We caught up with A Scribe Amidst the Lions for a quick follow-up interview to their recent CD review.
(Interview via e-mail, February 2007, Melissa Wells)

San Diego Punk: What is the biggest influence on your bands unique sound?

ADAM: Each other.

KRISTOFER: Humans at constant odds with the mortal spectrum of life, and the unknown specter of death. Confusion abounds: !!!Q’s!!! Are we strong, or weak? At war, or in peace? Everlasting, or fleeting? It’s easy not to

fight it, to sink into your television outlet, or a prescription outlet, or a sexual outlet is easier. Our music is a threaded perspective of that struggle. We try and capture this crazy experience of ours with an imaginative and impassioned outlook, while not forgetting that we’re still walking the shit-stained streets of reality. Musically our influences are all over the map - coming from different backgrounds and listening to different bands….it takes a lot of time to gel it all into something cohesive [“you gotta hump it into submission!” – hall of fame dodge ball coach, Patches O’Hoolohan]. When we get together and write/jam, all those different elements from our pasts get mish-moshed and ground together, helping our tonal and technical palette become more comprehensive. I’ve been into jazz for years now – Oscar Peterson, Monk, Duke, and of course Miles are in and out of my record player a lot these days. Also, since moving to San Diego five years ago [three out of four of us in the group are Minnesota transplants] I’ve definitely been more exposed to, and appreciated a lot of punk rock, indie, and hard core music than I was growing up [first I was the gangsta-rap poseur, then Hendrix saved me and I fell into classic rock like a madman]. I think over the last few years the combination of those two styles [jazz and indie/punk rock] have infused an intense and manic element to our classic rock roots, putting our music where we finally want it to be – on a razor sharp edge, turning heads inside-out and ears into butter for the poor.

BOB: Ruben Vasquez. When we moved to CA, he was our first “musical” buddy. We’d have late nights together in the garage jamming and drinking. [He’s like] Hendrix meets Santana… honest.

NATE: My love and hate for life… and the boogie-woogie.

SDP: For listeners, how would you describe your sound without references to other bands?

BOB: A journey through different sonic landscapes. From psychedelic to tranquil. Melodies telling stories.

NATE: Like being slapped in the face with a wet tuna.

KRISTOFER: Slapping wet tunas like a face….which makes me think of original and psychedelic indie rock featuring chaos in the pilot chair, weeping or celebrating you can’t tell...  

SDP: When reading your band info I noticed that you guys compared your sound to a list of incredible musicians such as Zeppelin. When writing the music was this a conscious effort?

BOB: No. I believe we take from so many groups we can’t pinpoint what we create. It is whatever gets us off.

KRISTOFER: We pull riffs or reference moods or parts from every band we listen to and appreciate, if we need to try and convey a feeling or a part for a new song, whether the pull is from a mega band like Led Zeppelin, or a simpler and obscure band like Neutral Milk Hotel or Hot Wahama Jamama and The Caribbean Beans is never a consideration. But yes, the conscious effort part is used to get a point across in practice [“try making the bass line a little punchier, kind of like this song____ from this album____”], We try and write the best music we can, and do whatever it takes to communicate and navigate through a new song.

NATE: We all have different styles and tastes. We’re hungry cannibals. Human flesh and Rock N Roll taste good. So no we don’t sound like other music. At least I would like to think so.  

SDP: What was it like recording your first album together?  

KRISTOFER: Five of the tracks were recorded at our own [Controls For The Sun] studio, so those sessions may have been a year old before we even stepped foot into Strate Sound Studios with Alan Sanderson to record seven more tunes. Those five were from an earlier time-period in the band that was marked by intense late-night recording and mixing sessions, yielding some amazing and bizarre music [including over two hours of b-sides, c-sides, and d-sides for “TELL”]. Sometimes you could catch us drinking wine and banging acoustic guitars and banjos all night. A pots and pan-piano jam at 4 in the morning was not uncommon. Many an evening found us [over]mixing a song hundreds of times to get it right. With three or four of us hunched over the lab station we were like mad vampire troubadours studying for the Scientist’s Code! Due to old school hand faded effects, levels, and everything on those mixes, it sometimes took three or four of us turning knobs and hitting buttons on cue to achieve a desired effect or a drastic change in the mix.
   The Strate Sounds Sessions were a definite contrast, seven songs in almost as many days, mixed and everything. Spacious, well lit, no smoking….everything was “cleaner” [physically and audibly] than the first more Lo-Fi sessions. Also unlike our home studio set-up, with these sessions we had to be intent on moving fast. Really fast. We had fun though, and it was a good experience for us to be on ultra-turbo-mode to move fast and finish a project - due to the expense of working with a major studio and engineer. There were definitely a few heavy moments [between us] about mixing issues or parts, or whether or not to move on from something, but I figure you can’t have an amazing collaboration succeed without a little blood and sweat! Just like on tour you pull it together, compromise to move forward...most bands, even the great ones, break up while they’re in the studio or on the road.

BOB: A definite learning experience. We fought tooth and nail with ourselves and each other to get our recording finished, but were very satisfied with the outcome. We combined music recorded 2 years prior with recent, more live, studio sessions – the end result being an elaborate puzzle with everything in its correct place.

NATE: Energy drinks and pinball.          
                   
SDP: What type of crowd do you think your music appeals to?

BOB: People looking forward.

KRISTOFER: All types! <<<[insert myspace “add me” plug here]>>>. From the old and rich to the poor and decrepit, we don’t discriminate and neither should you.

NATE: Circus freaks, depressed vegetarian vampires, and kids with Velcro sneakers (so I’ve been told).

SDP: Do you think living in the San Diego area has any influence on your sound?               

BOB: Compared to St. Cloud , Minnesota , there are a lot more bands out here so I’d have to say that there is a bigger punk/indie scene out here as well. Being so close to so many big Southwestern cities definitely broadens our horizons. You can get to so many places in less than 8 hours.

KRISTOFER: Yeah for sure. There are definitely a lot of talented artists here. It’s hard not to be curious about what your peers are doing, and we’re no different. I lived in San Francisco for awhile and felt like there were a lot of cool things happening up there, but it seemed hard to find any hard working musicians to collaborate with, and that makes it harder to generate any kind of support or buzz for your band. Things back in MN were just ok, we could’ve moved to Minneapolis/St. Paul - there’s a lot of great music coming out of there, but winter was a drag and this country is giant - the Southwest just seemed so nice. San Diego has a lot of good venues [too bad most are 21+], a lot of great bands, and there are shows every night of the week and I love that. I love it here, and hopefully our touring and financial situations will allow us to keep San Diego as the ASATL hub-station for another few years….

NATE: I’m the only one who grew up here.  

SDP: In your opinion, what was the best part of recording this album?

NATE: Communicating my feelings through notes and beats…and taking off work.

BOB: Seeing ideas and visions of ours through to completion. I think it turned out how we intended.

KRISTOFER: Collaborating with so many awesome and amazing local people for both the production of the album [Danny De La Cruz, Ben DeHart, Aaron from Zen Whisper/AZP], and for the CD release promotions [Rockit Entertainment, Emissary Films, Tim Pyles, SanDiegoPunk.com] was definitely a highlight for me. I guess the feeling of being done, and seeing your debut album wrapped up all nice and shiny, ready for the headphones or the car, that was pretty nice too:]

SDP: Can we look forward to you guys playing some local shows in the near future?          

KRISTOFER: Yes…we’ve been doing the 21+ circuit a lot lately, but are trying to get more all-ages shows in the San Diego area. Here are some of our next show dates in the area [including some ALL-AGES shows]!

*THURSDAY, MARCH 8TH 2007:   Live at THE VERITY ROOM [ALL-AGES], Los Angeles CA

*FRIDAY, MARCH 9TH 2007:         Live at THE KENSINGTON CLUB [21+] San Diego CA

*SATURDAY, MARCH 24Th 2007: Live at THE STATIC LOUNGE [ALL-AGES] San Diego CA

More info on A Scribe Amidst the Lions:
www.ascribeamidstthelions.com
www.myspace.com/ascribeamidstthelions



Help keep sandiegopunk alive by visiting our sponsors!