The Noise Interview with John Surette
By Glen Matto

What does it take to be considered a Boston rock 'n' roll icon? What if you released a handful of 45s with your first band when you were barely out of your teens (back in the days when vinyl was it) and the 45s got you noticed and put your band on the map? What if this band played support for a number of well-known acts, including the Jam, Stiff Little Fingers, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Duran Duran? What if you released an album in 1983 that gained local critical acclaim (one song was voted best local song of the year on WBCN), and David Robinson the drummer for The Cars produced it? What if your band toured up and down the east coast of the U.S. from Maine to Florida more than once and didn't lose money? And what if this first band broke up, and you spent nearly 15 years inventing and reinventing yourself while rarely refusing to play a gig? And what if the aforementioned is just scratching the surface of a career that began in the late 1970's? Few musicians in Boston can equal the tremendous tenacity of one John Surette-an honest to goodness Boston rock icon. His band The DeNiros are poised to release an 11-song CD sometime in March. Keep your eyes open for the record release show.

The Past
No account of John Surette would be complete without mentioning his first band, Boys Life. I wasn't sure how he would feel talking about this subject. It's kinda like interviewing Paul McCartney and wondering about The Beatles - sore subject or fond memories? I tried not to push too much on the past, but John had no reservations with setting the record straight. We revisited a multitude of little-known anecdotes about the life and times of Boys Life - enough to fill a book - but I'll leave that to John.

Of personal interest was the well-known relations Boys' Life had forged with the Jam.

Of personal interest was the well-known relations Boys' Life had forged with the Jam. Boys Life opened for the Jam twice on their swings through Boston - first at the Channel in 1980 and again at the Orpheum in 1981. According to Surette, "The night before the show at the Channel, we get this call - 'The Jam needs somebody to take them around tonight.' So we met them at the Newton Marriott Lounge and they said they wanted to go out and see bands.

So we ended up at the Metro (the predecessor to Avalon) where this band called U2 was playing, and we figured we could talk our way in. But when we said we were playing at The Channel, they wouldn't let us in. Then we walked over to the Underground in Kenmore Square where the Future Dads and The Prime Movers were playing. So the whole bunch of us were there for a while getting drunker and drunker, and I said to Weller, 'Let's go up and play.' He said he'd play if Bruce did. Bruce wasn't really up for it, but we finally dragged him up there. It was Dennis McCarthy from The Prime Movers on drums, me and Weller on vocals and guitar, Foxton on bass, Ritchie Parsons from The Future Dads on guitar, and I think Neil Sugarman was there too. So we opened with "Substitute," we did "Heatwave," "Slow Down"… and it was bad. I mean, it was a great moment, but it was terrible. The last song we did was "Batman." It went on for 20 minutes, and no one knew how to end it. Finally, Foxton took off his bass and said 'That's it, it's over' and that was it. So as we were getting off the stage, who is standing right there in front of us but Bono and the Edge from U2, who had come over from the Metro." At that time U2 was probably touring for their last LP Boy and had yet to find success.

Now, I had always heard rumors that the members of Boys Life (Surette, Neil Sugarman on Sax, Rob Weiner on Drums and Joe McCormick on bass (who left to join The Outlets and was replaced by Chris George) didn't get along, which made the recent Boys Life reunion shows a masterful feat of the highest proportions.

So when you are in a band that is doing well and getting real gigs, why not just put the silliness aside, suck it up, and continue on? I suppose that's easy to say in hindsight, but you had to be on the inside to really know what was happening. "It was always different combinations that weren't talking to each other," begins Surette. "At one point, two of the members, Neil and Chris, who actually lived together in a dumpy basement apartment on Newbury Street, would take the train to Malden for practice. They would ride in different cars on the train and one would walk 100 feet in front of the other for the 15-minute walk to my house. Then we'd play, and they'd do it all over again on the way home." So what was the cause of this deep-root animosity? "You know what, we practiced five days Monday thru Friday, and if we had a bad set on a Friday gig, we'd practice on Saturday before the Saturday night gig," Surette confessed. "And we played every weekend without fail as long as we were in existence." It was a plain case of "familiarity breeds contempt."

The Present
Surette estimates that over the years there have been roughly 12 iterations of The DeNiros. The current line-up is with himself, Melissa Wells on bass, Kathy DeMarco (who used to play for Last Stand and still does) on drums, and the newest member Tom Higgins on lead guitar. Over the years the band has released a vast quantity of demo tapes and a CD entitled "More of Us" in 1997. According to Surette, "When we put out the last CD, we hired people to ship it out to all the radio stations and track it. It did okay. At some high school in Michigan it was like number one. In the end, it seemed like a huge waste of money because now we know we're number one at some high school radio station in a town in Michigan that you've never head of. Great, so what are we going to do with this information?"

The new CD, simply named "John Surette & The DeNiros" is being pressed and packaged as this is being written. The title says a lot. A kick in the pants perhaps, but this time Surette will take full responsibility for criticism, good or bad. Amongst the 11 tunes are two significant covers: The Kinks' "Big Sky" and The Neighborhoods "Arrogance." John Surette is a Kinks fan, which ultimately led him to appear in Boston Rock Opera's production of "Preservation," and he has kept active with the BRO since. It's good to see him continuing to branch out creatively. Since this self-titled disc is a product of the Dave Minehan hit factory, covering the Neighborhoods song "Arrogance" is somehow fitting. These two warriors go back a long way, but today it is different. They are working together on a project rather than competing against each other to win over an audience.

"Back when I was in Boys Life, we played with The Neighborhoods about 100 times, and we were fiercely competitive. When we'd go on we'd say 'Okay we're going to blow them away tonight.' Our goal was to play good enough to make them look bad. And they knew it. They had to be really good because we challenged them. That's why they kept booking us with them. With us around, they knew they couldn't just mail it in."

Flash-forward to the year 2000 and Dave Minehan's fingerprint is all over John Surette's new disc. Not only does Minehan produce the material, he also contributes much of the guitar work and backing vocals. On some cuts, it sounds almost like Surette fronting The Neighborhoods or perhaps Minehan playing guitar for Boys Life. Whichever way you look at it, it works. "Dave is really amazing," says Surette. "When we first went into the studio, we were without a lead guitarist (Higgins joined part way through). So I told Dave we would just start laying down the rhythm tracks, and then I'll play and we'll erase it later. And Dave just said, 'I'll play lead guitar.' As the project progressed, I would get to the studio at like 11:00 and Dave would have been there since 9:00 laying down like five layers of lead guitar on every track and five layers of backing vocals. And I'd walk in and say, 'Okay, what have you got for me?' And it would be exactly what I was looking for. I didn't even need to be there half the time."

The Future
You would expect The DeNiros to release the new CD, make it available at all the local record ships, send it to radio stations to vie for airplay, and perhaps try to get signed to a record deal, right? Well, not exactly. Surette has other plans. "Come to a show and you can buy it - ten bucks. That's it. No record stores, no nothing. People are always asking if they can buy something. So here it is. And hopefully they'll come back singing the lyrics."

So what is the point of putting together a killer CD just to sell at shows? There must be some overall goal in mind. "That's a secret," says Surette. "We have a plan that has something to do with that over there (pointing to his PC), but I can't tell you any more. If I tell this person or that person, then everyone will be doing it." John Surette's satisfaction is evident. "Finally, this is the first time I've got the band going the way I want it to go. It only took eleven years." Eleven years, many line-up changes (38 members at last count), years of playing live, and now John Surette has a disc that he's happy with at long last. So pick one up at a DeNiros's show and hear what this is all about.