First Strike vanished from the earth early 2000’s without apparant reasons or any announcement, at least so it seemed. Due to their short period of existance and of course the ‘Unknown Soldier’ on bassguitar there was some mystery and cult about this band. Now it’s 2014 and the band is about to release their sophomore album “Second Wave Of Assault”, time to drop some bombs on singer Rich about the band’s past, present and future!
First of all thanks a lot for doing this interview! Could you please introduce yourself and the rest of your band to our readers? Previous bands, what do you do in daily life, what keeps you busy, etc??
First Strike is (me) Rich on guitar and vocals, René on drums, and the Unknown Soldier on bass. This has been my only band for the most part. I did play guitar for Venganza Tatuada for a short time. René also played drums for Skin Disorder. We all have blue collar type jobs. What keeps us busy is regular day to day business pretty much such as work, family, relationships, the daily grind, etc.
First Strike started it off in late ‘94/early ‘95, can you tell us how the band got together?
The band was a concept in Taj's (Our original bassist) head in the summer of '94. He had just done a stint playing bass with Vibrum '94 and was looking to do something else.Guitar always interested me so I asked Taj if I were to buy a guitar could I join the the band. He said yes. The funny part is that I didn't even know how to play guitar at that time! LOL! About 5 months later with a few quick Oi! guitar lessons under my belt we went into a practice studio with the original Unknown Soldier on drums and nobody on vocals yet. I think I brought 2 or 3 song ideas with me that day. We practiced them and were on our way.
The band seemed to be active until 1999, early 2000’s maybe, and then went off the radar. What happened?
It’s hard to say what happened really. There was no one big event that I can say ended our first run, but maybe a lot of small events and set backs that through us off track. At the time Taj was having some personal problems and began to fade from the band so I pretty much let it go also.
In that time First Strike released a demo, a 7” EP and the full- length “In Veneration Of Fallen Heroes”. Do you feel satisfied with the output you guys had in 90’s or do you feel like more was possible?
Yeah I would have liked to have done more in hindsight. Back then it seemed like some bands that had just came out had 3 or 4 7"s already in the same year! LOL! I'm glad we were able to release an LP back then though.
Now we fast forward to the year 2012, 14 years after your debut album “In Veneration Of Fallen Heroes”, and you are featured with four new(?) songs on the “Werewolves Of The Night Compilation” compilation. What made you guys do a comeback? Or do you consider the band a ‘sleeper cell’ and you guys were never gone?
There were a couple of times during the mid 2000s that we almost got together to do some shows but that never came to be. I decided I want to start playing again in earnest. I was looking to join something else but after some false starts those projects didn't pan out. At that point I decided to bring back First Strike from scratch with a new band.
The subtitle of this compilation is “Raw Oi! Banned From The City”. Do you feel banned from your city? Because in the past you guys played with plenty of NYC Oi! and punk bands in the well-known clubs and venues?
Now there's a different atmosphere here in New York. Seems like certain Internet warriors dedicated much time and effort into trying to have shows shut down. A lot of venues afraid of bad publicity just cave in. Recently bands have had to resort to not letting the location of the shows be know until the day of the show. Why they trying to kill Oi!?! Hahaha!!!
The compilation got released by This Means War, who also reissued your first EP and the full-length, both on 12” vinyl. Are you happy with those releases? Do you think it put First Strike back on the map?
Yes I'm very happy with the reissue of both the first LP and 7". Toni from This Means War had the idea of making the 7" into a 12" and it looks great! It also includes the song "Police Car" that came from the Cockney Rejects tribute 7" comp that we were on. I think their release is a good precursor to the upcoming new LP and a good chance for fans to get these 2 long out if print releases.
You are about to release your new full-length album “Second Wave Of Assault”, can you tell us a bit more about it?
Our new full length is culmination of all our efforts to date since our comeback. People who liked our older stuff I think won't be disappointed. We kept it 100% New York Oi!
I have heard it, it sounds great again and really has a old school feel to it. Also the sound seems to be the exact same as your previous releases. Was it recorded in the same studio?
Thanks I'm glad you like it. No we recorded at a different studio this time. Ha, I guess we have an ear for that old school sound.
“Second Wave Of Assault” has a total of 8 songs on it. Can you describe what they are about?
It's 8 new songs that speak of history('Katyn'), treachery('Ted Hall', 'Vengeance'), war('Legion XVII-XVIII-XIX'), economics('Wage Slave'), and politics of the street('Working Class Style', 'Boot,Braces, No1 Slut', 'Liar') all done First Strike style.
To promote this record This Means War will also press a promo 7” with the song “Katyn” and on the B side a unreleased track from 1999 called ?In My Country?, is there more unreleased stuff from that era? Because I believe there was also talk of a split EP during that time?
Yes you are right. We were gonna do a split and the song that we were gonna use was a version of "Boots, braces, no1 slut"(which now is newly recorded and appears on the new LP). That Ep never panned out. We recorded 3 tracks at that time. They were an early version of "8.6.45", "Boots, Braces, No1 slut", and "In My Country". These songs never were used for anything else because they came at the end of our first run so we just put them on the shelf so to speak.
How are you guys going to promote the new album? Will First Strike perform live?
Yes when this record drops we hope to get out there and do our live thing.
What will the future hold for First Strike?
We hope to keep the ball rolling and continue to record and play. Hopefully this time it won't take us another 16 years before our next LP comes out! Ha!
Okay, I am going to round this interview up! Thanks a lot! If there is anything you’d like to add, feel free to do so!
First off I'd like to thank you Mano and American-oi.com for the opportunity to do this interview. We also want to thank our family and friends. Toni from This Means War records and also Rolling On! Records. A shout out to all real skinheads and Oi! music fans from around the world. Thanks also to the people who have supported us past, present, and who will support us in the future. Last but not least thanks to all our enemies. No one has put more effort into keeping the name of First Strike alive than you.
Reach us at: firststrikeoi@gmail.com
