Killing the Dream Interview on The Shultz Show KDVS 90.3 5/9/08

Since I'm out of school and in between careers, I've had some time to finally sit down and transcribe my interview with Killing the Dream from May 9th, 2008. It was a really fun interview, but a bitch to transcribe. Please get something out of this so my 2 days of typing will not be in vain.

Shultz: Hey you’re listening to KDVS 90.3 in Davis. In the studio right now I have Killing the Dream. Hello.

DJ: What’s up America?

Eli: Yo.

Chris:Hello.
S: How’s it going? Why don’t you introduce yourselves and how old you are and what you guys look like so people can get a visual.
DJ: This is an easy question to answer. DJDJ, formerly the youngest member, not anymore. 25. I am easily the best looking and I play guitar.

C: I’m Chris, 25, play bass, um I don’t know what else to say about that.

DJ: We’re describing our looks.

C: Describing our looks…. Irish, German, beer…

DJ: Beer in hand.

C: Yah, potatoes and beer.

Pat: I’m Pat, I’m 19, and I play guitar and I look European…moving on.

C: Little Dutch boy.

DJ: Yah he’s a Swedish Viking but not tough.

E: Hi, my name’s Eli, I also am not tough. And uh if you can imagine what Ed Bundy looked like [Ed Bundy is a serial killer Eli] from Married With Children, that’s kind of what I look like.

DJ: Pat didn’t say how old he is.

C: Yah he did.

P: Yah.

DJ: Oh, ok.

S: Alright, uh...

DJ: Wait, can we start over?

S: We can edit it later. How long have you guys been together in your relationship here?

DJ: This band has been a band since 2003. Uh, I’ve been with the band full time since 2005. Pat followed us into the studio a few minutes ago.

E: He actually said he’d give us gas money if we drove him here so…

DJ: and Isaac, who couldn’t make it, he tried, bless his heart, he really tried…uh…

S: Did he really?

DJ: No.

S: He doesn’t like me?

E: He had work commitments…we never really know with him…if he’s actually working…

DJ: Everybody else are original members, to answer your question.

E: Yah, me, Chris and Isaac and some dudes named Bart and Joel started the band in 2003 ish and uh Bart and Joel quit is 2005 and we picked up DJ and Patches started playing with us about a year ago I guess.

DJ: Seems like a million years ago.

S: Alright, um so since this current group has been together, what are your secrets for keeping the band together?

E: Uh we’re hanging on by a thread here.

DJ: Don’t ask us. You’re about to witness an on air break-up.

E: Don’t practice…

DJ: Yah, don’t practice, don’t talk to each other outside of shows, don’t talk to each other at shows, just look on stage and be like ‘oh, there he is.’

C: I think that’s probably the secret for staying a band this long, is not ever getting together and hanging out, cause we probably would just kill each other.

E: And seriously, I think one of the reasons we’ve been able to be a band so long is because it’s real hard to go, at least it would be for us, to go on tour and not get sick of each other or to have other stuff stress at home, like worrying about having a job or doing whatever, and that puts a lot of stress on a band, so if, being that we don’t really have a lot of that when we go out for a couple weeks, it’s right around the time that we start getting sick of each other it’s time to go home.

DJ: All four of us have known each other for, you know, since the 90s, since we were all in high school, except for Pat cause he wasn’t born yet, and I think it’s important to know each other first than just try and do a band, you know a lot of ugly things surface when you do a band.

S: Do a band…yah…

DJ: Is that on the list?

E: Nobody does this band. Just being honest.

S: Was there a defining moment in each of your lives when you realized you wanted to start a band or…

C: I think for me I just remember listening to the band Rancid and hearing the bass play in that and then seeing them live was like the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. And since then, I’ve always wanted to play on stage and see kids sing along to our songs and that seemed like it would be such an awesome, awesome thing and we’ve been very lucky to see a kid or two that might sing along with us. How about you guys?

P: OK I decided I wanted to be in a band the first time I went to a show at The Pizza Factory in Placerville. My sister took me to a show when I was like 12 and I saw these really bad pop punk bands play but it looked like a lot of fun to play and be in a punk band.

E: I heard that people who ate there at one point got…

DJ: Hepatitis.

E: Hepatitis yah.

DJ: That is true. That’s not how I got hepatitis, but I can’t go into that apparently.

E: I had already had it at that point so I was like ‘I can’t catch it again.’

S: Hepatitis A? C?

E: All of them dude.

DJ: Hey that brings us full circle with the pizza conversation earlier.

S: He didn’t die?

P: He’s dying right now, right in front of you. This is him decaying.

DJ: I’m actually interested in hearing Eli’s answer.

E: Honestly I never ever thought I’d be in a band. I would like go to shows and stuff, and I don’t really have any musical talent as all these dudes can tell you so um, it was always just like something that was fun and, you know, I never thought it would be really anything that came from when we started like practicing and everything. It was always like, ‘yah ok, I’ll sing on this’ but I never ever expected it to be anything close to where it’s come to so…I honestly never really decided I wanted to be in a band.

DJ: I think, I don’t know, I come from a pretty musical family, and I think when probably around the time Appetite for Destruction came out I was and have been obsessed with playing live music and it makes up all I really want to do in this world. So it’s been a good portion of my life trying to get on stage, and I’ve been in and out of a million bands since I was 14, and not any of them good, including this one. E: Yah I’d definitely trade this band to be a rapper though.

DJ: That is not a joke.

C: That is very true fact.

DJ: Then you couldn’t kick the list.

E: I’d be clean though, I’d be classy.

DJ: Right. Will Smith but doesn’t get chicks.

E: I think that goes without saying.

S: Alright, so how was the switch from Rivalry to Deathwish, and was it a hard transition?

E: Really there wasn’t that much of a difference…

DJ: Neither of them liked us.

E: We annoyed both of them. But we’re not really like a crazy full time touring band or whatever so um it was something where like we don’t really ask a whole lot from our label and in return they don’t really ask a whole lot from us. They’re both really similar in how they’re run. I think Rivalry and Deathwish both are really in tune with what’s going on, more so than some other labels that are just trying to put records out and get kids to buy them or they’re just going to sign some old as… old band…

S: You can say it.

DJ: ASS.

E: Some old ass band that sold a bunch of records a while ago. I mean it’s really nice to know…we’ve never had to worry about getting screwed over or anything like that with our label so…not that we’ve sold enough records…

DJ: Cause there’s no money to make, there’s nothing to get screwed here.

E: They take on our debt.

S: Was there something that prompted the switch?

E: Um, no, we just really thought that…when we started the band it was like one of us was just ‘oh, what if we ever got on Deathwish, that would be really really cool’ and it was like yah, that’s never gonna happen. And then when the opportunity presented itself, Rivalry was still a pretty young label, and we were totally happy with them but…it was just one of those things where we were like this is something we, not dreamed about, but you know, it was one of the things we said at the beginning of the band and um…it was just, you know, they’re on the east coast, it was just a whole different ‘why not try this?’ type of thing.

S: Ok so, after I listened to In Place Apart, the only thing I could compare it to experience wise was the first time I read Candide by Voltaire and I didn’t know it was a satire and so I stayed in bed for three days thinking that there’s no meaning to life and that all you can do is work, and then I went to school and found out it was a satire and I was blown away…

DJ: Blown away is kind of how we’re feeling right now.

E: We’re all not talking cause we’re trying to pretend like we know exactly what you’re talking about.

DJ: What the HELL are you talking about?

S: Haven’t you guys read Candide?

ALL: NO.

DJ: Candy?

S: I suggest you read it. It’s like 60 pages.

DJ: I suggest you get an Indie Rock band in here.

S: It’s about a group of people who go through the worst things you could ever…like one lady gets her butt cheek cut off.

DJ: Like being embarrassed on the radio about what they haven’t read?

E: Well we are at a University.

DJ: I’ve been to college. I’ve been kicked out of better colleges than this.

E: Chris went to this fine University actually so…

S: What was your major?

C: Communications.

DJ: ‘Tis a fake major.

C: Which is generally the reaction I get from most people when I tell them what I graduated in.

E: DJ, what did you major in?

S: And you didn’t work at KDVS?

DJ: Cheating. Alcoholism.

C: I thought about it but I never at the time with the band and school…it just didn’t work out.

DJ: Weight gain. Sexual harassment…

S: So basically what I was trying to say is that I was really depressed and hopeless and all that, so, writing the lyrics, is it collaborative, or one person? And do you write to a certain audience?

DJ: We read these lyrics when the kids read them. They are about as late to the party as any factor of the music.

E: Yah, it’s pretty much me. Chris actually one time said he wanted to write a song about something and I kind of tried to um…

DJ: Shoot it down.

E: You know. No, I try to take that into account.

DJ: Actually you work with Chad sometimes.

E: Sometimes. I have a friend who was in a band with DJ and we would always like write songs and send them to each other and get feedback and stuff.

DJ: I’m glad this is radio. I’m killing the scene right now.

E: Yah that smell would really come through on TV too, right?

DJ: I do not enjoy your satire.

E: Anyways, if they had ideas on what they wanted a song to be about or if they absolutely hated something that I wrote, then obviously it wouldn’t go through. So it’s not really a collaborative process I wouldn’t say.

DJ: Or at all, you should say.

E: Yah.

DJ: NEXT.

S: Ok so Eli, do you write to a specific audience?

E: No.

DJ: To all the ladies out there, this one’s for you.

E: I really just, as stupid as it sounds, I just kind of write down whatever I’m feeling. Like when there’s something I feel like I need to write down. I don’t really have anything in mind as far as, you know, who I’m writing for. I actually wrote a song on the new record, like I’ve been asked before why I don’t write about politics or the scene or stuff that ‘matters,’ and it’s just basically I don’t know how to write about that stuff cause it’s not in me. It’s like, I don’t care about that stuff so I can’t write a song that’s about it because that stuff doesn’t really matter to me.

S: Ok, so…

DJ: This is what we call in the business a low point of the interview.

S: Ok, what life experiences spark such deep emotions for you? It’s almost nihilistic in a way.

E: I feel like a lot of the songs are about growing up. A lot of times there’s things I know I need to do and I don’t do them or do a bad job at it or relationships that fall apart. There’s definitely an element of that. I’m not really a negative person it’s just I try to look at things honestly, and a lot of times when you look at things honestly, there’s not a lot of smiles and stuff to go around.

DJ: Maybe writing’s a therapeutic process.

E: Definitely.

DJ: Is that fair to say?

E: Yah, it definitely feels good to write something down cause sometimes it’s just all that’s on your mind. It sounds really stupid but when it’s all that’s on your mind, and instead of thinking about that, you’re almost trying to think of a way to put it down creatively instead of focusing on that problem so much. It can get you through the points where you’re really really down, you know? That sounds so dumb, but it’s true.

S: So you feel better after you write?

DJ: This is good radio.

C: This is getting very negative. Sleepy.

S: Ok I have some lighter questions coming up.

DJ: Thank god.

S: So anyway, hardcore fests like Rain Fest and Sound and Fury. You guys are playing Rain Fest but you’re not playing Sound and Fury.

DJ: Never will, come and get us.

S: So many Deathwish band are playing though.

DJ: Oh, well, you really want to get into this?

E: No, it’s…it’s just…

DJ: There’s politics involved and we respectfully choose not to play.

E: It’s a mutual…like, we’re not trying to play that fest and they are definitely not trying to have us play it and that’s really all that should be said about it.

S: Do you think it goes against punk ideology having these huge fests? Or do you think it brings people together…

C: It does.

DJ: You know I can’t say that I don’t love a fest cause it’s just a huge room full of people who just care so deeply, and it’s great. But I can’t help but feel, it’s getting to be a bit much.

C: Parking, hotel accommodations.

DJ: And how many people’s sets are so great during a fest, it’s like ‘oh, I’ve seen your band a hundred times, no one likes you this much.’

S: Yah I went on Sound and Fury’s web page and it was like ‘here’s hotels nearby…’

C: It’s getting more and more commercialized I think especially with having a long list of hotels, attractions that are nearby…

DJ: Or maybe hardcore’s just not strong enough musically to you know like kids feel like they can just go see a show like all the time, you know, have bands come through. They know they can go to fests, knock out 8 of my favorite 10 bands right here all in one day.

C: Buy the merch. Buy the crucial merch.

P: It is appealing though that you can just see them all at one time.

DJ: I’m not saying I don’t like them, cause I have fun and I have fun going.

E: And Sound and Fury, despite whatever we’ve said, has a lot of awesome bands and it’s put together well.

P: Rise and Fall comes out for like a week this year and it’s to hit Sound and Fury. They’re doing like a west coast tour but like you don’t get to see them any other time of the year.

E: And one of my best friend’s is putting on Rain Fest, and I think it really depends on each specific circumstance. People want to treat hardcore like it’s this thing that’s so underground now and it should stay that way. But it’s not how it is anymore, you know?

DJ: And if you tried to, that would be just as ridiculous of a notion.

E: It’s give and take. I mean I don’t think the idea of punk is…

DJ: I think fests are spoiling hardcore to a degree.

E: But it doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t play them.

DJ: Oh yah, despite Sound and Fury, if you’re having a fest…

E: KillingtheDream@gmail.com. There’s just positive and negative like everything else, you know?

DJ: Sink With Cali, those were fun.

E: Did you ever go to Sink With Cali?

S: Nope.

E: Those were the days.

DJ: Those first 3 years were the most fun fests.

P: You could walk to the beach.

E: Patches was all of 6 years old at the time.

P: I was 12.

C: And sunburnt.

DJ: Oh so sunburnt.

P: No, that was…

DJ: Just look at him right now, that’s just from riding his bike.

P: That’s just from riding my bike across town.

DJ: He cooks up like a rock lobster. [laughter]

S: But like if you guys were going to see a band would you rather see a house show or a huge…

C: Definitely not at a fest.

DJ: The thing is, you get your dance team out there at a fest. You get kids out there showing off and going nuts, who normally otherwise wouldn’t. And we appreciate it, thank you.

E: Yah but at the same time for us, shows at fests are some of the best shows we play. Pat said there’s definitely an appeal to wanting to go see 8 of your favorite bands all at once, I mean, it’s not quite like Warped Tour, where it’s like you play some stupid set for a half hour like a million yards away…

C: Spend half the time talking.

E: Yah, exactly, it’s not like that, there’s still an element of…

DJ: Which Warped Tour, if you’d like to have us, it’s KillingtheDream@gmail.com.

P: I think fests are great just because it’s like the one show a year that you’re there and you bring you’re A game…

DJ: Yah, but it’s not one show a year, it’s 4 shows a year, it’s 5 shows a year now.

C: You do get to see a lot of friends from around the country who you’ve met.

DJ: That’s true. But I think it also takes away from smaller shows, like people aren’t really coming out to support. That’s what hardcore bands need, they need kids at little [unintelligible] shows. Hardcore is bigger than when we were starting off into it. We have been to some hardcore shows in some lean years…

E: And it was bigger then than it was 10 years before that.

DJ: Exactly. I think the regular tour package of any band should be more supported and I think fests may be hurting that. Now ask us something that we can talk positively about.

S: Ok, let’s see. This is about Eli’s vocal chords…

DJ: See I have such a good joke right here and I can’t…

E: Just use you’re imagination listeners.

P: It’s not that clever anyway, pretty standard.

E: Yah, you can do better.

S: Well, I feel like you put a lot of strain on your voice. Do you have anything that you do to salvage your vocal chords?

C: Starburst.

E: There’s definitely things you should do, that I should do, that I try to do, but especially on tour it’s really hard to always do the same, you know like not talk after shows…

DJ: Which we would appreciate. Or before. Van rides.

E: It’s just real hard to actually do those things. It’s kind of just a hit or miss thing, it’s really inconsistent, sometimes it works fine, sometimes it just really sounds awful.

DJ: We’re not exactly professionals here.

C: We’re just out there having fun.

DJ: We’re not out there with pro Throwdown pipes that is you know…

E: I don’t understand how those guys do that. I mean, it’s not for lack of trying.

DJ: We’re very punk rock in that sense.

E: Far more of a man than I am.

DJ: We’re not the strongest musicians.

S: Do any of you have other projects besides Killing the Dream?

DJ: I know we convey that we don’t do a lot in this band, but it is a fairly consuming 5 year old band and a few of us have other projects but nothing that really is anything potable or that we can dump a lot of energy into. Cause you know, we’ll turn around and there’ll be Killing the Dream practice and Killing the Dream pizza parties to go to.

S: Well you said you guys don’t practice…

DJ: We do.

E: Well it’s kind of a joke, kind of not. It’s just hard with other bands and stuff that, when we get time off from jobs it kind of goes to Killing the Dream tours, so there wouldn’t be a lot of time to put too much into the other stuff at least…

S: But you do want to be a rapper at some point in the future?

E: Yah, yah I do, but I’m not good.

S: I wonder if Deathwish has ever signed a rapper.

DJ: They signed a rap wannabe.

E: No, I don’t think that they would be interested in my solo rap project but I’m gonna keep rhyming.

S: Don’t kill that dream.

DJ: Buh dum chhh.

C: Is that the toilet?

DJ: Waa waaaa. [Noise that sounds like a kazoo]

S: I can edit this after. Hey, bust a freestie.

E: No, no, no. Bust a freestie? No, I don’t do that freestie style.

DJ: Isn’t that on the list? I want to point out that you did curse before me.

E: Yah. You gotta pay.

S: You have to pay to hear you bust a freestie?

E: You gotta pay, yah. It’s paystyle, not freestyle.

P: Unless you’re in Europe, then you can hear the Fresh Prince thing.

DJ: True.

E: We did actually, in Europe, we um disappointed kids left and right in Europe.

DJ: We were a little short on songs, you could say.

E: We had a fill in drummer, and we don’t play that many songs to begin with and we were headlining these shows…

C: Bad idea...

DJ: Our fill in drummer suffered from what one might call mental incapabilities.

E: Yah so, we’re headlining these shows and our driver, god bless his heart, just really didn’t know what he was doing too much and he was an awesome dude but we would drive like 20 hours and get to the show, and we’re always late to shows in the US and that’s our fault, but this time it really wasn’t. We’re trying to be on time and everything and we would get there, play 9 songs, and then we’d be like ‘alright, show’s over’ and they’d be like…

DJ: You gotta understand in Europe, they’re used to longer sets. You know, here we can get away with a 9-song set, and it is on the shorter side, but it’s not out of the ordinary. In Europe, you know, if you’re going to play, if you’re DRI you’re gonna have to play 145 songs, cause they really are expecting 45 minutes of music. They really do. They’re sitting there waiting, and we’re finished and they’re just like ‘what’s next?’

E: Like every show we’re like ‘yah, our drummer, he doesn’t know any more songs,’ and the promoters hated us cause we sounded awful. DJ: In the shows in Europe, our drummer, who’s actually a very talented singer songwriter, who’s also a drummer friend of mind, we were in a band together, he also is a very talented beat boxer, and you know, kids wanted more… kids wanted more. Eli got to cut his rapping teeth that night.

E: I killed it too.

DJ: He sang the theme song to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

E: Well, it was from another show, they had started singing that song, and we convinced everyone that our fill-in drummer had won some competition, beat box competition, so that was our encore. Will never happen again though.

DJ: Yah, they escorted us to the border.

E: Yah, they hated us.

C: We won them over every night.

DJ: No, we won them over every night… not through music.

E: We use our charm, as you can tell.

DJ: Which is just pouring through this radio right now. I’m sure you’re parents are real stoked.

S: Where is your favorite place to play? And do you have a favorite band that you like to play with? Like what would be your ideal venue and line-up?

DJ: Well we have a strong love/hate relationship with Ruiner, who are our favorite and least favorite band to play with. They’re our close friends. Man that’s hard to say cause we do so, and there’s no other word for this, evenly around the country. I just love playing different cities. Sacramento shows have been great recently. I love going to southern California. I love the east coast. And Germany was actually just so good to us, every show in Germany…

E: We played Tulsa, Oklahoma on one tour and it was awesome. It isn’t like every show on tour is incredible but…

P: I love playing Nashville.

DJ: We really are blessed in this band. I’m really hard pressed to think of cities that I’m just like… want to avoid. One of those cities was Portland, and then our last Portland show was excellent and I can’t wait to go back.

C: Santa Cruz on the other hand…

E: We love everybody. Santa Cruz, it could definitely be worse. I think we played there twice in 5 years. We like Santa Cruz.

DJ: It’s a good thing they don’t listen. I don’t think this reaches outside of the campus.

S: Anyone can listen online.

P: And should.

DJ: Oh great. That’s right. Oh it’s a brave new world.

E: We love Santa Cruz.

S: KDVS.org

DJ: Blacklisted, a recent favorite of Killing the Dream’s to tour with. Fun guys. We’ve done a few things with them. This is Hell are really fun.

C: Crime in Stereo.

DJ: Comeback Kid, Crime in Stereo are both good friends of ours.

E: If we can find a band that doesn’t completely hate us and get really annoyed by us, we’ll pretty much latch onto them.

DJ: Sinking Ships, terrible, terrible people. We never want to step foot in any room with them ever again.

E: The first two nights they were like, ‘Alright! This is the best tour ever!’ And then by the like fourth show they’re like ‘dude, are you still here?’

DJ: Like ‘hey guys! You want to hang out?’

P: No.

S: So it’s been 3 years since In Place Apart.

C: It’s been that long already?

E: Yah.

S: Do you feel pressure for Fractures to raise the bar and live up to In Place Apart? Do you think people have certain expectations for Fractures? Are you scared?

DJ: That’s a very personal question for me. I did not write In Place Apart. It was written by my close friend, Joel Adams. He actually left the band before that record even came out. But I’ve been playing his songs for years now, and when it came time to start writing the record, he’s a stronger guitar player than me. And when it came time to write the record it was sort of like ‘how am I gonna outdo Joel?’ And we started writing and it was going so-so but when me and Isaac and Chris started getting together and writing, well we just kind of found that we’re just gonna write this how we would write it, not how Joel would. My first show with this band was in 2003, and actually this line-up was a band in 2001 even. We wrote a record that sounded like us and then we were very fortunate to work with a friend of ours who we actually looked up to, Ross from Stay Gold, a band that before we were all in Killing the Dream we really looked up to that band and liked that band a lot. So we got to work with Ross, and just wrote music how I thought it should, not how I thought ‘Killing the Dream’ should sound. It took a very long time but so far all the feedback has been really really good, and thus far no one seems to feel the change, at least not in a negative way.

E: I think this record’s more us…

C: Than before.

E: Yah, there’s spots, when people ask me about this new record compared to the last one, there’s spots where, in the last one, I mean I’m really really happy with it, I just feel that there’s spots on the last one where we have really good ideas and they just didn’t come together right. And with this one, it really came together, there wasn’t a part where I’d say ‘man, I wish this sounded different’ and ‘I wish we would’ve done this here.’ I think that once we decided we were just gonna write a record that we liked, then it really came together for us. Because we’re not trying to do anything radically different, we’re not gonna start writing pop punk or whatever, so we always keep in mind that we’re a hardcore band, so it’s not that far of a leap from the last record, but it’s still, it’s us, you know?

DJ: I think I read something where someone said they predicted serious artcore, which is usually the direction bands in their mid-plus 20s go. And obviously we have all grown a lot as musicians and music listeners, and I think our interest in hardcore is not as strong as it was. You know we all still love, live, breath hardcore, but there’re very few active bands that we listen to and enjoy. All of us really range and argue about music, and I think we drew from a lot of those influences, but we still wrote a hardcore record. There’s no way you can say it’s not a hardcore record because hardcore should be progressive, it should be going in different directions and if your band sounds like Gorilla Biscuits still then you’re not being a hardcore band, you’re being a period piece band. That already happened. Hardcore should be moving forward. That was the point of it back then, should be the point of it now, I think this record does that. Basically I think it is [points to word on list of FCC bad words] this word for boobies right here.

E: You can grow and still be a hardcore band, but we all know our limitations as musicians and stuff, and the reasons we got into hardcore, those are still there, so we’re not trying to expand or evolve or whatever it’s just…

DJ: Just give it a listen, America.

C: I also wanted to say, I think with the last record, we weren’t prepared for that record. We ended up writing that record two weeks before we had to record… But this record we took the time to write a record we wanted to write. We weren’t pressured. We did the record when we wanted to do the record.

DJ: Not with the suits breathing down our necks.

C: We need the record at this time so we’d be able to take a year to actually write and get rid of songs we didn’t care for and progress those songs further, as opposed to writing the song and then having to record and be like ‘well, we’re stuck with this song now.’

E: That’s one of the awesome things about Deathwish, is they’ve never pressured us to get stuff out. Even when I was going through problems with my voice, Tre, the dude who does the label, I was talking to him and he was like ‘Don’t rush it, if you’re not happy with it, then an extra 6 months isn’t gonna make a difference. I don’t want to put out something you’re not happy with.’

DJ: ‘No one’s gonna remember who you are, but go ahead. We’ll just shelve it.’

E: It’s hard cause it had been 3 years since we put out a record and we’re all just sitting on this record, it was really frustrating for them as it was for me to wait for my voice to come back and get better, but we never ever got pressured from our label, which is awesome cause I’ve heard stories from other labels putting the squeeze on bands when they’re not really ready.

S: Well I guess this is for Eli and Chris. What was the difference between working with J. Robbins compared to with Kurt? They’re both legends in their own right, but could you tell the difference in the production?

DJ: I actually worked with Kurt on a different record, so I’ll take this question.

E: DJ actually probably worked closer with both. I didn’t do vocals with either of them. I was in the studio and stuff, but I did my vocals out here.

C: Yah, DJ probably worked with them more than either of us did.

E: Just my general impressions, like Kurt was a great guy and an amazing musician, obviously. But it’s kind of hard to get a feel of how involved he wants, or how much he cares about the project. It’s like he’s doing a record with you but you’re kind of looking for some positive feedback from him and…

DJ: Which you are not going to get from the guitar player of Converge. ‘What do you think of that Kurt?’ ‘Eh, Next.’

E: He’ll be like ‘it’s good, yah.’ And he definitely helped us, I think we got what we wanted when we went to Godcity. He definitely helped us structure some things, and he was definitely our producer, which was awesome and another reason I wanted to go there. But with J., it was a different experience, from the standpoint of he was more invested in it…

DJ: J’s a real sweet guy, he’s got a really good head for music and he was right there for every note, and it was a pretty involved process. He was right there and would take the time, listen to it and, I’m not saying J. didn’t do that, but Kurt might be a stronger musician, and I know just working on music parts, if you might be struggling, Kurt would step in and not do it for you, but could help you get through a part and maybe work on something the best way, whereas J. would really just give you an ear to go off of. So Kurt might be a little bit stronger musically, and I think J. had a little bit more of a head for producing, but those are both dream places to record and I’m so thrilled that I got to work with both of them. That’s such a little feather in my cap.

E: They’re both such awesome guys too.

DJ: I’m really happy to have been in both places and have records from both places.

C: I think going into the studio with Kurt, we looked to him to kind of produce more, knowing that he does producing. We didn’t have the time schedule to really have him produce. We kind of had to bang through songs really quick, not being as ready. He wasn’t able to put as much time into it as I think we would have wanted him able to. And working with J. we were so much more prepared that he made it easy just giving us more guidance.

DJ: I think this squashes all chances of us touring with Converge now.

E: Yah, they were calling us every day before that. Wait, Kurt, god, he’s calling me again.

S: In this new era of Myspace and all that technology…

DJ: I can’t go into it, it’s on the list [FCC bad word list].

S: Do you think it affects a band's popularity?

E: Absolutely.

DJ: What is this My...? Yes of course, there’s a Myspace record label. There’s bands who’ve never played shows before that are on the radio. It has completely changed music 100%. You want to know how old we are? We were putting fliers on flagpoles, on telephone poles, we were fliering.

C: There’s no fliering anymore.

E: We have a website, and it was down for a year and a half.

C & DJ: No one noticed.

E: And we got maybe one email, two, three, like, ‘hey when’s the new site coming up?’ We launched a new one or whatever, and no one cares. That’s not to say anything about the website, we definitely want to have one of those, but if you have a Myspace page…

DJ: Myspace and home recordings changed the face of underground and independent music.

E: It’s definitely one of those things, you gotta take the good with the bad. I’m not one of those old traditionalists, like hardcore punk dudes that’s like ‘oh, man, this is stupid and awful.’

DJ: You are old, but not un old. [good one DJ]

C: Myspace has also allowed people around the world to hear us and we can get emails now from people from the weirdest countries, we never would have expected.

DJ: That were extinct.

C: That’s a cool aspect to it, but it’s definitely changed…

E: It’s what you make of it, I mean…

DJ: Oh, everybody knows the answer to the Myspace question. We all know it. Gosh, you know I think it’s changed…[mindless banter]

S: Ok, ok. Is it weird seeing bands in your scene get really big really fast?

DJ: Have we seen any bands in our scene get really big? We watched Comeback Kid get big.

E: Like Have Heart, for instance, they put out a demo, and I remember when that came out. We were actually recording out record with Kurt out there when their demo was out, like ‘yah, this is pretty good.’ They put out an EP after that, and it was pretty good. And then they put out that LP and we all thought it was awesome but we had no clue to the extent to which they had blown up.

DJ: Not that awesome.

E: They’re the biggest band in hardcore. They are like The Beatles or something dude. They totally deserve it, but it’s just weird to see how absolutely huge they had gotten.

P: Trash Talk.

DJ: Oh man, Trash Talk. They came from our balls, and I can say that, because it’s not on the list [FCC list].

E: It’s weird, Lee from Trash Talk used to come to our shows and he’s this like nerdy little kid…

DJ: Still a little kid.

E: Yah, he’s still a nerd, don’t believe everything you see. But he’d be like, ‘hey guys, can I come down to San Diego with you guys?’ And it’s weird to see him like, he’s Lee from Trash Talk now, and I’m like, ‘that’s little Lee!’

DJ: I was actually in a band with Garrett before Trash Talk.

C: What a catastrophe that was.

DJ: Sort of brought them together in a chance meeting through a mutual friend.

E: Isaac actually drummed on their first two records.

DJ: Which he’s not credited for.

E: It’s cool to see, because we’re not salty haters, it’s cool to see bands get big, sometimes it’s a little strange, but you know. We’ve been really lucky, as far as that stuff goes.

DJ: Hardcore is a self-supporting economy. It’s easy to get to a certain level, but I think it’s hard to get out of it. Or if you want to. If your like a Hatebreed or a Terror.

S: What are some of your biggest influences?

DJ: [points to FCC list] The last one on the list there.

S: Musical influences.

E: Erica, literally there is not one question you could ask DJ that that would not pertain to. That sounds funny but, literally, like…

S: The sound that the last word makes.

DJ: The sound that they make. Ah I can’t go into it. Oh, the red tape.

E: DJ’s head is exploding right now.

DJ: You mean bands that influenced this band?

S: Yah.

DJ: Because we cannot agree on a band. There’s a few bands. We can all get around American Nightmare, Stay Gold, Carry On. But as far as hardcore bands go, just that influx of bands in 2000…

E: Count Me Out.

DJ: There was just this rush of bands in ’99-2000 that like we were all aware of and going to hardcore shows, but I feel like it was a little bit different. It was a little more of like a tough guy, kind of rule the day thing, and we all got together as friends cause we played in different bands in high school, that’s when I met these guys. And we all got together around bands like AFI and Good Riddance, and those are all bands that still we can all really get around. And when that new rush of hardcore came, Carry On, American Nightmare, we all would gravitate towards that cause it was namely faster, and then there were your melodic bands, we could get behind that.

E: American Nightmare really made it so talking about personal stuff was ok. I don’t think that it would have been an issue for us, cause we wouldn’t really care if it was ok or cool or whatever but before that you really didn’t have a lot of hardcore bands talking about relationships or life, it was all like stab me in the back, talking about the scene or whatever. And there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just, that was never really my thing. I know we can all agree on stuff like that.

S: You guys are from Sacramento and you’re talking about the ‘tough guy’ thing. What do you think about Westcoast Worldwide? DJ: A lot of love for Westcoast Worldwide.

P: May it rest in peace.

DJ: That was a great place.

C: That was our home.

DJ: We were there every weekend. When I was describing to you the lean times, you know when kids need to go to shows, I’m talking about my band cause we were the hardcore scene in Sacramento, standing in this brick building listening to the worst bands you’ve ever heard.

E: There was a show like every day.

DJ: There were shows all the time. Mike Hood is just the best thing that’s ever happened to hardcore for Sacramento, hands down. Every story you’ve ever heard about him is true.

S: I’ve heard some bad stories.

DJ: He lost money on that building, and we were there from the first show to the last show. That was a great place.

E: It’s hard. It’s one of those things where it’s like, I don’t think that that whole scene, or whatever you want to call it, really represents us. But it’s also not something that we aren’t a part of. Mike is just like most anyone else in life. There’s some things that he does that make you turn your head a little bit but he’s always been there for us. And I can definitely understand why there are some kids who are scared. I remember when Westcoast first started, kids started coming there again, there were a lot of kids who were kid of scared…

DJ: Which is a funny thing cause there was never a fight there.

E: And then they’d come out and be like, ‘what were we so scared of?’ Maybe dudes dancing hard, or whatever but…

DJ: I’ve seen so many more fights at the Underground in Roseville between the wimpiest dudes ever, that looked like a Cinemax lesbian scene. Or these guys at the Boardwalk.

E: DJ Rogers ladies and gentlemen.

DJ: There’s fights, I’m telling you, we went to that place…

P: Did he really just say Cinemax lesbian scene? I think that got lost in the shuffle there.

C: That’s gonna be edited out.

DJ: Yes, I’m just saying, as far as the fighting and intimidation factor goes, yes, Sacramento has its share of skinheads, and believe it or not, they’re all not a fan of D, not all of them, and the tough guy thing was never our thing. But Westcoast Worldwide, that’s who Mike is and that’s the hardcore he came up through. That’s just the way it was and it was a great place and we miss it.

E: Try to take the good with people. We’re not trying to be tough guys, we’re not tough guys, but I don’t think that we’ve ever been forced to be tough guys either. Just because we play shows there doesn’t mean we have to turn a blind eye to things that are terrible cause…

DJ: We will whoop some ass.

E: Yah.

DJ: It’s about happen. Pat shoots me one more look.

E: It wasn’t something where we were just compromising who we were to be a part of something, cause I don’t think that that was ever us.

DJ: I don’t think that answer made any sense. I don’t think your 6 listeners…I don’t think your auntie and uncle know what Westcoast Worldwide was.

S: It’s fine.

DJ: It was an independently run hardcore club in Sacramento.

C: I remember the first couple shows we went to there, it was intimidating to us cause we were young high school kids. Tough guy hardcore was a big thing back then, and we’re like, ‘are we gonna get killed going to these shows?’

E: I remember I got into a circle pit at a Hoods show and came out and was like, ‘Oh my god I did it!’ And that was a big thing, you know, it was terrifying.

C: Everybody looked so tough but they were so friendly at the same time. They embrace you into the scene and just to be a part of it. First I think most of us were intimidated to go but after a few times it’s like everybody’s friends, and that’s what made it so awesome and helped us continue to go to those shows.

S: Here’s a question that I know is on everybody’s mind.

DJ: Mine’s the biggest.

E: Ego? Rap sheets? Bald spot? Gut? What?

S: What’s with 39th and Glisan?

C: It’s a secret. It’s a myth.

DJ: That’s the spot.

S: Come on! I just know that it’s a roundabout in Portland, in a posh area.

E: Actually, we were just copying Verse. We just want everyone to think we’re in on it.

S: It has nothing to do with the song.

P: Or does it?

DJ: Why don’t you do your homework Erica?

S: I read them [the lyrics] !

E: We all have songs because we all did a tour together. Actually Sinking Ships only did 3 shows cause they were just starting out, but Danny and Paul were on that tour with another band called The Answer who actually has a song called 39th and Glisan too.

DJ: No one really cares.

E: So we all hung out, it was like a week,10 days. This was Verse’s first time out to the west coast and they were gonna drive out to Sink With Cali and then meet up with us and we were gonna do shows. All their stuff got stolen in South Carolina or something so they cancelled a bunch of shows and flew out and they had nothing, so we threw them in our van that we were renting, got a trailer, there was 11 dudes… actually in the Verse song there’s a line that says there’s 11 kids in a van, and there were actually 11 dudes in a normal size van.

DJ: We couldn’t use that line cause it violates my parole.

E: So we just had a really really good time and it was something we all said. The last show was in Portland and we were all kind of bummed and it started off as we said, ‘let’s go bury treasure’ and we ended up putting some stuff at that roundabout and we all said we were gonna write a song called 39th and Glisan and everyone…

C: Had their take on the whole trip and tour. I wonder if that stuff is still there?

E: No, cause we didn’t have a shovel was the thing.

S: What did you bury?

E: Oh, it was stupid stuff like posters and shirts and CDs and cough drops.

DJ: Skulls, crossbones.

E: Dead bodies.

P: Treasure.

E: We didn’t have a shovel so we buried it like a foot and a half deep so the first time it rained it probably came right up.

DJ: Truth be told, everybody beat a hooker to death and was buried. It was a sworn pact. Never let it out. I’m getting out!

E: Statute of limitations.

C: What are you talking about?

E: DJ’s brain is malfunctioning.

C: He needs pizza.

S: Let’s move on.

DJ: What about the pizza questions? Or do we make that up?

S: All of mine are so depressing.

C: Well we’ve got the film crew who’ve got some questions.

Film Crew guy: The film crew can cut this really interesting to make it a lot more…

DJ: It’s just gonna be a 45 minute argument between me and Eli.

FCG: I have a quick question. How do you guys feel about the east coast? That’s where I’m from and…

DJ: We love the east coast man. Love it. Terrible weather.

FCG: Like what do you think the differences are between the hardcore scene out there and the hardcore scene out here?

P: More Nike’s on the east coast.

DJ: The music taste is different. You could almost go any genre and look at the east coast and west coast. West coast is gonna be a little like…we’re a west coast band, we’re a California band, and I think that comes through in our music. It’s a little bit faster, it’s a little bit broader. And east coast, it’s like life out there. The streets are narrower, it’s colder, everything moves faster. Out here you’ve got wide lanes and take it a little bit easier. I think that comes through in the music. No joke, you really get that vibe if you really read into it in both kinds of music.

P: It’s more traditional.

DJ: Yah, it’s a little more traditional cause I think you have that out there. Where are you from?

FCG: New York.

DJ: Cool, which part?

FCG: Upstate.

DJ: Yah, we’ve had great shows every time we’ve played New York. I really can’t think of a spot in New England that I don’t like.

FCG: Yah I’ve seen you play before. Oh wait, it was The Carrier and Ruiner.

DJ: Oh thanks. That was a great show, everyone was going crazy. [sarcasm] We played with Dead Hearts in Upstate.

C: Oh, that show.

P: And Another Breath.

E: Everyone’s just as nice, it’s just different. Even when we talk to Tre, our label guy, his attitude is just an east coast attitude.

DJ: Like Kurt.

E: I like to tell myself he loves us. But I’m always like, ‘man, I think Tre hates me.’ And then I’ll do something where it’s like…

DJ: And I think Deathwish being an east coast label gives us a little bit of a home base out there, maybe not. Maybe no one cares, maybe I just feel like that. But yah, we love the east coast.

FCG: We definitely listen to you out there.

DJ: And in Davis.

S: Yeaaahh.

DJ: On the air.

C: Any other questions from the film crew?

FCG#2: You kind of draw a crowd that’s straight edge as well as not?

DJ: We kind of draw a crowd that’s straight edge and not, isn’t that hardcore?

FCG#2: Hardcore isn’t predominantly straight edge, I wouldn’t say. Would you guys say that?

DJ: No, not like it was.

E: I think that we draw a lot of younger kids, and a lot of younger kids are straight edge. And not trying to sound like a jerk but…

DJ: Give all those kids 2 years. All those kids.

C: The early 2000s, some of the bands got into hardcore listening to straight edge bands.

E: Patches and DJ were both straight edge.

DJ: So were you. Not Chris. Actually everybody in this band was straight edge except for Chris, who’s been struggling with alcoholism since junior high.

DJ: Isaac’s still straight edge, Eli…

E: I don’t do anything, but I stopped claiming straight edge.

DJ: You know what’s funny about, I can’t say a trend in hardcore, but there’s been an influx of bands more recently, your Trash Talk’s, Ceremony’s and Life Long Tragedy or Sabertooth Zombie, like these bands that kind of had a little push in recent…these are not straight edge bands. We’re talking about when we got into it we had Champion, Carry On, In My Eyes, these were all straight edge bands. Now these bands are like ‘party hardy,’ these are like thrash party bands almost, playing hardcore. And I think kids are going to obviously draw to what they’re into, and I think yah, straight edge is not as ‘strong.’

E: It just goes in cycles though. In 4 or 5 years, there’s gonna be a whole other cycle that comes around that kids are gonna get into.

DJ: I should be hitting my 12th step by then. Right back in.

C: You see a lot of kids now, it’s become kind of a fad, I think at this point, and being around for a few years now, we’ve seen kids come in and it seems like you could go a couple years being straight edge, but as these kids get to be older, 21ish, and see kids partying, they’re like ‘I’m gonna party now.’

DJ: How am I gonna do these things on the list [FCC list] that I can’t say.

P: The funny thing about straight edge now is it’s like the least amount of kids seem to be straight edge but it’s the most marketable to everybody with the National Geographic thing, belts in Hot Topic…

DJ: Have Heart, who are huge.

E: But that’s just hardcore in general.

DJ: It’s a real movement, supported by a very much more real fad.

E: You could say that about hardcore in general though, or this party fad.

DJ: But we’re talking about percentages.

E: That whole ‘party hardy,’ get down, get arrested stuff is just as much of a fad, if not more so.

DJ: Which is funny to me that you would get into that after high school, you know like, ‘I’m into these bands that party, I’m gonna go party.’ That’s what freshman year was for, you know? But to answer your question about straight edge, there are like the kids who are like the core and really believe in it. Then there are kids who maybe are impressionable, and music is such a motivating thing. And music can really draw you into anything and if you’re feeling it, that’s what’s gonna get you in. It’s gonna be music and there’s gonna be all those kids, and maybe they wont be feeling it so much.

E: I think there’re a lot worse things you could get into because of fads.

DJ: Juggaloism.

E: Even if you’re straight edge for 3 years and you sell out when you’re 20, 21, if it got you through some years when maybe you weren’t quite ready to start doing that stuff then more power to you. There’s a lot worse things you could be getting into.

FCG#2: What was the point of transition for you guys, I mean it can’t be as simple as the fact that you turned 21.

DJ: It was my 21st birthday.

FCG#2: Ok.

DJ: I’m kidding. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off, go ahead. What was your question?

FCG#2: That’s basically it, what was the transition point? If those were a practice in your lifestyle and a part of your life, was it strictly because of the music?

E: You thought he was joking about that list thing but, no, that’s what did it for DJ.

S: He just wanted to get some ass.

DJ: I got a straight edge tattoo.

E: I was like 17 or 18 and I realized that I wasn’t straight edge because of the songs I was listening to or whatever, and I still don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs, I definitely don’t have sex, but…

DJ: Not by choice.

E: Yah, but I kind of realized that the straight edge kids were just as crappy as other kids, so it wasn’t something that like defined me or that I really needed. I understand that some kids need that label and that’s good for them, but it wasn’t something I needed. So when I was 18 I was like, this isn’t who I am so…

DJ: I could probably better answer how I got into straight edge. I think maybe as a kid I got into drugs and alcohol a little earlier than most kids might. The area I grew up in was conducive to it for some reason, and I just f’d off all through high school. When I met Eli, he’s significantly older than me, I think I was 17, he was probably 19.

E: I had just come home from ‘nam actually.

DJ: He was straight edge and he kind of gave me some Bane records, started going to shows, and I was getting away from my other friend that I had grown up with, that wasn’t a positive thing. And here’s this new music that I’m so in to. This is even when American Nightmare was still straight edge, and here’s this music that I’m so in to, and all these new kids, and here’s this chance to get out of what I’m doing and finally be a part of something. I never felt like I had a group or a niche. I was young and I was on my own, and I really looked up to it. It took me 6 months after I decided to be straight edge to live it. And I think after a year and a half and not being in a niche and not being in a group or not feeling a part of anything, even more disassociated from it all, I just kind of thought, ‘well, I’m not a kid anymore, I think I can control myself.’ I was wrong. But I don’t need to be straight edge anymore.

E: That’s what I was talking about when I said it’s a positive thing. If you’re straight edge for 2 years, that’s good.

DJ: It was positive for that year and a half, when the tattoo snuck in there. It was positive but I think I’d feel some camaraderie and I didn’t. I felt stupid by the end for trying to get along with a bunch of people who A) I don’t know, B) don’t believe the same things as me, so I got out of it.

E: That’s really, when I was 17 or 18 or whatever, that’s why I was like, ‘this isn’t me.’ I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, just cause that’s who I am, I didn’t feel that same kind of camaraderie too. I really don’t feel like writing songs about this, I don’t really feel like listening to songs about this. It’s cool but it’s the exact same thing.

C: One thing that sticks out to me is Shaun from Verse, listening to some of the stories on the long drives that we had, some of the things he’s grown up with. He had been into drugs and alcohol, and I think becoming straight edge and getting into the straight edge scene saved his life and was able to become a part of it and be a positive influence on other people as well. It’s an awesome thing to see it really helps people.

E: Yah, I’m definitely not knocking it, at all.

DJ: No, not knocking it at all.

C: I think for certain people, they need it, other people don’t need it.

DJ: Well there are things that aren’t so great…

E: I think it’s definitely a more positive thing than the whole party movement.

DJ: For sure, who could say anything bad about not doing drugs and alcohol, that’s just a smart choice.

E: Patches recently sold out.

DJ: How’d you sell out again?

P: I had a drink on my birthday, on my 19th birthday, like a week after we got back from Europe and I was swimming in free booze. Not the best decision I ever made. I was just tired of it, I don’t know. I had never done anything and I just wanted to know what it was like. DJ: I forced Pat to drink in Europe. I’ve known him since he was 14. So I’ve been working on destroying his life.

E: DJ likes to bring people down to his level.

P: All it took was being in a band with you I guess. My life’s in shambles now.

DJ: Riding his bike to my house today, ‘I’m going broke. I bought this bike for 15 bucks. The lock is 15 bucks, I hope no one takes the lock.’

P: Let’s move on.

S: Riding bikes is awesome.

C: Except when you fall and hurt your face.

E: Don’t talk to Chris about that. Chris has permanent ear damage. That statement might not make any sense but…

S: From riding in Davis?

C: No, not in Davis. I did get hit by a kid who was riding his bike at school, who rode his bike into me and fell and completely ate it.

DJ: Dude I’ve been in so many bike accidents downtown.

C: People don’t know how to ride bikes.

S: Do you guys have fixed gears?

DJ: Hell no. HELL no. And if any of you fixed gear punks, posers, want to ride up along side of me and show off, you pirate looking weirdos, get the hell out of my way. I will use my breaks to stop and I will knock you the F, S, anything listed above out. I have lots of fixed gear friends, very close friends of mine. But they are all complete, and I know the word’s not on the list but I’m not gonna say it anyway, but they are that.

S: Jerks?

P: I don’t look good with my pants rolled up so…

DJ: But yah, the fixed gear thing is so annoying, especially in Sacramento. Some of my close friends really do ride fixed gears. I hate them. Do you ride one?

S: No, I don’t have a bike. I skate.

DJ: Oh, ata girl.

E: Did you see that thing they posted about fixed push?

P: Best spoof video ever dude. So good.

E: It was these skater dudes that made it.

DJ: Do you skate Power Inn?

S: Power Inn? Oh, Granite.

DJ: Is that what it’s called?

S: I’ve skated it once, yah. Why?

DJ: I’m there all the time.

S: Really?

DJ: Yah.

S: I love riding bowls.

E: DJ was sponsored when he was in 8th grade.

DJ: That’s not a fake story. I was sponsored. I was sponsored by Volcom when they were just starting up. Everybody loves to think I’m [unintelligible] cause I’m not a good skateboarder. No, I was sponsored when I was a kid. And then when I went back to get all my free stuff they said ‘I’ve never heard of you.’ Right when that company was starting I got…

P: That was somebody playing a prank on you dude, it had to have been.

DJ: They gave me a bunch of free stuff and a deck…what. That’s what I like to call sponsored.

P: Do you have said deck?

DJ: No. DJ got fatter and broke said deck, with poor landing technique.

S: Do you skate mostly bowls or street?

DJ: Mostly bowls cause I’m old and I can’t afford the shoes, and I can’t keep up anymore cause skateboarding has advanced so much. I sucked 10 years ago, better believe I can’t keep up now. I go out there and I take my stepson and I just talk to the old guys and I skate a bowl like once every 30 minutes, then I sit down and catch my breath.

E: Eat a sandwich.

S: Yah, those bowls are fun. That ¾ pipe?

DJ: Oh man, that is so fun.

S: How do you guys write your songs? Do you write the lyrics first? Do you write a riff first? How does that work?

DJ: A song will start me and Isaac jamming for many hours, me pouring my heart out into my guitar, only to have Isaac be like, ‘meh.’

E: And then he’ll say he likes it the next day. Isaac will be like, ‘yah, that sucks dude.’ And then the next day be like, ‘what if we did a song like this?’ and you’re like, ‘dude, that was my idea yesterday.’

DJ: Isaac and I do the principle songwriting together and when we have a more focused idea of a song we bring in everybody and we all kind of round it out. Cause he can’t play anything other than drums, but he sort of composes from behind the drums, which can be very frustrating if you are, you know, a songwriting guitar player.

E: Or a human being…cause he steals souls.

DJ: But Isaac has such a good head for music, and it’s like, I can’t really be frustrated with him considering everything we put out on this new record. It was really all put through the Isaac filter, cause we had some wack jams before we cut the record.

E: As soon as we get some sort of idea of what we’re gonna have, we’ll do some sort of demo for the song…

DJ: Pre production.

E: I’ll write lyrics out whenever, and then I’ll basically make them fit to a song. With this record I waited until I heard every song. The last record I kind of just did it as they’d finish every song, I would just put lyrics to it. But I really wanted it to flow better so with this record I waited until we had a better idea. And they would get on my, asking me what the deal was with everything, and I was like, ‘just trust me.’ But after they do their thing, we’ll all add input. I had a few things I suggested on this record and everyone else did too. And we go in and, you know, make that studio magic.

S: Is there a certain message? What impact do you want to have on people? If there’s one thing someone can take away from your music, what would it be?

E: I think there’s so much pretension in hardcore, and everywhere in life. If there’s anything a kid could get from our band it’s that no matter what you’re into, it’s cool to be yourself. You have so many rules in hardcore, and so many like, ‘you have to be this way’ and ‘we hate people who tell us to be a certain way.’ I don’t care about any of that, I don’t think I’ve ever really fit in necessarily in hardcore.

DJ: Isn’t that why we all got into it in the first place? That was the idea, and then it turned into a bunch of kids who had issues in high school, and now we just turn around and it’s just another little social sect, and it wasn’t supposed to be that way, and we are still firm believers that it still should not be that way. A lot of people would be like, ‘This is for the outcasts,’ while we are beating kids up at shows left and right if you are not in mosh shorts or whathaveyou. How funny is it that hardcore has branches of hardcore now? We should just be playing shows together if you’re a metalcore band, if you’re just a straight street punk band, we should be playing shows together. And, you know, ‘these guys look stupid in girl pants and plugs, but I look stupid in tight pants and braces,’ you know?

E: Or camo shorts and New Balances.

DJ: Everyone is playing dress up, and you can’t call one person out if you’re playing dress up.

E: Someone actually asked me that in an interview, when like girl pants and make-up was really popular, they asked me like, ‘Is it ruining hardcore?’ I don’t care at all, I’ve never thought about it for more than like half a second. All I said was like, ‘The only reason it’s even an issue is because people care about it.’ I don’t care at all what someone wears to a show, it’s stupid.

DJ: It might bring in kids who care about fashion first, and that is obviously a negative thing. But if you’re putting out music, going to shows, listening, then you’re a hardcore kid. Doesn’t matter what you wear.

E: I hope that comes through at least in our records. I write a lot of songs about not being sure of my place in the world, or my place in hardcore, or within my own life. And I hope a lot of kids feel the same way, or at least know how that feels, cause I don’t think that a lot of people in life do, I think a lot of people are scared to admit it, so a lot of people think my lyrics are depressing, but I don’t think they are. It’s just me saying, ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I was wrong about something.’ If there’s a message to be had from that it’s, I guess, that’s what I want it to be.

S: You guys have a pretty busy schedule coming up. East coast in June, Japan in July. Does the chaos of touring take a toll on your relationship?

DJ: Our relationships with one another?

C: They don’t exist as soon as we get back.

E: We take a little break from each other as soon as we get back.

DJ: We’re actually not gonna speak on the ride home.

S: It’s that bad?

E: No, no, it’s like, when you’ve known each other for as long as we have, we know which buttons to push, what not to push. Little things will piss us off about something. We have a really good relationship no matter what we say, we are all friends, we do have fun on tour, there’s gonna be little things, with any band…

DJ: Breaking edge helped that all.

E: Yah. But when you hang out with someone for 2 weeks in a row, you want a break. It’s not like we hate each other. Were you talking about relationships at home?

S: No.

DJ: I used to look forward to touring only and couldn’t stand being home. I’m married now, I just hate them even more. I miss being home. But I still love playing for kids. I wasn’t kidding around when you asked the first band that made you want to play. I’ve been on a die hard mission to play music for people since I was 7 years old and I’m so happy to be able to do that, even though I miss being home now, whereas before I didn’t, I could live on tour, and used to. But it’s harder now that I’m old…not as old as Eli.

E: Keep telling yourself that.

DJ: I’m telling America that.

S: Here’s a multi-parter. You ready?

DJ: Yah, go. Let’s do a lightning round.

S: Alright. Before I ever listened to you guys…

DJ: Which was probably only a few hours ago.

S: Yah, it was. I heard Eli’s vocals on Set it Straight’s Hourglass, and I thought it was one of the most powerful moments on the record. It’s cool that bands are so tight that you can just make cameos on each other’s records. Are there other bands you’re planning to collaborate with? Other bands that you’re close with?

DJ: They’re all broken up. Our peers are long gone.

E: Rob from Ruiner is on our record. We’ve always had at least one person on all of our records. After Killing the Dream is done, I’ve already talked about it, I’m gonna do the whole Jay-Z thing, basically do parts on everyone else’s records. That’s gonna happen but uh… DJ: Harry from Set it Straight actually collaborated with Pat’s leg. He was trying to make it for a bottle and made it to Pat’s leg in the van. We met up with them on the east coast and their van broke down and they’re like, ‘hey can we hop in with you guys?’ and we’re like, ‘you know, we really can’t like…’ ‘Great!’ And they stunk to high hell.

E: That was like the most fun we had on that tour. They did stink.

DJ: They are great dudes, and we really miss that band. Kurt tattooed my neck on tour. We stopped through his house, which was disgusting. Kurt, clean your damn house.

E: Oh man.

C: Spiders.

E: He had a bitchin’ pizza maker though.

DJ: And a clean tattoo studio.

E: I actually did vocals on a Trash Talk record, but it never saw the light of day cause it was too hot for TV, but seriously, I did that.

DJ: Their hype went through the roof in the midst of recording, like, ‘we don’t need you.’ Flush.

E: But other than that, I haven’t done anything, and probably not in the future too much.

DJ: Our friends list is shrinking at an exponential rate.

S: Who are you guys voting for in the ’08 election?

P: There’s an election in ’08? C: Who’s running?

DJ: Pat’s not old enough to vote. Are you serious?

S: Can I ask that, or not? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.

DJ: I’m apolitical. I choose to stay out. It’s too frustrating. I’m not voting.

E: I don’t vote for politicians. It just disgusts me. I realize that’s irresponsible but, I’ll vote for bonds or measures but politicians, honestly, are just one in the same. I hate every one equally.

C: I’ve never voted before. I hate politics, but I’d say if anybody, I’d vote for Obama.

DJ: I’m gonna vote to cancel that one out.

E: Cause DJ just wants to do the opposite of whatever everyone else does.

S: So that’s a McCain vote.

DJ: Actually, who you don’t have here for that question is Isaac. Isaac is actually really motivated and probably one of the most staunch Republicans you’ll ever meet, which is such a strange character dichotomy for a hardcore kid.

P: He was talking about the stormin’ Mormon the last time we were out…Mitt Romney. He was crushed when Mitt got eliminated.

DJ: It doesn’t even come up in the band. We don’t ever really talk politics, mostly cause we’re uninformed.

E: It’s one of those things, at least for me, I like talking about issues and stuff, but when it comes down to actual politicians or the whole political process, it’s really frustrating and really overwhelming. My dad’s a lobbyist…

DJ: He is? 10 years I’ve known him…

E: And just to see how hard he has to work to have any success without being a really crappy dude, it really is overwhelming. So I kind of made up my mind a long time ago to kind of change things myself instead of trying to go through a person.

DJ: We’re doing it through Punk Rock.

S: What’s the best thing about being in Killing the Dream?

C: Pizza parties.

DJ: Free stuff. Girls. Oh, the girls. The hotel parties.

E: The advance

P: The deli trays. Cold cuts.

DJ: Playing shows. Hands down. Seeing reactions at shows. Kids who come up to me after shows, who probably weren’t even necessarily moshing or singing along but were in back , and just telling me, ‘man your music means so much to me.’ And the booze.

E: For me, not being a musician really…

DJ: Or at all.

E: Yah. As much as I hate the 3 people I’m sitting here with, it’s something I’m gonna miss a lot, being able to basically go out on a road trip with my friends. The shows are an equal part of it and meeting kids is awesome, but when I look back on Killing the Dream, it’s gonna be the times I had with my friends. That’s the best part for me.

C: We’ve been able to see half the world for free.

DJ: We wouldn’t otherwise be able to.

C: We got lost in Europe and drove by Stone Hinge. ‘Does anyone know where Stone Hinge is?’ ‘Oh, it’s right there.’

P: We had to detour to Sweden from Norway.

DJ: I didn’t even know where those were. I thought they were right next to each other.

C: We drove through Prague on accident.

E: Stuff like that. It was so frustrating when it happened, but the whole time I was just thinking, ‘we’re all really lucky to be here.’ I remember shows and stuff and I remember, ‘oh man, this show was amazing, it was really, really fun,’ but honestly the things I remember most are like the time Harry pee’d on Patches’s leg or DJ jumping over a fence at the Pentagon…

DJ: In hot pursuit by the FBI.

P: Almost getting arrested in Finland for throwing rocks.

C: On his birthday in Orange County.

DJ: Oh, my birthday in Orange Country. I actually was in hot pursuit by the police department.

E: That stuff is the stuff I’m gonna remember.

C: Playing Frisbee with the naked blitz in Orlando, Florida somewhere.

DJ: That’s terrible memory. [Talking about the people setting up in Studio A]

S: Do you have any plans for future albums? Or have you not even thought about it yet?

C: It’s not gonna happen.

DJ: Never say never. We don’t have any plans for another Killing the Dream record after this. How official was that? That’s like from the label. [From their myspace post on 6/16/09, “We're recording a few songs. They rule.”]

S: If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things…

DJ: I’d eat Chris first.

S: That’s the next question! If you had to kill someone in the band…

E: Let’s not beat around the bush, Isaac would be the first to go.

DJ: I could get drunk off Chris.

E: Listen, Isaac would be the first to go. What’s the second part of that question?

S: With what weapon?

DJ: Wait what was the first part?

S: What 3 things would you bring on a desert island?

DJ: Condoms. Can I only bring 3 condoms? Or can I bring a bunch?

E: That counts as one item I think.

DJ: Well I don’t need any weapons to kill you fairies so…

E: You could fashion some nunchucks out of a palm tree.

DJ: I am very proficient with nunchucks. That is no lie. [everyone is on the floor laughing]

DJ: I’ll mob you up. 3 things on a desert island? I don’t know, it’s like a VCR, a TV, and a copy of Big Trouble in Little China.

E: A VCR?

S: There’s no electricity on a desert island.

DJ: Ok. An electrical output, a VCR/TV combo, and a copy of Big Trouble in Little China.

C: A generator?

E: I guess that actually is on VHS. A VCR, I mean, are you planning on recording some stuff? Like MASH?

DJ: All broadcast TV is gonna be digital, and I’m still running the rabbit ears.

E: You gotta run it from your neighbors house dude.

DJ: I know. Anyone else gonna answer the 3 things on an island question?

E: 3 things, um, definitely some Voltaire.

DJ: 3 things? What are their names? Come on…eat them later. Or first if they’re lucky. Ok, you’ve gotta drop that.

S: Definitely editing this.

DJ: My old lady will snap my neck.

S: Eli, go. Voltaire…

E: Definitely a NASA blanket and definitely Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. No I’m just kidding. I don’t know…

DJ: This is good radio right here.

E: Exactly. Chris, go.

C: A guitar to pass the time…

DJ: Maybe learn how to play.

C: If I ever got off I might know how to play a song…a bottle of whiskey and a bag of potatoes.

DJ: By the way, this mythical desert island is Chris’s bedroom.

E: If you throw in a dirty ass comforter and a dog.

C: I’d take my dog with me, yah.

E: Are we taking pets?

DJ: That pup’s gonna be delicious.

P: I’d probably bring an animal companion, a case of food, and a boat.

DJ: Oh, you’re gonna go that route, ‘I’m gonna bring a boat and get off this island.’

E: ‘If I had one wish, I’d wish for a million wishes.’

DJ: Pat can’t help it, he’s the littlest Viking. Look at him.

P: If nothing else, I could change the oil on the ship given that I’m from El Dorado County.

S: Ok, so who would you kill?

C: Isaac.

E: Isaac, hands down.

S: Would you all kill Isaac?

ALL: YES.

DJ: He’s this close. This desert island’s gonna be the van.

S: With what weapon?

E: You don’t need a weapon with Isaac.

C: Strangle him with you bare hands.

P: Whatever I can find. A coffee mug…shoes.

DJ: Knowing Isaac, I don’t know, we could try reason.

E: I was gonna say like, some really sharp words?

DJ: But he’s impenetrable to that. [laughter]

DJ: Can we get a little call in from Isaac right now? ‘We’ve got Isaac on line 3.’

S: Where do you see yourselves 30 years from now?

DJ: 6 feet under.

S: At 55?

DJ: I’m a butcher. You know how much red meat I ingest? My heart is gonna pop at 55.

S: Sounds about right.

E: I’m like 65 now so… I got like another 3 years max.

DJ: Oh, who could answer that question?

E: I hope I’ve tricked a girl into marrying me at that point and have gotten real fat already. Finally finished graduate school…

DJ: My Voltaire dissertation. She just flipped me off on the radio.

E: I hope I’m living a pretty normal life, if I have to answer one question seriously.

DJ: I hope I’m still rockin. I hope I’m that 55 year old guy in the Punk Rock band, you know, you love those bands. ‘Hey, D.I.’s playing.’ It’s like, ‘Really? I kind of just assumed they were over.’ It’s like, ‘I can’t wait to see Subhumans as adults.’ It’s so sad. I tell my wife, ‘Don’t let me rock when I’m that old.’

S: You could go the acoustic route.

E: Us, Verse, and Have Heart are doing a reunion tour. We’re gonna charge 1 million dollars a show. [DJ cusses at the band setting up in Studio A]

E: This interview is spinning out of control.

DJ: Let me tell you another thing about Isaac…his sexual history.

S: You said you guys listen to all kinds of music. What other…

DJ: That’s not true. Not all kinds.

S: Ok. What kinds other than hardcore?

DJ: Personally, I can’t really get into genres of music. I’m more into bands. I like to follow bands more than I do genres. You could say that all my favorite bands are hardcore bands, but for the most part, I really don’t like hardcore. Most is really bad, just my favorite bands happen to be hardcore. I really love the Allman Brothers, I really love The Misfits, Blue Oyster Cult. These are all bands I can get into. There’s so much bad in a genre, how could you say that you ever listen to it, you know?

S: It’s hard working at a radio station where everything is genre oriented. When you sign up for what show you’re doing you have to circle which genres you’re going to play.

E: It’s like when people ask you what kind of music you like it’s like, ‘uh…uh…rock n’ roll.’

DJ: There’s good in every genre. There’s genres for the most part I despise. I really just can’t stand metalcore. I have bands in metalcore I really like. I’m a big Poison the Well fan. For the most part I hate screamo. Most of us really don’t like that music. But we can all get behind the new Brand New record. It’s a record that everyone in the band really likes. So it’s more of a band thing than it is a genre thing. Don’t classify me Erica.

S: You classify yourselves!

DJ: How?

S: You said you’re a hardcore band.

DJ: That’s just to sell records. Can you edit that?

S: Do any of you have any hidden talents?

E: I can go without sex for a really long time.

DJ: My talent can’t be described on the radio apparently. Hidden talents? We don’t even have musical talents! What open talents are you talking about? I am good at nunchucks. They laugh like I’m not.

E: How can you say that with a straight face?

DJ: Cause you know I am, you know I am good. You know I will F’n hurt you…with out without them.

S: Can any of you do the splits?

DJ: Can’t talk about it.

S: Can you guys do cartwheels?

C: I can do a cartwheel here or there.

S: Front handspring?

DJ: That’s not a talent. That’s a shade above retarded.

P: We are some talentless dudes.

DJ: Way to bring it all out in the open. ‘So what do you guys really do? So you don’t do the band.’ ‘Not that much.’ ‘But your jobs…’ ‘Eh.’

E: ‘So you don’t read, obviously.’

DJ: ‘You don’t follow politics. What is it that you do? You don’t hang out with one another. Do you have other friends? Definitely not.’ S: You inspire kids all around the world.

DJ: That’s what I do. That’s what I do, Erica. You hit the nail on the head. I reach out-ah. No, no talents. A very long answer to your question.

E: DJ’s a surprisingly good dancer. Chris, uh…

DJ: Is a terrible cyclist. Pat is good at bicycles but then he broke his ankle and he’s a huge pussy, and I can say it cause it’s not on the list. Pat was good at bicycling but he’s scared now.

E: Chris is really good with numbers, like give him…

DJ: Oh yah, Chris is hella good at math, which does him no good in his job or life at all, but we have fun. Ask him a math question.

E: Simple, like 75 times 46.

C: Well you’re giving me a hard one.

DJ: Ok 75 times 3.

E: How about 75 times 12?

C: 900.

DJ: WOOOO. People are drinking their second cup of coffee now. Made it to the 4 o’clock hour. Next.

S: What’s your favorite meal? Well, you’re a butcher right?

DJ: I am.

C: What happened to sandwich artist? When did you become a butcher?

DJ: I moved up. We had artistic differences.

C: Last week he was a sandwich artist.

S: What’s the restaurant?

DJ: I work for Dad’s Kitchen. You know it’s delicious. Actually all 5 members of Killing the Dream have shared a job at Roma’s Pizzeria in Folsom. Isaac, Chris, and Eli are from the city of Folsom. Me and Pat are from a little farther down in El Dorado County, but we all worked at this same pizza place…never at the same time. It probably spanned 10 years.

E: 8. DJ: We have so much distain for the owner and have stolen more pizza, time, a little bit of life from the guy really, but we’ll never say that Roma’s 3 is not the best damn pizza you’ve ever had.

E: Yah it’s like, if you see a really hot girl who’s totally bitchy and you’re like, ‘Damn it, she’s hot but I don’t want to say it,’ it’s the same thing. It’s like man, I hate that I have to admit that this pizza’s delicious.

DJ: We’re all pizza enthusiasts.

P: I was gonna say that’s what are talent is, that we can put down more pizzas than you would think.

S: Like the Ninja Turtles.

P: Very good comparison, cause he’s good at nunchucks.

DJ: Which one got babes though?

S: Splinter.

P: That’s Splinter.

DJ: Pointed to Eli. We’re on the radio here.

E: Dude, you’re like Baxter. Who was the little guy who was like hanging out?

DJ: Oh Casey Jones. He got babes, cause he had like, a penis…not like a turtle penis. Turtle penises are huge. Seriously, check it out, they come like around there.

E: I don’t think we can talk about it.

DJ: I can say penis on the air. This is a college.

S: It’s scientific.

E: Voltaire actually wrote about it too. [DJ makes fun of the band in Studio A…again]

E: DJ has a lot of friends, if you haven’t noticed. DJ’s secret talent is making friends. [More banter about face tattoos and things going on in the studio]

DJ: Are we still on here?

FCG: Where’s the best pizza you’ve had?

P: I’d say Café Kushco. Straight up that pizza is so good.

DJ: Really? I think you were emaciated and hungry. Café Kushco is a café next to Godcity studios in Salem, MA. Pat was with me when my band recorded there and I think we ran out of money. Luigi’s is good, in Sac. Flying Pie in Portland is good.

E: Yah, Flying Pie is awesome. It’s like picking your favorite kid…and I have like 12 kids.

FCG: Next you guys are on the east coast in New York, let me know and I’ll tell you where to go eat some really good pizza.

DJ: Ok. Seriously, Killing the Dream should be food critics. This is a normal tour day: We wake up, ‘Where are we gonna go eat?’ So everybody gets together, we can all get around going somewhere to eat.

E: Except for Isaac.

DJ: Except for Isaac who decides where to eat, we all agree with him, then he changes his mind.

E: Yah, as soon as we like something Isaac likes, it’s like, ‘No that sucks. What are you talking about?’

DJ: So we’ll go eat. Ok, so where’s the show? Do we mapquest it? No. Do we call the promoter? No. Do we know where we’re going? No. So let’s just start driving in the general direction. We’ll go there, Chris is on his sidekick, ‘Oh, I have no idea. I can’t get reception.’ We’ll maybe get a hold of somebody, barely make it to the show. We’ll make it to the show, we’ll work our way around to all the musicians, ask to borrow equipment, we’ll get that all handled. So now, we’ve got a few hours before the show, we’re not gonna watch bands, we all get together, ‘Where are we gonna go eat?’ So now we’re going to eat again. This is our second meal of the day. I’ll find a place, we go eat, talk about how it was. Isaac doesn’t like it. Or if we all don’t like it, he’ll find something to like. We’ll go eat some sketchy burrito, we’re all not moving too much on stage because things could go poorly. We’ll play the show, thank god we made it to the show, ‘Ok, what do you guys want to do? Where are we gonna go eat?’ We take basically a food tour of the nation, with sporadic music played in the middle of it. We’re ardent road dogs now. We know all the spots.

S: Do you have any favorites in Sac?

DJ: As far as pizza? Or any places?

S: Any places.

[More nonsense talk about food. Seriously, can you really expect me to keep typing after 30 pages? Eli almost busts a nut talking about dessert pizza. DJ insults the studio tech and makes one more jab at Sound and Fury. We talk about Nicole from Deathwish and her alias, Miss Kitty.]

S: Any last words of advice or closing statement?

E: Record is coming out June 10th. If you liked us before this interview and still don’t hate us, you might want to pick it up.

DJ: Everybody go to shows to enjoy the music.

P: Check out The Takeover and Eras.

E: Do you, do what you want. Don’t worry what other people think or say.

[DJ rambles about the FCC list.]

E: Please still listen to us.

P: Please don’t hate us.

E: Once again, we’re Betrayed.

DJ: An interview with Allegiance.

E: We’ve got Lights Out in the studio.

S: Thank you for coming on my show.

DJ: Thanks for having us Erica. We had fun.

P: Thanks so much.

C: Thank you.

S: Check out Fractures dropping June 10th.

DJ: THE NEW ALBUM. KILLING THE DREAM. COP IT. [Scary voice]

S: Check them out on Myspace.

DJ: MYSPACE.

S: And KillingtheDream.com.

DJ: KILLINGTHEDREAM.COM. YOU NEED IT. IT’S THE HOTTEST THING ON THE STREETS.

S: Thanks for listening to KDVS.

DJ: WE MAKE HIT RECORDS.

S: Goodbye.