Still Driving Forward: Jon Cattivera Reflects on the Past, Present, and Future of Time Spent Driving

Still Driving Forward: Jon Cattivera Reflects on the Past, Present, and Future of Time Spent Driving

Few bands from the turn-of-the-century post-hardcore movement have maintained the enduring cult admiration of Time Spent Driving. Emerging from California’s vibrant punk scene and releasing beloved records such as Just Enough Bright, the band carved out a unique space where melody, emotion, and intensity could coexist. While the years have brought lineup changes, hiatuses, and shifting priorities, Time Spent Driving has never truly disappeared.

With the release of their latest album, Lost Leaves, founder and vocalist/guitarist Jon Cattivera finds himself reflecting on both the band’s storied past and its increasingly active future. From the Santa Cruz punk scene that shaped his musical identity to the creation of Lost Leaves, vinyl reissues, upcoming releases, and the possibility of returning to the stage, Cattivera remains as passionate and creatively driven as ever.

Highwire Daze caught up with Jon to discuss the inspirations behind Lost Leaves, revisiting classic releases, and what lies ahead for Time Spent Driving.

Time Spent Driving has roots deep in the Santa Cruz scene. How did that environment shape the band’s earliest identity?
Santa Cruz has always been a huge spot for punk rock and skateboarding. It’s kind of a mecca in a lot of ways. Growing up here, listening to music through skate videos and everything else around me naturally got me into punk rock.

I started playing in punk bands pretty much as soon as I picked up a guitar. I didn’t even know how to play. I just figured, “I guess I need to learn how to sing and play this thing.” You quickly learn how much you suck when you’re starting out.

Being surrounded by great bands, both locally and throughout the Bay Area punk scene, really influenced me. As you get better at your instrument, you become interested in more dynamics and different ways of expressing yourself. That eventually led us toward where we are now.

I think what we do falls into that post-hardcore and post-punk realm. Those influences are definitely there, but I’ve always wanted to bring in heavier, more cathartic elements while also leaving room for softer, more melodic moments. That’s really how it all came together. As I grew as a musician, I wanted to spread my wings and explore different things.

Let’s jump to the present. Is there an overall story or concept behind the title Lost Leaves?
A lot of times I’ll come up with an album title very early in the process. I’ll think of something that feels right and relates to the songs I’m writing. In fact, with the new material I’m working on right now, I already have a title in mind.

With Lost Leaves, though, it happened differently.

I was bouncing around a few different ideas, and nothing was really sticking. I had some cool titles, but I didn’t have imagery that felt connected to them. Since I design all of our artwork myself these days, I don’t want the visuals to feel disconnected from the music.

I started experimenting with different photographs and concepts, including some accidental photos I’d taken over the years. We have these glamping cabins on my property in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and when we first built them, my younger brother took a really great photo of a madrone tree above one of the cabins.

That image stayed with me, and I started using it as the basis for the artwork.

At the same time, I kept thinking about a lyric in the song “Motion Lights.” There’s a line that references the shadows of trees when they’ve lost all their leaves. That imagery comes directly from the property where I live, but it also carries a deeper meaning.

As I started connecting those ideas, I found myself thinking about leaves, trees, and the symbolism behind them. Eventually, Lost Leaves just felt like the right title.

“The Red Dress” features Chris Wicky from Favez. Tell me about how that collaboration came about.
I had always wanted to bring guest vocals onto a Time Spent Driving record.

Over the years, I’d ask friends if they’d be interested, and the idea was to feature people I’d known through touring and bands we’d shared bills with. It sounded realistic in theory, but actually making it happen turned out to be much harder than I expected.

Some people said yes but things never materialized. Others were maybes, and some passed altogether.

Chris was immediately into the idea. Since he’s in Switzerland, he went into a studio there and recorded his parts. Looking back, I probably would have given a little more direction. Instead, I basically said, “Here’s the song, do whatever you want.“

Chris and I go way back, and though we hadn’t talked in a while, he was excited to participate. I was just stoked to have him on the record and maybe bring him out of retirement a little bit.

I was looking it up, and Favez’s last album came out in 2011, so it’s been a while.
Yeah, definitely. It’s been a long time.

What’s cool is that Favez is actually the band we’ve played with more than anyone else. We did a full U.S. tour together, a couple of West Coast runs, and even toured Germany with them. We’ve probably shared more stages with Favez than any other band, so having Chris appear on the album felt really natural.

Tell me about “The Red Dress” and the inspiration behind it.
That’s a song people ask about a lot.

Years ago, I played an early version of it for a friend, and he asked me, “How do you think of this stuff?”

The idea came to me while my wife and I were in Seattle. We were trying to get into a show featuring Rocky Votolato and Chad Price, but it was sold out. We were kind of peeking through the windows trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening inside.

For whatever reason, my wife was in a bit of a bad mood that night. Nothing serious, but as we were walking down the street, she was a little ways ahead of me, and I started thinking about how awful it would be if something terrible happened right then and there.

That moment became the spark for the song. When I think about “The Red Dress,” I still picture that exact setting: Seattle at night, near the waterfront, with all the atmosphere and emotions that came with it.

I had the skeleton of the song sitting around for years, but when I went on a major writing streak for Lost Leaves, I reopened it. I ended up writing the entire bridge section later, which helped connect the original concept to where I was emotionally and creatively in the present.

I don’t often write entirely fictional or hypothetical songs, but I enjoy doing it once in a while. Even though the story itself isn’t based on a real event, there’s still a metaphor underneath it. It’s fun to stretch yourself creatively in that way.

Let’s go to the end of the album. Tell me about “Poison Arrows.”
“Poison Arrows” was actually the third song I wrote for the album.

At the time, it was shortly after COVID. I was working remotely from home, business was going well, and for the first time in a long while I didn’t feel like I was working myself to death.

I remember thinking, “This feels strange.“

I was walking around the yard barefoot, enjoying the moment, and the song grew from that feeling. At its core, it’s about recognizing that good stretches don’t last forever. Things are going great, but a part of you knows that challenges are eventually going to come back around.

The song is essentially saying, “Enjoy this while it lasts, because rough waters are always waiting somewhere down the road.”

And sure enough, they were.

I want to go back to Estrangers. Tell me about the title and what it was like returning after what many people perceived as nearly a decade of silence.
It comes from the word “estranged.” I liked the idea of combining the concepts of being estranged and being strangers. Whether you’re talking about family, friendships, or even yourself, it all ties into that sense of separation.

As far as the gap between releases goes, it’s a little different from how people might perceive it. We reunited in 2012 and released a record in 2015, which was our first album after breaking up.

After that, life happened. People had kids, COVID arrived, and honestly I wasn’t writing as prolifically as I normally do. I tend to write better when I know the band will be able to play the material in the near future.

Estrangers came out in 2023, following the 2015 record, so it was a significant gap in terms of releases. But from my perspective, we never really stopped working.

We also haven’t played a show since 2016, so the bigger question for me will be what it’s like when we finally get back onstage after all this time.

Over the last several years, I’ve probably spent more time working on Time Spent Driving than ever before. Between Estrangers, the Just Enough Bright reissue, and immediately moving into the next record, I’ve been focused on it constantly.

Next year marks the twentieth anniversary of I’m Your Stab in the Back. Looking back on that release now, what are your thoughts?
That’s an interesting record because we released it after we had already broken up.

What became I’m Your Stab in the Back was really a collection of demos that we tried to mix as well as possible. It wasn’t approached the same way we would approach a proper studio album.

When I listen to it now, I hear a lot of things that could have been improved. There aren’t as many harmonies as there would have been on a full album, and some of the performances could have been refined further.

There were also internal issues happening at the time. In some cases, Derek wasn’t even playing on certain songs because he was already halfway out the door, so I ended up recording some of those guitar parts myself.

That being said, I still think the songs themselves are strong. My criticisms are more about the recording process than the actual material. If we ever reissue it, I might consider remixing it, similar to what we did with Just Enough Bright.

Speaking of Just Enough Bright, next year marks its twenty-fifth anniversary. When you look back on that album, your work with J. Robbins, and that era of the band, what stands out the most?
I’m really proud of that record.

Recently we’ve been posting song playthroughs on social media, and revisiting those tracks reminded me that we were doing some pretty cool things creatively. A lot of it came from the chemistry between the band members and how our playing styles intertwined.

I always thought the album sounded great because J. Robbins did such an incredible job with it originally. But when we started discussing the reissue, I asked him what he thought about revisiting the mixes.

At first, I wasn’t sure. Sometimes when you remix something, you remove little imperfections that have become part of its identity.

I was on the fence until J. sent me a remix of “Angel and I.” Once I heard that, I thought, “Okay, this really works.“

Looking back, I was only around twenty-one or twenty-two years old when we made that record. Naturally, a lot of the subject matter reflects where I was at the time.

There are songs about relationships, breakups, and all the things that seem monumental when you’re that age. If I wrote that album today, the subject matter would be completely different because those aren’t the issues I’m dealing with anymore.

For me, revisiting Just Enough Bright is definitely a trip down memory lane. But more than anything else, I’m proud of it.

What did it feel like when your releases started appearing on vinyl?
The first thing I did was buy a proper record player.

For me, vinyl is probably the ultimate format for artwork. The larger size gives you so much room to create something visually interesting. Between the packaging, colored vinyl variants, and everything else people are doing these days, it’s just a really cool format.

A lot of people buy vinyl because it’s something special to own. Some listeners play records all the time, but personally I’m not always sitting around in a situation where I can keep flipping records every twenty minutes.

Still, it’s exciting to have our music available in that format.

The funny thing is that now I’m suddenly getting people asking about CDs. I tell them, “Well, I made CDs for the last couple releases and nobody bought them then.”

I guess vinyl is the thing everybody wants now. But if enough people want CDs, we’ll have to figure something out.

Let’s talk about some of your other projects. Are you still involved with Breathing Trees?
Breathing Trees isn’t actually a music project.

It’s a glamping setup that I run on my property. We have a treehouse, cabins, and accommodations that people can book, kind of like an Airbnb experience.

That said, we recently hosted an event with a few acoustic performers and solo musicians, and it came out really well. It got me thinking about maybe hosting more live music there in the future.

Was there another musical project you were working on around that time?
Yeah, I had started putting together another band called Rare Beasts.

At the time, I wanted something that could get onstage quickly, play shows, and just rock without overthinking everything.

But then Time Spent Driving brought in a new drummer and bass player who were really enthusiastic about playing live. New opportunities started opening up, and I found myself wanting to put all my energy into Time Spent Driving instead.

So Rare Beasts ended up getting pushed to the side. Some of those songs may eventually find their way into Time Spent Driving anyway.

I also started a small label called ArtRock Recording Co. The original idea was to release a single, maybe handle some reissues, and potentially help out a few friends’ bands.

Like most side projects, it’s easier to start the idea than it is to find enough hours in the day to fully develop it.

Your new album is finally out. What’s next for Time Spent Driving?
We’re really excited to have the album out in the world because it definitely felt like it took a long time to get there.

The next step is getting back onstage. We’re currently working on putting together a few shows to get things moving again and see where they lead.

At the same time, I’ve already written more than enough material for another record.

We’re already demoing new songs and developing ideas, so creatively we’re in a really productive place. There’s also a new 7-inch in the works featuring a reworked song and another track that didn’t quite fit the flow of Lost Leaves.

That will probably come out later this year or early next year.

Beyond that, we’re also considering vinyl reissues of some of the other releases, so there’s a lot happening right now.

Do you have any messages for Time Spent Driving fans who have been following the band since the beginning, as well as those discovering you for the first time?
The longtime supporters are incredible.

Those are the people who’ve stuck with us through everything, continued to say kind things about the band, shared our music, and championed us all these years. They’re some of our biggest advocates.

It’s funny because a lot of those fans genuinely believe Time Spent Driving should have been much bigger than we were. They’re always asking what happened and why we weren’t playing to larger audiences.

That kind of support means a lot.

What’s been especially exciting lately is seeing new listeners discover the band. It feels like more people are finding us than ever before. They get the opportunity to experience the older material while also hearing brand-new music all at the same time.

We’re planning to keep creating, keep releasing music, and keep moving forward.

For everyone who’s been with us from the beginning, and for everyone who’s just discovering us now, we’re excited to have you along for the ride.

In Conclusion

Listening to Jon Cattivera speak about Time Spent Driving, one thing becomes abundantly clear: this is not a band content to live solely on nostalgia. While anniversaries for Just Enough Bright and I’m Your Stab in the Back provide opportunities to celebrate an important chapter in underground music history, Cattivera’s focus remains firmly fixed on the future. With Lost Leaves now out in the world, new material already taking shape, a forthcoming 7-inch release in the pipeline, and live performances finally on the horizon, Time Spent Driving appears to be entering one of its most creatively productive periods yet.

For longtime fans who have followed every twist and turn of the band’s journey, and for newcomers only now discovering these remarkable songs, the road ahead looks as promising as ever. After all these years, Time Spent Driving isn’t slowing down. If anything, they’re picking up speed.

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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