Trapped Under Ice’s guitar player immediately recognized me when he saw me at the merch table in Fürstenfeld. He rembered me from the Bratislava show. After two minutes we already sat on the grass outside of the venue together with TUI’s singer. For some reason David (Terror / Down To Nothing) came with us and told me that he was Jared from TUI. That was just one of the strange answers featuring the longest shout out list ever that those guys gave me and they talked a lot….
The Interview was done in June 2009.
First of all: Who are you and what do you play in Trapped Under Ice?
Justice: I’m Justice. I sing in Trapped Under Ice.
David: I’m Jared. I play bass.
Brad: My name is Brad. I play guitar.
This is your second time in Europe. How’s the tour, how are the bands and did you know them already from the US?
Justice: We knew Terror from the US. It’s our first time getting to know Stick To Your Guns and we didn’t know Born From Pain. They’re all good dudes and everybody’s fun. It was a pleasant surprise to find that everybody’s nice and helpful and everybody gets along great.
I really like your music and I think I speak for all of us when I say that we really like you in Vienna. How is that in the US? Do people appreciate your music and are there a lot of people at your shows?
Justice: The shows are good. It’s good times in the states. This time in europe’s been amazing.
Brad: I just joined the band. We played a few shows in the US before this tour and it was like crazy, it was like World War III everytime we played. Different places are different.
Justice: A couple of people have died.
Brad: Yeah. (Justice laughs) It’s aviolent world when you come to a TUI show in America.
Justice: My dog got stabbed (laughs) But it’s safe for girls. We alway keep a safe spot for them behind the stage.
David: They give us backmassages.
The scene in your hometown Baltimore seems to be pretty strong at the moment with bands like Pulling Teeth, Surroundings and Ruiner. Do you know eachother and hows the scene there?
Justice: I actually used to live next door to Dom from Pulling Teeth. I was his neighbour for about a year. I have friends in all those bands like dudes in Surroundings I’m friends with, everybody in Pulling Teeth. We hang out a bit when we are not on tour which is kinda hard because we’re on tour while they’re not and when we’re home they’re gone. I have friends in Ruiner as well also in the band Stout,, they’re a good band, check them out. One Step Too Many Brad’s, our drummers, other band. The shows are cool and I guess it’s anything you could want in a hardcore scene. We have a couple of venues for small shows as well as for bigger shows.
Is Baltimore actually such a rough place to live like you describe it in your song „Street Lights“?
Justice: Actually it’s reallly nice. It costs a lot of money to live there. You know it’s real safe… nah, just kiddin’ (laughs)
Brad: Like the baseball stadium where the Orioles play is really nice. And the aquarium’s pretty nice and the harbor is tight.
Justice: In reality Baltimore is just like any other major city – it’s got it’s good and it’s bad parts. It’s easy to stay out of trouble that’s what we do: stay out of trouble and as long your not dealing in drugs or whatever you’re safe. It’s not the worst place to live but I wouldn’t wanna raise my kids in Baltimore City.
You released a split with Dirty Money after „Stay Cold“. How did that happen and are you guys actually friends with them?
Justice: Yeah. Our friend Ian who played in a band with Brad before called Lion Of Judah lives on/off in London. He’s one of our close friends and he told us to check out Dirty Money and somehow through him I started talking with them online and we kinda made friends and discussed doing a split. We did a europe tour with them last year. (David aka „Jared“ leaves)
Brad: I don’t know why Jared left… He’s human garbage (Justice laughs) The dude Marc that plays guitar in Dirty Money he’s in my top friends on my MySpace, so if you don’t believe me I’ll give you the url and you’ll find him there…
Justice: We also did a US tour with them. It was us, Dirty Money, Reign Supreme, Full Blown Chaos. We shared a van with them and they’re crazy. Sam, their drummer, likes fruit.
Brad: Yeah, that dude likes so much fruit. And he wears a purse.
Justice: He keeps a gun in it. It’s not like a bitch purse, he’s a hard ass person.
On August 4th your first LP „Secrets Of The World“ will be released. Is it gonna be released in Europa and how’s it gonna be?
Justice: It’s gonna be released and distributed through the German label Demons Run Amok in Europe, in the US it’s gonna be Reaper Records and in Japan a label called Bullhead. It’s our first full-length it’s gonna have 12 tracks. We’ve invested a lot of time in it we spent like almost a year of writing, so check it out!
Since Trapped Under Ice is a song on Metallica’s „Ride The Lightning“ I asked myself if your name derives from that song and if you guys are acually into Metallica.
Justice: We’re defenitely into Metallica! Sam our guitar player could play any Metallica song you told ‘em to. Our old guitar player Clipperhead had a „Crazy Guy“ tatto which is a Metallica logo.
Brad: Yeah I like Metallica too. They’re the second band I ever liked after Guns’n Roses. They changed my life: if it wasn’t for Metallica I probably wouldn’t be here, they’re the reason why I started to play guitar.
Justice: Our name isn’t really from Metallica, it wasn’t like we said „let’s take that song“. Sam had the idea but like I said he’s a superfan. It’s probably something he subconscious lifted, we weren’t aware of it after a couple weeks later when we realized it’s that Metallica song. But it’s a reason for people to campare us to Metallica which isn’t really our thing.
Your next tour will be the 10 For 10$ tour in the US. Are you excited about that and what do you think of the line-up?
Brad: I Think it’s cool and I’m excited. A lot of those bands are pretty cool, some of them I don’t know that much about but im excited to play with Terror of course, Madball, Vision, Vision Of Disorder which I saw at one of my first shows like 12 years ago. It’ll be cool to hang out with those bands, meeting people and making new friends, that’s what touring’s about. I also think it’s a god value! Almost any of those bands, if you went to see them at a normal show, it would be like 10$.
Justice: Seeing Madball in Baltimore was like 12$. So it’s cheap as shit and all the bands are sick. Madball’s a huge influence on TUI, hopefully they’ll watch us. To play with them is really cool. Vision Of Disorder is the band that got me into hardcore they have a very special place in my heart. Obviously Terror who are good friends of ours, that’s gonna be fun ‘cos I love spending time with them.
Any last words you wanna say, any shout outs?
Justice: Reaper Records, Scott Vogel who takes care of us, Demons Run Amok and Bullhead.
Brad: I wanna sent a shout out to anyone who supports the band here or in America.
Justice: Some bands! Naysayer from Richmond, Bad Seed, Brick from Baltimore.
Brad: Title Fight! Those are our friends, those are bands that are really good and people should check out!
Justice: Product Of Waste! They’re one of my top5 favourite newer bands! They got a lot to say.
Brad: Blackout Rage.
Justice: Baltimore Ravens football team!
Brad: Also I wanna give a shout out to FC Barcelona, my favourite soccer team and it’s my favourite city in Europe. Also the New York Yankees, I’m not from Baltimore so I want them to win a lot of games.
Justice: A shout out to people in love – boys and girls, girls and girls, boys and boys – wahetever kind of love you have it’s beautiful. Shout out to love.
Brad: This band is called Trapped Under Ice because so many people are cold and don’t give a shit but it’s people with love that break the ice and that’s important that’s what the world needs. So yeah that’s it, just a couple shout outs.
