Interviews

Astoria

Interview with David & Patrick on Nov 30, 2001 by Archive Bot

This interview was conducted August 8th, 2001 outside of the Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA. I would like to thank David and Patrick for meeting with me and Charlie from We the People Records for setting up the interview. Make sure to check out Astoria's EP- Start Again that's out now.

PB: Can you introduce yourselves and what you play in the band?
David: I'm David Delfonzo and I play guitar.
Patrick: I'm Patrick Baker and I play guitar.

PB: What prompted the name change from Up for Grabs to Astoria?
David: Its kind of like when I joined the band the name just changed.
Patrick: It was something that as Up for Grabs we were wanting to do for a while, we just hadn't found the right name or the right motivation. And then David joined the band we started writing different stuff and then it was just a good name to have. We had a long list of names to have and we chose that one.

PB: How has your sound evolved since the name change?
David: I defiantly think we sound a lot more rock n roll, straight forward rock. Not so much like a pop punk band. I don't think we sound like a pop punk band at all actually.
Patrick: Everything's slowed down and more thought out.

PB: How did growing up in Orange County shape your musical preferences?
David: Id have to say that I like growing up in Orange County, and I like listening to Orange County music. But I was careful about what I took from it because there are a lot of bands that definitely try to rehash the same themes and do it to the point where the scene is saturated with that type of band. And then it becomes interesting. I think you sort of learn your lesson by growing up in the scene and by watching the other bands.
Patrick: We're not trying to be like we don't want to be from Orange County, but we're trying not to sound so stereotypical that if someone were to listen to our CD they would say, oh, this is an Orange County band.We are trying to broaden things.

PB: So how did you do that during the recording process? How did you stay away from sounding like a typical Orange County band?
David: Definitely different guitar sounds.
Patrick: Me and David spent a long time in the studio just experimenting with different guitar sounds. Just playing around with it so its not the triple rectifier, super distorted guitars.
David: Mesa Boogie all the way, we were not like that!
Patrick: We borrowed lots of amps, I mean we're not like a huge band. But we tried to make it sound like a huge band would. We borrowed lots of equipment, and tried it out until we got the sound we wanted.

PB: Are you proud of what you accomplished in the studio?
Patrick: Definitely!
David: Definitely! Recording at World Class Audio was a really good recording experience because we were with friends and they are really good people. Its such a good atmosphere, it worked out great.
Patrick: I think its great that for our first release this is something that we can build upon, just keep improving upon the sound.
David: A lot of band tend to be ashamed of their first releases. But as Astoria, I have no problem showing people what we've done first.

PB: That's great! How has the response been so far?
Patrick: Really, really good.
David: Yeah.
Patrick: We've heard nothing but praise. It hasn't really been released in stores or anything. But there is a link on our site to interpunk.com and they are selling our CD's and for being pretty much a nobody band we are selling a lot of CD's on there, moving up the CD sales ranks fairly quickly.

PB: Are you guys planning a tour to support the release?
Patrick: We actually just got back. We did a pre-support tour. We went out on a month long US tour with Limbeck and we had our CD's shipped out to us on our third day of tour so that we could sell them before they were actually released and get them out there across the country.

PB: How did you hook up with We the People Records?
Patrick: I met Charlie a long time ago through Drive-Thru, back as Up for Grabs.
David: I met Charlie at a prom. We were eating dinner together.
Charlie: One of the four school dance I've ever been to in my life.
David: And he was telling me that he was working with Drive-Thru and I kind of kept him in mind and then he showed up again.

PB: And then out of that friendship you guys decided you would work well together?
Patrick: Yeah, Charlie's a great guy and We the People and Dustin and they wanted to sign us, but we really wanted to have our first release as our own. So we came up with a deal that works really well for both of us. We are very much affiliated with them, but the CD is still very much our own, very indie release which is kind of the way we really wanted it, so it worked out really well for both of us.

PB: A lot of emo pop bands have come out in the last few years, so what differentiates you guys from the rest of them?
Patrick: I don't really think that we have that much emo sound to us, as a lot of other bands do.
David: I think its hard to ask a band member what his band sounds like because we'll always tell you what we were aiming for or what we were going for.

PB: So what were you guys aiming for?
David: A very much straight forward rock.
Patrick: This will sound lame, but sort of a radio friendly pop rock band.

PB: What inspired you guys to play music in the first place?
Patrick: Just going to shows back when I was kid, through Jr. High and High School. I just started getting into the scene locally and I was just like, man, I have to play the guitar.
David: My brother had an acoustic guitar that he got from my aunt and he started playing some old Lisa Loeb song and it freaked me out because I had heard it on the radio and I heard him playing it and it tripped me out that someone could play it that wasn't on the radio. That got me to pick up a guitar and learn everything I could.

PB: What would you be doing if you weren't in a band?
Patrick: Id probably have a ton of songs on my own but with no where to play them.

PB: So you guys can't picture not playing music?
David: I think it's easily a mandatory part and aspect of each of our lives.
Patrick: We all go to school and work and stuff like that, but not having the band would be pretty detrimental to all of our social lives, our lives in general, every aspect.

PB: What kind of music have you guys been listening to lately?
David: Um, I don't know. A lot of odd stuff.

PB: Like what?
David: Like, I don't know. There is this guy Surge Gainsbourge and he's really good. When I listen to music at home that's all I listen to, and Superdrag.
Patrick: I've been listening to a lot of classic rock stuff. Like Air Supply and Boston and a lot of 80's Brit pop stuff.

PB: What's something that you would like people to know about your band?
David: I don't know, I definitely think that one of our strong points right now is coming to our live show. We kind of make sure that everyone has a good time. We're not shoegazers by any means, we don't sit there and play our songs and stare at our feet. I'm not dissing any bands like that, I actually like a lot of bands like that, but that's just not us. We bring the party and want everyone to know it.