Updated: 02/11/03

With their recently released album Alert Aware Involved coming at you via AF Records, The Code are ready to hit you in the head with their socially conscious punk. Back home after a successful tour with Anti-Flag and The Bouncing Souls, we spoke with lead singer Marcdefiant.

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in The Code, and how long the band has been together.

Hey my name is Marcdefiant and I am the lead singer in The Code. We have been a band for three years now.

Where is the band from and what is the music scene like there?

We are from Pittsburgh, PA, however we originally grew up in Erie, PA about two hours north. Pittsburgh has an amazing punk scene if you ask me. We have alot of great bands and a great community of people who work together to keep shit going. The Mr. Roboto Project (www.therobotoproject.org) our local D.I.Y collective has really been the glue that keeps it all together.

If you had to describe your music to those partying Bush sisters, what would you say?

How would I describe our sound to the Bush sisters.... wicked fucking sweetass awesome sonic chaos to drink and die to. So let’s party!

How did you meet the guys in Anti-Flag and wind up on their record label?

We met the guys in Anti-Flag through their bass player Chris #2. We played alot of our first shows with his other band Whatever It Takes around the Pittsburgh area. He was a huge help to us because he knew his shit. We had no clue how to do alot of things (i.e. like record a good demo) and he really helped us through those early days. We got signed in August 2001 after we recorded and sent in our demo "It kills to know.” The rest is history!

How did your show at The Palace in Hollywood go? Was this your first time out in Los Angeles?

The Palace show was amazing. We had never been to the west coast before that tour and we were scared as hell that L.A. was going to kick our Asses. It was crazy to look out into the crowd and see so many kids going nuts to our songs.

What has been the best and worst part of touring?

The best part of touring to me is the adventure and meeting new people. Its like a drug to me, I just can’t get enough, I love being on tour! The worst part of touring is the sleeping situations. When you’re a smaller band you don’t usually have enough money to stay in hotels. Sometimes you find someone cool who will take you in for the night but that’s not always the case. Sleeping sitting up in the van can really take its toll on the human body.

Where do you get the ideas for some of the lyrics and please cite a few of the songs as examples.

To me lyrics have to come from my heart. I can’t write lyrics just because the song needs them there. I usually get my inspiration from personal experience and things that I see around me. I wrote the lyrics to John Doe after I met and spent sometime with a Vietnam vet who was homeless here in Pittsburgh. It just drove me fucking nuts to see this man in this condition after he supposedly fought for this country. It brought me back to the stories my father use to tell me about his time in Vietnam and how he was treated when he returned from war. I wrote the song Alert, Aware, Involved about the underground punk scene as kind of a call to consciousness and a call to take charge of your own scene. To often we wait for others to do shit for us and then we turn around and bitch about the things we hate in our scene.

Is it important for bands and music audiences to be socially conscious?

I think that it’s very important for the socially conscious element to be there in the music scene. To me it’s a great opportunity to share our ideas as well as strengthen our causes. To me music can speak to people in ways that simple words cannot.

In your opinion, at what point do you think a war with Iraq would be necessary?

In my opinion war is never necessary. We need to stop thinking of war as solution to this world’s problems. Violence begets violence.

Just about everyone in the band thanks God in the notes. Is The Code a Christian band?

Absolutely not! We are not a Christian band.

If there was one message you'd like the kids slamming in the audience to remember after hearing your music and seeing you live, what would it be?

I would hope that the audience felt inspired to live their lives to the fullest degree, and to never give up their dreams or their struggles.

What are the future plans for The Code? Any more touring coming up?

We have been working on new material for a few upcoming split seven inches as well as our next record. We will be touring a lot this year so I can’t wait. Like I said before we love to be on the road!

Do you have any messages for The Code fans or those who might be interested in checking out your music?