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.