Suburban Voice Interviews 7 Seconds
Interview by Al and Andy
Little introduction is necessary, so just the facts. 7 Seconds were one of the first Reno hardcore bands, initially forming in 80-81. They began as a trio, Kevin Seconds (guitar, vocals), his brother Steve Youth (bass) and Bix Bigler (drums). This was the lineup on their 1982 debut 9 song, 7" EP "Skins, Brains and Guts." After that, Bix was replaced by Troy Mowatt on drums and Dan Pozniak was added as a second guitarist. Both were previously with Urban Assult. 1983 brought the "Committed For Life" EP. Kevin eventually dropped guitar to concentrate solely on vocals. "The Crew," the band's first 12" effort, was released this past summer on the BYO label and is easily the band's best-produced vinyl yet, with 18 stirring, anthemic tracks. 7 Seconds also have tracks on several compilations. We cought up with the band at that gourmet haven for travelling bands, McDonalds at BU.
SV: "Clenched Fists Black Eyes" talks about "where the hippies failed." Why do you think they failed?
Kevin: I'm sure there are hippies that had it together to where they believe in certain ideals and stuff but it seems the movement overall ended up eating itself. In a way, I see certain comparisons between the punks and the hippies but I think the hippies in the '60s tended to burn themselves out really fast by the drugs. I agree with a lot of the things that were said back then, but things are a little bit different now and it's really hard to get through to people and you can't really talk to many people so you have to really appeal to them.
SV: Why do you wear the black makeup under your eyes?
Kevin: A couple of years back, it was a crew thing in Reno. A couple of kids would wear black under their eyes and it didn't mean anything, it was just a Reno thing. We did it and I'm like the only one that does it anymore. I've stuck with it because I just like it. Everybody thinks I'm promoting football or something and it has nothing to do with that. I just do it.
SV: I thought it was maybe representing punks getting hassled or something--black eyes.
Kevin: Yeah, I've thought of something like that. With the song, basically, with the clenched fists, it's not clenched fists for fighting, it's like you want something so bad sometimes you have to knock down walls to get it and it's not a real heavy message.
SV: What kind of scene is there in Reno?
Steve: Small, but united. Everybody has a good time. Not too many fights.
Troy: Every band that goes through there seems to like it.
Steve: Except for Stranglehold (Chris got arrested).
SV: I've heard the cops are really tough out in Reno.
Kevin: Well, they can be real cool, they won't fuck with you, but it's like, if you're downtown where all the tourists congregate on weekends, if you look different, it's like give it up. They're going to pick you out and put you in jail because they don't want you to chase out people who can throw money in the slot machines and gamble. Reno, as a scene, as far as I'm concerned, is so great. It's small and we have our bullshit, but it's real tight and it's like you don't have to be anything to go to a gig. You just go and have fun and it's real great.
SV: One of the Stern brothers told me they got busted for jaywalking.
Kevin: Yeah, like maybe a week before Chris got busted for using the slots.
Steve: The thing about it is that never happens. Nobody ever gets arrested for jaywalking in Reno. That's never happened. I guess they have a new law--arrest punks that are jaywalking.
SV: How come it took you guys so long to get out on tour?
Steve: A lot of band problems, like with transportation and trying to get the equipment together and stuff. We've done a couple of west coast tours, but this time we said, fuck it, nothing's gonna stop us. So far, we're doing good.
Kevin: This has been the greatest experience. You meet the best people and you see the country and you just realize how great the scene is.
SV: It makes you realize that there is still hope.
Kevin: Yeah, like if people go, "does punk suck?" it's like, I'm sure there are aspects that are real bad but, on the other hand, I think the good outweighs the bad and there's great people across the country and it goes international, now, so we've got a really great thing going and I just hope people realize that and respect that and take care of it and not take advantage of it and blow it out of shape.
SV: Not these people who came out of the gym an hour ago and here they are slamming and beating the shit out of someone.
Kevin: Exactly, that's like bad news and we're opposed to that. I'm not going to get in somebody's face and preach, preach, preach, but, at the same time, through our music, I'm going to say something about it because it affects me too.
SV: It's getting away from the original idea of it.
Kevin: Exactly. It's been really weird coming out east because all this weird stuff has been happening with gigs, like with the New York thing and stuff.
SV: Yeah, what is that? Someone said that the Jewish Defense League threatened to bomb the club.
Kevin: Yeah, because some skinheads beat up a Jewish kid in Philly and we're supposed to play and they said if Agnostic Front Plays, the JDL's going to bomb the place and I'm going to try to talk to the JDL. It's obvious we're not into that. That's really bad. I've heard it's not really Agnostic Front, it's just following them. It's going to be really bad for Agnostic Front to come out west if they want to, because people are paranoid about that shit out there. A lot of bad press has come out about them out there.
Steve: Coming back east is great, but there's one bad thing about it--there's too many tolls. I think we've spent about $100 already in tolls.
SV: OK. I've noticed on the Mystic compliation ("We Got Power"), you had a track under the name of The Atheists. How did that come about?
Kevin: Well, see, I was responsible for getting these bands together on one tape who were in our area and there's a band called Jack Shit from Reno who had two members in this old Salt Lake City band called The Atheists and they wanted to put their tape with ours. So we compiled all the bands, like 7 Seconds, Urban Assult, Jack Shit and then we put The Atheists and what had happened was I guess there was some extra stuff at the end, like the song "Definite Choice." Troy's not even ploaying on that, it's the drummer from Jack Shit. We were just practicing. It was just like a joke and they used that. A lot of people noticed it, which was cool. People know our sound now and a lot of people said, "I knew it was you guys, immediately, when I heard it," and I thought that was good.
SV: Your first EP was called "Skins, Brains and Guts." Why did you, at that time, go for more of a skinhead image than you do now?
Kevin: Well, nothing's changed, it's just there was such bad press at the time about the English skinheads and the European skins and all the American skins I knew weren't National Front or anything like that. It was pretty positive. It was, hey, we shave our heads because we feel like it, it's not like we have fascist tendencies or whatever and so we thought, well, we were skinheads and we wanted to let people know that we weren't stupid and we had brains; that we were trying to change things, that we weren't into the violent things and we still do that song. It's just hoping people would catch on to the lyrics and go, yeah, we can prove that the press is bullshit with all the negative stuff they say. Of course, now there's a lot of stuff going on in NY and it's kind of hard to overcome that. I guess, now, everybody says that if you're a skinhead, you're a complete asshole and that's not cool. Most of the skinheads I know are cool.
Steve: The skinheads we know were all pulling for unity and brotherhood and that's what it was like. It wasn't a gang, it wasn't a club, it was just a lot of us friends--the crew or whatever you want to call it. Just because we had skinheads doesn't mean we're going to beat up some Jewish person or something.
SV: Unity is cool, unless it becomes an us vs. them thing, a gang mentality.
Kevin: Yeah, 'cause who's to say. I mean, who's us and who's them? You don't know these days. One minute, you think you've got backing from people and you're working together and doing things together and, the next thing you know, their ideas are going in a totally different direction and you go, wait a minute, I'm not into that.
SV: You said you're putting something else out and that it's going to be on your own label. Are you dissatisfied with BYO?
Kevin: Yeah, Positive Force Records. No, we're not dissatisfied with BYO. BYO are friends of ours and they have been cool. They've done so great with the album and they really know how to put out records, but for 4 years, we wanted to put out our own record and we've just been lazy. We've taken the easy way around because we've gotten offers so it's like, now, we've put out the Nevada Compilation ("Nuke Your Dink") and we realize that it's a lot easier than we thought it was, so we're going to Wahington, DC and we're recording with Ian for a 10 song tape, which we've wanted to do for the last four years, too. It'll be all new songs and we're going to redo "In Your Face," which is on the Nevada Compliation, because it's so raw and not a good version of that song at all. We're looking forward to putting it out and we can keep the prices down and we'll be more in control.
Steve: Positive Force is us here and a lot of friends of ours in Reno and we're planning on putting out just a lot of other bands from around the country, too. We're going to get out something by Urban Assult.
SV: What do you think about bands like SSD, FU's and all these other bands that are trying to expand their sound a lot? Do you do anything similar?
Steve: We've been doing pretty much the same style of music since we've started. It might have been a lot slower in the beginning, but we've grown since then. We've progressed a lot. I think we're all happy with the sound we have now, I think we all are.
Troy: Loud and fast.
Dan: We've always been into that kind of music. We've liked the most driving music. We like all music...
Steve: Our musical taste goes from everything from AC/DC to Grandmaster Flash to Madonna.
Kevin: I like gospel. Me and Dan were talking about it the other night, like there's this big change in a lot of bands that are going metal or whatever and there's a lot of power and if the bands do it well, that's great, but I like playing hardcore music so much that, like, why do you have to go heavy metal to prove that you're a good musician?
SV: Yeah, why can't you just improve on what you started on? Why do you have to change your whole lifestyle?
Steve: That's like one of my favorite bands, Suicidal Tendencies, they headlined Eastern Front and they're real metal-sounding and they headlined the heavy metal day. They're a really good band and I don't think their music has changed since they started. Seems like a lot of bands are doing that now, but I don't think we're going to change.
Dan: Suicidal incorporates the heavy metal into their hardcore instead of changing, that's what it sounds like to me.
Steve: They still have an edge, they still have a real powerful sound, which is what I like about them, because they're not completely metal. Some of their lyrics I don't agree with but I think all of their music is great.
Kevin: We want to try to delve more into our influences, but not to the point where you say, "wow, that's 7 Seconds?" It'll still sound like us, but we want to be able to put a few things in because we like a lot of things and I think it would be really cool to be able to do it and make it sound good.
Steve: We do a very popular AM song which we didn't get to do tonight, which is "99 Red Ballons" and that song is great. All of us love it and it's fun to play and every city where we play it, everyone goes, "you're crazy, that's an AM song, what the fuck is this?..."
Kevin: Yeah, then by the end of that song, everyone just dances and sings and it's so great.
Steve: We were talking about putting a funk song on the record because all of us like funk music. We're not trying to sound like the Big Boys or anything, but it was just like a novelty song.
SV: The music may not have changed, but I notice that the lyrics have changed a little bit. On the first EP, it was more "us vs. them" type lyrics and now it's more positively oriented.
Kevin: Well, there's anger still there, but I don't want to just bitch about things anymore. I want to be able to at least get my life together and work with others. It's not asking a whole lot. Just touring, we've learned so much. There's such a great network in this country. You can go travel, play with great bands, stay with great people and hang out and just see so much. We left Reno with nothing--a van and, like, "let's go!" and when we get back, we're going to have so much to think about. Take advantage of it.
SV: You haven't lived until you get out and see what it's all about.
Kevin: Right. The new lyrics are affected by that. They might be a little more personal, but they're not so personal that people can't read them and can't relate to them. It's like people come up to me now and they'll talk to me about things in their life. It's really cool. Last night, in Stamford, this kids told me about something between him and his girlfriend and he wanted to sing "Trust," so we let him sing it to his girlfriend. It makes you feel good because people relate. That, to me, is success and we might not be making big huge sums of money and we're not getting deli-trays backstage and all that stuff, but it's a real great thing. If anyone gets a chance to travel around the country, do it. There's great people out there.
SV: Any closing comments?
Kevin: Yes, thank you very much for not asking about straight-edge and not asking where we got our name from.
Printed in Suburban Voice #13 (1984)
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