Terry from The Jukebox Romantics on how he got into Punk Rock and how it shaped his life.

Terry plays guitar and sings in The Jukebox Romantics.  Here’s the story of how he got into Punk Rock and how it shaped him and his future.

In 4th grade, I was given a cassette tape from a classmate after school. He told me to go home and listen to it and that it was something “fast, fun and out of control.” Turns out it was Blink 182’s first demo “Buddha.” Until that day my musical tastes were pretty much limited to radio pop music, Meat Loaf, Springsteen, and Billy Joel. For the first time ever I felt that the music and a band was talking to me and shared a lot of the same feelings.

A year later I was lucky enough to attend my first concert. A different friend had an extra ticket to No Doubt & Weezer out on Long Island. The sites, sounds, and smells hooked me right off the bat. On that day I fell in love with live music, specifically Punk and Ska, and playing live looked like the most fun ever. Soon after I went directly to the closest music store, “Nobody Beats The Wiz,” (apparently everybody winded up “beating” them) and picked up Pennyswise’ “Unknown Road” and NOFX’s “So Long.” These records represented freethinking, energy, and FUN!

From then on I grabbed all the records I could and went to all the shows I could. I grew up right outside of NYC so local shows and bigger shows were only a short train ride away. Started my first real band at 14 “Foul Mouth.” Playing live was my goal. The music was short, fast, shitty and 85% covers. We played our first show within a couple months of practicing in a basement and that was it. The punk ideals, music, and brotherhood hooked me. Performing in front of people was unpredictable and fun. It still gives me the same feeling today.

Why Punk Rock? Because when it comes down to it, in its essence, to me it represents FUN.

-Terry, The Jukebox Romantics