by Jason Schreurs
No pressure. It must be nice to play in a band with friends and not have to worry about recording, touring, releases, and all of the other hang-ups associated with music. If the serious stuff happens, cool. If it doesn’t, it was fun hanging out and crashing around with buddies. That’s the mindset of Some Girls, who recently released a collection of their recordings to date entitled “All My Friends Are Going Death” released on Deathwish Inc.
With a veritable who’s who of San Diego’s straight edge, screamo and spazz hardcore scene (and an east coast hardcore screamer to top it off), this band started out as a fun project and has stayed that way ever since. The band doesn’t like to focus on all of this, but their ranks include Rob Moran on guitar (ex-of San Diego straight edge legends Unbroken and spazzy hardcore band Over My Dead Body), Justin Pearson on bass (ex-of San Diego hardcore bands Struggle and Swing Kids, and now in grind-noise maniacs The Locust), Christopher Sprauge on second guitar (ex-of chaotic screamo band The Crimson Curse and currently in emo/instrumental rockers Tristeza), and San Diego recording guy Sal Gallegos on drums. Last but not least is Wes Nightmare on vocals, the scream behind east coast hardcore band Give Up the Ghost, formerly known as American Nightmare.
Loose, chaotic, noisy, fast, sloppy punk/hardcore is what Some Girls churn out and it’s a pretty formidable racket, even compared to the members’ other bands. Despite references to Brit-pop bands and a very new wave-looking CD design (courtesy of Deathwish Inc. honcho Jacob Bannon), this band couldn’t be further from their original lyrical inspirations. And, just to clear the air, they are actually named after the Sisters of Mercy cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Some Girls Wander By Mistake” not the infamous Smiths song “Some Girls Are Bigger than Others” which they often reference.
interview with Some Girls guitarist Rob Moran
What have you been up to lately? You been keeping busy?
Dave: Ya, I’ve been keeping very busy, being married, work, school, you know. I’ve been so busy, but it’s a good busy. It’s very productive, so it’s good.
When did you and Wes (vocals) and Justin (bass) first meet, and when did Some Girls start up? Were you guys friends before that?
Justin, I’ve know since ‘89 or ‘90 and we just met through old San Diego punk and hardcore shows and his old band Struggle. I remember when they were playing basement shows and stuff and that’s how we met and we became friends because he wanted to start a record label and wanted his first record to be the Unbroken record to jumpstart the label, so we agreed to do it. We’ve remained friends ever since and are constantly hanging out. Not like every day, but we always talk on the phone or hangout or whatever. Wes, I met through the band I was in at the time called Over My Dead Body. We played a festival with American Nightmare and Wes and I just got to talking about music and life and all kinds of random other things and just ended becoming good friends through that.
And the band started how?
The way Some Girls happened is Over My Dead Body and American Nightmare were doing a West Coast tour together. When the tour was done, Wes had about four days off and wanted to stay in San Diego, so we ended up hanging out a bunch. Sal, the drummer for Some Girls, actually has a recording studio and I said to Wes, “We should just go there and make up some stuff and just see what happens.” So we went down there one night and in two hours wrote three songs and recorded them, and that was the demo actually. We just decided it was fun and we should do it again sometime. Then it turned into a 7”. Then another one. Then a CD and now we’re currently working on an album. After the first 7” was recorded, Justin and I had been talking about playing in bands together for years. He had a little bit of time on his hands and when he heard it, he was totally into doing it. That’s how he ended up joining the band.
I know that you’re all busy with other bands so do you guys consider Some Girls a side-project or a full-time band?
It’s a very part-time band. For me it’s not really a side-project because I’m not really doing anything else, but it’s just five friends getting together and just having a good time playing music. Whatever happens, happens. If we get to play shows, we do. If we get to record something, we do. But in the meantime, we’re just having a good time doing it.
Now I noticed you didn’t list your names inside of the CD and you made a joke about “We are who we are” or whatever. Are you tired of people saying that you feature members of other bands?
It was weird because the label kinda put the sticker on there, calling out who’s in the band. I understand they need to do what they need to do to try to sell CDs because they’re a label and they can’t just put out something for nothing. But at the same time, like in the layouts and stuff, we just wanted people to accept the band for what it is. Either you like it or you don’t. You don’t care that someone is in The Locust, or you don’t care that someone was in American Nightmare, or whatever. You just want people to enjoy the band for what it is. We just wanted the music and lyrics to speak for themselves and either you get it or you don’t. So that’s why we just decided not to put anything in there.
But people do care about who’s in the band. People would seem more inclined to buy something if it had somebody from The Locust or whatever. So isn’t it unavoidable?
To be honest, ya, it is unavoidable. But we don’t want to perpetuate it either, so we’d rather not put anything on it. Let people come to their own conclusions. A lot of people have said a lot of things about the band, good and bad. Some people really hate it and would love for us to drive off a cliff, and other people love it to death and are getting Some Girls tattoos or just sending emails about how much they love the band. So it’s great because we are getting both reactions. It’s never like, “Oh, this is okay.” Either people like it or they actually hate it.
I agree. Some Girls is a total “love ‘em or hate ‘em” kind of a band.
Exactly. There hasn’t really been any middle road so it’s been really cool.
What have been some extreme reactions to the band?
We all go in and we all see the message boards and I just laugh. I just sit back and see some of the stuff people say. It’s really funny and it’s actually creative why people either love or hate the band. I get a great kick out of it. We never really post on there and we don’t really care. It’s just funny.
