Suburban Voice Interviews Articles of Faith From Chicago, Articles of Faith started in January 1982 as a four piece, with Vic Bondi (vocals/guitar), Dave Shield (bass), Joe Scuderi (guitar) and Bill (drums). In 1983, Adrian was added as a guitarist, leaving Vic free to concentrate solely on singing, while occasionally adding a third guitar. The band has 2 tracks on the Master Tape compilation and two 7" EP's, "What We Want Is Free," which showed them to be a band capable of writing tight, thrashing songs with thoughtful lyrics and "Wait," 3 blazing songs that included the stellar "I've Got Mine." The band has just completed a 10 song album, produced by Hüsker Dü's Bob Mould, to be released on Hüsker's Reflex Records label in August. After that, a more extensive tour will be undertaken. AOF are a very energetic, passionate band, deeply committed to what they're doing and that passion comes to the surface during their live performances, especially through Vic's frenetic stage presence. We interviewed Vic in the band's van before their gig in Easthampton, and Dave, Bill and 2 roadies also took part... Al: That Mr. T air freshener rules! Vic: Yeah, we like our van smelling like sweaty black men. Al: It protects you from theft. That would scare anyone away. Vic: Well, he is from Chicago. Al: What does the name Articles of Faith mean? Vic: To tell you the truth, we just named it on a whim. We had a song called "Articles of Faith" and we just went with it. It sounded kind of neat and hardcore and all that good stuff. But I guess it makes a little sense if you think about it because we try to work off a certain amount of passion and faith has a lot to do with passion. You can draw any analogy out of it you want. Al: What's "I Got Mine" about? Vic: What do you think it's about because I'm kind of curious about what people think it's about. Al: I think it's about people getting what they want in life, getting ahead, the whole "American Dream." Vic: We have a new song called "American Dreams." "I Got Mine," it's up to you basically, I mean that's a good interpretation, actually. I got it because I get tired of dealing with some relatives that just sort of sit around on their money and sort of bad rap the rest of the world. Al: ...or criticize you or say, "you've been out of college for 2 years, why aren't you earning $30,000 a year," like my parents do to me. I was a business major in college and I got out and I started working and I said, "wait a minute, this is fucked." Vic: You know, "I Got Mine" really has a lot to do with those types of majors because when I was at Northern Illinois--I'm at Univ. of Illinois now--I could not stand those sons of a bitches. They were all busy chasing almight dollar and everything else in life was secondary. Money's important, but it's not the priority in your life. Al: Yeah, you need money to survive and maybe get a few nice things here and there, but it shouldn't be the be-all and end-all of everything. Vic: Yeah, exactly. "I've Got Mine" is kind of about that. It's sort of like, "I've got mine, fuck you Jack, I don't care about you." The thing is you've got to get that type of responsibility, it seems to me you're neglecting at least 25% of your obligations. Being an adult means being responsible for your own activities and that includes your activities in society. Andy: You've been talking about getting along with people. How do you get along with the rest of the Chicago scene? Roadie: Tell 'em how you get along with your buddies The Effigies. Al: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that, too. I'm not really sure what they're trying to say. Vic: The Effigies? You'll have to ask them. I don't really listen to that band. I'm not really into them. They aren't really nice guys so I don't hang around with them. They're not a lot of fun to be with, basically. As far as Chicago's scene goes, I guess we get along okay. We have never gotten the shit that The Effigies have, because The Effigies sort of go out of their way to put everybody down. Al: I've heard they've blown off the scene. Vic: They don't help it any. Steve (roadie): They're "we've got ours and we deserve what we get. Everybody else, just do it yourself and we're not going to help you." Vic: We've put on hall shows when we could afford to, which isn't a lot. Actually, this year we've only done one. I'm not really that hep on the Chicago scene right now. There's some new bands that are happening that I'm really not that familiar with. There's a new compliation coming out with us and the Effigies, Naked Raygun, Rights Of The Accused, Out Of Order and Savage Beliefs, which is a happenin' band! Now the Savages are different. They're not really hardcore. They're sort of like a punk-garage, pop-type thing. Al: That seems to be the thing happening in Boston, with those types of bands, like Stranglehold, The Not, Chain Link Fence... Vic: Yeah. I like Savage Beliefs a lot. They're going to go into the studio this month and we're going to have some fun in there. Andy: Aren't Electric Cool Aid from there, too? Vic: Yeah, they used to be in Negative Element. Al: Whatever happened to Elmer Fudd? (N.E. song) Andy: What are those clowns up to now? Vic: You know, that's the thing about Chicago. We sort of are the exception to the rule, if there's a rule for bands in Chicago, it's that most of them are kind of amusing. They're fun; they don't really take themselves very seriously at all and a lot of people have told me AOF isn't any fun and I take myself too seriously. Only my music! You know, I wouldn't know how to have fun on stage. I could kick back and have a beer, but playing has always been really serious business to me. I'm not fucking around. Al: You're up there for a reason. Vic: Yeah, well it's always served as sort of a cathartic. I mean, if I didn't have it, they'd lock me up by now. Party bands are OK, they serve their purpose. It's just that some people expect every band to be the same. There's a new band called Life Sentence that I want to go see, because it's the old singer for 6 Feet Under and the old guitar player for Anti-Bodies. 6 Feet Under weren't that good of a band, but Ray, their frontman, is dynamite. That guy's explosive. Al: Do you feel that there's an anti-political bias in the U.S. punk scene? Vic: You know, when we went out to the west coast last year, the first question everybody asked us was, "are you a Communist band?" And it's like, I couldn't understand why people are so intent on labelling people right off, "you're political or you're not." Articles of Faith has got some political songs, but I'm not going to sit here and tell you what to think about them. Your interpretation of "I've Got Mine" is as good as mine and if I write my songs well enough, I don't need to talk to you about them. You'll get the political point. I like political bands, but I don't really like real moralizing, sermonizing ones. Andy: Dead Kennedys, MDC? Vic: They're alright as people. The stuff has its place. It's too bad people have to be so hung up on that crap. Al: In Boston, they have a tendency to thumb their nose at any band that has a political message. I suppose you heard about the FU's blowup in Maximum Rock and Roll. Vic: You know, that's Tim, too. He's like that. He's a pretty dry person, but he's alright, though. I can't understand why people have to go out of their way to bad rap Maximum Rock and Roll. If you don't like it, don't read it. Al: I read that, I read Conservative Digest, I read everything. I just try to get different perspectives. Vic: Right. I mean, what's wrong with a little more opinion. God-damn, there's not enough in this country. The country just sort of sits around on its apathetic little ass. They've got a right to speak their piece. I thought that cartoonist coming out and doing his little thing... Andy: John Crawford? (about MDC) Vic: What's his problem? Why does he have to go out of his way to bad-rap people? Andy: Maybe he didn't trust what they (MDC) were saying. How they're going to brainwash people. Vic: Doesn't he have a little faith in people? Andy: The thing now is that they want $1,500 guarantees to play places. Vic: That's for MDC to deal with. From my perspective, if you get $1500 at the door and you earn it, there's nothing wrong with that. Al: As long as you're not ripping off anyone else in the process. If 100 people show up and the guy is losing his shirt, that's not too cool. Vic: You're right. It's real easy to go around second-guessing that band. I though MDC's last record was pretty good. The sound was fuckin' ripping! "Radioactive Chocolate" had some bitchin' hooks in it, so what's the problem? They put down the information. You can read it. If you don't like it, you don't have to buy the single, you don't have to write to the political groups involved. So what's the beef? I mean, what is everybody getting so upset about? There's a lot of other things you can get bent out of shape about. Andy: A lot of people get bent out of shape about The Meatmen's sexism or Nig-Heist. Vic: Yeah, well I like one Meatmen song and one Nig-Heist song and the rest of their record I don' really listen to. That song "Wine, Wenches and Wheels" was pretty hilarious but I don't really want to lesten to a guy getting all bent out of shape about lesbians 'cause it doesn't bother me that much. Bu the same token, I don't listen to SS Decontrol because someone smoking in my face doesn't bother me that much either. Al: On "What We Want Is Free," you talk about all the things you don't want. What do you want? Vic: I want a room with a view. Actually, that stuff (credit rating, loan investment, etc...) is not bad, but the whole thing was, again, sort of like... Al: That it becomes the be-all and end-all. Vic: Right. I don't care if you do want a credit rating. I wouldn't mind having a credit card. I don't have one, but if I did have one it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. It's just that I don't live for it. I work at the University of Illinois. I'm in a special program and what we do is bring a lot of minority students into the university that don't have academic skills for college and we train them. We just started a program where we teach functional illiterates how to read--it's hard. The thing is, they had these guys come in from AT&T one day and do this pre-professional counseling where they were telling them how to make it in the business world and they spent all this time talking about how they dress and their social behavior--it was really repulsive. I mean, God, you're going to do everything in your life so you can make a couple of hundred dollars a week. Al: Got to completely compromise your individuality. Vic: I thought that, initially, but then I said, be realistic, it's only 8 hours a day, when you go home, you don't have to be the businessman anymore, except this guy goes, "now remember, your social contacts are very important if you want to get ahead in the company." There's the Catch-22. The bottom line is it becomes your new identity. You really become the company man. I thought that was bad. Al: I saw in this conservative Christian college newspaper, The Forerunner, where they were talking about the more conservative attitudes of teenagers in this country and they mentioned about how they thought it was good the teenagers considered getting ahead in your career more important than finding happiness. Vic: Isn't that funny that a Christian magazine should say that. I mean, ostensibly, if you're a Christian, you should be conserned with finding a spiritual equilibrium in life and these guys are, like, there's this song, "It's important to conform." Dave has this record... Dave: Yeah, it's from a Christian pop group, a song called "Conform." Vic: If you meet real Christians, who are really into the God thing, for the ones who are authentic, it's a real personal thing and they don't sit around rapping on people. They just keep it to themselves. These people use it as a form of social control. Al: Yeah, they have "the word" and they're going to make sure everyone else has the word or they're going to hell. Vic: They had Jerry Falwell on Phil Donahue and Donahue goes, "Are Jews going to hell?" and he goes, "Absolutely, they're not Christian." You ever see Ernest Ainsley, man, he's the best! He's a healer and he takes old ladies and he hits them on the head and they fall over. He's great. Ernest is happenin'! Al: Or Jimmy Swaggart, when he starts crying. Roadie: When Tammy Baker starts crying. Al: From the Rolling Rock Ministry. I watched her show one night and they had a phone number and I called up and said I would pledge $1,000 if they would shoot her right there. Dave: In Chicago, a few weeks ago, they had a statue in a church and the ministry of the church was claiming that it cried. Weeping Mary... Vic: This authentic miracle proves that God lives. Dave: And all these people coming out and saying how nice it is that we're all brought together and it's like, we don't know if it's true or not, but isn't it nice to see people go to church again. Huh? The blindness of it amazes me. Like, we were downtown in Chicago and one guy was standing on a chair--it was like "Jocks For Jesus" or something. I started converting on the spot and they didn't like it. They just looked at me in a grim face and said (snarling) "JESUS LOVES YOU!!" There was another guy that was trying to be really nice and it was, like, he'd say, "I don't really like what's going on, but you have to obey everybody in authority because that's what God says and even if I don't think it's right." I asked him what if they shoot these people in Salvador, what should they do? "Well, I know it's wrong, but they shouldn't do anything because God says they're going to go to heaven," and it's just, like, he could not escape this blindness of the whole thing. It's like those who are oppressed must suffer and those who do the oppressing have God's blessing. Al: Where did "Live Like Bill Holden" (Vic's Max Rock N Roll column) come form? Vic: He was a party animal. The first tour was "live like Bill." We were drinking quite a bit on the first tour. I don't write anymore. I don't have time. Andy: How did the rap session with Dave MDC and Ian MacKaye get set up (In Max R 'n R)? Vic: That was fun. We had a great show in Chicago with MDC, Minor Threat and AOF. MDC was staying at the house and Minor Threat came by and this was at a point when the political vs. anti-political stuff first started up and I'm sitting in Chicago in the middle of it looking at both sides. So I sat 'em down. I figured Minor Threat couldn't be the same as MDC and it turned out they had a lot more in common than they had differences. Al: MDC's lyrics have more of a world view and Minor Threat's more of a personal view. Vic: Minor Threat was a better band. Andy: Where do you fit in on the spectrum in relation to those two? Dave: All our songs are very personal, but then politics enter into the personality very much. Vic: Yeah, if we write about politics it's because the bigger picture affects us very directly. Bill: I just don't think there's separate categories. People are like, if you have political thoughts, you should write a song--'I do not like war' and give me 6 different reasons why. That's a really simplistic approach. You can't escape politics because the society is wrapped up in it. Everything's touched and deformed by the political relations we live in. I wouldn't pit them against each other. Al: You should just write songs about things you care about, that concern you. Dave: That's what MDC does, right? Vic: I found out in that interview that MDC's basic approach is the same as Minor Threat's, but MDC's more concerned about what happens in El Salvador. Al: Everyone has their own axe to grind. Vic: As far as us, the most political thing we do, probably, is "Buy This War" and that's because I'm watching TV and I thought what a great used-car salesman Ronald Reagan would make. Wouldn't it be great if he was a used-car salesman... This stuff was printed in Suburban Punk #11 (1984).