What have you been up to lately?
Well this weekend I was out in the woods shooting beer cans and eating boca burgers, carrots and peanut butter with some country dudes while they ate steaks.
You’ve experienced being on prescription mental drugs, how do you feel about them?
It’s fucked. Some people need them, most people don’t. When you get on them, it sucks to get off. Is that blunt enough?
Why’s Daniel Rosen so miserable lately?
I’m stressed. I’ve got to balance school full time. I’ve got to balance work. I’ve got to balance Bitter End. Everything is completely off balance. It’s stressing me out but I’m working on it. I’ve still got to hit gym five days a week. I just went to the gym with two random college girls. Got a good chest exercise in. Today I'm feeling good though- talking to you, about to go work on a presentation soon. That’s my life. I’m being productive, I’m just stressed but that’s how I always am. I’m also drinking a Smoothie King high-protein whey almond mocha smoothie with banana and it tastes great, I’ll have you know.
You guys just got off of touring with Madball what was that experience like?
It was great. I had a good time, heard Hoya tell some funny stories. We drove through too much snow which sucked but I’m a little girl about that stuff. Shows were good. Madball dudes were cool. Lionheart dudes were cool. I got to see Set it Off played 11 days in a row, good times.
How do you think people perceive Bitter End?
I have no idea. I think people perceive Bitter End as making absolutely no sense. We have the line up that records, but every tour we go on we have different members. It seems like people genuinely like the band so that is good. If we decide to do a reunion in 15 years no one can pull the card that it’s not all original members because we never played with original members anyways. People seem into it though. If people don’t like us, then it doesn’t bother me. If you like us, you’ve got good taste, the end.
What were you trying to get across with Guilty as Charged conceptually?
The whole record is calling myself out and calling people around me out. I don’t want people to think it’s just about other people. Half of it’s about things I’m guilty of, I’m admitting it. Half of it is about people around me out and what I see that they’re guilty of. That’s it- calling myself out, calling other people out around me and saying “You’re guilty” of this, whatever that song is about.
What are you guilty of?
I’m guilty of…that’s a deep question. I’m guilty of not taking full advantage of the opportunities I’m given. I’m guilty of procrastinating to no end to get things done. I’m guilty of being a selfish person sometimes. I’m guilty of making the same mistake over and over again. I’m guilty of being terrible at interviews.
What does Bitter End having coming up?
We have a tour during Spring Break with Take Offense and Hard Side. It’s in about week. We still need to order merchandise and get the van fixed, all kinds of stuff that’s stressing me out but I’ll get it done. We have another tour in the US this summer for a few weeks, which I’m not supposed to talk about yet. To be honest, Bitter End might be slowing down soon. We’re going to have to re-evaluate things this summer because I’m 25 years old and I’ve got to start concentrating on some real life things like finishing school, getting some internships, getting a little bit of a savings account going. I need to concentrate on other stuff. I’ve had a great time with Bitter End. Who knows what the future of Bitter End is? I’ll have a better idea after the summer.
What do you think of making a living off music?
I think if you want to make a living off music, if that makes you happy, go for it. If I were to go on tour full time and make a living off music I’d go mentally insane and shoot myself. I have a good time traveling. Still, I prefer waking up after a full night of sleep and making myself a breakfast in my own kitchen with food I bought from the grocery store. I then enjoy going to the gym before class. I enjoy having a nice work out. I enjoy then going to school and going to work for a little while at night. Then I like coming home, hanging out with my roommates at my own house, going to sleep in my own bed, having a great night’s sleep and starting all over again. I’m really at the point that I’m sick of sleeping on floors. It’s fine, I’ll do it. I’m going to be doing it this spring and summer. I’ve never been the type of person that wants to go on tour full time. It’s not my thing. I enjoy touring but I enjoy home life much more.
What do you think of hardcore right now?
Hardcore is great. There are good bands. I hear a band and think they’re great but if people knew what the hell I listened to, they’d be bummed. I stick to my friends that I like. I’m not a dick to anyone obviously. If someone wants to talk to me, I talk to them about whatever they want to talk about. I feel like at this point in my life I relate more to the random dude sitting next to me at school than I do with some of the newer hardcore kids. It’s not anything against them, we’re just at different life stages. I can talk to them about Madball, I can have a good Madball conversation but at the end of the day that’s about all that I have in common with a good chunk of the newer hardcore kids. I'm more interested in having different kinds of connections. I just like to do my own thing, stick to my good friends I’ve made through hardcore, hang out with my normal friends that are awesome and enjoy my life.
What have you been listening to lately?
Oi! and Texas Country Music.
How has Bitter End changed since the band began?
When Bitter End started there was only one child between all the members. Bitter End now has four children between all of the members. Two of the members have college degrees, with one now going for his masters. Two of the members have full-time salary jobs. I’m trying to go to school for real. We’re older. We’re doing real life stuff. We were like 18 years old when we started. Now we’re men handling real life stuff. From the age of 18 to 25 we’re not going to be the exact same people. We’re just older, more mature and dealing with different life situations. That’s also reflected in the music, the lyrics. There you have it.
What is something that frustrates you?
I hate how unhealthy people are. I don’t understand how people get to the point in their lives where they just eat like crap, they get no exercise. You only get one chance on earth, why don’t you be a healthy human being? Go for a jog, go to the gym, eat something nutritious and make yourself feel good. Don’t go to Mcdonald’s everyday. I hate that this society is becoming so unhealthy, so into processed foods, so into junk and then they wonder why everyone’s getting cancer, why everyone’s obese. It’s not that hard to go to the grocery store and buy some healthy food. You’ll feel better, you’ll look better, you’ll enjoy your life more. These girls- they starve themselves, they don’t know how their metabolism works. I wish this society was more fit and healthy instead of just living off of sodas and ranch Dorritos.
What do you like about hardcore right now?
I like that some chubby little kid who doesn’t want to get drunk can find a community of people, feel accepted, learn how to travel the world, learn how to do things for themselves and hopefully apply that someday to whatever they want to do with their real life. Whether what they want to do with their real life is hardcore or start their own business. You can start as a weirdo loser and learn about life, learn about the world around you, go see many things and learn how to do something for yourself from the ground up. That is awesome about hardcore and I have learned that from hardcore. There’s DIY and there’s DIYW. A lot of people talk about DIY which stands for do it yourself. DIY, a lot of times, is shitty. A lot of times when someone claims something is DIY, it looks like shit, it’s done terribly. Then there’s DIYW, do it yourself well. You know who’s DIYW? Reaper Records. From the day he started his label, from the ground up, he put out quality looking, quality sounding, solid releases. That’s the perfect example of DIYW- do it yourself well.
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