23rd February 2012

Post reblogged from PropertyOfZack with 25 notes

PropertyOfZack Interview : : Hostage Calm

propertyofzack:

We post several interviews a week on PropertyOfZack, but this new piece with Hostage Calm is different from the norm. The band is hosting a same-sex rally in Hoboken, NJ this Saturday with H2O and we thought it would be a great idea to have frontman Chris Martin talk to us about the cause, the band’s views, political and social movements in punk, and so much more. If you’re in the area, you can find out more details and secure a free spot to Saturday’s show here. Read up on the interview, it’s one of the best pieces we’ve ever done!

Earlier this month, Hostage Calm announced a same-sex rally in Hoboken, NJ with H2O. The band has always been socially and politically active, and the band took it to another level this summer when you teamed up with AltPress for the New York cause. This is the next step, but it’s more of a jump or a leap from anything you’ve done in the past. Can you talk about when planning this started and the idea behind it?
As soon as we did the petition in New York, I think we started to realize what kind of potentially there was and we started to believe in ourselves in a way that I think was just beyond singing the songs and spreading the word. We thought that we could really do something to help provide that infrastructure for a scene of music where there’s so much dormant support for same-sex marriage. People just don’t know how to express that support because there aren’t always clear avenues for us to get the word out. We’re so used to not being listened to that we think we can’t make a difference. We did make a difference in New York though, so we started thinking about where the battles would be this year. New Jersey and Maryland were the ones that came to mind for us. I live in Baltimore now, so the proximity makes sense. We started planning for both states and we kept an eye on how things were moving through the legislature. We had a strong feeling that Chris Chrstie was going to veto the legislation, so we thought it was going to be the first 2012 election year confrontation with the anti-same-sex marriage legislatures. We want this event to be the kickoff of a nation-wide youth movement within punk, within people who like independent music, within people who share our views. There are young people out there who have the support. There is overwhelming support within our age group, there is 75% support. We just need to help connect all of us to make our voices really loud at this crucial moment.
 
This is cool of the band to do, but this is a big deal. I can’t imagine it was either to put together either. Pushing past your ideals behind it, can you talk about making this all happen?
It did take a long time. We had the idea to do this this past fall, but it’s so hard to find a campus that will let it happen. We thought it was important to have it on a school campus because it would expose lots of college students to it as well, not just punk kids.  We looked at tons of schools and tried to secure spaces, sound gear, and all that stuff. Our friend Jack went to Stevens, so we knew we had an in there. Stevens was perfect because it’s in Jersey and it’s close to New York City and we just got the victory there. I’m just happy that H2O were down for the cause. I’m just happy that people have come together to spend their own time on this. I want to thank Buddy, Toby and the guys in H2O, Jack, and everyone at Stevens who have made this possible. I especially want to thank all the people who have been voicing their support and that we’ll see out there on Saturday. Thank you to all of you. Putting together the show was one little thing, but it’s going to be part of something bigger.
 
You guys will both be performing, but what else should we expect during the rally?
There will be speakers and LGTB activists, and people involved with Garden State Equality. We may have some very special speakers who are not yet confirmed. This has been a long process to get figures to speak. There will also be just some classic east coast punk rock. We’re using this music for something that a lot of us have always dreamed about. We didn’t just see ourselves playing music when we started this band, we saw ourselves trying to do something more and trying to have an actual voice in our community. For so long, it was hard to figure out how to do this. I think this will be a classic night of punk coming together for a great cause.
 
Hostage Calm has always bonded itself with political and social rights. I feel like fans have always known that, but that they didn’t get a real feel for that until the AltPress movement or this announcement. How has the support been? No one is going to bad mouth this, but has it been overwhelming to see the support?
I think the support has definitely been overwhelming. It’s not that I wouldn’t have expected that this amount of people are out there, I’m just so happy with people putting their own time on the line to make this happen. Since we started the band, whether it was writing about genocide or our new LP, we’ve always tried to incorporate social and political issues into our music. That’s how we saw punk. That’s an integral part of punk and why I got involved in music and why I think the way I do. We try to take it to other aspects of our media like doing interviews on it or having the I Support Same-Sex Marriage t-shirts. We do all these things like the AP OP-ED piece. We’re now being given more opportunities to speak about what we want to speak about. We’re not believing in our ability to talk about these ideas. We want to take every ear that is open and speak to it in a way that is compelling and captures the importance of this movement. 

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Source: propertyofzack