Just like Type O Negative, Life Of Agony and Biohazard this band comes from the streets of Brooklyn, by many considered to be a place of grief and destruction. Which brings this criminal suburb in the news quite regularly. Murder, rape and theft can't, unfortunetaly, be kept out of the streetlife these days. That there also are a lot of talented musician that life there, is proved by this quartet. From the MFN offices in England singer/guitarist Henry Font adresses the press.

When I take a look at your biography, I frequently pass the name Type O Negative. What does a band like Pist.On have to do with that band?

Henry Font: The guys of Type O Negative are our friends for quite some time now, especially their keyboardsplayer Josh Silver. Already in the first days of our excistence we were good friends with him. Whenever the band had a performance somewhere we were there. After all those years you build a tie of friendship. A long time ago we had a conversation with Josh and it immediatly worked out. A couple of years ago we gave him a tape we had made and he loved it straight away. He likes our music a very lot. Josh has always believed in us and that is something that does something to you. In August we went to the Systems Two studio with him to record our debut and if you ask me: It wasn't that bad.

Pist.On is a name that circulates within the livecircuit for a long time now. The band Toured the last year through Germany for ten days as support of Life Of Agony. Which has been an enormous experience I suppose?

HF: Yes. It certainly was. That tour with Life Of Agony will be in our memories forever. We certainly lived through a wonderfull time with those guys. You can take that for granted.

Not only the sound of your album is very special, also your special bandname gives a lot of people a lot of remarks.

HF: Haha ... I knew you would ask that question. To be honest with you I was somewhat prepared for that question. There's quite a lot of history behind our bandname. But I won't tell you. To us Pist.On is more then an ordinary name. There are a lot of feelings hidden behind it.

Like the cover?

HF: That's right. That is also very special. We really didn't want to make such a typical metalcover for our record. You know what I'm trying to say. We love humor and when you look at the cover of our CD, you'll notice it immediatly.

According to your answers you're a very happy and satisfied person.

HF: That is a fact. You won't hear me deny that. I have been making music since I was fifteen. This record is my dream becoming reality.

The music of Pist.On can't be described very easily. When someone listens to your debut very carefully, he's being confronted with a lot of different genres. Their mixture of metaal, hardcore and mainly infuences from the new wave leave nothing to the imagination. Henry admits that he has an enormous admiration for the new wave.

HF: As a young lad I often listened to The Smiths, The Cure and so on. When I grew older my interest went to bands like Life Of Agony and Type O Negative. Pist.On is a band with thousand and one faces and seems to be greatly appreciated by the audience.

Oh yeah. Is it?

HF: Sure it is. We get a lot of very good reactions at our debut. The American and the European press love our music. Anyway. For less you would (Can't stop laughing).

Your admiration for a band like The Smiths goes very far. Your album contains a coversong of them.

HF: That was my idea. It seemed a good idea to me to mangle the song "Shoplifters Of The World Unite". And with success! We played that song live in the past regularly and we thought it would be fun to record that song.

Now something completely different. To many people Josh Silver isn't unfamiliar. The name is raised as a subject with you could a lot. Like has been said before. Not only a good friend but he also stood in for the production of 'Number One'. How was the cooperation?

HF: Tremendous! I really mean that. Josh is a man who knows what he wants. He works very hard. A go-getter. He never gives up the faith. Like I said we know each other for quite some time now and our admiration for him keeps growing and growing. Josh is a person who thinks very straightforward. We never had any arguement.

Yeah. You can say that. There are a lot of people who think of him in a completely different way. Personally I think Josh is a boring chap with a lot of overreaction.

HF: No. Are you serious? I really think that's a shame. A lot of people have totally wrong thoughts of him. Josh is someone who lives his own live. He's just a very talented musician and producer that's what makes him so special.

The group also is formed by Paul Poulos (guitar, backing vocals), Danny Jan Kavadlo (drums) and the beautiful Val Ium (bass). A lady by the way.

HF: Yes, we also noticed it. Val, our bassist, is a very good friend of us and we really don't want to miss her. She knows what she's doing, which is the most important thing to us, although others will differ in their opinion about that.

To end. You've been born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. A city with a very notorious reputation. A problem Henry doesn't think of, although?

HF: Sometimes things get very rough, but that happens in all large cities. Every city has its own problems. I feel very comfortable in the neighbourhood that I live in and that suites me fine. I like the streetlife of Brooklyn, all those problems inspire me when I'm writing a song.

Text: Robby Embrechts - Mindview 33
Translation: Martijn Ras

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Original location: http://www.dma.be/p/mindview/uk/old/iviews/piston.htm