Walken

From the Sleepy costal town of Half Moon Bay, Walken turned high school jam sessions into 10 years of good (and bad) times, traveling, and friendship. Members and musical phases have come and gone, and now, as a four piece, they've refined their sound and been killing it ever since. If you can't catch them playing shows around the Bay Area and beyond, check out P-Stone's Beer Slave to get a taste of the jams.

Can you start off by giving me some background about the band, when you guys met, when Walken formed up ...

Sean: I'll try to make this concise. Andy and I, our old drummer, had played music together for about eight years; I was never in a band without him. We picked up a few more musicians to play with and we called it Walken.

Zack: I was your fellow alumni as well.

Sean: That's right. Zack was in a band called Under a Dying Sun. We were both from Half Moon Bay and we basically stole him.

Zack: You might like to know that Sean made out with Andy one time.

Sean: I did make out with Andy, but only so two girls would make out with us.

Max: This isn't very concise.

Did you know that you weren't going to try to replace Andy when he quit?

Zack: It was almost like an intervention thing. Those dudes sat me down--I thought I fucked up or something--and they said, "Dude, you're playing drums." I think it was easier than to bring someone else into the fold. Are you planning to record or release anything any time soon?

Zack: Never again.

Sean: Until the next time.

Shane: We're on that Beer Slave DVD

How did that come about?

Shane: Gordon Eckler. He just dug us, got a CD, and sent it to Thrasher.

Tell us about that time you were bit by a spider before you drove to DC?

Sean: Ohhh, that was me. I don't know if I got bit by a spider, but I know half my fucking body was covered in hives.

Zack: His foot was all swollen and he looked like the elephant man.

How come you don't use a pick, Max?

Max: I didn't know you were supposed to play with a pick so I learned with my fingers.

Shane: He also used to hump the bed.

What keeps you going for a decade?

Shane: Nothing else is good in our lives. We're just that dumb. We still play music and we gotta play music. It's the best drug I've ever taken.

How does living in SF influence you?

Zack: SF is one of the great metal towns of all time. The Bay Area has its roots in metal.

Sean: What's that band? Journey?

Zack: I wouldn't agree, but we do have Jefferson Airplane.

Shane: And Neil Young. I had your vest inside my frame shop and I wore it.

What else are you guys into outside of playing music?

Shane: There's something else?

Have you guys ever been in any physical fights with each other?

Shane: Max punched me in the stomach.

Zack: You had it coming for sure.

Shane: I did. I didn't bring my guitar because I didn't feel like playing it.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Zack: There was that one time Shane got into someone's car ...

Shane: Then I got punched in the face for trying to get in a jock's car.

What exactly was the situation?

Shane: We had been drinking all day long at a barbeque, and we ran out of booze so we went to a bar in New Bedford, Mass. We got to the bar, got more wasted, I kinda started to black out, and when we were leaving I tried to get in the back seat of this car with these two frat girls and some jocks. I was just screaming, "Hey! We're all going to the same party, why don't you give me a ride?" One of the dudes reached across, socked me in my face and kicked me out of the car.

What's in the future for Walken?

Sean: World domination and recording.

Shane: We would love to go to Europe, Japan; basically anywhere but home.

Zack: We've played such different styles of music that it's almost been a different band every time. I think we've finally settled in.

Shane: We finally found out what we're looking for, and it was in front of our faces the whole time.

COPYRIGHT 2008 High Speed Productions, Inc
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning