When & how did Iconicide begin?
Iconicide 'began' a long time before I started looking for people. That began one night in December of '88 at a place called the Anarchist Switchboard, which was a meeting place for a bunch of discordant underground factions. I was writing reviews for a zine called BAD NEWZ, and Bob Z
Why?
Why did I start ICONICIDE? I'd always known I was going to start a band, ever since I heard BLACK SABBATH when I was five, and saw KISS and DOCTOR TEETH AND THE ELECTRIC MAYHEM (from The Muppet Show) on TV. I first started writing apocalyptic blues songs when I was 10, but hearing bands like ABRASIVE WHEELS
How would you define ‘icon’?
An icon is anything people imbue with power through the act of self abdication. It can be a job, or a drug, or a spouse, a god or country, or any other form of addicton. Take a flag, any flag. When someone salutes a flag and pledges allegiance, what they're really doing is pledging surrender. A white flag is a flag with no disguise. It's important to remember that by itself an icon has no power. That's why all religions and movements demand the subjugation and extinguishing of the Self.
Why do you refer to yourself as ‘The Antimessiah’?
That was a name given me by an old guitarist of mine Alitha back in 1992 - it's a long story, and I'm not telling its original meaning. I kept it cause it fits. The mind of the Normal is like a pupil: the more light tries to enter it, the more it shrinks. They have an inborn resistance against seeing things as they are, and are most offended when something assails their 'right' to complacency. Like it says on some of our old stickers, "The Most Heavily Guarded of Truths Are the Most Obvious".
What are the most important messages you want to get across to people?
I'd first need them to get a handle on the lyrics.
What would you say it would take to ‘buy’ Iconicide, i.e. to compromise your ideals for commercialism?
Anything anyone could 'buy' wouldn't be ICONICIDE, and it would never last. 'Succeeding' at ICONICIDE in terms of it being an acceptable commodity would defeat the purpose. Commercialism demands homogeneity, and that's something I'm not capable of.
Do you consider Iconicide strictly a hardcore or NYHC band?
I have a lot of respect for true New York Hard Core, and anyone who knows enough about it will tell you that it's far from one dimensional. In '86-87 you could go to a NYHC show and hear a wide range of bands. WARZONE, NY HOODS, THE MOB and SHEER TERROR are all NYHC, but that's where the similarity ends. When SICK OF IT ALL and BIOHAZARD hit it big, people started losing perspective, and the whole 'scene' turned incestuous, with that 'rap metal' thing, and bands started sounding the same. Hardcore became a dirty word, a form of music made by kids who listened to RANCID without ever having heard of OPERATION IVY. ICONICIDE is a return to what Hardcore should be. There are other bands out there who are doing the same thing, like EYES OF HATE and STATUS QUO NO SHOW, but for now I keep having to qualify my use of the term Hardcore by calling it Oldschool.
What kinds of people do you most want to reach?
ICONICIDE has never been a 'feelgood' band. Like when I was putting out a zine called SOMEPLACE LIKE EARTH, I want most to avoid preaching to the converted. I prefer rude awakenings .
