ENDURE

PHOTO CREDIT: SHAWN ROBBINS

1. Thanks for agreeing to do this interview! Would you please introduce yourselves and what you do in the band?

Ian Stuart: Guitarist and primary songwriter.
Joel: Bass
Keith: Drums
Dickie: I’m Dickie, vocals.
Eric: I’m Eric and I play guitar.

2. How would you characterize your sound and who would you say are the band’s primary influences?

Ian Stuart: Early 2000’s hardcore. Riff focused. If the 2006 B9 Board was a band. No Warning mixed with Satisfaction era Hatebreed. Making the most brutal music we can in standard E tuning.
Keith: (I will leave this for you, Dickie)
Dickie: I think we are straight up hardcore. To me it’s very early 2000s. Ian wrote the music really so I can only speak to my input. For me Terror, Missing Link and xWeaponx are always in heavy rotation and for sure influence what I want to create.
Eric: I would characterize my playing style in this band as punchy rhythm. I take influence from bands like Comeback Kid, Guns Up! mixed with more punk styles; Lifetime, older New Found Glory.

3.Your first show was a doozy: opening for Strife! Tell us about that gig!

Ian Stuart: Sick. One of the first hardcore bands I got into, to see them now was amazing. Their level of performance and musicianship live was inspiring, truly brought it. For us, I think we were a little nervous, but ready. Opening a show can be tough, but things went off immediately.
Joel: Super pumped and a bit of nerves for the first show. It had been 31 years since I had been on stage playing with a band. I’m not sure we could have asked for a better crowd. They really showed out during our set. Great lineup front to back. And obviously to share the stage with Strife was dope.
Keith: Opening for Strife as our first show was surreal. To me, Strife is one of the legendary hardcore bands. Being able to play with them was an absolute privilege. And yes, they still fucking kill.
Dickie: Strife was one of the first hardcore bands I got into back in the late 90s and getting to open for them felt real bucket list for me. Huge thanks to Cheap Life Records for putting us on and Geno’s for allowing such chaos to exist in their space. The response from the crowd from note one was fantastic.
Eric: Sadly I was unable to perform as I had emergency appendectomy the Wednesday before the show. Luckily I was able to attend and watch the guys crush their first show.

4. So though Endure is a new band, you guys aren’t new jacks. Let’s start with the personal backstory: what got you into hardcore in the first place? What was it about the music and the scene that made you want to take such an active part in it?

Ian Stuart: I found hardcore in junior high school in the late 90s. I was a really big Pantera fan at the time, specifically the Far Beyond Driven album. I was in detention one day and one of the other kids in there was wearing a Blood for Blood hat and a Sam Black Church hoodie; we got to talking and he told me those bands sounded like Pantera and I would dig them. Turns out they sound little like Pantera, but I loved them more. Blood for Blood was the first band that felt like mine, sonically and lyrically it was exactly what I wanted. I started buying albums from all the bands B4B thanked in the linear notes—Death Threat’s Peace and Security being one of the next albums. In high school, I was in a hardcore band that opened for EVERYONE—from Hatebreed to The Black Dahlia Murder and everyone in between, so many bands that went on to become huge names in hardcore and metal, but only because Kathy Kave, Muscle City, The Well and The Edge were so inclusive to local bands.
Joel: It started for me as a teen growing up in Maine. Community made me want to take part. Skateboarding, smoking weed and playing metal after school (and sometimes during school). I played in a band called Tork. The highlight was opening for Warzone at Zoots back in 1996(?) After high school I moved away and didn’t play more than lounge music for drinks at a dark bar in Georgia.
Keith: I remember hearing Poison the Well’s The Opposite of December album when I was in high school and was immediately enthralled by the sound and aggressive energy. That was basically the moment hardcore/metal became my genre of choice. I started playing in various bands in the southern NH scene and the rest is history.
Dickie: Back in the late nineties a dude in school use to give me actual mix tapes of early Converge, Ten Yard Fight, Coalesce, etc. I just happened to grow up with Kei from Have Heart and Alex from Yellow Stitches, so a lot of us in our younger days just went all in starting bands.
Eric: I started playing guitar in middle school and quickly fell in love with it. I had a lot of older friends who introduced me to heavier music. I worked for Bull Moose throughout high school and college, which opened sooo many doors to sub-genres of music. I played in a pop-punk band called Steiner Street. We got the opportunity to play with some killer bands such as A Loss for Words, Transit, Man Overboard, The Swellers, Cruel Hand and countless others.

5. What about Endure? How did the band come together?

Ian Stuart: I am a studio nerd. I spend most of my time in my studio producing music of all genres—from bluesy americana to a variety of electronic music to shoegaze to doom metal. I was playing in a metallic hardcore band called Paradise with some of the guys from Can’t Win last year—I was writing a bunch of riffs but none of them fit the music we were making at the time. I had to part ways with Paradise over my schedule not lining up with theirs and I quietly started recording the riffs by myself, producing them as I would any other track in my studio and found myself with three demo tracks. I sent them to Dickie, who I have known forever, to see what he thought of them and he seemed to dig them enough to pursue a band. Joel came on pretty quick, we got Eric involved and then found Keith after trying two other drummers.
Joel: I met Dickie when I moved back to Maine and last year heard he and a buddy were putting a band together and needed drums and bass. I jumped at the chance.
Keith: I joined the band in February of this year after connecting with Ian and Dickie online.
Dickie: Before Ian had sent me the music I hadn’t made music in years but recently had been up on stage with friends’ bands doing guest spots on covers. Then every time Haywire would come through I’d end up doing “Like a Train” or “Poser Disposers” guest verses. I was itching to be back creating music, being on stage and having fun with friends.
Eric: I’ve known Dickie since college and have always kept in touch. He reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in playing guitar in this band. I also met Ian Stuart a handful of times. I met Joel and Keith while playing. I think we all just click and have the same aspirations with this project.

6. What do you think it is about Maine or perhaps we could broaden it out to New England more largely if you like that you think makes it such fertile ground for hardcore and metalcore? Maybe this is regional chauvinism, but I’d put New England’s bands—past and present—up against anyone’s.

Ian Stuart: It’s because hardcore is rooted in blue collar culture, it’s a working man’s music. New England is blue collar as fuck. Hardcore originates from the East Coast, it has also grown and progressed in New England in a way that has shaped hardcore as a whole across the globe—anyone playing hardcore today has a little bit of New England in their sound whether they agree or not. ..all the best reggae comes from Jamaica, too…
Joel: An easy answer for New England is winter. It brings a scheduled hardship every year. It also brings community. At least in Maine, people look out for their neighbors and that multiplies when the weather gets harsh.
Keith: I agree with Joel. The brutal winters give a unique perspective to New England artists, I think. The isolation, the dark, and the cold gives a sharper edge to all the art from the region, not just the music.
Eric: In my opinion, New England (Maine/NH in particular) has always had a strong following for the Hardcore/Punk/Metal scene. Very devoted fans on this style of music.

7. Who would you say belongs on the Maine Hardcore Mount Rushmore?

Ian Stuart: Kathy Kave, Outbreak, Lowlife, Half of American Nightmare, Cruel Hand
Dickie: Ployglot, Outbreak, Cruel Hand, Gumskabb
Eric: My Maine HXC Mount Rushmore would be Cruel Hand, Outbreak, Ignorance, Stand or Fall. Honorable mention to WARANIMAL (not really Hardcore but a great band).

8. I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask about the recent SVU-booked (you can read my interview with Ethan of SVU here) show at Rumors in Biddeford—your reception was as I’d say from firsthand experience more than warm!

Ian Stuart: Opening a show can be tough, as I said above—it’s great to see people go off like they have—I think it’s because the old guys know us from past bands and the younger hardcore kids are open and supportive to new bands—which I can’t tell you how much I appreciate—that was NOT the case when I was coming up… lotta empty floors and arms crossed for opening bands in the early 2000s…
Joel: Biddeford goes hard.
Keith: I absolutely love what Rumors and Biddeford have going on right now. It is very reminiscent of the early 2000s hardcore scene that I grew up in. SVU is killing it right now and their band portfolio is top notch. Looking forward to the next gig there.
Dickie: Rumors is such a rad spot. Ethan, Ryan and everyone involved are all rad as fuck. Real cool seeing all the guys open up the pit so hard for us.
Eric: Had a blast playing the show at Rumors. Thank you again for putting us on that bill, the crowd and other bands were phenomenal.

9. What’s on deck for the rest of the year?

Ian Stuart: Recording our demo/EP in my studio right here in Raymond. Planning on booking more shows and writing more songs. There are talks of already doing a split with an Australian band… more on that later…
Keith: Our next step is to get our EP recorded and distributed (hopefully this summer) and then shows, shows, shows.
Dickie: Just really want to record and get our music out there so when we play more shows people jump on me to sing along.
Eric: Record an EP, probably write a few more tracks. Play more shows.

10. Last question: Ignoring the logistics of how you’d do it, if you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring five records with you, which ones would you bring?

Ian Stuart: B4B-Livin in Exile, B4B-Outlaw Anthems, Misfits box set, Converge-Jane Doe, Death Threat-Peace & Security.
Joel: Death-Individual Thought Patterns, Life of Agony-River Runs Red, Dog Fashion Disco-Adultery, Heavy Metal Kings-self-titled (Vinnie Paz and Ill Bill), Psycho Realm-debut album
Keith: Poison the Well-The Opposite of December, Deadwater Drowning-Self-Titled, Every Time I Die-The Big Dirty, Converge-Jane Doe (obx), Comeback Kid-Wake The Dead
Dickie: Tyler Childers-Live on Red Barn Radio, The Acacia Strain-Continent, Death Threat-Peace and Security, Marcus King-Carolina Confessions, Colin of Arabia-Trauma Dump
Eric: The Menzingers (After the Party), Tigers Jaw (I Won’t Care How You Remember Me), Radiohead (The Bends), Jimmy Eat World (Bleed American) and for a Hardcore record I’ll go with Cruel Hand (Lock and Key AND Prying Eyes). Peace.