I remember this girl I talked to everyday for 3 years, I mean everyday. She ended up hooking up with the singer from Unearth. After she told me that, I got mucho depressed and didnt talk to anyone or do anything except work and sleep.. One day out of the blue, 5 months of not talking to anyone, Paul Brown comes over. He tells me how hes been going to the race track with Shawn Gorman and they been talking about doing a band. I said "Im not 21, I cant gamble" he said "You only have to be 18 to gamble at the race track". I still have no clue if he lied or not, but we never got asked for ID. After we lost money, we drove back to Absecon where we talked about what we would name the band, I came up with Repercussion, Shawn came up with Brown Leaf, and Paul didnt have anything. We decided on Repercussion and said practice was going to be that weekend. We wrote 2 songs our first practice "Sealed with a Fist" and "Jersey Style". I was hoping to play bass in the band, considering I had a really nice bass set up, and I played for most of my teenage years. But Paul insisted I play guitar. I only knew how to do bar chords, and thats it. I had no clue how to palm mute, or tune. I took all my bass gear in and traded it in for ONE GUITAR, an LTD. Paul kept saying "You're not giving up bass, you're just giving up this bass". That week there was a show in Deptford, it was:Them eyes kill.....babies
David Is Burning
Long Winter
A Life One Lost
XmasX
XmasX ruled. Paul asked everyone at that show if they wanted to play bass in the band, everyone seemed like they interested, but they all flaked out. We ended up just asking the bass player in Shawns old band Weapon Of Choice to play. We got some songs together, and played a show with:
Shattered Realm
Punishment
The show was good for a first show I guess. We got signed by Spook City Records on that show. The label told us, either put out a split 7inch with his friends band from Chicago, or wait till the summer to put out a full length. Well we really wanted something out, so we decided to do the 7inch. We recorded at a studio in Atco NJ. The engineer had to be called in, he was a pretty known guy and worked on some big projects. He told us how when he was recording Lenny Kravitz, Kravitz would do a line of coke between every take. For some reason that shocked me..
"Lenny Kravitz does drugs?!"
Anyway hes now some big producer/engineer, he recorded the Paramore Riot! Cd and also a Hawthorne Heights Cd. The two songs we recorded were not the style of music we were going for. The songs we didnt record were more old school then "tough guy". After recording we got a second guitar player Mitchell Fletcher. I remember the first thing he said
"Paul said you hated all of us, Im kinda surprised you asked me to play"
I just told him it wasnt true, and we meshed really well. Mitchell would always make sure we were ordering a Buffalo Chicken Pizza before he would come down. Shawn and I designed the 7inch cover at his house, him doing all the work, and me telling him how much it sucked and to change it. This was the final outcome
This was pre 911 too. We met with the band that was on the record in DE. They were a bunch of weirdos and didnt talk at all. Mark Stokoe and Dennis got in a fight about Zits and Falling on your back and not being able to get up. Dennis carved a huge DGC in the back of a brand new car, and Paul ran into it backing up. Before the show was going to happen we kicked out our bass player. We asked Ross Kelly if he wanted to play, and all he kept saying was " Im a guitar player". He finally broke down and joined the band as the bass player. The next show we were going to play was was going to be our "7inch release show" but we had no where to play. Dave Heck drove to this outside shack where we had a "Moshaque" and brought a Curling iron to see if it had power. It did. This show was now known as the "Illegal show". The show wasDriven by Fire
Repercussion
Inane
As Tradition Ends
Right when Inane got finished the cops came. Asking who set up the show. We told them we cleared it with the owner and the cops left, only to come back with the owner who denied everything. All he kept saying was "I need to be paid for this". We asked him how much it cost to rent and he said 75$. So we paid him, and he was happy. The show went on, I gave away all the test presses and rare vinyl, and everyone got mad at me. We continued to play shows, meet new people, and have alot of fun. Shawn from spook city said something about putting out a full length but then never said anything about it again. One night after shooting this interview
we went out to eat. As we were driving to the buffet, we were trying to figure out how to bring up the Full Length in conversation. I told everyone I'd take care of it. For some reason, Shawn spook city stabbed me in the leg with a fork. I said
"Speaking of stabbing people in the leg with forks, what about putting out our full length"
He said we needed to sign a contract, and discuss somethings. The next practice he came with a huge stack of papers. He actually got a lawyer to look over everything he wrote, and make it an actual contract. Shawn spook city and his wife read over the entire thing until we understood everything. Our bass player Ross said "Im not signing anything, what if I want to become a lawyer and they look back and see this contract". Spook city and his wife got really mad. Shawn Gorman got mad, said " gimme the pen" signed and stormed out like a princess not getting a car. Paul signed next, then I signed. I dont think Mitchell ever got a chance to look at it. Ross never signed though, making the contract worthless. So now we had motivation to record. We asked the guy who recorded our 7inch to help us with our full length, but he was in California recording the Ill Nino CD. He was in Cali for honestly 3 years on that CD. Well thats what he told us. We could not find a studio to record. We kept playing shows. This picture was taken outside of Dave Hecks house at like 7 in the morning.
we played a show in erie, alot of fun, alot of good memories.Shawn Gorman and the Dog Deers
We Need This For Smell Goods
Rossington Master Packer
We played a show in Boyertown with
SSOA
The Killer
Strikeback
Dead and Buried
which was Mitchells last show. We called it "The Mosh For Mitchell". It was a good time, we played two brand new songs, and alot of people liked them. We played Erics birthday show with 4 members, and it was terrible. We ended up finding a studio locally, and it was a bad choice. Our CD sounded terrible, just ask Eric. We spent over 2,000$, and if you hear the product you would be surprised. We sent the final mixdown to spook city, and for some reason he really liked it. I was depressed about it.
We started practicing, and getting ready to play shows. We needed a second guitar player so we asked Kurt Fowles if he was interested, and he joined. I think we were the tightest we've ever been when he joined. Shawn, Kurt and myself practiced two times a week, and got super tight. It was the best I ever heard shitting music sound. Then something lame happened. We were supposed to play a big fest in NYC, but at the last min, I was told we couldnt play cause I was going to be jumped at the show if I showed up. I thought it was lame, my morals were holding back the band, so I just quit. I called Eric Witte and asked if he wouldnt mind taking my place in Repercussion. He said ok. I called Paul and told him I found a replacement, he got angry and hung up. The next day at practice, I was showing Eric the songs, and every song I showed him he would say "That sucks, why dont you change it to this". Paul showed up late, walked in while I was showing him, and yelled like a mayor trying to change the drug abuse in his city. I never played the CD release showSSOA last show
Blacklisted
but Im glad the band did
if you read this, we both suck
