June 1, 2005

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REUNITING JERSEY'S BEST DANCERS - THE STORY OF LIFETIME IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Generally speaking, there are two types of bands: those who quit too soon and those who continue long after their prime. Bands that quit early become mythologized, forever cool because they stopped before they could disappoint. Apathy greets bands who stick around too long, a bloated catalogue their legacy.

Although New Jersey's melodic hardcore forefathers Lifetime played for seven years (a long life by band standards), their legacy is one of a band cut down in their prime, just before they conquered the world. Formed in 1990 by singer Ari Katz and guitarist Dan Yemin, the band endured countless line-up changes, never-ending tours and interpersonal tension—and all this before they released their breakthrough record, Hello Bastards, in 1995 on Jade Tree Records. Their final record, Jersey's Best Dancers, followed two years later.

As their legacy grew by leaps and bounds over the years, Lifetime are perhaps bigger now than they ever were. This year, Jade Tree plans to reissue in one set the band's first record, Background, along with its 7-inches, live tracks and some unreleased material. At press time, no release date had been set.

For the first time, former members of Lifetime and their many admirers have come together to tell the band's story in their own words. Lifetime was a band not easily summed up; theirs is a saga of accomplishment and adversity, the tale of a band that broke up before the world was ready.

Band Members
Ari Katz, vocals
Dan Yemin, guitar
Scott Palaitis, bass
Peter Martin, guitar
Scott Golley, drums

Scott St. Hilaire, original guitarist
Dave Wagenschutz, drummer, pre-Hello Bastards

Other People
Darren Walters, co-owner, Jade Tree
Tim Owen, co-owner, Jade Tree
Norman Arenas, friend, former member of Texas Is The Reason, New End Original and numerous East Coast hardcore bands
Mike Evetts, producer, Hello Bastards, Jersey's Best Dancers
Chris Conley, singer/guitarist, Saves The Day
Adam Lazzara, singer, Taking Back Sunday
Jordan Pundik, singer, New Found Glory
Bryan Kienlen, friend, bassist, Bouncing Souls

Theme Song for a New Brunswick Basement Show: The beginning
Lifetime began after Yemin graduated from college in Michigan and moved to back home to New Jersey in the early '90s. After posting a flyer at a record store, he met up with Ari Katz. The band eventually filled out with Scott St. Hilaire on guitar, Chris Corvino on bass and Chris Daly on drums.

Yemin: I came back to Jersey and just started really from scratch. I didn't know anybody in the punk scene in Jersey at all when I got back. The people I used to go to shows with were still in college, and so I just went to the record store Vintage Vinyl where we used to get records and just put up flyers.

Katz: I was looking to start a band. I was talking to my friend Rob Fish, who had I think ripped the flyer off the wall in a record store that Dan Yemin placed. I was telling him what I wanted to do, and he just had this flyer in his pocket, and he gave it to me. I called Dan, and we talked I guess, and one of the first times we met we just hung out and went to a show and kind of just started talking about music from there.

St. Hilaire: [My girlfriend] introduced me to Ari and Dan, who really were just talking about doing a band. My mother basically let us use her garage as our first studio, so the band was basically born in my garage, so to speak. Dan had some stuff on the four-track, and the beginning stages of it were just me, Ari and Dan putting stuff together.

We went out and cut a demo for really cheap and did a cassette. … When we released the cassette demo, we didn't have a cover or anything. We used to pass out this flyer. It used to just say "Lifetime" on the top, who we were and lyrics to all the songs. That's all we had. I don’t think we had contact info or anything. We hand passed out cassettes and the flyers; we would distribute before the shows to try and get people to sing along and stuff. …. Basically we just decided at that time that the band was really a reaction towards all the homey mosh-core that was coming out. … Everybody just thought this "faggy" little band, and we kind of like lived off that.

We kind of had an agenda right from the beginning where we just weren't writing mosh-core type of stuff. I remember in the early days, most people didn't like us. I remember writing "Lifetime" in marker on a wall in Hoboken, and somebody wrote "is gay" underneath it. That kind of defined who we were at the time.

Arenas: I was really into their demo. At the time, they sounded completely different, so there was a certain melodic element that they had that didn't really exist at that point, especially in New Jersey.

Yemin: [Katz] was like, "We can do better, we can do better, we can do better." I can remember being in his room in his mom's house with my guitar playing through a practice bass amp and just playing different guitar parts to him and him giving me the thumbs up and thumbs down. So I always give Ari credit for pushing me to not be satisfied.


Lifetime soon recorded a debut 7-inch for New Age Records after kicking Daly out of the band. Katz filled in on drums for the recording, but Wagenschutz eventually joined the band. With the 7-inch, the band went on a two-month U.S. tour with hardcore band Resurrection, cramming 10 people and their gear into one cargo van.

In 1993 they released a full-length called Background, a fitting title for a record that would be relegated to a footnote in Lifetime's history. On it, listeners heard a band under construction; Katz had yet to discover his singing voice as he and the band attempted to create a more melodic style of hardcore than was prevalent at the time. A self-released 7-inch, Tinnitus, in 1994 marked a turning point.

Arenas: We had a one person in the driver's seat one person in the passenger seat. Then we had a bucket in between the seats where one person sat. Then we had four people lying shoulder-to-shoulder between that and the loft . The loft went so high that we literally had to slide each other into the loft, kind of like an oven, and you couldn't move. you couldn't lie sideways—it wasn't enough space between the top of the van and the bottom of the loft. [laughs] We were totally naïve.

Background
Katz: We were in like a shitty one-room studio, and it was pretty bad because I think we just weren't good. We were bad. I think we were trying to go for things that we weren't really ready to achieve.

My performance I wasn't happy with. I wanted to be a better singer than I was at the time, and that's always a frustration when you're some kind of artist and you're going for something, and you're not really able to figure out how to get there.

Owen: We kind of thought they were sloppy, kind of thought they were a mess. The production wasn't good. I thought, stylistically, you know they just weren't there yet. Like you could tell what they were trying to go for early on, but they just weren't quite pulling it off yet.

Palaitis: I lived with the Bouncing Souls at the time, and I was skating with this kid Greg, [the] singer. He told me, "You know what, Dave, you've got to join Lifetime." And I looked at him and said, "What are you, crazy? I hate those guys. They suck." I didn't like the way they presented themselves as this horrible, dirgy, emo band. I thought they were awful except for one song that I liked, "Ghost." Then I started listening to the record, and I was like, "Maybe they got something."

Arenas: Lifetime kind of had two lives. When they started, they were an extremely popular band, but the crowd that they attracted was totally different than the crowd that kind of came on board when they kind of totally retooled their sound.

Tinnitus
Yemin: Tinnitus came out in '94. and that was really like, I think that was when we all felt like, "Wow, we're on to something." … That's when I really started to understand what I had to do to provide a good context for Ari's vocals. Instead of just trying to write cool, impressive guitar parts, write good songs—and Dave [Palaitis] was like a huge part of that.

Yemin: Ari was definitely ahead of the curve in terms of figuring out where we needed to go, but he couldn't articulate it. He was listening to like Pegboy and Screeching Weasel, and he was like, "I'm tired of playing these super-fast songs. I don't want to write fast songs." And I was like, "That shit you're listening to is pop! I don't want any part of it!" I didn't want to break the band up; it meant everything to me, but he was like, "I don't want to do fast anymore. I'm losing interest." So I started writing songs that weren't fast, but they also weren't good songs. … None of them ended up being keepers.

Once [Palaitis] started opening his mouth and putting his input in, it all kind of came together. But it came from that shift where it was like "We can't write fast songs anymore"—and, ironically, then Tinnitus was faster. The fast parts were faster than anything we had done before.

Owen: Any of the previous recordings, we were always like, "This band's a joke, [a] two-bit hardcore band trying to be melodic." And obviously we heard Tinnitus, and the tempos were faster, and it was catchier, and the production was better, and vocals were better. To me, it was a night-and-day band. I was just totally blown away. The more I listened to it, the more I couldn't stop listening to it.

Wagenschutz: By my reflections now, and I look and I listen to the sound of the band over the years, that was definitely the big transitionary year between the sound of Background and the sound of Bastards.

Irony is for Suckers: Releasing Hello Bastards
With a lineup solidified by Palaitis, Martin and Golley, Lifetime recorded their Jade Tree debut, Hello Bastards, in four days in 1995. Jade Tree released it that September.

Walters: The bands that we had worked with pretty much didn't tour, broke up so it was a lot of bullshit. So Lifetime was the first band that was coming to us no. 1 somewhat hyped. They were also a band that was doing significant touring; people knew who they were.

Yemin: We were really frustrated and really under the gun, and Ari and Dave were banging ideas around for this part. It was the end of that song "Anchor" where they have a sort of call and response. Ari sings one line, Dave screams the next line. We had nothing. I was always impatient, so I was kind of pushing them to settle, and Ari was like, "It's not good enough." I was like, "fuck this," and I went out of for Chinese food, and I came back, and they had written and recorded the vocals. It was the most exciting thing I've ever heard. I still listen to it now, and I get chills because I remember walking back to the studio, and they were playing it through the speakers. They were like, "See, next time you shut up!" I never shut up. None of us shut up, which is why it kept getting pushed to a better level, I think.

Katz: You could tell that we had something special for us. I don’t think anywhere in our wildest dreams did we think that people would still love that record, but we knew that as five guys, [we] did something pretty cool, you know what I mean? It's strange. I still think that's the best record we ever did. I think it just has a way better vibe than anything else we ever did.

Yemin: There were a lot of kind of radical departures for what hardcore bands were doing. … Listen to the second song on Hello Bastards, with that de-ne-ne-ne-ne-ner guitar line. You're like, "What? They're going to crucify us!"

Walters: People anticipated Hello Bastards, so in September '95 when it came out, I remember because I was doing mail order on my bedroom floor, just being like, "Holy shit, man." I had to have my buddy come in and help me for free pizza because it was like almost overwhelming the response we were getting.

Wagenschutz: It was a tough year in my life, you know? You have this constant reminder of this emotional and like physical bond you have with these guys and this music. It was almost like I had recorded the record, but I didn't. [People would ask] "What do you think of the Lifetime record?" Depending on the day, I'd either go through the roof or I'd go, "Yeah, it's awesome."

Lazzara: Hello Bastards [is my favorite] just because, after all this time, I can still put it on and listen to it on repeat. Actually, I could do that with any of their records—every song is it. No band has ever made me feel like that.

Conley: The first song [I heard] was "The Gym Is Neutral Territory" off of Hello Bastards, and seriously my jaw hit the floor when I heard that song. I still have not had a musical experience like that, like a revelation, "Oh my gosh, you can make music that sounds like this?" It was just the most exciting like musical realization when I heard them. I was consumed—it consumed me for a couple of years there. I was completely obsessed with Lifetime.

Arenas: A lot of what made the second version of Lifetime so special was that I felt like Ari had gained this confidence in singing that I don’t think he had in the first incarnation. As a matter of fact, I know he didn't have it. I remember being on tour and sitting in a parking lot with him, and him telling me that "I can't sing" [laughs] and kind of lamenting about how he couldn't sing—and me sitting there going, "Are you crazy? You can totally sing!"

Steinkopf: Hello Bastards was my favorite one because it's just so raw. It's like the perfect punk record. … It's like 20 minutes long, every song is awesome, and it's over—and you want to hear it like five more times. To me, that's the sign of a great album: when you want to put it right back in.

Arenas: When Lifetime was still a New Age band, people were into Lifetime, but it didn't seem like they were fanatic about Lifetime. Whether or not the quantity changed, I don’t know, but I will say after Hello Bastards, the quality of their fans was much different. People loved Lifetime.

The First European Tour
Palaitis: It was like moving in. I thought I was German by the end of the tour—45 shows in Germany something like that…. We decided the Germans needed to be Lifetime fans, whether they wanted it or not.

Martin: We get over there, and we're like, "Hey Rob [European tour manager], it's awesome to meet you and stuff. Can we take a look at the itinerary?" "Oh, the itinerary is in my head." "What? C'mon dude, we realize you don't speak English all that well…" For real, the thing was in his head, so we made him write it out. I still have it. It's a handwritten itinerary of where we were going. I think he made that up, because we would get to a town, and they would be like, "Oh yeah I guess there's a show tonight." It was brutal.

Palaitis: I remember driving in Italy, and it was me and Ari up all night driving, and we hadn't eaten in a really long time. There were two ketchup packets sitting on the dashboard, and we shared the ketchup packets. Ari was driving, and I put the ketchup on his finger, and he ate it. We were like, "Oh this sucks, man." You'd go from moments like that, where we were really getting along and feeling almost euphoric, then the next day either him or Pete or something would tick us off, and we wouldn't talk at all. The same exact event could launch you into depression or euphoria.

Katz: The person I feel the worst for was Yemin, because he was older than all of us. He was old enough to know that we were just like ridiculous, like stupid kids. I will never understand how he didn't kill us. We would torture Dan Yemin, and it's fucked up because he's probably one of the best guys in the world.

Martin: It was tough. We were sleeping on floors, we were sleeping in the van, we weren't eating, we weren't showering, it was hell.

Katz: Dave Palaitis was like crazy. He would stand behind his bass rig and play bass. He didn't want to be on stage, and we thought he was going to quit.

Palaitis: You could count on, every week, someone would threaten to leave or stop talking. That was the first time Ari and I had lost the ability to communicate. I just stopped talking. I don't know what happened. I decided I couldn't stand people or something, and I stopped talking for like a week—that didn't help.

I Like You OK: Problems with Jade Tree
Yemin, who was in grad school at the time working on his doctorate, took a leave of absence to tour full-time. The interpersonal chemistry that made Lifetime's songs so strong also created a lot of tension among its members. Making things worse was the band's increasing distance from Jade Tree.

Palaitis: I'm not sure we ever really knew what we wanted to be as far as where we fit in the music industry. We had a clear idea on what we wanted to write and what kind of songs we were good at playing.

Katz: I was never really happy with Jade Tree. … But you gotta also remember we were on Jade Tree, and we were touring like crazy, and people would be like, "Do you have a record out? Are you on a label?" We'd be like, "Jade Tree," and they'd be like, "What's that?"

At that point, a lot of friends' bands were on these labels that were doing all these things for them—getting them all this press, people knew who their fucking label was. We felt like lost. All they wanted us to do was tour, and that's it. I felt like they didn't work as hard as we did. That 's the feeling I had, and I guess still have.

Walters: I remember Ari's infamous comment was "How come we're not selling records in Wyoming?"

Yemin: We were frustrated because when we started touring a lot, and we were touring with bands on bigger labels, we were playing with bands that were on Fat and Epitaph—and Jade Tree was awesome, but they didn't have a reputation. … We were just really self-conscious about that and really self-conscious about would the kids like our music, or kids that have never heard of us but would like our music, will they look for us on this label? That is part of what ruined us—just worrying too much about what other people thought about our visibility. It's only natural, but I feel kind of crappy about it now.

Walters: What was kind of unsettling was that we never really got all that close with those guys throughout the times, so that was probably the biggest problem. … We were always like "What the hell is going on with Lifetime? Why are these guys so indifferent to us?" We were so close at that time to all the other bands, especially The Promise Ring, who had taken off, and they couldn't more enthused to be with us. It was always like, "Oh man, what's going to happen? Are they going to break up? Are they going to hate us? Are they going to leave us? What's happening?" We had decided, well, you know we'll just kind of sit back and see how things are going to play out.

Martin: I remember we played a show with The Promise Ring, and Tim and Darren definitely made a point of coming up, and they were definitely fawning all over The Promise Ring. We were like, "Who the hell is this band taking away our attention?" Then The Promise Ring got huge.

Palaitis: We would have so many contradictory discussions with Jade Tree. We were like, "We want to do this. You guys should really be doing that. Why aren't you doing this for us?" And then the next day be like, "No, we don't want anything to do with that! Why would you want that?"

Walters: They had begun to record Jersey's Best Dancers, and they stopped, went and toured Europe, and they were kind of like, "We're not going to finish the thing any time soon, so why don't you put out a 7-inch?" It turned into "The Boy's No Good," which is like a minute long. I remember this was probably 1996, and I'm like, "Dude, a two-song 7-inch? People are going to shit themselves and be pissed off!" We did that, and then when they came back, it was like, "Maybe we should talk." It was kind of like they're going to go on tour, maybe they'll talk to some other labels, and maybe we'll talk when we get back."

Cut the Tension: Releasing Jersey's Best Dancers
With their relationship with Jade Tree strained, Lifetime decided to record their follow-up album in two sessions with Steve Evetts. Altogether, the band spent about two weeks on the record, much longer than they had on its predecessor. Lifetime hoped to find a new label during a couple of upcoming U.S. tours.

Palaitis: I don’t remember what it was like writing for that record. I remember it was kind of clumsy. We'd been through a lot at that point.

Evetts: Jersey's Best we actually got to dig in a little bit and work with the vocals a little more—and have Ari have a breakdown every five minutes. I'd make him do a line again, and he'd be like "Steve, why do you hate me?" [Laughs]

Yemin: We got a lot better at doing what we were doing. The production is more polished from being in the studio longer, but we just got a lot better at honing our songs and arranging them.

Martin: I remember that Hello Bastards came out in like '95 in like September, and we actually recorded most of Jersey's Best the next summer. We had like maybe eight of the 12 songs done recorded. … We listened to them again, and we were like, "Eh, we need some more songs." We wrote some more songs, [but] none of them made the cut basically. So I think we did another winter tour and then finished up recording the last four songs that we decided. Then by the time it was done recording and mixed and stuff, it was already like the following summer, like another year had gone by.

Palaitis: I think [Jersey's Best Dancers] was really kind of disappointing. You know, there's like tricks that we did on that record, and we just learned how to write Lifetime songs really well. We knew exactly what to do, and I think the second record might be better written, but it's got a little less love in it. I just remember writing it: "I'll do the blicka-blicka." We had names for the different things we would do. It was becoming kind of codified and predictable, and there was so much more music that we wanted to look at.

Evetts: It was a little strange because it seemed like there was a little something going on with the band, where they pretty much had decided they were going to break up or at least Peter was leaving the band. There was a little bit of weirdness in the studio, but not so much when they started playing. It was just more like when the music stopped, you could just tell there was something amiss. But you know the end result when we would listen back to the finished vocal track, and Dan Yemin and I are dancing around the room and just loving every second of it.

Yemin: When we were sequencing Jersey's Best Dancers, we were like, "If we start with this song, will the hardcore kids be turned off? But if we start with this song, will the pop kids be turned off?" Just worrying too much about that stuff. We realized that that was getting ridiculous and just nipped that in the bud—but we also broke up soon after.

I'm Not Calling You: Breaking up
Although Lifetime took a break from touring after recording the first part of Jersey's Best Dancers so Yemin could finish his last year of grad school, two later U.S. tours would tear the band apart. Martin quit during a brief winter tour in 1997, so Frank Vicario of Snapcase filled in on guitar for an upcoming spring tour. After a huge argument on tour, Lifetime decided to break up—all this before the release of Jersey's Best Dancers. Months later, they played farewell shows in Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Palaitis: We were on that tour and looking at our tour schedule for the next however long it was. I think it was '97 at the time or something, and we had Japan and it said like "1999," something ridiculous where our lives had been booked so far ahead of us or what we planned to do with Lifetime. It seemed like a "Is this it?" kind of thing.

Martin: I think it was like January of '97 where we were on some winter tour, and halfway through it I had decided that I was done and dropped the bomb in the van on the way home. Everyone was sort of dealing with it, and I think they understood at the time.

In a perfect world, you'd keep going and figure it out, but at the time it made perfect sense to me that it just wasn't right. But it got hard at the end, like really, really hard—especially with something that's supposed to be fun, something that started out as an outlet, something creative, and it turns into like a grind, you know?

Palaitis: We had come back from Wilkes-Barry, Pa., and Pete gets real quiet and starts choking up. He's like, "Guys I have to quit the band." It was real emotional, but it was real shitty too because he was Yemin's friend, and he was the strong, silent type that could hold it together.

Martin: I hate to take credit for breaking the whole band up. I would never want to do that, but I definitely feel a little responsible, like I didn't stick it out and sort of let them down.

Palaitis: We were supposed to come home from that tour and go to Europe with Good Riddance, and Ari said he didn't want to do that Good Riddance tour. I think it was just there was no way to resolve that.

Yemin: It was one of the most painful things in my life. I just felt like somebody was dying or getting a divorce. … Basically half of us were like, "We're a band, we made these commitments, we're going to see them through." And half of us were like, "We don’t want to do this tour, but I still want to be a band." It came down to this kind of pissing contest between those of us who wanted to go, being like "You can't have it both ways. If you're reneging on our commitments as a band, we're not a band, not any band that I could be proud of."

Katz: I wanted to quit Lifetime for probably like two years before I actually did. I was all ready by the time we recorded Jersey's Best Dancers. I already knew I didn't want to do it anymore the minute that was done.

You know, by the time we did Jersey's Best Dancers, we had fallen into our thing, you know what I mean? To me, once we already figured it out and fine-tuned it, what the fuck's the point to keep doing it?

Owen: I remember vividly, though, when they got into a fight. I think it was in LA, and I guess Palaitis was so mad he smashed a bottle against the wall. That's the vivid thing I remember from the break up; it got to that boiling point, and I guess they broke up. One of them, probably Dan, called us from the club or something like that night and was like, "We're done. We're coming home." All the air was let out of balloon for us because we were just like, "Things are on the rise, all this stuff's happening, we love this band."

Conley: I was like, "No, that's not true. That can't be true." I was like totally in denial. [Palaitis] also sent a tape of their new songs, which was Jersey's Best Dancers. I just thought it was so good, and I was like, "No, they just made this new record, and it's so good. There's no way they can break up." I was completely devastated.

Kienlen: It's the kind of thing also where you're like, "Oh, they'll get back together." I was in denial too. You got them together to play that last show. I just really believed like, you guys, of course you're going to get back together. They just started getting so good. They were on such a roll every year.

Martin: We ended up playing those last shows soon after that. You know, it's kind of weird that we didn't end up doing it again, but I think the damage was done, kind of. I've never really ruled it out.

Walters: We were talking about bands that went their separate ways went their fucking separate ways, and there's no two ways about it. I'm not saying they hate each other by any means, you know, but I think there were a lot friendships in that band that sort of got destroyed by it, I think.

Palaitis: Ari and I, we just fight when we're around each other. We rub each other the wrong way. Ari rubs a lot of people the wrong way, but I guess so do I. The two of us together, we can be very close, then we can be not talking at all. There's never been like really a nice balance, never a "Hey dude, what's going on? That's cool." That lasts for like a month, and then we'll be in a band, and that will blow up in chaos.

Martin: I remember actually getting a copy of the mixed [Jersey's Best], just like listening to it and was just like, "Man, what the fuck did I do?" How did I end up at the end of my rope? It doesn’t seem like it was all that bad in retrospect.

Walters: So they definitely broke up on that tour and came back and were like, "Yeah, maybe you guys should put it out." Tim and I were like, [Jersey's Best] is so good, but it was kind of a dickhead move. Yeah, you broke up—so of course who's going to put your record out?

How We Are: Lifetime's legacy
As the years passed, Lifetime's impact became undeniable. Numerous bands cited Lifetime as a directed influence, including Saves The Day, New Found Glory, Thursday and Taking Back Sunday (singer Lazzara has a Lifetime tattoo). Hello Bastards and Jersey's Best Dancers became classics in the Jade Tree catalogue.

Yemin: I don’t want to say we were the first to do anything, but we did something that a lot of people kind of latched onto afterwards. Does that make sense? I don't know if it's true, [laughs] but it's my assessment of the situation.

I have never thought we'd leave a legacy,… so to leave a legacy, to put out like two 7-inches, three albums and leave a legacy is like beyond my wildest dreams I guess. And to still be making music now is so beyond my wildest dreams.

Katz: We did something new and something that you listen to, and it sounds honest, and it sounds like we believed in it. We meant what we were doing, and I think any time there's like a purity in music it resonates. But also at the same time, I think if it wasn't us, it would have been another band. What the fuck, we just kind of got lucky.

Martin: I still think those records that we did are awesome. I'm really proud of them. The low points, in retrospect, it's sort of hard for me to believe that I couldn't have put up with those.

Katz: My thinking is weird about it, but the more people liked us, the more I felt like they didn't understand us, and they didn't understand me and what I wanted to do. People would be there and singing along and all this stuff, but I didn't feel like I was understood and what I wanted to do was being realized—which was to just keep pushing myself musically. … I was never happy with the record, with the record label. It was rare that I was ever happy in Lifetime.

Golley: It's something I think about a lot, like, "Man, should we have kept it going, and where would be now?" It's just like one of those things where you don't want to look back and be like, "I made the wrong choice" or "We did the wrong thing." You've just got to come to terms with the fact that that's what I did, and now this is what I do. … I don’t want to look back and say I wish things were different now because I'm happy with my life now—but I was happy with that life, too. There's pros and cons to both. Would I rather play a show tonight than sit here at work? Uh, yeah, definitely. Would I rather go on tour for three months and have to live at my parents' house or have a crappy apartment somewhere? No. It's like six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Walters: Big bands today say "I've been influenced by Lifetime." We're always laughing at that because—don't get me wrong, we sold a lot of records—but when they were still around…nobody gave two shits about them.

It's funny how a band's past can be colored by a future that isn't even there, you know? Now people go back and describe Lifetime as one completely different band, when plain and simple, they were just a hardcore band—nothing more, nothing less.

Evetts: Almost every band [I work with], they're like, "Oh my god, I love Hello Bastards." That's what I mean; that band seems like they influenced so many others.

Lazzara: We won't ever be as big as Lifetime, not in my mind. But I tell everyone I can whenever music is the topic, which tends to be always.

Yemin: Last year, Pete came out from California and brought his fiancée with him, and me and Ari and Ari's wife, Tannis, met them for dinner in New York. We went out to a bar, and this guy came up to me, and he introduced himself, and he was the guitar player from New Found Glory. It was kind of funny, because he was kind of shy, and he was like, "I'm in this band; I don't know if you've ever heard of us." Of course I have, c'mon! He said, "People lump us in with a lot of corny stuff, but I wanted you to know that we exist because of you guys."

Pundik: They were before all those type of bands, you know what I mean? They kind of started a certain style. … They were such a direct influence on a bunch of us in my band. It sucks because there are so many bands that are out there that are awesome, but don't get the respect and attention they deserve.

Palaitis: That's too close to home for me. I never get into, like, contemplation—just that I was in it. Those were my songs. People sometimes tell me that how influential we were and how much we affected their band or something like that, and I think that's just super—but that's about as far as I go with that.

Katz: There's definitely a part of me that's like, "Wow, it makes me feel proud that something I did has been influential," but I honestly wish those bands would have been influenced by Lifetime, but more so influenced by what I was influenced by—like more "Lifetime opened my eyes to this, but this is what we did with it." None of them sound exactly like Lifetime, but at the same time none of them really sound good.

Arenas: In the greater scope of things, I think they're going to be remembered and they're going to keep selling records because the records are really great and timeless.

Owen: I sort of noticed that, and I think that's cool over the last couple of years a lot of these bands that have gotten big, they want to be like, "All right, this is the real deal. This is what you should be listening to. It's cool you like us, but this is like OG."

Steinkopf: This whole scene kind of emerged and took off like crazy, and they're the ones that started the whole—I don’t even know what they call it—they're the ones that started that mix of music. It became like cult classics, which is awesome.

Conley: I was really, extremely, overly obsessed with them. They're still the band that has meant the most to me in my life. I doubt any other band will ever come close, just because I was just at the right age, you know, where music really spoke to me. I still get excited about music, but not in the same way where it just like changes my life.

Evetts: It's like the human heart put to music. It just gives me such a great feeling listening to those records, and I don't even know exactly why. I've never really actually analyzed it…there's just something about it. I just put it on, and I still get goose bumps from it. It's so strange because it just gives me a certain feeling. I don’t know whether to me it's like Ari's lyrics and just the melodies and the combination of the two.

Wagenschutz: It's just so fucking good. It's amazing! … Both of those records can bring me to tears. I don't mind admitting that. Those records can bring me to my knees.

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Never Say Never
Will Lifetime ever reunite, even just for one show?

Hey, it's not unheard of, especially when 2004 busted the market wide open for reunion shows. Even Kid Dynamite reunited for a couple of benefit shows. So will Lifetime ever follow suit?

Yemin: We were already offered quite a bit of money to do a reunion show at HellFest last year, and we declined. I personally am not interested in playing again as Lifetime. I feel like there needs to be a really good reason to do a reunion show, beyond just trying to create publicity for a retrospective release. The Kid Dynamite reunion was a very special case, and happened only because a close friend of ours was raising money and awareness for an important charity. That being said, you never know for certain what the future will bring.


Ari Katz currently plays in Miss TK & The Revenge with his wife and lives in New Jersey. After Lifetime, he played in Zero Zero with Golley and Palaitis briefly.

Dan Yemin has a Ph.D. in psychology and is in a private practice in Philadelphia. He plays in Paint It Black.

Pete Martin works for a technology company in Los Angeles, where he played in several bands. He was an original member of Jets To Brazil.

Dave Palaitis works as a computer programmer in New York City and plays in several projects, including Neutral Mute.

Scott Golley manages a furniture store in Quakertown, Pa.

Scott St. Hilaire plays in The Fire Still Burns and works at a high-end home theatre retailer.

David Wagenschutz works for Jade Tree and plays with Yemin in Paint It Black.

PUBLICATION
Alternative Press

AUTHOR
Kyle Ryan

DIRECT LINK TO ARTICLE
http://www.cmykyle.com/clips.php?id=91