The Hardcore Legend Who Babysat Life of Agony’s Alan Robert as a Kid

When Alan Robert joined Loudwire Nights (Oct. 30), he took some time to open up about Life of Agony‘s 35-year career. In his reflection with host Chuck Armstrong, he went much further back than when he co-founded the band in 1989.

“I didn’t have big brothers or anything and I wasn’t really exposed to heavy metal or hard rock music,” he recalled.

“I lived in Canarsie, Brooklyn, directly across the street from Evan Seinfeld of Biohazard.”

As Robert explained, Seinfeld is about four years older than him, so when he was younger, he found himself being babysat by the future hardcore legend.

“When my parents were still working after school — I was like a latchkey kid — they would have Evan across the street watch me,” Robert said.

“I was like eight years old, he was what, 12? He would watch me. We’d watch Cheech and Chong movies and he cranked KISS albums and stuff. And that was really my first exposure to guitars…my first concert that I ever went to a few years later was Biohazard at L’Amour in Brooklyn.”

Robert considered the initial question that Chuck asked that led to these memories — what influenced the sound of Life of Agony — and he came back to answer it succinctly.

“I would have never even gotten into music if Evan wasn’t living across the street. It really goes back to the beginning.”

For Robert, that young friendship with Seinfeld exposed him to some other incredible and influential music that would eventually shape Life of Agony.

“We had the best music come through our town,” he said.

“We would take the bus to L’Amour. We would see White Zombie and Biohazard and Carnivore — really influential, monster bands. And we were part of it, you know … We grew up in the best place on Earth.”

READ MORE: Page Hamilton Says Helmet Knew They Were Making Unique Music In Their Early Days

He recalled catching Faith No More play before they exploded and admitted that it felt like he and his bandmates were in “the thick of it” with concerts like that or the matinees at the historic CBGB.

He even said seeing Metallica during their Ride the Lightning days — “they were growing from the underground scene back then” — was a huge inspiration.

“We were exposed to all these bands at the right time and we were able to take little bits of all of that and put it all together.”

What Else Did Life of Agony’s Alan Robert Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• How he recently finished designing an official Beetlejuice coloring book and what his one, near-fatal Beetlejuice story is
• Why Life of Agony felt inspired to write their new song, “The Crow (In Memory of B.L.),” and how they hope it fits into the history of The Crow
• What else is on the horizon for Life of Agony, including more new music

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Alan Robert joined Loudwire Nights on Wednesday, Oct. 30; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.