HEAD 2 HEAD WITH MIDTOWN

After his set and a disappointing showing from the crowd, Music Head caught up with Gabe Saporta of the NJ-based Rockers, Midtown, on April 14th, 2002 in the lobby of the Trocadero.  We were given the choice of conducting the interview around the corner in an alley or on the Midtown tour bus.  Hmm...  Let me think about that.  Tour bus!  So we climbed aboard and headed all the way to the back were we sunk into the soft couch.  Possibly one of the most comfortable interviews ever, we discussed the mystery of the crowd, animal rights, finally uncovered the truth about the Real World, and learned about the new album, Living Well Is The Best Revenge, hitting stores April 16th.

Music Head (MH):  How are things going?

Gabe Saporta (GS):  Good.  Things are great.

MH:  What did you think about the crowd tonight?

GS:  Not so hot.  I mean I had a couple theories about it.  We played at the TLA, a headliner, and we sold it out, ya know.  One theory is these shows are really expensive.  They're over fifteen bucks and our fans know that our shows will be here again when it's cheaper.  Also, this is the second show that was added.  The first show was tomorrow and it sold-out right away.  But, it was okay.  It wasn't too bad.  Plus it's a Sunday.  I mean kids moved for us more than they did for any other band.  Like for Thrice and The Movielife, who are really energetic bands, but everyone just like stood there like wow.  It could just be that it's just not packed in because it's not sold-out tonight.  But, tomorrow it's sold-out.  So, when it's not packed in they're just like scared to move.

MH:  Are you having a good time on the current tour with Face to Face?

GS:  Yeah it's cool.  The greatest thing of this tour is really all the support bands like us, The Movielife, and Thrice.  All the bands have been on small tours together so it's great to be playing like a huge national tour and like just have a ton of fun.  I mean we're sharing this bus with The Movielife.  It's our first time on a bus, their first time on a bus, and it's just amazing.  We just get to hang out with those guys every night.  It's just really cool.

MH:  What was it like touring with Jimmy Eat World?

GS:  Oh, that was also amazing.  Well, the first thing that's really amazing about that is Jimmy Eat World were one of our favorite bands before we even started Midtown.  They were one of our inspirations that started Midtown.  When we got Mark Trombino to produce our record, we were like 'Oh my god that's the guy who did the Jimmy Eat World record.'  So, we were totally psyched to be touring with them.  Plus the fact that we love their music and we would get to watch them every night is an amazing thing in itself.  Plus they were awesome guys.  Like really supportive and stuff and we got along great.  So, it was a great time. In Europe all their fans just loved us.  We went over really well there.

MH: You just mentioned you were over in Europe and you've also toured in Japan before.  How do the crowds compare over there?

GS:  I think they're definitely more enthusiastic.  I don't know why it is exactly but, they love American bands over in Europe and Japan.  I guess it works for an advantage that we're Americans so they're really excited that we're there to play.  It's amazing.  We went for the first time at the end of January and went there again at the end of March and it was just two months later and we sold-out our own show in London.  400 people which was awesome.  It was just like craziness.

MH: How did Midtown get started and what were some of your influences?

GS:  We got started because all the dudes in Midtown, when we were in high school we all played in the local punk bands.  And all  the bands would play shows together.  Tyler, he played in a band called Nowhere Fast, Rob was in a band called Royalties, and I was in another band.  And whenever we'd play shows together we'd be the dudes hanging out and stuff.  So, we all went to college and Tyler and I were going to Rutgers, where Rob was already at, and I was already friends with those guys and I was like 'Why don't we start a new band?  It could be like a little more mature music and everything.'  And that's what we did.  The rest is history.  We started practicing in my dorm with my roommate there, Augmond.  He was like not into punk rock at all, but he was cool.  Real supportive.  Our influences were like Lifetime.  Lifetime was our biggest influence.  We wanted to do something like Lifetime that was like melodic, but hard at the same time and just have a lot of variety.  And definitely Weezer and Jimmy Eat World.

MH:  Why the name Midtown?

GS:  The name Midtown, I think it's just a good name.  Like you can't say because I hung out with this girl that I really really liked in Midtown Manhattan and it was just an amazing experience and it was 4 o'clock in the morning and it was just totally dead and you just conjure up all these images.  We have these huge buildings and stuff.  Also, it's just like a name that is memorable and it doesn't really pigeon hole us into one sort of music.  It is also like a meeting point and you can interpret that like our band.  All of us came from four different places and we met together and did this band.  We made that up.  It works pretty well.  It's a good interpretation.

MH:  You mentioned playing at Rutgers, do you have any favorite places to play or hang out where you started out?

GS:  When we were at college I had a fake ID and it was like this guy.  I forget what his name is.  It was like George something or was it Wendell?  It was the funniest thing.  This dude had a full beard, long hair, and a bandana.  It didn't look anything like me.  The criteria was the same.  Brown eyes, tall and it looked nothing like me.  I would go and show my ID and I would get into all the bars at Rutgers.  There was this one bar called the Melody Bar which they also had shows in.  But, every Thursday night they had 80's night and stuff and I remember sneaking in there.  Well not like sneaking in there, but going in with my ID.  I eventually got to know the door guy and he was cool and stuff.  One time when I finally turned 21 I told him 'Oh yeah, I just turned 21' and he was like 'How the hell have you been getting in here?'

MH:  Having such a fast start playing your first show in '99 in front of 40 people to the summer of 2001 playing with Blink-182 to 15,000 people, how did that affect you guys as a band and did you ever think you would be here today?

GS:  No.  I never fathomed we would be where we are and if I had we would have been smarter.  We made some stupid decisions early on because we didn't plan for this to be a career.  We just wanted to do it for fun as a hobby.  So, definitely I had no idea I was going to get this far and it's beyond my wildest dreams which is good.  I mean there is definitely goods and bads that come along with that.  I think we got this far because we really worked very, very hard.  I always say that if you just put your mind to something and if you are really passionate about something you can accomplish anything.  We love our band and we loved what we were doing and we gave up everything for it.  We dropped out of school.  We all lived in a house together.  We gave up our house.  We moved in with our parents.  I don't have a car.  I don't have anything.  I just have my band.  So, we put everything into this band to tour full time.  We started touring.  I remember our first tour we couldn't afford to stay in hotels and we usually stayed in people's houses.  During the shows we would announce 'Hey, I don't have a place to stay tonight.'  We met some really cool people that way and had some good times.  Sometimes we would roll into a town early in the morning and not know anyone there.  One time in Gainesville we just pulled into town and we parked into the parking lot of a hotel and it was 3 in the morning.   By 6 in the morning it was so hot.  It was like middle of summer.  The van was just like an oven, so we got out of the van all sweaty and stuff and walked into the pool of the hotel and pretended like we were guests there and stuff.  So, that was our shower for the week.  So, I mean from there to where we are now, like on a bus in less than two years, it's just because obviously one part of me... I'm not negating.  I'm not saying we don't have talent.  I meant I think we are pretty good.  I mean we definitely have to be at least ok as a band.  I'm not saying we are the best band or anything.  You just have to work really hard and make it your first priority and you can do it.  You can accomplish anything.

MH:  So, if there was no Midtown and you weren't on this bus today, where do you imagine you might be?

GS:  I'd be in school.  I really enjoyed being in school.  The one thing I miss is just learning.  I love learning.  Especially when I am learning in school.  I mean I hated high school.   I did really poorly in high school, but college was a totally different experience for me because I took classes on things I was interested in and I had great professors.  I was so excited to hear from people that were passionate.  You know you are in high school and you have teachers who don't want to be there and they are teaching things from a textbook. And have no emotion or passion or connection to whatever they are doing and there're just there for the meantime.  But, in college you have you people who this is their life and they are telling you about stuff that they studied their whole lives and you are interested in it.  Plus, I feel like my brain is deteriorating from being on tour so long.  I haven't had any intellectual stimulation whatsoever.  

MH:  You were on an episode of the Real World: Back to New York last year, how do you feel you were portrayed and do you think the mentioning of Midtown on that show did anything for your fan base?

GS:  Let me answer the second part because that one is the easier one.  Yeah, I definitely think that the mentioning of our band was huge for us.  We all lived in California at the time because we were recording Living Well Is The Best Revenge when it came on.  We were all in our living room and we were watching the show and she is talking about it and it was totally surreal because she is talking about me in the third person and it's not a joke.  I'm not an actor.  It's talking about me.  Really me on TV and millions of people are watching it and it made me feel so weird.  I was like 'Whoa'.  So, I was totally weirded out and then she's like, 'and he plays in my favorite band Midtown' and we were all like, 'Yeah!'  We were totally psyched.  I think, and this leads into the other thing, it portrayed me really poorly, but I think that it was just huge for us to get our name out there so far.  This is the way I look at it.  A lot of bands when they have their first album come out on a major label, that's basically the first time people are getting to hear a band and they'll be like 'Oh, Midtown here's some promotion about them and stuff.'  But for us to be on the Real World, that kind of planted the seed and let us skip the first step of doing the first album where people get acquainted with the name.  Now people are familiar with the name so they'll see the CD in the stores now, now that it's coming out next week and there's lots of promotion, and they'll be like 'Oh yeah, it's the dudes from the Real World.  Yeah that guys an asshole, but let me buy this record.'  So, that leads into portraying me as an asshole thing.  The way they made it out to seem was I was calling her and talking to her and I had a girlfriend the whole time and I didn't tell her about it and then finally after we hung out and I was on the show then I told here I had a girlfriend.  That's totally not the way it happened.  The way it happened, you can totally ask her or ask anyone, (was) they cut it up to make it seem like that.  The thing that happened with the Real World was I met this girl Rachel when we were on tour one time.  I actually met her twice and the second time I met her we hung out and stuff and we just kissed.  It was nothing.  We weren't seriously making out or anything.  Just like an innocent kiss.  Like bye whatever.  We stayed in touch a little bit.  Then she told me she's trying out for the Real World.  I was like 'Cool, college students in Missouri have nothing better to do than try out for the Real World.'  I didn't think twice about it.  The next thing I know she's like, 'I made it to the finals.'  Then a month after that, when we were on tour in Europe, she was like 'Oh yeah I made it to Real World.  I'm going to be in New York and I want to hang out with you when you get home.'  I was like 'Wow, that's awesome'.  She gave me her number and I called her from Europe when we had a couple days off and we talked for a while.  We were catching up and she's telling me about the show and everything.  We didn't bring up anything.  At this point I haven't spoken to her for six months.  We didn't bring up anything about boyfriend/girlfriend.  The whole phone conversation was being tape recorded, so I wasn't going to bring it up.  I sent her an email and I was like 'Hey listen, I'm not being presumptuous.  I'm not implying that you like me or anything.  Just letting you know we haven't spoken in a while, but I have a girlfriend.  Just in case they ask about anything on the show.'  She wrote back an email and was like 'Well, I kind of already told them that I have a crush on you, but don't worry I'll just tell them you have a girlfriend.  It's no big deal.'  So I'm like 'Ok, cool.'  So, that's what she did.  Then I came home two months later and we hung out and stuff.  It was totally fun.  We hung out as friends.  She knew I had a girlfriend and everything.  They just chopped it up to make it seem like she had a first reaction when she spoke to me and she spoke to me the next day and found out I had a girlfriend.  No big deal.  If I was really an asshole then Lori wouldn't have been like 'He's a nice guy.  He has a girlfriend.'  If was an asshole they'd be like 'He's fucking leading her on.  Just trying to use her.'  So, they just tried to make it seem like that which kind of sucks.  I mean I don't really give a fuck.  It can make me look bad if people want to think that I'm a bad person.

MH:  Your new album, Living Well Is The Best Revenge, comes out this Tuesday, what can people expect to hear on this?  What is your favorite track and why?

GS:  I think one thing on this album that we are happy about (is) we really captured, I think, a lot of energy onto the album.  I think in our last album that was lacking.  People would tell me 'Oh live you guys sound so much more confident than during the recording.'  This recording we really had the time to spend on the release perfecting that.  So, that's what I am really happy about.  The songs are really energetic and I feel the songwriting has improved a lot too.  It flows much better.  My favorite track on the album would have to be either the first one or the last one.  The last one is called "Find Comfort In Yourself" and the first one is called "Become What You Hate."

MH:  You choose Mark Trombino to produce your last 2 albums.  Any reason in particular you choose to stay with him and were you worried about having the same sound on your new record?

GS:  No,  The things from last time is that we only had 20 days to record and mix our whole album the first time.  Mark told us 'You know it sucks that you guys don't have the full time to work because we don't have time to experiment.'  This time we had 2 1/2 months to work with Mark and really got to see what he was all about, which was awesome because we got the full Trombino treatment.  We had time to experiment and we brought in an organ one day just to try it on one 10 second part.

MH:  Do you feel it is important for bands to be political and spread a message they believe in?

GS:  I think it's important not necessarily for a band to be political in terms of like to preach, but I think it's important especially for bands that come from the scene to really have ideas and views and develop something more meaningful and deep.  Whether it's about the world or about people or about whatever people want to have ideas about.  But, definitely to be somewhat focused in something other than just rocking out and having a good time because having a good time is awesome, but I think what has made like the punk, social punk, whatever you want to call it, underground movement, survive is the fact that underneath the fun is a strong foundation of ideas and there's a movement.  It's not just punk music, but the punk movement.  I don't think that punk necessarily characterizes a type of music.  Some people say punk is like Mohawk punks and some people say punk is Sum 41.  I think punk really characterizes a type of culture.  That culture is, I think of music being intertwined with ideas and spreading a message and having ideas really deviate from what you see in the mainstream.  I think that what's most important is not necessarily to deviate, but to deviate in a way to give you a sense of realness.  Because I think in the mainstream everything is packaged in a way to try and make you live vicariously through what you see.  You see rappers and Kid Rock living these lavish lifestyles and stuff and that's not real.  There is nothing real about that.  There's nothing you're going to relate to.  The only thing you are going to relate to is you're going to be like 'Oh wow.'  You're going to be wishing you were that person.  But, I think the thing about punk music is that you realize that it's a person just like you, doing something that's real and there's a connection to the music that you can do it and it should inspire you in that way.  So, I think that's what is important, for people to continue that tradition.

MH:  How did you come about being such a strong animal rights supporter and vegetarian?

GS:  I just became a vegetarian when I was thirteen.  I was away at summer camp and this hippie dude, I'm totally not a hippie at all you know,  was just like 'Listen we're a civilized society.  There's so many alternatives.  There's no reason to make an animal suffer.'  I've always like been compassionate for all living things and that just made so much sense to me.  It was almost like I was in the dark for my whole life and I wanted to turn on a light.  I was thirteen and I realized that and just abruptly I changed it and said 'Okay, I'm becoming vegetarian.'  The thing is that it was so abrupt for me; it wasn't a gradual change.  It was so abrupt that I remember I was eating food at a bar mitzvah and my friend was like, 'Aren't you a vegetarian now?'  I'm like, 'Oh my God, I forgot.'  And I totally honestly forgotten that I had chosen to become a vegetarian just because I had been doing it for so long, eating meat for so long, it just like left my mind.  But, since then I haven't eaten any meat.  I think like it's just one of those things, you know for everything I believe that there's a universal moral truth; there's a right and wrong in everything and for everything I do I need to find a reason for it.  There needs to be a reason behind everything I do and the reasons they come from I don't want to be a hypocrite; I want to be consistent with my ideas.  I can't find any reason honestly that would allow me to eat meat that would also allow me to eat people.  And it's like those are the kinds of things I just consider morally wrong.  And it's not like I'm not making a moral judgment saying that if you eat meat you're an ass or whatever.  I think that it's the same thing with slavery.  I mean it took thousands of years for people to realize that slavery was wrong.  They used to say the same things about slaves that they say about animals now.  You know, 'Oh well they don't have feelings.  They're lower beings than us because they don't have thinking capabilities.'  And it's like they would de-humanize these people.  Whoever they wanted as slaves because it worked toward their benefit because it's easier and it made their life easier.  And obviously eating meat is easier.  It tastes better.  I'm not denying that it tastes good.  I'm Hispanic.  I grew up eating meat three times a day and I love the taste of meat.  No doubt about it, but I'm sure I'd love to see the look in someone's eye when I stab them to death, you know.  But, I think that what's right and wrong I have to follow first. 

MH:  How important do you feel the promotional effort from the record label is in getting records sold and a band's name out there?        

GS:  Huge.  Especially in America because unfortunately we exist in a completely capitalist society.  America's so huge and globalized and if you want to make an impact on the whole country at once you need to have a huge amount of people and amount of resources working for you.  Unfortunately that's why you don't see independent bands really making it huge nowadays.  And if they make it big they're making it big with the help, for example Unwritten Law, Saves The Day, Dashboard, all those bands, they have backing and distribution from major companies, you know.  I think it's very important and there are obviously negative things about it, but I think they're the same negative things that are true about capitalism in general.  So, it's something that we can't really escape; that we exist in that system and you got to choose your battles.  I'm not going to change capitalism.  The way we came about signing up on a major label is a whole long story that has to do with a bunch of bad choices that we made at the early point of our career when we had a totally different mind set about what our band was.  We didn't look at it as a career.  We just signed anything that anyone gave us because we didn't care and we were like 'It's our hobby.  We love it' you know, yadda, yadda, yadda, and then you realize that people you love, when it comes to money, aren't going to love you back.

MH:  Where do you get the inspiration for your music and is there any place in particular where you write it at?

GS:  Inspiration for music.  I think like...  Are you talking about musically?

MH:  More like where you write your lyrics and where you get the ideas behind them.

GS:  Lyrics.  I guess from personal experience.  Things I think or things I come to realize.  I read a lot of lyrics that are, I think kind of, observations about the way people are and things are in general.  And I just start writing when, the biggest inspiration for a song comes from when I do get bummed out or something bad happens because then it, you know, to write a song is like a release for that.  It helps you deal with it; it helps you realize it.  The biggest example is the song "Just Rock And Roll" from Save The World, Lose The Girl.  A lot of people think that song's about a girl and it's not about a girl at all.  It's about the experiences I had getting kicked out of my old band when I was in high school.  You know, I was in that band for five years and I've only been in two bands.  One was that band and Midtown.  I was in that band for five years and I worked really hard for that band.  I totally loved it and I was totally bummed out when I got kicked out.  I was depressed; I had nightmares about it.  And it sounds so stupid now looking back on it; it was like 'Dude this is a band you were in in high school.'  But, at the time I was so bummed out about it.  So, I wrote the song about that to help me deal with it.  Every night we would play it when I first started Midtown it would be a catharsis for me to play that song.  It helped me deal with it.  And now I feel great about it.  I'm not upset about it at all.  It was like a total release for me.  Even now when I play that song I think about the situation and I'm just like laughing because it's how it should be.  It's a total release.

MH:  In regards to the song writing process, how do you know when a song is finished and when it's ready to go on the record?

GS:  You never know.  It's one of those things that you keep banging it out and banging it out until you have it as good as you can get it.  Even now like, even when you finish a record, you look back and we're like 'Aw, I wish we would have done this.  I wish we would have done that.'  We still like a lot of things we do differently than we do on the record because we feel like it's better.  There's always more changes you can make.  You know obviously the basics.  You have a verse, chorus, and a bridge and it sounds like you have a song.  But, making a song interesting and setting it apart is really important and that takes a lot of work sometimes.

MH:  Are you excited for the Warped Tour?

GS:  Yeah, I am excited.  Warped Tour is a lot of fun.  It's like summer camp for band people.  You get there all day in a big grassy field and  it's really hot.  It's cool.  We'll eat together.

MH:  Where do you see Midtown maybe next year, in 5 years, 10 years?

GS:  I don't know dude.  We're going to be doing the same thing I guess.  I mean we have a new album coming out in two days and I have no idea what the fuck's going to happen.  It could totally flop and no one could like it and I have no idea what we'll do if no one likes our album.  What I'd like to be doing is just continue to tour and just make more fans.  I don't want to be huge, but I just want to have like a lot of really devoted fans.  Not a lot.  You know, I don't mean thousands and thousands.  My dream when we started Midtown was just to be able to go to any city in America and have like five hundred kids come out and sing all our songs and like really love our band.  I think we've pretty much accomplished that.  So, if it ended tomorrow I'd be happy and look back and be 'Wow. This is awesome.'

MH:  You mentioned the new record coming out.  Do you have plans for any videos?

GS:  We're probably going to do a video for a song called, "Like A Movie," on the album, which is like the popier song on the album.  So, that's how it works.

MH:  Anything else you'd like to add or comment on?

GS:  Oh yeah.  We have a new album.  It's called Living Well Is The Best Revenge.  It's kind of good.  It's pretty good.  You should get it or borrow it from someone and keep it or burn it.  That's what the kids do now a days; they're burning CDs now.  I used to make mix tapes and sell them for a dollar in school, rap mix tapes.

As we got off the bus the mystery of the crowd was revealed.  The security guards were not letting anyone move that evening.  So, the next time Midtown is in town we will have to show them how we really feel.  Thanks for answering all the questions and for letting us sit in those comfy seats.  Good Luck on the road.  For more info on Midtown go to: www.midtownrock.com  -Todd Wojtowicz