YOUTHINASIA

Band:YOUTHINASIA
Name:Trev
Position: rear entry crouching lotus
CMW venue: The Speakeasy

1.) Describe your CMW show.

High4Records presents Dick Rawk Records very own "YOTUHINASIA". Also an hour long line up all night, packed club, theatre style venue, beer, explosive set, sexy people and a breeding ground for STD's

2.) Why is CMW such an important festival?
Because it gives all the industry people a paid vacation and a chance to get even MORE dunk while checking out bands

3.) What are advantages and disadvantages to playing CMW?

Advantage. CMW was hosting seminars at the very posh and swank Royal York hotel in T.O., giving 80% of the bands who otherwise would have been promptly escorted out of the hotel, let alone afford a room there, a chance to have real sucess rubbed in their face.

Disadvantage. Still getting kicked out of the Royal York hotel.


4.) Share a behind the scene story. Was anyone in the "scene" at your show?

Darrin Pfeiffer goldfinger drummer and high4 records owner invited us as friends to play his showcase. Unfortunately Darrin was on his best behaviour that night so, the usually shot-for-shot punches in the forehead he plays with Jarvis wasn't happening...However I did have to compliment him on the very styling outfit he had on that night and extended his thanks with numberous beer tickets for the band...most of which I embezzled...

5.) What was a personal hi-light AND low-light of the festival?

Highlight...hitting on the teenage girls by our merch table....

Low-light...htting on the teenage girls by our merch table.


Thanks!
Trev
- rockitbay

Sarah De Borre
PBS FM Website/Magazine Editor
Email: sarah@pbsfm.org.au
Work: 03 8415 1067
Mobile: 0402 590 987

Your name: Trev

Band/artist website: www.youthinasia.ca www.peerecords.com

The name of your band/act etc: YOUTHINASIA

Where are you from? (city/country) Toronto, Ontario Canada.

Your sound can be described as?

Melodic-pop Punk w/hardcore+reggae influences

Fill us in on the history?where did your band/act start, what changes and developments have happened along the way and where are you now?

Well YOUTHINASIA is Jarvis on vocals/guitar, Mwood on bass/vocals, Banger on drums and myself on lead guitar/vocals. We started writing our own songs from day one in Banger’s basement. One of our first shows was at my high-school’s “Coffee house” talent showcase. We played so shitty, but the energy there was just amazing! We started verbally coaxing people to fuck up the school. Eventually some windows got broken and some students tried to fight the school faculty, so we got the plug pulled on us. Of course that only got people more riled up and they told us we wouldn’t be invited back again. Then the next year they had forgotten about us and let us play. The exact same shit happened! It was like déjà vu! It was actually pretty funny until the next day when I had to go to class. Haha. Anyways since then. We’ve done like 3 or 4 major tours. We’ve played select shows on The Van’s Warped Tour the last 3 years. After this years warped show, Kevin Lyman (Warped Tour founder/organizer) personally invited us on for two weeks + in 2006. That was pretty fucking rad. We’ve put out 5 recordings that include 2 demo’s an EP (which is distributed and sold in 5 continents around the world) and two full lengths. Our latest and greatest being “Premature Erockulation”, which comes out this November on PEE RECORDS!!! It kicks so much ass! We’re so excited about getting it out there. People have got to go to our myspace page to listen to some of these new tracks! (www.myspace.com/yia). Other than that our music’s been featured in a ton of compilation albums, extreme sport videos and on a heavy rotation, T.V. commercial for West49 ( a major Canadian skate/snow retailer). Basically the last 3 years have just been non-stop work.


What’s your earliest memory of developing a passion for music?

That’s a good question… I remember watching the original “Back to the Future” movie with Micheal J. Fox (also a Canadian!) and at the end there’s a part where he has to fill in for this band at a high school dance. He starts playing a Chuck Berry song and doing all these crazy rock moves. I was only 5 or 6 years old, but I recall being just amazed at how cool that scene was. I used to watch that movie over and over and when that part came up I would grab a wooden tennis racquet and pretend to rock out with Mikey J.!!!

Your influences (musical, political etc) and why?

Definitely early 90’s southern California punk would be the biggest influence. All the old Fat Wreck Chords stuff would be the best way to describe it. I like a lot of reggae too. Sublime is pretty wicked and of course Bob Marley. Then contrast that with hardcore stuff like Minor Threat, or Total Chaos. When I was younger I’d liseten to my parents Led Zepplin and Neil Young albums. AC/DC was pretty cool too. I used to have this wicked poster in my room of Angus Young tearing through a wall with his SG.

Politically I’ve kinda become pretty jaded I guess. I’d definitely go to the left of the spectrum on most issues, but it’s almost like there’s this “political chic” thing happening nowadays. It seems that everybody and their brother have such strong opinions towards everything, but they only have a fraction of the background knowledge and are simply regurgitating an observation written in the local paper, or spewed off by some self-serving university prof. We can all recognized the inherent problems in the system, but having a solution is another story. That can apply to myself as well. To each his own I guess.


What’s your Mum or Dad’s favourite record/song and why do you love/hate it?

You know I couldn’t even tell you that. They own enough records and CD’s and shit, but I rarely see them listening to music. Usually its just news radio, like the CBC.

Most memorable gig you’ve played and why?

Toronto Warped tour this year. So many of our fans came out to see us! For 30 minutes it felt like we were actually making it! haha It’s awesome to see so many people come out and support your band. Our fans are so genuine. I could recognize so many faces in the crowd.

What’s the most naughty thing you and/or the band have gotten up to on tour?

Oh fuck! Theres some pretty shady business that happens... Arrests, dealing drugs, doing drugs! Doing randoms! Hahaha, siphoning gas when the promoter stiffs us! There was this controversial sex tape that was made in Band-Van a few years back. That was a pretty sketchy situation to walk in on. hahaha

Do you drink? And if so what’s you’re favourite rock ‘n’ roll recipe? If you don’t drink would you care to elaborate as to why?

Yeah we’re pretty heavy drinkers. It’s all about the beer and snaps! Snaps is where you swig from a bottle of straight booze. Usually it’s Whiskey, but it could be any hard liqour. Its almost like an unwritten rule that if your drinking hard alcohol, you’re drinking it straight from the bottle and if another band member calls “SNAPS!” on you then you gotta let them swig it. Mwood usually doesn’t drink and just smokes mad blunts to his heads. He’s the “sober” driver. Haha. The rest of us just pass-out while he carts our arse’s to the next city. We wake up all disoriented 600 kilometers from where we last remembered. It’s pretty fuck-up sometimes.

What was the first record that you ever owned and tell us the story of how it came into your possession and why you loved it?

My cousin used to babysit my sister and I when we were younger and she always had these mixed tapes. I remember hearing “Rape Me” by Nirvana on the one and asked her who it was. I forget how old I was, but I had a birthday coming up in a week or two so I asked my parents to get me Nirvana’s “Incesticide”. That album got played enough times.

What’s the best thing about the music scene you are involved in and why?

Hmm. I’m not sure. It seems like there’s not too many bands in southern Ontario that still play our kinda music, so It lets us kinda stand out, while still being in a pretty populated region. Like if we lived in southern California I think we’d just get lost in the enormity of the melodic punk scene, or if we lived in say a small Canadian Prairie town like Regina, where you’re 8 hours from everything, it’d be too hard to get out. I guess the scene is big enough to sustain us for the time being, but small enough that we have the advantage to develop at our own pace.

What’s the worst thing about the music scene you are involved in and why?

To a certain extent, and I’m generalizing here, is that the Canadian music industry, seems to be taken less seriously, by major markets such as the U.S., or Britain, or countries like that. On the other hand there are some really big-ticket bands from Canada like Sum 41, Avril Lavigne, Nickelback etc. that have the utmost respect from the world. Globalization is well underway and I don’t want YOUTHINASIA to just be know as “that Canadian punk band” or be only be successful in our own country. Like c’mon we’re international baby! haha

How did you get involved in the music scene you find yourself in now?

Just playing shows with YIA.

Any parting words?

Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you! You’re cool! Fuck you……….and thanks so much! Can’t wait to tour Oz!
- PBS FM Australia

Returning from a two-year hiatus, local punk rockers, Youthinasia, already have shows and a new demo in the works, according to Trevor Anderson, guitar/vocals.

“We’re just starting to get our feet wet again and work out the kinks since it’s been two years. But, we’ve already recorded the drums and bass for a six-song demo we’re self-producing that will be available for free,” said Anderson.

The demo aims to tide fans over until they can get their hands on a new full-length album, called “Bright Tomorrow,” with a tentative release date of next spring, according to Anderson.

“The album is about hope, especially with the state of the economy. There are a lot of people without hope so it’s from the standpoint of there being a bright tomorrow to look forward to. To try hard and persevere,” said Anderson.

Anderson says Youthinasia took the hiatus because “everyone was getting stressed out and it started to feel like we were just spinning our wheels and not really getting ahead. After eight years of touring and writing constantly, everyone needed time off to clear their heads and develop personally.”

Speaking from his experience while Youthinasia was on hiatus, Anderson found that his optimism and hope faltered a fair bit, but in turn, contributed to a new path.

“Youthinasia has always been an anchor in my life and when we were on hiatus, I didn’t know what the future held. It was questions of, ‘what do I work towards in my life?’” said Anderson.

But, coming off the hiatus with clear heads, a new band member and a slightly new direction, Anderson says he got what he had been missing right from the first jam session.

“I got those feelings of hope and that inspiration as soon as we started playing again. That’s what we’re translating into music because it’s the greatest thing a person can have,” said Anderson.

Starting fresh with the addition of piano, guitar and violin, Anderson says the new sound is, “progressing past the happy-go-lucky punk song with more technical risks to produce a mature and full sound.”

Anderson went on to add that their previous songs, although still deemed as valuable, somewhat lacked focus.

“The new ones are more focused and we really think of what we want to say before writing. We were always topical and socially relevant, there’s just less joke songs this time around,” said Anderson.

However, current fans will still be able to identify Youthinasia with a quick listen to the new material.

“There will still be huge choruses to sing so that will get people pumped up and ready to mosh. The material is completely positive in the sense that you’ve got to hang on for the ride and be optimistic,” said Anderson.

Check them out next at the Summer Ender Bender Friday, August 28 at Alexander’s Tavern. - brantford.com

>I think this is the first time an international band has been featured in
>Antivantage.. for those unfamilliar, could you give us a bit of a rundown on
>who you are, how you got together etc.?

First international band huh? That’s awesome. I guess we’re pulling your V-card then. Haha. Well YIA hooked up 6 years ago, through mutual aquantinces. Mwood and Banger are Brothers. Jarvis worked in a kitchen with Mwood and Banger and I went to school together. Since then we’ve done 2 official releases, 2 demos, 3 national tours, warped tour shows the last 3 years and a ton of dates confirmed for next years tour. We’re working on a new album right called “Premature Erockulation”. Its due out in October on Pee Records (peerecords.com). It seriously kicks ass. I think people are gonna be blown away by these tunes, for real.
>
>
>What are things like over there in Canada? Everyone's pretty cosy over here
>in Oz in terms of unified underground punk rock.. is there a lot of
>competition between bands or is it lots of beer and sleeping on each other's
>floors?
>
I guess theres a bit of both. Since we’re so close to Toronto there is a lot of competiion. Its pretty much the music industry headquarters. The L.A. of Canada. Theres a ton of bands that are in it for all the wrong reasons, but then theres also bands that are totally chill, where we’ll go out and party after shows, tour with etc. We just kinda do our own thing and like-minded people tend to migrate towards that.

>
>Have you guys made your way down here yet? Heard there were tour rumours
>circulating around..

Yeah, I’ve been hearing rumours too. Haha. But no we haven’t hit Oz yet. I’m dying go down and play shows and do drugs and booze with Pete Pee!. Maybe after Premature Erockulation comes out. That would be wicked.
>
>
>How has feedback been this year after the release of the EP, um.. "E.P."?
>
E.P. got wicked feedback man. All the reviews were amazing. It sold well and I think it got a lot of people back into melodic punk rock. It seems people were getting pretty down with screamo and emo and all the posturing that goes along with that genre. We’re a new generation of melodic punkers that’s trying to keep that shit alive.

>
>Congrats on the fucking awesome EP! Listening to it for the first time was
>an incredible breath of fresh air, it was starting to look like the real fun
>jump-around punk rock was starting to dwindle. I take it you guys don't take
>yourselves too seriously?
Well were serious about our music, but as individuals we’re probably some of the most ridiculous people you’ll ever meet. We love rocking out and being crazy on and off the stage. Copious amount of booze and drugs are usually part of every equation, so thats always fun. Like we’ve been doing 10 hour days in the studio all this week, but still managed to go out and get wasted every night. Its like studio from 12 to 10, drinking at our jam hall/bar till 4 or 5, then back into the studio laying killer tracks ! hahaha. Like whats the point of being in a band if you’re not gonna have fun?
>
>
>You've been compared a lot to Lagwagon and NOFX; do you take a lot of
>musical influence from these kind of bands?

Yeah, those are probably our two biggest influence. When I was younger I could go to the record store to buy a CD and even if I didn’t know the band, aslong as it had. the Fat Wreck Chords logo on it, I was buying it. Its good to be able to trust a label like that.
>
>
>It sounds like you'd fit ridiculously well into the Fat Wreck family.. don't
>suppose Mike has had a listen of the EP yet? Ever thought of sending it
>over?

Actually Jarvis was partying with Fat Mike in May when they came to T.O., he passed him off E.P. and told him to check it out, gave him the usual schpeel, yadda yadda yadda. We all met up with the NOFX guys the next night since they were playing a double hearder. It was pretty cool. Last year we were doing whiskey shots with Melvin at Warped Tour in Montreal. He remembered us which was pretty surprising considering how wrecked we all were that night. haha>
>
>I love the cover art, someone's a bit E.T. fan? [My initials are ET - I used
>to get teased about it all the time in primary school.] And that's your band
>van, isn't it?

Yeah that’s Band-Van. It’s the best! Shes been so good to us. It hasn’t even broken down on the road yet. Its bound to happen sooner or later, but we have our fingers crossed.
>
>
>Any plans for another recording anytime soon? I've heard rumours from inside
>sources about a full-length...

Fuck yeah dude. We’re just finishing up recording “Premature Erockulation” right now! Its fucking rules! The songs are wicked, the tightness is wicked. Its just wicked all around! I can’t wait for people to hear it. They’re gonna get blown away!
>
>
>You've conquered your home turf and infected us down here in Australia, what
>other areas of the globe have YOUTHINASIA infiltrated? Any countries on the
>cards to tour in the near future?

Hmmm. I’m not sure about touring, but we’ve sold pretty well in Japan. Plus we’re working on a distro deal with a label in Columbia, that’s planning on distributing E.P. in Columbia, Brazil, Argentia plus a few other South American countries. We’re waiting on our visa’s to go tour in the U.S., but those don’t go through until early 2006. So we’ll definitely be going there sooner than later.
>
>
>Being from Canada, do any of you guys speak French? Parlez-vous francais?
>
J’ai ne pas parle Francais! So NO! haha. Actually Quebec is the only French-speaking province in Canada, but most Quebecers are fluent in English. We just toured Quebec/Eastern Canada with a band from there called The Real Deal. They were teaching us some choice phrases en francias. Stupid stuff like “Quoi de neuf chein?!” What’s up dogg?!” or “J’ai veux tu baise” I want to fuck you. You know, just enough to get by
>
>Thanks heaps for the chat, can't wait to hear more from you lads! Any last
>words?
>
Check out our new album “PREMATURE EROCKULATION” out this October on PEE RECORDS. Its guaranteed to get you off!!!
>
>Cheers!
- Antivantage Magazine

PEE: Ok for the benefit of Aussie PEE readers you'd better give us
all a brief history of how you four guys hooked up to form
'YOUTHINASIA' 4 or 5 years ago now...

TREV: Well we've been together since the summer of '99. Jarvis our
singer and Mwood our bass player were working together in some
shitty kitchen job and wanted to start writing some tunes. Banger,
Mwoods younger brother played drums, so he was recruited.
Originally there was this other dude that was playing lead guitar.
He was like 4 years older than everybody, had a few kids and some
other shit. Anyways he wanted the band to be this big nazi punk
group, not because he was racist or anything, but because
apparently it was easier to get signed as a nazi punk group back in
99. Go figure. Anyways they decided that that wasn't going to
happen and Banger who I went to public school with asked me if I
wanted to come to practice and play. So one day I go down to
Banger's parents house where we used to rehearse. I already knew
Mwood since he was Bangers older brother, but didn't know Jarvis. I
walked down to his basement and Jarvis looked at the 8 inch mohawk
I had at the time and was like "Woah, we got ourselves a real punk
rocker here!" haha. Then he asked me if I wanted to smoke a joint.
And that was that.

P: You know I'm going to ask about how the band name came about
don't ya....

T: Well I suppose I assumed that this question was coming so here
it goes. I can't remember exactly who said "YOUTHINASIA" but I can
tell you the name is something that came about one day at rehearsal
after smoking copious amount of ganja. We were 17 years old had
written 3 songs that we would play over and over again for hours
and wanted a cool punk rock name that was left wing but fun at the
same time. Someone said "EUTHANASIA" and then one of the guys was
like "That's cool but instead of spelling it E U T H A N A S I A,
spell it like Y O U T H I N A S I A. All one word, all capitols!
It's still a pet peeve of mine when we get back reviews and emails
and other shit like that and people separate the words, like Youth
In Asia. In retrospect it's a pretty cheesy name, but its even
worse when you separate the words.

P: So tell me what it means to be a Toronto melodic punk band, as
opposed to a melodic punk band from orange county. Or is that where
the tour van comes into it??

T: First off, we're not actually from Toronto. We're from a smaller
city called Brantford. Its about 100 km south west of T.O., but for
all the people in Australia that don't have a fucking idea where
our home is we just say Toronto. Its more convenient that way
Anyways, one thing about being from where we are is that between
November and March it gets pretty damn cold up here! Try touring
when its minus 15 degrees celsius and you have to move your gear
through 2 feet of snow just to get inside the venue. Other than
that I think we have it pretty good. There's about 20 cities within
a 2-3 hour drive that have at least 100,000 people living there,
where kids come out to the shows and really show their support.
There's literally hundreds of other bands in the province so
hooking up shows is usually pretty easy. I've never been to Orange
County but I'd like to assume that the scenes are kinda similar. I
hear its pretty competitive for bands down there, which is the way
it seems to be going in Southern Ontario these days. It doesn't
seem like there's all that much unity between bands. When you play
with certain groups it seems like they're putting you under the
microscope when you play. I'm just like "Fuck! I just wanna play
punk rock and drink beer!" Hahaha. But I guess that seems to
happens more when you play with emo bands. They won't say anything
to you at the show, but you see it pop up over messageboards
afterwards and hear it second hand, but whatever. We don't dwell on
that kinda thing. We just wanna Give'er! As for the tour van I'm
going to assume your talking about the silhouette of Band-Van on
the cover of our E.P. That's right we call it Band-Van. We even
carved it with a swiss army knife into the paint on the hood. Big
etched letters, BAND-VAN!!! Its our pet name for our 89 Dodge
conversion van. Its pretty sweet. It has a back bench that folds
down to a bed that sleeps 3. Its pretty hot! Haha. I think deep
down every band wants to but their van on the cover of their CD, we
just found a clever way to get away with it.

4. Hahaha and I bet Band-Van would have a story or two to tell
about the lads he/she carts around too if he/she could talk! So has
Band-Van ever let you guys down in the middle of nowhere?

T: Band-Van's actually been really good to us. She died on the side
of the highway once about a half an hour from home and we had to
get a flat-bed trailer to carry the van while it pulled our trailer
behind it. We even have pictures of that somewhere. But a cool
story is about this one time when we played at "Hell's Half Acre"
this big 70 keg party that these dudes put on, our bass player
Mwood and some people got to shoot a porno on the fold down bench!
This hot blonde that had been flashing her tits during our set came
back to the van and, well I don't know how it exactly went down
cause I was mingling drinking beer, but a few of our friends got
into it with this chick.. and possible a few band members, while
Mwood filmed in on his digital camera! I saw the tape later and it
was pretty crazy to say the least. Man did this girl have stamina!
Hahaha. There's other stories, but that's probably the wildest one
that comes to mind.

P: Maybe you should have carved "porn van" into the hood!

T: Yeah maybe we'll put that on the other side of the hood! I don't
know if that'll entice the ladies or scare them away! Probably the
latter. Haha.

P: YOUTHINASIA would have to be a beer-fuelled band wouldn't it?

T: I wouldn't say that's entirely correct. We're more of a "We'll
drink anything that's readily available" kinda band. Except for
Mwood. He doesn't drink very often but he makes up for it with the
green stuff. It actually works out really well. After the show we
get hammered and he gets high. When its time to go, the rest of us
get to pass out while he drives to the next city!

P: Do you guys play many mixed billed shows with hardcore and more
pop punk bands?

T: We will play with pretty much any band. Its better that way. We
love getting to play with the more melodic punk bands, but I think
everybody needs some variety now and again. Sometimes you're in the
mood for some crazy moshing fast as fuck kinda stuff and then other
nights you can appreciate some sublime like reggae stuff. It goes
both ways.

P: Do you guys get much of the folded arm punter scene up there who
stand back with the "impress me please" stance? how do you feel
playing to that kinda crowd?

T: That can happen in certain cities.. I guess it really depends on
whether or not the show is all ages or 19+. We try to avoid 19+
shows. Like punk music is really for the kids! Sometimes people
will set up these "industry showcases" for us, you know invite
every suit and tie in Toronto out on a fucking Tuesday night and
they do exactly what you said. Stand at the back of the club just
watching and analyzing. Those are the worst gigs to play. We've
done a few of them now and it sucks. If you want to see what we're
about, come out on a Saturday evening, to a packed all ages show
and we'll have some pints and rock out and have a good fucking
time. If you just wanna listen and critique, go home and put us on
your stereo. Haha

P: Tell me about the recording of your 'EP'.

T: Well we recorded the E.P. with Justin Koop and he is the fucking
man! He is the most professional, chill dude to work with. We are
so happy with the work he does and he deserves so much more credit
that he gets. He has a website www.west-siderecords.com and
everybody that reads this should check it out. Anyways we recorded
over a two month period of time. We went in for a few days and laid
down all the basic instrumentals, Drums, then bass, then Rhythm
guitar. We had a bunch of lyrics written at the time but wanted to
sit on the songs for a bit and tweak them together. We actually
wrote 3 different sets of lyrics for "The Solution" before we
settled on the final version.

P: Really? What was the difference between the 3 versions? Were
they all still taking a jab at the bands and big labels who jump on
whatever bandwagon's rolling by at the time coz they know it'll
shift units?

T: Yeah it had basically the same undertone to it, but the melody
was completely different. The original version was more critical of
bands than the final version. I think the one we decided on is a
bit more generalized to the whole scene, plus it has more of a
sarcastic quality that we all seem to enjoy. After that we went
back to the studio and I did all my lead guitar work and then we
sat on it a bit more. Then finally we did all the vocals over two
days I think. It was pretty cool actually since we hadn't really
rehearsed any of the vocal tracks before we went in. While we were
listening to all the playback it was like hearing the songs for the
first time fully. "This fucking rocks!" hahaha. We were paying for
everything ourselves and had been saving money for awhile and had a
good sized chunk left over during the last days so we spent a lot
of time working the vocal tracks. It was good. It was the first
time that we were in the studio were we didn't feel rushed and I
think you can pick up on that when you listen to the E.P., well at
least I can. Haha

P: Who writes the majority of the lyrics? Jarvis?

T: Jarvis and I share the lyric writing. At least on this record.
On High Class Low Standards he wrote all the words. I guess
everyone was more involved in the lyrical content of the EP. We
actually all sat down and figured out what the melodies were gonna
be and decided what the song topics were going to be about. Then me
and Jarvis penned the words.
P: Tell me about "Jimmy Beaner"... is it a fictional song about
being treated as a bit of an outcast which leads to the sort of
crazy shit we see on the news where a kid's snapped in the US and
taken a gun to school...??

T: Jimmy Beaner's definitely a fictional character used to portray
real events. Jarvis wrote that song himself and he says its
inspired by Michael Moore's "Bowling For Columbine" On one hand it
is about a kid that gets pushed over the edge and strikes back, but
on the other its more about how irresponsible the worlds become.
Like when the Columbine shootings happened everybody was making all
these ridiculous conclusions that the boys did it because of video
games and because they listened to marylin manson and that they
were obviously disturbed because they wore weird black trenchcoats.
On one hand you could look at a simple conclusion like "these boys
did this because they were harassed to the point they're psychotic
and they were harassed because they were different." But on the
other hand we're all to blame. We've all become very complacent
with how homogenized our societies become, and anything that's
different doesn't make us curious, it makes us scared. It like
you're in a different city and you're hungry. There's 20 fucking
McDonalds that you can eat at, or one little independent burger
joint. People tend to go for the McDonalds cause they know exactly
what its gonna be like there. They won't go to the little
restaurant to eat. They make excuses like, "It might be dirty", or
"I don't know if there'll be anything I like there". We've lost our
sense of adventure and we're letting
the media and these big corporations tell us what we want by lack
of choice. In that respect we're all to blame. I don't think
anybody would conclude this on their own, but during the breakdown
of the song where the gang vocals go "Its You!" we're literally
saying, "Its you". Anyways I'm preaching and I don't mean to
because the whole band, present company included, is just as guilty
in many ways as anyone else.

P: I learnt about you guys simply because you were proactive enuff
to get in touch, do you think too many bands these days are lazy
and just expect to sit back and become the "next big thing" without
getting out there and doing it themselves?

T: Yeah, a lot of bands are lazy. Maybe not lazy but have this
misconception that some big corporation is just gonna hear them
play one show and be like "Lets invest a few million dollars in
these guys, they'll go multi-platinum, we'll make a ton of cash and
they'll get to be famous and life will be perfect" It would be nice
if that were to happen that way but the chances are next to none.
Few bands realize that most major label contracts leave them
earning less than a dollar, if they're lucky, off each CD they
sell, and out of the money they earn from that, they have to pay
back the 250,000 dollar plus, advance/signing bonus that the label
gives them. These companies pray on bands need for attention.
They'll make you famous, but you better be sure that you're gonna
sell a million records, or else you're not gonna be better off
financially than when you first started. Aside from that I don't
see where you'd get any sense of accomplishment from that whole
scenario. So what, you're a big celebrity, but its someone else
that pulled all the strings and hired the publicist and paid off
the radio station's music directors to get you there. I think that
if you just work hard and promote yourself opportunities will arise
and hopefully by that time you'll have enough experience and clout
to negotiate something fair, that both parties can be happy with.
Or say "fuck it" we're doing well enough on our own, we don't need
you. Haha. Too many good bands get fucked over in contracts and end
up dropping out of the scene because of it. I'm quoting the vandals
here but "Major labels are for punks that can't do math"

P: Do you think those d.i.y ethics you guys have towards your band
bring anything to YOUTHINASIA like the longevity of the band etc?

T: I think being D.I.Y. is something integral to YOUTHINASIA. We're
the same guys now that we were 5 years ago when we started and
we're not going to allow ourselves to be compromised my the promise
of status. We want to do this for the rest of our lives. We want to
earn life long fans and grow up and grow old along side them. As
long as fans come out to support us at shows we'll be writing the
sound track for that show. I think its about being honest with
yourself and thinking about your music "career" in its
entirety, not just "I'm young, I want to fuck super-models, do coke
and be burnt out by the time I'm 27" I want to be on stage with my
bros. when I'm 55 years old feeling as excited as I was when we
were 17 playing in my parents basement. Like before every show
Jarvis say "Guys. Do you know what we get to do tonight"? "We get
to play punk rock" Not many people can say that and it's really a
fucking privilege to get to do what we do.

P: So saying that you wanna still be on stage when you're 55 years
old, do you think YOUTHINASIA could be a punk version of the
rolling stones?

T: Well Keith Richards is an inspirational figure to us all. Like
I'd be happy if I could consume as much drugs and liquor that he
has and still be able to get on stage and do his thing.! All though
I hear that they don't plug his guitar in anymore. hahaha.
Apparently they have someone backstage playing for him. After the
show everybody just pats his head and says "Yeah Keith you fucking
rocked tonight"! haha. But i hope that we're still doing our thing
as long as we physically can. I mean we all love playing and I
don't think that that's gonna change just cause we're dirty old
men.

P: Your ep is about to be released down here in the new year on Pee
Records, although I obviously know the answer to this [haha] can
you tell the readers how the hook up with Pee came about and why
you chose Pee Rec?

T: Well basically I saw that our friends in Dead Letter Dept. had a
track on Pee Records killer comp. So I dug around and found Pee
magazine online and hit it up to do a review of our E.P. After that
things just kinda progressed I guess. At first I think we just
really really really wanted to take a trip downunder and tour! I
think we went with Pee cause it seems that the attitude of the zine
and the label are in line with ours. Just a no bullshit, D.I.Y.
work-your-balls-off kinda vibe and an honest love of punk music.

P: When you're an old man sitting on the porch how do you hope to
look back on the your years as YOUTHINASIA?

T: I'd like to say that we worked hard, but partied harder? Fuck i
sound like Motely Crue or something. I'm not sure i guess.
Hopefully I'll still be looking ahead!

P: Thanx for your time Trev. Any last words or people you wanna
thank?

T: I want everybody to check us out and tell your friends cause
then hopefully my next Canadian winter will be spent touring
downunder!!!!
- PEE Magazine