The vision for City of the Weak began in the creative mind of the charismatic Stef w/ an F. Although members have come and gone, she remains determined to take this band all the way to the top. She already commands the stage like a seasoned veteran and she has surrounded herself with what may be the missing pieces of her musical puzzle. The band just recently released their second EP entitled Disclosure which is a tasty mix of elements of rock blended with a touch of 90s pop/punk, which may sound like a familiar formula, but the band adds their own flavor to it making it unique. I talked to the band before a show with Stitched Up Heart in North Carolina and they filled me in on what’s going on in their world.
Every super hero and villain has an origin and so does a band. Tell me how all of you came together to form City of the Weak.
Stef w/ an F: I went to a music school and I started the band about two years ago in February 2012 and we cycled through members until we got to who we are today. I’m the only original member left in the band.
Was this your first band or did you have other projects before this one?
Stef: I’m from Montana, so I moved from there to Minneapolis to start a band when I was seventeen, but before that it was just little high school things. There really wasn’t much of a chance for me to do anything until I moved.
You guys just recently released your second EP Disclosure?
Stef: Yes, it was released on April 23.
You’ve also been out on the road promoting it pretty heavily?
Stef: Yeah, we did a three week stint with the Nearly Deads called The Paper Doll Tour and then we hooked up with Stitched Up Heart and Blindfold the Devil on their Skeletour. I think in all, it was about an eight week run for us.
Having played all of those shows, can you share some of the good, the bad and the ugly show stories with us?
Stef: We all get along really well, so I don’t think there’s been any ugly or bad experiences, I don’t think. Every show has been pretty successful and with really good crowds.
Brent: I met this lady at one show who was like 60 and she was all tatted up. She was so cool and we talked for about an hour; she loves music and going out to see bands play. She’s was more bad-ass that I will ever be. Mitch got felt up by an old man in a wheelchair in New Jersey (laughs).
Stef: I had a girl ask to grope my boobs and get a picture of it. Wait, that happened in Jersey too on the same night!
Brent: Mitch and I went to a stripclub after a show in Redding and we were the youngest guys there. We were like, two young dudes just hanging out in this booth and there were strippers hanging with us all night long. That was a lot of fun and we really felt like rockstars that night.
Will there be much down time before you guys hit the road again?
Stef: We’ll have about three weeks off, but there will be plenty of work to do as we prepare for our next tour with The Nearly Deads. We’ll be heading out with them July 26 through August 16 and do a mid-West tour. Immediately after that, we’ll come out again with Stitched Up Heart through September 5.
I wanted to ask you about your video for “White Fire Alarm”, which is a great video. Did you come up with that idea or do you have a team that handles that?
Stef: We have one videographer and we just kind of throw video ideas back and forth. He doesn’t tell us what to do and we don’t tell him; we kind of play off of each other. We don’t ever really have a plan; Peter Doucette drove over from Wisconsin and we’re like, ‘hey, what do you want to do?’
Jackson: We got lucky that we had the space to shoot that in too. I had just started up a company and we ended up having that space to work in, so we ended up trashing it (laughs).I had to tell my partner why there were dents all over the place. There’s one scene where you can see someone smashing a keyboard against the desk and it left dents all over it. He wasn’t mad at all; he thought it was pretty bad-ass and pretty rockstar (laughs).
Why did you pick that one as a single and video?
Stef: We actually did “In a World of Bottles and Bedsores” first, but everyone was expecting “White Fire Alarm”, so we decided to do a game changer on everyone. “In a World of Bottles and Bedsores” is a great song and it has a story behind it. It blew up more than we expected and became a hit for us with a few thousand views in a day or two.
We always like to tap into artists who may have influenced you. Can each of you name a few?
Brent: Metallica is what got me into music. I heard Master of Puppets for the first time and it changed my life. All of influences tend to be old 80s metal bands, plus Dimebag Darrell and Pantera as well.
Cody: I really liked pop music like N-Sync and the Backstreet Boys. My parents listened to Linkin Park and they got me into that and Disturbed; they really love metal.
Stef: I grew up in Montana and my parents didn’t listen to music at all and the only station that we really had was a country station with stuff like Shania Twain and Sheryl Crow. A few years later, the internet came around and made music more accessible. I listen to a lot of different stuff right now, but I really love In This Moment and Butcher Babies too. I like anyone who is willing to push the envelope. Bands nowadays, this is kind of a rant, do the indie/hipster thing and think that they can show in khakis or whatever and just stare at our feet. I respect musicians who go out there like fucking rockstars and just do their thing.
Jackson: I listened to a lot of Linkin Park and I really started loving music when I discovered Muse. I love those synth-tones where they mix synth with rock; I also grew up on the Killers as well. I love stuff that’s not as straight forward, stuff that’s in-depth and complicated, but beautiful at the same time.
I always like to talk to the front person about their childhood and growing up. Were you the class clown and the ham or were you the shier introvert kind?
Stef: As weird as it sounds, I think I was a little bit of both. There were times when I would just do weird, random shit. I remember one time when I was in the seventh grade; there was this song on YouTube called “The Potato Song.” I would get up in front of my class during quiet time and sing it and get in trouble. I didn’t feel the need to be loud or obnoxious all the time, but I did what I wanted to do. I think I’m more of an introvert now because on-stage I’m all crazy and then off-stage all of my energy is gone.
White Fire Alarm (Official Music Video) – City of the Weak
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We give a lot of support to indie bands here at the magazine and I always like to ask them what the biggest obstacle or hurdle so been so far with being indie?
Jackson: I think one of the biggest struggles is gear breaking. It’s expensive to buy and replace the gear and it’s also hard to decide the best way to pack it in the trailer so that it doesn’t come lose and break.
Stef: I think finding a sense of balance is tough. We do all the booking, all the management, all the money and everything ourselves and try to balance all of that with some sort of day job. I’m a vocal coach and trying to do that as well as booking stuff for the band is tough sometimes. It all comes down to time, which is proving to be a really big obstacle. We don’t want to wait around ten years to get discovered; we want to get out there and tour full time. Also, internet on the road is also a huge obstacle. We’re trying to book our next tour right now and it’s tough to without the internet. Any obstacle is possible to overcome and we know that it’s going to be a bumpy road, but we’re smart with what we do. We’re not stupid with our money or our time; we like to get shit done.
Jackson: We’re hungry now and we look at this as a professional job. We want to do whatever it takes now to make sure that we can to that next level and we don’t want it to take ten years t reach that point.
Last question and it’s a tough one. Can each of you name two or three albums that influenced you as an artist?
Brent: I would have to go with Metallica Master of Puppets, Pantera Cowboys From Hell and Alice in Chains Facelift.
Cody: Alice in Chains Dirt, Circa Survive Juturna and Anthony Green Avalon.
Stef: Linkin Park Meteora, Secondhand Serenade Awake and Paramore All I know is Falling.
Jackson: Paramore Riot, Noisia Split the Atom and Linkin Park Hybrid Theory.
That’s about it from me; do you have any closing words for your fans?
Stef: Expect big things from us this year. We seriously love all of our fans and we like to meet you at our shows, so come up and say hi.
