Guitarist for Beggars Ball

Interview By Lana (SugarBuzz San Diego)

Photographs by Crystal Brnabic

SugarBuzz Magazine

No, nobody in the band is from Hollywood. We were all drawn together for obvious reasons, but we all are from very different backgrounds.

I grew up near Toronto back in Canada; Jaanus grew up in Estonia over in Europe, David in San Diego, Philly then Portland, and Dust is from Fresno, California.

This band has been my brainchild since I was 12 years old. It took a lot of hard work and learning to finally realize what it was gonna take to do something like this. I have been in Hollywood for about 4 years busting my ass 'till I found the right people for the band.

David has been with the band the longest besides myself. He was part of an early incarnation of the band and has been my brother ever since. Since the day we met we've always seen eye to eye and shared the same level of hunger.

I'd known Jaanus for a while but never approached him about playing with me because he was always playing with so many other artists. It wasn't until I was putting together a demo for vocalist auditions that I asked him to do some work with us. He came in and busted out the tracks with ease. No click tracks or guitar tracks, just hit record and boom! It was at that point that I knew he had to be in the band. But without a singer it would be hard to get him to commit to play exclusively with us.

A couple months later, January of '05 I think. Dust came into the picture. I don't remember who contacted whom at first, but we had a couple brief conversations and set up a jam. He came down with a drummer friend of his & lyrics to the demo tracks we had posted (which later became; "Low Life Blues", "Live Out Loud", & "Deadmans Lullabye") There was no denying we had something. Those tracks didn't even change too much from the way we originally jammed on 'em to the way they are now. I talked to Jaanus about being a part of this on a "full time" basis at that point and Beggars Ball was born.

We don't fit in in Hollywood, we don't fit in anywhere. We're leaders, not followers. We've got our own scene; we aren't ones to compromise our integrity to fit in some douchbag scene. That's not us.

3. I'm guessing the song "Fight This Town" has to do with Hollywood...

Yeah, Dustin wrote those lyrics about the battle a Rock N' Roll band has to endure in a place like Hollywood. It ain't easy, most people quit. I've seen

way more people go back home then stay to fight it out. It just goes to show whom the real deal really is. It's just a kind of a "hat's off" to the bands who bust ass and stick it out.

4. What would you say is the biggest fault in the LA music scene right now if any?

That there are so many shitty bands around L.A. because of the money in this town. Any rich kid in town can have all the equipment they want, a Saturday night gig at the Whisky and a front page article in the local magazine because you can pay for all of that. It's not about giving the true musicians a shot; it's about how much cash you've got to spend. It don't matter how shitty the band is, if you've got the dough you'll get exposure. We're the underdogs in town. We don't have any money. So we'll see how far a genuine Rock N' Roll band can go from just busting our asses and being true to ourselves.

5. With so many bands popping up everywhere and many playing on any given night do you see it as a competition or not? Any challenges?

No. We are what we are. No one can touch us. I don't mean to disrespect anyone but there is no other band that can do what we do like we do it. It's our statement. There isn't a whole lot of bands in this town that have an original or worthwhile statement to make. It's funny to me, there are a lot of bands that have been around town for a long while and they wonder why they never make it anywhere.

Everybody in the band is different. We all kinda do our own thing and it just works together. As far as style goes, we all have our own that stay true to. We're really conscious about being original. As far as inspiration goes, it could be anything that happens to us day to day. All of our songs are real. They’re about something that really happened. We don't make shit up to look or sound "cool". I write riffs daily. I record a lot of them on my 8-track. I'll show 'em to the guys at rehearsal, we get stoned and jam on 'em next thing you know we've got a new song.

7. Would you ever compromise your sound if a label offered you a huge deal?

8. Are any of your demo tracks going to make it onto the full-length album you're currently working on?

Yep. This album that we're putting out is gonna be ALL of our demo tracks that we've recorded in the past year. We have so much good material recorded that we said, fuck it, let's put it all out. Our fans are begging for us to put something out for them at this point. It's gonna be called "Greatest Hits Vol. 1". No shit. We're recorded the entire thing for $0. I produced it myself on a shitty-ass 8-track I've had for years, believe it or not. It just sounds like us. No fancy shit, just us in a jam room. It doesn't get any more Rock N' Roll than the way we did this thing.

9. How is the recording process coming along?

The recording is going great. With this band, it's so easy and fun. We just go in and do it. Every one knows what their gonna do. I've never had so much fun recording in my life. At this point we have 2 more songs to go so it'll be out very soon!

10. You're starting to play at the Cat Club every third Friday of the month, how exciting is that to be on the bill regularly?