Interview Luke Casey from Salad Daze/Bygone Era

Can you introduce yourself and tell us which bands you have been a part of?

Wow, so many bands. In fact, I had a bit of a reputation back in the day as a 'band slut' haha, totally unfair I thought, I just liked to play as much as possible with as many different musicians as I could. I moved to NZ from the UK at 14 with my folks, and tried to get into bands almost immediately. I'd been playing drums pretty seriously since age 8, so I was already pretty good. The first band I joined was called 'Second Child' with Chris Van De Geer (Stellar*). I think I answered an ad in a music shop. Second Child went on to have quite a few different drummers, including some of my drum teaching students like Ben Lythberg (Balance, Snapcase). I also played in a band called 'Albino Slug' which went on to become 'S.P.U.D' who put out some cool records on Flying Nun. Their bass player, Pete Buckton, was my next-door neighbour in Glen Eden. He heard me playing drums in my basement and asked me to join his band, haha! I played in 'The Cuban War Poets' with him as well. So, I played a lot of different music but my main musical influences were metal bands. My uncle (Andy Parker) is the drummer in a NWOBHM band in the UK called 'U.F.O', so that's where it all started for me, going to see them from about age 10 with my parents!

Tell us about early nzhc and what bands were around at the time?

Well at the time I didn't really think of it as a 'hardcore scene' as such, because we used to play with a lot of different types of bands, not just HC ones. In fact, there weren't enough bands around to have 'just' hardcore shows. Bygone Era played a lot with 'The Warners' but at the same time I can remember going down to Wellington (on the train!!) and playing with 'Shihad' when they were still in high school. Tom Larkin (Shihad Drummer) credits me with turning him onto 'Bad Brains' haha. Because a lot of the guys playing in bands were still in high school (myself included) we played with a lot of high school bands. That didn't really change until 'Balance' came on the scene. Ben and his crew were really good at promoting in high schools and setting up 'all ages' gigs. We used to play with punk bands like 'Casualty', metal bands like 'Anigma' and even poppier bands like 'The Beads'.

Any memories or stories you can share with us from the 'Bygone era' days?

Well, I was still in high school (Western Springs, but called Seddon when I went there) when I joined Bygone Era. James Stevenson (The Chills) was their original drummer, and he was a couple of years older than me at school. I sort of knew him because he was dating a friend of mine. His girlfriend told me he was thinking of leaving Bygone Era so I asked around to get an audition. I can remember being quite nervous as they were a 'proper' band at the time: They were doing gigs and had vinyl out in the shops. I didn't know them beforehand because they all lived on the north shore. That's where I met Robbie Kay (Salad Daze). He was the original bass player in Bygone Era before Mike Scott (The Nixons/Eye TV) joined. I think my main memories from playing in Bygone Era are recording 'Get Airborne' at The 'old' Lab Studios in Symonds Street. That was quite nerve wracking as it was my first experience in a recording studio, (I'm on one half of the record, James is on the other half) and also playing the final Bygone Era show at The Powerstation (in 1990 I think) before Rowan Coffey (Vocals) moved to London. There were a 1000 kids at that show, it was awesome!

Salad daze was a big influence in early 90s nzhc/punk,can you share some memories with us?

Salad Daze used to rehearse in my parent's basement in Glen Eden! My folks have the patience of saints, they put up with me drumming at home from age 5 to 19 when I moved out of home. Still, I guess my mum was used to it having my uncle as her brother. I can remember that Simon 'T-Bone' Kay (Salad Daze) was really up on the whole tape trading/maximum RnR magazine scene at the time and was the person in the band pushing for us to get in the studio and record 7" singles. I can remember that we auditioned a lot of singers before we met Kieran Cooney. I can't even remember how the hook up with him happened because he went to Selwyn College and I didn't really know many people from that part of Auckland. However, he is still a friend of mine to this day and probably one of the few people in the world that can make me laugh until I cry! He got me into all the 'Dischord' bands like Scream, Fugazi, Shudder to Think and other bands like 7 Seconds and Uniform Choice. Him and I were straight edge too, because we were still in high school. But we made up for not drinking by eating a shit-ton of Lollies LMAO. His favourite were 'Jelly-Belly' haha. Robbie Kay and Simon Kay were older and already working, so they had money to pay for studio time (and beers!) haha.

How did you discover new music back in the 80s-early 90s?

Once I moved to NZ I had so many friends that were music-mad like me that we were always turning each other on to great bands. I went to high school with a guy called Mike Brennan (Ultimate, 7 Dials, F.O.S.) who is a bass player and one of my oldest friends. We used to play 'The Cure' covers in high school together. He was always up on what he called 'The Sounds' and usually after much hassling he would let me tape them off him! He turned me onto bands like 'New Model Army' and 'Sisters of Mercy'. Kieran from Salad Daze turned me onto a lot of good music too when we were in the band together. He got me into all the 'Revelation Records' stuff. That early hardcore compilation ('The Way it is') they did with Sick of it all, Nausea, Warzone and Youth of Today with the green cover was essential listening in my class at high school, haha. Other than that I used to go down to 'Tru-tone' in Newmarket and Kathy and Steven that worked there would recommend stuff to me, and like everyone else at the time I would spend hours searching the bins at 'Real Groovy' records.

Who ran Onslaught records, Crawlspace records and how hard was it releasing vinyl back then?

Onslaught records was run by Simon Coffey, who is Rowan from Bygone Era's brother. He promoted gigs at the time too. I think he was working as entertainment co-ordinator at Auckland University and doing the 'Hard, fast and heavy' show on BFM (under the monicker 'Sicoff') so he had a lot of contacts. I'm not sure who ran crawlspace records, although I remember it being in a little arcade on K rd. Simon Kay was mates with those guys. You'd have to ask Simon Coffey how difficult it was releasing Vinyl then, I do know it was expensive. However, when Bygone Era were around (I think) there was still a pressing plant in NZ. By the time Salad Daze were doing 7" singles, we had to send them overseas. I played on the first couple of Salad Daze singles (The self-titled one and 'Gib') but I went to Asia to play drums in hotels in 1994 so I think Miles Gillett was playing for the SD boys by then. I definitely didn't play on 'Uncle Dad' or whatever that last one is called, haha.

Which are your top 5 albums or bands that influenced you back then?

Oh man, easily my number one record at the time would have been 'You' by 'Government Issue'. I was absolutely in love with Pete Moffett's drumming style. I was basically 'The Metaller' in most of the bands I played in, which I got a lot of stick for, and I had really long hair too. I used to listen to a lot of Cro-Mags, Leeway, Crumbsuckers and other bands from New York. I can remember how amazing it was to tour America in 1995 and 1996 (with The Nixons) and being able to play gigs at CBGB's and The Mercury Lounge in NYC. Total dream come true! Bubba and Ben from Balance were in NYC by then too and came down to my soundcheck at CBGB's! I also used to listen to a lot of Killing Joke, Prong, Voivod and other bands that had interesting drumming too.

If there was one NZ band you wish you could have seen live, who would it have been and why?

I saw so many bands, both NZ and International, that there are none that I wish I could have seen. We (Salad Daze) played support to Fugazi at the Powerstation, so that was pretty amazing. later on, I was in a band called '7 Dials' and we supported 'Danzig' at the Town Hall, that was an epic gig too. Salad Daze did lots of gigs around NZ, including 'The Mushroom Ball' in New Plymouth and gigs in Hamilton, and they were always fun. Shout out to Brian Wafer in New Plymouth: He put out all the 'Sticky Filth' records, ran 'Ima-Hitt' record store and promoted those 90's Mushroom Ball gigs. He was an awesome supporter of NZ music back then. The internet was in its total infancy then too, so it was all old school promotion and word of mouth.

Any words or advice for the up and coming youth doing punk and hardcore bands?

I wouldn't dare to presume I know what the scene is like now...I stopped playing for a while when my first daughter was born back in 2003. By that stage, I'd been gigging and touring for over 10 years so I was knackered lol. My only advice would be to play the music that you really love, and then go about trying to promote it. When I started playing in bands back in 1988, there was no expectation of 'making money' from music, because we just assumed that in tiny country like New Zealand it was unrealistic. In some ways, that served us well, because if we had set out to make 'commercial' music back then I don't think you and I would be having this conversation now. At the time, I thought 'commercial' NZ music was horrible, like 'The Holidaymakers' and stuff. I'm sure they're lovely people though, haha.

Any shout outs or last words to finish the interview?

Yeah. I'd like to shout out to all the kids who used to come to the early 90's HC shows at Grey Lynn Library Hall and 'The Press Club' and places like that. There were some great shows at 'Ponsonby Community Centre' too back in the day. Even Andrew Spraggon (Sola Rosa) was in a Goth band (lol) called 'Brothers Grimm' that Second Child used to play with at Parnell Library Hall, so all those guys are still making music which is amazing.

Thanks, lots luke

Pleasure mate, it's great that you and your crew are cataloging all this stuff, awesome work and great talking to you.