Metal Hammer (UK)

JASON AALON BUTLER schools us in his Life Lessons.

What makes a man? Do the Grammys really matter? And will Letlive ever really return? Fever 333 mainman Jason Aalon butler bares his soul

- WORDS: Stephen hill

He’s become one of the most vital voices in punk rock and hardcore of this decade – first with the eclectic soul punk of Letlive, and now with the political activism and genre-splicing sounds of Fever 333. But there is far more to Jason Aalon Butler than wild stage shows and radical political thought. We sat down with him for a frank talk about his thoughts on fatherhood, toxic masculinit­y and much more.

OUR GRAMMY NOMINATION IS FOR EVERYONE

“I never started making music to indulge myself in any critical acclaim or accolades, but it is cool to receive some sort of nod from your peers that what you’re doing is of some value. The other thing that’s cool about this Grammy nomination is that it feels like it all pays off for all of the people that have been involved with something I’ve done. It feel like it’s a representa­tion of the people that have got us to this point, so that’s the coolest part for me.”

AWARDS CAN INSPIRE OTHER BANDS

“I think if we’re being completely transparen­t, I wasn’t nominated by my peers; I was nominated by a panel of old men. Art is about emotions and expression, so when you corporatis­e art, you turn those feelings into a commodity and you have to tailor things to sell. But that’s not we are at all, so I think it’s cool to see that this can be done on a scale as large as The Grammys. It’s representa­tion and it’s encouragem­ent for people that want to do things this way.”

I’M NOT DEFINED BY MY ETHNICITY

“It’s funny to see what people assume. I’m mixed race. My mom is white and my dad is black, but it’s funny for me to see people immediatel­y assume that I’m ‘white’ or that I’m ‘black’, or that I subscribe to this idea of what white normative culture might be. I don’t subscribe to anything other than radical thought.”

BE OPEN TO IDEAS THAT YOU OPPOSE

“I have to live the life that is true to me. And that is the life of a person of colour within this scene who believes that heteronorm­al and patriarcha­l constructs are not only not right, but are also problemati­c in many ways. When you start to leverage the power to one side, especially in a subculture sect of music where we believe that we started on this alternativ­e viewpoint, it’s dangerous. When you look at a band like Bad Brains, that to me is something that is obscure in a scene that was already obscure. So just to be a person of colour in this scene that openly supports trans rights, of gay, lesbian, queer identity politics is still threatenin­g to people. And you’d think that our DNA – metal, punk rock and hardcore – would be open to have these conversati­ons, but you see in the faces of some people that they are challenged by that just by us stepping onstage. And I still need to be open to those people even if they are adversaria­l to my ideas, because that’s the only way to move forward.”

OUR SCENE STILL NEEDS TO CHANGE

“Our biggest problem is that we don’t acknowledg­e the problem. We don’t acknowledg­e that racism that we don’t see is a problem. We as a western culture have a tendency to ignore the things that makes us uncomforta­ble. So, in a scene like alternativ­e music, you would think we would want to address these inadequaci­es, but because they are so uncomforta­ble, we don’t. We need to pay attention because it’s still present in this culture.”

MY FEMININITY IS CRUCIAL TO WHO I AM

“The feminine aspect in my life and my connection with my feminine self is massive. All of the women around me that had the biggest roles in raising me, and even playing my father in many aspects, they were my truths, my strengths, my intelligen­ce, my empathy, all of these things. The acknowledg­ement of the feminine aspect in ourselves is one of the most crucial parts of who we are as men. Because then we have a broader understand­ing of humanity, then perhaps we can apply that to conflict and perhaps we can have more empathy. Femininity is obviously huge, but I think it’s even more than we give it credit for. We should lend more credence to it.”

STRONG MEN CAN STILL BE ‘SWEET’

“I’d say that men have been wrongly represente­d for over a millennia. This idea of a ‘strong man’ is a fallacy, and one that we are being forced to continue to perpetrate to this day.

It’s a bunch of macho, patriarcha­l bullshit, honestly. Inglewood, where I’m from, is a very male-dominated, very masculine environmen­t. A lot of the men that I looked up to growing up were the ones who managed to employ a little more empathy. The ones that were, for lack of a better word, sweeter men, but at the time they were still strong men, because they were comfortabl­e with themselves and the femininity that lived inside them, and lives inside all of us.”

TALK WHEN YOU ARE DOWN

“Our society is too closed. We lose people every day to these boulders that have been built up over the years that say that you can’t talk to people. There needs to be a change in everyone where we can allow ourselves to be a little less hard on ourselves when we’re feeling down, and understand that this is all part of the journey, and allow ourselves to show fragility. I see this all

“WE STILL DON’T ACKNOWLEDG­E RACISM IN ROCK”

the time in black culture; a friend of mine of decades recently cried in front of me for the first time at his father’s funeral. It was five seconds where he let himself go, then he had to put this front on again almost immediatel­y. That’s not healthy, and we need to address it.”

being A FATHER HAS GIVEN me Hope

“My son has changed me in the most profound way imaginable. He is a glimpse into the future. Everything I’ve ever discussed in any of my projects, going into what I’m doing now with Fever 333, is manifested in my son. When I talk about hope, he is a physical representa­tion of hope to me. That is the sons and daughters, the nieces and nephews, the youth of the future. It’s really inspiring and it validates all the things that I was hoping for. Just watching him and seeing him take things in and figuring things out in the world in a way that isn’t menacing or nefarious is exactly what I need and exactly what I wanted in my life. He is everything to me; obviously, as my son, I love him implicitly, but he represents everything that is possible for our society in the future.”

FUNK AND soul ARE THE HEART of ALL music

“Funk and soul is the pulse. It’s in everything I do. My father was in a funk band, and that was literally my idea of music in my formative years. Listening to my father, going to shows, being in our garage and trying to copy what he was doing, it all started in that place. It just feels good, and it’s the pulse, literally, of my music. You can’t help but be driven by it, you can’t help but move, it moves you forward in a very literal and metaphoric­al sense. The way that you put those notes together, the way you let that snare crack or you let that bass move, it feels more than just a delivered construct. Funk and soul is born from wanting to feel better, and making you feel better. It’s made to make you feel, and that is the essence of all music.”

LETLIVE ARE Gone FOR Good “Letlive was what it was supposed to be, and that’s why I put it to rest. We accomplish­ed filling the void left by Refused, or Glassjaw, or At The Drive-in, and I wanted to recapture the feeling I had from playing those records for the first time. I wanted to give that to people who were my peers again, I wanted to feel that onstage. The legacy, if I may, is that idea. Which we achieved, I think, for many people, so I had to walk away. And I don’t ever see myself going back to it. I’ve seen too many bands come back, and you have to ask why they are back. Is it money? Is it because there is nothing else for them to do so they do it out of convenienc­e? I think Letlive are worth more than that. It represente­d something more than that. So, I believe it was something that could and can only have existed in the moment that it did.”

“LETLIVE ARE WORTH MORE THAN A ‘REUNION’” FEVER 333’S STRENGTH IN NUMB333RS

IS OUT NOW VIA ROADRUNNER/333 WRECKORDS CREW

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