Sunday, July 15, 2007
Abbey Carr interviewing Joe Ragosta
NJ Ska Fest, Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ

On Sunday, July 15th, 2007, I went on a small road trip to Sayreville, NJ to check out the Starland Ballroom Summer Campout and hang out with the newest NY Break Out Band, Patent Pending. This summer ska extravaganza drew thousands of kids on a hot and humid day, but the heat did not keep them from skanking (ska dancing if you didn’t know). The venue’s set up for the day was perfect—even for a parking lot. The two stages offered non-stop music and invited everyone to dance. Concert-goers were able to see ska-icons Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, and Streetlight Manifesto on the main stage. In between the main stage sets, smaller (but just as mighty) bands took on a smaller stage and attempted to lure new listeners to buy their records. Patent Pending had a high pressure set time—2nd to last—right between Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish. Some kids opted to fight for a spot near the front of the main stage, but PP definitely drew a large crowd. Those who chose to stay at the main stage missed out on one of the most fun bands I have ever seen perform live—and that’s saying a lot!

Guitarist and vocalist Joe Ragosta pumped up the crowd by demanding audience participation throughout their set. Some group activities included a giant huddle in front of the stage and also an introduction to our spiritual-maracas (which do not contain beans, but do—in fact—contain our rock and roll souls, according to Joe.) Even with such a heavy-duty lineup for the day, I would still bet that there were more people dancing (per capita) during Patent Pending’s powerful performance than any other band’s set. After interviewing Joe and being blown away by the band’s energetic show, I have come to the conclusion that Patent Pending can win the affection of anyone within earshot.

After the Starland Ballroom Summer Campout, Patent Pending kicked off the Summer Crush Tour with Suburban Legends, Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer, and Jet Lag Gemini, another NY Break Out Band. At the Summer Camp Out, Vince Walker of Suburban Legends (actually, the whole SL gang) could not stop talking about how much they loved Patent Pending. Vince said, “They get us excited about life! Please quote me on that! Joe is so cool! They work hard at every show—all of the guys. We met them on tour last spring and now we’re going out again. They are our bros! It really was love at first sight. That’s why we’re calling it the Summer Crush tour!”

If I’ve convinced you to check out their show, then you can stop reading—but if you want to learn more about Patent Pending and hear their thoughts on the NY music scene, then read my interview with Joe Ragosta!

What is your experience with the NY music scene? What are the fans like, what are the venues like, and are there any major differences from other cities in the US?
I really appreciated the NY music scene before our band started going on tour. I thought it was such a cool place that people can come and express themselves musically with different kinds of music and art. Then I left and saw every other kind of scene there is to see. Then I came back, and I appreciated the NY music scene even more. What you learn is when you tour other places, everything else is a bunch of recycled crap. The same bands are doing the same thing over and over again. The NY music scene prepared us for an unbelievable world of music. It taught us that just because you don’t play death metal music, does not mean that you cannot play a death metal show. There is a way to express yourself artistically to people who don’t normally experience that kind of music and everyone can enjoy themselves. The NY music scene is like a very accepting jungle. It’s a jungle because it is so intense; it has so many bands, so many kids, so many different scenes, so many different pockets, I was in one GIANT scene. It’s such an interesting group of musicians and bands that come together. Take a look at your website, NYBreakOutBands.com—you have Paulson up there next to Jet Lag Gemini. Two amazing bands that don’t sound anything alike. It’s such a cool scene over here in New York and Jersey—very accepting and diverse.

What are some of the venues you have played in/around NY?
We’ve played every venue there is to play on Long Island—every single one—I think 19 times each. In NYC, we’ve play Arlene’s Grocery, we were fortunate enough to play CBGB’s before it went down, and we’ve played the Knitting Factory a lot. I think my favorite venue in NYC is Roseland Ballroom—for sure! It is such a cool wide open place. The Knitting Factory is awesome when the bands are energetic. Like when we play there with Catch 22, Whole Wheat Bread, and Bomb the Music Industry. It was just chaos because it was so crowded, sweaty, and disgusting. If one person jumped, they took everyone else with them because they were so close together. It’s so cool to come to NY to play shows because you are playing on this street, and also playing on this street is Ben Kweller, MC Hammer, and Kelly Clarkson. You have a million shows going on, and there’s always a show that is better than your show, but still people will come and hang out.

What kind of vibe does Roseland Ballroom have? What makes it so unique?
Roseland is great for any genre of music because it’s such a wide, open, crazy place. There’s a separate merch area so no one has to worry about getting trampled; there’s a separate bathroom/drinking area so if people want to hang out they can; there’s enough room for everyone who wants to go nuts rocking out with the bands that are playing. It’s a cool venue because the stage is gigantic, the sound system is rad, and there’s a really cool aura that the room gives off.

I read on your website that you love Alley Katz in Virginia—what’s so great about this venue?
DUDE! Alley Katz in Virginia is the coolest venue ever!!! I love playing Long Island, Georgia, California, Colorado, and Texas, but Richmond, VA’s Alley Katz in Virginia is the coolest venue in the world. Next is The Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY—which is another NY music venue I didn’t talk about—An amazing place! And when you look out and it’s sold out, it’s like everyone is on top of you. Anyway, Alley Katz is cool because the kids fill up in front of you and then fill up on the sides of you and then there’s a balcony that goes completely around you. You are in an OCTOGON OF ROCK! You are completely surrounded—360 degrees by people. The sound system is insane and the building looks like if you move ONE piece, the whole thing will fall to the ground—it looks like it is about to break down. But every time you go, they always pack in tons of people for insane, crazy shows. I’d have to say that besides Long Island, that is my favorite place to play. I also love to play in Georgia, California, Colorado, and Texas. Oh! And Salt Lake City, Utah—they are wild there! I asked some kids once, “Man, why are you guys so crazy?!” and they told me, “We live in a very conservative town and this is the only place we get to come out and rock!”

What are your favorite venues to go see YOUR favorite bands in NY?
My favorite place to go see bands is The Chance in Poughkeepsie. I live about 2 ½ hours from there, but it’s worth it. No matter where you stand in the room, you are basically on the stage. I can’t even explain the physics behind it, but it makes sense and you need to see it. The people are RIGHT on the stage! It’s so weird how they can fit so many people in there. It’s always sold out because there’s not much to do in Poughkeepsie. My favorite shows there—I saw My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday before either band was played on the radio. It was back when Taking Back Sunday was still playing “Tell All Your Friends.” It was so cool to see a band that you knew was going to blow up in this tiny, tiny place. My other favorite show there was when we played with Gym Class Heroes and Cobra Starship in September of last year. Our singer, Michael, catapulted off the balcony into the crowd, and Gym Class Heroes were just amazing there. The crowd was thrilled to hear the rap/rock and it was just awesome.

At what venues do you ASPIRE to play in?
Madison Square Garden!

You guys are started in Long Island—do you see a big difference between the Long Island scene vs the "in the city" scene?
Yeah—the city scene is impossible because it’s just so hard to break. We played there probably 70 times before anyone cared at all. It’s all because there are so many things going on. Why would someone come to see us when they could see The Blue Man Group? It’s just a tough scene to break into. The Long Island scene is like a jungle—kids either love you or hate you. We learned during 3 years of playing 4 shows a weekend that not everyone is going to like you, and that’s okay. It really prepared us for places like NYC and Austin, Texas, and San Diego, California where you have to earn your way. After 20 US tours, we’re started on our way. The Long Island scene really helped us to break into the NY scene—which I think is the toughest scene in the world. And then the NY scene conditioned us to deal everything else. The first time we played CBGB’s, I think there were maybe 3 people there including my parents—that means ONE other person paid to get in. It was terrible, just so bad. But we were young, and learning, and having fun. We just wanted to play CBGB’s so badly. The second time we played there, the show sold out. It was a cool feeling to be there and know that two years before, no one cared. It’s cool in NY because everything you get, you have to earn. Now we are in a spot where we can play small venues and do really well there.

You guys have a strong, dedicated fan base that has helped your band grow by word-of-mouth. Will you tell me a little about your fans?
Everyone understands when they come to shows, we don’t have fans—we have friends. The people who come to our shows understand that they are more a part of the show than we are. If we are there playing music, who cares? It’s the fact that all of these people came together to ROCK. It’s such a cool experience. I like to think that our shows are a little bit different than everyone else’s. When you leave, if there were 100 people there, then 105 people played the show—not just 5 people on stage with instruments. Everybody who comes to the show is so important. You hear so many bands say stuff like that. You watch these bands on the Warped Tour do their interviews on Fuse saying, “everyone who comes to our shows mean so much to us…” Whether they mean that or not, I know what that feels like. I know what it feels like to play on Long Island. Last summer, we got to play Warped Tour—we had been gone the whole summer, we earned our way onto that tour the hard way. We got robbed, we got flat tires, our air conditioning broke down, our van broke down, we had no food, we got in trouble for leaving trash in a venue, every bad thing that possibly could have happened on that tour, but it was amazing. When we came back to Long Island and looked out to see the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen—there to hear our music—was such a crazy thing. They know that we aren’t cheating them. Something that a lot of people don’t know about us is that we do a lot of our touring for free just because we love playing. We get just enough money to cover gas, and then we go home broke. We do it because we love it. It’s cool to know that there are kids out there who are as intense about this as we are. Places like this in NJ, Long Island, NY, and like I said, Georgia, California, and Colorado, it’s cool to see kids dedicate half an hour of their lives every couple of months to come see us play. It’s a small army that started in Long Island. We would play Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and some Saturdays we would play there twice at this one venue. We barely even moved our equipment out of there. The paying kids would come every weekend, every show and rock with us. We built this community, not necessarily a very big community, certainly not a profitable community, but it’s something that we care about and the people involved care about.

As a music fan yourself, do you guys head to the city more for shows, or prefer to stay on Long Island?
When I was around more, I would go into the city all of the time because that’s where all of the good bands were. Then venues like The Crazy Donkey and The Downtown came around and kind of opened things up on Long Island. So I had to do less traveling to see bands, but if you wanted to see bands like Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, and Glassjaw then you kind of have to leave the island, unless they are doing some kind of secret show. It’s cool to be involved in both scenes because there are some bands that only hit the city, like the Aquabats, but then Suburban Legends come to Long Island, so it’s cool to have access to all that great music.

What was life like growing up on Long Island?
I didn’t grow up on Long Island! I moved there when I was in the 10th grade and started the band a year later. I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, which is why we went back to tour there so much. Growing up in Richmond was cool because the scene there is way different from New York. In Richmond, everyone will listen to everyone. Here in Long Island, you have to earn your way. When I was there, The Ernies were coming up, Avail was big, and bands like Less Than Jake and Goldfinger came all of the time. Blink 182 would always come before they got huge. It was cool seeing them at this place called Twisters (that is no longer there) and Alley Katz (which is still there).

What bands influenced you guys? What do you think about kids aspiring to be like Patent Pending?
What’s cool about being in this band is that after six years of touring and trying as hard as we can, we’ve gotten fortunate enough to play shows like this, the Summer Campout at Starland Ballroom, where we’re playing with bands like Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish. I grew up listening to these bands, for sure. Those are bands that I have every CD they ever put out and know all of their songs. I remember being in the 5th grade watching Reel Big Fish on Letterman, and now we are playing with them today. It’s really cool to be influenced by these great bands and then to be able to tour with them. When Catch 22 asked us to tour with them, it was wild because they are one of my favorite bands in the whole world. It’s really a dream come true—I get to see this band that I love so much every single night, but also, I get to play with them. It’s really cool going out on tour with these bands that you look up to. You get to see that these guys are in it because they love it, whether they are making money or not, they are here because they love music. It’s good to know that we looked up to the right kind of people. Every once in awhile you’ll meet someone who is a sour grape, just trying to make money. It kind of kills a part of you because you think, “I used to listen to this band when I was younger, and now they are sell outs and just here for money”. It’s cool to grow up with some of these bands who are on the same level as us too. Like going out with Suburban Legends, a band that’s on our level, and watch them succeed. Now we have kids who are crazy enough to try and cover our songs—it’s the most flattering thing in the entire planet. I probably wrote that song in my room, and now he took the time to learn it, teach it to his friends, and now they are playing it at a show. It’s an insane feeling—I remember the first time I walked in to a place and some kid was covering “Cheer Up, Emo Kid”, and thought, “NO WAY!” I was pretty paralyzed. We’re a small band, we know that. We’re not cocky people. Why would they want to cover OUR song? There are so many better bands and better songs to listen to. For whatever reason, these kids are connecting to what we are doing.

Steve Pedulla from Thursday is a cousin of yours, right?
I’ve never heard of Steve or Thursday! I’m kidding. Steve is my cousin. He has actually been a tremendous guy to us and helped us out a lot on developing our band and getting to where we are. Everything we’ve done, we’ve earned and done it ourselves, but he’s always been there to tell us, “You’re making the wrong decision,” or “You’re making the right decision,” and “Here’s how to make it better.” It’s cool to have someone who has been through it and someone who is on a level we aspire to reach. It’s also really funny to go to barbeques with someone who wrote “Cross out the Eyes”. That’s pretty funny.

Thursday is from New Brunswick, NJ, but is still close to NY—do you see any differences within the NY/NJ/CT scene? Is there a difference from state-to-state or as you get farther away from the city?
I was at their house today, they from all over NJ. Here’s the run-down. On Long Island, it’s relaxing and intense. The people are genuinely giving and listen to lots of bands. New Jersey is a battle. I think the first 30 times we played in NJ, the kids would sit on the stage facing the other way because they hated us so much. Now they are very accepting and they are nice to us. It’s actually one of my favorite places to play in the world. NJ is a tough place when you first get here. Connecticut is really laid back. Those kids love everything about life and it’s awesome to play there. All three places have great benefits and it’s an awesome scene to be in.

What’s the deal with the whale?
We named our CD, “Save Each Other, the Whales are Doing Fine” because that’s funny. Then we thought since we had this whale thing, “We should get a whale suit and bring him to our shows!” Then we made a TV show called Band World that’s on our MySpace and its pretty funny. It was a stupid thing we thought of, and now it’s our logo.

You guys clearly have a TON of fun doing what you do! What’s one of your favorite memories of watching your band grow to what it is today?
They play our songs a lot on the radio in Las Vegas and in the West. We were there the other day on vacation and the radio was on. I was like, “Oh, I know this song…holy shit! That’s me!” That was a wild thing! Seeing our video on TV was really cool. Leaving for first time to tour and then coming home was cool. That was a really enjoyable experience. It’s really rewarding because we still book all of our own shows so the first time we did that out-of-state was a really wild experience. Having kids in our town actually like our band now is really cool. We never left our town in the beginning and we were awful—way worse than we are now. I’m not saying we are good now, we’re still a pretty bad band, but we were terrible! The people in our town had to deal with it and they hated us. So the first time kids started liking us in our town, we really felt like we had accomplished something.

I saw that your other guitarist, Marc, is biking across America to raise money for the American Heart Association—super cool! How did he get started with that? Does your band support any other causes?
HE’S BACK!!! He did it! He biked from Long Island to California to raise money for heart disease. He raised a bunch of thousands of dollars for heart disease. He had a great time. He set out to do what he wanted to do and he did it! I’m just happy he made it back in one piece! We try to support as many causes as we can, as long as it’s a reasonable cause. We do a lot of cancer benefits and teens at risk benefits. We play a lot of cerebral palsy and autism benefits because that sort of stuff hits home. We try really hard to find ways to contribute with what we do, and we play a lot of our shows as benefits. When we play Long Island shows, we usually try to tie in a cause, like last time, we raised money for Marc Across America and cancer research. Anytime that you can do what you were going to do anyway, and at the same time, do something positive for another group of people that needs help, it’s a really cool feeling. It’s even cooler when you can play music and rock and roll.

Anything else you would like to add or a story you'd like to tell?
#1, watch the show “Weeds” because it’s awesome—very good! Watch “Lost” because that’s also an awesome show, but start from the beginning or else you will be confused. I would also say to you, go out and buy all of the Full House boxed sets because they are all fantastic. I would say to eat chocolate as much as possible, because hey, you only live once and chocolate is delicious. I would also say to have a pizza party once a week because it keeps the soul young. Other than that, I would say buy our CD and come see our band play!