Could you introduce yourself to anyone who doesn’t already know you?

My name is Elijah, I do vocals in a couple bands called A Mourning Star and Place of Refuge and me and my homies book shows in Vancouver under Here and Now promotions.

What was your introduction to punk and hardcore?

My first intro to punk and hardcore was mostly through skateboarding when I was a kid and going to youth group, hearing Christian metalcore and death metal bands. I remember going to a Christian music festival when I was like 12 and there was a shitty local metalcore band playing outside the fest before doors had even opened. My older homie got kicked out the show for moshing too hard which is hilarious because there was barely anyone watching. My first exposure into actual hardcore was probably through finding bands like Expire and Backtrack on tumblr. Honestly a big way I found hardcore bands at the time was watching sets from those bands on Youtube and seeing what T shirts the vocalist was rocking; I remember seeing like an Incendiary t shirt or a Fire and ice t shirt and going down a rabbit hole of finding new bands from that. There's this dope video of Soul Search playing in a skate shop in Michigan that I remember seeing early on into getting into hardcore, I was mind blown at how people were moshing in that video. The first shows I went to in the local scene were all house shows, one of the first hardcore bands I saw (Dead Hand) was at a house show around 10 years ago in White Rock where I grew up and still live. My first exposure into the actual local hardcore scene as a whole was finding out about 333 (RIP) in Vancouver and going to DPK shows

A Mourning Star has been popping off recently. You guys have been playing a ton of shows and just did that short run for some of the final Misery Signals shows. How did those go and how's the response been for your sets?

Those shows were insane! Some of the craziest sets I've ever played to be honest. The response was dope, honestly I was shitting my pants playing to that many people. Especially in Calgary.

You guys released A Reminder of the Wound Unhealed last year on Daze records. How did working with Daze come to be? How's the reception to that record been so far?

We first started working with Daze when we put out our split with the homies in Serration from Calgary. They had already been in talks with Lumpy about putting their stuff out on Daze and we had been in talks with those guys about doing a split. Colter pitched it to Lumpy to put our shit out with them as well and he was stoked on us and hit us up about putting out a record after that. The reception to the record has been awesome. Feel extremely blessed to put out music with my best friends on a label like Daze.

What's on the horizon for the band? Any goals or things coming up soon you're able to talk about?

Right now we're just getting ready to play a couple shows, Seattle next weekend and then the very last Misery Signals show in Edmonton the weekend after that. After that we'll be laying low and writing new music to put out early next year. God willing we'll be doing an East Coast run after that and hopefully play some shows outside North America if everything goes to plan.

Vancouver and Western Canada in general seem to be always steady as far as people in the scene being active and bands doing cool things. How have the last few years been since Covid started? Is there a significant change as far as turn out or participation from kids from pre-pandemic?

There's definitely been a huge surge of newcomers to the scene since COVID which I think every hc scene went through right when shows started to come back. The first few shows we booked coming back from the pandemic were crazy, every show sold out and there was a sea of new faces. Since we've gone back to normal it's kind of tapered back to usual levels of attendance, but a lot of the people that started coming after COVID have stuck around and started bands which is dope. I feel like there's an ebb and flow to how a local scene grows that you can't really predict. Recently a bunch of young kids from Vancouver started a band called Reckonize and they've been bringing out a ton of their friends to shows which has been huge for the scene.

You book shows via Here and Now. How long ago did you start booking and what made you want to start doing that? Booking shows is not something that I miss doing on a regular basis.

Me and my friend Luka booked our first show back in 2018 under a different name than Here and Now. We booked a couple shows before the pandemic started. I think the reason we started was just getting encouraged by the older guys at DPK to do our own shit because they had a lot on their plates with carrying the local scene as long as they did. After we came back from the pandemic we basically just got passed the torch from those guys to start handling the local bookings for hc in Vancouver. Our buddy Tyler joined Here and Now not long after and has helped us out a bunch. Honestly I hear you, the stress of booking shows sucks. It's super rewarding after the gig is done and you can look back on it but at the time it can suck all the fun out of the music and burn you out. I can't even imagine what it's like for the OG's that have been booking fests and shows for 10 or 20+ years, we're barely just getting started with this shit compared to them.

What are some of your favorite shows you've booked so far?

My favorite shows we've booked so far are probably the first show back after COVID with Ingrown at the Bullet Farm (first time AMS played a set), Meantime at GG's (RIP), Sunami at Elgin Hall in White Rock, and Spy at the Russian Hall last year.

Who are some of your all time favorite nwhc bands?

There's a shit ton to mention but strictly speaking for Vancouver, off the top of my head it's gotta be Strain, Go it Alone, Keep it Clear, In Stride and then for NWHC bands that were active when I started going to shows I gotta shout out World View and Putrid Brew.

Who are your favorite current local bands you think people might be sleeping on?

Local bands people shouldn't sleep on are Juice, Meantime (they're Winnipeg hc but basically Vancouver hc at this point), Second Nature, Ghaul, Don't Sweat It, Seasons Worn, Punitive Damage, You Must Believe in Spring, Poisoned Seeds, Reckonize. I'm probably forgetting someone but shout out all those bands!

What would you like to see from the scene currently? 

Less talking more rocking. Always need more new bands. More people actually moshing and learning the words and getting the fuck off the internet. As far as more people booking shows between Here and Now and Headcheck promotions we've probably got it covered. Shout out Headcheck promotions, the younger homies that started booking their own shows in the past year or 2.

Is there anything you’d like to leave people with? 

Don't take your local scene or your local venues for granted because you can lose that shit in a second. And don't take yourself too seriously man it's just hardcore. Thanks for hitting me up for the interview Matt much appreciated