Utter Trash--NDE

Straight out of Streetsboro

An Interview with Bobby of NDE

By Bob Ignizio

NDE left to right: Bobby, Wally, Cook, and Longo

“You can have a good show either way, but it’s always an extra bonus when the crowd gets into it and moshes up,” says NDE vocalist/guitarist Bobby. Luckily for him, his group’s fans are usually more than ready to engage in a little pit action. Bobby and the rest of NDE (Longo – guitar, Wally – bass, and Cook – drums) have just recently released their third full length CD, ‘End of Trust’, their most varied collection to date. Despite branching out a bit, there’s still plenty of mosh inducing numbers present to please their old fan base, while hopefully adding to it as well. Bobby describes the band’s sound as “neo metal”. “There’s a mix between rock, hardcore, and metal. It’s influenced by those three things plus our personal lives,” he says.

Bobby formed the band with a couple of friends in Streetsboro High School in 1996 and recorded a demo tape that caught the attention of guitarist Longo. By 1998 the original rhythm section was gone and the current line-up in place. From the beginning, recording and releasing material was important to the band. “We released our first CD in ‘96, which was ‘Falling’. In ’98 we released our ‘Pain’ EP, and ’99 was ‘Fixed’,” says Bobby.

By the time ‘Fixed’ was released, NDE’s popularity on the local scene had grown and the band found themselves playing out on a regular basis, a fact which accounts for the time gap between ‘Fixed’ and ‘End of Trust’. “We played a ton of shows and sold a lot of the ‘Fixed’ CD,” says Bobby. “The whole time we were writing, but because we were playing so much it took a while. After we played live so many times for ‘Fixed’ it was getting dull for us so we decided we better record a new CD. During that time we released a few songs on about 4-6 compilations between ’99 and 2002. So we weren’t just goofing around, we were just taking our time writing.”

For NDE, writing is a group effort. Bobby says, “We don’t write a lot individually. We practice like 3 times a week and if somebody starts playing a riff and it’s good you’ll just feel it and everybody will just start jamming on the riff and the song will flow out. If it doesn’t, we drop it real quick. We throw out a lot. Maybe out of every 20 riffs we’ll keep one. I usually write the lyrics, but Greg did write one song on this album called “Bloodshot” and Chris helped me with a song called “Always”.

Once the writing was done, the band recorded ‘End of Trust’ at Mars studios in Streetsboro with engineer Bill Korecky. “We met Bill back when we were doing a track for a compilation album,” says Bobby. “People have said in the past that he was really hard to work with but we really hit it off with him so we’ve gone there ever since. It’s a comfortable atmosphere and the sound is great.”

On ‘End of Trust’, the band’s sound has undergone some changes. For starters, the band decided to tune differently. “We’ve always wanted to tune low, but we could never agree on a tuning so we went right in the middle with C sharp which is what all our prior material was played in. This new album we wrote in B,” Bobby said. Also, for the first time Bobby decided to try doing clean vocals on some songs. Bobby says, “Everybody in the band thinks it turned out better than we ever imagined. We’re going to keep going with that, too. The next album is going to be even more varied. We’re just looking to make an album that’s more interesting to listen to. It’s definitely the most positive thing we’ve done with the band at this point. The proudest moment of my life, probably.”

Although NDE have gotten to where they are primarily through hard work, dedication, and talent, Bobby remains grateful for the help they’ve had along the way, especially from one of Northeast Ohio’s best known bands. “Mushroomhead totally helped us get in to Mars. If it weren’t for that we wouldn’t be where we are today,” says Bobby. “The recordings started to sound better, we felt a lot better about our selves and how the music was turning out production wise. They’ve scored us the biggest shows we’ve ever played, and we owe a lot to Mushroomhead. They’re a great band and I think they deserve the success they’ve had. They also inspired us because they were one of the first local band to put a CD out.”

The band was also fortunate enough to have gotten their start around the same time as WSTB radio from Streetsboro. “We’ve been lucky with the local radio station situation. WSTB was in our high school, and helped us out a lot,” says Bobby. At the time, the station was known as “V-Rock” and played mostly heavy metal. Despite modifying their format in recent years and changing their on-air moniker to “The Alter Nation”, NDE can still be heard on the station’s airwaves. The band has also been heard on the local music programs on WXTM 92.3 and is a regular on all the Cleveland college stations.

In addition to radio, NDE also spreads the word through their well honed live performances and on the internet. “We’ll play as much as we can, but we try not to overplay in the area. If we get a chance to play out of state or out of town we’ll play any day but around here we like to space it out a bit,” says Bobby. With regards to the net, Bobby says, “I think the internet is very important. We put up an online store and we sell CD’s all over the world on our own. Also, the MP3 downloads I think are great. People are downloading our stuff, we’ve had over 6000 downloads. It helps spread our name big time.”

For now, NDE are concentrating on promoting their new album. In the future, however, they hope to sign with a label, but only if the deal is right. “We built up quite a few contacts over the last couple of years. Our drummer Greg has spoken to a friend who studied entertainment law. Just because somebody sends you a contract that doesn’t mean you should sign it. You have to have it looked over. I just want to have a record in the stores and be in the magazines,” says Bobby. “We’ve always just done what we want to and that’s how we’re going to continue.”