Backtrack

If you aren’t already aware of Backtrack, it means you miss a lot from today’s hardcore scene. Backtrack from New York is probably one of the best & let’s say ‘famous’ bands in the recent years. I talked with Ricky about the band, the label he is involved and his fanzine, Moment Of Truth.

www.backtracknyhc.com www.facebook.com/BacktrackNYHC

Hey Ricky! Nice to have you on board. What’s going on in the Backtrack’s HQ?

Yoo! What’s going on? Right now Backtrack is laying low. We have 2 shows in NY, we’re playing a benefit show for the passing of a dear friend Rob Mcallister, with a very influential Long Island band, Silent Majority. We’re also playing Bane’s last NYC show ever. 2 shows that are very important to us as a band and ones that we are very excited for. We’ve recently announced a European Tour for the summer where we’ll be playing some cool festivals we’ve never played before along with some club dates w/ our bros in Turnstile and UK dates w/ our bros Higher Power. We may be setting up a few US shows also but right now the main priority is a new LP.

What’s your current line up? It’s seems there’s only 3 stable members in Backtrack. Will you continue this way and keep using session members? I remember seeing you with Ruben from Take Offense a couple of times. By the way, some of you are also playing in other well known bands, please give some info to our readers.

Our current line-up is James on the mic, Me & Chris Smith on the Guitars, Danny Smith on Bass, and Little Steve on Drums. Me, James, and Chris have been in the band since the beginning basically. Danny is Chris’ little bro and hopped on around 2 years ago. Little Steve just started playing with us last year but he’s a great fit for us and a great drummer. Although it is fun sometimes and gives a different vibe every tour when you have different friends filling in, we’re looking to keep this the stable line-up long term. You definitely did see Ruben w/ us before, he’s filled in a few times and is truly one of my favourite people in the world and my little brother. As for bands, Little Steve plays in Lost Souls (their new record rocks), and fills in for Malfunction sometimes. I play in another band called Manipulate who just released a new EP this year and I’m working on another project also that should be ready later this year maybe.

It’s been almost 2 years since ‘Lost In Life’ was released. Meanwhile, you’ve toured constantly, playing almost everywhere in the world. Any plans for a new Backtrack release?

Yeah we definitely toured harder than we ever did before with Lost In Life. As for a new release… we have a ton of material right now, around 25 songs worth of demos. We’ll hopefully start pre-production on a new LP in May. Nothing else I can really say about it just yet, besides that these songs are coming out great so far. Musically it’s some of my favourite stuff we’ve done.

Flatspot Records is a Hardcore label started in 2004 by Che who still runs the label with me. Backtrack put out our demo on Flatspot and me and Che have been close since then. At United Blood 2013 we were hanging out and talked about me doing the label alongside Che and it just worked out like that. We’ve been able to work on a ton of great projects since then and I love doing a label. 2016 is by far our busiest year with close to 10 releases coming out on Flatspot. That’s pretty crazy to me since this is a 2 man operation but I really enjoy putting out records for bands that I think are great. Some of the stuff that’s came out or is coming this year is: Mizery, Manipulate, Friend Or Foe, Suburban Scum, The Extermination Vol.3 and there’s more that we’re waiting to announce. www.flatspotrecords.com

Moment Of Truth is a zine that I started doing in 2013. I just wanted to put out a cool zine that I had fun creating and interview bands that I fuck with. It’s a fun project and I get to interview friends and older heads in the HC scene. I love creating things and being able to hold them in my hands, same as working on a record and finally being able to hold the LP and flip through the liner notes. It’s a great feeling and that’s the motivation behind this. I’ve been way busier than normal so I’m probably only going to do around 1 issue a year when I can find the time to get it done. Check out the Omission Hardcore Fanzine that just came out this year… looks incredible!

You are playing Europe this summer, sharing the stage with Turnstile & Higher Power. You are also playing a bunch of awesome festivals. What’s your favourite country/city to play when it comes to Europe and do you prefer basement/underground club shows or big fests? And what bands from Europe would you recommend?

Very excited to play with Turnstile and Higher Power. Both of those bands do their own thing and have a sound that’s really unique in my eyes. I’m definitely looking forward to all the shows big & small on the tour. Some of my favourite places to play are Switzerland, JZ Riot in Germany, Belgium, etc. Big fests are definitely fun every once in a while because we’re

not used to them and I like doing stuff out of our comfort zone occasionally, but I do prefer packed small club shows with people pitting and diving. That’s the true spirit of what we’re about and the type of music we’re playing. There’s a ton of great bands in Europe right now: Broken Teeth, Higher Power, Redemption Denied, Cornered, Animal Instict, Belief, No Turning Back, Risk It, the list goes on.

How do you see hardcore in 2016? In my opinion, there’s lots of cool bands & tons of bad overhyped ones. I feel pretty sad when I see the merchandise sales increasing and more bands releasing online albums instead of the real thing, but I also feel blessed to be in a scene with so many nice individuals all over the world, still keeping the flame alive. What do you think about the current situation of the so-called scene?

I think it’s great to be honest. The scene is always changing and evolving and that’s not a bad thing whatsoever. As for bands merch sales increasing and them releasing records online it’s the changing of times. The reality is less people buy music, more people are on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. Those are great ways for people to hear or discover your music. If they’re going to not buy your record because they can listen to it and everyone else’s records for $10 a month but buy a shirt or hoodie to support the band, that’s a good thing. There’s a new breed of bands that are holding things down right now like Mizery, Regulate, Lost Souls, Red Death, Countdown, etc. and they are all creating cool shit. As I get older i’ve been seeing more and more of my peers complain about what’s going on in HC right now and turning into the jaded old dudes we thought were wack when we were 20. The reality is there’s great shit out there if you actually listen and there’s great shows if you actually go.

Is any of you straight edge? What’s your opinion about the recent incident with Rotting Out’s vocalist getting busted for drug trafficking? It wasn’t the first time that members of hardcore bands were involved in criminal activity like this…

Vitalo and Steve are Straight Edge. I don’t really have a comment because I’m not into speaking on other peoples business. He’s his own man

and can do whatever he wants. I love Rotting Out as a band and Walters always been good to me.

It seems that every band from the 80s, except Minor Threat, is back… Pretty weird on one hand, dope on the other hand. What’s your opinion about this? Best band re-union you’ve attended?

It really depends on the situation. It’s definitely a bummer sometimes when a band gets back together and plays the same set 200 times of a record you worship and milks it for all it’s worth. It is definitely exciting to see for someone who wasn’t there when the band was originally around but at the same time when is it time to give it up? I don’t really know the answer to that.

I just know that there’s definitely some bands that could give a shit about HC that pop up out of nowhere to make a few bucks and that’s wack. Something that I think is incredible is a band like Maximum Penalty. The band got back together and straight up wrote the best “comeback” record you could imagine. Instead of just playing songs that are 15-20 years old over and over again, they wrote a record that I think is amazing.

I guess that’s all. Thanks for the interview, hope to see you around soon. Last words are yours!

Thank you brother. Listen to the Countdown demo: countdownhc.bandcamp.com/releases