Pistolita

After a great set, despite some technical difficulties, we sat down with Connor (piano and vocals), Cory (drums), Alex (bass) and Justin (guitar) of Pistolita at Porter's Pub on the UCSD campus.

(Make sure to check out the photo album from the show as well)

Where did the name Pistolita come from?
Cory: Connor made it up.
Alex: It's from one of our songs.
Connor: Well there is a Frank Black album called Pistolero and then I wrote the song Pistolita because in Spanish one they teach you that "ita" is the ending for little. Anyway, I wrote the song and then stuck with the band name because we

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didn't really have one and we didn't have any other songs either.

Has the lineup changed at all?
Alex: I was added to the band, but they only played one show without me. So at first it was these three guys and then they didn't have a bass player. They came up to me. I remember we were actually in a McDonalds in Encinitas and they were like, "Hey wanna' play bass with us?"

Favorite song to perform live?

Cory: Big Shot
Alex: Panic

The last time I saw you guys was at the Dome in Encinitas.

Alex: The Dooome. Yeah the Dome is no good; no one ever has good shows there.

I try to follow Connor's hands when he is playing and it just doesn't work out.

Alex: He has got some quick hands.
Connor: That's how we perpetuate the band, rob people all the time.
Justin: He's got some Wild West hands.
Connor: In fact your wallet is gone. Everyone over here has no wallet. Check, check.

You guys live in San Diego. What area?

Alex: We're all from East County. El Cajon.

What are you guys up to when you're not playing?

Alex: I'm usually skateboarding.
Cory: Sitting around.
Alex: I watch Fear Factor a lot. That and Full House, I'm a big Full House fan.
Cory: It's not as fun as most people think.

Who writes most of the lyrics?

Alex: Connor writes most of our stuff.

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Any really dedicated fans worth mentioning?
Alex: Some of our fans are pretty intense. There is this one in the UK that's a huge fan of ours who says she's seen us live. She watches the music cast live show over the internet and she sends messages like, "You guys are so good live," and stuff.
Any nicknames?
Alex: [grabs Justin] This is Chauncy Tompkins he plays guitar.
Cory: I'm tostada head.
Alex: Grandpa is grandpa. Connor is grandpa.
Cory: And Alex is nilbog.
Alex: Yeah I'm nilbog, it's goblin spelled backwards.

When did you guys start this tour?
Alex: We started this one on Halloween actually, in Vegas.

Who have you gone out on the road with in the past?
Alex: Briertone. We always tour with Briertone. They're probably the best band in the world.
Cory: I listen to them everyday.
Alex: I have a Briertone tattoo.

Who is your favorite band to tour with?

Alex: Obviously it's Briertone. Hands down Briertone.
Cory: Hot Rod Circuit though. I love Briertone, but Hot Rod Circuit is the shit.
Alex: I'm sticking with Briertone all the way.

Who would you guys like to go out on tour with, ideally?

Alex: Dashboard, not even kidding. We did really well when we played with them. Those kids were stoked.
Cory: Those kids like us. I wanna tour with Minus the Bear. I wanna tour with bands I like; I'm sure Alex wants to tour with MANOWAR. The most beneficial would be Dashboard Confessional though.
Alex: And Briertone.
Cory: That wouldn't help us out that much though.
Alex: They help us have fun.
Cory: If I wanted to have fun I would be out with Hot Rod Circuit all the time.

Before shows do you have any rituals or traditions?

Alex: Sometimes we get in a huddle and say, "Spring Break!" Actually at the Dashboard show we went in the middle of the crowd and had everybody say, "Spring Break" with us. They were really confused, but it worked.
Cory: Right before we play, drink some water, stretch.
Alex: Spring break is usually our thing. The spring break huddle and we get everyone else around us in on it too; it really helps for some reason.

You guys just signed to a new label.

Cory: It's called Moltaban Hotel.
Alex: The first release to come out for them is Hot Rod Circuit and they're the only ones with a record out. I'm not sure if it's new stuff from them or if it's just some older stuff.
Well your EP sold out, Gliss Note.
Cory: Yeah, our Gliss Note EP sold out and we're not going to have anything else out until our new record is done in early February.

Where are you guys normally hanging out when you're at home?

Alex: Chili's in Santee.
Cory: He is always at Chili's. I'm down at the beach sittin' around not doing anything.
Alex: Chili's in Santee is definitely where you could find me. Justin you look like uuuh, ummm, what's a good insult? I can't think of a good insult, could you give me one?
Ass hat.

Alex: Yes! You look like an ass hat Justin.
Cory: No, ass farrow.
Alex: Yes, that is our favorite insult, just in case you were wondering. It's quite becoming.

Any embarrassing moments you would like to share?

Alex: AH! This guy right here, Justin. We were in the hotel and it was these two sleeping in a bed [Justin and Cory] and then me and Connor are in the other bed in the hotel and all night Justin is saying, "Oh man my balls are really big," because he hasn't ejaculated in a while. It's a true story; I'm not trying to be gross, just breaking it down for you. So then all night he is talking about how he is going to have a wet dream on Cory. So finally when we wake up in the morning, lo and behold, there is semen on his pants and Cory.
Cory: He totally jizzed on me.
Alex: And then we had a boxer fight in the hotel room. They were flying all over the hotel room.
Justin: Let me tell my story. This is what really happened. Let me reiterate. I had a wet dream in my boxers, dreaming about a GIRL not a guy, but then I rubbed it in his face. That's what I did.
Alex: It was really funny and he told the guy at Subway and he was super into it. It was kinda weird.
Any embarrassing moments out on stage?
Alex: There are a lot of those to be honest. My bass use to break every single show. It would cut in and out and I had to keep shaking it until it worked.
Cory: Me stopping in the middle of songs. That happened today, I'll just stop. It's happened twice now.
Alex: Oh yeah, we lost a boat once too. I forgot to tell you that. Me and Connor and our two friends from Briertone and we went out onto a lake in Boise with 50 beers between four guys then we finished all 50 beers in about 20 minutes. So we're all just sitting in this boat, completely wasted and these jet skis are going around us making wake trying to tip us over. So we tipped somehow, I don't really know how, but we tipped. So we're all tipped over, trying not to drown and laughing hysterically, while trying to grab onto the boat. There are 50 beer cans floating around, empty beer cans mind you. This guy comes up and tows us, because he sees that we're about to die. He thinks it's hilarious too. As soon as we could touch the shore, all four of us come stumbling out of the water like zombies from the deep. There are a bunch of families around looking at us too, they saw us just wander into the bus and drive away.
Cory: That's like the longest story ever. So pretty much to recap, we drank 150 beers in a couple of hours between eight dudes. You can narrow that down.
Connor: Yeah, we're pretty proud of that one. Got wasted, got dragged into shore, walked away from the boat, went back, the boat was gone.
Alex: We don't remember much from that day.

When you're out, who is the driver?
Alex: Cory and Justin. Me and Connor don't drive.
Connor: Usually when we're in the car we just touch Chauncy a lot. He'll be driving and we'll just start rubbing him on like his chest.
Alex: He gets really weirded out and it's really funny.

What do you guys play in the van whilst driving?

Cory: Minus the Bear! The new Minus the Bear all the time, Rilo Kiley.
Alex: I'm not allowed to drive because they don't like my music. MANOWAR.
Cory: No, not MANOWAR. Turbo Negro sometimes, yeah, a lot of Minus the Bear.

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What songs have you had stuck in your heads lately?
Cory: Minus the Bear
Alex: Actually, we've all had this Piebald song stuck in our head. The "hey, be a part of it" song was stuck in my head for a long time.
Cory: What was that Eddie Money song?
Cory and Alex: "Take me home tonight. Oooooohhhh."
Alex: We played Journey before we played in Seattle that was stuck in our heads for awhile.

When you're away from home, what's your favorite city?

Alex: Las Vegas, Balcony Lights in Las Vegas and San Francisco.
Cory: Oregon.

What bands are you hanging out with? Just acting stupid and dicking around with?

Cory: Bride Ordained, they're not even a band anymore and Kellen from the Apples.

What do you have planned after this little tour?

Cory: The record comes out in a month and a half, in January we're touring and the record comes out in February.
Alex: The record is actually done; it's getting mastered right now.

When you're not doing anything musically inclined what are you doing?

Alex: Skateboarding, I watch a lot of Fear Factor.
Does he really watch Fear Factor that much?
Cory: Dude, he has the box sets.
Alex: No it hasn't come out yet, Fear Factor and Full House. Usually I wake up because Full House is on from 12 to 1 on channel 19 everyday and Fear Factor is from 2 to 3 on channel 6.
Cory: I always catch the Drew Carey Show at 12 o'clock at night. When I get home it's like you gotta' catch the Drew Carey Show!

Who has the worst habits?

Alex: Justin chews with his mouth open. That's really gross, but we still love him a lot.
Cory: I smoke too many cigarettes.
Alex: I sweat a lot.

Where is our fourth member? Where did Connor go?

Alex: Grandpa! We'll give you the low down on Grandpa, because he is talking to our manager right now
Cory: He's married.
Alex: He always wears a wedding ring, because he's married. He's 22.
Well Connor is married so he isn't doing any groupie herding.
Alex: No, no, no.
Cory: Connor and I don't really do too much of that. It's all Alex and Justin. They should have tallies.

Who has the most screaming adolescent girls chasing after them?

Alex and Cory: JUSTIN!
Alex: Chauncy Tompkins, they want his little French beard. They're scared of me for some reason.
Cory: We've got to give a shout out to Robert Delaney. Our tour manager, he's over there.
Alex: Robert is the man. He keeps us alive.
Cory: When we're broke, he forwards the dough for us.
Alex: Everyone loves Robert Delaney. Watch we'll wave to him. ROB! We're recording your wave. Rooooobert, hiiiiyo!

What does your tattoo say?

Alex: It says "Dear you." Actually the "dear you" is a Jawbreaker album, but the dear head is a completely different thing. They are not associated with one another, it just happens to be a coincidence.
I always like looking at people's tattoos.
Alex: [points at Connor] He probably won't show you his.
Connor: It's in a special place. My arm.
Alex: Those sleeves don't really look like they wanna' role up.
Connor: I thought my parents were coming and so I wanted to cover it up.
Do they not know you have it?
Connor: No, they don't. I'm 22. Maybe they'll read the interview, good way to let them know.
One of the Roses are Red guys has "Fuck Yeah" tattooed to his ass.
Alex: I'm getting "Spring Break" on mine!
Justin: Yeah, yeah, he's getting spring break and then a palm tree in the middle.

What else have you guys been up to?

Connor: Picking up trailers and putting them back on the back of vans.
Justin: Our trailer came off a couple times.

Everyone can always tell which one is yours with the sweet sticker.

Alex: It's a bad idea to have it.
Connor: It's a good way of letting people know that there are expensive things to be stolen inside. We actually thought about changing our decal to "steal our shit now."
Cory: We're dumb as hell.
Alex: That's our motto. Getting a new decal for the side.

Anything else you would like to add in?

Cory: Yeah, buy our record in February.

Well thank you guys.

Alex: Thank you for coming out.

Interview with Pistolita, November 2005. Interview and photos by Dasha Matsuura.
http://www.pistolita.com

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