Excerpt from transcription, audio
recorded on Friday, May 2, 2025
Josh: Yo, what’s up! I’m Josh. I play guitar in xDerisionx. (Right side of image above)
Alex: Hi, I’m Alex. I sing. ( Left side of image above)
Ameer: First question—how did the band start?
Alex: Literally us.
Josh: Yeah. Me and him wanted to start a straight edge band forever. We played in Blood Money together and Crawling Back. I used to play in a band called Vanguard, but that whole thing just kind of fell apart. They put out one LP on New Age Records during COVID, and then everything just broke down. I had three songs that never got used, and I was like, “What if I rework these and we start a straight edge band with them?” That was last winter, winter of 2023. So I wrote everything, and then we found other members.
Alex: Yeah, it took us like a year and a half to find everybody. That’s basically it. He had everything written, and then we just found people.
Ameer: What is your long-term vision for the band?
Alex: I want to be the first modern, non-corny straight edge band.
Josh: Yeah, that’s real. We’re all adults now. We have jobs and the means to go places, do cool stuff, fly out and play festivals or something. So if we get to play some cool fests, that’d be awesome. And if hearing a Derision record convinces one kid to claim edge, I’ve done my job.
Ameer: What’s the biggest inspiration for your music?
Alex: My gramps was a musician. He played in blues bands in Houston. I didn’t learn everything from him because I mostly learned by watching people play guitar, but he was my initial inspiration to do music. So for sure, that’s it.
Josh: Yeah. My uncle played drums since he was a kid. I wanted to be a drummer too, which probably would’ve been good because I would have been one of the six straight edge drummers. But my parents didn’t want the noise, so when I was six, they got me a guitar and signed me up for lessons. Music has been a big part of my life since then. I grew up going to White Belt shows and metalcore shows. Then when I was about 15, an older friend with a car took me to see Have Heart and Foundation. Between that and my dad being a punk in Seattle in the 80s, those were the two things that got me into hardcore. Now I’m a punk over 30, so yeah.
Alex: On the subject of getting into straight edge, I never did drugs or drank or anything in high school. I had an older friend—his name is Garrett. He’s still my friend, but we don’t really talk anymore. He stayed at my house for like two weeks one summer during school, and he handed me a Champion CD and a Have Heart CD. He was like, “Here, this is you.” Then he said, “You’re straight edge,” and started taking me to shows all the time.
Ameer: Kind of similar to me. I’ve never done drugs or drank or anything like that. It’s just not how I want to live my life.
Alex: Yeah. It never even seemed like an option for me. I didn’t have a bad relationship with drugs or alcohol. I knew it was an issue for some people, but I grew up in a pretty stable household. It wasn’t a part of my parents’ life. Was it kind of a similar vibe for you?
Ameer: Yeah. My parents were always like, “Don’t do drugs. Don’t drink.” Stuff like that.
Alex: Would they drink at Christmas parties?
Ameer: No. They’re Muslim.
Alex: Oh, okay.
Ameer: But my aunts and uncles definitely drank. It wasn’t like they were alcoholics.
Alex: Yeah. It wasn’t excessive drinking.
Josh: Yeah. I haven’t always been straight edge.
Alex: True. He was a recent convert.
Josh: I’ve only been edge for like five years. I hit half a decade. So, I’m here now. I think that’s because I didn’t claim or take the commitment seriously until I was a little older. I don’t have the desire to ever put a substance in my body again. I didn’t struggle that much, especially with alcohol. My dad did for a long time, but he was able to clean up. His dad still kinda struggles. I have a family history of it, and I don’t want that to be me.
Alex: Yeah. I would definitely say that J and people like him are much more— like because we’re just kind of lucky, and we’re like, “Well, this is just the way we are, so let’s be kind of lazy and keep it that way.” It could be that alcohol is the sickest thing in the world, and we’re just idiots. You know what I mean? But it’s nice to hear from the perspective of “Hey, I used to do it. It’s not really what it’s all cut out to be.”
I joke about it a lot. I’m like, “If you weren’t then, you aren’t now.” You know what I mean? That’s an obvious joke because the correct answer is no matter when you claim it, as long as you’re honest and it’s a true part of you.
Ameer: So, have your personal experiences influenced your music at all?
Alex: Yeah, for sure.
Josh: Yeah, absolutely. I would say so, for sure. I mean, for me, getting into hardcore... I remember when I was a kid writing, like, I don’t know, shitty scene kid music. It just never really meant anything to me. Now, I like everything I do with all my bands, but especially with Derision, because Derision is the band where I mean something. It’s very impassioned and personal to me because I want kids to hear this stuff and realize that they should actively oppose the substances and poison shoved down our throats every day by peers, social media, politicians, pharmaceutical companies. I want kids to hear Derision and think that.
Alex: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s kind of like everything—your life experiences color everything you do, right? Especially being a little older, that’s way easier to see. I’m definitely a lot more tolerant of people around me who indulge in substances. Like, I’m in a band with David, who’s the biggest pothead I’ve ever met in my life, and Owen, who’s the second biggest pothead I’ve met. But I think you take your experiences and try to paint with that brush, but ultimately you have to interpret your own thing.
Derision is really nice because we decided from the outset to be very intentional with everything. Whereas with some of our other bands—Crawling Back, Isolate, and Blood Money—while they’re serious, there’s kind of a sarcastic, jokey tone. I think we were very much drawn from that old nineties vibe—not hardline, because that has a negative connotation in the culture—but just that idea of a dark edge where it’s very serious and militant, but it’s directed at myself. I never put that on anybody else. It’s like, if I break, I’m bad. You know what I mean? So that’s kind of how I think about it.
Ameer: Do you guys think Houston, Texas specifically has, I guess, maybe a drug problem or anything like that?
Alex: Yeah. I think just because it’s a major urban center, you’re going to see a lot of that. I think it comes and goes. When I started going to shows here around 2012 or 2013, there was definitely a lot of recreational marijuana use and underage drinking—typical stuff you see at punk shows. But as Houston’s population grows and a few different scenes form instead of one homogeneous scene, you definitely start to see different seeds flower into that kind of dangerous territory. Like, maybe we should take a look at this and back off—not necessarily from a temperance standpoint, but just slow down. Kids shouldn’t be dying from overdoses.
Josh: Yeah. I think it’s gotten better now, but I’ll call out House of J back in the day for actively letting kids do heroin and stuff. But a lot of it also comes back to the music scene and beyond. Look at Texas politics and people’s material conditions—it’s not hard to see we live in a culture, especially in this state, where people with substance issues or addiction are fearful of getting punished, so they don’t seek the help they should. That comes back to politics—Democrat or Republican—it’s largely the same everywhere. If you have a drug problem, your odds of going to jail are way higher than getting help and getting clean. So many people don’t seek recovery.
Do I think Houston has a bigger drug problem than other cities? Not necessarily. But it’s definitely symptomatic of the culture we live in, especially in a state like Texas with our politics.
Alex: I'll agree with you 100 percent on the cultural side and how it’s a larger issue in our country and society. But specifically, as a Houstonian my whole life, I think it’s actually gotten worse. I don’t know if that’s because people are going through hard times. People are broke as fuck. No matter what tax bracket you’re in, basically everyone’s living paycheck to paycheck.
What’s kind of scary to me is that I’ve noticed a lot of people who are functioning addicts. You know, there are people at shows, people you work with, people you interact with at HEB—they’re coke heads. And you don’t see it, you know? This might be anecdotal, but I’ve seen a slight uptick in stuff like that. I don’t know if it’s a sign of the times or what.
Ameer: So, just talking about the wider scene here—what is something you want people to understand about your band?
Alex: About our band? Sing along.
Josh: Sing the fuck along, and like, you don’t have to be straight edge to wear our merch. Please buy a t-shirt.
Alex: But no, really, just stand up front. We’re not a beatdown band. A lot of people think we’re a dumb beatdown band, but it’s like, dude, just stand up front—you’re not gonna get hit. It’ll be fine.
Josh: Yeah. But ultimately, hardcore is a very special and sacred thing to me. The biggest thing about Derision is that Derision is a hardcore band. Know you’re coming to a hardcore show, know the element you’re in, and don’t be a main character weirdo while my band is playing. If you stage potato while Derision is playing, I will dropkick you off the stage.
Alex: Hey, if you do it better than me, I’ll give you the mic.
Josh: Oh, if you got good style, that’s fine. Most kids who do that don’t have style.
Alex: From your perspective, what do you want to see?
Ameer: Oh, honestly, probably the same thing. I want more crowd interaction with bands—that’s something I definitely want to see more of, just people being more involved with what’s on stage.
Alex: I’ll say one more thing—Houston is really good about this. Playing in other scenes, I’ve noticed it less. Ladies—like women and queer people—need to not be afraid to hit people and jump on stage. It’s always some dude like Owen from crawling back flying off the stage. Ladies are the best moshers, and they just kind of chill. I’m like, no! Go on stage! We just played in San Antonio, and the two hardest moshers in the room were women. I was like, guys, come on—you gotta match them at least.
Ameer: My final question: any plans you can share?
Josh: East Coast weekender in June. One show has been soft-launched; the other two will be announced soon. We’re doing D.C., Brooklyn, and Baltimore. Then we’re working on some South Florida shows for September. Do we want to put the other thing out in the universe? The split?
Alex: Oh, yeah. There are two more things. July 5 we’ll be in Houston. Then on the fourth, we’re playing a Fourth of July show at the warehouse in Corpus. Shout out to Joe. And yeah, we’re doing a split with a Southeast Asian band called Hellraiser.
