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House of Heroes
By NatalieBisignano
Published: November 15, 2008
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House of Heroes
Interview Date: October 17, 2008
Band Members: Collin [Drums], Tim [Vocals & Guitar], Jared [Guitar], and AJ [Bass]


Can you introduce yourself for the readers at For the Sound?
Collin: Hey we are House of Heroes collectively, and I am Collin and I play the drums.
Jared: I’m Jared, and I play the guitar!
Tim: I’m Tim and I play guitar and sing.
AJ: AJ. Bass…Guitar. Bass Guitar.

For someone that has never heard of House of Heroes before, how would you describe your music and your live show?  What should people expect?
Tim: GUITAR. VOCALS. HOUSE OF HEROES.  HOUSE OF HEROES.
[laughing]
Tim: No but really, if they’ve never heard of us.  Expect a lot of rocking.  I don’t know, it is kind of modern rock with a classical, more of a classical rock spin.
Collin: Dynamic.
Tim: Dynamic, yes. A lot of harmonies. A lot of riffs. A lot of rocking.

Why should they check out your band over any other band?
Tim: Because it’s better. DUH.
[Laughing]
Tim: Well. It is a free country, man; you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.  But uh, check it out, because we would like to keep on doing it.  And that is the only way it is going to pay the bills.

What is the first cover each of you learned when you started playing music?
Jared: “Alive” - Pearl Jam.
Collin: Probably something off of Dookie, Green Day.
Tim: “Paulie” by Nirvana.
AJ: “Say it Ain’t So” - Weezer.

What is your favorite cover to play now?
Tim: I like playing “I Fought the Law”. By, so and so… and The Crickets
[Buddy Holly and The Crickets], covered by the Clash.
AJ: We played a Beatles song tonight, so Beatles songs are fun to play.
Jared: You can’t go wrong with The Beatles.

This isn’t your first tour with Relient K.  What is it like being back out on the road with those guys?
Tim: Awesome. People actually come. [Laughs] No, it’s really great, they are really great, really fun guys.  We get along really well. And people come.
Jared: Yeah, people come to the shows haha.

House of Heroes with Relient K

You guys recently played at Cancel out Cancer, a benefit concert in Chicago, can you tell me a little bit about that experience and how you got involved?

Tim: Basically, Treaty of Paris wanted to do a tour with us in the Summer but for whatever reason it just didn’t end up working out for us and so we kind of felt like we screwed them over.  But fortunately I guess we didn’t and they were cool enough to invite us to play that show.  And so we were, “Yeah! We will come and play there.” Like, to play at The Metro just blew my mind.  It’s just one of those venues that you hold in high-esteem, um, so yeah, those guys…the Treaty of Paris guys are the best.  So nice, so cool.

What kind of upcoming tours or projects do you have after this one?

Tim: Let me answer your question with a question.  How many bands are you friends with that you can put in a good word with to get us on their tour?

So you guys are just heading back home before another tour comes up?  What do you guys do when you are back home, do you guys have jobs waiting for you?

AJ: Yes!

What do you all do?

AJ: I paint houses.
Tim: I fabricate granite countertops.
Jared: Thievery!
Collin: Barista.

If you guys weren’t in a band, would you still choose to work in the music industry, or do you think you would pursue totally different career paths?

Tim: I don’t know if I would choose to be in the music industry, but I would still choose to make music.
Jared: I can’t do anything else!
AJ: I don’t know. That is a loaded question. The industry itself is pretty terrible.

How come? What do you think is wrong with it?

AJ: The industry is a lot less about being creative and more about finding the right gimmick.  And it is really hard to make money, even if you have a great gimmick.
All: [Laugh in agreement]
AJ: It’s really hard to make a living.

Do you think it is going to stay like that? A lot of the talk right now is that there are just a bunch of “clones” of bands, but I’m not sure how long that could last…

Tim: One can only hope that it won’t stay like that.  It kind of seems like it’s not as easy to make a record and make a million dollars anymore, so hopefully it will beat out some of those pretenders and hopefully real music fans will continue to pay the money for the music that they love. And then the cream of the crop can rise to the top of the crop and the
rest of the cream.
Jared: Crop top gives off that cream. CROP TOP. Errrrr.

HOH


Your myspace/twitter tells me that someone tried to run you guys off the road today? What happened?!

Jared: Tim you tell the story. He was driving haha.
Tim: Alright, So. We are driving along in our van and trailer, which isn’t the swift-est of ve-hicles. And there was a semi.  And it was a three or four lane high way and we were in the middle lane, one of the middle lanes, and there was this semi.  So I went into the left lane to pass the semi, and I was gonna be there, you know, 30 seconds, max.  And this jack-whole comes screaming up on my rear in his brand new Mercedes, and, I wont describe the guy, but he just looked like a jerk.  He is on my butt and he is trying, he is getting on the edge and flashing his lights and telling me to get over.  And I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I’m passing a truck I can’t get over right now.”  So I finally get over and he’s passing me and
you know, I’m going to give him the evil eye! Because he is such an idiot, you know.  And he is yelling and pointing and all.  And so I got angry and started yelling back at him. So then, in his MERCEDES versus our 15-passenger van.  He starts swerving over at us like he is going to ram us into the wall or something.  So we get over a few lanes, cause its like…I was more shocked than anything.  Had I been thinking, I would have scratched up his Mercedes a little bit.  So I mean this guy was justlivid, I’ve never seen road rage like this before. And so eventually he speeds off and about a quarter mile up the road, we see him doing the same exact thing to a dude in a black car.  And we were high-tailing it to him, cause if he got off the freeway, he was gonna get it.  But fortunately, his car was fast. And he eluded us.

Well I hope he at least got a ticket later that day.

Tim: Yeah, let’s hope.  If you get caught running someone off the road you better! You could get arrested.
Jared: Murder!
Tim: It’s dangerous out there.

Do you think that the current trends and use of MySpace, Twitter, Blogging, and other networking or personal accounts is overwhelming in that it crosses too far into your or really any musician’s personal life?  I know that you all use Twitter…does putting yourself out there so accessibly to the public ever get to be too much?

Collin: I think it does in a way.  I think it is a double edge sword where there are benefits to it.  Cause I think kids like to feel special and feel informed.  And kind of feel like they are in on things and it’s cool, there is good stuff to it, but its also I think a big important part of, ya know, all the biggest, greatest stars they are more mysterious and private.

Yeah it seems like there is that divide, where bands in the past had their privacy and separation from the fans, where now it is almost expected that they talk about their private lives with fans.  To a certain extent at least.

Tim: I really get, kind of bothered by that.  It used to be, I don’t know, for us it was cool when you went to a show and you would run into your favorite band out back afterwards and be like “Oh my god, there they are! And you would say, “Hey, what’s up.”  Now it’s like, kids are like “Where is the rest of the band?” “We need you out here signing stuff for us?  We
need a pictures.”  “Why isn’t everyone out here?”  And it’s like….
Collin: And now its like, kids just want your picture…kids don’t buy your CD.  I mean it is fine, but it is also like, we are broke!
Jared: For example, last night, some kid came up to the singer of Ludo and was like “Hey, take a picture with me.”  And he was like, “Okay!” He took some pictures, was talking to them for awhile, and he was like, “Do you guys have our CD?”  And the kid was like, “Well, no, why would I buy it? I can just get it for free online…Will you take another picture with me?”
YEAH.  And he’s just like…how can you do that
Tim: You know, it really isn’t that we are against that…we just really want people to listen to our music. At the same time, we still support the bands that we love and go out and by albums.

Collin: I mean, by all means, go out and download it, but if you like and support that band and go out to their show…buy a t-shirt or a CD or something to support us.

I think there is a big misconception among young fans that, their ticket sales go straight to the bands and that is their way of supporting them, and I mean, them being there is definitely a way to show their support, but at the same time, they need to realize that the money doesn’t necessarily go to the bands.  Not much of it anyway.

Everyone: Yeah, yeah exactly.

What is the coolest thing a fan has ever done for the band?  Or the weirdest?

Tim: Sacrificed their life.
[laughter]
Collin: Go on…hahaha
Jared: We get lots of random stuff. Sometimes. Collages.
AJ: I think just people letting us stay at their house.  I think that is a pretty big deal.  They don’t know who we are.  Or like, the stuff I’m stealing or what I’m doing in their bathroom. Hahah. They just trust us. That is good, cause when we save money on a hotel, that’s huge.  Especially when it is a nice house!
Jared: With lots of stuff to steal haha.
AJ: In the other cases…we’d rather stay at a hotel! We’ll pay the 60 bucks.
Tim: We do have some really cool fans though who bring us gift baskets full of stuff.  Really cool stuff like, a friend of ours down in Florida made kind of a poster, plaque type thing for us full of pictures and like framed it for us.  It’s cool!
TimHOH
Do you have any messages to our readers at For the Sound.com?

Tim: Listen up you’s! Do it for the music!
Collin: [Grabs the mic and starts tapping the recorder] Listen to that!
That’s muuuusic!
Tim:
Message for the bands: Stop makin’ crappy music.
Message for the fans: Stop buyin’ crappy music.
You’re smarter than that.  Or are you?

Anything you were hoping I would ask about? That you wanted to talk about? What do you never get to talk about that you secretly want to?

Tim: Sexual preference. yes, sexual preference of the group. Go.
Jared: I think it is a family website haha.
Collin: We really, really want to go overseas!
AJ: Australia and Japan. Go to the UK. They have crazy fans too.
AJ: Or UK.
Collin: Mongolia. I want to go to Mongolia.
Tim: That would be awesome.
Collin: Japan most of all.
Collin: Mongols love rock music.
AJ: It’s true. According to Bill and Ted, that is their new adventure.

We should end on a funny story. Do you have a funny story?

Tim: Um, no. We have no fun.  "We’re a no fun kind of band."
[Laughing]
Tim: We were harassing some drunk co-eds last night.
Collin: That was fun.
Tim: That WAS fun.

What did you guys do?
Tim: Just hollerin’
AJ: Hootin’ and hollerin’
[Laughing]

Haha is there anything else you want to end on?

Drunkin’ Co-eds!

Thank you to Jeff Risden and Chris Albin for setting up this interview.  Check out the Official MySpace of House of Heroes HERE.



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