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California Hearse, an offshoot of the now shuttered punk rock group Gentlemen Prefer Blood, shall be making their first live appearance in SoCal at the La Escalera Fest 7 in San Diego Apr. 12.
Though they are a new band, California Hearse has already put together quite an impressive 6-song EP of the same name which saw its release last month. Jason Gentile, the bassist, vocalist and song writer of the band, hopes that the sound he and his fellow co-founder Mike Morales created sounds just as good live.
“Hopefully we’ll sound good because we have a very good quality recording,” Gentile said. “We’re trying to sound as close to that as possible. Mike’s really nailing the harmony and getting the parts down. So hopefully it’ll be a very clean sounding punk rock experience.”
Speaking of experience, that’s not a strange bedfellow to Gentile.
“I have been playing punk music my whole life,” Gentile says. “I grew up playing it in the 90’s and 2000’s in different incarnations of bands and it’s always been something of an outlet for me: writing songs and playing with bands.”
For Gentile especially, California Hearse is a project that is a reflection of his musical career up until this point.
“It’s kind of a culmination of all my experiences playing in Chicago, playing in Southern California, San Diego, Los Angeles, you know?”
It’s also a means by which he and Morales can continue to collaborate with each other. Their newest venture is owed in large part to a few unproduced songs they never had a chance to perform during their time in their last musical partnership that resulted in the creation of their EP California Hearse.
“Three of the songs were leftover songs from the band Gentlemen Prefer Blood,” Gentile recalls. “We wanted to keep playing together so we worked on those songs together.”
Gentile notes that Morales, though a drummer for Gentlemen Prefer Blood, put tremendous commitment into providing the EP’s guitar work during the initial rehearsal and recording process for the EP that helped cement the formation of California Hearse.
“My drummer Mike sat down with me and practiced all the songs on guitar acoustically,” Gentile explained. “He really learned the songs inside and out. I had a few other songs and so he learned those with me and then we went to the studio of Paul Minor in Orange County and Mike and I recorded it.”
Gentile gives much of the credit to how well the final musical result of their efforts turned out due to the guitar playing of Morales.
“Mike really stepped up to the plate and played 80 to 90 percent of the guitars on the album actually. It was really awesome.”
Besides Morales, SoCal plays a large part for California Hearse and their music which can best be described as pop punk: a mixture of upbeat positive sounding rock that with lyrics that Gentile admits “are a little darker.” Gentile says this almost paradoxical combination is not unintentional.
“Southern California can be wonderful but also very frustrating in terms of traffic and people’s personalities and such can be frustrating,” Gentile admits. “But you have access to the beaches and beautiful weather. There’s a nice aspect to it also. So, there’s a bittersweet component to most of the songs we’re writing. It’s kind of happy music but with kind of bummer lyrics. I guess it’s kind of a reflection of our environment that way.”
The lyrics are also rooted in Gentile’s personal relationships. He admits that much of the music he composes is inspired by their lives and their perspectives.
“I tend to write songs for the people I love or the people in my life who are suffering or going through things,” Gentile said. “So, I try to write their angles and different views. So, it’s kind of like a process for myself and for them de facto I guess.”
Whether in California Hearse or any other group for that matter, whenever the songs he writes are finished, Gentile says he uses a simple and cooperation-based process no matter the group he plays with.
“Recording-wise, I just demo everything into Garage Band and then I give the demos to the band and then they add their tweaks and twists and changes and then we have the song.”
Between now and April though, California Hearse has much to do. As of this writing, Gentile and Morales are focused on seeking out more musicians to create a more studier line-up as well as better solidifying the group’s guitar section in addition to promoting their EP.
“Playing live, I get a little bit nervous, but I enjoy that. It’s exceptional.”