interview with KILL The Playground
Have any of you played in other bands? Our drummer, our drummer rehearsed with a different group for a short while, i don't think he ever really got to do a show with them, he wasn't really into their type of music. i heard they paid him for it so that's always good.
How is it that you started playing music? i dropped out of high-school, didn't really know what to do with myself being home all day everyday for almost two years. I use to sleep in the living room at my moms house and every morning my sisters would get up and get ready to go to school they would go into the kitchen to make breakfast. My sisters would turn on the stereo that my mom kept in the kitchen every morning and one day the stereo was playing a song that really captured my attention, i asked my sister who that was on the radio she answered "creed" lol believe it or not, the song was "higher" my cousins/band mates still make fun of me for liking creed. i was already very into writing some sort of poetry if you can call it that, listening to that song made me want to put music behind it but i didn't play an instrument or even owned one so what i did was start beep-boxing riffs onto cassette tapes then play them back and write the lyrics as the cassette played.
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you? at the moment we are a trio but are looking for a 4th to play bass, Tony/28/guitar, Ulises/25/drums, Oscar/32/singer/bass.
Have you had other previous members? Yes, our very first bass player was eric he is a fantastic musician plays multiple instruments i believe he is an instructor as well, after he left a buddy coworker of ours took over the bass for a few shows but hard rock/ alternative/ metal music isn't really his thing he was doing it to help us out. once he left we tried one of our younger cousins out, we were coming along rather nicely but then he dumped us for a job at the sizzler lol.
Did you make music even when you were young? when i was 15 i wrote lyrics to theme songs from famous tv shows but it was all in the name of fun stupid funny shit just to make tony and my brother laugh while they played video games, while waiting for my turn.
Where are you from? Los Angeles California, Lennox, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Inglewood, Gardena, fontana those areas we all kind of grew up in the same areas.
What year did the band form? Well we have been playing together since 2001 mainly practicing, learning our instruments trying to find our sound but it wasn't till 2006 when we met Eric thats when we started playing shows, that's when things got really fun.
What's your style of genre? For along time i couldn't describe it i think it was due to the lack of musical knowledge on our part, now i would say for the most part its metal/alternative/ with a bit of classic rock, well that's what it sounds like to me anyway. My brother would say we are emo but he also categorizes tupac and billy holiday as emo lol.
What inspires you? Me personally, human emotion, the underdog, when the odds are stacked up against someone and they are expected to fail, but when gut check time comes around they pull through because they knew something no one else did. Corruption, life and death, hate, hate really inspires me, when i see folks aim hate at others i am inspired to try my best and not be like them. The idea of social change and the thought that we can try to make everything better, i mean i don't think we try hard enough but the option to do so is there. Not sure what inspires the rest of the fellas they mostly like to have fun so i would say fun, fun is good that inspires me as well.
How often and where do you reherse? Lately its a once a week type of deal, we rehearse at a musicians choice in lawndale
How have you developed since you started with the music? I feel i have more knowledge about everything now a days so that helps me write better songs, before when we first started i didn't really have any life experience besides the ape like shit that went on in high school, as a band we are much better with our chosen instruments, we are naturally sync d if one of us is working on a song that is headed in a particular direction the others can kind of pick up what the other is trying to do without even saying a word. That helps a lot when putting a song together.
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Yes, i definitely do, screen writing is something i really enjoy doing although at the moment is just for fun and to get better at the craft, just released my first short film on you tube its called thrill kill if you are reading this go watch it you can find it under the zata noriega37 channel lol no i have no shame, that was a lot of fun doing, learned some important things being behind the camera like never ever promise your crew thai food and then not deliver on that promise i still get shit for that. Also working on a comic book with a couple artists i met on an on-line website. I know Ulises was perusing a career in soccer don't know if its still a plan for him, Tony "the madman" chavez is a different story, he just kind flows not really looking for anything in particular he just is and that's fine with him as long is people are not bugging him he is happy.
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? You know we have never really been big on that we feel booking agencies are not really looking for people like us, or an act like ours so we dont tend to bother with it we are not your typical looking musicians we look more like an offensive line well tony and i do. ulises looks more like a kicker, he is the stud. lol
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? i have always thought that being a part of a label would be nice, i hear a lot of horror stories but i feel it would be a relief not to have to do everything on your own like promoting yourself, working on t-shirts finding artwork for your stuff, booking shows some of that stuff can drag you down especially when you are not the right type of person for that which i totally believe none of our members are including myself.
What made you decide to make this music? I was writing a lot of words with the free time i had on my hands after dropping out. I was hooked on a few songs i kept hearing on the radio it seemed like a good idea so i went for it and dragged the other two guys along with me. turned out it was fun, very fulfilling on top of that we were creating something of our own.
What are your songs about? We write a few love songs, we write a lot about human failure, how we fail as a race, how we fail to take care of our planet and ourselves. How we destroy ourselves and the fear that one day we will destroy ourselves completely. Some songs are about god vs the nonexistence of a god. The unfairness of existence, control over the masses by those that live to control the wealth and the resources of humanity how they claim things of this earth that should not be allowed to be claimed by greedy men or any man for that matter. How humans have become a money making machine for those in control of our way of life and those who design our way of life. Corruption and if its even possible for these things to ever change, the unfairness of war, and the men that create war simply to put money in their pockets. So depressing lol, next question
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Tony and i usually bring the riffs to the table, i do most of the lyrics though lately tony has had more interest in writing lyrics, he has yet to write his 1st complete song though but hes getting there. Uli composed his first song on the guitar mr. dave grohl over here. its actually on our new ep its called sesaria he is on that track playing rhythm guitar
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? for the most part we start with the music, there have been occasions when i right the lyrics first and then the music but thats rare, i find it easier and a faster process when we begin with the music.
Do you compose in a certain inviroment? not really, i've written songs while at work, moms room, living room, studios, my mind is always working on something so it doesn't really matter where i am at the moment.
Have you done any covers live? yes, not a lot because i hate butchering other artist songs but we have my favorite cover we have done is "hurt".
What language do you sing in? english, we have a spanish song titled "the spanish song" and im currently working on a second spanish song, i have a title for it already its called "nino,bonito,diablo" i like that title.
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? least 4, most somewhere around 150
What ages are most of your concert attendants?
similar to our age
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary?
depends on the length of the show, when we do hour shows we can play different ones take some out put some different ones in, when we have 25 minutes to 30 minute shows we typically stick to our heavy hitters, our fun songs, the ones that are gonna make you get drunk and jump around
Do you have a regular place you play live often? we played a lot at the whisky in hollywood, the blue cafe in longbeach those two were are often played venues.
What was your first gig like? disaster!!!!! some of our equipment got kicked of stage by the folks that were jumping and dancing, somebody stole the mic, i turned toward uli for a split second when i turned back around the stand and the mic were gone, it was hectic, loud violent eric was so out of it that he couldnt even play right, shit was funny it was a great fucking party though. everyone had fun.
What was your latest gig? no comment lol... 2010 at the whiskey, so we are definitely due for a show.
Have you had to cancel a gig? once for tonys cousins 15th birthday which in mexican culture are huge parties, we actually got kicked out of the line up once when uli and eric were still not of drinking age, they had to wait outside the bar till it was time for us to play they were bored tony and i kept coming outside to chill with them, we got them a six pack of beer they were drinking outside the bar so when an employee of the bar saw them he got upset lecturing us about how they could lose their liquor licence, he wasnt aware that we were one of the bands playing that night i told him we were he was shock and in disbelief it was pretty fucking funny, they still kicked us out.
Where have you played live this year? my garage
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? not sure, we've been focused on our ep so at the moment its something thats up in the air but maybe we will start at the whisky
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? we dont really sell it, we just give it away, tshirts, cds free rounds of alcohol at our shows
Where can people buy your merchandise? still not for sale, free, free, free
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? i enjoy buying records, these guys make fun of me for that too, i enjoy opening a case looking through the booklet admiring the artwork and reading the lyrics. i dont mind downloading ive done that too its also a good way to find new artists new music.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? a lot of artist have gotten rid of the middleman, the business man, artist now have more creative control over what they put out, no dude in a suit who has zero sense of creativity can tell the artist what to do with their work, thats a big victory for the artists.
What do you think of my work? i really enjoy it, i was on your page reading up on some of the interviews you have done, its really cool reading up on bands across the globe and reading their point of view on all these topics if it wasnt for your page we wouldnt know about these bands next step is to actually seek out to hear their music so i think your page is very helpful for us unknown bands.
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Well hopefully when people read these interviews they will want to at least give our bands a try and see if they like what we have to offer as artists if they do thats more people that will have interest in what we do and thats always good. its tough to get people to listen to your music when your unknown so i think this helps us a lot in that aspect.
Do you have any role models or idols? i know i have had a lot of people come and go in my life that i consider role models. people that i will probably never interact with again but in the moments that they were in my life they left an ever lasting impact. They will always be apart of who iam and who i will become thats a part of life that i really, really appreciate.
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? older bands for sure, i feel that they brought more to the table, i feel their music was more powerful and had more meaningful lyrics, we could relate more to bands of the past than the current bands we are exposed to now.Their musicianship was more appealing to us the heavier sound appealed more to us the aggressiveness, anger and frustration that was found behind their lyrics appealed more to us. We are Not really into the current rock scene that we have out in our area, its extremely soft and dominated by pop elements in their music, personally i find it hard even categorizing it as rock music. there are exceptions though there are a few current bands who's work i do enjoy but pretty limited. We are big fans of bands like Sabbath, Zeppelin,Pink floyd, metallica, ac/dc alice in chains, nirvana, system of a down, tool, the doors, queens of the stone age, uli is a huge fan of bands like at the drive in and the mars volta. I know tony is a huge fan of rodriguez, clampton and jimi hendrix, we left out a lot but if i keep going the list wont end lol
What have been your biggest obstacles? finding a bass player is for sure number 1 on the list, work schedules, not being able to completely sale ourselves to the public is also a big one, just feels awkward trying to do so, we dont wanna seem like we are forcefully trying to shove our music in your face but when you are trying to advertise and promote ourselves kinda feels like that is what we are doing. Lazy days is another obstacle of ours lol
What advice would you give other bands or artists? im not sure im even at a point were i can give out any kind of advise, if anything i would like some advise coming our way, i guess if i had to say something it would be to use music to bring a good massage to the masses, something that they could apply into their everyday lives, something that will change mindsets and change a person with in to be a bit more conscious of the world around you and not only the world that you make for yourself, there are a lot of people out there that need help and cant help themselves and i know most people feel it isnt their responsibility to help others that have no involvement in their own life but maybe if we chose to help a little more we can bring hope to those who feel we live in a hopeless world and maybe we can make this world a better place. i feel a lot of the music today especially the most popular music, the music that majority of our youth gravitates to is very negative, possession fixated and extremely selfish. It is desensitizing humanity, making us a possession craving machine and i don't feel that's leading us in a good direction as a race, i don't believe a selfish world can ever be a good one.
How do you get psyched for a gig? By hanging out with the people that came to watch us do our thing prior to the performance, take shots with them chug beers with them, that really puts us in the mood.
Do you have any new material?
yes we do, we have a 6 song ep that we just finished and it should be uploaded on to our facebook page and you tube in the next week or so we are also working on the hard copies that we will be passing out around our local cities for free. We are working on new band shirts so we should have those in a couple of weeks folks can go on our facebook page and find out how you can get a free band t-shirt and a free hard copy of our new ep
What are your web sites? you can find us on facebook/killtheplayground we also have a youtube channel (zata noriega) even though its fairly new you can find some of our work on there, we are also getting ready to launch a wix site but i dont have the details to that just yet i will keep that posted on our fb page
How can people reach you? through facebook, youtube channel, [email protected] and [email protected]
What are your plans for the future? finish promoting our new ep, finding a fourth member which hopefully will be in the next month or so and prepare to start playing shows which is very exciting
Do you have something to add? just want to thank you for taking your time and wanting to do this interview and thank anyone in advance that reads it. Continue what you are doing and we wish you best of luck in accomplishing your goals. this was fun.
