|| REAVEN ||
1) What made you want to become a musician?
“I think I always knew I wanted to become a musician. I realized quite quickly that living a “normal” life was not for me. I get bored quite easily, I need to feel the thrill, and music has always been a passion that made me feel alive. So it was quite natural for me to live this
life.”
2) How would you describe the music that you typically create?
“The music I create is influenced by a large panel of musical colors. From very Pop or Acoustic songs to very Rock ones, melted with Classical, Jazz and Rhythm’N’Blues sometimes. I am exploring everything and I take advantage as most as possible of all the different musical backgrounds I have. And the result brings very often a Pop-Rock song in a large meaning.”
3) Did your style evolved since the beginning of your carrer? Or did you always followed that stream?
“Oh yes we evolved ! I think it was a normal process to try different things along the way and let our style grow. One thing from the beginning didn’t change. We always put the melody first. We always did. A good song to us can be played only with one instrument
dressed with a powerful melody.”
4) Do you create music for yourself or for fans’ taste? Nowadays it is always hard to satisfy listeners.
“I create music for myself thinking of our audience at the end. You cannot satisfy everyone and if you create while trying to do that, you will produce something impersonal. I always try to compose a song that pleases me first, and then I try to see if we can reach a major audience or not. But never the other way round.”
5) Does your outfit have anything to do with the music you listen to or play?
“Yes, a bit, I think. I always liked to think that I have a Rock or Dandy Rock style, and I think that our music influences me (laughs) !”
6) What is the biggest problem you have encountered in the journey of music?
“Probably the fact that this industry is a very closed one. You have to be patient, especially if your music can be mainstream in your style. You’re sometimes tempted to give up, and this is precisely during these moments that you need to stay strong and fight!”
7) Who’s your ideal artist to collaborate with and why?
“Paul McCartney. I am a huge Beatles fan and this man is still an inspiration to me all the time when I compose.”
8) If you were a CD/album, what would you be and why?
“The double White album from The Beatles. It was a game changer for me. So powerful.”
9) What artist would you recommend to a person who is undecided about what listening to?
“I am listening to a lot of Rhythm’N’Blues lately so I would say, go discover old songs from
Otis Redding, Percy Sledge… You will love it !”
|| GINGER MAY ||
1) What made you want to become a musician?
Tanya: For as long as I can remember, I have always been fond of poetry and music. Even as a child, I loved to create new melodies and small poems. Later, when I mastered the guitar, I began to pick up these melodies from my head. It’s not that I’m purposefully writing anything, it’s just that these new songs keep popping up in my head. And I just can’t control it. At some point, becoming a musician seemed to me essential.
2) How would you describe the music that you typically create?
We love to experiment and mix different genres. Described as an electronic-industrial act, the band has incorporated funk, alternative rock, and hip-hop into the sound. The dark, melodic vocals of Tanya and the heavy, bouncing riffs of guitarist Satoshi, Ginger May is a unique mixture of both the dark and light; a mix of genres made just right.
3) Did your style evolved since the beginning of your carrer? Or did you always followed that stream?
Certainly! At the beginning, we sounded like industrial rock. And now we have more alternative pop rock sound. Life does not stand still, everything changes. And the music too. And we are changing along with it. Changes are always for the better.
4) Do you create music for yourself or for fans’ taste? Nowadays it is always hard to satisfy listeners.
The process of writing songs in our case is an uncontrolled process. We write about what touches our hearts. And the melodies just come to the mind. L’art pour l’art.
5) Does your outfit have anything to do with the music you listen to or play?
Yes, indeed, the visual image is an integral part of our project. We can’t say that we are entirely a visual band. But at least we care about the outfit and the design.
6) What is the biggest problem you have encontoured in the journey of music?
This is a difficult question. Perhaps, it’s the need to spend a lot of time promoting your music. The more we think about it, the further we move away from the music. And the creative process becomes not so easy. We want to be more focused on the creative process.
7) Who’s your ideal artist to collaborate with and why?
There are no specific musicians in mind right now. But we will be glad to any collaborations. In fact, we quite often collaborate with different artists. On the first album and EP we worked with other musicians. We also did collaborations with dancers and drag artists. And we have a lot of ideas for the next album.
8) If you were a CD/album, what would you be and why?
Blondie “Atomic”. No reason. Just feel that way right now.
9) What artist would you recommend to a person who is undecided about what listening to?
It’s hard if you don’t know the tastes of this person. We would advise not to dwell on any particular genre. No need to limit yourself. In addition, we would recommend listening to classical music.
|| OTHERWORLDLY ENTITY||
1) What made you want to become a musician?
I guess I always wanted to be a musician. I started learning piano as a kid, but then moved to guitar when I was 10. There’s just something amazing about music. How universal it is, how visual it is without being physical. There’s something about it that’s just so pure. I’ve been a fashion and jewelry designer for years, but music has no real physical limitations. It is what you make it, with no restrictions from reality.
2) How would you describe the music that you typically create?
Dark. I like to delve into the darkness within each and every one of us. Feeling existential doom and cynicism, there’s something about it that’s just so freeing. To be able to explore that darkness, it brings light to life. Whether it’s heavy or soft, that darkness can bring so much peace.
3) Did your style evolve since the beginning of your career? Or did you always follow that stream?
It has definitely evolved over time. Switching up my style has always been a goal, just to experience different aspects of humanity. I think that’s what ultimately drew me to numetal. It’s a metal style that can incorporate so many other styles.
4) Do you create music for yourself or for fans’ taste? Nowadays it is always hard to satisfy listeners.
This may sound cliche, but I find that I’m my toughest critic. So I want to write things that I enjoy. I’m an extremely average person. Not that smart, skilled, good looking, nothing extraordinary. So if I enjoy it, I know others will as well.
5) Does your outfit have anything to do with the music you listen to or play?
Everything that I do has to do with what I listen to and play. Music is such a core part of my life.
6) What is the biggest problem you have encountered in the journey of music?
There are so many toxic people in the industry. There are so many people that seem to believe that in order to succeed, they must climb over a mountain of corpses that they created. It seems like there are a lot of people involved in music that are fueled by ego and destructive intentions, and it’s incredibly damaging to the culture in its entirety.
7) Who’s your ideal artist to collaborate with and why?
I would love to work with Justin Furstenfeld from Blue October. His writing is so genuine and real at such an emotional level.
8) If you were a CD/album, what would you be and why?
Cirque du Soleil’s live album of Mystere. It’s such an amazing album with a wide range of emotion and performance. The stage show is even better.
9) What artist would you recommend to a person who is undecided about what to listen to?
It depends on genre, I guess. I would recommend a band like Infected Rain or September Mourning to anyone. We’ve played with both bands, and they blew my mind.
|| EXPORTER ||
1) What made you want to become a musician?
Alec Cavazos: I think ever since we were kids, Destin and I have wanted to be musicians, or dreamed of being one. Early on we always played Rock Band on the Wii and we pretended to be little rock stars. I think a lot of kids did that. After doing that for a bit, we got real instruments for Christmas one year and started to learn those. Destin got a bass and I got a guitar. We started with lessons which Destin picked up on pretty quick. I think it was a couple of months and then he’s playing in these different bands. I struggled a bit with guitar but once it clicked I don’t think I have stopped playing. They had this rock camp over Summer where we were taking lessons so I did that along with our friend Jessica who played drums. After that we were like, we should start a band cause we had guitar bass and drums. It just always seemed natural for us to be playing, then we started writing, then playing really shows.
Destin Cavazos: For me I’ve always just liked being on stage. I did a lot of plays as a kid and just really felt comfortable up there. Then when we started playing instruments and doing these showcase type shows I just saw it as another chance to be on stage. Just being up there and clicking with an audience is a pretty awesome feeling.
2) How would you describe the music that you typically create?
DC: I think exPorter is straight up pop-punk with a little bit of emo and alt-rock mixed in. Particularly 90’s pop-punk, I think that’s the strongest influence on us with bands Like Blink or early Green Day being the go to bands that Alec and I would listen to. We grew up in SoCal and there are a couple of great alt rock stations like KROQ or KJEE and it think if you listen to just about any exPorter track you would agree that all of that describes our vibe pretty well.
3) Did your style evolve since the beginning of your career? Or did you always follow that stream?
AC: I think our music style has definitely grown since we started writing music. I mean, I think exPorter is still a pop-punk band but it’s just a natural thing to explore new sounds and themes. We joke a lot that our songs are all about girls and breakups and unrequited love, which they are, but you start to expand on those themes, then you start to add different ones. It just seems like we’d get bored writing the same song a 100 times. I also think that as you grow as a musician your style will change as well. I remember our first songs that we were recording I was totally focused on it just being one guitar, one bass and then drums, that’s who we are as a band so that’s what it should be. But you start to get ok with adding layers or different ideas. I think as long as you’re just working to try and make each song its best, that’s what is important.
DC: When Alec and I first started writing songs I think they were a bit more true to the bands that influenced us like Blink…and that’s what we wrote towards. But as Alec and I started writing more and more songs and when Henry came on with drums and his influences, it just sort of changed the way we went about it.
If you listen to some earlier stuff you can definitely hear the pop punk ideas and riffs and stuff but then listen to our debut album “NoBrakes”, you’re going to get the pop-punk songs but then you’re going to hear how we would add on layers or different sounds in there too. For a song like “Sister Cities” I think it started out as more edgy pop-punk thing but once we were recording and listening to the mixes we would hear a different thing like making the intro guitar hook sound a bit more “Cure” like. With all of the influences we have and all the great music there is out there, I just think it’s always just going to make its way into our songs one way or another and they will continue to evolve. I mean I don’t think we would ever go straight up country or anything, but our pop punk vibe will just naturally grow.
4) Do you create music for yourself or for fans’ taste? Nowadays it is always hard to satisfy listeners.
DC: I think both Alec and I just try to write songs that we like. Both in style and lyrics, or in what we’d like to hear, and definitely what we’d like to play. Alec did an interview once talking about how if you’re writing songs that you hate or don’t like to play then what’s the point and I totally agree with that. If you want to be a manufactured band just churning out tunes for money or to fit into a certain genre, whatever, you do you, but I just don’t see us doing that. Plus I think it’s a trap to ever try and write a song for any particular person cause how are you going to know what they want to listen to? It’s always subjective to the listener anyway and I think you’d just end up missing the mark most of the time. Even if we’re writing a song for a particular person in our mind whether it’s a ballad or a why’d you dump me song, it’s always from our perspective as the writer.
5) Does your outfit have anything to do with the music you listen to or play?
DC: Ha, we’re still trying to figure out our look, especially when we’re playing live. Sometimes we’re pretty close but I think Henry or I sometimes will miss. Alec is probably the best at dressing to who we are as a band but even might mess up every now and then. I know for me I have a lot of t-shirts of bands I love that fit our vibe and I will sometimes try to mimic the style of our genre but who has the time to figure out what. You’re going wo wear all the time. Alec for sure does it the best out of the 3 of us.
AC: I just like the style so that’s what I go with most of the time.
6) What is the biggest problem you have encountered in the journey of music?
AC: I think the biggest problem is getting your music out there for folks to listen to. I mean streaming is easier than ever and it’s great for a band to be able to upload our songs but just think of how many other bands are doing that. There’s just this crazy amount of songs out there. And if you think about how payment from streams or views on YouTube relates to the artist it kinda sucks. I think we have been fortunate to make even some money but I’m sure someone is making money off our songs but it’s not all going to exPorter.
The advice we have been given from people is that you just have to get out and play. Get out there and play and then play some more which we love doing but in this Covid world that’s not all that easy to do either. Lockdowns then capacity limits then another strain…it’s been tough to book shows sometimes but we will keep working to get out there. We just did some really good shows this Summer and the crowds were getting bigger so hopefully that’s a sign of what’s to come.
7) Who’s your ideal artist to collaborate with and why?
AC: My answer is always Tom DeLonge. I would love to do an album with Tom DeLonge….he’s the reason I started playing guitar. And not like just singing on his or our songs, but maybe he’d be into producing or something. I always thought the Boxcar album was cool cause you could tell it was his vibe but you could also tell he was trying to get away from the Blink identity. I think it would be cool to have a band like ours that’s just starting out get that approach to making songs.
DC: This has come up in other interviews and it’s always tough to answer. When you think about all of the bands that have influenced us, how do you start to pick just one to collaborate with?
But, if I had to pick any SINGLE band/person to collaborate with, I think my answer today would still be Danny Elfman/Oingo Boingo. I’ve said it before that I would sell my soul to be on a lineup with Oingo Boingo so how cool would it be to work with that guy on one of our projects.
8) If you were a CD/album, what would you be and why?
AC: I would say the Blink182 untitled album mainly because it’s my favorite but also it has a wide range of songs that capture multiple emotions and feelings. I love that album and who doesn’t want to be loved?
DC: I would be Fantasies by Metric because it’s got a lot of soul and energy to it, but it’s also kind of spooky and mysterious. It feels like the kind of deep conversations you’d have outside of a really big party.
9) What artist would you recommend to a person who is undecided about what listening to?
DC: Outside of exPorter, right? Cause it would be really cool if everyone was listening to exPorter….Maybe start with “Carsick” then the “NoBrakes” album, then maybe “Bored”.
Outside of exPorter, I would recommend Charly Bliss, from Brooklyn NY! They’re a really incredible group and you can tell how passionate they are about rocking out. They just love playing music, and that shows in their live performances, as well as the diversity of their catalog. They really try to bring together all the music they love to make something unique and awesome.
AC: I would recommend Field Medic because at the moment he is the artist I am listening to the most. It’s also a very calming music that I think everyone needs once in a while!
|| RED MAKER ||
1) What made you want to become a musician?
Mainly woman, money and notoriety. But I think we’ve kept doing it because it’s just fun as hell to do.
2) How would you describe the music that you typically create?
It’s a real stew of other genres. Overall I’d say we are mainly indie rock. But like I said it’s a lot of other genres mixed into it all. We’ve got songs that are more punk, parts that are country, all sorts of weird shit.
3) Did your style evolved since the beginning of your carrer? Or did you always followed that stream?
I think it’s constantly evolved since we started. We’re always trying new things and everyone in the band writes songs so it is always changing. It’s especially evolved since we’ve added Kyle to the mix. Now we’re a fucking shred band thanks to his talent.
4) Do you create music for yourself or for fans’ taste? Nowadays it is always hard to satisfy listeners.
We always try to make the music to where we vibe with it and we’re happy with how it sounds. I think it’s fine to listen to suggestions from fans especially since they’re our biggest supporters and we’re not always right about everything. It’s mainly and firstly making music for us.
5) Does your outfit have anything to do with the music you listen to or play?
The flowers are a big piece of our presentation. So much of our music is about life and all of its beauty and troubles, and all the mistakes you make on the way. Flowers I’ve noticed are usually in those big memorable moments in a persons life. You get flowers when you’re in love with someone, you get a lot of flowers when you love someone so much that you promise to stay together forever. You get flowers when you’re down bad in the hospital and there’s always bouquets at funerals, the celebration of a life lived. So it’s become a major symbol in our music.
6) What is the biggest problem you have encontoured in the journey of music?
Just getting people to pay attention would be nice, or even to answer back once in awhile would be cool too.
7) Who’s your ideal artist to collaborate with and why?
I don’t know if I have anyone I’d pick. Too afraid to meet artists I respect and look up to. What if they’re jerks or not how they portray themselves?
8) If you were a CD/album, what would you be and why?
Vulgar Display of Power, because we kick ass just like that album.
9) What artist would you recommend to a person who is undecided about what listening to?
Well us obviously! Checkout our stuff and see if you dig it!
|| ROZU ||
Answers from Tim Graham (Vocalist)
1) What made you want to become a musician?
It all kind of started when I first saw Underoath/ Spencer Chamberlin live. I was a big sports guy then I went to a show in high school and saw/felt the energy Spencer portrayed while on stage and wanted to be that guy. From there it was a lot of trial-and-error learning to scream and as they say it was all downhill from there (laughs).
2) How would you describe the music that you typically create?
Typically, I create metalcore to post hardcore music. A lot of screaming vocals mixed with a smdige of singing from time to time.
3) Did your style evolved since the beginning of your carrer? Or did you always followed that stream?
Yes and no, I really am trying to get better with singing so I can do more projects that doesn’t involve me screaming for hours on end. This project actually was started with a very post hardcore vision having more singing then screaming and it took our producer sitting me down and telling me to 100% play to my strengths which helped us find this heavy style of music.
4) Do you create music for yourself or for fans’ taste? Nowadays it is always hard to satisfy listeners.
At the end of the day, we don’t release anything for anyone else other than ourselves, if the song isn’t loved by all of us we simply don’t use it. You’re never going to satisfy everyone in this life so always write music you want to write and keep that authenticity.
5) Does your outfit have anything to do with the music you listen to or play?
I mean kind of but not really, my style has stayed very similar to what it was when I started finding myself in high school with minor tweaks here and there. I was already a huge fan of basic colors living so you’ll always find me wearing black, white, or grey clothing.
6) What is the biggest problem you have encountered in the journey of music?
I wouldn’t even say it was a problem but just all the mistakes you make along the way are just a part of the learning and growing in the journey. The hardest thing was just finding the right dudes to be in a band with. I wish I would have said no to a few projects with the wrong people.
7) Who’s your ideal artist to collaborate with and why?
Admittedly we’ve had some pretty incredible collaborations with this project already however, Spencer Chamberlin and Aaron Gillespe from Underoath would absolutely be the meta collab simply because they are the reasons I got into this in the first place.
8) If you were a CD/album, what would you be and why?
Wow, this is a hard one. Kind of comically I would say “What To Do When You’re Dead” by Armor For Sleep because my whole life is just a rollercoaster of emotions, mostly being sad with my anxiety and depressive years (laughs).
9) What artist would you recommend to a person who is undecided about what listening to?
9. Right now, I would say listen to the homies in Not A Toy, Dead Lakes, or Thousand Below. Between those 3 bands you’ll get a little taste of everything in this alternative niche world of music and simply stated they all haul ass.
[In collaboration with ROGUE PR]
ROKKERSPRESS 