Posted on September 6, 2009 - by Editor

The kids will be united. Left Alone

Left Alone © Imelda Michalczyk

Left Alone is a band with a core spirit that embraces all the best facets of punk, DIY, integrity and great music. The driving force in Left Alone is the original member and instigator Elvis Cortez who, along with the band, has his own label, merchandise, and is an ex club owner. On the back of their new album, the self titled release through Hellcat, they might have produced their finest record yet and have been touring Europe in May to showcase their growing stature and solidarity with the new line-up. Elvis managed to shed some light on his background: growing up in Wilmington, gang troubles, and the new record of course.

Left Alone are- Elvis Cortez- Lead vocals & Guitar, Nick Danger- Bass, Corba Kiel- Drums, Jimmy James- Keyboards/Roadie (Live Only)

So this is the first time we at Distorted have caught up with you. Your hometown Wilmington, in California, seems to feature a lot in Left Alone.

Yeah it’s a very small town between Long Beach and San Pedro which are bigger towns. It’s right at the end of the freeway, right on the water. It’s pretty much like a port in LA, where all the goods get shipped in. It’s a very small ghetto; mainly just like gang members and really not many punk rockers, but the few of us have started to get together. So yeah it’s a really small town. It’s pretty cool and sometimes it really sucks; cos you will be hanging out at my house and you will hear the gun shots and then the helicopters, cars screeching, but then other days you don’t hear anything and that’s great ya know. And the band stays over at my place, between tours, and silk screen in my house in the garage which is the studio, and it’s really cool to have the garage door open all night till four in the morning. But sometimes it’s like “Shit, close the door!”

Have you grown up there your whole life?

Yeah I was raised there pretty much, I was raised in Mexico for two years when I was a kid and that was really cool too.

Whereabouts in Mexico?

In the south, like two hours south of Mexico City. It was a very 1920’s kinda town; no electricity, no running water. People would hook up their TVs to car batteries to watch it. And I was like nine or ten and that was cool- I had a horse. I used to fight roosters when I was a kid. It was a different life to living in the US; like going to school and playing with your toys. I got two years to kind of wander off. I went to school but flunked I never paid attention. I learned Spanish pretty well, but I kinda hung out there; and I think that made me more humble and appreciate basic things like electricity and running water. But then I moved back, my parents’ split up and I have always been in Wilmington since. I tour a lot but that’s home.

How did you “fall” into punk rock?

Well I never did just kind of fall into it, cos it was not that popular at all; not many people in my town played it and I wasn’t old enough to drive and leave my town or whatever. I saw this band play; I was kind of hanging out selling (pauses and grins). Well hanging out; I don’t remember-let’s say I was at a party, but not a punk party. So I was sitting there and I heard this band playing, and as I got closer, I was really small but made it through the cracks & saw this band play. Back then they were called Backstreet Boys and changed their name to 13 Dead and Drive and I signed them to my label later on. They were a very Social Distortion, kinda greaser punk. So I saw them and instantly was like “Ok, I want to do that” and I went home and little by little got into it, my sister got me a guitar. I gravitated towards music, like you find a band and like their stuff and that makes a whole bunch of problems escape. And I always held on to that DIY ethic and started doing things for myself. Starting with a little band with my friends and more and more, as I grew up, the more I got into it the more it opened up doors to ideas. Like I found out about Minor Threat and they put out records by themselves so I can do that. And then Lookout Records and Epitaph and these other avenues, and you start making it on your own.

And your label, it’s called Smelvin?

Yeah Smelvis.

Sorry, Smelvis- is that still going or what’s happening?

Oh yeah, I’m putting out, well I signed Pete from The Nekromantix, the original guitar player, he has a new band called Hollow Ghost; their album will come out in September, and I still put out different bands I help out with and if I don’t put out albums I will help with compilations. A lot of my friends bands I have met on tour- it’s more like a hobby for me.

Do you still run it from your garage?

Oh yeah, I have distributors and now I have more people helping me, ‘cos when we (Left Alone) got signed a lot more people started buying Left Alone Records and so then they were figuring out “Oh wait this is not their first one (record); they have three more” and there was more of a demand for my stuff so I started working with distributors to help me get out more.

There are a lot of LPs, EPs etc that you are involved in; this is your fourth album right?

Yeah (running through all four), This is the 44th- before like, the whole punk rock thing, we would do a 7” and then EP’s. We did that in the beginning ‘cos you need to expose yourself , to do a full length for a band no one knows is not a good idea. And you chance the waters and that’s pretty good. But now we have all those EP’s and splits on one CD which is pretty good. Like 22 songs on one CD versus a whole bunch of 7”.

Have you moved towards digitising everything?

So far I have a few things on ITunes and I’m meant to do a few more. I’m more into having bands sell CD’s or records but times have changed and you have to move with it. So yeah if you can get it online that’s great and you don’t have to repress it. It’s cheaper on me ‘cos it does cost a lot of money to press records and it keeps my overheads down.

Cool. So have you seen a change in the local (Wilmington) scene over the years?

Yeah definitely. Back in the day it was me and my bass player and the drummer was a metal head, he still played the punk stuff, a couple of our girlfriends and a couple friends from a nearby town. And then I opened a club, because I would always read about Gilman Street- all ages and five bucks and I wanted one of those. We opened a warehouse in Wilmington and did shows real cheaply; I think I paid $75 to put on a show. That it started to develop as we bought more bands in. Then I had a record store for a while in 2003 (PCH Club) and we used to have shows in the back parking lot. Now if you go to Wilmington there are shed loads more of punks; which is really cool whether they are hardcore, crusties, pop punk kids or ska kids, whatever , there is a big variety. Ya know you find your own niche and whatever you are into and that’s cool. For a long time there were a lot of hardcore punks, like The Casualties, and I was really stoked ‘cos I finally saw someone else with a mohawk and then I would see someone else with charged hair or liberty spikes. And now there are a lot of little cliques which is cool, ‘cos it makes the whole scene bigger. It’s still so small that if a band plays in a backyard, like a show I went to a couple months ago and you see all the crowd different but still together.

Ok so let’s talk about the new album which has been out for five or six weeks now. Its different to previous albums; and correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s a little more personal and you have tackled issues you haven’t done before, like the political song “Bomb’s Away”. What’s the reason for the change of direction?

You can see the changes in the album and the band in general from like ‘Dead American Radio’ record which had diverse sounds ‘cos we were travelling so much and on tour so much we were picking up so many different vibes and trying different things, actually with this new album I had the time and luxury to sit down and write a whole new record. I had a whole other record ready to record and then I took some time to play bass for The Unseen- it gave me a different time to evaluate and see different vibes, and put wind in the sails and I was feeling good.

I came home and tried to record this record in this house in a studio in a house up in the hills that we all lived in. So that really helped. I think that’s why the record sounds so cohesive and together, we had time to write good stuff. And I chose to write lyrically different to the other ones. I wanted to push myself in other directions and do things we don’t do. And experiment on other things and release some of the stuff we hadn’t had a chance to do. I think it worked out well ‘cos usually there is only so much you can write on a subject but I’m really stoked ‘cos a lot of people picked up on it, I let a lot of stuff out personally more than I would.

Was that tough?

It was. It’s a little awkward ‘cos you put yourself out there, kinda naked, and saying “This is me!”, kinda sort of. The songs that I think “hey that’s a cool song”, people will rip apart and other songs I think are “whatever”-becomes someone’s favourite song. So you can never really gauge it, you just roll the dice and if you like it; cool. But everyone seems to like the new record and that’s positive. It is hard but I’m glad we did it that way. Even the songs we chose to record, ‘cos we wrote about 30 and we only put out 15. It felt good to even do that and be picky with the songs.

What’s going to happen to the songs that didn’t make the album?

Well; splits, singles, compilations, the things you do with your leftover stuff. I like to put out stuff all the time; it’s fun for me. And if I find a band that I like to do a split then we can put it out in different ways.

Well as long as you are happy that’s what counts. So let’s talk about the first video for “Sad Story”.

A lot of people trip out ‘cos we even talk a little bit more like gangsta/ghetto, than punks in general ‘cos we use certain words you see in the movies ‘cos we grew up with them. One of the lines in there is “He was locked up since he was 12.” That’s one of my best friends, we grew up like this (signalling with his hands they were tight) and we split like this (his hands moving apart). I picked up a guitar and his dad was in a band, so his dad was pushing him to join my band, but he was like I’m going that way. And now he is one of the main guys in that gang. It’s so different. And I wanted to show in the video, besides the good looking girls, the gangsta girls that’s what they do-partying and looking for trouble and finding it, and beat up a dude! And I have seen that more than once. And that’s not like me making something up, I remember that one time ya know? And I used to get chased a lot. They would cruise by and say stuff and you would just run.

Would they pick on you for the punk thing?

Well yeah just for that. It would be weird walking around with a pink Mohawk or leather jacket, and they would be like “Hey faggot” and I would be like “Here we go!” and I would just run- and often it was people I grew up with, but that’s the way it is, just divided. The video pretty much explains it, driving around and at the end there is a party. And that’s how it is. It’s funny ‘cos the people at the party in the video are my friends who were having a party. So it’s pretty authentic, the car’s even mine.

Ok so let’s talk line-up changes?

We did the last tour with the old line up in January 2008. Our drummer; his family had some financial troubles, so he got a job to support them, and I didn’t want to let him go, but you can’t get between families. He got a really good job and doing well for them. Our old bass player fell in love with a girl and started missing practise and the same old shtick. They get the girl ‘cos of the band, and he leaves the band ‘cos of the girl. But he was cool. What’s funny is with him, we are like a baseball player or football team, ‘cos our bass player came in from Hawaii so we did a swap/transfer. A lot of the time it was with old members; like me making my friends play in my band. Now I have found like minded individual with the same goals and we all work hard to make it work. They are very genuine about it, so it feels real together, and the same goal. It’s never been the case. Some people think they want to be in a band but then they go and tour and are like “I don’t want to be here”. Some people miss their girlfriends or mom. But it’s really cool to have dudes that are set on it.

Is the first time you have toured with this line-up in Europe?

Yeah our first full tour was in Japan, so they were pretty happy. So this is our first time here and we did a full tour in US before we came. Everyone is positive.

What has the response been like from the crowd, do they sing along to new songs already?

Yes (getting really animated). That’s one thing on this tour that’s been amazing, every show we play, we play the new songs and everyone is singing. And you’re like “that’s really cool!” and they start requesting all these new songs. Everyone has picked up on the record and the fans have been really, really into it.

That’s great to hear. So finally, after this tour,what are the plans?

We have two more dates in the UK and then go back to Europe and three days off to see the Bouncing Souls, and we go back home to have two weeks off and then a full US and Canadian tour. And then Warped tour. We were talking to our booking agent about coming back at the end of the year. This is the first time we have been here not in the cold. When it comes down to being cold, man “Oh my God” we saw snow for the first time in Sweden and that was scary!

Elvis Cortez, Left Alone © Imelda Michalczyk