Interview with The Braces!

-Who are The Braces?

TB: The Braces are 4 dudes who love punk music of all types and love playing it, whether it's to 1000 people or 5 people.

-What would you say keeps you guys going? I read you've been a band for 4 years or so.

TB: We didnt really take ourselves seriously at first we just played for fun it's only been about two years that we've been taking things seriously because we feel that our music is finally at the point where people who have never heard punk music or of punk music can get into it and yet its still somewhat classifiable as punk that's something we wanted to accomplish

-Awesome, Who are your biggest influences?

TB: In terms of ideals and beliefs the clash and minor threat in terms of music nofx, the clash, bad religion and osker in terms of lyrics elvis costello and the lawrence arms

-What are some of the things you have learned from being part of the punk scene?

TB: People have ego's and opinions that aren't based on fact or logic in the punk/hardcore/pop punk scene punk kids pride themselves on being open minded but most are close minded not to alienate a bunch of kids by stating that but I've seen a terrible band throw out a kid dynamite cover and have the hardcore kids eat it up and then a band right after covers lifetime who most hardcore kids don't know of and the hardcore kids dont give two shits (lifetime is the band that dan yemin was in prior to kid dynamite) on the other hand,I love punk kids/hardcore kids/pop punk kids a lot of them are really great guys once you get to know them and get their respect it is just irrationally hard to earn it

-Hmm, what are some of the things that you have noticed changed 5-10 years ago in the music scene?

TB: I remember my first show ever was with TSOL, Death By Stereo and Audio Karate when I was 13 in 2000. You would never see a show like that these days an 80's hardcore classic with a metalcore band and pop punk band and thats even probably a step below what it was like before my time everything is getting sectioned off I'd rather play to a bunch of eager eared 15 year old's than a bunch of nose to the air arms crossed 17 year olds who won't give a shit about you if you don't have a breakdown

-Lets get back to the band haha, What do you have recorded/released?

TB: We recorded and released our first LP ourselves when we didn't really know how to play our instruments but we didn't care we decided to do our second album ourselves after offers from a few producers because we felt like we would be able to make it how we wanted, instead of paying an excessive amount of money to get something we didnt want plus we were broke

-Haha, How many shows do you think you guys have played? Tell me about the best and worst show you guys have had.

TB: I've lost count our best show was definitely our CD release show for our last album we got to play with some of our best friends and it was amazing to hear everyone singing along plus we were in charge of booking it and running it so we got to do it how we wanted the worst show we've had was on tour in riverside we were playing with a bunch of hardcore bands and we had to run the sound ourselves because the venue didnt know what they were doing and we had to provide our own mics and duct tape them to the stands it wasnt bad because of that though that would have been fine but we played and pretty much everyone cleared the room but these two dudes and so i basically spent the rest of the show pretending that these two guys were our biggest fans and when we got off stage one of the guys was like "youre a fucking dick onstage, I wanted to sock you"

-When writing songs, where do you get your inspiration for lyrics?

TB: It depends I know that our bassist Fern takes a lot of inspiration from things that are currently going on in his life I think it varies for me Some of the songs on our album were about things that happened to me a long time ago and others were written two weeks before we recorded I wrote the entire song "I'd Rather Be Hot" stuck in traffic on the 101 freeway on the way home from work then figured out the melody on ukulele because that's all I had at my apartment and then from there worked it into guitar.

-What would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard of you.

TB: haha thats so tough, Poppy Punk that isn't necessarily pop punk and isnt necessarily punk. I guess if I were to use bands... It's a mix between Blink 182, Bad Religion, Lifetime, and Jawbreaker.

-Are there any upcoming tours for The Braces?

TB: No tours planned, but we want to play as many tours this year as possible so if any band reads this and wants to go out on tour with us let us know and we'll start planning.

-Thats it for the interview, any last words?

TB: check out our friends in the sheds, blackout 101, the bogarts, lightwaite and check our friends' record label No Sleep Records!

check them out: myspace