Schools in

Worilla Biscuits, Quicksand, CIV, Shelter. Names that to many of you will mean nothing, but to aficionados of American hardcore punk, these are some of the key bands to emerge from the East Coast. So let’s try Rival Schools. Now we’re getting somewhere, they being current press and audience faves through their excellent ‘Good Things’ single and United By Fate album.

The two men sat before us have in fact been the architects of all these moments, plus many more. Walter Schreifels and Sam Siegler are relaxing after a triumphant Irish debut at Witnness, mulling over the changes in a hardcore scene that they have been part of for nearly 15 years.

“I think it kind of peaked,” says Sam, “but what me and Walter experienced in New York at the time was so great that naturally we think it was the greatest. I’m sure that there are now kids who think the current hardcore scene is the best but… they’re wrong. I don’t really know how it’s progressed because I’m not really in touch with it anymore”.

“In the late ’80s and early ’90s it was hot shit,” agrees Walter. “Things were really happening. There was a lot of diversity but also high quality”.

After so many years spent as part of the underground punk scene, it must be a little strange to suddenly be the flavour of the alternative month, lauded by all sections of the media and having United By Fate hailed as the ‘greatest modern rock album since Nevermind’. Walter, for one, is enjoying it all.

“It’s odd but it’s cool. We’ve always been doing these great things and to get some sort of recognition on a pop level is interesting. It makes it more fun, you’re interesting different kinds of people, those who would maybe like to hear something new and interesting but don’t know where to look. And it keeps it interesting for us.”

Despite the fact that the Americans arguably invented punk, Schreifels is keen to point out the importance of the UK scene to the youth of NYC.

“We were really into the Buzzcocks, the Sex Pistols, the Clash. Even down to some of the lesser bands like GBH. When you’re a kid and you some guy with a Mohawk you’re like, give me that record.”

Indeed, Walter has little time for those who place the US scene above the British version. “You can’t compare Bad Religion to the Clash or the Sex Pistols, they’re just not in the same category. They were real iconic bands from that era, you can’t touch them. They were more important than just the music”.

Sam acknowledges that while the US scene was vibrant, it struggled to have the same cultural impact.

“We had the Ramones before the Sex Pistols but America was slow to pick up on it. It’s such a big country and there’s such a difference between New York and Colombus, Ohio. You can’t light a fire across the country, it just doesn’t filter through in a massively popular way. It takes Green Day to do that, twenty years later. It takes MTV”.

Which is kind of where we came in. After years spent making fantastic music in the punk rock wilderness, it would be churlish to deny Siegler and Schreifels their day in the sun. That it has come at the same time as they are making some of the most thrilling, inspiring music of their career is a huge bonus all round.