How did you two meet?
Sean used to hang out in downtown Sac by the river in different drum circles when we were younger. I grew up for the most part in the bay area. I'd leave school and jump amtrak trains to kill time before having to be home. I had been back and forth a lot between oakland and sacramento and would run into him in Sac before I moved there full time. He jammed in a cutting edge sac group called the Intricate Simpletons. I guess you could say I stole him away.

You guys were originally members of the band Leisure before starting MC Rut in 2006. How have things changed for you? What's different now?
We spent most of our time in Leisure looking for singers. Overall went through about 6 of 'em. Released material with almost every singer too. Back then it was tapes, not discs. Never listened back to what we had with an honest enjoyment. Always felt good to hear our songs but the singers never seemed to melt together with the bed of music we had created. Figured there had to be more out there. Had to be a reason we'd keep kicking out members. MC RUT was that reason.

Where does the name Middle Class Rut come from? Comes
From a Shel Silverstein poem.

For readers that have never heard MC Rut before, how would you describe your own music?
Very basic. Once we got past the pride of feeling like we had to show off in writing music in order to create good songs, we finally embraced real song writing. Knowing that a song can be 6 minutes of 1 chord and still keep a listener interested is a good feeling. Or maybe thats just us. We're good at 6minute - 1chord tracks.

What inspires you guys to write songs and make music?
That problem is more of what uninspires us. We're naturally always inspired to make music, certain things will show up and uninspire you for a long time, gettin back on track is the hard part.

Along the same lines, I've heard you compared to many different bands like Jane's Addiction and Refused, but what are some of your other musical influences? And what other music have you been listening to lately?
We hear Jane's comparisons a lot. I have a high voice and I like delay...other then that I dont find many direct comparisons to Janes Addiction. They're one of our favorite bands but I dont think at any point we listened back to what we made and felt we were directly pulling from them. In the scheme of comparisons though we're grateful. Janes and Refused were at one point big parts of our lives.

How does it feel to be earning such rave reviews from magazines like Alternative Press, NME, Kerrang!, etc. after just a couple years since the band was started?
MC RUT is a new band by name, but me and sean feel like old vets in music. Been playing together for going on 15 years now. We're happy that the eyes that are on us, are now on us as this band as opposed to our other attempts. Feels good to be embraced on any level when you love what you do. Your goal is to share it with people so when you start getting feedback it drives you even more. we're always looking to welcome new people in.

You guys were nominated for MTV's 'Spanking New For 2009' award along with acts such as White Lies and Lady Gaga. How does that feel?
Feels good. Feels like we're heading down the right road for more then one reason.

I heard this is your first UK tour outside of London. What area are you most looking forward to playing and/or seeing? What can fans look forward to after the UK tour? Do you have any upcoming plans?
We came to the UK in November and played a lot around London. That was our first time. Here now is our 2nd time around. Feels a lot more natural now that we've gotten the akwardness of our first trip outta the way. we're lookin forward to March 9th '09 when our EP comes out over here. 6 songs, and other then the 7" we put out it'll be our first official release. It'll be good to make the treck over here once people have had time to sit with our songs and get to know em. Once that happens you cant beat the stage/crowd connection.

And finally, is there anything else you want Ampedreviews.net readers to know?
Come see us live.


Interview by Chrisanne Grice


<- Back