Adrian Castillo - Guitarist

What can I say about the Mistake? When you think about the band and the energy that surrounds them, it’s pretty negative, but that’s what The Mistake set out to do. It was a band that gave you the harsh truth of what was going on in that time period. I’m not talking about harsh truth “street style”, I’m talking about the band not giving a fuck. It’s weird to think that I’m in the band now. I remember the first time I saw them at Showcase with Throwdown. I was 14 years old and in high school when I experienced what would be one of the first of many entertaining sets with the Mistake. If you listen to that live set at the end of “Fuck Everything Up” you know Jav was just giving people shit and you know the time period when he mentions some ones hair style. One line on F.E.U. sums up that entire record and era of hardcore: “Fuck You Atreyu”. I couldn’t have asked for a better line on a record, seeing as though I was never into that genre of music (what some would call “hardcore”). The split with Carry The Casket turned out to be their best stuff and I still will call it one of my favorite splits of all time, mostly because of the Mistake's stuff (no slight on CTC, I’m also a fan of theirs as well).

I think the Mistake was an important band at times and still is at times, Jav’s attitude of shoot first and never ask questions is one of my favorite attributes of his. I’ve gotten to know Jav really well throughout the years and it’s been a long road since he and I first exchanged words with each other (think of Jav’s past general disregard for everything and a 14 year olds idealistic mindset: not a good mix). I think any band that starts off as a band that wants to be liked or well received should a) put down their instruments and go back to high school and b) quit music all together. Bands that start because there are people in the bands that need to create music, need to write angry lyrics, and need to have a sense of release are bands that I will always side with. The Mistake was not something that started as people “wanting” to write angry music, it was people “needing” to write angry music, and it shows throughout their entire catalogue.

The band has died many times over and the line up has changed just as often. This might just be one of those times or it might be the last time. Who knows? Who cares? I don’t. I’ve enjoyed my short period in the band and even though the band isn’t held up there with the rest of the bullshit music being hyped these days, it is still part of a legacy for me and I’m glad I was a part of it.

XMijoX

Erick Pressman - Guitarist, Bassist, Drummer occasionally, Vocalist at least once.

The Mistake is evidently more over now than it was the previous three, or four, or fives times it was over. For a band that purposely kept itself from going anywhere, a lot of people had a lot to say about us. We were/are assholes, bullies, comedians, drug addicts, horrible people, bad news, the best thing to happen to hardcore, the worst thing to happen to hardcore, sell outs, and those are just the things I haven’t drank, smoked, or snorted from my memory. Everyone had an opinion, and its the nature of people to need to catagorize or file bands away somewhere. Based on the smattering of descriptive words listed earlier, it was obvious The Mistake didn’t really fit in anywhere. We were the outcasts of the outcasts. The only attribute of The Mistake that remained unwavering and steadfast throughout any hastily assembled line up strewn together at the last minute for whatever show we happened to find ourselves on was that we lived in anger. The core of the band were a few guys who found themselves pushed into punk and hardcore due to difficult life circumstances. Some of us didn’t choose punk rock/hardcore, we were banished to it by adolescent peers or stuck up shit creek without a paddle. As individuals, we didn’t fit in anywhere, in or out of the scene at large. Our unique, personal experiences growing up and the struggles that stemmed from our pasts made us alone in our own crowd. Anyone in the band will tell you we were pissed at everything and everyone (including ourselves and each other more often than not), and the only way we knew how to deal with it was to scream at the world in the most obnoxious, vile way we could. Our feet ended up in our mouths more than a lot of us would probably have liked, but that’s pretty par for the course as far as great punk and hardcore bands are concerned.

If I had to personify The Mistake via one instance of our existence, it would be the final moments of our first set at Koo’s Cafe in January of 2001. We weren’t even The Mistake  at that time (we were named Hara-Kiri at that show). We were coming to the end of our set (during “The $28 Foot”), and for the first time in my life I felt like I had an appropriate outlet for a lifetime of struggling with issues that even eleven years later I’m still grappling with. I threw my guitar behind my back and leapt face first into our drummer and his drumset. Unbeknownst to me, Jav was feeling it in a similiar way, and also leapt face first into the drumset. We collided on top of the bass drum, kicked most of the drumset over, and both landed on the floor in a pile of gear, sweat, and blood. Colliding with my singer and best friend face first in a pile of music gear only ended up costing Jav and I our health and the drummer and myself money due to having to replace guitar and drum parts. But that was The Mistake. Hurt yourself for the sake of exorcising that horrible, life-crippling rage inside of you that kept you feeling isolated, even in the “all high fives”/everybody’s friends hardcore scene. To this day, I cant lay my left arm flat on a table due to bone shards in my elbow as a result of that collision. 

So there it is. The Mistake existed because without it, some of its members may not have continued to exist. We only cared about the way our band made us feel. We never cared about what you, your friends, your label, your booking agent, some metalcore band, some emo band, some website, some messageboard, or what anyone else thought of us or our intentions. Our hearts were clearly on our sleeves and our intentions couldn’t have stunk louder. Anyone who has anything else to say or wants to shit on the name of this band needs a fucking hobby and obviously has something lacking in their own life. We did many things wrong, maybe a few things right, but we never did what we didn’t want to do. Fuck Everything Up.

Erick Fucking Pressman

Javier Van Huss - Vocalist, sometime guitarist/bassist

EP: You've decided to put the band (back) into hiatus after this upcoming show with Gehenna and Nails. What lead you to that decision?

JVH: I don’t know if I would call this a hiatus, a break up, or whatever. I’m not going to call it anything. I’m going to say that we aren’t playing anymore. We still have plans to record a few songs, and bands like Unbroken have shown me that 5 or10 years down the road, getting together with your friends and playing a few songs can get the blood flowing. I’d just rather fade away than make a big stink about it.

The decision came after trying (at least what I call trying) over the past two years to actually make something happen with this band. We put out a really good lp, started playing shows again, and for whatever reason, it ran out of steam. Half of the band is pretty old by hardcore scene standards, and life takes precedence over driving two hours to play in front of twenty people who don’t really care. I talked to other key members of the band and decided that the majority of us were "over it". It was time to move on. You gotta know when to fold 'em. 
 
EP: It's been just over ten years since the band was born. What's changed in Southern California Hardcore? What hasn't?

JVH: We were talking at home recently about how things "used to be". If anything, I can say that I just know less people now and those people were the ones who "went off" at hardcore shows. The ones who not only moshed, but made records and overall energy happen. I just don’t see it anymore. The other night I went to see Throwdown and stood off to the side with other ex-members and just watched. I think there are just as many bands now (if not more), but that personal connection doesn’t exist on the same level.

What hasn’t changed? Ugly kids taking up space and not really contributing anything besides the price of a ticket.
 
EP: What were some things you were angry about at the beginning of the band? Are those things still at large or have you refocused your emotions?

JVH: In the beginning I was angry about a lot. I had just left a band that was a large part of my identity and surrounded by people who expected certain things from me. I wanted to break out of that by any means necessary. I hated the hollow words and empty sentiments and “boo fucking hoo” bullshit. I wanted to smash what hardcore was. I wanted to bring a strong punk rock attitude and ethic into the scene. I would never say that I’m responsible for bringing that back into our scene, but its here now. I’m mostly just angry that I feel so angry. I’m mad that I’m thirty-four and I’m still not even close to having things figured out.
 
EP: Have there been life events over the last decade that would have been more difficult to navigate had you not had The Mistake in your life?

JVH: I don’t think The Mistake was ever a crutch or band aid or support group. If anything, it possibly made my life worse and/or harder. 

EP: The band was always controversial. Do you ever feel like what you were trying to really say was lost in the hoopla that often accompanied calling out another band or person in hardcore?

JVH: One of the most influential people on me when I first got into punk and hardcore was Sam McPheeters (Born Against, Men’s Recovery Project, Wrangler Brutes). I listened to his records, read his zines, and studied. Sam and Adam (Nathanson, Born Against, Young Pioneers, Life’s Blood) made a huge stink in their scene by calling out bands, labels, people, religions...not because they wanted to cause trouble, but because they cared enough to go out of their way and didn’t really care if they got fucked up for speaking out. One of my goals in The Mistake was to have someone try to come on stage and physically assault me because of my tirades. The only things that ever happened close to that were some angry late night phone calls and a prayer circle or two. If anything, I should have been more blunt about what I was trying to say, named more names, and caused more problems. Maybe I could have offered hardcore something.

EP: What do you say to those who think The Mistake made examples of other bands as a means to further their own career or ?

JVH: You mean that fucking nerd from the Self Defense Family/End Of A Year? Yeah, look at where our band is now. Can’t even sell out a pressing of 300 records. Totally worked.
Idiot.
 
EP: What did you set out to do with The Mistake?

JVH we set out to play hardcore and fuck everything up. I think we succeeded.
 
EP: What do you feel, if anything, was left undone by the band?

JVH: The only thing I can really say that we didn’t get to do was play the East Coast. 
I also kind of wish we had actually done a record on Indecision instead of "taking a break" for a year and forgetting the entire record we wrote.
 
EP: What is your favorite memory of The Mistake?

JVH: My favorite memories of The Mistake are the ones relayed to me by other people. Other people’s memories like "Oh one time I saw you and..." Most of my memories involve being on drugs, alcohol, rage, caffeine, and therefore are cloudy at best. 
We did a short West Coast "tour" with Founddeadhanging. Those guys were fucking awesome. 
 
EP: What is your worst memory of the The Mistake?

JVH: I’m happy to say that I can walk away from this band and say I don’t have any bad memories.
 
EP: What is in your musical future?

JVH: I’ve been working on noise and electronic music under the moniker the Black Knot. The name is derived from a disease that infects trees and causes them to rot and die in a very ugly way. I guess that is the kind of music that comes out of me. Its not pretty. As the Black Knot, I have done a few mixtapes and have collaborated with an artist from the East Coast named The High Priestess. We recently linked up with Mike Apocalypse (Gehenna) to form the Lesser Key. The Lesser Key sounds like pouring a bunch of cough syrup out onto a NON record. Members of The Mistake have discussed furthering our musical endeavors, but it will be nothing like The Mistake, sonically or thematically. 

EP: Any last words?

JVH: This band would not have existed as long as it did without Chase Corum, Michael Hellfish, and yourself. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. Our band, as so many others, will be relegated to trash cans and 99 cent bins across the world. We never set out to be "important" or "crucial", so I’m not in the least bit let down by that. "I’ll never be more than a footnote to the bullshit".