Agnostic Front Interview – Roger Miret, Vinnie Stigma – 25 Years of ‘Victim in Pain’

If you are unfamiliar with Roger Miret and Vinnie Stigma of Agnostic Front, you don’t know shit about hardcore. The Village Voice recently claimed that the band’s 1984 record, “Victim in Pain”, is as important and influential to New York music as any classic Velvet Underground or Ramones album. In fact, Agnostic Front is the band that spearheaded the New York hardcore scene of the 80s.

Now this isn’t modern commercial hardcore – skinny jeans, shaggy hair, a MySpace page with widgets of every band members’ tweets – but New York hardcore: a community, a family.

What started out in the early 80s with 30 kids playing in bands at CBGB’s, the New York hardcore scene has undoubtedly made a profound impact on generations of artists. Now, 25 years after the release of “Victim in Pain”, I had a chance to sit down with the members of Agnostic Front to discuss the origins of hardcore and the secret to their success and longevity:

“There were never an ego…no jealously, no money,” states Stigma. “It was us versus them.”