I know you probably get it an awful lot, but first off I'd like to ask about the name. It's pretty blunt. Do you mean it as a statement on its own or is it maybe a little tongue in cheek?
Daryl: None of us are very religious people, and we especially aren't fans of organized religion. So I guess a more accurate name would be Organized Religion Equals Genocide, but that just wouldn't look as good on a t-shirt. It's kind of a joke to piss off uptight Christians, but it also has a lot of validity and I stand by the statement 100%.
Danny: Yeah. Us too.
What's the scene like in Newhall? It's not really a place I've ever heard anything about before I heard of you.
Danny: A lot of bikes, burritos, beers, and park shows.
Adrian: Newhall is part of the suburb Santa Clarita where we have mostly house shows and park shows. There's also The American Legion Hall which rents out the space for too much money, but we have shows there too.
Daryl: Because it's a suburb of Los Angeles, the general scene is pretty young. But there's a lot of great, young bands that are really good. There's also an art college in the area that Danny and Adrian go to. We put on shows there too. And then the art college kids sell the local punks drugs and everyone is happy.
Did you go through a line-up change recently? I noticed in some of the pictures of you there's a girl singing but in others it's a guy. When did that happen? What's the current line-up?
Danny: thats because we PASS IT AROUND, this means that adrian and i take turns with who is singing/playing guitar and who is playing drums.
Adrian: Danny and I switch off for different songs, but they are always the same ones, like I am never going to sing "Lost Time" and Danny wouldn't sing "MySpace Devil". But Danny does sing like a girl, and I do look like a boy.
Daryl: The line-up has always been the same and we'd just as soon just change the name than try this band with anyone else. Unless Ian Mackaye wants to come in on second guitar or something.
It looks like you've got a bit of a tour lined up, going all the way out to Texas and Florida. Have God Equals Genocide done a lot of touring? Ever toured outside the USA?
Daryl: Sometimes Danny goes down to Mexico, but no, we haven't strayed very far from home.
Adrian: We've never even played outside California, but we definitely would like to play outside the U.S.
Danny: we'll go wherever the food is good and the drink is a plenty.
Are there any big tour plans aside from this October/November jaunt?
Daryl: One thing at a time.
You've put out a couple of 7"s in fairly limited quantities (each is a pressing of 300). Are there plans for any other releases? Anything a little bigger, or are you planning on keeping it low-key?
Daryl: We're not trying to keep it low-key, we just don't expect more than 300 people to want these records. I'm fairly surprised we've gone through as many as we have. Definitely more 7"s in the future. Most likely a split with Shang-A-Lang.
Danny: We are also putting out a cd of demos and odd songs that people may not have been able to hear in the past for this tour, which will be titled Over and Dumb With It, Vol. 1.
It feels like your second 7" is more varied than the first in terms of the sound you guys have. Like the track Life of Doubt starts out with a pretty calm passage before it gets into the whole punk rock main part of the track. Do you feel like that's the way your sound is evolving? Do you think the future will be more an exploration of that, or will you be moving on to something different again?
Danny: this is way too complicated of a question to even begin to try and answer.
Daryl: I think I can answer it. Im not really sure how that part of "Life of Doubt" came about, it was probably just some shit we stumbled upon in practice, but we liked it, and we're not going to limit what we can and cant sound like so we just kept it part of the song. Is our sound evolving? We're all adventurous people, and if we come up with something we like, we'll keep playing it.
Adrian: I think we like to try new things, but there is a structure we like to try to keep a lot of the time, like fairly short simple songs.
Daryl: As long as it gets fast, I dont mind having a slow part.
When did the band really start to kick off? Did it take a while for people to start noticing you?
Daryl: We were all in bands before that used to play the same shows and stuff. So people were kind of used to us being in bands and the fact that we were just all in the same band didn't change much. Except that now we were in a good band.
Danny: From the first show we played the crowds have been fuckin sweet. The only big difference i see now is more new people seem to be enjoying the stuff and getting into it, as opposed to only our group of friends.
California's got a pretty long punk legacy, and a lot of brilliant music aside from that. What kind of stuff did you grow up listening to?
Daryl: A lot of mainstream rock, then a lot of mainstream punk, then DIY punk and I think I finally found the kind of music that suites the kind of life I want to live.
Danny: When i was younger i skated, thats what got me into punk rock, but i grew up listening to lots of different kinds of music, my favorite is still probably the beatles though.
Daryl: We have really different tastes in music, but we all love playing and listening to music so we have that in common.
Are you quite conscious of particular influences on the band?
Daryl: Bits and pieces.
What are they?
Daryl: Not so much sound but there are definitely musicians that we admire for more than their music and that definitely influences us to make the music we make.
Danny: Most likely whatever we are listening to, or digging at the time ends up influencing whatever songs we are writing.
Adrian: I don't really know what I'm doing most of the time, or how the music I listen to affects this. I know I love live music and performing, watching bands play and people pushing each other around in delight. I saw Killer Dreamer play a few months ago and that was fucking sweet!
Daryl: We're influenced by gang vocals and break downs.
Are there any sites, or bands, or labels, or anything you'd like to tell anybody reading about?
Daryl: Dirt Cult Records, Stress Domain Records, Rhythm Syndrom, Pangea, Catch Your Breath, Charged, Razorcake, Fresher Flesh, Small Pool Records, Zomo, Neato-Bandito.
Adrian: No School Fridays, Bedbox, Balinese Gamelan!
Danny: The Beatrayers, The Boy Orbison Mens Choir, iji, Golf Masters, and the Griznar Music Collective, checking out griznar may give you a better understanding of where the spirit of this band originated.
Daryl: Pterodacdudes. SOAR!
Any last words or advice?
Daryl: Look out for "God Equals Funicide" koozies come soon.
Adrian: Be good to touring bands and support local (and living) artists.
Danny: If you ever are asked whether you want your meal, mild, medium, or spicy, always stay in your comfort zone.
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