Freddy Madball & Catholic Guilt

Words by: Tyler Ross

Let’s start, how did you ultimately end up getting into the hardcore music scene?

I got into the hardcore music scene due to my oldest brother, who happens to be Roger Miret from Agnostic Front.  That’s my direct connection to the hardcore scene.  He introduced me to the whole lifestyle and culture at a very young age.  That is what planted the seed with me.  I started performing with him and that eventually turned into Madball and so the story goes.

What really stood out to you about the hardcore music scene that pushed you to really want to be a part of it?

I don’t know.  I was a little kid, so of course I was impressionable.  It was something my brother was involved in.  You sort of gravitate toward what your older siblings do and what not, but I guess I could have not been into it.  There was something about it.  The rebellious aspect of it drew me to it, and it was something my oldest brother was doing.  It was cool, because he was involved in it and then, I just embraced every aspect that went along with it.

Can you pinpoint where you started to take off musically?

Musically, it started for me early on.  I started going up and singing a song with Agnostic Front, and they encouraged me to do it.  They thought it was kind of cool.  The people got a kick out of it.  It became whenever I was with them on the road, or where ever I could come up and do my song.  That inspired the idea for them to put me on a 7” inch to do a little EP.  It just grew from there man.

How long have you been making hip-hop records?

Right around the same time I would say.  I was listening to hip-hop as long as I could remember.  My household was filled with all different types of music.  My parents listened to rap music, and Roger was obviously into hardcore and punk.  I have two older siblings, and they were into all sorts of different music as well.   I remember early on having hip-hop records in my house.  You know – Sugar Hill, Curtis Blow, and some of the other older stuff.  I would always listen to a little bit of everything.  I would put on vinyl records in my house, and I would be listening to all the different songs from the different genres.  That was me.  I guess that was my taste.

Obviously more directly through my brother, I gravitated a lot toward the hardcore stuff, but something about the hip-hop music that stood out to me.  It was something I favored as far back as I could remember.  I was pretty much into both.  At one point, I would be poppin’ and lockin’ and break dancing with my friends in the neighborhood.   Got into the whole B-boy thing, tagging, and graffiti too.  The whole culture of it, I took it on from a young age and it has always stuck with me.

You seem to do a lot of traveling.  How much of that influences your art of making music?

Yeah of course, you become more cultured.  You grow and pick up a lot by traveling as well.  Traveling is definitely been one of the perks of doing music.  Some of the stuff you get to see and experience is really priceless.  It’s going to ultimately inspire you.  As far as Madball goes, it has inspired songs as well.  It’s always going to inspire me as a person in general.

Why did it take so long to finally create a hip-hop record?

I think the idea of doing it was there for a long, long time.  It has been a couple years in the making.  When I first met my DJ, Stress, who actually is the guy that produced a good portion of this record and the beats till the release of the album, it definitely took a couple of years in change to actually make it happen because of my schedule.  The idea to do it has always been in the back of my mind.  Never really got around to do it until I met Stress, and then we started to buckle down.  He helped me do that.  He had the desire, the facility, and the motivation to do it with me.

How much of your Madball influence comes out on this record?

I use it from time to time.  One thing I didn’t want to do was try to make it a Madball rap crossover or like a rock, hip-hop type thing.  That wasn’t what I was going for.  I wanted to do straight up hip-hop just because I know that people would expect it to be guitar heavy or something like that.  That’s not to say I didn’t use guitar samples, but for the most part it plays and sounds like a hip-hop record.  Hopefully, it will be something unique with this record and all the other elements that make it me.  I definitely reference important people, bands in my life, and hardcore stuff that’s a part of who I am.  I’m proud.  I feel like I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish.  I wanted to make a unique sounding hip-hop record, but still very much hip-hop and not like a rap-rock thing.

Do you find your writing style or storytelling any different?

Definitely!  I learned writing for hardcore.  I also did a project called Hazen Street.  I learned even more, because I was writing for stuff that wasn’t hardcore.  It was a hybrid of a lot of things.  It was something different.  That was a learning process there.  I could see myself evolving as a writer.  Hip-hop is the same thing.  It’s a learning process and it’s exciting, because I want to become a better songwriter.  For me, it’s cool.  I get approached with certain topics from different angles, and I get to play with words a lot more with hip-hop.  I think I’m getting the hang of it, and hopefully the people who listen to the album will agree, that I did it justice for the first chapter of it.  Now, I move on from here and keep growing as a writer doing more creative stuff.

Any major plans to tour this record and if so, what kind of artists do you plan to have on the bill?

I have a show with Ill Bill.  He’s definitely a respected guy in the underground hip-hop world.  I have a show with him in New York at the Knitting Factory, February 14^th and that’s going to be my first New York City show.  I’m looking forward to that.  After that, I’m going to take it from there by seeing what comes my way.  I’ll do as much as I can do.  I definitely plan on doing at the very least major cities, where people can peep it out if they want to peep it out.

You’re extremely well known for being the ‘front man’ of Madball and you are an icon throughout the hardcore community.  What are some of your major influences and why?

Like I’ve said, I appreciate all music.  I have a wide range of genres, and there might be different people from different styles of music that I could say I respect what they do.  There are so many.  Anyone from Agnostic Front to Ice Cube, you know.  Ice Cube kills it live.  I respect Jay Z as a businessman and as a rapper.  Even a lot of the classics I’ve bought, like Slick Rick.

For hip-hop though, it’s hard sometimes.  The energy in hip-hop doesn’t translate like hardcore live.  Although, there are certain artists in hip-hop, that can transfer their energy and make it fun and cool.  Hopefully, I can end up being one of the dudes in the hip-hop world that can sort of bring some of the energy from my hardcore experience through to the hip-hop community.  I think I wouldn’t know how to do it any other way.

What do you want people to know about your hip-hop record?

Listen to the music, the lyrics, and take it all in.  I am taking you on another ride.  Catholic Guilt is the album title.  Conceptually the album isn’t just about religion.  It’s not just a story; it’s a ride, so take what you will from it.  It’s more about life, my life, but things that I think other people can relate to as well.  It’s about struggle, but also about trying to better you.  There are definitely a lot of religious overtones.  It’s a different perspective.  It’s my angle of it and hopefully people like the content.  There are a lot of different things to this record.  There’s the spiritual aspect to it too.   It doesn’t matter if you are Catholic, Jewish or whatever, that’s irrelevant.  You’ve got to see beyond that.

How do you feel about the production of the album?

From the artwork, production, down to the music, it all fell into place.  Stress and I worked really hard.  We locked ourselves in.  Stress killed it production wise.  My sister in-law Liz Bromley stepped in with the artwork and the whole layout.  She even did the layout for the last Madball record.  She is incredibly talented.  I think for the most part, we feel really proud of it.

Will there be a follow-up to this record?

Without a doubt! (Laughs) I’m already writing it.  This one took so long to come out, that I’ve already been on the second record for a while now.  It was a matter of this one being fine-tuned and like I said, it was a matter of scheduling too.  This record should have been out last year, but it is what it is.  It’s here now.  I feel strongly about getting this out and showing people this side of me.  I can only wait and see.

Deciding Where To Fall
By: Tyler Ross

If you were a part of something so influential, touching large numbers of lives, and you decided to turn your back on these influences, how would this affect your future?  For David Bazan (ex. Pedro The Lion) and his fans, that was the Christian religion.  Near the end of Pedro The Lion, Bazan started to feel himself questioning his faith and slipping further and further away from what he used to believe.

Now with a solo career, he recently released a new record, Curse Your Branches, which has been considered the album that answers, why the severance from God.  The album plays as a truly personal insight to his current outlook on religion from the outside looking in.

With a large crowd in full support, the Troubadour in Hollywood, California displayed a mellow-mood sentiment, which occasionally broke out into head-nodding, groove-rock jams.  Even without faith, Bazan doesn’t appear to have lost his fan base.

In between songs, he always sets aside time to interact with the crowd and answer any of their questions.  While playing along with his new band, it’s as if they had been doing this solo project for years.  Although he continues to maintain a solid following, the likelihood of maintaining all the original fans is something Bazan mentioned as being out of his control.

His presence on stage tends to appear awkward, but as the show proceeds, the lyrical content grabs the attention of the audience with ease, and soothes the soul with catchy melodies.  With a lengthy tour that kicked off in San Francisco in early October, Bazan and his band-mates set out across the Bible belt, the East Coast and the Midwest, before returning to his home state of Washington.

“I don’t consider myself a Christian.  I would say I’m more agnostic.  Some of the time, I believe God may exist, but I’m only about half the time comfortable with that perception,” responded Bazan through an Amplified video interview.

Ever since the release of the new record, which could be viewed as a direct shot against religion, Bazan’s music has spawned many debates which appear on numerous blogs and websites.  Occasionally, you will find a few supporters, but most religious sites have tried to pinpoint a reason for his words and why he turned his back on his faith.  One might question why, after all this time, it wasn’t until recently that he decided to voice his innermost feelings in such a public manner.

“I’m open to the possibilities, but at this point, I don’t believe the narrative about ‘capital G.O.D.’ that the Bible or Christianity sets forth,” said Bazan.

No matter the situation, religious or not, Bazan continues to provide touching and harmonious, melodic rock to his growing audience.