To keep it brief: I am so happy with every line Tim wrote. This man is still so dedicated to Straight Edge, to hardcore music, to his family, to this interview…. check it out…
The standard:
Who are you? Your bands and ex bands.
• Tim McMahon, 34 years old, born, raised and still living in New Jersey. Married and father of two children. One boy, one girl. I work as a Graphic Designer. Band wise I've done MOUTHPIECE, HANDS TIED, FACE THE ENEMY and I'm currently doing a band called TRIPLE THREAT.
Ok. A while back when MOUTHPIECE was scheduled to come over to Europe with SLAPSHOT….everything broke down. Why?
How did you feel about this? Any reactions from Europe?
• MOUTHPIECE did have an opportunity to tour Europe with SLAPSHOT, I believe it was sometime around 1994. I remember being contacted by MAD booking and going back and forth with Mike Hartsfield at New Age Records and trying to make it happen. We got very close to confirming, then our guitarist Chris, backed out and said he wouldn't be able to take the time off from work. At the time I recall being bummed that we couldn't swing it, but assumed that we'd get another opportunity before the band ended.
Obviously touring with SLAPSHOT would have been incredible. I've loved SLAPSHOT forever, "Back On The Map" and "Step On It" are still personal favorites of mine. What can you do though? We had the perfect opportunity and we just couldn't make it happen.
I will say, at the time it didn't seem like a big deal that we dropped off the tour. I can't recall a whole lot of talk or controversy over it. It wasn't until I toured Europe with my second band, Hands Tied, that I was to realize how much people really wanted MOUTHPIECE to come to Europe.
To clear the table: Is there the chance of a MOUTHPIECE reunion in Europe?
• It's funny that you mention that. We've been working on this MOUTHPIECE discography for Revelation over the past 6 months very heavily. As a matter of fact, I just sent all the finished layouts and re-mixed / mastered recordings this past week. Word has started to slowly get out about the release of the discography on Revelation and with that, people have been asking if MOUTHPIECE will do any shows in support of the discography.
Initially I felt that we've already done two sets of reunion shows and the last thing I'd like to do is over stay our welcome and ruin our legacy. With that being said, all of this discography work and submersion in MOUTHPIECE has reminded me just how much this band has meant to me. Another thought that's surfaced is how compared to other bands, we've generally stayed the same. From the last line up of MOUTHPIECE, all of us are still straight edge and are either still involved in making hardcore music today or at least still respect it. For those reasons, there's always a chance of MOUTHPIECE playing again.
The way that I look at it, as long as we're all still straight edge and not doing anything that would be the opposite of what MOUTHPIECE was about, the opportunity to play again is out there. Not that there are any plans to play right now or tour Europe , but like I said, as long as we're all still straight edge, anything is possible. We'll just have to see how things play out, what's going on in our lives and what kind of opportunities arise.
What do you think about reunions? I remember the STRIFE reunion. They played “One Truth” but there was nothing about the truth in a straight edge way. That was not straight...it was strange. What about GORILLA BISCUITS, LIFETIME, CHAIN?
• I'm not one to knock bands for doing reunions, unless I know for sure that what they are doing is not sincere and coming from their hearts. I know all the guys from STRIFE, some of the guys from GB, LIFETIME and CHAIN and I believe that those bands have all reunited for the right reasons and have validated to themselves why they wanted to reunite. Whether it was their love of playing the music that they've written, the love of playing together or for the fun of it, in their minds they've done it for the right reasons.
For me, personally, the message of straight edge was just too heavy to ignore when it came to MOUTHPIECE. I know what it meant to me and what it still means to me today. Doing a MOUTHPIECE show with members who aren't straight edge anymore just wouldn't make sense. My message wasn't just about being straight edge, but about being let down by those that moved away from it. To brush off those thoughts for the sake of playing together again would be a direct contradiction to what I believed and still believe today. If others can make sense of it and do it with their bands, that's on them and I'm not one to tell them what something should or shouldn't mean to them. For me though, I'm either going to keep it legitimate on all levels or I'm not going to do it at all.
Tell me about your best and your worst MOUTHPIECE memories.
• My best memories would have to revolve around our best shows. There are a number of incredible shows that we played that I still think back to. Our first show in California at the Roxy in 1991 with RESSURECTION, STRIFE, CHORUS OF DISAOOROVAL and OUTSPOKEN, the first More Than Music fest in Dayton Ohio, all of our Middlesex County College shows, a show in Boston with OUTSPOKEN, our many shows in Washington DC at the Safari Club, playing with IGNITE, TEXAS IS THE REASON and SNAPCASE in Chatham New Jersey, playing with FLOORPUNCH at a New Jersey club called Obessions, playing CBGB's, our last Middlesex show with FLOORPUNCH and EARTH CRISIS. All of those shows were great and bring back all kinds of emotions and good memories.
For me it was always about the crowd reaction. If people are stage diving and singing along and there's a big crowd packed up front, I'm seriously as happy as I can be.
One other memory that is worth noting was our 1995 summer tour. That tour was seriously one of the greatest times of my life. Packing in a van with six of my best friends, driving from city to city, playing on different stages and meeting new people, it was a very fulfilling and memorable experience.
As for worst memories, there's been a couple of bad ones. Our first trip to California with RESSURECTION ended on a real sour note. Lots of disagreements and fights that lead to a temporarily break up of the band. Eventually we overcame our problems and moved on, but at the time that was a pretty rough situation to deal with.
Another bad memory was from playing a show in Connecticut at a club called The Tune Inn. Some friends that came with us to the show got on stage and made some disparaging remarks about the crowd being weak and the reaction being poor, which in turn infuriated some of the locals and influenced them to leave the club and destroy the first car they found with New Jersey license plates. The car they destroyed happened to be Chris's, our guitarist. They smashed in his front wind shield, broke off his side view mirrors, kicked dents in his hood and doors and cut holes into his vinyl roof. He ended up driving home with electrical tape keeping his wind shield in place and spending a lot of money on the repairs once we got home.
One last bad memory was when I found out that our bass player, Dave from the "What Was Said" LP, had started drinking. Dave was a great kid and I really enjoyed his presence in the band. He was an awesome bass player and probably the best technically talented one that we ever had. I remember feeling so let down and disappointed in the fact that someone who was playing with me in this band became a direct contradiction to what we were about. Dave and I have managed to stay friendly with each other and did back then, but there was no way I was going to play in a straight edge band with someone who was no longer straight edge.
In MOUTHPIECE you had a lot line up changes. Was it more personal or due to musical differences? Are you sill in contact with you ex-band mates?
• Honestly I don't recall any of our line up changes happening due to musical changes. If someone was to leave the band, it was either because they were no longer straight edge, were going away to school or just didn't have the time, more than likely because they were playing in another band. Dan Hornecker from RESSURECTION and Scott St. Hillare from LIFETIME both played with us for a little while and both left because they were doing the other bands first and time became an issue.
Actually yes, to some extent I am still in touch with pretty much everyone that has played with us. With doing this discography, contractually we needed every ex-member who recorded with us to sign off. Some of the guys I hadn't talked to in many years, but it was fairly easy to track them down. This day in age, with the internet, email, My Space and Facebook, it's pretty easy to stay in contact with people with very little effort. Back in the day, when it was pretty much using a telephone to stay in touch, it was a lot harder to keep in contact. Even if I don't talk to some of the guys regularly, it's cool to check in and see what they're are up to once in awhile.
Being a band from New Jersey, how strong was the
connection to the New York Hardcore scene?
• I'd say that the connection to New York has always been pretty strong. The New York City Hardcore scene was such a strong and influential scene and being that New Jersey and New York are state neighbors, it was almost impossible for that scene not to rub off on ours. Just looking at a couple of New Jersey's most popular bands, TURNING POINT and RELEASE, both have an obvious NYHC sound.
Kids from New Jersey were always going to shows in NYC and kids from NYC were often coming out to Jersey for shows. You had band members from some substantial NYC rooted bands that were actually from New Jersey. Guys like Mike Judge who lived and still lives in Montville, NJ, Jules from SIDE BY SIDE who lived in Weehawken, NJ, Mark Ryan from SUPERTOUCH who was from New Jersey, Russ and Dean from UNDERDOG are from Belmar, NJ, the list goes on and on.
Other question: Do you know what Mike Judge is doing? Last thing I heard is that he’s truck driver.
• Like I said in the previous question, Mike still lives in Montville, New Jersey. I believe last I heard he is a truck driver. Maybe married, I think I heard that his wife has a couple of kids from a previous marriage. He's still writing music from what I understand, MIKE JUDGE AND THE OLD SMOKE style stuff. I think he's even still recording some of his material as well. He's a very low key, homebody type of guy from what I'm told. Personally I've never met Mike, but I have talked to a few people that are friends with him and have some contact with him. Honestly I can't confirm any of what I've told you, because like I said, it's all second hand information, but it has come from reliable sources. I have talked to him through email a couple of times, but no real deep or substantial conversations. One thing I hear from everyone is that he's a very sincere and genuinely nice guy.
OK. Let's check out the man behind the bands. What's your typical day like? New musical projects and stuff?
• I wake up during the week at 7AM every morning. My wife is out of the house for work by 6AM, so I'm usually the one in charge of getting the kids ready for school or for the grandparents house. Shower, get dressed, do what I need to do with my son and daughter. Get to work by 8AM, work until 4:30PM, pick up my son from school by 5:00PM, meet up with one of the grandparents to get my daughter, then head home. For the next couple of hours I'm watching after my kids, trying to keep them entertained until my wife gets home from work, which is usually around 8PM. Once she gets home, we eat dinner and I'm then free to do what ever house work needs to be done, cleaning, laundry, garbage, lawn, etc. Really the only TV I watch is sports. Lately, because it's baseball season, I'm watching as much of a Phillies game as I can. When it's basketball season, I'll be watching the Sixers as often as possible. Then of course come football season, it's the Eagles every Sunday or Monday night if that's the case. Aside from all of that, I manage to get online every night, check my email, check my usual sites. Usually from 10PM until about midnight I work on Double Cross, which is my hardcore webzine/blog that I do with friend Gordo. Double Cross is actually more of a fanzine than a blog. We do updates Monday through Friday. Content wise it's lots of interviews, photos, show stories, videos, collection highlights, polls, anecdotes, etc. usually relating to late 80's straight edge hardcore, but not exclusively that. Eventually I get to bed around 1AM and then do it all over again.
Music wise I've been doing TRIPLE THREAT over the past 4 years. Up until this past year, TRIPLE THREAT had been keeping me pretty busy in it's self. We were playing regularly , at least once a month if not more. As of recently though, our guitarist Ed had gone through a few job changes, our drummer Jason and his wife are having a baby and our bass player Tim is planning a move to North Carolina. With all of that happening, it's been real tough to schedule practice and get time to play shows. As a band, once you've sort of fallen out of the loop with playing out consistently, people stop asking you to play. So right now we're at this stage where we all seem to have so much going on in our personal and family lives that keeping TRIPLE THREAT consistent has become a bit of problem. Right now there are no plans to break the band up, but we'll have to see how things go once our bass player moves away. Living in North Carolina is at least a 9 hour drive from New Jersey, so it's not going to be easy and or convenient to practice or get together. TRIPLE THREAT has never been this touring powerhouse, so it's possible that we can still make it work, we'll just have to see.
As for new projects, I am in the very early stages of putting something together. With TRIPLE THREAT slowing down, I've been itching to get back in the practice space and work on new material. TRIPLE THREAT has been an outlet for my love of a more mid tempo, BL'AST! style of hardcore. With that being said, I have not lost my love of playing fast, traditional style straight edge hardcore. HANDS TIED, specifically towards the end, I felt like we were writing some really good YOUTH OF TODAY, New York Hardcore style material. I want to try and get back to that sound that we were trying to fine tune with that later HANDS TIED material. So far I've only gotten together with a couple of friends and jammed, but we've got future practices scheduled, so things will be coming together. Where this project will go, I have no idea, it's way too early to say. Hopefully it will produce some of the best and most powerful hardcore I've been a part of so far.
After all these years - what does Straight Edge mean to you?
• Straight Edge is just as important to me today in 2009 as it was to me in 1988. 20 years of straight edge has only strengthened my beliefs and carved my identity in stone. I've said this before and I'll say it again, the basics of straight edge, don't drink, don't smoke, don't do drugs, is just common sense. If you care about yourself and those around you, abstaining from all of those vices will do nothing but help you in life. Of course there are those that believe in moderation and maybe that works for some people, but to me there's no reason to dabble in something that ultimately can and will bring you down.
When I listen to "Fed Up" and "In my Way" by JUDGE, or "We Just Might" and "Thinking Straight" by YOUTH OF TODAY or "Clear" by BOLD, I can't help but get fired up. To me, Straight Edge is more than just not drinking, smoking and doing drugs, it's my way of life.
When I think of you and especially MOUTHPIECE, I have to think of some great feelings. Like, it’s midnight in Germany. A teenage kid on the edge of his bed listens to your first 7" and he’s got that feeling inside: pure power and commitment. The music and your lyrics …they released my thoughts. That stuff touched me so much..and still does. The MOUTHPIECE songs opened up my mind and heart and tightened my relationship to the hardcore scene as well as my self-protection. So many years later I still love every MOUTHPIECE song and I am proud of it. Do you know how much impact your music and your words had/have on so many people in all those years all over the world?
• Hearing that is incredible and mind blowing to know that I've had that kind of impact on people. What really psyches me up and impresses me is when I meet someone that will say these type of things and has been around for a long time and continues to be around. When I hear from someone that tells me that I've had an affect on them and that my band and lyrics have changed their life, but they've they are no longer straight edge, I don't get it. My whole deal has always been about sticking to these commitments through thick and thin, so if you've moved on from it, what kind of impact have I really left on you?
I can relate to the idea of bands having an impact on you. There's no way that I'd be who I am today without the direction, influence and inspiration from bands like YOUTH OF TODAY, BOLD, JUDGE, CHAIN OF STRENGTH, GORILLA BISCUITS and many many others. A guy like Ray Cappo has left a mark on me that's set my life in a direction that will never be altered. To hear that I've had the same affect on others is a direct compliment to those that came before me.
How do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
• My hopes for the next 5 years are to see myself make some sort of moves career wise to be able to increase my income and bring more comfort to my family. I see myself supporting my children as they being their education. I hope to have a stable and active band. I'd like to have the option to tour places like Europe, South America, Japan, Australia and of course America. These are all places I'd love to play and with my current situation in Triple Threat, it's been pretty much impossible. It's tough though, for all I know, in 5 years I might not even be able to do those type of things because of my job. We'll see though, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.
Tim, the Bands, your music, your lyrics are just one part. The man behind the sound is the real deal. So here are some short ones…
Last time you did a interview
The last time I did an interview was probably a month or two ago. Interviews come in batches for some reason. I could go 6 months and not get one single interview, then I could get 6 in one month. The biggest bum out with doing interviews is never seeing them materialize after I've put my time and effort into doing them. Please don't let that happen with this one!!!
Last time you felt misunderstood
Yesterday, talking to my wife about Double Cross, the blog that I do.
Last time you felt ripped off
Probably my last review that I had at work. The one before that was good, this one definitely could have been better.
Last time you ripped someone off
I honestly can't recall deliberately ripping anyone off.
Last book you read
The Evolution Of A Cro-Magnon.
Last movie you saw at the cinema
Get Smart
Last movie you bought
The entire Star Wars collection I-VI on DVD
Last song you listened to
JUDGE - "Where It Went"
Last album you bought
FOO FIGHTERS - "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace"
Last piece of clothes you bought
A pair of cargo shorts from an Army Navy store.
Last meal you had
Corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, and vegetarian stir fry strips (wheat gluten).
Last time you thought about leaving everything behind you
I honestly never think about leaving "everything" behind. I will occasionally think about leaving the band behind, or leaving my job behind, but that's about it. Never have I thought about leaving my family behind.
Last time you felt hate
Hate is a very strong word that I take seriously and very seldom use. Occasionally I'll feel a light hearted hatred towards an opposing team that may be playing one of my favorite teams, but other than that, it just doesn't come into my head that much.
Last good advice your heard
A guy I work with gave me advice on a specific brand on wax to use on my car. I followed his advice and it worked perfectly. Wish I had something more profound for you, but I'm just being honest.
Last time you felt like a rock star
TRIPLE TREAT played the Anti-Matter book release show back in November of 2007 in Brooklyn NY. SNAPCASE reunited for the show, 108 played, SUPERTOUCH played a short surprise set and SOUL CONTROL opened. It was very professionally organized and promoted show. There were back stage passes, dressing rooms, food, showers, the whole deal. I admittedly felt a tad rock starish in that setting.
Last dream you had
I dreamt I was driving by some ones house that was throwing out a box full of the original 1960's/1970's era GI Joe 12" action figures. I remember pulling over and going through the box and being ecstatic over the find, then waking up empty handed and wanting to go back to the dream.
Last time you felt like your heart was broken
Getting rid of two of my dogs.
Last time you had a fight
Haven't had a fist fight since junior high school, so that's going back close to 23 years ago. Arguments happen regularly, nothing serious, but come on... I am married.
Last time you felt comfortable
Today, sitting down watching a baseball game on TV with my daughter in my arms and my son sitting down next to me.
Last time you where in jail
Never.
Last time you felt completely happy
This past weekend, being at the Jersey shore with my family and playing on the beach with my son.
Last words:
Thank you for being patient and persistent with this interview. It was a fun one to do and I look forward to seeing it published.Stay straight, go vegetarian!
Interview done via Email in Fall 2008.
Michael Echomaker
