INTERVIEW: Kevin Egan
Earlier this week, Beyond vocalist Kevin Egan released his documentary What Awaits Us: A Beyond Story via Vimeo. Much like the band itself, the documentary is wonderfully confounding and unique and breaks the punk doc paradigm by being both an origin story and an invitation to follow Kevin around on his journey to rekindle the spark of his youth. Dew yourself a favor and check it out here.
Due to the release of the doc, I figured I would share the interview I conducted with Kevin in March of 2014 for the liner notes of the vinyl re-issue of their Dew It! demo on Revelation Records. Enjoy ya saps!
Tony Rettman: How did you get to know the people in Beyond?
Kevin Egan: When I had met with Tom Capone, he was already well established in the Metal scene with his fanzine, Mutilator. His name was on the top of the thanks list of the first Nuclear Assault record. So, he was definitely someone I wanted to be friends with.
Vic and I met through mutual friends in high school. We had mutual interests: Slayer, Metallica, and guitars. Vic and I went to someone’s graduation party and a friends’ band played called Bloody Uterus. They did all these songs about girls menstruating and stuff like that. But this was a graduation party and this kid had his grandmother there and everything. That’s where I met Tom. He said ‘I’m going to CB’s this Sunday to see Uniform Choice and Warzone and you guys should come!’ So we did.
After that, I went over to Tom’s house one day and he made me two cassettes worth of seven inches. Tom was in a band called Third Planet with the guys that I would eventually be in 1.6 Band with. Two Third Planet songs became Beyond songs, ‘Vitality’ and ‘Effort’. Third Planet was a pretty unique band. Tom sang for that band, he didn’t even play guitar. It was the guitar and bass players from 1.6 Band and this guy Danny we went to high school with on drums. Tom wasn’t sure if I could sing, so he actually auditioned me in my car. We were driving around listening to Uniform Choice and he made me sing along to it. So, I guess I passed the audition.
Dominick was a good drummer and he was into Metal and had a shed in his backyard where he kept his drums.
What were the influences on Beyond?
We were really into Dag Nasty and the D.C. bands. That was our inspiration; that sound. Tom and I would go see Dag Nasty every time they played. I remember we saw them once at CB’s with Government Issue and Verbal Assault; who was another highly influential band on us.
What do you remember about making the Dew It! demo?
We had this place in our hometown called Sanctum Studios. It was a rehearsal studio and a recording studio. I don’t remember the guy’s name who recorded us, but he was this huge guy with red hair, so we called him ‘Redman’. Tom was always notorious for giving people nicknames. In the middle of the recording, Redman would excuse himself and go to the bathroom. It was pretty evident he was going in there and snorting cocaine because he’d come back all jacked up. It’s ironic since we were recording this Hardcore demo with a Straight Edge song on it. I remember it going pretty quickly. We did it over a weekend
Then we had a demo and couldn’t have been more psyched. It sounded exactly like I wanted it to sound. I wanted to be in a band that sounded like a cross between Minor Threat, Youth of Today, and Dag Nasty.
We quickly made copies and dropped them off at Some Records. Duane called Tom later on and told him how much he loved it and he needed more. Then, only a few days after that, Tom got a letter in the mail from John Porcelly. He told us how much he loved the demo and he wanted us to play with all his bands. The dream was achieved at seventeen years old. Your favorite band is writing to you asking you to open up for their band. In some sense, it made my future life as an adult more difficult because I always assumed everything was that easy. You just put your art out there and some influential person will respond to it. So, that was huge. I look back at that letter and it changed everything for us.
What do you think makes that demo so special?
It’s all Tom. Tom was a very unique character in that band. He had a knack for writing interesting songs in a Hardcore context. It sounded like Minor Threat, but it was filtered through someone with Metal chops. That demo is very musical.
Why did you kick Lance and Dom out of the band and get Vic and Alan?
It might have something to do with Porcell’s letter. I don’t know what Lance and Dominick expected at the time. Tom and I were pretty clear from the beginning that we wanted to play CBGB’s. That was the dream. New York City is a scary place. Dominick was worried about playing CBGB’s. It scarred him. He wasn’t interested in taking that risk. Those guys would rather just stay on Long Island. So, we got Alan Cage on drums. Alan and Vic played in a band called Inner Strength. Alan had long hair when I first met him. He always had this Cro-Mags shirt on with long hair; very menacing looking.
The original intention was for Vic to play the second guitar and have our friend Rob play bass. We did two shows with Rob; one at CBGB’s and one at Sundance. Rob wasn’t getting along with Alan, so Vic moved to bass.
Do you remember the first time you played at CBGB’s?
Porcell came to see us at CBGB’s. Sammy came down too. Then Porcell ended up inviting us to play in Buffalo with Project X. Warzone played that show too.
How was that trip to Buffalo?
Playing with Warzone was intimidating. I was from the suburbs and the Hardcore scene was rough around the edges at the time. I didn’t know anyone in Warzone, but there was some issue with selling merchandise. Raybeez had staked out one spot. It was a counter at the back of the space that was perfect for selling merchandise. I guess Raybeez asked the other bands not to sell their stuff there. We were looking for a place to sell our demo and CENSORED said something like ‘We should be selling our stuff there too. Warzone said not to, but we don’t have to listen to them. Why don’t you decide?’ He threw me into the fire right away. While we were playing, I made an announcement that we would be selling our stuff over there and pointed to where Warzone was selling their stuff. So, we go into the next song and Raybeez walks up to the front of the stage. I was like ‘Oh shit, I pissed him off’. But he didn’t say anything. So, we just went back and we sold our stuff and they sold their stuff and that was it. Then, after the show, I was assigned to collect the money. I went with CENSORED and sat in this office waiting for the promoter to pay us. CENSORED was saying something to the effect of Warzone trying to snake all the money. Little did he know, someone from Warzone was in the other room and could hear us. We get paid, and we are all piling into the van with Project X and someone came over and said how the drummer from Warzone heard what you were telling the kid from Beyond and now Raybeez is pissed.
We would take Tom’s father’s Econoline van that we called the ‘Van of Suffering’ after the Bad Brains song ‘House of Suffering’. It had no A.C. There would be three bands in that van, like Project X, Gorilla Biscuits, and Beyond in one van going up to Albany. Everyone would pile into one van; at least ten or eleven people. I remember one night we drove to Cleveland and we were driving into the night for eight or nine hours packed in. I ended up in the wheel well trying to sleep while fighting back tears. I was thinking ‘This is not very glamorous’.
What do you remember about recording at WNYU?
I remember the NYU session being at the tail end of a trip. Either Albany or Cleveland. We didn’t even go home after the trip, we drove right into the city to play on the show. My voice sounds really raw and it’s because we played two shows prior. It adds some character to the recording.
Was it difficult to kick out Dom and Lance?
Lance and Dominick were two of my closest friends. When we decided it would be better for us to get Vic and Allen, I always felt that was my first day of adulthood. It haunted me for years. I always look back at that as the first time in my life I screwed a friend over to gain something. I felt that way until we did the reunion in 2006.
Do you remember the first Beyond show?
We played one show with Dominick and Lance at the Right Track Inn in Long Island. We sounded great. It was before the demo came out. We played with Inner Strength. It was an important show for me because that show made me realize what we had was special. I still had long hair for that show. Lance was working behind the counter at a (Long Island supermarket chain) Meat Farm at the time and all the girls he worked with showed up to see us play. In between songs, he sent out a shout out, ‘I want to thank all the ladies from Meat Town for showing up’. Tom and I were vegetarians at the time, so we were so pissed off, but now I think it’s amazing.