Civ is a band. I did an interview with bassist Sammy. Captain Haircut was present.
James: This is your third Warped Tour. Out of the four, you've been on three, right?
Sammy: Yeah.
James: Have you noticed quite a bit of change in the number of people and bands?
Sammy: Yeah. It's definitely gotten more organized and it's grown in size. I wonder sometimes if gotten a little bit too crazy. There's a lot of bands, there's a lot of stuff going on. I don't know if people are really able to focus on one band or even remember what they saw because it's like skaters and dirt bikes jumping over these huge things and BMX bike riders and half pipes and so many bands and four stages. It's a lot of stuff, but it's still a great thing. I'm totally supportive of the Warped Tour.
James: You guys have a few bands from your home town playing with you, like H2O.
Sammy: H2O and the Bouncing Souls are pretty much the two bands from around where we live. Usually it's pretty Westcoast heavy.Which is good for us because we usually need a little help with the Westcoast anyway. It's nice to come down here and play with these bands because the LA show was like 23,000 people and it's good exposure for the band.
James: You we're in Gorilla Biscuits and Youth of Today, right?
Sammy: Yeah.
James: Have you noticed much of a change with the New York hardcore scene? Is it still as tight as is it was back then?
Sammy: I don't think it's very tight right now. Back then it was smaller but it was tighter. There were shows every Saturday and Sunday. You knew everybody and there was a local record store that everybody hung out at. It was a really tight thing. Revelation Records was there and a lot of things were happening. Right now it's a little bit scattered. There's definitely something happening, but it's not like it was. Maybe I'm getting older or something.
James: Does it come with the increased popularity of the music and with all the bands out touring more?
Sammy: Orange 9mm, Quicksand, Into Another, us, and Sick Of It All got signed to major labels. We still play in the city a lot. It didn't really change too much for us. I don't think for any of these bands.
James: Well, you guys have been in it since the beginning. You guys feature a few ex-members of Gorilla Biscuits, right?
Sammy: Just Civ and myself, Arthur was playing bass. He's not in the band anymore. We've got this guy Cash that's from Utah and played in the band Iceburn. And this other guys playing organ.
James: What's the deal with Arthur leaving the band?
Sammy: It takes a lot out of you when you tour a year and a half like we did on the last record and he's not really the most stable guy. He wasn't really feeling like going out again for that long. We're all really psyched up about this new record and we're going to go tour for a while.
James: Are you guys a straight edge band?
Sammy: No. But Civ is straight edge. He's still totally straight edge but he doesn't wear any x's or anything. We still have our roots which came from straight edge and the hardcore scene. We still have a lot of respect for it. I think it shows in our music. Our music is somewhat poppy, but I think it still has that edge. Lyrically it's definitely positive. One thing when we started was that their was so much crap on MTV that was these guys rocking that were so negative and dark. We're having fun. We're on tour, we're travelling the world. We just were in Japan, Australia. It's a fun thing. We're not going to sit here and complain about life. The kids need something positive and something inspiring. I know when I was growing up, before I was in Youth Of Today, I use to go and see them or Bold or even Gorilla Biscuits and 7 Seconds and I'd be so inspired and so psyched. They lived this positive lifestyle. There's something happening, I can do this. I don't have to be like the guys in my highschool who get into fights or drugs. The punk scene was always going down, it was dark and it was about destruction. The whole straight edge scene that we were part of was about something different. It's not a straight edge thing for us now, but it's definitely about being positive and keeping your head up and getting through this thing called life.
James: I've noticed a lot of similarities between Gorilla Biscuits and Civ, especially the first record. Was that a conscious thing?
Sammy: With three of the members in it and Walter producing it (Gorilla Biscuits' guitarist) because Walter was the key song writer in Gorilla Biscuits. I think it was Gorilla Biscuits, but to the next step. I don't think it was too much like Gorilla Biscuits. There were some songs that were just straight up hard core that could have been on "Start Today". It wasn't really a conscious effort, it's just how it came out. When we started the band it was more of a concept type of thing, more like a project. We weren't going to do an album. We were just going to do seven inches on Revelation. We were like, we'll call it Civ and it'll just be this cool little thing. Gorilla Biscuits, but not Gorilla Biscuits. It just evolved. We got a record deal and we ended up making the album and this video, it just kept evolving, we ended up touring and then we just made this new record.
James: Did the "Can't Wait One Minute More" single (#1 on MTV) turn it into something where it could be just more then a project?
Sammy: It put it on the map with a lot of kids. MTV viewers and radio people, but those kids come and go so quick. I'm sure if we did our own head lining show a lot of those kids wouldn't be around. Stuff being thrown at people so fast that I don't think any of it's sticking. Which is fine because I don't want to be remembered as the "Can't Wait One Minute More" band. There's more to the band, especially on this record. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on.
James: I saw you guys a few times when you we're touring to support the first album. I noticed that you were doing Gorilla Biscuits covers every night. Do you still get a lot of requests for those songs?