More BOLD memories with Drew

Drew at the kit with BOLD at City Gardens, 7/9/1989, Photo: Ken Salerno

Here's more outtakes from an interview we did with Drew from BOLD some years back. We're always down for a little BOLD material... -Gordo DCXX

The music today that I have heard in hardcore has changed. Some of these hardcore bands now are so technically advanced it is unbelievable. Like, there are bands that could take the BOLD EP and tear its fucking head off. It is amazing how much these skills from kids have progressed on a technical level. A lot of newer hardcore bands I have heard, they are like as tight as a band like TOOL but have such bigger ferocity, and they have these terrifying vocals that rip you apart. If I was playing it now, that's what I'd want to achieve. Like that band the Refused, their first record, they are just on a totally different level. They have like the precision and power of a band like TOOL, that caliber, but the lyrics for hardcore are super intelligent and super fierce. I would try to get to that state if I was doing something today.

That energy from the hardcore days, you could get off on that. I liked that close-knit, tight, hardcore scene. It's funny because every now and then people who don't know anything about hardcore will tell me about these new bands that are crazy, and how people get on stage, and are right there with the band, and I'm thinking, "don't you know about any of this stuff that has already happened?" It's like, they have no idea this has been done and that there are still kids doing it in scenes that are below the surface of popular music.

"Running Like Thieves," I wrote the lyrics to that song. At the time I was trying to get away from hardcore type lyrics. It was written about Richie's sister, Alison Birkenhead, who was my girlfriend at the time, and stuff that happened between us. It was a relationship song, just stuff you go through when you're young. "You're The Friend I Don't Need"...that song was actually written about me by Matt, believe it or not. We were having some problems with the band. High school was ending, we were having to make a lot of decisions, things weren't as simple as they had been in the band, and I think it put a strain on a friendship between us. I'm pretty sure I pissed him off with something. Things never came to a head, but as I understand it, it's a song that shows how things can be pretty intense and shitty between people, even though deep down you know you are friends.


TC3 with BOLD at City Gardens, 7/9/1989, Photo: Ken Salerno