All-around Breakdown: Christian Lesperance Breaks Down Previously Released Tracks from Upcoming Jersey Interchange C1 Compilation LP (and The Witzard Track Premiere)
Jersey Interchange is a musical collaboration series that re-imagines the songs of the New Jersey Punk, Hardcore, Emo, and Ska scenes of the late 1990's/early 2000's. Conceived as a simple creative outlet by NJ native Christian Lesperance (Skappository!) during the COVID-19 Quarantine, Jersey Interchange quickly blossomed into an exciting project, as over 50 different Jersey-based artists contributed and recorded tracks using home recording set-ups, each bringing a fresh take on the melodies that might have since been buried in basement storage bins, but never forgotten in the memories of fans who sang along with them over 20 years ago. The project gained significant traction and relevance thanks to the fans who tuned-in weekly and spread the word, plus, great support from outlets, like BrooklynVegan, NO ECHO, and many other music-related blogs, radio shows, and podcasts. In the fall of 2022, NJ label Sinking Ship Records approached Jersey Interchange to plan to release a vinyl album (C1) full of the best tracks the project has to offer.
C1 is the debut full-length album from Jersey Interchange, which features five unreleased tracks—one of which we're premiering here today at The Witzard!—recorded strictly for inclusion on the album and six other previously released tracks. Some of the unreleased tracks feature artists from bands, like Shades Apart, Vision, FOLLY, Errortype:Eleven, Dead Bars, and The Atlantic Union Project. Other previously released tracks on the album include artists from Midtown, Senses Fail, The Ergs!, Paulson, and Bigwig, as well as the singing debut of Chris Gethard, who grew up in the NJ Punk scene and is now a successful comedian and podcaster with shows and Comedy specials on Netflix & HBO under his belt.
Two tracks, "The Kids Still Have A Lot to Say" and "Cynical," are tributes to the artists who wrote the original songs and have since passed on—Dave Franklin (Vision) and Peter Ventantonio AKA Jack Terricloth (Sticks & Stones, World/Inferno Friendship Society.) The excitement for this vinyl release is boiling at the brim and we can't wait for listeners to have it in their hands. Pre-orders for the album recently began on April 7, 2023 through Sinking Ship Records with a release date of May 5, 2023. A record release show is scheduled for May 13, 2023 at Twin Elephant Brewing Company in Chatham, NJ with performances by Chris Gethard and a rotation of NJ scene artits from bands, like Shades Apart, Lanemeyer, Vision, Right Turn Eddie, and more playing short acoustic sets. Jersey Interchange mastermind Christian Lesperance provided us with a thorough track-by-track breakdown for the six previously released tracks from C1; plus, one new previously unreleased track, "My Best Friends Live Inside My Head," we're premiering right here today!
"When I got the finished track back from Heath [Saraceno], I was astounded. The amount of time and effort he put into tracking and cleaning everything up was immeasurable. The guitar leads shredded, the vocal harmonies were tight as f**k, and the song just totally ripped on a whole new level. Heath sat in front of his workstation for hours and hours manually programming the drums, beat by beat, which is an insane amount of work, especially, when you listen back to all the intricacies he weaves into the rhythms. And producer-extraordinaire Ryan Sellick did a great job of bringing this song over the finish line with his mixing and mastering prowess. This was one of the first songs we did for the project and I learned a great deal about home recording and producing from both he and Heath; can’t thank them enough for that."
"I'm aware that Atom & His Package wasn't a [New] Jersey band, but for a time, he literally had the Jersey scene in the palm of his hand, playing what seemed like weekly gigs all over the state. This song was the anthem for so many of his fans and the most likely entry point into his repertoire for unfamiliar listeners. When I asked both Mikey [Erg] (vocals) & Alex [Burton] (bass) to participate in the song, there was no hesitation on their ends. They both loved Atom and thought it was the perfect song for them. Mikey was pretty faithful to the original with the only lyrical difference being his inclusion of having Atom play the senior prom, instead of A$$ück. Alex did an amazing job of filling in a lot of the original sequencer parts that Atom had in the song and I couldn't really address on guitar. The intro bite is actually my son, Emerson, when he was four years old. He was enthralled by my audio set-up and we would always mess around on the microphone—he just so happened to nail it for this!"
WORLD PREMIERE: "This track is one of five previously unreleased songs on the album and we're proud to premiere it here on The Witzard! Highstrung was a very underrated North Jersey band with tons of talent. They were known as guitar shredders and their technical prowess was pretty much some of the best in the scene. This band, also. produced a young Jeremy Hernandez (Bigwig, Humble Beginnings, Near Miss, and many more bands,) who, also, sang and played on the Jersey Interchange cover of Saves The Day's "Deciding." John Maiello helmed the vocals on this one all the way from his home in Seattle and did a fantastic job, especially, because he took on the song without even being familiar with it in the first place. I find that to be a refreshing part of this project—the interest in exploring unfamiliar territory and making it your own.
I approached Anthony Wille (FOLLY) about the song because I had witnessed the level of his musicianship all over his Instagram account. Even though he is a drummer by trade and an untouchable one, at that, this dude is a full-bodied musician and I thought he'd make a great lead axe [guitar] on this track. He even threaded in a bit of a Humble Beginnings tribute into his lead—see if you can hear where it comes in. This is, also, one of three songs on the album that features the creator/curator of the NJPP Archives, Joe Pulito, on bass. He is a madman and I'm not sure how he balances all the things he does for the scene with his daily life. Dude is solid!"
"Who doesn't love The Ergs!? The original song is such a great Pop-punk anthem and I was cautious about trying to cover it without bringing something a little different to the table. So, of course, I brought Heath Saraceno into the fold to do just that. His searing "guitar-monies" gave the track the melodic/chaotic quality I was looking for and Shawn McGovern added the vocal depth beyond what I had asked for! His voice still resonates as it once did for The Youth Ahead and I can't imagine a more perfect duo to accompany me on this track. Another funny factoid is that Shawn is, actually, somehow, related to Mikey Erg in one way or another (cousins, I think?) and they both grew up in the Old Bridge area... you know, that place that, also, helped to launch the careers of Metallica, Anthrax, Overkill, and so many other Thrash bands! The town truly is a Heavy Metal/Pop-punk Parking Lot!"
"When I approached Chris [Gethard] about this project, I originally asked him if he wanted to do a Comedic skit to incorporate into the Atom & His Package song with Mikey Erg. He politely side-stepped all that noise and told me he had a vision of covering his favorite Weston song, "Just Like Kurt." At the time, I already had another Weston cover being produced for the project, but I knew Chris would put his passion into this track, even if he was wary of his own vocal talent, which he expressed to me a few times. So, I whipped up a faster (and, somehow, Poppier) version with Joe Pulito and sent it off to Chris to work his magic. What I got back was so fun and exactly what I had hoped for. Chris used his Comedic chops to, not only inject humor into the bookended skits, but, also, into his vocals—you can hear the lack of seriousness, which I think the song deserves anyway and it worked perfectly for this version. Chris has been awesome in participating with Jersey Interchange and will, also, be the headliner at the C1 record release show on May 13th at Twin Elephant Brewing in Chatham, NJ. "DO IT FOR JERSEY!!!"
"This is a mash-up that was never intended to happen: a very obscure NJ Punk band (Mohawk Barbie) and an old school LA Punk Rock stalwart with lyrics that may make 2023 cringe? Yeah, totally planned out in advance... NOT! (I'm bringing the "NOT!" joke back.) Not sure how this song happened, to be honest, but I'm kinda glad it did. Jon Tummillo is another musical warrior who wasn't familiar with the source material, but thought it was a great idea and was excited for it. I thought he'd be a great fit for the track, given FOLLY's way of shifting musical gears between the extremes of light-hearted fun and total devastation. Jon brought a ferocious edge to the track with his monster vocals, but gave it just enough glee on the other end to balance the song out with ease. He recorded his vocals with bandmate, Geoff Towle, at their backyard studio and Agim Colaku, also, contributed backing growls. I asked his brother, Pat [Tummillo], to play saxophone on the back end of the track, but we kept this a secret from Jon for a while! He was pleasantly surprised to find out his bro was on the track with him!"
"Taxicab Samurais were my very close friends growing up and I think this was always the one track that I wanted to make when I originally started the project. Most people probably don't know the band, but they definitely had a pretty nice following in North Jersey, albeit, for a very short run while they were still a functioning Ska Punk group. John Castaldo was the original bassist for Bigwig and a huge Taxicab [Samurais] supporter, so he was stoked to take on this track from the outset. And, of course, I had to involve Taxicab [Samurais'] brothers-in-arms, One Cool Guy! Mark [Rendeiro] & Nick [Afflitto] added their stellar brass chops to this track—I mean, who else has a French horn on their Melodic Hardcore song!?!
And, of course, Nick, also, mixed this track, among many others for the project. He was a huge reason why Jersey Interchange was able to produce so many songs of a high-quality level. Why the Youth of Today reference, you ask? Well in short, it's an inside joke amongst the band and very close friends. The story goes that they were scouted by Some Records (Hot Water Music, Errortype:Eleven,) which was started by Walter Schriefels and a few other Hardcore guys. Apparently, they were told that there was this Ska Punk band from NJ that sounded like "Youth of Today with horns!" We're not sure who that magnificent embellisher was, but he or she got Walter and his cronies out to NJ to watch Taxicab Samurais practice in the drummer's basement at least once. Now, that's some Hardcore lore."
