Face to Face

Face to Face, the seminal California pop-punk collective, not only forged a vividly aggressive trail of melodic punk music, but also basked in the sweet glow of innovation. Now a new generation of punk fans can experience the group through the band’s leader, Trever Keith, and his gathering of the group’s best songs for inclusion on Shoot the Moon: The Essential Collection, an effort that boasts 19 favorite Face to Face tunes, as well as two unreleased songs. Amidst a heavy workload, what with now running his own record label, Keith took time out to reminisce on the good ol’ days.



How does it feel for you to be at a stage where you’re able to put out, not so much a “greatest hits” collection, but a comprehensive collection of Face to Face material?

It feels a little strange [laughs]! But it’s also something I’m really proud of so it feels good at the same time. It’s cool to be able to look back over your achievements and be proud of it, so it’s a much larger perspective I suppose.



Do you feel like this album is coming out during a time when punk rock is sort of in a tailspin? Do you feel like it might be emerging as a reminder of what once was?



That’s a good question. I mean I’d love to say that I calculated the time that it’s coming out. But it’s actually just taken me this long to be able to put it out. If it was up to me, I would have had the “Best Of” collection available while we were doing our farewell tour; that would have made the most sense. You bring up an interesting point in that punk rock, at least what it was when I was actively involved in Face to Face, is so different now than it was then, even in the last five or six years. Maybe [the album] will help serve to some people as kind of a reminder of what this whole new movement of punk rock…what the roots of it were, even though the punk rock we played was like third, fourth or fifth generation.



How fulfilling is it for you to have Antagonist Records? What are the differences between running your own label and being in a band?

It’s really much more of my passion to be in a band; to be creative and recording music. The record label—to tell you the truth, I really kinda hate the business aspect of it. But I feel like it’s something that I can do to help contribute in a way. So many people have been so cool to us from the beginning and helped us out, so I’d like to be there for new bands and songwriters to help give them a jump start; try to just keep the whole cycle turning. And it’s also a great way for me to make sure that the Face to Face catalog stays in print forever [laughs].



Do you think that when Face to Face broke up that you guys had really run your course as a band, or do you think that maybe the breakup had anything to do with pop-punk going mainstream?



Definitely both. Anyone who knows anything about the band knows that we endured a hell of a lot of lineup changes, which puts a strain on the band, for starters. But trying to keep some kind of consistent vision for the band through the years just really became difficult because you don’t want to become completely irrelevant. At the same time, we didn’t really wanna bow to current trends, either. At some point you have to make a decision whether you want to protect any legacy you may have established, or if you just wanna grow and change with the times and sort of destroy, in the process, any identity you may have established through the years. So we just felt like the time was right; we wanted to protect what we had created over the last decade-plus, and hopefully have people remember that era of the band.  

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