Hartford, Connecticut’s brutal yet thought provoking Wrench In The Works are the most compelling band on the thriving Facedown Records roster, made up of dudes who have been in the scene for a long time and still have a fire burning in their hearts for the underground. Previously, members of WITW even did a mean cover version of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” back when they were a different band called Emmanuel .7. Their forthcoming Decrease/Increase record, out in early March of 2010, is one of the albums I am most looking forward to picking up this year.

WITW are all about destroying the stage, but also are one of those unfortunately rare bands that are less about egotistical posturing and more about really making connections in people’s lives. They pour this true-to-form energy into their progressive-minded hardcore songs and it is also evident by their self conduct and approach to others in the scene. That is truly the admirable way to roll, people. That is what will sustain hardcore and metal and make it more meaningful again.

MORGAN Y. EVANS: What can you tell me about the new record? Decrease/Increase, right?

ANDY NELSON (drums): Yeah. Decrease/Increase. That’s the name of it. It hits stores March 16th via Facedown Records. It got pushed back because we were kind of meticulous. I don’t wanna use the word neurotic, but we really wanted to make sure everything was perfect. Facedown do an awesome job performing and getting the name out. They have a demographic already set, a sort of fan base for the label, which is really good.

MYE: It doesn’t mean the bands have to sound just like each other either.

AN: Totally. And the kids are really cool about checking out the different bands and giving them a chance. We’re excited. It’s definitely the heaviest, most technical and aggressive record the band has ever done.

MYE: I remember when I met you guys recently at Stillborn Fest in Poughkeepsie, New York that you said you had Greg Thomas on this one and there was some more technical stuff, right?

AN: Yep. Greg Thomas. He played with a lot of different bands. The Risk Taken. With Honor. Shai Hulud. He’s also our record producer and engineer. He kind of saw the original vision of the band. We recorded out freshman record for Facedown, The Lost Art Of Heaping Coal, and after, he kind of mentioned…we had the guitar player of Darkest Hour pre-produce that record. Greg had heard the demos before that and he felt like Mike from Darkest Hour had taken some of the stronger points of our material out, no offense meant. Greg saw the vision of the band and thought some things were lacking in the overall package. When we kicked our old guitarist out in May or April, he offered to join us on guitar for this record. It was kind of cool to have an outsider who saw the strong points of the band and the weak points, y’know? He was able to come in and we experimented with a lot more poly rhythms and fast beats, like Slayer or D-beat stuff. Things like you hear in Tragedy, old Discharge, His Hero Is Gone and the new Converge record. A lot of different blast beats and cool chord voicings. We experimented with a lot of stuff the band already had, but Greg was a stronger guitarist and was able to hold his ground and push me as a drummer and bring stuff out of our comfort zone. We did things that were harder to pull off and tried harder parts than just putting something on there.

MYE: Bringing out other elements more?

AN: Yeah. Totally. Y’know, when we put out our last record we were a three piece. We had two singers. Darrell (Tauro) was doing bass and vocals and this time he is just doing vocals. He has a really strong voice, so I feel like the vocals and lyrical depth are a lot stronger. We pushed him as far as enunciation and vocal rhythms. He recorded the vocals in the studio and it was overall a different process, ‘cuz we wrote it in the studio. We worked outside the comfort zone and it was better for us.

MYE: How’d you approach tracking the harder drum parts?

AN: It was done to a click. Modern metal records these days, you can’t even tell the drummer is playing. It sounds programmed out in the computer program Reason. It sounds triggered and very unnatural. We are disappointed in modern drums in metal a lot. Not that we don’t have a tight, precise record, but we made it as natural as we could. We spent September to August just with drums and we’d do four or five nights a week for two or three hours. I’d come into the studio and record half a song or a few parts or the whole song. Come back and try again with different fills. We were able to experiment. It was great. When I did the last record I did all the drums in a weekend. We recorded for two and a half months but I did all the drums in three days that time. This was cool and I am stoked with it. I think people who have heard the new stuff are like, “Woah!” We really tried to get the best performances we could.

MYE: Some real studio production works for some bands but it’s always nice when…look at a band like Cannibal Corpse who have been around forever. They are professional but you know that they are really doing those drum takes. It makes a difference in the energy and passion, especially when a band has metal or hardcore as their style.

AN: Totally. Totally.

MYE: There’s always genre divisiveness in the underground, but it seems all heavy music in general is more popular again. Even someone like J. Mascis is playing in the ‘70s metal influenced band Witch. There’s also good mixed tours lately, like you guys did the Stillborn thing recently or there’s the Mayhem Fest and stuff like that. It’s good there’s some cross-pollination in everyone’s face these days. It’s cool to keep it “pure”, but it’s also good to remind people that you can draw on a lot of influences and have unity between hardcore and metal.

AN: Yeah. Well, y’know, as far as speaking for my band, Darrell and I have been going to hardcore and metal shows for around fifteen years! We grew up on them. When I first got into the scene, it wasn’t unheard of to go to a show and have a punk band and a ska band and an old school hardcore band with a death metal band on the bill. I think growing up in that environment and being exposed to so many bands and loving seeing live music and being part of the scene, I had a desire to go to shows no matter what style. We just loved going to shows when we were young and it opened our eyes to liking all music and not just a single genre. It influenced my band. I think it’s awesome that you’ll play Stillborn Fest and be on a bill with a mosh-metal bands like The Acacia Strain back to back with The Casualties, who’ve been around since I was young, and before that Crowbar played! Classic southern-rock metal band. Y’know, I think it’s great and Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed is just like that. He’s from the same time when the scene was like that and so he sets up Stillborn fest like that. Putting together a bill like that is just natural.

MYE: I know Darrell did, but did you play in Emmanuel .7 also?

AN: Yeah, yeah.

MYE: It’s funny. My old band Divest, we used to be called Bleed Theory when we played with you guys. It was at Club Crannell in Poughkeepsie, New York. I can’t remember if it was Unearth, Nora or The Bloodlet show we played with you guys. It was a long time ago but I remember you guys and a band called Facebreaker from around here played. We were definitely the most melodic band on the bill, like Deftones influenced, and it was intense but fun to try and hold our own.

AN: I do remember that show! I’m pretty sure it was the show Bloodlet headlined.

MYE: Yeah. 5 or 6 years ago. But I remembered Darrell from when he performed with Emmanuel.7 and so when I saw Wrench In The Works I wondered if it was the same dude and was glad some familiar faces were still in the scene.

AN: Yeah, man. That’s cool, though, that they had a show like that. That’s my style. I don’t wanna hear 5 grind bands in a row or the same thing. Before we got signed to Facedown, there was a tour Wrench In The Works did with a band called Call It Arson. They were an indie rock band. Their slogan for their music was “heavy folk”. Not anything near the sound of Wrench In The Works at all. We were doing two and a half weeks across the Midwest with them!

MYE: If a band gets big you have to play alongside bands at festivals of other styles anyway, so it’s good not to only preach to the choir, so to speak, and to again, get outside your comfort zone as a performer. Still Proud Clothing has a t-shirt that says “Keep Metal Out Of Hardcore”. I understand where they are coming from, if they don’t like some new school moshing or there is less unity with some kids, but I feel like there is good and bad that comes from any kind of music, even pop. You can’t say it is all metal that is ruining hardcore.

AN: Naw. A genre of music doesn’t ruin things, it’s usually the kids that ruin it.

MYE: Everyone loves basic, fast hardcore, but that doesn’t mean cross-over is inherently bad.

AN: Totally. I know that mentality but, yeah, I don’t agree with it. If you want a strong scene, what’s the bigger picture? Why do you get into hardcore to begin with? It’s not to fight with each other. It’s not to fight with the kid that likes metal a little bit more than hardcore because he’s different. You get into hardcore punk because you feel different in school or don’t feel like you belong. It seems dumb to be attracted to a scene where you are supposed to be accepted and then not accept someone else. We were in Oklahoma playing a show, maybe this time last year, I guess. There was a younger hardcore kid, about seventeen years old. He had a bunch of Deathwish gear on, a Converge hoodie and some kind of Have Heart t-shirt. Bridge Nine. Seemed really cool, was moshing around to all the bands. At one point this kind of Nu-Metal, I guess you could say…dork who isn’t cool in the eyes of a hardcore kid, he started moshing around. He wasn’t doing the token dance hardcore moves that you need to do out there to be cool nowadays, but the kid was feeling the music. He moshes a little into the hardcore kid. He barely touched the kid and the hardcore kid just punches him! Man, I got real mad. I went over and yelled at the kid and took him outside. I yelled at him like I was his dad! If you befriend that Nu Metal kid and got to know him, that's the kid that is gonna care more and get involved in the scene. We’re a Christian band. Come to find out, the kid that punched the Nu Metal kid was a Christian! I’m like, ”Man, you’ve got to think above the metal scene and what you profess to believe!”

MYE: That ties into something else, too. You brought up an interesting point about what people get into the scene for. Usually old school people just want the new kids to do their homework and shit. They want kids to learn the sociological side of it or why hardcore is important. Just because some kid likes something wacky like Insane Clown Posse doesn’t mean…well, maybe that band [laughing, but in general it doesn’t mean they have no potential as a human being!

AN: To learn better. Right. You might be Mr.Cool Dude now, but let’s think about where you were at when you first showed up to a hardcore show. I remember my baggy jeans and I was a dork when I first got into it.

MYE: That’s why it was cool to see your singer years later, who I hardly know, at Stillborn and we can have something real to talk about.

AN: That’s what you gotta love about the punk scene. You’re not gonna get as much of that from any other scene. You want people to do their homework and live and learn, y’know.

MYE: Around the time of Stillborn Fest in December I was feeling sort of conflicted. I love Hatebreed who are really heavy but the lyrics are very motivating, often. Acacia Strain is also a great band, but the mood I was in that day, Vincent from The Acacia Strain was on stage and saying, “I’m a really negative person,” from the stage. I was wondering what is more productive for the kids to hear. At the same time, there’s that balance for an outlet between positive and negative energy. If you listen to that band’s album Continent or other records, they have important things to say, so I’m not dismissing them, but I guess that issue of positive and negative issues in music…You brought up being a Christian band. Your band name reminds me of The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey or how in the larger system of things people can refuse to work together and it will cause problems in government or someone can come along and be a wrench in the works and shake the usual system up. There’s an argument about heavy music being negative for a lot of people, but once you vent that out, you can approach the people in your life you are frustrated at in a better way.

AN: I heard the Acacia Strain’s spiel that night. If you want to be open and say you are a negative person or have a lot of hate, there’s nothing wrong with emotions. If you go up there and are purely negative and have nothing to say outside of that, that’s another thing. I’ve known Vincent for a long time. Emmanuel .7 used to play with The Acacia Strain all the time before they were as big, and Vincent is a great guy. He’ll take five minutes to talk to a kid. If they wanna get up there and tell people how negative they feel, that’s good, ‘cuz some people have that emotion and don’t know what to do with it and are bottled up. You get some crazy Columbine shooting or something.

MYE: Which could be what becomes of that kid who got punched by the hardcore kid you mentioned.

AN: Totally, man. Plus, being a Christian band, we get looked at sometimes by older Christians like, ”How are you praising God when you are screaming and your singer looks scary? The music is heavy and loud.” We’re playing to people who might have a calling to Jesus but don’t feel comfortable at church. Hey, I’ve got piercings and tattoos and wear black clothes. I also love Jesus, but I go to church and I feel uncomfortable.

MYE: For some people it is too orthodox. There are so many branches of Christianity too. Some people might not like really stringent Catholicism but can relate to the wider message of acceptance and love that is supposed to not be forgotten.

AN: Totally. I wanna go up there and have a positive message. At this point, our system is putting fear into us every day. A random thing, but I am sitting there and they are talking now about how acai berry gives you cancer, or everything is terrorists and all this stuff to instill fear in you. People didn’t need anti-depressants one hundred years ago.

MYE: Maybe Jack the Ripper did, back in the day.

AN: Maybe, I dunno. But in America, we are very spoiled. The point I’m trying to make is I’d rather go up there and encourage even one or two kids and they feel better that night. They feel better because they saw an awesome band who took time to talk to them and they can then go back to school and not feel as crappy. I believe in putting little bits of positivity in people’s lives.

MYE: You’re not doing it in a cheesy way, either. Same with Acacia Strain. They might be saying, ”Fuck, I’m so frustrated right now,” but they are chill dudes.

AN: That’s what’s important. There is the real substance. How were you acting after the show and at the gas station where some depressed gas station worker leads his life? Are you gonna make fun of him or talk to him for five seconds?

MYE: I thought you had a great point in another interview I read that you gave recently where you were talking about Krishna and great bands like 108 being accepted but not some other ideas like Christianity or Buddhism. It comes back to lead by example. If you are an asshole Christian, no one is going to care about your message and will feel discriminated against. Or, there were straight edge bands who lived a healthy lifestyle in some ways, but they’ll beat the shit out’ve kids for smoking a cigarette! That’s messed up and counter-productive.

AN: Completely. We’ve always gotten some flack for being Christian. I don’t know if it is because the Gospel itself makes people nervous for whatever reason, but people don’t want to work with Christian bands. Christians are just as much sinners or flawed as any person. We all screw up. That’s the whole point of my faith, in that I can’t get it right. A lot of kids will listen to Earth Crisis who are vegan, and that’s cool, or xwhateverx or 108 and Shelter, but not Christian bands. I thought hardcore was a place where we could go to have an open forum and have our beliefs?

MYE: Bad Brains are Rastafarians, or even the incredible metal band Believer.

AN: Cro-Mags were Krishna.

MYE: I’m sure you understand that some people don’t believe and that the Bible is too far-fetched, but regardless, people are people.

AN: Yeah, you’ve gotta take people at face value. You can’t just pigeon-hole people and say F them or assume that every Christian must hate homosexuals or is a very conservative Republican. It ain’t like that. It’s just not. My sister is a lesbian. We’re open-minded people. We just have a certain belief and wanna share it.

MYE: Everyone interprets things their own way, also. Look at how many interpretations there are of the Bible. Like you said, people are flawed. That doesn’t mean there are no good parts of the message.

AN: Right. People have done wrong things in the name of God for thousands of years.

MYE: Or science. I am very skeptical, but I have to admit that there has been lots of bad scientific abuse as well as religious abuse.

AN: Really, you just have to follow what you believe in your heart. If you feel a calling to it, cool, if not, let me have my vibe.

MYE: I recently interviewed Pulling Teeth, who I think are one of the best hardcore bands in the country. They are awesome. They use a lot of inverted crosses and one thing, don’t believe, but also are somewhat political. Would you have any problems playing with a band like that? I think it would promote discussion.

AN: Absolutely not! I’d almost rather be on a bill with a band like that, because I’d rather hear what they have to say and get to know each other, than tour with August Burns Red…I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’d love to tour with that band ‘cuz a lot of kids would show up every night [laughing]…but you know what I mean? Our mission is to share our belief and to be a light in the dark for some kids. When Jesus was alive, whether you believe he was the savior of the world or not, who did he hang out with? He hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors. The big religious people of the time, The Pharisees, frowned upon that. How could the King of the Jews hang out with the scum of the earth? I’m not calling people scum, obviously, but the God I believe in hung out with lepers! I wanna hang out with anyone including people who don’t believe in Jesus and I wanna break bread and talk.

MYE: Break down barriers.

AN: Yeah, and hear where they are coming from. Maybe they can shine a light on where they are coming from. I can learn from you. You can learn from me. Let’s talk. Let’s hang out. We toured with a band called A Girl, A Gun, A Ghost. They unfortunately broke up. They were making jokes at first about us being Christians and asked if we were trying to sell more merch or jump on a band wagon. We ended up becoming really good friends with them. They had toured with some Christian bands that are on the same label as us and had very bad feelings towards Christian bands after that. They thought they were religious zealots and had negative feedback and bad stories about their feelings for Christian bands after those tours. They were reluctant to get to know us as a result. But y’know, eight sleepovers and five missed shows and a couple van rides together, we were best friends. We ended up praying with some of the guys when they were down and depressed or offered them encouragement. We’re not straight edge, so we’ll drink a little bit of liquor and party with them and all of a sudden they didn’t hate Christians any more after hanging out with us.

MYE: Some Christians don’t understand why you do metal, but yeah, you can’t hate any one group outright, except for like The KKK, but of course they are super-flawed humans. But yeah, they even have Christian porn now for use as a marital aid! I saw it online and it was for reclaiming pornography to stop exploiting women and to be used in a good way. [laughing]

AN: That’s pretty weird. [Chuckling] That’s interesting. For us, we just wanna go out there and be positive. The whole world’s got you down. The government, everyone wants you to hate. We just want you to come out to a WITW show and have you be psyched about life.

MYE: Can you talk about the album title?

AN: The name Decrease/Increase comes from a part in The Bible where John The Baptist, who I picture as a crazy hippy with dreadlocks…he ate locust honey and had camel skin clothing…kind of Bible times hippy. He had a ministry that was supposed to come before Jesus and let people know about the coming of the Messiah. When Jesus came on the scene John The Baptist said, “I must decrease so that Christ can increase.” He ended up being beheaded and all kinds of crazy stuff. He baptized Jesus when he was young. We took the idea and put it into our own life. I’ve messed up a lot in life and done a lot of stupid things. I was a drug addict. Used to get into fights at shows like we talked about. I remember going to Cannibal Corpse shows literally going just to beat kids up because they were death metal and not hardcore!

MYE: [cracking up] Awesome.

AN: You know.

MYE: Everybody’s been there until your eyes get opened.

AN: Yeah. But our band doesn’t feel like we can get it right. We want more of Jesus in our hearts and less of our failures, so we can learn to be better in our lives and to others. Be the glue that helps us talk to people and make friends and be more positive to people to really change our personal lives. In a nutshell it is to let God, what that means to you, be more present in your life.

MYE: I’m a big fan of Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand, which is very much about being more self-centered, but I think she is often misinterpreted. Her thing was not to not be a part of your community and be so selfish that you trample others for self gain, but to also know your boundaries. Hardcore also has boundaries and that is healthy, but to open up to that humility that you are talking about is really great too. You are part of this bigger movement, for example.

AN: Jesus was as humble as you can get, and that’s good.

MYE: Hardcore is supposed to be a fine balance between self-motivation and humility.

AN: It’d be nice if it was. It’s supposed to be. But yeah, that’s the idea of the record. We’re sinners and fuck ups.

MYE: Everybody needs objectivity and has friends or people in their lives they have unresolved things with.

AN: Yeah. We have lyrics about that or about one of our guitarists who struggled with drugs and had to go to rehab. We have a song about Project AK-47.

MYE: They pass out AK’s to the homeless? That’s positive!

AN: [laughing] Yeah, right?! They are an organization that deals with child slavery in South East Asia. They had their booth set up at a festival we played called Cornerstone. In places like Burma, seven year old kids are kidnapped and sold into slavery or tricked into working for drug cartels and government armies. There are seven year old kids with guns in their hands.

MYE: Yeah, or in Uganda.

AN: It’s insane. Think about what you were doing. When you were seven you were probably playing war.

MYE: With some Ninja Turtles.

AN: Yeah, fighting bad guys, not really holding a gun.

MYE: I shot an AK-47 once that my friend owned, and he had this big empty property in Upstate, New York. There was a moment where I realized shooting at a tree that it was way, way too easy to pull the trigger, and it made my world spin.

AN: Yeah.

MYE: And a little kid, they don’t have the moral or any capacity to deal with that.

AN: No. And there’s thousands of them out there. We felt such a burden on our hearts from this and to spread awareness. We’re gonna sing songs about ourselves, but there are people in this world also that don’t even get a chance to have the freedom to decide whether or not they are happy or sad. You’d wish you only had to be stuck in traffic on the way to your 9-5 again or how annoying it was that the dentist was busy today.