Latest / San Joaquin Sound / The Gate Part 3: Hardcore on O Street with Emmanuel Fernandez

Transcript

The Gate Part 3: Hardcore on O Street with Emmanuel Fernandez · San Joaquin Sound

• 0:00
  You're listening to the San Joaquin Sound Podcast,
• 0:02
  the podcast about music in Bakersfield. I'm your
• 0:06
  host, AJ Rodriguez. This is The Gate Part 3 with
• 0:10
  Emmanuel Fernandez. He ran The Gate during the
• 0:13
  later hardcore -focused years. He played in Symphony
• 0:16
  No. 9, The Rugged Spud, and continues to play
• 0:19
  music as the frontman of Earth Expired. What
• 0:23
  type of music did your parents listen to? They
• 0:25
  did not listen to punk rock, that's for sure.
• 0:26
  They listened to a lot of traditional Spanish
• 0:29
  church musics. When they became Christians, their
• 0:32
  young adult or teenager age, they did away with
• 0:35
  a lot of their like, quote unquote, worldly music
• 0:39
  and whatnot. So definitely not the same type
• 0:41
  of music that I listened to. What gave you that
• 0:44
  passion? What got you interested in singing and
• 0:46
  playing drums and getting involved? In elementary
• 0:48
  school, they had the music programs, right? And
• 0:51
  I saw drums and I really wanted to get into drums.
• 0:54
  And as soon as I can get into like the, I don't
• 0:56
  know, third grade, whatever, whenever I can get
• 0:59
  into it. I picked up music and tonality and rhythms
• 1:04
  pretty quickly. Maybe it's the ADHD in me. I'm
• 1:07
  not too sure. But, you know, like, for example,
• 1:10
  like being 41, like I remember a lot of old commercial
• 1:15
  jingles. from like when I was a kid, right? Retreat
• 1:19
  your feet. Like exact for word for word, right?
• 1:24
  Or the tone of how it goes, right? They had the
• 1:26
  hooks. They had the hooks and I'm hooked and
• 1:28
  it's still in my brain. So I don't know if that
• 1:30
  has the, what plays a part in just like really
• 1:32
  picking it up. But man, like since I was a kid
• 1:34
  and being just like weird and different, just
• 1:37
  like, I just soaked it all in. Yeah. What was
• 1:40
  your first band? I think I was a sophomore in
• 1:42
  high school. I played one night and one night
• 1:44
  only. We practiced like for like a month, probably.
• 1:47
  It was a pop punk thing at the time. I hated
• 1:50
  pop punk. I hated Blink -182. I still don't.
• 1:53
  I'm not a fan of them. But the freshmen that
• 1:57
  I was like rolling around with, they were all
• 1:59
  into Blink -182 at the time. They're like, yeah,
• 2:01
  let's start a band. Like, yeah, let's start a
• 2:03
  band. Why not? And we played one night in Jerry's.
• 2:05
  So my aunt, she was the cool aunt. She was into
• 2:08
  the Blink -182 and the Green Days, and she was
• 2:12
  just fresh out of college. She was living in
• 2:14
  Bakersfield downtown. And so I was practicing
• 2:16
  with this band. Like I told my parents, we're
• 2:19
  playing at Jerry's Pizza. And at the time, Jerry's
• 2:22
  Pizza didn't have the best look. For me, it was
• 2:26
  whatever. But for my parents, it's cleaned up
• 2:28
  a lot. But now, by my parents looking at it,
• 2:31
  they're like, oh, no, that's bad. playing downtown
• 2:34
  is going downtown is bad especially being in
• 2:37
  jerry's pizza it's a bad deal yeah it's on 19th
• 2:40
  street it's in a basement a dark basement so
• 2:42
  it sounds like a parent's nightmare yeah a big
• 2:45
  parent's nightmare right and this was before
• 2:46
  they started doing any type of improvements in
• 2:48
  the alley or downtown or whatever yeah so when
• 2:51
  we played we were i told my parents we're gonna
• 2:54
  play and we weren't a Christian band, but I was
• 2:57
  the Christian guy. Right. I was like, no. And
• 2:59
  my aunt was trying to like, you know, tell my
• 3:01
  parents, cause my parents are very like old school,
• 3:03
  traditional, uh, uh, uh, Mexican parents. Right.
• 3:07
  With like strong roots in their faith. And they're
• 3:10
  like, no, you can't do this. Cause this is not
• 3:12
  good. You're not doing well. I'm a Christian.
• 3:13
  My aunt was trying to convince them, whatever,
• 3:15
  whatever, whatever. Okay. Finally. met up downtown
• 3:18
  i'm gonna tell you i'm gonna go off a couple
• 3:20
  tangents oh yeah i'm gonna tell you i'm here
• 3:22
  for it i'm gonna tell you the story my cousin
• 3:24
  and i always like remember my cousin steven who
• 3:27
  was also uh one of the front front men's of symphony
• 3:30
  number nine oh cool so so my cousin and i you
• 3:33
  know downtown we were into punk rock and so the
• 3:37
  day of the show Me and my band were practicing
• 3:40
  for a while. The day of the show, my cousin and
• 3:42
  I, we go to my aunt's, who she lived downtown,
• 3:45
  somewhere off of the central down there. And
• 3:51
  we met up at her apartment and we're like, ready
• 3:54
  for the show. Like, yeah, heck yeah. My aunt's
• 3:56
  ready, right? My cousin's going to record us
• 3:58
  on his film, his camera there. And we walk out
• 4:03
  and the first instance of downtown, anyone going
• 4:05
  downtown, there's several homeless people that
• 4:07
  walk around. And I had my, you know, my punk
• 4:10
  jacket, my jean jacket, right? With all the patches
• 4:12
  and the studs. The battle jacket. Yeah, I had
• 4:15
  my battle jacket on and I had a little pin. It
• 4:19
  was a crossed out swastika, right? Yeah, yeah.
• 4:22
  F -Nazis, right? And this homeless guy who had
• 4:25
  a guitar on his back, he sees the jacket and
• 4:27
  he walks in. He's like, hey, hey, man. What's
• 4:31
  that symbol right there, man, on your pin? Is
• 4:34
  that some sort of Indian sign, man? And no joke,
• 4:37
  that's how he sounded, right? He's an older gentleman.
• 4:39
  I was like, no, it's a crossed out swastika,
• 4:42
  right? Because we don't like Nazis. We don't
• 4:45
  like that stuff. And he's like, what? He's telling
• 4:48
  me and my cousin, we're freshman, sophomore.
• 4:50
  He's like a 60 -year -old man. What's wrong with
• 4:54
  Hitler, man? He had a powerful voice. And he's
• 4:57
  looking at me and both of us. little kids in
• 4:59
  his eyes in the eyes what's wrong with that hitler
• 5:02
  had a very powerful voice and everyone who listened
• 5:06
  to him was like followed him and people say the
• 5:10
  same thing about me i was like all right dude
• 5:12
  well well we're gonna gonna get away from this
• 5:15
  now it's like see you later right because you
• 5:17
  know we're kids right like what the heck this
• 5:19
  guy's freaking us out anyway tangent We go to
• 5:22
  Jerry's. We're like the first band on there,
• 5:25
  right? And a couple of our East High punk rock
• 5:27
  buddies were there because we went to East High.
• 5:29
  There were Skins and there were pop punkers and
• 5:33
  punk rockers, right? And it was a good show from
• 5:37
  what I remember because I remember there was
• 5:38
  quite a bit of people. And this was when Jerry
• 5:41
  still had the wall down the middle there. and
• 5:44
  it was it felt it was cool like we performed
• 5:46
  and and someone from the the east high paper
• 5:49
  was there and they snapped a picture i have to
• 5:50
  look through it i have to look through my house
• 5:52
  it's maybe somewhere in my parents house i don't
• 5:54
  know uh but my my cousin recorded and i got in
• 5:57
  the mosh pit and we got all crazy we did all
• 5:59
  the crazy stuff that punk rockers would do sometime
• 6:01
  in the middle of it my parents showed up and
• 6:03
  they wanted to check it out and they were there
• 6:05
  with disappointment in their eyes they were so
• 6:09
  disappointed they were so mad and we got upstairs
• 6:12
  and they were so mad we went back to my aunt's
• 6:14
  house and they they asked my cousin my mom give
• 6:18
  me let me have that tape of the recording of
• 6:21
  the video recording my cousin gave it to him
• 6:23
  never saw it again she trashed it man uh yeah
• 6:26
  history burned man i was so upset i was bummed
• 6:29
  it's still it's like one of those wounds one
• 6:32
  of those wounds in your childhood wounds right
• 6:34
  that people have so yeah yeah so again that relationship
• 6:37
  with my parents being the way that they are in
• 6:39
  my in my relationship with music completely different
• 6:42
  a little bit of bakersfield history the guitar
• 6:44
  player of that band he later went on to form
• 6:47
  a Pretty prominent reggae ska band at that time
• 6:52
  that grew a little bit big and then dropped out.
• 6:55
  They were called Vanity Avenue. They started
• 6:57
  playing with like Mental Buru and all those other
• 6:59
  like reggae bands at that time playing in bars
• 7:02
  and whatnot. But they kind of dropped out into
• 7:04
  obscurity there. Oh, yeah, yeah. The drummer
• 7:07
  of that band, Jordan, Jordan Haverstock, he sold
• 7:11
  me his... His old drum set, that was my first
• 7:13
  drum set that I ever got. He later passed away.
• 7:17
  I think he passed away probably 10 years ago
• 7:19
  right now. So yeah, shout out to Jordan. Rest
• 7:22
  in peace. Another band you were in was Symphony
• 7:38
  No. 9, which we talked a little bit about with
• 7:40
  Steven. Can you tell me about that? Like I said,
• 7:43
  my cousin and I, his name is Steven also. We
• 7:46
  were all into... uh at the time like the very
• 7:50
  the three one g bands locust uh anything that
• 7:54
  uh what's his name uh jordan peterson was in
• 7:57
  anything that he was in like we were like eating
• 8:00
  it up early at the drive -in or even uh the blood
• 8:03
  brothers the blood brothers was like the big
• 8:05
  like art i'm wearing a blood brother shirt right
• 8:07
  now like that was like the thing like that was
• 8:09
  our our our right? Our, our Metallica, right?
• 8:13
  Of scene punks, right? Back then in the day.
• 8:16
  Um, and, and my cousin and I were like, well,
• 8:19
  let's start a band. And we, we ended up being,
• 8:21
  uh, we knew Steven and we were all wearing skinny
• 8:24
  jeans and had the long hair ride of the, of the
• 8:26
  emo haircuts. And well, it wasn't called emo
• 8:28
  haircuts back then. It was just scene cuts then
• 8:30
  scene haircuts. We were into that and we were
• 8:33
  into that, this style of music. And we're also
• 8:34
  into the hardcore. Another band was also like
• 8:37
  Norma Jean. Yeah. Norma Jean style like that.
• 8:41
  We were into all of that. So we were like, let's
• 8:44
  start a band. And we connected with Steven and
• 8:46
  with also another guy named Zach. One drummer,
• 8:51
  one baser, one guitar player. But we, again,
• 8:55
  Blood Brothers. So we get two guys. Yeah. Two
• 8:59
  guys, Steven and Alex, to be the front man of
• 9:01
  the deal. We didn't have lyrics. We had no written
• 9:05
  down lyrics whatsoever. They would just go and
• 9:07
  just start screaming whatever it was off the
• 9:10
  top of their heads. And it would change from
• 9:12
  time to time. And then they found like a rhythm.
• 9:14
  Like, oh yeah, like I keep on doing this type
• 9:16
  of pattern or this type of cadence every single
• 9:19
  time. And so that's what we did. And that's when
• 9:22
  we got really close to, we started playing like
• 9:24
  out of town and like in Fresno. And we became
• 9:27
  really good friends with a lot of like, we're
• 9:29
  still good friends. I actually saw someone, his
• 9:32
  name is Jeremy. I met him in my Symphony No.
• 9:35
  9 days in 2003 or 2004 in Fresno, one of the
• 9:38
  Fresno guys. And he would put on shows in Fresno
• 9:41
  under the moniker... Oh, I can't remember what
• 9:45
  his moniker was. But there was another one, Johnny
• 9:47
  Esquivel. Appeal shows. I think that was the
• 9:53
  moniker, Appeal. Book a whole bunch of shows
• 9:55
  in Fresno and in Bakersfield. And we just became
• 9:58
  close with the Fresno hardcore scene. And also
• 10:02
  like... with symphony number nine we we created
• 10:05
  this really good uh we would call it fun guy
• 10:08
  core fun guy because none of us were tough guys
• 10:10
  none of us were tough guys we didn't try to be
• 10:13
  tough guys we just wanted to have this uh because
• 10:16
  we were all very friendly like each one of the
• 10:19
  guys were very outgoing and very friendly and
• 10:22
  over the top personalities And that's how our
• 10:25
  community, we built this community within that
• 10:28
  scene. And we had some pretty good shows. We
• 10:31
  played at the new Bam Bams when it reopened.
• 10:34
  We played at Jerry's, The Gate, everywhere. Of
• 10:36
  course, in Fresno. We played with Bleeding Through.
• 10:38
  We played with Cattle Decapitation. We played
• 10:41
  with Unbroken Wings. We played with a whole bunch
• 10:44
  of bands that were coming up that are super big
• 10:46
  now that are nostalgia bands. That was a pretty
• 10:49
  good, prominent time of our lives. Yeah, that
• 10:51
  was good. No videos of that either. nothing yeah
• 10:55
  gone myspace gone photos gone yeah at least you
• 11:00
  got the at least we got the the cd right yeah
• 11:03
  we have the cd and it's on streaming it is streaming
• 11:06
  uh that was the second version with a different
• 11:09
  mix uh the original version is somewhere lost
• 11:12
  at time but that's the second version of the
• 11:14
  same recording that's that's on there so yeah
• 11:17
  at least someone had it someone had it for sure
• 11:21
  Yeah, I really liked how experimental it was
• 11:24
  and it doesn't fit in with anything, which means,
• 11:27
  you know, it's cool that you're trying something
• 11:29
  new. Yeah, we recorded that in Fresno with the
• 11:32
  guitar player from Earth Crisis. So he's one
• 11:36
  of them, one of the one of the guys from Earth
• 11:38
  Crisis. So, you know, it was really cool to be
• 11:41
  able to do that. Are you playing at the Boiler
• 11:44
  Room? Is that when you first started going to
• 11:46
  the gate? No, I started going before then. Okay.
• 11:48
  I think either eighth grade or freshman year,
• 11:50
  I started going probably like a year or two after
• 11:52
  they opened in 97. Because the Boiler Room was
• 11:55
  not open when I started going to the gate. They
• 11:58
  were still on the original gate on the main stage.
• 12:02
  The gym. Yes. I remember one of my first times
• 12:05
  going, I went with a couple of... little punk
• 12:07
  kids. We went to the show, again, convinced my
• 12:12
  parents, hey, it's at a church. We'll be all
• 12:14
  right. And I remember, and I won't say the name,
• 12:18
  but it was one of the prominent scene guys in
• 12:23
  Bakersfield, local guy, who was playing that
• 12:28
  night. And he was a vocalist. He was a vocalist
• 12:32
  of a couple of bands. And he was like, This is
• 12:35
  my first interaction with him. And he was like
• 12:37
  banging on the door, banging on the doors. He
• 12:40
  was like going crazy. Like, what the heck? And
• 12:43
  we're like 12, 13 years old at this time. Like,
• 12:46
  what the heck is going on? He later became like
• 12:49
  a little bit more chill. I think he passed away
• 12:51
  too. Now that I'm thinking about it. Anyways,
• 12:54
  that was my first instance of the gate, man.
• 12:56
  Just seeing people just like going crazy. Yeah.
• 12:59
  Seen a lot of good bands in that gate. We saw
• 13:01
  the Warriors. We saw Die Hard Youth, Tehachapi
• 13:05
  bands. Oh, a lot of good bands. A lot of good
• 13:08
  local bands in there too. That's cool. So talk
• 13:11
  to me about your experience from attending shows
• 13:14
  at the gate to booking your own shows there.
• 13:17
  Yeah, absolutely. Just continuing going, right?
• 13:20
  Just going and becoming friends with Steven first.
• 13:23
  Yeah. steven allison and my cousin steven uh
• 13:26
  they both went to bhs and so they became friends
• 13:29
  instantly uh and because i you know that's how
• 13:32
  that was my introduction to steven allison was
• 13:35
  through my cousin and because we became friends
• 13:37
  with steven allison we ended up knowing rob too
• 13:39
  as we progressed now we're in bands and we're
• 13:43
  playing now it's like well let's book our own
• 13:44
  shows too and we weren't really running it I
• 13:47
  wasn't really a prominent, at least running it
• 13:50
  at the time. Like Steven and Bobby were really
• 13:52
  doing a lot of the Boiler Room stuff. But we
• 13:54
  would book our own shows. I would get a hold
• 13:56
  of some bands and Steven or Zach or whoever would
• 13:59
  get a hold of some bands and we would put it
• 14:00
  together. Oh, we did play with Comeback Kid.
• 14:04
  That was a fun show. Comeback Kid was a really
• 14:06
  fun show there. No one showed up to that. Playing.
• 14:09
  Our own shows, like, it's just DIY, you know?
• 14:12
  We just do it ourselves. Like, well, we don't
• 14:13
  have to wait on anybody. We have an inn. We have
• 14:16
  a venue that we can use at any time. We practice
• 14:19
  there, too. And so, like, we just booked the
• 14:22
  shows. And I just started to, because of my relationship
• 14:26
  with Stephen and Rob, and I got married really
• 14:29
  early, by the way, because I was going to church
• 14:31
  at the time at my old church, my parents' church.
• 14:34
  Okay. And had a relationship with Rob and Steven
• 14:37
  already. My wife at the time, my ex -wife, my
• 14:40
  wife at the time didn't speak Spanish. It was
• 14:43
  a bilingual church. She didn't really like it.
• 14:45
  And talking to Rob, we were going and they called
• 14:48
  it the, when I was going, they called it the.
• 14:51
  Revival? The bridge, the bridge. Oh, the bridge.
• 14:53
  The bridge. So there was the gate and then the
• 14:55
  bridge, right? Which was like the, the, the week.
• 15:01
  weekly during the week bible study right weekly
• 15:05
  during the week bible study where rob was leading
• 15:07
  it um and essentially it was like you know because
• 15:11
  right trying to get people in the gate hey you're
• 15:13
  interested in coming to church this is the bridge
• 15:15
  you're with me you're with rob allison the guy
• 15:17
  who runs the gate who put who's in the part of
• 15:19
  the music scene in order to go to church right
• 15:22
  but i was i was already going to church but i
• 15:24
  was just going because like oh yeah all my scene
• 15:26
  friends go to this bridge too so i i'll go there
• 15:28
  too and talking to rob about it because I was
• 15:31
  going there weekly to the bridge, Bible study
• 15:35
  weekly. And he's like, hey, man, like I told
• 15:38
  him, like, my wife doesn't speak Spanish. We're
• 15:41
  looking for a new church. And he's like, hey,
• 15:43
  man, why don't you come to the garden, right?
• 15:46
  Why don't you come to the garden? You're already
• 15:48
  here, like, all the time going to shows and the
• 15:50
  bridge. Oh, yeah, why not? And then we ended
• 15:53
  up going to the garden and spent, like, over
• 15:57
  20 years going there. In that, and then going
• 16:03
  to church there, and then... And then the last,
• 16:07
  the later part of the Boiler Room days is when
• 16:09
  I started to take it on. Somewhere like in 2005
• 16:13
  -ish area, I started to take it on more and more.
• 16:16
  Steven and Bobby started to like back off a bit.
• 16:19
  And I started, because I was there all the time,
• 16:21
  I started taking it on more and more and running
• 16:23
  the shows on the weekends. And then that's when
• 16:26
  it transitioned over to the third wave, third
• 16:29
  wave gate from the Boiler Room back into what
• 16:31
  it called the gate. So 2010 O's Street. And I
• 16:34
  think he explained the reason why, right? I don't
• 16:37
  remember. Yeah, yeah. He explained basically
• 16:39
  that there was some revival happening in the
• 16:43
  church. Yes. And they needed the space. It's
• 16:47
  not necessarily space, but it got weird when
• 16:50
  you're having a show in the boiler room and then
• 16:52
  you go upstairs into the hallway and then you
• 16:54
  see all of this mess. I call it mess because
• 16:57
  it was a mess. That was a crazy time back then.
• 17:00
  You see all of these other church folks, people,
• 17:02
  and it was weird. to mix. Right. And we would
• 17:05
  probably lose people going to shows and we didn't
• 17:08
  want to lose people coming to shows. And we wanted
• 17:10
  to respect our music scene. We were a part of
• 17:13
  it. We wanted to keep that going. So we moved
• 17:15
  down the street. It's like two distinct audiences.
• 17:18
  Yeah. And you know, a lot of people say that
• 17:20
  it was a Christian. place or a christian well
• 17:24
  it did exist in a church but that shows you there
• 17:26
  was two groups of people that you literally moved
• 17:29
  the gate so that way you could accommodate having
• 17:33
  the church people and the concert attendees yeah
• 17:37
  absolutely a hundred percent man and and uh i
• 17:40
  think and also like the boiler room days like
• 17:43
  you know there's a certain group of people that
• 17:45
  went to the boiler room right yeah those people
• 17:47
  ended up by the end of the boiler room those
• 17:51
  folks who were prominent and going to the boiler
• 17:53
  room grew up. They grew up and they started like
• 17:56
  playing elsewhere. And once we moved to the new
• 17:59
  gate, that's when like a different, it started
• 18:03
  in the boiler room, like the hardcore folks,
• 18:05
  the hardcore becoming more prominent in Bakersfield
• 18:08
  at that time. And, you know, I was right there
• 18:10
  in it. That scene started to take over and it
• 18:13
  was like a good transition to move over to the.
• 18:16
  the the new gate either way uh it didn't it was
• 18:20
  pretty flawless in transition i would say like
• 18:22
  we didn't lose anything because there was a new
• 18:24
  group already coming in the raw energy of the
• 18:29
  rugged spud so you had a band that played there
• 18:45
  a lot the rugged spud yeah 100 yeah absolutely
• 18:48
  yeah rugged spud that was uh after a couple of
• 18:52
  years after, cause I had kids, had kids early
• 18:55
  and, and, and work in, I was like, man, I want
• 18:58
  to, I want to play. I want to, I want to keep
• 19:00
  playing. And, uh, some guy at a, at a marriage,
• 19:03
  at a marriage retreat, church marriage retreat,
• 19:06
  he came up to me and he said it was a quote unquote
• 19:08
  word from the Lord. And, and, and I won't go
• 19:11
  into like my personal beliefs on like words of
• 19:13
  the Lord or whatever, whatever, but he came up
• 19:15
  to me. He's like, Hey man, I think God wants
• 19:16
  you to be in a band again. I took that to heart.
• 19:19
  And I was like, yeah, well, who do I know that
• 19:21
  could be in a band with me? And ended up my friend
• 19:25
  Richie, who I've known for years and years. He's
• 19:27
  in The Earth Expired now. And our buddy Chris.
• 19:32
  And they had a friend named Neil who played on
• 19:35
  drums. And Richie had another friend. play bass,
• 19:38
  Ted. And we just formed this band, Rugged Spud,
• 19:41
  and we wanted to spread the gospel and we had
• 19:44
  a place to play and book whenever we wanted to.
• 19:46
  And so it was just like Symphony No. 9, right?
• 19:48
  We have our own place to practice. We have our
• 19:50
  own place to book shows. And I just kept it going.
• 19:53
  Yeah. Yeah. So I got to ask, what's the story
• 19:57
  behind the name? Because whenever I think of
• 19:59
  Spud, I think of Devo. Again, my own ethos of
• 20:04
  hardcore. Because I'm not a tough guy. I'm not.
• 20:08
  I'm not at all. I still am not. I would always
• 20:11
  like kind of reject the machismo of hardcore
• 20:13
  a lot of the times. And so during that time,
• 20:15
  like our music, The Rugged Spud is like, it's
• 20:17
  like tough, right? It's tough guy. It's tough
• 20:19
  guy, hardcore, tough guy, metalcore. And again,
• 20:23
  but with my personal ethos of it, I was like,
• 20:25
  well, what's something that I can... throw a
• 20:28
  wrench in the hardcore system. Right. I was watching
• 20:31
  Dexter's laboratory one day and Dexter was trying
• 20:35
  to power his laboratory in different ways. And
• 20:40
  he found that like you can plug in a couple of
• 20:43
  like electrodes in a potato. And it's like that's
• 20:46
  what he powered up his his his laboratory with.
• 20:50
  And he picked up a potato. He's like, you're
• 20:52
  a rugged spud. I was like. Light bulb. Nice.
• 20:55
  Rugged spud. We're the rugged spud. Stupid name.
• 20:58
  There's so many other better names, but that's
• 21:01
  what stuck. It's cool to hear a different name.
• 21:03
  It sticks out. It's smart. Thank you. What was
• 21:07
  it like with that band? I know you went on tour
• 21:09
  sometimes. You know, little mini tours here and
• 21:11
  there, right? Because I was working full time
• 21:13
  and had kids, right? Yeah. This is weird. And
• 21:17
  still giving time almost every weekend. 98 %
• 21:21
  of my weekends from 2004, 2005 to 2016, I was
• 21:29
  at the gate, working the gate. So, you know,
• 21:33
  it was a lot. I don't know why I did it. So I
• 21:36
  should have dropped something. I should have
• 21:38
  stopped going to church in reality. I should
• 21:39
  have stopped doing that. But I would continue
• 21:43
  to go and running the gate. It was hectic. But
• 21:46
  a couple of little tours, nothing big. We played
• 21:50
  a lot of out -of -town, as much out -of -town
• 21:52
  shows as we could. And again, my own ethos of
• 21:55
  hardcore. We're not looking to get paid. I'm
• 21:58
  not looking to get money. We don't do guarantees
• 22:00
  at all. We didn't do guarantees. We would ask
• 22:03
  if there's gas money, there's gas money. But
• 22:05
  we would always say like, no, we want to play
• 22:07
  because we believe in hardcore. We believe in
• 22:11
  the community aspect of hardcore. And we would
• 22:13
  show up and just play and rock it. And if we
• 22:16
  make money, okay, whatever. Or we make some sort
• 22:18
  of gas money. All right, cool. But that was never
• 22:21
  the point. The point was to get in front of people
• 22:23
  and to build those. connections and to, you know,
• 22:27
  and have fun and just do it because we can, because
• 22:30
  we, for the love of the game. Yeah. For the love
• 22:32
  of the game. Yeah. But it was, it was cool. It
• 22:34
  was a lot of hectic, a lot of vans, a lot of
• 22:37
  my own minivans just getting thrashed, thrashed,
• 22:40
  thrashed, thrashed because we didn't, you know,
• 22:43
  make enough money as a group to really supply
• 22:46
  this thing. Yeah. They were fun, but we were
• 22:50
  so outside of, we were a little bit different.
• 22:55
  then what the hardcore taste of the month was
• 23:00
  during that time, the flavor of the month. Hardcore
• 23:03
  goes through different flavors of the month all
• 23:06
  the time. Sometimes it's chaotic hardcore. Sometimes
• 23:10
  it's this tough guy hardcore, beat down hardcore.
• 23:14
  It loops back to traditional hardcore. And now
• 23:17
  it's like, oh, now it's like even today, it's
• 23:20
  like. heavy riffs and like the chug and the breakdown
• 23:23
  that's all that it's about or um uh what do you
• 23:26
  call it well it starts with an s what's this
• 23:29
  what's it called slam oh slam which is like oh
• 23:32
  but or or now it's looping back around back to
• 23:35
  death core again uh death core that was the flavor
• 23:38
  of the month we just didn't match that flavor
• 23:40
  of the month and so sometimes people would just
• 23:42
  like disregard us because we were too you know
• 23:45
  Maybe because we're a Christian band. Maybe because
• 23:48
  we're metalcore or whatever. But yeah, it was
• 23:54
  fun. So there were some pretty big shows that
• 24:02
  happened in that gate. I saw Madball played there.
• 24:07
  Yeah. Madball. We had Atreyu. We had Messed.
• 24:12
  We had... The Ataris. Ataris. We had Oceano.
• 24:18
  We had... oh we had a couple of deathcore bands
• 24:23
  in there too we had a lot of cool bands strife
• 24:25
  i think played um uh we had lionheart we've had
• 24:31
  advent uh but yeah those are really cool those
• 24:35
  are like in the later half uh those bigger bands
• 24:37
  that you mentioned like later half of the later
• 24:39
  years of the gate when uh before like maybe 2014
• 24:43
  15 16 yeah um and uh That was because we wanted
• 24:50
  to work with promoters because I was a horrible
• 24:51
  promoter. I was not cutthroat. With money, I
• 24:59
  can't haggle. I cannot haggle because I'm too
• 25:02
  much of a nice guy. I can't take advantage of
• 25:06
  someone else. but we've had like a lot of good
• 25:10
  success with a couple of bands from like la area
• 25:12
  like the great commission always pulled a good
• 25:15
  a good crowd and we would always play with them
• 25:17
  and when they would come in uh you know we've
• 25:20
  had like war of ages a tour that would come in
• 25:23
  yeah it was cool to be kind of like that hub
• 25:26
  of like the weird not necessarily weird but like
• 25:29
  hey if jerry's is not booked because a lot of
• 25:31
  everyone's going to go to jerry's yeah because
• 25:33
  again the promoters of jerry's or promoters who
• 25:35
  would use jerry's they had their hands in the
• 25:38
  industry they had their hands and they knew who
• 25:40
  to talk to they knew people would reach out to
• 25:42
  them but we would get we would get phone calls
• 25:45
  every now and then uh or excuse me emails every
• 25:47
  now and then like hey can you book this band
• 25:49
  um can you add them to your add them to your
• 25:53
  uh already booked show right uh there was one
• 25:57
  time uh there was one time it was one of like
• 26:00
  my birthday shows it was my birthday and i wanted
• 26:02
  to throw a show someone already hit me up so
• 26:04
  like all right cool i think the band was leaders
• 26:06
  and uh got him it was like a wednesday night
• 26:09
  i was like all right well let's see let's keep
• 26:11
  it like uh like a low turnout here or like a
• 26:13
  low price for the show and then i got a a call
• 26:17
  or an email from uh the last 10 seconds of life
• 26:21
  and it was kublai khan it was like a package
• 26:25
  uh that was going on tour like hey let we need
• 26:27
  can we add we're going back and forth back and
• 26:29
  forth i was like dude like i didn't want too
• 26:32
  many bands on this thing because it would have
• 26:34
  been like 10 bands on a wednesday night which
• 26:37
  would have been crazy but they ended up just
• 26:39
  going to jerry's and then anyone who would have
• 26:41
  showed up at the gate just went to jerry's i
• 26:43
  was like well that's the way it goes sometimes
• 26:46
  because i didn't have the The nalgas, the oomph,
• 26:49
  the cutthroatness to be able to deal with these
• 26:52
  promoters or to be able to work something out.
• 26:56
  So I saw you had Awaken the Scene Fest sometimes.
• 26:59
  Can you talk about that? Yeah, that was like
• 27:02
  my, you know, being in a church and being very
• 27:06
  like, I want to be able to, like a community
• 27:09
  focus. I want to be able to. What is my ministry?
• 27:14
  What is my thing in life that I want to do and
• 27:17
  to be able to give back to the scene and to strengthen
• 27:21
  the scene and to, regardless of what people believe,
• 27:26
  regardless of what people believe, how do we
• 27:29
  bring people together in solidarity with one
• 27:33
  another? And this is me not saying like, no,
• 27:37
  you need to believe in Jesus. In order to be
• 27:40
  in this room, you need to believe in Jesus. it
• 27:43
  had nothing to do with that however like my faith
• 27:46
  did drive that again for community um and so
• 27:50
  my whole thing was like i want to book bands
• 27:53
  that are that are positive that have some sort
• 27:56
  of positive message uh and and and draw people
• 28:00
  local band like a locals only That's how it started,
• 28:05
  at least locals only festival from from Bakersfield
• 28:08
  and from the surrounding areas to really like,
• 28:11
  look, come out to shows. It's only five dollars
• 28:14
  to come out or ten dollars or like super cheap
• 28:17
  for like a whole bunch of bands for all day events
• 28:21
  to again to because at that time we started seeing
• 28:26
  shows dwindle. They started dwindling down, dwindling
• 28:29
  down, dwindling down for whatever reason. People
• 28:33
  just are growing up. People are not into music
• 28:35
  anymore. People are not into hardcore anymore.
• 28:38
  And so really just trying to like beef it up.
• 28:41
  Or people just don't, people only go to see bands
• 28:45
  that are bigger, bigger versus like the local
• 28:48
  scene. And I was like, no, I believe in the local
• 28:50
  scene. Like, how do we do this? How do we get
• 28:54
  people involved in coming in? So that's what
• 28:56
  we did. I decided to do this under the moniker
• 29:00
  Awaken the Scene. Exactly that. I wanted to.
• 29:04
  shock it, shock the scene in order to bring it
• 29:07
  back to live, bring people back out to seeing
• 29:09
  local bands. This is what you're missing. This
• 29:12
  is all these bands that play almost every weekend
• 29:15
  and you're not coming out, which is still a thing
• 29:18
  that happens with a lot of promoters in the surrounding
• 29:21
  areas. Support your local scene. That's how we
• 29:24
  keep your local bands alive, local venues alive,
• 29:28
  your DIYs alive. uh yeah that was the whole purpose
• 29:32
  behind those uh festivals yeah so we talk about
• 29:36
  local bands you know that's what this podcast
• 29:39
  is all about what are some of the local bands
• 29:41
  that played there a lot i know there's probably
• 29:44
  a massive list oh there's a ton there's a ton
• 29:47
  there's so many um i i asked for flyers i asked
• 29:51
  for flyers uh from um from some i put on instagram
• 29:55
  like if you played give me your flyer because
• 29:58
  every weekend Local bands would start a band,
• 30:03
  and then they would break up, and they would
• 30:05
  start a new band, and constantly, constantly,
• 30:07
  constantly, constantly. So a couple of them here
• 30:11
  that people sent out. A band here called From
• 30:13
  Untold Beginnings, just a metalcore band. All
• 30:16
  those guys went off to start a different band.
• 30:20
  There was a band called Under City Skies. The
• 30:22
  vocalist of that band, his name's Brandon. He's
• 30:24
  been playing there for years. He's now the vocalist
• 30:28
  of... Bear King, which they're still playing
• 30:31
  music, and a lot of those guys who were in that
• 30:32
  band grew up in the gate and playing at the gate.
• 30:38
  Who else was there? I saw one band that opened
• 30:45
  for the Atari show was called Forget Your Friends,
• 30:49
  and they're from here. Yeah, probably. I don't
• 30:52
  know. Are you saying you forgot your friend?
• 30:55
  Oh, my God, I did. I completely forgot him. Don't
• 30:57
  worry, I'm going to edit that part out. No, you
• 30:59
  leave that in there. I forgot, though. Yeah,
• 31:00
  you know, tons of bands. Let's see here. There
• 31:04
  was a guy, his name is Cameron. He goes by the
• 31:09
  moniker Camcron. Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 31:12
  He's in Wartorn. He's in another, it starts with
• 31:16
  a U. I can't remember what it's called. He has
• 31:19
  his own solo music, but he was telling me, like,
• 31:22
  a couple years ago when i first met i was like
• 31:23
  dude you booked you booked my first band's first
• 31:28
  show so yeah he sent me a a flyer it was with
• 31:31
  stick up kid and that was a fun show stick up
• 31:34
  kid was such a cool pop punk band that would
• 31:36
  that should be bigger than what they are uh but
• 31:39
  his band camcron's band open delivery that was
• 31:43
  his first band that was his first show ever and
• 31:45
  i booked them oh cool So I'm looking through
• 31:48
  the flyer. Yeah, Open Delivery, Camcron, and
• 31:50
  the Millennium Kids. That's also on the flyer
• 31:52
  for Stick Up Kids. The vocalist of that band,
• 31:55
  I think it was Tommy and also Marcel. Marcel
• 31:59
  is now the vocalist of Imbalance. Of InBalance,
• 32:05
  Pop Punk Band, Bakersfield InBalance. Oh, yeah,
• 32:06
  I've seen them. So they're great. They're great
• 32:08
  people, man. I love them. I love Marcel. I love
• 32:10
  Tommy, Camcron. It's so interesting to see them
• 32:15
  at such a young age, right? Such a young age,
• 32:18
  and they're playing at the gate. This is their
• 32:20
  first show on a stage with lights and professional
• 32:24
  equipment, right? They got to play with... a
• 32:28
  pretty decent sized pop punk band back in the
• 32:31
  day. And that's their first show, right? Yeah.
• 32:33
  And then they're still playing and they're still
• 32:35
  playing and they're having this notoriety in
• 32:38
  the music that they play. Let's see. There's
• 32:43
  a band called Set Free. No, no. There's Watchers
• 32:45
  and Hunters, Company to Keep, Tesla Meets the
• 32:47
  Coil. I have no idea. I have no idea who those
• 32:50
  bands are, but I know that they were local. Strengthen
• 32:53
  What Remains was a cool hardcore band from Florida.
• 32:56
  They're still playing in different bands right
• 32:58
  now. They're cool. Going off of the Awaken the
• 33:01
  Scene, goodness, how many bands was this? One,
• 33:05
  two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,
• 33:08
  10, 11, 12 bands for seven bucks. Goodness gracious.
• 33:12
  The things that we were doing that I know if
• 33:16
  we were open today. packed that place out especially
• 33:19
  with how kids want to go to shows now uh on the
• 33:22
  brink of defeat yeah on the brink of defeat i'll
• 33:24
  talk about them uh cameron my good buddy cameron
• 33:27
  uh he is canvas cam canvas of of canvas design
• 33:31
  and oh yeah he was in a band with marcel uh uh
• 33:36
  metalcore band they played the last one of the
• 33:40
  last shows of the gate which was pretty cool
• 33:42
  to bring them back There was a Day of Atonement.
• 33:45
  I took a beating. Trumpets and Torches was a
• 33:47
  fun one. Let's see. Heralds of the Sword. Great
• 33:53
  band. Heralds of the Sword. And I just saw my
• 33:55
  buddy Sam last night at the Fred Armisen show.
• 34:00
  Heralds of the Sword was a thematic metal band.
• 34:08
  They had swords. Fantasy metal. They put on a
• 34:13
  production. They had like costumes and they were
• 34:18
  like, they were either a vampire or a warlock
• 34:22
  or some sort of, you know, and they sounded like,
• 34:25
  yeah. Yeah. It was, oh, they played for an hour.
• 34:31
  You know, that was a really fun, really fun.
• 34:34
  And Sam is, you know, Cal State. uh instructor
• 34:38
  professor uh of music over there and doing really
• 34:41
  cool things over there uh but he started off
• 34:44
  sam in a little punk band uh i can't remember
• 34:47
  his punk band right now uh but just you know
• 34:50
  he was in high school he started in the boiler
• 34:51
  room days but it's really cool to see people
• 34:54
  like they're still kind of creating music on
• 34:56
  their own uh and still connected to people that
• 34:59
  still connected with people strength strength
• 35:02
  was a cool hardcore band um Richie, who was in
• 35:06
  Earth Expired, and Travis, who was also the guitar
• 35:10
  player of Earth Expired, was in that band. They
• 35:12
  played around LA a lot. Reliance, Terror in the
• 35:17
  Streets, a lot of these hardcore bands. Premise,
• 35:22
  Premises, Breakthrough, Leave Your Legacy, Victims.
• 35:26
  I'm just reading off these flyers. Reliance,
• 35:29
  Cost of Salvation, Houdini Logic. Oh man, some
• 35:33
  of these bands, I have no idea who they are because
• 35:35
  they only play for like a day and then that's
• 35:37
  it. And a lot of cool indie bands were around.
• 35:41
  There was this, let me go off of, I created a
• 35:45
  Spotify playlist of any and all Bakersfield bands,
• 35:51
  any local bands from past to present. If they
• 35:54
  have music online, I just try to like, just add
• 35:58
  it in, add it in, add it in. I have a hardcore
• 35:59
  one and just like your... Everything else. Everything
• 36:02
  else won. Let me read off of that. There are
• 36:05
  two types of people. They're hardcore. You live
• 36:09
  hardcore. You're not hardcore. Is that how the
• 36:14
  way it goes or something? It's a school of rock.
• 36:16
  School of rock, right? It's like you're not hardcore.
• 36:19
  Unless you live hardcore. Unless you live hardcore,
• 36:21
  yeah. Rookie cookie. Buffalo season. Those are
• 36:26
  a couple of cool, but Anxiety Attack. Anxiety
• 36:27
  Attack was a big one, a local one. They're from
• 36:30
  Tehachapi that they were known for just like,
• 36:35
  they had a reputation that a lot of venues did
• 36:39
  not like. And I probably won't get into that
• 36:42
  one. I'll probably save that story for another
• 36:44
  time. They're good guys now today. They were
• 36:47
  good guys then, but it was just like Anxiety
• 36:51
  Attack, big band. A lot of people liked them.
• 36:54
  Lost Ocean was a pretty cool one. Lost Ocean,
• 36:57
  they signed a record deal. They were an indie
• 37:01
  band. And they were so cool, man. They would
• 37:06
  play at the gate and the boiler room. And they
• 37:08
  also played at the third. They played at each
• 37:10
  section of the gate, I think. Cool. Each deal.
• 37:15
  And they got pretty big locally. And they would
• 37:18
  tour around the state. And they actually signed
• 37:20
  a... They signed a major record deal and then
• 37:27
  it didn't go anywhere, which just sucks because
• 37:29
  they were really good, good local band. Tons
• 37:33
  and tons and tons and tons of bands that I cannot
• 37:37
  remember because there were so many. Oh. los
• 37:41
  devitos was a pretty cool one they sounded like
• 37:43
  the strokes like a really like lo -fi shoegaze
• 37:47
  strokes uh music they were pretty cool uh i think
• 37:51
  they were i don't know i don't know if they're
• 37:52
  from bakersfield or if they're from delano but
• 37:54
  then we had delano bane delano bands coming in
• 37:57
  too uh that would play uh to have to be bands
• 38:01
  delano all over Bakersfield. That was the spot
• 38:05
  to play at. If anyone needed, if they couldn't
• 38:07
  get into Jerry's because the promoter, I was
• 38:10
  booking them because I'm not a promoter. I just
• 38:13
  wanted a spot just like the Gates. That was the
• 38:16
  Gates ethos, right? Was we were there for local
• 38:19
  music. We were there for local bands and we didn't
• 38:22
  care if we had the big acts coming through. It'd
• 38:25
  be cool. That's why, you know, we, we develop,
• 38:27
  I try to develop this relationship with a promoter
• 38:30
  in the later half. That's why we had a Treyu.
• 38:33
  But, you know, that wasn't our focus. It was
• 38:37
  cool to be a part of that. But, hey, next weekend,
• 38:40
  yeah, no promoters are hitting us up. Yeah, it's
• 38:42
  going to be filled with local bands, always local
• 38:45
  bands. So you had a two -day final show, basically.
• 38:50
  Three days, technically. Yeah, three days, technically.
• 38:52
  Tell me about that. Yeah, absolutely. Let me
• 38:55
  pull up the flyers. You probably have them, but...
• 38:59
  Yeah, I have. I just have two of the days, like
• 39:02
  the day where there was Lebeck's Modern Wives,
• 39:04
  Niner Niner, In Clouds was like the indie day.
• 39:06
  Yeah. Silence O Israel, Rugged Spud, Bury the
• 39:10
  Hatchet, Reach, Running Scared, On the Brink
• 39:12
  of Defeat. So the Thursday, right, it was like
• 39:16
  April 16th, 17th, but April 15th, some of my
• 39:19
  friends that I've made along the way, this band
• 39:22
  called Phineas, metalcore band that... That got
• 39:27
  pretty big. They're on solid state records. They
• 39:29
  got pretty big. Not big, big, but decently sized,
• 39:33
  which was cool. They would play at the... Oh,
• 39:35
  From Indian Lakes played at the gate. From Indian
• 39:38
  Lakes. So that's a cool one that played at the
• 39:41
  gate. No one was there. It was a shindig night.
• 39:45
  I think like a random Thursday. They played with
• 39:48
  Phineas. They were on tour with Phineas. And
• 39:51
  this was like before they hit it big. They were
• 39:54
  still like this little indie band from Fresno.
• 39:56
  So from Indian Lakes played that. But Phineas,
• 40:00
  yeah, Phineas, they hit me up. And they were
• 40:03
  like, hey, we need a place to play. Can we play
• 40:07
  in Bakersfield? Absolutely. Which was cool because
• 40:11
  it just worked out because they wanted a Thursday.
• 40:16
  And like, all right, we're closing this weekend,
• 40:18
  so might as well have a three -day closed -down
• 40:22
  fest, right? A deal. So that was Phineas, the
• 40:26
  Zenith Passage, and Inertia. The Zenith Passage
• 40:30
  was a cool band. They were like a... That was
• 40:35
  cool. Downer Thoughts, pop -punk band. One Body
• 40:41
  Too Many. estuary estuary i don't know i don't
• 40:45
  know who i don't know who one body too many i
• 40:47
  don't know who estuary is uh but inertia and
• 40:49
  downer thoughts zenith passage i know who they
• 40:50
  are phineas they played on thursday april 16
• 40:53
  2016 uh and then we had yeah if you go on the
• 40:57
  gates of Instagram, you'll see like the final
• 40:59
  selfies of each night, right? The final selfie
• 41:03
  of each night. Uh, Barry, the hatchet was a cool
• 41:06
  band that, that they played during the old gate
• 41:10
  and boiler room days. Um, and so I was like,
• 41:13
  Oh, well let me bring these guys back. Uh, they
• 41:15
  were not, they were some of the, some of the
• 41:17
  guys were from, from Tehachapi, Tehachapi and
• 41:19
  Bakersfield mix. Um, and it was like people from
• 41:23
  that. period of hardcore had no idea who barry
• 41:28
  the hatchet was i knew who they were because
• 41:30
  i i was there you know when in the boiler room
• 41:32
  days and whatnot so i was like well like my whole
• 41:35
  point was to bring back bands as much as possible
• 41:39
  i tried to bring back active ingredients for
• 41:41
  that show okay but couldn't do it um couldn't
• 41:44
  do it couldn't get it done who else did i try
• 41:46
  to get for that show i don't remember but yeah
• 41:49
  reach was another semi They didn't get big, but
• 41:53
  they toured a lot. They toured a lot, a lot.
• 41:57
  Reach, the front man, his name is Zach, and he
• 42:02
  was the guitar player of Symphony No. 9. Oh,
• 42:04
  cool. And a lot of those bands, they were in
• 42:08
  Rookie Cookie and Buffalo Season. And so, yeah,
• 42:13
  Reach, I got them to come back and play. On the
• 42:16
  brink of defeat, Cameron, he's the vocalist of
• 42:19
  the band. Marcel was the guitar player. Tommy
• 42:21
  was the drummer. On the brink of defeat, Cameron
• 42:25
  was like, when I wasn't there, Cameron was there.
• 42:29
  Or he was working door and I was working sound.
• 42:31
  And so he came in. He was a big, big part of
• 42:35
  the gate too. all right so running scared was
• 42:40
  another band that played that night uh and and
• 42:43
  just to kind of give a little bit credit here
• 42:46
  or just to kind of like again you you grow up
• 42:49
  with people who who have been going to these
• 42:51
  shows forever and then people grow up, right?
• 42:53
  So this year, so that bass player of that band,
• 42:56
  his name was Corey, Corey Vargas, he tragically
• 43:00
  passed away in the Kern River this year. So that
• 43:05
  one was felt throughout, you know, throughout
• 43:09
  Hardcore, throughout the scene. I wasn't... as
• 43:13
  close with him as other folks were. But, you
• 43:16
  know, when he was there at that show, I was like,
• 43:18
  yo, what's up, man? Right. You know, because
• 43:19
  you grew up or and, you know, we were we were
• 43:22
  social media friends, you know, of course. And
• 43:24
  but that one affected, you know, like my my band
• 43:27
  members now, like they were more a little bit
• 43:30
  more closer to to to Corey. But yeah. Anyway,
• 43:34
  that was a little bit of a tangent. But yeah,
• 43:36
  he just to kind of rest in peace. Right. Yeah.
• 43:39
  He was a big part of the scene. Who else played?
• 43:42
  Who else played that night? You got it right
• 43:44
  there. So you got Silence Over Israel, did you
• 43:47
  say something? Silence Over Israel was a cool
• 43:48
  band, man. They were kind of like hometown heroes.
• 43:52
  They toured a lot more. We went on a little bit
• 43:56
  of a tour with them, especially Weekend Warrior
• 43:58
  tours, and always playing at the gate. They were
• 44:02
  kind of like the... They took on like that...
• 44:09
  Very noodley metalcore, noodley metalcore. But
• 44:14
  they try to make their live shows as explosive
• 44:16
  as possible. They sounded like metalcore, but
• 44:20
  they try to look like the Chariot. Half the time,
• 44:25
  we weren't playing. They were just throwing things
• 44:27
  around and making it as chaotic as possible.
• 44:30
  A lot of holes, a lot of holes in the gate. A
• 44:33
  lot of just from people busting, slamming their
• 44:37
  fists in the walls. Yeah, they would play. That
• 44:40
  was really cool to bring them back for that show.
• 44:43
  Some of those members went on to play in Silent
• 44:48
  Planet. They're kind of pretty big right now.
• 44:51
  Oh, cool. Metalcore band off of Solid State Records.
• 44:54
  They've played at the gate too before they were
• 44:56
  a huge Silent Planet. But some of the members
• 45:02
  kind of... played in there and helped develop
• 45:03
  their sound of course the rugged spud that was
• 45:05
  my band we reunited we broke up i don't know
• 45:09
  years before that uh but uh uh decided to play
• 45:13
  again which was a really cool to play that's
• 45:15
  cool and yeah silence over israel uh uh played
• 45:18
  that last show or uh ended it and then saturday
• 45:21
  saturday was kind of just a little bit disappointing
• 45:24
  not gonna lie uh because again the labex i was
• 45:27
  really like okay looking at the whole point of
• 45:32
  ending the gate was to try to bring bands who
• 45:36
  were prominent throughout the years of the gate
• 45:38
  original gate the boiler room and the new gate
• 45:41
  um the little abex obviously big local band back
• 45:45
  in the day and um and i and the folks of modern
• 45:49
  wives and Niner Niner and In Clouds, they were
• 45:54
  a part of other indie bands. Yeah, I know Modern
• 45:57
  Wives had people from Farewell Space Cadet. Niner
• 46:01
  Niner had people from Squatcho, and I know there's
• 46:03
  more that I'm missing. Yes, but that didn't happen.
• 46:08
  It's like, yeah, we can't get that band going,
• 46:10
  but our new band can play. It's like, yeah, that's
• 46:14
  cool. Because the people that were a part of
• 46:17
  that scene and were there, this is who we are,
• 46:23
  right? This is the gate. This is the community
• 46:25
  that we built up. And there's so much connection
• 46:27
  here. But the Lebecs was the only like, the only
• 46:31
  nostalgia band, the only band that would play
• 46:34
  as the Lebecs versus like all these other bands
• 46:37
  that, no, this is our new band. And not a lot
• 46:39
  of people came to that show, which is really
• 46:40
  disappointing. It was just like families. Because
• 46:43
  again, like they probably played the week before
• 46:45
  or whatever. And it wasn't... A lot of people
• 46:49
  came the hardcore night, Friday night, which
• 46:52
  is super cool. It felt really good. I think I
• 46:54
  have some video in there that I'll send it to
• 46:57
  you. Oh, that'd be cool. Yeah, I'll send it to
• 46:58
  you. But yeah, it was kind of cool just to kind
• 47:01
  of like, all right, that's it. We're done. We
• 47:05
  took the last selfie. And I'm also like really
• 47:09
  proud of like the way I ended it. It's the last.
• 47:13
  video the the at the very top the very last video
• 47:16
  that we posted on the gates uh instagram where
• 47:19
  we're just like shutting off all the lights uh
• 47:21
  uh in the venue like one by one almost like a
• 47:25
  uh uh will smith uh uh when he does the uh the
• 47:29
  last look before he turns off the light in the
• 47:32
  uh fresh prince of bel -air oh yeah it's kind
• 47:34
  of like that that's what we're doing just like
• 47:36
  turning off all the lights slowly one by one
• 47:38
  by one it just blacks out um but uh Yeah, it
• 47:42
  was really cool to be able to get, what is that,
• 47:47
  1997 to 2016, however many years that is, to
• 47:51
  get as many people from all of these generations
• 47:53
  of music and the music scene to send the gate
• 47:59
  off to end it well. Because again, at that point,
• 48:03
  we were struggling. The reason why we closed
• 48:06
  down the gate. We were struggling to get people
• 48:09
  in the door. People were not coming out to shows.
• 48:12
  That was not a thing that high schoolers didn't
• 48:15
  want to do. People who were adults, they were
• 48:17
  going to the bars to see their bands play, right?
• 48:20
  Like some of these older bands that used to play
• 48:22
  at the gate back in high school, now they're
• 48:24
  playing at bars, right? Because that's like...
• 48:26
  where the beer is and we weren't we weren't that
• 48:29
  we were not beer uh we didn't have that um and
• 48:32
  it was just like they they grew up which is fine
• 48:34
  they outgrew the gate which is not an issue uh
• 48:38
  but at that time it really showed us like maybe
• 48:41
  the the gate a diy venue for local bands to uh
• 48:49
  for a spot for local bands maybe it's just not
• 48:51
  needed in bakersfield anymore and at that time
• 48:55
  Yeah, that was true. But then what happens, you
• 48:58
  know, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, four years later, right?
• 49:01
  Four years later, we hit the pandemic and people
• 49:06
  are shut in and all of these things. People want
• 49:08
  to go out, but they can't. And TikTok really
• 49:12
  starts blowing up and shows, hardcore shows especially,
• 49:18
  or heavy music shows. get really big on TikTok
• 49:23
  and people see that in high school or junior
• 49:25
  high and they want to be a part of that. They
• 49:27
  want to experience that because they're cooped
• 49:28
  up. And then, you know, and, you know, there
• 49:31
  was a couple of DIY spots that opened up after
• 49:34
  the gate. Babylon opened up and even there was
• 49:39
  also Munoz Gym was also opened at that time.
• 49:42
  My old bands got to play there a couple of times
• 49:44
  and we saw a lot of cool shows there. Babylon
• 49:46
  opened up for more DIY punk spot, punk hardcore
• 49:50
  spot, which is cool. And then the 415, after
• 49:53
  TikTok, after everything opens up, and then the
• 49:58
  415 opens, and then you see a slew... of kids,
• 50:02
  a whole bunch of kids coming out. Jerry's is
• 50:06
  starting to have more shows. It's not DIY, essentially.
• 50:11
  You could do it yourself, but it's a little bit
• 50:14
  harder to navigate that process of booking a
• 50:17
  show there. You know, if the gate was open today,
• 50:21
  oh, my God, we would probably be able to get
• 50:24
  these kids something to do every weekend, a positive
• 50:27
  place to be at. That was our whole goal, man,
• 50:29
  was to be a community of people. And, you know,
• 50:33
  the guys from 415, like Noah and even Sam and
• 50:37
  who else was there? Taylor, Nate, Alex. All the
• 50:44
  gold guys. All the gold guys from the band Gold,
• 50:46
  right? I can't remember what Noah's band's name
• 50:49
  was, his little punk band. He had a little pop
• 50:52
  punk band too. Frentis. Thank you. Yeah, like
• 50:55
  a little three -piece. pop punk band or something
• 50:58
  and or a little like little scrappy punk band
• 51:00
  i booked them and and he said hey man remember
• 51:03
  i played i played at the gate i was like what
• 51:05
  the heck they played at the third wave gate yeah
• 51:07
  which is really cool uh they they and they're
• 51:10
  still doing things um so it's it's cool that
• 51:14
  one diy spots are where community happens right
• 51:19
  diy spots are where where those connections those
• 51:22
  lifelong connections happen to where like yeah
• 51:26
  this is this is like what makes baker's world
• 51:29
  so unique because we had these spots we had these
• 51:32
  spots and we built these connections and we were
• 51:35
  like i think the gate was able to show kids young
• 51:40
  folks what was possible if you if they just went
• 51:46
  out and did it what what is possible what's if
• 51:48
  you can't figure it out what's the support system
• 51:51
  look like to make it to make it work out right
• 51:54
  because the community was there the support was
• 51:57
  there and the the heart was there which is the
• 51:59
  most important like the people at the gate myself
• 52:01
  like rob stephen and bobby cameron and nate wong
• 52:05
  all of these different people that were at the
• 52:08
  gate and were putting in time is because we had
• 52:11
  a heart for people, for community. We didn't
• 52:15
  want people to, man, you better repent. You're
• 52:18
  going to hell. You're going to hell. You can't
• 52:20
  do that anymore. We never came from a place like
• 52:22
  that. That faith led us to create this community
• 52:31
  with everyone. regardless of belief, we're not
• 52:34
  trying to change you. We're trying to change
• 52:36
  what our community looks like. I don't care what
• 52:40
  you believe. At least that's how I took it. That's
• 52:41
  how I ran the gate. When I was running it, that's
• 52:43
  how I ran it. I don't care what you believe in.
• 52:45
  I don't care if you ever believe in the same
• 52:48
  type of faith that I have. What I want you to
• 52:51
  know is that I got your back and that I support
• 52:53
  your vision for how you create. art because we
• 53:01
  had some weird stuff at the gate we had some
• 53:03
  weird i don't know probably steven and bobby
• 53:05
  could probably tell you like uh uh a lot of like
• 53:08
  there was a guy i think he lived in mcfarland
• 53:11
  and he would just come and he would have a big
• 53:14
  hat and he he was like an older gentleman he
• 53:18
  had a big hat and he looked all crazy and he
• 53:21
  just played from his ipad or no no not his ipad
• 53:24
  his his computer or maybe he was like walkman
• 53:26
  or cd at the time he would just go All right.
• 53:30
  And then Bobby Allison had his own Robert Raymond
• 53:33
  side project where I booked him for one of the
• 53:36
  Awaken the Scenes. And I'll show you this little
• 53:38
  story. It was one of my favorite. Is it Scrawny
• 53:41
  Scream? Scrawny Scream. Yeah. Okay. He went by
• 53:43
  a couple things. Scrawny Scream, Robert Raymond.
• 53:46
  had a couple of monikers okay but i booked them
• 53:49
  for one of the uh uh awake in the scene shows
• 53:52
  you have all these hardcore kids right all of
• 53:54
  these like you know all these bands have already
• 53:56
  played and i put them right in the middle on
• 53:58
  purpose because like i did dude i want to see
• 54:01
  what what happens right yeah so he sets up like
• 54:04
  tvs and radios and all this stuff in front of
• 54:07
  the stage right he sets it all up right and i'm
• 54:10
  i'm like hyping it up like oh my You got to get
• 54:12
  in here. Oh my God, you got to get in here. Because
• 54:15
  what I'm just like expecting like nonsense, right?
• 54:17
  From Bobby. And so he sets it all up and everyone
• 54:22
  comes in. It's packed. It's a packed show. Everyone
• 54:24
  comes in and they're all sitting down and they're
• 54:28
  waiting patiently, right? Yeah. And so Bobby
• 54:31
  goes up there. He finally goes up there because
• 54:33
  he's building anticipation and the lights look
• 54:35
  a certain way and there's TVs and radios, whatever.
• 54:36
  He has a microphone stand up there. He stands
• 54:39
  up there. And he looks at the crowd for probably
• 54:44
  like three to five minutes. He's looking at them
• 54:47
  and like not saying anything. And he just kind
• 54:50
  of has this like look of I'm unsure what I'm
• 54:54
  doing. That's like on his face. Like, what am
• 54:56
  I doing here? At least that's what he's portraying.
• 54:58
  Yeah. And so he's like kind of like looking back
• 55:02
  really like, oh. And he turns around, he pulls
• 55:06
  a note out of his pocket, and he tapes it to
• 55:09
  one of the TVs. And he walks away. And probably
• 55:13
  like a good, it felt like an eternity because
• 55:16
  no one knew what was going on. Yeah. Right? No
• 55:19
  one knew what was going on. And then finally,
• 55:21
  probably like after like two to three minutes,
• 55:24
  someone gets up and reads the note. And on the
• 55:28
  note, and then you see him go. man like the guy
• 55:31
  who read it oh this is stupid oh and everyone's
• 55:33
  like what what what what what and and i'm watching
• 55:35
  from the the booth the the the sound booth i'm
• 55:38
  looking at bobby the whole time just like hiding
• 55:40
  in the back like you know laughing and and on
• 55:44
  the someone actually read it and on the note
• 55:46
  it said i i got too scared to play please forgive
• 55:49
  me i am so sorry i'm so scared bye or something
• 55:52
  like something stupid like that right his performative
• 55:55
  art what um but Either way, yeah, we had some
• 55:59
  weird stuff. We had so many good bands. And I
• 56:02
  couldn't tell you who the good bands were. Good
• 56:05
  hardcore bands, good metal bands, good indie
• 56:07
  bands, good acoustic acts, too, that would come
• 56:10
  in and play. And we had like Poetry Nights, too.
• 56:13
  This guy named Berlardus. His name was Nathan
• 56:16
  Berlardus. He's a writer in Bakersfield. Nick.
• 56:20
  Nick Berlardus, thank you. Yeah, yeah. Thank
• 56:22
  you. His son, his son, he's a violin player.
• 56:25
  Yeah, Jordan. Jordan. And then his other son,
• 56:28
  he was in a whole bunch of indie bands too that
• 56:30
  played in a lot of the gate stuff. But yeah,
• 56:36
  Nick Berlardus, he booked like a poetry reading,
• 56:38
  a book reading, right? Like we were there for
• 56:41
  a community. We wanted to do that stuff. We were
• 56:43
  just there and they would use it. So yeah. Yeah.
• 57:01
  I noticed even you're wearing a hat. It says
• 57:04
  abolish. Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I've,
• 57:06
  I've noticed that you advocate for that and you've
• 57:09
  also advocated for the queer community. Can you
• 57:11
  tell me about that? This is where kind of like
• 57:13
  where my, my faith drives me. It's so different
• 57:18
  maybe from Rob. I can't speak on what, what he
• 57:21
  believes now. Right. But definitely different
• 57:23
  from where our, like our support from the garden.
• 57:27
  Cause that's where it started with, with the
• 57:28
  garden. That's where I differ from that church,
• 57:32
  right? Because my faith drives me, again, community
• 57:38
  and being there for people. And growing up in
• 57:42
  Christianity, it was a lot of like, if I go up
• 57:46
  to a queer person and I tell them that I'm a
• 57:49
  person of faith, that I'm a Christian, I don't
• 57:52
  blame them for not trusting me. Why? Because
• 57:56
  Christianity, especially Western evangelicalism,
• 58:00
  they go on the hate rant, right? They start doing
• 58:02
  the Bible, the clobber, the Bible clobber verses,
• 58:05
  and they start saying, you know, repent and we
• 58:08
  love you, but a lot of buts in their love. They
• 58:12
  cannot accept the reality that someone is who
• 58:15
  they are. I view it as God has created them in
• 58:21
  God's image. There is nothing wrong with who
• 58:25
  they are, who they love, and how they look, especially
• 58:28
  when it comes to gender fluidity or I am not
• 58:35
  the sex that I was born with, right? Who am I
• 58:39
  to replace that or to tell them that they're
• 58:43
  in the wrong? I am on the side where I believe
• 58:48
  God has created them just like that. Just like
• 58:53
  that. However their mind is, that is holy and
• 58:56
  that is beautiful thing. I view them as a beautiful
• 59:00
  creation in the image of God. Because a lot of
• 59:04
  Christians will say God is a he. It's like, dude,
• 59:06
  like God doesn't have a dick. Or do you know
• 59:09
  that if God has a dick or not, right? Like, I
• 59:11
  don't know. I don't think so. Have you seen it?
• 59:15
  But, you know, I'm under the belief that God
• 59:18
  is probably multi -gender. It's not just one
• 59:22
  gender and fluid. And why not have people walk
• 59:27
  in the same light of this deity? So yeah, my
• 59:33
  faith drives me to flip over tables, especially
• 59:37
  when it comes to churches who get funds from
• 59:43
  a lot of donations. A lot of donations. A lot
• 59:47
  of churches want to be mega churches. They want
• 59:49
  to be this big. They want to have influence.
• 59:51
  They want to have influence. They want to be
• 59:54
  prominent in their cities. only to be bigger,
• 1:00:00
  only to fill their pockets. And that's where
• 1:00:02
  I differ. I don't want to serve that type of
• 1:00:05
  God where it's all about the Benjamins. It's
• 1:00:07
  all about the money that they put in their pockets
• 1:00:09
  because they're not going after community. The
• 1:00:12
  gate at that time, I think, was very, very different.
• 1:00:18
  And, you know, I think even Rob said it, like
• 1:00:20
  people left because what's this gate thing here?
• 1:00:25
  I don't like it. I don't like it, so I'm leaving
• 1:00:27
  the church. How horrible is that? And I think
• 1:00:31
  that if the gate kept on going, it would have
• 1:00:34
  ended eventually because of how the identity
• 1:00:37
  politics that a lot of churches play into and
• 1:00:40
  how people just grow up and their faith changes.
• 1:00:43
  And my faith has grew from there. If we're going
• 1:00:46
  to have community, we have to advocate for...
• 1:00:50
  the marginalized. We have to defend those that
• 1:00:54
  the powerful are going after. And in this case,
• 1:00:57
  the churches are the powerful ones going after
• 1:01:01
  folks who are just trying to live. They're just
• 1:01:03
  trying to go with their partners. They're just
• 1:01:06
  trying to find a bathroom to use and to do their
• 1:01:11
  business. They're just trying to do their taxes.
• 1:01:14
  They're just trying to... find a job that won't
• 1:01:17
  judge them or cast them aside. They're just trying
• 1:01:21
  to live just like you and I, and I want to be
• 1:01:24
  on their side. I want to be on their side. If
• 1:01:27
  that means like, yo, we can't be doing this.
• 1:01:31
  What are we doing, church folks, right? Then
• 1:01:33
  I'll do it. I'll be that sledgehammer all day.
• 1:01:36
  Yeah, I think it's really cool that you advocate
• 1:01:40
  for the marginalized because Even if, like you
• 1:01:44
  said, some of your peers don't. I've lost a lot
• 1:01:46
  of friends because of the advocacy. Fill in the
• 1:01:49
  blank. What do you want to talk about? Immigrants?
• 1:01:51
  You want to talk about Black Lives Matter? You
• 1:01:53
  want to talk about just how we shouldn't have,
• 1:01:56
  you know, pedophiles in the Oval Office, right?
• 1:02:00
  Whatever you want. It's all about people. My
• 1:02:05
  faith drives me to people. What can we do for
• 1:02:07
  people? We need to be there for people. And I've
• 1:02:10
  lost a lot of friends because they do believe
• 1:02:12
  something completely different than what I believe.
• 1:02:14
  And that's all right. That's fine. That just
• 1:02:17
  shows me that that's not a part of my community.
• 1:02:19
  And that's something that I'm not going to be
• 1:02:21
  focused on, which is what I think. You know,
• 1:02:24
  I can walk in when 415 was around, when I go
• 1:02:28
  to Jerry's, when I go to different places in
• 1:02:31
  downtown, or if I go to any show, if I go to
• 1:02:33
  Visalia, if I go to Fresno, if I go wherever,
• 1:02:36
  if I go to Tehachapi, I know that I'm not going
• 1:02:39
  to have any issues. No one's going to look at
• 1:02:41
  me and be like, oh man, I hate that guy because
• 1:02:44
  he advocates for queer folks. No one's going
• 1:02:46
  to say that because that's not normal, right?
• 1:02:49
  You're only going to get that in churches. If
• 1:02:51
  I walk into a church, That's where I'm going
• 1:02:53
  to get the pushback because they're not caught
• 1:02:55
  up yet. Their love has not grown enough to be
• 1:02:59
  able to fully welcome and love all that are in
• 1:03:04
  our communities. That's why I keep on getting
• 1:03:07
  welcomed into places like 415 or in punk spots
• 1:03:12
  like that because they recognize that people
• 1:03:17
  need a place to belong. And yeah, I am a Christian.
• 1:03:21
  I still claim to be, I still follow Jesus. It
• 1:03:25
  just looks different, right? That's why I do
• 1:03:27
  the things with my band, right? That's why I
• 1:03:29
  cuss a lot. I think that Earth Expired, even
• 1:03:31
  though we're not a Christian band, I think it's
• 1:03:33
  the most Christian thing that I have done as
• 1:03:36
  a band. The most Christian thing that I have
• 1:03:39
  done personally. And that's versus like, you
• 1:03:41
  know, like even like the Rugged Spud where I'm
• 1:03:43
  like... saying Jesus this, Jesus that on stage.
• 1:03:46
  I'm not saying Jesus this, Jesus that on stage
• 1:03:49
  today. However, this is the most faith -driven
• 1:03:53
  that any project that I have done because I am
• 1:03:57
  fighting for those, for community. Yeah, and
• 1:04:10
  I've caught your band a few times. Yeah, thank
• 1:04:12
  you. And you took pictures and videos. I appreciate
• 1:04:14
  that. Yeah, I think one of the highlight times
• 1:04:16
  for me was, I think it was a Christmas show where
• 1:04:19
  you said something like, everyone that stage
• 1:04:22
  dives, I'll donate a dollar to, I can't remember
• 1:04:25
  what cause, but it was important. And it just
• 1:04:29
  went crazy. The room went crazy. I got a bunch
• 1:04:31
  of shots of stage dives. That was fun. Yeah,
• 1:04:35
  because again. That's coming out of my own pocket.
• 1:04:38
  I know it's a dollar. A dollar is a dollar, right?
• 1:04:40
  But in this day and age, that can go towards
• 1:04:44
  paying my phone bill, paying rent, paying for
• 1:04:46
  gas. That's like a week's worth of gas right
• 1:04:50
  there, right? But again... What's more important,
• 1:04:54
  right? That I want to put my money where my mouth
• 1:04:57
  is. And I cannot wait for the day. I'm going
• 1:04:59
  to call it out into existence. I cannot wait
• 1:05:01
  for the day that I play Sound and Fury because
• 1:05:03
  I'm going to do the same thing, a dollar for
• 1:05:06
  every stage dive, and have it go towards a cause.
• 1:05:10
  Hardcore community and backing these causes,
• 1:05:14
  that's what I'm about. And it gets the kids going.
• 1:05:20
  raise a little bit of money, tell them a dollar
• 1:05:23
  per stage dive and watch the room because they,
• 1:05:26
  folks in the crowd, also want to be a part of
• 1:05:30
  community and support causes. Like, wait, I'm
• 1:05:34
  already stage diving. I'm going to stage dive
• 1:05:36
  a lot more. Oh, that's what hardcore bands want.
• 1:05:38
  Heck yeah, get on here. Yeah. Yeah, that was
• 1:05:41
  a fun show. What other shows with Earth Expired
• 1:05:45
  have you had fun at? You know, every single show,
• 1:05:48
  every single show, I always put it 110 percent.
• 1:05:51
  I can't I think I've moved a lot more in this
• 1:05:55
  band than other bands, even though I'm older
• 1:05:58
  and I'm definitely not more in fit, but I've
• 1:06:00
  lost a lot of weight since Rugged Spud. And I
• 1:06:03
  think that helps me to move around a little bit
• 1:06:04
  more. But it's been it's been really cool to
• 1:06:08
  to just. Man, I don't care if there's like three
• 1:06:11
  people or four people here. I really don't. I'm
• 1:06:14
  going to move the same way. I'm going to perform
• 1:06:15
  the same way. But a couple of like the cooler
• 1:06:18
  shows. The Christmas show was super cool. We
• 1:06:22
  played in Visalia at Horizons Gym. Shout out
• 1:06:26
  to Christian and Ken Park's promotion for putting
• 1:06:32
  us on that. That was fun. Always playing in Visalia
• 1:06:35
  is a fun show. Tehachapi shows are always fun
• 1:06:39
  with Andy from Die Hard Youth, Ill Communication,
• 1:06:43
  BDR. You know, super cool. We stay connected.
• 1:06:47
  He's known him for years and years and years
• 1:06:49
  and years. That was probably my first hardcore
• 1:06:52
  band that I've seen, too. So it was Die Hard
• 1:06:58
  Youth. Thank you, Die Hard Youth. Playing Tehachapi
• 1:07:01
  is always cool, always playing with them. It's
• 1:07:04
  always cool to see folks that are half my age
• 1:07:09
  or my kids' age or in high school. One kid came
• 1:07:14
  up to me and was like, hey, man, you're older
• 1:07:16
  than me, but you're moving more than me. And
• 1:07:19
  you're more passionate. It just lets me know
• 1:07:21
  that I have work to do. It's like, yeah, man,
• 1:07:23
  I think that if people in bands, the music is
• 1:07:30
  secondary to... who you are as a person and what
• 1:07:33
  you believe music that's where the music comes
• 1:07:36
  from as an artist like you you play from those
• 1:07:39
  emotions you play uh you know the the saddest
• 1:07:42
  songs the saddest emo songs that you're going
• 1:07:44
  to hear are going to be the songs that oh man
• 1:07:47
  that hits because that person lived that experience
• 1:07:50
  that person had such a such a deep connection
• 1:07:53
  to that and and we all leave these experiences
• 1:07:56
  Music always comes secondary to the things that
• 1:07:59
  we believe in, that we feel and that we have
• 1:08:01
  gone through. And because of my advocacy and
• 1:08:04
  because of what I truly believe for community,
• 1:08:07
  I think that just kids just resonate with that,
• 1:08:10
  right? Or adults or all ages, they resonate with
• 1:08:14
  that because, oh, you're not just a hardcore
• 1:08:17
  band telling me to fuck people up. You're a hardcore
• 1:08:20
  band that's saying to fuck the system, right?
• 1:08:25
  to be together and to unite together because
• 1:08:30
  it's, you know, hardcore. I don't want to just
• 1:08:32
  mosh for no reason. I don't want to just mosh
• 1:08:34
  and fight people for no reason. I want to be
• 1:08:37
  able to fight something that is going to have
• 1:08:40
  long -lasting effects for every single person
• 1:08:44
  that's alive. So you're in Earth Expired and
• 1:08:48
  you're playing shows. And what are your other
• 1:08:51
  plans with music? so i do my own stuff too uh
• 1:08:55
  i do my own like just solo project right it's
• 1:08:58
  under my own name it's under my own name um or
• 1:09:00
  it's called like manuals with us the same thing
• 1:09:02
  with like my instagram handle uh i'm really uh
• 1:09:07
  i'm trying to put out my own music i'm trying
• 1:09:09
  to we're earth expirators working on a whole
• 1:09:11
  bunch of tunes right now we haven't played and
• 1:09:13
  we haven't played since the last 415 show whenever
• 1:09:17
  that shut down uh and so Uh, you know, we're
• 1:09:21
  working on music. We're getting together every
• 1:09:23
  Friday with the guys, um, uh, trying to put on
• 1:09:26
  like a full length, trying to do like the vinyl
• 1:09:28
  stuff. Right. And, and trying to come up with
• 1:09:30
  like a cool, like. cool shirts and stuff that
• 1:09:33
  come out with the release of that. Uh, but because
• 1:09:36
  we all work and because we all don't have time
• 1:09:38
  and, uh, it's, it's really hard to make music,
• 1:09:41
  you know, it's really hard sometimes to just
• 1:09:43
  start riffing together, but, uh, uh, we're just
• 1:09:46
  staying active on it to stay on it. Uh, even
• 1:09:49
  like today, this morning, or even yesterday and
• 1:09:51
  today, like oh i just came up with something
• 1:09:53
  right like all right cool yeah as long as we
• 1:09:55
  keep on sending things back and forth in the
• 1:09:58
  group chat and then get together in in the garage
• 1:10:00
  and and hammer it out and stay dedicated but
• 1:10:03
  hopefully you know realistically hopefully earth
• 1:10:06
  expired can come out with uh our this album by
• 1:10:09
  by january in reality right which would be really
• 1:10:13
  cool um and and just record it and get it out
• 1:10:16
  there so yeah that'd be cool We've shouted out
• 1:10:21
  so many bands, but what current or past Bakersfield
• 1:10:25
  musicians do you want people to listen to? Oh,
• 1:10:28
  well, I do have the playlists. It's Spotify playlist
• 1:10:33
  and I have an Apple playlist of hardcore Bakersfield
• 1:10:38
  and surrounding areas, past and present. Indie,
• 1:10:41
  everything else, past and present. I have those
• 1:10:44
  playlists on there. That would be a good place
• 1:10:46
  for people to go to. There's a lot of good bands
• 1:10:49
  that are playing right now. Like Gold is great.
• 1:10:52
  They're fun. I hope that they keep on playing
• 1:10:55
  and doing things. All the indie bands that all
• 1:10:59
  those bands are connected with and they play.
• 1:11:03
  If anyone sees a flyer and it's a band that you
• 1:11:07
  don't know, man, just go. It doesn't matter who's
• 1:11:11
  on the flyer. If it's a local band, just show
• 1:11:13
  up, right? I know that... Jerry's, the different
• 1:11:19
  various promoters at Jerry's are putting on a
• 1:11:22
  whole bunch of different things out there. Dance
• 1:11:25
  and DJs and hip -hop and also the rock and metal
• 1:11:29
  and hardcore metalcore things. The 415 guys,
• 1:11:35
  the No Threat promotions are putting on shows
• 1:11:38
  at Temblor and trying to just put on different
• 1:11:40
  shows here. If there's a flyer that comes across,
• 1:11:44
  like I see this on TikTok. That's what my TikTok
• 1:11:47
  feed looks like. Where are the shows at? Where's
• 1:11:50
  the scene in Bakersfield? Where are the shows
• 1:11:52
  at? I was like, dude, we have a scene. We do.
• 1:11:55
  We've had a scene since like the 70s, 80s, right?
• 1:12:00
  And it just goes ups and downs. You know, because
• 1:12:02
  you're the history guy. Ups and downs, man. Ups
• 1:12:05
  and downs. Right now, we're kind of like on a
• 1:12:07
  down because the 415 closed down. that DIY spot
• 1:12:14
  is gone, but Jerry's is still there, right? Tim
• 1:12:17
  Blore is still putting on shows. We've lost,
• 1:12:19
  I wanted to shout out. Rest in peace, Ruben.
• 1:12:23
  Ruben, who was with Numskull, he was playing
• 1:12:27
  in the bands from way back in the day from Ritual
• 1:12:30
  to Romance and then putting on shows. And that
• 1:12:33
  was, you know, losing Ruben and losing the 415
• 1:12:36
  made a huge hit in Bakersfield because Ruben
• 1:12:41
  was the guy that was holding it down for Numskull.
• 1:12:43
  Numskull doesn't really do things in Bakersfield.
• 1:12:45
  They don't really, like rarely. Since their existence.
• 1:12:51
  Yes, he was the one holding it down. The 4 -1
• 1:12:53
  -5 guys were the ones holding it down for Bakersfield.
• 1:12:57
  And the two things happening in the same year,
• 1:13:00
  losing Ruben first and then the 4 -1 -5, complete
• 1:13:04
  travesty. And we're just in a down. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:13:08
  If anyone's listening, I think that it's just
• 1:13:11
  so important to, regardless of who's on the flyer,
• 1:13:16
  is just to get out. It's just to get out. If
• 1:13:18
  you're into a certain style of music, that music
• 1:13:20
  is probably being played somewhere on a random
• 1:13:23
  weekend in Bakersfield. There is always music
• 1:13:27
  happening in Bakersfield. Always. It may not
• 1:13:30
  be your style or it may be your style. Very well.
• 1:13:33
  It's a little bit tougher with punk and hardcore
• 1:13:35
  right now. But like I said, if you see a flyer,
• 1:13:38
  man, just go out there and support local music.
• 1:13:41
  Yeah, and even when venues fail, there's house
• 1:13:44
  shows. I've been seeing more and more flyers
• 1:13:46
  for house shows lately, so keep an eye out. When
• 1:13:49
  we ran the gate, we were trying to give money
• 1:13:52
  to the local bands, right? Yeah, yeah. And so...
• 1:13:56
  That's how I always want to run things. It's
• 1:13:58
  my hardcore ethos, my punk rock ethos. I don't
• 1:14:02
  want to get paid. I want the artists to get paid.
• 1:14:04
  I want people to come in and not have this mentality
• 1:14:07
  where it's like, oh, I have to sell them a certain
• 1:14:11
  amount of tickets in order to play or in order
• 1:14:13
  to have a good show. It's like, let's just have
• 1:14:15
  local music. Let's have local bands. Do you have
• 1:14:19
  any advice for up -and -coming musicians? A lot
• 1:14:22
  of musicians get in their head about... what
• 1:14:26
  their music sounds like. It's not perfect. It's
• 1:14:30
  not good. I'm unable to record at a legit recording
• 1:14:38
  studio or don't have the funds or whatever. I
• 1:14:42
  think that people just need to get out of their
• 1:14:44
  head because that's preventing that creative
• 1:14:48
  flow that people have. People have iPhones. I
• 1:14:55
  use GarageBand to record my music. I use GarageBand
• 1:14:58
  left and right. And there's a lot of open source
• 1:15:02
  digital workstations recording things that they
• 1:15:08
  can put on their computer and iPhones. There
• 1:15:10
  is no excuse to get your art to the masses. It
• 1:15:16
  doesn't matter how many people listen to it.
• 1:15:18
  The point is that you put it out there, someone's
• 1:15:21
  going to listen to it. And you were able to complete
• 1:15:26
  that goal of releasing your own music, right?
• 1:15:29
  And getting it out there. So drop it no matter
• 1:15:32
  what. It doesn't matter how it sounds. What's
• 1:15:36
  important is that it sounds good to you. That
• 1:15:39
  is what you wanted. That is the creation that
• 1:15:42
  you wanted. Not as a professional level, not
• 1:15:44
  like a recording level status, but I'm saying
• 1:15:47
  you were able to write the verse and make it
• 1:15:49
  sound accordingly and use whatever effects that
• 1:15:52
  you wanted and whatever melody that you wanted
• 1:15:54
  and to get it out there. Because that's art.
• 1:15:58
  Art is so, especially with a local scene. And
• 1:16:02
  get out there and play! just book a show book
• 1:16:05
  your own show uh you know steven allison his
• 1:16:08
  his band had a uh his first show his new band
• 1:16:11
  had a show last night and they just did it at
• 1:16:13
  a house right which is cool right uh and i wasn't
• 1:16:17
  you were there yeah you were there i wasn't able
• 1:16:19
  to go i was at fred armisen and so uh but uh
• 1:16:22
  i'll be there at the next one hopefully the next
• 1:16:24
  one it's just finding a place opening up your
• 1:16:27
  backyard making connections and just going out
• 1:16:30
  to the local scene and being friends with people
• 1:16:33
  i see this on tiktok too like i was saying about
• 1:16:35
  tiktok like where's the scene at or how do i
• 1:16:38
  start a band like dude like if you're in high
• 1:16:40
  school there's people in in that that you're
• 1:16:43
  looking for the if you're in the punk rock look
• 1:16:46
  for the the weirdos right look for the people
• 1:16:48
  that dress funny a quote -unquote funny i won't
• 1:16:50
  say because it's not They don't look funny at
• 1:16:52
  all, but socially. Look for those people that
• 1:16:54
  look socially different, right? That look different,
• 1:16:58
  that look according to what you want to play.
• 1:17:01
  Go talk to the band nerds. Go talk to the band
• 1:17:04
  nerds. You're going to find a drummer in there.
• 1:17:06
  You're going to find a drummer that's really
• 1:17:07
  good probably and probably a couple of guitar
• 1:17:10
  players and whatnot. You need a vocalist? Go
• 1:17:13
  to your school choir. You got a ton of vocalists
• 1:17:16
  in there. Be friends, go out there, be friends
• 1:17:19
  with people. And that's what I did. I go to shows
• 1:17:22
  and I became friends with all these bands and
• 1:17:25
  people who ran venues and I became friends with
• 1:17:28
  promoters because I just want, I just, I love
• 1:17:31
  community. Be driven to release your music no
• 1:17:36
  matter what. Go out there. talk to people, start
• 1:17:39
  bands, go to shows, be in the community that
• 1:17:43
  is there and throw on your own show, your own
• 1:17:47
  house show, book a show at Jerry's, at Tumblr,
• 1:17:49
  whatever, get connected with different promoters
• 1:17:52
  in town and just go for it because failure shouldn't
• 1:17:57
  be the thing that stops you from doing something.
• 1:18:00
  Failure should be the fire that pushes you to
• 1:18:04
  do amazing things. Thanks for listening to the
• 1:18:16
  San Joaquin Sound Podcast. This has been the
• 1:18:19
  third and final episode about The Gate. Next
• 1:18:22
  time, we'll be going back to the 1960s and talking
• 1:18:25
  to a surprise guest who was there in the major
• 1:18:28
  recording studios of the 60s in Bakersfield on
• 1:18:32
  both sides of the glass.