Hey guys,
as most of you know - I love rock music.
It just gets me every time.
That's why I'm really happy to present you an interview with the cool rockers of The Wild Young Hearts who are from the city I really want to visit - Los Angeles (US).
(NOTE: The Wild Young Hearts used to be called Streetcar Rendezvous!)
The band consists of:
Robert Laffoon (vocals, guitar)
Justin Norman (guitar)
Garrett Warrem (bass)
Michael Southcomb (drums)
See what Robert says about the band name, LA, Miley Cyrus and a lot more...
house in the sand: Streetcar Rendezvous - how did you come up with that band name?
Robert: Well, when Justin (Justin Norman, lead guitar) and I first started auditioning other musicians and writing song for a band I sent him a text of god awful band names and I guess we decided to keep the name that was hardest to spell. I have a love/ hate relationship with it, but I guess it'd a tight name. I just wish Americans were bright enough to spell Rendezvous right. Sigh.
house in the sand: Why rock music? Why do you play rock music? Why not any other genre?
Robert: We play rock music because that's what we believe in. I believe rock and roll has the power to change the world. It has a few times, unfortunately, it hasn't happened for 20 years. We've all played in bands that played various rock sub genres like punk, hardcore, indie, etc. We don't necessarily try to sound like anything in particular, but we are a band with 2 guitars, a bass, and a drummer so it's hard not to be a rock band.
house in the sand: You’re from Los Angeles. Has the city of angels ever influenced your sound?
Robert: I guess it has, in a way. I mean, I've written all of the songs for our band in the 15 months I've lived here, but I wouldn't say they were influenced by LA. I've just had more free time to write since I've lived here I guess.
house in the sand: When you first contacted me you told me you “sound like a mix of Weezer, Green Day, Social Distortipn and Blink 182.” I agree. Are those bands your musical inspirations?
Robert: I would agree. I mean, We don't go out of our way to sound like them, but those are definitely the bands I grew up on, and I'm sure the rest of the guys would agree to an extent. Also, all 4 of those bands are from different parts of California, and I think we are just heavily influenced by the southern California sun. We're influenced by a wide variety of artists and things, most of which have to do with San Diego or Los Angeles livin'. Even the California hip hop artists are huge influences on me: Snoop, Tupac, NWA. I listen to those guys just as much as those rock bands we sound like.
house in the sand: If I asked you to cover a song by another band – which one would it be and why?
Robert: Thats easy, Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus
house in the sand: As a band – how do you work? Is one of you the songwriter, one the organizer, etc? Or do you do it all together?
Robert: We're pretty much a team. I write the basics of the song, (the structure, progression, lyrics and melody), then I show it to Justin and Garrett (Garrett Warren, Bass) and then they add their little special touch to it, and they help me screw around with it if needed, or they tell me if it sucks. We all just do what we can to help the team outside of that though. The three of us live about 15 paces from each other, and our drummer Michael Southcomb lives about a mile away so we just work constantly.
house in the sand: Your song “What We Know Is Wrong” ft. Real J Wallace is such a jam. What’s the story behind it?
Robert: Thank you. I wrote what we know is wrong because I felt like i kind of had to. I just felt we needed something like that. Bands need to say important things from time to time. I grew up on punk rock and protest music, and I've always been into politics, and I've become quite disgusted with the way things are in the world, particularly here in America. I wrote the song with hopes of it being my mix of a clash song and a Bruce Springsteen style protest song like Born in the USA. I'm really proud of how what we know is wrong turned out, it wasn't even gonna be on the EP until after we started it working on it. Then we asked my friend Real J. Wallace from the San Diego hip hop group Brother Nature to jump on the track and he took it to the next level. Lyrically, I think it's my favorite song I've ever written.
house in the sand: Please complete the following sentence: We are Streetcar Rendezvous and we …
Robert: ... are your new favorite band. We're here to make all those kids who pawned off their guitars for MacBooks want to pawn their MacBooks for new guitars. We're here to make rock and roll exciting again.
house in the sand: Is there anything else you would like the house in the sand readers to know?
Robert: we just release a brand new EP called Pretty Girls!!! You can listen to it all over the Internet and you can buy it right on our bandcamp!
house in the sand: Thanks a lot for the talk! Hope you had fun!
Robert: XOXO
Now that the interview is over I think it's a pretty damn good time to listen to the tune Robert and I talked about.
Now that the interview is over I think it's a pretty damn good time to listen to the tune Robert and I talked about.
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