By COURTNEY GUTTENBERG
Staff Writer
When it comes to bands who play Albany venues frequently, not all of them are born and raised in Albany. Some popular local bands are from all different surrounding cities – Scotia, Schenectady, Clifton Park, and Cohoes – but play venues in Albany all the time and have built up a relatively large fan base here. Trife Life, a hardcore band made up of long time friends Dane Wroblewski (bass), Trevor Michalec (vocals), Adam Merendino (guitar), Spencer Marzello (guitar) and Ben Fredette (drums), is a good example of this situation. Formed in Cohoes in 2011, Trife Life has played all over Albany and has established a name and presence for themselves not only as a result of their music but as a result of their inside jokes and sense of humor. I talked to Dane, Trevor and Adam about Trife Life’s history, their current focus and their future plans.
Q: Where did your name come from?
MICHALEC: It is the title of a Mobb Deep song.
WROBLEWSKI: And is used in like, every single hip hop song from the mid-90s.
MERENDINO: I was in Concrete [Albany hardcore band], and I wanted to do a song called “Trife”. After I left and we started this band, I wanted to call it Trife Life.
Q: What are your main influences?
MICHALEC: As a band, E-Town Concrete. It’s hard for us to get a band that all five of us would listen to before we were in the band. We also have a big hip-hop influence. Separately, it varies a lot as far as what we listen to. And Dying Breed.
WROBLEWSKI: Snapcase, too. Personally, my musical taste circa 2006 wants me to say Limp Bizkit.
MERENDINO: Hardcore band wise, Buried Alive and Dying Breed. Also, Terror and Incendiary.
Q: How did you all meet?
WROBLEWSKI: Overall, we’ve been friends for a long time. I’ve known Adam since towards the end of junior high through some youth group that we used to go to in Latham. Ben, our drummer, I’ve known since 5th grade because he used to live down the street from me.
MICHALEC: I’ve known Spencer from shows since 2003, 2004. I’ve known Adam since 2005, 2006 from working at Price Chopper. I met Dane and Ben through Adam.
Q: And what made you guys want to start a band together?
WROBLEWSKI: Me, Adam and Spencer were getting breakfast in Troy and we’re just sitting there and it just came up in conversation because none of us were in bands at the time, even though we’ve met through going to shows and being in other bands, it was at a time where Spencer was in a band called Hard Luck but they were kind of on there way out and the rest of us weren’t in bands at the time. It was as simple as “Hey, do you guys wanna start a band?” and then “LOL okay”.
MICHALEC: Adam texted me and said “I’ve always wanted to make a band called Trife Life. Do you want to be in a band?” And I just said, “Yes.”
WROBLEWSKI: And that day, after breakfast, we went back to Adam’s house where we used to practice and we wrote the first two songs, like, within minutes of playing together.
Q: What made you guys want to play your specific genre?
MICHALEC: We’ve all been going to hardcore shows for a long time. It just made sense.
Q: Do you each have individual reasons as to why you wanted to start playing music in general?
WROBLEWSKI: For something to do. I remember, I think I was 15 when I got my first bass and then after messing around with it I kind of taught myself how to play “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes and then just kind of kept playing and took some lessons on how to play by ear and stuff.
MICHALEC: Since high school, I always made hip-hop by myself. Then, one of the first bands Adam and I were in was like a mosh metal band. But even before that, I’ve always just sang along to things I’ve listened to and wanted to be, like, a f*cking rock star. I really just want to be Kid Rock eventually. This is just like, stepping stones.
MERENDINO: I really liked the Backstreet Boys when I was eight. I started a boy band with two friends for a week.
WROBLEWSKI: That’s not true.
MERENDINO: That is true.
Q: What’s your current focus? Are you guys more interested in writing or playing shows as of right now?
B We’re not writing at all. We’re just getting ready to release a record that we wrote over the course of three years that is now coming out four years later. As far as shows, we don’t have a van and we all have full time jobs so we just play when we can. That’s where we’re at.
WROBLEWSKI: We’re trying to play more outside of Albany.
Q: When is the release date for that record?
MICHALEC: Early 2016.
Q: What is your writing process like?
MERENDINO: Me and Spencer come up with riffs. Dane stares at our guitars and learns the riffs. Trevor sits in the room, and Ben just plays whatever to it. I used to play drums so it’s kind of easier for me to explain to Ben, “Oh, it should sound this way”. Everyone kind of helps arrange everything.
Q: What is your favorite song to play live and why?
WROBLEWSKI: It used to be “Foreclosed”, even though we don’t play it anymore, just because I used to yell “Dad!” really loud at the beginning of it.
MICHALEC: It used to be “Trife Life” for me, just ‘cause it was the one that I liked singing the most. Then, out of the new ones now, I would say “Blinded”.
MERENDINO: Basically any song I get to do backup vocals on, because that’s something I’ve always wanted to do. But we have a new song called “Leech” that is really hard to play, so I feel like I’m getting better at my instrument by playing that song. And there’s backup vocals.
Q: What is your favorite song you’ve written and why?
MICHALEC: Out of the new stuff, between “Autophobia” and “Catharsis” because I like the delivery of the way I wrote “Autophobia” probably the best out of anything I’ve written, but “Catharsis” is probably the most personal thing I’ve ever written, so that’s kind of cool too.
MERENDINO: I would pick the entire demo as one thing, just because I have always switched between instruments and it was one of the best times I’ve ever played drums. As far as the new stuff, it’s probably “Leech” again because we had a really hard time finishing the song until Spencer wrote this real sick pit riff.
Q: What is the biggest goal you hope to accomplish as a band?
WROBLEWSKI: I think playing overseas would be pretty cool.
MICHALEC: I’m gonna say a field goal. Professional football.
MERENDINO: Getting a weekend to play two shows in a row outside of Albany, one day after the other.
Q: What is the biggest goal you have already accomplished as a band?
MICHALEC: I would say having something mastered, and to have things on iTunes and Spotify.
WROBLEWSKI: Label support is pretty cool. It’s the first time we’ve had that kind of support.
Q: What’s your favorite thing about the Albany scene?
MERENDINO: Gus’s.
WROBLEWSKI: Definitely Gus’s.
MICHALEC: Gus’s is in Watervliet, so…
WROBLEWSKI: Just how easy it is for any of us to blow the internet up and how everyone used to harass us and tell us to stop and that we weren’t funny and now it’s hysterical. We’ve created new words and they’ve caught on to the general populous of Albany, which is kind of funny.
MERENDINO: I think it’s kind of cool that I went from being 15 years old at Saratoga Winners and going to shows with these guys and like, being the younger kids and then everyone always talks about “Oh, everyone’s so different now”, but really, we just got older. There’s young kids coming to shows now that are like “Who are these guys?” but they’re here and they’ve been here for a while.
MICHALEC: I would say that it is cool that in hardcore and metal, with kids going to shows, like a lot of younger kids now, I can see a lot of myself and how I was and what I was into in the younger kids. It’s different, but still the same types of kids are attracted to shows and the same types of kids like the same types of bands, but we’re just older, and Killswitch [Engage] isn’t on the radio anymore. That’s the big difference.
Q: What is your favorite venue you’ve ever played at, across the board, not just Albany?
WROBLEWSKI: Hands Up! [Wroblewski’s old band] played this fest in Maine once. There was a few significant things I remember: We pulled into the parking lot and there was a lot of real twizzy kids in Tripp pants playing hacky sack and throwing a Frisbee around and I was stoked on it but we didn’t really feel like we fit in. There was an indoor / outdoor stage kind of thing – the very first band that played was exclusively a Lamb of God and Pantera cover band. They were actually really good. When we played inside, during the last song we played, the sound guy actually jumped off of the stage and he had a plastic lightsaber with him. He just started whipping kids in the face with it. That’s the furthest we’ve played from home, so to see that kind of reaction was pretty cool.
Q: What was the name of this venue?
WROBLEWSKI: I forget.
Q: Any other venues?
MERENDINO: The Badlands [in Syracuse].
WROBLEWSKI: That place is a lot of fun.
Q: What’s your favorite local venue?
MERENDINO: The Landing Zone. Rest in peace. We also played upstairs at Valentine’s, once, and that was cool.
WROBLEWSKI: The one time that we played upstairs Valentine’s was a pre-Trife Life thing, but it was all of us minus Spencer. We played an E-Town Concrete cover set to a sold out show.
MICHALEC: …of exclusively punk kids. Who didn’t want to listen to E-Town.
WROBLEWSKI: That was great.
MERENDINO: Fuze Box is cool. Bogies was sick, too.
Q: If you could sum up your band or band experience in one word, what would it be?
ALL: Cohoes.
Q: If the world was ending and your band had to be remembered for one thing, what would it be?
MERENDINO: See previous answer.
MICHALEC: I think it’s funny – like, it’s not the same as someone saying “Oh, I like Albany hardcore”, or “Oh, I like Troycore”, like, there isn’t Cohoes, but like, kids are so stoked on Cohoes. It’s like an unexplainable hype.
MERENDINO: I mean, if the world was ending tomorrow, the only thing people would know about Trife Life is that somehow, our group text lingo infiltrated social media. That’s it.
Q: What part of the Albany scene has helped you the most as a band?
MICHALEC: Born Low [Albany hardcore band].
MERENDINO: Also, Ryan Slowey [recording engineer].
MICHALEC: Yes. He is definitely one of the most patient people I have ever worked with. We’ve all known him for a while before the band, and I know that our music isn’t something typically he’d listen to, but just from knowing us and working with us, he gives us really good and honest feedback.
WROBLEWSKI: We’ve gotten very close with him through recording.
Q: Anything you guys want to add?
WROBLEWSKI: Shout out to Substitute.
MERENDINO: Gus’s Hot Dog, Ted’s Fish Fry, Wings Over Albany, the Towne Tavern…There’s a new breakfast spot opening in Cohoes…
MICHALEC: Kent and Caleb…
MERENDINO: Dunkin’s Breakfast in Troy, Uncle Breakfast…
MICHALEC: Joe Cam’s [of Born Low] pants.
MERENDINO: Our favorite thing about the Albany scene is Joe Cam’s pants.
If you’re interested in learning more about Trife Life’s unique lingo and how it’s caught on to the local scene, like them on Facebook at facebook.com/trifelifehc. Make sure to check out their music at trifelifehc.bandcamp.com and be on the look out for their full-length, which will be released in early 2016.
Thank you to Trevor, Adam and Dane for sitting down with me!
