Interview: Band Of The Week - Throwback Suburbia - Page 3

So who writes the songs for Throwback Suburbia?

It's definitely Jimi [vocals and rhythm guitar] and I. He and I were in a band called The Red Sector around Portland [Oregon], they were together for about three years, we did some pretty cool stuff, we did a couple videos and had a sizeable following in town. But there started to be that… you know, you hear it all the time, there started to be that difference of opinions between the other band members about the direction of the band.

Jimi and I were starting to get together and write together when we were in The Red Sector and it just felt so good and we were starting to feel like the other members were not wanting to do what we were wanting to do. So the band split up amicably and we're still friends with everybody, but him and I just started getting together. It was late November of 2004 that we started getting together a couple of times a week and just throwing ideas out there. Once we got a song finished we'd record it. We did that for about a year, then we got the other two guys in the band, Eric and Paul.

I would say the song writing is 50/50 between Jimi and I.

How did you get Eric and Paul?

Once Jimi and I had about eight or nine songs we thought, "Gosh we're getting sick and tired of hanging out in my bedroom and just being in front of the computer tweakin' songs" and we wanted to go out and play. So we started putting out some feelers for bass players we went out to some local shows and looked at some people and nobody was really standing out to us. And then Jimi said he got a call one day from Eric who we knew from bands we were in before and he had heard that Jimi and I were working on a project together and he was interested.

I hadn't even thought of Eric and I was like "Wow! I do remember that guy being a really good bass player." So we invited him over one night, he listened to what we were up to and fell in love with it and said "I want to be a part of this". We never really had a formal audition but we knew he was a very good bass player. We just said learn four songs come back in a week and let's play. He came back and he did his homework and we sounded great, we all kinda of had the same twisty sense of humour and the same goals.

Article Author: A.L. Harper

I'm a writer and music journalist originally from Salt Lake City, but now living in Scotland. I was a Punk/Goth in the '80s and these artistic influences have stayed with me; although a love of Chopin, chamber music, and Spanish guitar would seem to belie this. …

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