CaliAlive.com

CALIALIVE: Any support from a record label or are you guys going to put this out on your own and see what happens?

Well our guitar player Jeff Irwin is starting up a small label called Distruktor which for now is just us, and soon some unreleased Willhaven stuff as well as a few of his favorite bands. We pretty much run everything ourselves, and myspace has been huge in helping that to happen. It's like a combination of byofl.org, pure volume, and massive amounts of people. We meet so many bands on here and it's just so easy to book shows all over the place, I havent really seen the need for a label. I don't think a lot of people realize the potential for a site like myspace because its a relatively new thing, but for example, you probably wouldn't even know who we were if it wasn't for it. Actually, I don't know how anyone outside of Chico and Sacramento would know who we were if it wasn't for myspace, and it's always a weird feeling to see someone from France or the UK adding us as friends. I guess if a label came along that I felt could bring something that I couldn't do myself I would be interested, but I'm not really looking to be huge and I hate putting my signature on anything I don't have to so I suppose whatever happens will happen.

CALIALIVE: Myspace truly is a revolution in how unsigned bands can promote themselves and get their music out there. Did you hear that Tom recently sold the company to Fox for 580 Million Dollars? What do you think about that?

I think Rupert Murdoch is one smart son of a bitch. I've read on message boards that people worry he's going to come in and start making it the Fox news of networking sites, but he's smarter than that. That's how he got to be where he is today. That and he probably has a squad of assassins who carry out his bidding. If the illumanati are real, I guarantee he's one of them.

CALIALIVE: Do you guys have any tour plans, or are your schedules too busy to even think about that?

We're gonna do about 2 weeks of shows in late October, starting in Vegas and moving through California and the Northwest. We have the dates posted on our myspace page if anyones looking for details. My schedule is never too busy for touring, I'd drop everything I'm doing and leave today, but all the other dudes in the band have girlfriends and car payments and shit like that so it's somewhat harder to motivate them. I've played 5 or 6 shows by myself with a drum machine, but it never sounds as good.

CALIALIVE: As far as song writing goes, how do you guys actually go about putting your music together?

There are always riffs floating through my head, often at work. If I think it's a good one, I hum it into the recorder on my cell phone and I figure it out on guitar when I get home. After I get a few good ones, I give em some structure and I bring them to practice where we mess around with them til they sound right.

CALIALIVE: What are some of the bands that you guys listen to that might be influences to the way your music sounds. Not many bands from California play your style of hardcore.

Yea I guess its sort of a mixture of the tonalities and riffage of doom/stoner bands like YOB, Sunn O)), and the Melvins and the straight ahead metalish hardcore of bands like Willhaven and Today is the Day. I don't know how it ended up that way. I love the darkness in doom, but I have a hard time playing one song for much longer than 2 or 3 minutes because I get bored and I start daydreaming. I think I probably have ADD, but I don't believe in ADD so I won't worry about it.

CALIALIVE: Haha, well if you decide that maybe you do have ADD, I’ve heard that something called Focus Factor works wonders.

You guys being from Northern California and myself Southern California, I don’t know how the scene up there is and how the reaction is to your band. Do you get a lot of love from norcal? Are members of Iron Sloth also members of others bands?

Well it seems like people always really like us or they really hate us and think we are the worst band that ever existed and can't understand why we go on living. I guess that's a good thing because it means we're not lackluster and people at least feel the need to lean one way or the other. Hometown shows are always weird because people know you and they judge you as a local band which means they come into the show thinking they will probably like you (or hate you if you fucked their girlfriend). Every town has a band that has a huge local following and as soon as they leave the confines of their city they realize that they're not as great as they thought. So people treat us pretty well here, large show turnouts are rare, but that's ok because I don't want to gauge what I'm doing right or wrong based on what my friends think.

CALIALIVE: Are you guys going to have any merchandise available at the Koos show. Last time I saw you guys I was hoping to score a shirt or demo, but no luck.

Yes!
We actually have a bunch of new shirts in S-XXL, I'm gonna try to get some in Youth Large because a few girls and emo boys have asked for them and I hate to leave them out. Skinny people can like metal too. We'll have stickers with us on october 1st, but we won't get our cd's back until late October when I think we'll be playing down there somewhere again.

CALIALIVE: Off the topic a little, what is going on with Will Haven. I heard a while back ago that their actually writing new material. Is this really happening?

As far as I know thats the case. I actually don't think I've ever asked Jeff about it because I don't want to sound like the willhaven groupie that I am. I know that they've talked about a US tour and dates in Europe, but i don't know much beyond that.

CALIALIVE: Alright man. Thanks for the interview.

Anytime,
Thanks!
Justin