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.”.
