interview with Positive Reaction
A relatively young band following the core style of Agnostic Front or Negative Approach, with a vocal cover reminiscent of Discharge. Last year they released their debut on Engieer record called, Dreaming of Violence. A new album is being prepared for 2025. So before it comes out we will interview this HardCore band a bit. We will have another interview after the new album is released.
Alan – Hi guys. How are you doing?
Chris - Hi Alan, appreciate you reaching out. We are all good thank you.
Alan – Just a quick one and right at the beginning. You have one mini album (CD) out so far. With 4 songs. How have you been received by the hardcore crowd?
Chris - The South Wales Hardcore and Punk scene seem to have taken us to heart, which is really inspiring. Either that or nobody has the balls to tell us we are shit, ha,ha.
Alan – Preparing the new album, how far along are you? And will it be released by David again?
Chris - It’s not so much an album, as another E.P. 4 more songs that showcase our disdain for the world in its current state.
Alan – Who founded the band? How did you get together? Did you do an advertisement? When was the band formed?
Chris - Gav (guitar/bass) and I (Chris -Drums) were in a band together previous to this called All Time Old Time and when that went belly up, we knew we wanted to carry on working together so Positive Reaction was born. Gav knew Mike from another previous band, the notorious Smiler, so we roped him in and after original guitarist Jon left we ended up with another ex member of Smiler in Ioan. Gav jumped to second guitar and we hauled in our good friend Ash (ex Caesar’s Rome) on bass.
Alan – How did you get to meet David?
Chris - I met Mr Gamage through another of my endeavours. I co-host a podcast with Tim Cundle called Mass Movement Presents… and David has been a supporter of ours since the beginning.When it came time to put out our debut CD, David was the first person we though about approaching and clearly he liked what heard.
Alan – What are your biggest successes at the moment?
Chris - Staying out of prison, ha,ha. Just being part of the re-emergence of the South Wales Hardcore and punk scene is success enough as far as we are concerned. Playing with younger bands like The Neighbourhood Watch, Thronk and Violent Offence as well as established acts such as State Of Decay and System Reset, is really inspiring. We’ve also been fortunate enough to play alongside bands we’ve admired for a long time such asThe Oppressed, Haywire and Clobber and by the time you read this we will have played with NYHC legends Agnostic Front. Also just getting physical music out into the world is an achievement in itself and something we intend to do a lot more of.
Alan – Have you played outside the Island yet? Europe? What about the Czech Republic and Slovakia?
Chris - Not yet, but we’d love the chance to.
Alan – Speaking of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, do you know any bands from these countries?
Chris - The whole band like all sorts of heavier music and Mike and I have always liked Malignant Tumour and Lady Gaza are fucking brutal. I also recently discovered The Unholy Ones who are badass.
Alan – Do you have any funny experiences when traveling to perform?
Chris - Not really, we are actually quite organised and well behaved these days. Sorry to disapoint.
Alan – What are you planning for 2025? Go on tour with the band? Videos + the aforementioned album?
Chris - We’ve been in the studio with Jeff Rose of Dub War recording our new E.P, so that will come out shortly. We’ll be dropping a video along with one of the tracks also, then we’ll be doing as many shows as we possibly can and maybe another single towards the end of the year. Oh and coffee, we’ll be releasing more of our very own coffee blend - Welsh Hardcore-shout out to Durstons Coffee.
Alan – Let’s take your homeland. How big is your attendance in clubs?
Chris - Our favourite place to play is a place called The Cab which has a capacity of around 100 people and when that’s packed out, the place bounces-shout out Joe Wag. But we are supporting Agnostic Front shortly in a 500 cap venue, so it doesn't really matter. 5 or 500 we’ll still give maximum effort.
Alan – Where did you play the best? Which club or concert do you remember the most? And why?
Chris - As I mentioned above, The Cab in Newport is a really special place, so everytime we play there it’s a treat. but we played a new festival put on by Andrew from Thronk called Thronkfest recently and it was an absolutely amazing night.
Alan – Thanks for the interview, I think we’ll put out another one this year for the new album.
Chris - Great, thanks for the interview, keep up the good work.
https://www.facebook.com/positivereactionhc
https://www.engineerrecords.com/product-page/positive-reaction-dreaming-of-violence-cd
