The Bruisers are without a doubt one of my favorite American Oi! bands, and I know for sure they are one of your favorites too! When I realized old guitarist Jeff Morris was running the band's Facebook page I didn't hesitate on asking him to do an interview for this site and the result you can read below, hope you enjoy!
Update 08-01-2013: Additional answers from former The Bruisers drummer Dan Connors added!
First of all thanks a lot for taking the time to do this interview! How are you doing these days?
Dan Connors: No problem , it's great to hear that people are still interested in The Bruisers. I am doing well and have been playing music more regularly over the past year, before that it was only the Bruiser reunion shows.
I contacted you to interview you about The Bruisers, but let’s talk about the days prior to The Bruisers first. Did you grow up in New Hampshire? How was it like growing up there?
I’m from Newburyport,MA, ten minutes from the NH border. The Portsmouth,NH connection is Al, Rodger and Scotty. My first band, NPD played some parties and a show or two where we met those guys and started hanging with them at Dover house and in Portsmouth, so for the most part that scene became ours as well since Newburyport didn’t have one.
Dan Connors: I grew up in Methuen Mass and moved to Newburyport when I was 17 thats where I met Jeff and where we picked up instruments and decided we wanted to play music, We formed a hardcore/skinhead band called NPD.
Did you play in bands before?
NPD – it was a hardcore band in Newburyport. Nothing remarkable except that it included some of my best friends who went on to do lots of stuff including playing in the Bruisers. Dan Connors and Scotty Davies would play in the Bruisers. Al Quint played bass toward the end, your readers know him from his zine work with Suburban Voice and contributing to lots more. Steve O’Sullivan played guitar – he went on to play drums with Joe Wood of TSOL and lots of others too.
The Bruisers formed around 1988. How old were you guys at the time?
I was 18, I think Scotty was the same and Al and Rodger maybe 19 or so.
Dan Connors: I was a couple of years older than the other guys I was 23 in 1988 and had only been playing drums for 2 years.
What were the reasons at the time to form an Oi! / streetpunk band?
Al and Scotty started the band in Portsmouth, they listened to bands like the Blitz, 4 Skins etc… and nobody was doing it in our scene so they wanted to put something together. There were always a ton of bands starting up in the Dover/Portsmouth scene, and one of the early important bands for me was VFW with Scotty Davies, Dave the Wave and Joel Paul.
NPD played our first show with them at the K of C in Portsmouth, but prior to that I had seen them at a backyard party in Newburyport where they blew me away. It’s a shame those guys didn’t release something, they were really fucking good. Watching Joel on stage was like guitar school for me. At the time I could barely hold Barre chords, and I picked up some cool things from him that I still do today. Just certain ways to hold chords to include an extra overtone or make a variation on a Barre chord that uses the 2nd through 5th strings instead of starting on the low E all the time. Especially in Oi! Music the bass is so important that when you eliminate that low tone on guitar and leave extra space for the bass it just sounds cleaner. That’s something I definitely picked up from Joel.
The coastal NH scene doesn’t get nearly enough respect. There were some amazing bands – Radicts, 5 Balls of Power, DVA, VFW, the Murderers… and in the late 80’s there was a real buzz around Dover house and Portsmouth about it. In the years since I’ve never seen anything like it. Dover house was Lenny “Larvae” of the Murderers place and that was ground zero for the NH seacoast punk scene. He was and is the real deal. Nobody talks much about that scene. Probably it’s discounted because people think NH is the sticks. What can I say?
Dan Connors: I joined the band in 89 after Roger left, but we all listened to Oi! music , so I was psyched when they asked me join.
The band are considered as pioneers of the American Oi! and streetpunk movement. Sure there were bands before, but looking back now they never had such impact on the scene as you guys. What is your opinion on this?
I’m probably the wrong guy to answer this. I’m not a scene historian and would lose every time in a game of skinhead trivial pursuit. I have no idea whether we were pioneers or not, but thanks for saying so.
Dan Connors: I never really thought about it that way I just went out and played as hard as I could, I guess with Jeff's great song and music writing abilities coupled with Al Barr's strong vocals it translated well to the scene, although it didn't seem like it back then.
Oi! music in general has been around since the late 70’s, early 80’s. Why do you think it took the American scene quite some years to be formed?
Like I said, I was just a guitar player, I don’t get into much of the history of the US Oi! Scene. I’m sure you know at least a hundred times more than me about it.
Dan Connors: Early Oi! is very rock and roll . I think it took a while for it to evolve and catch on here in the US.
At the time The Bruisers were formed quite a few of the American Oi! bands were very openly anti-communist and white pride/power. You guys were patriotic, but never got involved in any politics. Were these tough times to get shows etc… because you were skinheads in the early days?
We had a hard time getting shows in general but I can only think of a couple of times anyone ever mentioned the skinhead thing as a reason. Mostly it was because we were trying to get gigs in other cities and our music didn’t fit much with a lot of the bands playing at the time. That and the fact that this was pre-internet and it took time to find the right people to put shows together. At one point we pretty much said fuck it and just played around Portsmouth. We eventually started getting good support slots with AF, Murphy’s Law, Sheer Terror, Type O, Bad Brains, Stars and Stripes and some others. That was when we felt like we were getting somewhere.
Dan Connors: Yes it was , but like you said it was tough for anybody who had a shaved head to get shows or any music industry backing.
Around ’94 you guys signed a deal with German Lost & Found Records. How did that go? Word was that the label treated a lot bands poorly. How did The Bruisers and L&F worked together?
They paid us to record “Up in Flames”. It went fine, the check didn’t bounce and the record they released was a good package with good inserts, photos and lyric sheets. I thought it was a good deal at the time. Later things got sketchy.
Dan Connors: They did give us a small budget to record Up in flames, other than that they sucked.
‘Up In Flames’ is the last full-length The Bruisers released as a band. I heard it got recorded in just two days, that’s insane! Why was that?
Can’t remember but I think it was two days separated by several months while we practiced the new stuff. That’s how we did things, we never spent a lot of time in studios. It was painful sometimes so we couldn’t wait to get the fuck out. Plus it was costing us money and every dime we spent on tracking was one less to keep in our pockets. That was the deal with Lost and Found on that record. They paid a lump sum and we gave them a record. So of course we tried to do it as cheap as possible to keep what was left.
Dan Connors: I can't quite remember but that sounds right , I think it was over a weekend . I know there were a couple of songs I definitely could have used more practice on.
‘Up In Flames’ was released in the same year when Sick Rick passed away. How did this affect you and what effect had this on the band? You left the band the same year. Was it for this reason or were there other reasons?
Rick’s passing was a tragedy. He was a very important member of the band and a great friend and we all miss him still. That’s all I have to say about that out of respect for him and his family.
As for me leaving the band, a lot of it was due to the reaction we got from the “Up in Flames” record. People didn’t want to hear that from us. We really weren’t getting any good shows and the ones we did get seemed to be a let down. At least that was my perception at the time. Looking back I think I really took the negative reaction to that record personally and figured if people didn’t want to hear what I was into then why beat my head against the wall trying.
I remember conversations with friends about why the punk explosion that was happening in the mid 90’s didn’t ever reach us. My whole attitude at the time was you play and release what you feel or else you’re a sell out. That means resting on your past stuff too, if you’re not feeling it. And in the summer of ’96 I wasn’t interested in writing and recording another record like “Independence Day”.
It takes time and distance but now I really like that record a lot. I think it’s #2 for me behind Cruisin’. In ’96 when I left the band I had just turned 27 years old. I think I thought I knew a hell of a lot more than I really did. But that goes for all of us I guess.
I don’t regret leaving the band, there’s nothing else I had left on the table really. And the guys went on to release a couple of really great records afterwards, so I think it was what had to happen to make that possible.
Fast forward to 2006 and a lot of the stuff that would be recorded and released on the Death & Taxes “Tattooed Hearts and Broken Promises” record were songs I had written back in ’95-’96 that would have been my contribution to the “Up in Flames” follow up. So eventually they all came out anyway. I just wish Al had sung them instead of me. That’s something I would really like to hear.
Dan Connors: The band was deeply saddened by Riks death and we still are to this day.
Are you still playing these days?
I still play and record some stuff in my home studio but until Johnny Rioux approached me I hadn’t released anything since I moved to Chicago.
I have almost a full record’s worth of stuff recorded that would have been the 2nd Death & Taxes record. I’d still like to get Mike Savitkas to record some bass parts for it. Maybe some day I’ll put it out. No hurry.
Did you hear Johnny Rioux’ take on ‘Society’s Fools’ from his ‘cowboi!’ project? What do you think of it?
Yeah, it seems there must be some confusion since that was me on guitar on that one. Apparently you didn’t know that. Johnny and I played together for the first time at the 2012 Bruisers reunion. Years ago in the early 90’s I had helped out producing a session by his psychobilly band, The Uglies but we never did play together so the 2012 show was the first time. When it was over we stayed in touch and he asked if I wanted to play on some stuff he was doing.
I don’t think he planned to release it at the time, and I definitely didn’t either. I just thought it was a cool project to collaborate on. He would record his tracks and Pete Sosa on drums and send me the rough mix. I would spend some time writing guitar parts and then record them in my home studio and send them back.
It was really challenging to do since I had decided from the start not to try and play anything even close to the original versions. We did all classic Oi! Like “Working” by Cockney Rejects, “Someone’s gonna die”, “If the kids are united” and more. And there was the Bruisers cover. I thought that came out great.
At some point it shifted from a fun project to an actual record possibility and Johnny was able to get it released with Randale so I was pleasantly surprised. Looking forward to it coming out.
Some people are going to like the stuff done all country/rockabilly style and others will claim it’s a sacrilege. That’s the way it is in the scene, too many people take themselves and things way too seriously. It was fun, the music rocks. Have some fucking fun and enjoy it.
Dan Connors: I like it and all the other songs he covered.
Okay, I’m going to round things up on here, just a few short questions… What is your favourite Bruisers;
- Song and record: “Till the End” for one obvious reason. It was the first time Al and I sat down and wrote a song together. It’s also the first track on the Cruisin’ record which is my favorite. It’s when the band was at its best, both live and on record. We were playing all the best gigs, all over the place including Europe (though I didn’t go) and we were all as tight as we’d ever be. That song sums up what it meant to be in that band. There’s nothing more to say at all. It’s all right there in Al’s lyrics.
- Live show: Probably one of the Elvis Room shows in Portsmouth because it’s where I knew just about everyone there and it always felt like we belonged there.
Dan Connors:
- Song: Hands down Chrome, It's not our heaviest song , but Jeff nailed it for Me on that one. It is also one of my favorite songs to play live.
- Record: " Cruisin For A Bruisin"
- Live show: We had few great ones in Europe , but the Elvis Room shows were the best . It was Our hometown Club and fans there were always unmatched.
And the final question I guess more fans than just me are curious about… After the reunion shows in 2005 and last year at the TNT festival, does it ever still itch to do some new Bruisers recordings?
Recordings? No, not really. It’s great that people still wanted to see us play last year at TNT and Pete Morcey did an amazing job putting that together and dealing with the overwhelming amount of logistical and I’m sure egotistical bullshit. But to record as the Bruisers today wouldn’t hold up. The band had its day, and any attempt to recreate what we had on record would be shit. Maybe we can play again some time, but I don’t think we’d ever release another record as the Bruisers.
Dan Connors: I think it always will itch to do something Bruiser related, It's been tough to get together with a full line up over the past few years , thats why the 2 Bruiser reunion shows have been special for me.
Okay that’s it, thanks a lot for your time! If there’s anything you would like to add… Feel free!
Thanks for remembering us!
Cheers,
Jeff
Dan Connors: Thank you , Me said Oi!
