PASS IT ON!

Interview With Grenade Brigade

Glendora

From Issue 2.2, November/December 2005

We just need to glue everything to the floor and play less hard,” Grenade Brigade drummer Kevin Nava said smiling.

The band’s microphone was plugged into the bass amp.

Nava had only one cymbal on his drum kit, and the amount of space to actually move around was minimal.

Welcome to Grenade Brigade guitarist Gilbie Gone’s garage, which also functions as the band’s practice space on a relatively quiet, residential street in Glendora.

“This is about as punk as you can get in Glendora,” Nava said.

On a late Sunday afternoon about a month ago, the band (which also includes guitarist Alex Lorenzen), made their way through some Minor Threat material, original material and some stuff they made up on the spot-though Gone said their practices consist mainly of them making stuff up.

In fact, towards the latter half of their practice, they goofed around and made up songs mixed with reggae and rap and rock talking about how they wanted to make a real song just like that later on and giving each other tips when one forgot something.

“No,” said Nava. “It’s the bottom one then the top one.”

“No it isn’t,” Gone said.

“Do you want to play it again?” Lorenzen asked.

After what was maybe the second or third try on a song, Gone stopped and said, “Wait. What happened here?”

“You messed up,” Nava said to no one in particular.

When they play shows however, they borrow equipment from their friends who are also in a band called American Lies.

As an ice cream truck made its way slowly down the street, practice seemed to officially end for that day.

“Aw, ice cream!” Grenade Brigade drummer Kevin Nava said while running out of the garage only to come back and tell bassist Gilbie Gone that his garage always smells bad to which Gone responded, “at least I have a garage.”

The always-smiling drummer, quiet guitarist and energetic bassist plowed through their songs with such polished voracity, it seemed as though they practiced just before this practice-but they hadn’t-that is just the energy of this 1 1/2-year-old band from Glendora.

Their blend of punk would be categorized by Lorenzen as “dancey, rock ‘n’ rollish, skunk thrash” of which, the best way to describe it is to say they are influenced by many genres and play accordingly.

As far as lyrics go, they are revolutionary in spirit. Denying the label of a political band, the three would rather describe themselves as all about the social causes and wanting everyone to get along.

What is characteristically different about this socially conscious band, is that they are not annoyingly preachy about it. They are a lot more sincere.

When Gilbie Gone signs off e-mails, letters or sometimes even a phone call, he can’t help but tack on at the end, “Peace! Pass it on!” Sometimes, he’ll just say “Peace!” for short. He even has “Peace” spelled out on the frets of his bass.

However, incredibly idealistic, realistic or nihilistic the reader of this article may be, there is nothing wrong with a band that is doing something. There is nothing more appealing than a band that has passion and the desire to want to change things even while accepting they may not see the change in their lifetime.

“If you don’t try,” Gone said, “and you don’t hope for it, then you’re never going to get it. It may not happen in our generation or maybe even the next generation.”

Gone said this after earlier saying that after high school he would like to live on the streets by switching places with someone who actually does live on the streets. What his parents have to say about that idea is of course another matter.

Gone said he wants to help out in any way he can such as handing out condoms to prostitutes and ticks off a list of other examples with energy-though he later said he had too many expresso beans earlier in the morning.

While all three promote change and unity, Gone is perhaps the most outspoken of the three.

Gone described Nava as being the most outspoken in the band.

“Kevin is not afraid to say anything because he feels he has the right to,” Gone said.

Lorenzen is described as the quiet, shy guy of the group.

Nava used words such as “weird,” “happy,” “shy” and “unusual” to describe the Grenade Brigade guitarist while Gone said, “He’s quiet but once you get him rowled up, he’s one of the most educated people. He knows just what to say.”

“I think music’s the best way to spread what you think to other people,” Lorenzen added. “Whoever likes it and accepts it, then that’s great.”

The band, which has mostly backyard show experience said they prefer backyards to actual venues anyway though they have played at Smart City Grinds in Azusa.

Originally, Grenade Brigade, started out not meaning anything. The two words just sounded good together when Nava approached Gone with the idea one day in school.

Then gradually, as with almost any name or logo, it became associated with meaning-the idea that people are pulling the plug on peace.

“What we want is for them to not do that,” said drummer Kevin Nava. “It’s just annoying. It’s so...it’s just totally what we’re against.”

Although Nava thought up the name, he said he has grown tired of it and would rather they change it.

In the end, they just want people to get along with one another. No, they’re not being campy when they say that. They really do mean it.

“Our lyrics are about society and getting along with people,” said guitarist Alex Lorenzen.

The three cited examples of what they have seen and experienced at school as fuel for their songs against hate and close-mindedness.

“People get in fights over nothing,” Lorenzen said describing the various cliques at their high school. “Some people thrive off of it.”

Gone remembered one time in the past which he referred to as the “lipstick incident” as an example of close-mindedness. This occurred when he went to school one day with chapped lips and had to resort to borrowing someone’s lip gloss. After putting the gloss on, aides at school told him to take it off because it was too distracting.

In response, Gone went to school dressed in a skirt and was assigned detention.

“I dressed in skirts to show that they shouldn’t discriminate.... Administrators wanted to dictate what was socially acceptable. It’s not like I had a sign that said look at me.”

On a separate occasion, the self-described narcissist wore a sign to school that said, “Peace. Pass it on.”

Though none of these incidents or the bands music are times in which Gone, or Nava or Lorenzen have made it a point to put themselves on a platform for attention.

“We’ve got something to say,” Gone said. “We’re trying to unite all the music genres together. All we’ve got to do is love... Wow, I just ripped off The Beatles.”

That’s okay. Their message runs along similar lines. So, just do Grenade Brigade a favor and pass that on!