Mainline Interviewed
by Chip Midnight @ Skratch Magazine (Published in the March 2007 issue #132)
The Southern California punk scene is littered with kids who play "follow the leader" rather than setting their own destiny. You know what I'm talking about-the dime-a-dozen, four-chord Bad Religion knock-offs that are content recycling riffs that were written 20 years ago. Hemet, CA's Mainline pays homage to the bands that influenced them-including Bad Religion and Pennywise but they inject their own style of melodic rock into the music, making them one of the fresher-sounding bands in the So Cal Scene today.
With two full-length releases (2003's PLACEBO and 2006's NOTICE OF DISCONNECTION) under their belt, vocalist Mike Monlux says that he and bandmates Jeff Sills (guitars), Jesse Montano (guitars), Ciamak Kavand (bass), and Bryan Ruiz (drums) are just starting to warm up.
The 26-year-old singer (who was born in Anchorage) took some time to answer questions via e-mail.
SKRATCH: Did you grow up in a musical household?
MIKE: I was completely musically deprived as a child. I had a punk-ass country loving big brother, a top-40-countdown mom, and a radio-that's it. I wasn't introduced to punk rock until freshman year of high school.
SKRATCH: What inspired you to start Mainline? Were you friends with the rest of the guys in the band before the band started?
MIKE: I was inspired to start Mainline while in Compton in 1996. We didn't know that this popular punk tour had stops in San Diego AND Compton, so John and I bought tickets at Ticket master and then later realized we'd bought tickets to the show in Compton. I was 16 and looked a lot older and I'm standing right in front of one of the stages waiting for the band to come on. To start their set, they had a beer-drinking contest, where eight people from the audience got up on stage and had to chug a bottle of Heineken. They say "go" and I get done first. I hold my beer out in front of me and look down the line and everyone else is still drinking. Then the announcer says, "And the foam too", so I put the beer back up to my lips. Just then, the guy next to me finished and held his out upside down so the foam came out. They had the audience applaud to determine who won, and the guy next to me had the loudest applause-even though I really won! All he won was a lousy shirt. Feeling cheated, I make my way back through the crowd over to where my friends were. As I'm grumbling to myself, some random guy says "Hey, I saw that. You won, man!" That random appreciation from a complete stranger was somehow gratifying. Looking back, that was the first moment I ever really wanted to be up on stage.
SKRATCH: How do you fit into the SoCal punk scene?
Mike: We definitely have good name recognition in the Inland Empire, which is pretty much our house and everywhere else within a 40-minute drive. We've been doing our thing out here since 1999 and have been promoting ourselves since 2003. The clubs in town that book national acts typically call us to open because we have a great draw out here and a fun crowd. Everyone out here knows that when they come to a Mainline show, we're going to be the drunkest ones in the bar and will be there to close that bitch down.
SKRATCH: What is the most memorable show that you've played?
MIKE: Well, we've had a few shows that I'll never forget. There was this one show when we first released our last CD, PLACEBO. I didn't know it but our friend had given copies to like 50 people and all of them showed up and crammed into the living room of his apartment. All of these people that I didn't know were singing along with every song. That was one of the most memorable for me because I write most of the lyrics. There was like 100 people in a two-bedroom apartment that I thought was going to collapse, and it was fucking great.
SKRATCH: How are the paydays for Mainline?
MIKE: I framed our first royalty check; it was for less than two bucks. We spend far more money than we make-and we have fun doing it. When we make money, it's usually eaten up by our bar tab. Fuck it. At least we're not playing 80s covers all night just to make a buck.
SKRATCH: There seems to be a lot of third-rate Bad Religion knock-offs out there, but Mainline doesn't come across as just another SoCal punk band. You've got some straightforward rock influences, as well. Where does that come from?
MIKE: We all influence the music we write. Some of us like punk songs, and some like rock songs. The notes we get paid in are not legal tender; all we get is our tunes. So, sometimes we write more rock songs that some of us like more than others, sometimes we go full punk that the others like more, and most of the time we fuse them so everyone's happy. Some purists say we're not punk or we're not punk enough or bullshit like that, but fuck them. I can't think of anything more punk than not giving a shit what someone thinks about me or what I do. To us it's more the ideology than having to limit our skills to drunken shouts and four-chord musical cliches.
SKRATCH: Where in the evolution is Mainline?
MIKE: It's been a downhill battle since birth for most of us, but overall I'd say Mainline is still on the upswing. We are a bit of an unstable bunch-just stable enough to keep the band together, and no more. We are to the point where we are confident in our music and our musicianship and our live shows and are trying to promote the shit out of it so that we can get some free equipment, studio time, tour support, and distribution. We are always evolving, and some of the new songs we have are our best yet. If Mainline's evolution starts as a one-celled organism and ends as a human, right now we're probably whales with gimpy little feet crawling onto land for the first time. We've got a long way to go before we're civilized.
