Prison City Brigade – Interview
Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (https://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: What genre/style are you?
PCB: It’s hard to categorize us into one specific genre. Through the years our sound has changed multiple times by adding in different influences and styles to help us build our own unique sound. For the most part we say we’re Post Punk/Post Hardcore because those seem to be the closest fit and easiest way to describe ourselves.
PD: Tell us the brief history of yourselfs.
PCB: The band started in late August of 2013 and since then we’ve continued to improve and evolve musically. PCB has gone through a number of line-up changes over the years, the most recent addition was Jose Gastelum on drums.
PD: Who are your musical influences?
PCB: Musically we all have different tastes and influences ranging all the way from blues to heavy metal and everything in between, (i.e. ska, folk, punk, classic rock, etc), and in doing so we’ve been able to make our own unique sound that also helps us create a “something for everyone” experience in our music. If you don’t like one song, don’t worry, just move on to the next one and so forth. Eventually something will grab you, and maybe a song you didn’t like before will become a favorite and make more sense as to why it is what it is.
PD: What are your dreams and goals?
PCB: You hear a lot of bands and musicians say they want to be big and famous and have a luxurious life. That’s all well and good, but the odds are far from even. We’re happy spreading our music and developing a wider audience. Would becoming rich be nice? Oh hell yeah! However, until that day comes we’re just happy going out a couple weeks here and there, playing our music, meeting people, and having a good time. Sure this is kind of a job, but it’s one that we love and will put in the work for every day.
PD: Who writes your songs, what are they about?
PCB: That’s one of the beautiful things about us. There is no one set songwriter and we all have a hand in each song created. We’ve all lived with different experiences and influences and we try to incorporate our own individuality in each song. We all have ideas and suggestions and we test what we can and see what fits the best, this even goes for song lyrics.
PD: How do you promote your band and shows?
PCB: A lot of our promotional strategy currently is through social media marketing and using the tools we have to our advantage. However, depending where the show is and who we know in said area we will also promote on foot by hanging flyers, word of mouth, as well as making random appearances in places 
just to continue to spread awareness.
PD: What do you think about downloading music online?
PCB: Downloading music is a catch-22. Yea, you have the music right there for anytime anywhere access which is great! However, most people don’t “download” music they just stream it. The issue with that is musicians don’t really make anything off streams unless you’re well known and have generated thousands upon thousands of streams for just one song.
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
PCB: That’s an interesting question that could have a multitude of answers and none of which would be wrong. It’s all a matter of personal preference really. The only thing that truly matters is that there are so many choices and classics to choose from. At this point, trying to learn any classic hit or tune is a great way to further your own skills as well as pay personal respects to the great musicians who came before us.
PD: What are some of your pet peeves?
PCB: The biggest two pet peeves, and they go hand in hand. Always maintain a high level of professionalism and respect. No matter how bad a situation gets we always try (and we say try because sometimes emotions get the better us) to keep a clear level head. The last thing anyone wants is to look bad in the public eye or burn a bridge that down the road may have been a benefit to have.
PD: What is your proudest moment in music?
PCB: That’s a tough one for all of us to come to a solid one stand out moment since we’ve all had our little things here and there, but the biggest to stand out recently is how at our album release show for “Rough Skeletons”, the album hadn’t even been out for 24hrs at the time when we took the stage, yet so many people were already singing along with our songs… It was one of those surreal, holy shit, people actually do listen to us and enjoy us. It really puts things in perspective and just makes you want to continue to do your best and create
PD: So what are you working on at the moment?
PCB: Well, we just released our third album, “Rough Skeletons” which took up the majority of our winter months. It definitely helped pass the time. Now we’re all just focusing on the final preparation and promotion for our Next Stop Prison Tour with our friends in Next To Eternity, set for March 13th and running until March 28th.
PD: Tell us about your next shows and why we should be there.
PCB: As mentioned before next on our plate for shows lined up is our “Next Stop Prison Tour” with our friends in Next To Eternity. This will be our first time heading out towards the east coast and we’re looking to have a good time every night and meeting new people. What makes this special to us and to those that may have heard of us before is that since most of these areas are ones we’ve never played before, we get to mix the set list up every night with songs covering all three of our albums. So you never know what new or old favorite you may hear.
Prison City Brigade links:
Band/Artist location – Joliet Illinois
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