August 06'
Eric Linarez's backroom.
This is when I really started to take up playing music. I think I had Nikko's bass for a little while before that, but I never really got too into it besides learning random Moving Units riffs. Eric would pick me up and I'd bring my computer over to record random shit. At the time I was blown away by how sick Eric was. I'd just chill and produce and take in what little I could word by word. In the picture about you can notice how gnarfed I look. That room would get wayyy too fucking hot to handle. AV heat was already at like 105F, and that room was like an oven. We continued to play together for a while. I remember being all stoked on random band names, and telling eric about them. Looking back I don't even know why I was so stoked. I sucked at bass, and Eric obviously knew this. None the less these sessions have developed into what i'm doing currently with playing and listening to music.
September 06'
Down For Mine begins.
I had statistics second period with Anthony during my junior year of high school. He'd slowly attempt to introduce me to new bands and what not. Building off the small hardcore knowledge I gained freshman year from Joe Gilliam. The more and more we hung out the more ad more he would talk about playing in a band and shit with Eric. He played drums and I was picking up bass, so we decided to start jamming. Skipping through a few weeks, he ends up inviting Michael Vetter to come tryout as our singer. Our songs were simple and basic at most. I remember one of our songs hella sounding like the Power Rangers intro and shit. It was good times.
October 11th 06'
The first show
Trilogy Theatre, 7th street, Victorville.
We opened up for Scars of Tomorrow. A lot of my friends came out to that show, I swear we brought like 30 heads through the door and we fucking sucked. Even kids that hated our shitty attempt at hardcore came out, just to support. Shout outs to all those kids. Kids moshed hard, which was funny. I remember how much Mike cared about kids dancing, and like checking to see if certain people were going to mosh. It was my first real tim on stage. I was SHOOK. I was stiff as fuck, and could only manage to mildly pace across that little ass Trilogy stage. Anthony was stiff as fuck and looked like a robot. Eric didn't care at all and wore swimming trunks on stage. Mike was probably off beat. I remembered he would squeak on occasion. It was some funny shit. After the set I posted up on the couch in the back with my then girlfriend. To this day she is the only girl I don't consider attractive in my list of lists. She was hella letting her protective side out that night and would attack me anytime I'd attempt to talk to a female friend. Bitch looked like Stitch anyways, REAL TALK!
December 06'
MERCH!
We played a show at Trilogy on the 22nd or some shit. I designed these sick ass Mac Dre rip off shirts. We sold out of them shits! It was the first shirt design I ever did, and is the only one i've printed to this day. I made it in like 15 minutes, and it was simple and street. If you happen to have one of these gems I'd much appreciate it in size L/M
Our gigantic sing along.
Early 07'
We started playing a few more shows here and there. I remember playing in West Covina and being stoked that Lockdown happened to play a surprise set. We played third that night. My wireless shit for my bass was still in full effect so I made use of it proper. By then I was getting more comfortable with playing and shit. DFm was the first band kids actually danced to. I remember this distinctly. I also remember kids singing along to "It's All About". That's probably the highlight of that show. Kids from random cities knowing our jams. Weak jams, at most haha. We fucked up 2 songs that night because of Richard. I forgot to add that by then Richard had taken over at the guitar spot. While Eric was now our drummer, due to Anthony's lack of skill in the drumming department. Anyways, we fucked up 2 songs. I got hella mad because we should have been organized, and that shit was just embarrassing.
The show after that was a house show in the LA area. Scene kids in those lame ass hoodies with "all over print", were hating on us hard because we wren't from their area. We didn't get much love. Mike punked some random kid and kept talking mad shit to some random girl. The setup was sketchy and the PA sucked. I told them to put the extra mic in the kick drum, but nobody listened to me. I couldn't hear shit, so I just ended up dgafing it and would throw in random jumps and shit for the fun of it. Suicide Symphony played that night. I repped hard for them that night. I remember being stoked.
Following show was in San Bernardino. We opened for xAFBx (who I could really give a shit less about), Strength For a Reason(who are some cool dudes), and Blood Stands Still. I wasn't all that siked on the show.I ended up leaving as soon as we played to go back to VV and see another show. I remember Oscar came down with his friends and raged. It was really nice of him. Big ups to Oscar, David, and George for supporting the hardest. Along with band dad Aldo.
March 07'
DFM HOES
The crucial n00dz that plagued bands to make up for their shitty music. Yes our band sucked. Yes I took it there. Yes I got like 15 girls to take various pictures for us. No I don't give a shit about them or what that picture really signifies. I just enjoyed getting gnarly pictures by pulling the "it's for my band" bullshit. Yes I'm scum.
April 07'
By this time I was spending a lot more time with Suicide Symphony. I was into this band since their first show. I toured with them, m0shed hard for them, took pictures for them, fought this shitty band We Are The End for them, etc for them. These were the more golden times of music playing. The whole band became close to me. Jesse and Bryan are always fun as hell to be around. Jealousy spread through DFM because I would tour with them and show more interest in SS. Bryan's house was a Disneyland for me. And I would always get the sickest bootlegs from the mexicans down at the taco shop. Let's not forget our traditional Wing Stop adventure, where everyone had to match each-other's Atomic consumption
That van was my playground. Stage Dives over seats, massive sing alongs, Vodka bottles, Bryan's dirty weed. So many stories I really don't have enough time to go over half of them. On the way to Guitar Center Bryan and Billy took hits of their dirty weed in the back of the van. Slowly the stench of brown bud crept up on Aldo (who was driving). I just remember Aldo getting more pissed than I had ever seen. It put us all in the most awkward situation. I don't think he talked to anyone in the back until like 11pm that night. Luckily I was sitting second row ;].
Eric pissing out of the side window on the freeway.
OG SS Crue.
Summer 07'
DFM's downfalll
By that time DFM had picked up Nelson who at the time was also in HTDAP. Long story short... Mike and HTDAP's singer got into beef. Neither of them backed their shit up. Nelson was a shitty band mate, and friend. We had to pay homeboy just to drive out to practice. We had a show with Throwdown scheduled. Mike was stuck on it for obvious reasons. I could give a shit less, same with Eric. The day of the show Nelson was being a pussy, and was afraid to get beat up because of the Mike-Sean beef. We ended up playing the show. Nothing happened to anyone. Mike got punked outside of the show by .45. Which ultimately ended DFM. I was beefing on Nelson because his lack of commitment. Mike was beefing on me for being in like 3 other bands at the time. I was beefing on Mike because I hated our lyrics, and thought our sound should be completely different. The whole time I was in the band I just felt like it lost any glimpse of light it ever had. It got to the point where I was playing just to pacify Eric. Plenty of other stories can be told throughout these times. This has just been a light summary. I'll never regret the whole DFM era. It wasn't exactly what I wanted to play, but I played. I got to meet new people, travel a little, and get into a few shows for free. I don't regret it at all. Just the choices that were made.
Soon after things went to shit anyways. Eric's parents weren't feeling the van anymore. SS broke up, then changed their name, then got back together as SS. I don't even know what the fuck is going on with that. Bryan, Eric, and Aldo all had a falling out. Jesse just focused on playing for Take Vengeance. And Billy was having a baby. These times were nothing short of ill. It's crazy how shit can change in what seems like a heartbeat. I couldn't begin to even scratch every detail of the nights we shared together. This was really just brought on by at the moment thoughts as I looked at my album.
I'm eager to play music live again. I currently play drums, guitar, and bass. I'm working on a project called Grudge Fuck, with my friend David. Hopefully we record a studio demo or some shit. Just for the reason of saying we did it. I don't really have much to end on. But everything ends.
