Page 9 - ION Indie Magazine MarchApril 2018 Issue

KO: Probably the first year we were there we were just kind of in a weird limbo. We had grown up in a really

small town together in Florida and we moved to Los Angeles, which is a huge city. We were working random
day jobs. I was at like a juice bar and then I worked at a book store and he was working at a laboratory. You

know, we had friends at work, but we couldn’t really find a musical niche. And then we came across this thing

called “Kiss or Kill”. Actually, first we found Mr. T’s Bowl, which was another scene, and that sort of grew into
what would become “Kiss or Kill” in a funny way. And so, it was just a group of mostly punk-leaning bands,

there were some different kinds of bands, but you know, but it was everything you would hope that a music
scene you could be part of would be. All the bands – even if we weren’t playing in Los Angeles we would play

together in Vegas. Our second tour we went out with one of the other bands, Bang Sugar Bang. You know

we were a very, very, close community that wasn’t just based on bands either. The fan group was just as
important as all the other musicians. Front Row Joe was always there, and if your band wasn’t playing that

night, you were in the front row. And so, I think just having that kind of support and playing all the time and
learning from one another made us all better bands.

SS: Well, yeah, and also just the amount of time that you had on stage honed your craft.

KO: For sure. Me and Luis, even though we were working full-time day jobs, you know, we still went to shows
or played probably 5 nights a week. That was back in the day when we were indestructible, that was the way

we lived. LOL. But yeah, we would work all day and we would music all night.

SS: This is a great story you’ve told me before…that you were touring with Joan Jett and you slipped her a
copy of your CD, right?

KO: Yeah, we were on Warped Tour the same summer that she was doing it. And yeah, our first album we

self-released it and then it got picked up on Lookout! Records, and then they kind of folded. And so, when it
was time to do our second album “Because I’m Awesome” -- which is the one that I think that most people

are the most familiar with, being our first album -- we had a bunch of it recorded, but we didn’t know how
we were gonna release it yet. So yeah, I would watch her play every day from the side stage, but I never
actually said anything to her. And we had two days left. We were in Salt Lake City and the next day was
Denver
Denver and I realized, “Oh, my gosh, what if the band gets a flat tire, we
don’t get to Denver, like, today could be my last chance in my life to give
Joan Jett a CD.” And so, I was so nervous, I was shaking -- and I was about
to throw up. Like, before I could actually decide to walk toward her, my

body started moving and all of a sudden, I’m standing in front of her and
totally not ready to speak and I was just like, “Hi, this is my band’s CD. I

hope that you really like it…you’re one of my heroes…we need a record
label.” It was just like some rambling thing that had those points in it. And
she’s like, “Aw, cool. You know, I’ll give it a listen.” And I walked away and
thought, “Oh my God, that was not the way that I expected it to go and
I’m sure she’s never going to listen to this and she might throw it in the
garbage on her way back to her bus.” But then, a month later,
garbage on her way back to her bus.” But then, a month later, Blackheart
Blackheart Records called and said, “Hey, we’ve all listened to
Records called and said, “Hey, we’ve all listened to this.
this. We love it. We’d like to put it out.” And that’s how that
happened. So, we released two albums with them before
deciding if we were going to make this our long-term thing
and family business that we’d have to, you know, do it
ourselves with our fans. You know, we’re still really close with
the Blackheart crew. They’ve been really, really, important in
shaping us as a band. Luis Cabezas