There was a SCOOTER version of Tony Hawk's

I thought Aggressive Inline was a stretch, barely clinging on by its fingertips to Tony Hawk's coattails... It seems that the money and trends people in video game HQ thought that skateboarding, snowboarding, BMX and yes, even rollerblading games weren't enough. There was also Razor Freestyle Scooter.

Apparently the storyline was that you are a scooter kid whose friends are kidnapped by an evil robot. Okay, that actually sounds cool. But we have to bend our interpretation of reality and believe that someone who chose freestyle scooter as an extreme sport would have any friends.

Anyway, let's get to the important part: the soundtrack!


I'm not sure where they found these D-list skate punk bands, but it's quite fitting that the songs got the general feeling of skate punk, without the company having to pay for the best of skate punk. Shades of Montgomery Burns looking for a 'non-union, Mexican equivalent'.

Some of the songs sound like they were recorded off the TV onto a handheld tape recorder..

The full album is only 28 minutes long, which is kind of sad. There are definitely some songs that teenage me would have consumed on repeat. In an alternative universe I might have played Razor Freestyle Scooter and listened to Never Too Late and Ex Number Five instead of Bad Religion and Alkaline Trio.

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)

New Music Crush: Six Stories Unknown + interview

Ever since I got into Easycore I've been hoping a band would combine it with my other favourite genre Epifat punk (aka Skate punk with pop punk vocals). I made a semi-successful attempt at this myself with Nevernoodz, but Swedish band Six Stories Unknown have pretty much nailed it, check them out!


It's like a checklist of my favourite things!

• A rhyming song name
• Slightly accented vocals
• RIFFAGE
• Posi lyrics, with slightly awkward nautical/war metaphors about being in a band!
• A singer who can sing! Juxtaposed with a screamer
• Good production! There's even a pinch harmonic, you guys!

We Won't Fall Asleep is probably actually a better song, but I'm not sure about the video.. I mean, I know it's meant to be a zany tour video, but it's not very zany. Sweet song, though.

Vocalist Ludvig took some time to talk about his influences, the Swedish scene and how the band got together.

The band was formed back in 2010 by me, our former guitarist Robert and bass guitarist Martin. We all met in school as we we're in the same class. I had never heard of the genre back then and thought it would be fun to try something new. One after another we dropped a lot of members for different reasons until now when we've finally reached the best setup possible. Ludwig (lead vocals), Magnus (Bass, vocals), Pontus (Lead guitar), Danny (drums) and our newest addition Estefan (guitar). 

You started out easycore, but have added melodic hardcore and skatepunk, how did this come about; did you decide to change direction or did it just happen?

I think we really just have matured as musicians and learned a lot from every drop out. We're all from different genres from the beginning and when we've been mixing it together we've reached the genre that is Six Stories Unknown today.

The alternative music scene in Sweden seems to be going from strength to strength, is that actually the case? 

We've actually been having problems getting booked for shows and such in Sweden as the scene is being hidden behind other genres like electro and house. The music industry in Sweden isn't really working in our direction at the moment which is kinda sad.

Can you notice different sub groups of people coming to your shows; pop punk kids, hardcore dudes etc?

We've always had an wide audience as we've chosen a sound which satisfies the ears of different groups of people. For instance if you listen to songs like For Better, For Worse, My Sight Says: Forward or Your Crown, My Anguish there are parts with catchy choruses and heavy breakdowns as well as advanced guitar riffs and solos.  Music brings people together and we've always tried to be liked by as many different groups as possible.

What is the writing process in the band?

We usually write in two different ways. The first one is that I'm staying up late drinking loads of coffee and getting creative writing lyrics to some simple chords, I bring the ideas to the guys and let them work out the instruments to a more advanced level. In some cases we're done with the instruments long before putting vocals for it. I guess it's hard to say how we usually do it.

Who was the first easycore band you heard?

Well, when we first started our biggest inspiration was Four year strong with their Rise or Die Trying record along with Set Your Goals and Me vs Hero.

What bands are you listening to at the minute?

As I've been saying we're all very different when it comes to taste in music, I can only speak for myself but I'm in to bands like Chunk! no, Captain chunk!, ADTR, Memphis May fire, Sleeping with Sirens and Hands Like Houses.

And finally what's next for you guys?

At the moment we're booking some shows for this spring in Europe, along with some writing for a new record!

Facebook: Six Stories Unknown 

Good Songs to Skateboard to (from Yahoo Answers)

Sumo skaters fall over a lot, I'd imagine.

After being re-immersed in early 00s skate punk nostalgia through Aggressive Inline, I went snooping about on the Google machine to see if I could find some other gems I had overlooked or forgotten. There I found the lolfactory that is Yahoo Answers and a question dedicated to skate songs, posed in 2006.

Some of the answers are standard, some are a little out of left field, some are questionable and some are just plain baffling.

This is the top answer. The answer the questioner was most pleased with. While I would include some SOAD in my desert mp3s, 'Pizza Pie' or Chic 'n' Stu as it's actually named, would not be one of them. Personal preferences aside, who the hell would skate to this schizophrenic clusterfudge??

Then there’s some Placebo, a great band to skate to. If by ‘skate’ you mean ‘drink yourself to sleep in the dark’.

The ‘source’ is also adorable. But let's move on.

Drunken Lullabies is a bit more like it. A steady, upbeat rhythm and a pace that gets the heart pumping and you legs push and kicking! Of course, there is a skateboarder in the video, so it’s not the most imaginative, but it’s on the right track, at least.

I don't listen to classic rock so I don't really know much of Suicidal Tendencies, but I see how the song could work for skating. If course it does have the fucking word 'skate' in the title, so give yourself a round of applause Rachel C, you really excelled yourself with this one! This video is interesting as it shows metal and punk bands exploited impressionable teenagers in the 80s too. UGH DAD I HATE DOING HOMEWORK.

This cautionary tale is the story of a kid 30 year old man who had a future until he got a skateboard, and now he likes to skateboard. So, let that be a lesson to you.

Just when you think Yahoo users have redeemed themselves slightly, *record scratch* Whaaaaat? ‘Lincoln Park’?! And while we're here, I was into Hybrid Theory as much as the next teenager, but I really don’t get how they are a skate band. I mean, I know they were totes angry and anti-conformity, just like skateboarding is (screw you, mom and dad!) but they are terrible skate music. Plus, this is 2006, five years after Hybrid Theory. 

Well for whatever reason, Linkin Park were linked with skateboarding, something that I find baffling, but vital knowledge all the same. 

The 'nothing extreme' footnote kills me.

So unfortunately, I don't think I've found an untapped resource of songs to skate to. If you know any, holla at me!

There was a rollerblading version of Tony Hawk's called Aggressvie Inline

Ah the early 2000s.. A time when pop punk and rock were kings of the soundtrack, and extreme sports games like Tony Hawk's and SSX were heavy hitters in the gaming world.

So gritty! Mom's not gonna like this one!

It seems that somewhere in a meeting room a gaming company decided to jump on the extreeeeme bandwagonto be down with the kidz. But instead of picking one of the cool X sports, they went with rollerblading, beloved sport of homosexuals, nerds and crazy middle aged women who really should know better.

'Rollerblading man' on google. Says it all, really.

The gameplay actually looks like it was pretty good, despite my misgivings, and word on tha streetz is that Tony Hawk's stole incorporated some better elements in the game. Even better though, the game came with a sweet soundtrack, typical of the time and filled with punk, nu metal and a bit of ska and hip hop.

This video gives a good taster of what the game was about, including all the Tony Hawk's-like elements and the soundtrack, in this case from a band called Student Rick. NOT TAKING BACK SUNDAY as the uploader of the video angrily proclaims. JEEZ U GUYS, KNOW UR MID-TABLE POP PUNK ALREADY. He also left the character dialogue in, which ruins the song, but it does stay 'honest to the Aggressive Inline experience' according to uploader MexiricanBassMonkey. LOL.

To keep true to the punk roots of inline skating, The Vandals were adding to the soundtrack. All aboard for the non stop to Irony Town! As if The Vandals ever cared about punx roots.

There was also some reaaaally dodgy emo and nu metal, but I'll leave that for now.

New Music Crush: Smalls + bonus interview

I love it when my kinda punk band comes together. My wishlist usually goes a bit like this:

• A female vocalist that is and equal band member, not just a singer out on front
• Predominantly melodic vocals, with some 'heavier' second vocals
• Interesting guitar-work that focuses on a strong song backbone rather than a million solos
• Varied song structures that flow well 
• A drummer who is good, but not so good he doesn't know his place
• Some breakdowns would be nice but you can't always have everything

And with Smalls from LA I've discovered my latest music crush! They've recently released their debut EP Expecting The Worst and my goth, it's such a delicious mix of sugary pop punk, spicy skate punk and beefy hardcore.

The 4 song EP leaves me wanting more on each listen, aided by the fact the last song is my favourite:

• How perfect is that intro for synchronised jumps and/or crowd call outs?
• And then at 00.30, get that circle pit moving!
• The pre-chorus/chorus at 00.55 is really where it's at though, angsty AND melodic enough that the teenage girls AND their hormonal boyfriends, who say they 'only like the fast parts', will both enjoy it.
• The mix of the drum beat and vocals at 1.16 are just perfect. Moar of this macho hardcore with female pop punk vox pls.

And if you want to pretend you'd like them more if they were faster with more male vox, then don't worry, they've covered that too!




I'm hoping for big things for these guys, and things are expanding within the Smalls camp as we speak. I caught up with guitarist Billy to talk about their new band members, seemingly forgotten female led punk rock bands from our youth and of course, DAT BAND NAME.

GDAC: Give us the generic biography of the band, from the EP it sounds like you guys know each other quite well? There seems to be a familiarity and shared sense of purpose.

Billy: Well, this project began about 2 years ago when I first met Ashley. It has always been difficult to form a band with a lead female singer, this is my 4th attempt at a band with a female lead, other genres this was the first in the punk genre. For months and months we failed to acquire the rest of the band. Instead of sitting around waiting on people we began writing as much as we could ourselves. As a multiple instrument musician I was more than capable to write everything from guitar, bass to drums. So i took everything and recorded it with Garageband and sent it to a couple musician friends to see if anyone would help us out. Russ' band at the time was dissolving, he wanted to keep active so he agreed to play with us since he had nothing else going on. He also really liked the songs and really wanted to see what we could do with this. We played a few shows with a drummer Ashley met at a mall and things took off from there. That guy ended up not working out, as a matter of fact 6 days before the last show we played march 2nd he cut all contact from us. Left us high and dry. We ended up getting a friend of ours to fill in and we played a really short set that day but it was the biggest crowed we ever had there must have been 300 kids in this backyard. I'm going to go ahead and  say we did good that day because we sold about 90% of our crewnecks!

How does the songwriting process go, do you find it easy to write rhythm and lead guitar parts by yourself?

It's pretty hit or miss. There's times where things just come to me and I try to record them as soon as they do. I try to let it flow, I pretty much go with my gut and dont over think it too much as far as 

how to arrange everything. There's also times where I'm like "ok im gonna write today" and I totally hit a wall and can't do anything. I try to have fun with it. 

The lineup is being shuffled and added to, what was the thinking behind it?

Ashley and I knew from the start that ideally we wanted this to be a 5 piece band. At first when we finally acquired a drummer I hit up Russ and he was stoked to play bass. He had never done it before and he thought it would be way fun to do it. I showed him the songs and then let him basically do whatever he wanted to do with it. We played shows as a 4 piece we figured it was good enough. Fast forward to after we recorded the EP, I got two texts  literally within fifteen minutes of each other. My friend Eddie text me asking if we were interested in a second guitar, because he had found us a perfect match. After that russ text me "Hey I want to jump on guitar lets find a bassist... i kinda suck at bass man!" It was funny because I saw the messages like an hour later because I didnt have my phone on me. So I texted Eddie and said 'Hey, Russ wants to jump on guitar so I guess we need a bassist now.' Eddie text back "Perfect, this guy also plays bass and he has really good gear, you should meet up with him hes a really cool guy and hes stoked on your EP, i showed it to him when you sent me the first drafts." So last wednesday we got together for the first time. with Russ on guitar, Gus on bass, and our new fill in Mark on drums. Mark is a friend of ours who's in a band with Eddie called Anchorless. Mark did the drums on the EP.

In Ireland (where I'm originally from) it's still relatively rare for a girl to be in a punk band, is it more the norm in LA or does Ashley still draw some extra attention? 

Southern California is the breeding ground for bands. Female leads are all over the place here. The only thing that we feel makes us stand out from all the other bands is we're not trying to ride someone else's coat tails. It just seems like every band tries to sound like "the band" that made it big with a female lead. You have 1,000 paramores, you have 1,000 Flyleafs. In the punk rock community we dont really have that that much. and i dont think its acceptable. But I think that the reason for that is that every band tries to do the Paramore sound, they try to do the hard rock, indie-emo sound. We're a punk band. It's died down now, or maybe we're just not paying attention. So it's good, we're not in the spotlight. In this scene at least its not so much a focus were not playing the 'we're a female fronted punk band' (card). We're just a band, with 5 members. Period.

I'm all for equality so the female bassist/singer in my band had to endure the same bad jokes, smelly practice space, beer drinking etc, have you guys been on tour yet and had to censor yourselves around Ashley?

You know, we're still fresh as far as being a 5 piece. We dont practice much, maybe two or three times before a show. We're all pretty laid back. We get together and we practice and thats our focus. When we do hang out theres usually girlfriends around or other people so things dont really get out of hand. We're not really party animals. I have had those moments in past bands though, where it gets awkward really fast. And practicing in mid summer in a lockout with no A/C, I def not miss that.

I realize how cliched it is to talk about the female member of the band, and I'm sure as you guys are doing promotion for the EP you're already tired of that angle. But seeing as this blog is partially about finding cliches in music, indulge me; last one, which is more common; Paramore or Tsunami Bomb comparisons?

Believe it or not if you go asking around our local current scene 'Paramore or Tsunami Bomb?' 90% of them would say "who's Tsunami Bomb?". most of the kids in this scene are 16 to 23. Not a single one would know. It's actually really weird because most of us are older. Gus being the youngest at 20 fit in with us so well because he grew up with an older brother who is Russ and myselves age so he grew up listening to our music. Again, Paramore isn't a thing anymore around here. It's not pop punk, its not punk rock. Sure kids listen to it but its not as hyped up as it used to be. Ashley really has a unique voice, its not Paramore at all. To be honest we don't promote ourselves as a female fronted pop punk band. We're just a band like any other band. We're not here to focus on one person, we're here to focus on Smalls, the band.

Were there particular influences in mind when forming the band? 

As far as bands we did have a focus on what we wanted to sound like but in the long run I don't know if we pulled it off. We were going for a Lifetime, The Movielife, 7 Seconds, Kid Dynamite, Rufio sound. I know those are all a bunch of pretty different bands but that was the general idea. We wanted to be melodic and fast like Rufio, we wanted to have heart like Lifetime and The Movielife and we wanted to have that fast punk sound you get from 7 Seconds and Kid Dynamite. I wish we sounded a little more youth crew to be honest, but it is what it is. 

To me there's a blend of pop punk, punk rock, skate punk and melodic hardcore and I love that you list all these genres on bandcamp. Are you that nerdy that you know all the subgenres of punk you are playing, I know I am, or was ticking as many boxes in the genre list as possible?

Honestly the 'melodic hardcore' was a joke. Fat Mike was asked how he felt being categorized as a pop punk band and he gets irritated, hes like "were a melodic hardcore band ok? Stop it." I always found that funny. But yeah being older we used to use so many different names for different bands; skate punk, pop punk, punk rock, ska punk, punk ska, I could go on forever. I used a couple hash tags to get to those different people who would run into it. 

Speaking of which, where did the name Smalls come from? It must be an SEO nightmare! Any plans to call an album Biggie?

Haha, a couple days ago i thought about doing a Biggie shirt rip! You know that iconic picture of him with a crown and a gold chain? Well that with our new bassist Gus on it instead. He has a killer beard right now and it needs to be on a shirt. As far as our name its from The Sandlot. The only thing i dont like about it right now is that yes if you look up smalls in hash tags 80% are Biggie Smalls threads. But its ok i guess. 

What's next for Smalls?

July 16th well be playing with Mixtapes, Last Call, Light Years, You Blew It! at Cobalt cafe in Canoga park. We have tickets on our bandcamp and bigcartel you can also message us for tickets. We'll be trying to play as many shows as possible this summer and the remainder of the year. I know its too soon but possibly hit the studio by the end of the year for another EP

Smalls are on facebook, and their EP is on bandcamp. 

Can't Bear This Party interview: "We won't ever turn troo pop punk"

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a post pondering what Can’t Bear This Party would do next. Would they continue writing ‘progressive easycore’ (aka fast melodic skate punk with extras), or would they go down the dreaded hipster route.

It seemed like disaster had struck when the band broke up earlier this year but the good news is that not only are CBTP! back, but they are still as zany as ever! After I posted about their new song Lil Bowotomi, guitarist Quentin aka Sushi, was cool enough to answer some of my many questions over the weekend. I’ve cleaned up some of the ‘Frenglish’ (his word not mine) here and there. My questions are in bold. – Alanso.

GDAC - So to start, a lot has happened with CBTP! in the last few months. For a time it looked like we would never hear from you again. Can you tell us anything about the last few months, and how are things in the CBTP! camp now?

Quentin - Yes we were done, our guitarist Lino left France for Boston so we were a bit demotivated. After 6 months, we all really missed the band so decide to revive it! Lino won't play live with us but is still implicate in composition at this time. We already have friends to can replace him on tour.
We are about to record our upcoming album and will tour in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and Russia this winter. We hope to reach UK and USA in 2014.

The new song, Lil Bowotomi, has really grown on me since I first posted about it. The lyrics seem batshit crazy, what the hell is it actually about?

It’s a long story dude…it talks about a booking agency from France who gets pretty famous American bands play here! We played for them with title fight and transit. These guys are really bitchy with local bands. We were not paid but we’re okay with that. But we expected to be treated with respect, we’ve never felt uncomfortable like this in any other show before! It’s a shame that foreign bands think French shows are all shitty like this, every single DIY promoter does a way better job. The song talks about the owner (of the agency).

What I love about your band is that you aren't afraid to mix up the genres and add different instruments. I often call you 'progressive easycore'. Did this happen naturally over the years or was it something the band always wanted to do?

I don’t know! It came naturally, it offers a lot of new ways to compose. I don’t think we use too much stuff, basically, it's still pop punk (but) in a different way.

And what is the songwriting process within the band? I've found it hard to get a band of 3 people to agree on things, how does it work with six French dudes who add xylophones and phone tones?!

I usually compose the songs then the others arrange their parts the way they like. But on our last song, it's our singer jean who composed the song. At first it was only 8 bit but I added pop punk part and beats! The singers write the melodies. We don't take CBTP too seriously, the goal is to have fun and play catchy and energetic music!

You guys do still seem to be having fun with the genre, I hope there aren't any plans to start writing boring indie-influenced songs to show how you are 'real' musicians who want to be taken seriously?

I know what you mean! We won't ever turn troo pop punk, even though I love some of those bands I think it’s just being close minded. You can show you are a real musician and play fun music.

I'm from Ireland, so I can understand how you guys could have grown up listening to lots of different genres without knowing that some people think you have to be one or the other. It's pretty mind blowing to me that there seems to be a great scene in France right now. I thought everyone there just played accordions and drank wine. How did you get into 'heavy' music and what is the French scene like now? What are some other good French bands?

Haha don't believe your cliché! I imagine you drunk, with red hair and wearing a kilt dude! (Chillingly close to the bone – Alanso)  I think every country has a stereotype of others!
There are more and more cool little bands in France. There has been ‘heavy’ music in France for a long time. Some (bands) are getting really famous like chunk! or BTM (Betraying The Martyrs) and I think it's really awesome!

So, I posted on skatepunkers.net that I'd be asking you some questions and there are some questions from the forum users there, so I'll pitch some at you. 

“Where did the name come from and what does it mean?”

I don't know dude! I don’t even have a good fake explanation for this!

“How old are they?”

We’re all 24 or 25 but Remi, he is 17!

"Are they ever going to visit their Spanish neighbors?”

I don't know yet but we would love to! It’s really not far from us…same for Ireland.

"Do they sing with that accent on purpose or did they just have bad English teachers?"

Our singer jean has a terrible accent even when he speaks in French! One day we’ll get accent auto-tune and your question will be obsolete!