ENERGY IS EVERYTHING

Written and Photographed by Briana Mutlu

After years of companionship and shared hardships, STD wants to share a central message that they worry has been lost to the pace of time: rock hard and make love.

Inland Empire, California

STD hails from a small Inland Empire city where the town’s inhabitants are much like the track homes they live in, colorless and conforming. Past the hills, farther from the suburbs and deeper into the desert climate, the three young musicians bide their time in an anachronistic sub-basement. Their home is flooded with saturated colors of blue, orange, yellow, red, and pink, painted on the walls and on the floor, their expired idols don each wall with authority, and music of decades past flows ceaselessly through the dry air.

About three years ago, when they first formed STD was strictly a jam band, although they rarely played with other members besides the three that make up the acronym: Sean.Tommy.Darryle. They would jam for whole days, taking breaks only to get high, take a piss, and refuel with more beer. Their camaraderie shines through their effortless improvisations in a communal energy that had seemingly been surrendered to the 70’s.

During this period, the band was chasing a sound that would be true to their dedications. They found it by playing incessantly. The guitarist and co-writer of the band, Sean, suffered a repetitive strain injury that would render him unable to play for almost three years. Albeit distressed by his passion being taken from him, he used the opportunity to strengthen his singing and song-writing skills.

Once he healed, the band worked hard to write songs and establish themselves. Then confident and itching to get on the scene, they played their first show on March, Friday the 13th, in Hemet. Quarantine started the next day.

How did you guys settle on the name, STD?

D: It made us a band I feel like, before we were just jamming then when we made the name, we started writing songs. It’s kind of a joke name, but it made the band more official.

T: I think the best thing about it is that it's our initials. We can leave it at that.

In the early days, was there a desire to song-write/release or did you guys just want to jam?

T: There was no platform to play, so we just played for ourselves. Did that the best we could, because it was fun and we’re not gonna not play because there's no shows to play.

S: It took us a couple years to find the sound, even with Darryle. We finally started getting stuff we liked. Then the songwriting process, we kinda started from scratch I guess, because we didn’t have songs with this feel, just jams.

D: Our first songs weren’t what I expected us to make. The first song, it wasn’t like when we would jam, when we would jam we had this specific sound, the songs were different.

T: When we first started writing songs we had a songwriting mentality, now we just write the songs based on our favorite jams that we all silently agree on because we never really say this is the right idea so much as it just sounds good, we play it, it feels good, it becomes a song. Well, it needs a good hook too.

What caused the hiatus for the band?

T: Well it was a partial disability, Sean had tendonitis.

D: I wouldn’t consider it a hiatus, Sean was just singing.

S: Yeah I was just singing, but it kept us from getting out there for a long time and even fully writing the songs. We didn't have enough, just guitar and drums isn’t a full band. Like the guitar solos just go into la la land after a while with no bass line behind it, y’know what I mean? You can only do that for so long, it definitely delayed things a lot.

What was the reluctance to get on social media?

T: There’s something distasteful about just putting yourself out there to that extent, in a way that is only projection so if you’re hyper aware of that already it's kinda weird to be that reflective.

D: I mean I just think people spend too much time on it and it's used for a lot of bad things. And ered that it fucks with peoples heads.

S: I don’t think there's any shame in it now. I think the big disparity is that we didn’t do it for ourselves for fun, none of us have personal accounts. For us the only major motivation was to get out there and move the band forward. It’s a great medium to share art, we’ve gotten people to listen to it all over the place that we never would’ve reached otherwise. We’re not so naturally inclined to post everything that goes on in our lives, not that there's anything wrong with that.

@yeahfuckyeah made your instagram?

D: Yeah, she posts a lot of her art, she made our instagram, helps us look good. I want to make the music as good as the art.

S: I do think her art is the closest thing that our music sounds like on paper. There's a certain chaoticness to it that fits, so disorienting, like a unified vibe between all of us.

Was there a decision to have all those crazy colors and stimulation in your image?

T: Pretty much just to have as much color as possible, why would you want less color, would you want less flavor in your food?

D: I love colors. I love overstimulation, I want to play just like the drawings, I want it to be colorful and crazy and just make you feel different, give you energy. That's what I feel when I look at the drawings.

Just released ***Made to Love You*, can you tell me a bit about the songwriting process and the dynamics between you guys when making songs?**

S: I knew I wanted to do something that was short and sweet and got straight to the point, something that didn’t waste time and bring any difficulties for me as a songwriter. Just to keep it simple and move on was the idea, but it became a huge part of my life.

T: I think once you have a hook and a riff in a song, everything else, we know we can finish. Usually if it's any good it ends up being a collaboration. If I come up with something and it's not good enough for anybody to come up with an idea for it because they’re not moved by it enough, I feel like it’s not really something.

D: I usually just wanna rock, play as hard as I can. I know that's not always the case for the song, but I just try not to be as boring as possible because I hate boring drums. I hate just playing a beat and that's all you do, I mean usually that's what you have to do, but I try to do that as little as possible. My job is to serve them really, it’s not about the drummer. I just try to have as much fun as I can while doing what they want me to.

You guys played your first show right before quarantine, what was it like playing on a stage for the first time altogether?

D: Yeah it was sick, then it was sad. But I guess now we can just work on our recordings and practice, make more songs.

T: It was a tiny stage, but it felt huge for us because we never really played live.

S: It was really warm, nice to have it affirmed, we don’t need everybody in the world to feel good about what we’re doing, but it feels good to have people there to have fun which definitely makes the music better. The pressures on so you see how far you can take it too. It reminded me how hard it is and how hot it gets, how the nerves build up. It was a little weird for me personally because I was going back to a bunch of people I’ve known who’ve seen me play loads of times, the fact that it’s so different than what I used to do and that I got compliments from everyone, or really more importantly I got a smile from them I could see that I was doing something and that was crazy because I didn’t know how it was going to be received at all. They could have easily thought we were too soft and lame, we were definitely the softest band that came on that night.

D: I definitely think we were the most different band, didn’t fit the bill really.

T: For better or for worse I think we’re always going to come off that way, just really different, not to say we’re really incredibly unique or anything, we’re all playing music, but--

D: But it’s not a real genre band.

What do you mean by not being a genre band?

T: There’s no movement behind our music at the moment, when other bands have a predetermined thing already. There’s already a hardcore scene, there’s already bands that play that music.

D: You kinda bend your music to play like that or you wanna play exactly like those bands, we just like so many different things.

T: We like elements of all kinds of music and those movements, but we just don’t subscribe to it in the same way. The idea is to be inventive I guess. That’s one of the best things of seeing people live is seeing people play, taking notes, things you could do, things you don’t like, stage presence.

D: I love every genre, I just don’t want to play like it I guess. Looking for something new, but still being respectful of old things for the most part. We’re not like any label or scene that has certain things that go with it, breakdowns or whatever, how every song is structured the same way. I mean that’s how every genre is: classical, jazz, rock, punk, metal, they all have structures for every song that’s predictable, but still good. We take a little bit from everything, but have our own opinions and style.

S: What we do isn’t anything new, there’s just not a lot of people doing it right now, which kind of makes us special. I want our stuff to be listenable and anyone playing music, a child singing or someone playing guitar for their family, someone thinks it's good, so at that point anything you hear is viable and important. I do think once people start having expectations of you it seems like people try to do the same thing, you only get so much juice.

Is there anything you guys personally want to get out of your music?

T: I think, artistic satisfaction, that I can make something that I can be proud of, simple as that. More than anything I’d like to have something to look back on, something tangible that represents my work, my time, my spirit. If it makes money, that’d be great, I’m not gonna deny it, but knowing I did it the way I wanted to do it comes first.

S: Music has always felt good, the more time we put in or love, the better it feels. I want to see how far we can take that. Anyone who listens and gives feedback, or listens, enjoys, that all goes into it, making you take it somewhere different. Nothing gets me more excited than being in the middle of a song and just thinking you could die and it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters.

STD is currently mastering their new single, What Am I Supposed to Do. For the future, STD plans to go up to Northern California and record their first studio album. Farther in the future they want to get back on stage to share their passions. As far as the future is concerned, they’d rather live in the moment.

The interview ends in laughter and the last rays of light slide over their faces. Darryle looks at the other two with quiet mischief and asks the question he knows will be answered with an affirmative, “Jam?”

The boys smile behind their unwashed curls and spend the remaining hours of dusk spreading love through the soundwaves.