Trench War is a metallic hardcore band consisting of 5 dudes from Missouri. They will have their first Ep out sometime this summer so keep an eye on them. They have couple of shows in their pipeline so make sure you check em out if you're based somewhere in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio...
Name: Trench War
Location: Eastern, Missouri
Active since:
Garrett: With this line-up since early march of this year, but i guess, we've been a band off and on since October '08.
How do you define your overall style?
Garrett: Heavy hardcore with a some metal influence, the metal shows up more in some songs than others.
What’s your goal with this band?
Nathan: money, bitches, fame and thats it. haha
Garrett: haha, I'd say to play a lot of places with a lot of bands and just get our music out.
What do you have recorded so far?
Nathan: Three Songs off of our EP are finished, were going back April 23rd doing two more to finish up the album.
You’re planning to release your debut EP this Summer. Tell us more about it. What kids should expect from this release?
Nathan: Well, its going to have some dope as fuck artwork from a friend of mine named Aaron. He does vocals for an Illinois band called outgrown,it's really gonna be a mixture of hardcore and metal that we have always listened too, put into one record i guess? no song is really like the song before it, though it may have similarities.
Garrett: Hardcore that manages to get really heavy without getting boring and staying intesnse throughout.
I’ve heard only Outnumbered from the upcoming EP and no doubt it’s a powerful track. How would you describe the rest of the songs? Do they follow the same Line?
Garrett: I think that if you heard one of our songs and then heard another you could probably guess it's us, but there is some variety to them, like with how much of the metal influence comes in and what not.
Nathan: Outnumbered is just the opening track to the record, yeah the other songs have similarities, like i mentioned before, but we try not to just stick to one sound on the entire record though, i am really happy with outnumbered and the way it turned out, i would say the other songs have the same effect, without sounding the same.
Is there a theme that runs throughout your lyrics or music?
Garrett: it goes 50/50 i guess, some songs are more about something that's happened to me and then some are about things i care about going on in the world, like the situation in Palestine. Musically, i just try to write the songs to be really intense and heavy .
How did the collaboration with Rob McCarthy from Lionheart come about?
Nathan: Well, ive seen lionheart play a few times, they are all really good dudes, fun to be around and everything, so when i mentioned it to him, he was stoked to do it, unfortunatley,things have recently happened to where rob isnt going to be able to do his part on the song. Weve got a few other people in mind right now, that were talking it over with to take robs place, so hopefully everything works its self out this close to the end of creating our album.
Who are your strongest musical influences and why?
Garrett: I think a lot of the late 80's early 90's thrash/speed metal influences me a lot. 80s Metallica or really old Sepultura, but with modern bands the influences are from all over. every style of hardcore.
Nathan: Garrett is responsible for all the music we play,id agree with what he said, id say we take some influence from a lot of bands we grew up listening to,
anything from martyr ad and sacred pledge to bands still around like thick as blood, terror etc.
Tell us a little bit about the history of Trench War. So how did you guys find eachother and decide to start a band?
Garrett: Nathan and i have been friends for years and in early 08 we started a band with a couple of our other friends. He was the drummer then and i was the vocalist. We went through a line-up change and some sound changes. and then in october of 08 our current drummer Dayton started playing and nathan became a vocalist also and we consider that the first line up of this band, but we were called Blood will Follow back then.
Nathan: Yeah weve had a lot of member changed throughout the past three years, The original Trench War(Blood Will Follow) was with our friends at the time Travis Newkirk and Kyle Petty, when we came back a long time friend of mine, Aaron lewis , our current bassist, was playing guitar and Steve Nabors played Bass, we ran into some bad luck at a show in poplar bluff with liferuiner and, after that we all just kind of quit talking to each other for a while, now were back and i d say were stronger than ever, weve deffinetley got a lot more going on.
When did you first discover hardcore music, and your love for it?
Garrett: 15. i started claiming straight edge when i was still in to punk and got to know some of the dudes from the Stl hardcore scene, went to a throwdown show and was hooked.
Nathan: I was around the same age ,15-16, i went and seen hoods and Garrett's old band xTO MY GRAVEx at a local venue called bob-a-rino's, from then on out, it was just my life.
Tell us about the Missouri hardcore. What’s the scene like out there at the moment?
Nathan: The all over hardcore scene in missouri is great, st. louis and springfield i would say have like the most active actual hardcore scenes with bands like a death and a promise, hit list(RIP), A Thousand nations, Last ounce of courage, Resolve ETC and booking agencies like balls deep productions, and everybody who books in st.louis. they are deffinetly more well known as far as hardcore goes, though metal is a more commonly sought out genre in Missouri.
Garrett: It's awesome i think, there's quite a variety of styles all over the state. In our location, it's mostly metal bands and then us, but I know springfield, stl, kc all have great hardcore bands.
The hardcore is all about live gigs so what’s your recipe for a good show?
Garrett: Just go all out, i think bands look weirder if they don't get into it, and i think some people worry that getting way in to it is going to make them look like douchebags or something.
Nathan: Agreed
Fights at shows – are there many of them in Missouri?
Nathan: Fights happen at shows everywhere, it's going to happen, some for better reasons than others, its just an inevitable thing.
Garrett: haha yeah, i've seen a couple.
And are you following what’s going on in European hardcore? What are some bands from over here that you’re feeling?
Nathan: Actually here lately ive been really into bands from europe, Providence are a really good band from paris, and i have some good friends from germany in bands liked Watch My anger grow and count your days, Call for blood is also a band from over there ive been really into, i follow the scene in other countries just as much as i do here.
Garrett: I just found a band called Decades of Blood who are european, i dig them a lot.
Ok, before we finish – what are band’s plans for the future apart from getting the EP out?
Garrett: We have a ton of shows set up with all kinds of great bands from 25 ta life to xRepresentx, so a lot of shows.
Nathan: Yeah, we have a lot of awesome shows booked, were also in the early stages of booking a midwest tour,after the e.p is done were going to be shooting a video with my friend robert. and aside from the ep, were also looking into collaborations with other bands to do splits, were doing as much as we can to promote and get our name out there so hopefully more people hear about us and get into us.
Any last comments?
Garrett: Thanks a lot for the interview! And i guess just check our myspace for shows and songs and junk.
Nathan: Check us and All the other bands mentioned out, keep hardcore alive by supporting your local scene, and other scenes everywhere, and thanks a lot hardboiledzine for what youre doing.
Check out Trench War at Myspace
