Local Music Nation

I’m not sure how many of you are aware of San Diego based rock band The New Kinetics but if you aren’t, you should know them. They have been picking up steam and playing lots of shows around San Diego for the past few months. I was finally able to catch a glimpse of them at Eleven during the San Diego Music Thing and was so happy I did!

The band is releasing a new record called CONTACT tonight at Bar Pink. You can find the event page here. So without further ado, here’s a little more about The New Kinetics with Birdy (vocals/guitar), Brian (guitar), Leslie (bass), and Jon (drums).

 

Multiple Choice: choose one of the following three options. Feel free to ad lib or create your own choices.

Form of caffeine: Coffee, tea, energy drinks

Birdy: FREE COFFEE!?! Yes! Where do I sign?

Brian: If you are going Ill take a coffee thanks.

Leslie: I could not function without several pots of coffee every morning.

Jon: I don’t do adult beverages. Milk please!

 

Super hero: Superman, Spiderman, Batman

Birdy: Batman. But they all have killer boots… I’m certain that’s the best part about being a superhero… second to stomping fools… killer boots.

Brian: Batman is hip but I’d be Magneto first.

Leslie: Spiderman, all the way.

Jon: Norm Abram

 

Guyliner: Yes, No, Depends

Birdy: Only Bowie could ever pull it off. Bowie is awesome.

Brian: I’m beautiful already. I don’t need any.

Leslie: Depends.  Are you Richard from “Lost?”

Jon: Mustache wax

Fill in the Blank: (favorites)

 

Favorite guilty pleasure music is

Birdy: The Monkeys, Daydream Believer

Brian: Joni Mitchell. It’s what I use when people tell me I need to calm down. Which is quite often.

Leslie: The Bee Gees are my guilty pleasure.

Jon: Beach Boys

 

Favorite gadget

Birdy: Cassette Tape Recorder

Brian: My 8mm Bell & Howell directors edition or my Krasnogorsk 16mm K1.

Leslie: My sewing machine.  I have a wine corkscrew shaped like a circus strongman that is a very close second.

Jon: My phone of course!

 

Favorite store

Birdy: North Park Thrift Trader!

Brian: The Antique mall on Newport in OB. I’m in there for hours. Records, cameras, jukeboxes, useless broken crap. You name it, they have it.

Leslie: Rasputin Music in Berkeley, CA.
Jon: Craigslist

Fill in the blank: (other)

Weird skill/talent no one would expect from me

Birdy: Former illegal street rally racing gang member (no, I’m not kidding)

Brian: I am an expert on American counter-culturalism and I was kicked off the debate team in HS as I kept making other kids cry.

Leslie: I don’t know.  I am an open book, and I share my quirks with everyone around me.

Jon: I’m an excellent bowler.

 

Essay Questions:

If you could sum up The New Kinetics in five words, what would they be?

Birdy: Livewire, thrills, high-impact, noise, pop-music

Brian: Intense, white hot, rigid, loaded, cutting

Leslie: (the) New Kinetics World Tour 2012

Jon: One, two, three, four… one

 

What is the first instrument you learned how to play?

Birdy: I took up violin in middle school but I always considered the voice as my instrument, even as a kid.  I took singing lessons weekly starting at the age of 6 or 7. I was taught pitch, scales, breathing technique, vibrato, sustain, projection, dynamics, enunciation depending on the type of piece I was working on; Italian Opera, Broadway Show tunes, Jazz, Pop, Blues, Improv. I didn’t know I wanted to be in a rock band until I saw The Who’s live concert at the Isle of Whight. Then I started writing my own songs and I picked up a guitar.

Brian: When I was 5 my dad had a big hollow body guitar stuffed into a closet in my house. It was one of the super cheap Sears brand Kay guitars with 4 strings left and cracks all up and down it. One day I dug it out and learned how to play a Muddy Waters guitar part. I could barely reach the strings. I remember standing in church one Sunday practicing the part on the edge of the bench I was sitting at, afraid I would forget the part in the hours I was away from the guitar. A few months later my oldest brother stepped on the guitar and it was finished. For years my brothers would be watching MTV on the couch and I’d be sitting 10 inches from the tele saying “I’d play that. It looks nice! Are those cheap?” “No. Those are like a thousand dollars!” my brothers would respond. “Why did Slash throw his Les Paul off that cliff? I could have used it,” I remember saying. After years of that my dad finally took me to the local dump of a music shop in Lindenhurst NY and bought me a Strat knockoff. At the time I just couldn’t believe I had a Strat (knockoff). I was elated.

Leslie: I played the violin for a couple years when I was much younger and hated it.  I don’t have the discipline for any kind of classical training, but I wish I did.

Jon: Piano