COLOR KILLER

COLOR KILLER

Being middle school students (I assume?), how are you received by your peers considering your passion is playing in a band and creating punk rock music? Are they supportive? Can they relate? Some of our friends are supportive and come to a lot of our shows.  Others don’t believe that we are in a band or don’t care. We don’t think any of them can really relate.  Our lives outside or school are a lot different than most kids our age.   Do you find that kids your own age appreciate the style of music you play? I'm a middle school teacher and occasionally have students who know Green Day and Fallout Boy or something like that, but it's very rare for students to know about punk rock unless their parents were punkers. Not very many kids our age listen to the kind of music that we play.  Most of them listen to mumble rap or some crap like that. That doesn’t stop them all from asking us for free merch though.   Do you guys research punk bands online very often? What has formed the basis of your musical education with regard to punk rock? In other words, how did you end up getting to know bands from the 90s? Most of us have been hearing old punk and hardcore since we were babies.  Most of what we listen to now comes from bands we have played with or bands that are similar to what we play.   The first band Lincoln ever saw was the Descendents when he was 6. Nate was probably even younger than that when he saw Bane for the first time.   Do you guys feel encouraged by the success you've had so far? What are some of your ultimate band goals? We feel super encouraged by the progress that we made.  We don’t think any of us thought that we would have accomplished everything we have when we first started out.  Our goals right now are to get another album recorded and hopefully play some bigger shows and visit more places that we have never been.   As a band, do you guys often get sick of each other or have conflicts that bum you out? How do you cope with the everyday challenges of being in a serious-minded band? Three of us live just a couple of houses apart, so we see each other all of the time.  We fight about stupid stuff all the time, but are friends again 5 minutes later. We don’t really think of ourselves as a serious-minded band.  We are just kids having fun. Do you guys collect music yourselves? In the digital age, do you relate to collecting vinyl and cds and physical formats in general? Our parents collect music, so we don’t have to.  We do buy a lot of music from bands that we play with, usually cd's.  Most everything else, we hear streaming online.   Being part of the first generation to have begun life with social media and the Internet already built into your life, what is your take on how kids use technology? Do you see it as a positive or negative thing over all? We don’t really know what life was like way back in the 1900’s without it.  For us, it’s definitely a positive thing. We can get new music and show announcements out quickly.  We can also see what else is going on with other bands that we follow. One of the negative things would be dealing with online bullies.   I was a middle school student in the early 90s, and we had our problems to deal with but it seems like being a kid has become much, much more complicated. Do you agree? What is the hardest part about being a kid in your opinion? We don’t like homework, but other than that, it’s pretty easy being kids for us.   I have a feeling that you guys enjoy significant family support and encouragement for your band activities, but can you confirm this? Have your families ever reacted in a negative or discouraging way towards your band or passion for music? All of our parents are very supportive.  It is very rare that one of our parents miss a show.  They buy all the gear we need and carry it to the shows because none of us can lift it ourselves.  It helps that almost all of them listen to music that is similar to what we play.   What are your current favorite bands, and how much do you guys follow the current "pop punk" scene? What does the term "pop punk" mean to you? We like a lot of different bands.  We follow the current scene quite a bit.  We follow most of the bands on social media so we always know when they have new music coming out or are touring.  For us Pop Punk is Punk Music with catchy melodies and lyrics.