Albany hardcore band Wrong Move breaks out of the Capital Region
Hardcore is still alive in Albany and a whole new generation has something to say, so you better listen up. This thriving but sometimes struggling scene is still putting the Capital Region on the global map as a major breeding ground for some amazing acts. Just a friendly reminder that hardcore fans can smell BS a mile away, so either be about it or your career might be a short one. Albany’s hardcore band Wrong Move is moving forward and hitting the road in support of their latest release “Death Made Swift” (UNBEATEN Records). Righteous and raw, these guys mean business and Nippertown had a sitdown with Wrong Move’s frontman Vincent Jaeger.
Nippertown: What kind of music were you into before you discovered hardcore?
Jaeger: I was super into Nu Metal and Death Metal. My brother introduced me to heavier music when I was young. He would come over and always bring a big stack of CDs for us to listen to. He always had something I had never heard before and it really started to expand my horizons. System of A Down and Korn were my favorite bands. I am unsure where the switch happened but I went off on my own at some point. I hated school, and I was skipping every day to go to Coconuts and just browse the metal section. At this point I found death metal, I was into Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Cryptopsy, and Skinless. Later I went to my first show. Terror, 100 Demons, and god knows who else played that show (it was a lineup I would kill to see now). The show was on a Saturday I believe, Monday I left school during lunch, went to Coconuts, and picked up Lowest of the Low by Terror, that was it, I was hooked. Honestly, there were plenty of moments in my life prior to this where I had the opportunity to discover hardcore sooner, but that show sealed the deal.
Nippertown: Who were your early hardcore influences & what made you want to start a band?
Jaeger: Terror, Full Blown Chaos, 100 Demons, and Most Precious Blood. This was primarily because these were the first 4 bands I got into. Soon shows became an every weekend thing. I’d go to Winners, my mom worked nights, so sometimes I’d get dropped off and walk home ( I lived in Clifton Park at the time.) My first “hardcore” band wasn’t really a hardcore band. It was definitely a terrible attempt to start a metalcore band. We played one show and got booed off stage. The next band I did was a “deathcore” band. That band did better and is how I met most of my friends and some of my current bandmates. Finally, I was sick of playing guitar in bands and decided I wanted to sing. I had a couple friends who liked the same music, but we really sucked at our instruments. We started a band called Hands Up! We wanted to sound like Terror and Hoods. We didn’t sound like either haha, but those shows were a blast.
Nippertown: Give us the history of the band and members’ former bands?
Jaeger: Unfortunately Wrong Move starting was the result of my homie Duff dying. His death lead to his memorial show Hands Up! Did a one-time reunion set. This caused myself and Chris (drummer of Hands Up!) to talk about doing something new. We decided to start a new band with the intention of sounding like Hatebreed. The plan was to write the music then find the members and record after. We wrote a few jams and hit up my boy CJ who had played guitar in bands like Before I Had Wings/ Bloodwar. I also reached out to Anthony and Brandon to fill in the lead guitar and bass roles. We played our first show with Leeway at Trick Shots. Unfortunately, that ended up the last WM show with that lineup. Anthony and Brandon had started Downswing which was their main focus. We parted ways with them, and shortly after CJ and Chris also left. Enter Ryan Stevens, the nicest kid in the world haha. He messaged me and asked if he could try out for WM, he did and we clicked. I needed to find members, so I asked my boy Rick who wanted to start something if he wanted to play Bass. Then I asked Mike C from Hands Up! to play guitar. Then the second guitar came when Jon Moorehead came out from Utica to jam. I had all the members, I wasn’t really worried about talent, I was just happy we had the pieces. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out with Jon, we parted ways and Jesse joined. When Jesse joined he became the new writer for the band since he is 1000000000x better than I am at guitar. We began writing “Death Made Swift”, we knew it was gonna be more metal with Jesse doing all the writing. Just around the time we finished writing and got ready to record, Rick backed out. This made room for us to invite Mark Call who had played guitar with Jesse in other bands like Towers. We had Mark take over on 2nd guitar and Mike moved to bass and that is our current lineup. Wrong Move was Ryan’s first real band, he had a band before that called Basilisk but it didn’t do anything. Mike C was in The Struggle, Searching, Hands Up!/ Life Sentence. Jesse was in lots of death metal/metalcore bands. I first met him when my deathcore band Beneath A Black Sky played with his deathcore band While Gotham City Burns. He went on to play in Israfel, Towers, and Life Sentence which is what Hands Up! Became when we had to change members. Finally, I met Mark Call playing shows with him and his band Surviving A Plane Crash. He also played in Towers.
Nippertown: Tell us about the current status of the band and the new EP?
Jaeger: We released our debut EP “Death Made Swift” on Unbeaten records back in October.
I would consider that EP almost like a demo, we turned into an entirely different band. Now with our new lineup, we can finally get in the groove. Our focus is on playing shows and getting ready to write new material. https://unbeaten.merchnow.com/
Nippertown: What would you change about the local hardcore scene?
Jaeger: In 2022 and forward I would really like to see the hardcore scene in the Capital District supporting one another. We have tons of bands, but our scene is split. We have the kids that go to BnB shows, we have the kids that only come out if Downswing plays, then we have the more punk hardcore scene which is mostly underground. If all these groups came together and supported one another, our scene would be phenomenal. Local bands would thrive, and bands would want to come here when laying out the dates for their tours. Its simple as coming to a show that you aren’t playing. Yes, I know people have jobs and kids, but no one is expecting a 100% attendance rate.
Nippertown: We see that you are hitting the road more are there more tours planned?
Jaeger: Plans for 2022 are to play out as much as we are asked. We are playing LA in August with Full Blown Chaos and some friends at Hoodcore fest. We just did a small run with our homies in D Bloc and Grace, check both those bands out. There is a possibility of another run at some point this year, just a matter of finding the time and putting it together. I would really like to do an east coast or midwest run for sure. Playing Europe would be wild but I think we need to gain some momentum before that becomes a reality.
Nippertown: Let’s talk BBQ, bitcoin, and your favorite beatdown band?
Jaeger: BBQ is poppin off here in the Capital District. It seems like every year a new spot pops up. We got Signal 30 in Cohoes, Rollin Smoke in CP, Dinosaur in Troy, Millers BBQ trailer in Mechanicville, and BBQSA in Toga. BBQSA is my personal favorite. You can also come out to the Bull and Bee Meadery Albany every other Sunday this summer starting May 8th and I’ll be out there doing the pop-up thing. Every pop-up will focus on a different meat and a different style of BBQ. I will post updates, a full calendar, and all that good stuff when the time comes. I do have a Swine Bully BBQ Facebook page, but I am really trying to keep things word of mouth for the time being. Bitcoin is the future. Biggest no-brainer investment one can make. If you are interested and have no clue how to get started, hit me up and I will gladly help anyone interested for free.
Bulldoze is my favorite beatdown band. Wanna know what grinds my gears about “beatdown” as of late? All these new beatdown bands coming out that have never been in a single fight. It’s wack. I’m not impressed by someone’s ability to fantasize about how hard they wish they were and then write songs about it.
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