IE: How did the whole Leeway story get started?

AJ: Well, it goes something like this… I started a band with the original drummer (Saso), we got Jose on bass, and we decided to get Eddie to sing. That was the winter of ’83 and the start of ’84. We played a couple of gigs under the first name of the band…”The Unruled”. Our first show was June ’84 at the Coventry Club in Queens with Gilligan’s Revenge and The NY Hoods. We then decided to change the name to Leeway thanks to our good friend and mentor EJ Vodka. The name is still sticking and were happy with it, so were gonna keep it.

IE: Why was there such a long wait for the album?

AJ: There was so much bullshit about this album, it’s almost funny. We were supposed to record it in 1986 when we had Mackie in the band. Gordon was on guitar and Jose was on bass. That was one lineup for the album. Then Jose was out, in came Zowie, so there was a delay right there. Then we were gonna record with that lineup, but Mackie then left and we got Tony on drums. Another delay. Then Gordon quit and Mike came in. So we rehearsed and rehearsed until we got really tight, the tightest I think we ever had been and signed the contract (October ’87). We were practicing 3 times a week, so we thought the time was right and we went to Rhode Island to do the record, (November and December ’87). It got mixed and mastered in March of ’88 so now were waiting for it any day now. What else can happen now? We’ll see, it should be out by July.

IE: How did you get on the Profile/Rock Hotel label?

AJ: Chris Williamson hooked us up. It started when Doug Holland from the Cro-Mags told Chris about us. He told him to come check us out at CB’s one day when we played with C.O.C. so he came down and he said he really liked our sound and that we should do something with him in the future. We lost our drummer, so we got Mackie to fill in for a Ritz show he got with AF and GBH, since then he’s worked with us, produced the record and helped us out a great deal. So, we signed the contract with him for 4 more records on Rock Hotel/Profile. 

IE: Why have there been so many band member changes?

AJ: I think it’s because Eddie smells so awful. He’s rotten, and his feet are foul. Who could put up with that? I’m the only one who could deal with him because I smell just as much. Really, it’s different reasons for different people. Mackie we let go, we just thought he wasn’t rehearsing as much as we wanted to, he couldn’t play that many shows with us, plus he was already in 2 other bands. Gordon quit to join a metal band with Tony from Whiplash, and Jose we let go. Me and Eddie are the only original members left. 

IE: Does this current lineup look like it will stay together awhile?

AJ: I hope so. After all the bullshit we went through. Well, this is the lineup on the album so let’s hope it clicks.

IE: How do you feel about people labeling you a crossover band?

AJ: I don’t really mind what people call us these days. We got called everything from “speedcore”, “metalcore”, “speed thrash”, “thrash metal”, “hardcore metal”, “metal cum hardcore”. It’s a never ending story. I just don’t pay attention, we are what we is. Let the people decide what we are, everyone is always fitting people into their own safe category, it’s easy for them that way. They don’t have to think a lot about things then, they’ll just follow the crowd like sheep.

IE: You guys have played with everybody from Exodus to Straight Ahead. How do you like playing to different types of crowds?

AJ: It’s cool to play with a lot of different bands because they bring their own crowd and when you play your turning them on to your own shit, and maybe some of the Exodus fans or Straight Ahead fans will dig what we are doing.

IE: What other bands do you listen to?

AJ: I listen to anything. The latest things that I got are HR’s solo album and the new Run DMC record and whatever I can get free from Profile. 

IE: Are there any plans for a tour when the record comes out?

AJ: Were supposed to go on tour sometime in August or September and we will probably go all over the place like California and back.

IE: How many demo tapes did you put out?

AJ: We put out the first demo in ’85, then “Enforcer” came out and that was reissued with 2 live songs on it, and we sold it through the mail and stores like Bleeker Bob’s and Some Records. Then “Unexpected Live” was put out, we made only 75 copies of that, it was very limited. Then the live at CB’s tape came out which I sold through the mail, so altogether we put out 4 demos. We probably sold a couple hundred of each of them but we can’t be doing demo tapes our whole life, we got to get some vinyl out now.

IE: What do your song topics basically deal with?

AJ: Eddie writes all of the lyrics and he comes up with all this weird shit. The last song he wrote was “Soft Way Out”. It’s one of the new songs not on the album. It deals with some kids in NJ who committed suicide because it was a trend and before that he wrote “All About Dope” which ain’t no straight edge song but it’s a real life drug song. He wrote “Stand For” which is an old song actually and we just brought it back. So he writes all this different stuff about things around him in his daily life. 

IE: Back in February you were supposed to play a big matinee at CB’s but it got cancelled. What happened with that?

AJ: That was with Prong, and Outburst and it got cancelled because Eddie was in California and he couldn’t make it back. We had to cancel 2 weeks in advance and everyone got pretty pissed off about that.

IE: What are some of your favorite places to play live?

AJ: CBGB is the best place to play. Irving Plaza is really cool too but the sound is terrible. There is only one place to play and that’s CB’s.

IE: Do you think the closing of Some Records will hurt the hardcore scene a lot?

AJ: Yeah, definitely. I can’t believe Duane closed. He was such a nice guy and people were starting to get on his nerves. Who wants to go to Bleeker Bob’s to buy their shit? It’s kind of sad that he had to close. 

IE: How many songs do you play as a band now?

AJ: We have the whole album which is 12 songs, plus we have 3 new songs that we play live, and 3 other songs that are waiting in the wings that we haven’t got lyrics to yet. So altogether we could play up to 16 songs live. Some of the songs get cut after a while because they get old and become played out.

IE: Are you still selling your shirts or are they all gone?

AJ: No. That was our frind EJ who made them up about 2 years ago. He made 100 of them and tried to sell them at the Ritz one day and he got booted. Were gonna make new ones when the album comes out. When it does come out were gonna have shirts, stickers, buttons, and the whole nine yards so by August we should have our shit together. 

END OF 1988 INTERVIEW

IE: Start off by telling us about your new CD.

AJ: The new CD is called “Adult Crash”. It’s going to be out on October 18th. It’s our first album in 3 years since “Desperate Measures”. It has been available on European import only because it came out in Germany in March of this year. It is now out on Futurist/Mechanic Records in the states and everywhere else.

IE: Aren’t there a couple of real old leeway songs on the new disc?

AJ: Basically they are all unreleased brand new songs, but there are 1 or 2 songs that a long time ago we had and dropped from our set. They were never done in the style or fashion that we play them now. I would say that they are pretty much new in a sense.

IE: Can you tell us about your new label?

AJ: We’ve been off Profile now for 3 and a half years. We are also no longer with Chris Williamson as a manager so he’s out of the picture. Basically we shopped the tape around after it came out in Europe and we had some offers and Futurist made the best one.

IE: You were telling me that you’re on 3 labels at once. How does that happen?

AJ: Basically it’s a European release for Europe only on one label and then a North American deal calls for another label. Besides that the label were on now in the states is kind of sub-divided into 3 different labels, kind of. It’s called Futurist/Mechanic but also there’s a part called Mechanic/Giant which is part of Warner brothers which is a Time Warner company. So there are a lot of affiliations within the label itself. 

IE: So does all that mean that you are on a major?

AJ: No, were signed to the independently distributed Futurist which has affiliations with Giant so were not that far away from jumping the ship and getting the major label treatment. 

IE: Now that you look back was it a mistake to go with Profile for your first 2 albums?

AJ: It’s easy to say with 20/20 hindsight what was the wrong move. At the time there weren’t many labels that wanted to sign us. We were also very young, about 18 years old. We were never on a label before and we were totally wet behind the ears. So there are a lot of reasons why we justified our decision. I think looking back now it was the worst move anyone could ever make. Profile just totally dropped the ball. Chris Williamson wasn’t much of a help either even though he did produce the first 2 records and they do sound ok for today’s standards. I think both him and Profile kind of equal zero.

IE: So who dumped who?

AJ: They let us go because this music isn’t hip hop or R & B or rap where you can just put out a video and go gold within 6 months. They realized that hard rock bands need support and to have the label get behind them. They didn’t have the time or capacity to do that so I guess we all left mutually. Chris Williamson on the other hand was a little bit more difficult. He thought he always did good for the band and I can debate that till hell freezes over. Time will tell if that was the right decision but right now I think were getting a lot more respect and better treatment on Futurist than Profile gave us in 6 years. We’ll see what happens. 

IE: Do you think it’s ironic that they are now getting into the hardcore thing again now that it’s making a comeback?

AJ: They kind of dipped out for 5 years when it was dying but now that it’s coming back they’re back in the game trying to make a buck. On a business level it’s smart. I don’t know what they’re going to do as far as signing new bands. I know that they re-released the Murphy’s Law and Cro-Mags which is a good thing because you can never find those records anyway. They might be re-releasing the first 2 Leeway albums on one disc maybe sometime in the new year or the spring. That would be cool too because to this day it’s hard to find our first 2 albums. At least not where I know. 

IE: How have your tours over in Europe gone in the past?

AJ: Our first tour over there was in ’91 for “Desperate Measures”. We went over there and headlined. We also went over there and opened for bands like the Bad Brains, and DI from California. The bands we opened for were good and we usually got a good response. We haven’t really done touring in the US because you can’t afford to tour. In Europe they take better care of the bands, they treat you with more respect, they treat you like kings.

IE: So what are some of the better countries to play over there?

AJ: Basically the industrial nations in Western Europe like Germany and Holland are the best places. Also Italy, France and Belgium are good. Then you start getting into like Sweden and Denmark and it starts getting a little iffy. You can play 3 weeks in Germany alone. Berlin is like Boston or NY to me. They have a great scene and one of the best shows we ever did was in Berlin. It was definitely one of our top 10 shows. Berlins got it going on.

IE: Why do you think they are so into the whole NY thing over there? A lot of bands from NY seem to go over big there.

AJ: I don’t know. Maybe because Europeans are into American pop culture. They seem to get involved with it and it attracts them. I guess NY is the most visible scene in the states for hardcore. They’re really a couple of years too late but they still seem to notice it. They might get caught up in it a little too much but I think their heads are in the right places. They like the music and there are some dedicated people out there who really care about music in the underground. 

IE: Did you guys ever do a US tour?

AJ: Yeah, we did a tour in ’89 with the Bad Brains. We went cross country to California and back in 5 weeks with them. That was the summer of ’89. We did the whole thing in a cargo van and it was one of the highlights in the band’s career.

IE: What are your plans for touring this time around?

AJ: Right now were going to do some local shows to release the album and hopefully by Christmas we should be starting out on a brand new tour across the country. Hopefully that will last up until February or March. I plan on being on tour for up to 6 months in the states only. Then we’d like to go back to Europe in the summer.

IE: The new album is quite different from past efforts the band has done. Why are you straying away from what you’ve been doing so well for years?

AJ: You got to understand that “Desperate Measures” came out 3 years ago and the material for it was written in the late ‘80’s. So you got to figure that the last record we put out the material was 5 or 6 years old. A lot has happened for the band over the last 6 years. I would hope that it would sound a little different because I don’t want to repeat myself. There’s nothing more boring than repeating myself musically. It’s been 6 years since the last material was written plus we had some lineup changes. Michael Gibbons our second guitarist is no longer with us. We are now back to a 4 piece. You have to put all of those things into context. We’re getting a little better with our instruments now so we don’t have to rely on the same 2 chords. Now we got 3. 

IE: How has the initial reaction been to the new songs?

AJ: It’s surprising and different. Some people who are expecting the first 2 albums are going to be disappointed. Some people aren’t into hardcore anymore and they don’t seem to dig it. In Europe it’s gotten a pretty good response. I think were kind of ahead of the game out there because they thought they were gonna have a “Born To Expire” part 2 or something like that. When we came with a record that has melody, singing and no mosh parts they were thrown for a loop. I couldn’t care less though because it’s what the band is doing now. Maybe it threw people off in Europe but I think in the states it has a better chance of crossing over to a wider audience because the music isn’t as hard edged anymore. We’re not doing the skank part and then the mosh part and on to the thrash part. We did that to death on the last 2 records.

IE: You have now recorded all 3 albums up at Normandy Sound in Rhode Island. What makes that place so good that you keep going back?

AJ: We get a great deal up there. Actually the last record wasn’t totally done at Normandy. It was done in 3 different studios. The basic tracks were done there but we did the vocals and mixing in NY. Patch who was the old Bad Brains sound man helped produce the record and mix it. We did it in his studio on the upper east side. The last 2 records were a little glossy sounding, so this time we tried to go backwards and get a little more natural sounding record and I think we succeeded in that.

IE: What’s the story behind the new title “Adult Crash”?

AJ: It’s not supposed to have this big meaning behind it. I thought it sounded kind of cool and if anyone remembers old hardcore it was a lyric in an old Minor Threat song.

IE: AJ, you have also been playing with the Cro-Mags for a little while, how did you join on with them and what’s in store in the future for you and them?

AJ: I was asked by John to fill in on guitar because the other members for whatever reason couldn’t do it. I guess I was the 3rd or 4th choice down the line. I filled in on guitar and we did a tour over in Europe. They put out a live album of the tour we did and basically now were doing a couple of shows in the area. The lineup now with me, John, Mackie, and Eddie Cohen is the same lineup as this new band were doing. We figured why shouldn’t we play shows with the Cro-Mags name. The new project is kind of on the back burner right now. John’s been trying to get it off the ground for about 2 years and with this lineup he has a little bit more stability. We’ll probably do a demo tape and I guess John will lay the Cro-Mags to rest again and see what happens with the new band.

IE: What other bands have you filled in for?

AJ: Over the years I guess Cro-Mags, Sick Of It All, and Breakdown about 6 or 7 years ago. I did a couple of shows with them. I’ve been producing a couple of bands’ demo tapes helping out here and there.

IE: Do you guys have jobs or can you get by with the band?

AJ: I have a job because I can’t live off the band but that’s besides the point. Pokie and Poodle both work out in Long Island. Eddie does odd jobs here and there. Since I’ve been doing Leeway and the other band I get by. Plus I filled in on bass for Sick Of It All about 2 years ago. We went to Europe and Japan so I can get by with music a bit. I’m not getting rich but I can make ends meet so I’m content.

IE: Anything else you want to add before we wrap up?

AJ: Right now were trying to re-establish ourselves and get a little bit more visible since we haven’t been around in a while. Even though we pretty much have gone overseas and did like 5 tours over there we haven’t done a tour in the US in 6 years. We’ve played NY maybe 3 times in the past 3 years and that’s not a good average. I’ll take this band as far as it goes. All I know is the new material we’re writing now for the next album is a lot different from what we’re doing now. I can’t guarantee what it will sound like but one thing I can say is that it will be different.