#Nerds, meet Tomorrows Bad Seeds!!!

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Elizabeth Rosselle (Founder/CEO/Host of Musicwire TV – www.musicwire.tv)

Attention all punk, reggae, rock, soul, and hip-hop lovers! Wait, isn't that most of us? Okay, well if you haven't heard Tomorrows Bad Seeds, then it's high time you gave them a listen. TBS's music is a delicious blend of all things that make you want to get up and dance, with notable influences from bands like The Red Hot Chile Peppers, The Wailers, Steel Pulse, Led Zepplin, 311, and Black Flag to name a few. They're a refreshing throwback to the post-punk ska movement of the nineties, modernized by some of the bands' more current influences taken from styles like Dubstep and other similar genres.

The boys recently took off for the Vans 2010 Warped Tour and, in addition, have been chosen as Lionsgate's Ambassadors in promoting the upcoming film, The Expendables, while on tour. TBS, sponsored by Body Glove, will be performing at the Skull Candy tent for the duration of the Warped Tour and, in between performances, the boys will be meeting fans and conducting interviews to promote the film which is directed by Sylvester Stallone, and stars Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, and Micky Rourke.

I caught up with two of Tomorrows Bad Seeds' band members, Moises Juarez (lead vocals) and Sean Chapman (vocals/guitar), a couple of days before they headed off for the tour. The guys were beyond thrilled about the tour, and they were able to share some of that excitement with me while we dished on music, influences, and fun TBS facts.

Elizabeth Rosselle: Warped Tour is coming up for you guys. Are you on cloud nine right now?

Moises Juarez: Yeah, we're feelin' pretty good about it.

ER: This is your first one, right?

MJ: Yes, that's right.

ER: Tell me a little bit about your individual music backgrounds.

MJ: I've been singing my whole life pretty much. I grew up on Motown, and my mom raised me listening to, like, Sade, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations – you know, all of that R & B type stuff, and I also grew up on the beach so there was a lot of punk rock and rock n' roll. When you grow up in Southern California you're influenced by everything. And as for everyone in the band, we pretty much all like all types of music.

Sean Chapman: Generally I grew up on a lot of hip-hop and old classic rock, and then I really got into the punk rock scene. I'm from Hermosa Beach so Pennywise and Black Flag, you know? All those types of groups, and I listened to some Reggae and got more into it when I joined Tomorrow's Bad Seeds for sure, but yeah, but we all definitely open our minds to all music.

ER: How did you guys all meet and form the band?

MJ: We grew up in the same area, pretty much, and our drummer/bass player we met along the way in another band and then we all started jamming together. Me, Sean, and Matt have been in the band together for a long time. We all have known each other. We grew up in the same neighborhood, pretty much.

SC: We're definitely not one of those put together bands. We have a lot of history together as a band.

ER: Who would you guys like to collaborate with?

MJ: Oh yeah, everybody! Sean wants to collaborate with Stevie Wonder.

SC: And if I could pull Bob Marley out of his grave that would be cool, too!

ER: Who writes most of your lyrics and then who writes the music.

MJ: We're all involved. We all help out pretty much equally.

SC: Most of our songs are written through free style and we'll just get into the rehearsal studio and just start jamming, you know, and we'll have a riff or something and we'll just start jamming randomly.

MJ: We'll start spittin' lyrics out, or melodies, and then lyrics start to come out within the creative process of the song, and then there are some songs where we'll have the whole song written – you know, the lyrics – and then the whole song is kind of written around the lyrics.

ER: It sounds like you work really well together since you're all so close.

MJ: Song writing is definitely not one of our issues. I'd like to see what we could do if we had some real time to hang out and write an album in a cool environment. I'd like to see what we could do with some serious time. It's all about chemistry, I think. Once we start jamming together it kinda just clicks.

ER: Who would you say that your main influences are if you had to pick a few?

MJ: I like Stevie Wonder, The Red Hot Chili Peppers...

SC: Rage [Against the Machine]

MJ: Yeah Rage, The Wailers, Steel Pulse, and there's a lot of old school Lenny tracks, too, and Super Cat, you know? John Lennon, The Beatles, Led Zepplin, Iron Maiden. And hip-hop – we love Jurassic 5 and we like Kid Cudi right now, too, and Eminem, Biggie Smalls, and we like underground hip-hop, too.

ER: Have you guys discovered any new music lately on sites like Pandora?

MJ: I don't really use Pandora that much. I like to look up stuff on Youtube a lot. I've recently started listening to Die Antwoord lately.

ER: Oh, they're awesome. Their interviews are wild.

MJ: Yeah, I mean at first I thought it was a joke but it's real and they're really serious about it.

ER: You guys have shared the stage with Fishbone, right? I would love to hear about that.

MJ: Angelo [Moore], the singer of Fishbone, is one of the most insane, abnormal characters that I've ever met just as a person, but on stage even more so. We also went on two national tours with the Wailers, we did Pennywise, and 311 recently as well. It's been amazing to go on tour with bands that we grew up listening to. Fishbone is just – they are a hell of a show. I don't know how they came up with their sound. They're off the chain.

ER: What would you guys have done with your lives had you not become musicians?

SC: I would have probably ended up a construction man, or I wanted to be a pro-surfer my whole life.

ER: You guys all surf, right?

MJ: For the most part, you know? I used to wait tables forever and I liked it, but I wanted to be a fireman. I was going to take fire technician classes, but I always knew I wanted to do this. I mean, I went through all of the motions, you know, I graduated from high school, and went to college because you're supposed to go to college, but I started taking music and music is such a big part of my life that I wouldn't be happy doing anything else. People go their whole lives wondering what they want to do with their lives and I don't have that question in my life.

ER: Did you guys think that you'd be going on the Warped Tour right now

MJ: I used to do a lot of the booking for the band and in the beginning we would just try to book as many shows as we could and now we're not having that problem, and it's a pretty good problem not to have, you know? We've been offered so many good opportunities lately and we can't pass them up. Like this one [Warped Tour], and to be showcased against other bands in the big scheme of things, you know, it's just a big old festival and it's great.

Click here to check out TBS on Myspace, and don't forget to check 'em out on the Warped Tour!

Editor's note: Thanks a HEAP for the interview Liz!!! DIG IT!!! Check out her site too, cause it um ... kinda rocks! #NerdsUnite