What kind of band is DBD? Are you party animals or…

"We hang out sometimes, we party sometimes... If we’re on a tour with bands who like to party, we party. If they want to chill, we chill, you know. We don’t get too crazy however, ‘cause we have to play every day."

How is it to share the stage with bands like Agnostic Front and Hatebreed during the Persistance Tour?

"Unreal! For me, we toured with Agnostic Front a few times, but to be on tour with those guys… They’re like the godfathers of hardcore! It’s amazing for us as a band too. We played a few shows with Hatebreed before, but we’ve never toured with them. We know them for years and they’re really great guys. One of my other favourite bands is Ignite. They’re great guys too and Ringworm, Sworn Enemy… This is an amazing package. Everybody gets along, it’s a good time with great bands and I’m happy to play with them and watch all these bands on stage."

Do you have some crazy tour stories to tell about this tour so far?

"This tour hasn’t been that crazy yet. It’s been a lot of driving and sleeping… and driving… and sleeping… Today is the first time we had the opportunity to see the city we play; we don’t have that much time when we’re on the road. Mostly we arrive at the venue, we check our e-mails – try to stay in contact with our family and friends back home. And if you have the time you try to check out the city, but before you know it it’s dinner time, the show starts, the show is over and it’s time to pack up… We hang out a lot in the bus while we’re driving though. They guys from Ringworm and Ignite are throwing metal parties, listening to metal and drinking all night, but it’s tough to see a city or something, you know what I mean."

Can you see a significant difference between the European crowds and the American?

"Ow yeah! I’ve always said it from the first time I came over. It feels like the European crowd is a lot more appreciative to hardcore, metal and punk rock and they stick with it. I feel in the States that there’s a lot of close mindedness and people are open minded here. You play in front of these crowds and you have hardcore kids, metal kids and punk rock kids and everybody seems to have a great time getting along and having fun and that is very important. I think in the States people forget that, you know. The kids are also very loyal towards the bands here, it’s awesome.
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What’s the worst thing that happened in the crowd during a DBD show?

"Worst thing… hmm… I don’t think I’ve seen something really bad and I’m happy for it, ‘cause everybody should come to a show to have a great time and to have fun and sometimes it gets a little bit crazy and that’s cool, but as long it’s for the right reason. People get hurt, but as long as it’s by accident. I mean: what can you do? It’s tough, but that’s part of life - accidents happen."

You released Count Me In this year, how are you looking back on the whole recording and writing period?

"It was good, I liked it a lot. I think we didn’t have a lot of time to write it, we took like a month and a half off for it. We came home from a tour, we rehearsed and started writing stuff. Even now from this tour, we have a month or a month and a half off and we’ll get a rehearsal studio and we’ll practise the songs that we have and then we’ll start writing new stuff and then we’ll put them together for the next record. Also the recording process from Count Me In was great. It was the second time for us with Jim Siegel and it was awesome. We already worked with him, so he knew how he had to work with us and he’s great. When we’re in the studio we know each other and we’re friends. I’m really psyched how the record came out!"

When you look back now, is there something you would do different if you had the possibility to do it all over again?

"No! I like everything about the record and I wouldn’t do anything different about it."

What can we expect from DBD in the future?

"Touring! I think we’ll come back to Europe in April or something like that… I’m not too sure yet and then we’ll stay on the road throughout the whole year and maybe in the fall write a new record. We’ll come back to Europe at least once, that’s for sure! Maybe headlining, maybe supporting…"

Ignite and Terror are playing in Europe around April, right?

"Yeah! We talked about doing a support indeed, but I can’t promise you anything at this point. Nothing is for sure right now. If it doesn’t work out we’ll come over anyway and do a headlining tour, but hopefully… It’s an amazing tour, so… hopefully!"

What does hardcore mean for you, is it really a way of living or is it just the music that you make?

"It’s everything. Playing in a band is great and I’m happy to be out there touring, so I can play my music for people. Everybody says hardcore is a lifestyle and for me that really is. When I’m at home I go and see local hardcore shows or I’m on the internet to see how my friends’ bands are doing. Hardcore is all I know, I’m going to shows since ’95 and it’s fucking amazing, it’s just all I know man."

At this point we talked about the local scene in Boston and about Dutch hardcore bands. He mentioned a few upcoming bands from Boston, which I should check out and we talked about little sweaty venues and that sort of stuff.

Where does the name DBD come from? It isn’t from the movie, right?

"Hahah. No, it’s not coming from the movie. I wanted to have a tattoo on my chest and I really liked the words Death Before Dishonor, because it is a model to live by. At that point we didn’t have a name for the band and Death Before Dishonor also sounded like a nice name for a band, so we just went for it. I never got the tattoo though, because that would be bad luck."

The tagline of the movie is: “It's not just a job. It's a vendetta!” What’s the tagline for DBD?

"That’s a really tough one! I think it would be: It’s not just the music; it’s a way of life!"

Your bass player said that if he’s not on tour, he’s sitting in his dad’s basement. What the hell is he doing there?

"Nothing… He just writes a lot of music. Besides writing for DBD he also writes for his side-project Trust In Few and he also records a lot of stuff. He recorded the whole CD for Trust In Few on his own in that basement. It’s great, but he’s out of his mind… Hahah!"

One last question: Where do you get the inspiration for your tattoos from?

"Sometimes I think about something what I really want, but most of the time… like you have a fucking bad day, something’s not going right and then it’s just like: fuck it, I’m getting a tattoo! I’m not very picky or something… A while ago, we were on tour and our bus broke down twice and a friend of mine does tattoos, so I was like: fuck it, give me one! Whatever fits. When things don’t go right I’m getting tattoos, the pain somehow makes me feel better."

Do you have something to add to this interview or maybe something to say to our readers?

"Check our record Count Me In, we’re psyched about it and hopefully we’ll be back in April sometime, so come and see us on tour."