When I was a kid, growing up in a house with Cat Stevens,
Neil Diamond, and Simon and Garfunkel, the first time I ever heard Kiss's
"Detroit Rock City,"
it was a moment of musical epiphany. It was just so vicious, aggressive and
mean. It changed the way I listened to music. I've had a few minor epiphanies
since then - when you come across a band that just brings something new and
revolutionary to your ears.
What have been your musical epiphany moments?
It's funny you mentioned Kiss. I grew up listening to The
Beatles, Elton John and Classical music because of my Mom. My Dad was more into
80’s pop. I wasn’t necessarily super interested when I was a little kid - I
just listened to whatever my parents were listening to. My first musical
epiphany happened when I was about 9 years old. Going through my grandpa’s
vinyls I found Kiss Alive II. The album cover caught my attention immediately.
I can’t remember what song I played first, but I remember being blown away by
the song “Watching You”. I thought the
intro riff was the heaviest and meanest riff I’d ever heard. Another important
moment was listening to Nirvana for the first time, and unlike most people at
that time, it was the song “Scentless Apprentice”, not “Smells Like Teen
Spirit” that introduced me to them. That takes me to the next epiphany: I was
visiting my uncle who was a little younger than my parents so my cousins and I
kind of looked up to him. He was the cool, bad- ass uncle. At some point that
day, he asked me what music I was into - so I told him I liked Nirvana, Kiss,
Guns & Roses, etc. He looked at me with great disappointment, which was
weird to me because I thought I was a bad-ass for being a rocker, and he said,
“You think you are tough because you listen to those bands?”. Then he called me
a fag, and said I needed to start listening to metal and lifting weights. So,
to counterbalance the insulting portion of our interaction, he gave me three
cassette tapes that would change me forever: Testament The New Order, WASP The
Last Command, Slayer Seasons In The Abyss and Iron Maiden Piece Of Mind. I wore
those tapes out man. I felt like I knew something no one else knew; and the
music made me feel very empowered.
Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What
comes first - the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?
Never the lyrics; and that’s because the lyrics are inspired
by the vibe I get from the music. My writing process goes like this: I smoke a
bowl and record a bunch of riff ideas on my phone. I do that for a few days and
end up with maybe 10 or 15 song ideas. Then a week later I review the ideas and
get rid of the crappy ones. It’s important not to be enamored with the smell of
your own farts. Meaning - not every single idea you have is going to be good. I
usually end up with maybe four ideas I think are worth developing, and I work
on those. I record the riffs to a metronome, and then it’s time for another
bowl so I can try ideas for vocal melodies and determine which vowel sounds I
want. This is crucial - determining the vowel sound for the end of each line
and how you structure the rhymes. Based on that, and the vibe I get from the
music, I write the lyrics. So, my lyrics are forged by vowel sounds and the
vibe I get from the music. I think this
is the best way to write a song - where the lyrics blend with the music. Other
writing methods haven’t been as effective for me.
Who has influenced you the most?
My dickhead uncle who gave me all those awesome cassette
tapes. Other than him, I would say Jimi Hendrix. He was the first guy that made
me understand how to play from your soul instead of your brain. His Live at Monterrey album was very
important for me. When you compare the studio version of “Hey Joe” to the Monterrey version, you
can hear the difference between a guy tracking guitars at a studio and a guy
connecting with the universe through his guitar. I still get chills listening
to that album.
Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new
motivation?
Nowhere - I don’t look for it. If you are looking for
inspiration, it’s because you are not inspired. To quote one of the greatest
bands in the world, the almighty Tenacious D, “You can’t force inspirado”. If
you do, you end up with an uninspired and contrived piece of music. You have to
know when to stop trying. If I’m not inspired, I don’t even pick up the
guitar. I can do other things like go to
the beach, watch a movie, go to the gym, skate or whatever. After not playing
for a few days, the desire to play guitar makes it easy to be creative, because
I feel more enthusiastic about playing. It’s all about balance.
We're all a product of our environment. Tell us about the
band's hometown and how that reflects in the music?
When I turned 13, we moved to a beach town and most of my
peers in high school were the unbearable hippie types - obsessed with ska and
reggae music. This was after my uncle gave me those awesome tapes. I absolutely
hated reggae and ska, so I hung out with the kids who listened to metal and
punk rock. That’s around the time I got into The Ramones, who I still love to
this day. By the time I was 15, I had my own band and we were playing shows
with other metal bands, so I got into that scene. They were mostly NWOBHM bands
and some Pantera wannabes. We were all very young and were trying to emulate
bands we liked. My band was very Iron Maiden-influenced, and I was trying to
play like Yngwie Malmsteen. This was also around the time I met German – who
played drums in Void Vator until earlier this year. He was into prog bands like
Dream Theater, Symphony X and stuff like that. His band was super proggy and
extremely tight. I thought he was the greatest drummer ever, so we became
friends and he passed me some prog albums. A few years later, I joined his band
and we played very complex prog music. That band was called Tempo - you can
look it up on YouTube. There’s a video
of us playing “Instrumedley” by Dream Theater. It’s like a 10-minute prog
jerk-off session. We were obsessed with practicing and rehearsing at that time.
There was nothing better to do. We used to rehearse five times a week.
Where'd the band name come from?
It’s supper silly. People always want a grandiose
explanation; but in our case, it’s kind of funny. My wife and I were living in
a 5th floor efficiency apartment in an old building in Korea Town,
and it had this shitty elevator that would frequently be out of order. So yeah,
the name Void Vator pays homage to that ancient, sometimes scary, super
unreliable, accordion-gate elevator. I figured it doesn’t have the word black,
red, or any color for that matter, steel, dark, last - and it also didn’t sound
like an unfinished sentence like While She Awaits…which was a common trend for
bands six years ago. I thought Void Vator had a good ring to it; and it sounded
cool. It’s also unique and it was available online.
You have one chance: what movie are you going to write the
soundtrack for?
A bad 80’s throwback movie with winners, losers, a clueless
cheerleader, an outcast, a bad boy with a mullet and leather jacket, adults who
never believe their children and some sort of supernatural villain. That way I
can write an epic 80’s metal song with the most ridiculous and cheesy snare
sound. I’ve been on an 80’s movie kick lately, so If you ask me the same
question again in a month, I might have a different answer. If we were talking
about more serious movies, Nosferatu (the Warren Herzog version) is one of my
favorite movies of all time so I would love to write a super dark-sounding
score for a movie like that. I really like John Carpenter’s movies; but he is a
master at creating awesome soundtracks, so I wouldn’t even want to mess with
that. His scores are pure perfection.
You now write for a music publication (The Ripple
Effect?). You're going to write a
1,000-word essay on one song. Which would it be and why?
I don’t know man, I’m not a critic. I think music is
self-explanatory; and when it’s not, it leaves room for interpretation, which I
think is great for the listener because it lets them pour a little bit of their
own creativity into the song - especially when the lyrics are a bit more
cryptic. To answer the question, though,
I think Led Zeppelin has a lot of great songs with a lot of nuance and depth.
Songs like “Ramble On”, “The Rain Song” and “No Quarter” are beautiful. Being
that I’m a musician, I would probably dissect it and explain it from a
musician’s standpoint, so almost no civilian would understand it. I’m not going
to be using terms like “razor-sharp tone”, “rumbling bass lines”, or other such
verbiage. I’d be talking about time signatures, key changes, chord
progressions, etc. I’d probably put
everyone to sleep and get fired after one article. I guess I’m a nerd.
Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap,
rock-and-roll moments?
When I first came to Los
Angeles, I had two ridiculous experiences with the
band I was in at the time. The first one was maybe our second show. We were
playing covers at this shitty bar in Altadena
and everything was fine until we played “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder. The
owner lost his shit and started yelling “You don’t play that shit in my bar!”,
and he proceeded to unplug the power, while telling us to get the fuck out. It
sucked because we were playing great and people were having a good time. We later
found out the guy was some sort of crazy racist, so I guess that explains it.
The second one was at a place called Molly Malone’s on Fairfax Blvd. We had no idea how things
worked in L.A. as
far as booking shows was concerned, so we got to the gig and loaded our gear
in; but when it was time for us to play, the owner told us that we couldn’t
because there wasn’t one person at the venue. We had ZERO attendance, so we
packed our gear and left– in retrospect, it was kind of hilarious! I think the
funniest Void Vator Spinal Tap moment was the time we played a show in Ohio at a place called
The Tree Bar. It was winter, so it was freezing and as such, the show was
poorly attended – we were playing for about five people. The venue had been
hosting a comedy show before our set, so Erik had the fantastic idea to invite
all the comedians to watch our show and roast us for one minute in between
songs; and they happily obliged. It was hilarious, and the gig ended up being
super fun. I think my favorite roast was when one of the comedians said, “You
guys look like Metallica if Napster had won.”.
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