SIIINES

SIIINES transcended NYC's Bowery Electric this past Monday night, and basked in the glow of not one, but two major music genre spotlights; rock ‘n’ roll and EDM! Hailing from Los Angeles, the trio; Traviiis Triiip, Morgan Morgan, and DJ Gene (not pictured), blend aggressive rock 'n' roll rhythms with EDM instrumentals to create some colossally trail-blazing electro-rock!

After descending the stairs into the basement of Bowery Electric, we pushed our way through a thick black curtain which led us into the intimate Room. Immediately, our senses were assaulted by the smells of dust, cigarettes, and beer. We huddled in closely to see SIIINES quietly constructing their entirely Plexiglas set. Morgan stood to the left, his brows furrowed as he skillfully tuned his transparent guitar, while Traviiis skittered around the modest stage, arranging heaps of wires which endlessly streamed from their equipment.

Soon, the lights dimmed. The venue was thrust into darkness, and a hush filled the room. Suddenly, BAM! SIIINES dove headfirst into their banger, "Oh Yeah!" Traviiis’s head bowed slightly, as he gazed into the crowd and crooned in a near-whisper, "sweat drips out of every pore, the night is hotter than hell...sheets spark, set the walls on fire in this old motel..." There's a beat of silence before he wails, "OH YEAHHH!" The audience is dazed and amazed at Traviiis's spot-on vocals which easily could have found a comfortable niche with an underground hardcore show.

Neon strobes flickered along with the music as SIIINES transitioned seamlessly into "Kanye West," a jam littered with backhanded compliments that would undoubtedly make the hot-headed rapper boil over with rage. "My name is Kanyeeeeee West," Traviiis sang with the slightest of smirks, "…my ego’s never under dressed..."

After wrapping up with Yeezy, SIIINES switched things up as Traviiis deftly leapt over the keyboard wires, flipped some switches, and then addressed the crowd: "What's up, we're SIIINES," he bellowed, "three I's, no G...don't fuck it up," he finished, much to the crowd’s amusement. SIIINES hit, "God, I Hate Clubs" was suddenly blasted, bringing the last of the seated patrons to their feet.

Rainbows of neon strobes lit the room; chaotic lights in kaleidoscopic patterns reflected off of the Plexiglas, and into the crowd. The glitchy "Diskosno" served as the precursor to SIIINES surprising (and risky) cover of Nirvana's "Lithium." The risk, needless to say, was more than worth it! Traviiis got gravely with his dead-on tribute to the late king of grunge, while Morgan hunched over his guitar, strumming the familiar chords with raw intensity.

Following "Lithium" was the house-infused "Human Nature." SIIINES stand-in DJ for the night fed off Traviiis to a "T," only breaking for the unexpectedly sophisticated saxophone solo before falling back into a dance party. SIIINES wrapped up the set with the infectious "Sex on the Dance Floor." Traviiis made sure to clarify the meaning of the tune, earning chuckles from his fans when he said stone-faced, "this song is about consensual sex between two lovers! Let's not get too serious here, okay?" His announcement was clearly taken to heart, with concertgoers dancing and chanting along, "I'm gonna get you naked, get you get you naked!" The party stopped as abruptly as it began, with SIIINES thanking everyone for coming out and quietly exiting the stage.

We had a chance to speak with SIIINES in their van-turned-home for one of our most out-there interviews to date: Traviiis and Morgan ran the show, and told us just what they think about vegan cheese, Charlie Sheen, and more...



For our readers who might not know, could you tell us a little bit about yourselves?

MORGAN: No.

P...please?

M: Fine. Well, I like to eat vegan food, and-

TRAVIS [to Morgan]: I think they're talking more about what we do musically.

M: Oh. Well, this is Travis [points to Travis] he sings, and I'm Morgan, and I play guitar...and we're SIIINES. We're like...and electro-rock-mashup kinda group.

T: We always say that if Nirvana had sex with Deadmau5, we'd be the remnants left behind.

M: Just like...a big gay party with two dudes. I don't know how you can make a baby out of that, but we'd be whatever's left. Like...a dancing Nine Inch Nails or something.

Fair enough. How'd you come up with your name?

M: Well, believe it or not, the first name we came up with was Charlie Sheen. Just Charlie Sheen. And it was right before he went absolutely mental – he was like, kind of simmering? It was a slow simmer, but he hadn't boiled over yet?

T: Like, where Beiber's at right now. Know what I mean?

M: Yeah. So we were like “...this is funny. It's just the name of like some crazy, kind of like...semi-obscure actor who's kind of...debauchorous? But then he started to go crazy, like, going on all of these rants and his meth-fueled binges, and we were like, “this isn't cool anymore. This is gonna be, ya know, kitschy.”

T: We were gonna be Charlie Machine for a minute...

M: Yeah. But then we thought: “we should be Sines,” but some jazz quartet had the name “S-I-N-E-S,” so we were like, “let's add some 'I's in there!”

T: Yeah, but then we were like “should we just add two? NO. Cause everybody just adds two. We're gonna fuckin' add THREE."

M: Ya know, it's honestly just like, the same thing as everything with a name of a song or a lyric...you bat it around long enough and then it sort of changes, and it becomes something kind of different or cool. So, it wasn't as simple as like, “oh, let's just put in some I's,” we really had to bat around some things. We were a bunch of numbers for a minute! Just like, a series of digits. That would have been fun!

Where'd you guys come up with the idea of combining electro and rock?

T: So our last band was called Social Code, and we did pretty well in Canada. We had our last tour with that band in Indonesia at some little thing out there, came home, and Morgan and I just like, jumped in the car and drove to Los Angeles – our management's based in LA. We had no idea why we were going, so we just went and just started – or continued our career in music. We got there, ended up saying, “let's start a new project,” and we just decided, like, “let's do a project with the music that we're currently listening to that we like.” Not for any other reason, not for what we think that radio would like, or anything would like. We just wanted to make music that WE like, period.

We were listening to a bunch of like, Bloc Party remixes, and Does It Offend You, Yeah?, and a whole bunch of bands who were kind of like, mashing it up in really interesting ways. So we just thought “let's try that,” so we wrote some songs on acoustic guitar and smashed things together with it...and yeah.

M: Music and art should be like, surprising, and they should excite you, a know? They should do all different things, and rock music's in this really weird, boring place where like, you've seen the bands play before – it doesn't matter what the name is, the names change, but the guys all look the same, the songs all sound the same, the guitars all do the same thing, they sing about the same things...and it's just like, why don't we do something different to try and pull it out of that space and – while I don't know if we've accomplished this, but I hope so – try to make it exciting and fun and fresh and express it in a different way?

T: [points to Morgan] what he said. Make sure you put that in the article!

We definitely will. What did you guys grow up listening to?

T: The first record that really clicked in for me was Nirvana's Nevermind, it was the first record I ever bought, so that was cool. A buddy of mine was really into classic rock, so like, Led Zeppelin II – I totally have a soft spot for that record – so yeah, just kind of rock and stuff. And then I kind of got into the electronic world for the party aspect rather than to be a musical connoisseur, and then now I guess it's just all smashed together.

M: It's pretty close for me too, actually. The first record I had was New Jack City, which was like, this movie about gangsters in the inner city, and it had this rap soundtrack which was pretty badass. It was pretty taboo at the time, but other than that it was like, Guns N' Roses, Pink Floyd, Smashing Pumpkins, Chili Peppers...I never really listened to anything too electronic until the last six years or something. I'm always searching for new stuff. I'm Travis's outlet -

T: He is how I find new music. Between him and listening to Hype Machine, I'm set. Morgan, you should start a music blog, I'd follow it!

You should come write for us!

M: Yeah! But really, I just like really...different stuff, like -

T: Death Grips! You heard of Death Grips?

We have.

T: There's also a band called The Death Set from around here that are awesome, they're kind of like this mashup of punk rock and electronic. It's kind of...it's really messy. It's cool.

Could you tell us a bit about your new EP?

M: No.

[Sighs] please?

M: I mean, it's super secret...

T: Yeah...we're not trying to “promote” the EP, so...

Is that right?

M: Yeah, we really just wanna talk about Mexican food, so if this interview could take a sharp left turn, that'd be great.

T: Oh! What was that diner...Champs? Yeah, we went to Champs in Brooklyn today, it was really good.

M: I don't know if it was real cheese though...

T: Are you fucking kidding me?

M: Pretty sure it was vegan.

T: So what was it, like tofu or something?

M: It's probably soy-based.

T: So the new record's called “Fukushimarama!” [laughs] It's just an EP, we're only doing EP's so we can kind of keep ourselves going. We like it; my favorite song that I've ever written or been a part of is “Whelps,” it's awesome.

M: Yeah, I mean beyond that it's kind of...it's just like, sort of a look at culture in some small way. Looking at the “burry your head in the sand” kind of attitude that the majority of the civilized world has in regards to larger global problems. [Laughs] it sounds so heavy and then we go sing songs about Kanye West and hating clubs, but it's just like...shit that people do to sort of escape and not think about reality, you know?

T: ...Are you SURE that wasn't cheese?! Cause that shit tasted good!

What should people expect when they come to your shows?

T: A total assault on all of your senses.

M: A seizure. Like, if you're epileptic, you may seize.

T: We tour without a light rig, and everything's made out of plexiglass onstage. The guitar, the DJ table, our two Marshall amps...all made out of plexi. Everything had LED lights built in, so coming out of the DJ line is a second line which is connected to the lights, so everything is kind of synched to the music. We've got smoke machines, although they won't let us use them here. But yeah, it's loud and hard and rock-in-your-face, but electronic and dancey, so everybody...basically, we don't recommend people like, looking at the stage while we play.

M: Yeah, everybody wants people to look at them, but we don't want that. Everybody has front lighting to illuminate them, we don't. We're all backlighting.

T: We really like it when people are up and dancing.

M: Basically, pretty much the idea for this band is – have you ever seen Seinfeld? You know how there's an episode where George does the opposite of everything he knows and then he gets girls? That's us in this band. Everything that is normal we just try and do the opposite.

Do you have anything you want to say to your fans?

M: You know, that's the strangest question that always get's asked!

T: Wait. Sub-question to your question: what do people usually say?

M: I just feel so weird! I just wanna be like, “love each other! Yeah!”

T: I bet you a lot of people say, “go buy our album, right?”

Well, not always...

M: Good! We don't want people to buy our album!

T: We released our first album on cassette tape based solely on the fact that we don't want people to hear the music [laughs]. Everybody's like, “I don't have any way to play this!” and we're like, “EXACTLY...now give me ten dollars.”

M: Now, is there anything else we wanna say?

T: Yeah. Be happy. - Molly Boekenheide - Joonbug.com

LA-based electro rockers SIIINES released their new EP Fukushimarama! on February 11. Formed by Travis Nesbitt and Morgan Gies (both formerly of Social Code) in 2012, SIIINES wanted brings life and excitement back to the ailing sound. Experimenting with electronic production in the context of rock sentiment, SIIINES found a fresh sound by challenging their own preconceptions about the genre, pushing the boundaries in the marriage of electronic dance and rock.

In 2012, SIIINES released the Disk0sno EP winning them an Edmonton Music Award for ‘Best Electronic Release’ and Fukushimarama! shows the band growing leaps and bounds with a formula that is all their own.

Ghettoblaster recently caught up with Gies to discuss the EP. This is what he said about it.

When did you begin writing the material for the EP?

Writing for Fukushimarama! specifically began six months ago though we’re always tinkering and sketching. We gave ourselves a hard end date which is new for us. It was a relief knowing that in not having all the time in the world, decisions were required.

What was the most difficult song to take from the initial writing stage through recording and mixing? Why was it so troublesome?

‘Whelps’ was probably the most difficult track to take to completion. I loved the melody, but it repeats itself so often that it got to feeling a little played out as the song progressed. Musically, we were working on two wildly different songs but after smashing them together the stark contrast felt like a breath of fresh air while utilizing a nice sort of musical metaphor to accompany the lyrical idea. I don’t think we’ve ever taken so many different versions of a vocal on a track we just could not find a way to keep the line feeling fresh. Finally, once we got comfortable with the idea of a duet, we laid down Carol-Lynne’s response and the entire idea seemed to work together complement itself.

Which of the songs on the record is most different from your original concept for the song?

‘Kanye West’ was the one song where we planned, produced and recorded the entire song, sent it off to Ari (co-producer/mixer) and he sent back something totally different! It felt like a remix which was jarring at first but that sort of chop and screw ended up feeling more exciting ultimately!

Did you have any guest musicians play or sing on the record?

On the track ‘Whelps’ we have Carol-Lynne Quinn from a band called Rend doing vocals.

Who engineered, mixed, mastered and/or produced the record? What input did those people have that changed the face of the record?

Travis and I engineered and produced the record while Ari Rhodes co-produced and mixed/mastered. He’s an electronic wizard, so any input he had was always received with open ears. Many times he would take existing arrangements or parts and alter sections, flip lines, add synths and give the entire production process an additional coat of paint. It’s always interesting to see where his unique perspective will take a track.

Is there an overarching concept behind the record that ties it all together?

Lyrically, we worked from a perspective of fascination for the sort of escapist western culture that’s happening right now… the self-imposed blind-eyes to the world around us.

Have you begun playing these songs live and which songs have elicited the strongest reaction from your fans?

‘Breathe’ is the sort of slower or less aggressive track on the release, but live people seem to be connecting to it on a different level. I think it comes down to the emotions at the core of the song. - TIMOTHY ANDERL - GhettoBlaster.com

If you like 3OH3!, Ellie Goulding, RiFF RaFF, HYPERCRUSH

It’s a Friday night and you’re a little buzzed while waiting in line at the club with your friends. Your hair is long, your shoes are rad, your outfit is killer and you are ready to take on the night. When you walk inside there is a pounding pouring out of the speaker that throws you off but is intimidating at the same time. Drinks are had, there is a lot of dancing and you are in a daze as you head home after a long night of rowdy activity knowing there will be a hell of a hangover tomorrow. This is what it feels like to listen to Fukushimarama! by Los Angeles electro-rock band SIIINES.

SIIINES are an in your face aggressive electronic band with EDM booming through the veins of their music. Made up of two members, Travis Nesbitt and Morgan Gies, they have previously released an EP called Disk0sno earning them an Edmonton Music Award for ‘Best Electronic Release.’ In 2013 while starting work on Fukushimarama! they focused more on celebrity, drugs, sex, and money as their content.

The first cut on the five-track album is called “God I hate Clubs” but could not be more perfect for one. This album fits right alongside the EDM popularity and I would not be surprised if I heard it at a rave. Although it can be repetitive at times, EDM comprises that element and makes it work to their advantage. When asked about the EP Gies stated, “It’s about watching the world burn and dancing in the flames. YOLO!” If you decide to give this album a listen be ready to boogie. You can catch the duo on tour this year.

Release Date: February 11, 2014
Rating: 4/5
Run Time: 18:17

Track list:
1. God I Hate Clubs
2. Whelps (Feat. Carol-Lynne Quinn)
3. Kanye West
4. Inhuman Nature
5. Breathe

SIIINES is:
Travis Nesbitt
Morgan Gies - Chelsea Conte - Lucy Too Loud