On the edge of making a difference.
Interview w/Justin Sane from Anti Flag
"Music has an ability to get inside of you and to make
you feel a way that cannot be explained."Justin Sane gives out a firm handshake as he introduces himself and suggests we should more somewhere else since it's kind of loud in the room. We're standing at the cafeteria of the venue, the tables are all filled with musicians giving out interviews or just taking a break from everything, in the back corner a few of them are sitting quietly eating their food and gazing to the remoteness. The atmosphere is tired but happy. "This is the very last show tonight of the tour. I'm very tired", Sane says and laughs as we set ourselves near the merchandise desks. "But I feel a little sad; I've had a really great time on this tour and I'm not necessarily excited to go home", he says. "I mean it's always good to go home see your friends and family but I've made such great friends out here and got to play great shows almost every evening. That's kind of what I think I was put this planet to do."
EASTPAK ANTIDOTE TOUR
Anti Flag has been touring with The Ghost Of A Thousand, Four Year Strong and Alexisonfire for 7 weeks and is indeed going to end the tour tonight in Helsinki, Finland. "I'm glad we got to end the tour in Helsinki, it means it's going to be a great show. So it's nice to end the tour in a high note."
The band is known for their outspoken views on American government. Most recently, the band has focused criticism on the United States bailouts. As our conversation turns into politics, he seems worried about the situation in America but doesn't fully oppose nor support Barack Obama.
"I thought that Barack Obama was the best choice as far as any candidate who'd actually get elected, but I don't think Barack Obama is the answer", he stresses. "I think he has a lot of flaws. For me Barack Obama was fully someone who could protect us against John McCain. John McCain would've just been four more years of Bush. I feel like if we get anything good out of Barack Obama that would just be a little icing on the cake", he says and gives it a laugh. "There are other candidates out there who I think are stronger and smarter and more dedicated to the people overall. One of those people is Ralph Nader." In the 2008 election, Nader placed third overall, with 660,094 votes.
"I think that there were some things that Barack Obama has brought that are really important; for example he believes in women's right to choose, he's put someone in the Supreme Court to protect women's right to choose. If we'd had a right wing president again more than likely a women's right to choose would've been taken away. I think that Barack Obama was clearly a better choice but I don't expect very many good things out of him; we're still in Iraq, he's still adding troops in Afghanistan, there are a number of issues where I think he's really weak and I think it's unfortunate."
Anti Flag, who give constant dedication to fighting for human rights with Amnesty International, animal rights with Peta and a number of other causes, wanted to also make this tour about something bigger than just rock music and a company sponsor. In the spirit of doing that, they talked to Eastpak about making donations from Eastpak to any humanitarian organization. Sane grabs a bright green leaflet from the merchandise table. "It's called Emmaus. Emmaus works to help homeless people get off the street. We've been donating money from the shows and Eastpak has been donating resources to Emmaus to help people on the street, help them get back up their feet. Living on the street is a really hard way to live."
AGAINST THE NEGATIVE, BRING THE POSITIVE
The band shows dedication to making a difference by participating in a number of other projects as well. "We continue to work Military Free Zone which is our nonprofit organization that helps fight military recruitment in schools. We've been working with Greenpeace to pressure Barack Obama to go to Global Climate Change Summit in December in Copenhagen and at this point Obama has not said that he would go to that. He's talked a lot of good talk about climate change and environment but he has not had a lot of good action."
Emmaus is also a charity that Anti Flag had been working with throughout the whole tour. "I'd like to think that it in the end will make something even a little better for…even if it's just one person I think it's better than doing nothing at all."
The band members views on politics and such obviously reflect on their music as well as actions, Sane says that in general the things about Anti Flag that he seriously respects is that they give everybody a chance and they're not quick to judge. "The guys on Anti Flag are going to have a conversation with someone if they can and take time for every person and realize that all people are equal. I think that's something that we have - as a quality in ourselves, but I think that it definitely plays in the music ‘cause then the music comes about something bigger than just the band or just the songs, it's music that is intent on ultimately trying to make the world a better place. "
Sane says that being on the road, doing tours like Eastpak Antidote, meeting people, hearing their stories and learning about them inspires him a lot. "Obviously you also get inspiration from world events that have an effect on many people because ultimately we really want to work against the negative and bring the positive into the world. So as many people as possible can get a life that's egalitarian and where they're free and where they have the right to choose their own future. I think that those kinds of issues obviously seep into the greater collective mind of the band."
When it comes to music in general for Sane the most important quality about a song are the lyrics. "Even if there's great music to the song if the lyrics are demeaning to women or racist or homophobic or they're really stupid… At that point they just ruin the whole song for me."
Sane thinks that the way music brings people together has a lot to do with why music is such a huge deal for so many people. "It's certainly a community building kind of foundation whether it's for a good community or a bad community", he says and laughs. "I think that people who have similar ideas quite often congregate around the same kind of music. We talk about this in our society all the time, like; ‘oh, he's a rock guy, he's a rap guy, that's a punk dude…'"
He raises his hand to his chest to stress the point he's about to make. "I think that a lot of communities have organized themselves around music because music has an ability to get inside of you and to make you feel a way that cannot be explained. I think that it's really special when you find something like that in this world."
It's quite rare to see a lineup as amazing as on the Eastpak Antidote Tour this year. After 7 weeks of touring A Ghost Of A Thousand, Four Year Strong, Alexisonfire and Anti Flag ended the tour to a high note, just as Sane had hoped. As usually the crowd needs a few songs to warm up, that's not the case tonight. The kids are wild and as The Ghost Of A Thousand, English five-piece punk rock band kicks off the night. It doesn't take crowd more than a minute to form a moshpit and get a few crowd surfers lay on top of their arms.
The Ghost Of A Thousand surely knows how to get their crowd go crazy even though they're quite savaged to begin with. Halfway through their set the singer jumps to the crowd, surfs all the way to the moshpit and stays there, moshing while finishing the song. He walks to the mixing table after, throwing a high five with the sound guy before returning to the stage with someone else's white woolen cap.
Overall The Ghost Of A Thousand puts on such an amazing performance it was hard for me to believe that they were only the first band of the evening. They left the stage leaving the slab pretty high for the bands to come but the crowd hungry for more. ****/*****
Four Year Strong was up next and it was plain to see that they enjoyed being on stage end especially enjoyed seeing kids climb to the stage and stage diving with full force & speed. Four Year Strong beholds the most upbeat sound from the bands of the night. What they have brought to the line up of this tour is the pop side of rock n' roll. They differ from the other bands also with their way of being on stage, they're less aggressive and more like skater boys at a house party. Four Year Strong puts on a great show and they surely know how to have fun, but from the bands of the night they were the weakest link and even though they were really good, they were the ones who didn't totally blow me away with their show. ***½/*****
The most anticipated performance of the night was surely Alexisonfire as this was their first time visiting Finland. Alexisonfire kept on the amazing atmosphere in the room.
The fearless singer dives to the crowd without a warning and is carried to the side of the room. He boldly clutches the pole next the wall, lifts himself up and climbs upstairs to the bar. He leaves his mic there and returns to the stage safe. What the fuck just happened? Somehow the mic is safely returned.
Alexisonfire is fucking tight live; they're very powerful and make it easy to lose yourself to the music. The feeling while watching this band live is ecstatic. *****/*****
If Alexisonfire was well anticipated, so was Anti Flag. The club is packed with people and as Anti Flag kicks off their first song the whole downstairs turns into a huge moshpit. "Take care of one another, respect one another, and while you do, let's have a fucking good time", Sane states out in between the songs. Whenever someone falls down in the moshpit the bands stops playing and asks someone to pick them up.
Going strong for over 20 years Anti Flag's still got it. Regarding their punk attitude or their glowing excitement on stage there are no signs of falling out. Anti Flag continues to amaze people, Anti Flag continues to rock the stages, and Anti Flag continues to make a difference. *****/*****
More photos..
myspace / www / emmaus / military free zone / the interview videoText: Joanna Tzortzis.
Live photos: Nelly Tatti.