webpage: http://www.dementlieu.com/~obik/

email: obik@dementlieu.com

Interview with SSD from Forced Exposure 2.  Interview conducted by Jimmy
Johnson and Katie the Cleaning lady.

SS Decontrol have been together for about a year now and more than anyone else
are responsible for establishing the hardcore scene here in Boston.  An
immensely powerful band live, their forthcoming 13 song album, "The Kids Will
Have Their Say" will show the rest of the country just how great they are.  We
interviewed Al (guitar) at Pensgate in May; Jaime (Bass) was supposed to have
been there too but he was busy catching up on his favorite pastime...

J) What was your purpose of taking 6 weeks off?
A) Mental fatigue, because we play out too much, I hurt my knee, and the
timing was right.  We need to take time off and get away from each other and so
I can think more.  It was like my vacation.
K) Do you think you play out too much?
A) I think so.
J) During the six weeks it was probably the deadest time since last year, do
you think the other bands should have more responsibility in finding a place to
play?
A) Definitely, yah I expected it, but I thought someone might've taken hold
and go for it.
K) Kevin Porter?
A) No, that would have helped cause these bands could've played if Media
Workshop had been open, it's an easy way to play at Media Workshop.  You just
show up there and play.  Stick up a couple of posters.  To do the other gigs is
harder, you got to fuckin work like hell.

J) So you've been together about a year now, right?  What inspired your
original interest and made you decide to start a band?
A) Me, it was ay decision to start a band.  Lets see, I started playing guitar
I think eight months before we started playing, maybe, I was gonna learn how to
play for awhile, for about two years and learn, but then I said, there is no
music for me to listen to and I just got sick of it.  I tried to listen to
Boy's Life and I tried to listen to listen to the Outlets.  It was right around
the time of the Dead Kennedy's and I said, fuck it, kid, it's time to like get
out of Lynn and make some music that's worth listening to.  Then I fuckin
started asking stupid idiots in Boston if they'd start a band.  I actually like
asked Tarzan and stuff like that.  I was asking like fucked up people to be in
a band cause I had no contacts at all, than I started talking to Jaime's sister
and she said, "My brother is trying to start a band".  She brought him over to
talk and I said "Yah, I'm trying to start a fucking band".  He was with Joe
Mueller, he said, yeah let's try to do it.  Then I didn't hear from him for a
week an a half, I said fuck, I'm gonna run an add in the Phoenix.  But then
Jaime called me and said lets do it, so I went over to his house and fucked
around and we kind of found out that Mueller wasn't going to be the guy.  That
was like the only practice with Mueller.
J) What was he going to be?
A)He was going to be the singer.  We just fucked around and I couldn't play
for shit really, just the fundamentals and we just realized right then that Joe
Mueller wasn't going to be the guy.  We had two meetings before we actually
"played instruments and I told him what I wanted.  And I made sure he wasn't a
fucked up kid and not into like the drug thing.  I got the drummer through the
ad in the Phoenix.  I ran that for three consecutive weeks.  At DOA we told
Springa that if he wanted to sing with us, he could sing with us.  That was at
DOA (at the Underground) so Mueller was kinda in the band but me and Jaime
decided he wasn't gonna be it.  We had heard he was singing with some other
bands.  He wasn't particularly my favorite person and he had no originality to
himself.  He was singing like other people and he was trying to act like some
other punk star.  We said, Springa would be good in the band.  He's an
energetic little brat and stuff.  We got Chris through the ad in the Phoenix. 
He didn't know what he was getting into maybe.  He definitely wanted something
fresh.

J) So your original goal wasn't just to be another band, but to create a whole
new scene?
A) That was the original thing was to start the Boston thing, to start it the
right way.  There's definite ways of going about it, like if the guys in the
band had done it their way it might have come out different, but the way I
wanted to do it, it came out a certain way, I tried to tell them to do it their
own way without the clubs and stuff.  I pretty much call the shots and except a
couple times I let Springa call the shots and those were the Rat gigs and
stuff.  In fact I probably never would have played Streets but Springa got us
those gigs.
K) Those were good gigs at Streets though.
A) Yeah, it was a good place to play when it started.  I'm not regretting it. 
It was  great.  It brought it out to more people.  Everything was important. 
The Rat gig, no matter that it turned into a riot, was important, that was why
we did it.  I figured that shit was gonna happen.  The Street gigs we did to
bring it out to the public more.  It can't totally be underground.  We gave it
a little substance at the Streets gigs.  Some of those weren't so hot.
J) Are you satisfied with that original goal of creating a scene?  Are you
satisfied with the way it is now?
A) Ya, I think it's pretty good.  It's big--we definitely went after the
people, cause that's what we are into, the people.  Spaces to play...  It's
like we get enough gigs so I'm pretty satisfied.  I think the gigs that we want
we can get.  We should find more places to play, that's maybe my fault that we
haven't yet.  There should be more places to play.
J) It's partly the other bands faults too.
A) Right, right, now I've got  Gallery East but I should probably still be
looking for other places.  Right now it seems we get enough gigs, at least
enough for me, I don't have the need to go looking after new spaces but I'm
gonna keep looking though.
J)Where do you go from here, now that we've got a scene in Boston what do you
do next?  Do you want to establish yourself as a national band, or build Boston
into a bigger scene...
A)To provide music, a certain kind of music for kids to go see... to really
fuckin do the under 20 thing.  Music that kids can listen to without getting
fucked up.  Not like La Peste, not that era back there, with the thing
revolving around the Rat and stuff, it would be the people, more people, less
clubs.  Less cliqueyness, and less booze, just more people.
K) But it is still cliquey...
A) It's cliquey, it seems like the army doesn't get any bigger cause people
are afraid to come into it, but it's not my fault, cause I certainly fuckin
open my arms to everybody.  I don't think it's a cliquey club, I think that
anyone that wants to be a part of it can be a part of it.  It's not my fault,
we didn't even know the Marbleheads.  We just wanted to take in more people. 
When it stagnates it's not my fault, it's just because, umm, people don't open
up to it.  Alot of kids that are out at the shows, they don't open up to us. 
How are we gonna know about 'em?  The scene I wanted was modeled after the DC
thing cause that was people rather than places.
J) Boston 1977 was the Rat.  It's not built around a club any more.
A) Right, I don't think so.
K) Do you think the media are jealous of what you created?
A) I think they feel really old, I think they're totally...looking back on
what we've done, I kinda get high off it.  I kinda look back and look at all
the people.  When I first started coming in, when I got my license and started
coming into Boston and I looked at the people I saw, the so called "punk
rockers" and all those people that were clinging onto that so called punk rock
thing.  Then we came in and just cleaned house.  You won't see any of those
people around today cause they feel like old fools or something.
J) There's no punk rock left any more, anyway.  It's all art or hardcore.
A) There was no punk rock here ever, they were juat clinging onto something
that wasn't there, and when we came in and brought them something real it was
not right for them so they just left. You won't see too many people with just
leather jackets and lots of buttons anymore.  We brought them something real. 
I don't think Boston ever had anything real.  Now I don't know about DMZ and
all those bands, I think they were just all regular Rock n Roll bands and then
all of a sudden this music came and they just started...like the the Peter
Daytons of the world...I think they all...
J) They were all musicians in 1974 and 1975.
A) Right, exactly they were probably playing before, and I've seen those films
of live at the Rat and stuff and it looks like a lot of foolish people there. 
A lot of idiots at the Rat.  I don't know, this is what it brings to my mind
and I don't think Boston ever had a scene and I think we brought them something
real that kids are really into it and I think it totally blew their minds.
J) The DJ's seem to play the music now, but I don't think they like it.
A) I don't know, I can't pass judgment about who likes it and and who doesn't.
I don't know, but fuck, if they don't like it they shouldn't play it.  I can't
tell when they talk to me cause I think they don't really tell the truth, I
think they are scared to be honest with me.  I don't think a lot of people will
tell me the truth cause they are scared of me or something so I don't know...I
can't tell where they are coming from, I think it's great if the DJ's play it.
That's what we tried to start.  If  we brought the music to the kids it should
be on the radio for the kids.
K) I think it should be too, and I think it's nice that in the past year a lot
of people have turned around and started to play it.  What I don't like is when
they write "fuck off to the narrow minds that think the narrow way", who do you
think that is directed at?
A) I think they are talking to me.
K) I think they are too.
A) Cause I didn't want to do the record, I thought that was meant to me, cause
I was the only one that fought the record.  I was pretty sure it was to me, 
but Gang Green have that song "Narrow Mind" and someone said they just put it
on there but...I think its got to be, who else are they directing it to cause
who else are they directing it to, cause who else is there?  They are the
narrow minded ones.  That narrow minded thing was to me, it was to the people
who fight them, it had to be to me.  Everyone calls me narrow minded so it has
to be to me.

J) Now that you have established a scene in Boston, what do you want to do?
A) Put out a record, that's gonna help us, the band, not financially but
getting the music to the people, the kids.  Newbury Comics Record, I don't
think it's very good, but it is definitely going to help.  It can't hurt,
really.  It can only bring more people into it and that can only help.
J) So, why aren't you on "Boston not LA"?
A) Okay, many reasons.  I have them written down someplace.  I think of new
ones everyday...  I think we should be on it cause we have nothing against most
of those bands, we just want the message to those bands to be: DO IT YOURSELF. 
That was our message, we do our own gigs, we are into doing it the right way,
and from the start we were not going to do it.  First of all we wanted to
establish our own label.  Not because we think Modern Method sucks, but because
we thought it would be confusing and we thought we would start a label for
Boston bands to work from and that would be known in other cities that this is
the label to buy if you want to hear this kind of music.  I think I said this
to Dreese once and he got all flipped out.  He got upset cause he's worked
really hard to establish Modern Method and he doesn't think that I have the
right to tell him to put out another label.  But to me this music deserves
another label.  There is a lot of shit you don't want to be part of.  I want to
separate from Modern Method and create a separate label.  Another reason was
that we wanted to do it ourselves.  We thought the other bands should do it
themselves.  The bands wanted to be on a compilation, every band could have
done it.  I don't think money is a problem, you can always get money.  They
brought some good points, like, who is to say this is the first one, but also I
didn't think the scene was ready for a compilation, Gang Green and Jerry's Kids
had just started out.  I said, why don't you wait a couple of months until
Negative FX, DYS & Co. are ready, that way we would have more bands and less
songs by each band.
K) More quality...
A) Yeah plus Gang Green and all those bands would have better songs by now. 
So he goes, "we will do another record then" which shut me up quick.  It was a
good answer cause if he was planning on doing another record than what do I
have to complain about?  I had just fucked up our second recording session so I
was pretty down and if we couldn't get something down on record than we might
as well, there is no sense in being a band, so we were pretty much going to end
the band.  I said fuck, our last ditch effort would be to try and record again
cause recording was always in the back of my mind, and I've fucked up two
times, so I said we might as well break up and start a new band, try and do it
again.  I was speaking to Dreese and his record was close to coming out, I said
give me some money and I'll give you a Decontrol recording because I fucking
had no more money to record again and I figured we might as well document the
band before it ended.
I got hooked up with Mr. B through Dreese and I asked him to produce us and
all this shit transpired in a day. We set up a time to do it the next week and
it was like we didn't actually get any money from Newbury Comics.  They had
nothing to do with it, we were just gonna go in there and if we got something
maybe we'd do it.  I just basically thought we'd use his money and he'd get his
shit and we'd get ours and we'd all be happy.  Today I still want to be on that
record.  If he asked me today, I'd say no but I want to be on there with all
those bands, cause it's fucking Boston and I should be on it.  That took alot
of thinking not to be on it.  So anyways that recording session fucked up. 
Never got to do it so we never got on the record.  We almost went for it, we
almost sold out and gave in to our better judgment.
J) So what do you think of that record?
A) I thought it was gonna be a lot stronger, I thought from what I had heard
in the store it was going to be a lot stronger, but I think it's got a lot of
weakness to it, it's just not solid.  Too many songs by the groups. It's like
seven mini EPs kinda and I'd rather have 'em mixed up maybe instead of seven by
one band.  The record doesn't grab me at all, I don't really want to play it
that much...
I hate the title.  I think the title is the stupidest title in the world.  I
think it oozes negativism.  "This Is Boston, Not LA", it should be just "This
is Boston", I mean who are we trying to compare ourselves with anyway?  How can
you compare Boston to LA, anyway?  You shouldn't even bother, it's just totally
different.
K) The Freeze came up with the title, obviously they are comparing .
A) I think if that song is about looking like other people, I think the Freeze
are more into fashion than we are.  Safety pins and buttons and stuff.

J) Do you want to talk about the Freeze?  They've created quite a controversy
in the last month.
A) I don't think I ever said anything against them, I have my musical
differences with the band, but I have my musical differences with everybody so
thats nothing different.  I get along with the Freeze great.  I had no problems
with anyone with that band and then all of a sudden shooooo, I didn't speak to
them for awhile and then all of a sudden they hit me with all this shit, that I
had been bad mouthing them and this stuff.  Okay there are definitely people in
our crowd that don't like them, but I've tried to quell it.  There are people
not in our band, but in our crew that don't like them, that they think they are
shit.  I like the guys, I think they are a great band live.  I don't like their
material, I never said anything bad and all of a sudden they called us a nazi
band which I thought was amusing.  I think the manager of that fucking band is
undermining them, trying to fuck with us.  The reason I think they are saying
all this shit about us is because they were there before us and we got all the
attention and I think we deserve every bit of it.  They fucked up.  I mean, I
have a distinct way of doing things and they don't do it my way, they do it
their way and they play the Rat and they break it up and they play Cantones and
that was their way of doing things and maybe that's why they never got the
attention.  Maybe that's why they are bad mouthing us, because they are
jealous.  And that's the only reason I can think of.  That is the only way I
can justify them calling us nazis and saying that we don't like bands that
drink, cause that's shit.  I never said I wouldn't play with a band that
drinks, that's stupid cause a lot of good bands drink.
J) That limits you to about five bands.
A) It does.  I mean even Negative FX drinks.  It's a stupid excuse.  Alot of
bands in this town look for excuses.  Everybody is fuckin' jealous or something
and they are looking for excuses.

J) Tell us about your record label.
A) I just want a label that bands want to use.  With this first record we will
try and set up working relations with the distributors and stuff, so when the
other bands try to do it, the label will do it.  If any of those bands want to
do it...
J) Whose decision will it be who gets to record?  Can anyone do it?
A) Yeah, well, I can't say anybody, it's going to be a hardware/hardcore
label.  They can't be fuckheads, if anybody wants to use it sure.  Some of us
will talk to decide whether or not it will be in the best interests of the
label.  I'll ask everybody.
J) So are you the executive producer of the label?  Some people are worried
your going to be a dictator over the label.
A) Dictator of the label?  Here's how it works.  If Gang Green, for instance,
comes up to me and says we want to do a record on X-Claim I'll say, give me a
tape and give some money.  I'm not going to pay for it.  This is a do it
yourself label.  Hopefully Decontrol is going to donate some money into a fund,
say $400 to X-Claim.  To do a single is maybe $600, so if a band can come up
with $200 and record on their own money, we'll make sure they can handle it all
or do nothing.  It's up to them.  They can do nothing or everything and use X-
Claim, it's a name that means something.  But they can't abuse it, they can't
fuck with it.  It's not going to be a dictatorship.  I don't want a Dischord on
my hands either.  Don't think that Dischord bands record and then every penny
goes into Dischord.
This is a different idea because Ian's got problems right now, with a lot of
money in Dischord and a lot of bands want to be on Dischord's label, and for a
DC band to go on Dischord, it's really easy, they don't need no money cause
Dischord pays for it.  This is different.  You've got to get up the money and
pay back X-Claim, whereas he does it his way, with all these bands like Void
and Artificial Peace, all these bands think they should be the next to go on. 
Now Ian's going to get shit for picking Void.  I don't want that.  He has to
deal with those things, I don't want to pick and choose.  Dischord is more than
X-Claim.  Dischord is more of a label, X-Claim is a name.  It's a label, but I
don't want to be executive president.  I don't want that on my shoulders.  I
don't want a bank account with $8000 in it.

K) Are you pleased with the recording for the album?
A) It's the best I've heard of us yet.  It was better than I could do, that's
saying a lot.

J) Are you going to be on the Bad Brains compilation?
A) I don't know.  The last time they were here I asked them about it, and they
weren't knocking my door over.  Now I got a tape and they are out smoking
joints, so what can I do?  We'll do it.
J) What do you think of the Bad Brains/Zion Train change?
A) I think they are making the wrong move.  I think they ere the best band
I've ever seen in my life.  They are more important as the Bad Brains to people
than Zion Train ever will.  Zion Train will not reach more people, just more
stoned white people.  The Bad Brains were important because when the Bad Brains
played there are no racial gaps.

J) Are you gonna do a tour?
A) It's a vacation, not a tour.  I don't think I can tour, I'd have to quit my
job.  If we can get one cool show than I'll go there.  I'm not going to play a
Cantones in Ohio or something on a Tuesday night with three people there.
J) What did you think of the Paradise show?
A) I don't know.  I wasn't too pleased, but I'm never satisfied with the way
we play.  The show's I've been pleased with nobody else has liked, so evidently
I must be fucked up.  Like, I liked the first DC show and everyone else hated
it.  I liked the second NY show.  That was my favorite gig, but everyone hated
it.  My two favorite gigs everyone said were the worst times we ever played. 
But ah, I was the only one with the insight to know the Paradise was gonna fuck
with us.  Everyone else said no, it will be cool.
J) You were the only one who thought that way?
A) In and around the band, yeah! Everybody else said it would go smoothly and
I said, no they are going to fuck with us. But they pulled the old mike thing
with us.  They told us someone stole a mike and we would have to pay for it. 
It's like the oldest trick in the book, and we would have had to pay for it. 
It's a good way for them not paying us.  And Sprnga went behind the curtain and
found it.  They stuck it back there.
J) Are you going to continue to play with non hardware/hardcore bands?
A) Well, originally that was my intention.  I'd get mad if like someone played
with the Del Fuegos.
K) The Wild Stares think they are hardcore.
A) Are you serious, cause they gave the Bad Brains a cassette to put on the
compilation. (laughs) Do they really think they're hardcore? (laughs)
I don't like five bands, it's too much for me, five hardcore bands cause they
all somewhat sound the same.  Alot of the Boston bands do sound similar.  For
me I'd rather have two bands and then throw in some weird band that sounds a
little different.
K) Is that why you asked Proletariat to open for Minor Threat?
A) Yeah, I think it would be a good night that way, cause I just can't take
the same thing 5 times in the same night.  But I think the night flows better
when there is a different sound but the same goals, they're like good people.

K) What was the theory behind "How Much Art"?  Do you think it helped or
hindered you?
A) "How Much Art"? was a desperate song, like why we started kinda, we were
sick of what was here.  I didn't write it, that was Springa's song but it was
kinda like my theme to why we started so soon.  How much art could I take? 
Black Flag was only gonna come by once a year and I couldn't wait.  We had to
start now! It's a joke song, it's not to be taken seriously.

J) What do you think of NY?
A) When we play NY I look at it as another place to go, nothing special,
nothing that I want to stay for.  I think that they don't have a scene because
it's built around clubs.

J) Are you interested in writing a whole new set?
A) Yeah, we could have done that with the vacation we took, but it was a
nonpracticing vacation.  If we want to take a nonplaying out vacation then we
might do it, I don't want to force any lyrics out.  So I can't really sit down
and write a whole new set.  I don't want to draw from newspapers or something
that's not there.  As long as the lyrics keep on coming, I'll keep on writing.
K) Do you think you will still be doing this in a year?
A) Decontrol?  I don't know, maybe I'll move in a year. The band realistically
in a year...it's kinda a day to day thing.  If I was to put odds on it, no we
would not be together in a year but the record...who knows?

--

snippet from Gang Green interview in Forced Exposure 3:

Jimmy) Are you satisified with the Modern Method record?
Chris) Not with the name.
Bill) You know what else also sucks, they wrote, "fuck off to the narrow minds
that think in the narrow way."
Katie) Who is that directed at?
Jimmy) Al says that it's directed at him.
Bill) Oh, I read that.  No way!
Mike) That's about our school and stuff like that.

--

Review from Forced Exposure 3:

SS DECONTROL "The Kids Will Have Their Say" X-CLAIM/Dischord
It took them awhile to finally get some vinyl out but their patience certainly
paid off in the long run...you can accuse  me of blatent localism if you want,
but listen to this record first because it stacks up against anything,
anywhere...fast, furious, and powerful--three overused adjectives which only
partially describe the greatness contained here...18 songs in all giving a full
portrayal of their intense brand of noise...the real star of the LP is Chris,
whose unique drumming style is simply immense and a very prominent part of the
band's sound...there are a few minor hitches...the mix falters occasionally
with the vocals and guitar being recorded too low...also I'm pretty tired of
"How Much Art" but thats mainly because of the incessant airplay it's received
as a tape over the last 6 months...that should in no way alter your decision to
get this record...it is definate proof that there is something real and vital
happening in this city...an absolute must...