Sidetracked/Bookburner #20

Hey how is everyone so I had an honor to interview one of the sickess band that has been around for a while... the way I found out about sidetracked is that i heard the split that they had with Gaz-66 Intrusion  from Uzhgorod, Ukraine every since then I been hooked. My band Culpa does short to the point songs like sidetracked. Anyways enjoy the interview with sidetracked..

state your name and what band do you play for????

I’m Jay Tichy, from Sidetracked.

how long has sidetracked been a band??

Sidetracked has been a band for 20 years.

how did sidetracked get started?

In early 2000, I was determined to sing for a hardcore band and wrote a batch of songs and set out to find members. Influences early on were Chain of Strength, Side By Side and Capitalist Casualties.

what was the line up when you guys get started ?

There was a guy named Randy Wheeler who really helped get it off the ground by offering to drum at first. My lifelong childhood friend Kenin DeForrest was on guitar and a guy named Mitch Matthews was on bass. Our first show was December of 2000 and that lineup lasted 4 shows. Then Randy moved to guitar, Mitch moved to second vocals for a couple months before quitting/getting kicked out. I let Kenin go to focus on his own projects, and we brought in Randy’s best friend Eric Hokenson on bass. Most importantly around this time, Brian Skiffington joined on drums and he was the sole constant member for the next 17 years.

How did you guys do the transition of hxc to straight powerviolence??

The powerviolence influence was always there but it was way more subtle in the beginning and also Brian wasn’t confident enough to blast yet.  I think I was still very much into having a youth crew influence up until 2002 then the majority of my songs coming out were short and chaotic and I felt more freedom with my songwriting without feeling the restrictions of verses/choruses. By the end of 2004, it really felt like we were just a full on pv band by then. I kind of “purged” my last remaining youth crew influences on the second half of the One Lane Road Ahead cd.

what's the line up at the moment??

Me on guitar and vocals, Andrew Gentz on bass, Mike Doherty on drums. Huge shoutout to Andrew who has been in the band over ten years now and has been a huge support.  

How did you get the name sidetracked and bookburner???? 

I just kept hearing the word sidetracked and liked the sound of it. Adam came up with the name Bookburner. I think it was a commentary on the ignorance of erasing history.

any releases coming out???

Dweller tape (12 song, fastcore)

Contention cd (12 song, fastcore)

Convenient Amnesia cd (37 song, noisecore)

Obsolete Reality cd (19 song, grinding fastcore)

Reeking Cross split cd (26 song, versatile nightmare)

Isolation as Cult split lp (14 song, fastcore)

Caving In 3" lathe (12 song, noisy grind/hc)

Savage split 7" (10 song, fastcore)

Landfill split cd (6 song, fastcore)

Yet to Fade tape (10 song, hc punk)

how did you get into punk????

Like many kids around my age, it was hard to ignore Epitaph Records and all that in ’95. But really where I got into hardcore was the Beastie Boys especially with tracks like Heart Attack Man and Tough Guy and later on the Aglio E Olio ep. I also found out about Minor Threat from the Beastie Boys covering them on the Sabotage VHS tape. From there, I just kept digging.

what's ur influences for sidetracked???

The biggest influences are Capitalist Casualties, No Comment, Lack of Interest, Straight Ahead/NYC Mayhem, Chain of Strength, Negative Approach, Agnostic Front, Nihilist Commando, 7 Minutes of Nausea and Sissy Spacek.

how did Book burner start as a band?

I met a guy from Portland, OR named Adam Vance. He was a Sidetracked fan and hit me up to start a band in the vein of Suppression, Despise You and MITB in 2005. Eventually he moved up to Tacoma in 2006 and we started jamming with a full band.

what was the line up in book burner???

Adam was on lead vocals, I was on guitar, my friend Taiga Dinger was on bass and a young kid named Miles Freeborn was on drums. Miles ended up stepping down to focus on his band Furious Styles and we brought in Jules Zurto who had played in Greyskull and Elphaba. The night before we recorded, Taiga quit so on the recording, it’s me playing guitar and bass. Adam provided the noise for the one noise track. Right after that recording, Jules never played with the band again. We played a few live shows after that but with Brian Skiffington on drums and my friend Zack Pattin on bass. Zack had done time in Sidetracked as well from 2007-2009. Later on, I played with Jules again in a band called Dethrone who released a 12” in 2013.

how long was it a band???

Started in late 2005 and I think we played our last show(s) in late 2011.  All we recorded was the one 7” and later on a Dazzling Killmen cover that went unreleased. It was hard to decide on what to do next and any Bookburner idea I had ended up getting vacuumed up for Sidetracked. Me and Adam ended up playing together again in Exit Bag from 2012 – 2015.

before i let you go any shout out you want to give Jay

Thank you for the interview, thanks to the labels that have released stuff for us and for any listeners old and new.

https://sidetracked.bandcamp.com/