sandiegopunk.com

The Turnstiles

SDP: Who's in the band and what do they do? Mike Taylor: Vocals, Bass. Ed Berry: Drums. Jason Andrade: Guitar, Vocals. Shane Roeschlein: Guitar, Vocals. SDP: Briefly describe your music. Shane: Hmm? This is always hard. Do we identify the obvious in a self deprecating manner? The four of us share a common bond in the music of punk rock, a genre we were all weaned on as youngsters. We've got two guitars and a bass and the three string players try and keep up with our jazz trained drummer, he's the only person who knows how to play in the band. The short answer would be rock and roll.

SDP: Why should people listen to your band?
Shane: We're not into the whole sonic assimilation thing so hopefully when our
new friends come to see us for the first time they won't be like, "sweet there are three more bands after them that sound the same." We make music for people to listen too, once it comes from us it becomes everyone's, each person owns it, if they like it or dislike it, they still have a say in how they feel when they hear it. We want to pour our hearts into our music and hopefully those who see us will join us for the journey. Sorry, that's kind of vague but we sincerely love playing.

SDP: How long have you been a band for?
Shane: Jay and I met Mike a couple of years ago, we tried something out then but there was this thing called Operation Iraqi Freedom and it sort of threw a wrench into the whole music making experience, then we all reconvened in September of 2003 as a three piece. We practiced as a three piece for about 4 months with Jay playing drums. Mike had mentioned a couple of times that his roommate played drums, but Mike wasn't that convincing and we kept it up as a three piece for a while. Then he brought Ed to practice, Ed tuned Jays drums and we all fell in love with him. Ed is awesome, and he is really good at skateboarding too. So with that we've been together as a four piece for 4 or 5
months, we did a demo with Dan Maier at Audio Design a week before Ed joined, we'd like to record some songs again since it sounds a lot different now.

SDP: Where did you get your name from?
Shane: That's a good question. Names for bands are always funny in that they either start out meaningful or end up meaning something. The Turnstiles name came from Mike and the image it conjures is interesting. People stand in line to pass through a turnstile to get to a destination, its like a user friendly barrier. I think at the beginning we tried to go the clever band name route, I have a tendency to over think things (obviously), Mike is really good at keeping things
simple and concise.

SDP: What makes the Turnstiles different from every other band out there?
Shane: Well, as far as music is concerned there are a billion bands with distorted guitars and rock and roll drums and vocals, we're not reinventing the wheel here and we'd be pretentious to say that, one thing I'd like to stress is that when you come and see us at a show, you become part of the family and we can all have a great time together.

SDP: Is there any message you try to get across through your music?
Shane: As far as messaging is concerned we try and put out positively in hopes
of it being returned to us. Our lyrics run the gamut of topics from personal to social and all the rest in between. "There are too many DJ's and nobody's dancing."

SDP: Do you have a single song that has a special meaning to you?
Shane: I absolutely love it everytime we write a new song. Jay is especially
prolific in his writing so we've got a lot of stuff that we are working on. My favorite right now is "Emergency," it's fun to play and I get to do a little bit of singing. I also really like "Notch."

SDP: What bands, people, books, etc. have had the biggest influence on your band?
Shane: As far as my influences are concerned, musically I'd have to site Dischord Records (entire catalog), TroubleFunk, James Brown, Public Enemy, Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Neil Young, PJ Harvey, Kyuss, Django Rienhardt, The Rolling Stones, and ACDC.

For the band (sorry guys, Joel asked me to get this done asap for July) I'd venture a guess and say we all love: 999, The Ramones, ACDC, Black Flag, Archers of Loaf, The Clash, Fugazi, Slayer, Johnny Lee Hooker and The Cars and Ed loves hip hop and his Dodge Neon.

SDP: What about the band are you most proud of?
Shane: How far we've come and all the great friends we've made just by going out and playing our songs and all the great people we get to play with.

SDP: What is the biggest thing you want to improve?
Shane: It'd be nice if people would stop standing there at shows with their arms crossed trying to look cool instead of dancing and having a good time, not even at one of our shows just at all shows in general. I saw Planes Mistaken for Stars at Soma and the crowd was comatose. Why pay 20 fucking bucks to stand there and not enjoy yourself.

SDP: What CDs are currently in your stereo?
Shane: Shane: British Sea Power, Irradio, The New Transit Direction, Mission
of Burma, The Black Keys.

SDP: Do you have any closing comments?
Shane: We hope to see everyone at the shows we'll all hang out and have a great time. Support your scene, support school music, anything in excess is excessive, moderation is the key... Ah, sorry, we love you all. Love, life, distortion!

See the Turnstiles play Monday, July 5th at the Hot Monkey Love Cafe with Spare Change (acoustic), Mister Valentine (acoustic), and Operatic. More info.

Official Website: http://www.theturnstiles.com/
mp3s: http://www.purevolume.com/theturnstiles

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