Pure And Simple Interview with FIGHTING CHANCE

Pure And Simple: As far as I know, Fighting Chance has one record out called "...Thus Hope Fades." Fill in the blanks for me. When, where, why did this all start?

Fighting Chance: First let me give you a bit of background. We're actually from the States, not Canada. I think we're the only American band I know of that's ever signed to a Canadian label, but it's worked out great for us. We come from a city called Baltimore, it's about an hours drive north of Washington, D.C., and is a fairly small, working class city. Living here, on the water and surrounded by slums and hard working neighbourhoods has been a huge inspiration for our music. The original idea to get a band together came from myself (Bullseye) and one of our guitar players, Brian. About 4 years ago we fucked around with some cover songs and what not, mostly old Oi!/streetpunk stuff, in his room, but it never amounted to anything.

Two years later I ran into him again, and he told be he had a bass player and a drummer lined up and they wanted me to sing. We got together probably two weeks later and started practising under the name Lost Cause. Our goal at that time was to play music that brought all of our influences together, Oi!, punk, hardcore, etc. And had a very pro-working class and anti-fascist message. Long story short, we've been through several lineup changes and a name change to get where we are now.Our first release was a self-produced 5-song CD call "City Of The Dead." A few months after recording it we hooked up with Insurgence Records to put a track, "Coward's Pride," on the second Class Pride World Wide compilation, alongside the Angelic Upstarts, Red Alert, Garotos Podres, Charge 69 and a lot of other great bands.

"...Thus Hope Fades" is our first release with the guys at Insurgence, it was recorded almost a year ago even though it just hit the streets a few months back. The title is kind of funny, it's the initials of the crew that a few of us belong to, T.H.F., so we sat around one night thinking of album titles that we could use those initials in (like all the old Madball records, Droppin Many Suckas, Demonstrate My Style, etc.). I came up with "Thus Hope Fades." Once we actually got started on the record we began to take it more seriously - for me it represents the loss of hope that the American working class has suffered. More and more old working class neighbourhoods and towns turn into slums, and people who once had bright futures in manufacturing and union jobs are begging for change on the sidewalk. A lot of the world views America as a land of opportunity, or at least a land of wealth and power, but in reality it's a place with one of the broadest class gaps on the planet. We have the filthy rich and extremely powerful, and we have the desperately poor and those that could be at any minute if they were injured or lost their job. Unlike Europe, we don't have any real kind of welfare system such as state-run healthcare or education, so there is nothing for us to fall back on.

So, anyway, the album title is an attempt to show some of the growing desperation and hopelessness that American workers are feeling right now. The logo was something we threw up real quick at practice one night, and a tattoo artist friend of mine drew it for us. I think the only time any of us have used a baseball bat since we were young kids is for a fight. Pretty much the idea behind the logo was to show that we are willing to fight for what we believe in. It was also an attempt to incorporate some imagery that fit both the skinheads and the punks in the band.

Pure And Simple: The artwork for the "Thus Hope Fades" record is really great. Who made this artwork and where did you find it? How did you come up with the title?

Fighting Chance: Glad you thought the artwork is so great! That was my work. The old pictures on the front and back covers are of the Ludlow, Colorado mine camp massacre (soldiers killed 11 striking miners and their wives and children in 1914) and an IWW (International Workers of the World) march. The photo on the inside of the band was taken by our drummer's girlfriend and is on an old dock. Baltimore was a major ship-building town as well as a shipping port up until the last couple of years, as its water-front jobs have been leaving in favour of shitty tourist restaurants and whatnot. We thought that was a fitting place to take pictures for the records. The cover of our first CD was actually a photo of the city's docks taken on top of a tall building (an old brewery).

Pure And Simple: You are on Insurgence Records. As far as I know, the only Oi! label that matters in Canada (not sure if that is so...). Anyway, how did you get on there? And were there any other labels that wanted to put you out? Who's putting you out in the USA and Europe?

Fighting Chance: We approached Insurgence after we recorded our first CD, basically trying to get onto a compilation or something. That's exactly what happened. Three months later we were on the second Class Pride World Wide compilation and they were inviting us up to Canada to play some shows for them. They are the only label we've ever seriously talked to, and really, we consider ourselves a part of the label now as much as any band they've released. We try and work with other Insurgence bands as much as possible, and do our best to promote them as well as ourselves. We are doing some compilations for a couple of American record labels. Workers United Records is putting us their first release, a compilation titled "Songs Of The Streets" which should be out in a few months. It's a mix of Oi!, punk and hardcore form all over the U.S. Cornerstone Records has also asked us to appear on their new compilation which will be a history of sorts of the Baltimore hardcore scene. Insurgence is our largest source of promotion and distribution outside of our own home town, they've set up distribution of our records in the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Europe on a small scale. We've also begun working on getting our record out in the rest of the world. We've done some album trades with labels, bands and distros in France, Italy and Turkey.

Pure And Simple: I think your singer Bullseye (does that mean you're a really good darts player) has a very "different" way of singing that I really needed to get used to, but once you get used to it it's really cool. Do you do that on purpose or is that just the way you've always sung.

Fighting Chance: Fighting Chance is the first serious band I've ever been in, so I guess you could say that's how I've always sung. I never really though about it much, I just opened my big mouth at the first practice and this off-key growl is what came out!! I'm actually trying to work on "singing" more on our next album, it should be interesting.

Pure And Simple: How important is the lyrical content to Fighting Chance? When I see lyrics like "Blue Collar Crime" and pretty much all the others, I get the idea that you're a band with a message. How important is it to make people think about who, what and where they are, etc?

Fighting Chance: The lyrics make Fighting Chance. We definately have a message, and we try to convey it as much as possible in all of our songs. That isn't to say we're a 'political' band trying to shove doctrine down someone's throat, but we firmly believe in what we know in our own hearts is right, so of course we're going to sing about that. Everybody in the band has different views on things, it was never necessary to make sure that we all subscribed to the same political party, or any shit like that, but we all agree on a few important points. We are all working class, we believe in worker's rights, human rights and freedom from religious or racial persecution. Basically, we believe in something that's summed up by the first lines of "Thus Hope Fades:" "there are those who offer, that the natural state of mankind is instead, and I know this is a controversial idea, freedom." We believe in freedom, justice and equality. So every song we write, in some way, has something to do with that belief.

Pure And Simple: Do you guys ever play outside Canada? Are there plans to come to Europe, or it is just way to expensive?

Fighting Chance: We've played outside of the U.S. twice, both times in Canada...four shows total. We love travelling, and hope to get to Europe someday. In fact if someone offered to set up a European tour for use, we would definately accept. For us to go out and set something up on our own right now is a bit unrealistic as we all have jobs, etc. But one day we will make it across the ocean.

Pure And Simple: There are so many bands around these days. What makes Fighting Chance a band that stands on its own?

Fighting Chance: I'm not going to come up with some bullshit and say, you know, that Fighting Chance is the best band ever, or that what we're doing has never been done before, but I think there are a lot of good reasons to check us out. In a musical scene where so many bands hide behind the "non-political" doctrine, while secretly harbouring views of one sort or the other, we come right out front with what we've got to say. We say what we believe, and we mean every word of it. We play hard, aggressive music, and so if just "having a laugh" is your thing, I think the music alone is something to get into, but on top of all that we have, what I feel, is a really good, important message. It's obviously more immediate that we care about what's going on in America over what's going on in Europe, but I don't think what we've got to say applies any less in Holland, Germany or France than it does here. We've talked to and met a lot of people from Europe, Asia and South America who feel the same way we do, and enjoy what we play, so hopefully we'll be making even more friends and fans across the sea in years to come.

Pure And Simple: I have Rob Halford on the cover of my new fanzine, so I wondered it you'd ever considered singing one of his songs? ( I bet nobody alive can ever go so high with his voice, but you could try...)

Fighting Chance: Ha, Ha Ha, wait until the new record comes out, it's going to be entirely metal... well, not really, but the metal influence is definately there. We actually tried to cover an Iron Maiden song once, but it didn't work too well...

Pure And Simple: That's it! I have no more questions...

Fighting Chance: Thanks for the interview! Keep your eyes open for our next album titles "Sacrifice and Struggle," as well as an upcoming split 7" with Argentina's The Pub-Allstars. Check out some of the other great Insurgence Records bands like Fate 2 Hate and The Class Assassins, as sell as some kickass bands from out hometown - The Dead End Boys, Stout and Wake Up Cold. To quote Warzone: "Don't forget the struggle, don't forget the streets."

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