Resonance

Diatribe:  So you guys are from Richmond, Va. There are so many great bands from Richmond, like Avail, Cloak/Dagger, Strike Anywhere and you guys, but no one really sounds alike. What is it about Richmond that promotes such great and varied bands?

Jimmy: Our early experiences with underground music actually took place in our hometown, Virginia Beach.  I had a couple of experiences with the Richmond scene growing up, but I’ll try to make a parallel using where we came from since that’s what we know best.

I feel as if the most thriving scenes are the ones that have the most independent control.  In Virginia Beach, we grew up during a period of stable venues and promoters for punk and hardcore.  This stability exposed a lot of people to different bands that were coming through our town.  From what I understand of Richmond, the same took place.  When one of the main promoters and venues in Norfolk stopped booking shows, finding a new venue forced everyone to come together.  Each show booked at a new place required a lot of support from people so we could prove to businesses that the shows could be beneficial to them.  The result at first was better turnouts and more varied bills.  As venues became more stable, though, more of the genres became disconnected.  This was due to more promoters booking shows of only one style and one type of crowd.  The old promoter was good at not doing this.  I feel as if a similar thing is going on in Richmond right now.  There are only a couple of places where smaller underground bands can play, and they are flooded.  The positive side of this, though, is that control is spread out more.  Anyone can book a show in their basement or at one of the small venues, which is awesome.  However, the period of venue desperation in Virginia Beach is definitely one where I felt that I was a part of something special by just being a member of the crowd listening.

Sorry, I kinda got a little off topic.  To answer your question, I feel as if Richmond (just like Virginia beach and any scene) is constantly renewing itself and will continue to as long as people contribute with zines to document and maintain discussion, by promoting shows, an most importantly supporting the shows (something I’ve been behind on doing).  Basically, our hometown scene taught us that if you want something to happen, you have to make it happen yourself by booking the types of bands you want to hear and playing the styles of music you want to have more of locally.   The end result is more active participation and variation.  Just to add to the list of awesome Richmond bands:  Antlers (Mike’s other band), Brainworms, Permanent, Pink Razors, the Catalyst, Wasted Time, Government Warning, Erin Tobey, the Ok bird, Landmines etc.…

Diatribe: I literally just happened upon your guys’ MySpace page about four months ago. I’ve been listening to the music you sent me constantly, but still don’t know a whole lot about the band. How did Resonance get started?

Jimmy: Most of us went to the same High School, but we all met through shows.  I was in a band with our guitar players, Boone and Adam, which was called Ariadne’s Thread.  We wanted to sound like Hot Water Music, but ended up sounding like one of those confused indie rock bands where every song is a different style.  I’m still proud of it, but we were pretty over the top when it came to playing shows.  Every show ended with us rolling around on the floor, which I think made a lot of people uncomfortable or just made us look like idiots.  Either way, Boone always wore shorts and scraped up his knees.  It was so much fun, though.  Mike played guitar and sang in a band called Vox Humana.  He has an awesome voice.

Our bands Ariadne’s Thread and Vox Humana put out a split together around 2002 and broke up shortly after.  Boone, Adam, and Mike started playing together and writing songs for Resonance in 2003.  The band was initially intended to have a different singer.  I ended up trying out and joining the band.  We’ve had a couple of different bass players before our current downstroke warlord (term borrowed from the Hot Snakes) Mick joined.  He played in a couple of Virginia Beach Hardcore bands like HoldxOut, Falling Down, Ammunition and Iron Boots and he currently plays guitar in Wasted Time and Tarpit.  We released all of our recordings independently and played mostly within the state lines.  We then broke up for a year, but felt we could do a lot more with the band, which brings us up to date.  This is the best line up I think we could ever have.  Everyone is really good friends and we’re all pretty much on the same page musically.  I’m madly in love with all of them…which makes things interesting sometimes.

Diatribe: How did you get hooked up with Collapse Records?

Jimmy: Our friends in Tarpit were put out by Collapse, so Bob Shedd heard us through them.  Boone actually plays guitar in Tarpit now, though they are only doing two more shows.  So yeah, Bob heard us when we were broken up, but he still wanted to release our old recordings (Thanks Bob!).  Then when we got back together, we decided to do a split with our good friends Permanent.

Diatribe: I know you have the split 7” with Permanent, but do you have any other albums currently or some coming out soon?

Jimmy: Collapse is in the process of putting out a 12” of all of our old material.  It’s called “Transfuse.”  I’m super stoked because the songs were remastered by Paul Miner and the layout looks awesome.  We’re also currently beginning to write for an LP.  We only have a couple of songs so far, but we’re planning on recording at least ten this summer so keep your eyes out.

Diatribe: Now, will “Transfuse” feature the songs on the Resonance 2004-2006 CD you sent me?

Jimmy: Yep.  It’s basically a collection of all the material we recorded before the split.  We used that cd layout I gave you for our last show.  It was originally supposed to be a discography for when we broke up.

Diatribe: You guys broke up for about a year right? What was the reasoning behind that, if you don’t mind me asking, and what was the inspiration for reforming?

Jimmy: The break up took place a little after all of us, except for our Adam, moved to Richmond.  Most of us were playing in, or starting, other bands and it became harder for us to find time to practice.  After a while we realized that the band wasn’t a priority.  Without any progression, there was no use in staying together.  We decided to play what we thought were gonna be our last shows so we could avoid getting to that point where playing the same songs becomes just an emotionless routine.  After a year of being apart, we found out that we missed playing with each other, and for our friends too much.  At first it was just a way for us to hang out since some of us don’t get to see each other often.  Recently, though, we’ve begun to focus on growing musically as well.  So yeah, it wasn’t anything too crazy.  If anything, I feel as if we’ve grown to become more agreeable over the years for the most part.  The break probably helped us out more than hurt us ‘cause it put things in perspective.

Diatribe: I got a little off track there…is there a tentative release date for “Transfuse” yet?

Jimmy: I don’t know the exact date, but everything is pressed except for the lyric sheet.  I’d expect it to be out within the next month or so.  The split is available right now on revhq.  I’m really excited because they’re mostly on clear vinyl.  I usually don’t care about what color my records are, but I just love the way transparent records look.

Diatribe: Have you been able to do much touring?

Jimmy: This is something we’re working on right now.  After more than three years we’ve yet to really hit the road for a long period of time.  Some of us have school and all of us have different jobs, so it’s really hard to work around schedules.  Along with this, none of us have a van and Mike and I don’t even have cars.  Our friend Wolfgang has let us use his van and Permanent has helped us out a lot by playing shows with us.  I’m hoping that this will happen more ‘cause they’re an awesome band.   Recently we’ve become friends with a band called Endgame through the internet.  We’re currently working on putting together some shows with them.  They’re also really awesome.  I haven’t heard a band pull off their style without sounding stale in a really long time.  It’s seriously a breath of fresh air.

Diatribe: Yeah, I enjoyed the Permanent side of the split as well. It was a pretty well rounded album…Permanent supplied the 80’s hardcore kind of vibe and you guys definitely laid down the intricate ‘post-hardcore’ hammer. If I said you guys reminded me of earlier Hot Water Music, would you be offended?

Jimmy: Haha. No way.  We’d be flattered.  I was surprised you grouped us in with such amazing bands for the first question.

Diatribe: You guys totally deserve any accolades that get thrown your way. I don’t get stoked on too many bands anymore and I absolutely love the albums you sent me…I can’t wait for more. But speaking of the bands I mentioned earlier, what were some bands that got you interested in the punk rock and hardcore communities in the first place?

Jimmy: Thanks!  Locally, Virginia Beach bands like Project 208, Lost Tribe, Handplant, and Wallstreet were my early favorites.  Local bands were what inspired me to find out more about underground music.  The band that really made me feel engaged with the punk/hardcore scene, though, was Kill Your Idols.  When “No Gimmicks Needed” first came out I fell in love with every song.  The next time they came through, I went up to Andy and talked to him about one of the songs that helped me get through a lot of crazy shit.  They played the song that night, which was incredible.  After this, I was hooked.  Another catalyst I remember was when my friend Brad Santiago showed me footage of Hot Water Music playing ‘Eating the Filler’ in a basement.  I didn’t have to be there to get chills and the feeling that something special was going on.  Our tastes have definitely spread out over the years , but we all share the love for Jawbreaker, Lifetime, Hot Water Music, Samiam, Rites of Spring, Fugazi…basically a great deal of Dischord bands- even new ones like Faraquet. I might not be speaking for everyone on that, though…but damn is Faraquet awesome! So yeah, the list goes on.

Diatribe: While we’re on the subject, are there any particular bands or styles of music that you just can’t stand? And does one of them start with ‘Avenged’ and end with ‘Sevenfold’? We try not to hate on bands too much, but we definitely like to break balls.

Jimmy: I actually had never heard this band until you mentioned them.

Diatribe: Oh man, that is a minor miracle; you’re one of the lucky few.

Jimmy: I just looked up their MySpace.  My feelings can be summed up with Charlie Killing Squad’s picture comment:

“dude that paper zachy is going to sign i have that out of that one magazine! i think its the gitar world one but yea i havent read it in a while but i still i love it and love it!!!!!! i was going to get the guitar world magazine the one with zachy and syn and their guitars are on fire but yea my mom had a BITCH FIT and told me to put it back cuz it had devil look a like people on it and i told her to fuck off but yea that made me soooooooo angry grrrrrrrrrr!!!! wrarrrr!!!”

Succinctly put Charlie Killing Squad….succinctly put.

Diatribe: Holy. Shit.

Jimmy: On a serious note, I never really get too fired up about bands unless they’re promoting hateful ideologies.  It’s really disheartening to see so much sexism and homophobia at punk and hardcore shows.  It’s a total boy’s club a lot of the time.  This sort of one track mindedness I think transfers into music as well.  Some bands just mimic the past instead of making a unique contribution.

Diatribe: From a songwriting perspective, where do you think you draw most of your inspiration from?

Jimmy: I can’t really speak for the rest of the members, but I can let you know where I find most of my inspiration as the lyricist.  All of my lyrics are very personal, but with many of them I try to juxtapose them with social/political awareness.  The song “pilot flame” is a recent example of this.  I currently live in a neighborhood that is becoming rampantly gentrified.  The song is basically me confronting my own personal contribution to this and considering related buried pasts existing in Richmond Virginia that have continually been overlooked and threatened. These pasts exists all over the city in cemeteries that are left unpreserved and in the innumerable sites where slavery took place around two centuries ago. One of these literally and metaphorically paved sites was the center of a great deal of debate a few years back. Shockoe Bottom is a historically significant region where over 300,000 African-Americans were sold to slavery in the South and thousands of African-Americans have been buried.  A little while ago the Global Development Partners began a plan to invest in the building of a Richmond Braves Stadium. 

But yeah, the curse of slavery still exists. In this case, it exists in the glossing over of the African-American struggle and the lack of homage given to the 300,000 lives sold into bondage and the thousands buried who helped to build Richmond and this country. The resurgence of white flight back into the city is continuing this curse, in my opinion (here white flight took place in ‘73 when segregation was legally ended in Richmond).  It seems as if all economic investments to the city are still only serving the same types of people it did two centuries ago.  It’s a complicated problem and I’m oversimplifying it, but basically it’s about understanding where you are and the complex histories that have led to the power structures that exist within and around you.  Generally my lyrics do this in one way or another.  I’m a strong believer in making the personal political.  I was also recently introduced to a writer named Eduardo Galeano who expresses history through the eyes of people affected by it.  This is essentially a people’s history.  The end of the song is an attempt at this by tying my surroundings and thoughts to my personal feelings.  It ends with a couple of lines I wrote when I was still in love with someone that didn’t feel the same.

On a more positive note:  my friends and family in Richmond and Virginia Beach are constant sources of inspiration in and out of music.  They really keep me sane.

Diatribe: It’s great to hear when someone is approaching their lyrics with intelligence and thoughtfulness; it’s a very refreshing step back from the ‘I got stabbed in the back, girls suck’ school of songwriting that a lot of bands have enrolled in. You sound like you might be an avid reader and as a lifelong bookworm I have to hear about what you like to read.

Jimmy: All right, these are right off the top of my head and in no particular order.  I really love Kurt Vonnegut (who doesn’t though?).  I also recently read Ken Kesey- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for the first time and loved it…I haven’t had a chance to really get deep into Sometimes a Great Notion.  I’m a big fan of J.D. Salinger’s short stories, Ray Bradbury, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn was an awesome read…I also got on a short sci-fi kick a couple years ago with a couple of Robert J Sawyer books, my favorite of which was Calculating God, Maya Angelou’s I Know why the Caged Bird Sings.  As far as history goes, I love Howard Zinn’s approach to defining history through the people who have experienced it (the concept I mentioned earlier).  We could also group Bell Hooks under that category although she’s probably better described as a feminist theorist and cultural critic. Alice Walker, Richard Wright, Edwidge Danticat. Right now I’m in the middle of a couple of books that I’m excited about, but don’t have time to read:  Italo Calvino- Invisible Cities and John Kennedy Toole- A Confederacy of Dunces; this book is hilarious so far, I definitely suggest it. As you can see I kind of go through little phases with my reading.  They’re all over the place.

Diatribe: How would you describe your music to someone who’s never heard it?

Jimmy: This is a funny question for me because Adam and I were having a hard time doing this exact thing a week ago when we played with Permanent and End of a Year in Brooklyn.  One of our friend’s roommates asked us what we sounded like, but she didn’t really know about the bands we were comparing ourselves to.  Adam stumbled over his words and ended up saying we sounded like “happy meets angry.”  Even now, I can’t think of a better description than that.

Diatribe: I’d say that could be an apt description. Alright, I always need to have at least one stupid question per interview, so…what do you think of mullets?

Jimmy: Okay, mullets are fine by me…I’m pretty sure I’ve got the beginning stages of one right now.

Diatribe: And completely apropos to nothing…who’s your favorite Ninja Turtle and why? Mine’s Raphael. Sorry that was two dumb ones.

Jimmy: I liked Raphael, but he was a little too moody for me, although I could totally relate to him.  I’d have to go with Donatello.  He could be silly like the rest, but he seemed a bit more focused and meditative.

Diatribe: So, what’s next for Resonance?

Jimmy: I guess for now we’re gonna be mainly focusing on taking time out to write a full length.  When not doing that, we will probably be trying to play out of town as much as we can.  Once the full length is done, I’m hoping we’ll set up a more substantial tour for summer. That’s about as far as I’m thinking ahead for now.  We’ll see.

Diatribe: Jimmy, I think we just about got it covered. Do you have any final thoughts in closing?

Jimmy:  I think we just about covered it, too.  Thanks for doing the interview, Chris.  I had a great time with it.  Take care.