SICK TRANSIT (headliner)

What’s the best part of the local music scene where you’re based?
For us, the best part would have to be that we are all such good friends with each other and that even if our style of music isn’t exactly the same as another band, we can still be put on a bill together and have fun listening to each other’s music. It also helps that there are some very loyal fans/friends that will always come out to everyone’s gigs to show love and support. It’s so important to have those kinds of people because without them, there probably wouldn’t be as big of a crowd as there is at most shows.

How did you meet each other?
Jack and I (Sam) met each other through a mutual friend. At the time, Jack had a gig lined up for what was his band back then, By Default. The drummer that they had (who happened to be someone that I went to elementary school with), was having creative differences with Jack and the other member of the band, Adam (who I also knew through being friends with on Facebook), and so they decided to find someone else to do this gig with. And after a while, they found me. The gig fell through at the end, but we all still felt a connection that we wanted to pursue. So from there, Sick Transit was born. Throughout the years though, the band mainly consisted of Jack and I. Adam eventually left to focus on school and we always went through bassists throughout our career. These days, however, we finally have a permanent bassist, Cesar. Cesar is a friend of mine that I met in my first year of high school and when we needed to find another bass player, it was obvious to me that Cesar was the perfect fit for us to have as our third member.

What keeps you inspired? 
Writing music that we love and excites us is something that keeps us going. It also helps to see and know that there are people out there that like what we’re doing and also get excited when they see us play. If it weren’t for the people who always come out to see us play and sing the lyrics back at us, we probably would’ve stop writing and playing after our second EP.

What is it like working together?
For the most part, it feels really natural when writing a new song and playing live shows. The way it usually will go is, Jack will bring me a song he wrote lyrics and chords to, and then I’ll improvise with him on a first run of playing together. After that, we’ll take the time to see how we can flesh out the song and maybe add or subtract some parts and lyrics. After we solidify it, we bring it up to Cesar and he fills it up with a bass-line that he sees fit for the song. When it comes to live shows, I think we’re all proficient enough as musicians to know how to play off each other and know how to communicate on stage. I think I also will sometimes take the position as the banter machine when its needed and we just all know what works and what doesn’t work for us individually and as a whole, on and off stage.

Who are your favorite local bands?
Anyone that takes the time to get to know us and actually talk to us after and before a show are our favorites. The ones who, like us, are trying to make connections that will last for years to come. We have so many friends in bands that we love dearly. Some of those bands include: Chill Trigger, Cheridomingo, JURORS, Street Play, Soaked in Disillusion, Nightmare Enterprises, The Blank Minds, Wolf Woodcock, and more. We’re incredibly loyal to our friends and we feel so honored to be able to share a stage with all these bands and more.

If you were given the opportunity to score a movie, what would it be?
Naturally, it would be something of the early 2000s era. More than likely, it would be a Teen Comedy or Rom Com like American Pie or Dude, Where’s My Car. We already make music that sounds like it would be in movies like that and I think it’s totally okay because we love almost all those kinds of movies.

Who would your dream collab be?
We’ve talked about dreaming of working with people like Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 or Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. There’s also been times where we’ve wanted to work with newer bands like Ben Barlow of Neck Deep or even people in our local scene like Benno Levine from Soaked in Disillusion or Anthony Avina from Cheridomingo. Any chance we get to work with people we look up to, we’ll take.

What are some influences for your music? (i.e. books, art, politics, tv, etc.)
A lot of our influences come from past relationships, mainly out of heartbreak and love. We work with emotions that are, for the most part, relatable to the masses. We also have some songs that were inspired by friends and Jack’s dog not wanting to eat fruit. Our songs are meant to be light-hearted and fun (as most Pop Punk is), so we like to keep our lyrics as so. I think in the near future we may dive into some other topics that interest us. I know Jack is very knowledgeable and interested in politics, so we may one day have a politically driven song, who knows.

When was your first show/gig?
January 26, 2014. It was a Sunday night and it was at one of our favorite venues in Orange County, Chain Reaction. As most first shows go, we could barely sell any tickets; and it didn’t help that it was on a school night and nowhere near where we lived. The venue had about 10 people in there when we went on, mostly consisting of our parents, other family members, and about 4 people that had no idea who we were. The sound was horrendously filled with feedback and we were rushing through all of our songs. Needless to say it wasn’t our best show, but it was definitely one that changed us for the better and brought us to who we are now.

What are some bands that you guys have on repeat at the moment? Or what are some bands that you would recommend to people?
Jack: T3r Elemento – Underground
Sam: Movements – Feel Something
Cesar: Kali Uchis – Isolation

Can we expect new music from Sick Transit?
Definitely! I know Sick Transit has been quite for the past year or so with music and shows. But with it now being Summer, we plan on doing as many shows as we can and finally finishing the EP we started last summer. There’s no guarantee on it being done before the Summer ends, but I do hope we can get a little more progress on it. So expect new music soon…I just don’t know when.​​

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