Golden Handcuffs

Golden Handcuffs from left to right: Russ, Keagan, Lucas

Golden Handcuffs play Rock N' Roll with a fantastic blend of Glam, Punk, and Power Pop peppered throughout their songs.   The band recently took some time to answer some questions for us about their influences, their hometown of Portland Oregon and the friendly competition within their scene.

Interview by J Castro

Let’s start off by telling me who is currently in Golden Handcuffs and what everyone does in the band:

-Russ London: Guitar/Vocals/Lyrics

-Lucas Schmit: Bass/Backing Vocals

-Keagan O’Brien: Drums

How did you all meet and decide to play music together?

RL:  We got together through musician-wanted ads about 3 years ago. I remember Keagan showed up to that first practice with just this old marching drum, a snare, floor tom and maybe a ride. I wasn’t really sure how it was going to work but those first practices we played the trashiest 2-chord shit. It was great.

LS: We hit it off right away. A genuine interest in gross old cartoons, The Cramps, and conspiracy theories.

KO: Yes I remember Russ looking like a stoner version of Jimmy Fallon and recognizing Lucas from a couple local shows.

You guys just changed your name from Sharks from Mars, a name you’ve gone by for a few years now, to Golden Handcuffs.  Why the name change?

RL: Yeah we needed to shake things up and go a different route. All those hours spent in the van smelling rotten feet and half drank and long-expired milkshakes had us pretty delirious when we were thinking of names on tour. I’m pretty sure we were in weird places in our heads whenever we hashed out that name. I can’t speak for the guys on this, but about half way to Las Vegas a mix of terrible cocktails, no sleep, and Texaco’s finest had me feeling like a millionaire.

LS: I love the new name. Our general style has changed a lot, and I think our current name is much more fitting to everything we are doing now.

What band or musician would you say had the biggest influence in your life?  If you can recall, tell me a bit about the first time you heard them and how it changed you from that moment forward:

RL: Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. I can remember hearing Ice Cream Man and his version of Buzz Buzz Buzz when I was like 2 or 3 years old and just laughing and dancing and thinking it was the greatest. That’s the stuff that keeps me writing songs and making poor life choices.

KO: In middle school my mom didn’t allow me to listen to all the stuff the other kids were listening to. She was cool with me listening to Lou Reed and The New York Dolls and Minor Threat though because she thought it was nice I was listening to music that was demoting the sex drugs and alcohol lifestyle. (The lifestyle that I will be living when I finally retire and am able to take out my 401k).

LS: Lemmy for sure. I remember my old man showing me a live video of Motorhead, and being blown away by it. The boots, the denim, the rings, the bass, the attitude. Rock & Roll. Live To Win fucked me up forever!

I’ve heard from some people that writing or playing music is therapeutic to them. Have you ever found this to be true?  

RL: Yeah I can get behind that. The most therapeutic thing about writing songs for me is making them fun, good, and about nothing much more than one feeling or thought. I try to avoid anything that takes more than a sentence or two to explain.

Golden Handcuffs are currently based in Portland Oregon.  With so many great active bands there, is it tough to get noticed and to get people to come to shows?  Do you feel like you’re going to have to start from square one with the new name?

RL: Yeah man it’s competitive, but that kind of thing just makes all the bands better. We know we can share a van for over a week without planning elaborate ways to murder each other, and that’s more than most new bands can say.

What feeling or sentiment do you want your audience to walk away with after seeing you guys play live?

RL: How can I party with these guys? Would they be so kind as to crash at my place?

LS: Yeah just blown away.

This is the part of the interview that I like to call “four questions I stole from other interviewers”:

1.      What was the first album you bought with your own money?

RL: Probably the Wedding Singer soundtrack. I remember it had White Wedding and I thought that was pretty rad.

LS: Reverend Horton Heat - Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em

KO: NOFX- 45 or 46 songs that weren’t good enough to go on our other records

2.      What was the first band t-shirt you ever owned?

RL: The MC5

KO: The Exploited

LS: The Misfits

         

3.      What was the first concert you went to without your parents?

RL: Public Vacuum at Ray’s Golden Lion in Richland WA

LS: The Nekromantix with Shark Soup at the Hawthorne Theater in Portland OR

KO: No Regrets at Landslide Skate park in Detroit MI

4.      What band or musician's picture was the first to get hung up on your

bedroom wall?

RL: Metallica – Master of Puppets flag

KO: A Mudvayne poster in 5^th grade… this is what made my mom limit my music selection, thanks mom.

LS: 800 Octane - Rise Again. Some local favorites of mine.

When can we expect the arrival of Golden Handcuffs debut release?

RL: As soon as we can make it happen! We have our debut single all recorded and we’re heading back into the studio in late September to work on some more tracks. Maus at Red Lantern Studios here in Portland did a hell of a job! We’re shooting for having our vinyl debut out by early 2016.

Follow Golden Handcuffs!

Facebook.com/goldenhandcuffspdx

Follow @AAmmunition

Line Traps

Line Traps forge brief, bitter, bare knuckled punk rock blasts deep within the lush green gardens of Victoria, British Columbia .  The band recently talked to us about their humble beginnings as a one man band, their meticulous song writing process, and why you shouldn't expect a Line Traps world tour anytime soon.  

Interview by J Castro

Introductions please!  Who’s all in the band and what does everyone do?

LINE TRAPS: T. Depression – Guitar/Vocals   P. Ethylene – Bass/Vocals   G. Debris - Drumbs

How did all of you meet and come together to form the band?

LINE TRAPS: T. was embarrassing himself playing with just a guitar and drum machine, ‘cause nobody else would play with him. It took him almost six years in a new city to find two people to play music with. He started jamming with the girls and asked them if they wanted to do a full band version of his drum machine project (New Krime) at a show he had booked in a couple weeks…that was it. Line Traps first show was with Big Eyes and Criminal Code, billed as New Krime.

When first starting out, did you have an idea of what you wanted Line Traps to sound like, or was it one of those things where the music kind of took its own direction once you started playing together?

LINE TRAPS: We mostly took existing songs and played them the only way we could… the sound has been changed by endless shows playing drunk and often angry… becoming increasingly faster. A lot of the songs started out really robotic, as they were choppy, stupidly simple cuts from the drum machine days…they’ve since evolved to just beyond stupidly simple and slightly less robotic. It’s hard to nail down what we wanted the band to sound like…it’s just a shit mix of all our favorite music…inept 60’s garbage, nasty basement punk, early 80’s hardcore, 90’s garage-punk, etc, etc…took all that crap in over the years and now we’re regurgitating it as a sloppy mess of shit-tone guitar, fuzz bass and robot beats.

The band is currently based in Victoria, BC.  Is there a supportive crowd/scene there that comes to your shows and understands what you’re doing musically?

LINE TRAPS: The music scene in Victoria is as underwhelming as ever. 20 somethings going nutz for 90’s pop punk and grunge revival…and whatever passes for post-punk these days. A few years ago, there were still a buncha scuzzy punk bands with names like Alcoholic White Trash, Lesbian Fist Magnet, Fuck You Pigs…and of course Dayglo Abortions. Bands singing about shit and dicks and fighting and hating cops. Lots of metal influenced punk bar bands playing to the lowest common denominator…and at the same time, an all ages scene that is very heavy on Grindcore and Crust stuff. It’s like everyone in Victoria missed everything that was good in music…ever. We play a lot of bills we have no place being on…and almost nobody in town gets it. Playing for people who don’t get what you’re doing can be a lot of fun though…just staring at a room full of confused faces.

You released your Self-Titled debut LP earlier this year.  Other than your demos, this is the first actual Line Traps record.  What led to the decision to do an LP first as opposed to a couple of singles first? 

LINE TRAPS: Having morphed from a one-man freak show, we started out with more songs than we could handle. It only made sense to record everything we had and get it out there. A lot of those songs are really old. I think the intention was to record them, put ‘em out and eventually phase them out in favor of new material. Sadly…we seem to be incapable of writing new material, and we’re still playing that stuff. Plus…a one sided LP with handmade packaging costs about the same as a 7” to make...and you don’t have to flip it every two songs.

Line Traps - S/T Debut LP 2015

I was reading the review of your record in Terminal Boredom and they compared the band A LOT to Rip Off Records type stuff like Dirty Sweets and the Kill-A-Watts.  What do you think of the comparisons, was Rip-Off Records a big influence on Line Traps music?

LINE TRAPS: So far we’ve been compared to like 6 different Rip-Off bands over 3 different reviews. T. was picking up a lot of Rip-Off releases in the 90’s, but I don’t think we sound like any particular Rip-Off band…or even a combination of a couple…and I don’t think Rip-Off was any more of an influence on our sound than anything else. The one thing I always appreciated about that label is that even though not all the bands had a similar sound…they all had a similar FEEL. It seemed like none of those bands cared too much about how they looked, what gear they played, or how well practiced they were, I think we can relate to that. Oh yeah…our next LP is due out in 2016 on Rip-Off Records.

What sorts of things typically inspire your songwriting?  Are there any subjects you purposely try to stay away from in your lyrics?

LINE TRAPS: It’s a mixed bag…conspiracy theory, robots, masturbating with electricity. What we do isn’t rocket science…and nobody is gonna be quoting our lyrics anywhere. Shit, half the time we just string random words together to fill up the space before the chorus, which is usually just the song title repeated 4 times.

photo by Don Denton

When people see your band live, what sort of feeling or sentiment do you want the audience to walk away with afterwards?

LINE TRAPS: I think we’d like people to walk away after 18 minutes of us playing with a smile on their face…but seeing as that is unlikely…agitation, anger or disgust would also be acceptable responses. We aren’t playing to crowds of our friends…and it actually takes effort for us to make it through a set without the whole thing falling apart. It’s nice when people we don’t know come up and say something…anything…about the band.

Let’s turn the tables a bit, what sorts of things have you ever seen people in your audience do that annoys you? 
LINE TRAPS: When people stand there and do NOTHING while watching a punk show is the most annoying thing to see. If you’re watching our band and we can’t even move you enough to bob your head…then go outside, we’re obviously wasting your time. I don’t know if it’s just the west coast, but I’ve seen way to many bands play in Victoria, Vancouver and even Seattle and Portland in recent years, where nobody is moving. I’d rather play for 6 people who clearly enjoy a live punk show…than 200 people standing there watching and taking the occasional picture with their cell phone.

I was reading this interview with a former drummer in The Cramps and he talked about how guarded Lux and Ivy were with their image, he said it was so bad that it almost imprisoned them.  Do you feel image is still an important aspect to being in a rock band these days?

LINE TRAPS: Some of the best bands had a carefully cultivated image. Then there were bands that rejected having an image, and their lack of image become their image. In the end, everyone is going to see you as something different than everyone else. You can try to influence how people see you, or you can just be authentic, and hope that comes across. These days, if a band dresses or acts differently on stage than they do in “real life”, I’m probably not going to like that band.

Where can people log on or go to buy your records?

LINE TRAPS: People can hit up our Bandcamp page here:
https://linetraps.bandcamp.com/
Or just find us on Facebook and send us a message…we have like 30 different T-shirt designs too…
https://www.facebook.com/linetrapsvic

What lies ahead in the near future for Line Traps, any touring?
LINE TRAPS: We’ll be recording new material in the next couple months…probably for the second LP. Probably a short trip down the coast sometime soon, but two of us have young kids…so that makes any real “touring” kinda outa the question.

Follow @AAmmunition