Scott Vogel - Terror part II

Scott Vogel with Terror, Photo courtesy of: Terror

Scott Vogel hits us with the answers to part 2 of our interview with him. Big thanks to Scott. -Gordo DCXX

Prior to Terror, you sang for Slugfest, Despair, and Buried Alive. How do you summarize each of these bands? How were they different or the same? What have you been able to do in Terror that you weren't able to do in each of these bands?

Slugfest: I was still in high school. It was all about just having fun then. Our first show was with Judge so that's fucking cool. We did Kiss and Black Sabbath covers...ha ha ha. I think that is why all the Clevo bands liked us. We would play like Erie, PA and Detroit on a weekend and call it a tour. Chris from Chokehold put out our EP. This was the first time I was ever on a seven inch. Very exciting. Got to play with Supertouch, Sheer Terror, Slapshot...all sorts of cool bands.

Snapcase asked our drummer to be in their band when we weren't looking. I guess I don't really blame Tim anymore as he was SE and a bit more together than the rest of us. I don't think I was even not intoxicated at a Slugfest show but it was still a shitty situation that ended the band just as we were starting to actually get good.

Despair: this band started with just a bunch of HC kids that were all in Buffalo bands that bad broken up. We were all friends so it was easy to get together and make songs. Our first seven inch was put out by my roommate at the time who pushed shopping carts and found a purse with like $1200 in it. We got to actually tour a bit. Full USA with Hatebreed that me and Jamey booked - it wasn't the best but it was fun. When we got all the way out to CA and played with Strife life was good!

After that we went to Europe for the second time and broke up. My girlfriend at the time just dumped me because I was gone too much so I went from band and girl to neither. Haha...I thought life was over. Despair was fun for the most part. I can honestly say Initial Records was great and always did more than they said they would for us. It was kinda weird but cool being on a mostly emo label.

Buried Alive: After Depair I was in the mind frame of not being in a band. The four other members had the band going and needed a singer. I used to watch them practice and they would ask me to be in the band and I'd say no. One day I was just like "This shit is really cool, let's do it." Made a demo. Got shows pretty easy. Victory was going to do a Despair EP but we broke up. So I told them I had a new band. They heard it and signed us or whatever. We got to tour and travel easier as we were older and stuff. Bought a van and played with Reach The Sky and All Out War all the time.

By the end of the band dudes were listening to Nothingface and the Beatles a lot and not much HC. One practice they told me to stop talking about HC on stage as I was the only one in the band that cared so I knew that was it. We had a tour booked with Death Threat and I didn't want to fuck them over so I did the tour. The day we got back I quit.

I guess with Terror the main difference is we have stayed together. We have had our problems and line up changes and bullshit but we have stuck it out and have been around the world a few times now. I'm writing this on my phone in Argentina driving to a show with H2O dudes sitting next to me. It's hard to complain. Life's good and I haven't worked a real job or answered to anyone in like 9 years.



What made you decide to move to California? How did living there (when not touring) compare to Buffalo? What did you miss about the east coast?

I moved back to Syracuse about a year ago. I had originally moved out to LA with my girlfriend as she was in Chicago and I was in Buffalo and we wanted to be together. We decided when Buried Alive ended we would move to CA, so we did. I didn't think I would do another band but I got that itch or whatever and Terror started.

LA was cool. I like it there. Met some great people. The HC and hip hop scenes are amazing. I can never get down with the whole Hollywood vibe or anything. There is always stuff going on and I love movies so you can see so many and differnt types all the time. Truth is though I never fully lived in LA as we tour so much. Just as now I've moved to Syracuse about a year ago but have only been there about 3 of those months. I moved back cause I missed the east and wanted to be closer to some people and family. But the biggest reason is when my relationship of 8 years ended the only way to really end something that big that lasted for so long was to put some space between it.


David takes to the air with Terror, Photo: Return To The Pit

How did Terror form, and what did you want to accomplish with the band? Did you know from the beginning it was going to catch on and people were going to take to it?

John LaCroix from Ten Yard Fight called me up saying he had this new band with members of Carry On and they wanted me to sing. My friend Larry had just given me a cassette with Carry On and No Warning which I was loving. So I went to meet them and they jammed for me or whatever. John didn't show up for like the first 3 practices so he was out. But me Todd and Nick clicked and Terror was born.

I guess we wanted to just play as much as possible and didn't have any rules. Play with any bands, to any kids, anywhere, at any time. We didn't have any plan to get big or any shit. We all just said "Fuck our jobs let's play music." Death Threat asked us to tour, then Blood For Blood then Throwdown and it just kept going...