Backtrack NYHC

Yo, here's a band from New York called BACKTRACK. Coming from NY and naming your band after one of the best NYHC songs ever, you can figure out what to expect. These guys are around since the beginning of 2008 an already gained a lot of experience by sharing the stage with bands like Sick Of It All, SubZero, Merauder, Cro-Mags, Death Threat, Madball...
Here's a talk with them about the band, NYHC, Long Island and more. Check it out and support these guys.

- What's up with the band 'Backtrack'?
Backtrack is a new hardcore band from Long Island New York. I'm James and I sing. Ricky the rager and Chris play guitar, John plays drums and Nick plays bass. We all live on different parts of Long Island. Some of us live close to the city, some of us live in the sticks. The NYHC scene is strong right now, so were siked to be a part of it. There are a lot of awesome bands on Long Island and in the city area, new zines are coming out of NY which is something that was missing, a lot of people are booking shows. I'm real stoked on the core in ny right now.

- How did you guys in the band all meet each other?

Ricky: Well me and our drummer John play in another band together, called The Fad. I've played in a band with our bass player Nick in a band before, called Black History. I met James through mutual friends and our other guitar player Chris has been friends with James for a long time. Originally the band was Me, John, one of my best friends Brian, and James because me and John were jamming and Brian and James wanted to start a band too so we just combined and then it eventually evolved into this lineup.

- You’re still a young band, since when are you around, and what did you record already?

Ricky: I'd say we started somewhere around January 2008 give or take. Since then we've recorded a 5 song demo. We've also been demoing out some tracks for and EP 7" we plan on putting out Early 2009.

- What can we expect for the planned 7"?
Ricky: I'm more than stoked about how the new songs are coming out. I'd say the songs are heavier but still have a lot of elements from the demo. We'll be announcing what label it's coming out on soon. Besides that Flatspot Records is putting out our Demo 7".

- Let's talk about music. You clearly play NYHC, but how would you describe your style yourself, and which bands do you see as an influence?

James: We all love NYHC but it would be hard to list bands that are a common influence. It's hard enough for us to all agree on a cover, but so far we have covered Warzone, Outburst and Life of Agony. I'd say our major influences are Madball, Warzone, Breakdown, Cro-Mags, Killing Time, Leeway, Outburst... mostly NYHC from the late 80s and early 90s. That's my list I'm sure it will be different if you ask every member of the band. Soundwise I guess you could say the same, well that's what we’re going for at least. We all just wanted to start a hardcore band on Long Island that was influenced by the bands we love.

- The Killing Time influence is already clear from the name. Next to Backtrack being one of the hardest HC songs ever, why did you pick that name?

James: We got the name backtrack from the Killing Time song. That song means a lot to me, its hands down my favorite hardcore song. One step forward, one step forward, one step forward, two steps back..that line sums up my life for the past two years. There’s been a couple of consistent problems that have been setting me back in the past couple of years, I felt that the name fitted our band. I'm caught in the void between anger and depression.

- Do your lyrics reflect these feelings?

James: Yea the lyrics on the demo reflect those feelings. I'd say that will come out more on the 7''.

- Though, you’re a young band, you seem to be playing all the hot shows in NY. Shows with SOIA, Merauder, Death Threat, SubZero, Madball, EGH, Cro Mags, Murphy’s Law. It’s a big audience you reach there. Who’s pushing you on all these shows?

Ricky: We've had a lot of help with getting on some pretty sweet shows. Cousin Joe from BlackNBlue Productions has been hooking us up a lot and it's been awesome of him to help out a newer band like us. Wes from Death Threat has also helped us out, along with our dawg Ronie and Steve Huey from Long Island.

- You say the NYHC scene is strong. But I gotta say I have a mixed feeling about it. When I was at the Superbowl, the place was indeed packed, but the next day it was SubZero, Maximum Penalty, BCS and others playing in the Pyramid, and there was like max 100 people. I mean, that's a crazy show. And I heard from some other NY heads, that NYHC is still pretty much dead. What's up with that?
James: I wasn't at the Pyramid show, but I was at the Superbowl. The Superbowl of hardcore speaks for itself, NYHC is not dead. There are a lot of factors as to why the pyramid show didn’t do well.-It wasn't all ages... this discourages a lot of younger kids from coming out. Even kids who are of age might not go because they know the shows is going to attract an older crowd which can be weird for a younger kid. I personally hate shows that aren't all ages... I'll still go but I can see why people would avoid them.- It was the day after the Superbowl, a lot of people can't get off work for two days in a row. If you could pick between seeing Breakdown, Madball, AF and a bunch of other sick bands or seeing the line up at the Pyramid what show would you pick? I know both line ups were awesome, but some people were faced with a dilemma. The hardcore reality is... NY is fucking expensive. A lot of people have to work 6 days a week just to pay bills. To take off for two days to go to shows is hard to do if you live in NY. That show is not a good show to judge NYHC by. We're playing with Death Threat and Merauder on Saturday, that will be a solid NYHC show. I'm siked... NYHC is still on top.

- Long Island, where is that, is it still NY City?
Long Island is not NY City. It boarders Queens. Some parts of Long Island are pretty close to the city, but Long Island's kinda big so some of us live pretty far from the city. I can get to Manhattan in like an hour if I'm driving fast. In the end, Long Island hardcore is New York hardcore. I've read people say on the internet "Backtrack isn't NYHC, they’re from Long Island" but Long Island is part of New York. Long Island has a different scene than NYC but still, we must be united as one. So to anyone who says LIHC isn't NYHC..suck it!

- Long Island hardcore, that's NEGLECT. Tell me did you ever singalong FUCK LIFE and got Brian's blood on you on one of their shows?

Yo neglect rules but I’ve never seen them play. I’m 20 years old... Neglect is straight up 90's shit. They have played a bunch of reunions on Long Island but I never went to any of them. I've definitely moshed in my room to Neglect before, and that’s a fact. Our bassist is actually second cousins with Derek the guitarist of Neglect, that’s pretty sweet. Brian from Neglect comes in to my job once in a while. Every time he's wearing the same Neglect shirt and he looks super pissed.

- Yo tell me. How does Brian look like these days. Is he still into hardcore, and does he still cut himself? And where do you work that this guy passes by?

James: Brian looks like an average dude... with a "Fuck Life" head tattoo. He always wears a Neglect shirt when he comes in to my job... so I would assume he's still in to hardcore. I don’t know if he still cuts himself, I haven’t gotten that close to him. I see the dude like once a month so I can't comment on what he does in general. I don’t picture him teaching 5th graders (due to the fact that he has a head tattoo that says fuck life) but I'm sure he has a job and a normal life. I work at a pizza shop as a delivery driver that’s where I see him. I always think about trying to talk to him but I don’t really know how I’d be able to do that without sounding like a dork/fearing for my life.

- Next to Neglect there also was VOD. Any other great bands worth mentioning?

VOD was awesome, they actually just played a Long Island show a couple of weeks ago. We were on tour but I heard it was wild. There’s a ton of awesome older bands from Long Island. Silent Majority is my favorite Long Island hardcore band, ever. Other bands worth checking out are Mind Over Matter, Kill Your Idols, Crumbsuckers, Milhouse. That’s mostly the 90's shit I’m in to. In the early 2000's there was a bunch of awesome bands Strongpoint, Gabriel, Subterfuge, The Back Up Plan, The Heist (scraps and heart attacks) but most of them didn't get much exposure out of New York.

- And what about present Long Island bands?

Present LIHC is awesome. Two nights ago we played a show with Crime in Stereo/Capital/Agent/Fake Problems and there were probably 300 kids there. Shit was wild, best show I’ve been to in a long time. There’s a lot of young kids siked on the core, a lot of awesome bands. For the past couple of years Long Island had melodic hardcore on lock with bands like Agent, Capital, Crime in Stereo, Thieves and Assassins. I love all those bands but until recently there wasn't a lot of heavy hardcore bands out which bummed me out. In the last year we've had bands start up like Incendiary, Short End, Curtains, Days, Point Counterpoint, Wolverine... a bunch of awesome bands. Different styles, all good shit. I couldn't be more siked on Long Island right now. Long island just needs a youth crew band. Soon.

- The NYHC style is very popular at the moment. A lot of non NY bands playing it like, Bitter End, Trapped Under Ice, Iron Boots (rip), Mongoloids, No Turning Back...

Do you like what these bands are doing, any other bands we need to check out playing this NY-style?James: The NYHC style has been popular for as long as I can remember. But it seems like right now bands are more in to the 90's style of NYHC. A couple of years ago it seemed that bands were more influenced by 80's NYHC like Underdog, Warzone, Leeway, Outburst. All those bands you mentioned are awesome and I'm really into what they're doing. At the same time those bands are doing they're own thing, so it’s cool. Other bands to check out... Bad Seed and Brick. Bad Seed is from Wilkes-Barre they sound like Merauder, hard as shit. Brick's from Baltimore and they have a mix of NYHC and Clevo style, it's tight. Both bands are awesome and they're only gonna get better. Short End is another band from NY playing the NYHC style… they don’t have a demo yet but when it comes out its gonna be huge.

- We mentioned Killing Time earlier, who will release a new album. Are you siked?

James: New Killing Time record could be awesome. Brightside is in my top 3 favorite records of all time. I have mixed feelings about the method. I'll definitely check it out. I just hope Underdog doesn't put out a new record.

- The Underdog reunion tour was top notch. And there has been some gossip about a new record. Why don't you wanna see it come out? If there is a band in which I’m confident they'll make a decent reunion album, it's Underdog.

James: I've seen Underdog at least 5 times since they started playing again in 05 and every time has been incredible. Underdog does not have one bad song and it would be devastating if they put out a new record and it sucked. I'm not saying they couldn't pull it off, but it's a serious gamble doing a new record. I'd rather just have them stick to the classics.

- Let's talke some more about NY, what's the best NYHC show you've been to?

James: Best NYHC show was probably "the last matinee" at CB's. Underdog/Killing Time/Bulldoze/Icepick/BCS. The show was packed. It was Underdog's first reunion(since the 90's), Killing Time ruled. Bulldoze was sketchy. Icepick covered Sheer Terror. It was an awesome show. Another show that was up there was the Superbowl 06… The line up was much better but I went to that show straight from the hospital pretty much. I was in a sling and i couldn’t move around at all so it kinda sucked. The show was sick tho.

- Any NYHC show you really wished you were but weren't?

A recent NYHC show I wish I was at was Outburst/Merauder/Dynamo/Backlash at CB's in 06. Outburst put out one of my favorite 7''s ever. I was on tour at the time so I couldn't make the show. I was pretty bummed but the show on tour that day was sick, so it's all good. There’s a thousand older NYHC shows I wish I was at. A bunch of old Long Island shows I wish I was at too. I've seen flyers for sick shows that were in the town I was born in. It's devastating to see a flyer for a show with The Crumbsuckers and Breakdown playing in the town I was living in at the time, when at the time of the show I was probably learning how to walk or learning how to count. Shitty

- Next to the upcoming 7", what's the plan with the band? What can we expect?

Ricky: Basically what we plan to do is play out as much as possible. Maybe a split 7" down the line. We're defintely going to keep busy.

- Any last words, shout outs you wanna do?

Ricky: Shoutouts to all our friends from long island and all over ny for that matter, all the awesome bands and people we met and played with this last tour, brick, bad seed, crown of kings, blacknblue productions, che flatspot, the agent, incendiary, and everyone who i forgot.

Check out the band

http://www.myspace.com/backtrackny