ver·bo·ten
adjective
forbidden, especially by an authority.
Verböten was formed in 1982 by a bunch of kids aged 10 to 14 years old, soon opening for Chicago's finest punk bands. Thanks to Dave Grohl's HBO series and best-selling book, mentioning Verböten led to opportunities to play Riot Fest and the recording of a new LP, 40-plus years later. I had the opportunity to talk to Jason Narducy as he toured with Superchunk (even learning his choice of breakfast items at a drive-thru, but that is private and something I will take to the afterlife). Here is what transpired...Hey Ho, Let's Go!
Verböten Interview with Jason Narducy
Scene Point Blank: Hey Jason. Nice to meet you.
Jason Narducy: Same to you. I am in a tour van right now, touring, so I apologize for the excess noise. Where are you located?
Scene Point Blank: Canada. I am about 2 hours outside of Toronto. Are you currently in Chicago? Who are you touring with?
Jason Narducy: Actually, I am in Evanston, the first city north of Chicago. Currently, I am touring with Superchunk and we are in Kansas City.
Scene Point Blank: I read the long list of bands you have been in or played with. I am sure I have probably seen you at some time. Possibly, with Bob Mould.
Jason Narducy: Yes, I have played with his band for 20 years!
Scene Point Blank: I have to admit I didn't know a lot about Verböten or even how to pronounce it correctly, for that matter! However, what I understand is that the reunion was not your idea.
Jason Narducy: Yes, that is correct. It wasn’t my idea, but I am glad it happened. My old bandmates, whom I have stayed friends with, were contacted by a promoter out of California. I was pleasantly surprised that they considered it and, frankly, wanted to do it.
My response was that it sounds cool, but we don't have enough material to play the show . And the material that we have, I wrote when I was 11, so that's how the whole idea of making a new record came out. So we made the record and did a few shows. It has actually been a lot of fun.
Scene Point Blank: Was there not a Verböten single released around 2000?
Jason Narducy: Well, what happened was there was a musical about the band in 2020. We, the band, had originally recorded 4 songs in a studio when we were kids, but we'd never released them. We just made little cassette tapes that we would give to our friends at school. So we did print 500. We call them EPs because they've got those 4 recorded songs and then a live song from them -- 1983 at Cubby Bear. So, yeah, this is our first full-length record, but that music was recorded when I was 11.
Scene Point Blank: I have kids, but I can’t fathom letting them play gigs at that age. [Laughs.] I also have a friend who played in a band called Flesh Columns. The Bad Brains wanted to bring them on tour with them in the '80s, but the parents forbade it!
Was the musical well-received at the time and are there any plans to play some shows and tour?
Jason Narducy: There are no plans to tour, but we have talked about doing some shows next year. In terms of the musical, yes, it was very well received and ran for about 6 weeks. I had written the music and lyrics for it. It was a great experience.
if you think about not playing music for over 40 years and then the first thing you do is walk out on the mainstage at Riot Fest, it's pretty amazing. It's almost like a nightmare for some people, an anxiety nightmare.
Scene Point Blank: You sound like a busy guy, and maybe hard to pin you down with all the bands and projects you play with.
Jason Narducy: It's not so much. Like, if you schedule me ahead of time, I'm ready. Two of the band members are school teachers, so they're on a regular school schedule, and Tracy is a nurse and she's taking care of a child in Florida. So there's a regular job thing to consider.
Scene Point Blank: So you would actually be the easiest to pin down! I stand corrected.
Jason Narducy: As long as it is planned out 8 to 12 months in advance, I am in!
Scene Point Blank: I wanted to ask you about the footage that your dad shot with the ancient VCR with the big pack on the side. I think he's actually credited on the singles recording.
Jason Narducy: Yes, that is correct, the live song on the EP was filmed by my father at The Cubby.
Scene Point Blank: You were playing with a lot of Chicago punk bands at the time, like Naked Raygun. Do you remember who else you played with?
Jason Narducy: Bands we played with were Rights of the Accused, Articles of Faith, End Result, and Negative Element. I would have to go back and look at the flyers, but Tracy was friends with all these bands, so we were very fortunate to get on those gigs at the time.
Scene Point Blank: I always thought the big Chicago three punk bands were Naked Raygun, Articles of Faith, and The Effigies
Jason Narducy: Actually, we just played Evanston, and one of The Effigies' wives just came to the show. [Laughs.]
Scene Point Blank: I interviewed Blag Dahlia from The Dwarves recently, and he stated he would go to The Cubby Bear to check out shows. I think it is still in existence?
Jason Narducy: Yes, but it is very different. It was in a bad neighbourhood and essentially a dive bar. That is why they had punk rock shows, as they were just trying to get people in there. Now it’s a sports bar with 47 televisions.
Scene Point Blank: We had a loveable dive bar in Toronto called Larry's Hideaway that was not hard to get into when you were underage, and it came intact with hookers hanging out the windows. [Laughs.]. It has been knocked down for years. I guess gentrification happens everywhere.
The LP sounds great, by the way. Were you happy with the output, given that you were young kids when Verböten first existed?
Jason Narducy: Thank You. We really gelled well together. They worked really hard, you know, I'm not a great teacher of music, so I encouraged Tracy to work with a vocal teacher, which she did. Our new drummer is actually a music teacher. He worked really closely with Chris on how to approach the songs, so it was a team effort. And, you know, if you think about not playing music for over 40 years and then the first thing you do is walk out on the mainstage at Riot Fest, it's pretty amazing. It's almost like a nightmare for some people, an anxiety nightmare. However, they did it. They did a great job. So I'm really proud of how hard they worked at it and very proud of the result. It was very rewarding and a great experience.
Scene Point Blank: …and probably that much more rewarding that a nurse and teachers pulled it off, and your original drummer gave the blessing to utilize another drummer. Was Verböten big back in the day, or just regionally?
Jason Narducy: No, we were not big as we were just kids, but the story became big because of Tracy’s cousin (Dave Grohl). He made an HBO show called Sonic Highways and interviewed Tracy and me, and showed footage of us at The Cubby Bear, and then he wrote a New York Times bestselling book and wrote a whole chapter on Verböten. I was signed to Epic Records in the '90s, and no one asked about Verböten. [Laughs.]
Scene Point Blank: Well, I know in the earlier days of punk rock, it was all word of mouth and you were introduced to new bands from your friends or community. Now you have the world at your fingertips, and everyone is an expert. [Laughs.]
Jason Narducy: Oh, we were in zines and such… Punk rock was like… How old are you?
Scene Point Blank: Oh, I thought you would never ask. I am 57.
Jason Narducy: So you would know that in 1983, it was unheard of that you could become famous from punk rock, at least at that level.
It was made up of ambitious people who loved the music, or it was a love of the game, so to speak. It was a completely different time, and it was based on phone calls and scenes and people meeting each other and talking in record stores.
Scene Point Blank: Yeah, I'm from that era that you describe.
Jason Narducy: We were just such a novelty. The guitar was bigger than me, so there was, like, a comical element. However, we were actually pretty good so that threw people off.
We tried our best to play punk rock, but I don't know if it was actually punk rock. A lot of it sounds like new wave. I think we got there a couple of times. I hadn’t even gone through puberty at the time, so we just did the best we could.
Scene Point Blank: With earlier punk rock, however, there was not really a set of rules as to what you sounded like. With time, it became more contrived and categorized, and you had to wear this or sound like that, etc. I went to a lot of shows, and some people became famous and others joined other bands but, at the heart of it, people were truly playing music for the love of playing music, essentially. One of those people was Dave Grohl, as he spent a fair bit of time with Scream in Toronto.
Did you always have aspirations to be a musician from an early age?
Jason Narducy: Yeah, that's why I started the band. It was my dream as a kid. That doesn't usually happen. It isn't the easiest industry, to be honest with you.
My dad took me to a concert at 8 years old, and the next year I saw Cheap Trick, and that started me on my path to being an obsessed music fan.
Scene Point Blank: Do you keep yourself immersed in what is current in music?
Jason Narducy: The newer music excites me more than the older stuff.
Scene Point Blank: I like to keep my ear to the ground for the newer stuff coming out as well, but I find myself going back in time to discover unburied treasures for my ears.
Do you think there will be some future releases with Verböten?
Jason Narducy: I'm not sure what we will do now that the record has been released. It's hard to know what's all going to work out. It has certainly been wonderful to get together with friends and do this thing.
Scene Point Blank: The world works in mysterious ways. Who would have predicted the resurrection of Verböten in the first place?
Anyway, thanks for your time, Jason. I know you are crammed in a van. Enjoy the tour.
