1. Hey Craig, where are you right now and what do you think you would be doing if we weren’t bothering you?

Craig: I am in upstate New York at my farm. I’m just hanging out for the weekend. If you weren’t bothering me right now I would be setting up some catch and release traps because there is some damn squirrel or opossum in my basement and he is going nuts.

2. Who was the person or musician that inspired you the most to want to pick up an instrument and start playing?

Craig: I would have to say it was Danny Lilker who played in Anthrax and Nuclear Assault. I was a little kid and he went to high school with my brother. I was still in grade school and he would come over for lunch and he would teach my brother bass because they wanted my brother to be the bass player for the first version of Anthrax back when they were a cover band. I would watch them and I would learn more than my brother because my brother wasn’t as into it. Danny was also one of the people that turned me on to the early new wave of British heavy metal and then a little bit later punk rock and hardcore. He was a huge inspiration to me musically as well as getting me into the scene.

3. Do you ever think where you would be in your life if the bass spot in Sick Of It All didn’t open up when Rich Cipriano left in the early 1990's?

Craig: I would still be a musician. That is for sure. Before Sick Of It All I played in Agnostic Front and all these other bands so who knows exactly what band I would be playing in or if music would have carried over as consistently as it did with Sick Of It All. The fact that I was never in the band before that was just a fluke because I had started being in bands a couple of years before them because I started being a musician earlier. We are all friends, all from the same scene and all came up together. The timeline for all of us being into the scene is the same. The timeline for me being a musician was a little earlier. The bottom line is I am so grateful that this all worked out because I couldn’t be happier.

4. Three things that scare the crap out of you?

Craig: (Laughing) Whatever the fuck is in my basement right now... alligators... and…. uh… Eastern European roads!

5. What are some of the things you have accomplished with Sick Of It All that bring you the most pride?

Craig: Just the overall body of work and breaking in new territories. We were the first guys to pretty much hit all these random places that nobody had ever been to before. We were one of the first hardcore bands to hit Southeast Asia and also Australia. On a personal note, the people I have met and the way my life is now… I have friends everywhere. My girl will ask me, “who is that you are talking to” and I will be like “oh, this is my friend from Malaysia”. I love how I can communicate from anyone from any part of the world and it is like there are no barriers outside of language. Once you get enough traveling under your belt and you communicate with people all that shit with perceived barriers goes away. It becomes a thing where the world is like one big open place and there is no difference. A lot of the perceived barriers between people that the TV and the media pushes are just a way to divide and conquer us. In reality 95% of the people you meet and run into on the street you are going to get along with very well. 

6. Name your 3 favorite TV shows, past or present.

Craig: The Night Stalker, Barney Miller, and M.A.S.H. I had to go old school. I like Breaking Bad and other new shows. As great as that show is, and it is great, I gotta go old school. 

7. What would 40-something year old Craig Setari say to 20-something year old Craig Setari if they were to somehow run into each other walking down the street?

Craig: I would say to never get high and to never pay for sex.

8. Most embarrassing moment you ever had on stage?

Craig: It’s hard to say. I have blown my knee out on stage. I have gone to the bathroom in my pants slightly but not enough to have anyone notice. I have fallen and a lot of other weird stuff. It is hard to pick just one. Injuries mostly, nothing that embarrassing. I have gotten hit in the face with a cup of ice once or twice. Normal stuff like that. I have hit people in the face too which is kind of embarrassing. All the embarrassing stuff happens privately within the context of the band. Just us making fun of each other and creating situations, it is more like that.

9. Name 3 bands not punk, hardcore or metal related that people would be surprised you were into?

Craig: I am a huge Motown fan. I love old Motown. To me it is not that surprising because it is just great music and I study that style of bass playing a lot. I like the band Queen a lot. Although not a band I am really into old rock. My bass playing is influenced a lot by old rock. I do like disco too. They got some great songs, good musicianship. 

11. When you are not out on the road what kind of things do you like to do at home to relax?

Craig: I have a farm I go to in upstate NY. In the summer I like to garden, I grow my own food. I like ATV-ing, I like shooting sports, also one of my big things is boxing. My other love besides music is boxing and I still box to stay fit. I am not in the competitive mode at this stage in my life but I still run and work out and box. I’m just not getting hit in the head as much. When I was younger I would be a sparring partner for guys who were pros and amateurs. I still train a lot although I don’t get hit in the head anymore. I also like to read about Eastern philosophy, it calms me down.

12. What are some of your favorite places to travel to while on tour and not necessarily in a sense of having the best shows but rather places that you know you are going to have a good time outside of the actual performing?

Craig: Italy for food. I absolutely love going to Italy for food, there are no two ways about it. Playing in Germany and Holland is good because I have so many friends there and it is comfortable and fun. You are staying in these nice cities and all your friends are there and there are nice places to eat. Belgium as well, days off are always fun because we know everybody. I used to love going to Japan even though we don’t go there much anymore. That was always fun. It changes every few years. I used to love going to Australia but the last time we went there the whole atmosphere seems to have changed. I got some friends there but professionally… business wise things seem to have fallen off there a little bit. 

13. Sick Of It All has always been associated with the borough of Queens in NYC. Flushing and Bayside are the areas you all came out of and as many know there was the well known Alleyway Crew in Flushing as well. Is everyone in the band still living there to this day?

Craig: Actually no. Nobody lives in Queens except me. I have a dual residence where I live in upstate NY and I have an apartment in Queens, a co-op. It is like my office almost. I spend most of my weekends and summers upstate. Lou lives in New Jersey, Arman lives in Westchester, and Pete moved to Florida. Him and his wife live right by the beach. He loves it down there.

14. This year marks the bands 30th year together. Does the conversation of how long you guys see Sick Of It All going on for ever come up between you and when and if it does what kind of things are usually said?

Craig: Not really. The only time that stuff gets discussed is when there is an argument and people are pissed off or really tired on tour. Like you might have Lou exhausted during a tour and he will talk some shit like “You mother fuckers, these kids don’t appreciate anything, fuck this, why am I doing this?” and he will go nuts for 10 minutes and then everyone will laugh and he ends up laughing. You know what I mean? It kind of turns into that and that is about as far as it goes, just one of us fucking around saying something like that but in reality, in normal moments… we all say we have to do this for as long as we possibly can. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. We recognize our fortune. We are very lucky, we are not millionaires or any shit like that. We don’t do it because it makes us rich. It makes our life rich. We have rich experiences and get to meet people. How many people get to go to work and people show up and applaud when you are done working and want to talk to them and be their friend? Not from an arrogant point of view but just from the reality of being a human and interacting with other humans... it’s a fucking great thing man.

15. All of you have been playing in hardcore bands since the 1980’s and as the years roll on you probably play more shows now than in the earlier years. Have the years of touring taken a toll on each of you physically and what are some of the physical issues you have that can be directly related to playing in a band?

Craig: I still get numbness on my whole left side because of the bass having one strap. I invented a double strap to help it out. Some other guy patented it and stole the idea but whatever, he is a weasel and I was never looking to profit on it because it stopped me from getting all kinds of nerve damage. I have blown out both knees. I had surgery on one, the other I let heal naturally, it’s all screwed up. I tore the tendons in my right foot falling over a kid on stage in Belgium. I broke my hand the first time boxing and the second time at a show having a fight with a bouncer, so technically I broke my hand at a hardcore show. Hearing damage… in 1996 I was missing 40 percent of my hearing. Punch drunk from loud music. If you read studies they say that loud music mimics dementia so between boxing and playing hardcore I wonder why sometimes I forget things and type things backwards. It didn’t start happening till I was 35. I’m half joking when I say that but the loud music does make your brain a little scattered. Pete has had broken feet, and his knees are messed up and of course his back… we all have back injuries. Armand has serious shoulder problems, Lou has blown out his back and he gets these like blood polyps on his throat sometimes. There is a lot of stuff with us but typical stuff. The knees go though… when you play hardcore music the knees go, the ankles go, the lower backs go and your shoulders and hearing get messed up. I can go on forever about specifics. There is imbalance because of the instrument you are playing and you also have so much adrenaline that your form gets a little crazy and that’s where you get hurt.

PROMO SHOT FROM 2014 BY HELENA BXL. FROM LEFT: PETE, LOU, CRAIG & ARMAND... SICK OF IT ALL

17. Do you know of any celebrities who are actual fans of Sick Of It All?

Craig: That is a hard one. I heard something the other day although it is not coming to me right at this moment. A lot of the bands that I liked growing up are fans of Sick Of It All and that is really cool. I saw Paul Di’ Anno, the first singer of Iron Maiden wearing an Agnostic Front shirt back when I was in AF and this was in the 80’s. I love early Iron Maiden and it kind of freaked me out. Recently in some interview Angelina Jolie was saying that she used to hang out with Sick Of It All, I don’t remember ever meeting her, but who knows? In the 80’s she could have hung out at shows and what not without me really remembering who she was specifically. Also to find out that Buck Dharma from Blue Oyster Cult is a fan is pretty cool. I love old Blue Oyster Cult and they are from Long Island so it makes sense. 

18. After many years of playing in front of both small and large audiences do you ever get nervous before taking the stage and what is usually going through your head just before you walk out to play?

Craig: I never get nervous before I play, I only get excited and occasionally I will get a little concerned if I am tired or if I have an injury because I think to myself... Can I do this? Can I perform at my best? I will think that, but it is not really a nervousness. Before I go out on the stage I sometimes think about nothing and that is when the show is not really that good. But normally, for maybe 45 minutes before we play I don’t like to talk and I really concentrate. What I think about is my life. I will say to myself “who are you, where do you come from?” “you are just a kid from Queens”, “do you remember why you are doing this?” I think about my life and how things were and how they are now. I think that I am not a rich man but I am also one of the wealthiest men in the world because of what we have been able to do with experiences. The talks I have with myself before I go out on stage are like a calm down version of the way I talk to myself before getting into the ring to box. From boxing I learned mental focus, control and self-belief. It is the same kind of thing but to a lesser degree. When you get into the ring you say to yourself “I am going to show you what I am and no matter what happens you can’t take me out”. Win or lose doesn’t matter, I have to give 100%. Me, myself, Craig… I am going to give 100%, be focused and do the best I can and in doing that best I can and being focused I can’t lose and I can’t be stopped. That’s really my talk to myself. It’s like you are brainwashing yourself. I have read a lot of books on mental conditioning and also from personal experience. I was a boxer and for example I would be getting into the ring with the New York State middle weight champion and I am thinking this guy is a giant monster and I am getting into the ring with a guy who has won the Golden Gloves a couple of times and I have to be prepared. If you don’t have 100% focus you can get hurt. I have never let myself down. I have taken beatings, I’ve gotten on stage and had bad shows but I’ve never been taken out and I’ve never disrespected the promise I made to myself that I decide and I will get through it. I always get through it, you know what I mean?

19. If you could go back and have a do over with anything Sick Of It All has done over the years what would it be?

Craig: It would be that live album we did in Germany. “Live In A World Filled With Hate”. I would have had security on the stage because during the first song some German guy smashed into Pete’s guitar and the first like 5 songs the guitar is completely out of tune. The guy ran right into him and knocked him into his amp. If you listen to the first 5 songs of that album it is just brutal. It sounds so crazy. I also would have recorded “Life On The Ropes” differently because the raw material we put to tape sounded really good. This was in the early days of digital recording so when we transferred from two inch tape and put it into a digital system something happened where the sound got really bad. I would have kept it on two inch and did it manually analog or looked into it more. The studio guys we worked with were great but it was just one of those things where it got messed up in the transfer. The production on that album is muffled when you compare it to everything else we have done. It didn’t sound like that when we recorded it. When it went for mastering, that’s when it got all screwed up. 

20. As far as you know what is the largest crowd Sick Of It All has ever played in front of?

Craig: I would say around 200,000. It was in Germany at some huge festival and NoFX played right after us. That was maybe 5 to 10 years ago. Regularly we play to about 100,000 at the big festivals. A lot of them are like 20, 30, 40 thousand people. They don’t have as many huge ones as they used to. They used to have 50 to 100 thousand regularly. Occasionally we will play this one fest in Germany and it is on TV. It is not a pop fest, but is an alternative music festival and it is really big. Those real big ones are kind of weird because you are far away from the crowd and you don’t feel the energy exchange as much. You do feel the event so you are drawing from a slightly different well. 

BONUS QUESTIONS: 

21. Being a lifelong New Yorker where is the best place to get a slice of pizza in NYC and has anywhere you have ever visited on tour come close?

Craig: I’m going with… and you are going to back me on this one… VIP Pizza on Bell Boulevard in Bayside, Queens. Especially for their Sicilian slices, their grandma slices, their upside down Sicilian… VIP man! It is great pizza! If you go to Italy and sit down in some pizza restaurants… there is this one place that has as good a pizza that you could ever eat in your entire life. There are pizzas you can get in Italy that are slightly different in style but are even better than New York pizza. Italy like I said is my favorite place to eat. You can get insannnnnnee food in Italy. It is the real deal and so good but in America and outside of Italy nothing even comes close to New York pizza even though in other parts of Europe they imitate Italian pizza pretty damn well. So to answer your question, I am going with VIP or you gotta get on a plane to Italy. I gotta throw this in too… I made a vegan pizza two nights ago with my girl. It was buffalo chicken, bacon and ranch… but vegan! All vegan ingredients. I used Gardein Buffalo Chicken with my own buffalo sauce that I buy. I did a fake type of bacon with some onion too. It is the greatest thing you’ve ever had in your life. I am a vegetarian but I am not a vegan. I don’t eat a lot of dairy. I am pretty mellow with the dairy. I may have a couple of eggs for breakfast, you get the idea. 

22. What kind of advice would you give to younger kids coming up that might want to start a band and follow in the footsteps of bands like yours?

Craig: I would say don’t be judgemental and keep an open mind and enjoy yourself. Don’t get stuck in thinking you have to sound a certain way but don’t over-experiment either. Write songs that feel good, enjoy yourself, and don’t stress the clickiness that goes on, do your own thing. The bottom line is there might be times where you lose focus… you can lose your focus, but you still got to push through. You still have to keep walking the path. Bands don’t last long when people lose interest and slip out. If you lose interest go into another avenue in your life and do what you need to do but don’t forget your music. You can do your hobby, but don’t forget the music if it is that deep in you. Stay the course, do your own thing, don’t follow trends. That’s it. 

www.sickofitall.com