Halfmast played their first show in April of 1993, but was a
very different band before I joined in the fall of 1993. When I first heard
their “Nation Under God” demo, I balked at how much it sounded like a more
metal Slugfest rip off, but by the time I talked to Bill and Nick about joining
the band, it had grown on me enough to want in. I remember the first practice, learning
their set with the remaining “metal guy” who was immediately put off by my
suggestion and Nick’s support of writing “fast parts.” Next time we got
together, metal guy had quit. I suggested (insisted really) that my 15 year old
brother come aboard on second guitar and we began writing new songs/ reworking
existing songs/ riffs and playing shows. Those early shows with the band in
Lockport, NY were really good and I think we all were feeling the energy of
being in a straight edge hardcore band from an area and scene where most bands,
though having straight edge members, were not.
Halfmast Circa 1994
At the Turning Point reunion 1994
At the Turning Point reunion 1994
Nick was putting out cassette releases on Third Party and had planned to do a release for a band from PA called Disregard, but they pulled out of a booked recording session last minute, leaving the time available. I suggested we record two new songs I had written the music to (Undaunted and Influence) a song that had been reworked from an old metal guy riff (Sunrise)and two songs we had reworked from the first demo (To Rise and Fall and Deprive). Somehow an Insted cover was decided on as well and that session became the “Sunrise” demo (though only 4 songs were used). The line up on that recording was Turtle- drums, Bill Page- Bass, Nick Baran- Vocals, Chris Smith- Guitar and me (Jeremy Smith) also on guitar. I still think this demo turned out great, especially as it was transitional, mainly thanks to Turtle’s punchy drum performance and that we added some speed without sacrificing the era’s heaviness.
Broken down in PA
After we recorded Sunrise, we continued to write faster
songs with a more “80’s” vibe, maybe it was his unwillingness to play as fast
as I wanted or maybe it was just how I dealt with it, but either way, Turtle
quit, which led to Jay Jancetic joining on drums. Jay was pretty vocal about
how much he hated playing drums, as he was really a guitar player, but
thankfully, he toughed it out. It was 1994 and playing fast straight edge
hardcore inspired by Insted, No For An Answer, Chain of Strength and Youth of
Today was certainly not the flavor of the times. On top of that, we added some
PC 90’s politics and overall sloppiness that turned off what few “Rev 1-10”
torchbearers that were still left hanging around. Also, I don’t think we were
that good. We were learning as we went along and I thought writing as many
songs as I could, as fast as I could, was the best way to go about things. It
was Nick’s band, but there was a constant struggle for power between us- still,
fun times were had. We recorded and Nick released the “Influence” 7” and
started doing weekends in the Midwest and East coast. This prompted Mike Warden
from Conquer the World records to offer to release an LP for us, which was
exciting. He began advertising for it; we booked studio time and went on our
first tour, in Nick’s Mazda hatchback, borrowing most equipment along the way.
"coming releases"
The
tour was pretty dismal. When we expressed to Mike that we were having problems
filling in some dates, he offered us shows with Empathy that summer. This
helped us bridge many gaps in our itinerary, but had one fatal flaw- he never
spoke to Empathy about it. When we and Envy, who was out with us, showed up at
these shows, we were treated as extra unwanted mouths to feed and the increasing
tension with some of the members of Empathy was palpable. It came to head with
a member of Empathy writing on Envy’s homemade truck cab “It’s 1994, why don’t
you wake up and play real music.” Mike didn’t really speak up during the
ensuing arguing and yelling that followed and that seriously bummed us out.
Still, after the string of shows with Empathy, the tour trucked on, with only
people in Chicago seeming to care. This ended up as being kind of a godsend,
because it was in Chicago that we ran out of money and had to stay an extra
week hanging out, waiting for another show, so we could play and scrounge up
some cash to drive back to Buffalo. Through the benevolence of Jim Grimes, he
put us on a bigger show the following week and we have enough money to make the
drive back home. Jim always got us on
the best shows and we played Chicago often from that point on.
Halfmast in Chicago
Halfmast in Chicago
With recording for our LP looming and still seething from MikeWarden not saying ANYTHING during the confrontation with Empathy, we decided to put out our LP ourselves and I left a message telling Mike we weren’t going to work with him. In hindsight, I think we probably should have just done it, as it would have helped the band, but then again, I’d rather we screw ourselves than have someone else do it, so I guess it is what it is. We had recorded 4 songs (Regret, A Power Inside, Gaze and Ploy) and intended to expand upon that recording with new ones and a couple redone songs from the Influence 7” and demos, but then my brother quit and the band loomed on breaking up. Technically we did, technically we didn’t, maybe we were broken up for like 12 hours, but basically we broke up then got back together with Bill “Farside” Wickham on bass, but, everything aside, it was a way to throw Bill Page out without having to be the dickheads who threw him out. Looking back, it probably makes us bigger dickheads. We recorded the rest of the LP as a four piece and played some shows all over, with Farside’s first show with us being in Chicago, now truly our “home away from home.” I seem to remember that the “Together” LP had some financial issues for Nick, so we opted to make it a 9 song 7” choosing what we felt were the best songs. I think it’s a pretty flawed 7”, but in the original 16 song LP order works much, much better. The song “Narrow” is one of our best songs from the era, even if the lyrics are about me and my brother, who were in the fucking band. The lyrical topics weren’t just about keeping hardcore real or friendship, there was more range than most “youth crew” orientated records; we covered and encouraged women’s involvement in hardcore, the validity of homosexual love, animal rights, the faults of religion and the record’s opening track “Advantage” took an anti-rape stance. All great stuff to “get out there” but a poor layout, recording and thin vinyl ultimately led the record to be dismissed. Recently, the complete LP version of Together had an overhaul and remaster and I feel that if this version had come out, more people would have paid attention.
Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed offered to do a split 7” for us
on his Stillborn records label with an ever rotating band for the other side.
The bands that would commit to doing it kept breaking up and I think towards
the end it was supposed to be with a NJ band called One 4 One, but there was a
long delay with them providing a master. After a year, we asked for the DAT
back which Jamey sent band to us without any protest. That recording was the
last we did as a four piece and has not been released, as by the time we got the
master back, we had moved into writing better songs with the addition of Gerald
Thomas from Hourglass on second guitar.
First show of our 1995 tour
My grandparents were
kind enough to buy me a van in the spring of 1995 and Halfmast used this to
head out on a summer tour that took us up and down the east coast and through
the Midwest, occasionally linking up with other bigger tours and shows. The
first show of the tour was in Hamden, CT with Hatebreed, whose drummer passed
out in the middle of a song and they struggled to wake him. On Long island at a
club called Smashlight on the second night, we had a great show, until the club
owner asked the kid to count the money then drove off in his sports car with
it. After the show we met a guy from Germany named Dennis, who had written to
Nick a few times. We decided, well demanded, that if he truly wanted to see the
United States, he should come with us- and he did. We got to a show in Rhode
Island that was happening, but wasn’t confirmed that we were actually on, and
they didn’t let us play. We played in North Hampton with a band called
Grimlock, whose t-shirts had the same logo as the classic DC band Ignition had.
When I asked the singer about it, he said “Who’s Ignition?” We played a Skate
park in CT and members of 25 Ta Life tried to strong arm us into using our
guitar equipment after it was already packed away in our van and we were
getting ready to leave for a long drive before the show was over. Rick came up
to me and apologized saying “Oh man, you know, those guys are fill ins, they
don’t know how it is!” Our friend Pat, who was acting as our tour manager, got
arrested in Milwaukee after Nick said something flippantly to a cop. Jim Grimes
decided to put his life on hold and traveled with us after our show in Chicago,
which he instantly regretted once we got down south.
with Dennis from Germany, summer 1995
with Dennis from Germany, summer 1995
As this was the days before cell phones and email, and out
of ignorance, once a show was booked, we just assumed it was going to be there.
Our Southern tour leg had a few shows with Ignite and Earth Crisis, which was
great, until we showed up at a couple to the promoters saying variations of “I hadn’t
heard from you guys in 3 weeks, so I assumed you weren’t coming.” We had been
on tour for 3 weeks, what a farce. Still
we pressed on, doing what we loved and ultimately I’m not sure if I would
change anything about that tour looking back, except maybe not falling asleep
at the wheel on the interstate and rear ending another vehicle at 85 mph.
somewhere in Ohio
After that tour, our song writing improved. Gerald was a
much better musician than any of us at the time and I learned a lot just watching
him play and going over riffs. We recorded the “Status” cassette, which I self-released
and Gerald left the band, which was a smart move on his part, Hourglass were
making waves, whereas Halfmast was barely afloat. My roommate Paul joined on second guitar and
we became a weekend warrior band, and when Jay started contributing to the song
writing, I felt like we were finally getting to where we needed to be; and then
the coolest thing even happened. Ryan Hoffman from Chain of Strength called me
about the Status cassette- he wanted to release it as a record! I was really
proud of the new songs we were writing and we talked him and Steve, his label
cohort into paying for studio time so we could record a new, proper EP. “Deny Their Vision” was recorded at Border
City Studios in Niagara Falls in April of 1996, I still love the songs, but the
recording leaves a little something to be desired. Jay’s performance wasn’t the
best and he struggled the entire session. People tell me that they love that
record and I can at least listen to it without cringing like the earlier seven
inch EPs, but I am still trying to figure out why our logo looks like it does on
the cover.
the logo is like Metallica's, only blockier.
Jay quit the band shortly after the recording and Eric Ellman
took over on the drums and played on our best song, State, but couldn’t commit
to a summer tour, so a friend of ours from Chicago, Brian, who was in XeverlastX, came out
to Buffalo, crashed at my place, and handled the drum duties. Originally this
kid name Sean was going to drive us on the tour in his minivan, but he backed
out, so after playing the first couple of shows in the North East hoofing it in
our cars, I asked my roommate Mark to rent us a mini-van, which he did, only to
return it while we slept a few hours back home before heading back on the road.
Eventually, we secured another Minivan, loaded up and headed out. I think it
was about 9-10 shows into the tour before we played back at home again, with
varying results, some shows were cool, some were typically weird for us. But the
real weirdness happened the day after we played our tour home show, before we
were supposed to head to play Ithaca with I Farm, then CBGBs with Prema. The band
had all gone to their respective apartments/ homes after the gig and agreed to
be picked up around 11am, but when we went to get Nick, he wasn’t ready, so
after some arguing and pissing and moaning, we picked up everyone else, and
then returned to his place, about an hour and a half later, but he still wasn’t
ready, as he and his girlfriend were arguing or something along those lines. I
stormed out of his house saying something flippant; he jumped through the
screen door threatening to “kick my fat ass.” Looking back, the scene was high
comedy; I was nervously laughing, pointing a pen at his forehead, other people in
the van were yelling and poor Paul tried to use reason “Now Nick, everyone in
the band agreed to being picked up around 11 and now it’s almost 3” which, of
course, just escalated the situation. We ended up driving off without Nick,
with me vowing to play the shows as a 4 piece with me singing; that didn’t happen
and a few miles away, in a parking lot, Halfmast broke up.
The author in his old apartment, around the time of the last tour
Milwaukee on the last tour, lots of Chicago kids traveled
In DC on our last tour
at what end up being our last show, with me arguing with security, I still hate that club
Things were weird for a while, but eventually everyone went from publically cordial to being friends again, which I, for one, am happy about. We even played an impromptu reunion in the summer of ’97 after a short No Reason set and it was one of our best shows! Halfmast overall was a learning experience and instrumental in shaping my life, for better or for worse. Last year, we remastered some of the stuff and put it all up, for fee, on bandcamp. Enjoy.
