Photo by Bryan Phippen

Joe Keller: Engineer by day, punk rocker by night

SATURDAY, APRIL 27 - 7 PM
SUMAC PRESENTS:
Night Birds, Full of Hell, Raindance, Damaged Goods, Trenchfoot
Jacobus Lounge, Stevens Institute of Technology
1 Castle Point Terrace, Hoboken
Free for Stevens Students, $5 for Guests

Joe Keller - who will forever be known to a certain generation of NJ punk fans as Joe Erg - plays bass in the punk/metal band Night Birds, but also pursues a career as a engineer. He started on both paths as a student at Stevens Tech in Hoboken, so we talked to him about juggling a day job and a career in music, as well as his thoughts on returning to his alma mater.

Q: You were a student at Stevens during the early days of the Ergs. What was juggling engineering college and being in a band like?

It wasn’t too bad, actually. They have a fantastic cooperative education program which I took part in, so I was alternating between working full time and going to classes each semester. When I was working, I didn’t have any homework or tests to worry about, so I spent more time on music. I didn’t socialize too much at Stevens – I mostly went back to my hometown area every weekend to hang out with my townie friends and play music.

Q: Was it distracting going to college in Hoboken with Maxwells right there and NYC just a PATH train ride away? Can you recall any great shows you saw when you should have been studying?

The very first day of classes my freshman year, The Muffs were playing Maxwells. I of course went – it was a great introduction to college life. By the time I was at Stevens, the St. Marks scene in the Village was all but wiped out – I think the Continental was still doing shows for a few more years. However, there was Brownies, Knitting Factory, and a couple of other places. Also, I frequented the old Upright Cititzens Brigade Theater. I saw a lot of great shows in NYC, Hoboken, and Jersey City during my time at Stevens. I was very, very spoiled in that regard – tons of stuff to see then.

Q: A friend of mine has a son who’s starting Stevens next fall. What advice would you give future engineers about choosing Stevens for their education, and the pitfalls (or benefits) of trying to maintain a passion for music (or art, or anything else) while getting a degree?

Everyone always told me that the workload as an engineering undergrad was way heavier than for an arts degree, so if you’re an engineering student, you are probably going to feel overloaded relative to your peers who are getting a degree in something like communications. That is natural. However, looking back on my time as an undergrad, I STILL had way more free time back then than I do now as an adult. I wish I had done even more than I did with all of the time I had. So you can definitely pursue artistic passions, I think, and come out the other end with your chemical engineering degree if you so desire.

Q: One of the weird things about being in a band is that you keep getting older every year but the audience stays the same age. Will it feel really weird going back to Stevens now that you're old enough to be teaching there?

I will probably just look like a TA in a leather jacket – I have no problems with this. I think any punk rock scene should maintain a certain quotient of old guys (and yes, in punk, anyone past 30 is an old guy). There can’t be too many old guys, mind you, that would be boring… but enough of them so the younger generation has a little perspective.

Q: Let's talk about Night Birds. It seems like this last year, you've been getting some really good shows and some very high profile press. Has that surprised you at all? You guys are in such a weird niche somewhere between punk and metal, it seems like fans of both genres have embraced the band.

Regarding press and whatnot, that sort of thing is always surprising because it has way more to do with luck than with how good your band actually is. Yeah, I think people who are typically fans of one type of music or another for some reason like us even if it’s outside of their normal sonic bailiwick. Why though? I have no clue!

Q: On that same note, when you're touring, what kind of bands do you find yourself booked with? Do you think with so much music available online today, America is moving behind genre stratification? Or are there still distinct audiences for metal vs punk vs hardcore?

We play with a lot of different types of bands within the punk genre when we tour. On this last tour we went with Tenement, who lean a bit towards the pop side of the spectrum, and Give, who have a very mid-eighties DC hardcore sound. Some nights on tour we’ll play with pop punk bands. Some nights we’ll play with straight hardcore bands. Some nights we’ll play with a noise rock band fronted by a topless, skid-marked, meth-addict. It takes all kinds. I think people are less hung up on the segregation of sub genres at shows now than in past years – I am going to give the lazy answer and say that it’s because of the internet.

Q: What's in the works as far as touring and upcoming records?

We have a 7-inch single called “Maimed for the Masses” on Fat Wreck Chords coming out in May, and then a full length CD/LP called “Born to Die in Suburbia” on Grave Mistake Records coming out in late June/early July. We’ll be doing some dates over the summer to support the record release – all East Cost stuff.

Q: You've been to so many places and festivals already, is there anywhere or any show
that you're still aching to play?

Next stop, Carnegie Hall!