One of the biggest hardcore bands of the ’90s, it’s been nearly eleven years since 108 has released an album. Now, reunited, rejuvenated and armed with a blistering new album, A New Beat With A Dead Heart (Deathwish), they are ready to take back the scene.

We were able to have a few of your questions answered by the guys. Thanks go out to Nicole from Deathwish for setting up the contest and interview, our homies at Getxfresh.com and all of you for your questions.

Check out the interview after the jump!

I was wondering what sparked the decision to use a image of Radha on the new album cover? I’ve read before in other interviews that most of the members no longer fully practice Krishna Consciousness so it made me wonder what the attentions where behind the imagery. Is it more for symmetry with the past aesthetic of the band or is there still a spiritual connection to Krishna and Radha?
Question submitted by Nick

Robert/Rasaraja: Well I think the problem is in trying to address a complex feeling with a simple answer. Simply put most of the members don’t relate to hybrid of Gaudiya Vaisnavism presented buy some movements in the western world (i.e. ISKCON and their offshoots) which in some ways is subtly different and in other ways is almost diametrically opposed to the very heart of Gaudiya Vaisnavism. As it has become clear that 108 doesn’t support or find any connection to these movements and such it triggers the reaction that we don’t have any connection with the Gaudiya theology which is simply incorrect. Many years ago, some of these same members were involved with these movements so there was a declaration of departure from them but that doesn’t mean that there is no longer an individuals aspirations with Gaudiya Vaisnavism. There certainly is a spiritual connection to Radha and Krishna but no tie to those movements. We simply have no concern for movements and fundamentalism. Spirituality is a matter of an individuals heart and not some broad based movement or cult.

Vic: Sometimes I/we answer questions in a bit of a challenging way rather than just give people simple digestible answers that play into
hackneyed ways of thinking because, honestly, the ability to figure
things out is usually more rewarding than the answers themselves. So anyway, I’ve probably said that “I don’t practice Krishna Consciousness” a few times before, hopefully trying to knock people out of the box of thinking that Krishna Consciousness is some sort of religion that I belong to or do not belong to. Besides the fact that I don’t “practice” it. It’s just something that’s a part of me.

What do you think of the hardcore scene today compared to when you guys first were a band?
Question submitted by Andrew

Vic: It hasn’t changed enough. It has become more non-changing than it used to be.
Robert/Rasaraja: It’s all cyclical. Although it is more accessible than it was when we all first got involved with the punk scene in the early/mid eighties and it looks/feels different in some ways. It isn’t all that different other than the externals. I think one key difference is that when we came to the punk scene and even when we were touring in the early/mid nineties the reason one was involved with punk was very different. The mainstream musical landscape sounded nothing in the world like punk and for those few bands that did, like Green Day, they came from the punk scene so there was still a different mindset around the music and ethics. Whereas today the mainstream’s sound is so similar that you can’t assimilate a bands ethics or background based on their sound. With that, the kids are much less of a marginalized group than before. So now some of the jocks or other outsiders of years ago make up a large demographic of the scene which is a bit disappointing but it is what it is. All you can do is say what you feel and hope kids take it to heart.

(In reference to the upcoming Significant Fest show in FL): What will it be like playing alongside Slapshot, a band that has denigrated 108 many a time in the past?
Question submitted by Sunny

Robert/Rasaraja: To be honest, none of us cared about Slapshot when they first wrote their song “108″ and we certainly don’t care about them today. 108 rhymed better than Shelter so we got a song. If the song or Slapshot was relevant to us, we may care but that simply isn’t the case.

Vic: It’s not important to me. They’re not even playing the same day.

A slew of huge bands (Gorilla Biscuits, Lifetime, Earth Crisis, etc.) have reunited recently, and each time I see this, I find myself skeptically wondering if the band is doing it for the right reasons, or if it’s all about nostalgia and cash. How would you guys respond to those who might raise these concerns about your reformation?
Question submitted by Eric

Vic: Personally I don’t care. “Wrong reasons” and “right reasons” seem a little besides the point. If I feel stoked on going to see a band, I’ll go see them. That’s as far as i need to figure things out. My intentions in playing in 108 are similar. I play in it because I love to. Fuck the rest of the “reasons” or “explanations”.

Robert/Rasaraja: I think kids have that right and I certainly have had those same thoughts any time I saw a band come back from the dead before. I guess people just need to wait and see and let the bands actions and output speak for themselves. Outside of 108 and Lifetime none of those bands have put out new records and I don’t think that anyone listening to our record would think that it is just an attempt to reach for the past as it doesn’t rest on the past and it is progressive in terms of our past releases while staying true to the spirit and grown from the same basic elements. Personally, I think the same about Lifetime and knowing them all as well as I do, I can tell you it is about a love for music, playing together and sharing with others but kids can make up their own minds.

You guys are very critical of Christianity. From a lot of what I’ve read in interviews and from some of your songs (the lyrics to “Guilt” for example), a theme is that you stress it’s a way of thinking about the world that is based heavily on doctrine or dogma. Could you elaborate a bit more specifically on your qualms with the Christian faith? Are there particular teachings from Christ that you disagree with, or is it merely the institution of the church that you have a problem with?
Question submitted by Eric

Robert/Rasaraja: Fundamentalism and fanaticism can take root in almost anything whether it be in terms of spirituality or a social or political movement. It is the tendency of people who are determined to be right and others wrong. If someone has some inspiration in the words or life of another, whether it be Jesus or John Lennon, I have no problem with that. It is when you take your inspirations and world views and attempt to have others live and be governed by such that it becomes an issue. Christianity is simply the most common and easy to illustrate of this. However “Guilt” was written as much about fundamentalist Gaudiya groups, albeit there aren’t many nor are they as powerful, as it was about Christianity.

Vic: I enjoy being opposed to Christianity simply because it is so
mainstream, and because anti-Christian iconography is so much more compelling. It’s 75% tongue in cheek, the “opposition” I feel towards it. The other 25% is based on the fact that Christianity is founded on a world-view which treats the manifest world and the life we live in, the “real world,” as something less-important than the life we will live in the hereafter. Christianity and it’s family of religions are founded on this Messianic/Apocalyptic paradigm. I know there are variations and personal interpretations that vary. I’m talking about the majority of the churches. That’s BS to me. Don’t like it.

Since it’s your first recorded stuff after over a decade, wasn’t it hard to get back together to start writing and recording? Or did you guys keep writing over the years?
Submitted by Tomer

Robert/Rasaraja: No, it was very natural. As soon as we got together in a practice room it was like we had never stopped playing together and if anything it was a bit more natural. Writing this record was a great experience although we did it mostly through sending one another tapes as we live all over the US. I think that this is our most organic record and I think that is due to our own comfort with one another.

Vic: I think in music and remember in novels. So, no it wasn’t hard
at all.

What made 108 decide to regroup in 2006 after being gone since 1996?
Question submitted by Matt
Robert/Rasaraja: At first it was for one show for a good cause. However after we played together it was clear that we loved playing together, experiencing the old songs together and that we had a lot more to create and share together. Everything just came together in terms of our personal lives and collective psyches. The one thing was that we all feel that to do more than a show meant that there would have to be more than just old songs and that we would have to feel like we could grow, blossom and expand and when that started to happen it made no sense but to go with it.

Vic: Radharani brought us together directly through the heart and indirectly through the karmic movements of various living beings in the American states of NJ, MA, and CA.