Symphony of Distraction Interview

Symphony of Distraction are, for my money, the best skate punk band of the modern era. Guitarist and vocalist, Jay, talked to me about the band, the shape of punk today, and what it's like to be an aging punk rocker.

Mr Sparkle!

What are SOD doing these days, are you writing any new material? 

Nothing specific right now. After we finished the last record and did a short tour, I moved to New York City, so I live across the country from everyone else in the band. We’ve had some conversations about doing some recording in the not too distant future, but as of yet nothing specific is planned.

What is the song writing process for you guys?

Steve and I split the song writing. When we had some song ideas, we’d get together and get right to recording guitar parts. We found that being able to listen to the guitar tracks helped us really hear the songs better than just playing them over and over. We were pretty much writing the songs all the way until they were done. The whole writing and recording happened in parallel. There weren’t any songs where I finished the lyrics more than a few minutes before I started recording the vocals. It’s a much better process for me than trying to write a whole record up front and not really hear any of it until I get into the studio. There’s so many times that I thought I had written a really great song and didn’t realize it sucked until I started recording it. Recording as you write helps avoid that situation

Some of your lyrics deal with frustrations and insecurities of every day life. Are your lyrics an important part of a cathartic process or do you just need to fill in the songs?

For me the lyrics definitely come secondary to the music, but I still consider them an important part. Bad lyrics can ruin an otherwise good song, so I always keep that in mind when I’m trying to rush through lyric writing. I think Steve takes it more seriously because a lot of his songs relate to what’s going on in his life when he writes them. I usually have a couple of lines of words that I find work well with a melody and then write around them. It creates for some random topics..

Speaking of which, 'New Cliches' struck a particularly loud chord with me. How are you finding becoming an adult and an adult punk guy?

I kind of relate getting older in the punk scene to the stages of grief. At first you’re in denial, then you’re angry and finally you just have to accept it. You get older and there’s nothing you can do about it. Punk rock is definitely a young person’s game but that doesn’t mean you have to stop listening to it or stop going to shows. For me growing older just meant that I didn’t have the urge to throw it in everyone’s face all the time anymore. I don’t need to have blue hair and piercings and wear a Sex Pistols shirt so that some stranger can tell how cool I am. The best part of aging is that you truly, honestly just stop giving a fuck what anyone thinks.

In terms of new music, personally I don't really get the whole hipster, retro, cassette tape trend, but I know that older people at the time hated bands like Nofx and Strung Out so I try not to get overly concerned about it..

Yeah, I had a conversation with someone not too long ago that was trying to tell me that cassette tapes sound better than CDs. I wanted to slap him in the face. I could see cassettes being cool from a collector’s standpoint, but to say they sound better is just stupid. But you’re right, everybody thinks that their generation of music is better than the next so it’s gets really hard to judge what’s legitimately appealing to the youth as you get older.

What are your thoughts on the future of the music industry and how do you feel about piracy?

Piracy is a bummer. It hurts the musicians, and I think it hurts the listener too. You can definitely have too much of a good thing. I’ve heard people brag about how they have 50 thousand songs in their mp3 library. Almost all of which are pirated. What’s the point of having 50 thousand songs? You can’t ever listen to them. It just perpetuates the short attention span that everybody has. So now you basically have access to all music and don’t give a shit about any of it. That being said, I’ve pirated some music that I was excited to hear and didn’t want to wait til the release date. So I’m not claiming innocence, but I’d happily give up access to free music if it meant that everybody else did too.

Who are your biggest influences and favourite bands, past and present?

As I’m sure you can tell by the music, we’re mid 90s skate punk nerds. Fat Wreck, Epitaph, Vagrant bands. Bands like Weezer, Green Day and Ben Folds Five. Really anyone that could write a great melody is what I was into in my most obsessive music phase. These days it’s more rare that I feel like a band would be a huge influence to me when I’m writing punk music. My writing habits are too hard wired at this point. I can still get inspired by a song, but it’s much more random how that happens now. It could be a Britney Spears song I hear in a movie that triggers a melody idea for me. Then I take that and just throw it over my old influences.

Had you guys got a set sound in mind when you started the band, and how did the band come together?

Steve was in SecondShot when it first started. We always wrote well together, but it just wasn’t working out at that point for other reasons and Steve got kicked out and went on to do some other projects. We didn’t talk for a couple years. When we finally did, we got drunk and talked about the idea of trying to record an EP by ourselves. Neither of us had any recording experience and I never really thought we’d do it. Some time later, I decided I wanted to demo out some songs and bought some cheap recording gear. After learning a bit, we got together and recorded the guitar parts to a song that Steve was messing around with, and we thought it sounded good. So we decided to go for it. Steve had been in a band called Allergic to Idiots that had Jimmy and Pat in it. We just recruited them to fill out the band and made the EP.

As far as the sound, we were pretty specific. All fast. We weren’t going to try to bother with making the record balanced. We wanted to do all fast songs, and that’s how the EP ended up being. There are a couple mid tempo songs on Call It Off, but it’s still generally a really fast record.

How did the name come about? Are you all just fans of Dave Mustaine and his work?

No. It’s a terrible band name and we came up with it when we were really drunk and thought it was funny.

To me, your music is exactly how punk from California and West coast America should sound. So, I gotta say, it's pretty weird that you guys seem more appreciated in Asia than at home. What was your Asian tour like and why do you think skate punk is still so popular there?

Yeah, when we first moved to the Bay Area, we thought that since it was the home of Fat Wreck, that people would be crazy for that style of music, but it just wasn’t the case at all. I think maybe southern California would have been better for us, but who knows. Asian tour was awesome. I love going over there. They have great fans. They come to the show before the first band starts, and don’t leave til the show is over. I don’t have an answer to why skate punk still does well over there.

What is it about this kind of punk that attracts you? Is there any other genres that you listen to or would like to play?

The attraction to punk music for me has always been that the songs are more streamlined than a lot of other types of music. You have a good melody and some good music behind it, you repeat it 3 times and you’re done. Obviously that’s a huge generalization and not many of our songs actually do that, but I’ve always loved how punk songs eliminate a lot of fluff from a song so that the core idea of a is the most important thing. As far as other genres, I tried to learn piano when I was young and failed miserably. So now I actually play a lot of jazz piano. I’m not sure if I like it or It’s just a personal challenge, but lately, that’s where most of my musical energy has been going. Once I’m good enough, I want to have a band that plays old punk songs in jazz style. No idea if that will ever happen.

(Image source: Symphony of Distraction Facebook)

Top 10 Teenage Tunes: Mike from Flagpolers

Mike is the bass player and occasional vocalist of the predominantly Irish expat band Flagpolers. Not only that, but he is a mean vegan cook and the owner of five denim vests (but don't let that put you off him). He has also been a classmate, roommate and bandmate to myself, and introduced me to some of the best (and worst) punk I've heard, over the year!

Flagpolers have just released a new video, which captures their zany tour antics in the underground punk scene. - Alanso



I love nostalia shit! I’ll try to rip off Aidan’s list by keeping it in somewhat of an order of how I went along and became even more Punk.

Blink 182 - Adam's Song



I know if it wasn’t for this band I would never have gotten into punk and never started playing bass. I first got into them when I was maybe 11 or 12.  My older brother Brian bought the CD and I’d listen to it on repeat thinking I was the punkest thing in town. Adam’s song was always my favorite, I loved the funny songs and love songs, but this one always gave me goose bumps, I’ll always love Blink.

NOFX- Frano Un American



Haven’t listened to this song in a long time and actually am not into NOFX anymore, mostly because watching footage of NOFX made me angry watching Fat Mike talk to his fans like they're shit. But this was the first song I ever heard that had animal rights lyrics,  I was maybe 14 or 15 when I got into them but when this song came out I instantly started thinking about going Veg, I lived in a small village in rural Ireland and knew nothing of animal rights and thought of all vegetarians as hippies until this. I later went veg at 16 which then lead onto me becoming vegan which were the best choices I ever made. Although Fat Mike eats meat now anyways, at the time these lyrics opened my mind a lot.

Rancid- Old Friend



Still my favorite song of all time. Just recently got “Good morning Heartache“ tattooed on me actually after listening to this jammer for over a decade. I saw Rancid 10 years ago and then again last month and still to me they wrote the best songs ever written. I always loved the simplicity of the lyrics in Old Friend.

Minor Threat- Straight Edge



Up until Minor Threat I thought you were meant to start drinking at 15. Even though I never had any interest I assumed it was some sort of milestone that everyone had to do. Especially living in Dunmore, Ireland. Which is what anyone underage only seemed to do in shitty little youth discos.  As I had no money I used to just download Minor Threat’s complete discography through my old dial up internet which took about 2 hours for a 1 minute song!  After hearing this song I claimed Edge pretty much right after, People have a lot of views about Straight Edge and most of them are completely wrong. So fuck them this song rules and changed my life.


Oxymoron-  Run From Reality



Around 16 I started getting into more Street and Oi! Stuff because I preferred the simplicity of the music and lyrics. The attitude that I didn’t find in a lot of punk I was listening to at the time. I still love the 'Fuck The Cops' and 'Be a Punk' mentality that I found in bands in Oxymoron. I bought all their CDs and listened to them on repeat and still do. Classic band.

The Rebel Spell- I See Fire



I got a compilation CD in Razorcake when I was maybe 17, It was pretty good but The Rebel Spell were by far the best band on it. So I went home and with my chubby little fingers I ordered the cheapest Rebel Spell I could find on Interpunk. I thought Todd’s lyrics were amazing and still do, The fact he could sing so fast and still never fuck up, he's a lyrical genius. I used to e-mail them all the time when I was younger and didn’t know much about doing shows, asking them to come play Ireland. Then years later I was living in Galway and setting up shows with my bud Dan in Us Vs Them and they e-mailed me asking to help them with an Irish tour. It was one of the best days ever! I booked them the tour and they came and slept on my floor for 3 nights and it still blows me away how great DIY is. I now live in the same city as them and they’ve became my great friends. If only my 16 yearr old self knew! Love this song and band so much.

Only Fumes and Corpses- Resolution



Possibly the biggest influence on me when it comes to being involved with DIY Punk. I love this band so much and was blessed that we’re from the same city so I got to see them more than anyone else. I always felt like a member of the band and I shared a jam space with them and many of shows. When you’re younger you imagine all the best shows are played elsewhere but when I moved up to Galway it blew my mind that the best gigs you’ll ever go to are in the back of a small pub in your own city. Those shows were my everything when I first moved up to the city, My favorite memories of Galway were Only Fumes & Corpses shows. It makes me sad thinking about it now, they’ve recently ended and it’s a great loss to Ireland.

Foreveraftermath - Ok The Night



There wasn’t much footage of Foreveraftermath on the ol' Youtube so I found the best I could. They were from Ballina, which is like an hour and a half from Galway but I got to see all their Galway shows when they came. Their record was one of the best albums ever made. The first band I was ever in was meant to be a complete rip off of this band just because we all loved them so much. My bros and I even traveled up to Ballina to see their last show and where all the lyrics were written about. Everyone in this band went on to make other amazing bands but Foreveraftermath were my first. And ya never forget your first filthy shag.

The Lobotomies- Don’t Look Back



I think I was maybe 17 when I first heard the Lobotomies, Up until then I only listened to bands who were from elsewhere because living in the middle of nowhere in Dunmore you expect that all the best bands are from elsewhere. So when I first saw The Lobotomies I thought they were the best thing ever and still do. They all looked and acted like they didn’t give a fuck but were the nicest people I’ve ever known. The first night they played they stayed in my living room, They were the first of many dirty punks to sleep on my floor and it completely since then changed how I view music. Your best friends could be your favorite band. I’ve toured with these handsome boys and played some of my favorite shows with them, I love them all so much and every band they’ve done after.


Bob Seger - Night Moves



Not punk but one of my favorite songs ever, Probably because my Dad who’s the best man and biggest punk ever used to play in on repeat since I was a baby. I love this song so much I even got it tattooed across my toes and want to get a second tat in honor of it. I love all of Bob Segers stuff, He has a genius way of making every song sound nostalgic and I’m a big fan of nostalgia. He hails from where I lived as a child in Michigan so I find a certain closeness to him singing about driving through cornfields and Michigan summertime. When Flagpolers were playing shows up north I met this great old dude playing this song on the beach and we sang it together, it really made me smile like a fat child again.

The new Bad Religion is goood y'all

Bad Religion don't need to make albums anymore. I'm pretty sure they're all rich enough from their 800 releases to date that they can easily just spend their days reading the newspaper, or wandering around the grocery store and generally do whatever it is that older gents do to pass the time. But, they're STILL making albums so it seems that they still love-a the punk rock-a and that's cool.

The preconceptions

• It's been said that the Bad Religions have been writing the same song for the last 52 years and while that is kinda true, it's a pretty fucking good song!
• Many people will say BR haven't been on the top of their game in many years and the newer albums suck. I say they've been consistent and Maps of Hell is a good CD.
• True North has been called their best since The Process of Belief. TPOB is probably my favourite album so this is a lot to live up to inside my tiny head.

The evidence 

True North

Now that's some classic Bad Religion! Lead single/title track True North is a quintessential BR song; short, snappy, with a, eh, succulent chorus. Yeah, succulent. The subtle stop and rhythm change around the 1.02 mark is what separates them from the generic punk that they can border on. Me gusta!

In Their Hearts Is Right

This is probably my favourite song as of now. The transition from good punk song in the verse to DAT CHORUS is just ridiculous as the guys flex their songwriting muscles and toy with your ideas of what a punk song should be. It's somewhere between System of a Down and the Beach Boys, right?! The best part is that as BR are one of the classic punk bands, loads of teenage AGGGGHPUNKX will listen to this and realise you don't have to vomit your songs/vocals into the face of THE MAN to get your point across. Let's face it, a lot of punk is horrible, out of tune and badly written. This, however, is like having your ears hugged by a little political panda.

My Head is Full of Ghosts

This goes about as hard as Bad Religion go! But it's still full of honey sweet harmonies and an almost youthful bounding pace that reminds me of, yes, The Process of Belief. This seems effortless, it's not exactly reinventing the wheel but then again the wheel is pretty good as it is. Who the fuck wants a square wheel?

The Island

Let it not be said that they don't try anything new! How about the little stop mid verse and multiple rhythm changes, eh?! Everything works so nicely and flows so well and I'm super jelly of their skillz.

I doubt I've said anything that fans didn't know already. Or changed any opinions. Like DAMN, I'd given up on Bad Religion, but NOW I'm gonna reconsider. But if for some reason you haven't checked out the album yet and want another dozen or so songs to add to your music library that will never be embarrass you when you put shuffle on at a party, then this is for you!

New Music Crush: Symphony of Distraction

Even though skate punk is probably my favourite of all genres (I've been listening to it for 10+ years now :/) I find it hard to keep up with new bands or get properly excited about new releases. Maybe it's because I've heard alot of it before, maybe it's because, paradoxically, I want it to also keep to the same formula, but most of the newer bands pass me by for one reason or another.

Luckily though the good folks at skatepunkers.net are there to kick me up the arse every now and then, giving me access to the most crucial of knowledge, with a kind of collective, manic grin borne out of the joy of sharing music and their exasperation that I haven't heard so many great bands!

The latest find for me from there has been Symphony of Distraction. Ever wished NOFX had a better singer?  Ever wish melodic punk bands could be faster? Ever wish Pennywise had a sense of humour? Well then Symphony of Distraction are the band for you! Their EP Pudwack was released in 2010 and it's fast and melodic, sure what more could you want?

• Really nice production, clear and heavy but not over-produced
• A drummer that plays as if he wants ppl to circle pit rabidly the entire time
• Lyrics that have just the right amount of humour, anger, satire and self deprecation
• Occasional forays into sweet guitar riffs
• Samples that are used sparingly
• Melodic vocals and harmonies

It's hard enough to track them down on youtube...this currently be my favourite song:

• Samples = always fun
• Breakneck speeed
• The vocal melodies are so good
• 00.53: The guest (I'm presuming..) vox and the 'oooohhhs' in the background <3 <3
• 1.30: Samples are still always fun (when not over done obvs)
• There's some of that occasional riffage in the outro, mmm.
   

• Harmonies!
• Uncoventional timing for the vocals <3
• Lyrics that pit resignation to being an alcoholic against a dark sense of humour, always good
• It's just good skate punk, no over-analysis on my part can explain it!

So yes, I've just ordered their new album 'Call It Off John' (which I'm sure is another hilarious in-joke that I'm not privy to) and you can do the same here. I'm sure to be rambling on about the album when I get it from the wonderful playground that is Japan. They also use the facebooked and have criminally few likes so go there and set that right and ask them to get in here and explain some damn in-jokes to me.

The new Pennywise is so good

Okay...so usually when starting a post like this I give a rundown of my thoughts on the band in question (liek u care!?) and it's a slightly rambling, unecessary affair. And this time it's going to be even more the case methinks... 

I first heard Pennywise through a video a friend made me (which was made up of stuff from the p-rock channel) and the song Same Old Story, which was a great song full of y u no understand me dad lyrics. I also heard Open Door on a compilation CD and it's one of my favourite punk songs to this day. Then I heard Fuck Authority and I was blown away by the intensity, aggression and guitar tones goin' on. The problem was their stuff was pretty hard to find in the middle of nowhere in Ireland and by the time I got their albums (several years later) I found they didn't have the humour of NOFX, the melodies of Bad Religion, the riffs of Strung Out etc. They didn't have a bad song, mind you, but something held them back from nestling a spot in my top 5 skate punk bands. (like they care..)

Then, last year, lead singer Jim left. If you take the story in 'The Other F Word' (which is well worth a watch) then he wanted to be with his family and the other guys weren't sensitive to this, kept pressuring him to go on tours etc.. If you take the story in this interview by Fletcher then Jim wasn't the only one with pressures, and his decision to go on tour with a new band soon after leaving the P-wise was a bit crap. Either way The Black Pacific came along and I was pretty excited when I heard them first but tbh I haven't listened to them much. Pennywise meanwhile regrouped and eventually picked the dude from Ignite as their nu guy. (I have no opinion either way on Ignite, think I heard one song, power metal punk? who dey tbh)

Anyway enough of me, here's one of their new songs 'All or Nothing', it's pretty class.

• The sound/production is great, they were getting a little over-produced
• Dat opening line, perfect to shout in ur bedroom when ur parents r out of da house!
• MMM 00.34... The change of pace, delicious. 
• Melodic gang vox <3
• Is it me or does he sound like a less whiney Dexter Holland?

• I can't even put my finger on why this is so good, it just all works
• The first part of the chorus is a bit 'epic' for me but the faster vocals parts are gooood
• It's very reliant on the vocals but they get better as the song goes on

I'm fully aware I sound like a teenager but I'm genuinely excited about hearing/getting the full album. This has such a late 90s/early 00s skate punk vibe. 4 thumbs up so far.