- Underride
Written by: Gerard Ucelli
BRM: Your ReverbNation tour with Rains and 3 PILL MORNING just started yesterday. How was the first night of tour? What are some places you’re really looking forward to playing?
Rev: Last night was awesome man. We played in Dallas and 3 PILL MORNING wasn’t on so we haven’t heard stuff from them, but we did hear Rains. They were awesome. It was the first time we got to meet them and it was the first night of the tour. It was also the first time we unleashed a new product called the downloadable album t-shirt by our own drummer, The Walrus. We sold one to every single person in that club last night. We’re excited to give out t-shirts that have an album embedded as well. It saves you a lot of money. You don’t have to print CD’s and you’re only allowed to download it once so there’s no piracy. It gives bands like Underride a fighting chance on the road to survive.
BRM: Tell us about the writing process for Distorted Nation. What did you think was the hardest song for you to write?
Rev: The writing process is different everyday but there are certain things that are similar from song to song. Usually El Barto and Princess will write riffs and even have some ideas for lyrics. We’ll all get together and come up with an arrangement together. The songwriting process turns into certain levels of commitment. We essentially commit to a basic song structure. From there, I’ll take it home and do it in the studio myself. I’ll start writing lyrics to what I think the song should be about. I’ll take what I have back to the band. We’ll see how it works with the band and then we’ll put different guitar structures and keep on revising it until it’s done. One of the hardest songs to write for this record was “Inside Out” because it was just Princess and I. We were really f****** wasted and none of the other guys can make it to rehearsal. I bought a bunch of PBR on sale at Costco and I was so drunk. I tried playing drums in the studio and I’m a terrible drummer to begin with.
BRM: What is the meaning behind the album name, Distorted Nation?
Rev: The world is kind of f****d up right now, but we don’t look at it that way. We still look at the world through guitars and Marshall amps. No matter what, something from a guitar will come out distorted. That is the way it should be. We travel town to town to recruit rock soldiers to march and join the Underride army and create a nation.
BRM: I loved your Paparazzi rendition. What inspired you to cover that song?
Rev: The first and number one thing is that we’re huge Lady Gaga fans. We love her as a writer, performer, and is great for business too. I went to one of her shows and it was the best rock show I’ve been to in 10 years. Her fans are badass. There are so many lights and there was a 40 foot flume of tornado fire coming out from the piano. It was just f****** awesome. El Barto and Princess were like “Have you been living under a rock dude? Listen to these records”. They gave me the record and I listened to it. I instantly fell in love. El Barto was suggesting we should cover a Lady Gaga song and both of them showed up with versions of Paparazzi. They both had two cool renditions of it. We took the two together and made it awesome.
BRM: If you were to eliminate Princess from Underride who is the biggest princess in the band?
Rev: Well El Barto would have to be right behind Princess as Princess #2. He likes jewelry and fish net stockings.
BRM: As a band you said in the past you wanted to save rock n roll. Where do you think rock music started to drift away?
Rev: The whole 90s Seattle scene emerged with all of these awesome bands like Soundgarden. Those were legitimate bands and when we hit the 2000s it was like the screamo/emo thing that didn’t really go full force. There were rare occasions of amazing bands coming out like The Darkness. We’re not a serious band. If we were a movie, we would never win an academy award. We’re the Adam Sandler of rock n roll. None of our shit is serious or meant to change the world. Everyone thinks that all music has to be meaningful and have a message. Our message is have a beer and f*** around.
BRM: You’ve opened up for a lot of bands such as 30 Seconds to Mars, Static X, and Saliva in the past. What do you think was your favorite show?
Rev: The best show ever was with Lizzie Borden because they asked us to help out with the show. It’s like this Dracula drama on stage and my tour support guy, Slumdog got to carry a dead horse off stage after Lizzie killed it with an ax. My light tech guys got to be the gimps and the people who ran the TV on stage. That was definitely the f****** best for sure.
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