HAIVYN (Grassroots)

HAIVYN
Posted Aug 14, 2007.



what are your names and postions in the band?
David: Guitar,
Styx:Drums,
Spade: Bass,
Denise: vocals

What is your myspace and website ? www.myspace.com/haivyn101 emailing list: haivyn@sbcglobal.net

Where are you based out of? Los Angeles is our homebase and where our rehearsal space is. East Los Angeles to be exact.

How is the support of your local scene? It's really diverse musically, but support of local music is far higher here then the surrounding areas. It's a pocket of rockheads, punkheads, and mariachis which makes it a great location to make noise, so everyone knows who we are. Plus we're centrally located to all the good venues and happenings.

Do you have any up coming shows? Actually we don't have anymore booked for the rest of the year. Right now the goal is to finish our CD, so we're rehearsing, writing a couple of new songs and jumping in the studio. We need to focus. Shows get us off course because that's when our A.D.D. kicks in...we find it is just too much fun to perform and forget about putting together a final product. We always list our shows on our myspace so if we get an itch to play we'll post one or via SoCallist.com

Do you have an album or ep out? Currently we are on the newest LA ROCKER for LIFE compilation CD put out my Illumna Records that will be available through them. The Jazz Song is featured on it. We had our a 6 song EP where we completed a short run only now it's not available. We actually sold out but we'll do another short run to have on hand for kits. Our goals is to complete the full length then push it through the digital music sites and distribution channels. We have alot going on here so we expect this to go well once the ball gets rolling.

Where can the public get it? To be announced by Big Smile Magazine we hope. One place for sure is CD BABY and off our myspace webstore we're setting up.

How long have you been a band for? 7 years Haivyn has around. Actually 6 because we took a year off and when through some internal changes. But...yes I know what you're wondering 'And all that time no full-length CD?' Correct. We had about 38 songs, all we did was write. I think we were more engrossed in writing new songs in different styles and figuring ourselves out then anything else during most of that time. It did us a lot of good when it comes to differentiating ourselves from alot of music out there.

Have you changed any members since then? Yes. Bass player and Drummer changed. Our old drummer was not physically up for it any longer due to health reasons, so for a short time he played keys but finally decided to take a different path and have a family. We're really happy for him. Shortly after this, our previous bass player chose to go back to school and we really thought the band might have come to an end but die-hard fans wouldn't let that happen. In fact one "fan" became our bass player, Spade, and after trying out a number of drummers we found a pretty damn good fit, Styx. The previous members were a blast and we had a lot of fun with them. One still comes to our shows to support. Anyhow...Haivyn lives. Suddenly we grew faster in shorter period of time than we ever had in the past. is it hard being a band in LA one of the top music centerals in the world? Its unbelievable. Unbelievably wonderful and unbelievably horrible all at once. Not only is it hard because of the number of bands competing for a good show and a little limelight, but it's difficult being the girl fronted rock band. One thing I've learned and love is that even though there are alot of great L.A. bands, HAIVYN has that little something different to offfer both musically and visually. There's a stigma with girl fronted rock bands and I actually get to see that barrier breaking first hand. When some intimidated cholo looking dude comes up and says
'damn girl that was f%$ing tight. You rocked it' I get all warm and fuzzy inside! LOL I think I can play hard enough for the boys to enjoy too. I know I certainly try. We're all just enjoying ourselves and hoping everyone else is too.

Do you feel that you are always struggling? Of course, but we forget about the struggle when we peform or write a new song. We only think about it at times like this. It really is a exhausting to push your music as an independant but what keeps us going is the love of playing and belief in the music.

Are shows hard to find, and when you do what do you do to book them? Nope. shows are easy to find. A really good one just requires contacting the right people. Thanks to the Internet anyone can do this - we do. Generally, any band can put on a show. We put on one for a full summer. It was Band Wagon Tuesdays at this sweet place called AZUL. It was amazing and so fun oh my gOD! All you need is pick out a good location for a venue and talk to the main person in charge. Bands just starting out can't be picky about shows unless they wan to pay to play, so I suggest doing this. If you have little weight then you can demand a little more in a contract. Seriously, why play at a venue where they ask you to pay to play? You don't reap the full reward. Why invite the same people over again to each show? Venues like these are ridiculous. In that case go rent a hall and charge all your friends $10 at the door to see you play and the money can go to the rental and a keg. All bands need exposure, we just try now days to play smart shows - quality not quantity. We play where the rockheads want us to play and where it makes good sense to play. Shows are not hard to find for us, they shouldn't be for any band. The key is networking with other bands, setting goals, and don't be FAKE. Next thing you know your friends in other bands will have hook ups you don't and then the love is passed around to those deserving of it.

Do you have to travel outside of your home town just to book shows? Oh no, although we have traveled for fun to play around up and down California and a couple times in Las Vegas, but we're not a touring band as of yet.

Ever been on tour? We've never been on tour before. To us being on tour doesn't happen unless you're signed to a major label. If not, it's just bar-hopping. We've never done an bar-hopping outside of the aforementioned. However should a label come about and request it, we're open! Hell, we're planning on it.

Whats an odd situation that has happend to you on tour? Well there was a show up in Northern California where a bunch of vertically challeged girls in a bachelorette party got crazy with the guys trying to get them to take their clothes off. They were begging me to demand it as if the guys would listen! Crazy girls up North! The boys were fondled and practically mauled by them! I had a blast watching and being the instigator in some cases. It was all fun and games.

How hard was it to tolerate eachother. did you find yourself wanting to kill eachother everyday? Honestly it's like being married to eachother. We have our bad days and our good, as long as the good out-weighs the bad then we're in it for the long haul.

Are you planning any tours soon? After the CD is completed, we are shooting for January 2008, then we expect to be pushing it through distribution. This is all independantly done, so no true tours unless the label and sponsors come in which again we are working on. So far, things are looking really good. I don't want to ginx us so I'll zip it at that.

What are some of your favorite bands? I love the old grunge bands like Pearl Jam, STP, Alice in Chains, and then I also love Esthero, Miguel Migs, Sinatra, Fitzgerald, and Armstrong. Think that's just me. Spade loves TSOL, Mother Tongue, and Marilyn Manson. Dave loves Janis Joplin, Korn, Incubus, The Doors and Tool, while Styx loves Buckcherry, core and speed metal bands. They're all linked in to the band myspace page so anyone who wants to dig further can.

What are some of your top influences? We purposefully skip around like music STICKs loving someone different all the time so it's kind of hard to answer that. Here's my attempt: Tool, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Korn. However we hear we sound like Hole meets No Doubt meets Fiona. How that happened, I'm not sure. Maybe we are limited on girl rockers to choose from? hmmm

Boxers or briefs or none? Thong & low-rise bikini brief. I can't answer for everyone else.

What do you think about vegitarians? They look pale.

Are any of you striaght edge? Unfortunately we probably should be, but we're not. We have no qualms with those who are. We simply enjoy a drink and ciggie every so often. Do I sound guilty? We try to quit smoking but it's hard unless we all do it together. I sound guilty don't I?

Are currently on a record label? looking for one? Currently looking for one. It's time for the labels to let another girl in the door that has a bit more edge. For clarification to those that may not know... by edge I don't mean who has the brightest colored pink hair.

Any clothing sponsers/ any other sponsers? We're more involved with non-profits, so we're more the sponsors then there are anyone sponsoring us. We have two major deals we are working on now though and we hope they turn out in our favor. I can't disclose anything yet, but I'll fill you in come October if all goes well. We are continuing to keep our eye out for sponsors that fit our style. We've only started looking in the past 3 months and it's already looking pretty good.

Do you have any special things you do to promote your show? We actually promote via myspace, email blasts from our mailing list, Internet show calendars, RSS feeds, posters flyers, other bands. We are also linked in with LA Rocker's for life as I mentioned earlier and they help promote us as well via email blasts.

What was the best show you ever played? OH damn that's hard. The best show to me would qualify as the most fun with the most reach, so that would be either Southern Cal Rock Revolution or House of Blues Holywood. I think because of the exposure, the band line up, our slot time, and the amount of fun we had from pre-performance through our performance and crashing at the Queen Mary on until the next morning. I'll give it to So Cal Rock Revolution. It's even pretty damn cool that the money made from it went to Stand Up for Kids, a non-profit in Long Beach. They guys might say House of Blues or Hard Rock, but Souther Ca Rock Revolution has a pretty well rounded score.

What was the best venue you ever played at? House of Blues on Sunset in Hollywood was my favorite. That was a killer show. The stage was perfect, the house was packed, the place is precious. It simply a great venue to play because it's not too big and it's not too small so you see everyones face from the stage and it almost has a cozy feeling to it.

How did you hear about big smile magazine? all I know is that I'm so glad you introduced yourself because it was via you.

Anything else you would like to say to your fans? The message I have is: HAIVYN grassroots style suga!! Keep PASSING IT ON and on and on. Then when the CD is out.... buy it. sending love love kissy kissy smoochy smoochy! OverNout. thanks alot for you time <3 rick murder --->Big Smile Magazine writer/photographer