“The more things change, the more they stay the same”. Interview with Michael Berdan of Uniform
Uniform was formed in 2013 by longtime friends and seasoned musicians Ben Greenberg (The Men) and Michael Berdan (York Factory Complaint). Working as a duo, they developed an onslaught of blistering metallic guitar licks with a backbone of unforgiving drum-machine. A punk fury that powered their 2015 debut, Perfect World, and its torrential follow up, 2017’s Wake in Fright (both released on Sacred Bones). The group’s third offering, The Long Walk (2018), represented a critical high watermark before they joined forces with The Body for a pair of collaborative albums, Mental Wounds Not Healing (2018) and Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back (2019). In 2020 the band returned with Shame out via Sacred Bones. This album marks their seventh year as a band based in New York, a city that with its changes has shaped the future of Uniform from the very beginning.
What’s your first memory of NY?
It’s kinda hard to pin down. I didn’t grow up here but most of my family are native New Yorkers so I’ve been around the city for my whole life. I guess the first memory that stands out would be walking around Times Square in the 1980s. My aunt got tickets to a broadway show for all of us one Christmas and when we went we had to park a few blocks away. I distinctly remember the marquees and posters for horror, kung fu, and action movies right next to all of this porn and live sex stuff. I remember the sex workers and the junkies and the winos. It was both terrifying and enchanting. I was so scared and utterly captivated. To this day I think it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
How is living in the city from your perspective?
It’s changed a lot over the years. The city’s overall allure comes from the fact that it’s the nexus of so much culture. If you are resourceful enough, you can pretty much tailor every moment of your existence to your interests. That being said, it has become prohibitively expensive across the board. Most of my old stomping grounds are long gone. The city is constantly changing and that’s part of the beauty of it. These days I play more of a spectator role than that of an active participant. I’ve gotten older and developed an appreciation for peace and quiet. The shows and clubs I go to are few and far between and there is just about 0% chance of anyone ever running into me at a bar.
You’ve always been very active in the underground music scene. what is something that only the NY underground music scene can give to someone who if part of it that no other city can?
No matter what your tastes and interests are, you are bound to meet like-minded people here. Covid has changed the game a lot but in common times there are shows every night, art exhibits everywhere, and some of the greatest cinema in the world. There is a fairly unique array of record stores and book shops. It’s not that other cities don’t have these things; just New York has them in abundance. There is an active, thriving scene for just about everything.
You and Ben started Uniform when you were both living on the same street. Do you think the city itself pushed you to start this project somehow?
Common geography was a factor of us getting together, but I think that same phenomena happens everywhere. There being more people in NY makes something like starting a band a bit easier, but heaven knows that great artistic pairings serendipitously happen in small towns just as often as they do in big cities.
How was playing and rehearsing in NY when you started?
It was easy. When I first started playing music here, our guitar player had a basement that her and her partner converted into a practice space. I lived a few blocks away and could go over there to play whenever I felt like it. We got on shows through friends and built up from there. We had a philosophy that you couldn’t overplay in New York, so we took whatever gigs came our way. It was a great way to hang out and drink for free.
And now?
I have a very different life these days. Uniform will still play diy shows from time to time, but we also play bigger clubs. We generally don’t play in New York more than once a season or so. We spend most of our time on tour so we reserve home shows for special occasions. That being said, we all have solo projects that are very active around the city. We’re each likely to play small clubs or houses on any given day of the week, just not as Uniform. I feel like this is necessary for our collective sanity. There’s a big part of each of us that will forever be firmly rooted in the underground.
Many venues are closing and it feels like the city is taking away spaces of aggregation for all the people like us who are actively involved in the music scene. how do you see the future of NY underground music?
The more things change, the more they stay the same. I’ve seen countless spaces open and close throughout the decades, and that cycle is gonna keep right on going for the foreseeable future. As long as people are hungry for shows or raves or whatever else, there will be an underground that makes sure those events happen. That being said, it’s not as easy as it used to be. New York being cheap and lawless back in the day made it a truly fertile breeding ground for interesting people and vibrant scenes. Those people and communities still exist, there just aren’t as many of them as there used to be. Maybe I’m just old and out of touch, though. There will always be true freaks here.
How do you think we should all take action to keep our music scene alive?
Go to shows. Buy music. Buy merch. Support each other. Get involved and stay involved. For some people this lifestyle is a passing fancy. For others, this is our everything. Be present.
INTERVIEW: MARIKA ZORZI
PHOTOS: A.F.CORTES
