Life of Agony
By: James Wright
 When Brooklyn-based Life of Agony split after three albums, the hard rock community collectively shook its head in disbelief. This influential group of rockers had been credited with mixing the angst of New York hardcore with an arsenal of destructive metallic guitar riffs that was tied together by the beautiful emotionally driven vocals of frontman Keith Caputo. This was a band that died before they had their chance in the musical spotlight.
Now after 8 years of silence, Life of Agony has returned with Broken Valley, an album that channels the greatness of the band’s past, while breaking new ground to lead the scene into the future. With decidedly more modern rock flair than previous efforts, Broken Valley with its huge destructive guitar riffs and powerful melodies is a testament to the band’s ability as solid songwriters.
In true Life of Agony fashion, singer Keith Caputo granted Blistering.com one of the most open and honest interviews. For Keith, nothing was off-topic from the band’s breakup and reunion to his heartbreaking solo effort that never saw a North American release. This is Keith Caputo the only way he can be, wearing heart on sleeve.
Blistering.com: Going back to the very beginning, Life of Agony was started in Brooklyn when the scene was very hardcore and elitist. How is it you managed to fit into that scene?
Keith: We didn’t manage. We were like the oddballs the entire time. People categorized us and tried to pigeonhole us, but we really didn’t fit in. We really didn’t try to manage it. We made no effort whatsoever to be part of any musical clique. We were doing our own thing, that’s all we gave a fuck about and that’s all we still care about - doing our own thing - making ourselves happy musically. We don’t really try to fit it. We’d rather be the oddballs and the eccentric ones than sounding like ten other bands.
When you recorded River Runs Red, people must have thought you were crazy to try and create a concept record for your debut album.
Keith: Yeah (Laughing). That was a great time, a great period.
There were so many great bands on the scene at the time like Type O Negative, Biohazard and Sick of it All.
Keith: Yep, only the strongest survive though. I think the bands with the most belief in themselves and hunger and ambition and artistic ability will stick around. Those are the three dominating factors of making it work.
Looking back to 1997, Soul Searching Sun was just released and ‘Weeds’ was heating up radio charts, why did you leave Life of Agony when it looked like they were finally breaking into the mainstream?
Keith: I wasn’t ready to be famous back then. Even though I was bigger than I thought I was, that wasn’t my determining goal. I didn’t really have any goals. I liked the more indie aspect of it, and I still do now, but it’s a different story. I’m going to be 32 years old this year; we’re becoming a much better band musically, creatively. Things weren’t right in the band’s marriage and even if we did blow up, my happiness wouldn’t have been genuine. I really didn’t give a fuck at that point. It just wasn’t right back then. I wear my heart on my sleeve, that’s just the type of person that I am, and if I’m not 120% behind something, or if I’m not really feeling something, then I’m not going to put myself in a situation to make other people happy and to make other people money. We had a lot of people around us just taking, taking, taking. We didn’t have the proper keys around us, the proper management or the proper label. I fucking hated Roadrunner. I hated how they treated and robbed the band. I hated all of it, the lawyers, the management, the band. I felt like this band was trying to do so much good and I just couldn’t handle the negativity that came along with it; the drugs, the lying, the cheating. It wasn’t me. So I fucked it off and I stuck to my roots. I believed in what my heart was telling me and I followed my heart, and to me, that’s the most important thing to do in life. Creativity has got to be pure, you can’t fake it. It’s got to be nurtured with the utmost respect as you possibly can. Creativity knows when it’s being used in the wrong. The universe is a very sensitive thing. It wasn’t right and you just know that. I’m not the type of person to just sit and procrastinate and be in a situation where I wasn’t feeling good about it. That was that.
So then you went and recorded a solo record, Died Laughing, which is one of the most beautiful records that I’ve heard in my life. You have so many great songs on that record.
Keith: What a gorgeous record and Roadrunner fucked that up too.
That’s what my next question was going to be, it wasn’t released here, what was that like as an artist?
Keith: Oh, it destroyed me! It destroyed me. I thought I’d delivered Roadrunner the greatest record musically that they’d ever had in their entire glossary of bands. I gave them a record that they could not handle. It just goes to show you that their staff was not strong enough to really work this. After working with Epic Records and realizing how serious these people take their jobs and their titles, Roadrunner is a fucking soup kitchen compared to Epic. It’s fucking ridiculous what they did to me. I moved to Europe for that fucking label! I was still robbed and taken advantage of and… fucking whatever.
Did that crush you musically?
Keith: I’m still crushed about it. I have a whole roster of music that when the moment comes again to do a proper solo release with all-star musicians, I’m going to take that opportunity and run with it. Roadrunner just destroyed it, they destroyed that record and that record has so much life; it’s so beautiful.
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