Junkhead, a band that for most does need an introduction. Formed roughly a year ago in the small town of Aberdeen, WA, home of legends and Junkhead inspiration Nirvana, these mid-twenties punks have been spitting out widely diverse and conceptual numbers, loosely classified as sludge metal/90's alternative, in the impactful form of a highly volatile and experimental EP titled 'Long Dead Plastic Scene'. As I sat down with frontman Luke Haley, guitarist Stanley Vince and drummer Will Sullivan, it was clear from the start the former two were running the show, trading off with the insightful, slightly cynical remarks of Haley and the boisterous joyful exclamations a la Vince, Sullivan sitting back in his seemingly nodded off state for most of the interview.



Q: So, first off, you guys just wrapped up a couple dates with Quarantine and The Waiting Room, how did it feel to go from the obviously much smaller crowds you maybe had been seeing to suddenly playing for upwards of 10,000 (OOC: Ball park guess) people a night?

Haley: Well, to be frankly honest, even though Quarantine have been big influences and treated us fantastically on their West Coast dates, I gotta say, there's definitely a different sort of energy and vibe about such big shows. I personally from a performance stand-point greatly preferred the gigs we did with Faithe & Justus a couple days before, because you really could feel the connection with the audience, you know? It's like, these fans are freaking out to see us, and I can fucking reach out and touch em', maybe pull a crowd surfer or two onstage. When we were put on the larger stages, there was pretty much nobody there who had a clue who we are, and really, it felt like some big fucking production man. It wasn't like you were going out to play for a bunch of energetic 14 year olds, it was more like standing there, and having them say, 'Oh, I like that song, oh, that solo's nice, hey, I wonder if the bassist is single'. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty sick Quarantine gave us this opportunity, but if I have my choice, we won't be playing shows like that in a longggg time.




Vince: That, and there was more band-to-band quality time on the F & J dates, I mean, that was like, 2 bands, 2 vans, 4 hours a night with nothing to do, a couple bottles of whiskey and a guaran-fucking-teed damn good night! There was so much stuff like, 'well, now we gotta soundcheck, then warm-up, then play, etc.', so we didn't actually see a whole lot of the other two bands, which sucks, brother! I mean, damn, I only got to see Quarantine play once, fucking killing myself over that, you know?

Q: Going off that, are there any touring plans?

H: As of now, not really.... We've been talking with some people pretty high up the ladder about a festival or two, but there aren't any solid plans yet. I think if we were gonna tour with anyone, we'd want to go for some of the more semi-mainstream/underground bands like Mind, they seem like pretty tight dudes, except their all booked up. Other than that, it'd be cool to play with Herr Fische maybe, and there's a couple other good acts out there we'd be honored to open for, but as I see it right now, we have yet to really venture outside of the greater West Coast, which doesn't bug me, I'm just not sure how well jumping right into unknown territory on a large scale tour would fare. Better to build up over time if you ask me, find a loyal fan base who are coming because they actually wanna hear you, not some mainstream rock band generous enough to offer you a slot on their world tour.

V: Hell yeah, that's what we should be doing! Been talking with my ol' bud Rich North back at Avocado Booking over a couple shots, he said s'got some clubs on the line that might be interested, who knows? We might be seeing a Junkhead club headliner across the states, Black mother fucking Flag style dude! That would be sooooo sick.


Stanley Vince

Q: I'd go [Laughs]. Alright guys, your debut, let's get the details, what's behind all the bi-polar music madness?

V: Damn man, I like this guy! Well, why go for the single flavor when you could get the Baskin Robin's 31? Sir Lucas over hear'll come in with some kick ass chord progression or melody or idea, and I just fucking build on it man, you know the drill, throw some tasty riffs and shit on it, get ol' Sully [motions to Sullivan] to lay down a couple beats, get some lyrics, maybe a harmony or two, and there you go brother! We got a song right there!

H: I guess it really depends on what's speaking the strongest to me when I lay down the foundations of a song. Musically, we draw from everything from a lot of the NOLA bands like Acid Bath and Down to Slayer and Testament to like fucking Bob Dylan an Sublime man. A lot of times, a certain song will spark an idea outta me, and sometimes it isn't even music, it can be a special effect in some horror movie, a speech I hear on the radio, whatever man, it doesn't matter, as long as I'm inspired. Now obviously, there are some traits, like the heavy southern and sludge influences, that tend to be more dominant, but really, whatever's the theme of the moment is the real driving force behind our music.

Q: Might I dare ask, what's the inspiration of the day?

H: Haha, nice man, alright, alright, I'll let you in. We've been tripping out on speed and LSD the past week, blasting The Rolling Stones, System of a Down, Mastodon and Smashing Pumpkins, all four of us riffing back and forth on acoustic guitars, making the occasional booze or Panda Express run. So, if you really must know, that's what's been moving us lately.

Q: Seriously?

V: Fuck yes man! Weirdly enough, the combo of SOAD's squealing madness on 'Steal This Album' and the Stones' straight forward song writing powered rock leads to some really cool oddly melodic yet dissonant riffing, lotta cool guitar-vocal harmonies going on. From there, the LSD and Smashing Pumpkins adds this touch of unpredictability with the subtly frantic over tones of speed and Mastodon's 'Leviathan', which really keeps all the work fresh and new, some pretty gnarly stuff being laid down, particularly this one song with the working title 'Elephant Graveyard', s'got the sickest churning riff, puts you right in Ahab's mind as he's swallowed by Moby, seriously the most brutal feeling ever!



Q: So, since we're only allowed five minutes to get all this shit down on paper, one last question. What's next from Junkhead?

H: Well, without spilling anything huge, I think we'll be putting out a couple more EP's, kinda like a build up to further, larger projects.

Q: Like an album?

H: Maybe, we'll see. So far, 'Long Dead Plastic Scene's been selling pretty well, we've reached 2,000 copies, which is important for us I guess. I just want us to be really established as musicians and to have a strong fanbase before we go blow all our dope money on putting together what I hope will be a really strong composition. See, to us, EP's and demo's are like trackers, kinda showing you where we are at the moment, where as albums are much more of a task. As far as album's go, we want to be able to sit down and have a clearly defined goal, kinda like a sculptor plans his piece, instead of writing a shitload of stuff and slapping the 13 catchiest songs onto a CD like most bands seem to do these days.

V: Real fast, look out for new dates, who knows, might be near you! New material coming soon, don't go get your fucking hopes up on seeing an album soon! Buy our EP fuckers, we like being able to actually get wasted when we go out to bars!

Q: Alright, that was Junkhead, I'm Michael Weaver, this is Decible magazine, Sounds of the Underground.