Interview with Pure Impact Records

Alright, this site has basically died, but I'm very happy to finally... FINALLY... have this interview with Peter from Pure Impact Records up. As anyone who has been around for a few years knows, the skinhead "scene" (if you can call it that) has a tendency to change very quickly in a very short amount of time. People, bands, and labels come and go at the drop of a dime. Well, both Peter and Pure Impact are exceptions to the rule. They've kept going strong while so many others have left us behind... sometimes for better, but - unfortunately - often for worse. But I don't want to start this off on a depressing note.

Before starting the interview, I want to express my gratitude to Peter. This interview took a long time to finish, mostly due to my own short-comings. I sent some questions to Peter, but he was busy with many things in life and (at least) an equal number of things with the label, like the many new releases everyone should check out. Six or seven months later, this thing is finally ready to be posted online. So when "recent news" is a December 2009 release, that's all my fault. Luckily, Pure Impact is almost as old as me, so six months probably means very little has changed.

Finally, before we start the interview, make sure you check out Pure Impact at their official site and their myspace page. And make sure you sign up for the newsletter, as it's one of the highlights of the month for me... Peter will keep you up to date not just on the label but also the new releases in general along with zines and shows worth checking out.

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Let's start with the recent news. I just got the December Pure Impact newsletter, and you mentioned three new releases for the label. Here's the description you gave us in the newsletter:

Let's start with plugging ourselves a little first. We should have 3 new releases coming out on PURE IMPACT this December still: Endstufe "Wo wir sind brennt die Luft", Offensive Weapon "Offensive Weapon" (true hard skinhead rock from New York City) and Skinfull "Drinking Class Heroes" (young new English band taking you back to the Oi/punk sounds of the early 80's). Check out a sample song and cover art of each on www.myspace.com/pureimpactrecords.

Can you give us a description of what we should be expecting?

Well, all three CD's have been released in the meantime.

The Endstufe one is by far the easiest to describe as Endstufe is a classic band that everyone knows. It's a live CD recorded at shows in Germany and Italy. It features some classic Endstufe tracks and a couple of really hard-to-get ones. It could have captured the live atmosphere a bit more maybe, but on the other hand, the sound quality is real good, which isn't always the case with live CDs in our scene. The CD comes with a 16-page booklet with lots of photos as the band wanted.

Skinfull is a great young English band bringing back that hard mid-80s sound, Oi! with a punky touch, not unlike Condemned 84's debut "Battle Scarred". Finally, Offensive Weapon is old-school brickwall Oi, like the US bands from the late 80s / early 90s, non-PC, not trying to please the general public, just a 100% skinhead.

Speaking of the newsletter, it was issue #131. Is that the number for the monthly email or the total number of Pure Impact zines/newsletters?

It's the total of newsletters. The first few years they were on paper and, from sometime in 1999 on, they became e-mail newsletters.

So here's where the interview will lose focus and go all over the place. From what I know, Pure Impact started as a paper zine in the early 80s and eventually evolved into a label, a distro, and you might have booked some shows in Belgium over the years. I've seen some old interviews from the zine posted online, and you might have started this before I was even born (and I'm not exactly young). Pure Impact seems to have been alive for around thirty years! Can you give us an idea about when you got involved in the skinhead scene and how you came to start Pure Impact as a zine, since that seems to be the first incarnation of PI?

Hmm, I'm going to have to give away my age here, more or less at least. I first got into the skinhead scene in early 1983. I'd been listening to Oi and punk for a year or two already, but when I went on a school trip to London in 1983; there were skinheads all over the place, and I just knew that was the thing for me: smart look, tough, no-nonsense. I just loved it. The zine was actually not started by me, but by a friend. He used to do a punk & skin fanzine called "Unite and win" in 1983 - 1984 and then changed the name to Pure Impact when it became strictly skinhead. Towards the end of 1985, he found a job and no longer had the time to do the zine, and I took over from issue 5 on. I had had some previous experience helping him on Pure Impact and by doing a couple of interviews for the New Jersey-based fanzine Bulldog Breed.

When/why did you start the label and distro? Did one come first and the other followed naturally, or did they both begin at the same time?

By 1995 the zine had pretty much had it's time. There were a lot of zines around, many with bigger budgets and in colour, or printed, or whatever. I just couldn't keep up. I had taken Pure Impact as far as I could. What was lacking was good labels that put out quality releases, not just cheap Rock-O-Rama style releases. I had always been a collector and so I decided I would put out the type of releases that I would have liked to buy myself, with proper booklets and so on. Technically, the distro came first, but it was always the intention to release albums as well. It was just a matter of finding the right band. The label / distro officially went live on the first of January, 1996.

The Pure Impact website lists 34 releases... 32 CDs or MCDs and two 7"s (The Hoolies and Red, White, and Blue). You've almost exclusively released CDs, while so many other labels still focus on vinyl. As someone who doesn't collect vinyl, I've always appreciated this, but it makes me wonder... why have you focused on CDs?

So far, I'm actually at 45 releases: 2 7"s, 1 DVD and 42 CD's. Now, I personally also prefer vinyl, but the reason why I concentrate on CDs as far as releases goes is for the simple fact that there is not a big home-market for this kind of music in Belgium. This means that I mainly (have to) sell abroad, and the shipping costs then are just too high because of the weight and size. It is for the very same reason that I don't sell a whole lot of merchandising like clothing and such.

Given the focus on CDs, my guess is that you're focused on newer, more relevant technologies. But I haven't seen you push Pure Impact releases on iTunes or other pay-for-download sites. Do you have any plans to do this? Any other thoughts on digital releases, downloading (and it's role in "the scene" or on labels), or where things stand these days given new technology? Are we getting to a point where labels are dead or dying? (Full disclosure: I don't buy vinyl, so I do download things like the YDL discography, since - despite all the rumors about a CD release - it's only ever come out on vinyl from John at Vulture Rock.)

As explained earlier, it has nothing to do with being focused on newer technologies, but rather with the practical side of things. So far only 3 releases are available through pay-for-download sites: Section 5 "They think it's all over", the Endstufe live and Skinfull. Section 5 was made available for download about 2 years ago as a test. Unfortunately, putting and keeping it online has cost me more than it has brought in. I hope Skinfull will do better. It has also been posted on my MySpace page.

A new Pure Impact site is in the works, and I will probably make more releases available for download then. I have no problem with digital downloads as long as it's official and not just downloaded for free from one or the other blog sites. And, contrary to what a lot of people think, this has nothing to do with earning big bucks... but why would a label pay the recording studio for a band and press up CDs when the CDs and even legal downloads don't sell anymore because of all the illegal downloading??? You might just as well throw your money away as a label. So yes, I think labels are dying, and also that, because of it, a lot of bands won't get released anymore, especially the smaller / newer ones who don't have the money to pay for their own studio recordings.

How do you decide what to release? Does a band make a record and shop it around to labels, or do you make a deal ahead of time and support the band's recording process?

It is usually the latter, although in recent years the situation has changed a little due to the illegal downloads. You want to limit your risks as a label, and finished recordings can easily be checked for their quality. Now, I always release bands I like, that I can connect with in one way or another. I have never looked only at profitability because there's a few releases I did that otherwise would never have come out [if I only focused on profitability].

It's been a while since the last release, which might have been the Blood Red Eagle album, but now you're back with three releases at once. Why the long delay? The two obvious guesses are funds and lack of worthwhile releases.

You missed a few releases. The last one before these was Coup De Masse from Montreal, which came out in August 2009. If you like the good French bands of old, check them out; they're a great band. So, the delay hasn't been that long, but if you need an explanation for the time I take between releases, it usually has to do with the lack of funds indeed. Pure Impact is a small one-man operation and not nearly as big as many people would think. I have a full-time job and do Pure Impact after hours and on weekends mainly.

Very few labels and distros are able to last. A few manage to just not-quite-die and then release something new (GMM and Haunted Town come to mind), but Pure Impact has managed to stay active over the years. The only other label I can think of that's survived like PI is Dim. So, Peter, what's the secret to your success?

Success? What success? The reason why I keep Pure Impact going is two-fold. First of all, I have been a skinhead since forever, have been impassioned by the style and music... this is me, not just a teenage fad. Also, I don't take any money out of Pure Impact for myself, so the money it generates is reinvested in releases, stock, all kinds of material (like computers, etc), and accountants.... A lot of people think doing a label is fast and easy money, but it is not; it is a lot of hard work, time, and dedication, and that's what most people lack (and they then give up). The only ones that can make big bucks with their labels are not the pure skinhead labels - like DIM or Pure Impact - but the overtly PC German labels who suck up to everyone and created a prefab skinhead movement as a market, which has nothing real or dangerous about it anymore. Plastic rebels in the truest sense.

Building on the last question, you've basically run an apolitical label and distro that doesn't hesitate to occasionally put out a RAC album and carry RAC in the distro, and few other labels/distros seem to do the same (again, Dim being the noticeable exception). Have you encountered any problems for that? And do you think too much about what to carry, or do you just put out whatever you like or can get? Also, it seems like you listen to every album in the distro judging from the monthly newsletter and your comments... does this happen before or after you decide to carry it?

That goes back to the origin of the zine, label, distro - both DIM and I are from a time long gone when skinhead wasn't all politicized; it was just skinhead, and there were people to the right, patriotic, and non-political skinheads, and politics wasn't exactly the first concern. We both have tried to keep that mentality and we can appreciate a wide variety of bands and styles. Sure, I have encountered problems for carrying RAC, not only from the PC-brigade in the scene, but also from the press, the police or the government (it's no fun when Pure Impact gets mentioned in parliament for being a nazi-mailorder). On the other hand, I have also been criticized by the right for carrying bands that are more to the left like The Oppressed, to name just one. I think people are wise enough to decide for themselves what they like. I sell music, not political ideas.

[Also, it seems like you listen to every album in the distro judging from the monthly newsletter and your comments... does this happen before or after you decide to carry it?]

I do indeed listen to everything and try to give a, more or less, honest review. This happens after I have decided to carry the CD. I make sure I always hear some songs before ordering to avoid the worst bands out there. Doesn't always work though. LOL.

Interview - Youthful Offenders

I recently had a chance to catch up with Jimmy and Brian from Youthful Offenders. You might remember the band from the late 90s and for their classic album Domination which came out on Vulture Rock (vinyl) and Pure Impact (CD).  These guys were proudly drinking PBR before it became the beer of choice for hipster douchebags everywhere. Youthful Offenders has recently gotten back together, and we might see some shows and new material from the band. Keep an eye on their Myspace page for updates.  Many thanks to Jimmy and Brian!

First off, let's get to the standard question. Give us the background and current line-up of the band. You guys did the full-length, "Domination," and then basically disappeared but got back together recently. Give us the story on the band and the recent reunion.

[Jimmy:] The background is thick. Jimmy, Tom and Adam... we all went to high school together and started playing before we could get licenses. Brian was in a band called "The 1 Clips," and Wayne was still in Hatebreed. Brian and I met at a Business/Warzone show I believe when I was like 15. I slipped him an 8-track demo we recorded about moonshine and pirates and thankfully he saw something there. Wayne approached after his first exit from Hatebreed and thank god he did and was the last addition. We played a ton of shows with the likes of the Bruisers, Forced Reality, Cro-mags, Agnostic Front, Anti Heros, etc. Basically, we stopped playing as everyone was growing up... getting jobs in unions or finishing school... blah blah...

My youthfully offensive actions put me in and out of prison for almost a decade while the rest of the band pushed on: Tom in California to start his recording engineering business; Wayne rejoined Hatebreed; Brian became the top hoss at his job; and Adam moved to Portland, OR, to drink coffee and weave baskets or some shit.

I had gotten out of Old Colony Correctional in MA and went back to my job as an ironworker. I sustained a really bad injury that almost killed and/or paralyzed me. I had lost touch with everyone having fallen off the map kinda and started tracking everyone down while I was in a wheelchair. Failing to get hold of brian, he finally got hold of me in early summer. Pure Impact made the site. We tracked down the lost tapes which we thought burned in Forced Reality's tour van and have just recently started pining about doing shows.

[Brian:] Just to add to what Jimmy said, we had been out of touch for a long time. Peter from Pure Impact made a Myspace page for Y.O. I came across it and didn't know what to make of it. Knowing Jimmy had nothing to do with it, I thought it was a fan page or someone faking to be in the band. He messed with me for a bit and then 'gave me the keys.' That pretty much spawned the re-interest in the band. I had totally forgotten about the 'lost tapes.' But that's another story.

Regarding the reunion, was it based at all on the East Coast Oi Fest? I've heard some rumors that Craig has tried to book reunions before, so was this the case with Youthful Offenders, or were you already back together?

[Jimmy:] Oi!fest would've been our first show in about a decade. Our last two shows were with the Cro-mags and Iron Cross in Rhode Island and at the El 'N' Gee in thunderin' New London, CT. I've heard that Craig is responsible for gettin some heavy hitters back together. That guy is a good promoter but, he wasn't the backdrop for the "reunion."

Now that the Oi Fest is canceled, any plans for shows?

[Jimmy:] First off, that show getting shutdown is bullshit, and let me take the opportunity to say that I hope the crybabies who got it canceled get shards of broken glass and piss in their morning Starbucks. That being said, we are probably not going to be on the regular tour circuit, but we may play the Play It Loud fest in Boston next year and are trying to go to Australia and Europe for a few. We'll see. The line-up may be a little different, but Brian and I will be there if and when it goes down. We wouldn't have given it a thought until we started seeing the reaction to the website.

Regardless of shows, you've already announced plans for a new 7". Is this new material or old stuff that was never recorded/released?

[Jimmy:] Aaaahhhjeez... the tapes... the FUCKING tapes. We recorded those songs ten years ago and it was supposed to be released as a split with the Templars but that all fell through. I had possession of the masters while I was on tour with Forced Reality and Duane Peters and the Hunns. Our van caught fire on the highway and the tape was in there. Luckily, the record company had a copy but that turned into an 18 month battle to get them back. The guy dicked us around for awhile until we finally had to pay this fucking hoarder to get them back. Rock 'n' Roll Disgrace, who put out some of the best streetpunk around, is gonna release it. Hopefully, sometime in February.

[Brian:] Jimmy hit the nail on the head. These songs are from 10+ years ago. By the time the record was released, we had stopped the "fight/night" lyrical themes and tried to actually say something, albeit the subjects remained basically the same. The new stuff is way better than anything on the full length.

What are the plans for the future? Shows, releases, merch, or anything else?

[Jimmy:] As Joe Strummer says, "the future is unwritten." Brian and his wife, Maria, have a baby on the way and this whole project will revolve around Brian's availability. Hopefully, we will get overseas and do Play It Loud, but we will have to play that hand as it comes. We are also all spread out all over the world at this point. We have some shirts and sweatshirts that will be on our Myspace page soon. As far as new recordings, we will have to see. I'd love to. We always did have a penchant for smashing the world.

Like many bands on Vulture Rock, you guys had a reputation for anti-PC and anti-commie lyrics. Is this still true? Does this still separate you from bands today? Given the scene a decade ago, I tend to think anti-PC lyrics would be more tolerated today. Not so much that there are more right wing skinheads, but just that there don't seem to be so many leftist or PC skins anymore. Any thoughts?

[Jimmy:] Well first off, some of the lyrics rolled over onto the record from shit I wrote in the 9th grade, i.e. "United Skins" and "Pride." Those weaker songs lyrically speaking. Nothing was ever meant to fit into any agenda. A lot of it was about pushing peoples buttons or telling it like it is. Where we were at that point in time, there was a line drawn... everyone tried to fit this image, especially in CT where where hardcore is king. We were sort of a novelty until Forced Reality got back together and gave streetrock a name around the northeast again.

Anyhow, to answer direct... no, we were never PC and didn't want to be. We basically played with mostly hardcore bands back then. We were not straight-edge. We LIKED getting in brawls, and we liked being offensive. We were a total "grain of salt" type band like Stars and Stripes. My intro to the skinhead thing was hearing "Hard Times" by Cro-mags. Brian knows everything about Oi. Take those two styles, and look what comes out. We were raised and became blue collar. We had a sense of humor. A lot of our "critics" tried to find anything they could wrong with us, and we just kept giving it to them in spades. The more hated we became in our own scene, the better we liked it. The ones who "get it" appreciate us, and the rest can swallow their tongues.

As far as the skinhead scene, I'm not sure. The internet wasn't as big back then, so we never really knew how people outside of the northeast liked it. I think the people who just want a loud, punch-in-the-face, no crybaby kinda record, like it. The ones who don't would be whining about something else if we weren't there... so fuck 'em. WE ARE NOT A POLITICAL BAND. We are red-blooded Americans that liked to work, drink, thrash and fight. That was our big agenda.

[Brian:] As Jimmy mentioned, his background is hardcore. Mine is Oi! I was older than the guys in the band and grew up on the coattails of the first wave of American Oi! bands. To this day, I still consider just about every band on "Spirit of Oi! American Style" the greatest bands ever. Y.O. was never political. But that doesn't mean we want every person under the sun to hold hands and dance to some shitty ska song. I think its pretty fucking gay that politics has to even be talked about. There are things I hate and things I don't. PC is fucking stupid. It isn't a part of my life and isn't a part of the band. Bands with over-the-top agendas come across horrible. I'll leave it there.

What is life like these days? You mentioned a wife, two dogs, and a baby on the way. Not exactly the "drink, fight, fuck" mentality that seems to be so common in "the scene." That shit was cool as a kid, but I've noticed that lots of people never group up and move beyond that stage of life.

[Jimmy:] That mentality is only good for so long... I've seen where that gets you after a while. I've had a long history of legal troubles starting in the early nineties, hence the band name. Juvie hall is one thing, but prison is no joke. I've spent most of my twenties in institutions and just grew tired of being a part of the system. I have a good job and almost lost my life a couple of times. You gotta learn to be content after awhile with just being. To some, they look at growing up like the plague. But look at Brian... I've known him a long time and never thought I'd see him so happy to be an adult and married with kids. Bottom line, destructive paths lead to death and jail, and we ain't down with dying. Believe me, not a day goes by that I don't want to get a bottle of Jameson, pound the whole thing, and then throw it at some random jagoff... but ya just can't do that shit forever. The judges get real sick of seeing you. Besides, we have families who love and need us around.

[Brian:] I am married, have moved to Maine, have two dogs and a baby on the way. When I'm not at work, I am home. The only shows I go to are my remaining friends' bands. It's funny to look back and think of the old days. Jimmy and I laugh our asses off about some of the shit we used to do.

Introduction

Welcome.  First off, let me say up front that this blog is in no way connected to the old realskinheads.net website.   However, I am tired, bored, slightly buzzed, and have been wondering why there doesn't seem to be much of anything going on with "the scene" these days.  I know all you damn kids today have the internet.  Am I out of touch, or has everything really gone to shit?  (Answer: It's a trick question, since I know the answer is both.)  Since there doesn't seem to be anything going on with bands, labels, shows, or much of anything else, I thought I'd step up and do my part.  By "my part," I clearly mean bitching about things anonymously on the internet!

One thing I used to appreciated about the old RSN site is that they covered all things skinhead without acting like douchebags... even to the people you always suspected they thought were also douchebags (even if they never came outright and said it).  Way back in those early days, skinheads.net was also more than just a message board, too, and I remember some of the conflicts between the operators of both sites.  This blog is in no way meant to stir up any old tensions, if any exist.  

So what's the point here?  If I'm lazy and unmotivated... there isn't one.  Otherwise, this will be my half-assed attempt at creating a one-stop clearinghouse for all things skinhead (whatever the fuck that means) since I'm too lazy to learn how to make a real website.  I might try to do some interviews (and have a few ideas about where I'd like to start).  I might review some albums.  I might post some old label discographies.  Shit, I might even do something relevant like post upcoming concerts and new label releases.

If you have some ideas, want to make a contribution, or want to mail free shit to me (or get me into a show) for me to review, get in touch at realskinheads.gmail.com.