DJ Karp Interviews
I’ve been a fan of Stab for years now, and I’ve lost count as to how many times they’ve left me with tinnitus after a night at Hotel Vegas. DJ has always been around, and always been the coolest dude. Always at shows, always putting shows together, putting people on. We ran into each other during the Good English showcase back in March @ Chess Club. I told him I was working on a new edition of the zine, and he told me he had some interviews to throw in. Happy to share these words by the one and only!
Interview Template:
First music memory/or favorite concert if none. And how do you think this played a part in what
you like/make and listen to know?
Best memory from a show you’ve played?
To avoid too much controversy. What is one old head band you just don’t understand? For me it’s Pavement.
Worst trend you’ve been apart of while making music?
Show drip. What’s your ideal kit for a big gig to get you feeling yourself ?
Let’s pretend I’m a big budget producer and you have all the $ in the world. How would you want your next album to sound?
Post show traditions. What are you getting into after a good hometown show?
Last favorite thing about where you live?
Best thing about where you live?
Funniest memory or story from a tour or show
To avoid glazing, I want a screen shot of the most recent music you’ve listened to at the time of writing. What’re ur favorite artists right now?
Any final words, shoutouts or promos?
Gio from Fear of Loss (San Antonio, TX)
The first memory I have of music is hearing “alone this holiday” by The Used on a
burnt CD my stepdad had left my mom. I always asked her to play that song. The Used
was the first band I was ever obsessed with.
Best memory from a show is definitely the free gig at paper tiger with life cycles. That show was so fucking packed and people were flipping off stage and dogpiling, it was so fun. Either that one or opening for the sold out peeling flesh gig in houston. Also a huge show for us crowd wise and opportunity wise.
I’m not really into the hair metal shit like ac/dc, aerosmith, kiss etc. All that shit sucks.4. I think a lot of genres become trendy at some point. I’ve seen people hop on the shoegaze, skramz/screamo, and now myspace deathcore/metalcore revival. Usually there is some pretty good music to come out of it but i think a lot of it is done for the wrong reasons and it shows in the music.
I’ve recently taken some notes down from my bandmates and upped my shoe game
to some nice asics runner type shoes and I pair that with any double-knee or cargo type pants. That and a solid band tee with a five panel hat is my go to hardcore outfit right now.
I really like the production on Watch Me Bleed by Missing Link.
If I wasn’t on probation a blunt would definitely be my post show tradition. So it’s a nice cigarette and beer for now.
The construction. It’s terrible and it never ends.
The food. No explanation necessary, if you’ve been to San Antonio then you know.
I have so many funny memories from tour, but one that stands out to me is we got
stranded in the parking lot of a dairy queen in Ft. Stockton. Our van wasn’t starting so I had this idea to clean the battery terminals with coca cola and a toothbrush. Luckily the van started after that.
Even though I am in a hardcore band I’m not really a hardcore music listener. But i’ve started listening to some bands that my bandmates are always talking about and right now in my playlist i’ve been listening to whispers, demonstration of power,
discontent, cross of disbelief, missing link, fatal realm, despize, and detain.
I want to shout out all of texas hardcore, we’ve had some amazing bands come out
of the state lately. There are too many to name and I don’t want to leave anyone out.
Thank you to julia’s war for interviewing us, all the bands on their label are awesome.
Matt of Ritual/Houses We Die In:
straight up first memories of music were linkin park dragonball z amvs and playing mortal kombat to a burned slipknot cd my older cousin gave me. it def shaped everything i listen to now and why i’ve always been so rowdy on stage throwing my guitar around and feeding off the energy from my bandmates.
when shoganai played zbr fest in chicago i was super nervous since we were a new band in the scene and only played a handful of shows but looking out in the crowd i jumped for a crowdsurf and they carried me around the room while i screamed my head off, life changing moment for me.
talking heads, tool, dream theater, mars volta, melvins, ministry, i could go on probably but i accept that it’s probably just not for me haha.
2015 peak xandemic style i would record all my homies rapping in the shed i lived in behind my grandmothers house hahaha. dudes rappin about shit they don’t have, things they didn’t do, it was fun at the time but it went nowhere real fast. i regret wasting my energy when i could’ve been focusing on a bigger picture.
lately we been on a all white fit thing with houses we die in and it always looks so dope in videos of us thrashing around and swinging on each other.
i want it to sound like a movie dude, like how kendrick’s records all feel so cinematic from the samples to the soundscaping and atmosphere.
i love to host karaoke after a gig which always keeps the energy flowing and the bar busy after a dope show full of homies. sometimes i look forward to that even more than the set themselves i kid you not.
big tech made the city unaffordable to the working class artists and the corporate music world basically monopolized the whole venue industry here making it inaccessible for locals.
my friends, barton springs, the mohawk.
one time in south florida we stayed at a motel 6 and the next morning we woke up to the room two doors down from us getting raided by the fbi, like assault rifles drawn in full tactical gear hahaha we were all scared as shit but it was hilarious once everything settled down.
Trevor of Fawn:
green day was for sure the first band i was obsessed with. i remember being like 4-5 years old when american idiot came out, and id constantly be asking my sister to put it on for me. that obsession was interrupted years later once i had discovered linkin park thru a naruto vs. sasuke AMV, but eventually i came back around to green day and discovered dookie, as well as insomniac, and fell in love again. i see a lot of parallels in myself to green days music, because their whole thing is strong songwriting, catchy vocal melodies, and big distorted guitars. those things have always appealed to me and thats essentially what im focused on with fawn, even though the result is completely different.
one of my favorite shows was the one we played with dottie and ringo deathstarr. dotties music is straight up magical and ringo deathstarr is a band ive been into for so long and consider legends in the genre by this point. it was really fulfilling getting to play alongside them for a sold out gig at mohawk for a buncha people there to hear some true-blue shoegaze.
im not sure if they fit in the “old head” category, especially with how big they are with the younger crowd now, but i have never really understood the massive hype on deftones. i dont think theyre a bad band by any means, and theres def some stuff ive heard that ive enjoyed, but i fail to understand what is interesting about them enough for so many people to consider deftones their favorite band.
midwest emo.
vintage depeche mode tee + light blue jeans + docs combo always makes me feel untouchable.
id want it to sound like xinlisupreme - i am not shinzo abe.
honestly if its a local show we mostly just all go home and go to sleep i think haha.
way too fucking hot, and people drive like shit.
cd exchange.
i remember on our tour with warstories, we finished a gig in tucson and i got drunk to a point where i realized being in public was a bad idea and had to ask someone to take me back to our hotel, and im pretty sure gio was drunk to a similar level, so he went with me. we got dropped off and went to the room to go to sleep (for some reason he got in bed with me despite there being two open beds), and we wake up the next morning to a million missed calls on our phones and a knock at the door from our buddy joel. apparently before we went to sleep, gio had dead bolted the door, and we had the only room key. we were so deep asleep that we didnt wake up despite the rest of fawn and warstories banging on the door for an hour and blowing up our cell phones and the room phone and they ended up having to get a separate one-bed hotel room for the night because there was no way to get in and everyones personal bags were locked in the room we were in. we were pretty ashamed in the moment but its a story we constantly reminisce on and laugh our asses off about.
