[Material swiped from a variety of sources. The first photo is from Black Triangle #2 (the "free the passions" issue). The interview is from APB #1 as are the lyrics, except Headline Hunters, which appeared in One Solution #3.]

[OBIK: Further material (interviews, pictures, contact with band members) would be appreciated. Email me if you've got anything.]

While in TO, I stopped of at the Peddler to see Rob and Bryan of YYY. I ended up getting an interview with Rob and later went to see the Circle Jerks. Well, here's what he had to say:

By Ralph and Potsy's spirit (Potsy wasn't actually with me but I could feel his presence.)

Who are the members of the band, and what instruments do they play ?
Brian with a "I" sings, Bryan with a "Y" plays drums, Paul plays bass, and I play guitar.

What is the average age of the band?
I would say its about 19 or 20.

Where did you get the name YOUTH YOUTH YOUTH ?
Well it's from the Generation X song, I like the lyrics a lot but, I found the guitar solo too long.

How long have you been together?
Well, I've been in the band for about two years, but we went through a big change about a year and a half ago. So I would say we have been together about a year and a half as we stand now.

Were you in any previous bands?
Ya, I've been in a couple of bands, I joined my first punk band in 1978. It was pretty bad, but for all intends and purposes this has been the first popular band that I've played in.

What are some of your influences?
Everything. I remember reading an interview with one of the UK SUBS and he made some comment about what he felt was the problem with alot of new punk bands is that they've been brought up on five years of punk music and that it's getting to all sound the same because they all had the same influences, because that was the only different music they would listened to, so I listen to everything (not purposely for influences), from clasical to jazz, hardcore to heavy metal, I like it all.

What are your lyrics mainly about, or what do they deal with?
Well, we're not a band that sort of preaches one theme, like, I like Discharge alot, but I think that their lyrics seem to get a bit redundant, I mean it can achieve an effect, but I couldn't be content saying one thing, so every song pretty much hits on a different problem. There's alot of songs that deal with what I think will happen in the future if we don't do something now. So it's not all pessemistic, I'm just saying that it stinks right now and that it could be better later on.

Has there been a good responce toward your cassette which you had earlier released ?
Oh yeah, it out sold what we had thought, we couldn't believe it, we could have sold more, except it was mainly concentrated in the city and we never made a big deal about advertising anywhere else.

How many did you sell?
The last count was about 500, it's really good!

When you played in Ottawa at the YCP festival (in december), how was the crowd reaction?
Well, it was hard on us because we went on the last, and there's this thing in Ottawa, where everyone has to take a bus to get home, because they dont have any all-night transit, and the show wasn't near the downtown core area, so alot of people had to leave early so there wasn't that much audience to react by the time we went on. Well, it was good, I really like the people in Ottawa, I had alot of fun there.

How about when you opened for the Dead Kennedys, was it hard on you guys opening for such a big name?
Well, it was hard because there was the problem with our singer, because he couldn't make it back to do the show and there was a big mix up about it and we ended up getting the singer from the Young Lions to sing for us but he didn't know all of our lyrics, so it was hard on us in one sense, but on the other hand, it took alot of pressure off of us because there wasn't the pressure to be perfect, so we just went up and had a great time, all our friends were piled up at the front of the stage having a great time, I really enjoyed it.

So you've had a really good crowd reaction in Toronto.
Oh yeah, I think the favorite was when we played with the Bad Brains at the Edgewater, it was about the best crowd ever.

Do you find Toronto has a good, strong scene going?
I like it alot, but it's easy to pass over it, especially if you only buy records because most of the bands up here don't have anything out except maybe a tape or two, but more and more I'm finding that all my favorite bands are around, not just in TO but other places to, like I really like Civil Terror and there are some good bands in Winnipeg. The Canadian Music Seene seems to hold alot for me, between the lyrics and style of music, that I sometimes find lacking in the American and British bands. I'm more consistently directed here.

So would you say you had the best crowd reaction at the Bad Brains show, in all the places you have played?
I would say so, but we haven't played enough out of TO actually, part of the problem is that we're getting to the point now, especially at the Bad Brains, is that it attracted the right sort of audience for our type of band, but we had a big problem at the UK Subs, because it brought alot of older punks and punks from out of the city, and many of them hadn't seen us and if they haven't seen you, the first time its really hard because they're not familiar with your songs and style of music.

Where have you enjoyed playing the most?
That's hard, there's so many things that I enjoyed for different reasons--like I enjoyed the DK's because it was just a larf, I enjoyed the UK Subs because I've had alot of respect for them for a long time, and it was just great meeting them, they were really nice, actually just about every band that we've played with are really nice. But I wasn't really blown away with the Bad Brains I must admit, I don't know, they didn't really act obnoxious like I had heard about them, but they weren't nice like alot of the other bands have been.

Have you ever been on some sort of tour or mini-tour?
No, usually we just go out for one or two days and then come back, but we would like to go on tour real soon, like some time this summer, but it sort of depends on what's going on here, because if things are going really good down here we dont want to take off in the middle of it, but we would like to go sometime this summer, but it's hard to know weather to head N-E-S or west, we thought about going east but once you hit about 3 or 4 places there's not much, we're afraid we might run out of places. I think the States are most likely.

If you had the chance to tour anywhere, where would you like to go?
That's hard, I guess out west--to Vancouver and then down to LA, SF. I'd also like to see Washington, also the midwest, I've heard so much about it I'd like to see it.

Recently you went into the studio to record some songs for the TO Hardcore cassette, how did that go?
Yeah, that went fine, we had a bit of more trouble mixing it this time, I don't know why, but it went OK, the tape's out now and its really good.

Have there been good sales on it so far?
As far as I know, yeah, but a lot of it isn't just for Toronto because the crowd pretty much knows all the bands. Part of the nice thing about it is that we will be sending it out to other cities and letting them know that TO does have some bands and they're all pretty good. I really like it. The Boston Not LA album didn't really blow me away, I think this tape is much better than that. I really think there's a lot of good bands here and people just don't know that yet.

Do you have any plans for the release of a single or an LP?
Yeah, we would like to put out an EP, a 12" EP.

When would that be?
Well, it would take at least two months, but we're hoping for early summer.

Is there anything you would like to add on?
Well, support your local bands, also if you want to know anything more on us, just write. I like it when people write, so I can talk back to people, and if they want to send tapes to me and I could send tapes of us back to them. I'd like more comprehensive tapes of some of the bands in Montreal and other cities, I like that stuff.

some lyrics: