AGNOSTIC FRONT's ROGER MIRET Has Discovered The Fountain Of Youth Playing Hardcore

By David E. Gehlke

AGNOSTIC FRONT frontman Roger Miret and founding guitarist Vinnie Stigma are respectively 61 and 69 years of age, admirable and head-turning figures considering how long both have been in the hardcore game and the high level at which they continue to perform. Maybe there is something in the New York hardcore waters that has enabled AGNOSTIC FRONT to keep outrunning Father Time. The band's live shows still match the intensity of their mid-1980s CBGB halcyon days, while a good chunk of their recent studio output complements their classic "Victim In Pain" and "Cause For Alarm" LPs. And, to go one further, not even Miret's recent bout with cancer has been able to slow AGNOSTIC FRONT down.

The band's new "Echoes In Eternity" studio album catches Miret, Stigma and crew in full stride with 15 tight, relentless slabs of metal and punk-infused hardcore. The album is highlighted by its catchiest number, "Sunday Matinee", which, as the title suggests, is about the aforementioned unmatched New York City shows that captured an moment in time. Now, even with newer hardcore outfits KNOCKED LOOSE and TURNSTILE receiving the kind of mainstream attention that has eluded his band, Miret would tell BLABBERMOUTH.NET that he is more than happy to cede the spotlight and bask in the glow of what he helped create.

Blabbermouth: Is there any kind of deep meaning to the "Echoes In Eternity" album title? As in, AGNOSTIC FRONT's music will carry on forever?

Roger: "Let me be completely honest with you. [Laughs] The record was done, and we were thinking about titles. I decided to watch 'Gladiator II'. Right at the start of the movie, there's a scene where they're getting ready to go to the battlefield. The guy's making his speech, and he goes, 'What we do here, now, echoes in eternity.' I was like, 'Whoa!' I called [producer] Mike Dijan, and I said, 'Echoes In Eternity'. They were like, 'Agnostic Front: Echoes In Eternity'. That works.' It's a cool title."

Blabbermouth: It's unexpected, but it fits.

Roger: "It fits the band. Our band will echo in eternity. I really feel that way. There are only two albums in our career whose titles are not songs on the record. I always wanted to do that again. There's always, 'It's that song. Name it after that song.' I was fishing and that's what happened."

Blabbermouth: What keeps you doing new albums still? What inspires you now?

Roger: "We're just inspired to write all the time. We go on the road a lot, and we see what's going on because we're very active and relevant worldwide. We see the scenes worldwide. We've toured with a lot of bands, a lot of younger bands. It's funny. You sit on the tour bus or backstage, and all of these younger bands want to know what it was like in the past. They want to hear crazy stories. They're all inspired by us, which is cool and I'm grateful, but at the same time, they're inspiring us. Whether it's conscious or subconsciously, it motivates us. We want to keep writing. We always have something to say. When you see the news and what's going on, you'll always have something to say. The writing process is inspired by being on the road. We want to write. The last album was 'Get Loud!' It was a great album; we loved it. It was released in December 2019, and we know what happened after that: the pandemic. The album got lost in space. By the time we came back and started touring, it had already been three or four years. Some of the songs were great, but we never got to push them the way we wanted. With this one, we do most of our writing on the road because that's when we're together. It was a little bit different. Mike Dijan, who's been with us for a while. He's our sixth man in the band—he handles all the business. He's a close friend of ours. We invited him into the whole thing to write and produce it with us. He's got a lot of great ideas. He's very tapped into a lot of the younger bands. We were like, 'Let's just do it with Mike. He's great.' It became this one giant family. It was like that with him from the start, even in the video directing. He was a part of that video. He was so in tune with it. It was cool — something fresh, something new. We needed that."

Blabbermouth: I was going to ask you this later, but I'll ask now: How do you feel about bands like TURNSTILE and KNOCKED LOOSE getting popular? They are descendants of yours. Are you okay with hardcore going mainstream?

Roger: "I'm okay with it. I've always said, even before hardcore, the punk bands I grew up with, like THE CLASH, they were getting radio play. I would rather hear them, or RANCID or BLINK-182 or KNOCKED LOOSE, just in general, on the radio. TURNSTILE. I'd rather hear them than three-quarters of the crap they play on the radio. I'm okay with it. You know what? They're being true to themselves. Now, they have a bigger platform to say whatever they want. It's okay with me. I'm grateful that we are a part of their history. I'm grateful I'm still welcome to their parties. I was just hanging with the KNOCKED LOOSE guys and even the BLINK-182 guys. It's great to sit back and tell stories. All the stories we tell are from these small shows we were doing. They are now big bands, but they're still the same. They're doing what they love, and you can't knock a band for staying true to themselves. Everyone wants to keep you in your basement. Who doesn't want to keep their favorite band in their closet or basement? 'This is mine!' Let's face the fact: It's good for the younger generation. Someone's got to carry the torch and keep it going. That's what it's all about. It was never about me taking the torch and hogging it. That's not me."

Blabbermouth: From the new album, "Sunday Matinee" jumps out. It's a pretty fun, anthemic kind of song, although it's easier to think of all the old videos from you at CBGB and how crazy they were.

Roger: "'Sunday Matinee' just pops. It's a different thing from it. That was it. That song was pretty much a celebration of our live shows. You just mentioned it. Seeing this stuff: This is what we do live. We were all excited to go to these matinees, make friends, see friends and boom, friends would be up there singing with us. That's exactly what you said. We don't do anything deliberately; that's how it happens. All of a sudden, it was clicking. Honestly, we didn't want to do a song like that. It just comes. We love New York; we love CBGB. We, I think, own the record for playing more shows than any other band. We did more benefits than anyone and more live albums, too. We miss that place. We actually were the last hardcore band to play CBGB. It's definitely more than that. It's more of a tribute to your live shows."

Blabbermouth: Some of the shows you did there in the mid-1980s were legendary. That was such a cool moment in time that's hard to replicate.

Roger: "That place was huge for us. When we came back from that 1985 tour, actually, prior to that, the minute 'Victim In Pain', CBGB became a whole different animal. It became so that everybody had to go there. We had lines going around the block, but in general, Sunday matinees became popular. Before that, there were Saturday matinees. It blew up."

Blabbermouth: Where are you coming lyrically now? "Divided" is about fascism; "Turn Up The Volume" is about tyrants. Are they a reaction to the times in which we live?

Roger: "We come from a socially aware place, things that happen on a day-to-day basis. We rarely touch on world politics. I'll leave that to the crooked politicians. 'Way Of War' talks about the criminality of war. None of us wants to be a part of it, but, again, it's a political thing. They don't care about their families. It's about gains of some sort. We don't talk about that. I don't have a master's degree in political science. I like to talk about what goes on for me day to day, especially some of the stuff we've all witnessed. There's so much division. Period. I don't know if there's a way back. I don't even like to go on social media."

Blabbermouth: It's a terrible place to be sometimes.

Roger: "I barely go on it. I have to because of the band. There's a part of our set where I tell people to come to the front and introduce themselves to each other. This is real. Social media is bullshit. This is where you're going to make lifelong friends. It's essential because, ever since the pandemic, everybody's been a doctor, a politician — it continues. I've seen a lot of people, because of different thoughts and beliefs, ruin deep friendships and ruin families. I get it. You're so gung-ho behind whatever you believe. That's the manifest of our album cover. It's taken from the song 'Divided'. I'm glad you mentioned it. People are so caught up in their shit, whatever it is, that they're so blind and caught up in it that they don't realize their flags are on fire. Stop for a minute, take a look around. We've always been a band that questions everything, we've questioned authority, for sure. That's where the name AGNOSTIC FRONT came: I don't believe in anything unless I see it with my own eyes, in doubt of the absolute truth. There's a lot to question nowadays. Just to jump and have an opinion on one thing, it's a little rough. I like to listen to everything. I like to hear everything because I like to learn. Many times I've been wrong."

Blabbermouth: And that's okay. Nothing wrong with that.

Roger: "It is okay as long as you accept it and learn. Imagine if no one challenged you mentally? There's a lot of that stuff going on. There's a lot of overcoming hardships because of it, like 'I Can't Win'. There's a lot of stuff like that."

Blabbermouth: Speaking of overcoming obstacles, you were diagnosed with cancer a few years ago. How are you feeling?

Roger: "I'm doing well, thankfully. I did have my health scares—two surgeries. It was tough, it was hard, but I've overcome it, and thanks to the generosity—I'm not talking about money, I'm talking about the love and support I got from the scene. It was incredible to read all the comments and all that stuff when you're laid out. I was in the hospital when no one was allowed to visit. I was on the same floor. Every time a baby was born, they did something through the speaker. Two minutes later, you see them marching people down the hallway because someone died from COVID. I'm in this thing: 'What's going on? I can't see my kids. I'm only allowed to see one person.' I was in the middle of all that in a hospital, dealing with my surgeries. I overcame it. I'm getting better. Speaking of getting older, I talked to my mom a few days ago, and she said, 'You have to stop jumping around.' [Laughs] I do jujitsu, but there are regular people around me who've never seen us play, and they're like, 'What just happened?' When I get on that stage, I don't know what happens, but it happens. It's a good thing."

Blabbermouth: It's such a cliché, but true: The music keeps you young.

Roger: "Oh, it's so true. Vinnie and I see a lot of people we grew up with who disappear and come back. People do not understand how this scene keeps you young, physically, mentally, just alert. The minute you step away from it, we see these people. When they come back, we welcome them. It's so bizarre. Even Vinnie, we're doing his 70th birthday soon. He's like a three-year-old toddler. [Laughs] I mean it. My children behave better than he does. I take my children places and I'm okay, but him, I worry about."

Blabbermouth: Did you read Vinnie's book ("The Most Interesting Man In The World")? I know you did the foreword.

Roger: "Yeah, I did! It's Vinnie. If anything is Vinnie, it's Vinnie. His attention is that of a squirrel. Talking to him, like a conversation like this, and the next thing you know, he's talking about smoking cigars. The next thing, 'Hey, did you see the score of the game?' There were times when people wanted to interview him, and they'd come back and ask to interview me. He didn't talk about anything that was asked. If you want to talk about what he wants to talk about, it will be a great interview. The man is an amazing interview, but you're on his terms."

Blabbermouth: I think your relationship with Vinnie is remarkable. Is there anything you can add to it?

Roger: "We've been through a lot. I was there for me, but I think he was there for me more than anything. He always had a stable place, a place I could go to shower and rest my head if I needed it. I was the one living in vans and abandoned buildings. I was the one doing all the criminal stuff, as I wrote about in my book [2017's 'My Riot: Agnostic Front, Grit, Guts & Glory']. I went to prison. That changed my life and made me who I am today. I'm grateful I did that, and it's weird for me to say that it took prison to change my life. I'm glad. Fuck, I needed it. But Vinnie was always there for me. He was there for me through a lot. And I was there for him when his mom passed. Vinnie has no family — no brother, sister, mother, or father. Nobody. My family is his family. He talks to my sisters, my brothers, my mom. He eats with them. My family is his family. That's how close we are."

Blabbermouth: Not to bring down the mood, but are you in touch with Lou (Koller) from SICK OF IT ALL? The news of his cancer coming back is awful.

Roger: "Absolutely. It is a bummer. They both text me, Pete [Koller], a little bit more. I told Lou, 'You don't have to respond. You're probably getting bombarded. I just want to tell you we're thinking about you and love you. I'm not asking for you to return a text.' He's going through a lot of shit. I get it. I went through a lot of shit, and I didn't want to talk to anyone. Some people do things differently. I wanted to be all by myself. I'm that guy. I internalize a lot of stuff. I do better when I'm by myself, and that's another proof of being institutionalized. I'm good at being patient, observing, and internalizing things, and moving forward. I get it. It's really sad about Lou when he said, 'It came back with friends.' That's the catch right there. But I know what he means. I talked to his brother. It's sad. He is one of our brothers. Bands like AGNOSTIC FRONT, MURPHY'S LAW, MADBALL, SICK OF IT ALL, and Harley's [Flanagan] doing CRO-MAGS. We've been out there, waving the New York hardcore flag forever. We've all been doing our own things. BIOHAZARD, too. We're all doing our thing. We're keeping New York on the map. It's sad to see one of our close friends going through something like that. Let's hope for the best. That's all you can do."

Photo credit: An Maes