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INNERGARDEN2.0

other interview :  truetilldeath.com | heaven shall burn | the rocking horse winner (RIP)

i know this band by accident while browsing on the internet. after visited their website im getting more interested with them. soon after i get their mp3s [thanx to Kazza] i immediately love this band. and not so long after i found the perfect theme for Innergarden#2 [that "will hardcore goes mainstream" issue] i decided to email this band to know whether they interested to do an interview. my main reason is just simple. with that "will hardcore goes mainstream" special issue i must have had an interview with a band from pop punk or emo genre. cause these kind of genre are one of those subgenre from hardcore that start to bubling up to mainstream media these days. and ettison clio seems to be the perfect one for this. so heres the historical interview which is answered by Stephanie Gunter, their vocalist, early December 2003.

ETTISON CLIO

hi there….how’s everyone goin?

helloooo :)

first question is the most common question ever ask in an interview, tell us the history of Ettison Clio. And where do you get that name?

Ettison Clio was formed by JP and Brian (guitars). They grew up together and played music together all throughout high school in Plymouth-Canton, Michigan. They soon added Jared to the mix on bass (he went to high school with them as well) and later added Ryan Taucher on drums and Nik and Erik Fortman on vocals. Nik and Erik left the band in November of 2001. The band started auditioning vocalists. I (Stephanie) was asked to try out for the band, I was about the 30th person to try out, they liked what I did and asked me to join. The following year Ryan Taucher decided to leave the band. I had grown up with John Ostler in Saginaw and knew that the band he had been drumming for had just broken up so I invited him to come play drums for us. The rest is history. The name Ettison Clio comes from 2 different cities. Clio is a city in Michigan, and to be honest I'm not quite sure where Ettison is. There really isn't any deep meaning to the name, and most of the time people pronounce our name wrong (saying Cleo instead of Cly-oh).

How do you describe your music? What’s Ettison Clio musical influences?

I have a really hard time describing our music to people because each of us are influenced by so many different styles, from punk to hardcore to jazz to emo. I think we take a mix of all those styles and just play music as it comes to us.

I know that Ettison Clio just release a new album. Tell us alittle about it.

Right now we have an EP we released in Oct. 2002 titled "Fragile Simplistic". The cd was pretty much the first effort the band put together as a recording. It definitely was a positive start for us but you can see from our newer material on our "Credit Card Debt" demo we recorded last March just how much we've grown since then. Credit Card Debt was not released to the public but we did have some mp3s on mp3.com before the site went under. We are hoping to record a brand new full length in the near future.

Ettison Clio seems pretty busy right now. I saw the tour list on your website and little bit surprised to see Ettison Clio are constantly touring (everyday!!!) until early December. I also heard Ettison Clio playing in Warped Tour last summer. So things doin really well with this band?

Things are definitely going well for us. Playing at the Warped Tour was one of the best experiences I've ever had. There must have been well over 1000 kids watching us perform and still to this day I'll have people come up to me and tell me they saw us perform at Warped. It was such an amazing feeling. The tour was awesome as well. We booked the entire thing ourselves so it definitely was an accomplishment, and considering we are still pretty much a smaller band in the scene, we were so lucky that we got to play the shows we did and meet all the wonderful people that we did.

Is there anything else that Ettison Clio want to reach?

We definitely would like to record a new album, get signed with a label, do some more extensive touring, etc.

Some of the girl fronted bands get lots of attentions just because their vocalist is cute or cool or somethin like that. So they are not really into their music. Is this happen with Ettison Clio?

Well, I guess you never know why a fan likes your music. Maybe they felt a deep connection with the lyrics, or really like the way the guitars or drums sound, or maybe they just think someone in your band is attractive. You never can tell. As long as people are enjoying what we do, we're fine with it. I don't think it just happens with female fronted bands either, just think of all the starstruck girls you see chasing after male musicians as well. It's just sort of something that happens. But overall, a fan will stay a true fan if their heart is in the music.

Lots of kids in the scene didn’t agree with the idea ”emo is a part of hardcore scene”. How about your opinions?

I think emo punk hardcore indie metal, whatever labels you want to break the different genres into all somehow tie together. the styles grow from each other and feed off each other and its the variety of those styles which keep underground music interesting.

Do any of you have “hardcore background” or all of you just listen to emo and then decide to start an emo band. This thing kinda happen a lot lately isn’t it? Do you think is necessary to at least know about hardcore?

Almost every single one of us in the band listens to hardcore or has some sort of hardcore influence. But on that note, almost every single one of us listens to emo and pop punk and indie and a ton of other styles as well. Trying to determine where a style should come from, saying that emo comes from hardcore or vice verse or trying to figure out who started what is like that old saying, what came first the chicken or the egg. when it all boils down, it doesn't really matter. sometimes people get too wrapped up in the politics of music instead of appreciating it for what it is. as long as music makes you happy and touches your life, it doesn't really matter

I want to know what you think about the sharing file on the internet. Theres so many hardcore mp3s, videos, etc out there. Are going to choose pro or contra on this issue? Do you believe in copyright?

We as a band have always been into sharing our music. When we first started out as a band we made free demos and gave them out to everyone. Sometimes as a musician you just want your art to be heard, and in that sense I don't think sharing music is a bad thing. We have gained so much exposure and so many fans from around the world simply by making our music available on the internet. At the same time, I do believe in copyright, in the sense that when you put all of your soul into music, you do not want someone to be able to take that and claim it as their own. Sharing music and completely stealing another bands ideas and music are two different things. I think as long as people remain respectful to eachother with it, there shouldn't be a problem.

This zine meant as a sXe zine so I got to ask you this question….hehehhe. Hows your opinion about sXe movement these days compare to old days when you first know about it? And hows the opinions about sXe movement itself? Is there Ettison member who got the sXe? How is like the sXe movement on Michigan?

We all definitely respect the sXe movement. None of us in the band are sXe, but we all have many people close to us in our lives that are. For the most part, sXe seems to be a very positive movement. Of course there are some exceptions as with any affiliation, for example when sXe kids get violent with those who are not sXe or those that "sell out". Again I think it is all about respect. I completely respect everything that sXe kids stand for and hope that they respect me for my views as well. But all in all I do think the surrounding emphasis with the movement is positivity. Individuals may warp that view and misrepresent the movement, but that definitely doesn't speak for the movement as a whole. There are many sXe kids in Michigan and many across the country. It is definitely a huge force in the scene and continues to grow.

On this issue I also talk about hows if hardcore someday be mainstream. I mean right now lots of hardcore band gone major label. Lots of clips are rollin on MTV and so on. Do you think it’s possible if someday hardcore be mainstream? And what do you think if it’s true happen?

Hmmm, will hardcore go mainstream? Who knows. It's hard to say. If major labels see that it sells, Im sure they will try to make it be that way. But will hardcore kids wish to keep their music underground? Many will, some will want the fame and money. You never really can know the answers to any of these questions until it all happens. There are punk and emo bands that have gone mainstream, but there are also punk and emo bands that stay underground. The same might happen with hardcore. There may be some that wish to go mainstream, and some that wish to stay underground. I guess only time will tell.

Ok…any last comment?

Thank you so much for the interview! Happy Holidays. Oh, and go check out these bands: The Beautiful Mistake, Nehemiah, Before I Go, Fordirelifesake, Bear Vs. Shark, Bit, Gatsby's American Dream, Long Since Forgotten.

Thanx for doin this interview. Good luck with the tour.