Episode 14 James Vitalo.. Dealing With The Devil

Episode 14 James Vitalo.. Dealing With The Devil

James Vitalo is best known as the frontman of Backtrack, a Long Island Hardcore band that inspired a resurgence of bands, shows and activity in the area. We go through some of the early days of the band and touch on the breakup. I spent a good amount of time discussing James’s work first as a booking agent under State of Mind Booking and later as manager of Terror, Turnstile, Knocked Loose etc while working with Good Fight Entertainment.

Having watched him rise from the beginning to working with him on plenty of shows and with his bands being a part of This Is Hardcore every year, I watched his progression and I knew he’d be a great guest to speak on different aspects of Hardcore, from being in the band, to booking the bands and then to managing the bands. He has a great connection to hardcore and his grounding in it has lead to him being able to work between the world of hardcore and to get the bands the support they need as they rise to the occasion of their growing popularity. His early roots are completely DIY and he is very hands on still to this day in how he operates. There is alot to glean from here on the who/what/where but more importantly some of the subtle How’s and Why’s to do things.