Fifth Wheel Interview

On August 25, 2001 I had the opportunity to sit down with all three members of Fifth Wheel and talk with them about their new album, recent member change, and more.

Joel - Why don't we start off by telling me your names and instruments.
Justin - I'm Justin, and I play guitar and sing.
Gary - I'm Gary and I play the bass.
Carlos - Carlos, I play drums.

Joel - So you guys were a four piece a little while ago, but now you're a three piece. This is a two part question, first what made you decide to go to a four piece?
Justin - What happened was we were looking for a fuller type of two guitar sound and we had a lot of harmonies added to our riffs and stuff. So we met this guy Ryan, who we knew for a while, and we practiced a lot and he became a member. That was like four months ago.
Gary - We just had our differences and decided to have him leave. We started out as a three piece.
Joel - So do you guys like it better as a three piece, or are you still looking for a second guitarist?
Carlos - We're not looking for another guitar player, we're staying a three piece. We're still friends with Ryan, there's no bad blood between us. He' s a good guy, we didn't kick him out because we don't like him, it's three people, we've been together for three years, and adding someone that we barely knew kinda mixed stuff up. Things didn't work out, but we're still all friends.
Justin - Yeah, we've been a three piece since we started so we're very used to it. Two years ago we were writing songs and playing shows, so we were way used to it before we decided we wanted to expand.

Joel - So you guys have been a band for three years?
Justin - Yeah, around three years, somewhere around there, two and a half.
Joel - So when you first started, where were you playing shows at?
Justin - When we first started we played at youth groups and churches and stuff like that. Once we had demo out and stuff we wanted to expand and play shows at the epicenter and canes, and those places.
Carlos - We were never a Christian band, we just placed at churches for places to play because we couldn't get into the other venues.
Justin - Wherever we could get shows basically.
Gary - We played at this place called The Rock Café a couple times, and we got a little too rowdy I guess, we weren't edifying to the lord or whatever so we got kicked out.
Justin - Yeah, we got kicked out for being rowdy and having a mosh pit. It was a really small place, we were all crammed, just the three of us on a stage that could fit like two people.
Gary - I guess like a table got bumped or something so they got mad.
(Laughing)
Carlos - So we got free food, and when we were playing the pit broke out and a guy came up and he said 'Stop,' and he said, 'you guys aren't edifying to the lord,' so they kicked us out. Two months later they called us back and asked us to play a show.
Gary - We used to be death metal, so that might be the problem.
(Laughing)
Joel - Were you guys really death metal?
Gary - No.

Joel - Tell me about some of the bigger shows you've been playing lately.
You guys went up to San Francisco, right?
Justin - Link 80 invited us up to play with them at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley. It was a lot fun, a big show, sold out crowd. Those guys (Link 80) were just top-notch guys, they were total buddies to us, we partied with Joey (Link 80 drummer) afterwards, and it was good times, a lot fun.
Carlos - We stayed at some ghetto hotel about thirty miles away, and before that we were at Joey's girlfriend's house just partying and stuff and the Oakland Police came to tell us to be quiet. When they were there they got a call about a shooting and they had to leave, we all had beers and stuff and the cops never even said anything.
Gary - I think the police got pissed that there were two chicks making out.
Carlos - I was just there drinking, and two Irish girls, about 25, and I can
't remember really, but I told them to start making out and they did. Justin (joking) - You were also playing with a dog a little bit, naked, it was weird.
(Laughing)
Joel - So was San Francisco your only out of town shows so far?
Justin - We played up in LA before a couple times. San Francisco was like the biggest show we ever played, other than that just locally.

Joel - So you have a new album coming out?
Justin - Yeah, it's about time, we started recording back in January. Originally we were going to put like thirteen songs on, but now it's down to nine or ten, we just feel like we're a much better band now, a lot tighter. The CD should be out soon, it's just really hard to release a CD on your own, it's really expensive; so if there's a record label out there that wants to sign us, we're definitely open.

Joel - So what type of people will like your music, what bands are similar to you?
Justin - I'd say pop-punk, emo, just punk rock fans in general, we draw from a lot of influences, punk rock, alternative, reggae, emo, just everything.
Gary - Most of our influences our around the same, but we still listen to different kinds of music, I think all our influences are mainly punk.
Justin - NOFX, Blink, Bad Religion-
Carlos - Descendants.
Justin - Jimmy Eat World.

Joel - So you guys have a manager, huh?
Justin - Yeah, his name is Miguel
Carlos - We also have a booking agent, Steve from Ozark Talent.
Joel - Did you get him through Link 80?
Justin - Yeah, that's exactly how we got the hook up.

Joel - Alright, in as few words as possible, try to describe your music.
Carlos - Energetic.
Gary - Frustrating.
Justin - Sexy.
(Laughing)

Joel - So do you guys have any closing comments?
Justin - We wanna plug United Clothing Company, www.unitedmovement.com. That's our new sponsor, so we're just giving them a plug.
Gary - Give it up for the internet, for how much it promotes local music, and of course all internet porn.
(Laughing)
Joel - Well thank you very much.

http://www.fifthwheelmusic.com

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