Bite Me! Die Trying Interview

Die Trying -By Nikki Neil

Remember when rock ‘n’ roll used to be fun? Well, what da hell happened? The members of Die Trying (vocalist Jassen, guitarist Jack, bassist Steve, and drummer Matt) have asked themselves this question a number of times, and while other bands are busy wallowing in self pity, the hardest working band on the West Coast has embarked on a mission to single-handedly bring back the days of boobs, beers, and arenas. The Sacramento based unit’s self-titled debut (Island/Def Jam) relives the glory days of arena rock. Filled to the brim with pop hooks and hard rock attitude, the album’s tracks rock with focus and abandon.

With they’re “Nothing but a good time” mind-set and boyish charm, the fun-lovin’ hard rockin’ four-piece are winning fans wherever they go. And yes, these Sacramento boys do know what girls want and they like it dirty dirty.

Welcome back to Los Angeles. How is everything going?

Jassen: Great. We love being on the road. We love touring and everything about it. It’s everything wrapped up in an RV that we’ve ever wanted.

Is it exactly what you expected?

J: Yeah, pretty much.

Steve: At first, it wasn’t exactly what we expected. When we first went on the road we didn’t expect all the sickness that we encountered because we were going to different states and catching new viruses that our bodies weren’t immune to. So our immune systems really built up and after we got through the initial walking dead part we were able to do the shows every night, keep busy, and have fun.

Getting sick all the time has got to be a pain in the ass.

J: Yeah. It was pretty difficult at first, but as soon as we got into warmer climates it ironed out. The tour started up North towards the end of last winter and it just hit us. We were sweating, in the hospital…all kinds of crap. But as soon as we got over that and headed more towards the South it got all better and it’s been all uphill since then. It’s been run, run, run and hanging out with kids every night. We only missed one show because our guitar player Jack had gotten really sick that night. But every other show we played we played while sick. We just figured, “Screw it. We’ll sweat it out for a half hour.”

Luckily you didn’t have to play a two-hour set.

J: No, no two-hour set.

A half-hour must have seemed really long though.

S: Yeah.

I’m sorry but I have to ask you if the piercing on you cheek hurts. (It looked like Jassen’s body was rejecting the piercing and pushing it out.)

J: No. It’s not so bad. It gets screwed up all the time. I’ve had it for a year and a half now. I got it the day Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes died.

Was it a tribute to her?

J: Uh, sure. I’m a big fan of their work. I had a huge crush on her when I was younger. A huge crush. So sure, yeah. I got it for her.

Alright Steve, who did you have a crush on when you were younger?

J: Me (laughs)

S: I don’t know. I don’t get crushes.

I remember back in school we always had to write an essay on what we did during summer vacation. Did you ever imagine that you’d be touring the U.S. for your summer vacation?

J: I never could complete the essay part of it. Actually, I don’t think I ever wrote any of those. I never did homework because I was always daydreaming about my next summer vacation when my band would get together and we were going to totally rock it. But, I always knew in the back of my heart that this was something that was definitely going to take up a mass majority of my life. I think it is the same for Steve.

S: Yeah.

J: It’s always been in our backbone. We never really took school seriously. No one in this band even graduated because we were too busy cutting school to go to our one buddy’s house whose parents worked and had the drum kit, so we could be loud and rock out and the neighbor would call the cops because she’s got the daycare next door or something and the kids are sleeping and we’re rocking it out in the garage. We just always knew. Whether we wrote it down for that class or not it was just – Die Trying because we knew that is who we were. As soon as I heard Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” it was, “That shit is sick. How many zippers does he have on that damn jacket? That dude is fly”.

I know that the band’s name Die Trying was basically your motto in the early days, so when you guys make it big will you have a new motto?

J: The day that we had set out to become the band that we are today was a hot summer day in Sacramento, California, and we were on our porch…We had a huge four story Victorian house that was run down. It was an eleven-room mansion and everyone that lived there were in bands or they were screwing someone in the band. We all sat there and we said, “You know what? We all come from pretty much nothing and I guarantee you—the look in our eyes and the passion that you can see—if we put all that in one pot and cook it up we could be something awesome. Let’s just set out to conquer the world.” And, anything that falls short of setting out to conquer the world can’t be half bad. Think about it. That’s the end all say all - besides meeting God and coming back to talk about it. So, we figured we’d put our goals as high as we possibly could. Put in 180%. Screw a 100%. 190%, I think, is the highest level for alcohol and that is pretty much what we run off of, so we’ll give a 190% of our blood, sweat, and beers and just run – run like the bulls. And if you fall get your ass back up and keep running. God only helps those who help themselves and I don’t think we could lose. It’s just not in our cards.

I heard that in the early days you guys were very strict about not missing rehearsal. Did any one ever miss?

J: Steve missed once.

S: Yeah.

J: He missed one rehearsal because his grandfather died, and we gave him shit about it. “You still have a grandma dude get your ass down here.”

Poor Steve.

S: (Laughs) Naw, he’s kidding.

J: That was who we were. He had to handle his business for that one day and he was back and we did a double rehearsal the next day, which is not like twisting our arm. It’s something we wanted to do or we wouldn’t have been able to cut out everything – jobs, bills, rent, a place to live, girlfriends…none of it was allowed. It was just the band or you weren’t in the band. It was that simple. There we no if, ands, or buts about it. If you had any qualms about it then don’t show up and we’ll figure it out.

I used to manage a few local bands and once any one of those factors came into the picture someone missed practice for one reason or another, so it ended up being one day of practice and four days of flaking off.

S: We’d fine each other.

J: Yeah. We were all broke as hell so it was you pay up the loot or we’re keeping your gear until you come back with it.

S: It’s a matter of respect too. We all want to succeed and we all set out to do this together and you’re kind of disrespecting your band member if you slack off. You have to constantly work—keep adding to the group and making it strong. Once you start slowing down you’re not an asset.

J: We’d feel horrible about ourselves. If we missed days or we didn’t have a good show that means we didn’t practice enough. And then we would spend the whole day with our head down. “God dammit. What’s going on? How do we fix this?” We beat ourselves up so much because we set such high goals for ourselves. When we fall short at any time we feel horrible about it.

So you are all pretty much perfectionists when it comes to the band.

J & S: Yeah.

J: I wouldn’t say we’re anywhere near perfect but we try.

S: We’re searching for that part.

Jassen did you do Steve’s tattoo?

J: No I didn’t, but I went down there and walked him through the whole procedure. We went to a real nice shop out here in Los Angeles called Taboo Tattoo. I showed him the art of looking through a portfolio as opposed to picking a pattern off the wall and what to look for in terms of a good tattoo. I think I kind of helped you with where to put it and all that.

It’s a beautiful tattoo. (Steve’s tattoo is on located on his forearm. It’s a sword with a rose & vines intertwined around it.)

S: It came out good.

Jassen, how does one become a tattoo artist?

J: I became a tattoo artist because I wanted to eat. I knew how to make tattoo machines. I met some guy when I was in seventh grade, whose cousin was in jail. I lived outside East Palo Alto where there were a lot of young Hispanic gangs, and I would make five bucks doing gang tattoos on people. I always kept it in the back of my mind…”Screw school. If rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t gel out I’ll be a tattoo artist.” I’ve never been one to say I was going to do something and not do it. Whether it’s ridiculously high or really small, if I say I’m going to do something I’ll do it just to prove everybody wrong and show I did it. So it started out as $5 dollars for lunch money. I moved out when I was really young, about fifteen, and I couldn’t get a real job and it was like, “I’ll just tattoo punk rock kids.” I knew a lot of punk rock kids. I lived on friend’s couches and just tattooed people in their garages and made my money that way. I was never rich, but I made enough money to get a couple of bean burritos at taco bell and a cup of water and I’d push Pepsi instead. I just did that for a few years before I wound up in a small town called Vacaville, CA. A local biker dude had a tattoo shop there that was called Dirty Harry’s. Kids were going in there…I was doing body piercing also. I would buying the jewelry off of them and then pierce the kids. And it was like, “Who the hell is doing this?” So, he found out who I was through one of the kids and one of the kids told me, “This dude is pissed. He is going to get you. You better not mess with him because he’s one of the Hell’s Angels, so you better get down there.” So I went down there and he’s like, “What do you think you are doing dude? How old are you? You’re stealing my business.” So I gave him my story and told him what I was about and he offered me a job. And I said, “Hell yeah I want a job.” And he gave me a job. He pretty much taught me everything I know about being a man, growing up, tattooing, and everything. He was a father figure. He totally took me under his wing and taught me how to tattoo with real machines and that is how I became a tattoo artist.

Do you still keep in touch with him?

J: Every time I get back in that area I see him when I can.

I know you guys just go by your first names because, from what I read, you got into a lot of trouble.

J: We still do.

So why didn’t you just make up stage names to begin with?

J: Because it already came out what our first names were. It was already on the website and stuff.

S: I like my name. My mom gave it to me.

If you were to make up a stage name what would it be?

S: Turbo.

That might not a good thing.

(We laugh)

J: I’ve always liked the name Thurston and Tristin. Those are really cool, casual names.

S: Thurston?

J: Thurston Moore it just kind of rolls off. It’s cool.

S: Ace Frehley really has a cool rock star name.

J: Every rock star kid grew up with cool names.

What crazy things have happened to the band since signing with Island?

J: Every day is pretty crazy. It’s a circus. You live your life on the road and you are essentially a circus act. You always have to be on. You always have to be that guy. The only crazy part about it is probably all the people we’ve met. We’ve met a lot of crazy people on the road.

Do fans do strange things just to get your attention or to get backstage?

S: A drunken can came up to me expecting a free CD and he spit in my face. He was about an inch away from me when he was talking to me. I told my band members to stay away from him.

J: We had a guy try to get free guitars off of us in Florida because we had an endorsement from Schecter guitars, out of Hollywood, CA., and he was like, “Dude, don’t be such a dick. You get them for free. Give me the guitar dude.” We literally had to have security escort him out. The there was the time when three young girls posed as Street Teamers. We were setting up for a show and they were lifting up their shirts. They were probably fourteen-years-old. “Oh will you sign my tit, blah, blah, blah…” (Jassen quotes in his best imitation of a fourteen-year-old girl.) I was like, “These are Street Teamers?” Our drummer Matt was signing away and I was like, “Get away from that girl! You might get arrested dude!” Then we walked outside and there were the three Street Teamers that were supposed to be there. One of them was named Casey and we didn’t know if it would be a guy or a girl. We asked them if they were the Street Teamers and they said, “Yup, we’re them.”

Well, you gotta give those girls points for being creative.

S: Don’t do it again.

If you’re reading this, you imposter Street Teamers, don’t pull that trick again. The boys are on to you.

J: And don’t tell your mom about Matt signing the boob.

Did you guys run into any problems while making the album?

J: Aside from ourselves, no.

S: In rehearsal it was different, especially for me, because I never lived with them. I’ve always hung out with them, but didn’t live with them.

J: We all lived together.

S: So that was a little difficult at first, but I got used to it. When we came down here to do the record it was a change for us. We were all living together in an apartment and then going to the studio every day for twelve hours a day. It wasn’t the same as going to work and then after work you could go do whatever you want or hang out with your friends.

J: We adjusted okay…but the poor Oak Woods.

S: (Laughs) We broke every single lamp, a window, several pieces of furniture, unstuffed couches, set off fire alarms…

J: It was an adjustment for us, but we made it out alive. We actually got evicted and then they let us back in. We were pretty wild.

I’m predicating that you will all be changing your names in about a year.

J: Yup.

S: But it’s a good name.

I know, but soon everyone will be after you.

J: Damn it Ace Frehley!

I was reading the credits on the album and was curious as to why you thanked Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne

J: We like the fact that we are a lighthearted band. I can’t say this enough and I pretty much say it in every interview…It’s not rocket science. We just play rock ‘n’ roll. We’re not splitting the atom. I believe that a lot of people’s cop out, in modern music today, is they saw Kurt Cobain come in from the era of the big arenas where every picture you saw had someone smiling. But now you see all these sad kids and the kids are getting into drugs for depression reasons and not for party reasons -- for fun. It’s not hard to sell depression to a fourteen-year-old kid. Anyone can make them feel sad. They feel awkward as it is. But can you get them off? Can you make them have fun? Can you make them want to live? Can you make them just go to a rock show and just be happy that they are at a rock show so they can tell all their friends, “Yeah I saw a dude flip a guitar around his neck.” You know, as opposed to going home and whining for hours because you want to kill yourself. But when they read through stuff like the liner notes, because there are some darker parts to the album, they’ll be like, “You know, these guys aren’t sad.” But, I wouldn’t be mad if I met Britney Spears or Avril Lavigne.

S: No, not at all.

One of the things that stood out most about your live show was that it was just really fun. It seemed like you were having a good time on stage.

J: We like to have fun. Why do we do this to ourselves? It’s such an unhealthy lifestyle…drinking every night, partying every night…. It all sounds cool when you have to work every day, but when that is your job everything gets old. We’re humans. We always want what we can’t have. You can be poor as hell and inherit a million dollars because you just want to be the richest man so then you get 80 million dollars and suddenly you have all these responsibilities and then it’s like, “Screw that. It was better drinking whiskey on the corner all day long.” You know what I mean? It’s the yin and the yang.

What do you do to mix things up if you find yourself falling into a stale routine?

J: Sometimes I’ll drink Vodka instead of Heineken.

What about you Steve?

S: Actually, I’m pretty much stuck in a routine. I haven’t broken out of it yet.

So you’re still drinking the Heineken.

S: I’ll drink Heineken. I’ll drink Bud. It doesn’t matter.

Which song is your favorite to perform live?

J: “Love and Guns”.

S: Yeah. “Dirty Dirty” is pretty fun.

I love that song.

(Jassen makes a face.)

I love that song! I called Rey the day after your show and said, “You better send me the album because I have to hear that song again.” I like that song. Why don’t you like it Jassen?

J: It’s so tongue in cheek.

That’s what makes it so great.

J: It’s fun. You have to have a lot of balls to stand up in front of 500 guys and say, “You touch yourself, You think of me…I know what girls like, I know what girls want. I got it dirty dirty.” You got everybody complaining in music. It is so common knowledge to hear someone sing, “I don’t want to live. I’m breaking.” Almost every song you hear contains the line “I’m breaking,” “I’m falling,” “I’m crashing down,” “I’m drowning”…it’s all this suffocating rubbish. But can you say, “Hey, tickle your titty dude.” (We all bust out laughing). It’s so much harder to do that with a straight face. “Hey dude, go have a good time.” You know, boobs, beers, and arenas weren’t that bad. There was a little too much Aqua Net, but screw it. We’ll leave the Aqua Net out, but let’s have the fun back.

I’m counting on you guys to bring the fun back to rock ‘n’ roll.

S: We’ll try.

Since we were on the topic of “Dirty Dirty,” I wanted to know if you were a fan of The Waitresses or did that line just happen to fit?

J: No. I was in my car listening to a new tape from practice and while I was driving that melody came into my head. It was a mid-summer day, no air conditioning, windows down…and it was like, “Let’s write a cool rock song.” Our guitar player had been begging forever to write a song about sex. That is his life. So I wrote this song and didn’t think it was going to stick and it just fucking worked. We played it once at a show and I said, “This is the first and last time you are going to hear this song.” Every show we played after that the crowd would yell, “Play ‘Dirty Dirty’”. It was like, “Damn it.” Every show someone would yell out, “Dirty Dirty”. I’d be like “Shhhh”. So we’re stuck with it, but if it makes someone want to come see us live or buy or record and have a good time with us then I’ll put my pride in my back pocket and sing the damn song.

I heard a story about how the band used to score shows in the early days. Can you retell that story because I have to print it.

J: Oh, pirating shows.

I like that tactic.

J: We still maintain the pirate outlook in life -- the pirate theory of conservative heathens crossing the country. We’d pirate shows. For a while there was an area where there was a monopoly of who booked the shows and who was working them based on their ability to sell tickets. It came to the point where we got in with them, but we were always the opening act. We’d be playing in front of these bands, and we’d bring half the crowd. We’d bring like 400 kids and they would still put us in an opening slot because we were so much younger and a lot of these guys were a little older and they just didn’t have what other younger kids were looking for - - someone to understand, someone to connect with, someone they could say, “Hey that could be me in three years.” It’s hard to look at an overweight, tattooed, bearded guy trying to sing about teenage angst. It just doesn’t fit. So we pretty much got a really strong following really, really quick and later we got to do our own shows by pirating other shows and getting all these kids from other scenes in different towns. We would show up to shows in different towns and say, “What do you mean were not on the bill?” Because we needed those kids to come back to our town so we could look good at our show. So we went around California pirating shows and getting kids from other scenes to want to come see us and in the meantime created a name that just wasn’t stuck in that black cloud of new scene.

That was very creative. I thought it was a good idea when I read about it.

S: It was basically do anything to get the job done.

J: No excuses. Anyone can come up with a billion reasons why they can’t do something, but can you come up with a million reasons of how you got to do it? Get your ass up there and make it happen. Either get busy living or get busy dying. You could either sit around and not or you can get off your ass and can.

Have you ever had a bad show?

S: (Bursts out laughing). Of course.

J: Do you feel like hanging out for a couple more hours?

Give me the worst.

S: I don’t know…we had…

J: Like the other night.

S: Yeah, the other night our whole…

J: Our whole set went down. Microphone broke…

S: I broke two chords. Jack’s heads didn’t work. It was a mess.

J: And it only happened per song. 1,2,3,4…5 things happened.

No way.

S: Yeah, every song someone was going down.

J: We played about five songs and something happened.

S: It was like, “You know what…” It was just one of those days. But it’s a town that we are going to go back to and redeem ourselves. We played at the Troubadour, one of our first times playing in L.A., and we went down. It wasn’t the greatest show, but tonight we are here to redeem ourselves. It we have a bad show we know we’re going to play another one tomorrow to cheer us up and we know we’ll come back to that town and tear it up. We try not to get too stressed out over it. We like to know that we did mess up and what can we do to fix it but we know in the back of our minds that we will have a chance to come back and redeem ourselves.

But you still managed to pull it off, right?

S: Well, it’s up to whoever saw us play. To us it was…

J: Horrible, but the kids were still awesome and they all stayed and had a good time and that is all we can really ask for.

I know you’re friends with Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach). What advice has he given you?

J: He’s taught me everything I know about rock ‘n’ roll. We’ve taught each other a lot about rock ‘n’ roll. We both feed off each other’s energy. We’re so close, like brothers. If I have a bad dream one night he’ll wake up in a cold sweat. We’re just kind of on that same page. I watch and admire him. I love the way he works a crowd, and I get a lot of influence through that. It comes down to style and stuff and different things. He feeds off stuff that we do. It’s been a really cool marriage between the two bands. It’s been a really open, honest relationship that has only matured.

That is really good to know. Jacoby is a very nice guy.

J: Fucking the best.

What ideas do you have in store for the future, aside from conquering the world.

J: Conquering the world. Look out Bush!

Is there anything else that you want to add?

J: Live fast, die young.

S: Have fun.

J: Come see our live show. Check us out at dietryingmusic.com

S: You can get our show dates there. Check out M2 for the video. Vote at MTV online for Die Trying and buy the record if you are interested.

For more on Die Trying visit www.dietryingmusic.com