We had the chance to sit down with Donnie and Charley from the Deviates on their brief tour appearance with Pennywise and Boy Sets Fire. We'd also like to thank Hector at Epitaph Records for setting up this interview. Enjoy.

XROXX: How has this tour been treating you guys so far?

DEVIATES: It's been a really good tour, it's only going to be like six days which we're obviously happy to be out, but at the same time we'd like to be out longer with these guys (Pennywise) because they are great friends of ours. We're stoked and it's going really well and has been a really good tour. It's been party time and at the same time just jamming and it's great. It's cool!

XROXX: You guys made your start with Fletcher of Pennywise. How did that come about?

DEVIATES: Well, we got signed to a local label called Theologian Records and the guy who owns it is Mike Theodore and he's an acquaintance of Fletcher and told us that Fletcher was interested and that he would like to produce our album. And we didn't really know him at all. We just made up a plan, got in the studio, and it was all over from there. We just jammed with him and pretty much produced our album after that. Since then we've been friends with the whole band (Pennywise), and their friends and everybody have been taking care of us since.

XROXX: How did you guys come together as musicians?

DEVIATES: Long story or short story? Well to start off Brian's brother had a bass and one of our good friends down the street from me had decided to start a band with him and then Charley was over there with Brian and they got kind of jealous and said hey why don't we start a band too and they all finally started playing and they needed a drummer. Called me up, they knew I had a drum set but I didn't know how to play it. Nobody knew how to play anything. Brian got stuck singing because he didn't have an instrument. And it started off from there playing out of tiny amps and you couldn't hear anything. We were only sixteen years old. A couple months later, it was guitar, bass, drums, and vocals and seven years later we're sitting here. That's pretty much it, long story short.

XROXX: So you guys are on Epitaph now, a highly reputable label putting out some of the best music the scene has to offer. How has that been treating you and how does that compare with other labels like Theologian? Can you compare and contrast that maybe? How's it been working out for you?

DEVIATES: Well, Theologian Records, it's obviously like black and white; obviously two different things. Theologian is a very small indie label and then Epitaph is the largest independent label there is, almost a major. With Theologian, they started us out, that was great, and we just toured and worked our asses off and eventually with luck and hard work of course there's Epitaph. Epitaph's just great distribution all around the world and they really try hard with their bands, you know. And they're like a family. They bring you in and they take care of us. But it's up to the bands that tour and that's what we've been doing. Touring for the past six months and it's been just out of control and it's been great. So it all works out in the end. Epitaph becomes happy with us and they want to work harder with us and that makes us want to work harder. They have a good fellowship together of people and bands and of course great music comes out of there, you've got all the bands and I'm not going to list them because you already know who they are, bands you grew up listening to. They're a good label.

XROXX: The new album, Time is the Distance, detracked from your previous album, maybe a little bit more melodic. It sounds as though you're coming into your own more as a band, starting to develop your own style. How's the response been from the record and did you have a certain mindset going into recording it or was it something that just happened?

DEVIATES: Well, the first album, My Life, we spent pretty much four years just writing as a band, not expecting to have an album, but we did and it took four years of collecting songs. On the next album we just wrote music but we didn't have four years, we only had a year or whatever. We just write. We just do what we feel and we write what makes us happy. You know if we just go, "OH! THAT ROCKS!" You know, that's how we write. We don't just go, "Oh that fits, whatever." It's all collaboration by everybody except for the lyrics that are written by Brian, but everything else music is just a collaboration everybody has a say in everything and that's how it should be at least with our band and that's how it is. With most bands you just have one person that writes ALL the music, in a lot of cases the same person writes the lyrics too. But in our case he (Brian) writes the lyrics and everybody else has their own ideas and riffs it somehow comes about. The best songs are the ones you write in about 45 minutes just right out on the spot and everything falls into place.

XROXX: A lot of people talk about the new wave or future of punk, new school kind of thing. What's your interpretation and where do you see punk going in the next couple years, like 5, 10 years down the road?

DEVIATES: I don't know, I don't see anything. I just don't look too far forward. I'm not that kind of person that tries to think that way. I like to be more into NOW, just living day by day, same with music. It's not the fact that I'm immature, I just don't look that far forward in the music industry. The only thing I look forward to the future is our band. Constantly pushing ourselves trying to break our barriers. I don't think it's so much punk rock music, I think it's more of a social issue. Yeah, I think the word punk is more distorted and everybody takes it how they want, it's kind of weird. Some people are like "Oh that's punk, and this is punk." I mean it's pretty much an attitude. It's not so much a music style or anything like that.

william.tinsley@XROXX.com

Deviate from the norm and get your Deviates music!