Sick Transit Interview
Los Angeles natives Sick Transit throw a new kink into the formula most of today’s pop punk bands duplicate. The band takes the framework Blink-182 laid in the early 2000s with other icons in a new direction with relatable lyrics and progressive chord patterns. After nearly two years Sick Transit continues to refine their sound by taking a new prospective and alternating members. By the Barricade sat down with Jack Kessler and Sam Cranis to learn more about their two EPs and future plans. You can find the full transcripts below.
Jack Kessler: Guitar/ Vocals
Sam Cranis: Drums
By the Barricade: What challenges have presented themselves while being a two piece band and how has Sick Transit overcome them?
Jack Kessler: We didn’t start off as a two piece band. Our friend Adam used to be one of our guitarists but then left to focus on personal affairs. Having him play with us gave off such a big sound that was really loud and filled the room we practice in. After playing with Adam for so long it just felt pretty weird not having him around and hearing that backing guitar. It was also difficult to write song parts because I had to do everything “music” wise and figure out a way for the solos to not sound so empty. To overcome this, we just took our time and really made each guitar part count. Then while recording, we’d put in bass lines and backers to fill in for what we lost with Adam. We feel that we’ve come out of the two piece band experience stronger as musicians and band mates.
By the Barricade: I noticed you perform with two additional members. Do you plan on incorporating other musicians or continue recording as a two piece?
Jack Kessler: Sick Transit went through a little rollercoaster ride of band members. We originally started out as a completely different three piece band with me, Adam and my neighbor Harlan who would play drums. Harlan wasn’t really fitting our music style so we let him go and found Sam. That’s when Sick Transit really came to be. We planned on keeping that lineup but seven months later Adam left. The bassist we played with in the video on our YouTube page is a friend of mine who I asked as a favor to come and play that show with us and Eli is our friend who helped record our second EP and helped record bass on a song. We weren’t planning on working with them. We were always meant to be a three piece band, so it was like we needed them. But we now have a new bassist, his name is Nik, and he is committed to the band and will be playing with us for now on!
By the Barricade: Where does the name Sick Transit come from?
Sam Cranis: I got the name from a bunch of different connections. I was on YouTube watching music videos and I saw that one of my favorite bands, We Are The In Crowd, did a cover of the song “Sic Transit Gloria…Glory Fades” and it brought back memories of listening to the original by Brand New when it was first released. After listening to it for hours, I became obsessed with the song like it was my first time hearing it all over again. Obviously now I have a fond love for both versions but the title of the song seemed so familiar to me like there was somewhere else I’ve seen that name. I later found out it was from one of my favorite movies “Rushmore”. In the early days of the band we were looking for a solid name and since I was so in love with the song I thought it would be cool to use the title as our name but put a Pop Punk pun onto it by making the “Sic” into “Sick”. Plus it just sounds good.
By the Barricade: Sick Transit has been a band for just over two years. How has your sound progressed in that time?
Jack Kessler: In the beginning we would just play a lot of Blink-182 covers because that’s all we really knew how to play together. I wrote the songs on the first EP Stop the Bus and was heavily influenced by early Blink. Later on we branched out into playing other types of punk songs from bands like NOFX and Lagwagon. We had a lot of fun experimenting with those different sounds. Over time we’ve drifted a little bit from the straight Blink 182 Pop Punk sound and developed a hybrid between our own creativity and other forms of rock. The Deminos EP is a perfect example of that. I think we came off with more musically complicated songs.
Sam Cranis: We wanted to try out different song progressions because so far a lot of our songs were very basic structures. I think we also wanted to try different sounds in general because we’re not a known band at all. So this gives us the opportunity to find our official sound so when we do get discovered by more people, we will have had time to figure out what we sound like as a band. As of right now, it seems to me like we’re a mix of the “Enema of State” era of Blink-182 and some later days of Rancid.
By the Barricade: I hear a lot of Blink-182 style undertones behind your music. If you had a mascot like Blink-182’s bunny, what would it be and why?
Sam Cranis: It’s funny that you bring that up because I thought about this a couple months back. I knew since we were going down the path of an early 2000s era of Pop Punk, we needed a mascot just like Blink’s bunny. I sat on my bed and thought “What animal is Pop Punk?” and for some reason I landed on a squirrel. I honestly don’t know why but I just thought a squirrel was perfect because I guess our sound is kind of hyper like a squirrel and I don’t know; squirrels can be cute. So I came up with what I hope to be our future mascot soon, Scotty the Squirrel! The most Pop Punk squirrel out there!
By the Barricade: Releasing both your Deminos EP and Stop the Bus EP for free on Bandcamp was an interesting choice. Do you have any plans of creating physical CDs in the future, or will you continue down the digital route?
Jack Kessler: We do hope on releasing them on CD when the full album is done. After the completion of the second EP we actually did burn quite a few CDs and gave them out with the sales of the T-shirts we made, but it wasn’t an official CD release and it wasn’t very publicized except for in the video we posted on our Facebook page.
Sam Cranis: I think the smartest thing to do is both. People are downloading music more than buying CDs (or even buying music in general). As of now, I think it would be in our best interest to keep what we have out now as free and when we do make physicals, we sell them cheap. Once we release our full album however, I think I would want to try to make it available as far out as possible. A physical copy of it is what we plan on doing but man; people steal music anyway so putting it online may just help us out even more than we think!
By the Barricade: Are streaming services like Spotify and Beats Music in the future for Sick Transit?
Sam Cranis: I’d be down for that! Whatever gets our music out to more people I’m always going to be down for. I use Spotify every day and I think it’s a great app for music lovers so to be a part of it would be awesome! It’s just a matter of time of when we feel comfortable putting our music on there.
Jack Kessler: Yeah. Maybe when the full album comes out we’ll put it on Spotify too, just to make it accessible on as many platforms as possible.
By the Barricade: “Buy The Lie” is my favorite track off your Deminos EP. Can you tell me a little more about that song?
Sam Cranis: I wrote that song hoping that it would give off a different message to whoever listened to it. The main idea of it is basically having a relationship with someone whether it be a girlfriend/boyfriend, crush, friend, or even a family member and having your connection cut off from the distance between each other whether its miles away or a couple feet. The whole idea of “Buying The Lie” was that you’d promise one another that you’ll stick together forever but then soon realize, that it won’t happen and either you live with regret of your relationship breaking a part or you learn that there’s nothing you can do about and you in terms, move on.
By the Barricade: Have you been working on any new tracks?
Jack Kessler: Yes, we have! We are currently in the process of working on six or seven new songs. We are really excited to share them with the public! We’re not exactly sure when they’ll be ready for release due to logistical issues with recording but we can promise that they will pack a punch!
By the Barricade: I noticed you have one of your live sets posted on your YouTube Chanel. Do you have any plans to post music videos there as well?
Sam Cranis: I think music videos are essential for bands, especially today. Recently, the way I’ve been finding out about new artists is through music videos on YouTube. I always love when bands make great videos either by making the song visually great to watch and listen to or when they’re just having fun in the video. To answer your question though, we have started planning on our first music video for our song “Lady Night ‘04” which we hope to have out sometime in the spring.
Jack Kessler: Yeah, as soon as we have more shows we’ll put more live videos up too. But we are in the process of recovering from the summer of not having new material and not having a bassist. As soon as we get our current lineup up to speed we hope to be playing as many shows as possible and getting more videos up.
By the Barricade: Sick Transit was recently featured on The Pizza Pie Compilation from Rise or Die Records and Promotions. What’s it been like working with Rise or Die, and how did you get connected?
Jack Kessler: The guys over at Rise or Die are fantastic! They were responsive and helpful during the compilation process and have proved to be great relationship partners for future endeavors in the music world.
Sam Cranis: You know I got to thank Facebook for the connection we’ve made with Rise or Die. I was scrolling through my newsfeed and I stumbled upon a page I followed that asked for any Pop Punk bands who wanted to be on a compilation. I didn’t think it would go anywhere so I linked our band page. But then Andrew Andrade, the man behind it all, actually hit me up and we ended up actually being on their compilation. Since then, I’ve become very close with Andrew and I can’t thank him enough for everything he’s opened up to us. We’re proud to be a part of the Rise or Die team and I know if anyone will get us anywhere out there in the music world, its Andrew and his team!
By the Barricade: Keeping with the pizza theme, can you tell me your favorite pizza topping and a topping you never want to see on top of a pizza?
Jack Kessler: It’s definitely pepperoni and mushroom. That’s a combo that can never go wrong! It combines the salty and savory flavor of the pepperoni with that rich creamy mushroom flavor. They come together in an orgasmic explosion of taste buds defying deliciousness that gets me every time. Occasionally, when I’m feeling really out there, I may even get some bacon on there. But bananas and/or pineapple are pizza sins in my book. Keep the damn fruit away from the fucking pizza! God dammit!
Sam Cranis: I always like to have chicken and bacon on my pizza. I’m a simple man with a simple love for meat so really any meat will do. But for something I don’t want to see on my pizza? I don’t know… I guess … toothpaste. I’m in a Pop Punk band man, I love pizza so I’ll eat about just anything on it.
By the Barricade: Is there anything else you want to say to the readers of By the Barricade?
Jack Kessler: We’re super excited and looking forward to putting out great new tracks for everyone. I can definitely say that we anticipate on playing more shows especially now with our new badass lineup with our friend Nik. And that Sick Transit loves you!
Sam Cranis: Thanks for supporting the local music scene and checking in with this fantastic site. Hopefully we caught your attention enough for you to check us out. We love everyone who loves to party and who loves us. You can always hit us up on our band pages on the inter webs. Hope to see some new faces at any of our shows in LA!
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