by Jason Walsh
One of New York’s greatest hardcore bands is back after a long overdue hiatus with a new album that brings the roots of the old school back to the forefront. “Three Steps Back” is the third release from Killing Time, but it has been fourteen years since their last offering, “The Method.” Even further down the timeline was the band’s debut, their most respected and remembered album, the classic “Brightside,” which further showed the NYHC movement’s progression as the 80’s wound to an end.
Killing Time, which began initially as Raw Deal, spawned from the remnants of two of the city’s classic outfits, Token Entry and Breakdown. Anthony Communale was the frontman from Token Entry that joined forces with the core members of Breakdown: Carl Porcaro, Rich McLoughlin, and Anthony Drago. Over the past few years, Killing Time began playing shows again and feeling the energy and passion of the music that lay dormant for far too long. Mutually agreeing to continue the band further, the guys have put together a full-length of all new material, the 12-track shotgun blast of sound entitled “Three Steps Back.”
The record is the music of the streets…of New York. Blending all the five-borough elements with the older, nostalgic influences of the style, “Three Steps Back” is truly a walk back to when NYHC music was of a higher caliber. With the new collection of hard-hitting tracks out on Dead City Records, Killing Time has been busy this year, with the release party in Brooklyn in February alongside Vision and Ensign, as well as dates with the Cro-Mags along the Eastern Seaboard. The future of the band, in this case, depends on its core members. They’re not into it for the money or record deals or whatever other jaded promises corporate music execs might dangle to performers. They are in it for its truth, and the camaraderie of good friends making great songs that people will get. When it is no longer fun, Killing Time will most definitely cease to be.
I had the opportunity to talk with drummer and lyricist Anthony Drago on the rebirth of one of New York’s finest.
First off, how are you doing? A new year...things going good?
Things are going good. I’m psyched that the new album is finally out
there. It’s been a big part of my life for the last two years and for
that whole time I’ve been dying to have people hear it. I’m extremely
happy with the way it turned out.
You guys have been playing together more actively over the past few
years. How did that come about and how has it felt doing it?
Carl proposed the idea of doing the reunion shows in 2005. It sounded
really good to me. At that point, we hadn’t played together in over seven
years. During that time, we would only see each other at weddings and
funerals, like relatives. I guess we all just needed some time away from
it for a while but I seriously fucking missed the band all of those
years. The 2005 shows helped us to realize that this band is a huge part
of each of us. In 2006, the band toured Europe and in 2007, we hit Japan
for the first time.
After you do a band that makes you happy and you enjoy doing, when all that stops, how hard is that for you afterwards?
It sucks. You miss writing songs and playing shows but most of all you miss your friends. We’ve had incredible times together. My friendship with everyone in the band is centered around the music. It’s the reason we all became friends in the first place and it’s the reason that we’ve remained friends all these years. We’ve all taken breaks from the band to take care of personal shit that needed attention but you do miss it like crazy.
And when you guys first started doing shows again, how did that make you feel?
I found it surprising that we were welcomed back with such enthusiasm in 2005. I mean, it had been seven years since we played together on stage. The first shows went so well and we were having such a fun time with it, it felt like we had never stopped. I’m glad everyone in the band felt the same way I did about moving forward. We figured we should ride this thing out until no one wanted to see us anymore.
Talk about putting this record together and why you guys decided to do
it now?
We agreed to write a new album while on tour in Japan at the end of
2007. We started the rehearsals right after the holidays. It was decided
that we would do it back in my folk’s garage which is where we all met
for the first time and where we wrote the “Brightside” album. The space
isn’t the most comfortable and the sound in the room is horrible but
there’s something about that room that brings out the best in us.
Where did these new songs come from and how did they come together?
Carl and Chris came to that first rehearsal ready to go. By the end of
that first practice, we had the beginnings of what eventually became the
tracks “Inheritance” and “Mingus” on the new album. Chris took over on
bass in 2006 and this was his first chance to write material for Killing
Time. He and Carl just started writing such kick-ass songs. All of it
was true punk influenced NYHC from the very start. What struck me the
most was how raw and uninhibited the music sounded. The music inspired
most of the lyrics that I wrote for the album, bringing out a lot of
things that I had been dying to say for a long time.
What are some of things on this record that you are proud of...some personal highlights?
“Flight Plan,” the opener on the album, really sets the tone. It’s a real kick-ass song that Chris wrote solo. It wasn’t long after we first heard it that we decided that it would be the opening track. With “24,” I think we definitely pulled off something out of the ordinary for Killing Time. It’s another one of Chris’s riffs. The song is very catchy and melodic. The lyrics and vocal lines all just seemed to come to me all at once because I was so focused on capturing one moment in time and Anthony pulled it off perfectly. Carl’s heavy riffs on “Spaceheater,” “Cropduster,” and “AKB” really add a darker side to the album. My personal favorites are probably “Mingus” and “Lookout.”
I listened to it the other day and it has that old classic NYHC sound
that isn't very present today in a lot of the younger bands out there.
Tell me about when it was finished, when you got to listen to it from
top to bottom, what it sounded like to you and where it might have
brought you to.
I think that each one of the songs is unique. Each one has its own
vibe, yet they all work well together. We were able to blend a lot of
our influences into this thing yet the result was genuine Killing Time.
What was it like returning to the old practice garage so many years
later? Was there kind of a strange vibe going back there?
The vibe in that room is “Let’s get to fucking work!” It always has
been. I’m glad the other guys agreed to use the space. We share a
certain mindset in that room and speaking for myself, it makes me feel
young again, at least for a little while.
With time, different genres and styles of music come and go. What is about NYHC that keeps it still relevant in this modern day and age? What is the draw of the music and lyrics that continues to inspire people?
It pretty much boils down to expression and acceptance. The music may change as certain influences become more predominant but it’s the lyrics that really set it apart. I don’t think there’s any better scene for self expression and no other audience that is more accepting and open minded. I’m mostly drawn to its honesty and energy.
Lastly, what would you say to someone, who might not be familiar with
Killing Time, of why they should check out the new album?
If you don’t know about or don’t quite understand what NYHC is, this
may be the album that can explain it all.
