Media Blitz

Interview by Ed Stuart

Who’s answering the questions?
 Jeff, I play drums.

Where is the band from?

We all live in Orange County, CA but live in different cities. Fountain Valley, Anaheim, and Fullerton.

Who is in the band and what do they play?

Jason Schwartz yells, Ryan Blank attempts to play bass, Eddie Oropeza shreds guitar and Jeff Salisbury plays drums.

What influences/bands did you have in mind when starting this band?

Media Blitz has been around for a long time and has gone through a ridiculous amount of line-up changes and has evolved sound wise. When the current line-up solidified, we wrote songs in the vein of New York hardcore bands such as Gorilla Biscuits, Cro-Mags, Shark Attack, etc. and many L.A./O.C. bands. Anything that is fast, aggressive and has a meaningful message. However we write music collaboratively, so influence comes from everywhere. I am often inspired by current bands that are dedicated and have incredible work ethics.

Do people who haven’t heard the band before think you sound like the Germs because of the name?

I'm not sure. All of us like the Germs. That's part of the reason why I pushed for us to keep the name Media Blitz after myself, Ryan, and Eddie joined the band. The Germs rule! We did receive a lot of shit from people for not changing the name after such a huge line-up change and writing new songs, but I've been going to Media Blitz shows since I was sixteen. To me the name was a big part of growing up in the Orange County punk scene. Besides, what's in a name?

  

Do you think music can still be a vital force in such a disposable age?

In my opinion, underground punk music with a DIY ethic is the most effective method of free expression of radical ideas and thoughts that we have. Whenever I hear people say that punk is dead, or that "things just aren't the way they used to be" I can't help but laugh. Two or three times a year we pile into a mini-van and drive thousands of miles across country and the sole thing that keeps us alive in the incredible network of DIY venues, people and bands that are apart of the hardcore punk scene. There's bands everywhere that drive through 105 degree heat, play in basements and sleep on flea infested carpet every night just to be able to play music and have fun. That's punk as fuck. So, yeah, music can still be a vital force.

50 years ago people use buy music and get their water for free, now people pay for water and get their music for free. How do you think this affects music in anyway?

It can help and it can hurt, I suppose. People are a lot more willing to take a chance on a band if they can download their music for free to check it out. This has helped us immensely, I think. Our new EP is on a few music downloading blogs, and I think it gets us a lot of exposure to people who may never hear us otherwise. However, we don't rely on selling records to be able to live, for other bands that do it might be a big deal. As long as we have enough gas money to get us to the next show we're good. Besides, people still buy vinyl a lot. There's something about having an actual copy of a record in your hands that mp3s can never replace. I often will download a bands stuff, then if I like it I will go buy the record.

Where was the Never Grow Up video shot?

That was filmed in Orange County at our record release show in March. That's why there's party hats and balloons flying around, to celebrate the new 7" ha, ha! We received the records in the mail three days before that show so we were stressing out on if we'd even have them at the release show or not. It all worked out, though, and we went on a west coast tour the next day.

What’s next for the band? Shows? Releases? Etc.

We have some local southern California shows coming up and we're planning on booking a tour out to Texas and back in January 2011. Other than that we're writing new songs and making plans for a new release, we're just not sure on the details of that yet.

Any last words?

We have our No Regrets 7"/CD EP available online at: mediablitz.bigcartel.com/

Also, check out our website for upcoming show info: mediablitzhc.com/

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