Written by Alison Aird
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Interview with Andy Williams of Every Time I Die
You may have the opportunity to read my recent review of the Taste of Chaos show in London a few weeks ago. Well fortunately enough for me I was also allowed a quick interview with guitarist Andy Williams. Due to time restrictions I was only given the opportunity to ask him my research topic questions, but being the legend he is Andy gave me some of the best answers yet. Enjoy!
Alison A: How would you describe a pit at a hardcore show?
Andy W: I don’t know, it’s a way for people to get it out, for people that work all week long, go there, just get their frustrations out, people that are masochists I guess.
AA: Would you say this behaviour is distinctive of the scene?
AW: I don’t necessarily think it’s a scene thing. There’s a whole different types of trends. Philadelphia in the 90s was very violent but if you went to Canada they didn’t. I don’t think it’s a hardcore thing, I think it was based in metal and then just crossed over into hardcore. We do it a little different though I guess to hardcore.
AA: Would you say the quality of the show is proportionate to the size or intensity of the pit?
AW: Yeah, as a whole, I mean if you look out and the whole crowd’s moving its better you know? That’s how I look at it, for sure. So I would say yeah, the bigger the pit the better the show.
AA: At what point does a pit or audience become “out of control”?
AW: Never. Not with me, you’re asking the wrong person! I want to see as much shit going on as possible.
AA: You want to see some blood?
AW: Oh yeah!
AA: Would you say there are younger or older people in your audience?
AW: We’ve got a very eclectic crowd. You could definitely look out there and see some 40 year old dude moshing with some 14 year old dude, you know what I mean? So we have like, a very eclectic crowd. It’s awesome.
AA: More male or female people in your audience?
AW: Oh hardcore in just general has always been more male oriented. We like to beat our chests so… It’s the easiest way to get stuff out. I was just talking about this upstairs about metal dude. I mean all metal dudes are fucking nerds, so they come to shows and they get to bop a couple of 14 year old kids in the head and that makes them feel like they’re something. But as soon as they leave the show they’re going to go home and play World of Warcraft or whatever they do. That’s how it is with hardcore too, they’re all dorks. They go home on the internet, talk shit, you know, it gives them a pedestal to talk.
AA: If there are more females in a pit, would you say that affects the behaviour?
AW: Not with me and my friends it never did! We still just went nuts when I was a kid. But yeah, I think so, I think it definitely dictates it. It’s funny, some people are like “Oh you’ve got to be timid” but it’s like, she’s in there, that’s how we always looked at it.
AA: What would you say are the unspoken rules of being in a pit?
AW: Oh god, I don’t know. Like I said, I mean if you were talking to someone else in the band maybe, but there was one point in time, this is a no bullshit story, that website lambgoat did the 5 most violent dancers in the United States and I was number 2.
AA: That’s actually amazing.
AW: This was like at the time, like ‘98 or something.
AA: That’s sick.
AW: So it like, there were no rules. Like me and my friends in Buffalo would just straight fist fight. It was just like, not a jock thing, but like a matter of just… we just went off you know?
AA: Do you have any examples or experiences of a pit that you would like to share?
AW: Oh in fact it happened with Killswitch in the States last time they played, the city was Fort Wayne, Indiana, it was will Killswitch and Dillenger Escape Plan, this is so weird cause it’s not hardcore related at all but it’s fucking great! It was an ETID over 18s show, so we were all worried like “fuck ETID in over 18s in Fort Wayne, Indiana” – the worst city ever, and believe me if anyone from Fort Wayne’s reading this, it’s my favourite city after this show – so yeah, it’s like hick city, blah blah blah. So it’s a college town and we played a place that held like, 2300 people or something like that? It was sold out, 18 and over, every single person in there was just drunk, wasted and horny, and for some reason none of the other bands got a good reaction at all, except for us. As soon as we got out there girls were showing their boobs, it was fucking retarded, and then while we were playing people were uprooting shit out of the ground and like, crowd riding mad, and the pit was enormous. I saw a girl crowd riding and a garbage can crowd riding and the can fell and the girl fell into the garbage can, no joke. Right in front of me. It just blew me away. That was it for me. I couldn’t believe it. That was great, it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen at a show. They came from opposite directions! That was cool.
