beatlanta.com

Interview with Atlanta band Surrogates

by Chris Fuller…

BA: Who are the members of Surrogates and what do you play?

Mike: Mike – Guitar

Haseena – Throat

Tony – Lesser Guitar

Matt – The other thing

B: What does the name Surrogates mean?

Mike: It refers to the notion that none of us are and nothing is the ideal person or thing anyone else is looking for. That man or woman or whatever you slept with is just a placeholder, a surrogate for who you’d rather have spent your time with. We’re just a surrogate band, to borrow from Pink Floyd, because the people you really want to hear aren’t in town right now or you can’t afford to see them.

B: What kind of music would you describe Surrogates as playing?

Mike: It’s very good music. I would call it that kind.

B: What bands influenced you to write?

Haseena: Michael Jackson, Bee Gees, Courtney Love, Brody Dalle, Florence and the Machine, Perfect Circle/Tool

Mike: The Mars Volta, At the Drive-In, early Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus, Pink Floyd, Deafheaven, This Will Destroy You, Jimi Hendrix… many others. I try to learn something from everyone I listen to and get inspired every time I hear something I like. I want to capture the feeling I get when I listen to something good, ya know?

B: What other bands have you been in?

Mike: Tony and I (Mike) were in a million bands together in Orlando, most notably Fish Pocket. You can Google that, I think. We were also in TheRapists, Hexen, and The Groove, just to give you a taste of our history of terrific band names.

I was in a blackened thrash band from Orlando called Dissident Aggressor for a while. They’re still going now, and they’re awesome. Check them out.

Tony is also in The Hermits of Suburbia and was in a 50/50 Shot reunion.

Tony, Matt, and I were in a band called Duende for a while in Atlanta. We had to call it quits when we all lost our Spanish-to-English dictionaries. In hindsight, that band was a surrogate *ba dup chee* for what we should have been doing all along, which is this band.

Haseena is also in a really great lady folk duo called Little Boxes. She and the other girl, Cady, are both terrific singers.

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

Mike: My favorite places to play are WonderRoot and 529. The sound guys at both venues (what up, Dave Sherman?) are always real nice to us and the crowds are drunk and give off good vibes when we play. You can do just about anything you want at WonderRoot in terms of the event, which is really cool. For Halloween we decorated the whole place real spooky like and had a Ghost Danse with our buds in Champagne Room (RIP), Hudson K (awesome electro-pop duo from Tennessee), and Ground Rules. We served so much god damn riot punch that night I think the toilet was drunk from all the boozy pee.

Gavin at The Drunken Unicorn has always been nice to us and the sound guys are great there too. The unlimited free beer at Star Bar is always a welcome touch. The Earl and The Basement are both fine venues, though we don’t play either of them very often.

The only place we really don’t like, I think, is Smith’s Olde Bar. The people that handle their booking can go straight to hell with their pay-to-play bullshit. The place adds nothing to the scene and they rip off naïve local and touring bands.

B: Do you have any CD’s or records out?

 We have a single and B-side out on Blood Drunk Records. The single will be on our upcoming EP (we begin recording soon) and the B-side was first available on the holiday compilation Family Dinner. All this stuff is up on http://surrogates.bandcamp.com and http://blooddrunkrecords.bandcamp.com.

B: What inspires the lyrics?

Global Warfare/Issues, Education Systems, Police Brutality, Organized Religion, Oppression, Self-Worth, Relationshits, Everything controversial, and anything that deserves to be thought about more such as Syria, Kelly Thomas, and the poor quality and structure of how one is supposed to become educated and succeed.

B: What kind of equipment do you use?

Mike – Guitars: Gibson SG and Ibanez Artcore; Amps – Peavey Valveking 212 and a Crate Blue Voodoo feeding into a shitty Ibanez cab; Picks – Pickboy .88’s for life (seriously if you’re a fan of the Jazz III check these suckers out, you’ll never go back); Pedals – Moog MuRF, Moog Ring Modulator, Mood FreqBox, Boss ME50, MXR Dynacomp, MXR Micro Amp, DigiTech Whammy Pedal, DOD 250 Overdrive

B: What is Surrogates’ next step in the Atlanta music scene?

Get the hell out, haha! After we get our EP out we’re going to start touring around the Southeast. We love Atlanta though, it’ll always be our home. We just haven’t really had a chance to be homesick yet.

B: Anything you want to say to the fans?

 THANK YOU. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, THANK YOU. THERE IS NOTHING ELSE WE WOULD RATHER BE DOING THAN MAKING MUSIC AND YOU MAKE US BELIEVE THAT IT JUST MIGHT BE POSSIBLE TO DO THIS FOREVER AND THERE ARE NOT WORDS TO DESCRIBE HOW GRATEFUL WE ARE FOR THAT. IF I COULD WRITE THIS IN BLOOD, I WOULD.

 Sorry, I get a little worked up thinking about how lucky we are to be able to play music for people who enjoy hearing it.

For more on Surrogates, check out their FaceBook HERE and their BandCamp HERE..