DIRECT ACTION
from Suburban Voice #17, Fall 1985
It just wasn't Direct Action's day. The Toronto thrash band, en route to Northampton to begin a 3 week East Coast tour, encountered the rejection of their advisor at the border, a 15 hour ride to the gig and, then, 15 miles from the hall, they ran out of fuel. They still managed to make it in time to play a ripping set of metallically-influenced thrash. To date, they have a track on the Primitive Air-Raid comp, "Hate Generation," a demo tape, and, now, their first album, "Trapped In A World," released on Irate Faction Records. Since the release of the album, there have been personnel changes. Vocal duties have been transferred from Tim to newcomer Richard and Paul has replaced Mike on drums. Buzz (guitar) and Dave (bass) were interviewed in the VFW after their gig.
SV: So you have 2 new members?
Dave: Yeah, the drummer left for medical reasons. He's pretty sick, actually in the hospital. The singer left for personal reasons. No one really heard what they were.
SV: Did you have any trouble getting over the border?
Dave: A little bit.
Buzz: We drove into the border and our manager was denied admittance to America and he was the only one that knows anything about this whole tour and so it was quickly scribbling down phone numbers, addresses, names of clubs, people to contact when we get here. We've never talked to anyone before.
Dave: He kept us in the dark, is what he did.
Buzz: So when we got here, they denied him admittance. We took him back to Kingston, drove down here. About 15 miles south of here, we ran out of propane, so all our gear's still a ways down the road and we used other people's gear here tonight, so it's kind of weird.
Dave: (over beer) By the way, we are not a straight edge band.
SV: I try to ask more original questions than that. I heard that you had some trouble with your mail because of the band's name.
Dave: Yeah, a lot of stuff that we have sent out from Canada is not getting to its destination. It's OK in Canada, but in the States, we have a lot of trouble getting back into the States, clearing American customs. It gets into Canada OK.
SV: That's funny, because I've heard the Canadian postal people are pretty bad.
Dave: We don't know where it's being denied. Whether in the states or in Canada. What we've been doing is we don't put anything out with the band's name, anymore. We can be contacted in Toronto care of Irate Faction.
SV: Your name is connected with activities like the Vancouver 5. Do you advocate activities like that?
Dave: We don't advocate the activities, but we definitely agree with the ideas. The thought behind the whole thing was good, but we definitely don't condone violence of any sort. The idea behind it was morally correct. Right about the time of the Litton bombing in Toronto, that's when we picked up the name Direct Action.
SV: I heard they (The 5) got tried by the media, pretty much.
Dave: Basically, everyone was handed pretty stiff sentences.
Buzz: It was the first terrorist activity in Canada, so they had to be made examples of. They were really nailed to the wall.
SV: So you don't advocate violence. What kind of methods do you think would work in terms of bringing about any sort of change?
Dave: No one really knows what would work. Would anything work? It's bigger than all of us.
Buzz: How do they change things in America? You just keep protesting until someone maybe listens, until there's enough of a voice.
Dave: All you can do is keep speaking out against it and hopefully someone will listen to it.
SV: Why don't you tell me about the album.
Dave: We would have liked to have spent a little more time with it, but, all things considered, we're happy with how it came out.
SV: Is it getting distributed in the states?
Dave: Yeah, actually it's been picked up by 7 or so distributors.
SV: I guess it's really expensive to put out records in Canada. SNFU were telling me they can't even put it out there yet because of the money involved.
Dave: The Stretchmakrs did theirs in Canada and licensed it through the BYO so I don't think they saved too much money. Unit-wise, I guess it's about $1 more per album to come out in Canada. Makes a big difference when it comes time to sell the things.
SV: Do you guys have any prevailing lyrical themes in your music? Anything you're trying to put across?
Dave: Think for yourself.
SV: What's the scene like in Toronto these days?
Dave: Brilliant. Toronto has a really strong scene, quite united. No violence, very little.
Buzz: About 600 were at our last show.
SV: Richard was saying you have trouble with skinheads up there.
Dave: Not a lot. Once in awhile they'll gang up, but it's not too bad. It's not as bad now at it was 2 or 3 years ago, when there was a real big split. Now it's pretty much everyone getting along and realizing we're all talking about the same things so what difference does it make if you have hair or not.
SV: Everyone's always talking about getting unity within the scene. Do you think that can be achieved at all?
Buzz: In Toronto, it is. We get all kinds of people at the shows. We have a lot of metal people at the shows, which is cool.
SV: What do you think of the metal crossover in punk? I notice, on your demo, there's a bit of a metal influence in your sound.
Dave: Yeah, maybe more so on the album than on the demo tape. Sure there is. You really limit yourself if you get into one groove and say, ok, we're going to thrash and not anything else. We're trying to diversify our material a little bit and bring it to a broader audience. Hopefully, keeping all our themes and ideals the same, but just try and bring the music to a wider audience.
SV: Do you think that the wider audience will pull the message out of your music or just want to have a thrashing good time?
Dave: Good question!
Buzz: Take a look at the metal bands. They're not talking as much about girls in bikinis and fast cars, well, other than the satanism crap, which IS crap. Bands like Metallica, to me have a lot to say. If you can play heavy metal music with intelligent lyrics, then that's fine with me. There's a lot of stupid hardcore bands that just go "Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off".
Dave: Can it be achieved? It's just like the hardcore scene. You get, say, 40 or 50% of your audience that's educated and then you get 40 or 50% to whom it's just a fashion show.
Buzz: But who's to say who's educated?
Dave: No one's to say we're educated, but as far as getting the message out of our music, whereas 50% of the punks or skins are out there to drink beer and jump around and get fucked up and it's the same with the metal kids. You can't really take your music too seriuosly when you're getting beaten on.
SV: I think you can find a happy medium in between bands that are totally serious and bands that are out to have a good time. Everyone should have fun. That's an important element of it. So how big a tour is this for you guys?
Buzz: 3 weeks. If we find out where we're playing. If our manager makes it to New York City.
EPILOGUE: The band had to cancel the remainder of their tour after their drummer passed out at the Anthrax in Stamford, CT.
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