Executioner’s Dave Burks on How a Trip to England Changed His Life

California hardcore punk cult heroes Executioner have just released a career-spanning discography collection and the timing couldn't be better. In a punk scene flooded with watered-down songwriting and big mouth posturing, the band's unbridled performances are a revelation. The anthology CD features the San Jose group's entire 1982 recorded output, painstakingly restored and re-mastered and also features the kind of extensive liner notes that will satisfy even the most fickle punk enthusiast. Although the band was only around for a short time, the anthology proves how vital they were to the history of their genre.

"When a lot of people think of old-school West Coast punk from the early '80s, I think they think of bands like The Zeros, but that was more of a new wave type of thing in my book. I like to call it "skinny tie" punk," says Executioner vocalist Dave Burks during a recent conversation with Noisecreep. "I came more from that Dead Kennedys and Black Flag school of thought. What people know is hardcore punk. I was living in Los Angeles at the time because my parents were divorced. But yeah, when I think of hardcore punk, I don't think of that happy LA stuff," says Burks.

A 1981 a trip to England changed the singer's life forever. "I was a teenager I went to England for the first time. It was in 1981 and I lived there for a few months. How it happened was that I had a cousin who had a friend from the UK who was my age who turned me onto a lot of different bands. By that point I was already intrigued by English and European culture. So when I was offered the chance to go over to London and live there with his family for a while, I jumped at the chance.

"During my teen years I was actually an antiques dealer so I sold off a lot of stuff before I went over to England. Once I got there, I did some more selling. That's the money I used while I was there. Before I went there, I was totally into that new wave stuff, but once I was in London, I got completely immersed in the scene that was happening there," remembers Burks.

Watch 'Fix Me/Hellbound' from Executioner

The post-punk scene of the early '80s was in full swing in London while Burks lived there. "I had a friend that would take me to all the different punk shops like Boy and The World's End. If you wanted to get free drinks and meet pretty girls, you had to buy that clothes that they sold at those places. During the day I would hang out with the punk kids at the bus stop or whatever, but at night I would hit the dance clubs because that's where all the girls were at [laughs]. I remember meeting the guitar player from Adam and the Ants and that Kim Wilde chick during those nights. It was a lot of fun."

After Burks returned from his extended stay in London, he got to work on his music again. "When I came back to California I was all-of-a-sudden the cool guy. I got laid a lot more. I even put on a British accent to make it work more [laughs]. But anyway, around that time I started a band called Reign of Terror and that eventually turned into Executioner. We had a lot of fun and wrote some great songs, but it was not easy. I remember our manager coming to where I was living and handing me a check for $13. That was for my whole year of gigging with Executioner. It turned out that one of the band members was advancing himself for drug money. But that stuff happens to bands. I'm just happy this anthology is out now for everyone to check out what we did together."