EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Street Soldier

If you're familiar with UK Hardcore, you may have seen the name Street Soldier around. The one man Beatdown act is grabbing everyone's attention with his empowering tough man attitude, brazen beatdowns and catchy one-liners inciting violence, and so much more. It all started with a one-minute promo video that was shared around Hardcore pages on Facebook and since then, Street Soldier has made a massive impact with the release of the new EP that came out on 8th August.

The EP is titled One Man Gang, and the EP is exactly that. Scotty Hall is the attitude and genius behind this EP which preaches a big fuck you to bullies, incites carnage and gives us an insight into York City violence-Street Soldier is a force to be reckoned with. One Man Gang is that fun-filled beatdown band we needed in our lives. To find out more, I got in contact with Street Soldier for an exclusive interview to learn a bit more about the EP and the Street Soldier himself that we are all curious about.

So, how did Street Soldier start?

Okay so for the past few of years I've had loads of riffs already written, I'm always writing whether I'm in a band or not and decided to do something with them, ideally, I just wanted to release a 3 track E.p. (hence one of the reasons its called one-man gang) and if the band members came after that then so be it, Laurie (drummer) my best mate is a wizard with recording equipment etc (I'm a caveman), I'd pop over to his when I had the ideas, we flow so good together musically, we'd piece it all together and then all of a sudden we got 3 tracks, went to my pal Gav at Rain City recording studio in Manchester and recorded the tracks (guitar and bass was recorded by myself at that point), then I put it out, I already had an idea who I was gonna get for the other band members and now here we are and were buzzed man

In your own words, describe what Street Soldier is

Street Soldier about standing up for yourself, keeping a hard mentality and staying strong in a world that's so weak, just being real, man.

How has the response been from your Ep been so far?

Man, it's been unbelievable, I can't thank everyone enough, so much love and its pumped us up ridiculously, I think the promo vid we did helped a lot, it seems to be everywhere.

Have you been involved in Hardcore before?

Well myself and Laurie were in a thrash band called wasted days, suicidal tends, municipal waste kinda stuff, we play a fair few shows, biggest one probably being supporting trash talk in Leeds in I think 2011/2012, guitarist Ollie was in a York-based Deathcore band called shot down stay down.

You talk a lot about bullying in your music (Bully Basher particularly) does this theme mean a lot to you?

Yeah man, I used to get bullied at school, was stick thin, names were thrown at me etc and I couldn't stand up for myself, it stays with you no matter what, it's an important issue, I wasn't severely bullied but you know, people react to things differently to other people, I didn't react well, Bully Basher is about my mentality now and what would happen I was in that situation now, I've seen a lot of videos online of bullies recently and that also gave me a push to write something.

What bands have been an inspiration for you?

Man, there's so many, that London style was a big influence, Knuckledust, Ninebar, to name some more - Hatebreed, Biohazard, Madball, beastie boys, Bulldoze, Stout, Two by Four, Necro, cold hard truth, bodybag, slayer, Bodycount, boo-yaa tribe, Mobb deep, drowning, municipal waste, suicidal tendencies.....GASSED UP - they got new shit coming soon go check that

What’s the future for Street Soldier?

We're gonna start playing shows in 2019, Guillotine Records is putting out One man gang CD soon, merch is coming soonish, recording again soon, bringing out a vid in next couple of months, some things in the pipeline for 2019, just wanna have fun man, meet some good people and go nuts, just wanna say thanks again to everyone who's shown us love and shared our stuff, especially across the pond.

Listen to the EP here:

By Sam Hennerley