Hey guys, so instead of bringing sexy back like Justin your bringing youth crew back, always good to have a revival! Tell us who you are and where you grew up in Austria? (That’s in Europe for the Americans reading this we know your geographically challenged & no they don’t have WMD’s;-) Did you ever have to wear lader-hosen or go yodeling? What’s Austria like as a country and do’s it have many famous exports?

Nah austria has no wmd’s , but hitler was austrian, that’s even worse hahaha

We all live in the vienna area (capitol of austria, pop: 2mio), so I have to disappoint you but noone around here is yodeling and we also don’t live in the mountains.

How is Austria set up in regards to supporting hardcore and how over the past couple of years has your local scene been growing?

Growing? Over the last years the local scene did the exact opposite. It’s sad but around here is not much going on. we often drive out to budapest/hungary to see good shows.it’s fun hangin out there & there is a vital sxe hc scene.

Some years back the austrian scene was a lil better, at least there’d been more small shows, but nowadays when you put up a small show you gotta be happy when 10 kids show up – it sucks. The other point is, there has never been a real sxe scene around here. As far as I can remember there were also only 2 REAL sxe bands around, there was h-street in the late 90ies, onXpoint 2004-05 and now us. I guess that speaks for itself.

So how did Golden X come to formation? Tell me all about your other bands that your all involved in and what is happening with your current projects?

While jamming with our other band-weapons and tactics - we did some sxe songs and so the idea grew to do a sxe project. Some of us were involved in onXpoint some years back, and we always wanted to do another sxe band again. Now we got one – golden x. after we got some real great feedback when we put our first songs online in november08 and even more positive messages ater the 7” was released, we are really pumped up and I think everyone of us is now focusing on golden x and we keep on recording new tracks and hope that later this year we will also play some shows.

Your art work is pretty ace it has to be said! Do you design your shirts etc or if not who’s doing the handy work? Art work for me is as important as the music that it comes with as it like the music is an expression of the creative mind, were you influenced by any designs when coming up for concepts of how Golden X would become portrayed?

Thanx man, yeah we also think the design represents the band too, our main artist for the golden x art is our friend javi from spain. He did an awesome job with the golden x art so far and we are looking forward that he will draw some more stuff in the future. It was also great that positive and focused records was on the same page and they did a great job by putting it all together and making a great 7” design.

For the cover we got inspired by an earlier flyer javi did. It was some hc kids chasing the death, so we thought something like that would be cool, and we came up with hc kids fighting the evil. We love it.

The funny thing, because of the cover some (especially americans) think we are a christian hc band. I heard of some hilarious comments on some messageboards.

Forever young, forever young, goes your song what’s your secret to um staying Forever Young? (If you discovered the fountain of youth can I have a sip...or is it all down to a state of mind?)

That’s an easy one – ofcourse HC is the fountain of youth. ;-)

So who runs Positive and Focused and how did you become involved with the label? I like both the name and imagery again makes me wanna listen to some crucial youth crew tunes and mosh my heart away!

Positive and focused records is based in the netherlands and is run by toni P. and wietze. If theres someone out whos into oldschool hc and and hasn’t heard of P+F yet, I feel sorry for em. they did a great job over the last years releasing some quality old school/youthcrew stuff. So when they offered us to do the release it was a no brainer. There were also 3 other offers but I guess it was the best choice to work with P+F and it was also te rebirth of the label cause actually they had no plans doing any future releases and wanted to shut the label down but now you should look out for their future projects .

Which bands ended up inspiring you guys to pick up instruments? What sort of ages did you get involved with hardcore and how long before you discovered the straight edge and decided that was the way forward?

The inspiration for golden x are definetly the late 90ies bands like ten yard fight, floorpunch, fastbreak, in my eyes,… we are all involved in hc & sxe for many years now, O-life will celebrate this year a decade on the edge! I guess everyone of us became edge because of different reasons but one thought we all share would be that we hate how drugs can change the personality of people in a very negative way. Addiction equals weakness, straight edge keeps us strong ;-)

What do’s being straight edge mean to you and also now that your doing Golden X amongst other projects do’s it mean a lot to you to be able to vocalize & promote that through your music?  

Straight edge in hc today is more important than ever. But it’s not only about sxe, Look at the hc scene these days, there s no message left, it all became a big pop show and everyone wants to be the star. Some mtv bands have more message than the average hc band. I see bands just call themselves hc cause it’s easier to get on shows. wtf

 to us straight edge is a big part of hc, I mean 90% of hcbands I listen to are sxe bands. I think that’s mostly because of when you listen to a sxe band you know they are at least serious about one thing.

I beleive as a hc band having a positive message is more than important, cause like one of our new songs say “ when you are on a stage – someones gonna listen” and in hc there are mostly young kids who listen to you and you can have a positive impact on those kids lives if you show em that there is an alternative to the mainstream. There is an alternative to getting wasted every weekend. Being sober and clean doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. I always think of when I was a young kid, like 10yrs old or whatever, I had tons of fun without drugs.so why shouldn’t I have a good time without drugs now?

Are there any messages you particularly want to get out there through the band? I think sometimes kids need to be reminded of certain traditions and concepts which is why hardcore is such a great forum for discussion of ideas! What do you you hope kids will get out of Golden X?

Energy – we hope that our songs give you energy to stay positive. And I hope that we can transpond that hc is not about getting famous or making money. Hc is the kids part of making the world a better place, it’s about making a difference in this world. And it starts with every single kid. Hc is not only about the bands or the music, it’s also about the message and the kids. Everyone can put up a show, do a scene, a distro, flyers whatever. Just get involved and take part!it’s all about us – THE KIDS ;-) I guess that ‘s our main message.

What plans do you have with the band for the immediate future as well as your other bands? and then as individuals also?

We just wanna have a good a good time by doing the thing we love – making music & hangin out with friends. we are also planning to get a lineup together for some shows and maybe a lil tour and we are currently recordimg some more songs for a compilation and we plan to do a split 7” later this year. So lookout, the year has just begun. Stay up to date and listen to our newest songs first at www.myspace.com/goldenxhc

Any final words about the Edge?

Straight edge saves lives ;-)

Thanks guys and take care

Phil