Interview and Photos by Andrew P. Granese
Tell me about the name of the band - what inspired you guys to get together?
Hunter: I came up with it when I was, maybe 16. It was just something I wrote on my desk in class one day - my cousin got put away for life and it was all sort of just hearsay, then his wife turned him in. Anyways, I was just 16 and wrote it on my desk and thought it was sort of cool, and it stuck.
And when did you decide that this was it, this was the band name?
Hunter: A long time ago man, ever since I started playing music. I just knew, this was it. This was the name of the band.
What is your biggest inspiration purely in terms of music? Any favorite bands or artists that you couldn’t live without?
Hunter: Oh man, there’s a lot.
Tristan: Yeah, a lot, wow.
Hunter: I like a lot of bands in terms of their ethics and how they just do what they do. Against Me, The Replacements lately especially when we were in Europe.
Tristan: Oasis, Pixies, Weezer, Nirvana of course.
Brian: We thought we were a lot more into Stone Temple Pilots than we really are that’s for sure. We revisited and it just wasn’t that great
Tristan: The hits are great, they just have a ton of filler on that album
Jesse: Brings me back man, but I was just a kid.
You guys just finished up a run in Europe, right? How different is the scene over there?
Tristan: Honestly, so surprising. We didn’t really know what was going to happen, but we booked a bunch of cool shows and people just came out. What did we play, 24 shows?
It’s amazing to be somewhere else, and have people singing our songs. Even songs we hadn’t really put out yet, it was incredible.
One of the best parts about music has to be the travel, but I’m curious what you think about the possibility to meeting/interacting with/influencing people around the world. That’s a lot of responsibility, no?
Hunter: Yeah I mean, of course.
Tristan: That’s why I wanted to play music in the first place. You can just feel the energy in the room, that people have obviously spent some time with it and it means something to them
Hunter: It’s really powerful man.
Brian: I don’t feel like we’re trying to change the world or anything, but it really means a lot. It’s just so cool to be in another country and for someone to know your song.
Tristan: Whatever band it is, it’s just cool to see. To see someone and know that this is just their thing. You either respect it or your don’t, but it’s important to just do your thing especially with art.
Jesse: It just feels like we’re always trying to be better, progressing forward.
Do you ever find it hard to keep progressing?
Tristan: The only thing we really feel like we have to do no matter what is writing. Like if I’m not writing, I get the feeling that like, shoot I should be doing this.
If you weren’t playing music, what would you be doing instead?
Brian: I always just wanted to be a train conductor, that would be dope.
Tristan: I don’t know, maybe I’d surf or give surf lessons. For the record, I’ve never surfed.
Jesse: I’d definitely be buying or selling music gear, like a record shop or something.
Hunter: I used to be really good at skateboarding, so probably that. Not sure, it’s gotta be another life.
And together?
Brian: Maybe a food truck?
Hunter: OR a salsa company, that would be cool
Tristan: Or a restaurant, ya know like getting on each other. “Where’s the soup Brian?!”
Brian: Get off my ass man!