As I've lived with my old copy of that zine over the past few weeks, I have to say that I'm really proud of the work we did. The zine had columns, reviews, interviews, photos. My close friend, Lloyd Zare, did a killer job on the layout.
An entire second issue was completely done and laid out. We had interviews set to go with the Swingin' Utters, Gaunt, Hammerhead and Cows. I have absolutely no idea where the laid out pages of that potential second issue went off to, but if I ever come across them, I'll give them the same treatment - since those interviews were genuinely never read by anyone but us.
A big, big thanks to Kerry Crandall Zion, Marc Lopez (a/k/a Mo Farted), Lloyd Zare (a/k/a Lloyd B. Free), Phil Lerman, Jen Maler, Ron Zion (a/k/a Ron Noiz), Richard Gilman-Opalsky, Aaron Pagdon, Vinny Segarra, Suzanne Stillinger & Adam Zare for bringing it to life. I'm happy to say that I'm still very close friends with most of the people on this list all these years later.
The final interview is with Long Island's own Pacifier. The four guys in the band, vocalist Myk Rudnick, guitarist Ron Noiz, bassist Marc Lopez & drummer Harry Rawlings, are all, to this day, close friends of mine....true brothers. At the time this interview was done, I was in a band with Ron called Quarters. About two years after this interview was done, I would find myself in Two Man Advantage with Myk, Marc & Harry. I have spent many hours, have traveled many miles and slept on many floors next to these guys. Two of them, Marc & Ron, made contributions to 3 Cynical.
Pacifier mixed elements of traditional hardcore, post-hardcore and dissonant noise-rock into their own unique mix. They were around from roughly 1995 to 1998, played a ton of shows, and each individual member was a regular presence in the scene. Marc booked weekly shows for a long time at Deja One in Mineola and brought tons of national bands to Long Island. 20 years later he would do it all over again, founding SBC Bookings, which regularly booked shows for a couple of years at Amityville Music Hall.
Pacifier were fairly prolific in their few years. Aside from being regulars on the stage, they released a demo ('Thank You, Todd Barber'), contributed two songs to the 'New York Underground! Hardcore and Beyond! Volume One' comp (Clean Recordings), one song to the 'Definitely Not the Majors' comp (Bush League Records), released a split 7" with Pipefitter (Circus Max Music), and closed out their career with their best work - the full-length 'The Best Possible Thing at the Worst Possible Time' (Clean Recordings) (which I'm listening to as I type this).
To get to the present day with these guys. Myk, Marc & Harry were all founding members of Two Man Advantage. Harry left the band around 2003, but is still someone I love bumping into at shows and talking forever with when we do. Marc left the band in 2001, rejoined in 2015 and left again in 2018. Marc and Harry were also founding members of Warsaw Sage and The Great Lie. Marc might be retired from music....but never say never. Myk...one of my closest friends - is still screaming the back-ups in Two Man Advantage.
Ron has been in Rochester since around the time that Pacifier broke up. He was in a great band called Oceans of Insects who came down to Long Island twice. They are no longer around, unfortunately, but their two albums, 'Heathen Mythology' (2012) & 'Return to the Sea' (2015) are available on Bandcamp (https://oceansofinsects.bandcamp.com/).
Ron currently has a project going called De-Auth - and you can give them a "Like" by going to https://www.facebook.com/De-Auth-105192881090326/.
Am I missing something? Probably. Suffice to say - I love each of these guys - as musicians & bandmates for sure - but first & foremost - as great friends.
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I interviewed Pacifier at a practice space in Franklin Square, NY, sometime in mid-November. They are a relatively new band based on Long Island. Hardcore with a bit of a twist. As of this interview, Pacifier have played one show - at the Pyramid in NYC. They are also playing Thanksgiving weekend at CBGB. Pacifier are Myk (vocals), Mr. Ron Noiz (guitar), Marc (bass), and Harry (drums) - Jeff
3C: Weapon of choice?
Myk: Microphone.
Ron: My 12" penis.
Marc: My thiwappater.
Harry: My wit.
3C: You're a pretty new band, how about a history?
Ron: Marc and I found each other at an Under the Volcano [best Long Island zine - ed.] showcase. I think it was their fifth anniversary show, at the Continental. I met him through Joe Kowalski. A couple of weeks later I left my band...
Marc: We talked there. I hadn't played in two years, the last band I was in was the Vicious Beatniks. I was just itchin' to play, so I mentioned it to Ron....I've known him a long time.
Ron: Two weeks later I went to a party and Harry was there, and Harry said he was interested. It was a party for a girl who never showed up. She didn't speak English. This guy Bill liked her and they made a party for her to come out to, she didn't even show up.
Marc: So it was just us three for the first two-and-a-half to three months. We started in May.
Ron: We got Harry in June. We were looking for a singer for a long time, and then we found Myk.
3C: How did you find Myk? Or actually, how did you find them?
Myk: By accident, really. Ron was fooling around with my two roommates...
3C: At the same time?
Myk: Oh yeah. It was odd...I walked in on them, it was really ugly. But seriously, I went to check them out at practice one time, just hanging out. Then, Ron called me, and said, "Hey, I have another band and we're looking for a singer....do you wanna try out?" At the time, things were hectic so I couldn't do it. About three or four weeks later, I remember Chet came back with a tape of Ron's band...I listened to it and then Ron called me. I made it down to a practice they had in the city. That was it. I thought I was going to tryout, but after one practice I was in.
3C: You're the only one in the band who hasn't been in a band before. What is the experience like for you? To jump into a band so fast.
Myk: Well singing was really a weird thing for me because....like you said, these guys have all been in bands and play instruments, so it was just them doing something they've done before. I've never been in a band, more or less have I ever sung in a band before. I didn't know what style it was, I didn't know how I sang. Whatever it sounded like to me, that's what I did. Some songs worked, some didn't, over time, we've played with it. The first show was a trip, though. I was a fucking nervous wreck.
3C: For the rest of you, how was it playing with someone who hadn't been in a band before?
Marc: I thought it was neat to work with Myk...it was cool.
Ron: It was cool.
Marc: It went over very smooth, we didn't have to deal with any egos...like this is my way or this is your way. There are no egos in this band. That's a major factor as to why I still play.
3C: Ron, you were in Antifreeze. Why the jump to Pacifier? Was there an overlap? Why didn't that band work?
Ron: In Antifreeze it was kind of a personality clash. I wrote a lot of songs for that band and they wouldn't want to play them. I would come in with a song and they didn't want to learn it like that. We didn't have a drummer...we were always looking for a drummer. One night, the personalities clashed. I called up Rich Black, superhung editor of Under the Volcano. I asked him if he knew any bass players. He told me about Joe Kowalski and Marc. A week after I quit Antifreeze, Marc and I started jamming. There was no overlap.
Myk: The rest is history.
3C: You've played one show so far, at the Pyramid...what did you think of that first show?
Ron: The sound sucked. It was like a free practice.
Marc: Yeah, a free practice was all it was. It was good for Myk to get on stage, too. Even though he knew half the people there, it was good for him to get up there. When we get gigs, and he doesn't know anyone there, it's going to be a bonus for him.
Harry: For Marc to have not been on a stage in two years, and for Myk to not have fronted a band before, it was a good first show. There were glitches, but it was a good first show.
Marc: It takes time.
Myk: The hardest thing is playing without a monitor. It went in and out on me....I thought it was the microphone. I had already broken two microphones at practice. I figured I had done something wrong, but I hadn't. During the first song, it just went out. I ended up grabbing Ron's mic. The guy who called himself a soundman....
Marc: Mohawk man!
Myk: ...yeah, mohawk man comes up and says that it's just the monitor. I ended up going onto the floor while the rest of the band's on stage. Just so I could hear what's going on.
Harry: You became one with the people.
Myk: I became one with the crowd.
Marc: You got tired of me beating the shit out of you on stage.
Myk: Marc beat the shit out of me with his bass, which I didn't know until we watched the video later.
3C: Harry, you were in another band that night, Sounds of Kaos. What's the status of that band? I heard you've broken up.
Harry: I think the band as it was....yeah. Sounds of Kaos. I always thought that was a stupid name anyway, that was kind of our last show. It was a collective decision to replace the guitarist. We tried that and we got a new guitarist, and the bass player didn't want to work with him. He gave everyone an ultimatum....kind of a me or him thing. There were so many things going on, it was crazy. We want to figure out which direction we're going in. It's now me, the keyboardist, who I think is playing bass now, and the guitarist who just came in. It's a big question mark right now.
3C: So, Harry and Ron are in bands aside from this one...I was wondering how the other guys feel about having bandmates with other responsibilities.
Marc: No, it doesn't bother me now. I have so many other things going on. In December, when I have more free time....I can't see it being a problem because we all talk. That's the whole key, we all speak to each other on a regular basis. If someone's got a problem, we air it out. I can't see it being a problem as long as we work together.
Myk: I haven't seen it be a problem, and I don't see it being a problem. I work basically two jobs and I do this. I'm as busy as the rest of the guys. They do their other things, I do my other things. We basically work around that, so it's not much different. I do this for fun, basically. I'm probably the least serious of the setup, so I just kind of go with the flow. If they've got other stuff, that's cool.
Harry: As far as input....making sure everyone's 110% all the time, playing with that other band at the time, they had stuff I couldn't get with Pacifier, and Pacifier offers me things I definitely couldn't get with playing in any other band. I don't know, Ron will probably agree, whatever we're involved in other than Pacifier, musically, it's always going to add up in the end. Pacifier will have something to offer...he can offer Pacifier something that he can't offer anyone else, and Pacifier will have something to offer Ron. Does that make sense?
3C: That's nice, actually.
Ron: It's like, when you have children...you don't have just one and stop...you have two [actually, I'm an only child, but we get the point - ed.]. You don't see one as, "I gotta stop there." You wanna grow...flourish.
3C: Ron is pretty much, although not exclusively, the main songwriter for Pacifier, is that a fair statement?
Ron: In the beginning, I wrote about 60% of the stuff. That's just the way it happened.
Marc: I hadn't written a song in two years. I brought back two old songs that I had written before, that we still play today, and I think I've written three other ones. If a song is missing a part, or something needs to be changed, Ron will fix it...or vice versa...it works out good.
Harry: Most of the ideas come from Ron since he has the time to sit around and play all day.
3C: Ron, being that you do write a lot of the songs for Pacifier, and you do write a lot of songs for the other band you're in [Quarters] how do you figure out which songs go to which band?
Ron: Usually I'll be noodling around and I'll have a song at some point....both bands have different styles. Quarters is a little more complicated in the sense of arrangements and stuff like that. With Pacifier, it's the style, too, this is more of an AAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!! thing.
Marc: This band is more straightforward.
Ron: I can see which song will work better with which band. There was a case with one song, our newest one, which is called "C Sharp" right now....not sure if I like that title, we'll change it once we get it really working...that was a song for whichever band got to it first. Both bands have a backlog of songs that I really want to work on. They're both different.
3C: What do you hope the listener gets out of your music?
Marc: A release. Release everything that's bothering you. When we're on stage....when I play I like to go fucking nuts as much as I can. That's how I release things, I hope the person in the audience can feel that too.
Ron: I want people to actually listen to the music. I think we sound very different, you can't even describe the music. I want people to be able to reach in and see what we're doing and appreciate it for what it is. This sounds corny, but we want to move people....the lyrics have meaning, even if sometimes it sounds like they don't.
Marc: I don't think there's one song with any bullshit, stupid lyrics.
3C: What do you feel is the best song, lyrically, that you've written? Tell us about it.
Marc: The best song I've ever written is called "Hate Crime". My brother and his roommate got bashed for batting on the other side of the plate. It hit me in the heart to see my brother beat up. He wouldn't allow me to go to court because I'd beat the shit out of the guy in the court for beating up on my brother. It was a good way for me to release that, too.
Myk: Since I've joined the band, that song actually turns out to be one of my two favorite songs to do. It felt weird to me after our first show, Marc's brother, who came with his friends, came up to me and said that that was the best he'd ever heard that song before. It's such a meaningful song to Marc and his brother, which they made very clear to me, it just meant so much to me when they came up and said that that was just the way it was supposed to be. They just got a lot out of it.
3C: What's the other song that you really enjoy doing?
Myk: It's called "Drop D" or "Drop Dead", I'm not exactly sure why we named it. What, do you guys tune down?
Marc: Yeah.
Myk: Basically they tune down to 'D'.
Harry: You're giving away our secrets.
Myk: I've always been into the more heavy music, that's arguably our heaviest song. I can really get into it. Musically it's our heaviest song, not lyrically.
Marc: Lyrically it's different. It's about a girl.
Ron: Yeah, I wrote it. It's about someone who dropped dead. The name fit, we dropped to 'D' so..."Drop Dead"!
3C: Ron, lyrically, what do you feel is the best song you've written?
Ron: I have two of them. One of them is called "A Human Torch" in which Myk and I sort of trade off vocals. It's a pretty spiritual song, "Reach my hands out to the sky, I'm never gonna die. Shed my skin and let me fly. Float on up to the sky." It's just about releasing your spirit. Letting yourself be free. The other song that I wrote that I really like, lyrically, is called "Learn About Face" [??? - ed.]. I was watching the movie 'Higher Learning'...there were so many different things in that movie about education and letting yourself grow. But being in an institution, you end up being stifled there. The lyrics just flowed out. I made an Engine Kid reference in the song. In which Myk chose to drop the "kid". He just says "Engine"....that's cool.
3C: You've only played one show, you're going to play another show soon. I've heard that you guys have a possible tour lined up? How? What? Why?
Marc: It's not definite or anything.
3C: Well, OK, given that it might not happen....what circumstances might make it happen?
Marc: My connections. I grew up in L.A. Orange County, actually. Everybody knows what it's about. I grew up with Black Flag, T.S.O.L., Social Distortion, Circle Jerks. A lot of kids grow up to a lot of different music, I grew up with punk rock. I'm 31 now, and I've been going at it for 16 years, and it's definitely what I'm supposed to be doing. As far as the connections, I don't want to say any names, I don't like blowing my own horn. I have friends who are in established bands, very prominent bands, I'll put it that way, that have known me for a long time. They would help us out, since I've helped them out many times. Friends help friends and that's pretty much how we can do it. I don't want to use connections to get what we don't deserve. No bullshit, if it can't be done right, then I don't want to do it. It does help to have friends in higher places.
Myk: Connections have basically gotten us what we've gotten so far. The show at the Pyramid was through Harry. Our next show, which is going to be at CB's is through my roommate who books shows. It was a really nice hook-up and a really nice gesture.
Marc: I've tried to put on a couple of shows myself and the lack of venues on Long Island is absolutely fucking horrible. The worst I've seen.
3C: Do you feel that you really have to be in a clique in order to get shows?
Marc: Yeah, absolutely. We all know who puts on the shows on the Island. I respect the guy a lot, he's a great guy.
Myk: Little RT [Artie Phillie - ed.] probably does more at this point in time than anybody does for that whole scene.
Marc: For up and coming bands on the Island, to not know Little RT is like not even being in a band. You're not going to get anywhere. You can play the city all you want, but how often are your 15- or 16-year-old friends gonna trek into the city to see a show? You need to play the Island.
Myk: That's not to say that RT has a monopoly, he's a great guy, he does it when nobody else does. People should take a cue from him and learn a lesson. It is work, but it's so worth it. You get the recognition, you get to see who you want, you get to see something grow. You can almost call him the president of a company because of what he's built up from nothing.
Marc: People don't understand the hard work and what it takes to put on one stinkin' show. I tried to do it myself and it took me five days, and I finally got shut down. But you have to be persistent. RT is lucky in that he's got access to a venue, not as often as he would like, but at least he has the access. That's key.
3C: Do you think the problem on Long Island is lack of venues or lack of willpower by people to get things done?
Myk: It's a combination.
Marc: I don't think it's a lack of willpower by any means.
Myk: I think it's a lack of enough people with willpower Other people do shows on L.I., it's just far and few between. It's really hard for small bands, us being an exception since we do have strong connections everywhere. But a new upcoming band not in our situation, they've got to get up and do things for themselves. A lot of them haven't learned yet, and hopefully they all will. There's a lot of good stuff out there.
Ron: It's frustrating enough getting a show anyway.
Marc: I've never seen that. On every corner there was a place we could play. Once the shows got too violent where everything was being destroyed, they began to cut down. I'm going back to '81 now. It got cut down to maybe two or three venues in Orange County. Now, I mean, I brought some fanzines for these guys to look at from when I was home in May, and they just couldn't believe the venues. Any night, anywhere in Southern California, you can see anyone you want. Every night of the week. If you want to see a straight-edge band, a hardcore band, a Cali-pop punk band, you can go somewhere.
Harry: They also have the choices of venues to play at.
Marc: I'll buy a warehouse one of these days and give it to RT and let him run it.
Ron: We were actually talking about the Right Track Inn after it closed down. We're still looking into that.
Marc: I have business partners who I've mentioned this to. They want to see profit. I have to explain to them it's going to take a year, maybe two years before you see a profit. I own my own business and I know what it's like. I'm not just going to shell out money in something I don't believe in. I totally believe in it. I'll give out my share. Trying to sell it to other people with no clue as to what we're doing....it's tough. It's like me trying to sell you a tractor right now....what the fuck do you need a tractor for?
3C: So when this tour comes along...you work....will this band take priority over that?
Marc: Oh yeah.
Myk: Marc's in a good situation in that he does own his own business. If he wants to up and go off for a week or two, he has that option. I hopefully around that time will have vacation time from my job. If not, I'll hopefully be able to work something out. If something like this was to materialize, I would seriously consider quitting my job to do it.
Harry: I give 110% to whatever I'm doing when I'm doing it. If everything falls in place, and these guys say, look we gotta do these shows, then I'm there. That's all I have to say. It's not a question of anything else.
Marc: The first thing I'd like to do before any lengthy tour is to set up some weekend tours. Go to Boston one night and Providence the next night. And Sunday night we're in Philly. Just to get a feel for it. We were hanging out with The Joykiller on Sunday night and Jack [Grisham] is so fucking tired. He's been on the road since June. I can't imagine that.
Myk: I can't imagine being away for five months.
3C: Any recording plans?
Myk: Hopefully this month.
Marc: Definitely something by December 1st. We want to do at least five or six songs. I know Rich [Black] at Winged Disk Records and he said something about possibly working with us. I have a friend in a band called Pipefitter from Seattle, maybe do a split 7" with them. If it happens it happens.
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| (it happened) |
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