The Skin to Shed

Southern California band Integra Pink opens about playing in a basement of a skate house while on tour, not giving up on something you love, and the story behind their latest single, “San Francisco Baby”.

Pomona, USA

You just came back from your "Mall Grab" Tour. Where did you go? Which city was your favorite to play in and which one was your favorite to visit?

We were super fortunate enough to get ourselves back up to Northen California and visit a few cities that we’ve been wanting to cross off our bucket list. There was never a low moment during this tour and each city was beautifully unique along with the experiences that we had with them.

Berkeley was special for us because we spent time with family up there and got the chance to see how beautiful of a city San Francisco really is. And each show we had up there was a fun experience but one that stands out for sure was when we performed in the basement of the After Hours skate house out in San Jose, alongside our homies from Loverspeak.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Fresno wouldn’t have been the same if it weren’t for Robbie & Josh, who are some of the coolest people we’ve met from the tour.

-Bardo

How did you prepare for the tour?

Performance wise, we got in as many practices as we could to go over the set, along with some new things. One of those things being our new song “San Francisco Baby”. It was important to have that down so we could finally share it with everyone and have the energy be at its highest.

Then travel wise we had to plan things like when to leave, how we’re getting there and where we’re staying etc.

Luckily, everything was easy to put together, with the cars we took up being provided by Leo and Bardo, and the places we were able to stay thanks to our new homies Robbie (Roosevelt manor/heartbreak handouts), the entire channel frequencies crew, and Leo and Bardo’s tia in San Francisco.

We’re beyond grateful that they opened their doors to us and provided places for us to rest which helped to contribute in making this entire run a success.

Overall, it was pretty easy to prep for with everyone on the IP crew being on top of things and with the help of our family and friends.

We can’t wait to do it again.

-Nick

What were some memorable moments and struggles you faced?

One of the most memorable moments for me was being able to play our new single “San Francisco Baby” for the first time in front of a crowd in San Luis Obispo. It’s always nerve wracking to play a new song in front of a crowd because you never know if people will like it or not but seeing how excited the crowd was to hear it and seeing them dance and enjoying the song put all those nerves to rest.

A struggle we faced was definitely trying to squeeze in exploring the cities while we were there with the little time we had, we loved each city and we hope to go back to each one soon.

-Roman

You are sharing your new single, “San Francisco Baby”. What is this song about?

When you tell people that you want to live in San Francisco, a lot of the times you’ll hear reminders of all the faults the city has. I think this song, on the surface, is a love letter to the city. But I think it also represents the idea of loving something and not giving up on it when it isn’t in a perfect state. I think maybe subconsciously some of us can see ourselves in San Francisco - something that has a lot to offer but isn’t perfect.

-Leo

How does this song differ from your previous releases? How does it show your growth as a band?

I think this song is more of an extension of our previous releases. We wanted to get this kind of stuff out of us before we move on to the next thing. That isn’t to say we won’t do things like it again. But I think in order for us to fully sink our teeth into the new stuff, we’d need to do it without looking in the rear-view mirror with that feeling that we forgot something. I see this song more as the skin we need to shed. We’re still the same snake, just growing.

-Leo

“San Francisco Baby" is a bonus track to your mixtape "Mall Grab". Why did you decide to make this a bonus track?

We really wanted to keep the momentum going after our release of “Mall Grab” and we were receiving a lot of praise from it that we just didn’t want to stop and move on to whatever was suppose to come next.

“San Francisco Baby” in particular felt like the perfect song to release as a bonus track being that we really loved our time in that city and can’t wait to go back.

-Bardo

What’s next for Integra Pink?

As far as what’s next, its mainly to give more focus on writing songs and finishing what we’re working on now to release each song single by single as well as playing shows and continuing to branch out to reach as many people as possible! We wanna keep being ourselves and having fun.

-Roman