What Punk Should Be: A Return to the Basics with The New York Rel-X

Every blue moon or so, I meet somebody that truly amazes me. This person can be extremely intelligent, unusually funny, or, even more rare, very wise, but when I picked up the phone to call Adi, the bassist from The New York Rel-X, I was not suspecting I’d meet one of these people. Adi welcomed the conversation and lead it brilliantly through her thoughts on punk, the scene and her passion, making music. Needless to say, I found a new respect for The New York Rel-X and the way punk ideally should be.

SLUG: How did the New York Rel-X get together?
Adi: Erika (the lead singer) was a good friend of mine way before the band; she used to be in Banner of Hope, and John Kray [NY Rel-X, Krays] was my boyfriend at the time.

SLUG: So you started out dating a member of the band? That seems like a dangerous road to go down because if you two break up, traditionally, the band breaks up.
Adi: True, but John and I are now really good friends. We started the band together and we write all the songs together. We didn’t work out as a couple, but after six years, it’s hard to give up that deep of a connection. I know he respects me and I love him to death, and after a year of us being broken up, the band is doing really well.

SLUG: How is the New York scene?
Adi: It’s hard these days because punk is really in decline here. The
hipster scene got really big. Its sucked like 75 percent of the punks out of New York. See, I like bands like The Strokes and The Killers, but I don’t believe that because I like it, I need to change who I am, change everything I believe in, or ditch friends just because they’re punk rock.

SLUG: Yeah, that’s happening in Salt Lake, too.
Adi: Yeah, it’s happening everywhere- it’s pretty disgusting. Look, I’m not all decked out like I used to be with my mohawk and all. I’m lazy [laughs] but the thing is, I never stop loving what I love. The worst is people who were Rel-X fans and friends of mine used to come to every show just to support me even if they didn’t like the set now they don’t. If you decide you’re not into the Rel-X, that’s fine, but you’re still my friend. But luckily, the NY scene is picking up again and that’s why it amazed me that so many people showed up to our CBGB show, which goes to show we do have a loyal following, I don;t know when it happened, but it rocks. We love what we do, and you can see it, whether it’s live or in our songs or in our music. We talk about things that we love. We … what’s the word I’m looking for?

SLUG: Passion?
Adi: Yeah, we’re very passionate. You can tell when a band is passionate; I don’t know how anybody else feels, but I know how I feel about my music and I know how much I love it. Whether we get huge or we don’t, it means nothing to me, because I have my songs that’ll live on after I’m gone. I’m making something that nobody can take away from me. Not everybody is not going to like the Rel-X, but that’s alright, cause as long as I like it, that’s good enough, and as long as some other people like it too [laughs], that’s good enough.

SLUG: So you’re playing on the Wasted Festival (better known as Holidays in the Sun), how is that?
Adi: This is our fifth year on the Wasted Festival. The first year was really funny because nobody knew who the hell we were; they just knew John from the Krays. We drew maybe 30 people [laughs], whereas now, we play on the main stage and the audience is packed all the way to the back. I can’t believe it! The best band we’ve played with is The Adicts- no question- they’re amazing. It’s weird becoming best friends with your idols. There are so many bands I could name [I loved playing with], like Antidote from Holland, Wednesday Night Heroes from Canada, Midnight Creeps from Providence. The list goes on.

SLUG: What is your reaction when you get negative CD reviews?
Adi: Well, not everybody can love your band, and you can’t win them all, and even if you did win em all, it wouldn’t be that great. If they repeatedly told you you’re perfect, you wouldn’t get any better. You need to be criticized. You always want to get better; you always want to write better songs.

Sold Out of Love is now in stores, and even if you don’t pick it up, rest assured that even though punk is in decline, it’s just losing its excess baggage and returning once more to the bones and guts of what punk really is and what it should be.