8/12/00/Nuclear Saturday:
Josh Nacho: It's really hard to try and compare how you sound to anything or
anyone else. How do you describe your style to someone who's never heard it?
Tom Bruno: I would like to say that we have an original sound, but that would
be fooling myself and them. We are heavily influenced by the bands we grew up
listening to. So I would say our biggest influences are Descendents/ALL,
Metallica, The
Police, Lagwagon, Screeching Weasel, Fugazi, Rush, Smashing Pumpkins, OPIV,
and any other band we ever heard. Basically everything we tried to play like
and we played to when we were learning our instruments up till now.
J.N.: You've been on a number of compilations including "Five Years on the
Streets" on Vagrant Records, and a "Punk Atlanta" comp. on Little Demon
Records. How do you decide what songs you want to put on different
compilations? Why did you choose "Better Days" and "Faithful" for "Five
Years"?
T.B.: Vagrant decided that Better Days and Faithful were the best for it,
plus it was the first two songs on the demo we sent to them. We kinda think
about who's gonna be on the comp., who's gonna probably buy the comp., and
which song we all like the most at that particular time.
J.N.: If you could tour with any band, past or present, who would it be and
why?
T.B.: Personally, I would tour with the Police. They are the only band in the
world I would kill to see. It would b awesome to get drum advice from
Stewart, John could get guitar advice from Andy, and Marc could get
songwrtiting advice from Sting. It would kick ass all around. Plus being able
to see them play
their stuff night after night frm songs like "The Bed's Too Big Without You"
to "Every Breath You Take" would be a dream come true. The rest of the guys
would have different answers, but that's my personal choice.
J.N.: What goes on in your life behind the music? When you're not playing as
a band or in the studio, what do you like to do?
T.B.: Right now I'm trying to find a job. I just graduated from Emory
University with a degree in Business Administration, so I want to put that to
good use. Marc writes songs all day and works some just to keep his gut
filled. John is a guitar teacher at a local music shop. Jace works, in his
words, "shitty fast food jobs", get him drunk and he'll tell you all about
it, just don't get into a car with him. And Jason is a Senior at the
University of
Georgia, he's trying to become a psychatrist or psychologist or sumptin'. As
for fun, I like to go to the Vault and dance all night to 80's music.
J.N.: You have a new album coming out called "Hang On" what's up with that?
Is it finished? Do you have a date yet for the release?
T.B.: We have a record that is done. We're still working out the details to
get it released. It has 13 songs. That's about it. We worked many long hours
on it, so you should buy it when it comes out.
J.N.: How is the new album going to differ from your independent release of
"I Am John Stone"? Will there be any overlapping songs? And how has the
band changed, have you become a bit wiser now, on the second album?
T.B.: We overlapped on three songs. "Last Time", "Caught Up" from Jon Stone
is on there, but they're both a bit different. We weren't happy with how they
came out on Jon Stone, so we changed them a little bit and re-recorded them.
"Odometer" was on the 513 Club's "Punk n' Pie" comp. and we redid that one
too. We have changed a good bit. We have a tighter sound than what's
evident on the Vagrant Comp. and Jon Stone. Jason is singing for us now so we
sound differently than we did on Five Years and Jon Stone. We have more
confidence than we ever have when recording because of our singer, and just
the fact that we have played together for a long while now.
J.N.: You've toured with many great bands. Who do you think was your
favorite to be on tour with, or just to play with, and why?
T.B.: Sloppy Meateaters, by far. They are a great bunch of guys and they are
always interesting on stage. They have wonderful songs and they are tight as
hell live. No Motiv are a great bunch of guys too. Roger, the bass player,
showed us a wonderful time out in So. California. Our only problem with
playing with
them is the fact that they blow us out of the water everytime.
J.N.: You're from Atlanta and have a pretty hardcore following there, but for
the kids in California or even up in New England, how do you get them into
your music? And what do you feel has really helped shape the face of music
today, to make it more broad, so more people are hearing about bands that
they might not have otherwise heard of? Do you think the internet is playing
a large role, or word of mouth at concerts, or being on compilations with
other bands that kids know and like...?
T.B.: Unfortunately today, I think it's more about image and how the public
percieves you on a visual and mostly non-musical level. If we don't go up
there and do anything onstage and let the music be the only thing displayed,
people won't get into it as much. Which is shitty. What's even worse is when
you're playing your heart out to the point where you're about to throw up,
and kids go outside and smoke a cigarette and just look cool outside the punk
rock club with their punk rock friends in their punk rock clothes with their
shitty punk rock attitudes. If they don't like it, don't come just to show up
at the punk rock show and look like you make a difference when you actually
have no part because you don't support the music. I saw a lot of that kinda
thing, from bands, from kids. Not everyone, but I saw it, and it made me
sick. What I think has shaped the punk rock thing more then anything are the
perceptions of what punk is "supposed" to be. Whatever people think is punk
will unevitably be punk. The internet has a big role in the distribution of
CD's and the fact that kids from different scenes and towns can interact,
which is cool. I dig talking to kids from different towns via the internet,
it shows how similar some of us really are.
J.N.: "Five Years on the Streets" is a great compilation from Vagrant
Records, and it has two of your songs on it, as said before, and other songs
from bands like Unwritten Law, the Hippos, No Motiv, face to face, Down By
Law, Boxer, Gotohells, Far, Automatic 7, and even Blink 182, among others.
What would you want to say to the kid who's reading this and doesn't own that
album yet?
T.B.: Well, I would say that the songs on that record are how we sounded two
months after we started the group. They were meant to be a demo and not meant
to be released, so they have a nice spontaneous quality to them. If they want
a more accurate representation of us and our music, they should hear Jon
Stone.
J.N.: With "Five Years", what band was on there that you really just looked
at, and thought like, "Wow, we're on a compilation with ___", and you just
thought it was the greatest?
T.B.: Face to Face pretty much. It was awesome to be on a comp. with all the
bands, but Face to Face is a group we all love and for me I was overjoyed to
hear my band on the same disc as them.
J.N.: After the release of the new album, do you plan on touring nationally,
or is that still undecided?
T.B.: Since Jason is still in school, we are restricted to doing tours when
Jason has a break. We hope to release the album around the time of one of
these breaks, but that remains to be seen. We will be touring extensively
come June of next year, and by then I can almost promise the album will be
out.
J.N.: Who do you think right now is a great band that is still highly
unrecognized that you want people to go check out (besides yourself)?
T.B.: There are too many bands. Open Hand, De La Hoya(a band we played with
in San Fran, they were awesome, from NY), No Motiv(they will be the kings of
the world), Some Soviet Station(Local Atlanta, they kick my ass), Small Brown
Bike, Left Front Tire(They will be big as hell). There are way too many bands
out there that are wonderful and they need more attention.
J.N.: Any final thoughts, comments, or plugs?
T.B.: Not really, just don't shoot anybody. Oh, and the opinions expressed in
this interview do not represent those of Nuclear Saturday or any of its
affilitates, just Tom Bruno. WEBSITE:www.nuclearsaturday.net
E-MAIL: nuclearsat@aol.com, nuclearsaturday@yahoo.com,
nuclearsaturday@hotmail.com