DIE TRYING
A CONVERSATION WITH GARY TRAINER OF NEW MATH
The late 1970s was an exciting time for rock ‘n’ roll. Not everyone was aware of it at the time, but in hindsight, 1976 through to 1980 was very very exciting. While the mainstream were getting down with disco or the laid back sounds of California soft rock, there was another scene, now known as punk. Each city had its own scene, NYC, Boston, Chicago, L.A., Toronto, and of course, London had their own distinct styles and clubs. Rochester, NY had its own punk thing going on too and the leaders of that was New Math.
New Math was a five-piece band that garnered a great deal of attention. The original band consisted of Kevin Patrick (vocals), Gary Trainer (bass), Chris Yockel (guitars), Roy Stein (drums), and Mark Schwarz (keyboards). They made a name for themselves back in the day, and now there is a chance for people to catch up with them if you missed them the first time. Propeller Records is releasing a compilation, Die Trying & Other Hot Sounds (1979-1983). I recently had the chance to catch up with Gary Trainer, the old-fashioned way, on the telephone.
“In 1977 New Math was rehearsing in a building downtown. And we rehearsed almost every night and we went down to now we were playing all over whatever clubs were doing live acts at the time, but most of them wanted you to do three sets a night, bring your own P.A.,” recalled Trainer. “But then a guy [Don Scorgie] opened a club called Scorgie’s and we went down there, you know, after rehearsal to have drinks. And Kevin asked if he could put his singles in the jukebox because he was getting singles at the time from trading records. He was an avid record collector. He was trading records with Howard Thompson in England, who signed Eddie and the Hot Rods and Ultravox, bands like that to Island Records. So he was sending these records over to us. And so we kind of had our early in and the punk thing that was happening in England.”
It is interesting that New Math were more aware of the British punk scene and not as familiar with the New York City bands, at that time. But they would soon become quite aware of those bands as well.
PRE-ORDER DIE TRYING & OTHER HOT SOUNDS (1979-1983)
“Eventually Don Scorgie asked if we would like to play as he was opening the downstairs and we told him we would like to play. We’ve been to New York and the way they do it in New York is you do one set, play with other bands. So he got somebody to bring a P.A. and lights and gave every band that played there the door. So we did it, you know, for the first few times, of course, people started to catch on and then they started booking bands like Ramones, The Cramps, The Go-Go’s and other punk bands. Somebody started booking them into this club, and then we would open for a lot of them at first.”
Opening for these bands got New Math the exposure they needed and soon they were recording and getting noticed, not just in Rochester but overseas as well.
“We were able to do some recordings and we would pay for that ourselves. And then we were lucky that the first single “Die Trying” was picked up by Reliable Records, thanks to Howard Thompson, and he had a lot to do with that release. And he was at CBS after Island and the single got released on CBS Records in England.”
This led to an incredible achievement. Trainer recalled, “John Peel played the single, you know, it made it to the bottom of the charts in England.” Not every band was played by the late, great John Peel. New Math went on to record many more singles and albums, and now, their early years are being re-released for a whole new generation of punk fans. And Trainer is a fan of the way in which the music is being presented. Die Trying & Other Hot Sounds (1979-1983) is a great compilation that not only presents their music but also represents an era.
“The artwork with this compilation is so well done. It’s all like the handmade posters and stuff that we made to promote the band at different places. It’s pretty much made up of all these pictures and posters from that time. So it looks very sort of that independent, do it yourself. This packaging and everything reflects it so fantastically. You know it just does a great job of really making it sort of like the Rochester New Wave punk scene.”
And there is life in New Math still. They are performing in and around Rochester in July and they might be worth the drive there to see them live. But as for Trainer, music is still exciting and he still gets a thrill performing. But these times, being a new, young band were a special time for him, and their fans.
“The reason why we even started this band was we wanted to be in the middle of the punk scene. We just knew this whole thing was going to be there. So we started this band and we were all able to open for the bands that we were excited about. We opened for the Ramones! We wanted to be part of it, it was what we set out to do. We were not going to let this wave pass us by like the first wave, like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, we kind of missed out on that one. We weren’t going to miss this one.”
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