http://www.ironcross-theband.com
By Ben Lybarger
By Ben Lybarger
Sab: Well, we originally formed in 1981, the end of ’80 is when we started talkin’ about it, but it was early ’81 when we actually started. We just met through being around town. I still lived in Baltimore at that time, and I was going down to DC pretty regularly so I met up with Mark and Dante down there. Well, actually Mark wasn’t in the band yet, Dante and I met, then John Falls and the other guys.
RRP: What prompted you to get back together again?
Sab: To be honest, we thought we’d do three shows. The old bass player was playing in a rockabilly band with me called THE ROYAL AMERICANS, and that broke up. The guitarist from that band got married and moved to California, so Paul and I were sittin’ there, you know, why don’t we do three shows for fun, and we’ll play DC New York and Boston, and that was what we thought. It just kinda snowballed from there. Record companies started phoning up, “do you want to do this, do you wanna do that,” and I was like “okay!”
RRP: How many people in the band right now were in the band during the original duration of Iron Cross?
Sab: Only me at the moment. We got back together in 2000, and it was the old guys except for Kent, who jammed with us back in the old days, but they are married guys with families and stuff. First the guitarist dropped out, he’s like I have a daughter now and a job. And then Paul dropped out saying he got an awesome new job about three weeks before we were supposed to head out. It was sort of a dream supervisor job where he’s making a boatload of money. He’s got two kids and just bought a house with his wife and stuff, so Dee came out with us instead. It was all very amicable, but you know, these guys are in their forties now and life’s little different.
RRP: So why did Iron Cross break up in 1985? It was ’85, right?
Sab: Yeah, yeah we broke in ’85 and to be honest, we were just tired. Really. We were all friends, and a bunch of us have played in bands together since Iron Cross. When I was livin’ overseas Paul used to call me every Christmas and we’d talk and stuff. We were just tired and it was time to break up. Of course, it was stupid thing to do because then a couple years later all the bands from our generation that were still together started making money and getting’ somewhere, but you know, that wasn’t for us.
RRP: So what did you do during the 15 years until you reformed?
Sab: In ’86 I moved over to England where I lived for 11 years and was married and had a kid. I have three kids now, do the family thing, and still play in bands. I moved back over here a few years ago, started playin’ music in a rockabilly band, broke up, went on to Iron Cross, and here we are in Cleveland.
RRP: Was the first show you played with the new line-up the Superbowl of Hardcore?
Sab: No, that was the first show this year. The first show we played was last year in March of 2000 at the Garage in Washington. We played with Murphy’s Law and the Spitfires, and some other band I can’t remember.
RRP: Could you tell me a little about your other band, SAB GREY AND THE ARTICULATE REDNECKS?
Sab: Sure, that’s the extension of what I’ve been doing for the last 15 years. Basically that band is sort of dark country/rockabilly with a punk rock attitude because we are all punk rockers, or ex-punk rockers. We all grew up with that so we approach it from that angle. That’s what I do when I’m not doing this. I also do my solo acoustic stuff as well, just under Sab Grey.
RRP: So do you have any releases under that name?
Sab: Well, there was a Sab Grey, little home mini CD thing, but we’re sold out of that. There’s a solo Sab Grey CD coming out later this year on Lowside Records, and then the ARTICULATE REDNECKS are recording later this year for GMM. So, at the moment, no, but it’s all in the pipeline.
RRP: So were you always a fan of country music, or is that something you moved towards later?
Sab: Yeah, well, it depends how you define country, I mean even back then everybody loved JOHNNY CASH. You might hate Eddie Rabbit, but not Johnny Cash. I mean, it’s the same way it is now, you know, people will say “I hate country music, but I love Johnny Cash.” The first song I can remember hearing in my life was Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” on the radio when I was only six. It has just been a natural progression. the first song I learned how to play on guitar was “Folsom Prison Blues” and the second song was “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” and this was back when I had spikey hair and nose ring.
RRP: You guys are hailed as one of the first, if not the first, American Oi bands. Is that a label you are comfortable with?
Sab: We always saw ourselves as a punk band. Back then Oi was a very British thing, so we didn’t see ourselves as that. Now there’s and Oi scene and Oi record labels, but in our day there wasn’t. We were always like, “well you can call us what you want, we’re just us. There’s four guys in the band and this is what we play.” We happened to play closer to that style at a time when everyone else in the city was playing 400 m.p.h. thrash-punk, you know, and we did, at the time, make a conscious effort not to play like that. For one thing we didn’t want to because everyone else was doing it, for another thing MINOR THREAT were our friends. It’s like: are you going to go beat them at their own game? It’s like – no, let’s do our own thing. On the other hand, it wasn’t even a conscious thing, it was “let’s write some songs.”
RRP: Were you skinheads?
Sab: Yes.
RRP: I’ve read that you never officially released a full-length recording. Were you then surprised to see the reaction you got once you reformed, how people were really interested and a lot of the younger kids knew your songs?
Sab: Absolutely. Stunned. Yeah, we put out the stuff on Flex Your Head and the two EPs, and like I said I moved way. I had no idea that AGNOSTIC FRONT had covered the song (Crucified). You know, they were friends of ours from before, but I didn’t know it became an anthem or something. Now I get people from Italy e-mailing me and sending me Italian versions for it: Crucifoso ton something or other. I had no idea, because again, I wasn’t here, so I walked back into this and it’s been a hell of an eye-opener.
RRP: So how do you think your name has endured over the years?
Sab: I honestly have no idea. Dante, the old drummer, and I were talkin’ about this. Why did our band, which was not the premiere band of DC at the time, why are we out there with Minor Threat, you know what I mean, when they were miles bigger than us at the time (and quite rightly too, they were an awesome band)? And there were a lot of bands from back then that were higher than us on the food chain of popularity that nobody could care less about now. I don’t know how that works, but I am grateful for it.
RRP: So how do you think the punk scene has changed since you guys first started?
Sab: It changed a whole lot… a whole lot. For one thing, it is more segregated than it used to be. Now you have different scenes within the punk thing, you know, which again, you could have called us an Oi band back in the day, but that didn’t mean that every punk rocker didn’t go as well to see your shows. You didn’t have that, we were all friends, we all played in different bands, but we’d go and see each other’s bands. At the same club, the 9:30 Club where we used to play, I saw SISTERS OF MERCY there, I saw DWIGHT YOAKEM there, I saw THE BLASTERS there, I saw BIRTHDAY PARTY there. You know, it was like you went to see music, not necessarily the music associated with the clothes that you were wearing, but you went to see music because it was better than what you were spoon-fed on the fuckin’ radio. That’s what it was about. You couldn’t buy Doc Martens, you couldn’t buy bondage pants; you had to make your own stuff. It wasn’t handed to you on a spoon, you had to go and find it. And once you found it, you went looking for anything else that was like it, which is why I went to see SILLY WIZARD, and Irish folk band in ’82. I was working at a record store and the guy put the record on, and I was like “this is fuckin’ hot.” They guy was like, “I got free tickets, you wanna go?” I was like “fuck yeah.” I had blue hair and I’m sittin’ there goin’ “this is great, more songs about potatoes and women!” I mean it was awesome. So yeah, it’s changed a little bit.
RRP: You’ve also been covered by bands like the DROPKICK MURPHYS and THE TEMPLARS. Who of the new breed of bands has really impressed you?
Sab: Certainly those two. Definitely those two. THE TEMPLARS are real good friends of ours, and the Dropkicks I like a whole lot – awesome band. FORCED REALITY were really good.
RRP: Why aren’t they playing tonight by the way?
Sab: Because they broke up like five days before the tour. You know, there are some really great bands out there. We played with a great band the other night from Madison Wisconsin called THE BRASS TACKS - great bunch of guys. I played with an awesome band from Richmond called SIXER: great band. So there’s a lot of good stuff out there.
RRP: On your web-site you point out that Iron Cross were never Nazis. Is that a stigma you always had to deal with?
Sab: Well, the “never nazis” thing, if you get a hold of one of the singles, it actually says that in the part of the record where the needle goes around and round at the end. We actually wrote that into it. That’s where that quote is from. We did get a little shit from that because we were skinheads, and because we had the name Iron Cross, which didn’t occur to us in our youthful stupidity, or naiveté rather. But it’s nice to see that certainly hasn’t carried over. Every skinhead and their dog knows that we were not nazis.
RRP: How is your song-writing different from what it was when you first started, and what sorts of things are your lyrics about?
Sab: Well, I’m not mad at my parents anymore, and I’m kind of mad at my ex-wife.
RRP: Good answer. So what’s on the horizon for Iron Cross?
Sab: We finish this tour, then we go to Germany for a weekend, then we have a tour of the South heading down to the Beer Olympics. Then we come back from that and record our next thing, which will be a split single, probably with Combat 84, on GMM. Then we go to Europe in the Fall and after that is too far ahead. There will be an album next year.
RRP: What you have out now is a live album, is that right?
Sab: No, what we have is the only official release of the old stuff. It just came out on GMM, it is everything we ever recorded: the 7”s and the Flex Your Head, plus all the stuff we recorded at that time but never released. It’s been sitting in a box underneath Dante’s bed for God knows how many years. That’s what we have out now, we figure we’d start by getting the old stuff out so you don’t have to spend stupid money on e-bay for it. It’s called “Live for Now.”
RRP: You played the Beer Olympics last year didn’t you, how was that?
Sab: Yes we did, that was awesome. Oh, that was a hoot. That was a great time – a three day drinkfest where bars don’t close until like 4:00 in the morning.
RRP: I’ve been wanting to make it down, hopefully this year.
Sab: You should, we’re playing this year and CONDEMNED 84 are headlining.
RRP: THE TEMPLARS are playing too, aren’t they?
Sab: Yeah, and PRESSURE POINT, who are another great band that kicks ass. PATRIOT were really good too. They broke up, but they are getting back together to play the Beer Olympics.
RRP: Cool, well, is there anything else you’d like to add?
Sab: I just like to say thanks to everybody for caring and keeping the name alive for all this time, and lettin’ us take some time out from our day jobs.