IE: So, this is kind of a do-over interview in a way from the ’89 one that I did with you shortly after Drago, Carl, and Rich left the band back then. When I re-posted the old interview you seemed less than thrilled with what you said in ’89. I have to give you credit though cause you seemed kind of pissed but you took the high road although you could tell you were frustrated at that time in your life. Care to comment on that old interview now?

Jeff: Well, I was 21 and pissed off at everything and kind of lost. The original lineup broke up over something stupid, so stupid that they had to remind me why we broke up when we had our first practice in 25 years. Looking back I think we all realize that it was probably something that didn’t need to happen, and in the big scheme of things it wasn’t a big enough deal to break up a band over. But we were pretty much kids, and emotions ran pretty hot so it ended up like it did. In the end we blame Rocky Dennis.

When you posted that interview I had to brace myself before reading it. It’s pretty funny, you can tell how pissed I was. The best part is where I am like “Those guys are assholes. Don wrote all the songs. We should always headline over them. But we are all friends, everything is cool. No hard feelings…”

IE: So here we are in 2012...Twenty plus years later the demo lineup is back together. Who hatched this plan and how did it come together?

Jeff: The third generation, I guess you’d call it that, Breakdown lineup had broken up. We had some message on the Internet saying thanks to everyone for the support over the years and blah blah and Drago responded saying something like “Who said we broke up?”  That kind of got the ball rolling. There were a couple of times over the years when we’d considered playing a show together, but I was holding a grudge and wasn’t into it. But over time you grow up, you think back about what happened, you can’t remember what happened, and when reminded about what happened it doesn’t seem like a big deal at all, and you say fuck it – I think it would be a great time. We’d kind of get to start where we left off, see what happens. These guys have continued to be active musicians in great bands. They are pros, they write some of the best riffs out there, and there is a chemistry between us. We’re really pumped about the whole thing.

Jeff: Carl knows Timmy who books Chaos In Tejas from when he played there with other bands he’s been in. It was the first show we were offered. We’d never played in Texas before, so it was a trip. Everyone was so friendly in Austin. At first I thought they were busting my balls, making fun of me because they were being too damn nice – it made me uncomfortable, like I was the butt of the joke. But then they’d turn around and be just as friendly to the next person they were talking to, so… The show ended up being great. We played some outdoor venue with a cliff behind the stage. Kids were climbing the cliff to get a better view. The place kind of reminded me of the Gas Station back on the L.E.S. (in NYC) from way back. I’d guess that 95% of the people there never got to see Breakdown before, so it was off the hook. The crowd was great, knew all the songs and just went off. It felt amazing playing with these guys again after so long. It’s weird how things come full circle. We need to play NY to complete the “Circle of Hardcore”. We’re working on a show now. We’ve had some offers, but we are trying to hook up the best show we can. We’re working on getting something set up for the end of the summer or early fall.

IE: You have been living in Baltimore over the past few years and although it’s not a cross country type of trip it isn’t exactly around the corner either. Will this slow the bands progress with writing new songs and playing shows?

Jeff: So far we have three new songs in the works. I wouldn’t have done this if we weren’t planning on writing new stuff. I don’t think any of us wanted to just play the greatest hits and cash in, that’s not what this is about. We want to release a bunch of new stuff. Something fresh, definitely Breakdown. We want to plays show and have a good time.That’s why you do this. Living in Baltimore isn’t a big deal. It’s about a 3 ½ hour drive to NYC for a regular person, so I get there in about 2 ½ hours. All of the Breakdown stuff released within the last 18 years was recorded when I lived in Baltimore. “Blacklisted”, “+/-”, etc. Right now I come up for practice here and there, they send me the songs and I write the lyrics, it works. I go up to NY about one weekend a month now to practice. It’s great; I get to hang out with all my old friends and I get to eat real pizza.

IE: You are originally from Westchester, right?

Jeff: Yeah, I was born in Yonkers and lived in an apartment on Central Ave, then my family moved to New Rochelle. I still miss NY a lot. When I first moved down here I went through crazy withdrawals, I’d never been homesick before. I went off on Baltimore, about how much it sucked but that stemmed from missing home so much. Baltimore is a great city. I have loads of good friends down here and the food has improved exponentially compared to when I first moved here. They have a healthy hardcore scene. Everyone is very dedicated. Lots of great bands. 

IE: What is the game plan moving forward with Breakdown? Is this just to do some weekend shows from time to time, take it easy and not put a lot of pressure on yourselves or do you want to see it go more in the way of recording and touring?

Jeff: We want to work on some new songs, release something soon, and play shows here and there. We don’t have the ability to go out and tour 6 months out of the year. We all have regular jobs now and need to support our families. I think you’re just going to see us playing shows here and there and maybe a couple of smaller one or two week tours each year. We were asked to play some festivals in Europe at the end of 2012, but we had to turn them down due to other commitments. We are working on something for early 2013. We’ll probably be playing a bunch of long weekends, too.

IE: Since that first show back in Austin we haven’t heard much in the way of upcoming shows. When can we expect Breakdown to get more into the swing of things?

Jeff: Well, we just played the “This is Hardcore Fest” in Philly which was great. Joe really hooked it up this year. He did a great job. We are still working on booking a NYC show. We’ve had a few offers presented to us but nothing that worked for everyone. We have some stuff in the works, like Florida at the end of the year so we can visit all our retired hardcore buddies. We are getting offers from all over, but again we have a limited amount of shows we can play due to family and job commitments. You’ll just see us announcing random shows here and there.

IE: I understand this lineup not playing the Breakdown songs from the post-demo lineup. However, Breakdown has a longer history without them than with them and the albums “Blacklisted”, “+/-“, and “Battle Hymns…”  cannot be overlooked. Personally I don’t think the post-demo recordings got as much credit as they deserved, what is your take?

Jeff: “Blacklisted” was really well-received. That’s my favorite recording aside from the 87 Demo.  “+/-“ and “Battle Hymns For An Angry Planet” had some good songs but it’s pretty much a different band. The sound wasn’t the same as the songs written by the original lineup. Different people were doing the songwriting. I think the demo is more raw, there were lots of mistakes on it, and that gave it some charm. It was recorded two track live, no overdubs. The stuff that came out later was more polished. More time spent in the studio. Still good stuff, but different from the original Breakdown sound. I think the biggest problem we had was that we couldn’t tour all the time. We maybe toured a month or so out of the year, and then just played shows here and there. Then we wouldn’t play for six months or a year, then we’d have to start the whole thing rolling again. We never got the momentum going. It’s just how it worked out.  

IE: Going back to the post-demo lineup’s… you had a very long cast of band members. Who were some of the biggest characters you had in the band during that time?

Jeff: There’s too many to mention… Rob DeFrosia was crazy. He was fun as hell, there was always something going on. Joe Farley was a character, rest in peace. Best guy. He is missed by so many people.

IE: Getting back to the origins of Breakdown and leading up to the recording of your demo... When you look back to that time period in NYHC's history there was nobody that had the sound you guys had. You without a doubt came up with a very unique sound that has been copied many times over and influenced almost an entire generation of hardcore music fans. How did this sound come about? What kind of music were you all listening to at the time and when you would write songs who was at the helm guiding the sound in the direction that it ended up taking?

Jeff: Don and Carl wrote all the songs, I think. Maybe Rich wrote a couple, like “The Banana Boat Song”. I wrote all the lyrics except for “Life of Bullshit”. That was the lyric they gave me when I tried out for the band. This guy, Tony Pradlik, who worked in and later owned the record stores we used to go to – he told me to check out this flyer for this band that was into AF, GBH, Cro-Mags, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, etc. He was like “They need a vocalist, you should try out.” 25 years later, this…  We all listened to the same stuff, but we also got each other into new stuff that we hadn’t heard before. Bill Wilson from Blackout Records used to hang with us all the time, and he introduced me at least to a bunch of new stuff. I remember him coming over with the first Public Enemy EP. The one with that “My Uzi Weighs a Ton” song on it. Then Don would be playing Specials or Al Di Meola or Up Front. I was into what was going on in NY and California mostly. I loved Sheer Terror, AF, Cro-Mags, Murphy’s Law, Reagan Youth, Kraut, etc.  And I’d never trade my punk rock for anything. I was into a lot of the stuff coming out of the UK. and we all liked some metal. Carl was into mostly hardcore and metal and went through a ska phase. Rich only listened to Tuvan or sometimes Mongolian throat singers. He wouldn’t turn that shit off. Overall, things were going great until Celtic Frost released “Into the Pandemonium”. The original lineup split after that record came out.

IE: With the drum sound there is a definite hip-hop like bounce to the beats. How much of a role did the hip-hop sound have on the music if any?

Jeff: We’re from the streets. Does that answer your question?

IE: I know when the split happened you were having a hard time finding three members to take Carl, Rich and Drago’s spots. How close or not close were you to packing it in? It must have been frustrating because you had a widely popular demo that everyone loved but you had to fill three spots all at once.

Jeff: I don’t know, it was a confusing time in my life. I lost both my parents around that time so I was in a haze. I had some friends that kept bugging me to keep it going, probably to help me deal with everything that was going on. I remember Bill (Wilson) drawing a flyer so we could try out some new members. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have the band. We were at Giant Studios all the time. It was a mess. Finding the right mix of people took forever, and it was like a revolving door for a while.

IE: Where does this Breakdown re-union leave Killing Time? Is there room for both bands to keep playing shows in the future on a regular basis?

Jeff: We just played with them at the “This Is Hardcore Festival”. We shared a room backstage. Most of the members can kill two birds with one stone. Econo-core.

IE: True or false… Killing Time’s “Telltale” was originally an instrumental Breakdown song before the split?

Jeff: It was a song without lyrics. I think we played it at CB’s once with no vocals.

IE: I know you are a huge NY Ranger fan, what do you think they have to do to match last season and push forward more to get to the Finals?

Jeff: I want to see how Nash works out. I want to see when Gaborik gets back and how long it takes him to get rolling. I’m worried about some loss of depth. But I think one of their biggest problems last season was scoring, and now they’ve added some into the lineup. They have the same defense, even better if Sauer comes back from injury.  Losing Prust hurts a bit. But the new 3-4 line signings should work out. Lundqvist is in his prime. Kreider looks to be something special. Hagelin and Stepan will only get better. McDonagh is one of the best defensemen in the league. So I would be disappointed if they don’t make the Finals this season.

IE: If you woke up the day after the next presidential election and saw you… Jeff from Breakdown was elected President of the United States, what would your first act as President be?

Jeff: To make Drago and Rich do all future Breakdown interviews.