Interview Anthony Martini E.Town Concrete

Lineup: Anthony Martini – Vocals De Lux - Guitar Eric DeNault - Bass Teddy P. - Drums

RADIOTAKEOVER TOUR E.Town Concrete Twelve Tribes Diecast DevilInside Bottom Lounge 11/18/04 Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale

“…As a band, we’ve grown a lot since we were 15-year old kids playin’ ya know!  Now, I think we are a little more seasoned in what we do….we’re like fine wine, we’re better now with age.”

E-Town is slang for their hometown in Elizabethtown, NJ. The well-seasoned vets formed when they were 15-years old and having a long time to hone their skills, and polish their skills is exactly what they did. E.TC is one of the very few bands, asides from Candira, who can successfully blend hip-hop, metal and hardcore and pull it off.  Mad respect goes out to any band that is not swayed by the opinions of the masses and makes the kind of music they want to. The band sharpened their teeth when they released their latest triumph entitled Made For War, which just hit the shelves on November 16th. Join me as Anthony Martini, lead singer, discusses his latest passion - the status of the nation!  He also touches on the new album, voices his frustrations with many aspects of the Industry, etc. Read on…

Karma: First off, I’d like to thank you for doing the interview.

Anthony: Thank you!

Karma: Congrats on headlining on the Radiotakeover Tour!!  How is it going so far?

Anthony: It’s been going pretty good!  We’ve done 6 shows so far so, I mean it’s been pretty much what we expected and in the areas we expected to do well in we have so…

Karma: That’s great!!

Anthony: It’s been all good so far!

Karma: Good!!  So do you think you will be able to establish dominance over the airwaves after the tour is completed?

Anthony: Well the tour is sponsored by Radiotakeover.  It doesn’t have anything to do with the radio necessarily, it’s actually a website, www.radiotakeover.com.  It’s an internet radio site and they stream a lot of underground bands and stuff.

Karma: How cool is that?

Anthony: So that’s why they call it Radiotakeover Tour and they sponsored it.

Karma: Have there been any memories that standout so far?

Anthony: So far?  Well, we played Jersey and of course, that was a big show because it’s our home state.  Last night we played Pittsburgh and it ended up being a really good show. They were actually going to cancel the show because the promoter has not been doing well in the past few shows [which regrettably included the Chicago date] have been doing bad and we’ve lost a lot of money.  But we ended up working something out, going in there and playing and probably one of the best shows on the tour for a show that we were going to cancel, it ended up being pretty good!  [smiles]

Karma: [smiles] Good, good!!  Since you’ve been going at this since you were 15 and all how has the scene changed?

Anthony: It hasn’t really changed much, it’s pretty much the same politics with the same little trendy cliques and all that stuff.  I guess we’re veterans now, we kinda know what’s what and how to deal with certain things. 

It’s been the same as far as the scene, you know what I mean.  Us, as a band, we’ve grown a lot since we were 15-year old kids playin’ ya know!  [smiles]  Now, I think we are a little more seasoned in what we do.  I think we’re like fine wine, we’re better now with age.

Karma: [smiles] For the most part, you have been DIY as far as your career is concerned.  For the most part, are planning to stay this way?

Anthony: We’ve kinda been DIY out of necessity in the beginning.  Our last album was on a bigger label, Razor & Tie.  They kinda ventured into artists, they were always known for compilations, DVD’s and stuff, and they wanted to get into signing bands.  We were one of the first bands they worked with. 

It wasn’t bad but I think they realized what was more successful for them was sticking to what they know.  It kinda out us in a good position because now we can control our own destiny again.  In the beginning, we were DIY out of necessity now but now we are DIY because we want to be, you know what I mean!  I think we’re at a point in our career where we have our fan base, we have our core fans and we don’t really need to go out and impress people anymore.  I mean because we have the fans that like us and the people that don’t, DON’T!   But we can’t spend time worrying about that.  We just play for the people that like us.  We’re in a pretty good place right now; we’re comfortable with ourselves.

Karma: That’s very cool.  Speaking of your fans, it’s nice to see you are so active on your message board with your fans.  Has it helped in furthering getting the word of E.Town out there?

Anthony: I don’t think it does, actually I think it hurts.  I don’t think it’s a good thing.

Karma: Really?  Why?

Anthony: On our message board especially, we have a lot of people that may have been around since we first got started and they are very protective.  I mean anyone that’s new and likes us that comes on the message board they automatically kill them!  [changes voice] “Oh, you stupid new jack!  I mean what; did you just hear E. Town last year?” [laughs]  And I’m like so what, I mean not everybody has known us for years!  You can’t blame other people for liking us now.  I think that that in itself that it makes a lot of the newer fans not want to come and post messages on the message board because they’re afraid that they are going to get ripped by these so called “old school” people.

Karma: Who knows, maybe they’ll stop now.

Anthony: Nah…probably not!  [we both laugh]  Oh well, who cares!

Karma: What do you think needs to change in the Industry?

Anthony: I don’t know.  I mean I don’t see anything really wrong with the music industry.  It is what it is; it all depends on what you want.  If you’re a new band, you’re just coming out and have stars in your eyes, and you want to be famous and all that… You can go for that, but it really is what you make of it.  If you go into situations knowing what to expect then you really can’t be disappointed.  You know if you do something with a major label, then you know you’re basically gonna get ripped off.  Sometimes it’s a trade off, I mean you may get a really crappy deal out of it but you could become famous and end up making money in the long run anyway because you become so huge.  But if not, then you get spit out or whatever.  It’s a risk some people want to take and that was a risk we always wanted to take.  Like I said in the beginning, we never got the chance then we kinda did and now we’re glad that we’re DIY again.

We’ve seen both sides of the fence now. When we first started a lot of our songs were about us wanting to blow up and be rich and famous.  It still would be a great thing but I think we’ve all kinda grown up and realized what’s most important. It’s really being able to still do it.  We’ve been around for almost 10 years! A lot of the bands that we first started playing with those guys are all long gone, working jobs. We’re still at least able to make music, do what we love and pay our bills doing that. [smiles]

Karma: And that’s a wonderful thing! Is there anything you feel that you can change in the interim concerning the Industry? 

Anthony: I think it could be more artist friendly, but then again that would never happen, you know what I mean! The bottom line is the labels control everything and they make all the money and the bands make the money on the road.  It’s kind of the trade off, it is what it is!

Karma: Has it been a pain in the ass to pigeonholed in “rapcore”?

Anthony: That’s been the problem forever with us!  [laughs]  I guess we were kinda doing this before the whole explosion happened.  We started in ’95 before there was any such thing as a fuckin’ Limp Bizkit, a Linkin Park or any of those other bands.  We were just making the music we wanted to make coming from our hearts.  It wasn’t like we sat down and said [voice becomes gruff] “Ok!  Let’s think about something that’s gonna sell!  And let’s do that!” 

We just did what we felt like doing and then in the beginning it wasn’t so bad because the whole rap/rock thing didn’t explode yet so we were different form other bands in the scene so it really wasn’t a problem.  Then after 98-99, when Limp Bizkit and everyone was all over MTV, we became lumped in with those bands.  That’s not really the scene we were playing in; we played mostly in the underground hardcore or metal scene, you know what I mean.  [smiles]  I mean yeah, if we had the chance to tour with some of those bands at the time, we would have took that chance but we were always too heavy or…  I mean either way, we’ve always been kinda outcasted because either we were too heavy for those kinda kids [Nü Metal] or we’re not heavy enough for the hardcore kids.  [smiles] I mean, so it’s like we’re our own thing and we kinda just try to grab as many people as we can from each scene or whatever.  Whoever wants to like us, like us…then we’re happy, whatever!  [smiles] It’s kind of a… [pauses]

Karma: But then looking at it from that point of view, it puts you in a pretty unique situation…

Anthony: Yeah, it enabled us to do different things where as other bands can’t do.  One day we could…we’ve done it, tour with Adema.  [laughs]  Not to say it was a great tour…

Karma: [laughs]

Anthony: But we’ve done it!  We could tour with a band like that, a radio rock band and then come and tour with a band like Lamb of God or Hatebreed or someone like that.  Not a lot of band can do that.  I think it helps us kind of fit in with different people.  We can be chameleons depending on the situation.  It also hurts us in the fact that…I don’t know, it’s uncool to like us.  If you like E.Town Concrete, you’re gonna get made fun of.  I mean by the cool, hardcore kids.  That’s just how it’s been!  I mean like ever since we first started, back in ’98, around that time.  It became…the scene was like, “Oh these guys aren’t hardcore!” “These guys are this or that!”  So we’re just like, “Whatever!” We play what we want to play regardless.  The rap/rock thing is something we’ve been fighting our whole career.

Karma: How did your debut hip-hop [5 song entitled Official Bootleg Vol. 1] EP go [which was released under the name Martini].

Anthony: Oh, that was something I did for fun.  I wasn’t really taking it that seriously but people did like it.  I only made a limited number just for the fun of it and it got a good response.  Maybe I’ll do another one, you never know but that was just something I did in my house and I was surprised people took to it the way they did!  [laughs]

Karma: Which song is your favorite song off Made For War?  Why?

Anthony: I like all of them really!  I can say that this is the one album where we like EVERY song.  I mean there are always a couple of songs that I hate and someone else likes or they hate another song.  I think this one, we all like every song, and they all have something about them.  But if I had to pick some favorites…I like “The Distance” because I think it talks about what’s going on right now, the situation in this country - the separation between different ideals, moral values, and all that kind of stuff.  I like “All That You Have Is Still Not Enough”, it’s track 10.  That song is about us [smiles] and how we struggle, we’re on the road…it’s not blatantly about that but…[pauses]

Karma: Loosely based…

Anthony: Yeah!  You can interpret it as anything, it’s not like that Metallica cover [song], the one that they did about the road or like any of these songs where you’re just like, “Ohhh” [displaying a pained expression on his face] or like the Bon Jovi one where they’re talking about tour buses.  [laughs]  But it’s based on giving something your all and having it not be enough.  It’s kinda what we do, I mean we’ve been a band for 10 years and last album [The Renaissance] we toured almost 14 months straight.  Just every tour we could do, any thing that we could do playing in front of 5 people, 2 people, 1000 people, it doesn't matter, we were just doing it.  It just seemed liked we were just beating our heads against the wall because it didn't seem like people were being receptive.  So it shaped our mindset coming into this new album because I think we spent the last album trying to please people and try to make people like us.  And in the end it made us miserable! 

On this album we were just like, "Fuck it!" Let's just do what we want to do, make the kind of album we want to make and if anyone likes it, GREAT!  And if they don't, we don't care!  We're just going to play shows for people who want to see us rather than try to open for bands and try to win their fans over that don't like us anyway, you know what I mean?  That's what that song's about.

Karma: You know what, that was awesome!

Anthony: [laughs]

Karma: Tell your fans something about the making of Made For War they may not have know previously.

Anthony: It came together quickly, that's the one main difference between this album and our other albums.  Between our first and second album it was like four years our second and last album was like 2½  - 3 years, so it's like we've always taken so long to write songs.  With this one as soon as we got home from touring we just took a couple of months, wrote every song.  We were like alright, we want to put out the record, we called some people, we got in the studio, recorded it in 2 weeks and put it out a couple of months later.  It was a really rushed thing, not rushed [per se] but the man thing is that we wanted to get it out before 2005.  Which I don't know if it was a great idea just because right now is not the great time to put out records like if you're not a huge band.  I mean it's right before the holidays and EVERYBODY'S putting out their CD like Eminem, Snoop Dogg…  All of the big CD's are coming out and you sort of get lost in the shuffle. Either way our whole mindset is we have our fans and even if they don't buy it now, they will buy it in a couple of weeks or in a month or so.  In the end it will even out, we just wanted to put out a new album.

Karma: What has been the biggest attributing factor as to why it has taken so long between the release times of your albums?

Anthony: We just thought too much.  Well we used to write songs pretty quickly but then throw out all of 'em.  We'd write like five songs then the next week we'd be like, "Ahh, these songs suck!" and just throw them out.  We'd have a ton of songs and we'd never finish them or we'd have riffs and parts of songs and never finish them.  But this one it was like let's keep everything simple…[eyebrows go up as he shifts gears] 

And that's another thing, our songwriting has evolved too.  In the beginning we were trying to put as many different parts in each song as we could.  It really made for this long, complicated song that didn't flow well.  Some of the songs were great, but some of them you could tell we didn't know what we were doing.  I think this one we were like, "Let's keep it simple, focused and to the point". Write whatever you feel and not think about it.  Not just to write a song listen to it and criticize it.  We'd just be like, "Alright this is the day we recorded it…let's just write a new song and keep going!" I think it ended up working really well!

Karma: I was reading that one of your albums sold 4,000 copies at Vintage Vinyl in Fords, NJ.  Tell me about that which album was it?

Anthony: [laughs] Oh, that was in the beginning; it was our first album [Time 2 Shine]!  I think part of it was based on our CD wasn't available in any stores yet.  [laughs]  But it just shows the support that we have in our home area.  I mean it just…I don't understand how [a perplexed look cross his face and we both laugh simultaneously] Like I said we've been around for a while and we've played so many times in Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.  I'm just waiting, I'm like every time, this is show where nobody's gonna show up!  [laughs]  But every time it's still great and it feels good!!  Where we're from, kids understand us!  You get around here, maybe not here [Chicago] but around the Midwest, kids don't really understand, they don’t understand what we're doing. They think we're a bunch of rap-rockers or wiggers [as her raises hand to do air quotes and smirks] or whatever they want to call us!  I mean this is how we are; this is how we grew up.  I think that if you're from urban areas you understand more. That's why I'm surprised Chicago's not better for us!  [we both laugh]  But Chicago SUCKS for us, man!!  This is a Chicago paper?

Karma: It's a Chicago based web zine

Anthony: Chicago, come on people!  We've played Chicago so many times and every time it's horrible...and I don't know why!  Every other major city is all good.

Karma: I've come to realize that Chicago's one of those cities that not that receptive to a lot of different music or to bands that are out of the norm.  I wish we were…

Anthony: But I think that part of it for Chicago is that there's a really cool scene here.  Like with the underground hardcore scene.

Karma: Oh, please!  [said condescendingly]

Anthony: Well see that's what I mean!  They think that they're like elite scensters and we're not seen as that cool band so like kids always think of us being Nü Metal, rap-rock or however they want to label us.  But I think that hurts our turnout here because Chicago does have a good hardcore scene.  Like I've seen shows here that have done great, just not for us.

Karma: What's really bad is when the crowds boo the opening acts…it so horrible, makes acts apprehensive in playing shows here.

Anthony: It's like that lot of places, we've played here a lot of times but I'm just surprised that Chicago's not a lot better.  But we still got other areas. Detroit's good for us…Cleveland's good for us.  [laughs]  We NEED Chicago!  We thought tonight was going to be the night but it doesn't look like it's going to be good for us.  [Unfortunately, it was not, the house was no where close to capacity]

Karma: It's early!  Keep the faith!!  [laughs]

Anthony: [laughs] I don't know!  I'm trying to be realistic!

Karma: Here's a question from a fan:" Why did you name the song named "Metroid""?

Anthony:  Why do people even care about that?  [we both laugh]  Because [the title] has nothing to do with the song.  The original song, the way we wrote it had a different part in the beginning and the music sounded like the music from the video game, Metroid.  So before I put lyrics to it and before it had a name, we had no way to know which song we're talking about before it has a name. We'd be like, "Play that song with this riff.  Play that "Metroid" song!" [smiles]  Then we just kept it.

Karma: Oh, okay, that makes sense.

Anthony: We had another name for it but we never used it.

Karma: Who are some of your biggest influences now?

Anthony: Right now I'm not even influenced by music right now.  I like a lot of stuff but I'm just not…

Karma: Then who are some of your non-musical influences then?

Anthony: Lately my main influences have been politics in general.  The past year or 2 I've been getting into a lot of politics.  When I'm at home I don't even listen to music anymore, I listen to talk radio.  I've been getting into that and reading books and stuff like that.  That's basically what the concept of the new album is about. It's all based on politics, the government and what's going on right now with the war, that's why we called it Made For War.  That's been the main influence like I said, we've been doing this since '95 and mostly my lyrics have been talking about my life, stuff that happens in my life and stuff like that.  But there's only so much you can say before you start repeating yourself and I don't want to keep saying the same shit.  So it's like, what else am I interested in?  It comes down to whatever you're feeling and right now I really feel strongly about stuff that's going on.

Karma: What made you cover Nas’ “The World’s Yours” specifically for the Too Legit For The Pit compilation?

Anthony: There's no reason specifically, besides we like the song.  [laughs]  But I think the main reason was that we were trying to think of a song that would come across good musically if a band did it and that song had a cool beat to it.  I think it was between that and a 2 Pac song. 

Karma: Which 2 Pac song?

Anthony: "Dear Mama", that's my favorite song!  But I don't think that would have come out right…

Karma: Oh now that would have been cool!

Anthony: The song we should have did that we forgot about until after was "Ghetto Bastard" Naughty By Nature because that was my FAVORITE song when I was growing up!  [starts to smile as his eyes light up]  And when we first jamming our guitar player, [De Lux], he taught me how to play guitar when I was 12 years old.  We'd just jam out in my grandparents house and stuff then we used to play that song too.  Then we didn't realize until after we did the compilation we were like, "We should have done that song!" But whatever, the Nas song came out kinda cool!

Karma: That's rather cool that you were allowed to pick your own song for the compilation!

Anthony: Yeah

Karma: Who do you want to see blow up?

Anthony: I don't know, we're friends with a lot of bands so I just hope everybody's successful.  But you know, if you're a good person, and if you're doing the right thing then you should be successful.  We're friends with bands like God Forbid, and they've been paying their dues for a while and they deserve some recognition!  Some of the other bands that we're friends with are already starting to blow up like Lamb of God, Hatebreed and Killswitch.  Besides that, there are bands that I have on my label I hope blow up!  [laughs]

Karma: Oh, who are some of the bands?

Anthony: There's a band called Strength In Numbers and they're from Jersey, I'm talking to this other band from Pennsylvania, What The Flood Gave Up…

Karma: What's the website?

Anthony: The name of the label is Ironbound Recordings and it's www.ironboundrecordings.com.  I'm putting out the E.Town CD as well.

Karma: Very cool & congrats!

Anthony: Thanks

Karma: Who would you like to collaborate with next?

Anthony:  I don't know, no one really.  I don't think about things like that.  I mean I don't know…I don't even care, I don't care about...like I'm not the kind of person that will go, "Damn!  I wish I could work with this band!" On a major level, I wish I could do some things with some people.  I think it would be cool to do some Little John if Little John produced an E.Town record that would be crazy!  [smiles]  I always wanted to do something with Jay-Z but Linkin Park already did that and beat us to it.  I think that if we would have did something, it would have been better though.  I mean a lot of these rappers do rock stuff and it just comes out sounding real corny! Even like MOP was supposed to have this hard band and do this real hardcore rap stuff and I don't think it came out how it should have came out.  It was pretty cool in some ways but if they had a band like Hatebreed making some beats behind them and MOP is real raw, then that would have been cool!  Instead, they always get these corny bands that go [mimicking the sound of a generic riff] like corny stuff.  They just do it all wrong.  Any rapper should come consult us.

Karma: Well there you go, it could be a new job for you.

Anthony: Yeah!  [laughs]  Hey, you're in Chicago, tell Twista and Kanye West!!

Karma: What heats you up: passions & what pisses you off?  But then again, you spoke briefly already about the state of the nation pissing you off, etc.

Anthony: Yeah!  I guess that could be a passion too!  Some of my passions…sports [laughs]

Karma: Who's your favorite team?

Anthony: New York Giants, the Nets but they suck.  My passion's music but mainly anything that's artistic.  I do a lot of music, making all different kinds of music and even non-related band stuff like the Martini stuff.  Graphic design stuff, I'm really into that!  Anything creative, artistic just to do stuff that's fun.  Besides that video games, sports…

Karma: X-Box or Playstation?

Anthony: I've been a real Playstation guy forever but the guys in my band brought X-Box this time.  I think I'm about to switch over to X-Box.  The only reason why I don't is because they charge you for the online stuff like if you want to play their games online you have to pay a monthly fee, Playstation you don't.

Karma: Wow!

Anthony: See you don't care!  [we both crack up laughing]

Karma: Don't say that! 

Anthony: X-Box, if you're listening, make it free!!!!!! But Playstation's free!

The interview doesn't stop here!

Click here for Part II of Anthony's interview,

find out some personal info,

his likes, dislikes...
 

Click here for more pix of tonight's show

I'd like to thank Francesca at Razor & Tie Records for setting the interview up and of course to Anthony for his time.