CAUSE FOR ALARM

From the 'Beneath the Wheel' album

Why have I chosen to complicate a music whose origins are quite primitive? When hardcore first emerged from the punk scene, it was basically a male dominated angst fest, a gladiatorial exorcism of our frustrations with life. There has always been this talk about the scene and unity but to me it never really amounted to much. We basically had a micro-society within a conventional society, yet we had all the same problems that everyone else had. I never regretted dropping out of school to be a full time member so to speak, of the scene, but after a while the same curiosity and rebelliousness that drove me head first into hardcore would take me on another path out.

Politics were always somewhat a part of the scene, but I was never really that interested in them. I think it was because I couldn't really relate to a bunch of punks with mohawks and trust funds talking about anarchy and multinational corporate greed (ha, ha). East coast HC never really got that political anyway, it was more about dancing, hanging out and just being part of a scene, releasing all that pent up suburban energy! It's kind of odd that CFA got a reputation as being political but that was not our intentions, but with the cops on the cover of our first 7 inch and songs like "Time to Try" and "United Races", the issue came up a lot. I'm definitely more politically conscience now and more aware how important it is to care about people globally, Human rights is a tangible concept that we can all get behind, regardless of color or nationality. Even within the small scale that C FA operates on, I've felt committed to putting together records that contain more than just music to do kung- fu to, for me that's part of the evolution of hardcore.

One of the stranger things to happen to hardcore was the introduction of Krsna consciousness into the scene. It's ironic that this should have happened in New York, which is where the Krsna movement got its Western start at 26 Second Avenue, back in the late 1960's. And one must take note that one J. Joseph was chosen to spread the ancient message of the Vedas to the hardcore masses.

I can clearly remember the first time I heard John Joseph refer to KRSNA as the supreme personality of Godhead, it was a cold night in February, 1982 in a foyer of a building on Avenue A, right across the street from A/7. I had known John for about a week or two and had a few conversations with him about music and being a vegetarian and some general philosophy. I knew about John's reputation and had heard that he had been living on a farm in Hawaii or something. But that night I heard about Vedic philosophy for the first time, and finally had something tangible to stand up to conventional material ideas, that wasn't dogmatic and dry!

So that night was probably the first time that Krsna and the hardcore scene were introduced to each other. I ultimately went on to get further involved with the movement and wanted to integrate Vedic thought and hardcore music, but neither my band nor ISKCON were ready to except this radical idea, although the song "In Search Of" which appeared on our first seven inch, was written as I thought of Krsna. The lyrics are very subtle because at this time, every thing I did was scrutinized by some members of CFA and other outside parties. Shortly after I quit the hardcore scene and devoted my time to trying to serve Krsna, and quite honestly I was a lousy devotee, I could follow the principles easily enough and I loved the Vedic literatures and absolutely loved Srila Prabupada, but I could never fully surrender, my mind always took me to other places and I came to think of vaisnava philosophy as just one of many tools to understand the self and the non-material world.

I truly believe that the most important aspect to being human and being alive is to try and understand how you connect to the universe and that your true nature is not just the material elements that make up your body. It's certainly not something that can be written about; but must come from deep within yourself and once you've glimpsed this, nothing else can effect you. The greatest accomplishments of worldly people mean nothing once you have seen life beyond good and evil. I have stopped trying to ignore who I am, and have focused on balancing the spirit and the flesh and trying to learn from every experience without being moralistic or judgmental. I don't understand when people shut something out before trying to experience it or understand it, the world and the universe are an absolutely magical, mind warping set up! Stop and think about it once in a while, you're spinning in space on a globe heated by a giant burning star, which in the universe represents a spec of sand! Forget about your Big Mac and Coke for just a minute; and look up at the night sky and try to feel a part of it.