Steve-I learned about the White Rose in a literature class I was taking at Maui Community College, my professor wanted us to understand the power that students can, and should wield. She had us read a children’s book entitled, “Rose Blanche,” which was about a little girl who found out about the concentration camps at the edge of her town and at the risk of her own life, Rose would go and feed the prisoners her own lunch. I was really moved by this and researched the history of the White Rose students. It was amazing to see that there were students who stood up to the Nazi regime.
What are you doing to live up to that name? To name a punk rock band after the students who were killed for distributing leaflets is a pretty bold move, don’t you think?
Steve- I agree completely. I think that by naming ourselves after the students, we took on a big responsibility and it is one that I don’t take lightly. And that what I feel my professor was challenging me to do; I think she wanted her students to use critical thinking and ask themselves what they would do in Rose Blanche’s position. I feel very strongly that we need to be more than a band. I am working on ways to address many of the issues that we face in Hawaii today, whether it is corporate tourism and the prostitution of Hawaiian culture, or homelessness and hunger in Hawaii, as well as reforestation projects here on Maui.
Nate- I think the awareness we raise by choosing this name is reason enough, especially in this society where you can protest wherever and whenever you want without fear of reprisal, I think it's time we realize if we actually want change, it is going to cost a little more than rubber bullets and tear gas.
Steve- The Islands of Oceania, which are usually seen as vacation spots or playgrounds for the rich are angry. Samoa was taken over and parceled up by the Europeans and the US in the similar to the way Africa was. The atolls of Tokelau are in danger of being lost to the ocean, due to the sea-level rising. Many people believe that in order for the islands of Oceania to throw off the chains of globalization that they want to return to primitivism. However, I disagree. Many of the people of Oceania, the thinkers and the intellectuals, want the island be self-sustaining and exist without having their natural resources stripped and sold. This isn’t a rejection of modernism. This is for our own survival. We cannot afford to pay high fuel costs to have food shipped here when we can grow our own food.
You are not from Hawaii, why would you take on Hawaiian issues?
Steve- You are right, I’m not Hawaiian, I’m from Michigan. However, I feel that it is my responsibility, as an outsider, to understand the illegal takeover of the Hawaiian nation if I am to live here. I owe it to myself to see what happened here, and what is happening here. They didn’t teach me the ‘real’ history of Hawaii when I grew up in Michigan. We were told that Hawaii voted to be the “50th” state. What they didn’t tell us is that Hawaii was offered two choices: A. become a state or B. remain a territory. The option to regain their sovereignty wasn’t offered. After reading about George Helm and what happened in Kahoolawe when they tried to stop the Navy from bombing the island, I felt that I had to do a lot more than go surfing and revel in the beauty of Hawaii. Just the other day I was visiting my sister-in-law on Oahu and during the entire day, we could hear munitions being exploded and the Navy practicing bombing missions. What needs to be understood is that the fresh water table sits on top of the salt-water table, within a sort of cup. If that is cracked, like they believe happened to Kahoolawe, the island of Oahu will not be able to sustain itself.
Nate- One thing I have been particularly interested in has been U.S. foreign policy throughout its history and this is just another example of us spreading our empire at the expense of indigenous people and their culture.
What are some of your goals musically?
Steve-Like I said, I hope to be more than a band. I hope to connect on a personal as well as a musical level. That’s really important to me.
Nate- One of the main things that attracted me to punk rock was the awareness it raises about various social causes whether it is homelessness, racism, Women’s rights, or the anti-war movements. I am not African American but I agree and support the civil rights movement; if I lived back in the sixties, I would have marched and protested for their rights. I am not from the mountains of Chiapas but I believe as human beings they are entitled to the same quality of life as myself, I am not a woman but I believe that no human being should have to be abused because of gender.
Steve- I hope to raise more awareness. I know a couple of women who have gone through the “Women Helping Women” program on Maui, in order to get out of violent relationships. Women Helping Women provides lawyers, and advice to abused women. If anything, I want to be a vehicle of information as a band, and look for hope when there doesn’t seem to be any.
What makes you think your band is special? Don’t you think there are enough punk rock bands out there?
Steve-I has loved punk rock for a long time. I’m 38 years old and have participated in it since I was 13 years old. I do think there are a lot of crappy bands out there, but I don’t think we are one of them. I think that sonically, we are a really powerful band. We don’t play really fast blast beats or growl like the cookie monster, but we do play aggressive music with a lot of melody. Back in the eighties, I saw bands like D.O.A. and Ruin and those bands blew me away. When Nate, and I talked about putting a band together, those were two of the bands that came to mind. I wanted to rock as hard as they did and I don’t see bands doing that anymore. I don’t know if that makes us special or not, but I don’t hear too many bands that sound like us.
Nate-I started listening to punk when I was 14,and it has shaped who I am as a person more almost anything in my life so this is something I cannot help but do. As far as other bands are concerned, I think our sound is more of a resurrection of the old stuff rather than another dressed-to-kill bands that sound like everyone else.
Steve- I have been asked if we play ‘old-school’ hardcore and my reply is always “No.” I’m not interested in being a revival band, but we play this way because this is how I write songs. This is the way I play guitar. In 1981 we didn’t call it ‘old-school.’ To quote David Hayes, “It was pre-school.” We play the music that we want to hear.
What is the scene like in Hawaii?
Steve- On Maui where we play the most, the scene is pretty small. When we play all-ages shows, they are pretty well attended, but for the most part, there isn’t that big of a rock music scene. The funny thing is that there are some really great bands here. Khrinj, who are our local metal band are absolutely amazing. Every time I see them play, I’m blown away by their sheer ferocity. Gomega is another great band from Maui. On Oahu, there are a ton of kids and adults in the scene and lots of bands. The Hell Caminos are our local psychobilly band, Black Square is reggae-influenced punk and 86 -List is a great punk rock band. We have also made friends with The Insurgents from Oahu and they put on a great live show. Unity Crayons is a local collective on Oahu and they put together a lot of great all-ages shows. To be honest with you, I haven’t ever seen such hard working people in the punk scene before. And they do it on a volunteer basis! I’m really proud to work with people like that.
Nate-On Maui where we live, the scene is small but growing. The lack of venues is one of the main reasons it is so small. On Oahu the scene is pretty cool with Unity Crayons putting on a lot of all-ages shows.
Steve-And even on Oahu, keeping all-ages venues open is really hard. It is a testimony to their hard work that they have shows as often as they do.
What are your feelings about Myspace? How do you justify using a website owned by Rupert Murdoch and the Fox news corporation?
Steve-I don’t like the fact that Rupert Murdoch owns Myspace. I know that eventually they will find a way to ruin it. According to Wired magazine though, they really don’t know what to do with it yet. Recently though, the military is using Myspace to recruit kids. I’m not cool with that at all. I have to say though; I have met a lot of really cool people on Myspace. It has been really good to White Rose. Instead of us using it to beg people to “check out our band,” we just promote ideas and try to be nice to people. That’s not a marketing strategy though, I see it as an extension of what zines do and did in the past. I loved reading MRR and sending letters to SNFU or Final Conflict, asking them for an interview when I wrote my fanzine. On Myspace, I can talk to them directly. Where else would I get to talk to Mike Watt or Bruce Loose? I never got to see the Minutemen or Flipper, but I do get to message them and they answer back. I think that is really cool. We have met so many cool people on Myspace that it outweighs the negatives in my opinion. I don’t think that Murdoch would agree with any of our positions on anything and it’s great to use his own weapons against him and his corporation.
Nate- How many trees do they chop down to print a 1 month of MRR? Even if the paper is recycled what corporation is it bought from?
Steve- I think it is very difficult to remove oneself from the taint of corporations. I do everything I can to support local farming and local businesses. We use a lot of other Internet forums as well, but Myspace seems to be very popular right now.
Nate- I drive a truck to haul my drums to shows and we use Myspace to spread our anti-corporate message. In a way, I guess we are using this system to work against itself. We are all guilty in some way, I mean, they kill trees for postage stamps and envelopes. If Rupert Murdoch is spreading republican -fascist ideology, I say, let’s use his evil for something good.
What are your goals as a band?
Steve- I would love to be able to travel as a band and tour. Right now, it’s financial suicide for a band from Hawaii like ours to tour. The logistics of us coming over without a lot of help are really tough. I hope to tour the continent next summer. We have a lot of songs ready for the next CD as well and I’m really excited about recording them. I love working in the studio and recording and the next CD should be amazing. We also are going to put out some 7 inches as well, hopefully this fall and we are always looking for new ways to put release our music.
Nate- Steve pretty much capped that one. However, next time we record, we are going to try to use mind-control riffs to get people to like us more.
Any other things you would like to say?
Steve- I hope that we can connect with people. I’m really excited about our new CD and would love to hear from people. They can order it from us for $12.00 postage paid to PO Box 880908, Pukalani, HI, 96788. We also have t-shirts and stickers available.
If you are interested in ordering this issue, you can get it Here
Interview with Belgium RMP
RMP- Hey there, thanks for accepting the interview Smiley, so let's get started shall we. First things first, we need to know who'll be answering the questions.
Steve-I’m Steve, I play guitar in the band.
RMP -That being said, we'll start with a few general questions so that our readers have a general idea of the band. When did you guys know that it was your passion to start a band?
Steve- I’ve played in a lot of bands before and I’ve always wanted to have a band that plays the kind of music that we play and address the same types of issues that we do in the band. Nate, the drummer, and Noah the singer/bassist are brothers and they have played in bands together before. They too wanted to play the type of music that we play. Basically we all wanted to play in a band where we can play anything that we want. If we want to play reggae, we will. If we want to play rock, or punk or whatever, we are willing to give it a shot. If it sucks, then we usually won’t let the song get out of our rehearsal room.
RMP-What bands would you guys compare yourself with? How would you describe your own music?
Steve- We’re all over the place. The roots of what we do are punk rock. That’s what we play, but there are elements of a lot of bands that have influenced us. I suppose I’d describe our music as melodic, loud, socially-aware, honest and sometimes fast, sometimes not. We’re not going to set any land speed records –I think there are enough bands that play lightning fast. Don’t get me wrong, I love that type of music, I just don’t have the ability to play like that. What bands do we compare ourselves too? That’s pretty hard to answer. I could say just about anything, but I’d be wrong! I don’t know of too many bands that we sound like, but there is traces of Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, The Stooges, and The Descendents in the music. However, I can’t compare us to them –they have all proved to be timeless and unique. Hopefully, someday we could be like that.
RMP- Has Punk music been with you all your life?
Steve- It’s been with me for a long time. I’m 39 years old and grew up in Michigan. We had people like Ted Nugent who played in our area a lot –he was played on the radio constantly. Ted was like a local band for some of us. I was pretty young though and wasn’t able to go out and see concerts like that, but I had neighbors and cousins who discovered punk rock and I got turned on to punk rock from them. It was somewhere in the late 70’s, but I didn’t call myself punk rock until the 80’s. To me, REO Speedwagon was no different than anyone else –it was music and it was entertainment. I eventually saw that punk rock could also be radically political and that was really attractive to me.
RMP -Punk has many subgenres. How do you personally define "punk" these days?
Steve-I really don’t know. I’m not sure if I should or could define punk rock. I know what it is to me. I think that it has the potential to be amazing, fun, exciting, radical (in the true sense of the word), but it also can be trite, boring and plodding –without any meaning at all. I know that when I was young, the idea of punk rock having it’s own internet sites and radio was way beyond my imagination. Punk rock was music for outsiders and misfits when I was younger.
RMP- How did you guys come up with quite an unusual name like (Order of the) White Rose?
Steve- We named ourselves after the White Rose students in Munich, Germany. They wrote leaflets denouncing the Hitler regime and distributed it among their fellow students. They were eventually caught and executed. However, I felt that their commitment and desire to challenge the authorities was inspiring.
RMP -How popular is (Order of the) White Rose in the United States?
Steve- Not at all! We have a lot of work to do for even people who are hip to the whole punk thing to hear about us. Coming from Hawaii has its disadvantages, touring is difficult and getting our name out to other people in the scene, even with the internet, has been tough. I work at least an hour a day putting together mailers and promoting the band and our ideas.
RMP- In 2006 you released "War Machine", your first full CD. What are the main themes of the CD? Where did you get your inspiration?
Steve- I think we address a lot of things on War Machine. One major idea that we had was to look for solutions and look for self-affirming ideas. Our songs, “In Control” and “Resist Despair” talk about these things. Our song “Seeds of Destruction,” which we also re-worked for the b-side of our 7-inch, is about genetically modified foods. “Who Would Jesus Bomb,” was a song questioning Christian’s pro-war stance.
RMP- Can we expect new material in the near future? If so, is there an evolution in your style or is it the same in your face punk music?
Steve- Yeah, we’re recording demos at every practice and writing new songs. I think the evolution of our music continues what we did on War Machine. Some of our new songs are about the missionaries coming to Hawaii, immigration, and the people of New Orleans and the Katrina disaster. Musically, we are getting to play better as a band, and that helps writing better songs, and a more cohesive record.
RMP- What are your guy’s opinions about all the downloading that goes on?
Steve- I think that our songs are all available for download at one place or another. I’m not against it, but our records are really cheap and I’m willing to cut people deals if they want one. The artwork on War Machine is by Winston Smith and the 7 inch has a poster by Keith Rosson. Brian Walsby drew the front cover and Keith drew the back cover and the poster inside. I like records with good art in them. I don’t get that with a download, it doesn’t really feel ‘real’ to me without the physicality of a CD or record. But, with our natural resources like oil dwindling at a fast pace, downloading may be the way to go. I’m not sure that I want to just churn out records and CDs without thinking about what goes into their production.
RMP- Have you guys played on any big festivals or done any major gigs yet?
Steve- We’ve played with the Bouncing Souls and The Dropkick Murphys. Those shows were pretty big. We haven’t played any big punk rock festivals yet, but I’d like to.
RMP-You recently did a tour in California, did everything went as planned?
Steve- Yeah, it went well. I got sick, but we had great shows in Berkeley and Ridgecrest. I wanted to see how hard it would be for us to tour –we’re all very busy with our families, work and school, so it takes some planning for us to tour.
RMP-What's the funniest thing that has ever happened in a show?
Steve- I think anyone who asks if they can play my guitar after I get done playing is hilarious. I don’t lend out my guitars to people so they can show me how well they play “Sweet Child O’ Mine” on guitar. Every time someone asks me, “hey dude, can I play your guitar?” I get really confused. I would never ask to do that. It’s not the funniest story, is it? I wish I had some crazy story to tell, but I don’t really have any. Most of the time, people don’t talk to me –I’m older than a lot of the people who come to our shows, so they probably see me as their dad or something.
Do you guys have any favorite bands you like to listen to when off - stage?
Steve- When we are about to play, I like to listen to anything but punk rock. I like listening to jazz before we play. That being said, most of the time I’m listening to the other bands that are going on before us. I just get nervous watching them.
Do you guys have other jobs besides performing in a band?
Steve- Yeah, I work in a bakery with my wife, Nate works construction and Noah is a tattoo artist. I also attend college.
RMP-Final question, try to convince our readers that attending a show of "(Order of the) White Rose" is an absolute must.
Steve-That’s a good question. I don’t know if we’re an absolute must-see type of band. If it comes down to eating or going to see us play, please go eat first. I remember going hungry because I bought MDC’s “Chicken Squawk” 7 inch instead of food. I don’t recommend doing that. However, we will put on a honest show, we’ll be trying to rock out and entertain the people in the audience. Nate, our drummer is fun to watch. He hits the crap out of his drums and that’s a blast to watch.
Thanks for your time, and keep us updated about new releases. We'll gladly mention them on our site!
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