Originally published in ‘zine issue #36, 2006
What Blue Collar War calls its assault on the metal and hardcore scene begins with the band’s war room in Northern Virginia. The guys have their opinions about not only the local music scene, but the musical landscape as a whole and economically struggling musicians within it. Here Blue Collar War collectively reads from its manifesto.
“Let’s get real: people in this scene are starving as is, working jobs, going to school, like myself, at George Mason University while working a 33-hour job on top of it all so I can graduate within the next year or so and get a real job. Being in a metal band isn’t a real job; it’s a real dream. It’s not realistic to think that you’ll make it in this dog eat dog world of commercial music. Being in a metal band and trying to make it big is like trying to win the lottery when you only buy one one-dollar ticket per week.”
For the young men in the band, the roots in metal go, in relative terms, far back.
“I started listening to metal when I was in middle school. Say, ‘93, I got into AC/DC––Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap forever changed my life … I hung out with a group of friends from middle school on, and we had friends who were four years older or so than us who initially started taking us to shows to see bands like GWAR, the Misfits, Pro-Pain, [and the] Ozzfest. We felt like we were big stuff back then. We were seeing stuff that most kids were to afraid to leave their living rooms to see.
“Back then we were outcasts. People thought we were weird because we listened to metal and sometimes went to three or four metal shows a week on school nights and all that jazz. Coming back from shows like Morbid Angel and wearing our shirts the next day at school, kids didn’t know what to think.
“The scene then was truly underground and struggling. I remember seeing Morbid Angel at Jaxx [a Virginia club] in ‘98 or so and there weren’t that many people there at all and then [in 2006] they play there and sell out. The scene has truly changed; it’s cool and ‘OK’ to listen to metal now. It’s really been an interesting thing to watch.
“Metal bands have a bigger chance to make it these days, even on a smaller level. Being a hometown metal band hero is almost as good as making it big on a large scale to some degree. It’s been a long road for us, though. We’ve been together making solid music from the day of our inception. Over two years we’ve hammered out over 20 songs, writing and getting together once or twice a week to jam, practice. It’s a tough road still, to gain fans, get followers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to shows and handed out tons of flyers for shows that we were playing down the road and nobody still came out.”
Blue Collar War sometimes has to admit that it doesn’t feel the support the band feels it deserves from its friends and fans, starting with assurances from a number of people that they will be in attendance at a given Blue Collar War concert.
“No, hardly any of them do when it all boils down to it. People these days say they’re going to do something, they say they’ll be there, but at the end of the day they usually end up being somewhere else other than where they promised.”
The band adds, “But you can’t let it get you down.”
“We are the future that nobody wants to accept.”
Through it all, the guys in Blue Collar War are sticking to their guns and sticking it out.
“You certainly can’t be greedy in this style of music. If you’re in it for the money, for the fame, for the chicks or what have you, you might as well stay at home because it’s probably never going to happen. That’s just the way it is. Bottom line is, it’s hard to be accepted in life, period; it’s even harder when you’re into metal or in a metal band. We’re the outcasts of society, the counter culture of angst of sorts. The wild children who most think are lost but are more found than most.
“Blue Collar War is the daily grind that everyone has to face to survive in life. It is a struggle that we all must endure daily, but Blue Collar War exists because it is our way of dealing with the struggle. A way to vent our frustrations and create something, not necessarily beautiful in the classic sense, maybe a little more abstract.
“It’s a daily struggle. We are the blue collar, we’re the anti of society, the kids with tattoos that have different ideas and don’t see eye to eye with the daily grind. We’re the people who want to change the state of our nation, who don’t want war, who want to protect our own backs before we protect other people. We are the future that nobody wants to accept.”
Of course, one of the ways the group expresses its views is through its lyrics, which, as the band explains, “are influenced by the ups and downs in life. No topic is unturned. For example, ‘Post Overdose’ is about drugs and the dark mental and physical places we go, and one of the new tunes, ‘Taking Steps In Wet Cement,’ is along the lines of coping with life and striving to be the best that you can be without following trends.
“Our lyrics are about life, the daily life that many of us [in the] younger generation are dealing with on a day to day basis: struggles with drugs, coming clean and finding a real life. We don’t piss and moan about how drugs ruin people. That isn’t our outlook. If you want to do drugs, that’s fine. [Most] of us in the band at one time or another have been strung out like a motherfucker. But we were able to see through the distortion and find the light, find other things that didn’t make us feel like hell the next day.
“Kids have a hard struggle these days. Most of the time it’s easier to find a way to be happier by putting something up your nose or smoking some dope, which is a jaded outlook, no way to deal with life. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t care what anyone does. You can do drugs all day long and I won’t think anything less of you. We all have our vices, but we’ve changed ours and made it music.
“Music is my life; sometimes I think it’s all I know. It’s a passion, a hobby, and a way of life that most people can’t even begin to understand; something that makes me love it even more.”
You can find more info on Blue Collar War’s campaigns at www.bluecollarwar.com. The band’s self released CD, Beyond Repair, is out now. ■
Photo: Blue Collar War, by Rachael Ballinger
