Corey Williams

Hardcore is the energy that keeps me alive. It has been in my life for over 15 years. It’s the first place that I found love outside my family. It’s passion, emotion, energy, loyalty, and reality. It’s one of the last places on earth where eye for an eye still holds true. We are our own judge and jury. It’s one of very few places where you can actually make a difference with the youth of today.

I’m not the most positive person, but I do see the good in things. If I didn’t have hardcore who knows what kind of piece of shit I would have turned into. It has been the greatest outlet for my anger and emotion. You can do so much in hardcore to contribute and take part to make it your own. You can’t do that with most walks of life.

Hardcore has introduced me to 99% of my friends. It has shown me love in the farthest corners of the world. Sweden, Guatemala, Japan, Australia, UK, France, Canada, Mexico, Holland, Poland, Germany, Belgium, Spain…I could go to any one of those places and feel at home thanks to hardcore.

All the time I hear young kids say hardcore is dead, it’s not like it used to be. It goes in phases cuz we have to cycle out the fakes and posers. I would rather there be less people who care than tons of people with no heart. I could almost say that I like today’s hardcore more than the early days. The music is amazing, it is so accessible and touring and being heard has never been easier. If I ever have children I will definitely try to pass this onto them.

CIA, April '08

Pat Bugajski

The phenomenon of Hardcore is that either you love it and get what’s all about at once or you never will. You can’t learn Hardcore. You just have to be.

What’s really funny is that I still feel pretty same about many things the way I felt when I was a real youngster. What was lame back then to me, still is. What pissed me off then, makes me even fucking angrier today. What made me happy then, still makes me happy. Growing old never meant accepting bullshit to me. I can blame Hardcore for that, I guess. When I saw that there is the other way, I just can’t look the other way and say “aw, all right, whatever”.

I met my best friends through Hardcore. We could stay up late and talk about everything from records to shows to girls to conspiracy theories and what not. There were nothing like people I could meet at school or work. We had and still have the real conversations, not the small talks. And it still happens. Not that often as we all have less time or live far from each other but those moments is what I live for. The talks, the trips, the laugh.

As I grew older, so did the people around, the life turned an uglier face to us every once in a while. I was lucky to know that there is so much more out there than this stupid drama, soap opera, rat race type of shit. I heard so many stories from my workmates or relatives and bullshit situation they had to deal with and I was thinking “fuck, I just cannot imagine dealing with such stuff, it isn’t my world at all. Sometimes when I look at the people I can’t really relate to who are caught in the daily routines and never stop and think “what the fuck”, I think how lucky I am. I could end up frustrated and never satisfied but luckily I found home where I could sort my life out and get myself on the right track. Not that I have all the answers but at least I am happy to keep on searching.

I don’t really fancy many of the bands around today or the attitudes but on the other hand, I know that there are still people/bands out there who can make me feel good just because of who/what they are. I wouldn’t have a chance to find them anywhere else. And I can still have fun, learn and grow just because of having this opportunity. It was beacause of Hardcore that I dare to think that there are so many chances more than I was told.

And all that what makes it so important to me. Life is good.

Pat, April '08

pic by A. Kot

John McKaig

Yeah, well, it sounds trite, but it's true ... of course hardcore is my life, my family. It gave me friends that I would die for if I needed to; it gave me experiences and allowed me to express myself in ways that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise; it means that I can tell people that before 1995 was over I had seen Gorilla Biscuits, Fuzazi, Cro-Mags, Earth Crisis, Sick Of It All, Agnostic Front, Damnation, Sensfield, Into Another, Outspoken, Unbroken, Judge, Turning Point, Shelter and so many others ... when hardcore wasn't the fashionable thing or the easy thing, when you had to really work at it even though you didn't feel like it was work, when you couldn't Mapquest the directions and go on a dozen websites and find out where every show is in seconds; it gave me new brothers and sisters in Rome, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Aukland, Barcelona, London, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Poland, Belgium, Germany and too many other places to list here - friends that are now my family and my "home" all over the world. The hardcore scene was and is what we wanted in the world, the thing that made sense to us, and only us.

When I'm at a hardcore show, and other kids are singing along to words as if their very lives depended on it, it's the feeling that you have when ... your soul has left your body and you have found the place where you belong; you have found the other souls that understand and accept and respect you for who you really are.

When I think about what my life would have been like had I not found a world-wide brother and sisterhood to belong to ... had I not by chance run into and met punk and hardcore kids in Syracuse that eventually changed my life, I feel sadness and pride - sadness for those who miss that chance and continue to live their lives in "quiet desperation", and pride for the family that we made and the lives we have changed - our lives, our family.

McKaig, April '08

pic by www.wolagiewicz.com

Jonathan Buske

It's shown me to respect things I may not whole-heartedly agree with, it's shown me acceptance and tolerance. It's shown me love and affection for beings other than myself and it's shown me how to live a sensible life in a very corrupt and insensitive world.

Most importantly, hardcore has given me my life. My friends, family, values and love all come from this silly thing I have given myself to year after year.

Hardcore is who I am, it's not what I do.

Buske, March 08

pic by Matt Miller

Justin Moulder

Hardcore is, was and always will be important to me for a lot of reasons. Its cliche to say that it changed my life and that I wouldn't be where I am with out it.

In my case its true. I wouldn't be married to a beautiful and amazing woman, wouldn't have the most beautiful kid you'll ever see and friends? Man, I can't imagine the morons I'd be friends with if I were not into the core.

I can remember many late nights in diners with friends in various locales, looking around at the people that were at parties all night and thinking, those dudes have no idea what they are missing and laughing about it all.
Hardcore is like a small social club of sorts for me, not in the frat boy sense but in the way we are in on a secret that a lot of people cannot fathom. If they only knew what kind of fun we had, the cross the world friends we've made. This would almost certainly be over for us. And though I don't go to shows really anymore and I am not into a lot of the current bands as much I used to be, it will always be not just what I do. Its who I am. And you know what?

I would not have it any other way.

J.Moulder, April 2008