The Subway Surfers Interview

The Subway Surfers
s/t

(Deep Eddy)

www.deepeddy.net

Some of the more interesting garage bands of the past few years have been New Jersey based, and among them is a quartet from Jersey City, The Subway Surfers. Led by longtime scenester and likeable loon Fuzzco (Eric Fusco on his driver's license, if he has one) and his partner in crime, bass player Mopar Larry, The Subway Surfers bring the prime element of garage to the fore...namely, a bunch of guys making nice, basic, crunchy, heavy rock and roll simply for the love of it, and it shows. Their music is based on two of rock and roll's most important elements...Fundamentals, and fun.

Deep Eddy Records has just released their first EP, a self-titled collection of four of their stage favorites, all caught on tape just as intensely as when performed in their high-energy shows. And while Fuzzco's amusing stage mannerisms couldn't be captured, The Subway Surfers' EP ends like their shows do...leaving you wanting a little more.

The current lineup features, in addition to Fuzzco and Larry, Doug Levine on drums and Rocco on guitar. The latter two joined after the recording sessions for this collection, which featured founding drummer Ray Calluori and guitar player Todd Vigarito.

Fuzzco, Larry, Doug and Rocco kindly agreed to talk to FUFKIN about the band and the new EP:

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You've just released your first EP, and it sounds great. Are you all happy with it?

FUZZCO: I think it's a terrific little package. Three great pop tunes and a crazy sonic mash at the end. Recording the EP has just wet my appetite to do MORE!

LARRY: It sounds better than I could have imagined. Dane at Grisly Labs in Jersey City did an incredible job and the best thing about working with him is he digs the music. Alan Douche's mastering is the icing on the sonic cake. It's a great job of capturing the Subway Surfers, especially the power of Fuzzco's vocals, at that time and I can't wait to get in the studio with Rocco and Doug.

Where was it done?

FUZZCO: The recording was done at Grisly Labs in Jersey City. We totally lucked into finding that place, It was suggested by Jeff Jefferson of the Swingin' Neckbreakers. As it turns out, it's right in the neighborhood and Dane Johnson (one of the owners) is an amazing engineer. Besides having the technical skills (he's a graduate of the Berklee School of Music) he knows his rock and roll, so when told him the sound we were going for, he knew exactly what we were talking about.

LARRY: Dane is like the good wizard of the studio, the cat is amazing from a technical standpoint and is fun to work with. Plus he lives in our neighborhood in Jersey City!

How long did it take?

FUZZCO: The actual recording took eight hours one Sunday afternoon in the spring.

After that we had some personnel changes and other distractions in our private lives, so it kinda went on the back burner. This past November I realized that the end of the year was fast approaching and if we didn't get on the stick and mix it, it would be a new year and we would be in the same position of other friends bands I have mocked over the years for dragging their feet when it came to putting out their records.

Once we'd mixed the songs, we contacted Ted at Deep Eddy. He insisted that we have it mastered, which was good call. I was happy with the sound when it was mixed, but mastering made it sound 10x better. Dane suggested using West West Side Music for the mastering and the Engine Room on Canal St. for the replication. Both of which were excellent choices.

Any great stories come from the making of it?

LARRY: We told our former drummer, who is notoriously late for everything that the session was a half hour earlier than the real start time and that he had to be in Jersey City at 3:30 pm. He just made it in time for the real 4 p.m. start.

FUZZCO: Dane couldn't believe that we were going to do four songs in the six hours we'd initially booked, and I guess he was right, since we went over. Still, he was very impressed that we knocked it out in just under eight. He wanted us to book the whole day in the beginning.

Let's go through the songs one by one, and tell me all about them. Starting with your hit song, "Satan Island."

LARRY: The idea for "Satan Island" came when I was driving in Hoboken, searching for parking, while listening to WFMU. Terre T, the DJ who was on was talking about a show she'd wanted to go to on her native Staten Island and remarked "Wow, makes me wish I still lived on Satan Island." I think I let out a John Goodman-style "Raising Arizona" yell and wrote "Satan Island" down on a pad, went home and banged out the lyrics, came up with the vocal line and a counter melody for the bass. At first it seemed incomplete, because there is no bridge, but for some reason people love this song. The great thing about the live version is Rocco's short but sweet solo. Sometimes I'll just listen to that cat play in amazement of how good it is.

"New Girl."

LARRY: I dreamed up this little ditty while doing the dishes and thinking about an ex-girl friend who gave me the boot. Again it was one of those things where the whole thing came to me in a soapy dreamlike state, all I had to do was get it down on paper because I have a mind like a pasta strainer. My old band Sawney Bean used to do it with me singing it. It sounds much better now because Fuzzco's voice has the power to do it justice.

"Good To Go."

FUZZCO: This is the first song I ever wrote. I came up with it in a band I was in with my college buddies, called The Mad Scientists. It was inspired by this girl I used to see at shows at Brownies. I was just discovering garage rock at the time and listening to a lot of the 60s stuff, so when I wrote it, I made a conscious effort to make it sound like a "Back from the Grave" stomper. Since then, it's gone through two bands and a few different arrangements, and evolved into what it sounds like today.

"Fallout Shelter."

FUZZCO: This one we came up with in rehearsal jam session. If I recall, it was a much longer, unstructured instrumental for several weeks. Finally, when the guys got a handle on it, and we'd named it, we played it one night and everyone took a turn making up a verse on the spot. I think I came up with the chorus, and we all came up with some verses. I took the tape home and culled the better verses and structured it to what it is today. At some point we decided it would be song where each of us (sans the drummer) would take verse to sing. The major inspiration and credit for this song goes to our original guitar player Todd Vigorito. It was really his baby.

What is The Subway Surfers' general songwriting technique/approach?

LARRY: Let it happen naturally. The worst songs I've written, the ones that on a second read make me say "yuk" are the I must sit down and write a song like I'm taking the SATs.

FUZZCO: A lot of times I'll be walking around and get an idea for a song, or a lyric or whatever. What I'll do is call Larry's answering machine and sing whatever bit I have and explain my concept for the song. Later on, we'll get together and take those bits and flesh them out. Our new song, "All I Got" started that way. I was inspired by some graffiti in the Lakeside Lounge bathroom and on the spot called Larry and sang the chorus and verse into his answering machine. After a lot of fiddling and tweaking, it's now a real song.

LARRY: What's great about the Surfers is we all bring something to song writing especially in two new songs. Everyone contributed a chunk to "All I Got." Fuzzco left an idea for the chorus and refrain on my answering machine, I wrote the rough draft of words and music. Doug polished the lyrics taking out the speed bumps and came up with the drum part. Rocco came up with the intro riff, which separates the chorus and verses, Ditto with "Crash Test Dummy." I wrote the words back in the Sawney bean days, but it never clicked. Rocco had the music and was playing it at practice when Fuzzco said "remember that riff." Again Doug played the part of uber editor with Fuzzco, playing with my lyrics and suddenly it was a song!

DOUG: My approach is that I really just try to write a good "pop" song using concise verse/chorus song structure.

ROCCO: I usually come up with a riff or chord progression and go from there, like to write on keyboards actually because its easier to visualize the progression of the riff/chords, most of the time on guitar, I'll noodle around, and if something strikes my ear, I'll try to remember it. I also like input from others in the band, so everyone can put their interpretation of what I bring into it.

So, when one of you brings in a new song, what's the arrangement process like?

DOUG: Whether I bring in the lyrics or am working with some lyrics from one of my bandmates, we play the chords (melody) and I just try to make everything fit. We come up with our own parts but we are always bouncing our ideas off of each other.

ROCCO: I always feel its better just to tell every one "Hey I wrote something" or "I've got riff", and we will just start playing around with it.

FUZZCO: Since I don't actually play an instrument, whatever I come up with is really raw. Often times what we'd do is I will either get together with Larry or Larry, Rocco and I, at my apartment and we'll work out the foundation to the music to go with whatever lyrics I have come up with. Then when we go to practice, we'll work on it more and add percussion. That's where Doug comes in. He's got a lot of different influences than the rest of us, but he still knows his rock. He'll throw in some crazy disco beats from time to time, which I would never think of or consider, but he makes it work and gives the song a little something extra.

For my part, when the other guys are working out the structure of the songs, I listen from the audience perspective. It's easy to crank out verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/verse/chorus. What I do is look for something to give the song and extra hook or make it different from the other songs we already have. Like the "done me wrong" story in "Ain't Gonna Chase You No More". Also, when we do covers I make it a rule that we have to change something in it. Either the vocal arrangement or some part of the structure. I think our version of the Undertones "Get Over You" is like a minute longer than the original.

LARRY: It's become more collaborative between all four of us, which is a lot better than one band member coming in handing people charts like he's Buddy Rich and they're hired sidemen. Lately it's become something we do at practice, based on an idea or a riff. We'll play with it, do a little brainstorming and see what works and doesn't. In the case of "All I've Got" we had a tough time getting the changes down because of the similarity of the verse and chorus. We kept hammering away until Rocco came up with the riff in between, which he proposed as an intro. The idea was like landmark driving, you give someone a landmark to look for instead just a street name on a tiny sign. Same thing here, instead of having everyone count measures, we have this riff, so no one blows the changes and it sets off the chorus and bridge. These cats are great to collaborate with!

The EP is on Deep Eddy Records, and you had a previous Deep Eddy connection, hadn't you?

FUZZCO: Yes, we're on their *Garage Justice* compilation, doing "Good To Go." That was our first release.

How did your association with Deep Eddy come about, and how's that been going?

LARRY: Our founding drummer Ray Calluori hooked us up with Ted James back in the Sawney Bean days. Ted loved the surf driven instrumentals of that band and guitarist Arnt Rickardsen's Dick Dale meets Johnny Thunders playing. We were on a Deep Eddy's *Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet* tribute and when the Subway Surfers formed, Ted approaches us with the *Garage Justice: Austin vs. NY* comp. We helped by finding NY/NJ bands like the Demands, High School Sweethearts, Mister Neutron and the great Martinets to be on the comp. That was our first recorded song. Ted is a great hand off guy and he loves the music. Plus we're on a label with friends of ours, the Demands and Mister Neutron. How great is that? We're looking to put together a Deep Eddy showcase and Ted, who plays a mean guitar him self is talking about flying up and playing the show with us.

FUZZCO: All I want to add is that Ted James has been great with us. Helpful and supportive and willing to do whatever he can to help promote our band and our friends like Mister Neutron and The Demands, which we've hipped him to.

Who are your prime musical influences and the ones you nod to the most in your own music? I hear Ramones and Fleshtones in there. Am I right?

ROCCO: My main influence right now is 70s punk and glam, but I listen to lots of rock, classic and modern, and just about anything really,I would say recently my biggest influences are Johnny Thunders, Steve Jones ( Sex Pistols) and Brian Setzer and the Reverend Horton Heat are faves too... but I can't touch those guys! I have many influences, there are some great local guys/girls too...

FUZZCO: The Ramones is the one thing we can all agree on. The Fleshtones are huge influences on me, especially performance wise. The other two bands that I really love are the Replacements and Nick Lowe/Rockpile. I try to steal, um, emulate their style whenever possible. Vocally, I've been told I sound like Dave Vanian from the Damned, and I take that as a compliment.

DOUG: My influences as a songwriter are The Bee Gees and Warren Zevon. The Bee Gees because they are masters at writing amazing pop songs, and Zevon because he was always a little crazy, and I like to surprise people sometimes. As a drummer my influences are my drum teacher, Cheech Lero, Ringo, Nigel Olsson and a little Tommy Ramone.

LARRY: I'd add the first generation of punks and the first and second era garage bands.

Any plans for a full length CD?

LARRY: Absolutely. I can't wait to record with Doug and Rocco. This band has a great vibe between the four of us that I can't wait to get on tape.

FUZZCO: I'm going to be a huge pain in the ass when it comes time for it. I had a ball mixing the four songs on the EP and getting all experimental with vocal effects (the subway announcement effect on "Satan Island" and the crazy transistor sound on "Fallout Shelter fer instance).

Let me ask the all too predictable question...How did the Subway Surfers get formed?

LARRY: Fuzzco and I are the guys who've always been out their seeing band at the likes of Maxwell's' and Lakeside Lounge and Manitoba's. One Saturday night, after Sawney Bean went to band, I ran into Ray on the PATH train on my way to Pat Lozito's birthday party. Fuzzco was at the party and we all got to talking. Someone suggested putting something together a band and finding a guitar player. That proved to be no small task.

We had two brilliant guys for a brief period of time, but they had too many band and personal commitments to stay. So Ray brought us Todd Vigarito and the Subway Surfers were born.

Todd has a different style, more going toward a nosier Robert Quine kind of vibe. Todd hung around long enough to play some gigs and to record the EP before career stuff had him moving to Arizona. Ray had family and other band commitments to honor, but he hung in long enough until we found Doug. Ray and Todd helped us get going, but Rocco and Doug are the guys we've been waiting for. We're all of like mind, so no one is playing their instrument and holding their nose saying "I'd rather play Rush covers." Plus these guys are plain great!

What do you enjoy most about live shows?

ROCCO: Audience reaction, its great to see people out and digging your band, and just playing out. It's why I'm doing this, I love to play out. It's a night out and meeting people at the shows is cool.

FUZZCO: The things that go wrong. I love it when there is a screw-up that happens that only the band picks up on, be it me coming in too late or one of the other guys missing a cue or playing the wrong bit and the rest of the band is able to cover for it and the audience doesn't realize what happened.

LARRY: Just playing them and seeing the audience, especially people who've never heard us before, dancing or getting into the stuff. Girls dancing to Subway Surfers are one of my favorite things.

DOUG: I just love to play live. I just love the feedback and energy of a live audience.

For a time you were doing a Bee Gees cover in your act, weren't you? How did that come about?

FUZZCO: Oh, we're still doing it. It's one of my faves. Doug is a HUGE Bee Gees fan (like I said before, different influences) and is always coming up with suggestions of songs to cover, some better than others. A lot of times when I know the song, I'll tell him right away whether it's possible or not ("I've Been Everywhere" by Johnny Cash? TOO MANY LYRICS! "Burnin' Love" by Elvis? Been covered to death. And the Devil Dogs already did it better than we ever could) but when it's a song I don't know, I always make a point of getting a copy and listening to it. When I listened to "Message" there was something in the staccato in vocals and the music that appealed to me. I could hear an interpretation that we could do and make the song our own. I think it's the best cover we do.

Doug and Rocco, you're the newest recruits. How did you guys find your way into the band?

FUZZCO: Our founding drummer, Ray Calluori is a doting family man. After a while it became too much for him between his kids and the band. He was able to stick around until we found Doug via Craigslist. In fact, I credit Ray for finding Doug in a way. I had Ray write the "drummer wanted" ad we eventually placed on Craigslist. I think Doug was the only reasonable guy who replied. He seemed really genuine and level headed in his email. I talked to him on the phone and was pretty convinced. Add to it that he's got a practice space in his basement, he was in! I think we were midway through the third song with him and looked at Larry and he gave me the nod and I looked over at Todd and he was in agreement. We hung out afterwards and Doug said we could call him in a few days to tell him what we thought after we'd talked about him. We told him then and there he was in.

A couple weeks after Doug had started with the band, our original guitar player, Todd had to drop out, too. And we had a show planned in three weeks. I called the rock and roll utility infielder, Mike Fornatale, who'd saved our bacon once before, to fill in. He agreed, but I wanted to find someone permanent. I sent out an email to a few folks I knew and Rob Farrell of the Anderson Council/Unidentified wrote back about a guy he knew named Rocco who would be perfect. In the meantime, I also put an ad on Craigslist for a guitar player. Rocco also responded to that ad, not knowing it was us, and said all the right things. He came to what he thought was an audition that Larry and I planned on being his first rehearsal. Sure enough he did not disappoint and was in.

Both of those guys were amazing. They learned our set in three weeks and did a killer job at their first show. It's only gotten better since then.

LARRY: Rocco is like the human jukebox of guitar, except were talking about a real really good jukebox like the kind you'd find at the Lakeside Lounge. You mention a song in passing and suddenly Rocco is playing it. The cat plays a solo that creeps up and grabs you. Suddenly you're thinking holy crap, this cat is really tearing up the town. Doug is a great rock n roll drummer. He'll just tweak a cymbal crash or change a roll and it makes all the difference in the song. Plus he sings so were looking to get him a mike, which has already happened with our cover of the Bee Gees "Gotta Get A Message To You."

What's been the proudest moment for the band so far?

LARRY: Playing the Little Steven Underground Garage contest in Asbury Park. Just the fact that we made the Jersey semi-finals blew my mind. That and getting the EP recorded and out.

ROCCO: The last time we played Uncle Joe's I got a lot of compliments about my guitar playing. It meant a lot to me to be noticed, and it was very flattering.

FUZZCO: A toss-up for me: playing the Little Steven Garage Band contest in Asbury Park and standing on the same stage where I first saw the Ramones play, and the night at Uncle Joes when the cute girls from the Soviettes wanted us to keep playing, but we had no more songs. They yelled "Play the first song again!" That's when we knew Satan Island was a HIT!

DOUG: The first time we played "Gotta Get a Message to You" live.

What are the long term and short term goals for The Subway Surfers?

LARRY: To paraphrase Stewie from the Family Guy: "World Domination."

FUZZCO: Short term: Play more gigs. Tour. Long tern: Record a full length album and play SXSW.

LARRY: We want to get a full length CD out there so people can hear us as we are with Rocco and Doug. We'd like to play clubs outside the NJ/NY metro area, which is contingent on me doing some wrench spinning on the trusty Dodge van I recent picked up. And I'd like to hear a Subway Surfers song played as incidental music at Yankee Stadium, maybe went they do the Great City Subway Race between innings. My mothers advice to me went I picked up the bass later in life than most people, sums up the Subway Surfers goals -- "take it as far as you want to."

Next stop - Satan Island!

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For Subway Surfers' schedules and line information, visit their website:
http://www.soybomb.com/subwaysurfers/

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