Tsunami Bomb Interview - 07.19.2004
Interview with Dominic Davi (bass)Interview by Jeff Marriott | 07.19.2004 | Detroit, MI | The Shelter
How did Tsunami Bomb get its start? We started up about 5 years ago and the main story of it is we started Tsunami Bomb after the bands I was in didn’t work out and I wanted to form a band that was built on the idea of friendship first and mutual respect and trying to make the best band we could. We kind of formed from all my friends in different bands. At first it was me begging people to play with me and do me the favor of playing with me. Then it turned into eventually some of those people as it went on wanted it to be their band too and it became slowly but surely the band that became the band today. Then M came along and it really got started. So it kind of got together from a bunch of bands playing together with this idea of making this really great band something special.
Where did you come up with the name Tsunami Bomb?
I just kind of thought of it. I was looking to kind of come up with something that sounded different to me than all the names at the time and I wanted something to kind of sound like an experimental weapon and I watched too much anime and read too many comic books. Then I came up with the name Tsunami Bomb I said “that’s it that’s the name” so I did all this checking to make sure there was no band named Tsunami Bomb at all. There wasn’t so it was ours. The only thing Tsunami Bomb ever was is I guess it appeared in a video game as a special weapon but like pretty much the only thing it was an experimental top secret weapon being worked on in World War 2 by the Australians when they would set off a bunch of nuclear charges under water and create a tidal wave that would hit the harbor and destroy ships. Apparently that’s the historical thing. That’s the only thing Tsunami Bomb ever was. It’s kind of funny that it actually was a weapon when I was trying to come up with something that sounded like a super hero weapon or something crazy and something just completely different.
What is the best concert you have ever played? Why?
I think my favorite all time moment was when we played Phoenix Theatre where we’re from. It’s like a 900 capacity theatre. That’s our home theatre that’s where we came from. I’ve grown up booking shows there and playing shows there since I was like 13 or 14. Then when we were on tour we went there and it was completely sold out. They turned away so many people because it was way too much and I’m like that’s insane, 900 people going crazy. We covered a Green Day Song, an old old Green Day song but didn’t tell anybody what it was. They just went off. There have been so many great shows but that’s probably my favorite because it was our crowd, our moment, and it was kind of like a dream come true.
What is the worst concert you have ever played? Why?
I think our most pathetic moment was when we played this club on an early tour. We played Nashua, New Hampshire. We played a club that had just opened and they didn’t flyer because the city wouldn’t let them. So they didn’t announce the show and we played in front of 7 kids that dwindled down to 3 kids by the end of our show and their mom came to pick them up and we had 2 songs left. We had to beg the mom to let them stay long enough to hear our music. So we dedicated a song to each of them. It was just so pathetic and I think we sold a grand total of $7.08 of merch. That’s the lowest we’ve ever sold. That was a while ago but I think that was our worst moment just sitting there on stage and begging a mother not to take her two kids home so that we wouldn’t 1 kid at the end and we’d have 3.
What were some of your favorite bands/inspirations?
I’ve really been inspired by a lot of bands for a while now by AFI, who’s always been inspiring. I love they behave as a band and how they act as a band. I admire them. I admire Rancid, it’s been a lot of fun to be able to be with those guys a lot on this tour and Rancid has turned out to be just as great as thought as I ever thought or hoped. They’re really cool people. I grew up listening to everything they’ve done. Then Hot Water Music, Alkaline Trio, Green Day, Poison The Well really amazed me on this tour and I’ve gotten them, The Vandals are fun to tour with. A lot of bands are really inspiring. The bands that inspire me are the bands that are really amazing live and are really good people and you could talk to there band with a high degree of ethics. So that really inspires me in how they act as a band. There are a lot of small bands that nobody ever hears about that I find really inspiring because of how hard they try and how hard they work for nobody to notice. I mean we were once one of those and nobody even cared. So bands like My New Life, Scattered Fall, and Fairview. Those are bands that I find inspiring. You won’t forget about them because they’re local and small and touring and nobody knows who they are but the fact that they do all that work for so little return. That reminds you of why music is so wonderful and so great and so worth doing. It’s hard to complain about such things like oh I hurt my back today, oh why am I here. When you look out and see a band even at Warped Tour playing their asses of for like 3 people and barbequing every night. Just so they can be here, just so they can say they were here. That’s pretty amazing.
What are you opinions on file sharing?
I know a lot of people are against it and I know it’s made it difficult for the industry lately but you know what, fuck it. If it wasn’t for file sharing so many people wouldn’t know who we are and every person I have ever met, ever talked to, if you have a quality band they will buy your album and I have yet to meet somebody, I’ve actually met one person who says I’ll never buy albums and you know what that person will never buy albums anyway. That’s the type of person who always tapes off of my stuff. If it’s crap then why would they want to buy it anyway? If you’re a good band and you work hard and write good songs and try and give yourself a voice as much as possible those people will continue and as a label if you release good stuff and you encourage your bands, your musicians, your artists, to really push the envelope and really make it work. People will buy it. Radiohead was just all over the internet before their album came out and their album still exploded. I think it’s important not to lose sight that that’s the new radio in a sense. Mainstream radio is worthless to listen to, to find out anything new or interesting, especially anything that’s good on it that been around for a long time before it got to the radio. I think file trading is the best place to do it and I think they’ll just have to accept it and embrace it and use it as a tool. For every person who burns a CD, they may not buy an album, but at the very least they will go to your shows.
Where do you see yourselves 10 years from now?
No idea. I’m hoping the band will still be together. I think it will as long as things go well. I’d like to be one of those bands that keeps going but ages well if possible. I don’t want to get bloated and stupid and lose touch with what’s going on. If that were the case I’d rather stop it and have people remember it well. So basically I’m hoping the band will still be going and I hope we’ll still be doing good music. We’ll be a lot older then but we’ll be like the same age as The Vandals or Rancid. Hopefully we’re still making some great music. I hope everyone is pretty comfortable with their lives and I hope we’ll still be having fun.
What would you be doing if you weren’t in Tsunami Bomb?
Jackin’ cars…breakin’ shit. (Laughter) Well honestly, no joking around…I would probably be trying to figure out some way to do something fun and interesting. Kind of one of those people who continually starts stuff to make sure something is happening. I don’t want to just sit around and let life pass you by, you want to make life interesting so you don’t have to work in a cubicle and don’t have to just sit there and get sucked in by the system. I like making things. That’s what I love about music and the band. You make songs and you make albums and you play shows. It’s funny because it’s all selling and business but at the same time you’re making something and leaving it behind and years from now people will look back and say “look at that” or “do you remember Tsunami Bomb?” If it wasn’t for music I’d probably be trying to do something like that with something else, some other business, maybe start a label if I never had a band that got off the ground. Just do something fun. All my friends that are in this band, I wouldn’t let them sit around, I would probably take them from whatever they were doing and make them work with me, doing something. They would still be here with me doing something non musical related. Especially M, I would not let her get away.
What is one thing you cannot live without?
I bet most people would answer this with an actual item, but the one thing I cannot live without is the feeling of friendship on our tours and the feeling of family and I start generally freaking out when I don’t feel like we’re as close as we could be or things are starting to fell a little fragmented, because you tour so long, that’s what I freak out about. I know you expected to hear something like my CD case or something like that. It’s funny because the thing I honestly cannot live without especially doing this or things like this, is I have to feel like there’s more to it than just trying to be just some huge band, there’s more to it than just trying to be rock stars or something stupid. It has to have a heart, it has to have a soul to it, and it has to have a family to it. Times that don’t have that, that’s when I can’t deal with it. That’s what I can’t live without…the feeling that I am surrounded by family.
What do you have in your pockets right now?
I have two sharpies, and a pen…which is actually a sharpie, earplugs which are a necessity if you don’t want to have tenidous for the rest of your life, one is purple and two are black, my pass, my bus key, and my cell phone. And I did have a schedule but I don’t have it anymore. These are my lounge around fucked up pants so I don’t really have much in them. Were you expecting like I got mad numbers from groupies? (Laughter)
Are you afraid of anything? If so, what?
Letting people down. I have a hard time with that. That probably includes letting this band go to shit. Sometimes I stay up late at night worrying about different things that could happen. I worry too much. But sometimes I just can’t let it go. My biggest thing would be letting people down, myself, and then letting everyone down.
What do you think of the labeling that goes on in the music industry nowadays?
I think people think you need to do that because it’s important so that people know what they’re getting into. But on the bands part I think it just kind of screws things up. You don’t really know where to put it. Like some people call us “pop punk”. We are not a pop punk band. We are not anything or at least a pop punk band that is of now. Maybe back in the early 90s I would have said we were a heavier pop punk band. It’s not that way. We’re not a hardcore band, we’re not metal, and we’re not emo. I don’t even think emo means what it meant before. When I heard the term emo it meant something completely different than it does now. Screamo, indie rock, or emocore. I heard Vendetta Red called emocore. I watched them play and it seemed to me like they were trying to be some classical rock ‘n’ roll in a new form. There’s nothing emocore about that, what the hell does that mean. Emo to me used to mean you were probably from D.C. and you were probably on Dischord. You were doing this kind of emotional hardcore punk that was different from everyone else’s kind of punk and you were from the east coast and you were inspired by the east coast scene. Now it means somebody that isn’t straight 70s punk. It’s a weird term. It’s kind of crap but there’s not much you can do about it. I don’t really know where people would put us. I don’t know where people would put a lot of things. Is Rancid pop punk? I mean their songs, they are really catchy and really poppy songs. It’s not like Mest or Good Charlotte. I don’t know really where the lines are and I think it’s blurry. Somebody just throws something out there and it just doesn’t fit.
That’s all I have. Any last comments?
No, just thanks for taking the time and sorry for ranting.
