Jordan Posner / Interview Part I

In the summer of 2001 I was hanging out at the seaside with a bunch of friends in an apartment when my man Geert Hollanders (Powered Records, Line Of Defense Fanzine, fireworks fanatic) pulled a new 7" out of his bag. He'd just gotten back from the States where he'd seen this ill new band called No Warning... and they had a 7" out. We listened the damn thing on repeat for the next few days. Heads were banging, fists were pumping and couches were damn near destroyed. We were hooked. Later on that same band released one of the best (if not the best) New York hardcore albums of the last decade, even if they were from Toronto. "Ill Blood" had the songs, the riffs, the lyrics, the attitude and then some. No matter what you think of whatever the band did after that, you're lying to yourself if you say that record doesn't make you want to stomp some holes in the floor. I exchanged a few emails with one of the best riffers of our generation; Jordan Posner.

What's up Jordan... Please briefly tell me some more about yourself... Where do you live? How old are you? What are you into?
I dont really know what to say about myself... I'm 25, from Toronto, Canada. I guess I'm into music, guitar, writing songs, weed, alchohol, shit like that. Haha.

What age were you when you got into hardcore? How did that happen? What were some of the first shows you saw?
I was around 14 years old. Like many, I got into hardcore through punk rock, and the metal bands who thanked hardcore bands in their albums. I would always check out every band I'd see in thank you lists. This was before the internet really took off, so you had to do your research. Plus, the Revelation/Very catalogs helped a lot the more I got into it. I don't recall my first actual hardcore show, but one of 'em was Sick Of It All/Strife in 1997. I also remember seeing Buried Alive like every month, cuz they were from Buffalo which was only an hour away.

Was As We Once Were your first band? How did you meet everyone else in the band? Aside from the drummer everyone in As We Once Were was also in the og. No Warning line up, right?
Yah first band. 16 years old. I was introduced to Ben and Matt throught an old friend called Adam Gill (the hardedge). Gill was the biggest youth crew fanatic, and he told me about this band As We Once Were, who were the only youth crew band in Toronto at the time, along with Walls Around Us (members of Fucked Up).

I have a handnumbered copy of the As We Once Were demo... It has an x'd up posman with a Bold shirt and Nikes on the cover. Were you guys all straight edge at the time? What bands that you listened to back then are you still really into now?
Hahha, fuck, I can't believe people still own that thing. You know your shit Bjorn. I was never straight edge. As We Once Were was an edge band until I joined. I showed up to my first practice with a smoke in my mouth. Haha. I haven't listened to much youth crew in a while. Floorpunch, that's about it.













At what point did you guys decide to quit that band and change the name to No Warning? What did you set out to achieve with No Warning?
Around late 1999 we decided to make the change. We played our first show as No Warning in early 2000 with Good Clean Fun I think haha? Or maybe it was when we played some fest outside Toronto. We covered the Cro-Mags and Vogel moshed. We were stoked.

Did people pick up quickly on No Warning? What was the response to the early shows like? Were shows crazy from the start? I seem to remember hearing you guys had a hard time getting noticed, being Canadian and all, until the 7" dropped... Is that true? When did you first think "Wow... People are really into us"?
Actually no. We were pretty much hated around Toronto the first year or so. We had our friends and people who were into us and we made our shows fun. It was a little tough getting our name known outside of Canada, but we just did our thing anyways. For some reason, once we started to get known in the States, that's when our own hometown started to boom. The first time I recall people actually being into us, was when we played this fest in Worcester, Mass. with Converge, American Nightmare , The Hope Conspiracy and a bunch of emo bands who went on to sell millions of records. That show was off the hook. By the time we played the next year's Posi Numbers fest, we had like 5 times the amount of people watching us then the year prior.













How do you think No Warning's background influenced the way the band worked and sounded... How important were factors like being from Toronto, being real young and not having ex-members of more established bands?
It didn't really. We didn't care about that shit. We just kept doing our own thing, writing songs, playing shows. I'm sure if we were from the States, we would've played a lot more shows.

What would you say were the main inspirations for that first 7"? Besides the more obvious NYHC bands I always seemed to pick up on a certain Integrity influence... Was that band one of your lesser known influences?
The main inspirations for the 7" were old Blood For Blood (demo, "Soulless", "Spit My Last Breath"), Death Threat, Floorpunch, Madball, Ringworm and OLC. Good call on the Clevo influence. Haha. I was the Clevo freak in the band.

How would you describe No Warning's mindset at the time?
To write the best songs we possibly could, and have people go off for them like they did at the final mosh.

Besides Bridge Nine, were there any other labels that wanted to sign you? I would imagine there were? What made you decide to work with them?
There wasn't actually. We released the 7" on Martyr Records, and just kept playing shows not really thinking about anything next. We were super excited when Chris Wrenn and B9 showed interest and wanted to re-release the 7".












"Ill Blood" is one of the most highly acclaimed hardcore records of the last decade for sure. How do you look back on that album now? What do you like and dislike about it? Is there anything you would change if given the chance to?
I'm very appreciative that people think the record is that good. That album is very special to us all, no matter what kind of shit the other members are into these days. I like all the songs, but I hate how the 2nd half of the album is mixed. We had to rush with mixing and that is the result. People say they don't mind it, but it still bugs me. Also, listen closely to the feedback at the end of the album.

What are some of your favourite songs off that record and why? Who wrote what? You wrote the majority of the riffs, right?
I love 'em all but "Short Fuse", "Ill Blood" and "No Time For You" are my faves. The vibes we got when first putting them together and hearing them in the studio... I pretty much wrote the whole album, but Matty D wrote "Ill Blood". He pulled that one outta nowhere. Definitely his finest moment.

You recorded the album with Dean Baltounis at Atomic... Whose idea was that? How was working on your first full length album with a dude that was in Eye For An Eye?
I think it was Chris Wrenn's idea. Dean had done a lot of sick albums that sounded great, plus we were stoked to go to NYC. Dean was the coolest of cool. Very laid back and a good dude. I didn't know he was in Eye For An Eye, but I knew he was in 454 Big Block. Little did we know, that Atomic was also owned by Mike Dijan (Breakdown), as well as Dean and Matt Henderson. We pulled up and started to load our gear in, when Dijan comes out, starts helping us load and is like " yo I'm gonna be helping you record your album". We were a bunch of excited 19 year olds.

A funny story, I was doing guitar tracks for "Short Fuse" and Dijan walks in. I started getting all paro and shit cuz parts of that song were "borrowed" from Breakdown's "Sick People". I'm thinking he's gonna recognize it and like hurt me. So at first, he's not really paying attention, then he pauses, listens to the song for a couple seconds, starts bopping his head to it and says "yahh, this one's good". Haha. I needed a smoke after that one. At one point, we had Dijan, Henderson and Porter all in the studio. We were saying to eachother OK, Madball, Breakdown and Floopunch are all helping with our record"... we were tripping.

How much input did he have? What was Matt Henderson's input on "Ill Blood", besides the solos?
Not much. He was in and out of the studio. It was mostly Dean. Henderson played the solo on "All New Low" (aka "My World 2") and Dean the solos on the outro of "Ill Blood". Matt and I couldn't solo for shit back then, so thank god Henderson came in and ripped one. Dude is a sick player.

Were the songs all done and written when you entered the studio or did you make any last minute changes or write any riffs last minute?
All the songs were written before hand. We practiced for about 2 months just jamming them out. We orginally had like 13 or 14 songs, but some had to be scrapped cuz they sounded too much like Madball's "New York City". Haha.

As soon as "Ill Blood" came out (and even before it did), a lot of bands with an obvious No Warning influence popped up... How did that make you feel? Weird? Awesome?
Like I said, I really appreciate that some people held us in that high regard, but it was a little weird at times as well. We were just a band doing the same thing with the bands that we loved. I always say how it's one thing to emulate your influences, but it's key to do it your own way.











You did a decent amount of touring after "Ill Blood" dropped... Obviously those Cro-Mags dates must've been a trip... How did those shows go? Did you turn a lot of the older, sketchy Cro-Magnons into No Warning fans? How intense is chilling with Harley and JJ at the same time?
Harley wasn't on that tour. It was JJ, AJ Novello, G-Man and Francis. I think Harley left shortly before the tour. It was still an incredible time in our lives. John and the Mags were the nicest/funniest dudes, as were the Hope Con dudes (BEEF AIN'T OVER RECORDS!!). The last show of that tour was at CBGB's and it was bar none, one of the best shows we ever played. We redeemed ourselves after the first time we played there, which was actually our worst show ever. Seriously, it was that bad .

Posi Numbers, Murphy's Law cover... Exactly what happened there? How funny did you think all the talk about it afterwards was?
We did "Panty Raid" with Porter on vocals, and I guess a few of our NY friends did the whole drench the first row with beer and whatnot. They also tackled our drummer so there wasn't any drums for like half a minute until Alex Russin grabbed some sticks and finished the song on his knees. Haha. I really don't remember what happened afterwards, people saying the straigt edge members of the band broke edge on stage?? Something stupid like that. I think Ben was using a beer bottle for a mic and that bummed people out. Haha.