Kristen: Tell me a little bit about how you guys got together as a band, where you're from?

Steve: I've been friends with him [Alex] since I was five years old; his father and my father have been friends...then I met this kid [Matt] in high school in 1994. We've been playing together - the three of us - since then, so it's been almost a 10 year adventure. But as Confront we started in 1999, layed down some demos, got serious about it, and here we are.

Kristen: You have a big following in South Boston, how did that come about?

Steve: We started doing all-ages shows at the Grace Church on East 4th Street, and the kids were really into it, started coming out getting into the music...

Kristen: What gave you the idea to go there?

Steve: I just remember being a kid growin' up and going to the Rat...so, there's nothing like that for kids anymore around Boston. I feel like we kind of made progress, but they shut that place down, too.

Kristen: They shut the Grace Church down, now?

Steve: Yeah. You can't win!

Alex: No more shows there...

Steve: But the kids are into it now, we're gonna do more shows, they go out of their way to go to shows and they're more in the Boston scene, so...

Alex: We'll find something else in Southie, but there's nowhere we can go.

Kristen: Tell me about the name "Confront" - Confront is so precise, and it's nice to not have - especially when you're doing flyers - to have that fourteen syllable band name! [laughter] How'd you come up with that?

Matt: We went through a few names that we won't mention! Steve came up with that...

Steve: It's kind of the way we approach things, we approach life head on, eye-to-eye.

Kristen: Is that how you feel about your music?

Steve: We're not really antisocial, we're not anti-anything, it's just if we're met with a challenge we meet it head on. We've got our brother's back, so to say...we grew up in the city, it's the way we are.

Kristen: Tell me about your new CD!

Steve: It's an 8-song EP, it's called "Remember the Days". It's stuff we wrote over the past year or so...talks about growing up, life, living in the city, stuff like that.

Kristen: Tell me about the recording of the new CD...where'd you do that?

Steve: We did it with a guy named Jim Foster, out in Framingham. He actually used to play guitar for Milisecond. The CD was recorded live, with guitar tracks and vocals on the top. There's no digital editing, we don't do that. We all pretty much produced it, we don't want other people producing our music....

Kristen: How long did it take?

Steve: Three days.

Matt: Yeah, three days, that's it.

Steve: Not full days, either!

Alex: I was there for one!

Steve: One day we did the live tracks on all eight songs, second day we did all the guitar parts and vocals, and then third day we mixed.

Kristen: I was actually at your CD release party at the Grace Church and that was all ages, it was very, very cool. The other thing that impressed me was how accessible you made the show and the CDs. Are you going to end up looking for more all-ages venues, and places to do that again?

Steve: That's what we want to do. Ourselves, Dirty Water, Bluebloods, we all wanna do it. That's where the scene is, that's where it could be huge again.

Alex: We definitely love the all-ages, the kids just have a lot of energy, so it's great to play to them.

Steve: We're pretty open with the kids, and they've been pretty good to us. We're not far away, we're not rock stars or anything. We're kind of just one-on-one, you know?

Kristen: Getting back to the Boston scene, we talked about how you've done a lot of all-ages shows, and you've built - from what I've observed - a pretty strong foundation in both the all-ages and the 18+ scene. Where do you feel that you fit into the scene right now?

Steve: We're, like, in the middle, you know? There are people that still [view us as] the underdogs, kind of, still leery about who we are, and then you have the kids that have been following us since the beginning. With them, I think we're kind of the top as far as local bands go, then other people that are kind of skeptics are in the middle now.

Alex: People are still trying to figure out where to place us! We're not one type of [music].

Steve: We're punk, but I don't think it's like 98% of the punk that people know....

Matt: It's not street punk, it's not California punk, it's not this or that...

Steve: It's just Punk Rock & Roll. I mean, it's got street ethics behind it, more than anything else, but I just think we still have an edge that people just don't know what to do with yet.

Kristen: You said there were a lot of skeptics - now are you referring to other bands, or fans, or...?

Steve: There are a lot of people in general that are closed minded, and I think a lot of people bitch about the Boston scene not being around anymore. Then you get great bands like Dirty Water, Bluebloods, us, 12 cent, constantly playing and they don't get off their asses and go to shows and give it a chance.

Matt: People gave up on the scene, and it's not good.

Kristen: You feel like people are giving up?

Matt: People have given up, but there's more people that are starting to come back to it.

Steve: It's coming back alive - it's with the younger generation! The generation that were at the Rat, '94, '95, '96, that were older then, are still kind of like [whatever]. They always had the Dropkicks, which was awesome, and they're doing really well, but those people can't get behind the bands now.

Alex: It seems like they're stuck listening to what they had then, where we're kind of going for the younger crowd, where they're looking for something new and fresh.

Kristen: So how do you think "new and fresh" is going to grow and evolve in the scene? It is changing now. How do you think it's going to be impacted and who's going to be impacted by it?

Steve: I think the music will impact anybody who gets into it and bring back that - I always had a sense of unity, I always had a sense of my city, I was always proud to be from Boston, and to me that's what the Boston punk scene is all about. We all relate on that level that's not like "rock star", you know what I mean? We're all on the same level, we're all from the same city. You can relate to the music, you all know where you came from, you don't forget that. And I think the kids now are understanding that with the new bands: Dirty Water, Bluebloods, us, even the Dropkicks with their new album, the kids are picking up on it. They're starting to hang out and shows, being in the band, consider you one of them, which I think is great.

Kristen: Axis is pretty much the only club in Boston where you can do an all-ages show. There's some VFWs that I noticed - the Dilboy in Davis Square - did them, but I don't know if they'll ever do them again!

Steve: You get places like 49 Monk Street down in Stoughton, we just played there last night - they don't know how to react to the kids. [band laughs] They hire security that doesn't know what they're doing....

Kristen: Tell me about that! Was it, it was a basement show?

Alex: It was a basement show, it was really dark, and we were one song away from playing and not even an arguement [broke out], it was just kids yelling at each other....

Matt: Yeah, Dirty Water was on, there was a kid dancing, and he bumped into the wrong person who happened to know the hired security, not even a bouncer for the venue, but this kid happened to know the hired security and said, "This kid bumped into me!" So the hired security rushed the kid into the corner, and that was it! Then the real bouncer came down, saw the hired security rush the kid into the corner and said, "That's it! Show's over!"

Steve: And then there were seven cops with canine units!

Matt: Seven cruisers and a canine unit in Stoughton! Like they got nothing better to do....

Alex: And they maced some kids, running out of there! Punk rock mayhem!

Steve: Out in the suburbs you do have a lot of venues  you can play all-ages and reach out, but people don't know how to react to it.

Matt: Right, something happens and that's it, it's over.

Alex: They just didn't expect it, they had no clue, I guess, what they were getting into!