band can do it.

My favorite shows in Chicago have had mosh pits and people yelling and singing along for the first band all the way to the last. And in fact it doesn't really matter who the bands are, it's just hardcore and people are having fun. That's the best part in my eyes and we really wanted to try and put that in our sound.

That being said, we still like to fuck with time signatures and sometimes just not even use one. We like dynamics and grooves, noise and feedback. So it's really a matter of combining all those things and trying to create our own sound. We don't want to alienate people, but we want to write music that challenges us as musicians.

I'm also really curious to hear about the song writing process for Itto. The songs have so much going on with dizzying guitar and drum work all over the place. I know for my relatively dumb, mostly chugga-chugga hardcore band it sometimes takes several practices to get a song where we want it, how do you guys go about assembling all the chaos you have happening?

Haha, well it's about the same my dumb hardcore band too I'd say. It takes us a while to write. Usually it depends how thought out an idea is, sometimes a riff is set in stone and everyone kinda knows what's should happen, but that's rare. Recently we've been getting more into describing a concept or feeling rather than just explaining riff frets. For example the intro to our new full length is pretty much all 2hits. The idea is to take 20 year old dumb hardcore riffs /breakdowns with different tempos and arrange them in a way that they sound crazy and new...i.e. "Itto".

Once everyone one understands the concept or idea the song is trying to get across, it's a lot easier than just showing someone where to put their fingers on a guitar fretboard. It also makes the song more than just a collection of zany guitar wanking,

That might not be the best example, but it kinda gives the idea. We've tried to take "mathy" hardcore and put the complexity in the conceptual, opposed to the technical.

Alright so speaking of the new record, when we talked a little bit in person last month you were saying it's pretty close to being done. How would you say it compares to what you guys have done before.....What new directions were you trying to push yourselves, your sound and your listeners to?

I would say this record is more intense and like our live set. The songs are more distorted, pissed off, they flow into each other, and are more dynamic. I think the above all goal was to capture our live presence, the intensity, and we're all pretty happy with it.

So you mentioned writing with a particular feeling or concept in mind, and I can't help but imagine that aside from the musical energy you are trying to evoke, that the lyrics obviously fit into that puzzle as well. That said, what sort of themes are people going to see lyrically this time around? I know the 10" seems to revolve around a lot of socio-political ideas like power, tradition, and people pushing back against that stuff....do those sorts of ideas continue to dominate or have things gone in different directions? Also, does James sort of have free reign in the lyrical department or are things more collaborative there?

James is really a part of the whole process, he's there when we're going over guitar parts and hashing out ideas, he's in on the concepts and interprets accordingly. While we're spending 2 hours on a 15 second part, he's writing lyrics down.

The new album is going to be called "Pursuant" and it's about questioning what we all are pursuing in life and the cyclical patterns that unite us.

You guys have toured a decent amount, there have been a bunch of different runs all over the place, y’all did Cali with Capacities a couple years back, etc. How would you say your road experiences have shaped Itto as a band and what sort of plans are there once the new stuff drops?

I mean we're absolutely a touring band above all. We've done the East Coast a few times, West Coast, Western Canada, East Canada three or four times, and this time last year we were on our Mexico tour...so yeah we've got all of North America checked off the list. Our goal is total world domination really....that being said, we're finally taking our butts to Europe in Spring of 2016 with the new record.

So you started this conversation talking about community.....the community you were introduced to as a young kid in Springfield and then later the community that welcomed you in Chicago.  After multiple bands, tours, records etc., what would you say it is about the punk and hardcore community that keeps you engaged, inspired, and wanting to create?

The DIY community and Chicago give me that feeling of exciting undiscovered stuff, it's like the harder I look the more cool new things there are to find. A Chicago DIY benefit just made a poster of all the DIY spots and the list was enormous, I only knew of maybe 35% of it.  You can always dig deeper, and even then the part you're used to and comfortable in is going to change. I guess to tie it up, in Springfield I thought that the little space that punk bands would play was really just that. Once I discovered it was part of this larger thing that could take you around the world, I've been fascinated ever since.

Recorded: https://ittochicago.bandcamp.com/
Live: https://youtu.be/0FlKdtmVpIY?t=2m57s