Fanzines has always been the CNN of counter culture, particularly Hardcore and Punk music. Before there was My Space, Punk.org and the countless other ways we’re filtered with the latest news and information about Punk and Hardcore. There was In Effect Fanzine. In over a dozen issues he interviewed every from Agnostic Front to Yuppicide. He poured his heart and soul into every issue. Giving us news, reviews and interviews focused on the music we love. He was always a good friend and always a couple of steps ahead of me while I was doing Unite. He was recently approached about doing a book consisting of those dozen or so issues.

If it does happen A lot of us old timers are going to need a trip to the chiropractors.

James: How did the idea for the In Effect book come about?

Chris: I got an email out of the blue from Kevin Gill of Striving For Togetherness records. He asked if I would be interested in doing something like that. Right away I thought it was a great idea. We haven’t had a chance to talk on the phone yet. But we’ve been going back and fourth with emails. At the moment he has all the In Effect material.  The pictures from all the issues and everything else I had. I think he’s also going to be releasing the Six and Violence discography. He’s also collecting all the material from the band District 9 to release that on a CD. I always liked all those bands.

James: I would imagine doing an In Effect book would be quite a task considering the amount of issues you published. What’s going to be in the book?

Chris: We were thinking of actually keeping some of the old relevant ads. I’m sure we wouldn’t be able to include everything because it would start to resemble an encyclopedia. I think he mentioned adding some references and updates on the bands interviewed. Describing what they’re up to now.  I had started working on an issue thirteen that never came out. It had interviews with 7 Seconds, Good Clean Fun. There was also a Indecision Puerto Rican tour diary. I had gone to Puerto Rico with them. It was a three or four day tour. I don’t think any American Hardcore bands had been down there at the time. Those were three items I had started working on for that issue. I know I can dig up the Indecision tour diary and I definitely still have that 7 Seconds interview.

James: How were you introduced to Hardcore and what were some of the early bands that got you going to shows and wanting to participate?

Chris: It had to be the Woodside connection. John Boles and Tom from the band Stand Proud went to school with people that I lived in the same neighborhood with. People like Nick from Fit of Anger. People from my neighborhood of Bayside started hanging out with the kids from Woodside. The kids from Woodside were already into Hardcore and knew some of the bands. The guys from Stand Proud were friends with Jay from Outburst.

The first show I went to was breakdown at CBGB’s. We had picked up their demo at Some Records. The next week we saw Warzone and Supertouch at the Pyramid and I was just blown away. That’s when I just started going to shows.

James: When I interviewed Freddy Alva from New Breed I found out you had worked on his zine. What caused the split and was that the beginning of In Effect?

Chris: Me, Freddy and Paul (Went on to the band Ox Blood) did the first issue. I didn’t have a really big contribution. I think I might have done the Pressure Release interview. At the time Freddy was a big influence on showing me how to do a zine. I didn’t really know how it was done. This is before zines were done on computers. It was all cut and paste.

So Freddy was a big influence in showing me how it was done. Later there was Chris Bunkly  from the Village Noize and Yes Zista who also gave me a lesson on how it was done.

James: Was there their any acrimony when you left?

Chris: Not at all. I didn’t really have much of a contribution. I thought it would be good to take my own ideas and go out on my own. I liked all the bands that were in that first issue but I had a vision of what I wanted to do and what bands I wanted to cover.

James: Did you have a blueprint for In Effect and the way you wanted to present things?

Chris: No, it was always a fly by the seat of my pants kind of thing. For that first issue I followed the style that Freddy New Breed and Chris from Yes Zista showed me. Following the way other zines looked. Chris Bennetos mom made fifty copies where she worked. There were no copying costs for that first issue. I had fifty copies that I had no idea what to do with. I started going to stores and people were telling me to “Get the hell outta here.” It wasn’t easy in the beginning and I’ really grateful to the Bennetos family for making those copies.

James: Was there a plan to always cover regional bands and stay local?

Chris: No, not at all. I was covering the bands that I would want to see live. I liked a lot of the smaller bands that really didn’t get their say. (The bands that weren’t getting as much publicity.)  I always wanted to help out the smaller bands. A good example would be No Redeeming Social Value, which I covered, in one of the later issues. Some of those bands thank me from time to time for giving them a break early on when they weren’t as known as they were later. Helping out those smaller bands always made me feel good. Later on when we started getting more circulation bands would come to me and tell me they got direct fan mail or orders for demos and CDs because they read about the band in In Effect. When I would hear about that it was very satisfying.

James: During In Effects existence you seemed to have a tendency to interview a lot of the bands that leaned towards that tough guy style. Was that more of a reflection of your personal taste or the times?

Chris: Looking back there was a gap of about two years between issues three and four. When I did issue three there were still bands like Gorilla Biscuits and Side By Side. When the fourth issue had changed New York was a different place. The bands that were playing in that early 90’s period are much like the ones you see today. You don’t see a lot of bands that are influenced by Side By Side playing today. Bands are more influenced by Sick of it All and Madball.  (Harder bands with a more metallic, tough guy style.) When I came back there were less shows at CBGB’s and more things going on at Coney Island High. Bands like Skarhead and Crown of Thornz were playing. I think it had more to do with the circumstances of what was out at the time.

James: What were the reasons for you taking that break from doing In Effect?

Chris: I was going to college at the time and it was really affecting my studies. I actually ended up failing out of Queens-borough College. I really wasn’t studying or paying attention. I actually received an academic dismissal. I knew I had to get my act together.

James: Where you going to shows during this time period?

Chris: I was going to shows sporadically. It was also around the time the scene started falling apart. There weren’t any shows at CBGB’s and things really slowed down. It was kind of a purgatory as far as the scene was considered. There was a time when I was working at this warehouse. I had a lot of time on my hands and I started thinking about bringing the zine back. It’s like I got this itch again. One of the things about doing In Effect is I get burnt out after a while. I’ve never done anything half ass. If I’m going to do it I’m going to be doing it nine hundred miles an hour.

James: A lot of the people I’ve interviewed seem to have that mode of operation.

Chris: It’s good and bad. It’s good because you get so much accomplished. At the same time it does burn you out at the same time.

James: Your relationships also suffer.

Chris: I was in a relationship with Gina at the time. We were engaged at one point. I can tell you I was not a very pleasant person to be around. Especially when it got close to an issue coming out. She worked on the zine with me and was responsible for the layout of issues nine through twelve.  Each issue the page count got higher and the circulation got bigger. A lot of this was done before the internet.

Chris: I just started talking to their singer Nick Cerillo again recently. He still lives in Queens. I live way out in Long Island now. It’s not like we live around the corner from one another anymore. I spoke to Nick and his wife recently and caught up on old times. I have spoken to their guitarist Al for years. I don’t know much about his situation but I understand he’s doing well.  Their Bass player Chris just got married and lives in Pennsylvania. They had a child recently. We do a lot of communicating through My Space emails. As for their drummer Todd I have no idea of his whereabouts.

James: You were also very good friends with John Boles. I heard about his death through that benefit show they booked. I was pretty far removed from the neighborhood and old friends like John at the time. I was completely shocked and saddened by it. I was wondering how his death affected you.

Chris: I didn’t fully know the circumstances of his situation at the time. I knew he was dealing with some sort of substance abuse problem. I found out about it through Nick from Fit of Anger. He called me and told me one of our brothers had passed away. I was in total shock. I was maybe twenty years old at the time and I had never had someone that young that was a close friend pass away. It definitely was a shock and It was very sad. There was a big turnout of friends and family at his funeral and the wake. I don’t know how but having all those people there somehow helped. It was a hard time and I still think about the guy from time to time. He had a daughter and he was married. I wish he were still here. I wish that whatever problems he was having at the time could have been worked out. Maybe he could have told me. Maybe he could have talked to somebody or talked to us. Maybe he would still be here. There’s a lot of would of, should of, could of.

James: I asked the question for a number of reasons. I was friends with him in the early days and I was also very close with Laura and her family from when I was a child. I was always curious because I knew so little about the circumstances and never knew who to reach out to.

Chris: I still have his daughters picture in my wallet. I still carry that picture with me until this day. He was such a funny guy. He was absolutely crazy and used to pull some of the funniest stuff.  We were out in Oceanside once. The Nathan’s there had this playground or party zone. I remember him tearing the place up. He was on fire. There were just so many funny stories about him. Stupid things he did which were so funny. You couldn’t help but crack up.

James: New York Hardcore went through a lot of changes during In Effects existence. Somehow you kept things going. How did you feel about the shift in the music?

Chris: Looking back the bands and the style were changing and I was sort of changing with the times. I was changing with the style of the bands.

James: You interviewed a lot of bands in your time. Were there any bands you were particularly in awe of?

They were a tough guy band but their answers were so silly. The guys from

No Redeeming Social Value should all be comedians. They could look you straight in the face and tell you about their show on Mars. Show you pictures and by the end of the conversation have you believing it.

James: Looking back at all the years you did In Effect what had more of an affect on you? The bands or the people you met along the way?

Chris: Both because if you look back most of the people who were going to shows were in bands. What was so cool is that everyone was contributing. Most of the people were either in bands or friends with those bands. I never looked at it as this band or that band. It was more like these are the people I hang out with.

James: What are you listening to now?

Chris: There are a few current hardcore bands now that I really feel are worth checking out. Wisdom in Chains from Pennsylvania. I saw them recently in Farmingdale Long Island with Madball. I think their music is good. I think their lyrics are excellent. Caught in a Trap is another band I really like.

The other one is Capital from Long Island, which features the singer from Silent Majority. Silent Majority is one of the bands I would have liked to feature in In Effect. I didn’t know about them right away but found out later. As I’ve gotten older I’ve noticed I don’t like rap as much as I used to. I don’t like the new style. I look back at some of the old videos and I can see a major difference.

I still listen to Iron Maiden, Metallica. I really like U2. I still love Hardcore and always will. I use My Space to help me scope out who’s good.

James: Do you ever think about doing In Effect again?

Chris: I started going to shows again about six months ago and got this weird feeling about doing something again. There are things I think about like my wife. I don’t want to turn into a lunatic again. I thought about doing an online version but someone told me that would be like selling out. Information is information to me. If it’s free and you could get it online it would make things so much easier. The hardest thing about doing In Effect was having  to distribute it. The last issue I did was ten thousand copies. I had ten thousand copies sitting in my apartment. Right now I don’t have time with everything going on. But maybe somewhere down the line I might do something or contribute to someone else’s.

(Interview James Damion. Images courtesy of Chris Wynne.)