Interviews: District 7
Angele Lalonde writes "After incessant voice recorder problems and District 7 repeatedly coming through to help patch things up, here's an interview with all three members Tom, Scott and Adam. Great guys, I really had fun doing this interview, don't overlook them or be misled by contrary opinions which I had been before, this band musically has so much to offer, read on and listen out for D7."
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ANGIE: For someone who doesnât know your band, how would you explain District 7âs sound and what people could hope for?
TOM: You have a guitarist, a bassist and a drummerâ¦
A: Wow, pretty exciting (laughing)â¦
T: Our sound is, I donât know I donât want to say we sound like other bands but weâre influenced I guess by bands weâve listened to for a long time, NOFX was a big influence, Bigwig weâve been listening to for a long time, probably my two favorite bands are Propagandi and Blink 182. We donât sound like those bands but you could say thereâs some influences from themâ¦
A: That weird itâs true you guys are almost an in between of Propagandi and Blink.
T: Weâve just had people tell us we sound like all sorts of stuffâ¦
SCOTT: Its hard to say you donât sound like someone else, but we try as much to have our own thing.
T: Weâve even been compared to A.F.Iâ¦
ADAM: Itâs screwed up because we get compared to all these bands that we sound nothing like, we donât think anyway. Like some say A.F.I then some will say you sound like Sick Of It All?..
T: Yeah Sick Of It All and Suicidal Tendencies, (laughing), two bands we never listened to⦠We just try to go out there very night and rumble your guts. Rock your socks off (laughing)
A: So your LP is titled âAnother Last Chanceâ, what label is it released on?
T: Lameasa Recordz from Calgary Alberta. Weâre the only band right now on Lameass. There was a band called âHopeâ that used to be on it, but theyâve moved onâ¦
A: So what kind of distribution do you get, or where are you distributed?
ADAM: Nowhere, we want help. (laughing)
T: Well our label has good distribution cause they put out a comp called âPunk Chunks 2â theyâve got worldwide distribution for that butâ¦
A: Do have anything released out in Europe�
ADAM: Noâ¦
S: Like I wouldnât say we have shitty distribution, mainly because we donât have any at allâ¦
T: Lameass has very defined and distinctive ways of working with their bands, no distribution first of all, they donât like to promote things, promoting is not bigâ¦
S: Can this be edited after� (laughing)
T: I donât know I guess I just have bitter feelings right now and thatâs all⦠Weâre looking for another label right now and they know that soâ¦
A: Another big break for you guys was getting on the punkrocks.net stage for 02â Warped tour, how did that come about?
T: Well see, originally we were going to do our own stage with our label. Now that all seemed fine and dandy until we started putting stuff down on paper and realized that although our intentions were good the reality of it was far from possible. We knew we would never be able to pull it off all by ourselves. But luckily for us, there was a team of hard working people out there, the punkrocks.net crew. They were contracted by our label and let us join them for the summer on their stage. Props to punkrocks.net!
A: Also your lyrics definitely have some political undertones, do you want to be considered that type of passive resistant political band.
T: I want people to consider us however they choose to consider us, as long as itâs not badâ¦
A: Good analogy.
T: I mean I donât think our lyrics are that in your face kind of political manner, I write most of the lyrics for the songs and itâs usually just what Iâm feeling. I donât want to write things so obvious to people cause then people can take it in that in your face kind of way but then in a way I donât want to be so subtle that people donât get the message. So I try to do it in a way where people can take the lyrics of make of it what they will.
S: We want people to think about what weâre saying, we donât want to be just about music we want people to recognize our lyrics, lyrics is our main things I think.
A: If Iâm right, I think you guys used to be a four-piece right? Do you ever think of bringing that other guitar?
T: Yeahâ¦
S: Weâve thought about it, weâre keeping our eyes open. You know we donât want a metal head and we donât want⦠(laughing)
T: Weâre keeping an eye out there soâ¦
A: (To Scott) cause you used to be on guitar, now youâre on bass, do you think youâll go back to guitar and find a bass player instead or?…
S: Actually I like playing bass, but it doesnât really matter to meâ¦
T: We donât really worry about it⦠Really itâs just an option I guessâ¦
ADAM: I mean we wonât turn down any opportunities.
S: If anybody wants to help out then e-mail us… Thatâs about it. Umm actually edit that… (laughing)
A: Yeah I thought you might regret that (laughing). You usually hear of bands complaining that they canât make it because theyâre from a small town with no scene, for you guys the scene doesnât get much smaller than your hometown Hawkesbury ON (population approx.6 drug lords 300), how the hell did you guys pull it off? Why do you think youâre coming out ahead?
T: Um, weâre the only band in our town, well the only punk band. Now, thereâs a couple of new ones butâ¦
S: We just want to be like every other band and tour full time I think thatâs what drove usâ¦
T: There really was nothing else to do, Adam played hockey, Scott played basketball and I was a swimmer, we were young, bored and we wanted something to do. We were sixteen when we first started and our friends would go out and tip cows soâ¦
S: People were drinking like at 14 and going to bars while we were jamming for I donât know three years, we didnât even know what the bar wasâ¦
T: Musicâs been a big part of our livesâ¦
A: You guys recently bought a van to tour, were you going out there on the road knowing you had a fan base already or with the goal of starting to found one? Did you have any knowledge that the kids would have your music?
T: No, our first real tour was in March of 2000 we went out to Calgary because Lameass was based out there and they were like we want to meet you guys, so weâll set you up a few shows, I think a week of shows just to get out there and I mean kids didnât know who we were and stuff, it was just basically to meet up with Lameass.
S: We did get a good response though from people.
A: Thatâs how you have to do it small or not, you have to tour to make it, thatâs what will make your band come out ahead, look at Bigwigâ¦
T: Yeah, definitely a touring bandâ¦
S: We notice now that, at shows now thereâs, more kids every time.
T: You have to network and you meet bands other bands at the shows and give out your contacts and stuff and then people start getting back to you, then maybe next time you play there youâll play with an even bigger local band.
Weâve done really good on our last few tours.
A: I heard too during your recording period you guys lived 3 weeks out of your van at the studioâ¦
S: Two weeks, well half the time we stayed at my sisterâs house which was about half an hour away or with some raver guy (laughing)
T: Actually the best example of living out of our van was this summer we were 8 people in the vanâ¦
A: That would suck so much to do Warped from a vanâ¦
T: Thereâs lots of bands that do it, most of the bands did it at one point before they got on buses and stuff, we were expecting it to be hard but we were expecting to eat also soâ¦
ADAM: We almost died there! (laughing)
T: It was so hot!
S: We lived off of Yoo-hoo all summer. Ah! So good
ADAM: Yoo-hoo! And Mountain Dew!
T: We would get like 17 two-four cases of Mountain Dew and theyâd all be stacked up in our trailer, then in like three days it was all gone, it was just gross. I havenât drank it since (laughing)
A: Every live review Iâve read on you guys said you were amazing and made it a point to check you guys outâ¦
S: I only read one that I foundâ¦
A: I found a couple, actually mind you it took me all night to find anything at all, related to District 7 on the webâ¦
T: They were probably just good writersâ¦
ADAM: Yeah we paid them (laughing)
A: Do you always make it a point to put it all out there every time youâre playing live?
T: Every time we play, we try to play as good as we can beâ¦
S: And do what we want. We donât plan our jumps or anythingâ¦
A: You definitely donât just stand around from what Iâve seenâ¦
T: Weâve had shows that havenât gone very good but I guess we were just lucky there was no one there reviewing the show (laughing). No, weâve had shows though were like shit happens and stuff breaks but I mean thatâs life and part of playing.
A: Anything else guys? Go to interpunk.com and pick up your new LPâ¦
ADAM: Yeah and go to punkrocks.netâ¦
S: Some great bands to check out âOver Itâ, âStaring Backâ and âTantorâ.
T: And for sure go check out our good friends âHopeâ website and our website too www.districtseven.com, even though itâs not very good right nowâ¦
S: And check out Belvedere and Bigwigâ¦
T: How about we just do a band list later (laughing)â¦