Nantes, France based youth crew INSECURITY have recently dropped their strong debut EP on Refuse Records, and it’s high time for us to addressit properly. Already featured at NoEcho, the pack features members of French bands RAW JUSTICE, HARM DONE, and Straight & Alert Records, and offers one of the most striking debuts in the genre this year. Despite the solid foundation of late 80s and early 90s influences, INSECURITY incorporate a twist of modern sound and there’s just enough venom in their delivery to give them a unique edge that makes them a stand out, not to be missed band. Hear for yourself and check out the full first-hand commentary about each and every song from the record.
In recent years Hardcore Punk scene in France became one of the strongest in Europe with bunch of new quality bands from post punk to oi! It’s no surprise that in this fertile ground we’re getting informed about brilliant hardcore band. INSECURITY from Nantes (and Paris) consists members of RAW JUSTICE, HARM DONE and ANGRY VETS and their sound is influenced by bands like The First Step, Get The Most, Mindset, True Colors and old stuff like Straight Ahead, Turning Point or Youth Of Today. You can’t go wrong with this list and this tight, aware, angry and positive hardcore is definitely one of the best debut in European HC scene of this year. Recorded by Max from Rixe / Condor and mastered by Will at Dead Air studios. / Refuse Records
Youth of Today, Turning Point, Mindset, and True Colors are a few of the acts that Insecurity mine influence from, and this can be heard on their debut 7″ EP, Willpower. The 9-track attack was recorded in April 2019 with Maxime Smadja, who some No Echo readers will know from his work in both Rixe and Condor.
“Even though Insecurity is not a straight edge band, you’ll find usual Youth Crew matters linked to the scene and positive values like perseverance (‘Willpower’), betrayal (‘Turncoat’) or loyalty (‘Built for You’). Eventually, ‘Anxiety ‘deals with the feeling of insecurity, where we took the band name from. It’s kind of like the missing link between the Turning Point song and True Colors’ ‘I Lose.'” / NoEcho
INSECURITY live dates:
10/31 – Rennes, FR – w/ Vitamin X
11/01 – Bordeaux, FR – w/ Vitamin X
11/02 – In Your Face Fest – Montaigu, FR – w/ Vitamin X
11/16 – Nantes – FR – w/ Harm Done
11/30 – Paris – FR – w/ Harm Done (Last Show)
I’m Alexis, I play bass in Insecurity and wrote most of the lyrics of this 7” besides “It Won’t Last” that Nico, the singer wrote on his own. I’ve been doing vocals for two bands during the past few years (Raw Justice and Harm Done) so I am used to writing lyrics. Every time something pisses me off, I have the habit of putting on paper words that usually turn into lyrics. So, I had most lyrics written even before we started jamming the songs. We decided to go with some of these texts for this debut 7”.
Intro:
No lyrics, just something short to set the mood.
Empty words:
The first draft of this song was written in about 5 minutes on my cell phone while I was in Paris waiting for a few friends on a busy plaza. There were all these people whose work is to ask you to sign up in order to give them money either to save pandas, people with aids or to cure cancer. Don’t get me wrong, all of these causes are GREAT! It’s just that, the people promoting them (= these people bothering pedestrians) are usually full of shit, and don’t even stand for what they are trying to sell. It hit me when I met a group of these people asking random pedestrians to donate against cancer, whereas some of their workmates were having a break and every single one was smoking a cigarette. Duh? By extension, this song talks about all those who pretend to fight for something either just because it’s the new “cool” thing to stand for, to fit in or to make themselves believe they’re important. Do not do that, fight for what YOU believe in.
Built For you:
Not too far from the previous one. Unfortunately when I have something in mind that bothers me to the bones it usually takes a few songs to feel I’m done talking about it and move on to the next topic! This one’s more about people trying all they can to do what’s cool / hype to get included in some groups / crews of people. Again, this suck, unless you’re 15 (we’ve all been there). But most people even in their 30’s keep doing it to feel / be “accepted” by their peers, either it’s at work, in their social life or even (mostly?) within the hardcore scene!
Constant Anger:
Fun fact : all the “You” in this song were originally “I” as I wrote it, but since Nico is a pretty positive guy (way more than I am) he didn’t feel like singing words that didn’t apply to him. However, they do apply to me, hence the use of “you”. Constant Anger is pretty self-explanatory and talks about the fact that I am angry all the time and have to deal with it on a daily basis. I’m at different levels, but there is always a small dose of anger, even if it tends to get better as I age. Regardless how much I try to contain this anger, or throw it into words writing lyrics to get some relief, it’s still here and will remain.
Continued below…
Willpower:
This is our best song to me (music wise) and somehow one of the very few texts with a positive message I wrote in almost a decade. There is a True Colors “Focus on the light” influence for sure and the message is pretty much the same. No one but you will do what it takes to get back on track and get what you really want. Only you can and you must not wait on others to shake you up. These lines from the song sum up the whole vibe in my opinion: “Life’s moving fast around you, Stand up, Don’t just sit back, it’s time to react”
It won’t last:
This song has been written by our singer Nico. Racism / racial prejudice still sucks in 2019. Period.
Turncoat:
I know some friends will have a cold sweat reading this one but sorry / not sorry. Probably the only one talking about Straight Edge (we are 3 straight edge out of 4, so it’s not a straight edge band). It’s not far from the usual hardcore / youth crew clichés but I felt it was important to approach this topic. It talks about all these friends who were super into preaching straight edge and dropped out all of a sudden to turn into heavy drinkers / party people and the fact that I can’t understand how you can switch that fast from one extreme to another. Again, do not get me wrong: it’s alright and they are still my friends. I’m just clueless trying to understand if they were lying to themselves the whole time to be “cool” (has straight edge ever been cool?) or they just really switched mindset in a blink of an eye.
Random Violence:
Random Violence talks about my perception of the whole world as I’m growing older, that might be biased. I feel when I was a kid the world, I’m talking about day to day stuff, was way less violent. Or maybe I / we were just less exposed? Now every time you turn on the news, read newspaper or even scroll through Facebook most of what you can see is violence. Religion, terrorism, mass shootings, social injustice, police violence, all kinds of oppression, drug wars and so on. Has it always been that fucked up?
Anxiety:
The last song of the 7” was originally called Insecurity, as a tribute to Turning Point, but Nico quickly changed it to Anxiety. It more or less talks about the fact you need to stand for what you think is right and don’t fall under peer pressure. Even though everything / everyone seems to be against you and tell you you’re wrong, you might be right anyway and it’s important to stay focus on your goal. Take animal rights / veganism for instance: a decade ago people were dubious about our reasons to not eat meat / use animal products and telling us we were wrong. Less than 10 years after ( = now) some eventually get it and start to take actions, veganism is even marketed pretty much everywhere now ! Either in 2010 or nowadays, Veganism should always have been right. THEY were wrong and we were right, even though everyone was saying one wouldn’t make a difference at the time.
