Suburban HorrorSo how did Tipper's Gore start?

Tipper's Gore: Tipper's Gore started I think a few years ago, Dave and I had wanted to be in a band for a few years and we knew Ryan from his other band and we kinda came together and practiced one day, you know we wrote like 2 songs that night and kind of went from there. We all kinda knew each other from going to shows and things like that.

SH: So what made you guys get into the hardcore sort of deal?

TG: Well, you know we all grew up with punk rock and everything, and everything involved from there, we got into a lot of the older stuff, we liked it, and that's kind of what we decided to make.

SH: What does hardcore mean to you guys?

TG: Ryan says fun. We all had to kind of be here so we don't mess this up, we didn't want to have just 1 single member messing everything up. David says hard core is "going at it and not holding anything back" and playing what we feel.

SH: You guys operate as one whole, there's no frontman in Tipper's Gore?

TG: No, we keep it as a whole band thing.

SH: What's the worst thing about censorship that you can think of?

TG: It just goes against the first amendment ya know? It says what it says and there shouldn't be any censorship. We all prettymuch agree that parents should be the ones who decided what their kids should listen to. Government figures or authority shouldn't be the ones telling us what we shouldn't do, or which cds or movies are ok. Ans David says "Expressing ones self is the most beautiful thing anyone can do."

SH: Are you guys stoked that the Republicans aren't so much in charge anymore?

TG: I am personally. Big Red just paused. David says it's about time we had a change, me personally, I think it's a good thing. I don't exactly think there's too much of a difference, but I don't think much of a change is coming now. The system is pretty corrupt.

SH: Who are some of the better hardcore bands that you guys think are playing right now?

TG: Right now? Direct Control, Strung Up, some of my favorites are Roundhouse Rampage Bad Antics, DOP, Chronic Seizure that list goes on.

SH: So you guys have this song "Enough Is Enough" seems like some dude you guys don't like, who's this about?

TG: Actually what happened is we were at a show once, and in Orange County there's a lot of fights at shows and everything and Dave was at a show and there were four people who were all about beating people up, and not enjoying the music and he'd had enough of it.

SH: What show was it?

TG: I think he said it was Angry Samoans at the Galaxy.

SH:Were they skinheads?

TG: I don't know, but it happens all the time, ya know, one fight starts, six people start blowin it up, we feel you should be blowin up punk not fights. You need to chill instead of beating everybody up, we're in the same scene here.

SH: You guys did "Guns Equal Death" for your second song, does that reflect anything personally, any personal experience?

TG:I'm not sure about the whole band persay, if they've had any personal experience with guns or anything, David's actually the one who wrote the lyrics for that one, but me personally when I was 10 years old I had a gun pointed at me and it freaked me out.

SH: What happened?

TG: I was walkin home from school and these guys thought it'd be funny to point a gun at me. I was like 10 years old so I wasn't happy.

SH:Like point blank?

TG: It wasn't like they walked up to me and pointed it at me directly, I was like walkin home and turned a corner and they pulled up in a car and had it on the dashboard and kinda pointed it at me and freaked me out.

SH:What city was this in?

TG:This was actually in Huntington Beach

SH:What do you want people to get from a typical Tipper's Gore show?

TG: Ryan says for people to say "They're awesome", I persoanlly want, it's a pretty big fuckin rush when people know our lyrics, or know our songs, and are jumpin up on stage and just goin crazy, I like that. When people are into us it really gets me going. Davey says he wants people to walk away thinking we're intense, and they've never seen the type of energy we put out.

SH:What do you guys do for school or fun?

TG:Collect records, we're all record nerds, some of us skate a little, go to shows, Big Red watches porn a lot, we jam a lot and practice.

SH:How do you guys feel about the hardcore scene today?

TG: I think it's a different vibe of it around, I mean I wasn't around in the 80's when the first wave of it came, but I think there's a new wave, and there's a lot of bands who are working together to make it, I think everyone is just pretty much helping each other to get the other bands records out there. New labels starting up, it's alive and well, there's a whole underground network going on.

SH:What's on of the better shows you guys have experienced playing?

TG:One of Ryan's was us, JFA and Rabies at the Knitting Factory, good show, we just played with DoA and that was a fun show, when we played with Stitches at Chain Reaction, that was an amazing show, especially since Orange county is the biggest following for us out here.

SH: That's your home town right?

TG: Yeah

SH: Any crazy stories from shows, anything nuts happen?

TG:We were on tour in Oregon, playing at the Tokyo community center and some guy had to go to the bathroom, and just walked in and started a fire so the whole building was covered in smoke and he was splashing water onto the thing trying to put it out, show wound up getting cancelled, people coming from all over Oregon, it was nuts. We were playing Gilman and some drunk guy kept talking to up about coming back to his hotel room and getting to know him a little better, then he came inside and started yelling "Fuck Lachance" and we don't know who Lachance was, but we think he was a war vet or something.

SH: Did you guys get to know him better though?

TG:No we never got to.

SH: Cool man that should do it for me

TG:No worries, thanks a lot man

SH: Thank you, cool, thanks again

TG:Anytime man.

- Patrick