Sean Reverie was born in Buffalo but spent his high school years in Texas. Upon returning to the Queen City, he found a music scene here that was blowing up and quickly joined it, going on to become an enduring and respected figure in the city’s punk landscape.
For Reverie, Buffalo’s scene has always been in flux, with bands and musicians coming and going from project to project — a case, in fact, that is reflected in his own personal musical history.
Reverie’s resume of bands is as wide ranging as the roles he’s filled in them, playing bass in some, guitar in others and serving, too, as a frontman.
There’s been Imagine You, Juggernaut, Reverie, Lying in Wait, Makeshift Graves, Destroyah and Kill Uncle, for whom he now plays bass. And if that weren’t enough, he books punk and hardcore shows, too.
“The only thing I knew about music was what my parents listened to,” Reverie said during a recent talk with 1120 Press. “And then, obviously, in middle school, I was watching TRL. Getting into Korn and Limp Bizkit and stuff like that.
“But moving back to Buffalo, it’s funny how much music is from Buffalo that made it big
like Goo Goo Dolls and Ani DiFranco, and she has a venue here… I was just like ‘Wow! Buffalo is kind of a hotbed.’
“The first band I ever did, and the first time I ever recorded in a studio,” Reverie recalled, “we went to GCR,” which is owned by Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac. “The vocal booth was right next to Robby’s office, and he came out and was talking to us about what we were doing, and I was like, ‘What? This is kind of weird.’”
Weird, maybe. But it marked the beginning for Reverie of what would become a long and prolific journey across Buffalo’s punk and hardcore scene — one that continues full-throttle to this day.
Richard Robinson, founder of Juggernaut, also figures into Reverie’s story. “He wanted to switch to guitar,” Reverie said. “He was like, ‘Hey! I know you play guitar a little bit; can you play bass?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know...”
Reverie’s penchant for playing it by ear, so to speak, has seemingly guided his experience. “If you tell me to play an ‘E’ chord in this key, I’m like, ‘I don’t fuckin’ know,’” he said. “Same when I write stuff. I just dick around until something sounds cool and go from there.”
Reverie has written a few songs for Kill Uncle, most of them coming from him just noodling on the bass and finding stuff that sounds cool, then imploring his bandmates to, “remember that!”
For Reverie, the hardcore/punk scene — both in Buffalo and elsewhere — is about community.
“Anytime we went on tour, if we made money to reimburse for gas and stuff, that was awesome, but if someone says, ‘hey we can put you up for the night or feed you,’ I’m like OK cool, because that saves us money for eating. And if someone plays at my house, they’re more than welcome to stay, too. We put bands up all the time, because it sucks if you have to sleep in the van or pay for a motel.
“When I got into punk, that’s what I liked about the whole thing,” he said. “It’s a community. If you come from any other state or city and you find punk rock kids, you know that you’re going to be taken care of.”
(Editor's Note — First photo provided; second and third photos by Matt Smith/1120 Press)
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