Double Clutch

I had the opportunity to chat with the guys of San Diego’s Double Clutch on Friday September 19, 2003. Double Clutch is finishing up their debut CD “Welcome to my world” in the next couple months. You can check them out at www.doubleclutchmusic.com.

LAPunk: hey guys lets start off with your name and role in the band?

Gavin: I'm Gavin and I'm the drummer

Drew: Drew, lead singer and guitar

Michael: Michael I play the Bass

Efrem: I'm Efrem and I play guitar

LAPunk: alright since you guys are fairly new to the scene, can you give us a brief history of the band?

Gavin: Well Drew and I met through a mutual friend. I was in between projects at the time and heard he was putting together a band. We ran across Efrem at a local show with his old band, we found out he was leaving and scored a sweet guitarist. We met Mike at his job at Jamba Juice, and that was it. We've been practicing and writing like hell ever since. .

Michael: well put

LAPunk: good deal

LAPunk: for those who haven't heard your music. How would you describe it to others?

Efrem: It's a pop punk kick in the nuts

LAPunk: haha

Drew: yeah that’s how we like to describe it

Drew: Pop-punk, with a lot of rock

Drew: we try to be as diverse as possible.....so most of our songs sound different

LAPunk: that’s always good

LAPunk: What kind of stuff do you sing about? Where do you get the inspiration for your lyrics?

Drew: Well I do most of the lyric writing

Drew: and I write about things we all feel.....as a band

Drew: life experiences, girls.........society

LAPunk: is there any collaboration with the rest of the band writing wise?

Drew: Yeah we’ve worked together on some of the more recent tracks

LAPunk: ok

Gavin: As far as the music goes, it's a band effort. We all contribute to putting the songs together, but Drew does most of the lyrics.

Efrem: we usually write the music first to most of our songs

LAPunk: I see

Drew: Yep, the two that we've collaborated on so far are chance to shine and when its over

Drew: both will be on our cd

LAPunk: speaking of your CD...what is the status of your guy's debut album?

Gavin: We've finished the recording process. The album is in post-production and will be out within the next month or so.

Gavin: We're looking to put together a possible cd release party.

LAPunk: oh yea?

Gavin: No word on where or when, but when we have the album complete keep an eye out.

LAPunk: for sure

LAPunk: are you guys releasing the album independently or with a label?

Efrem: we're releasing it independently, but with management

LAPunk: oh cool

Drew: yeah, our management company has helped us out a lot

LAPunk: what are some of your individual musical influences?

Gavin: I was definitely influenced by 90s rock. Stone Temple Pilots and Alice and

Gavin: chains are two of my favorite bands.

Efrem: Unwritten Law, Rufio, Sum41 and Dashboard Confessional are my biggest influences right now

Gavin: As a drummer, I pull as much as I can from many different places. I like to be diverse, which works well because that's one of the goals of the band.

Drew: I grew up listening to a lot of MxPx and then unwritten law when I moved to California, I get a lot of inspiration from them and some of the more melodic rock bands like hoobastank

Michael: I was brought up on pop punk and Nirvana, I would say Blink 182, Movielife and the Transplants

LAPunk: Movielife yeah!

Michael: also green day got me into this music

LAPunk: right on

Drew: yeah I second the green day

Efrem: and I third it

Drew: dookie was one of my first cd's

Gavin: fuck green day. jk

LAPunk: yea dookie is definitely a classic

Drew: Gavin don’t be hatin' !

Michael: my first punk rock cd I bought

LAPunk: what is in your cd players right now?

Gavin: I'm listening to the new A Perfect Circle as we speak. Amazing.

Michael: Brand New's New cd

Efrem: Dashboard Confessional's New cd

Drew: I've been listening to Avenged Sevenfold for the past few days

LAPunk: all good choices

LAPunk: lets talk about live shows.....how would you describe a live double clutch show?

Efrem: crazy, energetic, and entertaining

Michael: Energetic, and tight

Drew: Live is where we get to have fun, we like to get everyone involved

LAPunk: crazy? how crazy?

Drew: we don’t just stand behind our mics and play like a lot of bands.......we jump around.......beat each other up

Gavin: Break our stuff

LAPunk: haha that’s always fun to watch

Efrem: ya, we also get our B.T. to do the worm on stage while we take breaks in between songs

Drew: mike tends to find the highest thing in the vicinity and jump off it

LAPunk: wow don't break anything now mike

Michael: haha yea

LAPunk: what are the band plans for playing shows after the release of the CD?

Michael: were on our west coast tour now so were just hitting up the west coast

Michael: from Az to North Cal

Michael: we just want to get our music out there

LAPunk: sounds like a plan

LAPunk: since I’m from LApunk we like to know what bands think about playing the LA area. how does it compare to other venues and what not?

Gavin: Being from San Diego, LA is honestly a little intimidating. With so many people, and countless venues it's hard to know where to begin.

Gavin: We just love to play. All the shows we've played in LA so far have been great and we hope to make it up there as often as possible.

Efrem: the LA area rocks, we get so stoked every time we get the chance to play up there, the venues that we've played in LA so far have been awesome, like gavin said it really is hard to compare it to the san Diego venues

LAPunk: well we hope to see more of double clutch here in LA

Efrem: definitely

LAPunk: ok here’s a fun one I decided to throw in here.....

LAPunk: if you could have a super power for a day what would it be and why?

Gavin: Hmmm, this is a hard one

Drew: I know it's cheesy.......but I'd like to be able to fly. I always wanted to do that

Efrem: yeah, flying would be really cool

Michael: mine would be able to stop time and take a nap.... I always wanted to do that

LAPunk: hahaha

Gavin: Just having any super power would be great. I'm always stuck in the back so to have people focus on me would be cool for a change.

LAPunk: alright guys is there anything else you want to add?

Gavin: thanks to all our fans in LA. we'll come and play as often as we can.

Drew: And be sure to check out or CD when we release it.....you wont be disappointed

Efrem: yeah, I want to say thanks to everyone who has come out and supported us at all our shows and that listen to our music, thank you

Michael: thanks to everyone who listens to our music and goes to the shows

LAPunk: sounds good....thanks for your time guys we'll look for double clutch in the LA area soon! and the CD

Gavin: thank yoo

Interview by Katie Plourd