Johnny Skilsaw   I got Johnny Skilsaw started back in the mid eighties when I was living in a 12,000 square foot Music loft in NYC known as "Giant". It was a hub, 30 rooms of post punk mayhem. There was a lot of life. I worked there in my early twenties doing everything from construction. to booking. I spent a good deal of time jamming with all these crazy characters around at the time who were mostly into Punk, Hard Core, Reggie & Ska. Before too long I constructed a crude but well traveled recording studio there and tended it as a "day job". I had the chance to experiment with some unconventional ways of creating music. I had the means to develop this thing that I play called  The Swiss Army Bass as well as coming up with techniques for creating controlled Feedback & make tons of recordings.

Starting off as a duo, drummer Ron Auber and myself, we would freak people out because it sounded like ten guys. We were later joined by multi instrumentalist, Pete Furry and singer Mike Paterson. We had contempt for minimalism and a pention for playing intricate arrangements musicians could  appreciate. We had the energy and grit of all these hardcore bands around at the time and some of the Musicality & finesse of all the prog rock and jazz we grew up on. The instrumentation: Swiss Army Bass, Drums, & percussion & sample triggering.  We played around town in different incarnations through the late 80's and were generally met with enthusiasm even by the hardened, purist punk NYC crowd.       Me and my Swiss Army Bass: mid 80s Ron Auber: Drums    Early Skilsaw at CBGB circa late 80s

Things  started happening in the early 90s when Nick DiCorato took over on drums. When I first met Nick, He was really frustrated with the NYC scene & ready to move to Seattle. He had been in two noteworthy bands, "Still life" and "Starving Artists". It was clear that  Nick was passionate and serious about being a drummer in a successful rock band. We striped the idea back down, worked hard performing and recording as a duo and refined our unique approach to making music. Our recordings landed us a real management deal  which coincided with the addition of Mark Hutchins on percussion, sample triggers & background vocals. We took some time and developed live versions of the material that Nick and I had been working on. After a rocky start, It wasn't long before we were packing Clubs like Brownies & CBGBs sharing bills with some seriously cool downtown bands the likes of Skeleton Key & Very Pleasant Neighbor.
		Nick "Arms" DiCorato: Drums

CBs mid 90s   Damn I'm Ugly     We became a band like no one had ever seen or heard. When we showed up for sound check at any given show the sound man would inevitably bum out and roll his eyes .When they us lugging in all of this unsightly disheveled equipment mostly held together with (you guessed it) Duct tape, I think that they were usually expecting some nightmarish, avant-garde or industrial shit. It got even more ridicules when I pulled out the Swiss Army Bass. People aren't suppose to play bass & keyboards that sound like really loud guitars simultaneously while singing. And what need would Mark, the Midi/percussion guy who plays this thing made out of vacuum hoses possibly have for power tools & baseball bats? what's he gonna do with that?  And that drummer, what the hell is his deal? He's bashing like a madman and totally overplaying. Damn he's good.

We always had some kind equipment trouble on stage but that was part of the fun. Audiences always responded well because we had great songs, endless energy and we had truly unique approach. You had this seemingly the imposable shit that I was doing, which freaked out musicians.  Marks over the top stage antics which culminated with tunes where he shot sparks at the audience with a Skilsaw, always made for some serious spectacle. Nick's drums constantly drove the train but his angular style never stagnated in any kind of conventional pocket. At the end of the night, the same sound man who hated us when we showed up was helping us out to the van with our gear and giving us contact details either to be our personal sound man, or try to weasel his way into the band. It was cool

Soon enough we Sighed with Tag/Atlantic. We were three quarters of the way through creating "Stuffed & Motorized" when we sped up production in the name of "getting something out there". It was an extremely hopeful time. Legendary producer, Jack Douglas (John Lennon, Aerosmith, Cheep Trick) took an interest in us to the point that we actually played at his wedding, A seriously lavish affair at the Manhattan Center Ballroom.-To further sum it up, we could drink for free in virtually every bar in the east village.

Anyway "Stuffed & Motorized" was never released & I was assured it would never be released by our "layer"

We were pretty frustrated at the time & felt a need to clean house so we got released from our management deal. We fired and hired a new (even worse) "layer". I took Nicks side in his dispute with Mark. We replaced Mark with Dave Liles of Wisdom Tooth fame. We got back to recording & gigging and started working on some new material.

Nicks mom died after a long battle with Cancer. Before too long he fell Ill with clinical depression. He was out of it for several months. I sighed us with "Wild Pitch Records" & continued work on the next LP "Blood Lead" with the hope that Nicks recovery would coincide with the release of the LP & subsequent Tour. Wild Pitch was a rap label that was branching out into rock and seemed to "get it" as far as the band. Although  we had other interest, WP  seemed to be the best way to go as far as finally getting an album out with a decent tour budget. I reluctantly agreed, although It made no sense, with Wild Pitch that Stuffed & Motorized could wait and that "Blood Lead" would be the first release . As Nick began to recover, our Idea was that he would take on the coveted role as percussion/sample guy & we would bring in our good friend Joey Crifo on drums.

Things were looking up until mid spring 99 when Nick started slipping back into trouble.  As the album was near completion I got a call one night from Nicks friend & former roommate. It wasn't good news. It was the unthinkable.

The reality of nicks death was a tremendously painful for all of us who knew & loved him. Nick had a lot of good friends and a wonderful family. His passing was far beyond tragic.

Destroyed and Unsure of what to do next, I thought It might make some sense to get the fuck out of NYC. Looking out of my midtown apartment window, there was nothing but Starbucks, Gaps, Blockbusters & McDonalds so what was the point of NYC? The prospect of doing the band without Nick was depressing enough and confusing to say the least. My wife an I said screw it &  moved up to Connecticut.

After scratching my head  for a while, I finally finished "Blood Lead" & began retooling to tour the soon to be released LP. Paul Andrews drummer of Inger Lorre and FF fame came on as percussion trigger guy with Joey Crifo on drums. I developed some new twisted sample triggers devices that were far more reliable than anything we had used in the past. We started rehearsals & got the shit sounding better than ever. One afternoon I got a call from Wild Pitch. It seemed that they had lost their shirt in some ill-conceived merger & were unable to release the album--   We did some gigs after that but  the general malaise of playing in front of audiences who were unfamiliar with the music because they couldn't buy or even steel was overwhelming. Labels weaseling out on their promises & not releasing the music, time after time assured an imposable prospect of further developing a fan base. So I figured I'd put it all down for a while

                                                        ~

A few months ago I got a hankering to make another Skilsaw album. I got halfway through roughing out two tunes when I got thinking -  that it'd be a better idea to make all This Music available first

JW  Summer 2005

Epilogue Fall 2006

Original Skilsaw Drummer, Ron Auber are back at it .

We Just  had the honor of opening two shows for Army Of Anyone and had a blast.

much more to come ................soon