This is an interview that I did with John a little over six months no probably, most of the content dates back to his previous bands but I know he has had some life changing accomplishments happen to him in the last few weeks with the birth of a new daughter, so my congrats to John and his Wife on the new arrival. Much respect to Buske and to all of the bands that he has been apart of .
So to start this off, how has everything been and what have you been up to lately?
Things are really good right now for me. I just bought a house in Long Island with my wife (something I never would have expected to do within the past few years), have a steady graphics job for a major music company, and I’ve been keeping extremely busy with all the Act:Won, Reaper and Black-N-Blue projects as well as Maximum Penalty. So yeah, I’m pretty occupied but I need that sort of stimulus to keep me going.
Where did you grow up when you were younger and what did you do before getting into hardcore and music?
I grew up in Auburn, NY, which is about a 30-minute drive west of Syracuse. It’s funny because the very first thing I ever remember being interested in as a kid before punk/hardcore was skateboarding. I was never into sports, though I went through a period where I tried to convince myself I did by joining a few of the school teams only to quit weeks later. I remember riding my blue toothpick skateboard to my elementary school in 2nd grade and getting picked on like crazy for it. Back then, skateboarding was a very underground thing and as you know, growing up in a very sheltered community that the Syracuse area is, nobody had ever really seen anything like that yet and what they did see or know of it was all just negative connotations. The typical “skateboarders are castaway punk kids”, so I got treated that way for years and ultimately, that’s what I became.
How did you come across hardcore and what made you want to be more involved? What was your first show that you ever went to?
I got into punk/hardcore through skateboarding and my older brother, Brian. Like I said before, skateboarding was a very underground thing at the time and that naturally was a breeding ground for underground music and bands to evolve from. Every skateboarding magazine or video would feature all the punk/hardcore bands of the time and since I was so into skateboarding and there was that direct correlation to punk/hardcore, it sparked my interest. On top of that, my brother was already actively seeking out and accruing demos and tapes of some bands at the time and what I heard made so much more sense to me than the Motley Crue, King Diamond and Scorpions records I was listening to prior, both musically and lyrically. I could relate to Minor Threat’s “Seeing Red” way more than I could Ratt’s “Round And Round”. In that sense, that’s what really drew the line for me. I never really had any emotional ties to the music I listened to before, it was purely entertaining, but hearing 7 Seconds and Minor Threat — those 2 bands, specifically, evoked emotions in me that I got from nothing else and anywhere else. I was infected, for sure.
What made me want to get more involved was just that almost every band I heard after my initial introduction blew my mind. From bands like Crass to Carnivore, 2 completely different bands but they both equally blew me away and I just wanted more. I’d get a new tape, read the thanks list and any band mentioned that I didn’t recognize the name, I’d go out and try to find their tape. It didn’t matter if I didn’t have any idea of who they were, I was hungry for more, and from there I started going to local shows and seeing everything being done firsthand. The energy on tape was incredible but seeing it put into action really blew my whole perception of punk/hardcore wide open. There wasn’t a huge stage with insane lighting and a 10 foot barricade separating you from the band. You were there with the band, sweating it out equally — singing along and jumping off the stage. It was tangible and you were one with not only the band, but every sense of emotion within the room.
I don’t even remember exactly what my first show was because it was all so unfamiliar to me, I had no idea who I was seeing or anything. For all I know, I could have seen Fear and Uniform Choice open for Fishbone, or some crazy shit like that and I wouldn’t have had a clue - haha. The first show I remember walking away from knowing that I found something special and real was a Journeyman and Encounter show at The Lost Horizon in Syracuse (1991/92?).
Who were the first few people you really got to know around Syracuse when you started going to shows, and are those people still close to you today?
John McKaig was the first person I ever met of the official Syracuse crew. He had just started taking over doing shows from DJ and was very welcoming when you’d come in the door at the Lost Horizon where he began booking shows. I guess just over time and seeing me repeatedly, we just started to get to know each other more and more to the point where I would swing by his crib when I was in town or meet up with him and grab food. That’s how I ended up meeting a lot of everybody else too because there would be anywhere from 3-7 people living with each other and everyone always hung out together. It was a very small and tight knit community. Pretty much everybody I hung out with back then are still close to me now. McKaig, DJ, Guav, Pigg and Dan Leone mostly but I’m still in regular contact with some others; Phil Fuentes, Dave Natoli, Jeff Chase, Jim Leubner, Tim Stinneford and, of course, Crazy Pauly.
Eventually you decided to pick up the guitar, or have you always been a bass player?
I was never a bass player, I always played guitar. I joined AV as a guitar player and by default I ended up becoming a bass player. We had a revolving door of bassists and the best solution to that problem was for me to switch from second guitar to bass, so that’s how I ended up becoming a bass player. I found years later that I was a lot more comfortable on bass, both writing/playing and on stage, so I stuck with it. Plus, bass players get better chicks. The classy ladies like bass players, lot lizards go for guitar players and singers. Shout outs to Hoya Roc, Craig Ahead, Mike Gallo, The Gook and Bulldog.
What drew you to want to play an instrument?
I really don’t know what drew me to play music. I guess just being so heavily into music as a kid and being a part of such a personal and tangible version of it via punk/hardcore, it was a natural evolution to just pick up a guitar and go do it myself. I remember playing air guitar with a broom to Metallica’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls” as a kid. I had this crazy silver long haired wig on that I’d head bang with and the neighborhood bully saw me through the window, pointed and started laughing at me. I ran outside with that dumb wig on and beat the shit out of him in my front yard. I guess I made an subconscious vow to myself from then on to make something of myself musically – haha.
 |
| Buske in Japan / AV Reunion 2010 |
You've been active in numerous bands in the past, give us a brief history on all that you've done:
Another Victim:
How did Another Victim come about, what were your goals at the time when starting up the band and who were your main influences?
I joined Another Victim in 1996/97 after they had already started up, recorded the demo and played a couple of shows. AV was your cookie cutter militant vegan Straight Edge band that was following in the footsteps of bands like Earth Crisis, Raid and Chorus Of Disapproval. Over time, luckily, that sort of intolerant attitude of the band started to thin out but until the band ceased to exist, we were a vegan Straight Edge band, through and through.
Why did you guys decide to put an end to the band a second time after the reunion in 2001?
I think it just ran its course on top of the fact that ideals had changed and it was no longer a band of militant vegan Straight Edge kids and we weren’t about to front on that and play a role, so we wrapped it up and basically started The Promise.
The discography was finally released last year on Closed Casket, are you happy with how everything came out?
Absolutely. I’m really proud of that band, being that it was my first attempt at being in a band that actually had recognition (eventually), so I’m glad we could document it. A lot of how that band operated was so all over the place, it’s cool to have one collective piece of all that craziness now. Most of my memories from being in bands stem from AV because it was all so new and fresh and exciting to me — opening that CD and listening to those songs really brings me back. It’s cool as shit. Shouts to the Closed Casket dude, good look on doing that for us.
Best show you've ever played with this band?
My favorite show that AV played was on the Earth Crisis, VOD, Fury Of V tour in New York City at Tramps. We were gassed just to be on tour, let alone with those bands, let alone to be playing in NYC with those bands. The show was sold out, I think around 1,000 people, and when we played it was bananas. We’d never played the city before but we had that kind of predictable dumb mosh groove that you knew was coming a mile away and dudes were bugging out, it was amazing. I definitely took a minute to soak it all in at one point and noticed there were 3 separate pits. Easily one of the coolest feelings and memories for a novice band to have.
Santa Sangre:
How did this band come about? What were the influences when starting up?
Santa Sangre started towards the (first) end of AV. JD just wanted to evolve musically from what we were doing in AV so he started Santa Sangre. For as long as I’ve known him, he’s been super in to Entombed, Carcass, At The Gates and shit like that, and he was drawing influence from that in some of the later AV stuff, but I think he really wanted to expand on that and create this whole new sound… which he ultimately did with Santa Sangre.
How many tours were under you belt for this band and who were they with?
We didn’t do too much, mostly local things and weekends. The first tour we ever did was with (oddly enough) Killswitch Engage when they just signed to Ferret and Every Time I Die before they were even signed, I think. Fast forward a few years and both of these bands were like household names… meanwhile we were playing to, literally, 10-20 people every night on that tour. There was one show, in Florida I think, where we played to 2 paying kids. The second tour we did was with Hoods and Skycamefalling. This tour made it as far as Texas and then we all threw in the towel and went home. Nobody was coming out and we were just paying out of pocket for food, tolls and gas for weeks. Total nightmare.
Why did Santa Sangre come to an end?
It came to an end for numerous reasons, I think. The answers to your question above is probably the main reason, we were just completely tapped the fuck out and had no idea how to unbury ourselves and make it work. And at the time, we didn’t have the experience and foresight to see that if we stuck it out and sucked it up, good things would have probably happened for the band. But that’s where the second part of why we broke up plays a factor. There was internal tension and a lot of frustration amongst and towards certain people in the band that would have never allowed for us to stick it out. Some of us were just done and couldn’t hang anymore. Faith was lost in the band and that was that. Really dumb that it played out that way because that band could have really gone places, I think.
The Promise:
What were the main influences behind this band? When did it all come together and when was the first show?
The Promise started up while Santa Sangre was still a band. The same reason why JD started SS was the same reason we started The Promise — he just wanted to play hardcore again and was writing this whole different style of it than what he did previously in AV. What he was writing couldn’t be used for SS and it was too good to go to waste so we started The Promise. But also, there was a really dry spell of traditional style hardcore at that time and an even drier spell of bands that had actual things to say other than being heartbroken or how fancy their hair was. We saw hardcore, the way we knew it, devolving into this whole watered down, fruity and disgraceful act and we wanted to say something about it.
You guys toured with Terror, how was that experience and did you do any other tours besides that?
We actually did a couple of tours with Terror and they were obviously great. We all knew Scott from Buried Alive already and I actually knew him long before just from him coming to Syracuse for shows and me going to Buffalo, so it was awesome to get to know him on a more personal level from touring with him. That actually became a blessing and a curse for me though – haha. As far as other tours, in the States we did a tour with Most Precious Blood and another with Bane and Comeback Kid where our van caught on fire and destroyed everything in it. That was a real treat. Outside the US, we did Europe twice - once with Champion and another on a headliner. That was an amazing experience for me. My first time actually touring extensively over there. I had been over already with Rag Men, but that was only 5 shows and there was hardly any traveling or stress. The Champion tour was like 6 weeks or some shit. I think I freaked out almost daily on that tour. Europe is an crazy place and even crazier if you like to be comfortable and eat well. We also were privileged enough to take the band to Japan for 9 days. That was a real culture shock, but without a doubt an amazing life experience.
What made you guys decided to call it quits?
Well, the band started off as a project. It was never meant to take up time or be a main focus. We had members scattered all over the place but it wasn’t suppose to matter because it was never going to be a priority or much of a commitment. But, things kind of snowballed for us and a lot of great opportunities for the band came and we took them just to be in a van together and experience them as friends and family. The band started to get a little more popular and with that, more offers came and pressure was on to deliver and we just couldn’t do that at the time. What began as this part-time, non-committing band had now evolved into a world touring band and it was too much for some of us to carry, so it folded. That was a great band too, very important and relevant for its time, but I’m glad it panned out the way it did.
Terror:
At what point did you join Terror? What made you decide to leave the band down the road?
I joined Terror shortly after The Promise broke up. They had had a few bass players by the time I got in there but every time they lost one, Scott would ask me if I would join. I never did because I was always doing my own band and being that the band was out of LA and I was a poor bastard, I didn’t see how I could have managed that at the time. When Carl left, I was already itching to play since the demise of The Promise and Terror was on tour 9-months out of the year by then, so traveling to/from LA wasn’t really a concern for me as much as it was a year or so prior. And, it was Terror… my great friends. But like I mentioned before how being so close with Scott was a blessing and a curse, that’s the same reason why I left the band. Being surrounded by 4-6 other personalities at all hours of the day in very close quarters in uncomfortable, taxing and stressful situations really breaks a person down. And a band is a lot like a marriage, you have to learn to take the good with the bad and sometimes it becomes too much and people need to split, respectfully, and go their own way. That’s what happened with me and the band. I found myself in bad positions quite a lot and I couldn’t take it anymore. That’s no one’s fault but my own and I’m in no way pointing fingers elsewhere, but that’s the reality of why I left. To this day, Scott is still one of my best friends, one of my all-time favorite front men and one of the most respected and important people in my life — we just couldn’t be in a band together. Plain and simple. Nonetheless, I walked away with so many amazing memories and stories from my time in that band and it’s by far the best and most fun I’ve ever had on tour. Amazing band, amazing people. Nothing but the deepest of love. Keepers of the faith…. forever.
What was the best tour that you did with the band? How many tours did you do and what were some cool places that you got to experience?
Every tour was amazing. We made fun wherever we went and they still do. I did a lot of tours, I don’t even know. A bunch of US, Europe like 3 or 4 times, Japan, South America a couple times, Mexico. We got down.
Growing up in Syracuse during the 90's you were exposed to a lot. What sort of changes have you seen over the years in the area and in hardcore in general?
Syracuse was incredible all throughout the 90’s, I’m very blessed and fortunate to have been a part of it, not only as an onlooker but also an active participant through all my bands. Even though I have lived in New York City for close to 10 years now, I still wear my Syracuse pride on my sleeve. That scene and those people involved that I met through it, shaped me into the person I am today, so nothing but praises to/for Syracuse Hardcore.
As I said, I haven’t been involved in what goes on in Syracuse for many years now, so I really have no opinion on any sort of changes it’s undergone. I know it’s kept it scene going, musically, with bands like Unholy, Black SS and Forfeit carrying that flag, but as far as the scene, I have no idea.
As far as hardcore changing over the years — I’ve been around long enough to see that it happens every 3-5 years. Something new catches on and next thing you know, everyone is doing, saying, acting the same way. It’s an unfortunate part of hardcore, but it also acts as a weeding out process in many ways to me. The ones who are resilient and last past the trends, year after year, are the ones with heart and true devotion and those are the ones I care to surround myself with.
You've done a lot of touring in The Promise and Terror, what have been some of your favorite places to play over the years? What scenes hold it down the best?
The most consistent scenes over the years have always been Montreal, Philly, Chicago, Seattle, LA and Atlanta. For my bands, those were always the best shows where I knew we’d come out feeling amazing. Tokyo is always insanity. London has always been good. Some spots in Germany were always dope, though I couldn’t tell you were because I pretty much shut down as a communicative human being in that country. Lintfabriek in Belgium is always dope.
How did you get into graphic design? What’s it like running your own design business? Is it hard trying to find work at times or has it been consistent over the years?
I got into design just based on the necessity of my bands having merch designs and layouts. I was always interested in design, but I started actively doing it with Another Victim and Santa Sangre just because we’d need new shirt designs and had no money to pay a real designer to do them. From there I started doing a lot of business cards and flyers for Halo Tattoos, my friends tattoo shop, and I started to really get the grasp of things to the point where people would come to me and ask me to design for them. So, I did that for free for years until the demand was actually starting to take up a lot of my time and I was actually spending a lot of time designing. I decided to put a name to my work to make it some what more official and give it a “face” in a way. To this day, I’d say 80% of the work I do is for free. I don’t think I’m a great designer, at all, I can just put together cool shit from time to time, so I’m not gonna front like I deserve a payday for designing a shirt or a flyer. If a job takes me time and bites into my personal and free time enough, I’ll ask for some compensation but for the most part, I just do shit for the love of it and for fun.
What are your favorite bands in hardcore right now?
So many good bands out right now, it’s amazing. Personal favorites are Trapped Under Ice, Downpresser, Backtrack, Minus, Cruel Hand, Fire & Ice, Bracewar, Naysayer, Forfeit, World Of Pain, Violent Side, Down To Nothing, Take Offense, Iron Age, Pegasus and Malice to drop a few names.
You now play bass for Maximum Penalty, how did that come about and how does it feel to be able to play with those guys?
It’s awesome. I grew up admiring MP for their uniqueness and they really turned into one of my favorite bands from NYC. So, to be a part of that equation now is pretty cool. Basically, when I left Terror, I was home a lot more and therefore going out and seeing people much more frequently. I’d run into Joe Affe (MP guitar player) often and he mentioned me playing with them a few times. I had just gotten this new job and I was pretty fried from Terror and just wanted peace of mind, so I turned them down and just did my thing for a year or so. The itch arose and I was pretty well settled in at my job at this point, so I asked if they were still seeking a bass player, to which they were, and the rest is history.
Out of all the bands you've done which one have you been most proud of, looking back on it? What records have you been most proud of after everything was said and done?
I’m proud of all the bands I’ve done, even the ones I joined that were already established prior (Terror, Maximum Penalty). Every band is unique and different so I took something different away from each one of them. AV was the cherry popper, so I learned a lot from that band that I took with me into each and every other band. Santa Sangre was the band that I felt I matured from a kid who played an instrument to be in a band to an actual musician. The Promise was the band that toured the world so that’s where all the fruits of my labor for years prior paid off. Terror was where I really felt like I accomplished something and I felt like all the hard work and bullshit involved with being in a band wasn’t just for nothing. They bust their asses and the time that I was in the band, I definitely saw that and gave everything I could as well, so anything that gets handed to Terror is very well deserved. With Rag Men and Maximum Penalty I’m just proud to be in a band and working alongside musicians that I grew up admiring who have now become not only band mates but friends and family to me.
Best NYHC album of all time?
That is such an unfair question and impossible to answer with just one choice, so I’ll give you my 5 favorite NYHC albums of all time;
01. Agnostic Front, “Victim In Pain”
02. Madball, “Hold It Down”
03. Cro-Mags, “Age Of Quarrel”
04. Judge, “Bringin’ It Down”
05. Leeway, “Desperate Measures”
Best bass player in hardcore, past & present?
Best player — Daryl Jenifer (Bad Brains).
Best stage presence — Craig Setari (SOIA).
Currently, I love watching by man J-Dog from Trapped Under Ice play. He’s got a unique presence to him but he holds it down. My boy Tom Dom (Forfeit) is stepping up to the plate too. Taking a lesson from the real and inventing his own style. I respect that.
2010 has reached another decade mark, what is the best record(s) to come out in the past 10 years?
Again, an unfair question but here’s what I’ve got;
01. Madball "Hold It Down"
02. Hatebreed "Perseverance"
03. No Warning "Ill Blood"
04. Crowbar, “Sonic Excess In Its Purest Form”
05. Sensefield "Tonight And Forever"
Everyone’s musical taste change as they get older, what were you listening to at age 15, 21, and present day?
At age 15 (1991), I was already buried up to my ears in punk/hardcore. If you were to open up my bulky yellow Sony sports walkman (that I still own/use today), you probably would have found some Sick Of It All, Judge, Shelter, Subhumans, Slayer, Bold, Acid Reign, Nuclear Assault, M.O.D., Minor Threat, GB, Vision, Raw Power or Napalm Death to name a few. Age 21 (1997) I was softening up a bit and was paying more attention to music outside of punk/hardcore. I had spent so much time and energy consuming all I could of punk/hardcore that I completely overlooked so much other shit. I started getting into a lot of Oasis, Morrissey, The Smiths, Suede, Golden Palaminos, Portishead and a lot of hip hop too – Kool G Rap, Nas, Notorious B.I.G.. Currently, I still listen to every band I just mentioned frequently as well a lot of the current hardcore bands – Downpresser, Trapped Under Ice, Backtrack, Fire & Ice, Bitter End, Down To Nothing all ranking in as personal favorites.
Tell us about what you've been up to lately other than playing with Maximum Penalty? Anything exciting coming up for you in the next few months?
Well, I bought a house a few months ago, so pretty much any free time I get, which is very minimal, I’ve been trying to spend in/around the house doing typical domesticated activities… which I am totally fine with. As for upcoming exciting events, the beginning stages of the 2010 Black N Blue Bowl are being ironed out now so I’m really looking forward to the show, the craziness that comes along with it and seeing all my people that I don’t get to see as often as I’d like to. MP has booked a good amount of shows for the spring and summer, so we’ll be out there doing as much as we can in the following months. Other than that, taking it day by day.
Any last words?
Reaper Nation, Black N Blue. Get in the pit.
Artist: Sleep
