To me Kevin is that super nice guy who I drink with and talk about fruity drum machines. To the rest of the world he is mistaken for young Dennis Wilson or that ripper drummer in that soon to be huge Los Angeles band Division Day. Anyway I wanted to get to know a little bit more about Division Day so I shot them some questions:

So what’s your story, where you from, how did you boys meet, how did you end up in Silverlake?
Three of us (Rohner, Seb, and myself) grew up together in northern California, and we’ve been playing music together in one way or another since junior high. In our high school band, Rohner was the drummer, I played guitar, and Seb sang. I met Ryan when I went south to LA for college. We needed a guitar player, and I convinced him to come up north to live with the rest of us in a house in Santa Cruz for a summer, where we converted the back bedroom into a practice space, and spent the summer basically becoming a band. That was back in 2001, and it was the first time the four of us ever played together. Looking back, it was a pretty brazen maneuver for us to have Ryan move in without having ever played with us- he’d only met Rohner and Seb once before moving in- but it ended up working out. After Santa Cruz, we all finished college, which took about 3 more years, during which we’d get together in the summer to write and play shows, but never toured more than one run up to Seattle and some occasional Bay Area shows. After graduating, three of us were already living in or near LA, so we decided to settle here, got ourselves a practice space in Eagle Rock, and the rest is history.

Division Day is the name, was that influenced from the Elliot Smith song?
Yeah, Rohner picked the name when we were still in high school. We were all listening to a lot of Elliott Smith at the time, so it seemed appropriate.

What do you find to be your biggest influence on your music?
Other music, I suppose; we try to write songs that make us as excited as our favorite music does when we listen to it. Since we all tend to listen to different artists, this results in a lot of head-butting and a rather slow writing process, but I’m pleased with the results.

What would you compare your music too?
We have a hard time with this one. I always just say we play rock music, but we certainly think of it in far more complex terms when we write it. You could say “indie rock” but that’s as useless a denomination as “alternative” was in the 90’s. I’d say we are dark, melodic, dynamic, surreal rock music, but now I feel like an ass for saying that.

What would you find as your most important element in music?
I think we focus on melody above all else, we tailor our songs to carve a nice broad space for the melody to fit in. We’re also pretty obsessed with tone, I’d say almost to a fault at times- after a certain point, you have to just say “cool, that sounds good,” and start playing.

Does Seb’s calculator watch come in handy on tour? What type of calculations does Seb do? Tips, balancing of check books? Would he ever consider an abacus to wear?
He totally DOES calculate tips with it, which I think is intellectually lazy, but he’s way smart so I let it slide. I think he’d rock an abacus if one was gifted to him, though he’d likely be upset by the redundancy of wearing it in tandem with the watch- he’s really into streamlining.

What has been your best show?
Opening for the Fratellis at the Fillmore was amazing, the place was packed, we had all 30 of the colored jar lites that I made spread across the stage, we ended signing like 40 autographs after the show, totally surreal. We also had some amazing shows touring with Birdmonster last year- those guys are old friends and super-supportive, and we exhausted ourselves every night on our first run out with them playing tambourine, singing and dancing like maniacs along with each other during our respective sets. It was a total “doing it for the love” kind of experience, a nice resurgence of that impulse that initially drove us all to join a band.

What was your worst show?
Well, it turned out to be a great show, but our opening night at our Spaceland residency began horribly: Rohner’s keyboard completely stopped working right as we were about to go on stage, which for us makes it impossible to play anything. It took us a full half-hour to get a back-up rig working, and I was just sitting there watching everyone get tired and start to leave, and being so so bummed- I had been looking forward to playing a residency show there forever, and I was just watching it crumble. I’m like a kid that way, I guess, I really get excited about playing live, and it kills me to have all our preparation get wasted by broken gear. Eventually, we just said screw it and plugged in a back up synth that sounded pretty ghetto but did the job, and we rocked it, and it all turned out swell- big ups to Jean-Claude at KXLU for helping us sort out our issues that night, he’s a saint.

Your favorite Division Day track?
That changes every day, and I’m sure each of us would give a different answer. Right now, I suppose it’s “Beartrap Island”, or “Reversible”, or this new one we have yet to record called “Malachite”. I like em all!

Kevin since you have animals featured on a lot of your artwork what is your Spirit Animal? How are you similar?
There’s been much discussion about this, actually! Mine’s a toss-up between a black lab and a dolphin, depends mostly on if I’ve been surfing recently. Seb is definitely a meerkat. Rohner is a buffalo. Ryan is the eagle from the muppets.

What have you been listening to recently? Any bands we should look out for in the future?
We’re in the middle of a serious metal binge, actually. Rohner’s been seriously researching all these great European metal bands like Behemoth, Gojira, Immortal (actually, they were Ryan’s discovery, fucking amazing black metal), Dimmu Borgir, and burning me cd’s. I’m really digging it, but Rohner has totally gone off the deep end! I saw his cd case, it only has metal bands and David Sylvian records. I think the whole metal binge is symptomatic of a general desire amongst us for something fresh; you should hear some of these recordings, they’re really interesting, the aesthetic totally varies between the metal sub-genres. I even bought a double-kick pedal, but who knows how we can incorporate that into Division Day music. Other than all that, I think Ryan’s in the middle of one of his cyclical Beach Boys binges, and I keep revisiting all my favorite 90’s bands- I just burned two Hole album’s from my girlfriend. Who knows with Seb, that guy’s crazy!

Any last words?
Thanks for the interview, Randall!

Linked below is one of Kevin’s favorite tracks. It’s off the new album. Also the October tour dates are listed below. Enjoy!

10/5 (fri) Reno, NV- Satelite Lounge
10/6 (sat) Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
10/7 (sun) Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
10/9 (tues) Chicago, IL - Subterranean
10/10 (wed) Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe
10/11 (thurs) Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall (residency)
10/12 (fri) Lancaster, PA - Lizard Lounge
10/13 (sat) Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell’s
10/14 (sun) Cambridge, MA - Middle East
10/17 (wed) New York, NY - Canal Room (CMJ)
10/18 (thurs) Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall (residency)
10/19 (fri) Philadelphia, PA - Khyber
10/20 (sat) Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
10/22 (mon) Atlanta, GA - The Loft
10/25 (thurs) Brooklyn - Union Hall (residency)

MP3 HAS BEEN TAKEN DOWN check out the myspace to listen.

Divison Day-Myspace

Around Los Angeles there is a huge art community. Plenty of incredible artists, but definitely more shitty ones. Come on you know how it goes. There are always those untalented, but hot art school girls, that paint pictures of gay guys or trannys in an expected mediocre way who get into shows in downtown because someone wants to put their dick inside them. Very boring, over done, and not interesting. Just give in, I know you are going to marry some 45 year old balding, boring, producer or lawyer. Anyway, what I have here is the complete opposite of that. A Chinaman with a mustache that draws some of the most entertaining and interesting drawings I have ever seen. That man is Michael C Hsiung. Personally I am a huge fan of his art. I shot a few questions way to pick Mike’s mind about his life as an artist here in LA. Here the are:

So how did you come about doing this art has drawing always been a big part of your life?
Drawing has always been a big part of my early life. I actually still have drawings my dad saved of dinosaurs, horses, and men with facial hair. I used to draw inside my Chinese Exercise books – everyone is melting, has a beard, or crapping I haven’t come a long way. Ha ha. I drew well up into high school, but somehow fell out of it and lost interest somewhere after college. It wasn’t until I had quit my job in San Jose, was majorly depressed, and moved back to LA that I started to draw more regularly out of boredom. I think at the time I was drawing to make my friends laugh, and slowly through that I got encouraged to draw more and more.

I remember seeing one of your first drawings on a sign at Nash’s house in K-town, the No More War for Metal with some unicorns on it. I thought it was fucking hilarious. At that time did you see yourself being an artist?
I didn’t see myself as an artist at that point. I hadn’t sold anything, I wasn’t showing anywhere, and thinking of it too seriously. It was me having fun and drawing for fun.

The Downfall of the Mermen

What inspires you the most?
Will Smith, Ice skaters, facial hair, mythology, Dungeons & Dragons, Doctor Who, friends, art, and boredom.

Do you ever think K-town is ever going to get gentrified? They have been talking about it for years just like Echo Park and you see how that part of town is now. K-town still seems the same. Just a few weeks back 18th street hit up Nash’s house and his neighbor got shot? Do you still walk the Gauntlet? Please explain us who don’t know what it is.
Korea town probably will get gentrified in a few years as the renters realize they can get more money of young kids and stuff, but for now it’s still double-parking, street tamales, abandon couches and tv’s. Just the way I like it.

Hell no I don’t walk the Gauntlet anymore. The Gauntlet is this stretch of sketchiness (2nd street and Kenmore) that I used to walk home from either drunk or whatever at like 2 am. Not advisable. Some nights I would run through it, or lightly jog. I almost got mugged on that damn thing. But yes, I totally stopped after someone got shot on Catalina by Nash’s home court. The guy was walking home at 1 am, 30 something, and Mexican. I wish the Gauntlet on no one.

A puppeteer entertaining a handicapped child

Your opinion on mustaches?
I’ve always been obsessed with moustaches as a kid. Don’t know why. It wasn’t until I was so depressed that I just stopped shaving for work that it grew. Nobody at the office even said anything about it until the lesbian IT person walked by me one day and said, “nice stache.” I think everyone should have a Hitler or Chaplin stache depending on what school of thought you’re from.

What do you define as good art?
Pearl Hsiung, Mike Stilkey, and the guy who draws D&D art . . .

What strikes you as bad art?
The guy who draws D&D art…

Two distinguished gentlemen riding a unicorn

What is your opinion on art school? Do you feel art school is necessary?
Well it’s interesting because while I didn’t go to art school, my sister who is a tremendous influence has been to art school and graduate school for Fine arts. So I see that it can be a helpful environment to develop ideas and collaborate. For myself, however, and some other artists I know like Mike Stilkey, it wasn’t necessary. We might have been different types of artists if we went .. who knows. I always encourage education, but it’s not necessary. You can be an artist without an art degree or an artist with one.

What current projects are you working on? I know you have tons of people interested in working with you.

Well I’m currently preparing for a show at Gallery Revisited (www.galleryrevisited.com) on June 23, 2007 with artist Cole Gerst that requires I draw like 20 pieces and put out a mini-publication of illustrations accompanied by writing (Kathleen Brzezinksi). I’ve got a Cd cover to finish for my friend Davin (sorry I’m behind), I’m contributing once in a while to www.daytrotter.com, writing a blog and doing interviews for www.ourartsite.com, and planning to build a robot.

Man at Cronos struggling with worms

What do you find yourself drawing the most?
It depends. I go through periods. For instance I’ll draw something until I sort of get tired of him. You’ll notice there’s been a lack of Mermen in my life. Shh!

Is there a message behind the art you are doing? I found it so entertaining that I didn’t even care for one.
I think my art is more thematic, but not purposely. I usually draw shapes and scenes where I don’t realize what they are until after they are completed. If there was a message in my art, I think it’s like kill animals, pandas and unicorns hate each other , let the gay mermen be, and ice skating can be stressful.

Baby Hitler

If you could sum up your art in one word what would it be?
I know what my friends would say, but I think “realistic” would sum it up very accurately.

Michael is always showing in the local LA area. Best way to view his pieces are at shows which are listed on his website or myspace. You can also purchase prints through his website. Get them while they last! You can find his work at the sites below.

Website
Myspace
Gallery Revisited
OurArtSite.com

When was the last time you were at a show and you were thinking “I am scared for my safety”, not because of the crowd but because of the band. Last time I saw Qui almost everyone in the front pretty much got knocked by the singer. The band themselves say bring a helmet to the show if you know what’s good for you. Qui is the combination of an ear piercing almost Jimmy Page/Steve Albini like guitar with HEAVY crashing drums and a psychotic singer. This combo results in one of the best live shows and music I have seen in a long time. Qui formed in early 2000 with Matt Cronk(guitar/vocals) and Paul Christensen (drums/vocals). Just recently the guys teamed up with ex. Jesus Lizard’s David Yow to take the front in Vocals and craziness. I sat down and had a few beers with the guys a week or two back to talk about Qui:

Randall:So what’s your story you dudes are from the Mid-West, so how come you guys aren’t saying you are actors and you got a pilot, causing all the traffic with your out of states license plates, and living in a 1 bedroom apt. in Hollywood with 4 other aspiring actors from Ohio or something?
MATT: Well, you couldn’t be more wrong. Actually Paul, David and I have all done acting. Paul and I are on this show on the Fuel network. I don’t have out of state plates because I don’t have a car. Paul and I’s first place was a 1 bedroom in North Hollywood. There weren’t any aspiring actors at the time. This 2 bedroom place now at one time there was 5 people now we are down to 3. So actually we aren’t really doing any of those things really.

Randall: Qui isn’t that “why” in French or was that unintentional.
MATT: No, that was Midwestern slang. The truth. It is an effeminate man or queen I think that’s the origins of it. Paul and I being rather Dandy FOPs we thought it would be rather fitting. I think David fits right in with that wouldn’t you agree?
YOW: I am a pretty Dandy Fop.

Randall:Anyway how did you and Paul meet?
MATT: In high school Paul you want to speak?
PAUL: Matt and I met at the Minnesota center for Arts Education. In Golden Valley, Minnesota, which is a western suburb of Minneapolis? It’s a state run school, however to get in you had to audition and prepare something about 250 kids for the 11th and 12th grade. We met in 93 we did not care for each others company. The first year Matt was kind of a right prick and I was a timid little geek. Any the beginning of our senior year we had chemistry together and sparks flew. CHEMISTRY. Chemistry class pardons me.

Randall: And your new singer how did he come into the picture?
YOW: Well being the new guy in the Qui band.?..Let’s see how that happened. One night after drinking a lot of beer and whiskey, Matt and I 69ed over at my place, in the morning we woke up and were kind of unhappy about all that and I asked if there was a way we could redeem ourselves, he said “Yeah why don’t you do a couple songs with us”. So we did some songs, then we did a couple more songs, I started contributing ideas, then we started talking about it then shit I’m in the band.
Randall:Awesome
YOW: Well you say that now.

Randall:Do you see it as a positive or negative thing that he can clear ½ a room just out of the audience being scared.
MATT: We have been clearing rooms since 2000. We really don’t need David to alienate our audience. We have been poorly received many times far worse than at that show.
Randall: 3 of clubs show, that seemed like it was kind of in a good way.
MATT: Yeah it was a blast
Randall: It’s not like people were throwing shit at you or anything.
MATT: Yup we have had that happen too.
PAUL: In a suburb of San Diego…(Yow shakes the room with a burp).. I don’t if you know who the Atari’s are they are a teenage Pop-Punk group. A friend of ours Chris fronts the group, and he liked us so he had us open up for his band and we weren’t well received they threw a golf ball at Matt.
MATT: There were about 1400 people there and we played our first song which was an eight minute long instrumental. There were a few claps, but mostly “FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!” Some girl down in front said play something fast. The time in Salt Lake City in a Tiki Bar. Yes Tiki Bar. It was one of the worst nights of my life. We played to 2 people. The first person was a woman that easily scaled 300 lbs and the other one was her friend which was a dwarf.
Randall: Didn’t you like that?
Matt: NO. I don’t like midgets to begin with, but being heckled by a midget, was one of the most demoralizing experiences I ever had.

Qui at Safari Sam’s in Hollywood

Randall: What is your opinion on shock value in bands; I notice a lot of bands out here in the east end. Are all about shock value especially in a very pretentious way? Like the getting naked over, overplayed high hats and abrasive 1 chord guitar parts is almost expected now.
MATT: To tell you the truth I haven’t seen anything that shocking. I see more of people trying to do tame stuff that won’t shock people.
YOW: It’s all been done.
PAUL: What’s shocking to me is when I hear a band I’ve never heard of play good music that’s shocking to me. That is truth shock value to be original and creative.
YOW: That was very intelligent!?
MATT: No more of this intelligent shit alright. Growing up in the Midwest during the 90s you would see all sorts of crazy noisy bands. Like The Cows. You don’t really see anything like that out here.
YOW: I don’t remember the last time I was shocked at a show.
MATT: Got shocked yesterday at practice because our wiring is fucked up.

Randall: What bands have really inspired all of you recently and in the past?
YOW: NONE
PAUL: He’s also talking about the past.
YOW: (in an asshole idiot accent). Well I really like the Beatles and there is an English group called Led Zeppelin that really did a lot for me. (Asshole idiot accent off). Well god there is 100 million of them. Fear, The Cramps, The Birthday Party, The Dicks…..maybe not a million… all the good ones and none of the bad ones.
MATT: Last recent show was the Kids of Whitney High.
YOW: There is a fairly recent band called Pearls and Brass.
MATT: The Melvins.
PAUL: Mastodon
MATT: Hardcore
YOW: What is your take on Atlantis Morissette?
MATT: I take her as this generations Curtis Mayfield or like the way Huey Lewis was in the 90s.

Randall: What would you say is the most important element to your music?
MATT: Ohhh great I get to answer this one…
PAUL: I like playing in Qui it’s coming from a different place then a lot of different rock bands. I like playing with Matt, like what he said he had kind of a hardcore background, where I grew up with a sort of Jazz and Classical background. The instrumentation, the lack of a bass. My drumming I often finding myself compensating for the lack of that. That sort of makes it interesting.
MATT: But without tooting our own horns I think we all can play pretty good.
PAUL: Both being classically trained as kids we have a different approach than a lot of punk bands.
YOW: The drumming and the guitar playing like when you are playing together one of you will stop and one keeps going. The song structures or the ideas that come out of their heads. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh just a great band what can I say. And now they got the new singer…. Were fucking tremendous.

Randall: What would you say is the most important thing happening in music right now?
YOW: Qui
MATT: Qui
PAUL: Qui

Randall: What sucks about music right now? I already know Reggae (according to Yow).
MATT: All kinds of shit. I don’t listen to a lot of music that sucks so I don’t pay much attention to it.
YOW: Of course all that fucking rap and hip hop garbage.
MATT: Well that to me does not suck…It’s terrible.
PAUL: We keep on trying to get David to rap and he doesn’t want to do it.
MATT: The shittiest thing about music right now is David won’t bust some rhymes.
MATT: One thing I don’t like typically in top 40 rock is production techniques, protools, quantifying rhythms, autotunning, all that stuff. That seems to be the way now that rock music is supposes to sound. Everything sounds the same, everything is compressed the same way and all the guitars sound the same, there is never a wrong note or a flub. It makes it real real fucking boring.
YOW: I kind of feel like things are too homogenized generally speaking.
PAUL: I think the thing that has always bothered me about the music scene is the people who have always been about living the lifestyle before their music. It’s always continued to bum me out.
MATT: To add to that I think people in music in general pretty much suck.
Paul: Not all of them. But as a whole pretty much like actors and lawyers
MATT: It’s probably a similar ratio of how many assholes there are in this world as opposed to cool people.

Randall: What does the word Indie mean to you? It is now considered a genre and almost a plague in my opinion?
ALL of them: Independent
Randall: Well now people see it as a genre of music.
YOW: Ya know pigeon holing and naming genres is a drag to me. At least Indie is a better term than Alternative. That always brought me down it’s almost like it’s Plan B. To me things like Bruce Springstein, Journey, Atlantis Morissette, or Christina Aguilera are alternative because it is definitely not my first choice.
PAUL: I can’t believe you would say that about Bruce Springstein.
YOW: It’s like peanut butter and chocolate.

Randall: What bands in your opinion should we all watch out for?
YOW: Pearls and Brass
PAUL: Matt and I have a band called Paul and Oates that sings weddings
YOW: Geronimo is a LA band you should watch out for, pretty talented and pretty creative.
MATT: a band called Lozen from Tacoma, Washington they are great.

The funniest part is after we went to Cha Cha lounge in Silverlake. They played 5 Springstein songs in a row. Anyway next time Qui plays, I would suggest going to see it. Also they have a full length coming out in 2007, be prepared for that. For now check them out on myspace.

MP3
Qui-Apartment

Myspace