WEST LORDS - INTERVIEW
-Could you tell us who you are and when and why you decided to create the band? Whats up, my name is Mikey I front the West Lords. We started our band in 2014. We wanted to rock out and play some oi music. Not to fast and more with a rock edge. Pay homage to our influences/kinda do stuff our own style; our own way.
-Have you played in other bands before? Yeah we have
all played in other bands, I started the Roughnecks in 1997.
-Why have you chosen "West Lords" to name the band? Band names are tough. It was either West Lords or Rad Dudes, or Angry Eagles, Ale Wind. Too many shitty names. decided to just keep it simple and run with that.
-Your music isn't fast but is like a stomping boots on the face, what bands do you think they might have influenced you at the time of compose and writing your songs? Do you feel identified with some of those? Personally bands I like Last Resort, Section 5 and Classic bands like Thin Lizzy and Rose Tattoo. Too many to name. But definitely bands like Madball and Sheer Terror are heavy influences. We identify with these bands because they are real as fuck.
-Tell us briefly what your songs talk about. The lyrics are about personal experiences, friends that have passed away or moved on. What its like growing up in northern California. -How is to grow in the north of California, what is the difference with others places? Northern California is great, we have pretty much everything here. It's like a mix of everything from all sides of the earth. Different climates. We have the tall trees walk of Giants. Mad boondocks, desert, crisp mountain air. Shitty dirty ass cities. Everything. North of San Francisco looks like a forest in Japan sometimes. Sacto has about the same weather as Bosnia except hotter. It's different because the people make it that way. We have shitty rednecks, lame ass bros that wear sperrys and yacht shorts with stupid mustaches. We have a billion fucking bikers now. A billion bicycles, dudes with tin foil on there heads. The boneheads out here turn their doc martins into fucking rollerskates, that's how you can tell a bonehead from a proper skin; his rollerskates. It's ridiculous.
-How did the idea of releasing your first EP with an european label come along? Will it also be released by an american label? Spirit of the Streets seen our bandcamp page and got a hold of us, they were great. They really helped us out in more ways that one. We put a 7" out with them. Thanks to Thomas Paradise and Mark for all they did. No one else has really shown interest. Our Ep was just a 7 song demo we put out ourselves in January of 2015.
-The EP was a limited edition of 200 copies, but I can view different covers, right? -The songs that appear on it was of some years ago? They sent us a bunch, which ruled. It was released as 1/2 red 1/2 blue. No, no. The 7 songs on our cd demo from early 2015 are completely different. The two songs on the 7" where recorded the summer of 2015. Still pretty much new cause if you don't have the 7" you can only here those jams at our shows when we play em. -Are you satisfied with the single's final result? Fuck yes.
-In the drawing on the cover we can see lots of stuff, most of them, scene topics such us boots, adidas, beer, tattoos, the trojan helmet, but... can you tell us about others such us the lion, the donkey or the HZV-1911 scarf? All elements of the our music. The song "outlaws live forever" was dedicated to the football team and its supporters i follow/support/am a fan of, Hajduk Split/ Torcida. Thats what the Donkey or Tovar was about. the HZV means Hajduk Lives Forever, or like the song "outlaws live forever". 1911 was the year the team was founded. The lion holding the football was a homage to the Dalmatia region of Croatia where the team is from. Yeah yeah yeah I live in the USA and follow a team on the other side the world.
-Does the three lion logo have any special meaning? We call it the Ultra Lion. I wanted to make a logo that was simple, but stood out. thats our mascot haha. The lion has always been a symbol of power and pride. The 3 heads and four paws symbolize the number 43. Its an old school Sacramento thing also an old skinhead graffiti crew thing, 43 Vandals. RIP Bruce Williams aka Kaper.
-Tell us a bit about the punk and skinhead scene in Sacramento. About the local bands, shops, pubs... How is it over there? Things were a lot stronger years ago, a lot of people have moved on. Still there are a few of us left. As i am doing this interview its about a 108 degrees outside, so its hot as fuck.
-Do you know when (about what year..) skinheads appear on the streets of Sacramento? There are some known crew? Could you tell about it? 43 or DTV (Down Town Vandals) was a small skinhead graffiti crew. A crew I helped start called Most Hated (where anti racist) used to exist, but doesn't anymore. There have been several crews and people back in the day. To start that rant would be like writing a book. And I wouldn't want to give any boneheads the respect of having they're names in our interview. Fuck racism plain and simple. There have been skinheads in Sacto since the early early 80's. None of them were racist from the beginning, but some ended up becoming boneheads. I came around in the early 90's when there were still nazis and we had to fight them all the time. Now no nazis come to shows, which is something we fought hard to accomplish. A lot of kids now should be thankful they never had to see the shit and do the shit we had to do to go to a punk show or to survive. It's very safe now for these people, because we made it that way. -What others bands, shops and bars for skinheads are there in Sacramento? Nothing for us, we have friends who own bars. Things are good. Tight nit scene here. Everyone knows everyone. Phono select Records is a good record store shits kinda pricey though. Blue lamp is a good venue. That's my people.
-Is there something in particular that you would recommend to our readers if they travel to Sacramento? Bring sun screen.
-Do you usually go up onto the stage? What other local bands would you recommend our readers to listen? Yeah, the stage is a nice place to do your thing. Plead the Fifth is currently my fav local band. -Do you usually play covers of others bands on live? We used to cover Astra Wally by Rose Tattoo. That's about it. Want to do a few more in the future.
-I believe that like in other areas of the US, everything related to MCs has tons of followers but, is there any kind of relationship between the skinhead scene and the MCs? If by MC's you mean Motorcycle clubs? Then no, none at all. I dont have a problem with any MC's. I would like to think they have their scene and we have our skinhead/punk scene. The reason one may think that there is any kind of relationship between the two would be because, so many punks or skins have turned into biker enthusiasts recently.
-One of your song is called "ACAB". The law enforcement is exaggerated over there as we can see in the news. Do you get more cases of police oppression for being skinheads than with any other kind of people? If your out fucking shit up, the cops are going to fuck with you. It seems today, cops only respond to calls if they can shoot someone. Cops are super ignorant and untrained to deal with just about anything. Thats why so many people are getting killed in the States by these fuckers. They operate with zero accountability, plain and simple.
-Do you follow any football team? It seems that in your song "Outlaws" you try to talk about a football hooligan group. By the way, is it a Barça shirt the one your singer is wearing in one of your gigs? Its a Hajduk Split Jersey. The guitar player from my old band Roughnecks, Kemal introduced me to the team many years ago. I have been a fan ever since. The song is about how footballs like a religion out there. But yeah I 'tried" to make a song about it hahaha. The MLS is a joke in the US, so i dont even bother following a team here. -Tell us about why follow a football team of other side of the earth (Hajduk Split)?? Like I said before, our old guitar player in the Roughnecks. My brother Kemal used to live in Split, he got me into the team years ago. They appeal to me because they have such a rich history. They are truly against modern football. Watching their games the atmosphere is insane. Before the first half there is already a cloud coming from the north stand. Watching players like Senijad Ibricic and Ante Vukusic was always exciting. Totally diff dudes now. Ohandza is fucking beast, Nikola Vlasic!!!! Blaz Sliskovic fucking "Baka" Jesus Christ!!!! They have more music than any other team. Fucking Miso "Mate" Kovac!!!!! Says it all.
-Is there anything else that you would like to add about yourselves before we finish? We are heading into the studio to record more jams soon. check out some of our tunes for free at Westlords.bandcamp.com
-All the best and we look forward to knowing more of you guys!
