My mother had two brothers and a sister and all of them have musical talent and were generous with their knowledge and record collections.

What kind of music did you gravitate towards as a kid? Did you have any older mentors that would introduce you to cool music? We were lucky to grow up in NYC during that era of music. '92-'93 is around the time I really started going to hardcore shows and getting more involved with the subculture. Family life got complicated around '92, when my grandmother became ill with cancer and my mother also became ill with the same disease shortly after. I was an outgoing kid obsessed with music from an early age. I was lucky to have a tightknit family during those early years. What was your family like back then and what kind of kid were you ? My grandfather died in 1985 and at that point, we moved into the second floor of my grandmother’s house in Whitestone so that my mother could look after her.

I’m pretty sure the building is still there and looks exactly the same. Queens is the boro! I was born in 1977, my parent’s only child, and lived in Bayside in an apartment building that overlooked Clearview Park Golf Course on one side and faced the Throgs Neck Bridge on another. Since we’re both Queens natives, I’m curious, where were you born and what neighborhood did you live in growing up? With all this in mind, it was inevitable that I would end up chatting with Billy about his life and music for No Echo. The 'lifer' thing applies to Billy because not only is he still an avid punk fan, but he also continues to create music, albeit electronic-based, under the name M//R. Following Saetia's break up, he sang for Hot Cross, releasing a grip of records before bowing out in 2007. Back in the '90s, he fronted Saetia, a group many refered to as 'screamo,' but I'm hesitant to use that term as it might conjur up some stuff that definitely wasn't what Billy and his band mates were about. Billy Werner is one of those kinds of individuals. No Echo readers know how much I use the term 'lifer' when discussing many of the people I cover on the site and their connection to hardcore and/or metal.

Saetia closed hands