Local punker holds fast to his rebellious nature
By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | ∞
G.F.I. with Pig Dog and Z.Z.G.
When: 7 p.m. Dec. 7
Where: The Tremont Bar and Grill, 311 N. Tremont St., Oceanside
Admission: $5
Info: (760) 435-9555
Web: myspace.com/gfihardcorepunk
He's the son of a Baptist minister, a one-time repo man and a former choirboy. And his first love in popular music was heavy metal, yet he's spent his entire professional career in music playing hard-core punk.
Nick Razor, lead singer of veteran North County punk band G.F.I. (performing Dec. 7 at the Tremont Bar and Grill in Oceanside), is a man of admitted contrasts.
While he's led G.F.I. for almost two decades, Razor (a stage name; he declined to give his legal name) said his love of music and performance first blossomed while attending a Christian high school in the L.A. area and engaging in competitive praise singing.
"I took second place at state in solo" competition, Razor remembered during a recent interview at a hamburger stand in Oceanside.
At the same time, he and some friends were busy forming their first bands ---- playing music he described as a "punkish, kind of poppy thing."
" 'This sounds like something I want to do,' " he remembered thinking.
The combination of choral singing and leading his own rock bands lit a fire that has yet to be extinguished three decades later.
In 1981, after graduating high school, he joined the Marines for a five-year hitch. While he got to see the world in the Corps, he was also in a band almost the entire time, no matter where he was stationed.
After leaving the Corps, he got a job as a repo man for an agency in L.A. That job, too, lent itself to his still being in a band, as the job had a flexible schedule.
"You can make your own hours," he said of his work repossessing cars for banks when owners fell too far behind in their payments.
But a couple of rough run-ins with disgruntled car owners who didn't take kindly to his line of work convinced him it was time for a change. Remembering the Oceanside area fondly from a stint at Camp Pendleton while in the Corps, Razor left L.A. in 1989.
"I just wanted to get out of L.A.," he explained.
When he first started listening to music in junior high, he gravitated to metal ----- he cited Led Zeppelin and UFO as particular faves ---- and hated punk ("I didn't like the Sex Pistols").
But as he got old enough to start going out to all-ages clubs, he began giving punk another listen. With the L.A. punk scene in full flower (bands such as the Circle Jerks, Black Flag and Bad Religion were all starting out then), Razor abandoned his metal roots and fell under the sway of punk.
"I was having strange feelings, a minor epiphany where you start to question authority," he said.
And while he said many of his friends went through a brief period of rebellion before settling back into respectability, Razor said, "I just kept going.
"I wanted to play those songs, I wanted to sing those songs."
While in the Corps and then while living in L.A. after leaving the service, Razor moved ever more fully into the punk rock style. When he moved to Oceanside in 1989, he founded the band that became G.F.I.
(As an aside, he said that G.F.I. isn't an acronym ---- although it did come out of a goofy phrase a friend threw at him when Razor admitted he didn't have a name for the band yet.)
Though the band has never been a full-time gig, Razor said he has kept it going through 18 years and a litany of different lineups (with its ninth CD, "Dichotomy," being released at Friday's show) out of a love of both punk music and attitude. Asked if he sees incongruity in a middle-aged man leading a punk rock band, Razor said absolutely not.
"I'm still rebellious," he said, adding that many of the band's fans are also in their 30s, 40s and 50s. "I think they're still holding on to the ideology" of punk music.
"It was all about change," he said of punk's birth in the late '70s. "We were the hippies of the '80s.
"A lot of us are still holding on to those views."
G.F.I. with Pig Dog and Z.Z.G.
When: 7 p.m. Dec. 7
Where: The Tremont Bar and Grill, 311 N. Tremont St., Oceanside
Admission: $5
Info: (760) 435-9555
Web: myspace.com/gfihardcorepunk
More Stories
Advertisement
fan wrote on Dec 6, 2007 9:23 AM:Congrats to Nick and the band. They have the courage to do what so many want to do, but do not. Thanks for continuing to make great albums and keeping the hardcore punk scene alive and ongoing.
punk is dead.... wrote on Dec 7, 2007 6:58 PM:it died with joe strummer. Vaudeville is on the way in.
Musicologist wrote on Dec 7, 2007 11:57 PM:To Punk is Dead: Yes it's true it's dead, but Joe Strummer and The Clash were much more than a punk band; they were the last band that mattered.
Today's Stories
Advertisement