Fighting Chance Interview with Lead Singer Bullseye

(originally appeared on my-dedication.tk)

My Dedication - Could you give us a brief history of your band (who you are, when did you start).

Fighting Chance - We got started in the summer of 2001 under the name Lost Cause. Out of our original lineup; Brian, Ben, John and myself (Bullseye), I'm the only one left. We changed the name to Fighting Chance shortly before we recorded our first demo in March of 2002. Around April or May, Matt (formerly of Days Lost, Darkest Hour, Hell To Pay and currently also in Wake Up Cold), took over drum duties and Fighting Chance as we know it today got its start. We've been through a lot of membership changes since then due to personal conflicts and changing priorities. Our current (and the best to date) lineup is: Jimmy The Tooth - Guitar Tim Tation - Bass Matt "Iron" Mayben - Drums Bullseye - Vocals

MD - What are you all doing for a living?

FC - I work in construction, Tim works on a farm, Matt installs telecom cable and Jimmy is a plumber.

MD - How would you define the kind of music you're playing?

FC - Currently we take a solid base of Ac/Dc and Motorhead influenced rock'n'roll and add a lot of hardcore, punk and metal. Occasionally we've been known to step outside of what we normally do and play around with reggae and folk elements. We call it street rock, because basically what we're trying to do is stay out of all the trends that are killing real music. When you strip it all down it's all just rock'and'roll.

MD - What are your releases up 'til now?

FC - "City of the Dead" 5 song demo CD - 2002, "Thus Hope Fades" full length CD - 2003, Insurgence Records, "Party Lies" 7" ep - 2004, Insurgence Records, and our second full length CD/LP titled "Sacrifice and Struggle" will be out this summer on Insurgence. We've also appeared on a few comps, including Insurgence's "Class Pride World Wide 2" and "Baltimore: Belly Of The Beast" on Cornerstone records.

MD - Where does the name Fighting Chance come from?

FC - Basically we were sitting on our old guitar player's front porch getting drunk and arguing about our old name, no one ever really liked it. I'm not sure who came up with Fighting Chance originally, but it clicked for all of us.

MD - What are your main influences?

FC - Any kind of real rock, punk, hardcore etc. We're especially influenced by all the great music that has come out of Baltimore over the years, and by really solid song writers like Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer. But basically punk/Oi! (Blitz, Last Resort), NY/Baltimore hardcore (Maximum Penalty, Cro Mags, Next Step Up), rock (AC/DC, Motorhead, Rose Tattoo), metal (Iron Maiden!) etc.

MD - What are your lyrics about?

FC - Our lyrics are pretty much rooted in the world we see around us. They're definitely on the pessimistic side, a lot of our songs tend to go to topics of war, poverty, crime, terrorism, hate, violence, political corruption etc. If we have any message, it's that people need to stand up for themselves and for their beliefs and refuse to back down in the face of injustice. There's also a strong class conscious and anti racist element to our lyrics that comes through as a pretty constant theme in our stuff.

MD - What do these words mean to you:

Music: FC - Music is what keeps me sane, it's what gives me a reason to live. Music has pulled me back from bouts of depression and given me the strength to stand up for what I believe in.

Friendship: FC - My friends are my fucking family. I would stand by my brothers in THF and Fighting Chance through thick and thin and more or less do anything for them.

Baltimore: FC - Baltimore is the greatest city on the face of the earth. Most people don't understand the love that the people that live here have for this town. It's small, it's dirty and it's full of hate and crime... but some of the most hard, honest, stand up people I've ever had the privilege of knowing have come out of this city. Basically the kids here will stand up for their friends to a fault and don't take shit from anyone.

MD - More and more great bands are emerging from Baltimore. How can you explain the success of the Baltimore scene?

FC - We've always had a great scene. Back in the day it was bands like Next Step Up, Gut Instinct and Curse of Years. The thing that makes Baltimore stand apart from most other towns is how much the older generation supports the new bands coming up. If you go to any Baltimore hardcore show you'll generally see people who were part of the whole late 80's/early 90's hardcore thing, supporting the shit out of the newer bands. All of us that are doing our thing now have a lot of experience and knowledge passed down to us, and on top of that we all support each other as much as possible.

MD - Could you describe to us how a typical show of your band sounds/looks like?

FC - I don't know what a typical show even looks like, things can go so many different ways. I'll describe our favorite sort of show instead; lots of kids dancing, singing along, piling on and generally beating the shit out of each other.

MD - What is the best memory you've got of one of your shows?

FC - There have been a lot of great ones. Our last show, the release party for our new 7" was incredible. Other than Final Word from Quebec all of the bands were good friends of ours. Kids tore it up for the opening bands (The Locos, Scheduled Beating, Queen Anne's Revenge) then went completely ape shit for Final Word and Backhand. By the time we went on there was such great energy in the club. Looking back at the video we recorded that night it's great, lots of dancing and crazy pile ons. Another favorite was the last show at the European Union. It was this crazy little Irish bar in a really awful neighborhood. We played our first real show there, then about a year later played the last show before they closed. The owner, Mike, would give us all open bar tabs when we played... the shows were just a blast. This one in particular was insane, kids totally killed each other for every band. I want to say it was our first show with Matt, so everyone was really pumped up to see him play for us. By the time the last bands (Stout and the Dead End Boys) were done, everything in this place was broken.... the fans, the ceiling, the tables... everything, completely smashed. Also, basement shows are always awesome. We did one a few months ago with our boys 86 Mentality from DC. It was so much fun, a lot of young kids that were really into all the bands that played, dancing like crazy in this tiny basement. The lights went out during our set, we kept playing by flashlight, trying to dodge a bunch of spastic, moshing punk/hardcore kids in the pitch black, it was great.... also, seeing our boy J. from 86 totally lay out some crazy dude during our set, incredible.

MD - What is the worst memory youv'e got of one of your shows?

FC - Probably the worst show we ever played, and this is no disrespect to all the cool ass kids that we met there, was the first time we played Montreal. There were just a lot of problems and misunderstandings leading up to our set, then the power went out and our set got cut short. Matt and I both kind of flew off the handle and started yelling at this sound guy who really had nothing to do with it, luckily some mutual friends of ours and the dudes running the show calmed everything down. To make it up to us, the Stage Bottles who we were on tour with at the time had all of us and the guys from the Prowlers (they set up the show) get up during their set and sing "Work Together" by the Oppressed and "Runnin Riot" by CockSparrer with them. Despite our set being really, really lame we ended up having a great time that night and meeting some of the coolest people on the planet, having all our differences settled by drunk Germans and Oi! cover songs, hahah. Anyway, we're going back there this summer and I've got nothin but faith in the guys up there that we'll play a killer show this time.

MD - How do you see yourself and/or Fighting Chance in 5 years?

FC - I'd like to say that we've got a lot of staying power. At the least I'd just like to still be making music that gets me off, playing shit that is fun and aggressive. That's what we're all about. I'd really like for us to be able to tour Europe and Japan, as well as the rest of North America and really anywhere else people will have us. I want to play a lot of shows, and get a lot of kids out and beating the crap out of each other to us.

MD - How can people get hold of your material?

FC - Most of our stuff is only available from us at shows or through our website. Our Insurgence releases are available from them at www.insurgence.net. Bug your local record shop about carrying our stuff as well as the rest of the Insurgence lineup.

MD - How can people get in touch with you if they want you on their bill?

FC - Hit us up via the website, I respond to everything we get.

MD - Do you have any final words?

FC - I know it's cliché, but I've gotta give some shoutouts to all of our family; much love and respect for all our brothers in THF, DFF and in Canada at Insurgence records, all our boys in NGMF and the whole MDHC, DCHC and BCHC hardcore family. Also, check out all the B-more and DC bands that are on the warpath to take over the world: The Dead End Boys, The Slumlords, STOUT, Wake Up Cold, Backhand, Taken By Force, Hell To Pay (r.i.p), Scheduled Beating, Queen Anne's Revenge, The Locos, 86 Mentality, The Screws, The Homeowners, VPR, Latchkey, xLooking Forwardx, Never Enough, Diamonds In The Rough, Bring It On, Misery Index, Big Daddy Chrome, Sab Grey and the Royal Americans, Strong Intention etc. etc. On the international front, check out The Prowlers, Fate 2 Hate, Jeunesse Apatride and Final World from Quebec, The Stage Bottles from Germany and the Pub Allstars from Argentina. Also, mad props to the following; Tony Tidbits (the man, the myth, the legend), Lord Dom (the canadian superman), Chris X (Reptilian Records) and our miracle working recording engineer Mike B. Last but not least, we've gotta give it up for the ladies that keep us going, Katie, Kati and Sarah. Thanks a lot for the interview. Bullseye T.H.F, F.C.M.D

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