Interview With Black Panther (Encinitas)
Introductions; who are you guys, where are you from, and what do you do?
Jon: We’re from Village Park in Encinitas, we’re 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. There’s like one other pop-punk band that we’re friends with, they’re called Headway; but other than that we’re literally the only other band really from there. Most of San Diego is metal-core bands so we don’t really mesh with them too well.
Sean: It’s 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 “The Clash” 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 what’s one band that each of you feel you take with you when you put into Black Panther?
John: I’d say for me... Kid Dynamite probably. A lot of that for me.
Max: Uhhh, too hard of a question (laughs).
Max: The Gaslight Anthem.
Sean: Probably Kid Dynamite too. I don’t know, just a bunch of late 90’s early 2000 punk bands, also hardcore too, I listen to a lot of hardcore. Oh Title Fight! We all can agree that we all love Title Fight.
John: Especially our guitarist, who actually isn’t here right now.
What do you want to say about the Jawbreaker influence in your song "Jawbreaker 51”?
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. Dick Butkist was number 51, and I was being a real “Dick Butkist”.
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 I’m 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 I’m not really down with the whole auto-tunestyle. It’s 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 “stoked” pop-punk.
John: Except the Wonder Years. Screw the Wonder Years, I hate that band. Sorry.
Sean: We like that band. Hate’s 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. There’s a lot of those bands that sound the same, with that “sad sound”. There’s some really good ones. I feel like pop-punk isn’t really same now. Now it’s just whatever, I mean I don’t even know what I’m 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
