Interview with All We Know!

-Alright lets start. Who's All We Know? Where are you from?

AWK: All We Know is a positive hardcore band based out of the San Gabriel Valley but one of our members is currently living in Orange County.

The lineup is

Ryan Larimore-Guitar
Daniel Formano-Vocals
Seth Davalos-Bass
Lucas Gonzalez-Drums

-Yeah I respect that. Around here there's a lot of 'Negative' hardcore bands. Why'd you decide to be as positive as you are? Whats your drive? What would you say about your overall sound?

AWK: Well we see it like this. It's easy to be pissed off and angry all of the time. It's a natural feeling and in this world, you'd be fucking insane not to be pissed off about something. But being angry can only get you so far. Theres a lot of bands that talk about how they feel all of this blind hatred and anger for society, but they offer no solutions. We just decided to be real about our situation. Yeah we're pissed, but that isnt going to change the fact that we're young, energetic and full of promise. This band is about making a positive statement about life in all of its ups and downs.

As far as our overall sound, we try to incorporate a classic youth crew sound with more modern influences. We're all big fans of Youth of Today, Insted, GB, Slapshot and Burn as well as some other more recent bands like Count Me Out, Champion, and The First Step.
Whatever feels right we do it!

-What do you guys have out for the fans at this point?

AWK: We recorded a demo back in Xmas of 2008, which became known as the Faithless 2k9 Demo. We gave out a ton of those all of last year and then in the summer of 2009 went in to Divine Recordings in Duarte CA to record Desecration/Motivation our first proper full length. Its available on CD and you can get it from our bigcartel page or at the next show.

-What are some of your favorite bands to listen to?

AWK: Well, lets start with the basics: like i said Youth of Today, Burn and Gorilla Biscuits are always on constant rotation along with some Sick Of It All, Cro-Mags, Suicidal Tendencies, Warzone, and some old A.F.I. and NOFX thrown in for good measure.

Some newer stuff i've really been digging is basically anything off of the REACT! roster. I think that label is doing some amazing stuff not only musically but also by trying to inspire others to be more ethical to the planet and respectful to one another. I'm super stoked to hear the new Mindset 7-inch. I also havent been able to stop listening to "Unforgiveable" by Weekend Nachos. It's just so angry its the perfect shit to put on right before another day at work. We're also big fans of Defeater. I'm hoping to catch them this weekend for their West Coast tour.

Other than that, some Morrissey, Elliot Smith, Ice Cube and Damien Rice. Yeah...

-I'm going to catch Defeater this Friday 2/5 at Vic's Warehouse. What have you all learned from being in AWK? What sucks the most about it and what's the best part?

AWK: Sweet! I think i might go the next night in Inglewood.

We've learned a lot. One thing for sure is that no matter who you are, hardcore shows have a way of bringing people together. You might not necessarily know someone, but when you help them up after a failed stage dive attempt, none of that matters. I've also learned that being involved with straight edge, vegetarianism, and agressive music in general puts you at odds with the rest of the outside world. Even if you want to be accepted by society, it might not always want to accept you. You see this when your standing outside of a venue with 100 other kids wearing x's on their hands, tattoo's, piercings, shants, whatever... and you see people drive by and stare, yell shit out of the windows, ya know? We are all in this together. Beyond the factions and crews, hardcore is just a bunch of kids who see things differently from the rest of the world. That is something to be valued and shared.

We've met a ton of people, been to some cool places, and have made a lot of friends.

-What has been your most memorable show with AWK?

AWK: There's a few. We played with Ceremony and Life Long tragedy at the Hudson Theater in San Bernardino which was a small room that was Western themed and was attached to a huge night club. I just remember the vibe in the room was jacked and there were a lot of good friends and people who had yet to see us mixed in there. Ceremony killed it that night. So.Cal fest at the Granada Theater in Ontario was similarly rad. Another gig i recall was when our good friend Cameron Hughes through a going away show for a friend of ours going into the marines. Rotting Out and Creatures headlined and almost every band from the LA/SGV area played. Our set was fun and all of the bands were great. A ton of kids packed into a backyard in the scenic hills of San Dimas was quite a site.

-If you guys could have a 'DREAM' tour who would you play with and where would you tour?

AWK: This is tough...

Id have to put Sick Of It All at the top of the list. They're one of my all time favorite bands AND they still tour which is pretty amazing. Next I'd "dream" to have a Misfits/Samhain split set. The Misfits lineup would be the lineup on the Earth A.D. record and the Samhain lineup would be the lineup on the Initium record. Judge would also be put on the bill and would open every set with "Take Me Away". We'd hit up every major city in North America and play with awesome bands in that area. We'd play New York and Agnostic Front would be on the bill. We'd play Florida and Shai-Hulud and Morning Again would play. In Boston we'd have Slapshot play etc. Then we'd head on over to London and jam with the Stones hahaaha. No but really that would be the dream team tour.

-What do you guys love to eat as a band?

AWK: Well Lucas and I are vegetarians but we do eat dairy. I enjoy soy products(tofu, boca burgers, chick-un nuggets), cottage cheese, bagels, peanut butter, bananas, veggie lasagna and egg whites.I am really diggin Thai food right now also. Oh and Chipotle veggie burritos! As for the rest of the band, fast food is king. In N Out, McDonalds, and TACO BELL! After shows we usually hit up Denny's: Grand Slam all day! After the last show we hit up Sonics in Fullerton that shit was good. We used to go to McDonalds a lot before half of us stopped eating meat. Lucas was known to eat 5 double cheeseburgers in one sitting. Oh and $3.99 Pizza in West Covina. The best pizza for the cheapest price!

-Right on haha, What should an AWK fan expect in the next couple of months?

AWK:More shows!!! We're just trying to promote the fuck out of this record. Possibly some out of state shows this summer coupled with a few new songs we are going to record and put out on 7 inch.

-Sounds like a plan. Well thanks for the interview, it was real fun! Any Last Words?

AWK: Thanks for your very interesting questions.
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has supported us people who come out to the shows and to our friends in Society Ends, A Nation Sleeps, and On Point. Help each other out! Go vegetarian! See you soon.

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