From across the pond comes this special feature interview for Pit Call (which I am incredibly greatful for) with New Yorks own Combust!

Formed back in 2017, Combust have recently been ripping it up in Europe and the UK this past month with Speedway & Imposter. I managed to catch them on the final day of tour at The Grace in London and what an epic final show it was.

They have been out there showing the world that New York Hardcore style isn’t lost.

I caught up with Combust Vocalist Andrew Vacante following their recent EU&UK tour for Belly Of The Beast to talk all things hardcore, influences and especially…NYHC!

FIRST OF ALL WHERE ARE YOU GUYS BASED & HOW DID YOU ALL MEET?

We are based out of primarily Staten Island and Brooklyn, NYC. Me and the drummer Dave have known each other since we were kids playing shows and in hardcore bands together. We started hanging out more with the guitar players Alex and Peter when we were in our 20s.

Me and Dave wanted to start a band that sounded like killing time, breakdown and cro mags and sick of it all but we wanted to do it with people we haven’t been in a million bands with out of Staten island. So I put out a tweet and the homie Peter was down.

I’d say we started in the spring of 2017. Demo came out November 2017. 

WHAT WAS THE SCENE LIKE WHERE YOU WERE GROWING UP IN NYC HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN HARDCORE?

Well I grew up in Staten Island NYC. I got into hardcore through my cousin Chris Robots Will kill. I was getting into metal and playing in a metal band and then my cousin put a pin in that pretty quickly and showed me Age of Quarrel and it was over hahaha. 

The vibe in Staten was a little different.

We had our own little piece of a scene carved out but it was very local. A lot of mixed band bills. Not a HUGE hardcore scene of kids leaving the island to go to shows. Very tethered to our own little thing you know?

So I would go to shows off the island in Brooklyn and the city and my friends would start coming with me eventually. We had a little crew forming finally of real HC kids. We started booking our own shows on Staten Island and making bands.

But going to Brooklyn and the city for shows was like the Mecca to us. All the sickest bands always playing out here on tour. All the legacy bands at some bigger venues a lot.

Shit made you feel like a kid in a candy store. The only thing that was lacking to me I felt was a good representation of modern bands coming out of NYC….

THIS MIGHT SOUND LIKE A DUMBASS QUESTION BUT HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME COMBUST?

Not a dumb question at all…I feel like I had the name just kinda in my head for a while and I always thought it would be a sick name for a NYHC band. Gave me the feeling of a NYHC band when I heard it, saw it, etc. and it’s never been used before.

Just kinda felt right. Then I wrote the chorus for the song combust and I hit the line “one of these days man I’m gonna combust” I was like …yeaaa that’s the band name. 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND TO SOMEBODY WHO HASN’T HEARD YOU BEFORE?

A modernized version of 89-95 NYHC. 

WHAT HAS BEEN SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU’VE BEEN FACE WITH?

When we first started the biggest challenge was getting kids into songs that didn’t have blatant “breakdowns” or like chug parts to dance to hahaha. That was very NOT the vibe at the time for HC.

It was very metalcore influenced stuff so we really had to show kids you can dance to parts that don’t sound like some metalcore shit. 

WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE ARTISTS?

Killing Time, Dynamo, Sick Of It All, Cro Mags, Billy Joel, Iron Maiden, Wu Tang, Blacklisted, Integrity. 

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE SHOWS YOU’VE REALLY ENJOYED BEING A PART OF & DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE VENUE?

Wow. So many to name. Possibly too many honestly. I could sit here forever about all the sows that mean the world to me.

But my favorite venue is Gold Sounds in Brooklyn. 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE CURRENT STATE OF THE NYHC SCENE TODAY?

NYHC right now is beautiful. So many kids starting bands. Coming out to shows. Getting excited. Participating. Dancing. Diving. They really care.

We have so many fuckin bands now and it’s sick. It brings a tear of joy to my eye man. NYC was on life support for so long when it came to bands and having an actually tight knit community. I mean shit I just been going to shows since I was 11 or 12 and I learned the lay of the land you know?

Started traveling out on my own. Booking my own shows. Playing shows with my other bands. It just fell into place and I do everything I can to lift my scene you know? 

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR DREAM TOUR TO GET COMBUST ON?

A dream tour….OG Mags lineup, Killing Time, Terror, Combust, Freeze Out. That’s a tour haaaaa

WHAT HAS BEEN SOME OF THE CRAZIEST EXPERIENCES YOU’VE HAD TOGETHER?

Man it seems like day to day common place shit now hahaha.

Craziest experiences….getting stopped at the border with some of these guys tryna smuggle some shit across in their fuckin pants while we get searched, driving through snowstorms in the middle of the night to play one gig and almost swerving into big rigs.

Petting kangaroos in Australia and going to Japan twice already.

I mean man everything is crazy to me. We’re a little older now so the band doesn’t do any out of the way psycho kid bullshit anymore. But I’m blessed for real. 

HOW HAVE YOU FOUND THE HARDCORE SCENE CHANGE IN RECENT YEARS?

I mean everyone’s aware the post Covid boom coupled with social media has made hardcore bigger than it ever has been. Theres no debate on that.

We have a band deeply rooted in hardcore for over 10 years that just won a Grammy. Like really think about it. Thats crazy. I think newer kids just get into it and see it in a certain light and kinda stop there and that’s how they view hardcore. It’s a trend, it’s a new music fad, it’s playing in huge arenas and over the top viral video extremism at shows because that’s all their exposed to you know? It adds that factor of kids who just wanna be there for the spectacle cause of their phone. 

But hardcore is so important because it’s the exact opposite of that. It’s a mindset, it’s values, its a community. It changes the way you think. We need kids digging and trying to understand what this shit really means and how important it is to give back to it and that’s how it keeps going you know?

Hardcore will always have ebb and flow and people comin and going but the ones who stick around make the difference and show the example and that’ll never change. 

HOW IMPORTANT IS REPRESENTATION IN THE HARDCORE COMMUNITY?

I mean shit. The people that represented hardcore to me were people who fully stood their ground on where they stand with shit and protected the shit they love. Or were just people who were basically like all my uncles except they had tattoos and weren’t ignorant hahaha.

I don’t know man it’s always important of course. I think every new generation has a new set of representation obviously.

But it’s important we keep the representation with the people who really live this shit. 

WE MEET A LOT OF PEOPLE AS WE HIT UP SHOWS. DO YOU HAVE A GREAT CONNECTION WITH ANYONE IN PARTICULAR WHO YOU WOULD RECOMMEND WORKING WITH?

I book all our tours so essentially too many people come to mind.

I am grateful to say that a majority of people I speak to when booking combust tours are people I can call a friend you know?

That’s what hardcore is. 

YOU’VE RECENTLY WRAPPED UP YOUR RECENT EU/UK TOUR, WHAT MEMORIES HAVE YOU TAKEN AWAY FROM THIS?

Man this tour was incredible. 10/18 shows sold out and that was just a cool ass experience to think about. It feels like it went by in a blur outside the shows you know?

Just alotttt of driving and then pulling up to the venue and hitting the gig.

My memories I’ll take away is the fact that we got to kick it with epic bands like Speedway and Imposter for a good amount of time. 

YOU RELEASED ‘BELLY OF THE BEAST’ LAST MARCH ON TRIPLE B RECORDS. WHAT WERE YOUR INFLUENCES FOR THESE TRACKS & HOW HAPPY WERE YOU WITH HOW IT CAME TOGETHER?

Influences for this band I feel never change you know? You got the steady mix of HC and metal influence with the New York hip hop flavor thrown in for good measure you know?

A lot of Killing Time and Dynamo and Cro Mags and Sick Of It All. Crown of Thornz for sure. Iron Maiden. Guns N’ Roses. Rolling Stones. Some Cold World and lOC stuff.

I’m so happy with everything surrounding it.

Zach did a great job of getting us to do the best take we can without being a weird pushy annoying engineer about it you know? It was like just chillin with a homie.

I think Belly Of The Beast and Truth Hurts are my 2 favorites when it comes to being put together and the energy that went into it.

Vile Sore did the artwork and he fuckin crushed it. 

WE CAN’T ALL BE MUSICIANS 24/7 SO WHAT JOBS/CAREERS DO YOU GUYS HAVE?

Peter works at a local health food spot right now.

Dave works at Trader Joe’s. Eric is a fuckin engineer and Alex B does graphic design. 

I do this and that when I’m home. I play poker mostly. Do odd jobs when I can. Insta cart. Uber Eats. Work shows. Sell shit. Etc. whatever I gotta do in the time being. 

HAVE YOU GOT ANY HOBBIES/INTERESTS THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH THE PEOPLE?

None that I want people to know about…

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE FROM YOU GUYS IN 2026?

New music. Touring always. The vibes will always be positive even when they are negative. 

WHAT SHOWS HAVE YOU GOT COMING UP THAT YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO PLAYING?

Oh yea we leave for a run with Angel Du$t and then Terror soon. That’s gonna be epic!

FINALLY, HAVE YOU GOT ANY OTHER ARTISTS/FRIENDS YOU THINK THE PEOPLE SHOULD CHECK OUT?

CHECK OUT!:

BAZOOKA, FERMENT, SQUARE ONE, GENOME, TOP DOLLAR, FROTHING MAD, NO VALUES, GASSED, 100 HOUR WAR, BORN SINNER, WHO PAYS, STEAMROLL, BEG TO DIFFER, EVIL WAYS, SHITS CREEK, GRAEL.

NYHC! 

You can catch Combust on tour in the US with Angel Du$t & then Terror starting later this month!

Find tickets ot your local show and head on down!

Angel Du$t Tour Dates

Terror Tour Dates

Until next time, I’ll catch you in the pit!

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