In Defence interview

I saw In Defence at The Fest 8, where they handed out baseball bats with their logo to the crowd, ordered a punks vs. metal heads wall of death and complained about the lack of violence in modern hardcore. It's all slightly sarcastic, but these are also some motherfuckers I wouldn't want to cross in a dark alley after a show. The music is thrashy along the lines of DRI or Corrosion of Conformity. I talked to their vocalist Ben online:

First off, how long has In Defence been around?
We played our first show in February of 2006. It was a local fest/fundraiser for the Twin Cities Bring It Together compilation. That was a project that we organized when we started to try and bring some unity to a very divided hardcore/punk scene at the time. We have since played all over the continental U.S. and played 13 countries in Europe.

What was the scene like when you guys first got into punk/ hardcore and what drew you to it?
I got into punk/hardcore back in 1988. That was the era when hardcore/punk bands started playing speed metal... or trying to. But I was already listening to metal so it made sense to me. It was fast and heavy like speed metal but it was more aggressive, in your face and very down to earth. It didn't have all the glits and glam that metal had. I was an ugly kid who didn't really fit in so I felt I could relate to the hardcore/punk scene better

How do you feel about the current state of the hardcore scene?
The sound and culture of hardcore and punk has changed and split into different groups over the years but on a very fundamental level it's all still the same. It's kind of funny that late 80's sound has made a comeback recently with bands like Municipal Waste. The technology is very different these days. It's easy to find out about bands new and "historic". When I was just getting into collecting records I depended on Maximum Rock N Roll magazine and the dude who worked at the local record store to tell me what was good. Or I would take a blind chance based on what the record cover looked liked. I couldn't listen on the internet first.

Is anyone in the band involved in other bands (past or present)?
I (Ben Crew) was in Damage Deposit (Havoc Records) and hardcore/rap parody act 1-2-GO! Crew. Tom was in Garmonbozia (Profane Existence). Our old guitarist Loopy left the band to be a professional sound guy for Baroness (Relapse). I think the last tour he did with them they were the opener for Metallica. Our new guitarist Jimmy plays in a thrash metal band called The Terrordactyls. And our drummer Jeff is also in a stoner doom band called Lungs.

I saw you guys at The Fest 8, which was a ridiculous and awesome show. Any violent/ drunken/ humorous show stories you want to share?
I'm not sure what you thought was ridiculous about our set at Fest. Maybe it was all my talk about drugs or when Tom (guitarist) kicked me... trying to get me to attack the crowd and I did a flip pro-wrestling style onto him instead. Knocking him into the wall. It was mid song and I'm not sure if it effected our playing of the song or not. I don't remember much I kind of blank out when we play and shit just happens. In my defence however I'm straightedge. I was not drunk or high or anything. That kind of stuff happens a lot. I'll go off on a rant to the crowd about some stupid shit or shit will get crazy. Our old bassist tackled me at the end of our set once and I broke my thumb. I got naked at a show in Boston and cut my food open on broken glass. We played a show in Philly and the pit got too close to us and this dude split his head open on a cymbal. We handed out tacos and pizzas to people at a show once to stage a food fight. and some dude slipped on a pizza and fucked himself up. I almost got my ass kicked by this band we played with once for crackin' jokes during our set. If it's not ridiculous it's just not fun. We played this basement show in Wisconsin once and it was shut down by the cops so we brought all the gear down to a Taco Johns set up and did a ten minute gorilla set.

What bands are you guys tight with?
All the bands we've done splits with. We just did an east coast tour with Off With Their Heads. I use to drive Dillinger Four and do merch for them on tour. Also most of the people in In Defence have worked at the Triple Rock at one point. (Bar owned by Erik from D4). We've also toured with ANS, Disaster Strikes, Dios Mio, Ramming Speed. Last time we played with Agnostic Front we pulled up to the club and Vinnie Stigma is out back just strring at us and then points to us and says "Fuck that shit. Let's circle pit!" which is a line from our song. I don't know that we are tight but that was pretty cool and totally made my night. They were one of those bands I got into when I first found out about hardcore. That has been a cool thing about this band is that we've gotten to play with a lot of really influential bands like that.

Any upcoming shows, tours or albums?
Right now we are in the process of writing a new record. After it comes out we will go out on tour to support it. US, Europe and we hope to tour Japan and some Asian countries as well. We'll see what shakes out.


Awesome band, I hope to see them in Florida again soon.
And buy some shit from them, they've got really cool stuff for cheap
http://indefence.bigcartel.com/