John “Apples” Telenko - Vocals Greg Swanson - Guitar, Vocals

Chris Preston - Bass, Vocals Jerrold Kavanagh - Drums

    Every now and then a band comes along that instantly resonates with me. It could be a combination of things. Power, melody, a hook or a break. It could be a song you find yourself singing along to long before you even know the lyrics. Most of the time it has a lot to do with a sense of sincerity and urgency. Few bands have done that for me lately. That all changed from the moment I heard the Amber Jets.

    A good buddy of mine Tim Kossomedes is always turning my ears on to new bands I may or may not have heard. About a month ago he sent me a link to the Amber Jets “Swimming Lake Superior”. I had never heard of the band but Tim is a good egg and knows my taste in music. I began to listen with absolutely no expectations or preconceived notions only to be immediately hooked.

    The music had a warm and familiar sound. Reminding me of some of the great bands that had passed through my ears when I was younger (Dag Nasty, The Doughboy.... I was puzzled. “Why does this sound so familiar. I scrambled to the bands website to learn that familiar voice was John “Apples” Telenko. Old friend and former singer for Sleeper and Serpico.

I sent him a message to say hello and set up an interview. About a week later we met up before their show at Martini Red in Staten Island. I met the band and they were all nice enough to sit down and give me the low down on my new favorite band. That night they played an incendiary set that had the entire island on their feet. It was great seeing JT and his sister again after all these years. It was also a pleasure to meet and get to know Greg, Chris and Jerrold. An old school shout out to Hobi Kapluri.

Great seeing you after all these years. (I may have mixed up what was said between Chris, Greg and Jerrold. I had just met them and I’m not used to interviewing entire bands at once.)

James: You toured Japan at a pretty early stage of the bands existence. How did that come to happen?

Chris: We were playing at a place called the Infrared Lounge somewhere on the Lower East Side. We were sitting at this bar when this Japanese guy came in and asked “Is this John Telenko?”  He mentioned he knew JT from Sleeper and Serpico. He and JT sat at that bar and talked for hours about old school music. He and JT formed this relationship that night. At one point he even flew to the United States to see us. A few years later he decided to start a record label. Having us record for them seemed to be the perfect storm. We did the record with him with the intent to sell it out there. We knew it was bonafied when two or three years later when we were playing at the Charleston in Williamsburgh Brooklyn and Shinji showed up to give us each envelopes with about two hundred and fifty dollars each and a breakdown of the record sales. From that point we planned to go overseas and tour there.

James: Were you playing over there with Japanese bands? If so how was the interaction with both the bands and the fans?

Greg: Yes, we were playing with all these other Japanese bands. They were really gracious and appreciative people and great bands. They were part of this really lively scene. We thought there would be these cultural differences and we kinda made fools of ourselves because of that. The first night we played this band was so excited. They kept on saying “You guys are psycho.” “Psycho, Psycho!” We get on stage thinking that it means “Crazy”. So we’re yelling “Yeah, we’re Psycho!!!” Later on I’m looking through this translation book and “Crazy” means “The Best”. So there we were walking around like idiots screaming “Yeah, we’re the best.”

Jerrold: We made a really great impression on Tokyo.

Chris: As we played shows in Tokyo the bands that we played with the night before would come out to see us. So we made some good friends and met some awesome people. We really such an amazing time.

John: It was one of the best experiences of our lives. The people were so humble and genuinely interested. There was absolutely no pretenses about the people. They knew all the bands and our music. They were wearing All and Doughboys shirts. They knew the history of Staten Island music scenes from the 90’s. There was one fellow that came up to me after one of the shows. He came up to me and said “Tragic Life Records.” My head was spinning. “What?” He said “John Lisa, Tragic Life Records.” From there we talked for about two or three hours about all of the Staten Island bands. The guy actually has a web site dedicated to 90’s bands. It’s in Japanese but he has scans of all these 7 inches with descriptions of the music. He’s in a band called Butter Dog. We also hooked up with this incredible band Velocity. We played two shows with them. We have a split 7 inch with them out now. They have a full length out on Waterside Records. We’re still in touch with a lot of people from the tour. It was just so cool to have that opportunity to do that.

I had always wanted to go to Japan but it’s so expensive. While we were there we had people interpreting for us. We had a van for all of our equipment. They took us back and fourth to the shows and fed us. We were just so grateful to have that experience.

There was this band Electric Summer who was like Japans version of Jello Biafra.

To watch this kid who was almost twenty years younger than me who had total control of the stage.

Greg: We got in on that record towards the end. The first few songs we wanted to do were taken already. Of course we got to do a song we liked and it was a super opportunity.

We went out to California to see ALL and Big Drill Car and were able to meet those guys.

To meet somebody and have them say “I love that song and I really liked your version of it. That’s an amazing compliment.

John: They had the ALL reunion with Scott Reynolds and we were big fans of what he did with the band. So we flew out there and it was a lot of fun.

James: Are there any plans on a tour in the near future?

Chris: We would like to and we have discussed it. What we would really like is a return to Japan. You mentioned earlier that it might be harder to get shows around here. That’s true to a degree. The scene here might not be a vibrant but over in Japan it is.

That’s not to say that if something came up we wouldn’t take advantage of it.

The opportunity would have to present itself. As you get older you have real life responsibilities, jobs and expenses.

James: Another thing is that so many of the clubs where you played in during your years in Serpico and Darien are gone. Has Martini Red (The bar they played in that night)

sort of become your home base?

Jerrold: It kind of has.

Chris: One thing with Staten Island is there’s always been one place. If one closes another will open up and the people will gravitate there.

Greg:That’s one of the great things about this area. They will always find a place to do shows.

James: I would imagine there’s comfort in playing to the home crowd and seeing so many familiar faces.

Greg: These are all our friends. Everybody here has been involved in the same scene for fifteen years. It’s a great opportunity to break away from real life, come here and hang out with your friends. Do what you love in life and be involved with their lives.

James: Does Staten Island get a bad rap or are all the stereotypes true?

Chris: Yes it does and deservedly so. If you’ve ever seen the show “Jersey Shore” it’s pretty accurate. I’d say it’s like that overall but there are some cool pockets. Though there are areas where people are doing things musically.

Greg: There are a lot of faces to Staten Island.

James: Have you written a lot of new material since you released “Swimming Lake Superior”?

(Laughs) About twenty songs. They’re all in different stages of development.

James: So a new record is in the works?

Greg:Yes. I would say so. We want to do something really limited like a 7 inch.

John: (Joking) We’ll do a limited release of about thirty five copies. Then turn around and sell them on Ebay for five hundred bucks a piece.

Greg: We have enough material for an album but I think before we do anything big we’ll release a 7 inch.

James: As a band and as fans of music. How are you dealing with the changes that are going on with digital downloads VS Vinyl VS Compact Discs?

Chris: One thing I noticed that was pretty cool was Vinyl VS MP3. A lot of the new vinyl feature additional MP3 downloads for free. I thought that was a great little hook because a lot of people aren’t buying CD’s right now. It’s not intangible to them. So now you can get the vinyl which is great from a collectors standpoint and still get the digital download for the same price. That hook could help bring the vinyl medium back more.

Greg: The main purpose of doing that split 7 inch with Darien is we love vinyl. That’s pretty much what we buy. I really think that a lot of the people that are into this kind of music will have a record player.

John: Vinyl has such a nicer sound to it and I love handling vinyl. It gets me all excited and gives me a woody. I’m just in love with the packaging of 7 inches and 45’s. It’s got a good low end feel to it. To me CD’s always had a tinny feel  to them.

Greg: Another thing about vinyl is when you were in High School you would spend all your money on a certain record. Maybe you’d spend your lunch money that day. But you would listen to every song on that record for three weeks straight. These days a kid will go home and download two hundred MP3’s for free and not even care about it. They don’t feel in touch with the music because it’s disposable to them.

John: Like James was saying before about how he was singing along with the songs.

I love to hear that because when you really take time and immerse yourself into a bands music. If it’s really a string of pearls it can become the soundtrack to your life. You have that emotional investment in that band. So when you get to see them live it’s like there’s no crowd and there’s no band. You’re there because you really love what they do. Your paying a compliment by paying to see their band.

James: What kind of effect did “Our Music Center” have on you growing up?

Greg: When we were in High School “Our Music Center” was the place.

Chris: I bought the first Sleeper single there from Johns sister. I saw John and said “I’m not going to buy this when the singer of the band is standing there. So I snuck it up to the counter and his sister rang me up. She starts waving the single at John. “Look John this kid is buying your 7 Inch.”

James: In a way “Our Music Center” was for Staten Island in the nineties  what Some Records was for New York Hardcore in the eighties. It was a place where the Punk and Indie kids went to get their 7 inches and Punk records. Almost everyone I was friends with when I lived here worked there at some point. It was the hub in a sense.

John: I loved it because I was the buyer there. I would go through Art Monk and Revelation catalogs and other distributors would fax me their new releases. Whenever I saw something I liked I’d order a copy for myself and five copies for the store. It gave me the opportunity to get the exact things I wanted. I met so many great people while I was working there. I met Greg through the record store. It was a great place where if the boss wasn’t there you could just hang out and talk about music. I was always very much “If there’s anything you need. Let me know and I’ll order it. That was my job and I was always happy to help my friends. For record collectors it was definitely a cool place.

(Interview James Damion; Pictures Courtesy of Doug Williams)

http://www.theamberjets.com/

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