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On July 9th Natty and Myself got the opportunity to interview Vince Walker and Brian Robertson from Suburban Legends before their show at the Kool Haus in Toronto. It was their first time in Toronto and the Sound Factions first face-to-face interview. The show was phenomenal and the interview went great! We can not thank them enough!

This is a band that everyone should check out.

Enjoy the interview, we did!

How was Suburban Legends started? Where did the name come from?

Brian: It went through a couple different name changes, but I guess the original formation was just as simple as a couple of high school guys getting together and saying, "Hey, let's start a band". The real motivation was a high school talent show.

Vince: Someone asked me to be in a High School talent show and it gave birth to this. A lot of us grew up in the same area, and we somehow crossed paths and we were all into performing arts in high school. Now it's turned into this.

Do you like where it's headed?

Vince: We really like where it's headed.

Brian: In terms of the name, we had other names prior to Suburban Legends. We wanted something that sounded better then like the original. Like we started with No Tones, we were Bomb Squad for a while.

Vince: We used to be Lasertag and we had a website but it didn't work out.

Brian:We liked the word Suburban because it rolls off your tongue, and we're part of the Suburban life in California. We thought that would be appropriate . We had a couple different options for it but we all just ended up on Suburban Legends.

What inspired you to make music?

Vince: Music is something that I've been doing for a long time, and a lot of us have been doing for a long time in this band. Its a rush, its cool, its a really good feeling. We roll with that and we create magic together.

Whats your personal favorite moment as a band?

Vince: I think performing and probably writing songs and hearing them become something, because you do the demoing out and it doesn't sound that cool... and then you bring it to the band and it turns into this real song and it's awesome to me. Also just performing every night. The biggest thing for me is performing and writing music.

Brian: Performing is in general my favorite moment.

How do you guys feel about hearing people sing back your songs?

Vince: It's wild when the crowd sings back to you, and then they sing louder then you do and its amazing. It blows my mind.

What's your favorite song to perform?

Vince: Right now, I would have to say the new ones, off Lets Be Friends, Getting down to Business and Fire. Those are the funnest ones to play right now.

Brian: I like Teressa, because it has some really awesome horn parts in it. Being a horn player I like the horn section.

Do you have any favorite venues to play at?

Brian: project rat hole! (Laughing)

Is that actually a venue?

Brian: Project rat hole was just a garage in someones backyard. A while back we played the Hardrock live in Florida and that was also really cool because it was attached to Universal Park. So, you can kinda stroll backstage and walk into the park and be like "Yah, I know what I'm doing here", go on some rides then do sound check, then go on some more rides.

Vince: like The Mummy ride with Brenden Fraser is so good!

How has your music evolved since you started?

Vince: I think its gone from... I don't know cause, we always did a lot of ska, rock stuff and then we grew into doing rock stuff, then a little bit of disco stuff. Then we kinda enhanced that with "Dance Like Nobody's Watching" with the disco rock and "Infectious". We are definitely always trying new stuff, we're not afraid to try new stuff, to just throw it out there and see what happens. I think that's the biggest thing too, growing into the next album, "Lets Be Friends", it really kinda rounds out everything we've done. You always try and find what sounds good and feels right with everybody, not only the band but the audience too and this is a good representation of where we've come and where we're going at the same time. We're always growing. In what way? You never know, in a good way, in the best way.

Who is one of your biggest influences that people are surprised by?

Brian: I don't know if you'd be surprised because we are so wacky and like out there.

Vince: There's always pop music, like Hilary Duff, Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana.

Brian: Then there is the classics like N'Sync, Backstreet Boys as far as pop music. But then the guys are very influenced by hip-hop artists.

Vince: We listen to a lot of Wu-Tang Clan.

Brian: Sugar Free pop

Vince: Sugar Free the pimp! Promoting California!

Brian: Each guy has a lot of different influences. My fave group is Daft Punk.

Vince: It's cool because everybody listens to different stuff and we don't have one dictator in the band who writes all the songs everybody brings certain songs to the table and we round it out together. It really does show all the different influences that we have.

Brian: It's really hard to listen to music on the van, someone's not going to want to listen to it.

Vince: on the road it's country for me.

What does music, and being able to make music that so many people can relate to, mean to you?

Brian: For me it means a lot. Going back to one of the first questions, I can't remember what it was, but it was like "Why do you like making music?" or whatever. For me, when I was young what really affected me was seeing a performance of Cirque du Soliel. I saw one in Vegas, it had a huge impact on me and my life. With the combination of music and performance, I always listen to music and do performances, it was something that impacted me to the point where I was like "Wow". I wanted to be a part of the performance aspect of that and then eventually Suburban Legends gave me the opportunity to perform music as well as live performance. For me it almost came full circle, and its almost like a dream come true. If people are watching us and having that same feeling I once had, that's really important to me, and the other guys too.

Vince: It always trips me out that, even if they relate in a negative way, it's just people reacting to something we do is always pretty wild.

Brian: Whether the reaction is negative or positive, we want that reaction. We don't want that middle ground, like "Oh look a band. They played some music".

Vince: It's always exciting when people even came to react. That's pretty cool.

If you were put in charge of the music industry, what would be the first thing you would change?

Brian: Thats hard.

Vince: It's changing so much right now. If I was in charge of the music industry, music is a centerpiece since everybody is getting it so cheap and free. Nobody is really making money off that, there's other things that we have to do, like touring and merchandise to really stay a float and gain a name for yourself and do something exciting for people, it's really not an answer of what I would do. I would say first, I would have a huge money fight, because I'd have all the money in the industry and I would start throwing it at people. Then I'd say "Give it back", then I'd roll around in it a little bit, then maybe I'd start working on something.

What if the people were hurt by the money and sued you for it though? Then you'd have to give it back.

Vince: You can't get hurt from money!

A really bad paper cut?

Vince: Wow, that sounds dangerous to get a paper cut from money, do you know how gross money it? That'd be so infected! We had a friend that got hit in the eye with a beer bottle cap and now he has Glaucoma or something. Can you imagine money slicing, you'd get like Gonorrhea (laughs) is that it?

Gangrene?

Vince: Gangrene that's it. You'd get Gangrene, not Gonorrhea!! You don't wanna be rubbing money in that kinda place.

Brian: That's no place to rub money.

Vince: That's definitely not what I would be doing if I was running the music industry with my money (laughs)

We are all super pumped for the new album. What can we expect to hear this time around?

Brian: Awesome music! Like Vince was saying earlier, Let's Be Friends, is pretty music a combination of everything that we've ever dabbled with or put together. There are lots of tunes on there that Vince and Brian were writing back when we were recording "Rumpshaker" songs that never made it to the front. We revisited a lot and worked on them. I really like the tunes a lot.

Vince: It's gonna be exciting. We put our hearts and soul into the album, souls not just soul. We did a lot of stuff too, like the album artwork, we really just released ourselves, we had a good time with this and I think it shows.

And it drops tomorrow?

Vince: We actually have it on the road with us.

Brian: It's been out on the road for a couple days, but technically it comes out tomorrow.

Who comes up with the slick dance moves?

(Laughing Vince points to both Brian and himself)

Vince: Everybody in the front section, Brian, Luis and myself spend hours looking at ourselves in the mirror (laughs). We have these mirrors in the practice studio, it's a dance sesh. If any person came in, they would be very confused, sometimes we're even confused when were doing it, but in the end we come up with magic!

We at the Sound Faction have started this thing where we ask the 5 most random questions asked in an interview. Just because we are random.

If you were a scented candle what would you smell like?

Vince: We are random too! Lavender. That's just off the top of my head. I don't even know if I like lavender. That's just the first thing that popped in my head.

Brian: Lavender's good.

Vince: I wouldn't wanna be vanilla or anything.

Brian: Vanilla isn't so good. I'm a fruity guy, so I like berry.

Vince: (Laughs) Manly and fruity, great combination.

Whats your Favorite bath toy?

Vince: I'm guilty I don't take enough baths. I really wish I had the time to take baths, but our bath is disgusting. I think my favorite bath toy was, I remember having a boat or something.

Brian: I can't remember the name, but I had this little submarine thing, that would sink and surface. It was really cool, it wasn't like a cheesy one you got out of a cereal box. It was really nice. It wasn't huge, but it was a nice size. I can't remember the name of it.

Whats your favorite Dinosaur?

Vince: T. Rex

Brian: Matt Maley, he's our tour manager.

Vince: He's not our tour manager anymore, he's on tour with Story of the Year.

Brian: He left earlier in the tour, because they're gonna pay him.

Vince: What else is a good dinosaur? You know that one? I don't know what its called but it looks like a lizard, and they go (he flaps his hands by his face). Are those dinosaurs, or are they lizards?

Brian: I dunno, I think its just from Jurassic Park.

Vince: You know what I'm talking about though, right?

Yes I know what you're talking about.

Vince: They look like chickens or something. They still exist right?

Brian: Not anymore, I know what you're talking about.

I'm more into the Land Before Time dinosaurs

Vince: Like which one?

Spike!

Brian: What was Spike?

Vince: I like Triceratops too, that's my fave herbivore, they don't eat meat right? If I had to pick a herbivore, it would be a Triceratops.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure band or song?

Brian: Do you remember Prozzac? They were so much bigger in Canada then the US. But I got their cd and it was really good. I used to watch Much Music and saw Prozzac and thought "This is a band we don't have in the States".

They weren't big there?

Brian: They were never big there,They were huge here, I remember watching it on Much Music. Nothing in the states except for like a little bit on the Disney Channel, but that was later after Canada. What about Vince?

Vince: Guilty means like you're sorta embarrassed?

Brian: Almost like you shouldn't be listening, but not like you shouldn't, not like it's dirty or anything!

It's not something your friends would expect you to listen to.

Vince: Hannah Montana, last tour I listened to her album everyday. (Laughs to Natty). You look so disgusted by that! (Laughs) that's definitely a guilty pleasure.

Who would you wanna win a date with?

Vince: Wow! We just saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall. What's the girls name, she's on That 70's Show, and the voice on Family Guy?

Mila Kunis?

Vince: yeah, Mila Kunis, even thought I don't know her name. If I met her, I would wanna win a date with her or Carrie Ann Inaba from Dancing with the Stars. Carrie Underwood, she's a guilty pleasure too. Also there's this girl who's on MTV now, Leila Kaylie, oh I wanna win a date with her. It would be so awkward! (Laughs). That's pretty much all I can think of right now. How about you?

Brian: I have a girlfriend.

Vince: You're so sweet. So you would wanna win a date with your girlfriend?

Brian: Yes!

We want to thank you guys for taking the time to do this interview with us!

Brian: No, thank you!

Vince: Thank you guys!

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