Have any of you played in other bands? We have all played in other bands over the years, but now we are only dedicated to Crimson Riot.
What are your names? / Who plays what?
Roxy Gunn - Guitar/Vocals
Chris Reject - Bass Guitar/Vocals
Ryan J. - Drums
Have you had other previous members? Nope, it’s been just the three of us from the start.
Where are you from? Las Vegas, NV. Chris was born here. Ryan and Roxy moved here twenty years ago from California.
What year did the band form? June of 2017
What's your style of genre? We best fit in the pop-punk genre, but we have a lot of other influences that make up our sound.
What inspires you? Our love for music and being able to share our music with the world.
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? We are
currently in talks with an agency here in Las Vegas. It’s a great step that we feel we are ready for. At some point in any business you have to start letting people help you to grow because you can’t do it all on your own when you want to get to a certain level.
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? We are always open to talking to interested labels. We have been talking to a few recently and might actually take a small deal with one we have been talking with. Labels can be great if you get with the right one. Depends what you are looking to get out of the relationship. Our biggest factor was getting distribution of our music and some good label-mates to tour with.
What are your songs about? Our songs range from serious world matters to just silly things we encounter on a day to day basis. We have a song about milkshakes as well as a song about the wrongs of the US government and media. So, we’re kind of all over the place when it comes to song lyrics.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? It’s a collective really. Someone might have an idea and bring it to a writing session and we’ll all build on that idea and see if it can be something. Other times, someone might bring in a whole song with lyrics. We really don’t have a “formula” or set process for writing.
Do you compose in a certain inviroment? Not at all. We’ve written songs in our studio, restaurants, parking lots, bathrooms. We never know when inspiration will hit us.
Have you done any covers live? Yes we have. On occasion we through in a familiar tune by The Ramones, Rancid, or Green Day.
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs?
Least amount was 4 - two people, the bar tender and the sound guy.
Most amount was around 300.
What ages are most of your concert attendants? Most are between 21 and 50. We haven’t done many all age shows.
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? It can vary based on the set time we get. Sometimes we put a cover or two in the set if we need to fill more time, but that’s a rare situation. Currently we’re playing most of our original tunes from our debut album, “Classy Punk for Trashy People”, that was just released in May of 2019.
Do you have a regular place you play live often? We have a “home spot” in Vegas that we really like. It’s called Evel Pie. It’s a pizza place with a small outdoor venue in the back.
What was your first gig like? Our first gig was terrifying. We had only been a band for about three weeks and we were opening for some big acts. We didn’t know if anyone would like us or how the songs would be received. Thankfully, it went great and it turned out to an amazing start to our band.
What was your latest gig? We just got back from tour so our last gig was in Tulsa, Oklahoma and a really cool bar called the Mercury Lounge. Great place with awesome people. The other bands we played with were super cool too. We had so much fun there.
Where have you played live this year? We did three US tours this year and played a number of local shows, so it’s been a lot. We played in California, Utah, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, Colorado and at home in Las Vegas.
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? We started selling merchandise right from the start. At our first show we had a three song demo CD that we gave away for free and we had t-shirts and stickers that we sold. We now have tons of fun stuff including baseball type collector cards of each of us.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? With the modern technology, it seems necessary to have your music on the digital platforms. However, we are finding more and more fans wanting CD’s and a lot really wanting vinyl records of our music. We think that people are wanting something tangible and love the artwork that comes along with CD’s and records.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? It has definitely changed the whole business of music. It has it’s pluses and minuses but we feel that embracing the tools available and not trying to go against them is key. We don’t really agree with how the digital platforms operate, but it is what it is. Being able to reach fans all over world is awesome, but we like to meet the people that actually buy our music. It creates a more personal touch to what we are doing. We love our fans and always want them to feel like they are a part of our musical journey.
What do you think of my work? These questions are great. We don’t get asked some of these very often or ever. Anyone that promotes music is awesome in our eyes.
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? We hope that we can get some new fans and be able to share our music with them.
Do you have any role models or idols? We do! We feel very lucky that we have some wonderful friends that are serious veterans in the punk music world that we consider role models. They are always happy to help us, advise us, and give us honest feedback.
Why do you think that they exist? They worked hard and had the drive and patience to grind it out over the years to become successful in the business.
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Definitely both. We’ve played with new bands that were amazing that got us pumped up before we performed. Watching some older bands perform is always inspiring, mostly by how they can deliver an incredible, entertaining show.
What have been your biggest obstacles? Thankfully we haven’t had too many obstacles. Probably the hardest part of what we do is getting the tours booked. It’s tough to get a venue to book you if they’ve never heard of you before. We have a pretty solid press kit and some great online content that definitely helps them accept us to their venue.
What advice would you give other bands or artists?Work hard, do what you love, have patience, and practice your ass off.
Do you have any new material? Our debut album “Classy Punk for Trashy People” just came out in May of this year, so it’s still kind of new. We have about half of the next album done so we might have some new songs out as singles soon. We are thinking about making another music video for one of the songs on the current album. We have two out now.
What are your web sites?
Do you have something to add? We are very grateful for this opportunity to do this interview. We love doing these. Thanks so much Robex!
