Interviews

A Static Lullaby

By Sarah Laidlaw

Coming out of their 2001 start in Chino, CA, like a bull from a bullpen, A Static Lullaby performed their first show two weeks after forming, released their first full-length in 2003 with Ferret Records, and toured for 18 straight months upon that release. A Static Lullaby has bucked its way not only into the hearts and ears of hardcore/screamo fans everywhere but also into the majors with their recent signing to Columbia Records. The band now looks towards their upcoming release with Columbia, FASO LATIDO, and towards more touring, including their current trek on the Taste of Chaos Tour.

I spoke with Joe Brown (vocals) as he sat at Hooters with a coke in hand after a long drive from California to Florida to start the Taste of Chaos Tour.

SKRATCH: How did A Static Lullaby come together in the first place?
JOE: Brett, Dan, and I were in a hardcore band, and Phil was in another band. I was always able to book shows locally, but Phil was somehow able to book shows outside of California. So, I had a meeting with him about booking shows. We were all sitting down, and we just decided we were going to drop all our respective bands at the time and create a band all together to get what we wanted to accomplish out of music (which we didn't feel we were getting out of our bands at the time).

SKRATCH: Your first show was only two weeks after you formed. How did that happen?
JOE: Phil just threw us on the bill for this Drive-Thru Records showcase. It was kind of good for us, because everything started going really fast from when the band started. From the first couple of practices, we already had songs, and we felt they were good; and the show just turned out quite well.

SKRATCH: Have you seen that fast pace carry through now?
JOE: It's never slowed down, but after we released our record on Ferret-which were the first songs we had ever written-and we toured non-stop after that, so we never really had the chance to start writing anything else. Some people write on the road, but we never really had the time. With the new record, we had to take a few months off to get back in the groove of writing. Once we got back into it, it all started going real quick. The first two weeks were a little weird, but it all started coming together after that like it was in the beginning.

SKRATCH: How do you guys write a song?
JOE: [...] One of us will have a riff or a complete song and bring it to practice, and we'll jam it out. I usually go back and listen to the song and get an idea for what I want to write about or ask the guys what they want to do, and then we go and work on the melody. It's kind of like a three-part project. That's the way we've been doing it forever, and it just kind of works-and pretty damn well.

SKRATCH: Where do you get your inspiration for the lyrics?
JOE: It just depends. I like to challenge myself lyrically sometimes, so I don't always sing about the same thing. The first record was all inspired by one of my old relationships and my perspective through the whole thing. For this second record, I didn't want to write about chicks. I thought there was more to say. Being in a band, you have an opportunity to say a lot more than just "I miss this girl" or "I'm sad and feel sorry for me." I wanted to challenge myself a little bit and go outside of that. So, I wrote songs about our lifestyle. I usually try to focus on "we" and not "I," because we have three singers. I wrote about some real-life situations and the way I feel about things going on in today's world. It's hard for me to explain my lyrics because they are kind of personal to me. I can throw them down on paper and in a song, but explaining them to somebody makes me feel like I'm cheating them. I want people to read and hear them and make what they want out of them.

SKRATCH: Is there an overall message that A Static Lullaby is trying to convey?
JOE: We hope kids walk away [from hearing us] knowing they have seen something that was not contrived, something that was real to us and meant something to us. I hope the crowd sees that when we play or when they hear our record. It's from the bottom or our hearts, and it's real and has substance.

SKRATCH: Do you have an idol or somebody that you look up to in music or otherwise?
JOE: I guess it's weird for me to say, but I'm interested in Kurt Cobain more than [I am in] anybody. Not that I idolize him, but I'm intrigued by him. He was a special person and a special soul. I love the way he writes lyrics. All of his lyrics are contradictions. I felt kind of dirty recently because I went out and bought books on him, and I ended up buying his journal and reading that. It made me think, "I can't go into this guy's life and read his personal stuff. That's not fair for somebody to sell that to the world." Reading it made me feel that I had gone into his head a little more than I wanted to.

SKRATCH: What was the most exciting place that you've toured through?
JOE: I really like going to Seattle, and I like New York just because we have so many friends there. I actually really like Florida just because I like going to the theme parks. I like to spend my money on rides. Chicago is always fun. I had some fun in Canada. We're waiting to go overseas.

SKRATCH: When do you see yourselves heading overseas?
JOE: We've had the opportunity to go a couple of times, but it kind of dissolved. We want to go sooner than later. We want to go next week, but it just [depends on] we get the right tour.

SKRATCH: Did you ever expect to be where you are right now as a band?
JOE: The funny thing about that is that when you first start a band, you are always thinking you want this. Things started happening pretty quickly for us and we started achieving those goals, and it is definitely surprising. I never wanted to be anybody's idol or hero or anything: I just wanted to be on the same level as them. But once you play music and you're up in front of people, they look at you differently, for some stupid reason. It's like I want to get into people's heads and let them know there's a little bit more than music. There's something real under there. Not every band on the radio is lifeless or contrived. Music can be real and have heart in it. If we get that across, I'll feel wealthy, and I'll know I've done enough in music. And I'm pretty close to that. Every time a kid comes up to me and says I helped them through this problem or he loses himself for 30 minutes or an hour when we're playing...That means the world to me, because I know that for that time he's not worried about what happened at school or what happened at home. I think that's special [...].

SKRATCH: How do you personally compare A Static Lullaby's two albums?
JOE: All I know is that when we wrote AND DON'T FORGET TO BREATHE, we were a couple years younger and had different things going on in our lives. Not that we've changed for any reason-we're still A Static Lullaby-but the songs came out a little different. They are more mature, and I'm super happy with it. I can't wait for people to hear it so that I can get some responses from it.

FASO LATIDO hits stores April 5. Check for tour dates and more at www.astaticlullaby.com.

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