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With Hopes Last Breath

With Hopes Last Breath interview conducted July 2005 by Vanessa Chalmers, special thanks to Ismael Castro.

It’s 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night and I’m holding my breath in the hallway of Back-Lot studio in San Marcos, waiting for the boys of With Hopes Last Breath to start their practice session. The suffocating stench of sweat mingled with watermelon bubble gum is making me want to gag so I breathe into my shirt sleeve as I watch and listen to the band crash into the first measures of

“Undertone.” Jacob is growling into the mic, Chad, shirtless, is buried behind his drum set, while Alex sways his bass and Orly’s fingers weave the song’s melody on his guitar. In between songs the guys discuss song lengths, vocal arrangements and argue who messed up what song with questions like, “Are you guys all high?!” Half an hour later we’re all deaf, hoarse, and sweating, but eager for the interview to begin.

Vanessa: I can’t read my notes, they’re all written in pink!

Orly: I can fix that. (Shines his cell phone over my notebook)

(Everyone laughs)

V: So chivalrous of you!

Chad: Orly I love you.

V: So who are you boys anyway?

Orly: I’m Orly Ramirez. My real name is Orlando Ramirez and I’m the guitarist in the band. The Mexican one. We have two Mexicans, the singer and the guitar player.

Sal: I’m Sal, I’ve been manager for about 8 months.

Chad: I’m Chad, I play drums.

Alex: I’m Alex, I play guitar, people call me Yeddi, but you can’t.

Jacob: I’m Jacob. I sing.

V: What Genre do you consider yourselves?

Orly: Metal.

Alex: Metal.

Chad: I don’t like using the word “metalcore” but we do have hardcore influences. I used to say, “Oh yeah we’re metal” and people would think Godsmack and Metallica. That’s not metal, but they got the right idea.

Alex: We’re metal.

Orly: We’re not “new” metal…but I do like Creed.

Everyone: Ooooooh!!

Chad: Orly you’re out of the band! You’re done! (Starts singing, “Can you take me higher…”)

Alex: Please don’t put that on there!

V: What were some of the bands that got you into metal? Orly: Thrice! Alex: Thrice, Sinai Beach, Evergreen Terrace. Sal: Falling Cycle. Chad: Falling Cycle was

the most significant because they were a San Diego band.

Jacob: AFI was the first band that brought me into the scene in middle school. Ever since I was a little kid my brother always listened to Zepplin and Danzig and Guns and Roses. I’ve always liked metal.

V: What year did WHLB start?

Alex: December 2002. Right after I saw Falling Cycle!

Chad: Our first show was May 15 of 2003.

Alex: We played with Life or Death, A Rose for Ona, Lead the Way and Long Live Logos at Gateway Community Church (in Escondido).

Orly: We weren’t even old enough to drive ourselves to shows then!

(Everyone laughs)

Chad: Orly’s 17, I’m 16, Jacob is 19 and Yeddi is 17.

V: Do you feel that since you’re younger than most bands that you have a significant advantage?

Chad: A lot of people don’t know we’re this young.

Alex: When they find out they hate us!

Sal: Some people don’t take us as serious.

Chad: Some people think they have seniority at shows. They say, “I’m 21 and you guys are 16, we should headline, we can do things better than you can!”

V: Do you feel you’ve been judged because of the age factor?

Alex: The first time we played the Epicentre with Evergreen Terrace, A Life Once Lost, Red Cord and Thyne Scabbard we were supposed to play second and I overheard one of the singers say, “Oh we need to play second. We’re older, they’re little kids they’ll understand, they’re just a San Diego band”.

Orly: We’re not going to start fights. We love playing, it doesn’t matter if we open or not.

Chad: Yeah, if we see one kid who gets into (our music) that’s more than we came across if we wouldn’t have played.

Sal: When we first started out we looked up to other local San Diego bands that were older than us and have now broken up, but now there’s other local bands that are looking up to us, and a lot of them are still older than us!

V: How have you matured as a band these past three years?

Chad: Our knowledge of music is more mature. Yeddi has learned a lot of tones from mixing and other tones for the bass. The style used to be written very immature, we would do the same thing every song. Now we’re trying to mix it up with different styles, whether it be playing stuff from At the Gates, or really fast like Between the Buried and Me where it’s technical and Yeddi does his crazy, sweet picking. So we try and mix it up instead of doing just regular metalcore. We even mix straight hardcore. I think that we used to just look at one-minded music pretty much how we used to be. Our style has changed in the past two years, so in another two years our style will be toootally different from what it is now, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. I think our whole look on the scene is more mature. We’re not trying to impress anyone, we’re just trying to play for fun.

Alex: We’re not as petty as we used to be. We talk to each other more now. If we’re pissed we normally talk.

Orly: Well, first we yell at each other for a little bit, then we talk. Before we’d be like “Screw you guys, I’m going home. I quit this band”.

Alex (laughing): Oh man! How many times have we quit?? WHLB has broken up at least 20 times!

Chad : “It’s either YOU, or US!”

Orly: I’m surprised we haven’t seriously quit.

Alex: Or killed each other!

V: So what is it about Escondido that breeds this hardcore subculture? Sal: I think it was because of the Selah (Building). Facedown Records used to hold a lot of concerts there, back when the hardcore scene was more Christian. They had shows there every weekend and it’d be down the street, so a lot of kids from

San Diego or Orange County, or even the Inland Empire area would go there. Back then shows weren’t as massive as they are now. Now it’s a huge concert. It’s weird to see bands like As I Lay Dying because they used to play to 60 kids for a dollar a head.

Orly: And that was only 2 years ago!

Sal: Yeah and now they’re selling out venues.

V: I’m curious about what happened to the Christianity in the scene.

Sal: It’s not like everybody turned away from Christianity or anything, it’s just that it was really prominent. I don’t think it’s died down, it’s just that the style of music that represented their beliefs has gotten so popular that it’s become mainstream to where it’s just the music business, it’s not church business anymore.

Alex: I think it preached itself out. At first kids were like, “I can listen to this because they’re not talking about cutting themselves up like Slipknot. They’re talking about more positive things”. But when the music gets bad you don’t want to listen to it anymore. In reality I think the music just started getting really bad. A lot of good bands dropped out.

Sal: The expectancy of musicianship is so high now too. There’s 13 year-olds with thousands of dollars worth of equipment that are just learning at such a young age and surpassing the standards of writing music.

Alex: Having a heavy breakdown doesn’t cut it anymore.

Orly: Breakdowns are overrated. But so is metal I guess.

(Everyone Agrees)

Chad: Good job Orly!

V: What were you guys doing before the formation of WHLB?

Sal: I think all of us were pretty much into music. All of us love music a lot. Our interest is music. San Diego’s a really big music scene in hardcore. You have to be out there meeting kids and being genuine with them, not just being nice to them so they’ll like your band. If we want to be successful we have to meet people and be around people that can get us places. The people you know and the fans you build up are all that really matter in the end.

Alex: Before I was in WHLB I loved Metallica and video games, I had big hair and did not pick up an instrument until 8th grade.

Chad: Yeah the flute!

Sal: The recorder.

Alex: Shut up.

Sal: We all pretty much just chilled.

Chad: Chilled hard.

Alex: Like ice.

V: What is your songwriting process like?

Alex: Yell at each other!

Orly: Sometimes me and Chad will mess around, jam out, and come up with something that will sound pretty cool, then we’ll show Yeddi and he’ll add all these really nice riffs. We all work together.

Alex: Normally it starts with one of us writing a cool riff and then we bring it to the band and we jam on it. The last song took us 3 months to write because we put it together piece by piece. We’re not the band that can sit down and write a song in just one sitting. It takes months and months. We don’t write 10 songs, then pick 5 and record them. We take a lot of time on each song and handcraft them. Quality over quantity.

V: So what about your lyrics?

Orly: Jacob is the writer of the lyrics.

Jacob: I write about being bored in Escondido. It’s not that simple though. I try to tell stories.

Sal: Zombies?

Jacob: Yeah! One song is about a Zombie. The rest is just…being bored.

V: Who did the managing before Sal came along?

Everyone: Scott!! (Former bassist)

Orly: He booked our best show ever with Evergreen Terrace, A Life Once Lost and Red Cord.

Chad: But when Scott was at his limit of stuff to do we got Sal, and that opened up a whole new door of new people to meet, new venues to play at. Now we’re playing Soma and Ground Zero instead of churches all the time.

V: Do you have any goals right now?

Alex: I think we want to put out a really good record. We want to do really well on this next split (with Happiest Creature Alive). We want to go on tour and have kids really enjoy our music. I’m not saying that everyone will, but we just want to play good music and play really well live. Hopefully signings will come later.

Orly: I want to get signed. We’re just trying to get our music out there.

Chad: I think that’s all our goal is. If we could do this for a living that would be awesome! At least for me, to not have to go to a 9-5 job everyday and pretty much be a rock star.

Alex: You’re already a rock star.

Chad: I know.

(I complain about the smell and someone compares it to Orly’s Garage)

Alex: Oh man. The stink of Orly’s garage.

Orly: We started out practicing in my garage, but now we’ve moved up to a studio.

Chad: Now we can afford our own private studio, but this smells worse than his garage!

(Everyone laughs)

Orly: Right now it does because we’re all sweaty. It just smells like a lot of gross guys!

Chad: But think about it…if we didn’t have that garage…

Orly: We’d be nowhere!

V: Well, is there anything you’d like to add? Any advice to aspiring bands?

Alex: Check out Happiest Creature Alive. That band’s tight. They sound like Dillinger Escape Plan/Converge.

Chad: Another thing, if your parents are rich and you start a band and they buy you all your equipment – BE THANKFUL, because we started with nothing!

Orly: We still have nothing!

Sal: Just be on the look out for the split that came out in July: With Hopes Last Breath and Happiest Creature Alive.

Alex: Please come to our shows. I’ll hug you.

Orly: We love meeting new people. Just come up to us and say hi.

The With Hopes Last Breath/Happiest Creature Alive split was introduced with a dynamic performance at El Cajon’s Ground Zero on July 23. Pouring heart, soul, and sweat into their 6-song set, the boys transmit the passion of metal music at 110 decibels before literally collapsing on stage. With Hopes Last Breath is currently planning a fall tour.

official website: http://www.withhopeslastbreath.com
mp3s: http://www.myspace.com/withhopeslastbreath
Interview by Vanessa Chalmers
WHLB photos by Danny Lott

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