In Effect

Holly Berchielli and Outsider Magazine

I’m always amazed that I didn’t know Holly Berchielli until Chris Wynne from In Effect connected us for my 914 Day event last year. For the past 25 years, Holly has been at the helm of Outsider Magazine, showcasing hardcore, punk, and metal in the Hudson Valley. Along with honoring this quarter-century milestone I wanted to dig into the many moving parts of this extensive publication, as opposed to zines that are just one person writing about stuff they like and not adhering to a traditional format or schedule. I’m in awe of Holly’s ability to organize all of this while also booking monthly shows and starting a new radio show, Bring the Noise, with the aforementioned Chris of In Effect. Read on to learn about the origins of Outsider, how issues and show lineups are assembled, and how Holly and the crew are celebrating their quarter century crisis.

Outsider Magazine is primarily distributed in the Hudson Valley and Long Island, but its habitat in the Downstate Jungle is expanding. Check out this new page that lists where you can currently pick up a copy in the 914.

Quarter Century Crisis group photos by Dave “Face” Boccio, and early Outsider photos are courtesy of Holly Berchielli.

It’s amazing that the 25th anniversary of Outsider Magazine is this year and that you have already published 38 issues! Can you give us a short summary of its history, and how you are celebrating this milestone?

I went to a very large high school, Newburgh Free Academy in Newburgh, NY, where only the Seniors were fully featured in the yearbook due to how many pages it would take to include all of the underclassmen. I would take a lot of photos with my disposable cameras throughout the year anyway, so I took it upon myself to collage and piece together a yearbook each year for my friends. I would put it all together, photo copy it, staple it and sell it for a buck or two. Around that time, I began going to shows and finding zines and thought, I can do this, I’m sort of doing this already. I got my friends involved and we put together a very silly first issue. There was never an intention for it to be very serious, but over time it just developed into a magazine with a real purpose. It kind of became the glue that connected the different parts of the Hudson Valley music and art scenes. Fast forward through all of its eras, Outsider is the strongest and best it’s ever been. Issue 38 just dropped on June 27, 2025, and we celebrated with an all-day event at Rushing Duck Brewery in Chester, NY on July 19th. We had eight punk and hardcore bands from the HV, NYC and NJ, vendors, a tattoo artist offering Outsider themed tattoos, our own Outsider Beer and Outcider, raffles to benefit the OCNY Veteran Center and our favorite DJ, Kazooie Louie, spinning records all day. It was a party. And we were able to raise a total of $1,900 for the Orange County NY Veteran Center.

What inspired you to bring back Outsider Magazine after a five year hiatus a few years ago?

I have been making Outsider for most of my life, so not having it active for long periods just feels empty. However, that’s not to say that I don’t need time to just kick back. In 2018 I realized I needed a break from the music scene. I had been publishing very regularly and booking shows as often as possible and the scene was just not in a good place at that point and neither was I. It felt like pushing against a wall. I decided to just take a year off and have some time to myself. In the late fall of 2019 I started working on what would have been Issue 34 and getting a team together with the intention of releasing the issue in the Spring of 2020, but we all know what happened instead. With the whole world shut down, bringing back a print magazine that relied on in-person networking and live shows just wasn’t going to work. By 2022, I had been away from Outsider too long and I missed it. Local shows started happening again and people would ask when the zine was coming back. I sent a bunch of emails, got the Instagram account going again, made some phone calls and started putting Issue 34 together, for real. It was just the right time. A lot of new bands had formed or gotten back together. People were ready to be a part of something again.

Has the format stayed the same over the years? I saw you can download some back issues from nyoutsiderzine.com – have you considered making even more old ones available?

The first ever issue was printed in 2000 off of my home inkjet printer and stapled in my living room. After that, I got a job at a local newspaper, called The Sentinel, and they allowed me print the zine on a press in more of an actual magazine format. That lasted until 2012. I no longer worked at the paper, but they were great to me. When I told them the date I was planning on bringing Issue 23 to them for printing, I was told they were going to switch me to newspaper format. My print runs could be bigger, the format was larger and be more cost effective. I wasn’t thrilled about it at first, but it was the right move and I have stuck with it ever since. The back issues that are available on the website are what I have in PDF format. Everything before issue 27 needs to be scanned from the original printed zines. I do intend to make more issues available for download in the future.

What were some of your favorite zines at the time you started Outsider Magazine – and now?

I have always loved magazines and comic books. In junior high, I started my monthly ritual of tracking down all my favorites. YM and Circus were my constants. I would buy Hit Parader, Flipside, Rolling Stone, Spin and Seventeen. An older friend gifted me her copies of Seventeen and I started collaging with them. Those teen girl centered magazines were just as influential on me as the music magazines were. I always had a magazine with me to read, wherever I went. When I started going to shows and finding independent record stores to shop in, there would be zines available for free or $1 and I would pick them up. There was a photocopied zine called Skank & Destroy that I got from Trash American Style in CT. That was the catalyst, I think. It looked just like those yearbooks I was making and I decided to just go ahead and continue in that vein. Today, I pick up Decibel, New Noise, Revolver … those are the only large scale music magazines that are still going that I have been reading for years. I’ve had a subscription to Bust magazine for probably 15 years. I subscribe to Razorcake. I love your zine, I Question Not Me, it’s got such a cool approach to it. There is a new zine called Through Our Eyes Zine that I think is really great, made by a girl who is probably around the same age I was when I started Outsider. She sent me a personalized drawing when I ordered her issue, which was really cool. Frozen Screams Imprint puts out a very cool metal zine with an awesome retro aesthetic now and then in different formats. Today Forever has a lot of great photography in it. In Effect Hardcore, though technically a website today, still has us all beat as far as music content goes. This topic could be its own feature. So many zines that stick in my memory that I’ve collected over the years, Rumpshaker, Vista Fanzine, I could just keep going, but we can pause here for now, ha.

How do you organize all the features, photos, ads, etc, and wrangle all your contributors so that everything fits together cohesively (and at the right number of pages?)

Each issue starts to float around in my head as soon as the current one is off the press. A lot of the content that isn’t band/music interviews is born from conversations. Spitballing ideas or seeing something cool a friend is working on or diving deeper into a movie or pop culture topic I have always liked. Coming up with content is a combined effort, for sure. I have several regular contributors who come to me with ideas each issue and we decide what is a good fit. I myself have an ever growing list of topics or interview subjects and if I feel I am not the best person to write the piece, I pitch it to whomever I feel would be the best suited. The Zine Scene and larger band or artist features are decided on by me with contributions by Chris at In Effect Hardcore. I do some of the interviews, Chris contributes what he’s interested in and I assign the rest to my writers. Johnny No-Keys from Trouble Bound, John McGrath from General Grievance and Ethan from Grave Heist also contribute regularly. I also am very happy to have been approached by a few really great freelance writers who pitch ideas to me on subjects or bands they are very excited about. I am lucky to be able to reach out to some of the best photographers in punk and hardcore for shots. Dave “Face” Boccio is the official Outsider Photographer and Steven J. Messina, Rich Zoeller, Danielle Dombrowski all contribute pretty regularly. I sell all of the ads and do all of the layout. My best friend, Ashley, does the collage work that is featured in the zine and on the covers and some of our show flyers under her moniker Shear Destruction. I think it all just comes together in my mind as a concept and then I make categories and lists in my notebook and then just check things off as I receive them and then lay them in. A lot of stuff gets jammed into each issue and it’s really just all the years of experience that makes that work as well as it does. There are definitely times when I wonder how I am going to get everything laid into place, but it always works out. I think, at this point, I just know what each issue needs.

How do you decide who you want to highlight in upcoming issues? Do you try for a mix of genres or is that dictated by the bands that you and the contributors are most excited about at the time?

I definitely aim for a mix of genres, but that seems to happen naturally anyway. I pull from the bands I book on our shows, bands who fill out the Zine Scene form on our website and just whomever catches my interest. Chris always has great for suggestions and points me to bands from Long Island and NYC that have caught his ear. Shaun Matarrese has brought some really good writing and interviews to the zine recently. Sometimes interviews take a while to come together or get scheduled, so planning which issue it will be in can get tricky, but things always work out.

Out of all the different roles that you take on to make Outsider Magazine happen, which are your most and least favorite?

Editorial work is my favorite! I really enjoy putting an issue together and working with everyone on my team. I’ve never fully enjoyed doing interviews unless the questions come naturally, but that’s something I have been leaning into more over the years. I think I just prefer to gather my knowledge of something I am interested in organically, not through typical research. My least favorite role would be selling ads, but I try to look at it as part of the bigger picture. There is something satisfying in having the ads in each issue reflect the community, especially when they are well designed and help the pages look interesting. Zines are time capsules, documenting whichever scene they support and the ads are very much part of that. Who hasn’t read a magazine from ten, twenty years ago and not marveled at the albums, shows or clubs that were new or current at the time of printing? Same with old show flyers.

What are some of the ways that a band or zine can be part of a future issue, such as submitting something for review or buying ad space?

Both of those are good ways to get featured. There is also a form on the Outsider website where bands or artists can apply for a spot in Zine Scene. The best way to get my attention is to come to our shows or come say hi when I (or anyone in our crew) is at a show. I am far more likely to give a band a chance if I know they are participating in their scene. Jenn Small and Lindsay Gara help with all the Outsider Shows and do a lot behind the scenes for the zine and are both active in the music scene. Both of them have turned me on to bands and been excellent representatives of Outsider at events and shows I wasn’t able to attend personally. If you want to be a part of what we are doing, say hi and talk to us when you see us. For bands or anyone outside of the HV, sending me a friendly email or a letter goes a long way.

Where can someone pick up a copy of Outsider Magazine?

Copies are available at shows, on merch tables all over the place in the HV, Long Island and parts of NYC and NJ. We leave copies at tattoo shops, bars, restaurants, record stores, random places that have other free publications available, libraries and community centers. Nature’s Pantry (locations in New Windsor and Fishkill, NY) always have copies available. Readers and businesses can request copies to give out and ask to have us deliver or mail them. We do our best to accommodate. There is always the option to make a $5 donation to have an issue and sticker pack mailed to you (US addresses). I’m hoping to keep that rate going for as long as possible. To everyone who donates extra, know that you help me mail out more than I could otherwise, and that is appreciated.

Outsider at The Green Growler, Croton-on-Hudson, NY. See above for the new Serve ‘em section listing Westchester distribution!

How do you put together the lineups for your shows, and the advantages of booking at the OCNY Veteran Center?

I have a lot of friends who make really great music! I generally start with a band or bands I want to see and build around them. The best shows tend to be made up of bands who know each other and have history. It creates such a good atmosphere. I try my best to accommodate touring bands when they contact me, as well as working with other promoters like DCxPC. One thing I do try to stick to is booking mixed bills as often as possible. I enjoy shows most when the bands all have a different sound, but are still complementary to each other.

The OCNY Veteran Center is so incredibly welcoming and supportive. The space is easy to set up for a show, capacity is just the right size and they have a bar and kitchen that is separate from the show room, so it’s ideal for all ages shows.

What makes the Hudson Valley scene unique and how has it evolved over the past few decades?

There are so many different smaller scenes that make up the HV scene. There’s the HVHC crew, the punk bands, ska punk bands, we have great surf bands. There is a serious metal scene, as well as bands on the more melodic side of things. We have bands that can fit in on both heavier bills and more lighthearted shows and I feel that crossover at shows is important. The bands that come here to play from out of their area leave their mark and hopefully take some of what we do back with them. There is a lot of history here, especially through punk and hardcore and that is certainly a strength. People here tend to have deeply varied tastes, even if they don’t think it’s cool to broadcast that fact.

On top of the magazine and booking shows, you and In Effect have a radio show on WXAX … how did you get that started and what can listeners expect from the show?

Jim Arndt, the original owner of WXAX, approached me at one of my shows about having Outsider do a punk and hardcore show on his station. WXAX is predominantly a metal station and he said he wanted to bring some more variety to the lineup. I asked Chris if he would like to do the show with me and it was a natural fit. It took us a while to come up with a name, but Bring The Noise first aired on November 6th, 2024. We play a mix of new and classic punk and hardcore from Ramones to Restraining Order with a heavy focus on bands from the Hudson Valley, Long Island and NYC and bands we are featuring in the zine and on the In Effect website. The show airs on WXAX (anywhere you get internet radio) on Wednesdays from 10am-Noon EST and again from 10pm-Midnight every week.

Editor’s note: find the “Played on Bring the Noise” playlist here to identify your favorites from the show or catch up on anything you may have missed.

Outsider also always has great merch! How did you come up with the iconic logo and continue to pick interesting colorways?

Thanks! I have a lot of fun designing our merch. I have worked in graphic design and the garment industry on the retail side for a very long time. I was a professional screen printer for several years as well. The logo came about because I wanted to pay tribute to the Ramones, being that the zine is partially named after one of their songs. My friend Shawn and I first created it about twenty years ago when we used to screen print all of the Outsider merch by hand in my room. It was only used on t-shirts for years. Eventually, I had the design made digital and began using it as the official logo for the magazine. It’s changed a bit over the years and I think the version we have now is going to stick.

What’s your favorite compilation, and/or band that you discovered from a comp?

A comp that I picked up when it came out that I still listen to now and then is the Five Years On The Streets comp from Vagrant Records (1998). That’s where I discovered Face To Face.

Name one band you don’t want to be forgotten – and is there a band who was once covered in Outsider that helped them continue to be remembered?

Well, that’s a loaded question. There are a lot of bands that I have covered that don’t play anymore or are on a “hiatus” that were so good. Some have music available to stream or buy and others don’t have much of a trace left except old interviews and that’s a tough road to go down just to choose one, but a band I covered and booked that I still play on Bring The Noise and pester about a reunion show, on and off is Entropy.

Anything else you want to shout out or discuss? Thank you for doing this!

I feel like our scene here in the Hudson Valley and the punk and hardcore scene as a whole is so strong right now. For the most part, we are more connected and supportive of each other than ever from what I can tell, which is how it should be. I have met more like-minded people in the last few years than I can count. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you and I am honored to be a part of what you’re doing as well as having you contribute to Outsider. In particular, I am seeing and working with far more women in the scene than in the past and that makes me very happy.

Carl Gunhouse on Brooklyn, Bazooka, and Boggs

I always enjoy seeing Carl Gunhouse’s “I had a great time photographing …” captions, which precede a carousel of action-packed images. As an evocative window into a particular show or scene, I’m often inspired to check out the bands depicted. While following Carl’s work, I grew curious about the process behind his assiduous documentation of the New York, New Jersey and surrounding scenes. We talked about his current favorites, the Downtown Brooklyn Project, and even Scott Radinsky and Wade Boggs. (All pictures here are by Carl Gunhouse besides Boggs and Radinsky.)

When did you start taking pictures at hardcore shows, and how has the process changed during your decades behind the lens? And has branching out to other subjects affected your HC photo style?

I started late May 1994 at Youth Brigade, Integrity, Lagwagon, the Bouncing Souls, Lifetime, Sticks & Stones, and Bowel at Middlesex County College. My mom was a photographer when I was growing up, and I was familiar with a camera. I was going to shows in the early ‘90s, and a lot of people were announcing triumphantly from stage that hardcore was not dead, especially in NY. As a kid it made me feel like maybe hardcore was at risk of dying, and I had to do my part to keep it going. I am not musically gifted, and I didn’t have a lot of friends, so it seemed like photography was a way I could do my part.

It was super intimidating when I first started photographing shows. I worried people would certainly realize that I was a poser and mock me, but quickly, people like Chris Wynne from In Effect Zine, Gabe Walter from Whole 9 Yards Zine and Rick Ta Life asked for pictures and it felt like I was helping keep hardcore going (Turnstile you are welcome). Now taking pictures is how I feel the most comfortable at a show.

Style-wise, when I started, there was a lot of drag flash, or pictures with a bunch of swirly lights and a little blur. I thought that was gimmicky, and I was a big fan of Justine DeMetrick who did Intermission Fanzine, so I tried to make pictures like hers that were sharp and evenly exposed. Over time, I’ve softened a little and now let a little blur show at times in my pictures, mostly to let in as much color from ambient light on stage as I can. The last couple years I’ve used a handheld flash at times to get some more creative shadows. And I loved Angela Owens’ tight frames from a little further back on the stage, so when I’ve been stuck with a mic stand in front of me, I’ve tried to use it to frame up the picture like Owens often did.

When I first started shooting it was just to document shows and, on some level, it still is, but as I’ve gotten older and spent my adult life teaching photography and curating art, I’ve thought a lot more about the difference between making art and documenting something. For me, art is making pictures that I think look cool even if they don’t really have any practical purpose for the band. Over the last couple of years, I’ve tried to make more artistic stuff, like portraits and still lifes at shows, which, if they are good, I hope will say something more about me than it does about the band that might be playing.

*Dan Yemin and Lifetime at Middlesex County College*

I always have a great time seeing your “I had a great time photographing” captions, which precede a carousel of incredible action shots. How do you pick which pics make it into these samplers? Is it more about the technically best picture, one that captures the spirit of the show, one that might inspire someone to check out the band, or all of the above?

Instagram limits you to 10 pictures, so I go with my best 10 but try and break it up evenly among the bands from the show. I try to avoid having the same band member be the subject of more than one picture. Anything extra, I put into my stories. And everything I like goes up on Facebook, which just kind of exists for me as an open-source archive. I think I err more on what captures the spirit of the show or ideally the interaction of the band and the crowd. I guess it never occurred to me that the picture would get people to check out a band, but if so, that’s rad. I do certainly try to photograph bands I am into, so I am honored that people might check them out.

I’m impressed by how many shows you manage to shoot outside of NYC. What are some of your favorite scenes and venues?

Venue is easy: Gold Sounds’ stage is the right height for kids to sing along and stage dive. It’s small enough that it tends to be chaotic, so it’s easy to make something good picture-wise. Saint Vitus has my favorite lighting and when they don’t go crazy on the smoke machine, you get a lot of nice color caught up in the haze. The stage there is a nice height, maybe a touch long but it’s also a 5 min walk from my apartment, so I am partial. But the best vibe is Cinco De Mayo. The mismatched fluorescent lights aren’t the best for shooting color, but it’s hard to beat a floor show in a quality family-owned Mexican restaurant, which is now decorated in shirts of the bands that have played.

Scenes-wise NJ is bumping, with a lot of music diversity and lots of kids who just seem to be there to have a good time, if not awkwardly push mosh. LI and Philly are also good, where, like New Jersey, there is a proper scene where you see a lot of familiar people at shows, and everyone tends to be nice. Brooklyn had a moment, but post pandemic if you’re not going to a big show or a show on the punkier end of things. But a shoutout for Austin Ampeloquio for starting to book some good stuff and Bazooka for being rad hardcore from NYC.

*Bazooka at Cinco de Mayo. Not the Bazooka of Badkid/570 fame, but I like them too.*

It’s refreshing to see an OG with such pure enthusiasm for younger bands (similarly to In Effect who often features your pictures.) Can you list some of your favorite newer bands, and are there any recent changes you have noticed in hardcore, particularly after the pandemic?

Well, as an old person, I find shows get a little weird when you are there with a bunch of other old people and everyone including the band is a little gassed three songs in. I want shows with young people doing irresponsible things with other people’s physical safety, and it is hard to get that without searching out new stuff. I guess the new in newer hardcore is relative, but I love Heavyhex, Disguised, Cutdown, Never Again, Heads Will Roll, Hard 2 Kill, Burning Lord, Dead Last, Last Man Out, Blu Anxxiety, Phantom, and I am gonna stop listing things because I am just gonna think of more stuff I like, like the Freezeheads, Phantasia, Without Peace and Odiame.

Since the pandemic, things have certainly gotten bigger. There seems to be a generation of kids who seem more diverse, who occasionally dress in a way that confuses an old person like me. For instance, the face paint but not being a Juggalo? I assume that comes from people being into makeup tutorials online? But the kids do show up and seem to dance to lots of stuff, if not seem a little oblivious as to who is playing.

*Heads Will Roll at the Koyo record release, Amityville Music Hall*

Do your pics reveal any trends about merch and shirt colors? In your pics from the 2021 Triple B showcase I remember seeing multiple yellow shirts in the crowd and onstage (and wrote that down for an IQNM shirt trends article that has not yet happened …)

Ha, I had no idea, and no memory of that show being heavy on the yellow shirts. But I just went through the pictures, and you are right. On the first day at Saint Vitus, Scanlon, Swank, Dave from Ammunation, as well as a kid in a Trail Of Lies hoodie and a young woman are all rocking yellow to orange tops. I was never that into shirts or merch, my vice is vinyl. I liked to buy shirts to support, but at this point I have more than enough, so I guess it’s not something I think about that much. It certainly stands out more to me in old pictures. Looking at early and mid 2000’s pictures, there were a lot of terrible t-shirts and band swoopy hair, but at the time I was oblivious to it. I guess it is hard to spot trends in the moment, if you aren’t looking for them.

Since I always ask this on Serve ’em a Sentence – how many library cards do you have, and in what systems? And what is your favorite library?

Oh, I am bad. I don’t have a library card and had my NY Public Library card suspended for accidentally not returning some books on Jean Renoir in grad school. Is it cheating to say the Morgan Library? It is stunning there, but I’ve mostly visited to see exhibitions and never used it as a proper library. Also, Yale Beinecke library with the marble panels that turn this crazy pink color when the late day light hits them.

Which came first, the Downtown Brooklyn project or the gallery in Brooklyn that you co-run? What is your favorite Brooklyn band of all time?

Oddly, both started at about the same time. I had been curating shows since just out of grad school. Like a lot of people. I started because no one else was putting my work in shows. That led to starting a gallery with some friends that has been up and running for over a decade. And the Downtown Brooklyn project began when a friend Jason John Wurm asked me if I wanted to be part of a group taking pictures of the change in the neighborhood, and I was into doing it. He eventually moved to LA, and the other people went on to other things, but I’ve dug it, so now it’s just me.

Brooklyn hardcore? Hmmm, I never liked Biohazard or Life Of Agony, I heard Indecision, Shutdown and Inhuman all around the same time, and I liked Shutdown the most, but I’ve probably listened to Indecision more over the years. I guess it is fair to say Merauder were a Brooklyn band? Right? I am gonna go Merauder. Also, just got back from Dead Heat at Saint Vitus and stumped a lot of people on naming post ‘90s Brooklyn Hardcore bands. The only name I got was Creem, which I have the LP but never saw them live, so hard to claim they were a favorite of mine.

Did you ever capture an interesting detail or moment at a show and not realize it until you saw the picture after?

Oh, totally all the time. The best stuff, it’s just chaotic when it’s happening, and I have a vague sense of what I captured, and just hoping my focus is on something of interest and not the back of someone’s head.

Thank you for doing this! Anything else you want to cover or hype?

No, thank you. Ever since you put Rollie Fingers on the cover of a zine, I’ve been a fan. I am gonna shout out hardcore photo people I like, Steve Levy, Matt Viel, Step2Vic, William Marks, Dan Skinner, Dave DiMaggio, Todd Pollack, Agatha Hueller, Danielle Dombrowski, Tim Daley, Michelle Mennona, Rich Zoeller, David Siffert, my video friends Dan at Never Better, Jeff Davis at Feet First Productions, and Sunny from Hate5Six.

*Mike Dijan before the Triple B/Daze/Streets of Hate showcase at the Monarch*

I didn’t realize you were a baseball fan until you mentioned Rollie. Thank you for reading IQNM! What is your all time favorite baseball photograph and/or baseball book or movie?

Oh yeah, I’ve been a Yankee season ticket holder since the early 2000’s. And favorite baseball picture? I always loved the clouds in this Wade Boggs card, but I am gonna say this picture of Scott Radinsky playing wiffle ball in the Roxy parking lot for an interview in Rumpshaker Fanzine. Radinsky had a respectable career as a middle reliever who sang for Scared Straight and Ten Foot Pole, but more importantly he’s the only major league pitcher I ever doubled off in wiffle ball. And I love the Ken Burns documentary. I could listen to Buck O’Neil talk about anything, and it even makes George Will likable. Plus, my only solace for the Red Sox winning in 2004 is that it must have made Doris Kearns Goodwin feel good.

*Scott Radinsky in Karkovice Magazine, I mean Rumpshaker Fanzine*

Seth Meyer on Cats in the Room when the Riffs Were Written

What’s up Seth, thank you for doing this interview! Over the past few years, you have been putting your past projects on Spotify and Youtube. What are some of the underrated gems on each platform?

On Spotify, I’m going to call a lot of my solo music underrated because I’m not sure how to find the right audience for it. The people that like it really love it but it’s not straight up hardcore and there’s also a lot of electronic music that goes in a lot of directions so the average hardcore fan is not usually feeling it. I just don’t know how to market it to get it to the right people but I’m proud of it. In 2013, I put out a solo album called “The World Does Not Exist” and then last year, I re-released it with a bunch of electronic instrumentals I did in the early 2000s in between the songs under the name Seth N’ Violence – Hardcore Fantasy. I am really proud of all of that stuff but it’s mostly unheard.

On Youtube, I put up a lot of band practices of unrecorded music and us just jamming. So many songs go to waste over the years because a band breaks up and songs don’t get recorded or line-ups change. I just wanted people to hear this stuff.

Mike Bulldoze is one of my favorite riff writers and so I put up a tape of our early Homicidal practices with riffs and beats that were never turned into songs. We still hope to use some of them one day.

I was also in another band with Dan One4One called Plan B is Dead, we released a short 5 song demo but we had a lot of practices of the band just jamming and making up stuff that I thought was incredible and needed to be heard, so I put that up.

What type of music are you creating these days? Do you have any new bands in the works, or mostly solo projects?

Right now I am still developing it so I don’t know what it’s going to turn into. I always want to do something completely different from what I have done before but at the same time, old school hardcore is part of my DNA so I also have a bunch of songs that are that and nothing more. For some songs, I have a bunch of riffs and beats and choruses put together but I want to layer them with different sounds but I want to get a new synth first. Getting a new synth with new sounds always gives me new ideas. All my old stuff was recorded with a Korg Triton that I bought in 2000. It was great for its time but it’s outdated. I’ve also been studying classic hip hop albums and learning about sampling and manipulating sounds. Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies by Brian Coleman has a goldmine of information.

I’ve slowly been building a home studio but I haven’t started recording anything yet and won’t until I have all the equipment. Last year, I remixed “Unbreakable” by Homicidal and added all these electronic colors so that could give you an idea of the colors I would like to mix but the new songs will be actual songs with verses and chorus unlike this remix.

I’m also trying to spend a lot more time working on writing lyrics and creating vocal flows. I think that has always been my biggest weakness. I come up with hooks for choruses but then get stuck while trying to write the verses. I’ve been reading a lot looking for inspiration and also spending time on vocabulary.com trying to improve my vocabulary. I have a whole notebook of words and phrases that I just love the sound of that I am hoping to find a way to use in songs without it sounding forced. I’m a big sci-fi and fantasy fan too so I try to make sci-fi sounding music. I am hoping to find good sci-fi books to write a song about. On my last solo album, “Maze of Death” was based on the book A Maze of Death by Philip K Dick. “The World Does Not Exist” started off being based on Old Man’s War by John Scalzi but completely morphed into something else although the original 4 lines remain. “Terror to Forever’s End” is about Zod, Ursa and Non being trapped in the Phantom Zone in Superman. I have a completed song that is based on Stannis Baratheon’s final stand. I recorded a cheap home demo version of it in 2016 but I plan on re-recording that for the new album. I also lifted lyrics straight from the Dhammapada in my song “Immortality.”

When did you get interested in classical music, and how does it inform your writing process? Does having a foundation in music theory also help?

I got heavily into it when I was 18 but I think it was always in my DNA because piano was my first instrument and I’ve been playing my whole life. I was learning how to play a lot of simple classical music before I really got into music as a fan of music. But it was really film music that drew me in. Specifically, I rediscovered Star Wars at 18 and would listen to the soundtrack all the time. And I also had the Clockwork Orange Soundtrack and I loved Rossini’s “Thieving Magpie” and the way the film contrasted it with violence. Then Ren & Stimpy used the same piece in Space Madness and it really made me think about how much I loved the music. There was so much great classical music in Ren & Stimpy that led me on a mission to find out what the music being played was. I started playing piano again right after that. I had for the most part stopped when I started playing drums at 8. Classical music is all about harmony and knowing what works with what. When I write riffs, I don’t really think at all. I just play. But when it comes to putting another riff on top of that or a solo, it’s important to know what key I am in and what will work with it. Also, if I get stuck while writing a song, I can use harmonic progression theory to give me an idea of what key to try next. Even in Homicidal with Mike’s riffs, if we get stuck, I can say to him, try something on this or that fret and that can get us out of a jam

Thank you for being the source of the “cats in the room when the riffs were written” question that I’ve been asking here and am compiling for I Question Not Me #6. What riffs or songs were written when there were cats in the room, and what classic riffs were maybe never written due to cat interference?

You’re welcome. In the room itself, I am not 100% certain. I am pretty sure my cat Wolfgang (2006-2012) was in the room for most of the Plan B is Dead riffs and then the riffs for my 2013 solo album (which were originally Plan B is Dead riffs) but I can’t say for sure. But he couldn’t have been far away so he definitely heard them from outside the room if he wasn’t in it. My cat Stimpy (1993-2006) was most likely in the room for the Fat Nuts Theme Song, and “Setting it Straight” by Fat Nuts and probably “Absence of Sincerity” by 25 ta Life. Also, “Thoughts” by One4One but I hate that song so maybe I shouldn’t mention that one. Stimpy was in the house for a lot though. All my bands practiced in the house so even though he wasn’t in the room, he definitely heard a lot of songs being put together. He would have been there when One4One put Control together, when Rey wrote the first riff for “Stand” (Stimpy would sleep on Rey’s head when he left it at my house), he was there for the first Homicidal jams, he was there when One4One was rushing to put In Search of Together. And he was there when we were putting together some of the Strength Through Unity tracks, specifically the double bass part in “Took My Kindness for Weakness” and the first part of “Make it Work.”

I have probably lost a bunch of riffs forever thanks to when Wolfgang knocked over my digital 8 track in 2007 and I lost everything in it. I had 5 years’ worth of music in there. I wouldn’t have lost any completed songs because I already burned those to CD but definitely a lot of ideas in the works. I woke up in the middle of the night to a loud boom in the living room. I ran in, saw the machine on the floor, Wolfie running away and then I heard clicking coming from the hard drive (which is never a good thing). I took it to a repair shop but everything was lost.

Out of all the bands you’ve played in, which one featured the most cat owners, the most cats, and your favorite cats?

It would be the In Search Of line up of One4One or One Family which was the exact same members minus the one person in One4One that didn’t have a cat. I’m not sure how many cats because I’m not sure how many Dan had. He always had a lot of pets at his mom’s house. Andy, Chris and I had 1 each. My favorite cats are and were Mike Bulldoze’s. I love his cat Daphne and she loves me. She is a super friendly huge gluttonous yellow cat. She is obsessed with my guitar case and every time I go over there, I usually have my guitar. She comes running to the door crying until I put it down and open it for her. It got to the point where I felt like I needed to bring the empty case if I was going over there and we weren’t jamming just because I didn’t want to let her down. I also loved their late cats Norman and Seymour. Seymour was a little slow and would just plop down on your lap and not move. He died in 2014 and that’s when they got Daphne. Norm took a lot longer to warm up to me. He was scared of everyone. But one day after Seymour died, he came and sat on my lap while we were watching Game of Thrones and I was so happy that he finally took the initiative. And then he came to sit with me every week after that. He never came out until the kids went to bed. Unfortunately, he passed right before the pandemic started. They got a new cat named Leela but I only just met her in Feb 2020, and due to the pandemic, I haven’t been over there since then.

Honorable mention also goes to Tomoki’s cat (Homicidal, Hell Brigade) from 2005. I don’t remember the name of the cat but Tomoki lived on 131^st street in Harlem on the 2^nd floor of a brownstone. The cat would climb out the balcony and be up and down all of the buildings. Sometimes I’d see her outside roaming the streets of Harlem. The cat was a trooper. Doug E Fresh actually lived a few houses away and he had these front steps with these awesome Asian lion gargoyles on the banisters so I always wondered if the cat ever chilled there with the gargoyles and Doug E Fresh.

I also love Andy from One4One’s current cat Gertie (I hope I spelled it right). I never met her but he’s always posting pics and she has a really distinctive “I’m not impressed” face.

I have really enjoyed seeing your kittens on Instagram – how did you decide it was time to get a pet again and how did they come into your life?

I just needed one. I had pets most of my life but I never went looking for one. They were all found on the street. My sister found my dog Lucy down the street from us, my ex found Stimpy in a parking lot and Wolfgang was trapped in the engine of a car in front of my building when I found him. It always felt like destiny so I was just waiting for it to happen again but all of the sudden, 10 years had gone by, and no pets. People were suggesting Petfinder and all these sites but it felt like online dating. I couldn’t tell from a pic whether or not they were right for me. I wanted to meet them and see what kind of connection there was. So, then AWESOM in Stroudsburg said they were getting some kittens in and I went to check them out. They were in a batch of 5 and I really loved how they all had a bond with each other. I wish I could have taken them all. I never had 2 cats at once before except a 2-month period where I lived with my ex but both cats were already old and her cat hated Stimpy. I had a cat and a dog at the same time but Stimpy HATED my dog. He absolutely resented her and treated her like she was a rodent from outside that didn’t belong. He used to look at me like “yo wtf? Why is this thing in the house?” My kittens (Luke and Leia) love each other. They are inseparable. Watching them interact is one of the greatest treasures I have ever had the pleasure to experience. They go on these exploratory missions around the house. They fight. They sleep all over each other and chase each other all around the house. I’m not sure where they are at this moment, but I can guarantee that wherever you find one of them, the other is there too.

When I got the In Effect book last summer I remember noticing your bands were all over the book. What are some of your favorite parts of the book, and your favorite In Effect issues?

I can tell you what my least favorite part of the book was. It was that underhanded dig at the Mets in the foreword. What was up with that? At first, I was like “oh nice. Becky wrote the foreword but then 2 seconds later I was like WTF? Why? Was this really necessary?” Haha.

My favorite parts were the ‘80s issues because I had never seen those before. I had always heard about them but it was all fresh reading. I loved reading the reviews of all these classic recordings as new music. Also loved that it all started with Outburst. My favorite issue during my era was the one that had our Japan tour. That was the best trip I ever went on and to see it documented in the zine like that was an honor. I always looked up to the zine. I was proud just to get a review in there the first time. I always felt In Effect was the official state of the union for our scene and the paragon of what a zine should be. I helped out with interviews for a NJHC zine called God Bless Hardcore. In Effect was the inspiration for it. Its founders Gerry and Tito wanted it to be the NJHC version of In Effect.

How many library cards do you have, and what is your favorite library (in each state where you have lived?)

I actually signed up online yesterday for my new local library here in PA (Western Pocono Community Library). I saw they have curbside pick-up so I can just order the book and pick it up. I haven’t physically been there yet. I guess I still have one for the library in Plainsboro NJ. I did like that one. It was 2 blocks from my house and they had a front and back door so I would walk through it on my way home from local stores. They always sold used books for like $2-$3 and I would just buy a bunch and save them for a rainy day. About 5 years ago, I picked up Magic and Mystery in Tibet by Alexandra David-Neel on one of those walk throughs and I just finally read it a couple of months ago.The timing was perfect because reading about the ascetics in the mountains was exactly what I needed at this point in time and since then, I’ve really been embracing the isolation and solitude of being up here in the mountains during a pandemic. Plainsboro was the only library I used in NJ.

In New York, I really loved the library at College of Staten Island. I still lived at home when I was in college so I used to go there all the time just for the quiet but they also had a really great selection. They had everything I needed for all my research papers. They had the scores for almost every major classical piece. They also had records you could go listen to with headphones in a silent room (this was pre-mp3). And when I was taking History of Opera, they had all the operas we had to watch for class so I could go in there and watch with headphones.

What is your favorite baseball book or movie?

Book would be Big Sexy: In His Own Words by Bartolo Colon which was co-authored by Michael Stahl. Michael Stahl is the guy that wrote the article The Last Time New York was Hardcore for Narratively. So it was awesome to see the book was by a hardcore kid. Plus it was a great book.

Movie would probably be either A League of Their Own (the original) or 42. It’s hard to compare a comedy to a serious historical film. The part in A League of Their Own where the letter comes from overseas with the death notice always stuck with me. I really want to see a period movie that centers around New York Baseball in the 1880s. You have the start of the Dodgers and the Giants and also the first World Series ever with the original New York Metropolitans at the Polo Grounds in 1884. Someone please make that!

What is the most significant baseball moment that occurred while you were at a hardcore show?

I was at CBGB’s for Bulldoze and Death Threat when the Angels beat the Giants in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series. The game was on at the TV by the door and I kept going to check on it. I was disappointed. I was going for the Giants. My family was NY Giants fans before the 1969 World Series so they are my #2 team.

How do you like living in PA, and what are some of your favorite vegan spots you have found since moving out there?

I love it for the most part but the food is definitely a problem. I’m up in a rural mountain town and there are no vegan spots. The closest thing is a vegan bakery about 35-40 min away. There are places that advertise having “vegan options” but then you look at the menu and it’s literally just a bowl of fruit and a salad. So I have to settle for supermarket food. I just love the peace and quiet up here. I love the scenery. I love seeing no people and nothing but trees when I go for a drive. There are a bunch of trails I want to check out but I’m waiting for the fall. I don’t fuck with summer. I think I will check out some winter stuff like skiing and snow tubing because it’s all right by my house. I’ve never done any of that stuff before.

Who is your favorite PAHC band, and the most underrated bands from NY, NJ and PA?

Wisdom in Chains for sure. They have a deep catalog now. I don’t think anyone can compare. I love Punishment too. I would listen to them at the gym all the time. “1000 Daggers” makes me want to kill people. I’m not really up on current bands but I still think the most underrated bands are the first wave of NYHC when all the focus was still on DC, Boston and Cali. The bands that had long careers like AF and Reagan Youth obviously get all their due recognition but I love bands like the Abused, the Mad, XKI, Ultra Violence, The Stimulators and in NJ, Even Worse and Adrenaline OD. The last show I went to was Darkside NYC at A7 (Niagara Bar) and they played “I Hate Music” by the Mad, which is one of my favorite songs of all time but I think I was the only person there that actually knew it. That’s the beginning of it all.

When Wreak Havoc passed in 2020, you posted some early Homicidal songs with him on vocals. Tell me about the early days of Homicidal and how did you end up with the permanent lineup?

I don’t think we really ever had a permanent line up. There was a steady line up between 2008-2019 but I wasn’t in that except for when I would fill in for whoever couldn’t make it. It started off with me showing Zack some riffs I wrote in the summer of 2001 and he was like “yo you gotta get together with Mike. You guys are on the same shit.” So, me and Mike started jamming with me on guitar. Then 9/11 happened and things kind of fell apart for a while. We also didn’t really want to go too far without a drummer anyway but finally in 2003, I caved in and said I would play drums. I had also been talking to Frank from NJBL for a while about doing something and both Mike and Frank already had Brian the kid on board for both projects so I just combined everything. First, we had Junior from Heidnik Stew (currently in The Way Of) on vocals but that only lasted a few weeks so then we got Wreak. We already had the music for the 2004 demo when Wreak joined and he pretty much wrote the vocals on the spot in the studio. He was great at writing lyrics quickly. No one did it better. But we only had 3 songs so we weren’t ready for a show yet. Wreak left in the fall and that’s when we got McG and recorded the 2005 demo in Jan/Feb. We played just 1 show with that lineup and Brian and Frank were replaced by Rodney and Tomoki. That’s the lineup of the 2006 Live at CBGB’s recording. And then I was out of the band and replaced by Dimi. There were a few more changes before the State of Mind lineup of Mike Bulldoze, Dimi, McG, Mike H and Zack. Then Mike H left in 2019 and I replaced him on bass. We played 2 shows in 2019 but right now we are inactive.

Along with being an official member of One4One, Fat Nuts, 25 Ta Life, Homicidal etc, you have filled in for other bands like Terror Zone. How many different instruments have you played onstage, and what’s the least amount of notice you had to get on stage and fill in for a band?

I’ve sang, played guitar, drums, bass and piano on stage although piano obviously wasn’t at a hardcore show. I had 2 minutes to prepare to play for NJ Bloodline. I can tell you the story or you can hear it for yourself here at 12:50:

Also, the first time I played for Bulldoze was at the BNB Bowl in 2008. I went there specifically to see the OG lineup of Breakdown. I hadn’t seen Breakdown at all since the ‘90s and never the OG lineup. That was really all I cared about. After Fahrenheit 451, Mike came up to me and was like “wanna play drums for Bulldoze?” and I was like “when?” and he was like “now” and I was like “I haven’t played drums in almost a year” and he was like “so what. Come on.” And so we went backstage and went over the songs for 30 minutes acoustically with me tapping on my legs. I had played “The Truth” with Homicidal before (but not in over 2 years) but I never played “Beatdown.” I was nervous the whole time because the first time I was gonna actually play the song on a set was live at the busiest time of the night in between Terror and Madball and with cameras on me. It was a surprise set. No one in the crowd knew it was going to happen. Mike didn’t even play because we didn’t have a lefty guitar to use so we did it with just 1 guitar. For the most part, I pulled it off but I did fuck up once in Beatdown. I wound up missing Breakdown because they played while I was learning the songs. I had to wait for the DVD.

Thank you for doing this – and anything else you’d like to cover?

I would just like to thank you for doing this. It is greatly appreciated.

And I’m also gonna shamelessly plug my YouTube and Spotify pages. Everything released on Spotify is also on all the major streaming sites such as iTunes and Amazon Music.

Youtube channel

Seth N’ Violence

25 ta Life

One 4 One (including 94 demo and I Won’t Lose 7 inch)

Homicidal (including both demos and Live at CBGB)

Fat Nuts

Hell Brigade (Wreak Havoc on vocals)