by Kenneth Morton

One of the most exciting bands to come out of the Southern California area in quite awhile, Abeline has been gaining a good deal of fans due to their lively stage shows and Myspace presence. Featuring five extremely charismatic members and a dozen terrific songs in the grand tradition of Chiodos and Circa Survive, the guys in Abeline certainly have an exciting future ahead of them. Highwire Daze decided to catch a rising star and journey into the abyss to find out more about Claremont’s own Abeline…

What is the music scene like in Claremont and how did you guys all meet?
C-mont tends to be full of old people and a dinky nine-hole golf course, so it doesn't really have much of a scene. (Laughter) C-mont is different from its surrounding siblings. It has a more "detached from society" or vintage feel to it. Everyone is their own style. So that directly reflects onto the local music scene as well. Go see for yourself, check out The Shock, An Orchestra Cinematic, Private I and Silence Breaks. Then try to tell me that you didn't just hear everything from The Doors to 90's to Techno. However, the inland valley as a whole tends to lean more towards hardcore. For the most part, we all met at or through Claremont high school. Except for Aaron, he went to high school with the dinos, just kidding (laughter). We have this on going inside joke about Aaron being the eldest member (24). But unfortunately, it is true; Aaron didn't go to high school with us. We all met Aaron through a mutual friend early last year. This however has made no difference; we all agree that we feel like we've known Aaron for just as long as the rest of the band.

Is Abeline a person or a town, and what made you decide to use that for a band name?
Surprisingly, Abeline is neither of the two. Nowadays it’s common to name your band after your favorite line from a movie, or restaurant, or something completely random like "throwing furniture" etc. However, those names normally have nothing to do with the band itself. We wanted something original and with meaning. If you look up Abeline in the dictionary, you won't find it. Spelled with two "e's" and not to be confused with the small town of Abiline, TX. It is purely a made up title, a way to refer to or represent everything that we stand for in one word. Literally. It’s a constant reminder of our Philosophies on music: strive to be different; don't hold yourself to one genre. We don't believe in musical genres, just good music.

How easy or difficult was it to produce Send Them To The North on your own, and what made you decide to just give it away for free?
Easy? (Laughter) It was anything BUT easy. Originally we weren't supposed to have a deadline for the album. We were supposed to take our sweet time with it. However, after we set up our myspace, the ball starting rolling on its own! We soon were asked to play our first show with Fear Before, even without music up, and who could pass on that, right? So we began writing instantly. The entire 4-song EP ended up being written in five weeks. Now where do we go to record? With no money we were at a standstill. And then there was light. None of this could have been possible without Presley Perez. A very close friend to all of us. Pres knew of our financial situation and knew that getting money to record this soon was next to impossible. Owning and running his own studio for 2 years, Pres believed in our product so much that he offered to record the EP for exchange work. The band starting tracking immediately. In as little as two months, we had already written and recorded Send Them To The North EP. Unfortunately, the show with Fear Before didn't go through and we rushed for nothing. Ironic huh? (Laughter) After we were done. We figured hey, lets give it away for free, we didn't have to pay for it anyways (lots of laughter); plus who's gonna buy an unknown bands 4 song demo?

Where did you get the ideas for some of the song lyrics on Send Them To The North? Please cite a few song examples and what they are about?
My lyrics are generally inspired by my personal life. The only thing I try to do is refrain from "the girl" topic. Since the dawn of time everyone has sang about their heartstrings getting pulled in one way or another. With love on the rocks being common in this age bracket, its almost inevitable; every band in our scene sings about girls. I will openly admit that we do have one song about a significant other of mine, however, there is only one song. And I won't say which song (winks) but I'm sure you can figure it out and I'm sure there won't be many more. I mostly try to sing about positive things or ways to better yourself. For the most part I just free write. I bring my cell phone with me everywhere I go. When something inspires me to write lyrics, I just open up my phone and immediately type in everything I'm feeling, without making any sense of it. I just let it out. I try to give excessive details to everything I'm experiencing through metaphors, personification, similies, etc. For example, Fall of last year. I was in the grocery store and I was automatically labeled a "trouble making punk kid" because of my piercings. I thought did that just really happen? How horrible is this? Our society is so judgmental. So I pulled out my cell phone and typed "pull me up, I'm falling like autumns leaves" "see past reflections on the water to find inner beauty" "look past the blindfold" which the Abe fam can recognize in Autumns Infinite Dream. However, aside from all this, I still write my lyrics vaguely enough for people to interpret them the way they want. Think of it as getting ready with all the colors you need to paint a specific painting. As soon as the band brings me the song (canvas) I have an entire plethora of lyrics to choose from and "paint" my words into the song by making sense of them and with phrasing, rhyming, pronunciation, whatever it may be. It’s a very important and delicate process for us. And it has to be done just right or our message will not be delivered correctly.

How close are you to writing and releasing all new material? How will this material compare to what's on your EP?
Were about half way done writing and recording the new album. It’s going to be way better than the first. We're not put on a deadline this time and we are recording the entire album at Joe's house so we have 100% of control over our entire album. Only we are touching it. Were definitely venturing more into the experimental scene. We want to start utilizing multiple instruments, vocoders, a real piano maybe, lots of midi, 808 bass hits. I can't even put into words how it sounds. Our goal is for people to no longer be able to classify us.

Are there any Abeline groupies wandering around the campuses of Claremont or beyond?
Groupies? Haha no. Abeline family? Yes, EVERYWHERE! Everyone that supports us and comes to our shows are part of the Abeline family. And they all know it. We love them with all our hearts!

Any strange or unusual Myspace friends contact you as of late?
Well we do have the everyday weirdo messages. You know, the child molester profiles that hit us up on an auto messaging bot saying "hey cutie" and then the occasional hate mail too haha. But they're just jealous of Aaron’s rock hard abs. HOO HAH! (lol)

How did the newest member of Abeline wind up getting wounded? Was that his first show?
Joe Reza III? Yes it was his first show with us. Unfortunately he caught the headstock of Aaron’s bass in the first song of the set! He had a black eye for a while. We almost never have a show finish without someone getting hurt. We actually started documenting it recently on our myspace. We put up a picture profile of injuries! Keep your eye on it and watch it grow!!! I need to add one from the last show; I have an 8-inch hematoma about 2 inches thick on my stomach from one of Evans symbols slicing me while rocking out.

Where did Eric acquire his singing range? He did not seem to have this range in his previous band Farewell Fahrenheit…
(Lots of laughter) That seems to be the most commonly asked question. I found an orb in WOW. Just kidding... (lol) Practice, practice, practice!!! It’s an internal instrument that you have to take care of. Just like your guitar that you tune everyday before you play. Singers should be practicing scales (their form of tuning) and studying the musical theory behind singing. What is a bend? What is riffing? How to push from your diaphragm, not your throat. These are all things you should know, if not, then learn.

What is a live Abeline show like for those who have yet to see you play?
You’re a watermelon jolly rancher inside a Pokemon piñata. Yes. Of course. A squirtle one... made of blue paper mache that’s tied to a thin rope and getting dangled above the splitting image of Dennis the Menace with a machete and without his Riddlin... o ya, and he's possessed with the spirit of TV's Scott Baio. Wait a tick...???!?!?!

Which member of Abeline is most likely to be cranking Britney Spears on their IPOD? What about Slayer?
(lol) I don't think anyone would ever be caught dead rockin to that, except for maybe Evan and Aaron, they do listen to Bjork. But Bjork herself is even way far from Britney Spears. Slayer? That would probably be me; I have a huge metal background as a child. I grew up listening to Pantera, Metallica, Slayer, Primus, Megadeth, the works. If it had double bass, I liked it. I still listen to some metal, but only creative metal like Protest The Hero, Exotic Animal Petting Zoo, Between The Buried And Me. The entire band has a secret love for hardcore. But only the good hardcore (winks). Elements of this will shine through in the new stuff!!!

What do you think makes Abeline stand apart from the many other bands in the LA/OC/IE area?
The angle we approach everything from. We are very proffessional and we take what we do seriously. Abeline is literally a second job for all of us. We hope to one day make it our only job. Aside from this, its nice to see five, talented, genuine guys succeed. Some people might not dig our sound, but they dig us as people, and that has helped us along our musical journey and stand out as well.

What's up next for Abeline?
New album. A tour. Whatever else is thrown at us!

Any final words of wisdom?
If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back. Meaning, DO WORK SON! It’s been our motto since day one and it’s the reason why we are where we are in as little as seven months.

Abeline links

Abeline on Myspace: The Official Myspace Page for Abeline!
The Highwire Daze Home Page: Return to the Main Page!

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