The city of Galt is best known for its annual Spring Strawberry Festival and the Galt Market, held twice a week, offering shoppers fresh fruits and vegetables among many other things. It is a surprise to most then to hear the sonic creations of Galt’s very own screamo/electronica group With Grace We Fall. This group of six young men produces an intense blend of brutal screams and breakdowns with melodic vocals and soaring synth lines. Although only half of them have graduated high school, WGWF has played an impressive amount of shows and has garnered themselves quite a following in Central and Northern California. Submerge recently caught up with three of the guys to chat about how they met, their plans for releasing new music and playing the Marysville stop on this years Warped Tour on Aug. 16 at Sleep Train Amphitheatre.

How did you guys get your start? How long has With Grace We Fall been doing their thing?
Micah Stevenson: How we started was just basically a couple friends messing around. We new each other for a while then we started just combining our talents and we were just messing around, not trying to do anything serious. Then we picked up different people along the way. That was a little less than a year ago.

What’s the age range of the group?
MS: It’s about 17 to 20.

Did you meet in school?
MS: Pretty much, yeah. We were friends in school and friends outside of school doing recreational stuff. We started hanging out and just fell together basically.

Are you guys still in school? Who has graduated?
MS: I’ve graduated, Cody [Dettman, drums] has and Doug [Sheldon, guitar] as well. John [Oliva, guitar, vocals] is still in high school, same with James [Garner, bass] and Matt [Miller, vocals].

For those of you that have, what are your plans? Are you going to college or are you going to do the band full time?
Cody Dettman: Micah and I are both attending a community college this semester. Doug isn’t. But really I think our main focus is going to be on school and then the band on the side. We’re waiting until things progress a little bit. When more opportunities become available, we’ll have to make that choice if we want to pick the band over school. I mean we can work around the schedule regardless. If we got signed or went on a big tour or something we would have to put the band first.

When you guys are writing is there one main songwriter or is it a collaborative process?
CD: It’s definitely all of us. Everyone has different ideas and brings different stuff to the table and we work with it.

Have you released any music officially? Demos, EPs or LPs?
John Oliva: Right now we just got some demos out with the five songs we have up on our Myspace. If we record more in the future we will probably put an EP out.

Do you have a general time frame for when that would happen?
JO: We’re pretty much just going with the flow, hopefully sometime by next year.

How many shows would you say you have played approximately? Have you toured or has it pretty much been regional stuff?
JO: Whoa, yeah, quite a few over the past year. We haven’t really been touring because most of us are in school.

You guys are trying to get on the Ernie Ball stage at Warped in Marysville, right? How were you getting people to vote for you?
JO: Yeah. We’re using myspace and we’ll tell people around our hometown and when we go to shows and just spread the word as much as we can.

Do you know how that is coming along? Do you think you have you been getting a lot of votes?
JO: We check it every now and then. We’ve been on the top 10 artists page a couple times.

I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you this or not, but fuck it…We talked to someone at Ernie Ball the other day and they said you were definitely one of the bands they are going to choose for that date. How does that make you feel?
MS: No way! [Laughs] Basically John is rolling on the ground right now and running up and down the halls. I have the fattest smile on my face I’ve ever had in my life. I have an erection right now. Oh my gosh. I definitely think that now that we have this information we are going to work our asses off.

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There is a certain air of mystery surrounding places off the beaten path. Especially to those of us who live in urban areas, lonely country roads, small towns and backwoods locales—and the people who inhabit them—prey upon our fears and curiosities. Area artist Mark Fox has seen this theme surface in his work in recent years. Born in Sacramento and raised in Elk Grove, Fox now lives in Marysville with his wife. The couple has been there for two years, and Fox has mixed feelings on his new home.

“It’s OK,” he tells Submerge, taking a break from preparing for a few upcoming shows. “I prefer living in cities. I like downtown Sac, because you can walk around, and there are trees. Up here it’s a little different. It’s laid-back country style, I guess.”

The new location has had a noticeable affect on his work, however.

“You get those true characters up here,” Fox explains. “We have my favorite guy up here called Marysville George; he’s really rad. He’s inspiring. He’s all about positivity. I try to base some of my art characters on people I see around here.”
He goes to the say, “Marysville reminds me of Elk Grove like 10, 15 years ago when it was smaller. Now Elk Grove is a little bit bigger, but it has that small town feel. It’s cool though. Everyone knows each other up here [in Marysville].”

Apart from the change in scenery, Fox’s recent preoccupation with “hillbilly, folkish” art stems from the death of his mother around three years ago. His loss led him on a road to self-discovery as he ventured back to Tennessee where he learned about his mother’s Melungeon heritage.

Melungeons are people of mixed ethnic heritage who inhabit the southern Appalachian regions in Tennessee and Virginia.
“They don’t know where they originated from,” Fox says. “They’re considered not fully white, a little bit darker, so treated like African Americans back in they day.”

Fox says that incorporating Melungeon-inspired images into his work is a way of showing respect and a sense of pride for his mother’s ethnicity, especially since the group was often discriminated against and ostracized.

“I try to incorporate that and bring it out because it was such a derogative thing to be called a Melungeon,” he says. “They were considered boogey men.”

Though this phase has lasted a few years, the 34-year-old artist (who now paints full-time) has painted his whole life. The 13th of 14 children, Fox grew up in a religious household and his family didn’t always look favorably upon his art.
“I was diagnosed bi-polar, so ever since I was a kid, I think that’s been my therapy—my way of expressing all the problems I had in my head,” he says. “Recently, when my mom passed away, that added to it. That inspired me to put more meaning into my work.”

Fox points out that, though he incorporates a folk art feeling in his work, he likes to mix it up. Living in Sacramento for so long, Fox also likes to add an “urban aspect” to his painting as well. Also, further perusal of his work reveals his abstract leanings.

“I think a lot of it is how my mood is, how I feel about what I want to get out,” Fox explains. “I did start out more abstract. Artists like [Jean-Michel] Basquiat—that whole abstract expressionist movement, inspired me. I was hella inspired by those guys—just hardly any subject matter, just wild paint, expression.”

Post from: Submerge Magazine

At first glance, the venue appears as if maybe you’ve ended up in the wrong place. Surely this tiny, tucked-away, church building is not the chosen location to house four local bands and their throng of supporters for the evening. What in God’s name (literally) is going on here? As I walk through the front doors past the merch tables, crew and into the stage room I find myself staring at amps, guitar cases, cables, drum kit pieces and…a large mounted cross. Oh, yes. This is definitely a church. And the congregation of young music-lovers shall be praising the rock ‘n’ roll Gods tonight.
A flurry of action catches my eye and I realize the first band is up real soon, and the stage is looking real empty. Push Push Pull is up first and its members were definitely going to have to push and pull their shit together to start on time. Luckily the old adage of “working better under pressure” proves to be true in this case and the rushed set-up does not affect the performance. Self-described as a cross between The Rocket Summer and Cute Is What We Aim For, Push Push Pull produces a mellow, melodic sound which reverberated through the room with dance-y power chords and steady synth strokes. The band’s debut EP, The Handsome Reward, is scheduled to be released late next month and sounds promising.
Nicky London, singer of Everyday wastes no time quickly jumping up on stage and chatting up the front row. Dressed in designer jeans, a trendy V-neck and caught on what seems to be the third day of not shaving, he is especially popular with the ladies. It comes as no surprise that the Roseville native knows how to work the crowd, emerging from well-known acts such as Rip Nicky and With Hearts of Heroes. Only one other body takes the stage, that belonging to Austin Haymen, guitarist. The acoustic duo swoon the masses and I can almost hear hearts breaking all over the room. Hell, I almost fell in love within those fifteen minutes. With uh, Austin’s guitar playing, duh. Coughcough.
The band up next admits it’s going through a lot of changes, and I think it’s safe to call that an understatement. The vocalist’s range is all over the place and sloppy tuning on all instruments is apparent. I ask the guy next to me to check my ears for bleeding. People begin leaving the room midway through their set. I’d have walked out too if I didn’t have to write this review. The Paper Melody, Brightest Light or whatever they’re calling themselves this week did a poor job of keeping the audience engaged and at a small venue like this, that’s a huge point blow. After a few songs of experimental rock terror, it’s over. Hallelujah.
After a seven week tour, the boys of Talk of the Town! are up and happy to be home. The room fills to maximum occupancy and at the risk of getting shoved aside I scurry toward stage left and post up. Only a few notes into the opening song “The Remedy” and everyone’s already rocking out. Two girls in particular are stoked as ever and squeal when singer Tyler and bassist Bryan motion for them to move in closer. The Yuba City five-piece definitely bestows upon all in attendance a musical spiritual experience. With over 33,000 friends on Myspace who dig their indie pop sound, Talk of the Town! is the it-band in their part of town, and spreading. After a successful U.S. tour the boys say there’s nothing they can’t accomplish.

Words & Photos by Elizabeth Franco

Post from: Submerge Magazine