Tom and Mike of Sederra at the OCMA
Sederra is a Fullerton-based progressive and punk band that’s been nominated in the OC Music Awards for the last three years. As of a few months ago, they’ve gotten a new drummer: Steve Ludwig from Nations Afire.
OCMM Jon: What was it like in the OCMAs this year, and what have you been doing afterwards?
Tony: Songwriting, jamming, rehearsing, getting us tight as humanly possible.
Eric: Sorry, I didn’t even hear the question. I was over there.
OCMM Laura: OCMAs.
Eric: Songwriting. Trying to get ideas down.
Steve: Booking a lot of shows. We just booked a show with Barb Wire Dolls on Saint Patrick’s Day at the Roxy.
Eric: We’re going to Carlsbad.
Tony: Bakersfield.
Eric: On the 21st.
OCMM Jon: You guys are branching out.
Steve: We’re hitting it hard this year.
Eric: We’re just trying to get to new avenues. It’s awesome playing Orange County, but it’s time to branch out. Like at the OC Music Awards Slidebar show, we had an hour and a half notice. They were like – do you want it? And we were like, let’s do it. Steve was actually working that night, and he got it off.
Steve: I was working.
Tom: He got a call on the batphone, and we were like, we need you.
OCMM Jon: Yah, and Steve’s your new drummer. When did you join?
Steve: I joined about three or four months ago. It’s about our fourth or fifth show. It’s been really awesome. We try to jam two to three times a week, and we’re getting super tight. We’re working on shows, new merch designs, and everything. We’re really putting the pedal to the metal.
OCMM Jon: How’d you get connected with them?
Steve: I was in Nations Afire, and we played shows with Sederra all the time. Things with Nations – we went our separate ways. I jammed with Sederra, and it’s been awesome ever since.
OCMM Laura: Do you think the band’s better with the new drummer? Be serious.
Steve: I can’t really say it’s better or worse with or without me. But I haven’t gotten any complaints.
Tom: We’re stoked to have you. Steve joined the band, and it’s a good energy going right now, practicing as much as we are right now. Feel the glow.
Steve: Yah… sure…
Laughter.
OCMM Jon: So what inspires you guys to write music?
Tom: Everything.
Steve: Girls. Just life, man.
Tony: Bands from the 90s.
OCMM Jon: What bands?
Mike: Fugazi, Hot Water Music, Quicksand, Helmet that we’re playing with tonight.
Steve: Boyz 2 Men.
OCMM Jon: Score!
Eric: Boyz 2 Men big time! I like ABC myself. Aisha. Playground.
Steve: What up with Ace of Base.
Tom: The 90s rock scene was awesome. I think that’s a big influence on us.
Eric: There’s a lot of new bands too, but growing up, those bands, like, touched us. Well, not like molested us, but…
Laughter.
OCMM Jon: That is going into the article.
Tom: Of course it is…
Mike: Eric Bootow, make sure that went to Eric Bootow.
OCMM Jon: I will definitely make sure everyone’s quoted properly.
Mike: They didn’t touch us except for maybe Helmet in Alaska.
Eric: All of us are just on cloud nine playing with Helmet. We grew up listening to Helmet.
Tom: I haven’t seen them since high school, which was like two years ago.
Laughter.
Eric: Back in 2009!
Tom: I’m only 21… 22. Back in senior year, man!
Eric: He was in Longfellow when he was 5.
Tom: I was a baby, a wee lad.
Eric: He’d come out on his tricycle.
Tom: A bit of uncomfortable silence.
OCMM Laura: There’s no silence, you guys are still talking.
OCMM Jon: I hear you guys have a new album coming out. What’s the theme of the album?
Tom: There’s no real theme per se.
Mike: It’s just awesome.
Tom: Each song is different in its own way, but I wouldn’t say there’s any underlying thread.
Tony: It’s really diverse.
Tom: Lyrically, there’s nothing connecting the songs. There’s no story. We’re working on a bunch of new stuff, but it’s tough to pigeon-hole what it’s going to sound like ‘cause each song is an entity as it is, but it’s really fun. (to his bandmates) What? It is… I just started to ramble.
Mike: It’s diverse. There’s a lot of different styles on it.
Steve: There’s super heavy songs, a rock ballad, a straight fast punk song, it’s cool.
OCMM Laura: When’s it coming out?
Tom: Hopefully, sometime this year. We have a lot of it written, but it’s not recorded, and we want to write new stuff as well.
OCMM Jon: I hear there’s going to be acoustic tracks as well.
Shredding
Tom: Yah! Completely! I have tons of acoustic material written. It’d be cool to translate it into this. That’s definitely the goal. We like playing hard rock. Punk rock what we grew up listening to, but music is more than just rocking out and energy and playing a fast beat all the time. It’s cool to slow things out. You can hear it. Tonight we played, and we weren’t running around and jumping around, and the music sounded awesome tonight. I don’t want people to be just like, “Yah, that band rocks out on stage.” I want them to go, “That band sounds awesome!”
OCMM Jon: So people can hear the meaning behind the lyrics and see how freaking awesome you guys are on stage.
Tony: Well said, Jon.
OCMM Jon: Thank you.
Tony: We like that, we’re using all your quotes. That’s going to be in the new bio page.
OCMM Jon: Just you know, associate us. Plugs. So if you’re writing acoustic stuff, are you going to have acoustic shows as well?
Eric: We’ve been talking about it for a while. We’ve done it twice now.
Tom: It wouldn’t be a thing where it’s just an all electric or all acoustic show. We’ll work acoustic songs into the set. Ultimately, we want to bring that out, but it won’t be Sederra Acoustic.
Mike: Although we have played all acoustic shows.
Eric: Most of the time when we write it’s on acoustic guitar, and then we bring it to the group, everyone puts their layers on it, and then boom, electric.
OCMM Jon: So is that how you write your music too?
Eric: Yah, 90% is that way. It starts off with acoustic, and then we transfer it over.
Steve: It’s cold. I’m wet.
Silence.
OCMM Jon: Did you just say you’re wet?
Tony: He’s wet, getting a little excited!
Steve: I’m wet, as in I’m soaked in sweat.
Tom: I’m wet. I’m soaked in sweat.
Eric: Rap lyrics.
OCMM Jon: You guys can go into rap and hip-hop.
Tom: Big Titties and the Kids, man.
OCMM Laura: That’s the name of the new album.
Tony: Actually, that would be good.
Laughter.
Tom: They were this other band playing down here had a big influence on us.
Laughter.
Eric: Actually, who was that band who had that album called Hooray for Boobies?
Mike: Bloodhound Gang.
OCMM Jon: Well, my mind blanked now… Oh right. Where did you come up with the name Sederra?
Steve: Apparently, it means iron! *Fist*
Mike: In Greek. It’s an original name that we came up with.
Eric: It was a small village in Spain.
Mike: It was our original thing. The spelling we have our way is something we made it up ourselves.
Eric: It doesn’t mean anything.
Tony: It just rolls off the tongue nicely.
Eric: It’s better than having an 8-word name.
Tom: We went through like so many names. They would all like it, and I’d be like, “That sucks!” Always, almost all of us would like it, and one person would be like, “That sucks!”
Eric: There were a lot of bad names and then one really fucking awesome name, and we were like, “That cool?”
OCMM Jon: Do you remember any?
Eric: It’s been so long I can’t remember. They’re not even worth mentioning. Those names sucked donkey balls.
Tony: I think Donkey Balls was one of them.
Laughter.
OCMM Jon: I think Sederra’s a little more kosher than Donkey Balls.
Tony: Looks better on a flyer.
Tom: They can sell us in WalMart.
OCMM Jon: Well, thanks so much for your time. I’ll let you guys go back and see Helmet then.
You can check out Sederra’s myspace here and check out this exclusive track from Sederra: Smashing out the lights!
[audio:http://ocmusicmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Smashing-Out-the-Lights.mp3|titles=Smashing Out the Lights]
Low Shutter Speed Shot on Tom
