Driving Force: Travis Fry (inFEST Tucson, Freedom Assault, Resisting Arrest AZ)

In this edition of Driving Force, we tracked down the illustrious and mysterious Travis Fry, main man behind Resisting Arrest AZ, Freedom Assault and the annual spectacle of punk that is inFEST Tucson. In between being in a band and running the Resisting Arrest empire, Travis still finds time to put together inFEST each year, which focuses the spotlight directly on Arizona's amazing punk scene for one weekend every year. Travis is also a long time collector of Russian nesting dolls, and continues to write his first Broadway musical in his spare time. He's also been known to count the grains of sand on random beaches across the country. Essentially, Travis is a punk rock Rain Man, and is ultimately cooler than you will ever hope to be. We cornered him outside the local 7/11 where he was trading inFEST tickets to kids for their free Slushees and asked him a few pertinent questions.

Driving Force: Wayne Rudell (Powered Wig Machine)

By: Salvia Hex

In this edition of Driving Force, we journey south to Americas' borderlands to track down the mysterious leader of Powered Wig Machine, the infamous Dr. Wayne Van Halen Rudell Esq. Our good friend Wayne is not only the driving force behind heavy Western rockers Powered Wig Machine, but he has also recently started to establish Sierra Vista as a regular tour stop for traveling bands by reaching out to a local bar named JR's Pub and enticing them to open the doors to bearded, vest wearing rockers from across this continent. We tracked Wayne down as he was attempting to sell some nu-metal kids a BOSS Metal Zone pedal (no mods) outside the local Hastings and forced him at donut-point to answer some questions for us.

Driving Force: Brett Thomas (Ladybird/Metal Night)

By: Salvia Hex

In this edition of Driving Force, we reached out to the barren, desert wastelands of Phoenix to track down the illustrious Brett Thomas of Ladybird. Aside from being in a stupid heavy sludge band, he's also the main man behind the Metal Nights at the Time Out Lounge, where once a week he infiltrates the world of Bud Lime and Kenny Chesney to drop a heaping slab of heavy wax all over unsuspecting ears. We cornered him outside the local methadone clinic and forced him to either answer these ten questions or we would report him to Sheriff Joe Arpiao's racist posse.

Interview: Nate Garrett (TOAD)

Photo by Cody Walker

AoC: Today we're sitting down with Nate Garret, recently of Phoenix based TOAD, formerly of the mighty Queen Beast from Arkansas. Tell a little about you and what you do, Nate. Anything interesting besides being in a series of kickass bands?

NG: Well, I moved here from Arkansas to study audio engineering. I went to California for a couple months after I finished the program to try and get into the audio "industry" or whatever. Decided pretty quickly I didn't want to have anything to do with it. There's some cool folks involved in recording music nowadays but the vast majority of the people drawn to the business wouldn't be worth my piss if they were on fire. I basically wanted to murder everyone the whole time I was in that nightmarish place, so I came back. Serendipity/synchronicity kicked in and I happened to return to Phoenix the same day TOAD's guitar player Danny quit. I was a fan and good buds with the dudes so it just made sense to everyone that I replace him. Now I'm tryin' to figure out how to eat just like everybody else. So yeah, fuck California.

Interview: Ryan Butler (Landmine Marathon, Arcane Digital Recording)

 Photo by Fred Pessaro

AoC: Hi Ryan! First off we wanted to thank you for sitting down with Axe of Contrition for our very first interview! We understand you just made it home from a US tour with Warbringer, Lazarus A.D. and Diamond Plate, so we appreciate you taking the time for this. Let's start this off with you telling us a little about yourself, what you do, and your history in the Arizona music scene.

RB: Wow, well, that's a long history because I'm getting to be old as dirt in hardcore and metal years. Haha. I currently play guitar and write for Landmine Marathon and run Arcane Digital Recording up in Chandler, Arizona. I've been playing music and recording for many years and my obsession with metal and all things heavy began as a youngster in the early '80's and I grew to love all kinds of music. I've mostly played in heavy bands, but always dream of doing some acoustic indie project. Haha. I started playing in the orchestra in the late '80's and kept with that 'til I graduated in '95 and in high school I began playing in punk and hardcore bands. Since then, I've played with the likes of Wellington, Unruh, North Side Kings, Structure of Lies, Lyburnum, the mighty Richard Cranium, etc. and toured around the world. I've been engineering for a living since 2004 and been into recording since around '96. I've always been a big proponent of Arizona and I truly love this state and the people in it.