Sunny Singh is, without a doubt, the current most prolific video archivist of Hardcore music. He’s been running his project, hate5six, for over 10 years doing everything from filming shows to editing videos and maintaining the website, by himself, all the while keeping a full time 9 to 5 job. You can find over 2900 videos on his website and youtube channel and everything is shared for free. Earlier this year, Singh decided to try and make hate5six his full time occupation, and decided to launch his own Patreon campaign to help making this a possibility. For anyone who wants to help support his project and keep this treasure of live music archives alive, feel free check it out here! And don’t forget to check out his website and youtube channel to assuredly get lost in a spiral of high quality live music footage for hours!
What type of archive (videos, photos, text) do you spend the most time digging? What has been your latest obsession?
I’ve spent the last 10+ years archiving live show videos. I’m always obsessed with unearthing never before seen video or audio of INSIDE OUT shows.
Which genre/ era/ specific scene do you typically concentrate on?
Primarily hardcore, but I love personally filming all types of genres.
Name your favorite piece of archive for each of these categories:
- Live videos –RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE – The Battle of Mexico City DVD
- Article/interview/zine –Anti-Matter
- Biography/documentary/biopic –Malcolm X
Are you constantly looking for something new or do you find yourself revisiting your faves over and over again?
Filming live music forces me to be exposed to new bands, but in my free time I almost exclusively just revisit my old favorites.
Name three shows you wish you’d have attended?
BAD BRAINS at CBGBs, any INSIDE OUT show, NO JUSTICE last show.
Name 3 venues that you wish you’d have experienced? What attracts you to them? Have you ever talked to people who’ve been?
CBGB’s, City Gardens, Unisound. Some of the most pivotal bands played there, and some of my most cherished recordings were taken at those venues. I’m constantly punishing people for stories about each.
Is there any memorable show you’ve seen and for which you’ve been trying to track down footage for a longtime, to no avail?
I’m hoping to unveil this very soon. It’s a very big find that I spent many years hoping would surface/be sent to me. I wasn’t there but its significance will be obvious.
What are some of your favorite bootleg recordings? What makes them so special?
Every single INSIDE OUT live set. The speeches were always different and the setlists always contained one of the dozen unreleased tracks. Each recording is important if for nothing else than being a rare document of those songs.
Top 3 demos that sound better than the subsequent album cuts? What puts them on top?
I honestly don’t listen to enough studio-recorded music to answer this. I pretty much only listen to live recordings at this point.
Have you ever spent hours trying to figure out the words to an album that didn’t have any printed lyrics?
I spent about 15 years transcribing lyrics for every unreleased INSIDE OUT recording, about a dozen tracks. Lyric sheets for some of them eventually surfaced after I had put in work, but others had to be pieced together by analyzing numerous live recordings of varying qualities and trying to piece things together.
Do you have any favorite iconic or live pics?
Matt Miller’s photo of TRIAL from Burning Fight.
Name 3 inactive and overlooked bands?
Seraphim, Seraphim, Seraphim
What is your absolute favorite piece of archive, that you’ve seen and enjoyed a million time?
Spoiler alert: every INSIDE OUT live recording.
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