beatlanta.com

Interview with Siamese Twins

Siamese Twins are a fairly new band to Atlanta, composed of members of some underground heroes… We just got the chance to interview them about their music and other stuff, take a read below to find out more about the thrash/punk all stars we know as Siamese Twins…

Who are the members of Siamese Twins and what do you play?

Joey Hoffman is our vocalist, Ben Ziskind is our guitarist, and Elliot Fullerton is our bassist. Ryan DiDio plays drums, does backup vocals, and does some recording for the band.

What does the name Siamese Twins mean?

We threw around a lot of band names before settling on Siamese Skin, which is what we went by for one or two shows. I have no idea why we thought that was a good name … it’s pretty dumb. We were kind of rushed because we had our first show coming up but didn’t have a name, so I think we just synthesized one out fragments of other names we’d been throwing around. But yeah, eventually we decided to change it to Siamese Twin, the name we’ve played most of our shows under so far. And then recently we pluralized it to make it Siamese Twins. We promise we won’t change it again. As for any significance in the name, I wish I could say there was some, but it’s just to be taken at face value.

What kind of music would you describe Siamese Twins as playing?

I think a lot of bands will tell you that they’re not necessarily aiming for a specific genre when they write their music, which is also the case for us. We know we want to play music that’s generally fast, loud, jarring, cathartic, and at least somewhat relatable to the listener. I’d also say there’s a component of sloppiness in our music — especially during our lives shows – and while I wouldn’t say we’re necessarily proud of playing sloppily, I think the underlying idea is to put expression before perfection.

Although I think the foundation of our music is punk, I’m sure if we tried to say we’re a punk band, punk purists would have aneurysms. That would probably be an inaccurate description anyway. I hate to sound like the “we play music that defies labels and categorization” guy, so I’ll say that there are definitely elements of surf, punk and post-punk, hardcore and post-hardcore, noise, and the occasional tinge of jazz and pop.

What bands influenced you to write?

We have a lot of influences, musical and nonmusical. The most prominent influences on our music comes from artists like The Plot to Blow Up The Eiffel Tower, Dick Dale, XBXRX, Gang of Four, Death From Above 1979, Failures, Minor Threat, Scholastic Deth, The Blood Brothers, Liars, Das Oath, At The Drive-In, Charles Bronson, The Locust, Swing Kids. We’re also big Jay Reatard fans – the man and the music. We didn’t know Jay, but there have been countless times we’ve talked about how we just want to personally thank him for being a huge inspiration to us as musicians. We’d guess that he probably wouldn’t like our music, but we still love him anyway.

I think nonmusical factors are just as important as musical influences in our writing and performing. To say that anxiety, uncertainty, depression, tedium, frustration, self-loathing, obsession, and mania are major influences on our music would be an understatement. Everyone in this band is mentally unsound to some extent, and I think it’s safe to say that instability plays a considerable role in making our music and performances what they are – for better or worse.

What other bands have you been in?

Elliot and I (Ryan) have been writing songs together for a few years now, and although we didn’t have a name, it was sort of the buildup to Siamese Twins. The music started out considerably more pop-oriented, but over time we started writing more aggressive songs like the ones we’re playing now.

But as far as old bands go, Ben played guitar in a punk band called The Riot Act in high school and then later on in a prog band called And Faster We Fall. Elliot played bass for a little while in high school for an indie rock band called Good Clean Stupid. Most recently, Joey did vocals in a black metal band called Devil Worshiper a little while ago.

Where have you played recently, where do you like to play in Atlanta?

We’ve only played something like 8 or 9 shows so far. Our first one was at Beep Beep Gallery, and we’ve played at WonderRoot, Couch Couch, Noni’s, Estoria. But our favorite place we’ve played so far is 529, hands down. The sound is great, it’s intimate, the crowd is usually more responsive towards our music, the staff is cool. There are a lot of places we still haven’t played at but want to: Star Bar, Drunken Unicorn, The Earl, house shows, other cities, etcetera.

Do you have any CD’s or records out?

We put out our first recording, a 3-song demo, on New Year’s Day. It’s free to download at Bandcamp (http://siamesetwins.bandcamp.com) and we also have CDs for anyone that asks us. Or anyone whose hands we’ll shove a CD into unsolicited.

What inspires the lyrics?

Whatever’s gnawing away at us at the time that maybe someone else can relate to or find interesting or entertaining. Following the news, going through personal struggles, witnessing the oddities and tragedies of human interaction … those seem to be pretty steady sources of inspiration for the lyrics. Likewise, so far the lyrics have generally been sociopolitical, personal, or about living in Atlanta / the South, but we’ve got a lot more to write about.

What kind of equipment do you use?

We had to laugh at this question. Not because it’s a bad question but because we’re really in need of some new equipment. I broke both my crash cymbals during practice a couple months ago. Elliot’s bass amp blew when we played at WonderRoot a little while back. Our PA completely sucks and is borderline worthless since it’s almost impossible to hear Joey when we practice. Sometimes we have the added excitement of having to run the vocals and bass through the same shitty PA. So until we get enough money for decent equipment, which is roughly … never, our practices will probably keep sounding like Godsmack performing under a waterfall of diarrhea.

But as for our equipment that does work: I play a small Gretsch Catalina jazz kit, which I’m absolutely in love with. I use a Squier guitar and a Squier bass for writing and recording, which I also love in spite of the bad rap that Squiers get. Elliot uses my bass. Ben uses a Telecaster and a Traynor amp.

Someone please buy us some amplification.                                        

What is Siamese Twins’ next step in the Atlanta music scene?

Hopefully our next step will be a step out of the Atlanta music scene. Not that we don’t love playing in Atlanta, we just want to play in other cities and tour. We’re trying to make that happen this summer. Right now we’re trying to play fewer shows so we can spend more time writing songs, and hopefully within the next few months we’ll have enough songs to record an album.

Anything you want to say to the fans?

We want to say something to our biggest fans: our neighbors. Please stop calling the cops on us and throwing beer bottles at our house when we practice. We know we suck and play some of the most annoying music possible, but come on.

Listen to Siamese Twins on MySpace HERE, and find out more about them on Facebook HERE…