So how has your latest album/EP gone so far with fans then?
Alec Cavazos (Guitar/Vocals): Our debut album “NoBrakesNoBrakesNoBrakes” was released last year and I think it’s gone over pretty well so far with fans. We’ve had a lot of people have told us they like it but I guess they could be lying.
It is cool that the 4 songs we’ve put out as singles so far have all cracked the top 50 on the specialty radio chart so I think that’s telling you something.
With friends and family they can all just be lying to not hurt our feelings….but with radio folks, they don’t have to play it if they don’t like it.
Tell us something about the release no one knows?
Destin Cavazos (Bass/Vocals): Well if we told you then all of a sudden people would know 😊
How about some things only a few people know? Like we produced NoBrakes ourselves working with Elliott Lanam from Hidden City Studios. We paid for it from our pockets and Elliott kicked in a ton of his time too, I know we owe him probably more than he charged us. Creatively it was just Elliott and exPorter with some feedback from a few trusted individuals outside of that.
Also, few people know that there were over 100 titles we tossed around till we came on “NoBrakes”. And for an exclusive thing that now only your readers will know – one of the first ones to miss the cut was “Every Street is Just a Driveway”.
If you could work with any band on a new song, who would it be and why?
Destin: Where do you start? I think just about any of the bands we’ve ever mentioned as an influence would be great, and there are a ton of bands on that list. I’ve said before also that the Riot Girl era and female-led bands shaped a lot of our sound so I think it would be cool to work with bands like Garbage, or Blondie or even newer bands like Charly Bliss, Snail Mail, Cherry Glazerr, etc. Some great feminine energy and work with that model.
But I’ve also said, if I had to pick any single band/person to collaborate with, I think my answer today would be Danny Elfman/Oingo Boingo. There’s just a lot of imagery and themes that you pull out of his music and I think would work well in an exPorter song.
Alec: Anyone that knows us has already read a hundred time that my go to would be Tom DeLonge. I would love to do an album with Tom. I think having him produce would be pretty sick. I always thought the Boxcar album was cool cause you could tell it was him but you also get a sense he was trying to expand and getting ideas from Rancid or others. It would be cool to have him take control of an album for us.
How has your latest release been received?
Alec: “Lusitania” is the current feature and it’s done pretty well. When we first had a polished demo we sent it out to some of the stations that had played us before and a lot of them emailed back saying how much they liked it. We got it going for airplay earlier this year and it hit 15 on the chart which has been our highest on the list. You look at the bands we’re on there with and it’s a pretty humbling sight.
It was also pretty humbling to have it included on the last “Indies Only” show by Monk at Alt 101.7. Monk was the first person to ever play us outside of California and he said some pretty cool things about it. And a few weeks ago it was on the Rodney Bingenheimer show – “The Underground Garage”. We grew up in Southern California and Rodney on the Rock is a legend. When you think of all of the bands that guy has found or played, all the bands that Monk has featured, just those two alone picking out Lusitania is pretty special.
Can you tell us about the meaning behind the track?
Alec: The song was originally called Another Night, and I think it was the second song I wrote and liked during lockdown in 2020 (Lassie being the first). When COVID hit Destin and I were staying at our parent’s house and we just wrote a ton of new stuff. For Lusitania, it really all started with me wanting to write a song with the word “inconceivable”, I must’ve just watched Princess Bride. Anyways, the song is basically about a relationship falling apart but also being saved by just being together or at least wanting to save it. Now this wasn’t exactly something that was occurring in my life at that moment, but it’s something I had kinda felt before. The lyrics really just came to me once I started writing them and the story evolved from that.
What tours do you have coming up, and what can you tell us about them?
Destin: We’re actually doing a couple shows this month in California. Nothing major, more just to get out there and play. But we’re pretty stoked about the Summer shows we’re working on. We have played up and down California and we’re planning a bigger western states tour this time around. We’re waiting on a couple shows to be locked down but it will be pretty awesome to get out on the road.
What venue are you most looking forward to playing the most, and why?
Alec: For the tour we’re really just looking forward to getting on new stages. As a band we’ve already been pretty lucky to play on some great stages that have had iconic bands on them. Places like The Casbah (San Diego) or Strummer’s (Fresno) and others so it will be nice to expand on that.
Destin: Now if your talking about dream venues for us, I think all three of us in the band would love to play the Santa Barbara Bowl in our hometown. Henry (drummer, Henry Kish) grew up like 3 blocks from there and Alec and I have been to a ton of shows there. That’s definitely high up on our wish list.
What else can we expect from you in 2023?
Alec: The shows and maybe some more shows. We’re also thinking about which song off NoBrakes should be the next release. We have a couple video ideas so it would be cool to get the single and video together. And we’re writing some new stuff and have some ideas on how we maybe release them. One idea is to put together a compilation album out with other bands out of Santa Barbara. Right now there is a pretty sick music scene going on there with a lot of cool bands putting out original stuff. It’s a college town so there are always bands but I think it’s different when it’s original tunes as opposed to just covers.