From Paradigm Summer 2021, Issue 6.2

Inflection Point

Creating their own lanes and pushing past the naysayers has been a code ingrained in Deviated State from the beginning.

BY KARI HAMANAKA

ACAB. No Sleep. All Bite No Bark. No Way Out. Clout. Deviated State’s four members methodically go through their roster of songs during a recent band practice. There are a few jokes and shit talking in between, a break to smoke at the midpoint, followed by another run through and then the tear down of equipment-all to repeat again at the next practice.

It’s a weekly ritual, usually held at night after workdays are wrapped, at Cideshow Rehearsal Studios in Gardena, located along an unassuming industrial stretch of low-rise buildings on south Broadway.

It’s been this way for about six years now. There’s nothing glamorous about it on the surface, but there’s something to be said about a 12-year-old band that’s been going at it this long with no real hiatus outside of the year between 2011 and 2012 when founding member Ricky of TVA or Die left. But beneath more than a decade of backyard gigs, bar shows and everything in-between are so many stories it would make your head spin—another layer of complexity to a band that has largely downplayed anything overtly analytical or self-indulgent about what they’ve been creating and mastering all these years in their corner of the Harbor Area.

“We’re all just a bunch of working class foos, so that feeds into the music. That’s just the vibe that you get. It’s not just art [to us],” singer Joe said. “How we grew up is also in the music. I only say that because you hear foos from other bands and they’ll be like ‘Oh, I don’t need to work’ this, this and that, but where we come from [if] you don’t work, you don’t eat.”

“A lot of people don’t realize that. They just think we’re screaming, but we’re not making this shit up,” bassist Johnny said.

“It’s shit you don’t talk about,” drummer Robert said, “and it’s not because you’re embarrassed.”

“It’s reality, and reality isn’t pretty,” Johnny continued. “We’re just a bunch of blue collar, family value fools.”

It’s maybe a set of values that has led them to this point, pushing forward regardless of outside recognition, and maybe that’s what makes this band all the more compelling because it’s the ones with the quiet resolve-the ones never raised to say “look at me” or with a safety net if life handed them lemons-that you have to watch out for. They’re not easily unnerved, outmatching most in a test of wills that’s damn near puritanical so much so when someone tells a band like Deviated State they’re really coming up of late, it would have to be the biggest understatement yet for a group that’s never really stopped.

“We’re all just a bunch of working class foos, so that feeds into the music. That’s just the vibe that you get. It’s not just art [to us]. How we grew up is also in the music. I only say that because you hear foos from other bands and they’ll be like ‘Oh, I don’t need to work’ this, this and that, but where we come from [if] you don’t work, you don’t eat.”

— Joe, vocals

“They’re putting it down,” Watch Out bassist Edgar said of Deviated in a June interview with Paradigm.

“They’ve been putting it down, even before we started doing the CBR thing in 2015,” Watch Out guitarist Sergio added, referencing the now-defunct venue that in more recent years had become a hardcore haven.

Deviated is in fact riding a wave analogous to the renewed energy and reinvigoration among a new generation of Harbor Area hardcore bands and fans. That, combined with a new, self-titled EP-the first album release since the “Numb Tape” put out by TVA or Die in 2019-is pushing the limits musically and lyrically for the hardcore punk band as it perhaps approaches a zenith that’s been on slow simmer for years now. It makes the current energy around them ostensibly new, but all the more satisfying because that’s hardly the case, especially for a band that had been mocked years earlier for its blending of hardcore and punk.

“Deviated just means going against the grain because every time we played, we never fit any style-whether it was the hardcore fools or the punk fools, they would always laugh at us because our styles blended,” Joe said, recalling a time where their breakdowns were the source of jokes by some bands. Fast forward and some of those same bands are playing breakdowns now, too.

“I don’t want to be lame and say, ‘Stay true to yourself,’” Joe continued, “but just do what you do. We don’t stay in our own lane; we make our own lanes and that’s what you’ve got to do. Keep pushing and fuck everybody else.”

“We never molded to anybody, and I think that’s kind of paying off right now,” Robert said.

Deviated’s approach is in fact what stood out to Johnny before he joined the band in 2018.

“Ten years ago, even before I met these guys, there weren’t many local bands doing it, blending styles,” Johnny said. “Even my first band, we connected punk and thrash. These guys done it with hardcore and punk, and it stands out. You’re that bright light. It’s not just following a straight line.”

The bassist had been aware of Deviated from the start, hunting for the band’s first EP on forums, YouTube and asking people for the track files.

“I had to nerd out to get a hold of that Deviated EP. And I played the shit out of it. Even the ‘Hermit [The Toad’ EP] was a bitch to get,” he remembered.

The Deviated way, as Johnny said, has never been a straight line, both in how they’ve approached the music and how the band’s story has played out.

It’s not necessarily unlike what most bands run up against: playing at times to only handfuls of people, ambivalence in some cases towards their music style, the grind in delivering T-shirts and sweatshirts to fund recordings, hand cutting band stickers or paper cuts from individually folding album cover jackets. It’s all part of the game-or love?-but over time those are the same things that tend to deter those less driven.

Of course, Deviated State wouldn’t be Deviated State without rebuffing any high-brow analysis of the band or their latest album beyond the drive to create “bangers” so that they can play bigger shows in venues beyond the backyards.

Being in the studio was just the latest in a series of learning experiences they collectively tackled. In fact, the meticulous process further pushed and prodded each individually and as a group to strive for more.

“The recording session was totally different from before,” Robert said. “Going in, I just thought it was going to be like how we’ve always been doing it, but it was a curve ball.”

It was multiple hours across several days of carefully recording each member. And, along the way, bad habits or complacent techniques that had become rote over the years, were weeded out.

“We never molded to anybody, and I think that’s kind of paying off right now.”

— Robert, drums

“It was eye opening,” guitarist Sean said of the process. “It did give us an insight into how professional bands go about the recording process to make sure there’s no stone unturned and iron every bit of a song to make sure it’s the best it can be. It was getting all the small parts down and paying more attention to detail to those small parts where other times we’ve kind of glossed over them.”

“I was going pretty much in circles with my lyrics [before] where I was saying the same thing over and over again, and no one’s ever really told me that,” Joe said. “He [the producer] was like ‘Bro, you’re telling me, but you’re not actually showing me. Come on. You’ve got to show me what you’re saying. I never actually heard someone criticize my songs like that. They’re usually like ‘Oh, that’s pretty sick,’ ‘Oh, that’s cool.’”

“It makes you think outside the box,” Johnny added.

“For me, I need to look deeper into what I play guitar-wise,” Sean said. “I’ve learned to kind of just keep it simple to the point where it sounds good, but you’re not doing too much because, in a sense, if you’re doing too much you don’t really understand what you played. Keep it basic and to the point.”

The new album totals seven songs, including the designated single “No Sleep” that details Joe’s encounters with being haunted; “Justicia” inspired from the protests of 2020; and “Neuro Block” about the inability to focus woven in with the traumatic experience of seeing someone shot that Joe and his mom witnessed when he was seven and could barely see over the dashboard.

“The first two songs are about social battles; the last four songs are about personal battles,” Sean explained.

The end result is something unlike anything they’ve released in the past and, dare it be said, perhaps the next evolution of a band raised in the backyards of Carson, Compton, South Central, Wilmington and Long Beach.

“It’s 100% more mature,” Johnny said of the new album. “It separates the kids from the adults.”

There’s also a certain seriousness that’s crept in over time matching the heaviness of much of what they sing about, a lot of it stemming from the time in the studio.

Touting their work has replaced the good chunk of memes that were previously mixed in with their Instagram and Facebook feeds.

“We didn’t take it too seriously. We didn’t promote,” Joe said of the past. “We were just doing what homies do: playing shows and having a good ass time.”

“It’s better this way because we actually did a whole CD during quarantine rather than sitting around being stagnant, not doing much. So when venue shows do come back, we can be like ‘Look, this is what we have. We have this brand new album on a good recording and everything sounds clean and banging,’” Sean said. “It will help give us more entrance into bigger shows because more promoters will respect that like ‘You guys took the time and spent the money to go into the studio.’”

It would also presumably broaden Deviated State’s audience.

“I would like to play more venue shows and have people listen-I’m not saying they don’t listen in the backyard, but I want to reach people in our age range,” Robert said. “Backyards are always going to be a thing for us. I don’t see us not playing them because a lot of bands get to a point and then egos get in the way.”

“It keep us humble,” Johnny said. “People shouldn’t be scared to approach us; we’re normal people.”

“It’s about bringing something new to the table that is different and learning to accept change, whether it be in music or your life and learn to grow. It’s OK to grow. You can grow out of things and you can grow into things. It’s never too late.”

— Sean, guitar

The backyards are also where the band is firmly rooted, where it was raised and where their craft as musicians was born.

It’s a finer point made by The Noktornals bassist Mr. J in an interview with Paradigm in February of last year. The Bakersfield band is born out of Compton’s the Victor Charlies, which played with Deviated in many backyards when the VCs were still around.

Deviated State rips,” Mr. J said. “If we ever come back [down from Bakersfield], we’ve got to step up our fucking game. Deviated is a hard fucking act to follow. Deviated and Alter Boys. Back in the day, everybody had their little tribes and everyone had their little scenes and conversed with one another. And everybody’s evolved. The ones that are still doing this now, are artists. They write music and that’s what we do. We write music and we take it to the people and it doesn’t matter if we’re in Nevada or San Diego, this thing that we all grew up with. Everybody. This is not something that we kept in our back pockets and kept it from the world.”

That concept sometimes gets overlooked when success for many bands is only defined by Instagram follower counts, Spotify views or doing something outlandish to go viral. Those who color outside those lines operate with blinders from the more superficial aspects of being in a band.

“I mean, I don’t see myself stopping regardless of whether the band continues or not,” Robert said. “What do I do with my life? It’s too late to get into hockey.”

“We know nothing else,” Joe said. “People ask, ‘You keep playing?’ I don’t know anything else. What else am I going to do? COVID was just a reality check like what am I supposed to do today? I made plans [pre-COVID] by checking flyers every weekend.”

“We got back in touch with our roots to find out who we really were before bands,” Johnny said of 2020’s lockdown.

“I realized I wasn’t shit,” Robert said as everyone laughed. “The reality check was hard.”

He’s kidding, kind of, as he says this. But the reality check and self-reflection go very much back to what Deviated State, the band name represents.

“It just means you’re able to change the state, whatever it is, whether mental or physical,” Robert said. “You can always change the way you look at things.”

The ability to develop new perspectives but also personal growth, such as a band taking the next step in its journey, is part of that as Sean rounded out the thought: “For me, it’s just a way for people to express their emotions in a semi-positive way, and just a way to connect with bands and music because not everybody wants to listen to happy stuff. It’s about bringing something new to the table that is different and learning to accept change, whether it be in music or your life and learn to grow. It’s OK to grow. You can grow out of things and you can grow into things. It’s never too late.”

ROBERT, DRUMS

Hometown: Carson

Bands: Deviated State, Cara Borracho

How you fell into music? I was given a choice between video games and a drum set. My dad told me, ‘Pick that or pick the drums,’ He didn’t want me to play video games all the time so I chose the drums. And, after that, I just kept at it.

I was in the 7th grade or so. I took a class or two, but nothing crazy. I was mostly self taught.

Eventually, I met these guys and started developing some skills and learning different types of music.

First live show? I was barely in high school.

Concert-wise, I want to say Warped Tour. It was right here at the Home Depot Center. It was cool because it was the first time I got to see the big bands like Circle Jerks. I actually met Joe there, too. We seen Lower Class Brats, Agent Orange.

It was in the summer and, around the same time, my sister wanted to go see a local band that played around here, Worst Enemy. I wanted to see what it [backyard shows] was all about. It was new to me because I’d never seen so many people in one spot that looked kind of sketch, but it was still fun.

The band that was playing was wearing those ski masks. I was like, ‘Oh, shit.’ I was just in the back looking at the band. Fools were going in the pit and I didn’t know what it was. It was right there by Avalon and Banning.

Outside interests: Outside of the band, I like to go to the beach, walk around. Go out with friends. I like to play video games, watch anime shit. I like to eat, too.

I just do stuff to keep myself occupied and it gives you things to talk about in a way, too. When I find people who like the same things, it’s like ‘Oh, shit, we fucking click.’

I like to collect video game cards, too. That’s a big hobby of mine I’ve been keeping since I was in elementary. It was never a constant, but when I get into it, I get into it. I have a little binder with cards I like to look at.

JOHNNY, BASS

Hometown: Hawaiian Gardens

Bands: Deviated State, Passive Aggressor

How you fell into music? The musician side came from my mom’s side of the family, so it was already there. And, just hanging out with different cousins that were already playing instruments, they introduced me and put me in that environment, a creative state.

My uncles, they grew up in the ’80s and they were part of the punk scene. I had an uncle that actually lived in the U.K. at that time. So it was something my mom tried to keep away from me and not expose me to because I was a problem child at school. I was rowdy, getting into a bunch of shit. When I found out about that [family connection to punk], on family occasions I would just pick their brains, taking notes.

I picked up the guitar, but it didn’t feel like home. I chipped away at it and was like, ‘Maybe it’ll come.’ And then I switched to bass, and that was it. I self taught myself. I was 11 or 12.

First show? I was, I think, 14 or 15. It was in Long Beach at the Vault 350. It was Angry Samoans, Narcoleptic Youth and Smut Peddlers.

I had to beg my dad to take me. I was like, ‘You drive, I’ll buy the tickets.’ I knew my dad wouldn’t enjoy it. He was just sitting there and I go in there and I fucking lose my mind. It was my first show, first pit and I just went ape shit.

My dad on the drive home, I don’t know, he was like ‘I can’t believe you jumped in that shit. They looked like they were killing each other. I knew you were crazy; your mom’s fucking side is crazy.’

[Going to shows] became a drug and after that, it was just show after show. Then I started getting involved in the local scene.

Outside interests: I collect records. I go to record shops. Half my room’s records. I bike. I barely got back into gaming and I collect comic books. I’m a nerd and I don’t give a fuck.

I used to have a grip [of comics] and then during our move they got destroyed. I used to nerd out hard. I used to get different covers of the same issue and put them in air-sealed bags.

SEAN, GUITAR

Hometown: Torrance

Bands: Deviated State

How you fell into music? I just grew up listening to music, all types of music. I never really knew how to play guitar, so when I sat around all of them listening to music, I kind of wanted to get into it, too. So I just thought, ‘All right, what can I afford to play’? because I was real poor. I ended up getting a free guitar from my dad and I just started messing with it and took everything I had seen around me, different people playing, and just incorporated it into my own kind of style. I was about 14, 15. Then I just kind of figured out how to make my own songs.

And when I joined the band, it allowed me to express what I actually wanted to play. We were blending punk and hardcore, which are the two genres that I like. Ten years later, here we are bringing our own shit to the table-different riffs that are simple, not too crazy, and not too many crazy solos or chord progressions. Just riffs that make you want to hit something.

First show: It was at the Hooligan House. I didn’t really know what to expect. I stayed in the back. I was a little kid. I was 12, a little smaller than I am today. I would have just got ripped apart. I saw how it was and was like, ‘I kind of want to do that but I don’t have the equipment.’ I just went to different backyard shows in Carson, Wilmington, Long Beach.

Every time I went to a show, I always wanted to be the one playing. Being there was cool, but I wanted to be the one performing. Back then, I was intrigued about how the shows were run. There’s no rules, so it was different.

Outside interests: I like playing video games. I’m not really a very sociable person so I keep to myself, but I like working on my guitar skills, collecting random shit. I was into skating a lot. I’m very athletic so any chance I can get to play basketball or anything, I’ll take it. I was in sports as a kid. I like watching sports. I like studying them. Basically, anything to keep my mind on stuff. Now that I have a child, I have a whole other hobby.

Joe: Hobby?

Robert: Sean likes to make babies for fun.

Sean: That’s also brought a whole new aspect to what life is. It’s not just about me anymore. When I grew up, I didn’t really care about anything else; I just worried about myself. I understood what I was doing and how to keep myself safe and sane, but now I have to worry about somebody else. So it’s brought a whole new aspect of life, just trying to make a better life for my child.

JOE, VOCALS

Hometown: Carson

Bands: Deviated State

How you fell into music? One day I was walking down the street, on my block, and this cholo was parked in his driveway. He had a gold Cadillac and he waved at me to come over and I was like, ‘What the fuck. Why is this cholo waving at me’?

He asked, ‘Hey, you like punk rock?’ I was into punk rock like the Ramones and he was like, ‘Let’s jam some music, bro.’ I was posted up in his caddy bumping shit like Slayer, MDC, Lower Class Brats. He told me he used to be a punk back in the day and he went to shows with my uncle and shit. He gave me some CDs to burn and he let me borrow some punk CDs. It was pretty crazy, some cholo foo on my block happened to go with my family to shows back in the day.

In retrospect, that was a big turning point in my life because when I got into punk shows, I stopped hanging out with a lot of my homies and was always at band practice. I was at a band practice when my cousin got shot on the corner of my street. When I was going to shows, there were always cops raiding the homies’ pads. There were always fights and houses getting shot up, and going to punk shows took me away from that environment into a more, I guess you would say, positive one and an escape from what was going on around me at the time.

First show: I went to my first Lower Class Brats show, looking it up on Myspace. That was my first real punk show. When I seen Lower Class Brats, it was just one of the best shows I been to. Foos were stage diving, foos were pitting and foos were chanting lyrics. There were studs and spikes everywhere. I was like, ‘Yo, this is something I have to be a part of.’

Outside interests: My outside interests are, shit, I don’t even know. I like going to shows that I’m not playing to watch the homies play. I like reading at Starbucks and taking pictures, even though I’m not good at it-and hanging out with my girlfriend. Go Raiders. Go Dodgers.

“RICKY OF TVA OR DIE WAS ONE OF THE ORIGINAL CREATORS OF THE BAND. HE STILL HELPS OUT WITH THE LOGOS OR FILLS IN ON INSTRUMENTS IF SOMEONE’S OUT. HE’S LIKE A JOKER CARD OR GHOST MEMBER.”

— Joe, vocals