Lets uncover the truth about USA :-) Describe me please skinhead/punk scene
in the whole United States. USA are so large. Are you in touch with other
bands and crews across the whole land? Do you join any big festivals?


It's very difficult to describe the American skinhead/punk scene as a whole,
because there are so many different scenes throughout the country and each
one has it's own story, it's own evolution, and it's own character. What I
can say about the American scene as a whole, though, is that it is still
alive and well. It's been victimized and corrupted somewhat by mainstream
commercialization, but the real underground is still surviving.
We tour nationally and get out there as much as we can, so we are definitely
in touch with other bands and crews from all across the country. In fact,
some of the bands we're closest with and some of the crews we respect the
most are from hundreds of miles away.
We play large festivals whenever we get the opportunity. We played all 3 of
the "East Coast Oi!" festivals in Allentown, PA (we were the only ska band
on the bill all 3 times), and we've played numerous Ska fests such as "Ska
Weekend" in Tennessee, "International Ska Circus" in Las Vegas, "3 Floors Of
Ska" in New York & Los Angeles, and "Dynamite Ska Festival" in Germany.
We've played Hardcore fests as well, here in New Jersey.

USA…hated or loved.We know something about this vast land only from movies
and newspapers. Tell us please the truth about the life and lifestlye in
this heaven on the earth :-). Are the Americans opened and friendly? Has got
Working Class good position inside the society?


I've always enjoyed cinematic and media portrayals of the USA. They may be
over dramatized and inaccurate, but they are amusing. Like every country we
have our positives and negatives. And I generally love my fellow Americans
for our diversity, character, creativity, humor, and yes, our friendliness
and openness. We are friendly and open people, mostly, however people in
different areas express it in their own distinct way. So somebody from
California may mistake a New Jersey person's friendliness for aggression,
ha. The one thing I hate most about this country is our disconnect from
real live and real living... the way we think that everything on the TV is
more important than what we can experience in real life... the way we
worship celebrities and follow their every move, as if those people are more
important and better than ourselves... the way we let the media polarize and
politicize us so easily: "red state" / "blue state", "left wing" / "right
wing"... "you MUST PICK A TEAM". That's all bullshit to me. It sickens me,
And Americans are more intelligent than that, if they allow themselves to
be.
America has always romanticized the Working Class on TV and in movies. The
"Working Class Hero" is still a very romantic image and concept to this day.
But in real life, on the street, Working Class people are not treated very
well or looked upon with high regard, and it is not a very glamorous life to
live. People tend to shit on and exploit the Working Class.. UNTIL THE DAY
THAT THEY NEED THEM to do the dirty work that they themselves cannot do!

Do you prefer more Oi! scene or Ska or Punk scene? Which bands or people do
you usualy meet? Do you visit or own any special clubs in your town or
region? Do you join reggae, ska or Trojan sessions? I think you love it when
you play the similar style of music.


I don't have much of a preference between those 3 scenes. They are all part
of underground music so I have equal admiration and respect for all of
them. We have the influence of all of them and more in our music, quit
obviously. So we play Punk shows, Oi! shows, Ska shows, Hardcore shows,
Reggae shows.. anything underground that influences us and that we can
influence back. My favorite shows to play are "mixed genre" shows where you
have a Ska band, an Oi! band, a Punk band, and a Hardcore band all playing
on the same show.
Our 2 main "hometown" venues/clubs here in New Jersey would be The Court
Tavern in New Brunswick and Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park. We have a good and
longstanding relationship with both places and think they are the best clubs
around our way.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "join reggae, ska or Trojan
sessions", but we do play reggae shows and we have strong reggae influence.
We work very closely with King Django and Version City on alot of our
projects.

Would you like to play in Europe? Do you like mother Europe? Do you play in
US very often? In which foreign countries have you ever played?


We toured Europe with The Toasters back in November/December 2007 and we
LOVED IT. We've been aching to go back to Europe ever since. It was a
fantastic experience. We loved every show. Every show was crowded and fun,
and the promoters treat you much better than most American promoters do. We
played in Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, and Prague. I hope we come
back as soon as possible!
We play in the US all the time.

What „to be skinhead“ means for you? Very difficult question, I guess. But
you could play moder ska music and the twats and pussies would LOVE you and
worship you. But many women hate skinhead image :-) But you still carry it.
Are you proud of it? :-)


Being a skinhead is to be openly, fiercely, and violently proud of your
humble and modest life at home and work, proud of and passionate for your
music, unabashedly proud of your look, and unapologetically proud of your
beliefs. I could have gone the "Pop Ska" route at any time during the past
16 years that I've been in Ska bands. And by doing that I could have made
good money, and been on great tours, and sold alot of records, and had a big
name for whatever band I'd have been in, and yes...I could have banged all
sorts of empty airheads. But one thing I would not have been able to do if
I had done that is lookat myself in the mirror and be proud. How could I be
proud producing and performing music I hate, with an empty and fake message
I don't believe in? That would not be the love or the passion that I feel
for what I do now, musically. That would be like a job. An acting job.
Fooling the masses and fooling myself. No thanks. I have a day job. It
doesn't earn me a shitload of money, but it's an honest job and it keeps a
roof over my family's head and food on the table. And then I get to go and
perform the music I LOVE in front of people who appreciate it. So the "Pop
Ska" thing has never appealed to me.
Yes, as old as I am, I do still carry the skinhead image, no matter who does
or doesn't like it. I'm not in this to be popular. I'm in this because it's
me.

Your society is really multicultural melting pot. I think it is normal to
see black, jewish or hispanic fans on your shows, am I right? Or is there
any problem with „prejudices“?


I think that sometimes are the both side (black or white) full of
prejudices...Black racism is so strong in US, am I right? Why?
We have a very mixed crowd as far as scene and race. We get Punks, Skins,
Ska kids, Dreads, Mods, Rockers, whatever, at our shows. And they are from
every race under the sun. Our state, New Jersey, happens to be a very
multicultural state in particualr. So we see everything. Then we see
different representations of diversity in different scenes we play around
the country. For instance, when we play Texas and Southern California, the
scene is largely hispanic, with a little of everything else mixed in.
There's really no problem with racial prejudice in the scenes we play. But
then again, anyone carrying racial prejudice would have a bit of a hypocrisy
issue if they liked Hub City Stompers: a Ska band with a mulatto singer.
I wouldn't say any particular race in America has cornered the market as far
as racial prejudice is concerned. Some people of every race hold prejudices
against other races. It's a widespread problem, but certainly not confined
to America. Being of mixed race background myself (half black / half
white), I've seen and experienced it on and from both sides. But given this
country's history, it's easy to see how these views and feelings evolved.
 It always gets better with time. Common sense takes hold more and more, but
it'll be a long long time before there's any sort of multi-cultural utopia.
 That's just not reality. Ignorance always seems easier than understanding,
to a lot of people.

And what about the reality on the american streets in association with your
skinhead image? Do you have problems with cops, nazis or black people
bacause of your „style“ ?


Getting grief from those unfamiliar with or mislead about the Skinhead
subculture is an understood part of being a Skinhead. So even being
half-black I have had conflicts with people who had issue with my being a
skin. Cops have questioned me, of course, during stops. In some cases with
the cops it has worked in my favor. In other cases they've used it against
me. As far as nazis are concerned, that was more of a conflict back in the
late 80's / early 90's when I'd first become involved in the Skinhead scene.
 It's become less and less of an issue over the years, but of course it was
a problem at one time, as any Skinhead would be familiar with. As far as
black people are concerned, I've had issues even though I'm black myself, as
I said before. I lived in a predominantly black city, Trenton, NJ, for a
good amount of time. And there were nights I'd run into problems for being
a skin when I was walking home from shows, or on the city bus. And when I
was in county jail I sure had a lot of explaining to do!

You play some special style of music :-) Which bands have influenced you a
lot? How could you describe your own style?


We've got influences across the board: Bad Manners, The Specials, Madness,
Murphy's Law, Sheer Terror, Operation Ivy, Stormwatch, The Busters, Boogie
Down Productions. Really all over the place. I'd describe HCS as a 2-Tone
based band, with Oi!, Punk, Hardcore, Reggae, and even Hip-Hop influences.
 I could also list Inspecter 7 as an influence, I suppose, since that was
the band I was in before Hub City Stompers, and I'd kind of picked up where
I left off with Inspecter 7 when I started HCS.

Could you please tell me anything about the show when you had plastic women
in Skrewdriver T-shirt on the stage? Was it funny ? :-) I think that
boneheads could not like it :-)


Oh...that was our beloved mascot, Slorella. She may have been a blow-up
doll, but she had heart... and an uncanny knack for wearing Skrewdriver
gear. Aside from being our mascot, she was our main prop back when we used
to cover The Last Resort song "Rubber Jenny". We lost her on tour
somewhere, but oddly enough we still have the Skrewdriver shirt. She has
since been replaced by her sister, Sloretta. She doesn't make common
appearances like she used to, but I think she's due to come out some more,
Skrewdriver shirt and all. Yeah, it serves a dual purpose having that short
on her: it pisses off boneheads and politically correct lefty fuckheads as
the same time.

There are many girls on your photos. Yeah..they are very nice and
pretty...tell me any stories from the backstage? :-)


Ha, there are many more backstage stories from my old band (Inspecter 7)
than with this one. And anyway, what happens on the road stays on the road!
Haha.




And what about the lyrics? Describe me please your lyrics, your
topics..Should be music and lyrics inside be only about fun, beer and sex?
Or is it important to sing about social unjustice, about the rich etc?


We sing about a lot of different things. We definitely cover the fun, beer,
and sex, but we address more serious social and political issues as well.
However, when we address the more serious issues, there is usually humor
involved. I think it's fine to address all the socio-political topics, but
if that's all you sing about, and if you fail to keep it fun on some level,
then you're just going to seem pissy and preachy. Who the fuck wants to
hear that all the time? At the same time, we avoid the vapid, empty,
nonsense that alot of so called "Ska" bands sing about these days. I think
we maintain a good balance between being too serious and too empty.

Do you like living in the US? Tell me more about your city, some delicious
information...Are there any skinhead gangs around?


I love living in the United States. And I very much love my state of New
Jersey in particular. I've been everywhere else in the country and I can't
imagine living anywhere but New Jersey. It's a pretty small state, and it's
crowded and expensive to live here, but it's well worth it, I think. You've
got the cities (New York & Philadelphia) on either side, you've got the
beach, the mountains, big towns, small towns, plenty of transit, major
airports, plenty to do, and lots of venues and bands. The scene here is not
as strong as it used to be 20 years ago, but it's still very viable and
alive.

There are not many organized Skinhead crews in New Jersey these days. It's
mostly just a bunch of friends connected throughout the state. There's a
few in New York, but that's about it.

I notice many more organized crews in other cities around America when we
tour.

Thank you for the interview!! Any other message at the end?

Thanks for the interest and interview. Be on the lookout for our 5th CD
within the next year. Check us out at www.myspace.com/hubcitystompers for
pics, show updates, news, and music. You can find our stuff at
www.megalithrecords.com and www.stubbornrecords.com, and hopefully we'll
tour out your way ONE DAY!