Interview with Alex from At Our Heels

William: Please give your name and the name of your band?

Alex: My name's Alex, the band is At Our Heels.

W: What’s your role in the band?

A: In the studio, I play guitar, bass and sing. Live, I sing and run into people.

W: Can you give us the names of your band mates and what they do?

A: Well, I’m the only official member of the band. When we record and play local shows, my friend Ben (Light This City) plays drums. When we have shows, I get whatever friends are available and down to party to play the songs.

W: How did the band come to be?

A: A couple guys from my last band decided to focus on their other project, so I decided to start fresh, and eventually I realized I would get more done on my own than I would if I waited for permanent members.

W: So, what’s your home town and what do you think about the scene there?

A: My hometown is Burlingame, which is in between Redwood City and San Francisco. The scene here has been on hard times the last few years with venues closing and stuff, but bands continue to come together and make cool music. The last year or so it seems like there has been an upswing in shows and band activity in general, which is great.

W: What are your thought on the California hardcore scene as of now?

A: There are some cool bands coming up, and some not so cool ones.

W: Any plans for a up coming tour?

A: We'll probably be doing some weekend stuff before summer, hopefully a couple weeks worth of shows when school gets out.

W: You are having your “S/T” 7 inch released by Heart In Hand Records, how do you feel about the records label so far?

A: William's been totally cool and helping get the record done the way I want it. I'm stoked to see the final product.

W: What’s your favorite song on your 7” and why?

A: Probably “Epitaph“. There's a lot going on in that song. I like playing all of them though.

W: What are your plans for the near future?

A: Put out this record, play shows, record again, put out another record, play more shows, and see the watchmen movie and drink a lot of root beer.

W: Are you planning any future releases?

A: Been talking to a few bands about possible splits. I'm just going to record like 10 songs and figure out what to do with them after. At some point I'd like to do a record with all of our recorded material.

W: What would you say are your biggest hardcore and non-hardcore influences?

A: AFI, early 2000s hardcore, The Nerve Agents, American Nightmare, Panic, Death By Stereo, Shai Hulud. Currently I've been way into Pulling Teeth, Bad Religion, Torche. This answer was way too long.

W: What other projects have you or your band mates been a part of?

A: Ben was in Light This City. I was in Love, Hope and Fear and These Days and then some smaller local bands like The Hollowing, The Mourning Dawn and some others I am sure I am forgetting.

W: How did you start getting involved with punk and hardcore?

A: I got into Green Day when i in middle school, that kind of got me into all the bigger/mainstream punk bands at the time. All the kids I went to school with told me about other bands they were into and eventually I discovered AFI, Poison the Well and Shai Hulud and started doing my own research by going to shows, hearing new bands. I started playing music with kids and eventually figured out how to actually run a band. That's right about when i started Love, Hope and Fear with Ben.

W: What first attracted you to hardcore and what other music styles are you into?

A: The sincerity, the passion. When I first started hearing hardcore bands, it was the most pissed off thing I'd ever heard but at the same time, these guys had things to say, things that maybe other people didn't want to say or hear. You could tell a lot of thought went into what some of these bands were doing and it was just way more interesting than anything else I'd heard.

W: Last words?

A: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to answer some questions and get our name out. keep up the good work.

Big up's to William of Heart in Hand Records for doing this interview
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