Interviews

Interviews: Training For Utopia

Technology is a beautiful thing. Mankind is capable of so much due to technology. Mankind, however, fails to constantly respect technology. We can become comfortable with the ease of modern conveniences. Unfortunately, we are ill-prepared for the breakdown of these devices. If electricity fails in the winter, modern city residents, being unknowledgeable in survival, face the chance of freezing. These unexpected and unplanned contingencies thwart every level of existence, including the modern journalist, who, without access to proper and necessary recording equipment, may be forced to conduct interviews with paper and pencil, leading to paraphrasing instead of directly quoting, but anyway...

The independent label Tooth & Nail has yielded more than just MxPx. Tooth & Nail's satellite label, Solid State, is dedicated to extreme music, namely hardcore. After releasing a four song EP, The Falling Cycle, Training for Utopia are poised to release their first full length on T&N/Solid State on March 3. Plastic Soul Impalement, will certainly establish Training for Utopia as one of the most innovative bands to enter the scene.

Training for Utopia formed in October of 1996. Some will recognize singer Ryan Clark as guitarist for the now defunct Focal Point, another T&N/Solid State band. Since then, they haven't toured at all, so they are understandably excited about no longer being "virgins to touring" when they take it on the road this Spring, playing some dates with Zao. They plan on getting crazy, which is what happens when your first tour is almost two months and a show every night. They'll be playing songs from Plastic Soul Impalement, an album that will be "a lot crazier and more thought out" than The Falling Cycle. The music is conceived through a very simple writing process: "My brother and I write all of the music." Ryan writes all of his lyrics. Unlike most Tooth & Nail bands, Training for Utopia's lyrics are a little more negative. Ryan writes about what angers him, what's bothering him, what he's feeling, etc. They don't want to have a platform, including religion, politics, or anything else. They don't want to fit into a genre. While being a mainly heavy band, they focus more on making crazy, insane songs.

- Jeremy