P and A Follow Up

Just a few quick questions to catch up in the lives of the Panda boys.. well.. Petros' and Louie's for now at least.. hah

Any progress on ideas for album title or have you already decided on one?

• Louie: none so far.
• Petros: it's probably gonna be self titled, whatever we choose as the final name for our band

How was it to be back in the bay playing a show?

• Louie: It was fuckin awesome, kind of sucked for me to be back for such a short amount of time, but whatev, playing a sold out show always kicks ass.
• Petros: fukin sick. fan base was hot

New name... close to choosing/have chosen/what is it?

• Louie: As of now, Hey Panda, but knowing us, it could change the night before we send out artwork for CDs, merch, etc.
• Petros: maybe Hey Panda

When is the new album going to be available?

• Louie: Hopefully Jan 13, since we gots this sick show with the Lovemakers and Malroid at Du Nord. I think it would be a perfect opportunity to drop the new album.
• Petros: Late January

Where did you record for the new album?

• Louie: Drums at Skyline studios, and guitars, bass, keys, vocals at two different producer's houses.
• Petros: skyline studios, friends houses

Who's producing the new album?

• Louie: Doobie (aka Jonny Genius from Maldroid), and Toby somethin.
• Petros: Johnny Genius, Toby Wincorn

Any plans for a tour over summer or something?

• Louie: We'll see, obviously it would be sick to tour, but I mean with Joey's new venue, the Craneway, coming along everyday, I wouldn't mind chillin in the Bay over the summer, and opening shows for Green Day, Ben Folds, and Modest Mouse once or twice a month.
• Petros: nope

Anything else new with Panda?

• Louie: I mean not that i can think of, I mentioned the show we gots coming up in Jan 13, with the Lovemakers and Maldroid, Joey's new venue, CD, band name, I think that's pretty much it. I mean in case people don't know, we have decided to record a full length CD with 10 tracks, as supposed to a 7 track EP. We recently got done writing a new song (8th overall), which we premiered at our last show at BOTH, it's called, "I Let It Out," and it is off da hizzy. My hopes are that we can pen at least one more track that is the same type of style as Chinatown, just so we don't have an overload of poppy, piano driven songs. ya dig?
• Petros: just doin more recording on this album. adding crazy parts modulatin crazy keys spittin crazy lyrics

4/5 of Panda

Some answers are general consensus… most are each members personal views
Enjoy.
And hopefully there should be an interview follow up after their show at Bottom of the Hill on the 24th of Nov... ((Tomorrow)(which all of you should be attending)


Band members and their roles:

• Jonny Flannes: looks / Guitar/Vox
• Petros Anastos-Prastacos: jokes / Guitar/Vox
• Garrett Leidy: Bass guitar
• Louie Diller: bitching / Drums / Percussion / Backup Vox
• Joey Orton: space travel / Piano
  
  Nicknames:
  
  
• Louie: La-La
• Garret: Grito
• Joey: Ja-Ja
• Jonny: Flan
• Petros: Tros
  
  How was the band formed?
  
  
• Petros: Our love for a small band named rage against the machine brought us together in Louie’s basement.
• Louie: Me and Garrett started playing back in 6th grade with another kid in our grade named Jeff Cheung (guitar). We were called Cowgrass Imprint, and it was a lot of fun, but we sucked ass.
• Garrett: Louie and me jammin' freshman year, then meeting up with Petros, Jonny, and finally Joey.
• Jonny: “see petros answer”
  
  Why/how did you choose the band’s name?
  
  
• Petros: Well after frustratingly brainstorming for days we agreed to just flip open a dictionary and go by whatever we pointed to with our eyes closed.
• The first time we landed on "Nightmare" and we all agreed that that had been a practice round. The next one we flipped to landed on a picture of a panda. So we agreed from then on our name would be Panda.
• Louie: Panda came about because we were debating a name for about a month, and were making little progress. So we whipped out the dictionary, flipped to a random page, pointed at a random word, and it was Panda. We all kind of looked at each other, and were like, "Panda, yea, that's actually kind of tight."
• Garrett: Love of cute animals
• Jonny: “seepetros answer”
  
  What high school did you all go to?
  
  
• phs
• PHS
• Piedmont High biatch
• Piedmont High School muthafucka
  
  What’s your favorite part about performing live?
  
  
• Petros: all the eye candy girls
• Louie: Seeing the crowd undulating to our music is pretty spectacular; how they'll jump up and down to the beat I provide gives me chills right now reminiscing on the thought.
• Garrett: Being up on stage when everything is going well.
• Jonny: ladies singing along
  
  What’s your greatest memory with the band?
  
  
• Petros: all the times we spent jammin in Louie’s awkwardly small basement makin jokes and jammin. One time we played down at UC Santa Cruz and it started with like only 5 people but by the end of our hour long set there were hunderds and they were going crazy.
• Louie: Either hearing Carry On on the radio for the first time, or this gig we played at UCSC, where there were literally 30 people at the beginning of our set, and by the end, there were probably 200 peeps going nuts to our cover of Rage's, "Bullet in the Head." It was great, we brought a bubble machine and all. Fuckin amazing.
• Garrett: The moments after amazing shows.
• Jonny: hearing our song for the first time on the radio
  
  What’s the last album you bought?
  
  
• Petros: something by Stevie Wonder
• Louie: I haven't bought music in a while. Actually for our high school newspaper, I did CD reviews on Linkin Park, Bobby Valentino, and Bone Thugs. So those were probably the last CDs I bought. Now a days, most people don't buy CDs anymore, they buy songs. I'm not really part of that crowd, but occasionally I'll only want one song,
• Garrett: Favourite Worst Nightmare- Arctic monkeys
• Jonny: daft punk-hw
  
  What’s the first album you ever bought?
  
  
• Petros: Nysnc
• Louie: First album I personally bought was probably Limp Bizkit's, "3 Dollar Bills Y'all," back in 6th grade. I loved the rap rock in middle school; Limp Bizkit, Korn, Linkin Park, all of that shityness. But when I was in elementary school, my parents would buy me, "Sgt Pepper's," and "Abbey Road" for my B-day. I remember my friends would get super soakers and lazer guns for their birthdays, while I would get Beatle's albums. Initially I would be pretty bummed, but I remember once I started listening to both of those amazing CDs, I was hooked. I seriously would finish my homework, go over to the CD player in the family room, and listen to Abbey Road, and Hot Rocks (Rolling Stones compilation) cover to cover for at least an hour and a half. It was definitely as stimulating as shooting my friend with a super soaker.
• Garrett: Blue- Third Eye Blind
• Jonny: rage agains the machine-rage against the machine
  
  How’d you get involved in music?
  
  
• Petros: my dad forced me to take guitar lessons
• Louie: I've always been an avid music listener. My dad's an audiophile, and he's got perfect pitch, so I think there's definitely a music gene in my family, even though both my parents quit their instruments after high school. Like most parents, mine made me do piano lessons for three years, and of course, I hated it. I got into drums though, when my older brother first started playing. I remember being upstairs and hearing my brother in the basement kick out these rhythms that were so friggin cool, that I thought to myself, "damn I gots to try that out myself." Eventually I made it downstairs where my brother showed me a couple tricks on the kit, and the rest is history. Actually going back to the piano lessons, I now cherish those piano lessons, because I remember when Panda used to practice freshmen year in my basement, they would leave their instruments at my house. My brother would then order me to jam with him after they left, and the only instrument I could manage was the keyboard (he of course took the kit before I could, since he was older than me). Eventually I started writing songs on the keyboard which me and my brother would play. I started to get hell of into it, and now, I play at least 30-45 minutes a day, and am probably just as serious about keyboard as I am with drums, I'm not as comfortable though with the piano as I am with the drums.
• Garrett: Playing contra-bass in school orchestra
• Jonny: i took piano classes so i could play beastie boy songs
  
  How long has the band been around?
  
  
• Petros: bout 3
• Louie: Panda as a five piece has been around for four years, me and Garrett go back to 6 years. Me and Garrett played with Petros for five and half years, and Jonny joined for five.
• Garrett: 3 years
• Jonny: “see pacos ansewr"
  
  (in other words... Louie claims 4 the rest claim 3... from what I've gotten... Joey joined freshman year of high school... so Panda as a whole... have been around for roughly 4 years...)
  
  If you weren’t musicians what would you be/other dream job?
  
  
• Petros: Writer
• Louie: I'm not sure yet, I guess that's what I'm supposed to figure out in college. I mean I'm pretty passionate about a bunch of academic subjects. International affairs, foreign language, literature, law, economics, stuff like that, which doesn't usually require good math skills.
• Garrett: Underground street racer
• Jonny: president
  
  It's your dream concert. You can play anywhere in the world with any artist or band past or present, alive or dead. Where would you perform and with whom?
  
  
• Petros: besides the Beatles. It'd be sick to share the stage with slayer at roosters roadhouse
• Louie: I would perform either at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, or how like the Stones did, in front of 2 million Brazilians at the Copa Cobana Beach in Brazil, that would be sick. As for who to play with, probably either Queen, or Muse, but those bands are so friggin good live, I wouldn't want them to steal the show.
• Garrett: Pink Floyd - London
• Jonny: 1974 zeppelin madison square garden
  
  What’s your favorite color?
  
  
• Petros: yellows pretty sick
• Louie: Dark blue or green.
• Garrett: Blue
• Jonny: blue
  
  What style of music would you best describe your sound as?
  
  
• Petros: very melodic with guitars keepin it down shying away from the piano sprinkles
• Louie: Panda's sound is eclectic to certain extent. But most of it sounds like a mix of the Beatles, Queen, and Mika. So basically poppy rock.
• Garrett: Piano-riff Alternative Rock
• Jonny: kinda like fun rock with some piano and singin with slap bass
  
  If you had to compare your band with another which would it be and why?
  
  
• Louie: As previously stated, we're comparable with the Beatles, Queen, and Mika
• Garrett: Kinda like Spoon but not as boring
• Jonny: more rocky quueeny
  
  Where did you grow up?
  
  
• Petros: The dirty streets Oakland
• Louie: San Francisco for first four years of my life, then Piedmont.
• Garrett: Oakland
• Jonny: oaktown
  
  What’s the best thing about being from SF/bay area?
  
  
• Petros: the cute girls
• Louie: Realizing that not only do we have the best weather in the nation, but also the best people in the nation. We're so frickin progressive with our policies and leadership, it's kind of ridiculous sometimes. As well, it's so diverse here, we have every kind of ethnicity, race, culture. I just think the majority of the people in SF/Bay Area are so much more cultured, and less ignorant compared to most all people around the world, it's really nice to be a part of it.
• Garrett: Diversity
• Jonny: sf is fuckin sick
  
  Who are your favorite local bands?
  
  
• Petros: Honey cut, Scissors for Lefty, Street to Nowhere
• Louie: Honeycut is friggin awesome, as well as Street to Nowhere. Facing New York is up my alley, since I like instrumentally challenging music (otherwise called progressive), and they're all amazingly talented musicians, but I feel like their songwriting is lacking. Like they'll come up with a sick riff, or melody, but not develop it enough.
• Garrett: Scissors for Lefty, Maldroid
• Jonny: maldroid, honeycut,
  
  What was the last show you played and with who? (Petros and Louie answered prior to their Café Du Nord show with The Morning Benders)
  
  
• Petros: We just played with sugarcult somehwhere in martinez last saturday
• Louie: Bay Area Indie Fest with Sugarcult and a bunch of other rad local bands.
• Garrett: Cafe du Nord- Morning Benders
• Jonny: cafe du nord w/ the morning benders
  
  What is the one thing you dislike most about the current day music scene?
  
  
• Louie: I think there's way too much of a profit motive with the current day music scene. The music industry is a business and it is going to try and make as much money as it possibly can, regardless of how groundbreaking the music they're producing. So in turn, you get a lot of recycled garbage that retards in middle America eat up. Back in the day, it was all good for the Doors to solo for three and a half minutes, and people ate that shit up, why can't it be like that now a days. People have not changed that much, they're still human, they breathe, eat, fuck, and sleep. ya know what I'm talking about? fuck.
  
  -SF/bay area specifically?
  
  
• Petros: all the shitty bands
• Louie: I appreciate the local scene, because it is so frickin supportive of local music. Radio, press, venues, eveything is so encouraging, and it is amazing, because local bands aren't shunned into shitty dark bars, they're allowed to open for national touring acts all of the time, and that's something special, and unique. It's almost too supportive, because I frankly feel that there are some local bands that are way too hyped up through local media, and when I hear and see them live, I am thoroughly disappointed.
• Garrett: Shity bands
• Jonny: alot bands that sound alot alike
  
  -Ideas of how to change it?
  
  
• Petros: practice to a metrenome
• Louie: Changing the music industry. I mean from what I've heard, it seems as if the music industry is imploding, and that might mean a good thing. But hey, we're in America, if the major lables go down in flames, there will be just some other dude in his studio making millions probably selling the same kind of crap the majors were, only maybe his crap is just a little less stinky than the one the majors were shitting out before. It's straight up the society we live in. America is a free enterprise, capitalist system that encourages and allows ordinary people to make the most money they possibly can without taking into account morals and/or the quality of the product they're selling.
• Garrett: Originality
• Jonny: be your self don't try to be no one else
  
  What is the one thing you love about the SF/bay area music scene?
  
  
• Petros: the qts w/ bootys
• Louie: How supportive it is.
• Garrett: The great venues
• Jonny: live 105 is really supportive
  
  What’s you favorite book?
  
  
• Petros: The Blind Assasin-Margaret Atwood
  The Painted Bird-Jerzy Kosinski
• Mr. Dalloway-Virgina Woolf
• Louie: Too hard of a question. Either Heart of Darkness, Beloved, or Invisble Man. Jane Eyre is my guilty pleasure because it's written incredibly well, but it's really fuckin girly.
• Garrett: LOTR
  
  What’s your favorite movie?
  
  
• Petros: norbit
• Louie: Too hard, Notes on A scandal, Last King of Scotland, Just go to my facebook, it's all
• Garrett: Stomp the Yard
• Jonny: REquiem for a dream.
  
  How was playing SXSW?
  
  
• Petros: It was chill
• Louie: It was tight. Unfortunately we played to probably 30 people, but chillin with the other local bands, and hearing their sounds, and just walking around 6th street in Austin was fuckin amazing.
• Garrett: Awesome
• Jonny: So fun. Dude we hung out with all the local greats. Tried to get beers and shit
  
  Who gets the most girls in the band?
  
  
• Petros: it's pretty even. Exept our drummer Louie is gay so he goes for the cock.
• Louie: I don't know, I've always felt that Jonny does, because the only way he knows how to talk to human beings with vaginas, is to flirt with them, but I think Petros might be giving him a run for his money. Then again, me and Joe have had serious g-friends for a while, and we all know that Garrett is the sexiest member in Panda.
  
  CD you guys are working on... Favorite songs on it?
  
  
• Petros: "What Can I Do"
• Louie: It's hard to tell so far, since most of the tracks are still pretty rough. Going into the recordings, Chinatown, Poetry, Carry On (revised), and What Can I Do definitely top the list.
• Garrett: everyone's gonna say "what can i do" but they're all good
• Jonny: Ooo this track what can i do is pretty hot. Same with this song about a poem
  
  How was the experience creating it... so far?(remember.. this was answered back in aug/sept)
  
  
• Petros: Fuckin crazy, we're doin hella sick shit. We recorded a track with us hanging from the ceiling upside down.
• Louie: It's been tight, since we've had two producers that take different approaches towards creating music. One of them is super hands on, which is good, because he cleaned up a lot of our poppier songs, which should be sparkling clean, while the other was more laid back, but still contributed sick ideas that have made our songs a lot better.
• Garrett: Hard work
• Jonny: Incredibly fun but inceredibly stressful. Pouring you heart into every solo and drum fill can be tiring
  
  In 1-3 words describe the album itself... so far...
  
  
• Petros: i like it
• Louie: take over world
• Garrett: incomplete, potential, revolutionary
• Jonny: Fresh,nice, fun!
  
  Any ideas for the album title?
  
  
• Petros: "suck on my cock"
• Louie: Thanks For Coming (No Pun Intended)
• Garrett: "Garrett sings the Blues"
• Jonny: None. You got any?
  
  Whats the plan for the guys of Panda this coming year and what is going on with Panda now?
  
  
• Petros: We are going to college nearby so we can still commute to sick shows. We're gonna finish the cd before we go and release that shit in november. Uh the plan originally was to never go to school and become rockstars but reality got in the way
• Louie: I mean we still think we're going to become rock stars, so that plan has never really changed. But I guess our plan this past January was to all take time off and tour. I mean, the original plan we all had in our head was different from each member. Petros and Jonny probably thought all along that we were all taking time off. I was always down to take time off, if everyone was down to take time off, but everyone wasn't, so that was that. I think our parent's influence had a big part for what we've decided. Like I'm still down to come back second semester and tour, or play sick gigs, if our EP generates a good enough buzz. It seems as of now, as if Garrett, Petros, and Jonny will continue giggin around the Bay with fill in drummers, and keyboardists, while Joey takes over the Bay with this new venue his dad is financing.
• Garrett: The sky's the limit
• Jonny: I couldn't even begin to describe this
  
  Any shows coming up people should know about?
  
  
• Jonny: November 24th CD Release with Audrye Sessions at Bottom of the Hillll
• Gerrett: Nov. 24 BtotH

B to the RAY

Hey… so …I did an email interview with Bray a few weeks ago...
If you want some insight into the guy behind the music... check it out:



Q: How was the band formed?


A: i sent a request to the universe: "please send me a group of worldclass / bad-ass musicians... all shorter than me."
they came to me through internet advertisements, word of mouth, and osmosis.


Q: Why/how did you choose the band’s name?


A: i thought to myself.... this project should carry a name that describes the sound. then i thought... "bray.... that's the sound an ass makes. perfect!"
Bray also happens to be my real name. quite a coincidence.


Q: What’s your favorite part about performing live?


A: along with sex, performing live for me is the truest form of living in the moment. matter of fact, i can't tell the difference between the 2.


Q: What’s your greatest memory with the band?


A: so far it's the festival we did in France. i lost my voice the day of the show, and i was sorta freaking out. i decided to save my voice by not speaking, so i wrote "lost my voice. can't speak. sorry." on a post-it note. the band was making fun of me because i kept answering questions by just holding up this post-it. just before the show, i prayed to the Gods for my voice to return. somehow when we got up on stage, everything clicked. i looked out and saw family and friends that came all the way from the states to see us play in France! we played a phenomenal show, and after every song, i kept asking the crowd "Ca va?" which means 'everybody cool?' it's the only thing i knew how to say. well, not the only thing... maybe after each song, i should've asked "excusez moi, ou est la salle de bains?"


Q: What’s the last album you bought?


A: Arj Barker "Issue were here" (stand-up comedy)


Q: What’s the first album you ever bought?


A: the Fat Boys' first record.


Q: How’d you get involved in music?


A: Michael Jackson and Prince were my idols growing up. i was so moved by what they did! i performed in the high school talent show, and that was it for me.
i've never been a practical person, so music was the perfect career move.


Q: Being in a band doesn’t always pay the bills. When you aren’t playing, what do you and the other members do for money?

A: music may not always pay the bills, but perseverance does.



Q: How long has the band been around?


A: this line up is going on it's 3rd year.


Q: If you weren’t musicians what would you be?


A: something in the arts for sure. an illustrator, an actor, a writer.... i've always been interested in early Hungarian cabinet making.


Q: It's your dream concert. You can play anywhere in the world with any artist or band past or present, alive or dead. Where would you perform and with whom?


A: i would like to play to the largest audience ever assembled. this event should be held anywhere that could accomodate this large a crowd. there should be airfare specials so people from all over the world could come. the other groups? hmm... how bout the beatles, ryuichi sakamoto, brian regan, and me!?




Q: What’s your favorite color?



A: tangerine

Q: What style of music would you best describe your sound as?


A: maybe it's mabelline.

Music = makeup? Alrighty


Q: If you had to compare your band with another which would it be and why?


A: i don't care for comparisons. i also don't think art can be described as good or bad. finally, i don't care for people who can't answer a simple question.
therefore, the yeah yeah yeahs. because they are raw, daring, and fronted by a girl. wait....

haha…is there a secret you would like to share with us?

Q: Where did you grow up?


A: in the east bay. vallejo, concord, and oakland. mostly concord.


Q: What’s the best thing about being from SF?


A: it's one of the 2 or 3 most forward-thinking cities in the world.
other things i love about SF: the haight, the marina ,the Bridge theatre, japantown, cable cars, grubby art galleries, the restaurants, .... and the people.


Q: Who are your favorite local bands?


A: pc munoz, malcolm marshall, quincy ramone, the lovemakers, minipop, BRAY


Q: What was the last show you played and with who?


A: we played at our monthly SF residency... pier 23! this particular show was a benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. the other acts were brittany shane, wish inflicted, and the cons.


Q: What is the one thing you dislike most about the current day music scene?
-SF specifically?

A: no complaints.



Q: -Ideas of how to change it?



A: what happened to the California Music Awards?

Q: What is the one thing you love about the SF music scene?


A: i love this new media girl on the scene. her name is Paige.


Q: What’s you favorite book?


A: i like the entire Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald.
Lolita was good, too.


Q: What’s your favorite movie?


A: Amelie.


Q: How was playing SXSW?


A: we had a BALL!
next year... bigger and deffer... : )

Q: Worst your hotel experience while touring?

A: we stayed at a strange sort of youth hostel place in Los Angeles where i was accosted and tormented by a giant woman with dusty feet.
truthfully, this was also my best hotel experience.


THE END

How Does One Pronounce DESA?

I mentioned in a pervious post on the main blog that I had seen Adam of DESA at slims. That more or less lead to an email interview. hah wow that's kinda funny.. I’m writing this post and Homicide at the Fountain of Youth just came on my media player. Anyway... I really like these guys as a band. Big thanks to Adam for doing this interview and for supplying the pictures. On with the interview? I'll give ya a hint... the Q stands for Question and the A stands for Answer... or Adam.... I guess either works...hm

Photo Credit
Ashley Nicole Wirth
ashleynicolephotography.com


Q: I’ve seen it done many ways, but what is the proper way to write desa? Do you guys prefer it in capitol letters, the E being a 3, or really don’t care either way?

A: We usually prefer to write it in all capital letters. We usually only throw the 3 in if we are signing something (like a news post), honestly thought, we don't really care. The only way we don't like to see it written is like this: D.E.S.A. We're more perplexed by the fact that so many people have such a hard time pronouncing our name. Usually we just let it slide. It's really just a title. If we could have called our band something that wasn't a word, we might have named it after the particular grey color that the sky achieves right before the sun comes over the horizon, and the way it makes you feel when you're driving a van full of sleeping dudes across state lines. I don't know the word for that though. I didn't go to college.

Q: How was DESA formed/how did you all meet?

Barry Kripenne used to travel door to door selling golf clubs. His van broke down in Modesto, where he happened to meet Ryan Noble during an illegal boxing match. They were running from the police, hitchhiking down highway 5 when Steven Heet picked them up on his way to a KISS concert. Aaron Nagel sold them some bad acid outside of the show, and then they all chased him to Oakland. TWenty-five years later, I called the number on a flyer that said "BAND seeks TALL NERD to STAY SOBER and DRIVE VAN. NO PAY!" That's how I met the band. Actually, we were all in Link 80 before this band. Except Steven, he's new. We like Steven a lot though, aside from the fact that he lives in Hawaii which makes practicing very hard.

Q: How did you choose your band's name?

A: Well, MEGADETH was already taken...When we stopped being Link 80, we needed a new name. Aaron had always liked the name DESA, which is our friend Desanka's shortened nickname. We thought about a bunch of other dumb names for a few months and then settled on DESA.

Q: Who writes the songs?

A: We have a team of trained monkeys. Depending on what we feed them, they write different songs. For instance, to get them to write "Delilah" we fed them Jalapeno poppers, glue sticks and frozen peas. We have them writing a new album right now. We're feeding them hydrochloric acid and flour. Actually, we all write the music. Ryan writes the words.

Q: What is your favorite part about performing live?

A: Personally, I really like sweating and then hugging dudes in other bands afterward. I give them the full-on both arm hug and really linger. I try to get as much of my sweat on them as possible. I also like watching Barry watch Steven watch Aaron watch Ryan watch nothing. I also like when the band lets me scream in the microphone. I get to pretend I'm in Converge for about twelve seconds.



Photo Credit
Ashley Nicole Wirth
ashleynicolephotography.com


Q: What's the last place you performed?

A: The last place we played was in Tuscon AZ. We opened a show with Monty Are I, State Radio and RX Bandits. It was really dark inside the club. I hit my shin super hard on something while walking to the stage and cut my leg open. I remember most of the lights being green and a couple standing right at the front of the stage that didn't look up at anyone in our band, Monty Are I or State Radio. I thought they were waiting for RXB, but then during their set I saw them by the merch table not watching the band. I dripped a lot of sweat on kids in the front row.

Q: What's your greatest memory with your band?

A: My favorite memory is pretty stupid. During this last tour, I was driving the van down one of the freeways in Florida that looks just like every other road in Florida. Wet ditches on both sides and tall sick-looking trees. Everyone was just doing their own thing. I remember looking at the wheel and the back of my hands. I felt like I had just woken up from a really long sleep, like the last few years of not touring was just a bad dull dream and I was out living. I think about that all the time at work.

Q: What's the last album you bought?

A: Xiu Xiu "Tu Mi Piaci". It's an EP of cover songs. My favorite is the cover of Pussycat Dolls "Don't Cha". Ryan and I used to live with Jaime from Xiu Xiu. Right before he moved out, he was holding band practices in his room and getting really drunk every night. He came home one night, turned all the furniture in the living room upside down (gently) and stabbed all the kitchen knives into the bottom of the kicthen table.

Q: What's the first album you ever bought?

A: The first piece of music I bought was the Guns N Roses CASSETTE SINGLE of "You Could Be Mine" from the Terminator 2 soundtrack. The B-side was "civil war". The first CD I ever bought with my own money was Fugazi "In On The Kill Taker". I used to steal all my older brother's music. That's how I got into The Cure, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Death, Nirvana, Metallica and underground early 90's techno (my guilty listening pleasure). My high-school friend Jay Solis got me into Fugazi, Operation Ivy, Minor Threat and local punk rock music.

Q: What's the last concert you attended?

A: I did security at the Paramore show at Slim's last Saturday. I was supposed to stand inside the barricade to catch crowd surfers, but the crowd was really tame. I just watched the show. They put on a rad show, I actually wound up having a blast watching them. The last show I paid to get into was at 330 Ritch st, where I went to see Film D'amour.

Q: How did you personally get involved with music?

A: My first band in high school was made up of a bunch of my friends making shitty noise inside of the keyboardist's parents garage. I could barely play the guitar. this dude I knew who ripped at guitar, Ian Crabb, explained how to play a power chord to me at a show and I was off. I had a Peavey predator guitar, a Peavey Rage practice amp (with the little hissy button on the amp for the distortion channel) and a Korg G5 effect pedal. For our only performance, we played "Fascination Street" by the Cure at the high school talent show. Our drummer and keyboardist were inelegable due to bad grades, so two nerds from the jazz band filled in.



Photo Credit
Ashley Nicole Wirth
ashleynicolephotography.com


Q: There seems to be something really substantial happening with the music scene in the Bay Area, maybe even more in the East Bay. Have you noticed it, and what are your thoughts on it?

A: The East Bay has always had it's own thing going on. Jawbreaker, Operation Ivy and Hiroglyphics all come to mind.

Q: On the bands MySpace, you say, “One of us is vegetarian, two of us are straightedge, three of us live in the same building in the ghetto, four of us live in the Bay Area, and five of us used to be in Link Eighty.” Now I know this included Joey Bustos who now isn’t in the band, but care to explain who is who?

A: Aaron is vegetarian, Aaron and I (Adam) are straightedge, Ryan is my roommate and Aaron lives downstairs in our warehouse, Joey lives in the bay area and Barry was also in Link 80 with us. I think I changed the numbers to reflect that Joey is no longer in the band, but myspace is weird and maybe it didn't save my changes. He joined WEEZER and he's on tour with COLDPLAY.

Q: Being in a band doesn’t always pay the bills. When you aren’t playing, what do you and the other guys of DESA do for money?

A: Barry does hard manual labor of some sort (construction or something) in the central valley, which causes him to track dirt into the practice space. Ryan works at Blick's Art Supply on College Ave. Steven is a cook somewhere out in Hawaii. Aaron does graphic design, fine art and website stuff. Occasionally he works for Kaiser. I work at a law firm in Downtown SF and I do security at Slims.

Q: How was touring with Rx Bandits this summer?

A: It was great. RXB are all the guys at we like to hang out with when we are at home, so we were just taking it out on the road. They hooked us up and we were very lucky to have our first tour be in front of so many people. We returned the favor when their van broke down. We had to shove all of them and most of their gear in our van for a few days to make it to the next couple of shows. haha!

Q: What can you say about the new album Arriving Alive?

A: You should go buy a copy! It took a long time to come out. "Delilah" was the second song we wrote after recording Year In A Red Room. The first song we wrote got thrown away. We did play it a few times live, it was called "Lady Luck". The cover was painted by Aaron. I did all the screaming parts in 15 minutes on my lunch break. We recorded it over a two year period in three different studios.

Q: What was the experience like putting together and recording the new album?

A: In the past we've always busted out recordings as quickly and cheaply as possible. With Arriving Alive, we worked on it in starts and longs starts, depending on the schedule of our producer, Michael Rosen. We'd record basic tracks for three songs in two or three days, then wait three months to overdub guitars and vocals. Some of these songs, I never even heard the vocals until the record was done! I'm just glad it's done and it's out. I hope people dig it, it definatly sounds better than our last record.

Q: Does DESA have any shows coming up that people should know about?

A: We are playing at Slim's with the Matches on September 15th. We're playing right before the Matches. Steven is flying out for the show. We are going to write some new music and hopefully get some of it recorded.

Friday, Sep 15, Slim's

L3: Loud, Live, and Local

Matches, Desa, My Former Self, The Actual

Doors 7pm, Show 7:30pm, all ages, $14

To learn more about DESA... go see them live.

Or you can always visit these sites:

http://www.myspace.com/desa

http://www.desadesadesa.com

Something New?

this is the new section of my main blog devoted to interviews with bands and other people having something to do with music..