 Interview and intro by: Dru Barrow / Photograph by: Matthew Parrish She Wants Revenge: "Our Club Secret"Touring can take a lot out of you, some days are better then others, some days are complete and utter living hell. It's a long trip, think about how drained you can get after a two week getaway, now imagine what it is like after the two-plus years. We stood in the basement of the Horseshoe Tavern and spoke with Justin and Adam 12 of She Wants Revenge about overwhelming success, slipping your tracks into club mixes and the rock star social life. It was a slow start but once we got rolling the snowball effect took over. *Insert 5 minutes of awkward silence as the band stands focusing, thinking and dwelling*
Justin: Let's just roll with what you said.
Adam: What did he say?
Truth.Explosion: I was just talking about how tough it gets on the road and all that comes with it, and how it must take all of the energy out of you...
Justin: Well that's not even as much that, you seemed to be eluding to the idea that everything is changing and all that we have entailed, might be a little more of an interesting subject. You look at what things were like when we first started and what it's like playing on tour now, you never expect what your life will be like and what it really entails.
TE: So what was it like when you guys were starting out?
Justin: When we started out it was Adam and myself either working in my dining room or the office in his house and writing songs together and the only exposure we had was when myspace started we would put songs on our band page or we would put new songs that we had written that day onto an ipod and bring it down to be played at a club in a set with other music and nobody would know it was our music mixed in.
TE: Really? You'd just slip it in the mix and not tell anyone?
Justin: Yeah, it was our own private thing and we'd work on it everyday like religiously, day-in-day-out, we'd leave and go record shopping, work, have lunch, go back to work, have dinner and then go out to a club to either DJ or just listen to music and then go back home and work on music.
TE: Good for you, you had that dedication and determination to make it happen. How long did you guys repeat this for until something came of it?
Justin: Well we did it about everyday for a year and a half.
TE: Wow
Justin: Maybe more, maybe two years. By that time we went into our new album, 75% of it was done and we knew exactly who we were and what we wanted to do.
TE: Then what?
Justin: Then we played our very first show, now its 2 years after we first finished the album, no a year and a half after we finished the album and we've been touring pretty constantly and going from nobody knowing your music, sneaking it into a set while you're DJing to an audience of over a million people knowing you from the radio and 100,000 people buy your record while its only been out 2 and a half months and playing a show in every city where there's a large amount of people, larger then you ever thought you'd play to...everything changes.
TE: How did She Wants Revenge change?
Justin: The reasons you make the music are the same, but it's the same music that means the same to you, suddenly it's not a secret anymore. Suddenly people want to talk to you and know what you have to say and know what you have to say and what it's about and the reasons and the there's the positive things they say and the negative things they say.
TE: How important was it to have that outlet like Myspace in the early days of growing?
Adam: It wasn't that important to have an outlet, we just made it for ourselves first. I mean, we would have made an album but we made an album so we would like it. But it's nice to have an audience no matter how big.
TE: Has this sudden growth taken its toll on you guys? Has it worn you out? You said the music doesn't change but what about you guys personally?
Adam: Well we went from having all the time in the world, which we really dedicated to making music to not really having any time. A lot of things changed but what I think changed most was having a lot of time to work on an album and then having barely any, we never really have too many days off and if we do we end up having to work or sleep and you can't really do much on those days.
TE: Did you expect that to happen? You worked so hard to build things up to that level now when you get there were you overwhelmed by it?
Adam: No when we made the record we didn't know any of this would happen and we knew that because we liked the music somebody else would probably like it as well. But all of this was the furthest from what we imagined could happen. We would make jokes about success but like I said, it was a joke.
TE: What was one thing you would joke about or you found funny with how things turned out?
Adam: The song that really kinda made it happen for us which was 'Tear It Apart' was really close to not making it on the album, it's the second last song on the album and the last track we'd pick as a single but because of that song so much stuff has happened to us, this goes to show where our heads were at, we knew we had danceable songs and we can make songs that make people dance, but it grew so quickly and has affected so many.
TE: I can imagine, have your shows changed in a similar manner to your tracks being heard?
Adam: It wasn't that long ago we played shows where there were 20 people at, then next time we came around it was hundreds. In L.A it went from tens to hundreds to thousands really quickly.
TE: With the growing success and reaching more people obviously brings fans and like you said more people wanting to talk to you, do you mind the social factor?
Adam: Like I said the amount of time we have to do anything has changed, and everyone wants to talk to you and we go out of our way to speak to as many people as we can, I mean, I still check our myspace myself and I reply to as many people as possible, same with e-mails on our website, but it gets to a point where you want to go out after your set and talk to everybody but there are so many people out there, you just cannot talk to all of them...
Justin: For me I'm a really outgoing person amongst a group of friends but when I'm around strangers I'm kinda reserved. Just because I express myself lyrically in a certain way or am really outgoing on stage people expect something more when I go out to talk. When we go to a city we've never been to I'll always go out and talk to people, if we've been there numerous times we try to still get out there but not as often.
TE: That's really cool of you guys as you don't find that much anymore, who would you say gives one of the best responses crowd wise?
Justin: Honestly, I would say Montreal. We recently played there for the first time and it was up there with L.A if not better! The whole place was dancing and after the first song people were cheering for 45 seconds straight! We couldn't even start the second song until it was done because it was so loud! That's real heart warming and beautiful.
TE: I'm really glad things are looking up for you guys! I've got one final question for you, I'm going to put you on the spot again...what is the TRUTH about She Wants Revenge?
Adam: The truth about She Wants Revenge is that we're just two guys who want to make music and an honest record. A lot of people have a lot to say about us and where we got our inspiration and influences from. We grew up in a time when music was special to us and when it became time to make a record we just came together and made an honest record and fortunate for us people are into it and we're having a good time.
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