sandiegopunk.com

Sunday Drive

When you take four guys having past experience in bands like Against The Wall, the Cause, the Fabulous Rudies, and Notice you are bound to get something unexpected and wonderful. That's the case with Sunday Drive, and I recently had the opportunity to sit down with both Jarrod and Joe to talk about their supposed break up, stage presence, Weezer, and other miscellaneous things.

Joel - So you guys are kinda broken up, but kinda not broken up? You're kinda a band, but kinda not a band right now, or something like that? Do you wanna explain it?
Joe - I don't know if I can. I'm going back to school.
Joel - Where at?
Joe - Seattle.
Jarrod - I just have other responsibilities right now and I really need to take care of them. So it's like hard to be a band right now.
Joe - Yeah.
Jarrod - That's the official statement.
Joe - Yeah, that's our press statement, it's hard to be a band, now.
Jarrod - But that's not to say that in a year we won't play four shows in a row. It's just as of right now-
Joe - We're taking a hiatus.
Jarrod - Exactly.

Joel - So do you practice at all?
Joe - Yeah.
Jarrod - Just for the hell of it. You never know, we might just play a show.
Joe - Got practice tomorrow.
Jarrod - I'm moving tomorrow, just so you know.
Joe - Oh that's right, you're moving tomorrow, aren't you?
Jarrod - (sarcastic/joking) That's why we have boxes all over our house (this interview was done in Jarrod living room).
Joe - (joking) Really? I thought it was just a new kind of décor kinda thing.
(Side talk continues)

Joel - So your future is pretty uncertain right now?
Jarrod - It's not like about the scene though, like we have a future as a band. It's just we have a future as friends, and as long as we're friends and we play instruments-
Joe - We'll end up playing together, it's just kinda the way it happens.
Jarrod - Yeah, we'll be a band forever probably. Until the day we die, till one of us dies anyways. (Joking) I guess it will be Joe first-
Joe - Hey!
Jarrod - Because I'll probably kill him.
Joe - Yeah, that's probably true.
Jarrod - But as far as saying we're broken up and we don't have a future as a band, then… I don't know… I wouldn't say that.
Joe - Yeah, I wouldn't either.
Jarrod - But I also wouldn't say look for our new album coming out in stores near you.
Joe - We have a new album?
Jarrod - No.
Joe - Oh, ok.

Joel - But you do have some new songs that aren't on the EP?
Joe - Oh Yeah.
Jarrod - Yeah, a whole bunch, we have three songs recorded that are coming out on a comp sometime, hopefully early next year, and then we have a couple others that aren't recorded.
Joel - Do you have a new song on the Corruption Productions comp? Is that one of the ones?
Jarrod - No I think that that's, I don't know what's going on with that one. Gary just said he put us- (to Joe) you don't even know about hat one do you?
Joe - No, I don't know anything about it.
Jarrod - There's a comp coming out its like a benefit comp or something-
Joel - I'm not sure it's Corey, from Scribble, is putting it out. Corruption Productions… it has like 21 bands on it?
Jarrod - I don't think that's the comp I'm thinking of, I didn't know we were on that comp.
Joel - I think you are.
Jarrod - Well then I have no idea what you're talking about.
Joe - I don't either.
Jarrod - (joking) Talk to our PR guy.
Joe - Call our people.
Jarrod - Have your people talk to our people, and they'll tell you all about it.
(Just to clear things up, Sunday Drive is not on the Corruption Productions comp; I don't know why I thought they were).
Joe - (towards Joel) You're all prepared, you got like questions and everything (referring to Joel's index card with pre-made questions).
Joel - I always have questions.
Joe - That's way better then we did it.
Jarrod - Yeah, we interviewed the Get Up Kids and Jimmy Eat World (at different times). We just like got drunk with them and talked shit.
Joe - Yeah, just kinda babbled on tape.
Jarrod - And tried to get Get Up Kids and Jimmy Eat World to hate each other and fight each other.
(Laughing)
Joe - They wouldn't do it though.
Jarrod - Ok, go ahead with your questions.

Joel - Um, so your lyrics are kinda like-
Joe- Wussy.
Joel - Like a depressed outlook on life, not wussy.
Joe - Their wussy!
Joel - Like there's suicide and this whole morbid theme, the cover of the CD, the guy with the skull… You wanna explain?
Joe - We're deep.
Joel - Deep.
Jarrod - Basically I think the majority of the songs that were written on the CD were written- Ryan and I both, cause we write the lyrics, were like in a… I don't know.
Joe - In a bad place.
Jarrod - Not in a bad place. We had pessimistic outlooks on life I think, during that time. You know, any time anybody writes lyrics or writes a song, their lyrics are going to reflect their attitude, or whatever is going on around them if you know what I mean.
Joel - Well are you trying to reach anyone or share your life experiences?
Joe - I think it's more like venting.
Jarrod - Yeah, it's more like venting thing, definitely. It's more like this is how I feel and this is how I let it out, you know? I mean it's cool if someone listens to song and hears lyrics and goes 'oh, yeah' or whatever and they're totally into it and take something away from it. But one way or another the main thing is that I wrote theses lyrics and I scream them out and it's just letting out whatever I was feeling at the time. It's more for me, I mean that's kinda jacked up and everything; I'm not going to be like Limp Bizkit and say this is for the fans or anything.
Joe - Yeah, I think it's a lot of- like it's easier to write a song than it is to tell somebody. Like it's easier to write a song about how you're hurt, like whatever happened, somebody breaks your heart or something. It's a lot easier to write a song about it than to go up to that person and say 'oh by the way, you broke my heart.'
Jarrod - Yeah, 'small little angles fell from heaven's gate' because of you.
Joe - Yeah, it's a lot easier to say that then it is to say like 'light me on fire,' you know, it's much easier to put it in a song. Plus, it makes it less addictive and finger pointing. If you write a song about somebody, they don't know it's about them.
Jarrod - Exactly. You can totally fucking tell someone off so badly and they don't even know about it.
Joe - Yeah, and unless you put their name in it or something.
Jarrod - Or like something directly related to them-
Joe - Something specific.
Jarrod - I've like tore people apart before and they don't even know it.
Joe - It's really just an outlet.
Jarrod - We're all mean ass-holes, so…
Joe - It's a way to keep yourself from exploding with anger.

Joel - So when you write the songs that's more of like the venting part, so can you have the same emotion and passion when you actually play them?
Jarrod - Well like "Torpedoes Kill Fish" on the CD, we don't play that because I got over it, you know. One day I came to practice and said 'we're retiring that song' because I feel anything for that song anymore. We don't play a lot of songs that we wrote anymore, because for one, we've moved on as musicians and we're a better band.
Joe - Yeah, we don't play a lot of that, like "Rockin' Cool Song." I loved that song! But we're never gonna play it again.
Jarrod - And "Halloween."
Joe - Yeah, "Halloween" or a "Crazy," "Lovely."
(Laughing)
Joe - Songs we don't even play, I don't even remember how to play most of them.
Jarrod - They're just song that we don't feel anything for anymore so…
Joe - Playing them would just be going through the motions-
Jarrod - And the stuff we write now is way better, so it's like let's play the good stuff. We're not going to play anything that we don't feel anything for.
Joe - Yeah, you're just going through the motions to play a song and there's no point in doing it anyway.

Joel - Well what about like the whole fan aspect-
Joe - We have fans?
(Laughing)
Joel - Of course you have fans.
Joe - Who? Who are they? What are their names' and address'?
Joel - Me.
Joe - Who is this fan, fan you speak?
Joel - Like if the fans want to hear a certain song?
Jarrod - Yeah, if someone in the crowd yells out 'play blah blah blah' then we'll play it.
Joe - And if they took their time out of their busy, busy schedule to come down and see us play and they wanna hear a song, yeah, sure we'll play it.
Jarrod - If you wanted us to cover a Notice song, we'd do it.
Joe - Sure we'll play a Notice song. If you wanna hear Michael Jackson, we'll play Michael Jackson.
Jarrod - If you wanna hear Journey-
Joe - We'll definitely play Journey.
Joel - Next time you play, "Thriller," okay?
Joe - I don't know, that's hard.
Jarrod - I could probably do that one.
Joe - It's probably just like a disco beat, I could do it.
Jarrod - I know how to play "Beat It."
Joel - That's just as good.
Joe - We'll do "Beat It."
Jarrod - Yeah, if someone want's to hear something we'll do it. Sorry about that one time we didn't play "D-Day."
Joel - Oh, that wasn't what I meant by the question though.
Jarrod - Oh, but that night it was like-
Joe - Which night was that?
Jarrod - It was awhile ago (July 26), we sucked really bad that night.
Joe - Was that the night that I came back from Seattle the day before?
Jarrod - I think so.
Joe - Yeah, that was terrible, we hadn't practiced in like a month-
Jarrod - We just put our stuff up there, and stuff was breaking, and we were like 'let's just play these songs.'
Joe - Yeah, we were all dead tired. That was a bad night… That's one of those nights where you walk off stage and you want to go out into the audience and apologize personally to everyone single person there-
Jarrod - I just want to flip everyone off.
Joe - Yeah. It's like 'sorry we sucked tonight, you're not going to get your money back, 'cause that's not our deal, but sorry.'

Joel - So is there a difference between you guys as members of Sunday Drive, and you guys as people, like in your day-to-day lives?
Joe - No.
Jarrod - We try not to.
Joe - You mean like a difference between on stage and off stage-
Joel - Like the Misfits, you know they're not like that in real life-
Jarrod - I don't know about that.
(Laughing)
Joe - Or more like kinda a Gwar thing. Or do you really think that Dr. Dre goes out and shoots people every day- which he does (laughing). But you know, stuff like that. Um, no not really.
Jarrod - You know Gene Simmons tongue is really that long.
Joe - Oh yeah. But do you think he really worships the devil?
Jarrod - I don't know man, he might be Satan's servant.
Joe - Yeah, I figure being on stage and playing music is just a part of who I am anyway, and in order to play music really, you gotta be up on the stage.
Jarrod - Some people, like I watched the And/Ors, and Araby put on this cowboy hat. You know, people get dressed before they go to their shows and look at themselves in the mirror. Like Ryan and I, and even Joe, we all worked in a machine shop for a while. And Ryan and I would get off work after like a ten-hour day, smelling like shit, go to Ryan's house, load up our shit, and go to a show.
Joe - Go in, be all covered in aluminum shards and get up on stage, play a show, and go home.
Jarrod - Cause I don't care- we're not pretty, we're not there for people to look at-
Joe - Although I wouldn't mind being pretty.
Jarrod - It will never happen buddy.
Joe - I know, I know. But yeah, there is no on stage persona kinda thing. Like I don't think you'd ever really catch me dressing up for a show, unless it was something like 'I'll wear this to freak people out.'
Jarrod - That's a good idea, I have like a wolf outfit.
Joe - That'd be cool.
Jarrod - And play Duran Duran, "Hungry Like the Wolf." Yeah, that would be bad ass.
Joe - Yeah, but us on stage is just the same way we are off stage.
Jarrod - Except Joe talks a lot less.
Joe - Yeah, I talk a lot less on stage.
Jarrod - But he still talks a lot on stage.
(Pause)

Joel - So at the end of "Fire", there's like talking, like song number two.
Joe - Which talking, which one?
Joel - It sounds like it's from a movie-
Jarrod - I know what that is, I can answer that.
Joel - What is it?
Joe - The sound clip at the end of "Fire"?
Joel - Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Jarrod and Joe - It's from the movie "Kalifornia."
Joe - With Brad Pitt, and David Ducovany, fine, fine film.
Jarrod - I just really liked it, I had that idea before I ever knew what song I was going to put in.
Joe - Yeah, that was one of those ones that just worked out-
Jarrod - Mastering it was crazy, the sound clip fit perfectly in the amount of time we recorded nothingness.
Joe - We had practice before we recorded and we went through all the songs to figure out their times and stuff like that so we'd know how to put it on the album we were doing. We were going to do "Fire," and we were watching the movie and writing down the time on the counter so we'd know exactly where we are. We timed the sound clip for "Fire," and it was like, I don't know, say sixty seconds-
Jarrod - Like two and half minutes.
Joe - Like twelve minutes long or whatever it is, whatever amount of time it took up. And then we said 'Alright, well how many times are we going to have to do this?' and I said 'we'll time it' and I looked at the clock, waited till the time and we played it, and it fit exactly, like flawlessly. If we played that song any faster or any slower it wouldn't have fit, it was just really weird.
Jarrod - But I like that soundclip-
Joe - It's a great soundclip-
Jarrod - Way before I ever knew what song I was gonna put it in, and I came to these guys and I was like I wanna put this from that movie in this song, you know. So we sat down and listened to it and it was cool, it worked out good.
Joe - It was a really good movie too. There's another sound clip from that movie in there too-
Jarrod and Joe - The car crash.
Jarrod - At the end of "Scared to Know You"
Joe - No, at the beginning of "Scared to Know You," between (tracks) three and four there's that car crash, at the very beginning of "Kalifornia." And the other one's are-
Jarrod - Boondock Saints.
Joe - Yeah, Boondock Saints, which is a great movie.
Jarrod - Everyone who will read this interview, because I'm sure tons of people will visit Sandiegopunk.com and read this interview.
Joe and Jarrod - Should watch Boondock Saints.
Joe - It's a really good movie. Is that it, is that the only sound clips we have?
Jarrod - We were going to have one from "Night of the Living Dead" but Ryan didn't want to do it at the last minute, so... it didn't go in. We have another one for a comp though, if we ever master it.
Joel - The CD sounds great.
Jarrod and Joe - Thank you.
Joel - Even though its getting kinda old though (not really), I was playing it last night-
Joe - It's fun.
Jarrod - Even Rachael likes it. She hates wussy music.
(Laughing)

Joel - So do you guys have any closing comments, wanna say anything?
Joe - Ummm…. Bought a new drum set.
Joel - How much?
Joe - Ah, three hundred and something dollars, I got a hook up, yo.
Joel - Nice.
Jarrod - I have a baby. She's beautiful; she's three months old almost. Her name is Angelina. And um…
Joe - She's sleeping.
Jarrod - She's sleeping, and the Flaming Lips are going to take over the world. They'll put out a new album someday.
Joe - I haven't heard anything from them in a while.
Jarrod - Flaming Lips and Weezer are going to take over the world.
Joe - Weezer's playing on New Years Eve, with Blink one-eighty-two.
Joel - Forty-dollar tickets (with ticket master service charge).
Joe - FORTY DOLLARS!?!?!
Joel - Floor seats sold out in less than twenty minutes.
Jarrod - Did you know Weezer's playing in March (with the Get Up Kids)?
Joe - When?
Joel - The 18th, at UCSD.
Jarrod - They're only eleven dollars.
Joe - Huh.
Jarrod - Me and Gary we're going to go down and get tickets.
Joe - I'd like to see Weezer.
Joel - Yeah, I was passed because I passed out at the Weezer concert at Canes, that sucked.
Jarrod - Oh really?
Joel - Well I fainted, during F.o.N. Because I have this condition where like I faint easily when I'm dehydrated and in a hot place and stuff, I faint. And I was just kinda in the midst of the crowd, and I just kinda fainted, and missed Weezer.
Jarrod - Last time we saw Weezer was at Warped-
Joe - Ah, that was so good.
Jarrod - And, ah, I was standing next to Rachael, and I was screaming, singing along- and we were recording for the comp the next day.
Joe - Oh yeah, that was terrible.
Jarrod - And I like leaned over to her, and I was like don't let me sing anymore because my voice will go and I have to record tomorrow. She's like okay. And three minutes later I was like 'Workers are going home."
(Laughing)
Joe - Yeah, all four of us were doing that and we just had to sing the next day-
Joel - Everyone was doing that.
Joe - Yeah, we got into the studio and it's like (in a real horse voice) 'ok, let's sing.'
Jarrod - But I actually sang better than I've ever sang in my life. It worked out, I should scream before the day I have to record more often.
Joe - Sounds good to me.
Jarrod - We should probably get going now.
Joel - Yeah, it's going to start (we were all heading over to the Notice CD Release Show).
Joe - Notice is going to be playing soon.
Joel - So thank you.
Joe - Yeah.
Jarrod - Sorry Ryan and Russ couldn't be here.
Joel - Hey, not a problem.