BLOOD SHED RAIN ZINE

my take on a hardcore zine
Ask me anything
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A few questions for Minus drummer and LA kings megafan Derek Kitagawa - How’d you get into hardcore?   I got into hardcore the same way I think a lot of kids in Southern California did, which was primarily through punk rock.  When I was real young I used to listen to a lot of ska and reggae.  I come from a small surfer town called Carpinteria, and funnily enough there’s a ska/reggae band from Carpinteria called The Upbeat.  The only CD I ever had with 1 of their songs on it was the first Give Em The Boot compilation from Hellcat Records, with Rancid, Tiger Army, etc.  From there, I just got more into the other bands on that comp.  The same cycle repeated itself with the Punk O Rama compilations and Fat Wreck Chords compilations.  The first band I ever played in was a street punk band when I was 13 called The Masses.  However, I felt like most of that scene revolved around getting fucked up all of the time and I definitely wasn’t into that at the time.  So then of course I discovered straight edge, which was great because it was like this haven of the same fast-aggressive music, minus the party scene.  That’s pretty much it, pretty standard.  There’s some other little key influences; my dad is a big Metallica fan, my late-uncle used to hang with Suicidal Tendencies, weird shit like that.   - How did Violation start?  Violation was started by Gary Wright, who used to play guitar for a band called Vendetta from Oxnard, CA.  At some point in time, my old band Ability played a show with Vendetta, and I guess Gary just liked the way we played or thought we were talented for our age.  So, despite not knowing us, he hit us up out of the blue and asked myself, Chris, and Nathan if we wanted to be in a band with him and his friend Mike.  He had already written the demo, and within about a week from contacting us the demo was recorded and done.  Violation was a good group of guys and we all had fun with it, so once we got going we just kept doing it.   -You were quite young when violation started am i right? How was the experiance of being in such a well known band young? I was 17 or 18 when Violation started, and I totally loved it.  Being in that band definitely opened a lot of doors for me, in terms of getting the chance to play for other bands.  So in that sense, it was great being in a band that had some buzz around it.  For a young hardcore kid, it was unreal.  I remember being so tripped out on it when we opened for the Cro-Mags.  It was surreal at the time -You filled in on tours for a couple of bands, Internal Affairs, Cruel Hand and others, is that as fulfilling/fun as doing stuff with your own band? Through hardcore I’ve been able to play with a lot of cool bands and go see a lot of cool places, which I love.  When I was 18, I sent a message to Corey Williams (IA, Carry On, etc) on myspace that literally read “take me to Europe”, and he responded “OK”.  And that was my first tour, 3-4 weeks in Europe with Down To Nothing and Internal Affairs, which definitely spoiled the shit out of me because touring Europe in an established band like that is like a dream compared to touring in the US.  Being a member of Internal Affairs was great, and I met a lot of people through that band.  I’ve always found that playing music that you had some  part in creating is always more fulfilling.  I would always think to myself no matter what tour I was on, “Man I can’t wait to come here with Violation” or something like that, because those guys are some of my best friends.  I consider myself to be very fortunate to have been able to play and travel as much as I have.  But to me, Nathan and Chris, who were both in Violation and Ability, are my childhood friends that I’ve known almost my whole life.  So of course, anything that we all do together will always be special.   -How did Minus come about?  Minus started when Violation started to slow down.  I’ve never known how to play the guitar, or bass really, but when Violation was writing Devoured, I would always hum riffs into my phone and then figure them out collectively with the help of Nathan.  Towards the end of the writing process, I wrote my own song for the record, entirely hummed into my phone, and with a little bit of polishing it made the record.  So, when Violation started to slow down, I started writing new songs on my college roommate’s acoustic guitar.  That’s how the demo was written.  I wasn’t really sure what I was going for, other than that I wanted it to be a hardcore band, and I didn’t want it to sound like Violation.  That’s why a lot of the picking and riffs for Minus is very simple, as opposed to Violation which was just Gary speed picking like a crazy person the entire time.  I also wanted to be in a band with friends that were as psyched on hardcore as I was.  No offense to anyone in Violation, but they all got busier as time went on with school/work/families, and I was sick of being the only person in my band going to shows that we weren’t playing.  The lineup to Minus is my favorite part about the band and I love playing music with all 4 of those dudes.   -You guys have one of the best demos ive ever heard, and hard feeling is dope aswell, when can we expect another release?  There are 10 new Minus songs recorded right now that will eventually become a LP.  Two of those songs, Have and Have Not, were recorded with vocals and everything and pressed to a limited run of tapes.  You can hear those 2 songs on our bandcamp I think…  It’s interesting, from my perspective at least, to see the evolution that Minus has taken.  I originally wanted Minus to be this weird like, industrial heavy groove band hahaha.  Then I wanted it to sound like Fury of Five or some ignorant shit.  And it came out just how it sounds haha.  But the new stuff we have is different than the demo I think.  There’s a lot more speed to it, it sounds more aggressive.  Most of the songs were written over a wide range of time too.  The writing process has not been concentrated at all.  And with our guitarist Austin currently in your neck of the woods playing with Backtrack, I’m sure the record will continue to evolve.  I like being able to sit on it entirely for a month, throw it in the headphones and see what really sticks out as sounding good and what sounds like dogshit.  Plus, writing an LP takes time.  Writing 5 killer hardcore songs for an EP is SO much easier than writing an LP.  You’ve got to think about the groove, what’s the vibe… that’s the kind of shit that makes a good record.   -Southern California has to be one of the most chilled places ever, how was it growing up there? Southern California is in fact the best place ever.  Scratch that, California as a whole, has it all.  Mountains, snow, forests, beaches, deserts, big cities, you name it.  I loved growing up, and will probably at least retire here.  I wouldn’t mind moving somewhere else for awhile, but this will definitely always be my home.  Byron Bay in Australia is actually one of the only other places I’ve been where I was like, “Damn, this feels like home”.  -Whats your view on the So Cal scene?   I’m sort of torn on the So-Cal scene right now.  As a whole, I think it’s fucking awesome.  Bands like Take Offense, Soul Search and Downpresser all continue to kill it.  But at the same time, I can’t say the same for the Santa Barbara scene.  We haven’t had a steady venue in a couple of years now, and the shows that do come through seem to be few and far between.  So, it’s still great to see a SB band like Downpresser or Harness come up and get some attention, but it’s too bad that those bands can’t play their hometown and get nearly as much love. -How siked would you be if the kings won the Stanley Cup?  Dude.  If the fucking Kings won the Stanley Cup, I would fly myself to Australia to party at NEXT just to celebrate.  Then I’d go to Burger Fuel and get the biggest fucking meal I could afford with my weak American dollars.  And then I would fly back to LA, see my boys parading downtown with Lord Stanley’s Cup, and be able to die a happy man.   -Any people you wanna give a shout out to  Shout out to Phantoms and crew, Aikko my brother, Oliver, that tall bitch J Hat, Oscar 50L and his ugly dog, Elmsy, everyone in the city of Byron Bay, Fuzzy Nuzzy, Bluey, Bucket, all the kangaroos and koala bears, Burger Fuel, and that’s that.   

A few questions for Minus drummer and LA kings megafan Derek Kitagawa

- How’d you get into hardcore?

  I got into hardcore the same way I think a lot of kids in Southern California did, which was primarily through punk rock.  When I was real young I used to listen to a lot of ska and reggae.  I come from a small surfer town called Carpinteria, and funnily enough there’s a ska/reggae band from Carpinteria called The Upbeat.  The only CD I ever had with 1 of their songs on it was the first Give Em The Boot compilation from Hellcat Records, with Rancid, Tiger Army, etc.  From there, I just got more into the other bands on that comp.  The same cycle repeated itself with the Punk O Rama compilations and Fat Wreck Chords compilations.  The first band I ever played in was a street punk band when I was 13 called The Masses.  However, I felt like most of that scene revolved around getting fucked up all of the time and I definitely wasn’t into that at the time.  So then of course I discovered straight edge, which was great because it was like this haven of the same fast-aggressive music, minus the party scene.  That’s pretty much it, pretty standard.  There’s some other little key influences; my dad is a big Metallica fan, my late-uncle used to hang with Suicidal Tendencies, weird shit like that.  

- How did Violation start?

 Violation was started by Gary Wright, who used to play guitar for a band called Vendetta from Oxnard, CA.  At some point in time, my old band Ability played a show with Vendetta, and I guess Gary just liked the way we played or thought we were talented for our age.  So, despite not knowing us, he hit us up out of the blue and asked myself, Chris, and Nathan if we wanted to be in a band with him and his friend Mike.  He had already written the demo, and within about a week from contacting us the demo was recorded and done.  Violation was a good group of guys and we all had fun with it, so once we got going we just kept doing it.  
-You were quite young when violation started am i right? How was the experiance of being in such a well known band young?

I was 17 or 18 when Violation started, and I totally loved it.  Being in that band definitely opened a lot of doors for me, in terms of getting the chance to play for other bands.  So in that sense, it was great being in a band that had some buzz around it.  For a young hardcore kid, it was unreal.  I remember being so tripped out on it when we opened for the Cro-Mags.  It was surreal at the time

-You filled in on tours for a couple of bands, Internal Affairs, Cruel Hand and others, is that as fulfilling/fun as doing stuff with your own band?

Through hardcore I’ve been able to play with a lot of cool bands and go see a lot of cool places, which I love.  When I was 18, I sent a message to Corey Williams (IA, Carry On, etc) on myspace that literally read “take me to Europe”, and he responded “OK”.  And that was my first tour, 3-4 weeks in Europe with Down To Nothing and Internal Affairs, which definitely spoiled the shit out of me because touring Europe in an established band like that is like a dream compared to touring in the US.  Being a member of Internal Affairs was great, and I met a lot of people through that band.  I’ve always found that playing music that you had some  part in creating is always more fulfilling.  I would always think to myself no matter what tour I was on, “Man I can’t wait to come here with Violation” or something like that, because those guys are some of my best friends.  I consider myself to be very fortunate to have been able to play and travel as much as I have.  But to me, Nathan and Chris, who were both in Violation and Ability, are my childhood friends that I’ve known almost my whole life.  So of course, anything that we all do together will always be special.  

-How did Minus come about?

 Minus started when Violation started to slow down.  I’ve never known how to play the guitar, or bass really, but when Violation was writing Devoured, I would always hum riffs into my phone and then figure them out collectively with the help of Nathan.  Towards the end of the writing process, I wrote my own song for the record, entirely hummed into my phone, and with a little bit of polishing it made the record.  So, when Violation started to slow down, I started writing new songs on my college roommate’s acoustic guitar.  That’s how the demo was written.  I wasn’t really sure what I was going for, other than that I wanted it to be a hardcore band, and I didn’t want it to sound like Violation.  That’s why a lot of the picking and riffs for Minus is very simple, as opposed to Violation which was just Gary speed picking like a crazy person the entire time.  I also wanted to be in a band with friends that were as psyched on hardcore as I was.  No offense to anyone in Violation, but they all got busier as time went on with school/work/families, and I was sick of being the only person in my band going to shows that we weren’t playing.  The lineup to Minus is my favorite part about the band and I love playing music with all 4 of those dudes.  
-You guys have one of the best demos ive ever heard, and hard feeling is dope aswell, when can we expect another release?

 There are 10 new Minus songs recorded right now that will eventually become a LP.  Two of those songs, Have and Have Not, were recorded with vocals and everything and pressed to a limited run of tapes.  You can hear those 2 songs on our bandcamp I think…  It’s interesting, from my perspective at least, to see the evolution that Minus has taken.  I originally wanted Minus to be this weird like, industrial heavy groove band hahaha.  Then I wanted it to sound like Fury of Five or some ignorant shit.  And it came out just how it sounds haha.  But the new stuff we have is different than the demo I think.  There’s a lot more speed to it, it sounds more aggressive.  Most of the songs were written over a wide range of time too.  The writing process has not been concentrated at all.  And with our guitarist Austin currently in your neck of the woods playing with Backtrack, I’m sure the record will continue to evolve.  I like being able to sit on it entirely for a month, throw it in the headphones and see what really sticks out as sounding good and what sounds like dogshit.  Plus, writing an LP takes time.  Writing 5 killer hardcore songs for an EP is SO much easier than writing an LP.  You’ve got to think about the groove, what’s the vibe… that’s the kind of shit that makes a good record.  

-Southern California has to be one of the most chilled places ever, how was it growing up there?
Southern California is in fact the best place ever.  Scratch that, California as a whole, has it all.  Mountains, snow, forests, beaches, deserts, big cities, you name it.  I loved growing up, and will probably at least retire here.  I wouldn’t mind moving somewhere else for awhile, but this will definitely always be my home.  Byron Bay in Australia is actually one of the only other places I’ve been where I was like, “Damn, this feels like home”. 
-Whats your view on the So Cal scene?

  I’m sort of torn on the So-Cal scene right now.  As a whole, I think it’s fucking awesome.  Bands like Take Offense, Soul Search and Downpresser all continue to kill it.  But at the same time, I can’t say the same for the Santa Barbara scene.  We haven’t had a steady venue in a couple of years now, and the shows that do come through seem to be few and far between.  So, it’s still great to see a SB band like Downpresser or Harness come up and get some attention, but it’s too bad that those bands can’t play their hometown and get nearly as much love.

-How siked would you be if the kings won the Stanley Cup?

 Dude.  If the fucking Kings won the Stanley Cup, I would fly myself to Australia to party at NEXT just to celebrate.  Then I’d go to Burger Fuel and get the biggest fucking meal I could afford with my weak American dollars.  And then I would fly back to LA, see my boys parading downtown with Lord Stanley’s Cup, and be able to die a happy man.  

-Any people you wanna give a shout out to

 Shout out to Phantoms and crew, Aikko my brother, Oliver, that tall bitch J Hat, Oscar 50L and his ugly dog, Elmsy, everyone in the city of Byron Bay, Fuzzy Nuzzy, Bluey, Bucket, all the kangaroos and koala bears, Burger Fuel, and that’s that.   

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