Straight Edge.
It's a term that shouldn't be uncommon if you've kept up with the punk scene of the last 20+ years. Though its definition may leave you slightly boggled.
Let's get the record straight. No drinking alcohol and smoking is usually the main premise of the term, though there are varying degrees.
Hardcore veterans H2O aren't a Straight Edge band, but lifelong Straight Edger and lead singer Toby Morse has retained his integrity by abstaining from the use of any drugs or alcohol his entire life, even though those closest to him - his band mates Adam Blake, Todd Morse, Todd Friend and Rusty Pistachio - don't follow the same lifestyle patterns.
According to Morse, Straight Edge was no more than a song by Minor Threat. Lead singer Ian MacKaye made a personal choice not to do drugs, drink alcohol or have premarital sex. The term stuck, became a scene's revolution in the early 80s, and is still relevant today. "That song got turned into a lifestyle for me personally, but I had sex," says Morse, minutes before his band's 15th Anniversary show at The Trocadero in downtown Philadelphia on February 19th. "I never tried drugs or alcohol in my whole entire life because of Minor Threat, and I'm now 39. They changed my life in the most positive way."
While the lifestyle choice remains a positive one for Morse, he admits some within the scene would eventually take it to more extreme, violent levels, giving it a negative connotation. "Some kids became so straight-edge that the next year they were so not straight-edge. I think the people who are the most extreme are those that are most going to fall off." Morse says he's seen it happen around him his whole life. "There's like three people I know from the Youth Crew days in '88, CIV being one of them, my friend Sweet Pea from In My Eyes, and there's a couple heads who are almost forty that have been Straight Edge just like me."
Most of the kids influenced by the Straight Edge scene took the parts best representing their lives and made it their own, as can be the case with many of life's influences. Of the Straight Edge degrees, some incorporate other aspects than those stated above to the lifestyle, like no sex. Others may include veganism because of the animal rights movement, influenced by hardcore bands like the Gorilla Biscuits, whose position on eating animals became prominent with the recording of their song "Cats and Dogs." This, too, impacted Toby Morse. "That is what made me vegetarian for 23 years now, and a vegan on and off for about a decade," he says.
"I don't think [Minor Threat's] Ian Mackaye wanted to be this big cult phenomenon, he just wrote a personal song, just like I wrote a song about my dad, 'Sunday.' You know what I'm saying, it's just something he wanted to talk about, and kids took whatever they wanted from it. The way that I look at it, it's a great way to live."
As a Straight Edge advocate, many of Morse's H2O fans have approached him through their 15-year career on how he remains Straight Edge, and how to become Straight Edge themselves. "I have had fans tell me that they have a problem with drugs and alcohol and asked me for advice. I tell them to stay away from the people who are doing the bad shit." He eagerly expresses, "Separate yourself from the people who are partying if you can't control yourself and have an addiction problem."
Morse doesn't have the same militant views as some negatively-viewed Straight Edgers within the scene. He's rarely even preached about it in his lyrics. "We have this one song on the first album called 'Here Today, Gone Tomorrow.' [That song] wasn't even preaching. It was just about those who preached and who feel off." H2O's song, "Still Here," on their last album, Nothing to Prove, was Toby's first Straight Edge song in fifteen years of writing and recording. "It was just kind of a pride song, because I'm fucking proud to be this way. I wasn't like 'fuck you for drinking.' We've never been like that."
Morse has become a motivational speaker for the D.A.R.E program and recently spoke to 900 kids on February 12th in Kingston, New York. "I vowed Straight Edge and PMA. It was amazing, man." This was Morse's first speaking engagement and he's got more lined up. "I've been a musician 15 years, I traveled the world, I never tried anything and met some of my favorite artists like Eminem, Snoop, Kevin Seconds of 7 Seconds, Jay-Z, Nas, and Madonna. And I came from a family where my brother being fucked up when I was young."
He expresses that speaking to all those kids was pretty amazing, emotional and awesome. "I met a lot of cool kids," says Morse. "The police were awesome. They may have never liked me before." He goes on to say, "They think these musicians have to be these partiers - fucking, sleeping with a million girls. I've been married for fourteen years and I live this positive lifestyle."
