This summer I was adventurous enough to venture to Cali a few times for one reason or another. One reason was to check out local Cali music. The last trip I made out to California was bittersweet. The second day I was there I hit Hollywood to see Switchblade 77 at the Roxy. Though I am not a huge fan of psychobilly or horrorpunk, I had heard good things about them and their music online sounded like it promised a good show. They took the stage with confidence and energy. The lead guitar was a zealous flame of talent and flying fingers, providing a continuous complimentary wave of strings for the ball of energy that was the lead vocals. The Roxy itself was a dive bar setting with a VIP section, but what I really liked about it was the stage. Big and roomy, it allowed the members of the band not sitting behind the skins to move. And boy did they. Running around with more energy than the crowd SB77 gave a performance that was enjoyable and allowed me to experience this genre outside of Pheonix.
Yes, my friends, they are not local. But post worthy nonetheless!
They do tour, and should be here in the valley again early 2013.
I was able to reach out to them and ask them a few questions. Their answers beg the desire to travel once again to see another amazing show. Virsatile, with a wide variety of background in music, both as a band and as individual members, SB77 outlines how they've come to be the band they are today.
Introduce yourselves!!
Hello We Are Switchblade77!
(DANNY) My Name Is Danny And i Play Bass And Do Vocals For The Band.
(ANDY) My Name Is AndyMunster77 and I Do Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar,
(MARCO) My Name is Marco and im The Drummer
(FREDDY) Im Freddie Gein and I Play Lead Guitar and Back Up Vocals
How did SB77 come to be: What is your history?
(ANDY) I Started The Band In Summer Of 2003 WIth Some Of My High School Buddies. The Original Line Up Consisted Of Myself On Guitar And Back Up Vocals,,, Jackie77 On Lead Vocals, Raul On Bass, and Missile on Drums. Yeah Thats Right i Wasn't The Original Singer We Had a Chick Singer at First I took Over On Vocals around January of 2005 After She Decided to Leave The Band. We Had Many Line Up Changes. 6 Different Bass Players and 3 Drummers. Danny Join The Band as a Drummer around 2005 and Recorded an E.P with us. Around 2006 He Left Due to his Hectic 2 Jobs. He Re-Joined As our Bass Player in 2010 After We Got Back From Our First American Tour. Marco Joined The Band In The Summer Of 2006 and Has Been Our Drummer since.. Freddie Gein Joined The Band As Lead guitar In The Summer of 2008. I Think This Is The Best Line Up We Ever Had. We Work Together to write music and We listen to each others critics.
Why the name switchblade 77?
(ANDYMUNSTER77) Why Not! LOL ha ha.... I always Been A Big Social Distortion, Misfits, And Elvis Presley Fan. The "Switchblade" Came Out Of A Social Distortion Song Called "Sick boy" the part That Says "He Carried a Switchblade Knife". and the "77" Came Out of The Year The Misfits Started which was also The Year That The Horror Punk genre Was born. It Was Also the Year Elvis Presley Died.
Have you always been horror punk? What is your musical background?
(ANDY) We Were More of A Street Punk Band But We Been Maturing Over The Years. We All Grew up Mostly On Punk Rock. I also Listen To Horror Rock, Death Rock, Industrial, Rockabilly, Doo Woop and Country. Freddy Is Also A Big Heavy Metal Fan.
You guys describe yourself as having a mixture of psychobilly, horrorpunk and death rock in your music. I think it simply falls into place as being you. Do you have songs you play that are specifically one genre over another?
(ANDY) I think The New Psychobilly Is alot Similar to Horror Punk Because of the Horror Theme and lyrics. We were always booked With Many Psychobilly Bands And It catches on after Many Shows. Even though we don't have an upright Bass Many People Always Compare us to or labeled us as Partial Psychobilly. I Think It Also Has To Do With My QuiffHawk. Too Bad, Because Im Cutting it off Soon ha ha LOL... We write Mostly Horror Punk/Horror Rock and Some Death Rock Tunes. I believe We Do have Some Songs That Are Specifically One Genre Over The Other. Example: "Your Blood" "Frankenstein Monster"and "Lets Go To The Graveyard" are Straight out Horror Punk. "House On The Lonely Hill" Is A bit More Psychobilly and "Demons' Is More Death Rock and Horror Rock. The New Songs are more on The Horror Rock Side.
Do you have bands you’ve heard in the past you look up to and idolized?
We All Do... Some of us Different than others.
(FREDDY GEIN) My Biggest Influences Are Ramones, Motorhead, Randy Rhodes, Chuck Berry, And Lil Richard.
(ANDYMUNSTER77) My Idols Are The Misfits (Glenn Danzig and Michale Graves), Motley Crue, Elvis Presley, Social Distortion, AFI, Wednesday13, The Cramps, The Damned....
(DANNY) My Influences are The Smiths/Morrissey, Misfits, Social Distortion, Depeche Mode, And AFI......
(MARCO) Rancid, Misfits, A Global threat, The Casualties, The Virus and Lower Class Brats...
What is your favorite club to play?
(FREDDIE) We Have Played Many Clubs Over The Years And Had My Share Of Good and Bad Experiences. So To Have an Absolute Favorite Is Hard To Say. I Have Always Enjoyed Playing At Character's In Pomona Because We played There Many Times and Its in My Hometown.I have always liked Playing Rip's When We Play In Arizona.
(MARCO) The Showcase Theatre in Corona.....
(ANDY) Too Many Good Places to Choose From But I Would Say The Roxy and The Whisky In Hollywood, The Showcase In Corona was One Of My Favorite Place To Play As Well. It Sucked When They Closed it Down Because i Seen Some Of My Favorite Bands there.. I Used To Like Playing At Angelos in Pomona as Well... Oh And Cant Forget About Zombie's in San Antonio Texas.....
(DANNY)The Roxy And The Juke Joint Are Probably My Top Two.
Do you have specific bands you look forward to playing with?
(MARCO) Fucking RANCID!
(FREDDIE) We HadA Show On September 23rd With Naked Aggression, Im Looking Forward to that Show. I Always Been A Naked Aggression Fan So Im Pretty Excited About That Show.
(DANNY) We Played With Wednesday 13 Last Month. It was A Pretty Fun Show. I Would Definitely Do It Again IF Possible
(ANDY) I agree With Them 3. I Been A Big Rancid Fan All My Life So It Would Be Pretty Sweet To Share The Stage With Them. I Remember Seeing Naked Aggression When I Was 13 About 12 Years Ago, So that will Be Interesting. I Love Playing With Wednesday 13 so Far we shared the Stage With Them About 3 Times and We Always Make New Fans. I Would Sell My Right Nut Just To Play With Some Of My Idols Like Social D, Motley Crue Or The Damned :) Ha Ha We Actually Been Doing Pretty Good This Year Got To Play With 45 Grave, Calabrese, Wednesday 13, Frantic Flinstones to name a few.
Andy ~ Do you workout?
Yes I Do.. Whenever I Get The Chance... But Not only Me Danny Also Works Out. He's Been Doing Insanity.
Freddy and Marco ~ I understand you are both members of SB77 and another band. Is it difficult to balance both bands in your lives? How do you balance the two bands and your personal lives?
(FREDDY) It Took Some Getting Used To With Playing More Shows and Preventing Schedule Conflicts, But It Has Been Going Smoothly Now & I am Having A Great Time With Both Bands as For Personal Life No..
(MARCO) Being In 2 Bands Is Difficult When It Comes To shows. We Have To Make Sure We Dont Double Book with both bands.Theres Times when We have to Turn shows down because We are booked with one or the other.My Personal Life is Difficult Due To My Job Hours. Being An Electrician Makes My Schedule Vary.
Danny ~ What drove you to play the bass versus guitar or drums?
(DANNY) I'm Actually A Guitarist, I Picked Up The Bass To Join Switchblade77, But Playing Bass is Fun, It Gives me The Freedom To Play Around With Songs In A Way That I Wouldnt be able to do on a guitar. I also Play Drums on Occasion.
How is your local scene?
(ANDY) Back in The Late 90's and Early 2000's It was At Its Best. I Think Economy Took its toll On The Scene as well... Back In the Day Freddy and I Would Hangout in Downtown Pomona with A Bunch Of Punk Rockers... It Slowed Down The Last 2 Years, But Its Picking Right up. There's More Promoters Having Shows In our Hometown More Often, Bringing More People To Our City.
Where do you see yourselves in five years?
(ANDY) Been Doing This For Almost 10 Years and Not Looking Forward to stopping anytime soon.. We Will Be Doing More Tours Around The U.S and Out Of The Country As Well.
Are there any plans to come back to AZ?
(WHOLE BAND) Yes Definitely! We Love Playing In Arizona! We Will Most Likely Be There Early 2013.
Is there anything else you would like to share with everyone here in Phoenix?
We Will Be Back! On The Meantime Sit Back and Stay Sexy!
You heard them, Pheonicians! Relax, they will be back soon!! You can check them out on their facebook page. Give them a listen, invest in their CDs or mp3s, and take random road trips out to Pomona to support them in their natural habitat.
Cheers!
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