Pushing On: How Toronto Punks No Warning Made It in America

Photo via Devon Little

At times, hardcore feels exclusively American. With so many sought after American bands like Cruel Hand, Backtrack and Expire, it’s a genre that is so heavily dictated and marketed in the States that Canadian bands often get disregarded. And it's for this very reason why Toronto hardcore punk outfit No Warning have become somewhat Canadian icons. Since their inception in 1998, they’ve stood as bearers of our flag in the North American hardcore scene. No Warning’s influence solidified Canada’s pin on the hardcore map and got people to recognize Toronto as a destination for the genre. It’s a testament to No Warning's success that almost a decade after breaking up, popular bands like Trapped Under Ice and many others are still influenced by the band’s signature no holds barred attitude and punchy riffs.

No Warning didn’t do it first, but they arguably did it the best. In the early 2000s, they quickly became a band to admire, with the releases of their debut self-titled in 2001 and Illblood in 2002. The two rage inducing, blood pumping records quickly became hardcore favourites—but then they broke up. According to their Myspace at the time, the band wanted to go in different directions and as a result, split in 2005. Members moved on to play in different bands. Most notably, Ben Cook in Fucked Up and Jordan Posner for Terror. In 2014, they decided to reunite and now they're playing their first homecoming show in Toronto in a decade, this weekend.

With promoters billing the show as "the only Toronto No Warning show for a long time", masses of followers will likely swarm to watch the Canadian hardcore giants get up on the stage as Ben Cook once again incites a riot yelling "burning bridges behind us / turning on you.” Finally, it feels like this band is once again running on full cylinders for a comeback. We talked with Ben Cook and Matt Delong of No Warning about their feelings about playing Toronto again, the changing face of hardcore, being cursed as a band and even ghostwriting for some big rappers.

Noisey: So Ben, I did some digging and found out that you were a child actor. What was your favourite role?
Ben Cook: I had this weird role on late night Showcase back in the day.
Matt DeLong: The one where you were the kid with an older woman?
Cook: Yeah, at the time I was 14 and I was playing a kid with an older woman.

Romantically?
Cook: Yeah, It was one of those classic teacher and student scenarios. At the same time I was also hooking up with my teacher in junior high in real life. It definitely wasn’t for kids and I usually only did kids stuff, but that was the most interesting thing I acted in. It’s probably not something they would make now just because it’s a bit of a sensitive issue now. It was a weird parallel with my real life. And how was it working with the Jonas Brothers and Camp Rock?
Cook: After acting, I was still doing extra work, it just pays more than any other job so I randomly got this drumming gig where I was in Camp Rock and my girlfriend at the time was in it too. We were trying to hook up a threesome with Nick Jonas. It was pretty bad, she was really into him and I’m pretty attracted to him too.

I don't blame you, he’s a good looking dude.
Cook: Yeah he’s sexy as hell.

So “No Time For You” was pretty important to fans, and me personally, growing up. What was the meaning behind the song?
Cook: It’s about various different people. At the time, we were pretty disillusioned with hardcore and any organized scene. Obviously when you're a young person you don’t really feel like you belong anywhere, even though you’re in hardcore and you’re contributing to it all. That whole record was examining a whole subculture that may not necessarily be good for you but also has a lot of positive things to rely on as a young person. Whether you have low self esteem, or bored, or just really into the music. So I guess “No Time for You” is just about everybody that we didn’t like at the time and that happened to be most people.

Hardcore is strange in the way that it’s inclusive but it's also very exclusive.
Cook: Yeah, I think it’s a little different now, just with people fucking with it. Everybody kind of knows what it is now. Even if you’re into hip-hop or electronic music, you know what hardcore is if you have your ear a little bit to the ground. At the time, Toronto was in a transitional period in terms of aggressive music and we were just coming at it with a completely fresh angle for the city. We kind of did it in our way and wasn't necessarily nice to anyone. We were kind of aggressive confrontational kids that did their own thing and said fuck you if you don't fuck with it before anyone could even fuck with it.

So I've noticed that you guys record relatively quickly, How long did Illblood take?
Cook: Well Illblood took kind of long, we went to New York to record for like a week.
Delong: Now we put shit together fast. We put Resurrection of The Wolf together in a day. Illblood was really natural though. It is what it is. If it doesn't come out quick then why bother?

Fast forwarding the timeline a bit, was it a little overwhelming that sign with a major label?
Delong: It was overwhelming but it was fun and exciting at the same time.
Cook: Definitely. Before the internet and coming from hardcore, it was definitely overwhelming to hear “You could be this! You could be that!” or “Here’s this drug! Here’s this opportunity!” We were just young kids and were eager to do everything we can and dealt with it later. But once the dust settled a little bit we were like “This is kind of whack.”

Do you think it gave you opportunities that you wouldn't have had?
Cook: Yeah, definitely. We got to play these big tours to kind of normal mainstream music fans. It was cool, we were touring with Ghostface, and Snoop Dogg and artists like them. It was weird to play to crowds who weren't coming from where you were coming from, we were too young to handle it. Now hardcore bands can crossover easier. We just took these missteps as any young person would and learned from experience.

In 2005, you guys broke up. Can you elaborate on what happened?
Delong: Jordan, had a baby, I had to go to rehab.
Cook: Everything happened all at once. There was some sketchy shit with police, some sketchy shit with drugs and sketchy shit with contracts and money. So we decided that the band had to stop. Obviously we continued making music together in different projects and still kept close but we had to keep No Warning away for a while .
Delong: It summoned some negative stuff that was beyond our control and in a way it wasn't us ending it but the universe ultimately .
Cook: That’s true. There was always this weird energy around the band and by the end, crazy shit was happening to us. Like Matt said it was summoning this crazy evilness that was taking over our lives, someone might have cursed us.

Wait, for real? You guys have been jinxed?
Cook: Yeah, like I’m not even joking, there's some scary, weird shit that felt like [signs] telling us to stop. Even now to this day when we do No Warning stuff, there are weird spiritual things that happens to us.

Like what?
Cook: Just ghosts that come when we’re recording or we see people from our past who we haven't seen in years. We had a lot of friends that have passed away due to different reasons and they’ll visit us in dreams, whether it’s the studio or just when we’re together. We all have the same dream. We all have this weird connection. I don't know if its positive or negative but we’re just a haunted band.

So what do you think will happen at your homecoming Toronto show, this weekend?
Delong: I don’t know, cause it's our first show in 10 years and basically a block away from where we cut our teeth. I don’t know what to expect but maybe we'll see some people from the woodwork we haven’t seen in a while. We’re going to summon up some sort of energy, that's for sure. Hopefully, it’s positive.
Cook: We’re trying to keep it positive Saturday and not let any of these demons come to the show cause they’re not on the guest list.

Do you guys miss playing toronto?
Cook: No . [laughs] I never liked playing Toronto because I felt like Toronto never really got behind us as a band and that's why we had to leave to cut our teeth in America first. It’s starting to get behind its artist now but for the most part we would kind of avoid Toronto.
Delong: It was more exciting to play America. Hardcore kind of originated there. Toronto has a history but at the time hardcore was kind of more metal-based.
Cook: It wasn't a place where we needed to prove ourselves. So that’s how we kind of treated these reunion shows. It made geographical sense for us. We started back in New Jersey, which was one of our first shows in America and we are kind of doing Toronto last, not out of spite for the city. We love the city, we just hate ourselves.

I would say it’s different now. In Toronto, the scene is much bigger and it's more socially acceptable now.
Cook: Yeah, it’s cool. There’s a lot of sick bands and people doing stuff for the community but we’re just the type of people that feel weird going anywhere. Whether it's a hardcore show or a punk fest or just a Toronto club. We’re kind of an anxious bunch.

Ben, you did a lot of other stuff after No Warning like Young Governor. Were there any other projects or genres you wanted to dabble into? Like rap?

Cook:

I flow pretty good on the mic in a hardcore setting, so I don't really need to rap.

Delong:

We produced lots of tracks for rappers.

Cook:

Yeah, Matt and I ghostwrite beats for tons of rappers like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, B-Real and Death Row shit. Just sketchy people with money.

I didn't know that.

Delong:

It's not listed as a Young Governor.

That's what ghostwriting is, though.

Cook:

No credit, just cash and you walk.

Byron Yan has Illblood. Like sickly and needs hospital assistance. Follow him on Twitter.