Eken is Dead Interview
Eken is Dead’s dynamic, rock-solid sound needs to be not only heard, but seen live. That is just what By the Barricade did last Friday when they hit the stage at Fitzgerald’s in Huntington Beach. We have said this about several bands, but Eken is Dead’s live performance is off the charts. This South Bay, CA band’s style defies normal genre classifications with their own high energy blend of punk, rock, metal and more. Fronted by lead singer Chris Navarrete the four piece gives it their all for each and every song and engage the crowd like no other. Nearing their 400th live show since 2008, these guys have it down. With two full length albums and a recently released EP, there are plenty of Eken is Dead tunes to enjoy, but you just need to see them. By the Barricade talked with all four members before their set and the full interview transcripts follow.
Simon Johnson, drums
Gagg Green, bass
Chris Navarrete, vocals
Vic Arevalo, guitar
By the Barricade: According to your Facebook page, Eken is Dead is about letting go of old dreams and moving on to the new and fighting for what matters to you today. What new thing are you guys doing or working on?
Chris Navarrete: We just got a new drummer (Simon Johnson) and now what we are working on is bringing back a lot of our old songs. That has been our goal. When you switch lineups so much, songs get lost in the shuffle and you don’t really realize why you didn’t learn a particular song you just had your set list and you stick to it. We got kind of bored so we thought we would bring back at least half of our first album and then we have our second album pretty much done and our third album we have everything but one song. It is an eight song epic so we need to get to it eventually. We thought if we challenge ourselves and get the old songs we would be able to sprinkle in a few old ones into the set. If they go over really well, sweet. If they suck maybe we will can them, but at least we tried. We have really concentrated on that and have played a little less shows to make sure we can play all every song. It kind of sucks if someone asks for a song and we don’t know how to play that one anymore.
Simon Johnson: It was nice for me too because I have been following these guys for years. In fact for their third show they played with one of my band’s last shows. So it has been nice to have the whole catalog to choose from. It’s like a best of record when we play live.
Chris Navarrete: It is definitely something we haven’t been able to do in a while. Lately that has been the focus as well as trying to play bigger and better shows. You were at the St. Rocke show and we’d like to have more of those and less excess in the middle. We want to bring people out for a good reason, peak their interest, and get them excited. It’s not just your local dive bar every other Friday. It’s a big show every two or three months playing with bands that you need to see. That is the goal.
Simon Johnson: We’ve been working on some new songs; just jamming on some new ideas too. It’s always nice to get back in a band that is proactive and honestly trying to move forward.
Chris
Navarrete: Old stuff and new stuff; there has been more work in the studio than anything else. That is what matters. Everything else is extra like politics and merchandise and all of that shit.
By the Barricade: Another aspect I read about your band name is about fighting for things that you believe in. Are there particular things you are fighting for today?
Chris Navarrete: I am definitely fighting for a good life for my new wife (I didn’t mean to make that rhyme). I’m always looking for better ways to provide for her and create a life for us and hopefully our future kids one day. It’s not going to be paying the bills through music that is for sure. But for the last six years I have tried to make that a possible opportunity, so I have worked my ass off to see if it could happen. Looking at it now, it would be hard money-wise. Family is always first.
Simon Johnson: Family definitely. This band is really big, it’s almost like joining a family.
Chris Navarrete: There are a million causes in the world to fight for but the thing that we preach about the most in our music is giving an homage to the troops and the work that they do. It is not always a choice that they have. These kids are sometimes 18 and it is either work at McDonalds or go into the army or join the marines. We like to stand by them and a lot of our songs are about trying to empathize with what they go through and what we go through. We draw comparisons and hopefully draw some actual mediums between the two. Obviously it is not the same thing but we try to live through them in our music.
Vic Arevalo: That’s not to say that we don’t care about the civilian punker kid who is alone in his room feeling like nobody understands him. Maybe one of our songs speaks to that kid. We still love that kid just as much, it is just the military is one of the things that is important to us. With the sacrifices the military do give, they definitely deserve respect.
Gagg Green: They are sacrificing for that punk rock kid to feel like shit in his room. Maybe I was that punk rock kid sitting in my room that couldn’t go into the military. Obviously I could have, but it wasn’t for me. I am very thankful that it is the thing for some people. It wasn’t for me but I am very thankful
Chris Navarrete: That is the thing we are drawn to. Hard work, discipline, making it happen.
Simon Johnson: Also, never giving up.
Chris Navarrete: “No Retreat, No Surrender” is our mantra.
Simon Johnson: Push it forward and ride it until it breaks.
Chris Navarrete: If we have a bad show, it’s on to the next one.
By the Barricade: I’ve seen a couple of your shows now and it you pack a lot of energy into each and every set. I read in another interview that you draw from other high energy bands for inspiration and motivation, is there anything in your personal life that maintains or balances that pace?
Chris Navarrete: If there are friends or family in the audience, we are damn well going to rock their socks off.
Simon Johnson: We feed off the audience a lot, but at the same time even if there are five people in the audience, we will still give it 100%.
Chris Navarrete: I think we even go harder because you think, “All I’ve got it is you right there and if you leave, I blew it and did a shitty job.” So I am going to work harder for those five that show up. It is like having a guest come to my home. If they show up, I want it to be for a reason and maybe they say, “You’re not my type of music, but I’ll be here again,” which is fine.
Simon Johnson: For me, it doesn’t matter if we play first or last. We are always going to be the headliner.
Chris Navarrete: Headlining is what you make it.
By the Barricade: I read that you strive to make an impression on people the first time they see you. What is some of the feedback you get after your sets?
Gagg Green: “You are wet and sweaty.”
Chris Navarrete: “He jumped on the bar and drank some of my beer. Why did he do that? Is that normal?”
Simon Johnson: “He kicked my beer across the bar.”
Chris Navarrete: Things I get a lot at the merch booth are, “Hey, I’ll buy a shirt.” I’ll ask if they want a CD too and a lot of people who are just guests say, “No, I just want to support you guys. To be honest you are not my type of music, but I love watching you guys and I’ll wear your shirt around town but I probably won’t listen to the CD.” That happens a lot at shows and I’m fine with that. I’d rather someone tell me honestly what their music is and that they would rather save their CD for someone else. Those things are expensive.
All: *Laughing.
By the Barricade: That is honest. It kind of surprises me that you hear that often because your sound is a fusion of metal, rock, punk, etc… And you offer your friends a variety. Do you see that diversity in people?
Chris Navarrete: Maybe we get that reaction from 25% or so. For first reactions it is more about the show. We get people that say they are stoked on the album but I’d say 90% of the people are stoked on our live show.
Vic Arevalo: 
You refer to the different blends genres but we talk about this frequently in house. It could be a reggae/ska/punk show or a pretty gnarly metal show and even though Easy Listening is a stretch, we will play with anybody. We offer something to pretty much any music listener. Chris touched on this and he nailed it pretty well. Maybe it is not your particular brand of music, but we are going to put on a show and that is something that is very important to us.
Gagg Green: I get that a lot. People tell me, “I’m not into that type of stuff, but that was rad! People are so pumped afterwards that they may say, “I’m not even into this, but,Yes!” You can’t see my face, but I say, “Yes!”
Chris Navarrete: We set up probably 90% of our shows. We will put an acoustic act on, we will sometimes put a reggae band on. Sometimes its bands like us and sometimes it is not. We like to have different genres because that is going to bring people from different walks of life and it is a new opportunity to play for people who probably wouldn’t listen to us. We are always looking for a change. We have been on tour with Authority Zero and I don’t think we sound anything like them, but we love them and we have a good time. The energy is there. We have played with Helmet and I don’t think we sound like Helmet but it was rad. It was technically the biggest band we have ever played with. We have played with Voodoo Glow Skulls but the shows were all fun and they brought new fans and new listeners.
By the Barricade: You are a hard working DIY band putting out your own records, managing yourself, booking gigs – what if any social media or streaming tools have you found helpful in getting your music to new fans?
Simon Johnson: My Space!
All: *Laughing.
Chris Navarrete: That used to be really good actually.
Simon Johnson: One of the best.
Chris Navarrete: My Space died right about when we started. It was on its way out. He (Vic) usually does most of our social media. It seems like Facebook is the bigger in terms of following, but I don’t know how much they listen to the music on Facebook.
Vic Arevalo: The cool thing about social media these days is that most of them are compatible with one another and everything is linked. Whether it be on Facebook or Twitter, Instagram or whatever else, it is all linked so it just goes out. It is a good hub for everything else on social media. Since I do most of our social marketing, I do see a different population of people on each platform which is good. Wherever you are finding music or whatever works for you that is really awesome.
Chris Navarrete: We like calling people too.
Simon Johnson: We text people.
Vic Arevalo:: We definitely do that. We have a very primitive form where we will talk to people. We say, “Hey, have you heard about this? We did this really cool thing.”
Gagg Green: Flyers. Flyers at Kinko’s.
Chris Navarrete: It’s been a while since we have done flyers.
Vic Arevalo: Hard copy flyers are a thing of the past, but you need to make sure you get one of the posters tonight. They look great. I’m a huge fan of those and our practice space is a testament to that. We have hundreds of flyers from a lot of our shows. I just love the art process of it. It is a lot of fun. I do a lot of our digital flyers and it’s a fun quick snapshot and something to remember. Even if you didn’t like the show, you may be stoked on the show flyer. Our first bass player’s wife made on Shutterfly or something, a grid of sixty flyers on one sheet and printed it out for everybody. It was a quick glimpse back at all of the bands and all of the shows from that six month or yearlong period.
Chris Navarrete: We are coming up to our 400th show, its fun to look back, 2008 was a while ago. Sometimes we don’t put the year on our flyer, but I wish we did now. It is weird to put it on something that is coming up but ten years from now, it will be cool to remember.
Vic Arevalo: I have always been a big fan back to the real hard-core DIY when the hand flyers were copied at Kinko’s or you were cutting them and making them yourself. Chris loaned me his copy of Filmage and I just love those old flyers and in Decline of Western Civilization, all of those real hard core flyers. Now looking back those flyers are collector’s items. Even if they are on notebook paper people are stoked seeing names like Black Flag, Descendents, NOFX all on the same flyer. We have a lot of those. We have seen a lot of our friends go on to cool things.
By the Barricade: Switching gears, I know it sounds sort of standard, but one of my favorite songs off your latest EP is the title track Outlier because the theme and lyrics resonate with me personally. What do you do in your song writing process to make that connection with listeners?
Chris Navarrete: There is a lot of layering. It starts off with these two guys (Gagg and Vic) and then they get a rhythm going. I usually then find things I like to sing along with. I’ll decide I really like this as a singing part, I like this as a musical part. Then Gagg comes in and he does some of the correcting of the keys and the tuning and then he (Simon) sprinkles in his stuff and it all comes together. Sometimes the lyrics are written right then and there just by what I hear him (Vic) doing. Sometimes he may have half a sheet of paper written and he will give it to me and I’ll write off of that. It’s always different and I try to be open minded.
Gagg Green: Musically I really only care about myself, Vic, Simon and Chris. If we are all cool with it, I honestly don’t care what other people think. If other people dig it then that is the extra bonus. I’m not a lyric kind of guy.
Vic Arevalo: I’ll take it back another step from these guys. First and foremost, the four of us are music fans. If it is music we get stoked about, we hope there is somebody else that will get stoked about it too. If it’s not firing us up, then is it really going to excite someone else. I try to think about it from the listener standpoint and think about if this is something I would want to hear.
Chris Navarrete: I am a big fan of first instincts too. If there is an open riff and I like what I hear or if I am singing along and I find that melody, that is most likely what I am going to stick with. I try not to go against the grain when it comes to that kind of stuff. Usually what you hear and you like right away, like an album, you are going to love it later. If you don’t like it right away you may grow to love it but that is not what I am looking for. I want something that I have automatically in my head and then I know it will be even better.
By the Barricade: You guys do have very rich songs with lots of solos and instrumental parts so you can really hear and appreciate all of that.
Chris Navarrete: Some of those things that you hear are a testament to Gagg. He recorded that album too so it was as DIY as you get on this. Not only was there merch and show booking but the actual writing, recording, mixing, producing was all done with us together.
Gagg Green: Except mastering. We did have our hands in on it but we didn’t personally do it.
Vic Arevalo: Shout out to Gene Grimaldi at Oasis Mastering. We thank him for that even to this day.
Gagg Green: He’s the shit.
By the Barricade: Any stories fans have shared with you about your music in their life?
Vic Arevalo: One of the biggest honors I have ever heard was from a good friend of ours, Beer Punks Justin. He is a U.S. Marine Corps vet and he has shared some pretty heavy stuff with us and with his permission and his blessing we have used those ideas in song content and it is really cool. We have had opportunity to send some stuff down range to troops that are in the hot zones. We hear really nice things. They appreciate that we are sending music and that we care and that we think about them. Not to get political or anything because your political stance can be this, that or the other, but the bottom line is these are guys our age or younger that are doing a job that we are not doing. We respect and appreciate that regardless of the politics behind it. To know that they appreciate what we do, whether they go into battle and get fired up. Or just having the music to just be there with them is huge for us.
Chris Navarrete: We got to play a couple of times on a Marine base. Oceanside is probably one of our favorite place to go to. They have a good group of Marines that come out. If they get shipped off, I still keep in touch with them. One of the coolest things that happened was when we played for a group that had just walked in. After the show, on guy was so inspired by the set that he actually gave me one of his medals that he had earned. I asked, “Are you sure you want to give this to me?” So I have a medal in my room from a guy who was inspired by our music. He wrote us recently and said, “Hey, can you guys send me some cigarettes?
All: Laughing
Vic Arevalo: It is rad to have those connections with people. At the end of the day we are just four regular guys who have been blessed with music and we have been able to keep fighting and doing this for people in a scheme that is bigger than us. That always makes it worth it for me, especially on days that are bad and we are infighting about this, that and the other. You get up there and you are able to do something bigger than yourself. That is huge; that is magic to me.
By the Barricade: Where can people see you guys in the near future?
Chris Navarrete: We are in Modesto and San Francisco March 6 & 7. Those are usually cool shows. As far as locally we don’t have a show until April 17. That will be our 400th show and it’s in Torrance. If you are local, that would be a good one to go to. We usually have a giveaway and we will be bringing back some old songs and maybe play a new one. That is all we have now, just about 4 or 5 shows on the plate.
Vic Arevalo: It looks like we will be playing on 4/20 with Mothsounds up at the Viper Room that is another one that will be fun.
Gagg Green: Mothsounds and Crobot. It’s going to be a good one.
Vic Arevalo: We are looking to be busy the rest of the year, while we can’t announce anything official yet you can check out Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – wherever people are plugged into. We are easy to find, there is only one Eken is Dead which is kind of cool. We are coming to you guys.
Chris Navarrete: You are basically a jerk if you don’t come out. We are driving 300-600 miles to see you, the least you can do is drive a mile to see us.
Gagg Green: If you want to hang out in the van, just give us a cheap bottle of whiskey.
Whiskey or not, be sure to catch Eken is Dead at an upcoming show. Hear Eken is Dead on Soundcloud. Find Like them on Facebook, follow @ekenisdead on Twitter, Instagram and their website to keep up with the latest bookings for Eken is Dead.
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