\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \n\tTrapped Under Ice was created from the ashes of Nick Fury. What was the genesis of the band?\u00a0<\/strong> \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tAs far as influence, I hear classic NYHC like Breakdown, Killing Time, Crown of Thornz\u2026<\/strong> \n\tHow did you arrive at the band name? Does it come from the classic Metallica song?<\/strong> \n\tDid \u201cStay Cold\u201d exist before the name Trapped Under Ice?<\/strong> \n\tSo you did the demo before you started playing shows?<\/strong> \n\tWhat were the details of recording the demo?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong> \n\tSo you guys are recording the demo \u2014 clearly, you\u2019re very young. How did you pay for the recording? \n\tHow did \u201cSoul Vice\u201d come about? Was it originally an intro?\u00a0<\/strong> \n\tLyrically, I wanted to be kind of vague, but I think it\u2019s like a cool summary of my family life, which was a little crazy, and I had just moved out \u2014 I was actually 17. I was learning to deal with living on my own and adulthood and having anxiety problems and then I was kind of thrown into a world where I didn\u2019t have a support system. It was just me and my friends. I didn\u2019t feel like I had anybody I could depend on. I was learning about loss, people dying around you, and just trying to process all these feelings at once. And now all these adult things are being thrown at me and I can\u2019t deal with them all at once.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cReality Unfolds\u201d is such a good example of a certain thing that TUI does musically where you basically just tell Sam to write something fun. He always does this \u2014 overnight he\u2019s like, \u201cHey, I wrote this last night,\u201d and it\u2019s what \u201cReality Unfolds\u201d became.<\/p>\n \n\tDid Sam come up with some of the vocal cadences or did you do that?<\/strong> \n\tI met Sam at a young age, and he\u2019s from a different area and could observe me really well. He was really conscious of my voice, my accent and the way I talk. I don\u2019t think I talk like a lot of people, especially before I started touring a lot \u2014 hearing my voice and accent in a microphone and being like, \u201cOh, I sound like Baltimore trash.\u201d So he would play off of that and be like, \u201cHey man, can you say this word in the song?\u201d I\u2019d be like, \u201cWhy do you want me to say that word so bad?\u201d And then you hear it \u2014 it\u2019s because he thought it was funny I say it that way. He would always play off my accent and I think that\u2019s a funny early TUI thing.<\/p>\n \n\tIf you think about how those songs are structured, there are many parts where the music drops out and there will be a short vocal solo \u2014 it\u2019s a very pop song approach. TUI\u2019s got a lot of that. Where do you think that came from?\u00a0<\/strong> \n\tThat\u2019s another thing that producer-minded Sam really emphasized \u2014 people love relating to music through the vocals. It\u2019s what we all sing along to. I think there\u2019s a more direct reference for that one: \u201cBig Kiss Goodnight.\u201d I showed him this riff I wanted to use and just like with \u201cReality Unfolds,\u201d Sam came in the next day with \u201cBig Kiss Goodnight\u201d entirely written. My part was the simplest, dumbest riff on the whole record and he just made this crazy song. That includes the part where everything rings out and \u201cyou just say some cool-ass shit.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHow did the original cover for the demo come about? Was that originally intended to be a promo photo?\u00a0<\/strong> \n\tWe just wanted it to be a cool statement of \u201chere\u2019s the promo photo, that\u2019s the cover.\u201d I remember Sam making the logo for that and I think it has icicles coming off it. We knew that was stupid \u2014 we\u2019re not hiding around it. Self-aware is a good way to put it.<\/p>\n \n\tWhat\u2019s the house that you guys are sitting in front of?<\/strong> \n\tWhat was the deal with the limited cover for the test press?<\/strong> \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKatie Dance*<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tOne of your early members, Daniel Klipa, is the son of Daniel Higgs, the legendary artist, tattooer and member of Lungfish. How did you link with Klipa to form an early version of TUI?\u00a0<\/strong> \n\tYou talked about debaucherous evenings that started on Clinton Street. Give me an idea of what one of those might entail.\u00a0<\/strong> \n\tThings definitely got a little out of hand and went further than anybody anticipated a couple times. Sometimes weapons got used, and at the time our weapon of choice was tasers. Everybody had tasers because we thought it was funny \u2014 if you tase somebody, sometimes they would pee themselves. And that was funny to be like, \u201cHey, we made this guy piss his pants and that\u2019s how we won the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhat were some of the early shows for TUI?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong> \n\tIt\u2019s kind of also the time when Title Fight was becoming a real band. So we played a show in Wilkes-Barre with Title Fight. It was crazy. I remember thinking, people really like this band \u2014 they\u2019re gonna do really well. They obviously exceeded whatever I thought they would do. Later, I became aware of a new band called Bad Seed that was just the members of Title Fight with the exception of another friend or two. And it was very much similar in influence to Trapped Under Ice. They\u2019re all a little younger than us and from what they told me, they were like, \u201dOh, you can make music like that and people are into it?\u201d So they started Bad Seed. They were a band that we would play with a lot in the beginning, too.<\/p>\n \n\tFor those early shows, did you have enough material to play in addition to the demo? Did you have any covers that you\u2019d play?\u00a0<\/strong> \n\tLet\u2019s talk about the Baltimore and D.C. scenes around the time of TUI\u2019s ascension. What was it like then? Definitely much smaller, I\u2019d imagine, but there were several bands from the area like Gut Instinct and Next Step Up.\u00a0<\/strong> \n\tHonestly, I think Stout is the most important band in Baltimore hardcore history. So you got Gut Instinct, which is a little more traditional hardcore and influenced a lot of early hardcore bands. And then there was Next Step Up, which is more of the groovy thing that really influenced bands like Hatebreed. And then Stout was like, the next level and evolution of heavy music where it just sounds demonic and experimental on some level. But it\u2019s like, hardcore dudes who really like Pentagram and are trying to see how hard they can make music. Definitely a big thing that TUI took from.<\/p>\n \n\tIn hardcore, there are a lot of vocalists, but not many front people. Most vocalists lack that certain kind of \u201cpied piper-ism\u201d you possess. What are the qualities that make a good front person? Who were your pied pipers?<\/strong> \n\tI feel like there were two bands who were singing about their feelings, Crown of Thornz and American Nightmare \u2014 two bands from different generations. That\u2019s one of the things people really loved about American Nightmare and made them a unique and very artistic band. I think neither of those bands were particularly focused on being heavy in the way that TUI was. I think our unique angle was to be like, \u201cI got my feelings hurt by this girl\u201c or \u201cI\u2019m feeling abandoned by my father\u201d on a song with a riff that sounds like Madball. But the ultimate lesson as a frontman in rock & roll music is Iggy Pop. That\u2019s my number one. There are more obvious examples too, like Prince is really important to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhen we first started playing, I remember Sam asking me about the way I moved onstage, shaking my hips and stuff. He was like, \u201cI don\u2019t know if that fits the vibe,\u201d and I said, \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s cool.\u201d And to his credit, Sam might not always understand what I\u2019m doing, but I\u2019d explain myself and he\u2019d be like, \u201cLet\u2019s run with it.\u201d I\u2019ve always done that \u2014 I always wanna get on stage and be flamboyant and a spectacle. I wanna move in a way that makes you uncomfortable. That\u2019s not just hardcore music, that\u2019s rock & roll music. I wanna engage and challenge people.<\/p>\n
Nick Fury\u2019s big creative impression was that we were a teenage straight edge band, but we were all reaching the age of 20 and our interests shifted. So me, Sam [Trapkin], and Ben [Esparza] decided to try something different and we were set on doing heavier music. The creative ideas came out of lifting sessions \u2014 me and Sam would lift in his hot garage and we only had one CD for the player: State of the World Address<\/em> by Biohazard. I think we decided that the band should sound like us in our underwear, sweating, listening to State of the World Address<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
Breakdown and Crown of Thornz, yeah. Madball was a subtle influence, so I would say maybe some of that Killing Time is through their influence on Madball. We always get Outburst, too, but I think when people think of them, they\u2019re hearing Breakdown or the similarities between the two. I don\u2019t think I even heard Outburst until we put out the TUI demo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was Sam\u2019s idea and at the time, it wasn\u2019t consciously because of a Metallica song. We didn\u2019t know that was the source of inspiration until the first time we saw it on a flyer and thought, \u201cMakes sense, Sam\u2019s a Metallica freak.\u201d Also, I was writing lyrics before we had a name and there was a theme of \u201cthis is cold\u201d and \u201cthat\u2019s cold.\u201d So when the name came about, it was like, \u201cOh, this fits the lyrics. We\u2019re gonna run with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStay Cold\u201d was an early song we wrote and actually, I do believe that was before we had named the band. We hadn\u2019t recorded the song yet, but we had that song written for a while before we recorded it for the EP that came out later.<\/p>\n
Yeah, we wanted to make sure we had music out before actually doing it live.<\/p>\n
We recorded the demo in our friend\u2019s basement \u2014 Joe Mitra\u2019s Wired Wrists Studio. I remember we recorded and the snare drum sounded kind of crazy. So he was like, \u201cI wanna try this,\u201d and we\u2019re all young and learning stuff. We didn\u2019t really know what we were doing and were all experimenting in our own ways, and Joe ended up tweaking the snare drum. At the time, it didn\u2019t bother me too much \u2014 I was like, \u201cOh, it\u2019s weird.\u201d I didn\u2019t really know or care or think too much \u2014 it was just \u201cis there a mosh part that makes me feel something?\u201d After the vinyl came out, a friend of mine said, \u201cI\u2019m really sorry about that snare.\u201d He thought I was upset about the drums and I was like, \u201cOh man, is something wrong with it?\u201d As time goes on, you become more familiar with what things are supposed to sound like, but I think the snare is one of those things that makes it special. It has this alien sound where people are like, \u201cWow, these guys are from another planet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/strong>We were definitely bad kids at that time and he probably charged us like $500 bucks to record the demo\u2014 probably $100 a song or whatever. We didn\u2019t have that at the time, so we would just do shit that kids did \u2014 rob people and stuff. That\u2019s not cool. I feel like at that time, we got into going to parties and if the vibe was cool, we were cool and then if it wasn\u2019t, we were robbing people that were mean to us. And we basically funded recording that way: stole stuff from somebody\u2019s house and the things we stole paid for our demo. You know, I\u2019m surprised we never got locked up or killed or something.<\/p>\n
So when I wrote that song and riff, I remember thinking I wanted it to be an intro, so it\u2019s structurally not like a verse and a chorus. I just wanted a cool riff that sounds like Breakdown, that fucking hits you with the mosh part.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, I do a lot of that but that\u2019s one thing I like about Sam. He\u2019s very producer-minded. A lot of times he can come up with a whole song musically and then I\u2019ll riff on it but he\u2019ll say, \u201cI like when you did this,\u201d or \u201cCan you do that here? I don\u2019t like this.\u201d And he\u2019ll give me fun challenges like, \u201cI like this word, what if you put this word in the song somewhere?\u201d I think he\u2019s a really aware person.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yeah, I love that, man. Those are moments that we were obsessed with, and at first we were like, \u201cWe should do that in every song.\u201d Biohazard has a couple of those moments. A great example is on \u201cPunishment\u201d where he\u2019s like, \u201cI question, not me\u2026\u201d \u2014 that whole section. Another one is \u201cMarch of the Damned\u201d by Integrity where Dwid says, \u201cFather! Take me back!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kind of? We knew we wanted a promo photo and there\u2019s these bands we loved that were big scary guys. I think we went into it knowing that we weren\u2019t big and scary. We couldn\u2019t compete with the Fury of Five promo photo or the Box Cutter promo photo or Madball. We weren\u2019t intimidating people and we took the photo as seriously as possible because we were referencing the stuff that we love. But the idea that we were acting like that was funny. It\u2019s weird because I remember people were really upset like, \u201cThese guys think they\u2019re so tough.\u201d That\u2019s the whole point \u2014 we\u2019re not and that\u2019s why it\u2019s cool.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s on Clinton Street in Highland Town at a house I lived in \u2014 me and a couple of friends. It was kind of the hangout spot. Some old Polish family that I knew used the house for storage and there was no hot water or heat or air conditioning. It was really sad. There were holes in the floor, so Baltimore-sized rats lived with us. The homies would come over and crash or go out and be debaucherous and that was where you all met after the fight breaks out or after the police get called. The neighborhood at the time was mainly El Salvadorans, who were really cool neighbors to have. I think they appreciated and supported our little active bad kid lifestyle.<\/p>\n
We had the limited cover that was like a brick of cocaine and it said Trapped Under Ice written in lines of cocaine. When Che told me we could do that, I was like, \u201cOh, we can get like baking powder or something to do that with.\u201d Che was like, \u201cWe could just use this,\u201d and he pulled out a brick of cocaine. And then he did it, it looked cool and I was like, \u201cThat\u2019s fucking sick \u2014 nobody else has that.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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I think we recorded before he actually started practicing with us. He played the first shows that we did. Klipa was a local guy who grew up in a white trash neighborhood and just did white trash shit. The only hardcore he was aware of was Hatebreed and Icepick, so we were like, \u201cWe can convince him to do this by telling him it sounds like Icepick.\u201d Every day with Klipa is like 20 stories. One day we went to practice and we called him and he said, \u201cI moved to Florida.\u201d He got kicked out of Florida for stealing purses, so the next week when it was time to practice, he was back in Maryland so he practiced with us. He\u2019s a character, like out of a movie.<\/p>\n
There was a group of people that we were feuding with and I remember one night we found out that they were all squadded up somewhere, so we called all the boys. When Klipa got to my house, he walked across the street to the El Salvadoran family that we\u2019re friends with and spoke to them in fluent Spanish, which none of us knew he could do. They gave him some beers and five bucks. He told them that he was really broke and needed gas to get somewhere to fight these guys, so they gave it to him. We drove to go fight these guys, found them and fought. So when we came back to the crib, the neighbors were like, \u201cWhat happened? Did you beat their ass?\u201d They were really excited about it.<\/p>\n
So I think the first show TUI played was a Ruiner show. Van Damage was a band in Pennsylvania and at the time, we would play with them a bit. Down to Nothing would invite us to play with them. And then a lot of local shows, like one a week for a long time. We were thinking we\u2019re just gonna do a Baltimore show or two and then we kept getting asked to play out of the state, which was really exciting. When you\u2019re a kid, you don\u2019t have any intentions of leaving the state. I think Lemoyne, Pennsylvania, would have been our first out-of-state show. Brockton, Massachusetts, was also an early adopter of Trapped Under Ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We had a cover of \u201cLast Breath\u201d by Hatebreed that we would do sometimes. We\u2019d also do a little Metallica medley, \u201cStreet Fight\u201d by Breakdown. I think that\u2019s it. Our set was songs from the demo and then one of those.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Between Virginia and Maryland, D.C., and Baltimore, there were so many different waves that were happening. Desperate Measures was really important to our friend circle. They were one of those bands that made it feel cool to be from Maryland, which wasn\u2019t the coolest thing. I always say Slumlords was really cool because they were one of those first bands to be a Baltimore band. There were a couple bands from Baltimore, but nobody was wearing it like that. And I think that was big with TUI \u2014 we wanted to be a Baltimore hardcore band. We\u2019re gonna put Baltimore on our merchandise and make it a cool thing because it really never was cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I appreciate that, thank you. So, the obvious one that people caught before I did was Ezec from Crown of Thornz. He is such a character. He\u2019s not bluffing one bit. That\u2019s just who he is and you can\u2019t turn it off. When I was a kid I was like, \u201cI wanna be a unique individual,\u201d and he\u2019s one of the first people to turn me on to individuality in the context of heavy music. He doesn\u2019t follow any of the rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n