“We wanted to do something that was set apart from what most hardcore punk bands and most grindcore bands are doing,” says Somerville in a phone interview. “We want to give a voice to the skateboard scene. We write songs about skateboarding for skateboarders. It’s a natural obsession for me. I even drove to Portland, OR once to go to the Burnside Skate Park there. It’s always been an obsession with me.”
The first song the group wrote for the release, the hard-driving number “Phillips 66,” chronicles the tragic story of Jeff Phillips, a skater who passed away in 1993. “Shut up and skate,” Somerville screams defiantly at the start of the noisy tune.
“It’s the most barebones of the songs,” says Somerville when asked about the track. “It’s about Jeff Phillips, whom I consider to the best skateboarder of all time. He was a vert skater who actually beat [renowned skater] Tony Hawk numerous times. One of those times, he was on mushrooms. Very tragically, he faced personal challenges, and he shot himself on Christmas in 1993. He’s always been an inspiration for me. He didn’t have the technicality that Tony Hawk did, but he would skate faster to get more tricks on the board. Tony Hawk couldn’t keep up. He had a really aggressive style. It’s not your typical punk rock band and definitely not a grindcore song. You can hear the bass on it for one thing. It’s kind of all over the place, but that’s because we pride ourselves on our originality.” ”
The group recorded the album in just two days at Bad Racket in Euclid. James Kananen, the owner, served as the recording engineer.
“It was a great experience because they have a lot of great equipment that caters to up-and-coming bands,” says Somerville. “We’ve been around for a little while but are not millionaires. James said he’s recorded bands that wouldn’t get one or two songs done in two days let alone 12 songs. We practice a lot and are often complimented that we are very tight when we perform. We rehearse a lot. I take my inspiration from Black Flag.”
Other album highlights include “Master of Disaster,” a song about skater/punk rocker Duane Peters, “Brookpark Rd.” a tune the band describes as “an exaggerated account of what it was like to be a punk rocker hanging out on Brookpark Rd. at the end of the 20th century.”
“’Brookpark Rd.’ is the only song on there that is not a Violet Ray song,” says Somerville. “It’s a Hooligans song. We recorded it as our last single, and the master tapes were lost. It was about all sorts of shenanigans on Brookpark Rd. Some places mentioned are still there like Cap’n Taco, which is an excellent restaurant, and the Bizarre, which was a huge flea market that sold all sort of curios at affordable prices. The thing we miss the most is Roller World. It was a roller rink that would put skateboard ramps on the floor twice a week. This would have been 1994 and 1995. They built a half pipe. That was the first half pipe I ever dropped in on, and I fell right on my head. There were no helmet rules, so I got concussed pretty good. It was a pretty wild place.”
“All Hail Cardiel” references John Cardiel, who was run over by a trailer and sustained a severe spinal cord injury for which he would be paralyzed from the waist down and told he’d never walk again. He refused to give in to his injury and after one year he could stand unassisted. He can now walk, bike and skateboard again. “Head Bongo” makes use of skate lingo such as the “credit card,” something that happens your board hits you vertically between the legs upon landing, and the “scorpion,” which is when you fall forward and your legs swing up behind your back and touch the back of your head.
For the live show coming up at CODA on Friday, April 11, Violet Ray will play the album in its entirety as well as a few songs off its first album.
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This article appears in Mar 13-26, 2025.