IE: For someone who has never heard of LFDF can you give us a condensed version of what you guys are all about?

Paul: I’m Paul, I’m the singer. The rest of LFDF is Lenny and Rich (guitars) Steve (bass) and Marc (drums). We have been around since the summer of 2008. We are 5 guys who make music that stems from what we grew up on. On what we think hardcore is. To us hardcore is about not fitting in with the mainstream crowd, but staying true to who you are. It is about being able to think for yourself, to educate yourself with what is going on around you. It is about having an open mind. It is about supporting others who choose to live their lives this way.

IE: The new album that just came out is the second full length you guys have put out in just over 2 years. You also play out quite often. With all of the time and effort that you have invested into this band do you feel you should be more recognizable to people outside of the NY/LI area by now?

Paul: To be honest, we are more recognizable to people outside of Long Island and New York City than we are at home. Some of our best shows have been road games for us. We have been extremely fortunate to meet some of the best people on the road, people that I consider to be true friends. We have a great fan base here at home, I’m not trying to slight them, but in terms of being recognizable and with the amount of time and effort invested, I think that our support at home would be stronger.

IE: Have you seen a jump in interest in the band since the new album came out?

Paul: Yeah, definitely. We are finally on a hardcore label that understands how to support its artists. Between Jeff at Full Circle Attack and myself really promoting the new record, along with the music we are writing, interest has really taken off since the new record came out.

IE: If you had to put a percentage on where you think your fan base is what percentage would Long Island get and try to break down the rest.

Paul: This guy is asking me to do math? Haha. I’d say 50% New England, 30% Long Island and NYC, 15% upstate NY, 5% Philly and NJ.

IE: One thing that jumps out at me with your band is that you guys have been part of many benefit shows for various causes. Can you go over some of the ones you have either been behind or supported with this band in the past?

Paul: We never say no to playing a benefit. Let me rephrase that…we never say no to a benefit show where the cause is meaningful. We’re not gonna play a show so that Joe Blow can put money in his pocket. We’re going to play shows where it has a direct impact on people’s lives. One of the most meaningful benefit shows we have played and also put together, was “Hardcore For Sophia’s Cure”. Sophia is a child who was born with SMA, which is a terminal disease that takes away a child’s ability to walk, stand, sit, eat, breathe and even swallow. It was something that really hit home for me because here was this beautiful baby girl who was the same age as my daughter and she was going to have to live her life with feeding tubes and not be able to walk or talk. It broke my heart. It could have been one of my kids. There is no cure for it. So what we did was put together a full day show with some really great bands, headlined by Stigma. We also had some things to raffle away. We ended up raising almost $2000 that went to the Sophia’s Cure Foundation. Back in September, the FDA approved a gene therapy and they are making huge strides in taking out this disease. I’ve never felt so rewarded as I felt when I saw that the disease is on its way out. Sophia is still alive to this day, something she was not supposed to do according to the statistics and that little girl is an inspiration to a lot of people. 

The other benefit that stands out is the Momma Pit memorial show. Larissa was one of the best. Always there supporting bands. She really was the “Mom” of the Long Island scene. The first day we met her, she hugged us all like we had known her for years. That’s how she was. She was taken from us too soon and there was no way we were not playing that show. She meant too much to us. 

IE: As cliché or corny as it may sound I see this band as a unity band in a few ways starting with songs like “The Definition” as well as “Brothers United”. I also see a bond you guys have formed with a bunch of the New England area bands as well. You guys are not only singing about it but are also practicing what you preach to a degree. From what you see from going to shows and hanging with your band and friends where is unity at in 2013 when it comes to the hardcore scene?

Paul: I think there is a ton of unity in the hardcore scene today. Like I said before, we have been extremely lucky to meet great people and make friends in places like New England (Held Hostage, Reason To Fight, Progress, Penalty Kill and The Enemy Within), Watertown (Still Rings True, Landslide Victory and Wrapped In Noir), Rochester (The Weight We Carry) and NJ (Rambo from Get Rad Clothing), not to mention here at home. The problem is that while there is a great amount of unity, there is also a divide. Jamie from Abject and I talk about this all of the time. There are some bands and promoters who for whatever reason put themselves above a lot of us. They don’t return e-mails and if you are lucky enough to get an answer out of them, they don’t want to play location x on whatever day because of some bullshit excuse. Look, it’s fucking hardcore. Come down off of your high horse.  So yes, there’s definitely a lot of unity, it’s just divided if that makes sense.

IE: “The Definition” and “Brothers United” off of the new album really dig in deep as to your feelings on hardcore music.  Were these songs written around the same time and was there something going on at the time that you had these kind of thoughts on hardcore?

Paul: Both of these songs were written around the same time, which was towards the end of writing the new record. I really wanted something to capture how I felt about what this whole thing means to me. I had the idea for the song and the chorus written for “Brothers United”, but I wanted some of our friends who we met along the way to sing on it. With some of them being scattered all over the place, that was gonna be kind of tough. So what I did was I asked everyone what hardcore meant to them. I took what people wrote and that formed “Brothers United”. I asked George (Mind Over Matter/Wiretap Crash) to sing on it because he was a major inspiration to me as a Long Island hardcore kid in the 90’s and he also helped produce the record. He also was there for me during a really dark period in my life. I really bonded with him during that time and felt like he was family. “The Definition” came out of what I asked for “Brothers”. Josh Snyder who fronts an amazing band from Watertown, NY called Still Rings True, gave me the blueprint for “The Definition”. I added some of my own stuff to his and that is how it came about.

IE: Does writing lyrics generally come easy to you or is it something you look at more like a chore or homework in a way?

Paul: I definitely do not look at it as a chore but I do have to be motivated to do it. I will definitely go through weeks of writers block and then come out of it with material for 3 or 4 songs. I have a notebook that I will write down keywords or ideas for songs so that I don’t forget and then when I start writing lyrics for a song, I’ll go back and look over what I wrote. I love writing because it’s my release and it’s why I chose to be a singer. 

IE: You mentioned George from Mind Over Matter/Wiretap Crash as being an influence on you as a Long Island hardcore kid. What was it like for you growing up on Long Island and how did you find out about hardcore music? What venues or record stores do you remember going to? 

Paul: Growing up on Long Island was interesting. I think the town we all grew up in (North Babylon) taught us a lot about the hardcore scene. It’s a good south shore town with hard working people. Family and friendship is something that we took very seriously. We didn’t have a lot of friends, it was more about the quality of people you surrounded yourself with. I first found out about hardcore music when a friend of mine handed me a Madball tape. That tape opened my eyes to hardcore music. From there it snowballed. My first show I ever went to was Mind Over Matter’s last show at the PWAC. Being there made me feel like I was where I belonged. After that, I discovered Sick Of It All and VOD. It really was special to be able to really connect with music. Before I got into hardcore, sure I liked music, but there was never an emotional connection. This music was different though. Some of the best shows that I can remember were seeing Snapcase at the Swing Set in Bay Shore, The Bouncing Souls at Deja, Biohazard, Tension and Dog Eat Dog at the PWAC and seeing VOD open up for Korn at the Roxy in Huntington. I’m sure I’m missing others, but those stand out. I went to college in Albany for a year. They had a really great scene up there. One of the first weekends I was up there, we were able to catch a VOD, Hatebreed, 25 Ta Life show. We were the only kids there who knew every word to the VOD songs. We ended up drinking and smoking with them outside of the venue. It was a pretty cool night to represent Long Island up there. I don’t really remember going to record stores on Long Island to buy stuff, I bought most of my stuff at shows and I probably bought a few things from Rick Ta Life hahaha. That was part of why I loved hardcore though. You knew who you were buying it from. You were able to talk to bands about their music.

IE: Mike Gallo from Agnostic Front is a friend of the band and helped produce not only your first album but also the new one. How hands on was he with this recording and how was the whole process compared to the last time?

Paul: Mike Gallo or Callo as we like to call him has been friends with Rich and I since 1997. Our old bands became good friends and Mike and I have never lost touch. He is one of the best people you’ll ever meet. Let him cut your hair down at Two Kings Babershop!  His schedule is really hectic so we would record and send him the tracks and he would shoot back ideas. It wasn’t as personal as the first record but still just as helpful. We brought in George (Mind Over Matter) to work with us too because it gave us a different dimension to what we were doing. I also absolutely despise recording vocals. Something about being in the vocal booth, not being able to hear what people are saying, whether they like it or not. But having George there, another singer, really made things more comfortable. Lenny also did a great job producing this as well. He was there the entire time and gave a lot of great input to the record.

IE: Tell us a little about this new album. How many songs are on it and how is it different or not different from your last album? 

Paul: The new record is called “Keep Your Fingers Crossed” and it is out now on Full Circle Attack Records out of Rochester. It’s a great small HARDCORE label that we were lucky enough to work with. It is out on vinyl and also available as a digital download. 9 songs. All short and to the point, like our first record. I think thats what makes this record different is that when we put out the first record, we had songs on there from day 1 as a band. This record has songs that are much more well put together. With all due respect to our past bassists, having Steve on this one really made a difference as well. 

IE: LFDFs first show was in 2008. Can you tell us all that you can remember from that day like who you played with, where was it, and overall how did it go?

Paul: Our first show was put together by someone who would become a really good friend of mine, Joe Mancuso. At the time, he was the front man for a band called Out Of Step. It was us, Out Of Step, Wolverine, Bring Out Your Dead and Arms Forward. All very awesome bands. It was at a bar in Nassau County called Deuces Wild. It had been about 6 years since I played in front of anyone so I was a little nervous, but once we got going it felt like it always did and I was OK. One of the things I remember is that we all were drinking Ballantine 22’s in the parking lot between sets and we also ran up a pretty impressive bar tab as well.

IE: What ever happened to the “Only The Strong Survive” video that you guys had plans on making off of the last album? 

Paul: Yeah, we wanted to do something for that song, but we couldn’t get the money together. We would much rather put out the new record instead of doing something off of the first.

IE: Are there any plans for making a video off of the new album?

Paul: We have talked about it but I don’t really see it going anywhere. It would be nice to have one, but who knows.

IE: Have you guys started writing any new material since the new album came out and when can we be hearing some new songs?

Paul: We have. The guys already have the music done for 3 new songs that are a little heavier than what we have done which is something that we’re trying out. They’re really good songs. There’s talk of us doing a 3 way split with our friends in Two Man Advantage and Too Many Voices. I just haven’t had any time to sit down and write lyrics yet. Hopefully you guys will be hearing them soon.

IE: That’s about it, is there anything we may have missed that you wanted to add?

Paul: I just want to thank you for always supporting not only us, but the entire hardcore scene. I remember growing up in the 90’s and reading the physical copy of In Effect. Your support is something that is deeply appreciated. Pick up a copy of the new record at one of our shows or at Fullcircleattack.com. And I just wanted to add that if you actually peeled  yourself off of your couch to go out to a fucking show, do the bands a favor, show them some fucking respect and actually WATCH them. Put down your iPhone and watch them. Maybe be crazy and dance a little bit. Instagram can wait.