Legitimate Contenders

Formed in 2003, Pennsylvanian punks Title Fight have managed to hold onto a remarkable consistent line-up ever since. It did, however, take them around eight years to get to releasing their first album, with a flurry of demos, EPs and seven-inch numbers finally culminating in 2011's Shed. Critical comparisons to the likes of Saves The Day, Lifetime, Knapsack and Kid Dynamite were drawn far and wide. Under a year-and-a-half later, the band was already readdressing themselves with a second album, Floral Green, released in September 2012 through SideOneDummy Records.

It begs the question: once the fear of that first album was out of the way, did it simply open the floodgates for more material than ever before?

“The way things panned out was a really weird turn of events for us,” Russin begins to explain. “We did Shed, and it took us forever to get ready, and it took forever to come out, and we did some touring off of it, and we kind of looked at our schedule at the end of the year and thought... we could sit at home, or we could write; we've got a couple of months off before Warped Tour and we could possibly write a record. And if we don't do it now, we'll have to wait until at least 2013 to do anything. We opted to see if we could make a record in that period of time. And so we had from about January to about the beginning of April at home, minus a couple of shows here and there. We just really buckled down, practiced every night and wrote as much as we could, as fast as we could.”

Haste in mind, the band still didn't want to settle for anything but the best they could do, and as it turns out Title Fight is a unit that works well under deadlines.

“We didn't want to sacrifice the time that we had for making a record, so we had this pressure on us, but at the same time we said if it wasn't turning out how we wanted it to turn out, we wouldn't record. It was a weird kind of thing. So basically we didn't want to pressure ourselves, but we wanted to get the record done in that time. We ended up working as hard as we could, and we ended up with a product that we were happy with. We hit up a studio, kind of kept it secret for a while, then it wasn't really anything more than that, just timing, and we made it work within that time.”

Russin admits that he felt “really weird” about releasing Floral Green so close to Shed, and confirms that “there is not going to be another new record in the near future.”

“We didn't want people to think that we weren't happy with the final product, or that we wanted people to forget about it quickly by putting another record out, like, 'Hey forget about that record we did that year, here's our new record'. That wasn't the case. It was just that we were working fast and we were able to do stuff in a quick amount of time. This time we want to play as many shows, and just play everywhere we can with this record.”

The first time Title Fight toured Australia was in May 2011 with fellow Americans Touché Amoré and Perth's now-defunct Break Even. Under the banner of Soundwave Touring, some of the gigs went down in local hardcore history as being some of the most controversial shows of the year, if only for an overtly high level of security consciousness. Things at The Old Museum in Brisbane became quite heated, with security, band members and venue bookers clashing in the wake of a total mosh and stage dive ban.

This time around, the band has organised their Australian run through Resist Records, a much smaller but no less respected touring company. While Russin explains that he “can't complain” about their previous Australian touring experiences, he can still elaborate on how things were “a little off”.

“We had a great time and the shows were really cool, but we were a little out of our element. I don't think they understood what kind of band we were, and what we like, and what people who listen to us expect. The shows were really cool, and we had a lot of fun, and we met a lot of really cool people, but at the same time it's not like us to play these big venues, behind barriers, and all that stuff. We do everything in our power to not play places like that, and to play smaller places where you can do whatever you please, as long as you're being respectful. I think this time around that's what's going to happen. There's no bad blood between us and Soundwave. They were very nice to us, and treated us really great, but it just wasn't the right shows for us.”

Russin tells that Title Fight would rather play smaller shows and potentially make less money in exchange for a vibe that is more in-line with the style of shows they grew up with.

“When we can just play a place that is kind of the same ethics as attitudes that we have, it just makes it better. It just so happens that our views align in a more DIY, independent-minded scene. When you get into the more big business aspect of things, not only are the venues different, but the way that you're treated, and the way that people coming to the show are treated, is completely different.”

Since 2011, the band themselves have in fact helped out with running their own local venue that is exactly in-line with their interests. While it was recently shut down, it hasn't quashed their desires.

“At first they were cool with us doing our own thing, and then I don't know what made them change their mind, but they came at us and said we needed to get all these permits, and pay all these fees, and have police and security, and basically they were saying that the venue was at their discretion, and basically we were doing all the work, and they would have the right to approve or deny any show. It was a really weird turn of events, and I don't exactly know why it happened. We had to shut down that location and we have another place kind of ready to go. We're running into a different set of issues with the landlord this time, and we've been trying to get it open for a while, and it should just be a little bit, but we keep running into the same issue with the landlord. If it doesn't happen anytime soon, we're just going to try and get out of there and find another place. In the meantime we've been doing shows at firehalls, VFWs [Veterans of Foreign Wars] and anywhere people will let us rent it out in the meantime. Hopefully this year we'll see an end to that.”

Title Fight will be playing the following dates:

Wednesday 6 March - YAC, Byron Bay NSW
Thursday 7 March - Sun Distortion Studios, Brisbane QLD
Friday 8 March - Crowbar, Fortitude Valley QLD
Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 March - Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW
Wednesday 13 March - Capitol & Amplifier Bar, Perth WA
Thursday 14 March - YMCA HQ, Perth WA
Saturday 16 March - The Reverence Hotel, Footscray VIC
Sunday 17 March - Phoenix Youth Centre, Footscray VIC