What is your name and role within the band?
My name is Maurice, I try to sing and play guitar in Call It Off!
How did you start?
To keep a very long story short: I’ve known Adrian (other singer, guitarist) for a long time now. He was going to go on tour with his old band and his guitarist wasn’t able to tag along. That’s when he asked me to fill in on guitar. Lesley our bass player was tour manager for that tour and during the tour we hung out a lot with the three of us. At some point during our hangouts we started talking about starting a new band, once back home we went along with that idea and started Call It Off. Sergei (our drummer) was in the same school as me at the time and we asked him to play drums! That’s about it.
Where are you based?
Officially we are from Eindhoven, The Netherlands. I live in Utrecht tho and Sergei lives in Amsterdam.
Please give an example of your music writing process?
Mostly it’s Adrian and me passing along ideas for songs, when we’re happy enough about the basic track, we take it to the other guys and start praticing/adjusting until the song is done. Sergei also has strong ideas on song structures and such, so eventually everyone has a role in the songs.
What are you working on right now?
New songs! We released a record last january, so right now I’m casually sketching up some ideas here and there. I think Adrian is doing the same.
What is your gear setup?
I have a Marshall JCM 2000 Dual Super Lead amp with an Orange PCP212 white cabinet. The guitar I’m using right now is a Gibson Les Paul Special TV Yellow with P-90s. I’m really happy with my sound, I really like a classic punchy punk rock sound. (like The Explosion for instance) Not relying too much on lots of gain, but relying more on the power out of my shoulders and my playing style to get a punchy/agressive sound. The P-90 helps a lot too ;).
What do you like to do outside of music and does it affect your music?
I work for an IT helpdesk. It doesn’t affect my music directly, it pays my bills and new guitar strings! 🙂
How would you describe your music genre?
I would say, we are a punk rock band, but I think the avarage listener would describe our band more as pop sounding with a punk attitude. So, I could say that we are a pop punk band, but I’m not too fond of the term myself, really. A lot of people instantly think you’re singing about poopjokes when you say that you’re in a pop punk band, while we are actually quite serious (well, on our record we are ;)). I think that goes for a lot of bands in the genre by the way.
Do you know any music theory?
I know the basics, but it definitely needs brushing up.
What are your plans for the future?
World domination with Call It Off, obviously. Working on it!
How did you get into music?
My dad gave me some punk rock cd’s when I was 9, and I’ve really been hooked ever since!
What are you listening to at the moment?
I like the new Kendrick Lamar record, been listening to that a lot.
While I’m typing this I’m listening to the new Neck Deep tracks, though, and they sound great!
Who are your top 5 influences and icons?
In no particular order:
Joe Strummer – (The Clash)
Elvis Costello
Jack Dalrymple – (Dead To Me, One Man Army, Toyguitar, Swingin Utters)
Matt Skiba – (Alkaline Trio)
Luke Skywalker.
When are you playing next?
Next Thursday! that will be the 25th of May.
On a festival called Oerrock in a village called Ureterp ;). (yeah sounds like a city from lord of the rings, I know).
Please feel free to include any extra info.