Everyone out there has or has had a band that they can’t help but tell everyone they know about. The type of band where you just want to shake people and say “LISTEN TO THESE GUYS!” Baltimore’s END IT are currently that band for me. After one of our writers (Becky McAuley) gave them back to back solid reviews I had to take notice to their latest which is called “One Way Track” (out now on Flatspot Records). Stylistically End It is not reinventing what hardcore music is and their latest EP is shorter than some Leeway songs but it is their authenticity that makes them stand out from the pack. Give End it a few minutes of your time and I am hoping you feel the same way! This interview was done in mid-February with their singer Akil Godsey. Rounding out their current lineup is: Chris Gonzalez on drums, Ray Lee- guitar, Johnny McMillion- guitar and Pat Martin-bass. Shout out to Becky McAuley, the Getting It Out Podcast, Sean Reilly, Carl Gunhouse and Kenny Savercool for their photos used in this interview as well as Bas Spierings for the graphic work.  

IE: What's up Akil? Where exactly are you right now and what do you think you would be doing if you weren't answering these questions?

Akil: I’m currently sitting in my childhood home using my mom’s desktop computer cause answering all these questions on an iPhone is not the move, haha. I just got off a 24 hour mortuary transporter shift. If I wasn’t responding I’d probably be sleeping or watching “Word Party” with my daughter but it’s President’s Day so schools are closed and she’s home with her mom. In an ideal world I’d be at my house smoking weed and talking shit over an episode of Hoarders. 

IE: Mortuary Transporter sounds like a job where you might have some crazy stories…

Akil: I’ve been doing the mortuary transporter job for about 8 months. Yeah, it’s a head trip. People are afraid of death but dead people are really just like someone being in a very deep sleep. I’ve had people throw up after death. I’ve noticed people always die naked and fat in the basement, haha. The worst is a decomposing body in the summer time. Skin starts to slip off, like a serious burn, and the smell will stay in your brain for an entire day depending on how long they were there. It’s made me almost numb to tears and grief. You maintain the role while on the call but between the lack of sleep and not having time to eat some days you could really care less but I would never openly express that to a family. 

END IT IN BALTIMORE, MD  SEPTEMBER 1, 2019. PHOTO BY: CARL GUNHOUSE

IE: I have shown your new “One Way Track” EP off to a bunch of people, just like through texting the link to friends and asking what they think. Every one of them has really liked what they heard but most of them have also said “wish it was longer”….  Do you have any regrets about this EP only being 5 minutes long? Was waiting a little longer to give it more length an option when discussing when to put this out?

Akil: If I can keep it a whole bean we just released the new songs we had written. After all of the situations life threw at us we really just wanted to get these songs to the public so we could say we did it. I’m honestly shocked as many people give a fuck as they do cause people ask about the length as if it was planned, which is weird to me personally cause I consider us a hardcore punk band. Straight up go onstage. Play as passionately as you can and then go home. Not to be a jerk but we didn’t consider anything. We had these songs ready, recorded them, and dropped them.

IE: Before writing up these questions I saw that you did an interview with a really cool podcast called Getting It Out and to get some ideas I checked in on that interview. In it you talked about singing in church when you were growing up and being in the choir while in school. Do you feel like having these past experiences helped you out in any way for being the frontman of a hardcore band even if it is a thing where you kind of shook off any stage fright types of tendencies or maybe they even gave you ideas on how to use your voice in a musical sense?

Akil: Oh for sure! I’ve been the baby of my family forever until my brothers started having kids so I’ve been on display since day one. I used to have to sing solos in other languages in high school and we had adjudications and competitions every year so this is nothing new to me. I’ve also been one of maybe four black dudes in the Baltimore scene for almost 15 years now so I’m used to standing out. I don’t have time to be afraid. I have absurd shit in my mind I need to get out. 

PHOTO BY: SEAN REILLY

IE: “Worlds collide when my boots on your neck”…. Is a VERY memorable line from the “One Way Track” song. It jumps right out at you when it hits in the song. What’s going on lyrically in this part of the song and how do you personally go about putting lyrics together? Do ideas come into your head throughout your day and you write stuff down? What types of topics do you like to touch on when coming up with lyrics?

Akil: I wrote this line in particular after calming down and looking back on the foolishness I had gotten into in years past. This line in particular is from a time when you try to tell someone to knock their poor behavior off then one day get fed up and stomp the shit out of them. I’m never violent without cause so if you get to the point where I’m placing all of my 230 pounds onto your throat you deserved it. The first EP was actually the final stage, in retrospect, of me processing a good friend’s suicide and me ending a long relationship with a woman. This EP is me processing my own poor behavior up until this point. You have a kid in a city as small as Baltimore and you get worried that someone, who would never have the balls to step to you, would try to attack your offspring or family in retribution for something you did to them regardless of your justification. I write down comedy bits much more often than I do lyrics. I have a personal rule of no re-writes. I hear the song and whatever comes out is what we roll with. I’ll add a noise or take off a few syllables, but what is on my mind at the time is what I use. I tried my hardest to only use topics I can provide real life evidence about. The LP will give me a chance to think of more esoteric topics and show my actual vocal range. There’s a ton of things to discuss so imma tap into those instead.

IE: You brought up writing down comedy bits, is that something you are into as well?

Akil: I’m as big a fan of comedy as I am of punk/hardcore. I could recite Comedy Central bits in totality growing up. I would sit around and think about how good comedy should be when I got older considering we had an entire television channel dedicated to the art form. I’m going to start a podcast and get into stand up whenever I get some more free time. The band takes a lot of energy even though I make it seem effortless, haha. 

IE: Who drew the cover artwork to the new EP and how much input did you have into what they drew?

Akil: The homie Worthey out of San Diego, California. IG: Wortheydesign.  I personally didn’t have a lot of input on the cover art. I just got asked if I liked it or not. It’s a rip from the Freddie Grey riots in Baltimore 2015. Kids were stomping on a cop car. BCPD IS A GANG. Straight the fuck up.  

PHOTO BY: SEAN REILLY

IE: Another eye catching visual from you guys is the band shot in front of the warehouse gate with END IT in graffiti. Where was this taken and who hit that gate for you guys?

Akil: Our dude “AGAIN”.  If you ever drive around Baltimore from the county to deep over East/West this kid gets up. Not to dick ride but I’ve seen his art in parts of town you really don’t need to be in on foot. He a madman. This photo was taken in a part of town called Woodberry. It’s just outside of Hampden, which is a historic part of Baltimore. That’s where they still wanna hold onto the Kitchy notion of “John Waters” era Baltimore. The 50’s/ 60’s… which is cool if you white, but I’m not so fuck that noise, lowkey.

IE: “Raw Dawg” and “The Comeback” were two songs that made up the “B-Sides” release that came out I believe in 2018. These two songs were online for a bit and then just disappeared. What’s the backstory with them being taken down and will we ever hear from them again maybe on a future recording?

Akil: Yeah, we put them up at a time where we felt like it had been too long without hearing something from us. Then right before we finished recording the EP Ray decided we should take them down. I like it though cause I know who was actually digging us by the people who ask me about them, haha. We discussed re re-recording them. Maybe use them on a split or something.

IE: What’s on tap for End It as 2020 rolls along into the spring and summertime? Are there any plans for another music video, tours, writing new music? If you could write the perfect script to set up the rest of this year for End It how would it look?

Akil: We wanna shoot a music video for at least one other song. We’re playing United Blood Festival (NOW CANCELLED- editors note) so that’s rad. Got a few weekenders and maybe another East Coast tour if we can float it. Definitely writing an LP. We’re on the latest comp from Dog Years Records coming out in late March. If it were up to me I wanna hit the road with a band that has similar energy but plays to totally different crowds. I wanna see a true genre blend. I wanna crossover while retaining our authenticity.  

END IT IN BALTIMORE, MD  SEPTEMBER 1, 2019. PHOTO BY: KENNY SAVERCOOL

CRUCIAL LINKS!

END IT FACEBOOK

END IT INSTAGRAM

END IT SPOTIFY 

END IT “GIVE UP” MUSIC VIDEO

CARL GUNHOUSE PHOTOGRAPHER

SEAN REILLY PHOTOGRAPHER

KENNY SAVERCOOL PHOTOGRAPHER