eMPTY Magazine feb 2007
eMPTY Magazine
February 2007
MPTY:Cheers Peter.How are you?
Peter:I’m good brother
First of all, congratulations for “A rebel life”. Are you satisfied with how it came out?
Surre, i spent a lot of hours and i completely believe in this work.
In the book, you’re talking about the street life in the early ’80 s.How hard was for you to hold on?
Street kids, I mean ones that are fully invested in the streets, don’t really “hold on.” They live hard, they bleed and they die. That is what society wants and the idiots that we are, we give it whole heartedly. I fought my own kind many times and never once thought to fight the enemy that has his boot to my neck. Holding on for me back then was waiting to see how I would die. I was convinced it was inevitable.
What do you think about the ones that have a good, wealthy social condition but they are trying to get over this aspect just to get the impression that they’re “cool”?
This sounds like drama kid shit reminiscent of the hardcore scene growing up. I am against the wealthy. I’m not against the wealthy who understand the unfair cause of their advantage and use this advantage to destroy that system.
Recently I’ve been watching (again) the NYHC documentary from 1995.All the groups,starting with Warzone,25 Ta Life, Agnostic Front (and the list may continue),became legends.How do you see the bans from the new wave and wich ones do you like?
I know some of these bands personally, but the problem that has always been with hardcore is that the kids tend to make the bands out to be more than they are. In other words, what attracted me to HC music is that I can be part of a scene of equals. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but in NYC, the bands and the HC kids were no different. No one looked up to anyone else because they put out a few albums and toured the world. I guess what I’m leading up to is that these bands weren’t legends, because they weren’t idols or rock stars. We were and are all the same, now that is NY hardcore. They played music to unite kids of the working class like I write this book. The message is what we should focus on and not anyone’s personality.
Today my taste in music varies and it usually is political, anti system, and working class from hardcore, punk rock to OI.
What do you think about the bands that promote,on one hand, messages concerning a fight against the system, but on the other hand,they sign contracts with major labels?don’t you think this is a contradiction? (on a secondthought,since when does it matter? You know that saying : “money is power”)
It’s a contradiction when the outcome of these fruits brings selfishness. If these bands or anyone that make it out of the streets do not give back in some way then they are the lowest of the low. The revolution has to be paid for and the poor are writing bad checks. The only way to fight this system is to make it within the system, BUT don’t sell out – so yes “money is power” and should be used to destroy the system.
What made you decide to go back in school? How important is education nowadays?
Popular belief is that we are responsible for our actions and since most of my actions growing up were deviant, I was lead to believe they were from my own choosing. But this didn’t seem right, because how could someone who has grown up ignorant to “the right way to be” his entire life choose correctly? I went back to school to understand why I and others around me grew up ignorant. Who gains from our ignorance? I refused to believe my actions were from MY choosing when it is clear to me today that not only I, but everyone that I came in contact with was manipulated to be a certain way. This leads to the book. My brother died of a heroin overdose and everyone says it was his choosing, but I say that if he was in his “right” mind he would have never chosen to die. If we could go all the way back to that moment in time where my brother could have chosen the streets or school and shown him the outcome of the streets, he would not have chosen the streets. It goes against all our biology to head down the direction of suicide. But my brother did – because he was manipulated.
Do you have any material prepared for the near future? Are you working on any project?
yes, maybe.
Thank you for your time and good luck with your work.if you have anything to add,you may do this now.
Be true to where you came from
Hardcore for life
Thanks to Peter
Interview by:Mircea