IE: Let’s kick things off with the basics. Who is in Modern Pain and what is this band all about in a nutshell?

Jay: Modern Pain is Noah on the mic, Jay (myself) on guitar, TK on bass, and Adam on drums. This band is about 4 people who don't drink or do drugs, playing music, and not using the fact that they don't drink or do drugs as a bullshit selling point for their music. 

IE: I always thought the name Modern Pain was pretty bad ass. Who came up with it and is there a meaning behind it or is it something you just thought sounded cool?

Jay: It was just a name we thought up, no bad ass story behind it unfortunately. 

IE: You guys are from Dallas and from an outsiders prospective there seems to be a lot going on down there music wise. Can you fill us in a little bit on other bands to look out for, venues, and in general what is going on down there?

Jay: Dallas has been steadily been growing more and more and it's been awesome. I always say this and I'll continue to, I listen to my friends bands because they are legitimately good, not because they are my friends. Power Trip, Wiccans, Vulgar Display, Truth, End Times, Humanerror, Estonia 1944, Hindsight, the list could go on. That's just the Dallas area alone. There isn't enough time in a day for me to list out the Texas bands that are killing it. Venue wise, we have had a DIY spot in Fort Worth, 45 minutes away from Dallas, called 1919 Hemphill that has been doing shows consistently for years. We had just opened one in Dallas that was running for a couple of months but unfortunately ran into some complications last month and is no more. Going to a lot of shows in different cities has made me realize how lucky Dallas is for having such a good hardcore scene. 

IE: There is also the Chaos In Tejas Fest just a few hours away in Austin. For people who are not familiar with it can you tell us about it?

Jay: Chaos in Tejas is the best fest in the United States, hands down. Chaos is more so a bunch of shows going on during a whole weekend at every venue in Austin rather than a bunch of bands playing one venue all day. All of these main shows have stacked, diverse lineups. On top of that, there are day shows, after shows, shows in record stores, shows in recycling plants, shows on a boat, wherever. When you're not watching bands, you're either eating some of the best food in the country, or cooling off from that hellish Texas heat in water. My favorite weekend of the year. Last year, some of my favorite shows I caught were: Hatred Surge/Schizophrenia/Boston Strangler/Dropdead, Impalers/Death Evocation/Hoax, Stick Together/No Tolerance/Free Spirit/Omegas/Breakdown. Fuck, I even watched The Abused play then went down the street and watched Lemuria and Best Coast. 

IE: How was it seeing Breakdown?

Jay: Breakdown was great. First show back with the OG lineup so they were definitely rusty but they didn't give a fuck at all. It was a great time. Seeing "Safe in a Crowd" played twice was cool too. 

IE: From photos posted on your bands Facebook profile it looks like you guys have played a bunch of basement shows or shows that don’t look like your run of the mill venue. Does Modern Pain play a lot of these?

Jay: There aren't really basements in Texas, but we've played living rooms and garages before. Always very hot, sweaty, and intimate. 

IE: What are some of the crazier shows you have played at these not so conventional places that you just mentioned?

Jay: The craziest show we've played was a living room in Oklahoma City. Someone fell through a window, people were throwing glass bottles, Noah was diving off of window sills and a ledge above a fireplace, our amps and drums were getting knocked over, it was awesome. Oklahoma seems to catch a lot of shit from Texans, but we have loved that ugly stepsister of a state unconditionally ever since that weekend. 

IE: There is this one photo floating around online of your singer and it looks like he is diving off of a pretty high wall or from the top of a room. What exactly was going on in that pic?

Jay: The picture is pretty self explanatory, I'm just glad that idiot hasn't hurt himself too badly yet for how often he does that.  

IE: Just this past December you went out on the road for a week and change on a Southeast Tour with Jungle Juice, Afflictive Nature and Lifer, how did that go for you all?

Jay: It was a great time. We had done a similar route the year before so we were somewhat familiar with the area. I feel like it's a very overlooked area for hardcore, but some of those cities were awesome. Springfield, MO was the best date on tour and definitely one of our favorite places to play. We toured to Florida again so we could eat Taco Bus in Tampa. We ate there 3 times in a span of a day and a half. We were in fact a little late to the show because the first thing we did when we got into the city was drive to Taco Bus to pick up a burrito and horchata to go. 

IE: Tell us about the Modern Pain mobile for this last tour.

Jay: We had found a really nice lady online who was looking to rent her 15 passenger to churches and stuff. We told her we were a (Christian) band that needed it for a tour and that was that. The best part of the van was that it had a DVD player in it. 

IE: And you ran into some problems with it while in Georgia, right?

Jay: We were going through a few minor problems with it throughout the whole tour that didn't cause too much of an issue. The van would just die when we would shift into reverse sometimes, and later on the locks stopped working (which sucked), but those didn't really pose too much of a threat of some of the worse things that could go wrong with a van. While on the way to Florida, I was finally able to sleep on the ride there (I can't sleep while other people drive, I'll just wake up from being paranoid) and someone wakes me up 20 minutes into my first nap during a drive of the whole tour to tell me, "Jay, the van's fucked up." I get outside to look at it and see that the actual wheel is completely ruined and could barely even spin anymore. We were lucky enough to stop about a mile away from a Ford dealership so we crawled there very very slowly. We were in the waiting room there from about 5:30 am to 3 pm waiting for the van only for them to tell us that they needed to order a new part and it would take over a day for them to get it. We had no idea where we could have stayed overnight there because we were in the middle of nowhere and didn't even have a way to get there. The dealership was out of rentals that were big enough to fit the 8 of us in them too. Finally after some mild panicking, we were able to get a contact for a rental company 20 minutes away from there, we caught a ride there with a nice old lady, rented a 15 passenger to play our two Florida dates, and dropped the rental off on the way to our show in Mississippi. 

IE: I saw some of the cities you played and wanted to get some feedback on some cities that don’t necessarily jump out as hardcore hot spots like Tulsa OK and Jackson MS in particular. Were these first times hitting these cities for MP?

Jay: We have played Tulsa before. The main venue that they do hardcore shows at is at this dude named Rudy's house. The spot is like a tiny garage, dungeon, laundry room thing and there have been some pretty wild shows there. Jackson was cool, the show was at a skate park and over 100 people showed up and there was a vegan cookie buffet for us. While the rest of my band was skating, I was sitting there eating cookies. 

IE: When you guys roll into these towns that you may not be as familiar with is there a lot of anticipation as to what the crowd will be like or is it more of a thing where you’re just amped up to play and it doesn’t matter if there is a big or small crowd?

Jay: I think we're at the point of being a touring band as to where we have no right to be picky about shows. We're just one of another million touring bands that they could have seen, but they made it an effort to come out to your show. Whether it's 6 or 60 people, it doesn't really matter. They still came out and that should be worth getting excited about. 

IE: Out of all the cities you played on this tour which one would you say is the most surprising where people wouldn’t really think that there is a good scene but there is?

Jay: Jackson was definitely that city. We saw a lot of Infest patches so we covered them and for the 20 seconds the cover lasted people actually moshed like it was the end of the world (we played there on 12/21/12). 

IE: Every band at one time or another has played shows where there is nobody there and they are basically playing for the people running the venue and maybe some of the other bands. When these kinds of shows end up happening what do you do to stay “with it” and not zone out or get pissed that not many people showed up?

Jay: We don't practice that much. If no one's at the show, fuck it, it's a great opportunity to rehearse. 

IE: So then what makes a show a “good” show for you guys?

Jay: People not walking out of the room with their friends asking each other, "What the fuck was that?" 

IE: You are now working on a new EP called “Self Deconstruction”. This will be your third EP. Why keep going with the EP's and not a full length?

Jay: A lot of hardcore full lengths include a lot of filler bullshit. I would rather keep putting out solid EP’s of 3 or 4 songs I know are pretty good, than bullshit my way through 10 or 12 songs of material that will leave someone indifferent about it. Who knows though, maybe one will come out from the woodwork.

IE: When the full length comes along do you already see many of the older songs being part of it as re-recorded versions or will it be all new material or is it still too early to tell?

Jay: I'd want to re-record an older song or two.  

IE: At one point the “Reality Of The Pain” EP maxed out on it’s Bandcamp downloads which must be a pretty good feeling since people are really getting into it. Do you know how many people downloaded it?

Jay: I don't know exact numbers, but I'll say way more people cared about the record than any of us expected them to.  

IE: It was also available as a cassette, how many of those did you make?

Jay: There were 3 colors available through Dog Years Records that were out of 25. We made a few more when we played Gateway to the West, not sure how many of those there were.  

IE: I wanted to touch on Modern Pain’s lyrics as well which can be pretty dark but also of a person who has made mistakes in the past but now sees a better way for themselves moving forward.

Jay: I don't personally write any of the lyrics, so I don't have really any room to talk on their meanings. However, the "The" in "Reality of THE Pain" is something you can think about and relate to. What specifically is "the pain"? 

 

IE: Out of everything that this band has done and accomplished to this point what would you say is your most proud moment or moments? 

Jay: This band is the first thing I've ever done in my life that people seem to legitimately give a shit about. The fact that people have cared this much so far and are continuing to care has made this whole experience one of my proudest ones.

IE: That’s all I got. Anything else you wanted to add that we may not have touched on?

Jay: For how long and in depth this interview was, I don't think there was any room for stuff not to be touched on! Thanks for taking the time to write these out. XXX