Hallowed Grey
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Jun 11th, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
Ryan O’Connor - Outbreak
I went to see Outbreak for my 20th birthday in Folkestone, and was surprised to say the least. They manage to take the energy of the record, and put a whole new dimension on it live. I spoke to Ryan afterwards, and asked him if hed be so kind to do an email interview. Here’s the outcome.
Photo courtesy of Jan Urant/B9site.
1) Introduce yourself and tell me a little about Outbreak?
My name is Ryan, I sing in Outbreak. We played our first show in 2002, and have released 2 EP’s (Eaten Alive on Think Fast! Records and You Make Us Sick on Bridge 9 Records) and most recently our first LP (Failure on Bridge 9/Think Fast! Records). We’ve played shows in about 15 countries since we first started.
2) Before Outbreak, what did you do jobwise, or were you still in education?
I was in High School when Outbreak first started…I was 16 or 17. I worked a handful of shitty jos at the same time as well.
3) With being quite the young band, has being able to tour the world come as quite the surprise? If so, why is that?
Yeah, it’s kind of surprising sometimes, to think that we’re all pretty young and we’re able to do all kinds of cool shit. But at the same time, we put everything else going on in our lives on hold, and made Outbreak our priority. We worked hard to get it to the point that it’s at now, and like they say, hard work is supposed to pay off.
4)When you say you put your lives on hold for this band, what sacrifices did you have to make exactly, and were they easy to come to terms with?
Sacrifices like not holding down a real job, not getting an education, and leaving everything behind to get in a van for weeks on end. Those things were pretty easy to come to terms with for me haha. Some of the past members of Outbreak didn’t take it the same way though and went on to do other stuff like focusing on a career. That’s fine by me and probably the smart choice haha.
5)If I were to say Hardcore is getting increasingly popular, due to a lot of bands singing about un-important things. Would you agree, and why?
A lot of the newer garbage that’s being pushed by major labels may be called “hardcore” by some people, but most hardcore/punk kids know the difference. But I think a lot of that stuff is just a watered down, poor excuse for what hardcore and punk are really all about. I think a lot of this stuff is popular just because it’s so accessible. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I think there are still a lot of true hardcore/punk bands that are angry, and not afraid to piss people off with their ideals and or lyrics.
6)In the length of time youve been involved in the scene, what changes have you noticed, and have any of these affected you and outbreak in any way?
I’ve been going to shows since I was 13 so I’ve seen quite a few things change since I was first going to shows. Hardcore and punk can be nothing but a trend to a lot of people, so it seems like every year or so there is a new phase, you know what I mean? I don’t think any of the changes really affect us though, because when we look back to when we first started we’re still doing the same exact thing!
7)The phases your referring to, do you mean like “metalcore” and “deathcore” and “genres” like that? Are you a fan of any of those styles of bands?
Yeah that’s part of it. I am not a fan of metalcore and to be honest I’ve never even heard the term “deathcore” haha.
8)You mentioned ideals up there, are there any specific ones you live by. For example the straight edge/vegan/pro life/pro choice lifestyles and why did you make these choices?
I’m straightedge and have been drug free for probably 10 years now. I didn’t really consider myself straightedge until I actually started participating in the scene, so I’d say I’ve been straightedge for 8 years. This choice was made rather blindly to start, to be perfectly honest. I was a young kid who saw that a lot of my idols in other bands we’re adopting this term, so I decided I wanted to call myself straightedge. It has a more important, personal meaning to me now a days, and I have a lot of motivation around me to continue this kind of lifestyle.
9) Do you think hardcore came about to offend people, or at least offend the general consensus of society?
Yeah I think that hardcore and punk started out as a backlash at the current music scene and a fuck you to society in general.
10)I was hoping youd be able to shed some light on the meanings behind the songs
a) A.S.
A.S. is probably the most self explanatory of the three. It’s basically about growing up in a small town and not wanting to be involved with the people around you. It’s about not knowing why you’re an outcast, or not understanding why you have anti-social tendencies all the time.
b)Chewed Up, Spit Out
This is about people who throw their lives away. Whether it’s slaving a 9-5 job until they die, or buying into religion to cope from day to day, you can put any sort of twist on it that you want. In general it’s just about lives “rotting away and wasting” as one of the lines says.
c)Lost for words
Lost for Words is about having all kinds of personal feelings, beliefs, and messages, but not knowing how to express them into words.
11) With what you said about the meaning behind A.S, did you have a lot of
trouble with jocks and the social hierarchy of high school?
I went to a really small High School so it wasn’t like you see in the movies, or a stereotypical High School with football jocks, cheerleaders, etc. In fact our school didn’t even have a football team haha. There were still wannabe jocks and rednecks and what not, but I mostly kept to myself. There were occasional incidents and occasional fights but I’m not going to sit here and pretend that me and my friends were getting into fights every single day, cause it wasn’t like that.
12)Hows things going with ThinkFast, any major plans or signings in the
works??
We have lots of cool projects in the works. We just signed a band from Arizona called Hour Of The Wolf, and they’re fucking amazing. We’re doing an EP for them early on in 2007. Other than that, we’re doing a full length for The Geeks early on in 2007 and some other stuff that isn’t quite official. This year has been really big for Think Fast! (Sick Of It All, Ignite, Ambitions, Wake Up Call, etc) so we’re hoping to up the ante again next year. Stay tuned!
13)How did the connection with Have Heart come about?
It’s not very fair for me to speak on this since I didn’t have as much involvement in the label at the time of Have Heart signing, but basically Larry (who started the label) loved the Have Heart demo and asked if they would be into Think Fast! doing an EP. They agreed and “What Counts” has gone on to be a landmark hardcore record for our era, and one of the best selling in Think Fast!’s catalog.
14)That’s about all I can think of question wise, any famous last words, or
things youd like to get off your chest?
Thanks for the interview man and thanks for thinking of us. I wish more people would do the interview like you did (few questions at a time) cause it gives more room to ask questions that are actually interesting.
