Ed: In an effort to bring everyone who has been living under a rock up to speed, give us the who/what/when/where/how/why of Torche.
Steve: Well, if they`ve been living under a rock, then they probably never knew anything about us prior to Torche. We`ll start fresh here. So, who? Rick, Jonathan, Steve and Juan. Rick and Juan are also band whores and they`ll tell ya all about themselves. Haha.
Rick: Hahaha, yes, we are band whores. I`m Rick. I play drums. I also play in a grindcore band called Shitstorm.
Ed: How does the writing process work for the band? Is it a group effort? Is there one main songwriter? Is there a team of highly paid professionals who write your music, create your dance moves, and tell you what to wear?
Steve: Yes, exactly! Unfortunately, we write the music and then I butcher it all with my lame ass vocals. Juan usually tells me what to wear `cause I’m the only gay man without fashion sense. We write all the music together, but I’m usually alone in the vocal department.
Rick: Yeah, there`ve been a few songs that we`ve even written around drum parts or rhythms that I would play that the dudes liked. A good example of that would be the track "Safe" on the record. I was fucking around playing the opening beat to that and Steve was like "FUCK YEAH MAN, lets use that!" And by the way, there`s no double bass in that! Every review says there`s double bass drumming in that track!
Ed: When writing new material and/or recording, do you guys have any rituals or habits you fall into?
Steve: Yeah, I tend to think of the worst moment of my life. Sorry, I just watched Team America and it slipped out.
Rick: Usually, if we`re writing a new song based around someone`s guitar or bass riff(s), these dudes get into the habit of forgetting I`m there, haha! No one fucking listens to me `cuz they`re too busy arguing about who`s riff idea is gonna go next. Little do they know that I am really the genius behind all of our best songs! Isn`t that right Steve?
Ed: I read that you are entering the studio this month to record a new EP. Is the recording process very hands-on for you all?
Steve: Well, it turns out we`re not doing the EP anymore. We`d much rather have more material on the next record since most of our songs fall under the two or three minute mark. Seems to work for Slayer, but we tend to get some flack for it. Torche is planning some massive US touring by fall of this year and most likely up until we record the next LP in spring. In all honesty, I’d rather just go in, record all my parts, and let then someone else do all the work. And, if I wasn`t such a control freak, maybe I’d give that power to someone else. But I have too many ideas I want to try out so I’ve gotta be hands on for most of it.
Rick: I wish we were still doing the EP. A second record sounds like a second headache in the studio to me. But, I basically record my tracks and then don`t do anything at all after that.
Ed: How was the reception from the crowds, as well as the bands, on your last tour? (If I may play fanboy for a moment, I caught your show in Chicago and was absolutely blown away.)
Steve: Well, surprisingly, it was good. Kinda weird, more of a younger crowd. Early shows definitely suck and "scenester kids" suck as well! DoomRiders and The Daughters were incredible bands to play with. They are all sincerely great dudes too. I can`t wait to do more shows with them. We did a couple of shows with Mastodon and they were unbelievable as always. I love those guys! Who else did we play with? Baroness! Great fucking band and awesome dudes. Emissions was mind-blowing again. It almost seemed like we had a little welcome wagon as we pulled up 30 minutes after we were supposed to start playing. It was a rough 18 hour drive. I could kiss Greg for still letting us play, but I won`t…haha.
Rick: It was definitely a fun trip, can`t wait to do it again. I think a good majority of the Daughters crowd wasn`t really into what we were doing. Hopefully we broadened a few horizons along the way though! Can`t wait to see those guys again as well as the DoomRiders and fuckin` Mastodon!
Ed: Any interesting Led Zeppelin-esque stories from the road? Feel free to make them up if you have none.
Steve: Dude, soooo much pussy and destruction! Oh, and thank goodness for Cracker Barrel©!
Rick: Mine and Jon’s other band, Shitstorm, had a chance to play two nights on this tour, which was sweet. Our vocalist P-Dub (my younger brother) was Torche`s roadie so all three of us were there and it worked out nicely. One show was an after-party at a house in Iowa City where we used the equipment that belonged to the dude who lived there and the place was left a wreck! Broken shit, missing glasses, total destruction. The second show we played was in Savannah where somehow during our set, one of the kids who was thrashing around ended up stuffed unconscious in the fucking fireplace of the room we were in. WHAT THE FUCK??? I don`t know how it happened, but he was all right in the end and it was pretty crazy.
Ed: What is everyone in the band listening to at the moment?
Steve: I`m always listening to my old records. I`m getting old (haha), 31, and tend to listen to more of the stuff I grew up on than most current music. However, the new Big Business record is flawless. Jared puts me in tears with his voice and what he does with it. Seriously, some of their stuff is so sad, serious fuckin` crying. NO ONE but Big Business has done that to me for a long, long time. I`m also a huge Karp/The Whip fan as well. I was listening to Remission from Mastodon today. I dig Comets on Fire, Jesu, High on Fire as well as Coldplay and a couple of new mainstreamers. Um, I had a dream last night about seeing Guided By Voices live and I heard a bunch of their stuff in that dream pretty clearly. I guess that counts, right? Haha…Older stuff on my listening list at the moment includes: Sadus (demos and 1st LP), Righteous Pigs, Dark Angel’s Darkness Descends, Husker Du, Bad Brains, Swervedriver, Death’s Scream Bloody Gore and a few others. Kinda been in a thrashy mood lately.
Rick: I`ve been listening to so much different shit lately but for the most part, I guess mainly really brutal metal. Revenge, J. Read from Conqueror`s current project, is fucking INSANE. So good, so brutal. I`ve also been jamming to Japanese hardcore with my brother as well. He and I are always getting each other into new shit. I guess you could say my play list looks something like: Braindeath, Wolfpack, Worship, The Rentals, Aphex Twin, Cryptic Slaughter, Nightmare, 324, Archgoat, rjd2, m83, DoomRiders, Lip Cream, Kraftwerk and The Melvins. Just lots of different shit.
Ed: What are the goals of Torche for the next five years? And, if you care to answer, what are the goals of each member of Torche for the next five years, music related and non?
Steve: Well, hopefully we`ll still be a band in five years. I just want to see where we go with the sound and if we`ll still inspire each other in the years ahead. That`s my biggest goal is to just keep it all together. I`d love a bit of success and that could be a goal because none of us want to do anything other than this. Robotic Empire Records is full force behind us, so I believe it`ll be a good future.
RICK: I want to tour, meet lots of people, see lots of great bands and hopefully make enough money so we won`t starve and die! I also wanna put out more records with Torche as well as tons of 7"s, cassettes and shit with Shitstorm. I`m also hoping for my apparel/art line (www.bliiscore.com), which is run by me, my brother, and close friend Josh, to pick up in the next five years and start making us some money. Maybe after all this shit blows over, I’ll go back to school and finish my degree in art.
Ed: Pop or soda?
Steve: Pop, just to be spiteful!
Rick: Soda!
Ed: What sacrifices, personal, business and band-related, have been made to a) get Torche started and b) to keep it going?
Steve: Well, we`re about to make Torche a business/corporation. Never done that before with a band, but for tax write-offs, etc., It makes perfect sense. I mean, we`re about to quit our jobs to do this full time, so we must make some money to pay the bills ya know. We`ve put a lot of money into this band; it would be great to keep it growing and keep us alive through it.
Rick: I`m always broker than broke. Paying $200 out of my shitty $260 paycheck to fix our van and cover the payment for this month really fucked me up! So because of stuff like that, getting parking tickets on the van, and owing guitar center lots of money, I have no life anymore. But it`ll be worth it...I HOPE!
Ed: On another fanboy note, I’d just like to personally thank Steve for keeping the bomb-string. Best. Move. Ever.
Steve: Uh, yeah, I`m pretty smart like that. Haha.
Rick: Don`t listen to Steve! I wouldn`t have let him ditch the bomb-string...EVER!
