Torche interview and tour dates

Torche

If you haven't read my interview with Torche's Steve Brooks in this week's issue of Phoenix New Times, check it out here. This was a really great interview and I ended up with a lot of leftover quotes that I didn't have room for in the print feature, so I figured I'd share them here at Tempe Carnivore. (Full disclosure: I also paid my roommate to transcribe the interview for me because I'm a slow-ass typist, so I figured I might as well get my money's worth. Haha.) So here's Steve Brooks discussing SB 1070, Torche's recent tour with Coheed & Cambria, putting together the Floor boxed set, and his plans for the future. Consider this the journalistic equivalent of bonus tracks...

On touring with Coheed & Cambria: 

"Hmmm, that one was an experiment. We had a great time with Coheed and Circa Survive, but their fans hated us. There might have been a crossover appeal to a couple of people, but that’s one of those things where if you’re not familiar with the crowd or the bands themselves, and you just hop on the tour because other people have been telling you this is gonna be really good for you, it’s like, well alright let’s try it, you never know what you’re gonna get. It’s kind of an experiment, and that one was… it could have been good, or it was good, in some ways, and in other ways it was not for us. We learned our lesson from that one. I’d rather do what we’re familiar with, than to play to thousands of people a night that just aren’t getting it. I do it to have a good time, and when it feels like you’re going out there and everybody’s just bored to hell, you just end up turning around and looking at your band not even paying attention to the crowd."

 On putting the Floor boxed set together: 

"All the other labels went under. Sometimes there were some things where, like, Rhetoric Records and these labels that don’t exist anymore had the original DATs. So we were taking whatever recordings we had. Some of our DAT’s got destroyed. There was a lot of digging up. I think there was one or two songs we had to actually take straight off the vinyl from an old seven-inch because we didn’t have anything, any of the originals, anymore. It was a struggle. It took years to do that boxed set. I’m just glad it’s out. I’m glad people are able to hear the whole thing, and I just hope everybody enjoys it too."

On the possibility of Floor doing a full reunion tour: 

"No I don’t think so, but then again, I said I would never do anything with Floor again, and here we did a bunch of shows, so never say never. Who knows? If people want to see us, and there’s some kind of demand there, then yeah, we’ll do it. To me personally, it’s great to be reunited with your old friends that you haven’t done this in a while with, and to play these old songs. I mean, to me they’re kinda dated, but they’re really... they’re a part of me, a part of my life and a part of my history. I’d love to do it again, but I don’t know about real touring. I think I’m done with that band with doing long tours - maybe one-offs here and there, but that’s about it."

On SB 1070 (Arizona's controversial immigration law) and whether he ever considered joining the SoundStrike boycott: 

"I’m just not involved with any of that stuff. To be honest with you, I don’t even know what’s going on in the world. If it’s affecting me at some point, which everything does, all of it, but I’m kind of busy. I don’t really get involved with politics or anything like that. I’m just living a regular life. If there’s anything that I can do, I would do it, but it hasn’t come up. All that shit that’s happening in Arizona is a shame. It’s fucked up, but all I’m doing right now is just talking about it while we’re driving through it. I live on the other side [of the country]. I’m like ‘Dude, you better watch out, you’re looking kinda dark,’ but that’s cause half the band is Hispanic."

"Those [SoundStrike] guys are high profile people. They can actually get involved and make a difference, where I’m not in any way at a level where I can be influential to that many people. There really isn’t much I can do, other than, if I were to live in the state, make changes with who you vote for. It’s not happening here, or it hasn’t happened here in Georgia. I really don’t know what else to do."

On Torche's future plans: 

"We took a lot of time in between this EP (Songs for Singles) and Meanderthal. I’d like to be a little more consistent in the future. It’d be great to be able to put out a record every year like they did in the '70s."

"You’ve gotta stay consistent. This is our job now. It’s not a part-time thing anymore, so we have to stay consistent or it’s gonna end. That’s one of the reasons why it took us so long to put out another EP, ‘cause we were doing so much touring that we didn’t end up spending as much time writing new material. I think we need to slow down with the touring, especially after this EP, and start writing."

Catch Torche live on the following tour dates:

9/26 Scottsdale, AZ @ Martini Ranch
9/27 Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater w/ Mountains of Blow
9/28 Los Angeles, CA @ Vacation Vinyl (In-Store)

w/ High on Fire and Kylesa
9/29 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
9/30 Pomona, CA @ Glasshouse
10/1 Flagstaff, AZ @ Orpheum Theatre
10/2 Albuquerque, NM @ The Launchpad
10/3 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
10/5 Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre
10/6 Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom
10/8 Rock Island, IL @ Rock Island Brewing Company
10/9 Urbana, IL @ Canopy Club
10/10 Chicago, IL @ Metro (Riot Festival)
10/11 Bloomington, IN @ Bluebird
10/12 Columbus, OH @ The Summit *
10/13 Newport, KY @ Historic Southgate House
10/14 Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
10/15 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
10/16 Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall
10/17 Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street
10/19 Halifax, NS @ The Paragon Theatre (Halifax Pop Explosion)
10/21 Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall
10/22 Providence, RI @ Club Hell
10/23 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East
10/24 New York, NY @ Webster Hall
10/26 Philadelphia, PA @ Starlight Ballroom
10/27 Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle
10/29 Gainesville, FL @ Common Grounds (FEST 9)

* = Torche headlining show