i did this interview so long ago, in winter, when reign supremes "American Violence" came out. I was planning on writing a zine, a real paper one, but i don't have ed mishic like patience. It may happen one day, but for now you can read my very first shitty, very short, very boring tape recorder interview ever.
Name and Position in the band.My name is Jay Pepito and I sing for the American heavy metal band entitled Reign Supreme.
Your EP “American Violence” just dropped how has the reaction been to that so far?As far as I know its been really good, a lot of webzines and stuff have given really good reviews like 9/10 and
8/10. There’s a lot of kids hating on us from the bridge 9 board but I’m not surprised, there’s probably at least as many kids on the b9 board dropping off our nuts. So it’s good either way.
So why an EP not a full length? You’ve already released demos and such.We wanted to do an LP but when Deathwish absorbed Malfunction at the time they couldn’t fit in an LP their release calendar so instead of us waiting until next fall to do an LP we decided to get an EP out because we wanted to tour and stuff and we were starting to build up a little bit of a following. We just wanted to get a record out.
Speaking of Deathwish, how has that been for you guys?It’s been really incredible, they work really really hard. They don’t have the bigger budget of a label like Ferret or Trustkill but it kinda doesn’t matter because they push you as a band so hard and they do so much promotion for you it ends up helping you out probably more then being on one of those labels.
You guys have toured a lot, this is around your third time playing Cleveland. What do you guys do when you aren’t “Reigning Supreme”?Well while we’re not on tour, which we’ve been doing a lot as a new band, most of us have jobs. I work at a clothing store called Deep Sleep in Philadelphia and we sell like expensive jeans and street wear and shit, I also teach Mauy Thai and Thai boxing. Some of the other guys work their jobs and do whatever. We just hang out with our girlfriends, go to shows, get tattooed and do dumb shit like that.
Speaking of street wear, is that wear you guys got the idea of the Supreme clothing rip-off?“No that actually isn’t a rip off cause it’s a different font, the only thing similar is it’s red and it’s stylized different. We were actually thinking of doing a supreme rip-off, same font, same bar, same everything on a grey shirt, but we decided against it. I don’t like the fact that so many hardcore kids and people in general are into the brand supreme, I like a lot of street wear stuff, but that brand has one of the weakest showings of any of them. It’s not to talk shit, but chances are, if you’re wearing a supreme shirt and you’re at a hardcore show you probably don’t skate. It’s kinda like wearing a No Fear shirt and not surfing or some shit. It’s cheesy, a little lame to me.”
So Far you guys have done numerous tours, what’s your favorite city to play?“Umm favorite, that’s really hard to say. Um, I think it really depends on the show, like we’ve played Richmond, Virginia and it’s been insane, but then it’s been totally horrible. I know, and I’m not just saying it cause we’re here, but Cleveland everytime we’re here it’s awesome. Kid’s rage and I guess they like us so I guess that’s cool. Cleveland was good; Romeo, Michigan was really good; Portland was fun; Vancuver was fun; Seattle was fun like that whole area was awesome. LA was fun, I mean usually everywhere we play is a pretty good show. Even if it’s not we aren’t worried about it since we’re such a new band.”
What was the general theme you tried to portray with “American Violence”?“Well it depends. Basiccly what this band writes about, or what I write about since I write all the lyrics is like the song defiant being able to hold yourself accountable for your position in life and not blaming others. Kind of like the same theme as the “Fuck the Weak” record. At the same time there are songs like Iscariot about more typical hardcore themes like being betrayed. Then we have stuff like “Faithless” and “To a Dead God” which is like feeling alone, hopeless and miserable. I want to say that we aren’t an anti-religious band at all, but that’s what those songs are kind of about. It comes across like that sometimes but its more like you feel alone, and feeling alone and being alone sometimes you can say ‘I don’t think there is a god because I feel so alone and so miserable.””
