Our Fight proves things are still going well in Cleveland scene with their powerful and aggressive hardcore, both in lyrics and music. While sticking to the principles of the genre, band's songwriting is awesomely honest and creative. Check out what Steve (vocals) had to say about the band, their music and Cleveland scene.
Name: Our FightLocation: Cleveland Ohio
Active since: Feb 2010
How do you define your overall style?
We have a lot of influences from all over but really the only way to pin it down is just to say it's Cleveland hardcore. Cleveland has made a name for it's self over the years and we are just hoping to live up to that.
What's your goal with this band?
There hasn't really ever been a goal discussed. We have things we would like to accomplish like touring as much as possible and putting out music we're happy with want to hear ourselves.
What do you have recorded so far?
So far we only have a 5 track demo recorded that you can download for free or buy on cassette from us. We have just finished writing several more songs though and will be looking to put something new out by the end of the summer.
Can you give me a brief background on the band and what you guys are currently up to at this moment?
Everyone in the band is in one or more other active cleveland hardcore bands but i don't believe any of us consider it a side project. We all got together because in the current cleveland scene there are A LOT of bands but none of them were representing the side of cleveland that our fight is going for.
Lyrically what kind of themes do you deal with? What is the message you're trying to present to your listeners?
A lot of what i write about is personal. I've always believed in the philosophy "write what you know," so that's what i have stuck with. Everyone in the band is straight edge but that hasn't really entered into the lyrics just yet. Mostly what has been written about so far is loss of faith in god and people. I could elaborate on that more but it would go into some boring personal stories so i'll just shorten it to say that the world is full of shitty people with shitty ideas and they will do everything they can to make you like them. What i write about are my struggles with these people and my observations about them.
It's pretty obvious where the band's name came from. Starting Our Fight, did One Life Crew have a big influence on you?
This is something that i wish more people would research. Our Fight is actually a Confront song. We chose the name because the song speaks against racism. OLC did play this song as well but it was written by Confront and will forever be a Confront song. I have a hard time comparing anything we do to OLC because of how much i disagree with most of the things they stood for. That being said, musically the idea of Our Fight was to take a lot from Confront and early One Life Crew style hardcore, but we ended up abandoning that by the first practice and just started writing what we wanted to without any guidelines really.
The Cleveland sound is a brand and there are lots of bands all around the world trying to capture this sound. Being from clevo what's your perception of this? Does it make you proud in any way? Do you follow any bands in this trend?
I think it's pretty cool that people are catching on the cleveland sound more and more lately. It has made for a lot of integrity and ringworm knock off bands, but as long as you recognize your roots and where it all comes from i feel like there is no harm done. It does sort of give a sense of pride that so many people are recognizing the cleveland sound now, but even if they weren't we'd all still be proud to be from here and making music that represents our city. It's kind of hard not to follow some of the bands that are putting out cleveland style hardcore these days. Bands like Crucified and Rot In Hell have had my attention for a while.
When asked about Cleveland every hardcore kid will say Integrity, Ringworm, One Life Crew and In Cold Blood. Are there any bands from over there that you think went underrated but were as much important to the local scene?
I think when you say that most hardcore kids know about In Cold Blood you are assuming too much. Many people I've run into have never heard of them and that is a shame because they were such a great band. But the biggest area of Cleveland's history that goes overlooked is what we had going on in the early 80's. If you read "American Hardcore" by Steven Blush, in the back under regional hardcore acts the whole state of Ohio is pretty much left empty. But there were some great bands form Cleveland back then. (The Guns, The Plague, Zero Defects, and Starvation Army to name a few) also there are a few other bands from later on that were really great such as: Confront, Committed, The Final Plan, Grudge Match, Pale Creation, 9 Shocks Terror, and False Hope. I could go on forever but I've already said too much.
And what about the new generation of bands. What are some hardcore bands that are making noise right now in Cleveland?
Cleveland has a pretty tight knit scene right now that we are all proud to be a part of. All of the members of Our Fight have other bands and we are close friends with many more bands from the greater cleveland area. If you want a list, here you go : Search Bloc, Mad Minds, Masakari, Basement Boys, Horrific Dick, Wind Of Death, Rid The World (rip), Mammals (rip), and Ghost Breeder. There are a lot more that im forgetting but you get the picture.
What's your pick for best hardcore release of 2010 so far?
The album I've been sweating the most that has come out this year is actually "The Prophet Feeds" by Masakari. We are really good friends with these guys and share a guitar player but even if that wasn't the case this album would blow my mind.
Check out band's Myspace.
