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The Aurora Complex

The Aurora Complex (formerly Spread the ashes) practices every Saturday night at The Dome in Encinitas. I stopped in to listen to some of their new songs and an interview with Sam (bass), Rob (guitar), Brad (guitar), Julian (vocals) and Tyler (drums). You guys have been through a lot of names. What is the tally right now? Brad: About 600. Tyler: (thinking) Four I think. Rob: So from the beginning, "She Loves You" was our first one. Then we went to "scissorXkiss" and then for about a day we were "Burn the Gates." Julian: For one show. Rob: And then we were "Spread the

Sam sent me some of the questions that your adoring fans were asking about. What CDs have you been listening to?
Julian: At the Gates.
Tyler: Dillinger Escape Plan mother fucker!
Julian: That's what I'm thinkin'.
Rob: Animosity, The Cardigans.
Sam: Journey
Tyler: Fall of Troy.
Rob: Frou Frou.
Sam: Bjork.

What are your main influences?
Sam: Rob.
Tyler: Rob is inspiring. One of our main influences is definitely As I Lay Dying.
Brad: Bullshit!
Tyler: I think that is the most obvious.
Sam: Just because you guys know them so it made it easy to look up to them.
Rob: In our earlier stuff we looked up to a lot of Norma Jean and mixed a lot of Chaos. We tried to do Dillinger stuff but it didn't work out too well.
Tyler: Rob can't cut it.
Rob: I try. I can finally play "Calculated Infinity" now.

What were your main motives for starting to play music in the very beginning? Sam: The Backstreet Boys! Definitely the Backstreet Boys! (everyone laughs) Brad: Led Zeppelin. Tyler: I just always wanted to play the drums and my parents wouldn't let me. Brad: When I was that age I wanted to play guitar and my mom got me this guitar in Mexico. Sam: I joined the band wagon in the seventh grade. Rob: Like any metal head, Metallica. OLD Metallica! 1989 and before. Tyler: You and your long hair and Ritchie had long hair too. Rob: I came from an instant metal band. Tyler: They were called the Metal Twins. Tyler: No, no not the Metal Twins;

Everyone has been asking why you guys have changed the name. Motives?
Rob: It's because they can go fucking suck our dicks!
Sam: Baby dicks. Well first off I really hated Spread the Ashes more than anything. I've been trying to get us to change the name for so long.
Rob: It's been really hard for us to stick with a name for the last few years. Finding one that we really like is kind of hard. This name, we all
actually agree on.
Tyler: Also, there is a band called Scatter the Ashes.
Rob: And there about 10,000 other bands with the words "ashes" and "spread."
Tyler: There are a lot of bands with the word "the" in their names too. Wait, we still have "the" in our name.
Rob: There is a band in New Jersey with the name "Spread the Ashes" too. They're a bunch of little emo kids.
Julian: They wanna sound like Metallica, but can't.
Tyler: We pwned those nubletts.
(everyone laughs)
Sam: Nublets.

Plans for the future and the band? Brad: Keep playing. Sam: Tour! Julian: Yeah, tour. Rob: We are looking for a summer tour with the 25th Hour. Sam: And we want to do a music video. Brad: I'll direct it. Sam: It'll be a porn! Rob: It'll be all anime and crap.

You guys are planning on recording as well right?
Rob: We are recording on January 14th.
Sam: So by the time this interview is out we will be done mixing and such.
Rob: We are working on that, so that will be out and ready very shortly.

All of you have lived or live in the San Diego/Encinitas area right?
Tyler: I'm the only local Encinitas person. I've lived in the same house all of my life.
Rob: I've lived all around, but I grew up in Tennessee and San Bernardino.
Sam: Rob is adopted.
Brad: I'm from Arizona.
Sam: I'm from Canada.
Julian: And I'm from Oceanside.
Sam: Oh, oh, Rob lives in Hollywood.

Of the local bands around are there any in particular that you admire, or like? Sam: As I Lay Dying. Tyler: NO! Brad: They aren't local anymore. Rob: Local bands that we admire? Sam: Definitely the 25th Hour. Rob: Yeah, they are going to be going places. Sam: They have some really great potential. Julian: Destroy the Runner. Rob: We already know where they are going. Sam: But the 25th Hour by far has the most potential. Rob: Out of all the rising bands that are doing well now, they really know

Other than music, what do you guys do?
Rob: I am a recording engineer in Hollywood, but that still has a lot to do with music.
Sam: And I'm a mechanical engineer in San Diego.
Brad: I sit at home and play video games.
Julian you're going to school as well right?
Julian: At Mira Costa…
Sam: Tyler's like, "yeaaaah."
Rob: Tyler just plays drums in six other bands.
Tyler: And I hang out with crazy ass kids.

Hobbies outside of music?
Julian: I kill people.
Sam: I like sports; baseball and basketball, and soccer is a good one too.
Tyler: Let's see, my hobbies? Being straight edge, drawing "X's" on my wrists and hands.
Rob: I like being broXcore.
Sam: Terror status.
Rob: Punch guys, wear a wife beater, drive a big 4X4 and I like to hit the dunes every once and a while.

Any moments from shows you guys remember?
Tyler: Brad slipping on his guitar case and falling on his ass.
Rob: At Fire Zone. At one of our practices, our old singer took a bunch of caulking glue and stuck it on his butt and ran around screaming, "I have caulk in my ass."
Brad: Me stabbing someone in the audience with my guitar.
Julian: You kicked some kid too.
Brad: Oh and I jumped off stage and accidentally kicked some kid halfway across the pit. Then here at the Dome I kicked Myles across the pit. Myles is Sam's little brother.
Julian: Him (Sam) bleeding all over the place.
Sam: I think I out bled Ritchie.
Rob: Fuzzy (Sam) has figured some way of bleeding more than anyone else.
Brad: Dude you left skin on the bass.
Tyler: Remember when he tried to spin his bass and it hit you Rob.
Rob: We miss Dome shows.
Sam: We jumped off the stage at an Epicentre show.
Tyler: I looked up and was all, "Where did my band go?"
Sam: We just had a contest! People sent in photos with TAC or The Aurora Complex written some where on their body. The coolest one was the eyes thing. This girl wrote our name on her eyelids. Some other girl wrote "TAC" on her wrist, that one was cool.
Julian: Some of them were pretty gross though. That one girl.

What do you guys think of the San Diego "scene" right now?
Brad: It's weird.
Rob: It is in an awkward stage.
Tyler: Fashion core kids need to die.
Rob: Our original slogan was fashion core kids must die.
Sam: We are just cool guys who like to play music.
Rob: We don't really consider ourselves to be in the "scene."
Sam: We are part of the music scene, but not the scene, scene.
Rob: The San Diego scene has kind of died.
Tyler: We don't stand in front of the mirror and put eyeliner on and shit and hard core dance in parking lots.
Sam: I really, really hope that people don't take this the wrong way.
Rob: The emo flip needs to get out of here.
Brad: The emo flip for men.
Rob: That and the whole birds nest, spikey thing in the back.
Sam: YOU did that.
Rob: I did it for a day.

Who would you want to tour with?
Sam: The only reason why I would want to tour with As I Lay Dying would be to get our name out.
Tyler: Dillinger Escape Plan!
Rob: The Taste of Blood or Between the Buried and Me.
Sam: Zao would be sweet!

What do you guys think of myspace? Rob: Sam is the myspace whore. I made it originally, but Sam is usually the only one who checks it, because I have no time. Brad: I'm not allowed to be on the band's myspace. Recent obsessions you guys have had? Sam: Masturbating. Tyler: That isn't recent. Sam: I actually really don't though. Rob: Because you're a little whore. You are the reason we have a female fan base. Sam: This is making me look real bad. Brad: Julian say something. Julian: I don't say much in general. I made a sweet Buster sword from final fantasy seven. Tyler: Rico's and Filly's. Rob sits in the dark and cries because he can't eat Rico's. Rob: I live in Hollywood! It's a couple hundred miles away. Any memorable fans?

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