Splitting Seconds
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Splitting Seconds

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Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Music, March 18th 2006"

"There has rarely been a dearth of local punk bands, but Splitting Seconds are out to seperate themselves from the din and become hometown legends in the process. Having recently finished the full-length debut, recorded at S.F.'s Hyde Street Studios, the band is perfecting a gritty yet melodic sound that brings to mind Hot Water Music and At The Drive In. As those bands have disappeared into a haze of side projects and prog-rock, the time is nigh for Splitting Seconds to inherit their legacy of intense, half-sung-half-screamed punk anthems." - METRO SANTA CRUZ WRITE-UP


"Splitting Seconds Plus The Ballistics"

Santa Cruz GoodTimes writes:
Splitting Seconds plus The Ballistics
Friday June 2nd 8pm at The Boardwalk Bowl

Far from being just another head banging garage band, the members of Splitting Seconds have bothered to learn, and even master their instruments. So while it can be easy to get caught up in the frenzy of fast beats and screaming vocal lines, it’s at least nice to hear a little bit of music going on underneath there. It’s a good think Splitting Seconds have so much furious energy, because the summer of 2006 is going to be a busy one for them. Having just signed up with local label Lorelei Records to release their latest studio album, When did Shit get so Complicated? the band is kicking off a summer tour at Coasters in the Boardwalk Bowl, with their compatriots from Sacramento, The Ballistics. After this jam-packed evening of vigorous rock & roll, the two bands will head out on the road together for the month of June and than Splitting Seconds will join the West Coast lev of the Vans Warped Tour ofr July. If you’re old enough to drink and energetic enough to keep up with a night chock full of high-octane music, you could do a lot worse than checking out these guys along with Soul for Sale, 30 Years War, an Dynamite 8 for the low, low price of no money.
Chris J Magyar.
- GoodTimes Santa Cruz


"AMP Magazine Interview “Into the Red”"

December 2006

Splitting Seconds steps it up a notch; putting out
their first full length album ”INTO THE RED” on Santa Cruz based
Lorelei Records. Russ Rankin(Good Riddance, Only Crime), in
collaboration with Joe Clements(Fury 66, and Compound Studios)
engineering the soundboard, produced
Splitting Seconds raw sound.

Michael Mcguire and Rich Swan, two of the original members of
Splitting Seconds met and began playing
together early in 2002. Soon after their musical
endeavor began, Michael found himself without a place
to live after a bad breakup. Thankfully Rich opened his home to
Michael at The Cliff House above Capitola Village
in Santa Cruz CA.

Suspended 80 feet above the Pacific Ocean, the Cliff House holds
significant history for Splitting
Seconds. Built in the early 20's and at one point
containing an expansive meat locker, the Cliff House hosted the
inception of the band, allowing the creativity to flow and strengthen.
It also brought together a bond of
brotherhood and dedication that increased when bass
player Liam Stary joined the band in 2004 and Rob
Tedrick, an ex-East Bay dweller arrived in 2005. It
didn't take long for these boys to develop a raw,
ambitious, and aggressive sound laden with energetic
harmony and structure. They've toured and played shows
consistently ever since, and have developed a
burgeoning reputation as highly skilled and
enthusiastic performers.

“Into The Red” arrives in mid January, followed
immediately by a three week tour along and throughout
the left half of the US.
Here's Michael and Liam talking about touring, gigs, and
recording. You know,
band stuff.

How's things in Santa Cruz?
Mike McGuire: We do good here in Santa Cruz. It's not such a bad life
living next to the Ocean.
Liam Stary: There was a time when we decided to move to
SF, but that never seemed to happen. This town has a
way of retaining a certain kind of individual, I
think. And they all end up staying here and making up
a lush community. Santa Cruz is definitely full of the
good types.
M: I guess that just means that we all like it
here. We have a chill little band house that suits us
well. I must say that we enjoy being on the road
more than we like being at home, but Santa Cruz is a
great place to come home to.

What's the best thing that has happened to you in the
last year, in
the band or otherwise?
M: Recording with Russ was seriously great. We
were--and are really appreciative of the attention he
gave working with us. There's a lot that goes into
getting ideas together for a record, and Russ knew a
lot of tricks and general rules to streamline that
process. There's some things a band can only learn by
acquiring knowledge from more experienced peers.
L: Joe and Russ work well together. You can tell
they've been friends for a long time, and when they
weren't whipping our asses into getting our parts
down, they were cracking us up. They'd go from serious
and deep in thought about the project or whatever to
goofball kids in a second. And then back to serious
again. We've worked with Joe in the past, and he's
awesome, but this would be the first time working with
Russ. The two of them together was rad.

How did Russ Rankin come to produce the album?
L: We recorded a full length demo, which we imagined
we'd release ourselves or on whichever label that
might be interested in helping us out with it. Lorelei
offered to sign us and release it with the stipulation
that Russ assist in re-recording the existing as well
as some new material.
M: We had no problem with that.

What's the craziest thing that has happened on tour?
L: It sometimes seems like one crazy thing after
another on the road, you tend to have experiences that
could never happen in another context. But definitely
it was hitting an elk on the Warped Tour. We were
heading to Portland from the Gorge in Washington and
ended up going head to head with an Elk.
M: It was a pretty shitty. The elk died. Our van was
totaled and we missed our last Warped Tour date. The
smell of burning elk hair and radiator fluid is a bad
combo. We ended up renting a 10 foot long U-haul box
truck to get back to Cali. It was only a two seater so
two people had to ride in the back with all the gear.
We put a futon in there and roped down all
of our gear to the sides. I can only imagine how we
looked rolling into a gas station seeing a couple of
dirty kids jumping out of the back of a moving van.
Fortunately we didn’t have any run-ins with the cops.
L: And most importantly, no one was hurt. Freeways are
gnarly. There are definitely other crazy stories that
could top ours.

What do you guys do when you're not practicing,
playing, recording,
and touring (i.e., being a band)?
L: Well, mostly thinking about practicing, playing,
recording and touring, constantly.
M: Also, booking shows and tours, lining up
merchandise, going to work. We've all got our day
jobs - AMP Magazine


Discography

*Self Titled 6 song EP recorded in '04 and released in the spring of '05.

*When Did Shit Get So Complicated EP recorded at Hyde Street Studios 06' produced by Josh Garcia.

*Not yet titled full length album recorded at The Compound Studios in Santa Cruz, CA and produced by Russ Rankin, released in January '07 on Lorelei Records.

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

"We charge these days we have with persistence
Painting pictures of hurt along the way.
Turning emotion into motion
Mending our days as time goes by."

...from "Charge" by Splitting Seconds

The first breaths of Splitting Seconds were drawn in the fall of 2002 when four fanatical music and art lovers stumbled their way into the belly of a dwelling that teetered on a cliff's edge above the Pacific Ocean. Fueled by their brimming enthusiasm for inspired creativity and reckless caffeine addictions, they would for hours pitch themselves wildly about the room, kicking stuffed animals and empty cardboard boxes, swinging limbs frantically and screaming messages of optimism and camaraderie. No one is sure whose idea it was to integrate instruments and a public address system into the bedlam, but it proved to be the perfect harness for their unbridled passion and vigor, and thus this rock band came to be. Strings were changed and vans were gassed and Splitting Seconds embarked on the journey that sees them through blistering high-energy sets across the countryside and at home, barreling through neck-snapping rhythm corridors ornamented with intricately razor-cut guitar phrases. The voice that leads the charge chants the epic tenets of hope, love, fear, pain, life, and death with the insight and grace of a venerated classical wordsmith. The members of Splitting Seconds have developed a reputation in the thriving Santa Cruz music scene as innovative and ground-breaking architects of sound, whose dedication to the evolution of music has become their foremost characteristic. The band's working-class ethic is distinguished by their rigorous practice and touring schedules, with booking and other business responsibilities handled by themselves and a network of family and friends. Live Splitting Seconds shows have been referred to as "enriching. . . everyone here is now smarter," and it has been suggested that, if harnessed, the band's energy could "power their own instruments, or perhaps a small town." It is never uncommon to see sweaty fists pumping the air and throngs of onlookers rapt in unblinking awe at the musicianship and stamina of Mike, Rich, Liam, and Rob.