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Six Dumb Questions with Whores of Tijuana

It may only be six questions long, but Whores of Tijuana drummer and vocalist Trent Ramseyer overachieves when it comes to filling us in on the origins of his band. The SoCal outfit goes far back into the ’90s heyday of the desert scene, and their second album, the recently-reviewed Psycholongevity, reflects the trio’s love for a variety of a variety of rock styles. Put to tape by Scott Reeder at his Sanctuary Studio, there’s enough rumble, groove and bash to put the Whores right at the top of the genre.

But that’s really just the beginning for Ramseyer, who explains in his answers to the titular six dumb questions of this interview that he’s got more going on to support the scene than just playing as a part of it. Between the Hell Ride Festival and the newly-founded B@1 Records, which released Psycholongevity, he’s got his hands full even outside of Whores of Tijuana. I think if they’ve survived this long, though, they’ll be just fine.

Ramseyer is joined in Whores of Tijuana by guitarist/vocalist Jason McGrath and bassist/vocalist Sean Williams. Please enjoy the Q&A below.

1. What was it that got the band together so long ago? What happened in between the time you started playing and the release of the first album?

The band started when Stacy [Mobley] and I put out a Recycler ad in ’92 and that is when Jason answered and would define as the “start” of the band. I think we listed influences of KISS, Oingo Boingo, and Rush. KISS being the party band, Oingo Boingo being the off center band, and Rush being the technical band and we had some intention of blending the three although we couldn’t play or sing like any of them, none of us where into underground music or the “cool scenes” although we would catch some shows here and there in Orange County. We hit it off with Jason from the get-go due to his love of KISS and sports of all things. I was coaching freshman basketball in OC and Jason was relatively new to the area so he was low on friends and people to jam with and we needed a guitarist so we would just meet up at my mom’s house and use the back room as our practice space. Jason had grown up in the desert and is a couple years older then the guys from Kyuss, so he was the one that showed me the desert bands. He showed up with his ’69 Les Paul, down tuned to drop C, and basically took me away from the contemporary music I was used to.

I believe us being completely naive was the reason it took so long to put out anything. We practiced and wrote songs for a few years thinking we would just play a show, get noticed, have someone send us to a studio and we would be on tour and start living the high life. We had put demos on a Tascam 4-track and used those to get some shows but we never got serious about doing our own recordings, we thought someone else would take care of that. Then about ‘97 the band took a break, I had my son, Jonathan, and Stacy started a family with his wife Gail and the band just went on hold. After a year or so out from behind the drums I got an itch to play again. I had poked around in some bands in the area but nothing hit me like the music we were doing in the Whores. So I rounded up the guys and we got a studio space in Brea with our friend Larry Lugz from Riotgun to practice in which we split with them. After some more time passing and practicing it was becoming a different vibe at the time and Stacy decided he was going to step out again so that is where Simon Austin came in on bass. Simon had a punk background so all of a sudden we were playing at faster tempos and cutting some seven-minute songs up into smaller pieces. One thing Simon wanted to do right away was record so that was how the self-titled came about. I had contacted Reeder through StonerRock.com and asked (begged) him to record us. At the time he was only recording people he knew and was just getting his Sanctuary studio off the ground. He invited me out to see the place because it wasn’t your normal studio. He wanted to make sure that we wanted to use the studio as is and I jumped at it. Scott was part of some our favorite records and felt he would be on board with what we were doing.

2. Aside from bringing in Sean on bass, what’s changed in all that time? How has Whores of Tijuana grown?

I would say our growth has come from a few areas. One is simply maturity, I would say Jason and I are late bloomers. Sean joined the band with Skynyrd being his favorite band and now all of a sudden we had put the fast-punk style behind us and were getting back into jams. I think the internet has opened our eyes to so many bands and music we would have never known about. Instead of being force fed Aerosmith‘s next cry-like-a-baby-bubble-gum-pop-song or Metallica‘s next mediocre album we had the ability to check out bands from all over the world. I remember hearing Sgt. Sunshine‘s Vega for the first time and was mesmerized that songs still could be creative and interesting. Last time I felt that was hearing Tool‘s first couple albums because they seemed to be the only ones to break into mainstream music with their own style. Nü-metal had no influence on us and gets instantly turned off if we hear it and hip-hop/rap had become mediocre, I went to middle school in the ‘80s in Long Beach and was introduced to N.W.A. and now we had some guys dressed in all white suits riding in rented Ferraris telling me how bad ass they were? Just wasn’t flying.

3. Take me through the writing process for Psycholongevity. How does each member contribute to the songwriting?

The name Psycholongevity comes from a fish I had in this aquarium back in the ‘90s. I would put more fish in and they would die off but this one guy would just keep going and going at which he was dubbed to have “psycholongevity.” I think the fact that this band in whatever variation is why we used the name. It is still about the songs first then the members and I think that helps keep it going. I have sat in on drums from everything from punk to doom and I just keep going back to the tunes I have helped construct with the Whores. Just to think it is 2010 and we are still working on tunes keeps us excited, as we move into our 40s it looks like we will keep pushing as long as we can play.

The songs from Psycholongevity span the entire life of the Whores. “Racer X” was actually one of our original songs from the ‘90s. We attempted to record it on the self-titled but it just didn’t come out then. We made a slight alteration with it when Sean joined and the end result made this album. Funny thing about “Racer X,” it has been in many demo forms through the years and has been one of the songs that people remember from us. “Onsiya Kel” was a song that Sean had been jamming for some time on his own and Jason and I worked on the arrangement that was recorded with him. The original variation of “Pig Country” was spawned during a practice with Simon on bass and it took some time to sort out how we would arrange it. We tried it with a different a ending part, more parts, etc., but in the end decided just to keep it simple and straight to the point. The lyrics I actually finalized while we were recording them and it was the last song we finished up.  The story of “Ultimo Hombre” comes from a time were Jason had moved out to Arizona to help his parents do some work around the house. He would still drive out to California to jam and he would always hate the fact he would get stuck at the check point and get asked 50 questions about what he was doing, and where he was going. It pissed him off that he was in the “land of the free” yet had to go through this every time he would come to jam. The music for that song was just out of randomness. I was playing a variation of the beat and Jason put some guitar to it in practice. He then showed up later with it mostly constructed, lyrics etc. Many of our songs come from us actually just going to practice and jamming on the riffs. It is vary rare that anyone shows up with a full song and tells the other members to play along. They are always a work in progress and sometimes they have more parts, sometimes just an idea and a riff.

4. What made you want to go back to work with Scott Reeder on the second album? Was there anything you wanted to do differently from the self-titled?

The self-titled album was recorded in three days, I think Scott mixed for a day or two more and that was it. We had just met Scott and were very thankful he took any time with us at all. We were a bunch of nobodies just wanting to record with him. We didn’t know what to ask for in the mix, or what to expect, we just showed up on a Saturday, set up, played and sang till Monday night and walked away and waited to hear what he did. At the time he mentioned that was the fasted he had recorded someone and it is what it is. We had ideas for “Trip Manhattan” to have epic guitar layers and endless background noises but the version you hear is the live performance of it including the solo. There was one flub in the outro fixed, added some vocals and bam. Done. Everything we “planned” went out the window when we recorded that album and it was our “quickie,” for lack of better term.

Now moving forward five years later, I am a huge fan of Reeder and what he does musically on bass as well as at the studio. When we went in for the first album, I think we were maybe the second or third album he did at the Sanctuary. It was a converted farm house/barn and he had used blow up mattresses to muffle sound, the kitchen, where one of the rigs was set up, just had carpet hanging in front of the doorway which looked like giant pussy lips, which we dubbed “The Vag.” We didn’t have nice wood floors to work with and pristine acoustics but it was so nice to be there. Even with the under construction feel, his ranch and being out in nature recording could not be beat. You walk out side and would get greeted by a pack of dogs, a group of peacocks, some parrots and his collection of horses. For Southern California, to get away from concrete and graffiti was refreshing. His wife Renee would cook up some food. I had my toe bitten by his pig Portis, I just wouldn’t experience that in L.A. It was surreal.

When it came to record this album, we had planned to do it in our studio. We were making a checklist of mics to buy and all this stuff we needed and we would have all the time we wanted to do every track. However, we realized there was no way we would force ourselves to record properly, any little flub and we would simply can that version and try again. We would never get it done!  So over the years I had been collecting albums coming out of Reeder‘s place, from the Dali’s Llama albums to Black Math Horsemen, and more and more the tunes coming out of there were becoming more and more beautiful. I was over for one of his birthday parties and saw the new and improved studio and the place looks amazing now. I asked the guys what they thought of going there and they said they would love to so I asked Scott about doing a five-year reunion and he was more then happy to do it again! This time we took a little more time on the songs. I think we spent a total of eight days recording, vocals and overdubs. The overall sound of this album is not just an improvement of the band but the time and effort Scott puts in to the bands he has recorded.

5. We all know the obvious ones from the desert, but who are the bands from out your way who people need to know about? What’s the scene like out there these days?

I wish I could comment outside the desert rock genre of bands at this time, but I just tend to gravitate to it. We just got done doing a festival that we hosted and had 30 bands play and I enjoyed every one of them on some level. Had a mixture of genres in there. I think for something heavy, look out for A’rk (another band recorded by Reeder) who played their first show at the festival to close it out. Some amazing power from those guys. Sasquatch played Saturday night and it was one of the best sets I have seen from those guys. For some metal, I caught Crowned by Fire for the first time and the guitarist, Justin Manning, is complete shredder. The band was tight and sounded good. I usually don’t dabble in the metal scene these days but loved their sound. One of my personal favorites these days is Toward Distant Suns. TDS has Frank and Brad from Gort and added Edgar from the Most Powerful Hand on drums, and I can tell you as a drummer, not many people can keep up with that guy. They have this NoMeansNo fusion going on that is killer. I believe they are working on their first EP so that will be out soon. Dali’s Llama sounded amazing in their set. They added a third guitarist and just sound great top to bottom.

6. Any future plans or shows you want to mention?

Not to take so long between albums! Also, Sean and I have started up B@1 Productions this year and just held our first festival, the Hell Ride Festival at Angel’s Roadhouse in Yucaipa. Our plan is to continue to put on shows not just for the Whores but for other bands that we like, young and old, doesn’t matter, if we like your music we are going to ask you out to play. I have some great audio from the festival and will putting out some live EPs for several of the bands that played through B@1 Records. On one end we have punk from the S.C.A.B.S. and they have a great set from the festival that will be out as a full-length. I have some rockabilly from Johnny Wadd and the Stiff Sheets that sounded great. I have A’rk‘s first show ever and it was amazing hoping to get it out with them. I am working with a young band that played, The Fluffs. I would say keep an eye out for these guys, they have talent and are still in high school! Their music is on the lighter side but they have good attitude and can play. Bread and Bruises came out and have great audio from those guys. There will be some comps put out from the show that will include songs from Dali’s Llama, Ride the Sun (a San Diego band I like), Sexual Hopscotch, and Motor Gun Hotel and more. I am also going to be working with Zach from Dali’s Llama on a side-project soon and we will see where that goes. Haven’t even had our first practice yet but we will keep people posted on that.

I guess to sum it up, the Whores of Tijuana had a great year in 2010 and hope to keep pushing. Over 18 years there has been some down time but most the time we have been dabbling in something. Here’s to a good 2011 and beyond! Hope everyone enjoys the new album and look forward to working on III.

Whores of Tijuana’s website

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One Response to “Six Dumb Questions with Whores of Tijuana”

  1. Ianham says:

    Completely agree with Trent about the Internet (& particularly “The Obelisk”) opening eyes to great bands – The down-side (at least on my part) is that it has also opened my wallet.

    The number of Wahwahfuzz (my favourite genre) bands albums/downloads/wax cylinders I have bought frightens my Bank Manager. Happily my wife feigns blissful ignorance.

    Just downloaded the 1st album. Now I’ve just how to work out how to explain to the better half why I was researching Whores of Tijuana.

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