Interview with Rob of Unbroken 2010

by Bradley Smith

Unbroken has had a recent reanimation where you have being playing some rare shows.  What prompted this activity and why have you sworn you won’t record any new material? 

-Rob- We decided to play a show for some charities and raise money for people and places less fortunate than us.  Also after 10yrs of people asking and begging and offering ridiculous amounts of money, we decided to do something on our terms for things we care about.  Jim Grimes out of Chicago really helped to get he ball rolling and had been hounding us for a couple years. We know him and trust him and knew his intentions were sincere with his Burning Fight Festival for Brian’s book. We decided fuck it, let’s have some fun.  The reason I personally don’t want to record new material, is who would want to hear it? I think our music was made by broken people for broken people, and we’re not the same people that created those sounds 15yrs ago. We were broken, scared kids back then.  We’re not now, just older guys having a great time and enjoying ourselves.

I was a bit out of touch back when these events happened so can you please let me know what lead to the breakup of Unbroken?  Despite coming 3 years after Unbroken parting ways, how did Eric’s suicide affect you and your bandmates?  What, if anything, did you do to honor his legacy?

-Rob-We decided to break up for the simple reason that the newer songs we were writing no longer sounded like us. Everything was more RFTC/Jehu than Unbroken, which is fine for other bands but not us. We had about 3 songs that never got recorded at the end, and one of them we played live at our very last two shows as a 5 piece. We found a recording of it and put it on a Boxed Set we released last year. It was different for all of us when Eric died, we all had different relationships, ideas and cures for what could have been done, but in the end, Eric did what he felt he needed to do. I’m over trying to solve his suicide, as I know he was a tortured soul and was not happy.

As far as his legacy goes, I don’t really know anything we’ve done as a band aside from play now and again, but personally, I know the impacts of suicide on the people you leave behind. When I’ve been in that dark place, I think about that and climb out of that mental space as best I can...I just think about him time to time, especially when we play. We just laugh and tell stories and get a kick of how funny he really was.

It’s funny to see all these metalcore bands today because in my eyes Unbroken was largely responsible for the infusion of metal within hardcore.  I think Very Distro said in their description of you guys was “if Slayer was a Hardcore band.”  Do you think you have received the credit that Unbroken is due in this regards?  And how do you feel about the modern metalcore movement within hardcore?

-Rob- I think we had a hand in some of the metalcore influence , but hands down Integrity are the ones we looked up to and wanted to be. I know we get credit for the influence and it is hard to believe that after 16yrs LLR(life love regret) still influences bands. But I think the other guys would agree, no Integrity, no LLR from a musical standpoint. I like some of the modern metal stuff...Hope Con, Rot In Hell, Martyr AD etc...good stuff out there.

About the time that Life Love Regret was unleashed it seems to me that there was a sort of musical and emotional darkness surfacing within the hardcore scene that wasn’t there before.  Do you agree and what do you think was the catalyst for this?  I mean with several references to regret and suicide in your lyrics and bands such as Overcast, Undertow, Integrity, Morning Again, and so forth, those were some pretty dark days for hardcore.

-Rob- I think we new that all this Youth Crew shit we grew up on was bullshit and an alternate universe that existed for rich kids that could afford Dunks and Airforce ones. We didn’t fit into this. I loved that shit when I was a kid, but seriously, stabbed in the back and talking about Straight Edge 24/7 who gives a fuck. We were more into No Escape, Born Against, Crossed Out, Infest...that was the real shit. Just that things are fucked and the world doesn’t revolve around X-Swatches. All of us knew there were deeper things going on. Some of it was politics, some of it was broken hearted angst. We latched on to that and used those negative emotions to express how alienated and messed up we all felt. Unbroken only ever had one song about being SxE and I wrote the lyrics to it...I’m still SxE but I don’t really care about it in the sense of Youth Crew shit. To me, being SxE is being punk as fuck in the modern world. I got into punk to not be around jocks, and when I started going to shows in the 80’s and that 88 NYC stuff came along, I was confused. Why would I want a letterman jacket and running shoes when those were the same look of kids that made fun of me in school. I still don’t get it. Keep your Lacross shirts and dunks...I’ll stand hard with a Crass patch instead.

To go along with the lyrical and emotional separation from the typical youthcrew/jock image of a lot of your contemporaries, Unbroken had a very different visual aesthetic, somewhat influenced by Morrissey.  How did this image go over with the scene at the time?  And how did everyone react to the emo/arty interests of you and your peers?  What got you guys into Morrissey and the Smiths and so forth?

-Rob- We were all into Morrissey before we met each other.  Smiths, Joy Division, The Fall, the Damned...that was what we liked growing up along with punk. For us, Moz worship was something we just happened to be into.  It wasn’t a conscious thing or a planned uniform by any means.  It was just that was how we all dressed at the time and we happened to play in a band together. People laugh at us, called us faggots and said we’re not hardcore because of the music we play and how we dressed. So funny that not until the very end did kids start coming to shows in Moz, Suede, Pulp shirts and singing along.  It was awesome, somehow people realized it’s okay to be SxE and dress different, and not be obsessed with Youth Of Today or something like that. It was refreshing to see emotional sing alongs and kids feeling the music without bleached hair and letterman jackets.  I got into The Smiths in 1987 making out in a girls car...a song came on, I stopped kissing her and was fixated on the guitar sound and the voice.  I’ve been addicted ever since.

One topic that few people talked about lyrically back in the day was the effect of a broken heart and Unbroken hit that with full force.  Why do you think most people stayed away from that and how did the trials and tribulations of love help shape Unbroken?  Have you ever had your heart crushed?

-Rob- Because at the time we did LLR, we were in new relationships and dying ones during the recording. People died, people broke up, people got together....It made for strange topics, but it was honest and heartfelt. I really believe that record could not have been recorded at any other time or place.

On the liner notes of It’s Getting Harder To say The Right Things you state that the Unbroken period of your life was the “best times of our lives…”  Do you ever get nostalgic for those days?  And how do you feel that period merits the title of the “Best Times?”  I mean what made those days so special?

-Rob- It was special because we didn’t know what we were doing, we were just doing it. Going to Europe, booking shows around the US, growing up in hardcore...it was the best education and experience you could ask for. It makes me so happy that I skipped college to do what I did. I got lessons that I never thought possible because of the people I met, the places I got to see. I feel that in that band we lived 5 lifetimes with the things we got to do.

What do you feel about the development of the hardcore/punk scene since Unbroken’s demise?  Have you stuck true to the ideals you initially held when you formed Unbroken or as is typical with most people who get older, have your views and opinions changed?  You know we live and die with our opinions.  Heh heh.

-Rob- For me the 95-98 era of hardcore was a dead time to me. I wasn’t into hardly any bands going during that time. That youth crew revival came back and none of it spoke to me. I don’t care too much for songs about being SxE and being stabbed in the back...that seemed to be the theme and it was just old. Then in 98-2000 a great crop of bands started coming around. Bane, HopeCon, Converge’s Jane Doe, AN etc...a bunch of great bands got me really excited about hardcore again. Emotions became the theme of that era and I was happy I stuck around.

I’m still the same in some regards, but have evolved beyond who I was at that time. Aside from being SxE and being rabid about music, I don’t have much in common with who I was in 94/95.

You made an interesting statement saying that playing shows right now is investing in the future.  How do you mean?  And how have other bands diluted what was special about them and the scene by touring for money’s sake?

-Rob- Investing in the future of hardcore. It seems like when I go to shows sometimes, it is apathetic in San Diego. Nobody gives younger bands a chance. Most tours are big packages that don’t allow for local bands to play. I wanted to try and include 1-2 new bands every time we play. That way it gives these young bands a chance to play for a lot of people and hopefully win over some people. People gave Unbroken that chance when we started, and I feel it is important to do the same. I also think it is important to find something worth playing for. Unbroken has always been about that, and that hasn’t changed much. We wanted money to go to places like the Che, ASPCA, Women’s shelters, friends without medical insurance.

Between the 5 shows we have done, we’ve raised over $20k for various charity groups. We keep a miniscule amount to help pay for expenses of flights, travel gear gas etc. When we played the Che Cafe a few weeks back to raise money for an art community in Mexico, we kept a whopping $60 to cover gas, I think for lack of a better term, this band has a legacy of sorts, and speaking for everyone in the band, we want that upheld. It is odd as hell playing, don’t get me wrong. It is barely starting to feel natural again, but if we can have fun, raise money for good causes and give people a chance to see the band, then great. I think so many bands do these crazy tours and cash in and ruin what they’ve done by gouging people and singing about things they don’t believe in. But who am I????  People can do whatever the hell they want. I don’t have a hardcore crown to pass judgement on what people and bands decide to do. I’m sure people say the same shit about us, at least I know in my heart why we’re doing all this.

So what other projects have you and your bandmates been up to since Unbroken’s demise?  I know you guys are involved in a ton of projects.

-Rob- Todd doesn’t really play music as much anymore. Steve has a band called Crushed on You. Dave was working on Stabbed By Words but they are on hiatus. I’m doing Narrows and various other projects with friends in San Diego.

I know you have a show coming up in London, but what are some other near-term plans for Unbroken?  Are you looking forward to that London show?  I am super pissed that you are doing it now as I have since moved from there to Hawaii (LAME).  Heh heh.

-Rob- We are doing NYC in April and Austin in June of 2011. Then maybe do an Argentina, Chile and Mexico show. After that, no clue, but I’m sure after Austin, we won’t do any more shows in the states. We’ve played the places we wanted to play in the states and don’t want to wear out the welcome.

Life Love Regret and Unbroken in general helped me through some pretty tough times back in the 90s and for that I’d like to say thanks.  I’ll leave any Final Words to you.  You guys will always have a place in my heart.

-Rob- Thank you, that is very kind of you to say. It is strange yet incredible knowing that something you did 16yrs ago still has a place in people’s hearts. My guess is that we talked about something everyone goes through in life. Not everyone is SxE, Vegan, political, but everyone loves, hates, laughs, cries...that is what we were about and it makes me feel got that people got it. We were “hated for loving” back then, but towards the end of the band, people got it and I’m glad there was a place for that in hardcore. I am glad there is still room for that.

(Pics by Matt Miller)