The views expressed
in the interviews and reviews are solely those of the individuals providing them
and do not reflect the opinions of BacStagePass.com!
The views expressed
in the interviews and reviews are solely those of the individuals providing them
and do not reflect the opinions of BacStagePass.com!
All photographs are the property of www.BacStagePass.com and www.ExperienceMetal.com, Please do not use without permission! All photos taken by Becky or Jo unless otherwise stated!
Becky & Jonny Santos
Time: 6:24 p.m
Date: September 7, 2003
Venue: TLA, Philadelphia, PA
Place: Dressing Room
Group: Spineshank (Jonny Santos—Voice)
I had the wonderful opportunity of sitting down with Jonny Santos, the voice of Spineshank before the co-headlined Spineshank and Ill Nino show at the TLA in Philly on September 7, 2003.
My assistant, Natasha, whom is also a freelance journalist, accompanied me, and since this was her first time out to cover a show for us I allowed her to jump in with questions and comments.
Jonny was very frank with discussing his past experiences and things he went through which influenced the songs on the new album, Self-Destructive Pattern released September 9, 2003. We covered everything from the band getting together, his drug addiction to the making of the new album. The interview was both fun and serious. It all began with Jonny speaking into the recorder, “Hello, hello? Hello?” while opening a bottle of beer.
Jonny Santos: Let me sneak this beer while we do this interview.
Becky Collins: What, no drinking before you go on stage?
Jonny Santos: Not this early.
Becky Collins: First of all, I LOVE the album!
JS: Thank you! Thank you!
BC: Can’t take it out of my CD player.
JS: Thank you so much!
BC: Are you doing Fallback?
JS: As far as live?
BC: Yes.
JS: No. The only reason why is because right now even though the record is coming out on Tuesday…even after it comes out, we want to give a month or so for people to get familiar with the record and with the songs. We’re probably doing 4 songs. We’re doing Smothered, Stillborn, Dead To Me, Slavery. So we want to give it a little time to put a reaction with the kids and then we’ll start taking some old stuff out. It’s like all the kids remember is off of Height of Callousness. We’re playing a few songs off of Strictly Diesel, most of the songs off of Height of Callousness and 4 or 5 songs from Self-Destructive Pattern.
BC: Awww! It’s my favorite song!
JS: It will get there eventually. I’m hoping it becomes a single, actually.
BC: I hear a little David Draiman, Disturbed on there.
JS: No, no—As far as vocalists, I’m influenced by Mike Patton, the late Layne Staley, Kurt Cobain. Not that I have anything against them. They’re a great bunch of guys. We were around a few years before them.
BC: I know you toured with them, so…
JS: it was the weirdest thing when I first actually met them on the tour. Dan had come up on the bus and had us sign a Spineshank CD. It was so weird. It was very cool.
BC: Tell me about the name, Spineshank.
JS: Well, at this point the meaning behind it has definitely outlived itself. I mean when we first started, Spineshank was a meaning of like being backstabbed. When we first started—it was just like a dog eat dog scene out there. There was a lot of bands out there that would—one minute they would be your friend and then the next they would fuck you for a show or bad mouth you to a…I’m not going to mention any names but somebody actually went as far as calling the vice president of Roadrunner and telling them they were an idiot for offering us a deal. Just basically like in Hip-Hop terms, Playa Hate me. Instead of Congratulatin’. You know, but today it’s now outlived itself. We’re all great friends and life is all peachy at this point. And it just sounds like a cool name…Spineshank…just doesn’t sound like anything quiet. (Laughter)
BC: This album is from your experiences?
JS: This album was very rough. It was definitely the hardest record—the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life and I’ll speak for the rest of the band on that. I mean I went through a lot, you know. First of all, making the record and naturally it’s going to reflect through my music because that's where my mind is at. I was going through serious…very, very personal problems. I’m a recovering addict…
Natasha: How are you doing?
JS: Oh, I’m doing great. I’ve been clean since the last day…August 12, 2001. The last day of Ozzfest. Going through being around the people that you used to do a lot with and everything that really kind of helped me a lot to being clean…a lot of that was a very good friend of mine, that was Dave Williams of Drowning Pool. We used to party a lot together. Even though that wasn’t the cause of his death, I know it didn’t help it at all. And seeing people you know—when you see your friends start to…you know fall…you know just…
Natasha: Self-destruct
JS: Yeah, completely. And I was. So then I went into like a deep…I don’t even know. During the making of the record I got arrested twice. I ended up getting a DUI. I had to go through a 3-month treatment program. Just all this unnecessary, like foolish self-destructive pattern. That’s basically—to me, that’s what Fallback is about. Fallback is definitely about me and me fighting my demons and trying to, you know, get my shit together. It’s not like me talking about someone else. It’s basically a reflection of myself in a mirror. I’m talking about myself and you know, the one thing I never tapped into on the last two records, really, were actual relationships—friendships. Relationships with a significant other. Not to say that it’s like a fun job like a love song or whatever, but you know I went through some really fucked up shit and I felt the need to write about it. We all, this time around, it was so hard that we all saw the goal. Everyone was still angry but our anger was more focused then it ever was. We knew what we were coming to. This is where we are, here’s where we want to be, this is how we got to get there.
JS: Definitely! Definitely, I mean, this record to me…it can come out and just flop and not do shit and I wouldn’t care because it’s a record that I wanted to make. Yeah, if we all went out and made the record and somebody else wanted us to make and it came out and flopped—that’s something I have to live with the rest of my life. At least if it flops, you know what, it was there for me! My record, I’m proud of it, I can live with it for the rest of my life. You know, so if it sells 10 million copies or 10 copies it doesn’t matter.
BC: Do you feel that you express yourself and your feelings better on paper or through a song?
JS: Oh yeah, definitely! I mean that’s probably why I play music. None of us have had beautiful childhoods at home. We’re all at some point, societies throw away kids. Definitely. Tommy and I used to live in a car. I mean definitely, it’s the only thing we can do.
Natasha: Did you grow up together?
JS: Yeah. We were kids together.
Natasha: All of you or just Tommy and you?
JS: yeah. Kind of—well almost. I met Tommy when I was 11. We started our first band when I was 12 and he was 14. Then I would say 4 years later, about junior year in high school or whatever, like right when we got kicked out. (Laughter) Mike joined the band. He had only been in the country for a few years. He’s from Armenia—so he joined the band. And we always knew Rob because he was a singer/bass player in another band. We had 2 guitar players and I played bass and sang. Then I didn’t want to play bass anymore; I just wanted to sing. One of our guitar players quit, so that’s when we got Rob. We were like, “Hey Dude! We don’t know what’s going on with your band, but if you want to play bass and sing back up…” He was like “I’m in!”
Natasha: How long has the band officially been together?
JS: The band has officially been together since ’96. So we’re looking at 7 years now. We started the band in February of ’96. I remember this. I remember telling this story many times. (Laughter) We started the band in February ’96. Wrote all year, we wrote 12 songs and we recorded a demo. We recorded a 3-song demo and we played our very first show—Spineshank was opening up for Coal Chamber and Fear Factory on January 11, 1997. Oh, basically we just changed the name of our band. We changed our music because we used to be a more power metal type of band, more of a Pantera type of band. It was the same guys, you know. We just disappeared for a year and came back with new music and instead of playing for all our friends in the backyard, we just started to constantly play in Hollywood to people that never heard of us. Your friends come to your shows because they’re your friends; you know what I’m saying. After awhile you see the same faces all the time, it is like, okay when are we actually going to get some new faces that don’t know who we are—that just like us for our music. We changed our name, changed our music and came out Spineshank and son of a bitch, if Tommy wasn’t right, he said I predict, ‘cause we’ve been, you know, in a band since I was 12 years old. He said, I predict that we’ll make this demo, we will play a show and within 6 months of us playing our first show, we’ll be signed and he was right.
BC: You’ve always been on Roadrunner?
JS: Yeah! Yep!
BC: “cause they chose you or out of offers…
JS: I met my A/R guy at that first show with Fear Factory and Coal Chamber, ‘cause obviously they’re 2 Roadrunner bands. I met my A/R guy there and I just kept in touch with him. We were working it. We were at the shows every night. Passing out fliers—putting them up on the walls with staple gun type of thing. Passing out demos. Even if it was raining, every night of the week, where ever there was a hardcore show going on, we were there putting our work in. We started talking and another label started talking to us and I started telling him, another guy is flying in from this label and my A/R guy is like, I wouldn’t go with those guys and I was like, Hey you know you’re not throwing anything our way yet. That was when he was like, well you never know, you know. I go, well Dude, we’re ready. This is why we are doing it, we want a record deal…we’re starving over here. We’re still starving. (Laughter) So he took us out to a restaurant and we were just trying to get a demo deal out of Roadrunner and he just drops this deal on the table and we were like all right…well, we’ll get back to you on that. Yeah, we all went out and as soon as we got in the car we all were like Yeah! (Laughter) You know, for us being inside Roadrunner was amazing. All our favorite bands were on them, Machine Head, Fear Factory, Type O Negative, Biohazard was on Roadrunner at the time, so we were like that is the label for us and since then, Jesus Christ how big Roadrunner has gotten.
Natasha: And you’re happy at where you’re at now?
JS: Very happy. The label has really grown—the band…I feel that the band has significantly grown over the past 5 years. The label—they’re really good to us.
Natasha: Personally?
JS: Personally, oh I love my A/R guy.
Natasha: Where you are at right now?
JS: Personally, right now, I’m doing great! Someone the other day asked me are you homesick now? We already been out for like 3 months, and they were like, Man, are you homesick? And I said Nah! I have nothing to go home to, this is my home. Right now, this stage in my life, this is my home. Everything I need is on that bus. My family, my band, got my music. Tommy got his son out with him, so he’s not missing anything at home. Yeah it’s definitely better. I’m more productive right now. It’s easier to stay out of trouble. I like to think this is what we need to do. We’re not getting any younger.
Natasha: What are the ages of the band?
JS: Mike’s 26, I’m 27, Rob’s 27, and Tommy’s 29.
BC: The band’s from LA. Are you still from LA?
JS: Oh Yeah! We’re kind of scattered now. Mike lives in Pasadena. They all still live in like the Pasadena area. I trucked it down to the beach. After we put out our second record. I had enough of LA and I’m moving to the beach. I got myself a tiny little apartment down by the water and if that’s where I got to be when I’m home, then that’s where I want to be.
Natasha: You seem very frank and very comfortable talking about what you’ve been through in your life as well as your music…
JS: Well it’s kind of like my form of therapy. It always works for me. It doesn’t work for everybody to talk about it. Basically if you listen to our record, that is an open book to our lives. I don’t know how many people actually look at that. It’s almost like looking and reading somebody’s diary. For me to talk about it…kids want to know, people—the fans out there want to know. I think, to a certain extent they deserve to know. If they’re going to latch on their going to really be a part of the point you’re trying to get across. I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve ever done—bad or good. I’ve done what I’ve done; there’s nothing I can do to change it. All I can do is try to make tomorrow a better day. That’s all any of us are ever trying to do. As far as I know, there are some that, you know, they don't want to talk about anything…well that leaves a question mark and after awhile that kind of… You know…why don’t you let them know what’s going on. Well our last record went from complete self-hate…last record was just completely self-hate. This record, yeah there’s still a lot of anger and everything but I think there’s some positive messages in some of the songs this time around, where we never had.
Natasha: I’ve read that you and Tommy try to compare the positive things from this record and the rebirth process…
JS: We’ve narrowed it down to giving birth to a porcupine out of your ass. (Laughter) That’s what it is.
Natasha: Do you feel maybe that this is a rebirthing process?
JS: (Deep sigh)
Natasha: Do you, the band, the music…
JS: Yeah!
Natasha: You matured, you’ve grown, the sound, the music, and you’re more comfortable with yourself…
JS: I don’t think we’ll ever be exactly where we want to be but we’re pretty damn close. I mean, we were gone for a long time. When you’re gone for 2 ½ years…a lot changes in 2 ½ years. Anybody…especially when your young and in a band. I mean, I’m not the same person I was 2 ½ years ago. I’m different. The band isn’t the same people they were 2 ½ years ago, as well. And I always take that into consideration. Yeah, definitely a rebirthing process now. Because we’re proud of this and we’re going to fucking take this around the world. We’re going to show everybody what’s up. We take everything a lot more serious now. We used to be known as a totally dysfunctional party band…Woo Hoo! Fuckin’ sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll band. We were living the whole Motley Crue thing. It took us a long time to realize, hey, we're not Motley Crue, we're Spineshank and we’re a lot more serious of a band and we should probably present ourselves a lot more seriously. We take our jobs a lot more seriously now.
BC: More disciplined.
JS: Yeah! We used to go on stage hammered. Not even worry about how we sounded and now we take time. We make sure, you know, when we’re out there making sound check we make sure all the monitors are all right. Everything’s got to be right, because I want to make sure that these kids come to the show and they get there $10-15, whatever they are paying, because they deserve it. Instead of seeing the drunk fuckin’ losers up there. We have realized that not only is this our livelihood—this is our job. We have a responsibility. We fuck this one up, we may—we might never come back. We might never recover from it, you know. I don’t want to be 1 of those bands that gets locked in the mix that you hear like for 1 record and then they’re gone forever. I don’t want to be that band, so we take everything serious now. And it’s hard and we’ve all been very self-destructive at many times in the last couple of years. We still drink. After the show we’ll party a little bit, but like even…like tonight…we got that show in NY tomorrow which is a big thing for us because our entire label is going to be there. All the NY staff is going to be there, really important people are going to be there. We got press all day, so we’re like, hey, tonight guys, mellow out, we got a lot of shit to do tomorrow. So we’ll probably have a couple of beers, whatever, you know, maybe a couple of drinks and that’ll be it. Everyone will be in bed at a decent hour. (Rolls eyes—laughter) We never used to think like that. Never! And that shows me, that the band has grown and the band is different and oh my God, are we becoming adults? (Laughter) Ugh!
BC & Natasha: Yes! (Laughter)
JS: God, don’t tell anybody! (Laughter)
Natasha: A little too late for that, sorry!
BC: How long did the process of Self-Destructive Pattern take?
JS: 21 months. That’s a long fuckin’ time. I’m surprised that people still remember us. I’m actually really surprised, because the fucking kids are coming out. This tour is doing so well already! Tonight’s sold out—tomorrow night is almost sold out.
Natasha: Do you know how big this venue [TLA] is?
JS: Yes, it’s 600. I like this place. It doesn’t look that much smaller than The Troc. Apparently the Troc’s like what a 1000-1100 something like that. So tonight’s sold out, tomorrow’s almost sold out, so like the kids are still there. We just did the Powerman and Adema tour and more than half the people that were coming to the show were there for us and we weren’t even being billed on the fuckin’ show. People were just finding it through websites and word of mouth and other things like that. We were like…Cool! They’re still there. We sold a couple 100,000 records for the last record, but we’ve been gone for 2 ½ years. It’s hard to come back. Some people can’t come back after that. Some bands just can’t do it, you know. Kids changed their minds. Some kids listening to our music 2 years ago are probably listening to the new Radiohead record or they’re just not into that anymore. I was really happy that they’re all still here.
BC: How did you spend your very first paycheck?
JS: Bought a motorcycle. I totaled it once and crashed it 5 times, but I will not sell it.
BC: Sentimental value.
JS: Yeah. Since then I’ve bought several others but it’s a type of sentimental value. It’s the first thing the band ever actually bought me.
BC: In one word, can you describe your music?
JS: (Long pause.) Chaos.
BC: Which do you prefer, the writing process, recording in the studio or playing live?
JS: Playing live by far. Screw the writing process, screw the recording process, I’m all about the live and the touring.
Natasha: Do you have a favorite venue?
JS: The Norva in Norfolk, VA. Awesome place. They treat bands like gold there. Backstage they have a hot tub, 5 showers, a sauna, full basketball court. I’m not kidding. And the whole venue is just so pro. Pro sound. It’s a beautiful place. It’s not a dump; it’s really nice. This place won like the 3rd nicest venue in the country one year. That nice. They ask you what you want for dinner, you say prime rib, and they will make it for you. (Laughter) I’m serious.
Natasha: Is there a venue that you would like to play as in…Wow we really made it type?
JS: Yeah, Staple Center in LA. (Laughter) I guess if we can get to the point where we can like sell out 3,000 seaters, I’d be…you know that’s pretty damn big right now. For the most part, arena rock is dead, now. In order to fill arenas you got to put like a lot of bands unless you’re like Neil Diamond or something. (Laughter) I’m sure Metallica could still sell out arenas but there’s very few rock bands that can. It’s not like it was back in ’88, you know, where Poison could sell out 2 nights in some stadium somewhere, you know. So, yeah, I’d be happy when we can get to the point and sell out 3,000 seaters or something like that. Pretty damn big.
Natasha: Would you ever consider doing a benefit concert?
JS: Definitely. Consider it, if we were ever approached and it was in our means to do it and…
Tommy Decker (Drummer): As long as it benefited us. (Laughter)
JS: Tommy Decker, Ladies and Gentlemen. (Laughter) Yeah. Yeah. I would. I’ve never been asked a question like that.
BC: We’re trying to work on something.
JS: Yeah! Keep in touch!
BC: Message for your fans?
JS: We love you! (Very cute voice)
It was an absolute blast interviewing Jonny and learning about his life and his music. Pick up the new album titled Self-Destructive Pattern in stores, now. It is an amazing album. Definitely the #1 pick of the year for me!
For more information on Jonny Santos and the rest of the band, Spineshank, check out their website www.spineshank.com . I thank Jonny for taking the time out to speak with us and I hope to catch up with him again in the near future.
--Becky & Natasha