Who is in Ruiner and where are you from? I’m Rob I do the vocals. Steve plays bass and does the backups. Danny and Mitch play guitar. Joey plays drums. We come from Baltimore MD. That’s pretty much central east coast about 40 minutes north of DC and an hour ½ south of Philly. How is the scene in Baltimore these days? I know Slumlords sadly just called it quits but any new bands kids should check out? I’ve also heard great things about Charm City Art Space. Baltimore is growing and I think for the better. A lot of younger kids getting into really good music oppose to the typical mosh, more mainstream bands. We have a strong amount of venues to do shows at right now. Charm City Art Space is one of them. It’s a small basement venue that is always a lot of fun to play. Its much more intimate then playing some big club or large hall. Plus it’s a collective so more people are involved to keep it going. As for new bands Pulling Teeth (ex slumlords, the spark) are a new band that are turning heads if you are into Integrity. A lot of other awesome bands from the MD/DC area like Surroundings, Sick Fix, Deep Sleep, Forced Forward just off the top of my head are doing some good things. Lots of folks I know have a very negative impression of Baltimore; why do you think that is and what do you want people to know about your city (history, places to visit, curiosities, things that make it home for you that tourists never see/experience)? Well for the most part Baltimore is a pretty shitty city, especially regarding crime rate. Just watch The Wire or old episodes of Homicide, its all true. I love this city and will probably never leave it. You almost have to feel a sense of arrogance living here. When you get looked down upon by everyone from the media to other entire cities it just comes natural I guess. What people fail to realize is Baltimore has a long strong history of punk and hardcore with bands like Gut Instinct and Next Step Up. I’m not influenced by these bands at all but I will give them the respect they deserve for starting what they did. It’s the home of Edger Allan Poe so I mean that’s important to some people I guess. I mean I care about that, most others don’t. It’s a working class city, very blue collar. There was and still is a very strong traditional skin head scene here. A really solid quality is the kids involved in this scene also. Being they are mostly younger they aren’t as jaded or quick to hop on the next hyped thing. As for places to visit we have plenty of record stores Reptilian Records in the city and Celebrated Summer Records which is north of the city in Towson. Couple good places to eat if you are a vegetarian, I’m not but still it’s good. Baltimore is a small city but it’s got character for sure. Did you guys have a set sound in mind when you started and if not, how has it changed as the band developed? We knew we wanted to just play melodic hardcore. As a whole we aren’t into the same things so I think that shines through. I think the progression of the band has been very solid. We always wanted to be very aggressive and fast but still be open minded enough to change things up if we wanted to. I think our new LP will really show that progression when it comes out in June. How about lyrics? Any specific intentions/goals in that realm? I write lyrics about my life and things that bother me. I enjoy when writers keep things very personal so I have always strived to do the same. No real intentions, if someone can relate, great, if not ill continue to write what I do either way. What does the name mean and do kids ever get you confused with the band Liferuiner? The name came from a Nine Inch Nails song called Ruiner. On a personal level the name fits us really well. We have a tendency to fuck up most things we touch (mainly me). At this point no one has ever confused us with xliferuinerx to my knowledge. Any members involved in others, core or not? As I recall, isn’t someone in Quills too? Yea Danny is in Quills, when they actually play. Steve has played bass in tons of bands around Baltimore filling in and what not. Joey also plays drums in Counting the Days. But I think the band people need to know about is Prehistoric Boner which is Danny, Steve and Joey plus our roadie Dustin. They play like Motorhead mixed with southern rock I guess you could say. But the lyrics are about dinosaur boners. I know you went out recently with my brothers in Killing The Dream. How did that go, how many bags of Skittles did Eli eat, isn’t Chump the cutest little skinhead, and can you name an individual who deserves the title “best dude ever” more than Isaac? KTD was my favorite band we have ever toured with. I don’t think we have ever clicked with another band as well as we did with them. I really wish that band could do more then 2 weeks at a time. So we could go out for even longer. Advice to up and coming bands? Tour and get out there as much as you can. Be willing to lose everything. Learn how to sacrifice. Support you’re local scene and respect you’re local scene. Worst remake situation: 70’s/80’s horror flicks or 70’s/80’s TV shows? TV shows- at least you get more gore out of the horror remakes. Best C. Montgomery Burns line/moment? The entire episode involving his bear Bobo… Closing thoughts? Youtube.com is magnificent no matter what anyone says.