Interview with Erica and Hardcore Assault 1. Strength for a Reason has created quite the buzz in the area, so why don't you tell us about your current lineup and how the band first began. Our current lineup is Karl on vocals, myself on guitar, Eddie on drums, Tom on guitar, and Steve on bass. The band first started in 97 with Karl on vocals and the guys from Out To Win doin everything else. We've come a really long way from there and to make a long story short, we went through a lot of changes over the years and we finally ended up with our current lineup, which so far has been pretty solid and hopefully it will stay that way. · 2 What are some of the band's earlier influences and how would you describe the style of your music to those who haven't checked you out before? Does the band as a whole promote any themes in the music? Personally, I think we are influenced by a lot of different styles of music. Some guys in the band are real old school metal fans, then theres the guys like myself that are into a lot bands like Madball, Kickback, All Out war, and stuff like that. I think that shows in our sound. Our style is kind of a mix of old school and new school. Its mostly on the faster side with some hard breakdowns for the dancers out there and a lot of old-school beats for the kids who like that. I get a lot of positive comments from fans out there who like the mix of the sound we got. That's what we were aiming for cause a lot of bands stick to one sound and it only appeals to one kind of crowd, but if you mix it up, you gain more of a fanbase and keep people interested in your music. The last thing you want to happen as a band is to have people get bored when your playin. We do promote some themes in our songs. Most of our songs are about the importance of friendship and staying true to yourself and your beliefs. Other songs are about personal experiences that happened to some of us in our lives and relate to kids out there. Its all real stuff, nothing is made up or thrown together and everything talked about in our songs can relate to people who listen. 3. What would you say the band's goal is? I would say our main goal as a band is to keep playin as much as our lives allow us to. We definitely want to get our music across to more people all over the world and hopefully be able to play for our fans outside of the states sometime soon. Hopefully we can put some more albums out too. Basically, we're just out to have a good time. We do what we want, don't care what others have to say about us, and don't try to compete with anybody. We've been through that stuff before but we're our own band, in it for the love of our music , friends and our fans. We love playin , and will keep doing it until we can't anymore. That's what I think is our goal as a band. 4. Let's talk about the CD. Show and Prove is your first full length on Thornz Records. How are people responding to it so far? How can people get their hands on this CD? So far the response has been great. I've seen numerous reviews in zines and on the web and not one that I seen has been negative. We get emails and phone calls from kids all over the world telling us how much they love the CD and our band. We've sold out of numerous distros a few times so far with the new record and Thornz had to restock their supplies, so its been selling pretty good. Zines have called us from overseas to do live interviews and other stuff like that, so its definitely been a great feeling so far. We hope it continues like this for a while. If anyone out there wants to get their hands on our new cd, you can check out your local gallery of sound and pick one up, or better yet, support the band directly and order it from our website. You can get to our site by typing www.strengthforareason.com on the internet. I'm the order man so you'll be dealing directly with me. I'm legit so don't worry!! 5. Alright, back to business, do you guys have a tour in the making or any upcoming shows that we should know about? Have you thought about touring overseas? We always have shows we are doing. Basically, if you want up to date info on our show dates, go to our website at www.strengthforareason.com and check out the show dates page. I post our shows as I find out about them, so you know as soon as I do. We also got a mailing list on or site that people can sign up for. If you sign up, you'll get the latest band news and show dates as we get them. Usually I send that out every week to keep people informed. 6. Is there anything you would like to add or say? (mention website etc…) Like I said before, visit strengthforareason.com and sign up for our mailing list, order our stuff and support the band. I want to say thanks to you for letting us do this interview and pickin us as the featured band for this week. I also want to say whats up to my brothers in Nanticoke and BFL if they're listening. Thanks to everyone who supports us, James from Thornz, Matt Z. and everyone who does shows with us, and most importantly all our fans out there who have supported us from day 1. We appreciate it.