LOUD AND IN YOUR FACE

Interview With Thretning Verse

La Puente

From Issue 2.4, March/April 2006

You’re holding up the interview,” Big Mike said to Luciano and Cheeseburger as they sauntered through the door of Panik Records in La Puente. Luciano sheepishly shrugged his shoulders chewing a piece of food as Cheeseburger walked behind the store’s cash register.

The plan that evening was to hold a practice, but someone forgot a piece of equipment.

“We’re supposed to practice once a week, but not on Sundays because of church,” said Thretning Verse drummer Big Mike sarcastically - but without batting an eye.

“You should join our religion,” rhythm guitarist, Luciano added as the store’s phone rang.

“P-P-P-P-Panik,” bassist Cheeseburger said as the band’s singer (or screamer) Pixie got up to answer the phone.

These are the members of Los Angeles band, Thretning Verse (minus their guitar player, Nat, who could not make it that evening). Panik Records is the store Pixie owns and it is also the place where the band practices.

With a tour in Mexico rapidly approaching, Thretning Verse has a lot to talk about and to reflect upon considering they are a band that has withstood the changes that time often forces upon bands. That being said, it brings up the question of how this band has managed to stick around for so long and continue to bring in new fans of their music. Their secret of sincerity and love for playing is definitely not brain surgery, but it is something rare.

“We’re just living the dream,” Big Mike said making a motion with his hands as if he were clawing his way up an imaginary wall while the rest of the band laughed.

“It-this [band]-is what we love doing,” Big Mike said. “We don’t give up.”

“We haven’t conformed,” Pixie added.

“We’ve seen this scene change and we’re still playing,” Big Mike said. “Play fast, die hard....It’s a way of life.”

“God, did you guys practice [for the interview] all day,” Pixie said laughing.

While they - mostly Big Mike- are good at joking about their longevity, they certainly don’t brag about it. As Luciano put it, “We work hard and shit.”

Working hard is basically what it comes down to for Thretning Verse. They have done everything themselves from the start. They book their own shows, they do their merchandise, they run their own Web sites, they make sure to keep in touch with people and they help out other bands simply because they love it all and as Pixie put it, “It’s the whole D.I.Y. ethic.”

“I think that with whatever members have been in the band,” Pixie said, “at some point in our lives, it’s been all that we had.” Thus, their dedication to what they do, is very sincere. Because they have been a part of the shows and the music for so long, they have seen the changes. Yet, they have continued on.

“We’ve seen people come and go,” Pixie said of how the scene has changed since Thretning Verse released their demo, “Poundin’ the Mickeys,” in 1995.

“....or some people just realize it’s not for them,” Cheeseburger said.

“Only a small handful of the bands we grew up with, are still here,” Pixie added.

“Even the style, the sound, isn’t like what it 10 years ago,” Big Mike said. “It’s a different generation of people. Here, there’s so many different [genres of] bands, and they all play together-it wasn’t like that 10 years ago. It’s so accessible now. These kids are being influenced by everything.”

And everything-meaning all types of music- is what influences the members of Thretning Verse. They listen to just about everything and grew up listening to anything from the blues, to gothic, to punk music. This may explain why, when they were asked to describe their music, they didn’t confine it to a one-word, generic answer.

Instead, Pixie described Thretning Verse’s music as “aggressive” and “in your face.”

Big Mike described it as, “super sweet, hardcore, punk rock with face-melting solos.” -which was again, met with laughter.

The collection of songs Thretning Verse has put out over the years though, is a mixture of different songs from different members at different points in time. For a while, Big Mike and Pixie would work on most of the music with Pixie writing a lot of the lyrics. Once Luciano joined the band, Big Mike said the writing process became more like a collaboration.

They met Luciano when he was playing for another band out of Baldwin Park called the Peeking Perves. Cheeseburger came along after they met him at a backyard show in Rosemead when he was playing for Renegade Youth.

He was introduced to them as “Cheeseburger and whether or not that was a joke, the name just stuck.

The name Thretning Verse came from someone outside the band named Bobby, “The Barnacle.” Bobby called Big Mike one night and told him he thought of a name for the band. Ten years later, Thretning Verse is still Thretning Verse and 10 years later, the members of this band have learned a lot and come quite a long ways from their starting point.

In the beginning, Big Mike said, they did not know a lot about booking shows and how to get shows beyond just the local gigs.

This is where their friends, in the band SMD, came along.

“They [SMD] showed us that you’ve got to broaden your horizons,” Big Mike said. “They opened doors for us that no one was going to just open for us. They’ve been through everything and showed us how to do things right.”

Originally, the members of Thretning Verse just wanted to play at their friends’ parties, but then they realized there was something more to being in a band than just playing at local parties (which they still love doing).

“[We wondered] Why couldn’t we be a band from out of town,” Big Mike said. “Meeting people, bands and just playing is the best part of being in a band. The rest of it is work.”

Making that realization is probably part of what has carried this band along. Hard work allowed for them to tour the United States and the West coast. They recently released, “Time for War” on Puke n Vomit and plan to release new material some time this year.

They have made their share of mistakes and learned from them (such as not drinking a case of beer before a show, or not trying to be too professional.) They know how to have fun without spoiling the music.

“We know who to trust and who to talk shit about,” Cheeseburger said.

“It’s about being responsible enough to know your own limits,” Big Mike added.

This is one of the reasons why they like playing with Norwalk band, Barbie and the Hookers [B.A.T.H.]. “They’re one of the few bands that know how to party hard and play hard,” Big Mike said of B.A.T.H.

Thretning Verse will play an upcoming show with B.A.T.H. in San Francisco on March 17 and 18, which they are looking forward to.

The other shows they are excited about, are the ones in their upcoming tour of Mexico, which will happen in April.

Luciano, who has family out there, said, “I’m looking forward to it to bring back that feeling of playing in a different country. They have different ideals.”

“And it’s a completely different scene,” Pixie added.

“It’s not impossible,” Big Mike said of going out on tours. “If you can work hard, you can play different places.”

Thretning Verse would be the epitome of that hard work, doing-it-yourself and learning-for-yourself sort of ethic. They don’t brag about themselves or wave what they’ve done in anyone’s faces because it has been a two-way street for them. There have been times where they needed help, and there have been other times where they have helped out others.

Their music has lasted because of that- something a lot of other bands and people might want to take a cue from.