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Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. Today we are honored to be speaking with hardcore legend Roger Miret of the band Agnostic Front. How are you doing today, Roger?
Roger Miret: I’m doing good, Mark. How are you?
Rock My Monkey: I’m doing pretty good. Now, Agnostic Front is well known for balls out aggression as well as classic anthems. Is there a conscious effort to balance songs like “Addiction” with songs like “For My Family”, for example?
Roger Miret: No, it’s not really conscious. It’s just, that’s the way it happens. “For My Family” was the last song written. I kind of wrote that-that was the only odd song that I wrote lyrics before music. Usually it’s music, and then I throw the lyrics on it. It was not self conscious or nothing. It’s just something I felt inside. I said, ‘This is it. This is the song I have to write.’ But that’s the way they come out. Being in a band for 25 years, doing what we do, you kind of get the formula after a while.
Rock My Monkey: What do you think your brother, Freddy, brought to the cd as a producer that would not have been there otherwise?
Roger Miret: I have to add that this is my brother’s first production job ever. And he wanted to get into producing. Being with Madball, he’s a veteran at our type of music and style. He’s been with Agnostic Front since he was six years old singing onstage. So the band and this kind of music is nothing to him, so what he brought to the plate is-we went into the studio with I would say 99% of the songs the way we wanted everything done, ready to go. He went in there and through a twist, brought us back down to 75%, and then, you know, started from there, made us rethink, rework everything, rethink some lyrics, rethink some music. And he brought some really good stuff. He definitely put the flavor on top of it, you know what I mean?
Rock My Monkey: Sweet. I’ve definitely got to say it’s fast becoming one of my favorite Agnostic Front cds, so he definitely did a good job.
Roger Miret: I have to agree with you. It’s definitely my favorite, too.
Rock My Monkey: What do you think, being somebody that’s been around for a few decades, what do you think is the most annoying cliché in hardcore today? Something Agnostic Front would never have anything to do with?
Roger Miret: Something Agnostic Front would never have anything to do with. Wow. Today. It would be-and we don’t still don’t have anything to do with it. It would be that whole fashionable kind of hip hop-ish type of clothing, blah, blah, blah, and that invasion type of stuff. It’s not really the hip hop thing. It’s more of the gangsta thing. It really has nothing to do with us.
Rock My Monkey: With this cd, is there any plans for a video single for this release?
Roger Miret: Actually, we have a video single for the song, “Addiction”, and it should be on our website, hopefully within a week. It was supposed to be there before we went out on tour, so hopefully soon.
Rock My Monkey: Sweet. Is that going to be pretty much performance, or is there going to be some conceptual things in there, as well?
Roger Miret: It’s pretty much a band performance, but it was shot really intensely. Really great, the producer, Ian McFarland. I’ve worked with him before. He did the song “So Pure To Me”, Agnostic Front video. And he also did the live Agnostic Front DVD, Live At CBGB’s. And he just wanted to shoot it from more of a visual thing. It’s really just a band, it’s just a band performance, no other people involved in it. But it’s beautifully shot, very photography real pretty, you know? It’s really neat.
Rock My Monkey: Bringing up the song, “Addiction”, listening to the lyrics and knowing some of your history, I hope you don’t mind me asking this, but would “Addiction” be the most personal song on the cd for you?
Roger Miret: No. No, no, no. “Addiction” was a song written about a friend of mine that pretty much happened to catch a drug addiction and is going downhill, and going down fast. It’s pretty much a straight edge song. I think the most personal song to me would be “For My Family”, because when I was in Australia when I thought of that song, and started writing the lyrics. That one, and “Warriors”. I was in Japan for “Warriors”. Let me tell you about “For My Family” first. I was just remembering my old drummer, and also the singer for a band called Warzone, Raybeez. Every time around September 11th I just remember that, because that’s when he died. And I started thinking, you know, I want to write a song for all my friends that are dead, and for people that are here today, you know? That’s why I say this is for the old school for the new, you know? And that was probably one of my more personal ones. And “Warriors”, too. “Warriors”, in Japan. I was doing a song with a friend of mine called Aggressive Dogs, a song for what they called samurais, those are the heroes, or whatever. I was just thinking, man, we’re like hardcore warriors, you know? We do this shit when there’s no stopping, no surrender, you know, we just move forward. So those two are just very personal.
Rock My Monkey: Who did the cover artwork? Was that something the band came up with, or was that entirely from the imagination of the artist?
Roger Miret: The cover artwork was, I hired a friend of mine, his name is Craig Holloway, and I said, ‘Hey, you know what? I need you to do artwork for me.’ He does great art. Kind of in the vein some of our older stuff, like our Cause For Alarm type of stuff. I said, ‘This is what I vision.’ He came back, within two days, with like five different things out of my visions, my thoughts, and that one just really stuck out, and we just went forward with it, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do that one.’ But the whole concept-not just the cover. You got to look at the whole thing with the back cover when it’s done. The back cover’s really cool. Everything about it, the way, the whole concept is amazing. But it was Craig Holloway who did that.
Rock My Monkey: So there’s going to be like a full booklet and a full package that people can get when they buy the cd?
Roger Miret: Of course. That’s one thing-a lot of people like to download for free and get everything for free, which kind of hurts all our bands, of course. But people fail to realize as an artist, you know, if that’s what it all was going to be, then it doesn’t make any point for me to even think of a cover or even bother with lyrics, at least not writing them, or everything else that we put in our art is dead. That also has a lot to do with how we’re presenting ourselves, you know what I mean? So a lot of artists need work. Really, they think really hard on their covers, and what is the representation of their band, and if people just fail to even bother that and just download stuff for free, don’t get the whole concept or don’t care, you know?
Rock My Monkey: I think when bands go through and they put that little bit of extra effort in there, and they make a full booklet with lyrics that are easily read, and everything. It actually makes it so that the better deal is to buy the cd so that you get the full package. And let’s face it, a download doesn’t look real good on a shelf. Me, I like to show off my cds, and you can’t show off your cds if you download everything.
Roger Miret: Exactly. I come from the old school. Probably you do, too. Where I love vinyl, and back then nothing came out but on vinyl and on cassette tapes. So everything, just a vision of everything, going to that little record store, picking up this record and just looking at the cover, looking at the back cover, reading who they thank. That’s how I got inspired to check out other bands. Today it’s all given to you, you know, between MTv and internet, everything’s right there, given to you. But the adventure of going out for yourself to that little mom and pop record store, and discovering it for yourself. Picking up that one cd now and just reading stuff like that and moving on, that all seems to be gone, you know?
Rock My Monkey: I definitely got to agree with all of that. What is the latest with your other band, The Disasters?
Roger Miret: I just finished touring. I was just on tour with The Horrorpops and The Disasters. I do both. I’m pretty busy between the two bands. And I’m really busy with a new little baby girl. She’s four months old. And then I have my clothing line, which is Dirty Devil Apparel. You can go to DirtyDevilApparel.com, which I am partners with a company called Lucky Thirteen. So it’s been taking a lot of my time just coming up with cool clothes and shit like that.
Rock My Monkey: Sweet. A member of our bulletin board, known as The Vish, wants to know how your outlook on life changed after you got out of prison?
Roger Miret: Oh, dramatically. It’s a horrible thing to say, but I think every man should go to either to war or to prison, just to really appreciate life. That one instant it could be all over with, just your freedom. You don’t have to die or anything like that. But just it’s a very huge learning experience, to appreciate life and not take it for granted. It’s one of those vital things. I’m not going back unless somebody does something directly to my family, you know?
Rock My Monkey: The Vish also wants to know if you have any idea how Agnostic Front got such a big skinhead following in spite of the fact that you’re neither white, nor affiliated in any way with racist orginisations?
Roger Miret: Well, simple with that one is not every skinhead has to be white. People judge skinheads by the cover. We’re from New York City. If you’ve been to New York City, if you know New York City, it’s very heavily racially mixed, anyway. A lot of different ethics, a lot of different people, you know? We love the whole working class ethnic of the whole skinhead movement. And the original skinhead movement that was back in like ’69 comes off the Ska. There was a lot of black skinheads, of course. We love the working class thing, and that kind of pride out of it. We even love the look and everything. That’s where Agnostic Front gets all that from, pretty much. And then after we got to travel, on our first tour we started seeing the whole racial Nazi stuff. We didn’t have it in New York. There was no place for it in New York. When you go to shows in New York it was-you know, I’m Hispanic. There’s blacks, there’s white. There’s everything. We didn’t come from that kind of a-it didn’t exist, in other words. Then later on it started coming up, and we had to protect ourselves. But that’s where we probably get it from, you know, from the whole working class ethnic, American skinhead type of stuff.
Rock My Monkey: So would you say the racism stuff really bothers you, or does it not really affect Agnostic Front at all?
Roger Miret: I don’t think it-I mean, it’s there. It’s going to be there. I find it more in the metal scene, believe it or not. Believe it or not, I find more of the racism and the Neo-Nazi stuff in the metal scene, then there is in the punk hardcore scene. I mean, you got to face it, there’s a lot of Nazi punks, too. It’s everywhere. You can’t be ignorant to it. But at our shows we always talk about unity, and people coming together. There’s no place for it. We make it pretty clear that there’s really no place for it, at least not at our shows.
Rock My Monkey: I also wanted to ask you about an organization called FSU that is getting a lot of hype and a lot of media attention. From your stance, from where you stand, do you think that it’s more hype and more media frenzy than it is fact, or do you think that the violence that they have involved, do you think that it’s a fair assessment of what they’re about? And have you ever had to deal with violence from FSU at an Agnostic Front show?
Roger Miret: Well, you know, like with any organization, any crew, whatever, there’s always a couple of bad seeds. And most of the time it’s really not the actual crew members themselves. It’s people who want to be part of something. You get that in any type of affiliation, not only just in hardcore. You can look at the motorcycle world, for instance. There’s always the one guy, the guys that want to show off to others to be something that always get involved with doing that stuff. I’m not saying that they’re completely innocent. But I know some of those dudes, and they’re stand up guys. They’re good people. I’m sure there’s always a couple of bad apples. I mean, I deal with it myself. But as to make a point on anything with FSU, you really got to talk with them or their own bands. As for us, we are, our association with them has always been good, and alright. We want to police their scene, like we policed our scene kind of deal. But don’t forget, the press always hypes stuff more than what it is. But I’m not saying that anybody’s a good little angel out there. I’m just saying, be better off going and ask them themselves, you know?
Rock My Monkey: Being an artist that has stuck it out for a few decades, is there any lesson you could share with other bands that are spinning their wheels trying to make it?
Roger Miret: Well, I would say the secret, or the success to our legacy, to us being here for so, so long, is that we’re genuine, we’re real. And people seem to-you want to belong to something that’s real, something that feels personal and genuine to you. If you feel like it’s fake, you don’t want to be part of something that’s not doing it for you. That’s the thing with Agnostic Front is people have got this sense of closeness to us, it’s personal, and they feel that it’s genuine, it’s real. Which it is, you know? And that’s really the secret. And I will say to any band starting out there is be real, be yourself. Don’t pretend, because eventually they’re going to find out you’re pretending. And do what’s in your heart. I don’t consider-sometimes bands get a little success, they get played on MTv for instance, or something like that. I don’t consider that being any type of sellout or anything like that. As long as the band is doing what they dreamed, and what they’ve always want to do, and sticking to the same program, good for them. It’s not their fault they’re having a lot of success and a lot of people like them. Who’s fault is that? You can’t blame Green Day for being very popular because people like them. You can’t blame Rancid. You can’t blame Metallica or Slayer, for that, either, you know? Just being real. And all those bands I mentioned have always been stuck to their formulas, and they’ve always been real, you know?
Rock My Monkey: What do you think are the chances of Agnostic Front doing a full coast to coast tour of the U.S. anytime soon?
Roger Miret: Well, we’re breaking it up little by little. We’re starting-we’re doing a pre-record release concerts right now with Death Before Dishonor and-who else is on it?-Seventh Star. And it’s just two weeks. I’m breaking it up little by little. I did mention I have a little baby girl. So I’m going to do a California thing in January. Then we’re going to do more of a Southeast to Midwest in March, and then we’ll go back and finish the North and the center of the country sometime in June. We have to break it up. It just makes it easier for me. I want to be home. At the same time I’m going in and out of Europe, South America, Japan, Australia. So it’s kind of easier than just getting in a van and burn yourself out for eight weeks in the U.S. Make it a little bit more exciting.
Rock My Monkey: This is the portion of the interview I like to call The Lightening Round. I’m going to name something in the news, something in pop culture or in the news, and you sum up your thought in one word, or one sentence.
Roger Miret: Okay.
Rock My Monkey: Presidential candidate Ron Paul.
Roger Miret: Not my candidate. Not my vote.
Rock My Monkey: The NBC show Heroes.
Roger Miret: You know, I don’t watch tv.
Rock My Monkey: The iPhone.
Roger Miret: They stole my invention. (both laugh) I was-which is really funny-I’ve been making a little quick note, I was thinking of doing the i-phone, like for the ‘idiot phone’, the i-phone for like three functions. I wish I would have bought iphone.com like I wanted to three years ago. I would have been sitting pretty nice right now.
Rock My Monkey: President Bush.
Roger Miret: No comment.
Rock My Monkey: Fox News.
Roger Miret: I do like Fox News. I watch the news. So, informative, I would say.
Rock My Monkey: The Recording Industry Association Of America.
Roger Miret: Coming from as a musician, I think the whole industry part and the musician’s part of stuff is not a very pretty thing for me.
Rock My Monkey: I do have one final question. Every year we do choose one final question that we ask every single band from classic rock legends to the most extreme death metal bands, partially to stump people, but also to see who wusses out and won’t answer. This year I’m asking people to look into their crystal ball and predict what political figure, world leader, musician, celebrity, anybody world wide famous, who do you think might die before the end of the year?
Roger Miret: Political figure might die, you’re asking me?
Rock My Monkey: Could be a political figure, a Hollywood celebrity, a musician, it could be anybody.
Roger Miret: Who do I think might die by the end of the year?
Rock My Monkey: Yeah.
Roger Miret: Oh god, I don’t want to wish death on nobody. But if I had to, let’s call it Bush.
Rock My Monkey: Bush. Alright. Well, I thank you very much for doing the interview. Anybody that’s listening to the audio version can go to RockMyMonkey.com for the full featured version with clickable links, readable text, and many more wonderful features. I’m asking people to click on the album cover above and below this interview to pre-order Warriors by Agnostic Front. And I do hope to see you guys up on tour in the Northwest sometime soon. Thank you very much for your time, Roger.
