In late 2005, Brooklyn-based outfit Suicide City was created by the hand of Biohazard member Billy Graziadei and soon joined by ex-Groovenics vocalist Karl Bernholtz. The band began to flesh out with the involvement of Dan Lamagna on drums, ex-Groovenics guitarist AJ Marchetta, and ex-Kittie bassist Jen Arroyo. The five-piece band meshes punk and metal roots into their music, two genres that were sworn enemies during their births a few decades ago, and they also incorporate classical and even industrial into their sound. With the self-release of their EP 'Not My Year' featuring well known numbers such as “Give Me Your Pity” and “Undone,” Suicide City received critical acclaim and well-deserved recognition for their efforts. Following 'Not My Year' comes their first full-length with The End Records, 'Frenzy,' that is due to hit stores on August 4th. Touring extensively for self-promotion and album support, Suicide City, minus Billy Graziadei who also produced the record, took the time to sit down in their Crocodile Rock dressing room to chat about their beginnings, musical roots, the album, and the tour.
JM: How did you guys come together?
Karl: I was in a south Florida band called The Groovenics with AJ over here and at the time I was dating this girl... her ex was one of Billy Graziadei's brothers. Long story short, Billy finally saw us play and years later, contacted me later and said, “Hey, you want to be in a band?” And I was like, “Sure, of course. You want to fly me up to New York for free?” After that, we started getting more serious and started hanging out with the band members. And that's where Jen and AJ kind of came in. AJ first and then...
Dan: What the f**k about me?
JM: [laughs] And then Dan gets nothing.
Karl: Oh I'm sorry! [laughs] Dan was in the band pretty much since the beginning! Jesus! Did Billy find you online?
Dan: No, uh, Billy was on tour with Sworn Enemy and they were having drummer issues and I was kind of their sub-guy. So, they ended up working s**t out with their real drummer which everyone was happy he was back 'cause he was a really great guy and everybody loved him. So when Billy was saying they were putting this band together, they were like, “We got this guy from L.I. [Long Island] that you should check out.” So me and him played phone tag for a couple of months and I eventually ran into him, like, 4th of July weekend, they were playing up at the [inaudible] so I saw him on the street. One of my friends blacked out and wandered off, so we were on the streets finding that guy and I ran into Billy and I introduced myself and was like, “I was the guy that you were playing phone tag with,” and I mean literally, the next day he called me up and he was like, “Yo, I'm doing [inaudible] can you come to the studio tonight and jam?” So I came and I overdubbed drums on two songs they had been working on, which was “Diemonds” and “Marching Backwards.” And then from there, I'll turn it over to AJ and Jennifer about how they got involved.
Jen: Alright, AJ.
AJ: Yeah, I mean, long story short, we were looking for bass players from that point and a lot of names were being thrown around and one of them just happened to be this – we were talking about bass players and not just a specific person. But one of the things we were talking about, somebody played with their fingers and somebody who actually knew how to play their instrument. So a lot of the time you just get a bass player who's just like...
Dan: ... guitar player.
Karl: Kind half half-asses it.
AJ: Bassists are a rare animal to find someone who can play good, and Jeff, I mean, who was it? Somebody suggested, “Yo, like... Kittie's bass player, wicked bass player, kind of like Cliff Burton -style.” And yeah, just gave a call and it was, uh...
Karl: Well, it took a lot more time than that! [Everyone laughs] Let's be honest, she did not like the band. She hated the band.
Jen: I hated the band, it was really tough!
Karl: And let's be honest, I wasn't really thrilled about the band either and I started it!
Dan: I hated the band since day one!
JM: So you hated everything you made?
Jen: Yeah.
Karl: Yeah, it wasn't my style really, and it wasn't Jen's.
AJ: The band didn't really become Suicide City until we got a real...
Karl: ... Until she got in the band. If she didn't, we would definitely be done by now. For sure.
Dan: We actually started calling the band Suicide City at one of her shows.
Jen: To be completely honest, it's from the song “Give Me Your Pity” off our EP, 'Not My Year' and we definitely felt that was a real strong lyric, was “suicide city.” I felt that it was so catchy and plus, it was at a time where it was after 9/11. Everything was so safe and everyone was so scared to f**king party and rock n' roll again and really live life again, and be dangerous and be fun! It's just like, let's celebrate life instead of being so f**king down about s**t and that's how I really felt about it. Honestly, like, it's almost like every day in life some people kill a little bit of themselves. Someway it's either they're in an unhealthy relationship or they f**king hate their job, or something. We're all in it together, I mean, I also felt that Suicide City was a community that everyone could relate to. It's not about death and darkness and blah and all this bulls**t, you know what I'm saying? And when you meet one of us or when you come see the show, we're good vibes, we just love what we do and we want everyone to be a part of it. But just to kind of digress a little bit, Biohazard and my old band Kittie, we did Hellfest 2003 and that's when, uh...
Karl: When names were coming up. “Well, I know Jen.” Great. Call her.
Jen: We hung out and spoke at Hellfest and he [Billy] was like, “You know, I got this crazy singer from Florida and I really want you to hear it.” And I said, “Send it to me. If it works out, we have to be creative together.” And he sent it to me and sadly, I didn't like it at all and I hated it, and it really threw me off! Which was, in a way, when I look back at it now, it's kind of cool that it happened.
AJ: The first version of Suicide City wasn't really Suicide City. It was something else.
Jen: I can't even put my finger on it, it's like, I did hate it. “Hate” is such a strong word but I disliked it very much, okay?
Karl: High-five to that! That was a pile of turd! [laughs]
Jen: I didn't want to believe it but I can't... I'm an honest kind of gal, bottom-line kind of gal. When we, I didn't like it, I got to say the guys were very persistent in trying to charm and woo me into it. One night, it was a Friday night, no bulls**t it was 4:30 in the morning and I got a call – I didn't answer it of course – and I was just like how am I going to tell- Biohazard's a band that I well respected when I was growing up and actually were an influence to me. I'm a New York City girl and I saw them at the height of their career and it was like, wow. And I was like, how do I tell this guy that I was not into this at all – how do I tell him? Karl was on the phone calling me from Billy's phone, and he goes, “Listen.” And I'm telling you, they left many messages for me...
Karl: [laughs] We left so many messages! “We really need her!”
Jen: They were very, very persistent and I got to give them a f**king A++++ for that. And Karl goes “Listen. If you're not in this band, you're fired, okay?” And he hangs up the phone, you hear him like clicking the phone, and I checked the message and I thought it was so funny and so clever. I called them right back and I was honest with them, I said, “Look. Honestly, I don't like any of the material that you sent me at all, and these songs I definitely don't like.” And he was like, “That's why we need you here.” I was busy with Kittie, and we were writing for 'Until the End', a lot was going on, and for around two years I did both bands which was complete insanity for me. I dealt with a lot from that. It was after a tour, I haven't been home in almost 6 months at that point. We went down to Miami Beach and we all finally were in the same room together. We were passing stuff back and forth and no more of that, we were all in the same room and the first time we played – and unfortunately Karl had a word [inaudible] which signs “sucks balls” and the second we played, I was like, “This is something really special.” I knew that instant I was going to have a very big decision to make for myself, personally. Really soon. I just vibed with these guys and it's funny because we really do come from different backgrounds but that's what makes Suicide City so exciting, and it's like, so different than anything that's out there and I can say that with 120% confidence. When you hear Suicide City, it's like, you really can't peg it, it's nothing that's out there right now. When 'Frenzy' hits, you know, f**king fourth of August – game on, you know what I'm saying? There's nothing out there like it. And that's, I know that's a very long explanation and I kind of apologize [laughs] but that's how we got together.
JM: We got a good ten minutes on there!
AJ: Question number two. Shoot.
Karl: I think Jen had full throttle, I'm not really sure.
Jen: No, I mean, it happened! I'm just delirious is all.
JM: Okay, well, finally onto the second question... [Everyone laughs]
Jen: I'll talk all day and that's the thing, and I apologize!
JM: You guys were one of the last bands to play at CBGB before it was closed down, what was it like performing at a club that's had so much history behind it?
Jen: Amazing.
AJ: We played there a few times...
Karl: Yeah, we played there a lot, this was just the last time right towards the end.
Jen: Yeah, when we were filming the DVD, CBGB's was closing like the next week. We were one of the last bands.
AJ: It was stressful because that show almost didn't happen and we had promoted that forever!
Karl: Oh my god, that s**t almost didn't happen, you're right!
AJ: We were out with, who?
Dan: Hexerei for like, three weeks.
AJ: Something. And it almost fell through.
Dan: Everyone was trying to play CB's before it closed.
AJ: Everyone was trying to get on the gig but we had this locked in for a while. We had a manager at the time that really fought hard to get us back on that show, so he made it happen.
Jen: Yeah, and it was a Thursday and it was f**king 140 degrees outside. It was early too! And it was like, it was packed. We put out a DVD of it and you can check it out on SuicideCity.com.
AJ: I think we're all just glad to have been a part of it because it is, it was the start of the New York City, or the American punk scene started in CBGB's. Whether it the Talking Heads or The Ramones, whichever you want to say started. Johnny Rotten got influenced by The Ramones, so I mean you can say it started right there on CBGB's. Punk rock started. So I mean it was cool to at least play it before it closed. It sucks it's gone now, it's like a clothing store.
JM: It's a gentlemen's clothing store now.
Jen: It's a really terrible store and [inaudible]...
Karl: And the guy, the designer guy, was like trying to make it rocky and try to kind of look like CB's just to somehow save...
Jen: Because tourists are still coming in! And from all of the countries, they don't realize that CBGB's is no more.
JM: I just know that they like, preserved the graffiti in the bathrooms or something.
Dan: I heard they sawed all that thing apart and they took every piece of it, preserved, and are moving it to Vegas.
Karl: That's a rumor, I don't know.
Jen: They're still doing that. That's years in the making, it's called recession.
Dan: I want to point something else out too, that show was August 3rd, like, in '06. Our record comes out August 4th, now our release show is August 5th so all this s**t is happening three years ago.
AJ: It all works in three's.
Karl: Everybody dies in three's, that's how it happens.
Jen: Wow, that's the s**t!
Dan: This is kind of like a surreal time in my life right now, 'cause we're reliving it. I think we played with Hexerei last weekend and now we're redoing this whole thing, just as big as CBGB's and the DVD taping. You know, our record is coming, so this is kind of like the big deal.
AJ: Did you know that the background microwave radiation of the universe is three degrees kelvin?
Dan: I did not know that!
Jen: I think it just goes to show that we're exactly where we're supposed to be.
Karl: We're all about science here!
Dan: Yeah, man! F**king hopefully the rest of the stars will come aligned!
Karl: Next! I'm sorry. I feel bad, we're going to be here like all night, but we have hours.
Dan: Question number three!
JM: That's fine. By the time we're done you guys will have to go on.
Dan: What do you mean CBGB's is closed?
JM: This is a question for Karl and AJ now. I just wanted to know where did you begin in music before Groovenics and Suicide City?
Karl: Where did you get that shirt? I'm gonna like, steal it from you by the end of the night. [laughs]
JM: It's a hand-me-down! It's from like, my friend's mom, she lives up in Syracuse.
Karl: Oh, it's so cool!
Dan: What were you saying about being here all night?
Karl: Okay. So what? Groovenics- something?
AJ: Well....
JM: [points to AJ] He knows.
AJ: I was in high school when Groovenics were like, the biggest band in Florida because they had a record deal and they've been playing for just ever. I think they even had a singer before Karl, but they were just a band that was established in Florida and I've been trying to start a band for years, just skateboarding on the streets and trying to look for people to play. And I couldn't find anybody and I heard about the Groovenics losing one of their guitar players, so I had a friend that just had a hook up with somebody in the band and I just made the call and kind of went for it and that was the first I met them.
Karl: That was really funny, the second he started f**king playing I was like, “Yeah, he's good. So you guys are fine, right? 'Cause he's in the band.”
AJ: My first show with them was a sold out show in front of a few hundred people, so that was nuts for me 'cause the first show I ever played was like a big time deal. From then on, I was hooked. I wanted to play music for the rest of my life.
Karl: Yeah, AJ's incredible. So then some days I feel bad for like, bringing him all the way up here to New York and not going to college [laughs], but he's a smart guy. He knows what he's doing.
JM: What's your background then, before Groovenics?
Karl: I wanted to be a guitar player, now I want to be a singer. I just wanted to be a guitar player. So I was playing guitar in this girl's, like, she had a four-track. We'd be at her house and write these gothic, industrial songs. She would sing, I'd play guitar, and then the bass player for that was this guy Pete that was in Groovenics and I guess one day he heard me scream or something stupid, and they really wanted a lead singer. So he called me up and tricked me, I was under the impression that I was going to be another guitar player for them, so...
AJ: “Yeah, we need another guitar player- oh wait, we don't. We've got an open spot for a singer!”
Karl: I almost said no, I was thinking like, “You know, I don't want to be in a band. That's all the way in West Palm, how am I going to get there?” And all of this stupid bulls**t like yeah, of course I should have said yes. So he finally got me up there, I got my guitar out, I'm ready to go, he's like, “Okay, can we hear you just like, just sing over my board?” “You want me to play my guitar?” “No, no, just for right now, just for right now.” For a couple of months that went on where I slowly got to one day where I was like, “Hey, what am I doing? I'm not playing guitar anymore!” But yeah, that's kind of how it got started. I did not want to be a singer.
JM: For Jen now, since you were in Kittie, how has your music progressed between Kittie and Suicide City?
Jen: Wildly, wildly, and the boys can tell you. Wildly. I'm a big metalhead, I come from old school hardcore – I mean, I've always been open to all types of music. I mean, I'm not even talking Salsa or Merengue and all that good stuff, proud Puerto Rican stuff. Tons of different world music and what have you, but at heart I'm pretty much metalhead. I love my metal and there's no question about it.
Karl: She gets down to some booty music, though.
Jen: Yeah, I know and I do, I love hip-hop. For real hip-hop, none of this f**king ringtone Soulja Boy bulls**t, okay? I call it ringtone hip-hop. Definitely the autotunes, got to happen. Real f**king soon. But skipping all that, one thing I really learned to, and I mean I started touring when I was 14 and it's always like – it's interesting being a female in the industry, too, because for me, being the best is not good enough and that's just how I am. I was raised by a military father, so that was just belted into my head, “Your best is not good enough.” So I always wanted to be the best at what I can do, which also meant taking risks musically, and that also meant throwing your spirit into the wind and be like, “You know what? I want to venture into more rock n' roll.” I love punk rock, you know what I mean? And some riffs I'll come up with, I'm like, “That is some f**king stupid punk rock, that's ridiculous. Where did that come from?” Yeah, this band has opened my eyes, especially with these guys because they come from different backgrounds, too, and it helps me open my eyes, too. If it wasn't for AJ, I wouldn't be such a huge A.F.I. fan. If it wasn't for Karl I wouldn't listen to M.S.I. as much as I do now. And Danny, Danny's a very experienced and very wildly talented musician overall. I mean he's studied it top to bottom and he's very proud of his art and I definitely relate to that, I'm very proud of my art, too. I feel like I've been able to develop my own style, I'm wildly influenced by Cliff Burton. I felt like he taught me when to play and when not to play, but I've been able to grow and be like, know when to play and not to play in rock, and know when to play and not to play if it's something that just needs to be really dynamic or something that needs to be beautiful and not really note-y and not “Check out all these fills I can do!” That doesn't matter, it's not going to make the song any f**king better, that's for damn sure. So I would say it's really opened my eyes to so many different types of textures and dynamics and emotion with sound.
JM: Dan, since I noticed you have some strong metal influences in your drumming, what inspires you to put that kind of edge in a punk band?
Dan: I don't know, I really, honestly don't listen to a lot of newer metal bands. I like the stuff that I liked when I was growing up and when I first started playing and I totally loved that s**t. Like, uh, I'm going to go there – early nineties metal. So metal-wise, just because I like intense high-octane s**t. I like just blaring double bass and wicked fast hum-fills.
Karl: Balls to the wall drumming.
Dan: I mean everything I do, I do in excess though. I'm either like totally healthy or I'm totally beating the s**t out of myself.
Karl: Yeah, he's a serial killer, so be careful.
Dan: Yeah, watch out. Uh yeah, I just think because I like things that are over the top, that's kind of why I really love Suicide City. I remember the first time we were all in the practice studio with Karl up in Jersey, and just playing. We were playing like we were at a f**king concert and I was like, “This is where I f**king need to be.” I like over the top s**t and I guess metal drumming is over the top and I guess a lot of the things I've learned and picked up just by studying music has come through with this band. Everything's on 20. So I try to go for 20 and I guess that's a little bit of a metal approach.
Karl: “This amp goes to eleven.” [Reference to Spinal Tap]
Dan: These drums's go to 20.
(Continue reading this interview, Part Two)
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