Colin Buis (Mean Season, Revolution Mother, Twilight Transmission) Interview

This was sent to me while I was in Japan so its been done for a little bit but this is the first chance Ive had to get it posted. Jake Jacobs, king of kings, interviewed Colin Buis of Mean Season, Revolution Mother, and The Twilight Transmission for us. I always felt like Mean Season was an under appreciated and amazing band especially on the East Coast. Enjoy! You can still order Mean Season's discography, The Memory And I Still Suffer In Love, from Indecision Records.

The current line up for Mean Season is Aaron Kelly on vocals, Colin Buis on bass, Brian Manry on guitar, Steven Miller (of Unbroken) on guitar and Matt Horwitz ( Monument of Thieves) on drums

www.myspace.com/meanseason
www.myspace.com/revolutionmother
www.myspace.com/ttt

Your band Mean Season will be reuniting this year to play a sold out show opening for Disembodied at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California on June 5th. How long has it been since you played with Mean Season and are there currently any plans to continue the band after this show?

Mean Season played the New Age Records Fest in September 2005. that was the last full set we played with Aaron Kelly on vocals. we were asked to play the Showcase Theater's (Corona Ca.) last show and we were honored to be invited to play this historic show. we agreed to play the show but ran into scheduling problems soon after. A.K. had been in training to be a firefighter for the past couple of years and landed a chance to get into a station the same week as the show. he used his best judgment and decided he had to cancel the show to focus on getting the job.

we were all bummed that we had to pull out of the show and the ads were already made. we understood Aaron's decision but hated letting everyone down who thought Mean Season would be playing. we ended up playing a quick 3 song medley at the show with Jav from The Mistake filling in for A.K. it was a blast! Aaron got the job and we still got to be a part of the Showcase Theater's last show...even if it was only for 10 minutes.

Mean Season has been practicing for the June 5th Chain reaction show with Disembodied the last few months. this has reminded all of us how much we love this band and how much fun it is to play these songs. there has been some talk of writing new songs or even an entire record but our first goal is for Mean Season to kill on June 5th. after that...we'll see.

You were still a teenager when Mean Season toured Europe with No For An Answer in early '94. Had you ever been out of the U.S. (besides Mexico) at that point and what was that whole experience like?

The Mean Season/No For An Answer European tour was the first time any of us had been out of the country except for playing in Canada. Mean Season had already toured the U.S. twice, the first time in '92 on our own and the second in '93 with Unbroken. I remember calling A.K. to tell him we were going to Europe with NFAA and his reaction was just to scream "fuck yeah!!!" into the phone over and over. in '95 Mean Season got to tour Europe again, this time with New York Hardcore legends Leeway. the entire experience of going to tour and see Europe with this band and these songs that we created was an amazing feeling of accomplishment...good times.

Do you happen to remember what kind of a response Mean Season generally got from the European audiences on that tour?

Europeans love their hardcore, man. It was no exception with Mean Season. when we toured in '94 with No For An Answer all we had out was the Bleed to Me 7inch and some comp songs floating around. by the time we went back with Leeway in '95 Grace had been released so the response was greater because of our first tour over there and just the fact that there were more songs the kids knew and could go nuts to.

What are some of your favorite Mean Season songs and why?

i really do feel a close connection with all of the Mean Season songs. Suffer is a song I can still listen to and play and love it every time. Pilgrim brings back memories of Brian Manry and myself sitting in our practice room writing songs for the Grace record and also reminds me of rooms packed with 500 kids screaming "mother fucker! mother fucker! mother fucker!" I want to also mention Numb Again and Exit, these 2 songs to me represent Mean Season at the peak of our creativity. both songs are about rape through the eyes of the victim. Numb Again is the emotional roller coaster and Exit is all about revenge.

Why was your band The Twilight Transmission so short-lived? Was it intended more as a project?

To me, T.T.T. was not a short lived band at all. we were a band for 4 years, which is a long time for a band to be together and had the honor of having a record released on Revelation Records. T.T.T. was very much a real band....maybe to real for most.

Although your current band Revolution Mother isn't technically a hardcore band, it definitely has it's roots firmly planted in the '90s hardcore scene with veterans of it including you on bass, Jason Hampton on guitar/vocals and Brendan Murphy on drums. How much of an influence did/does hardcore have on the music of Revolution Mother?

Hardcore is in the blood for sure. Jason Hampton and I have been in many 90's Hard core bands and it shines through every time in every song no matter what. this reminds me of when I met up with A.K. to talk about Mean Season doing the reunion show in 2005. I asked him if he thought he could still pull off singing in a Hardcore band like Mean Season and his answer was very simple and convincing...he just said "it's in my blood man".

What are some of your favorite Revolution Mother songs and why?

Revolution Mother has just finished our second record, "Rollin' with tha Mutha", to be released July 7th on Ferret Records. from this record I'm really into a song called MOFO and another called Ride the Sky. I think these songs c

apture everything Rev Mom is about. from our first record Glory Bound I'd have to say Do or Die, Roll Tonight and Above the Crawl are on the top of my list.

I would imagine that there are quite a few crazy Revolution Mother tour stories. Please tell us one or 3.

of course some things are best left on the road but one of my all time favorite stories from being on tour happened at Bam Margera's bachelor's party. it was in Las Vegas at the Joint in the Hardrock Casino. Rev Mom was playing with a band called Vains of Jenna, a cock rock band from Sweden. well Rev Mom played our set and everything, Mike V. did a running jump off the huge stage and tried to land on a nearby stripper poll (yes there was a stripper on the poll at the time). the pole was quite far from the stage but that crazy fucker went for it anyway. he landed half on half off and cracked some ribs for sure. he laid there for a few seconds then rolled back on stage all fucked up from the jump. we finished the set and walked off and that was that.

afterwards we were hanging out backstage and Mike was like "man my ribs feel a little better now...i bet if we went out there right now and played again we'd kill it". that sounded great to the rest of us but the only problem was that Vains of Jenna was playing now and they were the last band of the night before Steve Aoki dj's. so we all went down to the side of the stage acting like we were just watching Vains of Jenna and when they put there gear down and walked off we gave em' high fives. they were going to go back out and do an encore but we beat them to it and ran out plugged into there gear and stole there encore! the place went crazy, it was the shit.


What brands and types of gear do you use and why?

I use Fender 8x10 bass cabs and Fender basses because... well, it's fuckin' Fender! Jason Hampton uses Orange amps and Dean guitars. Brendan Murphy uses Ludwig drums.

As a musician and a songwriter, who are some of your influences and why?

All things Glenn Danzig, Greg Dulli of Twilight Singers/Afghan Whigs, Duff McKagan and Nikki Sixx. all of these musicians have either talent, style, tone, heart or all of the above that have influenced me and my music.