Interview for Napalmanach Zine

This is an interview I did recently with Skulda for the Czech zine Napalmanach. It's going to be their second issue and it's also gonna feature one of my favorite bands, Gride, in there as well. This is going to be transcribed to Czech, so I figured I'd print the English version here.

SKULDA: Despite the fact that there is many bands with same name, i think its great name. Why did you choose it? Is there any special explanation behind the name?

JAY: To my knowledge, the only other Sidetracked that has put out records, and coincidentally also plays hardcore is the one from Germany. We are friendly with them so there are going to be no lawsuits in the future over the name. I think it's a word I kept hearing and I liked the sound of it so I used it. I get sidetracked everyday! Always thinking about songs!

SKULDA: You run a label called Problem They Persist. What have you released till now. Some future plans?

JAY: Problems They Persist is barely a label yet. I have plans of doing cd's for Sidetracked thru that label. The only one I've done yet was our Infamy EP. One thing I have planned coming up is a 3inch cd of about 21 songs called Dismissal. It's going to be a complete barrage of short 1 to 2 second bursts, heavily influenced by early 7 Minutes of Nausea and Nihilist Commando. The other cd coming up is called Abandon and all I can say about it is the drums are to be recorded first and it's going to be one of the strangest things we've ever done.

SKULDA: You and Brian are only pemanent members of the Sidetracked. You recorded everything except drums on fews Sidetracked releases. Is it problem to find in Tacoma some reliable members, who would like to play extreme hardcore?

JAY: I got into hardcore heavily in high school and had a really hard time getting a band together, about 4 years or so, and I think that plays into my dictator style with Sidetracked. Since day one, I've written all the music and lyrics and basically had the idea of if you don't like my songs, feel free to leave. When we first started though, we did function more like a normal band where we would all practice frequently and on our Send Your Fire demo and Every Inch of The Way cd, our guitarist and bassist at the time played their parts. I could tell from the beginning though that Brian was the one who was going to stick around for the long run because he was as into hardcore as I was. I feel very fortunate to have met him. So since about 2002, we have had a revolving door lineup and the band almost exists in two different forms: there's the 4 piece that practices various songs for a live show and there's me and Brian practicing for a recording. I much prefer the practices for recording because it's getting new songs out there and that's really exciting to me. It has been really frustrating with how many members have quit, some really close friends of mine. I think some of them have felt like they didn't play a very active role and got sick of infrequent practices, or trying to learn too much too quick. Recently, after 10 years of just doing vocals live, I've switched to guitar and vocals and it's been really fun. I figured, I'm the one who writes the riffs anyway so I might as well play them. The bassist we've had for the past year, Andrew, I also feel very confident is in it for the long haul.

SKULDA: Maybe it has something to do with previous question. There is one weird aspect in Europe hardcore scenes. Majority of people involved to HC listen to crust, youthcrew, old school, but they are very intolerant to extreme subgenres of hardcore like power violence, noisecore, sludge, which are often considered by them as shitty, noisy crap. Could I find same opinions in North America? Or lets say in Washington?

JAY: Here in Washington/America from what I've noticed, there definitely is some segregation between subgenres. Crust is kind've in a scene of its own for the most part here. The whole travelling, bike punk, dread tail scene. We're friendly with a lot of those types, but for the most part, at least for me, I have a hard time relating to them. And it seems a lot of the time bands from that scene either play epic melodic crust or some kind of folk punk (both genres NOT my thing) Another thing I've noticed with that scene is they seem a lot more interested in your lyrics/politics than music, so from the other side, they don't seem too receptive to what we're doing since I don't talk between songs and we don't have pamphlets of literature at our table. With youth crew and more old school types, there is definitely that opinion that with power violence the songs are too short and there's no sing alongs or mosh parts etc and they're more interested in hardcore sticking to a tradition and not evolving. I think for me and Brian though, we grew up listening to youth crew and old school hc and continue to do so, so it's a little bit different for us. I'd like to think we're pretty well balanced and can relate to various scenes. On some releases, especially One Lane Road Ahead there are some blatant youth crew influences which kind've seems to be nonexistent with other bands associated with power violence. As a whole, I would say power violence doesn't seem to be as frowned upon these days. Iron Lung is from here and its seems they have kind've opened the door for a lot of people to get into this kind of music. I love noisecore but I'd say most people are pretty unaware of it, and if most people heard it, my best guess is they would think it's noisy crap! Sludge/doom is kind of in a scene of its own as well. It's seems like back in the 90's, sludge and pv were closely associated, especially with bands like Despise You and Grief doing splits together, the Fiesta Grande lineups and what not. Aside from pv bands having slow parts, I don't think the two subgenres really make much sense together. It's almost like two completely different mindsets to music. Some of the worst bands I've seen have been sludge/doom bands!

SKULDA: I shouldnt say it, but i downloaded somewhere Bookburner 7“EP, which is absloutely amazing. I read, someone from Sidetracked is involved in this band. Can you say something more about it. Is it real band, or it was just short time project? Any plans?

JAY: Don't feel bad about downloading the Bookburner record! It's been posted on several blogs and I'm shocked so many people know about it. Glad you like it! That was a project I started with my friend Adam Vance in late 2005 where he would do vocals and I'd play guitar. His original idea was to do a band influenced by Despise You and Suppression. He wrote 3 songs (and also performed the noise track) my friend Taiga wrote 2 songs, and I wrote the rest and added parts to their songs. We recorded in July 2006, and I played bass on it as well. It was a very dramatic band with several lineup changes and I felt I was the only one trying to hold it together. Various members of Sidetracked have contributed to the sporadic live shows. The record came out in 2008, almost 2 years after it was recorded. Back when I was trying to write for the band, it was kind've an outlet for my more experimental side. When things kept falling apart, a lot of those ideas went into Sidetracked and for the past few years Sidetracked is the only band I write for and it's very refreshing. So as far as Bookburner's future, we never officially broke up but we basically don't do anything. I'm afraid to contribute anything to it in fear that it'll never get used. Adam is much more interested in noise rock now, like: Hammerhead, Unsane, Swans, Jesus Lizard, etc. There have been some talks of doing a full length in a more noise rock vein, but at this point I doubt it's ever going to happen. It seems most people are more interested in Bookburner than Sidetracked, and I can't help but be a little offended by it because Sidetracked has so much coming up and Bookburner doesn't. Bookburner did record one more song after the record. It was a cover of the Dazzling Killmen song "Reactor". It was going to be for a split but it fell through.

SKULDA: Have you known, that you have typical czech surname? In czech language it means "silent". Have you ever searched about your family roots?

JAY: I do know about the name Tichy being of Czech descent, but I never knew it meant silent! That's very interesting! I haven't been able to find much info on my Czech roots.

SKULDA: You´ve been on with band, more then 10 years. Has the local HC scene changed significantly?

JAY: The local scene has changed A LOT. I've seen people come and go and more and more there's young kids starting bands and for the most part it's the younger kids who are excited about Sidetracked. There's a lot of people from when we started who didn't like us then and still don't like us now!

SKULDA: Jay, I found somewhere on the internet, that you hate guitar solos. (me either:). Is there any exception?

JAY: I really do hate guitar solos. To me they don't add to songs whatsoever. I'm interested in riffs and song structures. I mean, I'm not gonna turn off a Black Flag song cus of a solo but I'm not gonna be inspired by it.

SKULDA: Some of your songs are less then 10 sec. long, but they are packed with, breaks, tempo changes. It must be difficult to write enough songs for one side of 7“ or 12“. How much time did you spent with writing songs for Dead Radical split? How often do you practice?

JAY: I don't think of things in terms of how long a song is or how long a record is. To me, whatever you're trying to get across, that's what matters. It can be very confusing to people though. The Hustle tape for example, when I sent it to the plant to get made, the guy there called me and said "The cd you sent me, it's all messed up, there's only 10 seconds of each song on here" and I was like "No, that's correct, that's how long the songs are" and he couldn't even fathom it. And some people who bought that tape felt ripped off that it was a minute worth of music. I felt like it was a complete recording. Most of our 7inch recordings come to about the 2 to 3 minute mark so, again, I never really look at it as trying to fill up space. The Dead Radical split is a little bit different. Since we had some more room on the vinyl, there's some longer songs on there. My goal with that one was to start the record with some really complex songs, like Still Here, Stand For and Reservations. I tried to pack in as many parts as I could in those ones. For the most part, at that time, I was looking at that as our experimental record, hence the random covers of Minutemen and Prong. I wanted to do the Minutemen one cus they're one of my favorite bands, and while we don't sound like them AT ALL, I wanted to see how we would make one of their songs sound. As far as Prong goes, I think most people think of them as a crappy industrial metal band, so I wanted to expose people to their good hardcore stuff. I don't remember how long it took to write that stuff. It was here and there through a couple months I think, and me and Brian practiced those songs about 3 times. We don't practice that much, and that has a lot more to do with Brian not wanting to and being busy with other bands. We usually practice 1 to 2 times before recording.

SKULDA: Who writes songs and lyrics. Are there any songs risen from jaming?

JAY: As I mentioned before, I write all the music and lyrics and I usually have an idea for what I want the drums to do and sometimes Brian listens to those ideas! No songs come from jamming, they're always written beforehand.

SKULDA: How do you get to new music? Do you download it or you use „oldschool ways“: trades with penpals, demotapes, CD´s. Which format do you prefer (vinyl, tape, CD), and why?

JAY: I'm always checking out new music. I do buy a lot of music, but I definitely download as well. I don't do tape trades anymore because it's so much easier to download. And even though that was a special time in my life, I don't miss waiting for tapes to come in the mail. I prefer cd's for sure, which is rare cus 99% of my friends are vinyl ONLY. I prefer cd's because they're compatible with computers and I can play em in my car, plus for a long time when I was first getting into hardcore, cd's were actually more common and I built up my collection being used to that. My life is pretty busy and it's hard to find time to sit down and listen to records, and I think cd's sound better anyway. However, I do own, and will buy, tapes and vinyl as well. I'm not exclusive at the merch table!

SKULDA: Are you involved in other HC activities? bands, politics?

JAY: Me and Brian play in a hardcore band called Sojourner where he sings and writes everything and I play guitar. It's more influenced by bands from early 2000's like Right Brigade, Striking Distance with some Burn, Rollins Band and Sheer Terror influences thrown in. We also played in Fever, which was kind've Brian's solo project take on pv. He did everything on the record and I played guitar live. He also plays in Owen Hart who is this insane death metal/grind band who has been getting a lot of attention lately. I also play in a band called Dethrone which is like a mix of Celtic Frost mixed with more modern fast black metal and some hardcore influences.

SKULDA: I think you guys play quite original version of p/v style. Mainly song structure is unique. Are you influenced by some non typical bands? I mean some jazz, experimental stuff etc.

JAY: Thanks! I definitely listen to a lot of experimental stuff like Faust, Chrome, Captain Beefheart, Cabaret Voltaire, and early classical like Schoenberg. I like the idea of jazz but have yet to hear much that I like because I don't really care for saxophones/trumpets. So as far as how this stuff directly influences Sidetracked, I think mainly the mentality of 'anything goes'. I like the idea of bands doing something because they're interested in how it's going to sound, and being less interested in how a crowd reacts to it or how the record is going to sell.

SKULDA: Tacoma is ocassionally described as the city with rough indrustrial atmosphere. Is it true? Also, i found some notice about „Tacoma roma“, some bad odor from factories. Can you smell it? Are you influenced somehow by industrial landscape or i miss point with such a connection?

JAY: Tacoma is a normal city just like any other city. It has its industrial area which you can see when you're driving by on the main freeway here, and this is also where the "aroma" comes from, but you only smell it when you're driving by that one area. But living here, is very chill. I'm not moving anywhere!

SKULDA: Bike or Car? What do you prefer?

JAY: Car for sure.

SKULDA: You´ve been touring West coast few times. How people react on your music. Which venue or show was best, and which was worse?

JAY: People don't really react to our music much. Most tours have been underwhelming. I've met some cool people and bands here and there. The best show/venue was probably when we played Speed Trials at Gilman in 2009. That show felt like we were all there for the same reason. It felt right. As far as the worst? I'm not gonna call any cities out, but on our US tour, atleast on 2 occasions, there were shows where no one came. That was a bummer.

SKULDA: What do you like on touring and what you hate? And what about some overseas tours. Japan, Asia, Europe?

JAY: I do like meeting people who like our music and seeing other cities and record stores. I hate blowing my voice every night and getting headaches from singing, etc and also the financial problems from touring. It's hard to say if we'll ever go overseas. It would be cool but it would take a lot of planning and saving up money. I've never been to Europe or Asia, and if I did go, I would hope it would be on a tour.

SKULDA: Future plans? Records, shows, weddings, children:)))?

JAY: These are our future plans: Uniform 7inch, Forfeit 7inch, Self Inflicted split 7inch, Tyranny CDEP (those are the ones already recorded), Walk it Off 2 song Single, Dismissal, Abandon, Fever split tape, and about 5 other releases that are in the planning stage. I've been married for 3 and half years and I have a daughter who's gonna be born anyday now!

SKULDA: Jay, it seems that you are hyperactive guy, how can you handle it?
What about family? Don´t they complain sometimes, that hardcore „steals“ you from family?

JAY: Haha, where do you get that I'm hyperactive? Because we do so much? Family definitely complains sometimes! I'm always distracted thinking about songs and what not, or busy with shows and practices. I definitely try to balance it all out.

SKULDA: That´s all. If you wanna add something, feel free.

JAY: Thanks so much for the interview! If anyone wants to get in touch, email me at j_tichy@hotmail.com and check us out on myspace at myspace.com/sidetrackedhc. And say hi to Gride for me!