IE: You guys are working on a new 7” where all of the songs center around a really bad experience the band had in June 2011. Please tell us what happened to you guys.

Jamie: The 7" will be titled, "39 Hours In Bronx Central Booking". We have a practice studio we rent by the month in South Mt Vernon, NY which, for anyone who doesn’t know is on the border of the Bronx. Each week I would come from Yonkers with Chucky (bassist) who lives in Yonkers also. We would pick up Mattakins (guitarist) and Chris (ex-drummer) who lived in Brooklyn. They would take the uptown 4 train to the last stop and I'd pick them up from there. While driving on East 233rd Street on our way to practice, we were stopped at a red light with several cars ahead of us when I heard a knock on the driver’s side window and I turned to see a plain clothes detective who then opened my door and told us to get out of the car. Several more surrounded the car. Threats, such as, "step out of the car  NOT SO FAST! WE SHOT PEOPLE FOR LESS!"  Racial slurs, cheesy stereotypical cop humor and all around lowlife behavior ensued. When I asked why we were stopped "I DONT WANNA HEAR ANY OF YOUR FUCKIN LAWYER SHIT!” was the answer we were given. We were handcuffed and placed behind the car. We asked if we were under arrest and what the hell for. They said "no, this is for your safety". Then they started illegally searching the car. After several minutes of this, they began mockingly handing out flyers we made for an upcoming show to passers by who looked down at us. Then, one of the cops said "which one of you does drugs?" as he showed us an empty cigarette pack with what appeared to be empty crack baggies that they claimed to have found in the car. I know damn well that there wasn’t anyone doing crack in my car! They arrested us and charged us with possession of crack. When we got in front on the judge, marijuana magically appeared on the report as well, yet no reason for the stop was written. We did pass a group who were being arrested while leaving the 4 train station. The guys were in the paddy wagon and bullpens with us and they said when we passed, the cops said "wanna go after those guys next??... Fuck it! We need the bodies"… So, in short, we were illegally stopped and searched and had false evidence planted on us by corrupt narcotics officers. While being placed in the paddy wagon, one of them said "thanks for the 20 hours of overtime!" When we tell people this story, particularly the part about the planted evidence, they look at us funny. However, when I told cops who I know, (yes, NOT all cops are bastards) they knew damn well I was telling the truth. These are the responses i got: "not all cops do that", "narcotics is a different animal", "that’s fucked up what they did, scumbags like them only make it harder for the rest of us" and, "you should sue them!"

IE: This whole event actually caused your drummer at the time to quit the band as well?

Jamie: Yes. Chris is the nicest guy you'll ever meet. From what we've gathered, comes from a very loving family, seems too well adjusted and too nice for the scene ‘ya know? Anyway, he's never been arrested or in any kind of trouble before, so to spend a weekend in jail in the Bronx, for no reason on top of it made him and his family afraid of him returning to practice in that area. Fear of lightning striking twice which seems absurd to me, but, anyway, he wanted to remain in the band under the condition that we go to a pay by the hour studio in Manhattan. The rest of us decided, not only would that end up being a financial burden but also, it was a matter of principle. We didn’t want to let corrupt cops intimidate us. We did not want our freedom compromised. So with that, we parted ways. We're grateful for the early days of the band we spent together. He helped us get started and develop our style. We recorded our first demo on his digital 8 track. We replaced him with Jason "Shuffles" who I played with in the band Dealin' With It for 6 years. It ended up working out for the best. We're better off with Shuffles overall. That’s not a knock on Chris by the way. It’s just my opinion

IE: What ended up happening when this whole situation went to court?

Jamie: We finally got in front of the judge on Sunday afternoon after being arrested early Friday night. We saw the legal aid lawyers (public pretenders) late Saturday night. They certainly treated us as if we were guilty. When we told them what really happened and refused to take a bullshit plea deal they conveniently forgot to file our paper work and we were forced to spend another night…15 hours later we finally got in front of the judge and they offered a deal where one of us pleads to a disorderly conduct and pays a $270 fine, and the charges would be dropped. We refused cause we're innocent. The judge actually got annoyed at us for standing up for our rights. He was mad that they weren’t stealing money from us that day. The DA suggested $1,000 bail on all of us. We were released without bail when our assigned lawyer pointed out the fact that they had no reason to stop us in the first place. We were given a return date 6 weeks later and we took a conditional discharge. If we don’t get in trouble for 6 months the charges are dismissed. We took that rather than come back and fight for outright dismissal only because we couldn’t afford to keep missing days of work. That same day (August 1st 2011) we went down town to meet with a civil lawyer.

IE: And you are each individually suing NYC now? Can you talk about this and what is the latest?

Jamie: We all filed suit together with a lawyer who was recommended to us by a friend (Tone Lo Ki) after I posted the news on Facebook. We were told he wouldn’t take a case unless he knew he was going to win. He jumped at this one. He filed suit against the city of NY for $10,000,000. He told us this would be a slow process and would probably take 3 years. It’s been about 1 year since we filed suit. It’s not just about the money. It’s us doing our part to let the city, the NYPD and everyone else know that they can’t get away with shitting on our civil rights and fucking with our lives so they can fill quotas and steal money! Everyone needs to learn their rights and not roll over and give in to intimidation. Turns out, a lot of stories about cops arresting innocent people to fill quotas have been coming out lately. We saw a recent article about internal affairs bringing in 21 narcotics cops in the Bronx including one of the pieces of shit who arrested us and was bragging about his retirement coming up and smoking lots of blunts when he does. I hope he loses his pension!! Piece of shit! 

IE: How many did you make up and how many have you sold?

Jamie: We made 100 on the first run back in February and recently made another pressing. We sold enough to pay for the recording and our share of the pressing of the upcoming 7" as well as new t shirts which are coming soon. This is first band I’ve ever been in where we broke even. In this era, playing hardcore selling 100 CD’s in a few months, especially for a band that hasn’t toured, isn’t bad. Everyone I’ve talked to including Ralph from Haunted Hotel, say that CD sales are down and vinyl is up. By the way, the first 100 CD’s don't have bar codes, so anyone who has one, they may be a valuable item one day…you never know. The 2nd run we recently made has bar codes and will be available on I-Tunes.

IE: What is the story behind the name Jobbers Union Records?

Jamie: Well, Spew, he's our other guitarist… He joined Abject last fall (he missed the fun of being in jail with us lol!)… He came up with that name years ago. We were in a band together called Jobbed Out. That’s a term used in pro wrestling when a guy on his way out of the company loses matches in succession in order to make his opponents look good or make him look bad…Sometimes both. It’s another way of saying screwed. Jobbers were the guys on TV in the 80's who would lose badly to the bigger guys they wanted to push. We apply the term jobbers to real life, outsiders, nerds, the downtrodden, victims of corporate greed etc. These are the kind of people who get into the scene and feel at home. If we can get our stuff out there and start to turn some kind of profit, we'd like to help other bands get their stuff out too. 

IE: If other bands are reading this and considering putting out a self financed/released CD what kind of advice would you give them?

Jamie: Spew did the research and found that Beyond Concepts (bcduplication.com) was the cheapest place to get everything made. CD's including artwork on the disc, booklet with lyrics, tray card, jewel cases and shrink wrapped. We did 100, cost us about $3 a piece for all that, the more you make at one time, the less the cost per CD will be. We suggest, a small pressing, if it sells, take the money you made off the sales and reinvest it to get more made. Also, in addition to using social media sites and You Tube to advertise, the old fashioned way of face to face promotion still works best.

IE: You are also doing a side project which is more or less a video fanzine called “Abject Deal”. Tell people what it is about and what made you come up with the idea for doing this?

Jamie: We do “webisodes” where I rant on current events on the scene and in the world as a whole, promote upcoming shows, have reoccurring comical segments but, mainly, we do interviews with people in bands and promoters. It started out as me doing this stuff myself but soon started including other members of Abject! as well as other friends in the scene to contribute by doing interviews and other segments such as, "Ask Pookie". Our friend Sean Neylon also took over the editing and production and made it look 1,000 times better. We've had bigger names appear in recent weeks including Rev. Paul Bearer from Sheer Terror and we have others coming up in the next few weeks. This is something I’ve always wanted to do for fun as well as using the double edged sword of technology in our favor. A modern method of promoting shows, a way to get people interested in some serious matters as well as having fun and making them laugh, but, I’ve never had the help (ie: editing knowledge) to pull it off. Now that we have actual production and bigger names, this will hopefully draw more viewers and more attention to newer bands and more shows. Check it out at: www.youtube.com/abjectdeal

IE: How often do you update it?

Jamie: As of now, a new episode is posted every Wednesday night.

IE: Do you feel that people in bands and into hardcore music do enough to help promote themselves and the scene?

Jamie: It varies. Some work hard, you see them everywhere promoting their stuff as well as supporting as many others in the scene that they can. Some don't do enough if anything at all. They have a "someone else will do it" mentality. They are the types who you only see at the shows they play when their bands go on. Some have no confidence and think " why bother, no one is gonna show up" which is stupid…If you have that attitude, why bother playing out, just play to entertain yourself at home then. We try to do old and new school promotion. online and printed flyers. Some do one or the other. Flyer promotion is still the best method from what I've seen over the years. Kind of a side note…we need to continue seeking out all ages venues and reaching out to younger kids to keep this thing going.

IE: Abject plays A LOT of local NY shows, I think since I have started this website you have been on more show flyers than any other band. When do you think you will start doing more out of state shows and touring? Is going over to Europe something you guys plan on down the road?

Jamie: We appreciate the support we've gotten so far and the promoters keeping us in mind. We can’t accept every show we're offered but we do love playing when we can. We have been to Delaware, Baltimore and Washington DC twice. We'll be going back to DC as well as a couple of stops in Virginia in Sept. We'd love to do more extended trips and see more cities. Europe? We'd love to but, there would have to be situations where all the stars align right. In other words, we'd have to coordinate all 5 of us getting off work at the same time for a week or two. It’s harder when you’re a grown up and on your own. Playing shows may get you from town to town but, it won’t play the bills at home. We do plan on setting up a week long tour next summer. That’s the way it is with our jobs and all, we'll never be a full schedule touring band unless hardcore becomes the next big thing and we can make a living doing it…of course, we're not betting on that! For now, it will be a year to year basis as to where and how we can spend our time off work together…and one day, yes, we'd love to do a week or 2 in Europe. For the time being, we'd love to go anywhere in the Northeast where we can get to and back by Monday morning…promoters take note! lol

IE: You’re “Try Again” CD has the song “Crime Related Art” which is a graffiti themed song. Graffiti always has had a place in the NYHC scene either at shows or as band logos or on walls. What influenced you guys to write this song?

Jamie: I've been playing in bands since 2001 and always wanted to write a graff song  but it never came to be till now. The music Matt came up with at practice one night just happened to be a perfect fit for some lyrics I had in mind. True Bombers (TB) was the first graff crew I was a part of. Crime Related Art (CRA) wound up being the last. That was a crew that was compiled mostly of guys who grew up in my neighborhood. I reconnected with them by the late 1990's. TB had some kids into hardcore. CRA did not. I got into the graff scene at the same time I got into the hardcore scene (1995). The song pays tribute to the impact graffitti had on me as well as friends and past rivals alike. It’s also one of those "fuck!, I’m getting old" songs. Another thing, the line, "known by all those dicks" is a double entendre. lol (KBA was a rival crew of ours)

IE: These days are you just a spectator with graffiti or do you take an active role?

Jamie: I was an active bomber when I was younger. I was arrested for graffitti related stuff 3 times and sort of forced into retirement in 1999. That’s when my creative energy went into music and I made my first serious effort into starting a band. Chucky (bassist)  is into graff also. He is a superior graffitti artist compared to me. He just wasn’t as much of a bomber than I was. He does all of our logos and artwork

IE: What did you write?

Jamie: I used to write “Hamma” then later, shortened it to “Hama”. Haven’t bombed since 99.

IE: Care to share any good bombing stories?

Jamie: In early ‘99, me and my boys Soap and Jile were out bombing almost every night. We actually had a crew called TNK. which stood for The New Kings. The inspiration for the name TNK came from watching the NYHC Doc where Stigma points to Freddy Madball and says," this is the new king right here". Anyway, we were bombing hard at that time and an old rival who I won’t mention cause I don’t wanna give him any press came out of semi retirement and started crossing out our shit on White Plains Road.. so we had us a feud. He bombed the Major Deegan one night from Yonkers to the GW Bridge and we couldn’t let him get away with that…we were pissed. So away we went walking down the Deegan dissing his shit and catching our own ups. This was a Wednesday night at about 9pm. We knew it wasn’t the smartest thing to do but we were heated. Luckily, we had fun and we didn’t get arrested… lol… We were certain that he was gonna drive to a club in the city that weekend thinking he was the man and we ruined it!!

IE: How did you become involved with it in the first place?

Jamie: In the fall of ’95 I started making new friends who hung out at a record store in Yonkers (Rockin Rex) which was across the street from my high school. After Rex closed, everyone still gathered in the parking lot on weekends. It was like the land of misfit toys, anyone from Lower Westchester who was into anything different, whether it was punk, graff, skating etc, ended up there. That’s how I found my way into doing graffitti and eventually going to shows in the city. Chucky was from the Bronx…The graffitti mecca. (Editors note: Tony Rockin’ Rex will be very proud of this answer lol)