FAN FILM FRIDAY: INTERVIEW: Sci-Fried

With us today, we’ve got Sci-Fried, a science fiction-themed band out of Florida. Guys, thank you for being with us today.

JIM FREDERICK:
Thanks for Having us R3. It is really great timing, since we just finished our "2010: the Year We Make Con-Tact Tour," and right now we are putting the finishing touches on the last few songs for our new album "Future: Tense," which should be out in early in 2011. We are actually all at the studio right now, so you caught us at a great time.

REPUBLIBOT 3.0:
First things first: Which of you does what in the band?

JIM:
I play drums at live shows, and on the albums I play Drums, Keyboards, and Occasionally Bass Guitar and Rhythm Guitar

CHARLES SILVER:
I Play Lead Guitar

SUNNI SIMMONS:
I play Bass Guitar

VERNON LOYED:
Lead Singer

MIKE (KSV) JENSEN:
Vocals

JIM:
When we play live we use the following set up: Charles Silver - lead guitar; Sunni simmons - bass guitar; Me on drums. Vernon Loyed and Mike Jensen on lead vocals. In the studio however Sunni, Charles, and I are multi instrumentalists. Also, we have Nash Dent who runs live sound, and Rafi Levin who is our studio engineer.

REPUBLIBOT:
Thank you. Regular readers of our site might remember when we featured your song PX75309 a little while back in our “Song of the Week” feature.

So tell us, how did you get involved in this? Did you just wake up in the morning, sit bolt-upright in bed, and say “I must make Science Fiction Music!” or did it evolve over time? How did this come to pass?

CHARLES [Laughing]:
Almost

JIM:
I have played in rock bands all my adult life, and was always being laughed at about my passion for things geeky, such as Star Wars and Star Trek. I used to scheduled gigs around the Star Trek conventions that I would attend. Now I schedule shows *at* Conventions. [Laughs] The crazy part is Charles and I started this band, and we were friends for years before we started doing this. Charles makes comedy videos. He had this production company that made 'The Wookie and the Ewok' on youtube. I'm sure you have seen it. If not, stop reading this and GO WATCH IT!

EDITOR'S NOTE: The video involves some bathroom humor. Literally.

JIM:
Anyway, like I was saying we were friends for years, and he always told me that he played guitar, and I always told him that I played drums, so one day we had nothing to do and thought that it would fun to jam a little music together... we decided to record a live song for one of his videos ("White Targ" actually) and in the process of recording that song... well Sci-Fried was born.

REPUBLIBOT:
Was it hard to sell other people on the concept? I ask because I’ve been in and out of bands for 23 years now, and I couldn’t even sell people on the idea of a Ska band. It’s just amazingly difficult to talk people into anything slightly offbeat, so I can only imagine how rough it must have been in your case.

JIM:
Sometimes yes and sometimes no. We got involved with the nercore scene, which is HUGE in orlando, the home of nerdapalooza, so we try to book gigs with other local acts and bill it as a 'geek night' and we usually get a good turnout.

CHARLES:
Actually it's the best of both worlds.. because when it comes down to it we are a rock band. We can play at cons or we can play at bars. It depends on how we want to present ourselves to our fans or to a venue.

JIM:
True. we have played at events ranging from Nerdapalooza, to a battle of the bands, to a tatoo convention, to saturday nights at local bars... we always win the crowd over in the end.

REPUBLIBOT:
For the benefit of our Florida readers, were any of you in any other local acts prior to this one? What were they? (One of our occasional contributors was in “Cold Water Army” and “Bag we Bag,” both out of Tallahassee, and we interviewed “Black Stabbath” a while back)

JIM:
Black Sabbath? Sweet... Love Ozzy. [Imitate's Ozzy's voice] SHARON!!!!

REPUBLIBOT:
Republibot 3.0: "Stabbath - with a "T" - not 'Sabbath.' It's a funny name written, but if you say it out loud it makes you sound like you've got a speech impediment." They're a Noise act out of Gainsville. http://www.republibot.com/content/interview-patrick-hughes-talks-us-abou... They appear to be defunct, but