Month of November , 2005

The two worlds of a man caught between history teacher and punk rock singer: The uncut story of Cakeboy (of Murder 1 fame) along with his thoughts and advice to bands and the NJ scene.

Murder 1 used to be at the top of the New Jersey music scene and the whole music scene in general for that matter. Back in 1999 Murder 1 was playing with the biggest bands in the modern rock world, recorded a song with Kid Rock, released their second album "American Junkie", were getting played on commercial and college radio stations, and were destroying the clubs they played at with their antics and blend of aggressively, fun punk metal style. Murder 1 seemed to have it all. Then, one day in 2000 it all seemed to fall apart. How does a band with such a high stature lose it all and then have to rebuild themselves, and why is this coming up now you may ask? Well, after a stirring interview regarding the band, advice to other bands, and the music scene, all the answers were finally unveiled in a personal, uncensored interview with the former frontman of Murder 1, Cakeboy.

Having formed in 1995 as a blues/grunge band with original lead singer, DW Lee Fontan, Murder 1 later changed into a punk/metal band after Cakeboy joined. Despite his lack of singing experience, he managed to score the position as the bands vocalist while simultaneously teaching full time. With Cakeboy's presence in the band it was necessary for them to change their sound from light and depressing to aggressive and fun in order to suit his different vocal style. To compensate for his lack of ability, Cakeboy would would perform various antics on stage - some which included burning posters, stage diving, decimating property, throwing smoke bombs, and lewd acts - that got the band in serious trouble and banned from several clubs.

As their priorities, music, and chemistry started changing, Murder 1 soon saw themselves headed for another turn. With these changes Cakeboy was enjoying the band less and less, especially after guitarist G-Money left the band. Although Cakeboy was trying to work on his various side projects, one of which included The Cakeboys, things still didn't work out and he left music altogether, making teaching his main priority. Murder 1 then went on without him, getting a new vocalist, changing members and making a genre change yet again to psychedelic-progressive rock. Even though Cakeboy was a teacher before he joined Murder 1, he wants bands to understand that they should have a backup plan. Bands cannot expect to start a band with the idea of success on their minds, says Cakeboy. It is imperative that musicians have a backup plan just in case the band breaks up or it isn't enough to pay the bills. For Cakeboy he could have very easily quit teaching and stay in Murder 1, but he chose what he says was "the harder path"-teaching, which he was more passionate about anyway.

As a former student of Cakeboy's I have been able to witness first hand his antics, passion, and incites in the classroom. Out of my four years in high school I had him for three years and throughout that time there was not a day that went by in which he wasn’t pulling a prank, telling a joke, making people laugh, or getting in trouble. He worked in Newark, where he could help the students and provide a fresh point of view to better the education system. He could very easily crack a joke, but when necessary he was very serious and strove to maintain order. To the Murder 1 fan, Cakeboy may have been seen as "this off the wall" rocker, but to the history student he is a rather interesting teacher whose aim is for his kids to be successful and who mixes his fun nature in to provide a comfortable learning environment.

He is not only a musician who stayed after shows to sign autographs and give advice to bands musically, but a teacher who stays after school in the homework lab and helps his students with work and gives them advice educationally. Having been able to balance being both a teacher and singer, Cakeboy is a testament that one can handle what they truly want to. The passion he had shown with his band correlates with his passion for educating his students. Cakeboy, stresses the importance of sticking to ones roots and oral communication in a technology advanced, money driven world.

Having left the band arbitrarily, the story of Cakeboy never came out. At the end of my senior year I felt that it would be appropriate to interview Cakeboy, so his story was finally told, truthfully. Headed towards his forties and married, this once infamous singer reveals why he left music, lends his thoughts about the music scene, and the origins of his stage name and also the big one: he reveals his real name.

May you please introduce yourself?
My name used to be Cakeboy. I am Michael Iovino. I am a teacher, but I am the former performer known as Cakeboy, the front man for Murder 1.

Ok, how did Murder 1 form and how did you get in the band?
Well, it had been a band in some incarnation about a year and a half to two years before me. It was an Alice in Chains bluesy rock band. Had a guitar player bin, drummer tony, and bass player john. The band was Murder 1 and the singer was DW Lee Fontan. At some point the singer went bunkers and went off to his mother’s car and went to Texas, so the band was without a singer. I was friends with John for some years and approached me and said we’re looking for a personality to take the frontman's spot of the band. I never had any experience singing in all honesty and he said don’t worry about that we know you’re a character and that’s the direction the band wants to go in. So, I tried out for the band and the other guys in the band said absolutely no way. John convinced them to give me another audition and I got better. And there was another practice and another practice and I got better and then eventually we started performing and that was it. I guess that was about nine years ago perhaps. So, basically the year I played my first show with the band was also the first month that I did my student teaching. So, things were happening simultaneously. I was going to school to be a teacher when I also joined the band.

How did the genre of the band evolve into punk/metal?
Well, really because of my voice I wasn’t doing any talented blues-rock. So, we started playing music that suited my vocal style, which at that point was really rough. We started speeding up the music and playing a little more aggressively. Because I was really self-conscious of the fact that I really wasn’t much of a singer I used to perform a lot of antics on stage that gave the band quite a reputation. In fact I’d say in that first year almost every club we played banned us for life saying we could never go back there because of the various antics that were performed either onstage or offstage, during shows, out shows, other shows, whatever. So, the band started to really develop quite a reputation and the music kinda formed around that reputation. People really looked at me as this off the wall punk rocker who was crazy and then the music started to follow that idea. Most times it was here’s the idea and here’s the kind of music we want to plat and then we performed that way. Really in this case if started out as trying to be very musical, but because of my antics and performance the music didn’t suit it. So, it was changed to suit the performance ability and then as my vocal skills got better and our song writing got better Bin left and we got Giovanni (G-Money) Macrena and that’s when the band took on a little bit more rounded talent and the songs started to evolve and even though they were punkier and rockier the music was better. So, I started to act less crazy, but we still had that reputation. But, then as we got more popular all the clubs that banned us kinda welcomed us back.

How were you able to balance your teaching with being in a band?
I had a lot of energy so I was able to pretty much stay up 20-24 hours a day if I had to. So, that wasn’t a problem. At that point the educational portion of being a teacher was over, so I wasn’t in any more classes. I didn’t have to be in school. Typically, it was staying out all night, practicing a couple nights a week and/or doing shows once or twice on the weekend and getting up to be a teacher Monday morning. It was difficult at first. You’d come in tired a few times. I kinda see them both as the same thing. Education is entertainment, you have to get up and keep your students entertained. And obviously being in a band is entertainment. You have to be able to get up and front and entertain. So I viewed the two things as very similar. One with music and one with history. So there was a smooth transition for me. I didn’t feel like I had to shift gears and throw on a suit. I thought I was still being true to my punk rock roots. In other words I think teaching is rebellious activity because you’re changing the mindset of youths. And I think music is the same thing, your helping to change the mindset of youths. One through education and one through music. Sometimes the music can be educational and sometimes there’s music in education.

What was it that persuaded you to become a history teacher? Have you always wanted to teach?
Uhm, no actually. But becoming a history teacher is almost why I became a musician because there was boredom. I knew that if I were going to teach I wanted to teach something I can be exciting with. When I grew up history teachers are boring. They’re usually there older teachers who like reading books about history and were very dry. I said well I want to be a teacher and I like history and it was easy to become a history teacher because I majored in political science and psychology so all I had to do was take a couple extra classes. Even though I really loved science I would have to go back and get a whole new degree. So the quickest route for me to be a teacher was to be a history teacher. And I knew that I was not going to be a boring so since day one I really said I would make sure that my students weren’t really bored in my class. I always said the same thing about the band. You might not like the music but you will be entertained. Sometimes you like the music, but you’re not entertained and sometimes you’re entertained, but you don’t like the music. You should come to my class and get the same spirit. Sometimes the materials interesting, sometimes the teacher’s amusing. Both ways. The reason I became a teacher really I wanted to open up a comic book store because I was into comic books and this was in the 90’s. I started going back to school to teach because I figured I need something to fall back on and if I taught during the school year and ran the comic book store after school and during the summer I would be safe. But I ended up never opening up a comic book store because teaching became my passion.

How did the opportunity to work with Kid Rock come about?
Well believe it or not as odd as this might sound Murder 1 as a band had played with every major band that has come out not in the last five years but in the heyday of the Murder 1 era, which was five or six years ago. My bass player John had done a lot of work at WSOU; he was the dark prince of metal. So he had developed quite a reputation as himself as WSOU. Then having gone on to work at Atlantic records, so he became familiar with a lot of these bands. So when bands came to town looking for gigs we would piggy back with them. We made contact with a lot of bands; Sugar Ray would play shows with us. They gave a lot of thank you credits to me on their album because I used to wind up hanging out with a lot of these bands as they came to town. Murder 1 had gone out on tour with a band known as Anal Cunt and we went out on the road with them and toured with them id say Pennsylvania to Detroit. It was in Detroit that we had looked up Kid Rock and he had gone to our show to check us out, hang out with us. We went back to his studio and jammed and he was in the process of writing his first album, which eventually got picked up by Atlantic Records. So when he was finally signed he came back out here to play and invited us to play. And at that point he was playing at 50 people, 60 people. We were out in a show in West Virginia playing to 20 people, 30 people. By the time he made it to New York his album had already taken off. So, now we were playing Murder 1, Staind, and Kid Rock at the Bowery Ballroom. And it was at that point when he was back at the east coast and we were working on the American Junkie record that we decided to throw together a real quick cover of No Woman, No Cry. But all of us were having a problem hitting a really nice melodic vocal for the course. Kid Rock came into the studio and he was doing station IDs. Hello, this is Kid Rock you’re listening to WSOU or KROCK or whatever. So while he was doing that we ran him back the track and told him what the problem was and he said let me throw down some tracks. And the next thing you know the rest was as they say history.

What was the best show you’ve played in terms of response from the audience?
I think it was that show the chameleon club. The crowd was very supportive. We’re a very people orientated band. After the show we were signing autographs. Most of the bands did a twenty minute signing and then disappeared. We were out there signing for an hour afterwards. Actually another big show, where it was negative audience response, but an emotional response was when we played with System of a Down/Step Kings at I think Irving Plaza. I was very into inciting the crowd, so the crowd was very support in the beginning, but then I brought out my poster of Rage Against the Machine and set it on fire because RATM had recently burnt the American flag and everybody thought that that was really cool, but as history teacher I thought that was rather offensive because you shouldn’t burn the American flag so burned the poster. And then the crowd went nuts, but they wanted to kill us. I kept doing anything I could to stir them up, whatever I could do to offend them. But then afterwards I went into the crowd the crowd was like that was a great show.

There were like 6 or 7 kids that didn’t feel like staying for System of a Down and left with us to go have pizza. They wanted me to sign there sneakers, their tickets, their backs, sign whatever they could. So I think that was a pretty big show. That had a significant response. I think the chameleon club when I offended the parents of Clutch horribly by coming on the stage very barely clothed. I wasn’t teaching at the time. I was in between teaching and that was probably at my high point of who Cakeboy really was and the reputation that I got. Because I wasn’t teaching and I didn’t know if I was going to be teaching because the school that I was teaching at shutdown. So I said that I was just going to be this character as 100% as I possibly could. So that meant I was pretty drastic on stage.

You’ve had some crazy shows and you’re antics are wild. Would you care to entertain our readers with a story?
I guess I’ll tell you the Clutch story. I wasn’t teaching at the time when this happened. I played a show with Clutch and it was us, Tree, and another band. This was a great show. The band treated us like kings. We played our set- a typical Murder 1 show. I hide some smoke bombs brought them up to the stage threw it out into the crowd, took a guitar smashed it threw it out into the crowd, somebody threw something at me, I grabbed it, shoved it someplace I shouldn’t have on my body, saved it for later, took a bite of it, grabbed it and threw it out. So they were upset at our performance. The band Tree though thought it was hysterical and said it was a great show. So then later on Clutch was getting ready to go on. It was at the 9:30 Club and Clutch’s parents were there. The lights were dark and the crowds chanting “Clutch” and then all of a sudden someone walks out on stage, everybody thinks it was Clutch so they start cheering, and all of a sudden the spotlight hits, and there’s this naked person standing on the stage-it wasn’t Clutch. It was me. With that the music goes off, the light goes off. Securities shining lights saying “get him off stage..get em get em get em”. So I come running off stage real quick. They threw me my stuff, threw me out the back door. The idea was we came in like kings and came out like losers.

Why did you call yourself “Cakeboy” and not be addressed simply by your real name? What was the idea behind creating this name for yourself?
Oh that’s a great story too and a great question. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to be a teacher and I knew that things go on in the music industry that I felt would be wrong morally and ethically as a teacher. The guitar player that was first in the band used to do drugs, which I was morally and ethically against so I wanted to disassociate myself with that. I didn’t want my name associated with anything. So one day I had brought a chocolate cake to my very first or second rehearsal, which I had sneakily stolen from an IHOP. They thought it dropped so they gave it me. So I took it and I was throwing the cake around in the rehearsal and the guitar played goes what are you some kind of Cakeboy. And I said, “yes, I am” and that’s my name. So I kept it and it had become… This is actually the first public interview that I’ve done where I have admitted that I was that person, because throughout the years that I was in the band nobody knew my real name. In fact my wife who works in the school system as well, she didn’t get that nobody knew my name. It was always just Cakeboy. One day somebody had come into the school system to repair like a copier or whatever and he had bracelets and looked like he was rocker. So my wife asked him if listened to SOU and he was like “yeah”. Did you ever hear of the band Murder 1? Oh yeah J Crew Girl, No woman, No cry. She said "Well I married the singer." "Oh my gosh you married the lead singer?" I said I bet he asked you what was my real name and she said yeah he did and sure enough she didn’t tell him because I told her to keep it a secret. It was one of the mostly guarded secrets and so many people have asked me. The truth of it is that if I meet you and you didn’t know me asked me my name six months from now you’d forget it. But if I gave you my name and said it was Cakeboy you would remember that because it sticks in your head, it’s a weird name. It’s a weird name, a weird character that really acted this way. But people knew that I was teacher and they were amazed that I didn’t drink or do drugs. They said how can someone this energetic and crazy without breaking the law or doing all these drugs that musicians and rockstars usually do. I kept the name because I really wanted to be separated from the music. There’s only one piece of property that ever came out from the band that has my name Cakeboy, Michael Iovino-vocals. It was pre-Cakeboy. It was like a rehearsal tape that we recorded and gave out a promotional and after that it’s been Cakeboy ever since.

When and why did you leave Murder 1?
It got kinda ugly towards the end. For the most part I really felt that the bass player, who also worked for Atlantic records at that time, understood that he had a conflict of interest at the time. I think there were times where he held us back because there’s only so much he could do without jeopardizing his job. So he held us back, which at that point didn’t matter too much either, because I wasn’t going to go out on the road for 6 months, I was a teacher. But little by little the music started changing and it was harder for me to fit in in terms of doing a different kind of music. When Giovanni (G-Money) left the band that took a lot of the fun out of it. The band was built around this chemistry. The four of us really bonded well together, but mostly me the drummer and me the guitar player. Giovanni and I hung out socially and Tony and I hung out socially and john and I hung out socially. And when Giovanni left the band you had to bring in a stranger to your family. J (Iceberg) was a good guy, but he was the new guy and the chemistry changed. J liked to party, Giovanni like to party, but liked to drink. In the music world musicians get involved in all sorts of things, so now it was like this stranger coming in and I had to deal with this new chemistry and the music started to change. The bass player wanted to slow things down, by playing something a little more stoner rockish, or slow rock, blues rock and I wasn’t for it. I said I know what’s successful for us and I knew what our reputation is built on. For us to be something more than that or different I don’t know if we have the music to pull that thing off. I felt we had established enough of a reputation where we shouldn’t have stepped back, but yet our bass player would book us silly gigs. Maybe a fund raiser at connections and we’d be playing with cover bands and the cover band was a headlining spot. And it wasn’t about being selfish or egotistical it was just about me thinking we should consistently move forward. And trying to avoid steps back. So I decided it’s getting to be too much like this is a business and if you’re in a band, local band, even if your singed your still not making a ton of money. So if you keep thinking it as a business and not making money you’re not going to be happy and it starts being fun. I always swore from day one and everyone knew the minute it stops being fun for me and the minute it started being a job I’m going to have to leave. So, literally at one point I said I’m not playing that show. You have to get someone else to play the show for me; this is where we’re at. I leave the band maybe six months later they said we’re sorry let’s patch things up, get back to that band. But chemistry still didn’t work and things we different and I went. I was fine with the decision. After that they found a new singer, brought in a keyboard player, maybe added a guitar player, and they’re still struggling. There was this whole period where they were trying to do Murder 1 Blues Army. What had happened was old Murder 1, before me had made some music. The bass player had decided to release that music under a different name, Murder 1 Blues Army through our label. And whatever money they made off of that we were going to use to record out next record as Murder 1. But the label said can you play a few shows. So they through together a few musicians, which was mostly everybody in Murder 1 and then a couple guys that were in 50 cent whore. Later the Stigmatics. Al Fantana and Carlos Rosa, and Jimi Cucu crazy cat. They went in and played as the Murder 1 Blues Army. So I said fine while you guys are doing that, me, J, and a bunch of other guys are going to form the Cakeboys. The guys in Murder 1 took exception to that because I was going to play some of the punkier Murder 1 music, and some new music. They said well you’re playing Murder 1 music and I said you guys are going to play Murder 1 music. So now we got into my side project my side project conflict and I said well you no what if you want to be that way then I'll just leave the band…

If you could go back would you do anything differently or were you content with what you had?
I honestly, when I look at the things that I’ve accomplished I would never change a thing. The two paths that I’ve traveled in my life that included me becoming a teacher and me becoming a musician you would think were divergent and in opposite directions, but they weren’t. They both involved me touching so many lives in the classroom, my relationship with my children and co-workers and even being in the band. In the small capacity that we used to pack up a van and head out on the road and meet these people. And I’m not talking about the Kid Rock’s and the Sugar Rays or the P.O.D’s I’m talking about you know the kid out in front of a club who’s talking to you saying thanks for coming we really appreciate it coming out to this tiny club in the middle of nowhere and playing our show. If you guys need a place to stay you can stay with us in my basement. I have a band and here’s a tape. Even the people in the industry it’s very much like a family and you really get to see people from coming to same shows. It was really an emotional bond that you form and the same with teaching. I’ve been to almost every state from Massachusetts to the midwest, and every major city on the east coast. Either through the band or through my own travels and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Between the people that I’ve met and the places that I’ve been and the experiences. Just the fact that you and I are here. This wouldn’t have happened if I was just A) just a teacher or B) just a musician. The only reason this is happening is because I’ve done both and this to me is the perfect example of why I wouldn’t change it because Star Child would not be interviewing Cakboy/ Mr. Iovino if Cakeboy/ Mr. Iovino was just Cakeboy of just Mr. Iovino. So, I could never change that.

What advice would you give to bands starting out or trying to make it?
I’ve had this experience, in fact most recently the guys from My Chemical Romance, grew up in my town, went to school with my sister. Gerard went to play with us a couple of times in our studio just to hang out. So over the years as they started talking about joining bands I’d talk to Michael and he wants to start a band, Gerard wants to start a band. I said from the very beginning every band’s going to have growing pains. The minute you start getting successful things are going to start changing. My advice is never what you need to do to get started, because every band knows what they need to do, you gotta play shows and you gotta promote. That stuff is tired. I’m not going to tell you what to do to make your band famous I’m not going to tell you how to make your band popular. But the minute you start getting popular you’re going to start experiencing some sort of growing pains. Things are going to change in the band, personalities are going to shift and that’s what you have to be ready for. I remember I ran into Gerard one time and said the best advice I can give you is just remember why you got into this business, why you starting do it and if the reason for it changes, then you get out. That’s what you have to do. Then you’re not going to be happy. That’s when musicians come off the road start feeling that lost feeling because they forgot why they did it. It’s because you love music or because you love performing or you love getting out there and making that kind of contact and you have to remember that. Bands that forget that become snobbish, become bitter, become lost and it’s reflected in their music and reflected in their contact with you. When you talk to a band member who loves what he’s doing he wants to stay and talk to you because he that’s what he loves. Bands that don’t do that start to get that bitter look, they play their shows, pack up and go. Either they’re trying to make too much money or they’re just not happy with what they’re doing anymore.

What’s you advice to me as a music journalist/interviewer?
Ideally you really need to catch as many bands as you possibly can. You need to have that name. Eventually what you want to happen is to have bands say I need Star Child to interview me because I know the types of interviews she does. I know the types of bands she’s interviewed. You need to make yourself apart of this new scene. And that means getting to shows, getting your name out there. And I think it’s coming together. Kids in New Jersey and adults in New Jersey need a place to go where they can find that information and see that stuff. Once they start doing that and once they see that name attached to it, then they’re going to start recognizing you as that driving talent, that driving force in the scene. Every generation has had one. Every generation has had its name to chronicle its events. You really have to take that banner and wake it brightly and loudly as the person willing to chronicle the next generation scene. By doing this interview, getting in touch with as many bands as possible, sending emails out, kids who go to shows, you want to interview kids who go to shows and find out how they feel because there is no place…

What are your thoughts about the NJ scene and the bands that have came out in?
The sense of the scene in New Jersey and even the music scene is vastly different now, than it was 5 or 6 years ago. Record labels have merged, record labels have gone bankrupt, bands have become bigger than the records label, and record labels have become less significant via internet music, people swapping music on myspace and kaazza. Or whatever the file sharing programs are. The New Jersey scene is…you don’t get that sense of family it used to be. There was a time period I want to say 6 or 7 years ago when the New Jersey was super tight. And it was super tight for all kids of music. And I don’t want to say that Murder 1 helped form that scene, but we were definitely apart of it because we tried to really coordinate shows with vastly different types of music. But bands that were close, you had the Step Kings, Ill Niño, Murder 1, D9 (now loss of breath), 40 Below. There were all these bands where you went to shows and you knew these guys and you talked to them and hung out afterwards and you felt this connection. Now I think what’s wound up happening is the talent is great, these kids are forming bands with success already in their mind. And they’re putting the tail end of a good musical career first and that’s what’s ruining the scene. These kids are getting together not because they want to get together and play music in front of their friends. They want to get together, get signed and go on the road and be rich like these bands that they see. Whereas when we were coming up in the scene and I’m speaking about bands who used to be in the scene. Mike from distressed who used to be in the scene for years, the New Jersey hardcore scene. So many of these bands. They were in it to make their impact because they loved what they were doing. Almost everybody else was doing something that was making the money. Music was something that you loved. But these kids are getting their equipment purchased by their parent, they’re rehearsing in the garage or in the studio because their parent think it’s cute and going out and playing shows in fronts of their friends and losing the heart and soul of the scene. It’s just a bunch of young talented kids who are waiting to get on MTV or signed by a record label and want to go on the road and play shows. I think the scene has been watered down in that regard. There’s no central location where…what Jane at gig shots at the cove, really did a lot to keep that scene alive. You had the pipeline, which shut down, which was part of the scene, you had the old studio 1, which used to have rock shows that was apart of the scene, you had pockets in Hoboken, and love sexy and other places where people really started to play. These places kept the scene alive, they were cheap shows for kids to come and see the bands that they loved. Now it’s the corner store playing the show for 25 kids. You have the Bloomfield Ave Café, which I think is a great thing, but its coming in after the fact. There’s no scene there, it’s whoever’s playing and whoever shows up. It’s lost its soul.

Speaking of Bloomfield Ave Café what are your thoughts about the local clubs and people that leave shows early?
Yeah, and that comes from knowing your roots. These kids think why am I going to go to show, when I can hear music at home? It used to be that that was what you do. I have a friend his name is Jim Nardigio and he grew up in the scene..the New York hardcore scene..the scene was vibrant and alive and you read about it and you saw it and adults feared the scene. Now adults are making the scene. Adults are driving the scene. Businessmen are running the scene and that’s not what it’s about? It should be against all that. It should not be let’s make some money off that. Now club owners don’t care about the band, they care about whether they’re selling the tickets and bringing the people. After the band goes they leave. You’re there to see one band and one band only. You used to go out to discover music. You go to a show you didn’t care who was playing. You came to get out and get off. Then you’d go home and say wow that was a great band, when are they playing again? And then you’d go and find them playing with another band and say wow that was a great band, when are they playing again? Next thing you know you have this list of bands that you love and are passionate about. Now it’s my friend has a band, let’s go see the band and let’s go home. That’s not what it’s about.

Sometimes you want to carve a legend. There’s a penny to be made that’s true. I will not fault anybody out there trying to make a penny. But there’s a difference between making money and supporting, and making money and exploiting. It’s very easy to exploit the scene. All you have to do is let’s say take 10 bands and put them on a compilation. Is there any vision behind this compilation or are you just trying to take these bands money and then just throw them out there? Are you going to start a web blog and not have any spirit about it? Things have to be with passion and spirit. Exploitation is not a positive thing. Eventually someone’s going to get ticked off. If you are the driving force behind the scene and you’re exploiting, what happens when you’re done? Does the scene collapse? I’ve seen pockets of it collapse. Time and time again. Bottom line is kids need a place to go. If you’re making a place for kids to go and you’re just taking their money eventually it eats itself because you’re going to want more and more of their money, the more money you want the more you’re going to charge, the less they’re going to be kids their. Kids need a place to go see bands and they need it cheaply, you need a place to play.

So, what improvements do you think are necessary to help or change the scene? I don’t see it changing anytime soon. Bands have shot up too quickly and have become too popular and that has such a profound and significant influence on this younger generation that they don’t see it..they don’t put in their time as we used to call it. And putting in your time meant you played the crappy shows, you played for nothing, you played at three o’clock in the morning and you played, and you played, and you played and you struggled until finally. Our band and every band in my generation played tons of shows with no recognition before they somehow pile drive their name into the scene until people got familiar with you and grew up with you. There’s a whole generation of people that grew up listening to Murder 1 and the earlier Ill Nino s and the D9 and the b side theory and a ton of these bands who grew up in the scene. Now there’s kids growing up not listening to anything, but what they see on MTV and they see success and that’s all they want to do. These younger bands they don’t owe their careers to…I owed what I became because I was inspired by the Henry Rollins, and the Michael Pattons, and the damned and bands like that and performers like Michael Jackson and Prince. And people who knew what it was like to make a career out of performing. They paved the way for someone like me. These new bands coming up aren’t having their way paved for them, except by their parent pocketbooks. I don’t know how you correct. Nobody’s putting in their times except playing at their schools battle of the band contest and everybody’s going, “yeah yeah yeah you guys are great”, and they’re waiting for their records deals. We didn’t wait for our record deals. We went out and played our own records. We either sold them or gave the away or did whatever we could. I don’t know how we are going to fix the scene. You are when you become a DJ and when you write these interviews and articles and people start to bond through another medium that these people can identify with. And there’s never going to be another character like Cakeboy, you don’t see that anymore.

What are your thoughts regarding the Internet and the radio as a means to bring about awareness of music and as a part of the scene?
Everyone thinks blogging is the place for their voices to be heard, but it’s not. It’s one place for one voice to be heard. People need to go to places to have all voices heard. Right? But it’s not happening anymore. The Internet is getting us more and more separate, whereas everyone used to just pick up one newspaper, like an Aquarian and read it. So everyone read the same thing to find out as much as they humanly possibly could. But now it’s your space, and my space. Where’s our space? Is there any our space out their? Our space used to be at a show. Our space used to be at the studio. Our space used to be somebody else’s show. Now it’s Myspace. I don’t want to go to your space. Where’s our space? Where do we communicate? I don’t want to read your thoughts and post a reaction to your thoughts. I want to have a dialogue. I want us to engage each other and that’s what needs to be done.

Even if you listen to SOU now there’s this constant flux that they’re undergoing - they’re struggling to try and find themselves again it seems. Every so often they need this shake up, we’re not going to play this kind of music, we’re not going to play that type of music, let’s just concentrate on this type of music. You look at KROCK in recent months changed its format, 101 changed their format. So much is changing right now because the music scene is collapsing. Atlantic records has merged. Bands that were once big shots on one label are on no label and they’re struggling. Why is this happening? Because the music industry and the scene that supported it has changed. Can we tie that in somehow to this downloadable music frenzy? No, because that has always gone on. Downloading music is the same thing as me giving you a 7 inch single, which was what it was like 20 years ago in the scene. When you used to go to a show and bands would press 45’s (7 inch singles) and you used to buy it for two dollars and you used to give it to your buddy and play it and record or go to a show and record it. It’s not downloading music that’s the problem, its downloading music from home that’s killing the scene. If everybody went to one place and downloaded music, like a store, where people can get together, download music and talk that would be something. Instead of file sharing it should be face sharing. It should be voice sharing, we should get together in a café and say what have you been listening to, these are my favorite songs, let me hear them. Instead I got to go to your space on the web.

What has happened to you since you left Murder 1? Well, the good thing is, leaving Murder 1 had a significant impact on my teaching. I always thought I was doing both very well, but in reality I wasn’t. Having left the band I realized how much energy it really took from me. People that saw me know - not knowing I was in a band say, “You seem much more calm”. I think it’s a calm because I have a sense of satisfaction. It’s not a calm because my life is dull now or boring. I reflect back how much I’ve accomplished and the experience in the band and I don’t miss. I carry it with me, it’s who I am. It’s on my skin in my ink and now I realize that I get the same satisfaction. I’ve been in front of a stage where people chanted my name, or my bands name, or sang a song. But I also get that same satisfaction when I have kids memorizing historic facts and spitting it back out on a test. I feel that sense of inspiration. I get inspired when I see that I’m connecting to people musically, but I feel that same sense when connect to people educationally. I also see it with my peers when I work with new teachers and see them struggling and I see how hard it is for them coming into a school and feeling scared and intimidated and I can work with them and show them the joy of teaching. What’s changed is the minute I got out of the band I felt more complete because I felt although I was enjoying it I felt I was leading two separate lives. Now I could’ve quit teaching and become a complete musician, but I didn’t. I think I took the harder path. Cause that would’ve been easy, that would’ve been the easy path. I think now that I’m complete I’ve become a better teacher, I have more time available.

And while I was in the band I had no time for love. None. That was the least of my concerns. You don’t see people enough to identify and connect. I quit the band, become a better teacher, and meet the girl of my dreams and get married. While I was in the band I would’ve never imagined myself marrying, I couldn’t tie myself down. I didn’t even have time to manage my dog. I feel a strong love for my students and my school, a passion for my subject. I get married within five months. The things that have happened to me happened for reason. I’ve done a lot of good in my life and now this is my reward. My reward is having a complete life in my later years. I’m approaching forty. I don’t feel like the typical 40 year old. When people look at me they see this youthful spirit that I get from my kids and my years of being a musician and being a clean musician at that.

Is there any possibility to do anything musically again?
I’ve had a few bands approach me to do some studio work. I haven’t said yes. Not too long ago me, Giovanni, my friend Jim and Al Fanta and Carlos Rossa had done some jamming for a while. When I talk to Jim we laugh about it because we’re both the same age and we we’re both in the scene. Being a band is like riding a train (and this is the best analogy I can come up with) while you on the train you can stay on the train, the train can go fast, it can go slow it doesn’t matter, but once you jump off that train it’s almost impossible to get back on a moving train. And that’s what it’s like quitting a band and trying to start up another band. You’ve closed out a portion of your life and then you continue another portion. Now you’re coordinating a band with lets say four individuals who either have other jobs, are married, have children, or are doing something else. It’s very difficult. It’s fun to talk about it and laugh about how bad the scene is today.

Any final things you would like to say?
As far as advice or concern to bands that are up and coming it sounds funny and cliché, but you have to remember your roots because you’ll never grow. The only things that grow without roots are bacteria and ferns. If you do not have roots you will not exist long in this industry.

For those people that are talking about making the scene- remember why you are making the scene, because you love music. If you don’t love music, then you’re just doing it for the money and if that’s the case my advice is to get out because someone will get pissed off at you.

As far as advice to you. Keep doing what you’re doing. I think you get it. I think you’re passionate about music. Music is what drives you and I think that is what’s important. I think a lot of that is gone. And you have to keep that open mind. Remember there’s not just one type of music. I’ve always been impressed with all kinds of music. When people say, “what do you listen to?” I say Michael Jackson, Prince, Faith No More, Black Flag, the Damned. People say “oh that’s punk, hardcore, disco”…that’s right because if it’s good and they’re passionate about what they do, then I like it. It doesn’t matter if it’s screech, hardcore, slowcore, New Jersey core, mycore, yourcore, the marine core. If you’re passionate about it and you perform it with passion, then it’s going to move somebody. You must move somebody with your words, because from your words I must feel your passion.

Well, that closes our interview. Thank you very much, it was a pleasure talking to you, hearing the stories and getting the truth.
It was very cathartic for me to release this to the masses. I hope there’s somebody out there that says “Wow, now I know”. If not I just hope it meant a little something to you. Thank you for this opportunity. It makes me feel special.

-StarChild54 

Inspired by the brevity of the notes I took for myself using text messaging on my cell phone, I've decided to write about this show (November 9, 2005) using the traditional Japanese haiku form - one for each act. Let the backlash begin:

Levy

Sexed up greaser woos
crowd with gusto. Sharp throwback
tunes hypnotize me.

The Occasion

Five joyless humans
spit venom, Self-indulgence
bears public ennui.

Art Brut

Mirthful Brits first show
overseas. Low in vigor,
but sharp wit prevails.