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(Make sure to check out the photo album from the show as well)
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San Diego Punk: First
off, state your names, and what you do in the band.
Joe: I'm Joe, I play drums.
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Joe: No money. I mean, its like constant, same thing every day.
Matt: It's like all your efforts; when you decide that you're letting up, like everything just slows down, we all share a responsibility.
Joe: When you take it to this level, and you're touring all the time, you pretty much let go of everything, and everything you have at home. Work, job, family friends, paychecks.
Matt: And your checking account, you might as well give that to the band, haha. But you know, it's what you gotta do. That's the trade off for what it is. You kinda just have to find out what it is YOU like about it, and really focus in on it.
SDP: From seeing every new face of Mira Mesa's Epicentre to Warped Tour to Kung Fu, what do you have to say of yourselves and for yourselves?
Joe: I'm proud of myself.
Brandon: Yeah it's like, now we don't play San Diego that often.
Matt: Not as much as we used to, it used to be
like every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night. You have to just take it yearly,
that's what I've kind of done, and you just look back on it and you go "Whoa,
like that's what I've done", just proud of myself. I think there's a
lot more that can be done, but I think we've done well.
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SDP: Who do you think you owe credit to [verbally, monetarily, etc]? Matt: Monetarily? We owe a lot of people money, haha. Joe: Who do we owe credit to? Joe Escallante, the guy who signed us. Our friends, our parents, ourselves. I feel that like Yabs (Matt) and Nick deserve a lot more credit than they get, just giving up everything we have to go on tour and stuff. Yabs like sold his fucking car to get the van, there's no reason why he shouldn't get credit. Matt: Well also, you know, if you're on tour all the time, why do you even really need a car? It's like, you care |
(Nick [vocals] walks up)
SDP: Didn't you guys go on Warped Tour two years ago on all of your own funds?
Joe: Yeah, like last year... year before. We all threw in like 500 bucks of our own money to do it.
Nick: Wake up at 6 o'clock everyday, set up on stage in the day.
Matt: They have like 9 bands playing the same stage, you just like load it up and take it all down and put it on semis and just drove all night long.
Joe: It was fun though, best summer of my life. I would do it again.
SDP: Warped Tour...how did it help you?
Matt: It's just like, every city you roll into, after you go to play a Warped Tour, you get one kid, who will come up and say "that was awesome when you did this", or "hey my friend saw you, and said you were good, so I decided to come". That's a lot, for a band like us.
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SDP: How did it hurt you? Matt: Well, if you want to look at it on the surface as of like, a financial standpoint, you could say it was the biggest failure ever, haha, but you don't really look at it like that. Nick: It didn't hurt us more than any other tour we've done. |
Joe: We get pissed off at each other; argue with each other, it just takes you to the limit. But it's also like, a lot of bands don't really get to be pushed to that line, haha.
SDP: What does an all day festival/tour like Warped Tour do for contemporary music?
Joe: For me, like, the people.
Matt: Yeah, like for us, (on a normal tour) we can just check out of a hotel at like 11 or 12, whereas a summer festival you gotta get there at like 7 or whatever to check in. After a while, it takes its toll. I just get happy after a while when we have a show at a club or venue. And at night shows, there will usually be more people there to see you whereas Warped Tour, you got like 50 bands playing, and you'll get lucky if you get like one person who comes to see you.
Joe: yeah, when you got like, Bad Religion playing with you, it's kinda hard to get people to watch you.
SDP: How did it change your perspective on touring bands?
Joe: I got so much more respect for touring bands. Warped was like my first huge US tour and I just didn't know what to expect, and I thought it was like the fucking worst thing ever. I got hot, sweaty, had no money, I couldn't take a shower, and like all these bands are in the same situation, with the exception of like Fallout Boy, or Atreyu, or something.
SDP: What happened with the Lourene Drive Tour?
Matt: It was good; it was like our, little headlining tour thing. We got offered some tour package, and we decided to bring them out, but they ended up going home, and we brought another band out and they finished the tour. It was good times. Some of our best friends out there.
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SDP: What kind of reaction did you expect to get with a record being titled Hail Unamerican? Nick: Well definitely a lot of controversy. Last night, in fact, we had a kid at the Troubadour tell us that there was a local record store that stopped carrying it because of the title. Matt: Wal Mart did that too. |
Nick: Yeah, just a lot of people judge the album without even realizing what its about.
Matt: "Don't get into my band because of my label." you know what I mean?
SDP: What unexpected reaction did you get from the record?
Matt: There wasn't really any cut plain views or anything. We did get asked a lot of like political questions which was kind of cool because kids could get into our minds for a little bit, but you know, we just thought about kids getting into politics from like punk rock shows. We just want them to go for themselves.
Joe: Yeah, like at warped tour, there were a lot of kids who were going to see Anti-Flag, and just got into it because they were, without even understanding what it was all about, or for themselves, or making their own opinions about things.
Matt: There was also like this whole political thing going on while we were recording, and usually when you write music, you're going to be influenced by anything and everything that's around you, not just the TV, or what you're reading, but everything.
SDP: You realize you are the one of the last bands still together that SanDiegoPunk.com has been promoting since you started?
Matt: Yeah, we've known Joel for a long time.
Nick: I remember when that website started, like day one. It's really an awesome feeling though.
Joe: I wasn't in the band back then, so I was just in the middle of everything.
SDP: If you could see any band reunite, and play a show, dead or alive, who would it be?
Nick: Oh man... haha, wow. That's a good one.
Brandon: THE REFUSED!
Joe: Haha, well it's like, what about the Beatles, what about fucking Zeppelin, you know, what about the bands that revolutionized the industry? I guess all the classics. But yeah, I'd love to see the Refused play again.
Nick: The Clash, the Clash is my answer.
SDP: Describe a normal day on tour.
Nick: Girls, Blowjobs, sex, drugs, tits and ass. The usual, haha. Just kidding.
Joe: Just wake up, you can usually go and do whatever you want, like individually and separately, then you're playing a night show, and that's usually what everyone does. It just all depends.
SDP: Any last words?
Nick: Uhm, good interview, haha.
Underminded interview conducted August,
2005 by Mercedes Hernadez.
Photos by Danny Lott. (check
out more of Danny's photos here).
http://www.underminded.com
http://www.myspace.com/underminded
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