Welcome everyone to This Was The Scene, the podcast that takes a look back at the late 90s / early 2000 Nj Jersey Punk scene, I am your host, Mike Doyle.

NJ Joystick was a punk/hardcore band that blended shades of old emo and pop punk producing catchy, fast, and energetic songs that compare to the likes of fellow NJ legends, Lifetime. The line up consisted of Brett, Jay, the Pat and almighty Dan.

The band released a 4-song EP called …A Mile In Change in 1997 on Roulette Records before it became Pinball, and followed up in 1998 with their full length LP, New Song For The Ride, on Annoyance Records (www.annoyances.com).

These guys were always a blast to watch live because they just showed up and had fun. I reached out to Brett to see if he'd like to give me some dirt and he responded with "Would love to!" He then reached out to Jay who was also down to be on the podcast and this is what we talked about:

• What were all of us really look for in the scene
• Jay's superpower memory with jersey geography
• Where did the Joystick name come from
• Where their first demo was recorded
• How fast did they typically write songs
• How we mapped out Jersey because of going to shows
• The backyard show where the Dad yelled at everyone
• Dating girls while being in a band
• We break down the meaning behind some of the songs
• Would they be able to write a new Joystick song today
• Do they have songs that they could still record?
• And a ton more

Before we being, mark your calendars for

July 21 at the Debonair Music hall in Teaneck NJ my old band Lanemeyer will be sharing the stage with our buddies Humble Beginnings and Jettison. Pre sale tickets are currently available for $15 and then $20 at the door. You can find them at thiswasthescene.com. Go there, scroll down and click on the purple button that says CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS. We'll also be throwing an after party until 2 am at Debonair once shows is over. It should be swell

As always, thank you to the people who've donated to the podcast. If you'd like to do so just go to thiswasthescene.com and send whatever you'd like. It helps me with the $20/month to keep this thing live. I'm still in the process of designing shirts to sell to help keep this thing alive so keep checking the this was the scene facebook page for updates.