Interview With Black Panther (Encinitas)
Introductions; who are you guys, where are you from, and what do you do?
-Iām Max, I play guitar.
-Iām Sean, I play drums.
Jon: Weāre from Village Park in Encinitas, weāre Black Panther
What is it like living in North County and how is the scene different/similar compared to South San Diego?
Jon: Well this scene is really cool, all the hardcore bands from Chula and Lemon Grove is really cool. But uh, North County sucks. Like really bad. Thereās like one other pop-punk band that weāre friends with, theyāre called Headway; but other than that weāre literally the only other band really from there. Most of San Diego is metal-core bands so we donāt really mesh with them too well.
Sean: Itās a little dried up I think.
How long have you been playing as Black Panther and how has your music evolved since you first started?
Jon: We started actually as a folk-punk band, just totally messing around. Then we kind of switched up probably about a year and a half ago to a more āThe Clashā kind of sound. Then we just realized we kind of wanted to do more pop-punk kind of stuff. So we went after that.
Sean: Max and I were playing in a band before, another pop-punk band, but we were playing with Jon on the side too. We were all just super good friends and we never really thought about playing a lot of shows or anything like that. But then we just kind of found out that we were writing songs way easier than our other band, and it was a lot more fun, so we just decided to do it.
It seems like your influences come from all over the map, but whatās one band that each of you feel you take with you when you put into Black Panther?
John: Iād say for me... Kid Dynamite probably.Ā A lot of that for me.
Max: Uhhh, too hard of a question (laughs).
Max: The Gaslight Anthem.
Sean: Probably Kid Dynamite too. I donāt know, just a bunch of late 90ās early 2000 punk bands, also hardcore too, I listen to a lot of hardcore.Ā Oh Title Fight! We all can agree that we all love Title Fight.
John: Especially our guitarist, who actually isnāt here right now.
What do you want to say about the Jawbreaker influence in your song Ā "Jawbreaker 51ā?
Jon: That song, in the lyrics it actually talks about getting Dear You, that day. I actually did like get Dear You, that day and I was just sitting and listening to it.Ā Dick Butkist was number 51, and I was being a real āDick Butkistā.
Sean: Dick Butkist is that football player. We thought that idea was pretty funny.
Jon: Yeah, I was just listening to Jawbreaker a bunch. We love Jawbreaker, especially 24 Hour Revenge Therapy, one of my favorite albums.
What do you think of pop-punk bands that play now, big and small?
Jon: I mean Iām not really a fan of the most poppy music. I listen to a lot more of like Death is not Glamorous or like Hold Tight, which is a super good band. But Iām not really down with the whole auto-tunestyle. Itās kind of weird right now (laughs).
Max: I like it. A lot of it seems very genuine, very heartfelt. There are a lot of good things coming out of it.
Sean: I think that the more positive vibe in punk, kind of like the āstokedā pop-punk.
John: Except the WonderĀ Years. Screw the Wonder Years, I hate that band. Sorry.
Sean: WeĀ like that band. Hateās a strong word.
Jon: Sorry man. I strongly dislike the Wonder Years.
Sean: For me finding a great new pop-punk band is like finding a needle in a haystack. Thereās a lot of those bands that sound the same, with that āsad soundā. Thereās some really good ones. I feel like pop-punk isnāt really same now. Now itās just whatever, I mean I donāt even know what Iām saying (laughs).
You can check out Black Panther and their music here:
blackpanthersd.bandcamp.com
(Check out the album for free, or donate if you'd like)
http://www.facebook.com/blackpanthersd
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