Agnostic Front
from Task #2, Summer 1985
I interviewed Roger (vocals), Vinnie Stigma (guitar) and Kabula (bass) of Agnostic Front on 3/27/85 after their set at The Ritz in N.Y.C. I must say that I was skeptical of these guys because of some of the information I had read about them, most of which was extremely negative with heavy accusations of fascism. It turned out that I was pleasantly surprised because they're all really nice, friendly guys who were eager to talk and be interviewed. While I don't know them personally, and I'm not familiar with some of their past actions, I can say that the lyrics to their recent LP are very positive and unity oriented which highly contradicts all the negative press they've received. If Agnostic Front are fascists it wasn't evident at all to me on this occasion. Being that there was a lot of people in their dressing room (from Rastas to Hippies to Punx and Skins) and the band was hot and tired from their set, it was hard to get a good undistracted interview. The following is more or less just some thoughts, feelings and statements that were made in reference to the current state of affairs with Agnostic Front. I'm sure this article doesn't even begin to touch upon the surface of the problems Agnostic Front have been involved with but maybe it will answer some of the questions that people have been asking each other about this controversial band.
-Greg C
Read on...
G: How long has Agnostic Front been together?
A: About 2 1/2 - 3 years.
G: You originally rose out of the ashes of the A7 club?
A: Yeah and 2+2 (another local club - ed.)
G: What kind of area is your current tour going to cover?
A: It's a US tour hitting mostly cities and some smaller scenes.
G: How many dates do you have lined up?
A: All together about 38 dates in two months.
G: Are you playing with anybody else on a regular basis or are you playing with various bands?
A: It depends where we are.
G: So you're not traveling with any other bands?
A: No, just ourselves.
G: How's the album selling?
A: Real good, we don't have an exact quote but the guy said its doing great.
G: Are you happy with the way it came out?
A: Yeah, were happy with the way it came out.
G: When you guys get back from the tour do you plan on doing some more recording?
A: Yeah, we've already gotten a couple of record offers like from big labels to do our records.
G: Such as?
A: Important's label which is Relativity. GBH is on there. That's who we may go with and do a couple of albums with them.
G: You guys have been getting a lot of shit in the press recently and I think most of it has come from Maximum Rock 'N' Roll. I didn't originally intend to bring this up, but maybe you'd like to make some comments on the situation.
A: I just think that Tim was very biased with us. You see, like you know when Hitler picked the Jews and just said "the Jews" and they used to kill them off?
G: Yeah?
A: Tim Yohannan is nothing but a stupid pig picking the skins. He's being fascist himself because not everybody's the same, he's just a fucking asshole. I'm going to kick his ass and he knows it.
G: You feel quite a bit of resentment towards him?
A: He's the most hated person on my list. We're playing a Rock Against Maximum Rock 'N' Roll show in San Francisco on May 4th at Mabuhay Gardens with The Fuck-Ups and Verbal Abuse, right in their own fucking town.
G: Do you think maybe that in San Francisco the skins might be a problem and Tim just associates all skins with them?
A: You know everybody's fucked up in their own way, not just the skins. Hey look, there are skins that are violent, there are a lot of violent punks and a lot of violent people, don't blame it on one person. There are violent people in every crowd. Don't just blame it on skinheads being violent. There's violent punks, there's violent rednecks and we're fucking crazy ourselves but we ain't gonna start racking people for no reason.
G: I think one of the problems with Maximum Rock 'N' Roll is that they try to create a rather romantic view of punk and the scene in general as being a political peace movement.
A: They need a bad guy image.
G: And you're going to give it to them?
A: No, we are what we are. They're a bunch of assholes.
G: You said that you're playing with The Fuck-Ups. They're another band that's gotten a lot of bad publicity. Do you feel that Max RNR just singles all you guys out?
A: Naw, they got to have someone to pick on. They can't like everybody.
G: Speaking honestly, do you guys purposely bait Max RNR to get publicity?
A: No, we just do what we want to do and they don't like it. We do just eat it up, they're making us bigger.
G: So you enjoy the publicity?
A: Yeah, but we don't write letters back because we don't give a fuck, it's a gossip scene. You open up any Max RNR you see at least 3 hate letters to us. What do we do? We're just being ourselves, you know, instead of these phony people all jumping on this peace bandwagon thing. You know what I mean? They're mocking us out? I take it as a personal insult and if they want to come to our face and say it Im gonna punch them.
G: I understand what you're saying, it is rather trendy to jump on the peace bandwagon because it's easy.
A: Yeah, it's nice and easy to write songs about it.
G: But ultimately don't you think peace would be a good thing to have?
A: We're not violent. Are we violent?
Fan: Yeah.
G: You guys all seem like pretty different individuals.
A: We're just a bunch of fucked up guys. We're chaotic, we're crazy and that's what it's all about. We have fun, we're crazy.
G: Really, when you think about it the Sex Pistols, when they were around, everybody hated them and they used to get hate mail and stuff and a lot of people, including myself, thought they were cool.
A: Yeah, that's it. That's what punk is all about. You're supposed to be rejecting authority. How come Maximum Rock 'N' Roll went and sort of became the authority? Maximum Rock 'N' Roll has become the authority in hardcore so somebody must rebel against them. It happens in every little clique or anything big, you know, somebody becomes the authority and you've got to rebel against it. If they don't like your band they schmear your name as "bad" all over the world. We don't need that, we're doing great shows out here, we have our great friends out here, friends with everybody, you know, play great shows, we don't need them.
G: Well I would definitely say that 75% of the people that are here tonight came to see you guys. You certainly have a large following in New York. Have you guys done many gigs outside of New York?
A: Yeah, we've done the East Coast, Midwest, we went to Ohio State, we actually played outside of Cincinnati, in Kentucky and there was people there that actually thought we were Nazis. Every place we played people would have friends that wouldn't come because they thought we were Nazis. How do they know? Because of Maximum Rock 'N' Roll? Did they meet me, talk to me or shake my hand and ask me, you know? You know what it is? Maximum Rock 'N' Roll the equivalent of the National Enquirer.
G: I guess you've seen their new issue.
A: Yeah! If people want to read that shit and enjoy it they can become hardcore housewives.
G: I had heard rumor that you guys and Maximum Rock 'N' Roll (Tim) had kissed and made up, I guess that's not true.
A: Get the fuck outta here! He tried to make it that way. He was afraid cause I told him I was gonna kick his ass. I told him I'd do it when we were doing the interview on radio.
G: You're really going to violently harass or are you just going to bust his balls?
A: Oh yeah!
G: Besides this what else are you guys into?
A: We're into sex. Pussy.
G: I had heard rumor that Agnostic Front has gay members in the band, is that true?
A: Yeah all of us. Oh Roger, you're my honey!
G: So it's Roger and Vinnie, eh?
A: Talk to Dave, here our ex-drummer, he was the gay.
Dave: No man!!
A: He's in a new band Rammy and the Rods!
G: Is there anything else you guys would like to say?
A: Thanks to all the kids who support us. Great guys.
G: What about the whole thing with the Maximum Rock 'N' Roll "Halloween letter"?
A: You know they mentioned my very close friend John Nordquist that got killed and it really fuckin' upset me. He was a good friend of mine, he was beat up and laid on the railroad tracks for a train to run over him and kill him! And for them to put him in there after he's been dead for two years and fuckin' bring that shit up. I'd like to beat the fuck out of that guy, man, for fuckin' mentioning that shit. He was a pussy and wouldn't say it to my face. That's all I can say.
G: Why was John Nordquist killed anyway?
A: We don't know he was murdered. He was a nice guy, he was a skinhead, nice guy. I live in Jersey in the suburbs and he lived like a block away. He went to a party at my friend's house and he was walking home through the woods and some guys grabbed him and beat him up and laid him on the tracks. They thought he was dead, but he wasn't, and a train came along and ran him over and killed him. And the police dropped the case. I went to the police and said "Oh yeah, I know who did it," because I heard rumors about who did it. I'm almost positive of the people who fuckin' did it and they got off scot-free.
G: They never charged anybody?
A: Never charged them because they "have no evidence." It was murder!
G: So what was the whole gist of that letter? Were they slandering him or something?
A: No. At the end, the end sentence, the fuckin' guy had the balls to say something to Harley, 'cause Harley was like in trouble with some gang or something, they said Harley, you're going to get what your friend Nordquist got. And for him to just to fuckin' mention Nordquist's name, he didn't even know the fuckin' guy, obviously, and didn't know nothing about him. He should never have said anything.
G: So you being good friends with John Nordquist that would obviously provoke some hostility.
A: Yeah, he was one of my best friends. If your best friend got killed and somebody wrote it in a magazine, you see his name, you'd be fuckin' mad too.
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