I: Boundaries has been a band for a decent chunk of time and you guys have been sitting on Hartford County Misery for a while. What does Boundaries mean to you? What does this EP mean to each of you?
Matt: I've been playing in bands since I was 16 and this EP is definitely the first thing I've ever been wholly proud of writing and releasing. Every song Is about something personal and written for me to get out something I was feeling at the time, seeing that people can relate to certain songs and that people still want to hear about personal and emotional things in heavy music has been a huge motivator to the lyrics on this release and to myself to keep giving everything I have to give to this band.
Zadak: I think I can speak for everyone that we were trying to make a record that was weird but hard overall. There’s a lot of things that don’t relate to Defector, but there are some things that do for people who got into us at that time. It’s definitely some of the hardest material we’ve wrote as a band and I’ve never been more stoked to release music in a long time.
Kevin: Being in the band is one big giant escape for me. Out of the band, my job which I do enjoy and school (which I can’t stand) are my life. It’s great and I appreciate that all, but playing with these guys in a bunch of different states miles away from home is where I am truly happy. The EP itself is a big move when it comes to sound, but we wanted to keep ideas from Defector (our last EP) in there for people who enjoyed it. We also take some pride in not trying to limit ourselves to a single genre, honestly idk if we would be capable of doing that since all of us listen to tons of different kind of music whether it’s hardcore, metal or even bands that are not heavy at all.
Cory: Basically this EP is just a bunch of songs that I/we like, that don't exactly fit together but it's what we wanted to write and I think that was the main goal, write an album that we all like and not cater to the sound that other people wanted to hear or put ourselves into one genre.
II: What is your favorite song off HCM and why?
Zadak: Favorite song is Seizin’ the Demon by far, fun to play and it’s one of the hardest songs we’ve written.
Kevin: Dog Teeth, the guys have supplied me with blasts beats in all the tracks but this one has the most.
Cory: Reign of Pain
Matt: Seizin’ The Demon is probably my favorite if I had to pick one, the whole song is really personal and fun to play.
III: You guys have made your rounds around the states a decent number of times now. Besides home, where is your favorite place to play?
Zadak: Between the Carolinas, Virginia/VB, and Jersey. They hold it down and are like second homes to us.
Kevin: Between South Carolina and Virginia (rest in peace Fearcliff Skatepark)
Cory: South Carolina
Matt: South Carolina and Jersey have a lot of friends in them and they hold it down for us huge, but New Hampshire was the first place we played that felt like a home away from home for me.
IV: Relatedly, trucking across the country invariably means you’re going to come across some interesting places to eat. What’s the best or most notable place you guys have grabbed food?
Zadak: Wawa, if you don’t back you’re stupid.
Kevin: Wawa is heaven for bands on the road. Cory’s grilled cheese in South Carolina is A+ too
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Cory: WaWa
Matt: Wawa is the only place to eat, but if you aren't near one then Waffle House or any Main Street diner in some no name town, those all have characters in them. Sheetz is for cops
V: What’s your writing process? Is there a main songwriter who comes to the rest of the band with a song idea, do you write individually, or do you just jam and see what sticks?
Zadak: A lot of it is jamming in Kevin’s garage then seeing what sticks, but the majority of it is Cory going sick and sending us riffs that fit. Once an instrumental works, we tweak it, Matt does vocals, etc.
Kevin: We jam a lot of our ideas and then Cory puts them together and writes a song skeleton to each one. Then we come in and add/replace ideas until they turn into a final product. Matt does all the lyric work for each track.
Matt: it's usually some form of Cory has an idea at 2 in the morning, we take that into our practice space and jam out ideas and progressions of the original skeleton. After that i’ll bring lyrics and revise them in studio a dozen times until I hate them the least.
VI: Hartford County Misery is a pretty self-explanatory title, but are there any specific, Connecticut-only issues Boundaries will be confronting on the new album?
Zadak: I mean, it’s hard from my perspective since all the lyrics/message based things are all done by Matt. There’s not going to be any ‘they cut funding to that school’ type shit but I could say it’s more personal based issues/experiences throughout the record.
Kevin: Matt writes the lyrics for the record so all the messages are made by him. There aren’t any “get Dan Malloy fired” tracks or anything like that but it's more personal experiences and relating it to where we have grown up.
Matt: The album as a whole is written about personal experiences, many of which I think were the result of growing up where I did and how I did. No there isn't a song about the Berlin Turnpike on the record, but there are songs about ideologies and people who I think only exist because they are in this environment, and this record is about growing up around those people and how it felt to do so.
VII: How do you feel Boundaries has grown and changed since you started out, both as people and as a band
Zadak: Well, this one will be fun. It changed a LOT since day 1. Boundaries started as a doofy band that did covers in early high school, yikes, which eventually became more and more serious through member changes and what have you. Once our members stuck, it’s just been going great for us and we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. As people, we’ve gotten almost way too comfortable with each other to the point where I feel like I’ve known everyone since kindergarten. With that being said, we all still act like we’re in kindergarten and I wouldn’t change it for the world. We’re sick.
Kevin: Zadak could talk more since he has been in Boundaries since day 1 but it is crazy to see how fast things have moved from when we started until now. I don’t think any of us thought that we would be doing what we are doing now, but we have all grown up as professional musicians but we are all still internally 5 year olds still. 10/10 would take a bullet for my guys.
Matt: This project came together in a pretty Frankenstein manner, members from 3 other fractured or failed bands joined this one on a temporarily status or on a whim without a lot of us knowing the other too well. But all at once things came together and we were writing and on the road and now it's all any of us ever want to do because we’re best friends who live to travel and fuck with each other as much as we can until we get Kevin to drive the van into a river. If any change has happened it's been the change of us becoming closer and better at enjoying what each of us brings to the table.
VIII: What’s the craziest, most unexpected thing you guys have seen or seen happen at one of your shows?
Zadak: Ethan almost got flattened by a light fixture, watched a kid get smashed with a barstool in Jersey, on the Lowpoints run there were at least two SERIOUS car crashes during each drive. Like, dead body through windshield serious.
Kevin: Playing Skatopia, a giant skateboarding town in the middle of nowhere with 0 cell service and one of the dudes touring with Lowpoints getting branded was WILD.
Cory: When Ethan Slaughter almost DIED from a falling light fixture
Matt: More so than any one event, the thing that's been nuts for me is that every time we go on tour, we become best friends with the other band. Not once have we been out with shitheads and just wanted to be home, everyone always ends up being exactly who I hoped they would be and we just keep meeting more and more great people that.
IX: You guys shot a music video for the song “Sour Mouth” last year at Point Beach, what was that like for you guys?
Zadak: That day fucking sucked until the show started. So many not okay things happened to make the okay thing happen. All in all, it was WILD, one of the best local shows we’ve played by far.
Kevin: It was a long day of everything going wrong before, I had to drive to NY to pick up the guy doing the video because his car broke down and then bring him to and from CT. Seeing everyone show up to help out for the video was crazy and made the experience worth it. Point Beach was an interesting start for us when myself cory and matt joined the band.
Matt: That day was a fuck show. Kevin had to drive 21/2 hours up into New York to get the guy filming the thing because his car broke down. Organizing a show is so stressful, between getting people to actually pay for it and come out and stay late and actually care about your vision of what you need and want that whole day to be. At the end of it all it was my turn to drive the guy home to New York so 5 hours of driving later I was finally home at about 6am. Without sounding like a pretentious douche, I'd do it all again and I teared up the first time I watched the completed video. Something about seeing all of your friends have fun together in one room like that and seeing people give a fuck about what we were creating for the first time in our musical “careers” just hit me, it was fulfilling.
X: If you could go on tour with any three bands, active or not, who would you pick?
Zadak: Malevolence, Harms Way, Blistered
Kevin: Slipknot, Left Behind and Behemoth
Cory: Boston Manor, Comeback Kid, Movements (Mixed bill is hype)
Matt: Senses Fail, Malevolence, TSSF
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Archival details
- Original URL
- https://metallifestyle.weebly.com/metal-lifestyle/interview-boundaries
- Recovery source
- live-weebly
- Recovery date
- 2026-07-22
- Stewardship polish
- 2026-07-22
- Preservation status
- restored
- Missing assets
- None recorded
Preserved by Bloodsoaked Media · The Archives