In a sea of music where so many bands seem to sound alike and lack that creative gene to make them stand out, you would think that sounding different would be a blessing. Well, it is for the most part, but it also proves to have its own unique set of problems. Let’s take the quartet of bad-ass trail blazers from L.A. also known as 9Electric. The band consists of vocalist Thunderwood, Mikey Lopez, Micah Electric, and CaseyDC. Their sound is so different from their surroundings that some don’t know how to classify them or who to group them with for shows. They don’t really care because they know once they hit the stage, they’ll win just about anybody over. Their latest EP Control is just a small taste of what’s in-store for next year’s full album release. I spoke with lead vocalist Thunderwood and guitarist Mikey Lopez before a show recently and they clued me in on all things 9Electric.
What’s going on Mikey?
Mikey Lopez: We’re hanging out at this actual recording studio at the venue that we’re playing tonight. It’s cool and apparently it looks like a recording studio with a venue inside of the main room. I’ve got our singer Mr. Thunderwood here with me.
Thunderwood: Hey Johnny, how you doing man?
I’m doing pretty good man! I guess you guys don’t have long before you have to go on?
Mikey: I think we have about an hour and a half.
Well, let’s get to cracking at this. Ok, the music nerd in me has to ask about the band’s name and if there’s a story there?
Mikey: Yeah, it’s nothing too major, but when we were starting out, we threw around a bunch of names. One of the names was Epic, but I think it was already taken by another band. So, then we started thinking the band has this whole electronic thing going on and there’s an electric vibe to the whole thing, so we really liked the word electric. At one venue, we were going to go with Red Electric, but it was on a Facebook page or MySpace or some weird shit. We started putting words on a piece of paper and I think I suggested nine because it’s my favorite number and then we noticed that the number 9 and E have this symmetrical thing going on, kind of like a unity or harmony to it. So, that’s pretty much how we came up with it.
Thunderwood: Some people even say that it rolls off the tongue kind of like 911, kind of like a big warning or something like that, but that’s just kind of serendipitous to the choice of 9Electric. It didn’t really, unless maybe subliminally or subconsciously it had something to do with the choice, but not anything on purpose.
Mikey: Oddly enough, we still get a handful of people who call it Electric9, which is pretty annoying.
Thunderwood: The Electric9, I am loving that (laughs).
Let’s talk about the new EP Control, which is the follow-up to Can You Feel This.
Mikey: This band started in 2011 and recorded that EP with Mikey D from Snot. He’s a cool friend and a great producer. He had worked previously with Gemini Syndrome who we also know and are friends with. He pretty much accosted me at the gym one day and told me that he wanted to be the one to do it. His positivity, determination and really hard sell made us go with him. We did that in 2011 and we never actually put that out; we only sold it at shows. Last year, we actually recorded a full length album that was slated to come out at the end of October via our label Street Smart Recordings, but a lot of things changed, as they do in the music industry. The team decided they wanted to go with an EP for now, plus cut some of the older songs out, put a couple of new ones on and finish a full length album and put it out in March or April of next year. Control has six songs on it and a couple are brand new including “Bullet Tooth” with Heidi Shepherd of Butcher Babies, plus “Time Bomb”, “Feel This” and “Goodbye” have been around for a years, but never released.
Did you guys produce this one yourselves?
Thunderwood: Micah Electric, our drummer, primarily handles the production. He’s an engineer. He records it and programs the sound and things like that and we all contribute in different ways to different parts of the production. Logan Mader also contributed to some of the recording as well.
Mikey: We actually co-wrote “Timebomb” with him. It’s all done under Darth Mader Productions which is pretty cool.
I freaking love that song with Heidi! How did that all come together?
Mikey: I met Heidi briefly around 2008 or so. Then in 2011 we were putting together these great shows in Hollywood with us, Gemini Syndrome, and Butcher Babies. Otherwise would come down from Vegas. We were putting on these shows at The Roxy on Monday nights that was going over really well. I really wanted to do something a big show with Butcher Babies in Hollywood, so I went out to the 48 Hour Festival, which the Butcher Babies were opening, to talk to them and Otherwise about doing this big show. As time went on, I kept hearing the song “Bullet Tooth” and I thought it would be cool to bring her up and have her sing on it and it kind of went from there. If we did a show together, she would get on-stage and sing the song with Ron. We finally got to record it and it’s fucking rad.
Thunderwood: Those are always fun, especially live because each person has their own performing style. That song, in particular, is kind of tongue in cheek and about over doing it and partying, but being a champion of it. You know, if you’re going to rage, fucking do it right! I thought, knowing Heidi and her off-stage antics and all the fun that we’ve had together, it would be such a rad story to be telling on-stage together, with a definite truth behind it.
Speaking of on-stage styles, you guys are exhausting to watch and that’s just on YouTube. You definitely don’t come out there and sit on barstools and sing to people. That’s beyond high energy and I don’t see how you do it.
Mikey: It’s not easy and when it’s in the moment it feels great, but over the next couple of days you acquire all these weird injuries all over your body. On this particular tour, we’ve played different sets from 30 to 40 minutes and even an hour a couple of times. It’s pretty difficult to get into the mindset of which one you’re going to do. I think when you have 40 minutes, you have to take it easy in a couple of spots and in an hour you pace yourself even better, but you pretty much go all the way from start to finish.
Thunderwood: I’ll put it this way: all four members of this band listen to everything from The Bee Gees to Snoop Dog to the heaviest of metal. As far as being in a band or a performing act goes, I don’t think that any of us would choose anything any less intense than what you can be in that moment when you’re making that connection with the people watching.
You mentioned before that the last album was only sold at shows; what are the plans for this one?
Mikey: We’re selling it at shows and it’s available digitally everywhere as well like iTunes, Amazing and stuff. The full length next year will be available in stores, but strangely enough, not that many people buy music in a store anymore anyways, so it’s not that big of a deal. If you go to a Target, it’s just stuff like Beyonce, Barbara Streisand and a bunch of shit like that, but they specifically cater to over-the-top major label stuff and there’s nothing wrong with any of that. I think most people just choose to get it on-line or on their phone now.
If they do carry music, the sections keep getting smaller and smaller.
Mikey: Yeah, eventually CDs are going to be inside of a Coke machine (laughs). I’m a lover of music and a supporter of it, but I instantly go to my phone to get new music; I don’t even think about going to a store to buy it.
Thunderwood: Those who are willing to go out and have the experience want to do it to the fullest extent and they want to bring home something under their arm.
Mikey: That’s why it makes the selling of a disc really good at a show.
9ELECTRIC – “Feel This” Official Music Video
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What’s been your biggest hurdle so far as an indie band?
Thunderwood: I would say it would be the inability of people to pigeon hole us into a certain category because we are a hybrid of electronic music, hard rock, a little bit of 90s resurgence and a bunch of different things. People are reluctant to like it immediately or at least in theory, but if they see us live I think we pretty much can win any stranger over. If you go to 7-11 and there’s this new product on the shelf and it’s just like Mountain Dew, but it’s just like Red Bull. If you jar someone’s brain and make them think too hard about something, it’s not always an easy sell. It just seems like it’s a little bit easier if you’re completely derivative of an existing sound because you’re already in the club, so to speak. For us, because that’s just not who we are and we prefer to blaze our own trail, that’s our toughest hurdle, but as far as longevity is concerned, it’s also going to be our biggest asset.
Mikey: Case in point is this show that we’re playing at tonight. It is a bunch of metal bands. We were added to it as we were passing through on our way to another gig. At first we were going to be going on last, but we have an early load in tomorrow, so the promoter puts us in the middle. It’s really cool because I know we’re going to get our arms folded people wondering, “What the fuck!?” but we’ll also get people who think, “Holy shit!” and they’ll remember our songs. We just have to fly our own flag and do what we do best. We get put on these bills with eight or nine bands and some of them are really good, but they all tend to sound the same. It’s kind of that Octane rock, which those bands are really good, but it’s all kind of the same sound and then there’s us. I’ve always loved bands like Rage Against the Machine and Prodigy and a handful of other bands that were different and they had to come out somehow because there was nobody who sounded like them when they started. If we have to blaze the trail like they did, then so be it because nobody’s going to play the tiniest violin for us.
I had a fan submit a question on Twitter asking if you guys are planning on hitting Canada any time soon.
Mikey: We’d love to go and we have a booking agent who books those tours for us. It’s funny because we’ll post dates and people start complaining that they can’t believe we’re blatantly not coming to their town. Ron is from Arizona and we used to go out there on our own a lot before we actually started touring in 2012 and we haven’t back there since then. We keep catching a lot of internet heat, nothing really bad, but just complaining. The next to last date on this run is in Arizona and those people had better show up, especially since they’ve been bitching at us for the last two years.
Another last Twitter question to wrap this up: how did you come up with your sound and who influenced you?
Thunderwood: Well, Mikey and Micah had started recording together and they were in a band prior to this one called My Evolution and they wanted to go more into the electronic realm with a little more edge than what they were doing. As far as influences, you’ve got Prodigy, Rage Against the Machine, Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails and the energy comes from bands like System of a Down and Slipknot, even though we don’t necessarily sound like them. We do like a lot of things. No shit, we do like the Bee Gees, the Beatles and a bunch of bands that you wouldn’t think we’d like and we take that pop sensibility and writing and incorporate it into what we do.
Well guys, I know that you need to go get ready to kick some ass tonight. Thanks again for taking the time to talk with me.
Mikey: Thanks for wanting to talk to us too man. We’d like to thank the fans for all of their support and don’t forget to pick up our new EP Control on iTunes, Amazon and our website. If we’re in your town, come see us!
