At the beginning of this interview there was only three members of the band present.
Viva, the vocalist, Scotty the drummer, and Nick the guitarist, about half way through
the interview the bass player Nate came in to sit down with us for the interview.

 

Zin : So what first interested you guys into making music in the first place?

Scot : As a band, or…?

 

Zin : Just individually.

Viva : I did not know any better.

Scot : Yeah when you’re just a little kid, I guess you just got it in you.

Nick : Yeah

Viva : My mom was a rock and roll singer, so I guess I was in band practice…
 before I can remember.  Yeah I just didn’t know any better.

Scot : ohh, by the way I have a typed thing from Nate that I will be reading for him
 tonight, being that he is not here. (laugh)

 

Zin : Could you tell me a little bit about how your band was born?

Viva : I went to Ground Zero one night, and this was many years ago because I lived in the area and there was a cover charge,  however after midnight the cover charge was not going to be going on. So there was this guy that had platinum blond hair that was a little cutie, a little hard body…(laugh)

Scot : Yes I used too. (laugh)

Viva : And he was just like me, he didn’t want to pay the cover charge just like me, so we just started talking about music, and then we went in, and he said, hey I’ll buy you a shot, so I was like cool man. Then he gave me a ride home on his motorcycle. Then we ran into  each other a few times, and I remember one of the times I was loaded and I was at the Front, and I remember I handed him a note basically saying if you don’t do music with me you are a big fat loser. (laugh)  He lost the note!

Scot : Well I can’t imagine my self doing something like that, but yeah I lost the note. Well I put it some where else, and I thought that she disappeared for awhile, because it was this weird little time.

Viva : Yeah I had a roommate that made sure that I wouldn’t meet people.

Scot : I thought that she had ditched me or something because I gave her some music…so there was this weird…then we became friends and we started partying a lot with one another. But we're not in a band yet, then Viva called me up one day and just said, ok I can’t take it anymore, I have to start a band, I think she was looking at that time for some bands…

Viva: Yeah I had some flyers up at that time.

Scot : And nothing was really working with what she was trying, so she called me up and I had played drums for a long time, however at that time I was only doing like commercial kind of stuff and I was not playing really for anyone, because I was just kind of tired of bands and that kind of stuff. And she say’s, so do you want to do a band thing, and I was like, I guess. So then she say’s , so didn’t you used to play drums or something. And I said yes I guess, I just have to go dig them out. So I dug them out..(laugh) and she..

Viva: Yeah I had a guitar player and a bass player.

Scot : So she had found these people through flyers, well they didn’t really work out.

Viva : I walked out. (laugh)

Scot : Yeah, she walked out! And left me with these two guys that she had found actually. And we sort of  had this pseudo gig  planed, so we played the gig as a free bee and I knew that it was not going anywhere, so that just kind of went it separate way. Then about three months later a friend of mine was moving to San Francisco and I was like hey why don’ t we do this thing. And I was drinking at the time, and I was like Let’s start a band for your going away party, so I started to look for people, and I found Nick because, well we used to have this other guitar player in the band, and I knew him from Ground Zero. Well he introduced me to him, so we all got together and, I used to have this old bass player so we got him together so we just had him for that one night and we played the show and we had a great time, so I was like hey this was really fun, we should get tighter and do this. So for me I hadn’t really gotten down for a while and just wrote music other then the computer and stuff, so I really missed it, so we were just like well hey let’s just keep the band going, and it might just turn into a real deal. And I said well hey I know this singer, and her name’s Viva and…

Viva : Well, no that’s not how it happened for me at all…I heard through the grape vine that you had a real band, and remember I had a mask on my face and…

Scot : ohh yeah that Halloween thing..

Viva : Yeah, so I was like...(sarcastic tone) ohh so you got a band huh? So you got a singer? Ohh you do huh? (laugh)

Scot : So ok, well I already had the thought in my head, like I was telling theses guys, like she can really sing, and it would really be cool.

Viva : And you were kind of a like, well Nick’s singing and..

Sco t : Well yeah, that was kind of like the current thing we had going on, and we didn’t know what we were going to do.

Viva : Then you were like, well why don’t you come down to Ground Zero and meet Nick
So at the time I had short hair, so I spiked it all up, you know, so I would look Ground Zero-ish (laugh) So I meet Nick, and he was super friendly, and he was like, well come on down, come on down! So that same night I came on down and Nate showed up, and I did not know that he was brand new . .

Scot : That’s right, I forgot about that.

Viva : Nate just thought that I was someone’s girl friend that was just hanging out.

Scot : Nate the bass player, yeah we knew him through the other guitar player so because he was another snow boarding guy, and they were all into that stuff. And we had played with him one time previously but he was in this weird, we were all in this weird limbo state, none of us were in bands, none of us were working musicians, all of us wanted to do music again, but we were all from different worlds, but we were all musicians, so we all just sort of jelled together in this wierd dysfunctional sort of freaky way, and we all just sort of came from different backgrounds. But I think that helps because we all just came up with different wierd stuff, so it’s all cool.

 

Zin : So what was the original concept of Filthy Divine?

Viva : For me it was like, I just sort of  went through so many people in this state, and I was just waiting through practices to practices waiting for something that I liked and I would sing to it, so I was kind of a giver-upper, but I was just waiting for them, waiting for something that I could just sing to. (laugh)

Scot : There was no thought behind anything, it was just us getting together and playing music, and just doing it for fun, but trying to do something, and just letting it go. Not trying to put any preconceived anything into it.

Viva : I just wanted to write so bad.

Scot : Even to this day I am not sure where we are going because we have really heavy stuff, we have really poppy stuff and mellow and we just don’t really think to do it, it’s just if this is what somebody wants to do then somebody starts a jamming and then we just really get into stuff.

Viva : So this is the sound we make.

Scot : oh, absolutely we have no idea what we are doing, we have no rhyme or reason for it. We are completely clueless. (laugh)

 

Zin : Woo, ok, hehehe, yeah so I just wanted to know  where you got the name for your band, it was not from pink flamingos was it?

Viva: No, it was a complete accident, because Nick wanted a name so good
dame fricking bad.

Nick: No it was Johnny. ..he wanted it to be Hard.

Viva :  Ohh I know it was Johnny, he wanted the name to be “Hard”, and there was no way I would be in the band if it’s name was “Hard”.

Scot : So we were all in a smokey dim lit room trying to come up with band names.

Viva : We were all sitting around in a circle, trying just to come up with anything and I remember there was this movie title “dirty rotten scoundrel” that was a movie title that really sticks in people’s head…so I’ve never seen the movie…but that’s where the filthy came from. And Divine came off of  that..

Scot : Or something because, you said divine, and I did not really like it, because you were standing up by the door, and you were kind of pacing, and you were just kind of  like

throwing words out there. .

Nick : And Nate was kind of stuck on that one word . .

Scot : Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s where it did come from, that south America thing, there was this bar in south America.

Viva : Oh yeah (nate walks in)

Scot : Hey Nate do you remember that south America bar’s name that you were talking about when we were trying to name the band? It was something palace.

Nate : Oh, it was grand splendid

Sco t: that’s right (laugh) it came from that!

Nick : Filthy Divine is this nice little. .

Scot : skitso really.

Viva : yeah skidoo… we're skizo really.

Scot : yeah you know bi-polar, yeah well I think that we are quad polar (laugh)…yeah Nate is kind of like a communist skin head…if there is such a thing, you know like I think he is to be a fascist, but he has decided to take it a different way.

 

Zin : So I know a couple of months ago you just released a single called “America” and there was a video that went along with that…could you tell me a little about that?

Zin : Is this something that some one could purchase?

Viva : Um no

Scot : Not right now, because the person who made it was doing it for a public school or something and she said technically your not allowed to sell it.

Nick : My tax dollars hard at work.

Scot : Yeah basically, so we want to edit it first, so then technically it would be different…so I was going to get a juggler and I was going to go into a seizure, and (laugh) well I am not really going to be into a seizure but it will be at one of these live shows, like at a big out door show, I would look like Joe Cocker being electrocuted. (laugh) so it would be really funny. So I would be like Joe going through his routine…then being electrocuted, I would look really bad.

 

Zin : So could you tell me a little about your musical influences?

Viva : I used to like the heavier stuff…I used to be more of a metal head nut. I just switched over recently. Well it had a lot to do with my work and the dj’s. Having to listen to it 40 hours a week. I don’t care much for the dj’s at 93x , there just not my style, so I started slipping around..and I like hip hop now (laugh) I love good rap, there is lot of bad rap out there. I used to hate a lot of hip hop, now I like everything. Well it’s just like the heavier music, there is good and there is bad, you know.

Nick : I like the same stuff every guitar player likes…I like a lot of blue grass…old time music… and I have a lot of 80’s punk.

Viva : yeah sweet cheeks will you answer her question?

Nate : it’s stuffy in here..can we go out side?

Viva : I want to finish my meal.

Scot : she’s eating…she need’s musical influences.

Nate : Bob Marley..

Scot : don’t be cleaver, just be honest

Nate : Sublime, um Jane’s Addiction, Jimmy Hendrix, Atmosphere…

Scot : (whispers) he likes back street boys

Zin : So I heard you like Back Street Boys.

Nate : Only because they are hot (laugh)

Zin : not musically

Nate : yeah not musically

Viva : he has a Britney Spears poster hiding under his couch

Nate : well it’s more like porn then musical influence (laugh)..my parents were actually in a music veriety band when I was growing up. Playing Bob Seger, and Lynared Skinner and Elvis. They would play weddings they would play VFW’s

 

Zin : where do you guys go to purchase music equipment?

Nate : Mostly guitar center…

 

Zin : Is there anything that an interview never ask’s you that you with they would?

Nick : How they can become part of our street team, we are trying to put together a street team, for people to hand out flyers…

Zin : would you give them fun things, like autograph cd’s?

Nate : Yes, we will autograph anything!

Viva : Well you know this house is haunted right?

Zin : really:

Viva : Yeah, I just had to bring that up because I just seen on, it’s like triangle spheres, I just saw one around him (points to Scotty) When we first started here they were around a lot more, now it is like every so often. Some times when I am singing I can hear another women behind me that sounds slightly different then me. And once when I was not here the guys where practicing I guess and they could hear a women singing along…

Scot : Yeah…I get spheres around me I guess…

 
 www.filthydivine.com