Please introduce yourself and the other band members

Me(David Pitzel) bass, Paul Rauch guitar and Chris Pitzel Drums

how and when still life started? where you all friends before still life formed?

Paul and I met in the 6th grade. He commented on some of the band names I'd written on my folder. We were little heavy metal kids. My brother and I had always wanted to make a metal band since we were really young. I had some drums and Chris played guitar. Paul was going to be our singer. It never really worked out but Paul and I stayed friends and when we were like 16 or so we started getting serious about playing music. This was like 87 or 88. We made some songs and played Misfits covers. That evolved into a band called The Monster Club. Eventualy the singer for the band quite. Paul and I started doing the vocals and we began to play some shows and stuff. Eventualy Adam Callaway our origial drummer took off to the national forest to get a job and the band broke up. But when he came back we all started playing again and changed the name to Still Life. That was in like 89. Our first 7 inch came out in 90 I think. then in 95 Adam left the band and Chris started playing drums. And here we are today.

tell me something about the history

Lets see first we were The Brothers of Misery, which was basicaly Paul and I making up songs on his couch watching Saturday morning cartoons. We had like 3 original songs and we played alot of Misfits covers. Then some metal kid Paul knew from school heard our demo and wanted us to play with his band at a party. So we needed a drummer and a singer. We recruted Adam Callaway on drums because his Dad had an old drum set in a tool shed. We got Rick Rodney for vocals because he was our good buddy and he could scream louder than anyone. We played the show and the cops came to break it up before the metal kids band could play, sorry Mich. Anyhow it was cool. Then we started making more original songs and changed the name to The Monster Club. We played a few shows and Rick left the band to start a straight edge band, which later turned into Strife. So Paul and I started singing and the music changed alot. Eventualy Adam left town to work in the national forest, he had some personal stuff going on and the band broke up. Then he came back after awhile and we started Still Life, that was in 89. We put our first 7 inch out in 90. We played shows around and especialy up in Santa Barbera. Then we went on our first tour with Struggle. Later Kent McClard heard us and asked if we wanted to do a full length LP. So we did and that was "From Angry Heads..." After that we did some touring then did the 8 inch "Slow Children At Play". Things were going pretty good and we were touring alot, then we decided to start our own lable The Sunflower Tribe. In 95 or 96 Adam left the band so we recruted my brother Chris. We toured and put out records untill 99. Things kinda died out for awhile then around 2001 we started working on recording, Chris had his own studio so we took forever to make our next album. We stoped doing our lable and started putting stuff out on Greyday, we put out an ep that had some old songs and some redone songs as well as a old Monster Club song. Then finaly in 2003 we finished our last album and Greyday put it out. The Increadible Sinking Feeling was the title and after putting it out we went on a little tour with Cursive and The Jealous Sound. It was cool and we wanted to start going at it again but then all of our equipment got stolen. So new Paul and I write country songs.

on your homepage we can read that all your instruments got stolen and that its hard to get new ones. isnt it a bad feeling to want make music and couldnt cause lack of instruments? i hope its not the end of still life after all this year but how you guys feel about it?

Well it sucks obviously but I try and look on the bright side. I was left with my acoustic guitar and I have been writing more songs than I ever did before. Paul and I are gonna try and put our music out and hopefully go on some tours. Its way different so we wont be calling it Still Life. I mean its pretty much straight country. I don't believe that Still Life is dead though. Once we get more equipment we will most likely start playing shows again and hopefully making more records but as it stands we are out of commision. But hey we still play music its just not rock anymore. I am looking forward to doing this new band because we have done Still Life for so long that there is a kind of formula to it. Not just the music but the live shows and everything else. It will be fun to do something that is so far from what we did before.

so still life exists along time ago now. how was it when everything begun and how it is now? you think that alot changed from the time? how was the connection to other bands?

Well in the begining it was great. Punk rock was so motivated and ready to change the world. Now it seems that the underground got put into the limelite so that alot of the original passion is gone. I mean now you got bands that are considered punk and they really don't even know what was going on in the 90s. Back then it really didn't matter what you sounded like it was about DIY ethics and exchanging information. It was really family based and kids traveled the country meeting other kids with the same views and ideals. There was alot of political motivation and really a very accepting enviornment. I was glad to be a part of all of that. It was a really good time. Unfortunately no one really knows about any of that because it was so underground. I don't really go to punk shows anymore. I hope it's still out there going strong but I know that I'm too old to relate anymore. The main stream kinda took punk and killed it in my opinion. They took the sound but didn't take all the other stuff that went along with it. I bet you don't hear about kids that hopped a train from Chicago to LA to see a Blink 182 show. But back in the day lots of kids were just hoboing around the country staying with friends and being part of a comunity. I don't know I'm jaded and old. But even back in the day punk rock never lived up to what I thought it was all about. I realized that life is not about punk its about people of all different walks of life. Just because your not punk doesn't mean you aren't an increadible person, and just because you are punk doesn't automaticaly make you an increadible person. I'm glad to see that some of the people from my day are making a good go of things though. Most of my old punk friends are now teachers and that makes me happy.

still life formed their own label...right? whats the story and history about the sunflowertribe and what meaning has that name? :)

Yeah we started the lable so that we could be completely DIY and have total control of our art. Although it really wasn't that great of an idea because being in a band and doing a lable at the same time was counterproductive. We were terrible at promotion and stuff like that. Pretty much the only promotion we ever did for the lable was to go on tour and sell our records. Now I see things alot differently. As a band you kinda need a second party that will take care of the mundane things like pressing records/cds and getting everything printed and put together. when your in the band and your trying to get the record together as well as setting up the tour and making music it becomes alot to deal with. The lable started after "From Angry Heads..." came out. We put out some good stuff but we were so low buget that it was real difficult to do. Paul came up with the name, we always got ragged on for being all wussy because alot of the bands in our area were real hardcore. We were kinda mellow compared so I guess thats where the whole emo thing came from. There was a big sunflower by Adams house where we practiced all the time and I guess we always thought of ourselves as a family or tribe. So hence the name, it made it all the better since we were considered the local wussies, that the name was all sweet and gental hahah.

when we talk about names....what does the name still life means for you all and why you choosed that one?

B side of Iron Madiens "Piece of Mind" I think it's the second song. haha. Over the years it has come to mean family to me. Still Life is not just the band but all of our friends and family. At least thats the way I like to think of it. but yeah it is an Iron Madien song.

i really love the lyrics...who writes them and does they always reflect things what happened in life? do you have special lyrical influences?

Paul and I write all the lyrics. When he writes the song he writes the lyrics and vice versa. Yeah our songs are about personal thoughts or events. Its all about us, sometimes I think we get a bit too personal. Its like therapy for me I guess to say things that are in your head and once you hear them out loud you get a better perspective on things. My influences are people I meet and situations I end up in. Pretty much life is my influence.

is it ok to say the music style is "emo" what you do? in the last time the word "emo" could pretty trendy. what you think about "emo" and whats the difference between back in the days and now? what you think about all the new bands?

Well back in the day emo was just a way to say that a band was alittle more emotional than political. It wasn't a bad thing just bands who were a bit mellower ended up being called emo. What sucked was when emo became its own entity. Before it was like everything is punk but there were little classifications like emo. The bands didn't care much about it and everyone just kinda played together. You would have us playing with like Born Against, Spit Boy, and maybe some spoken word artist. No one really cared about the classifications we were all punk bands. We may have sounded different and sang about different stuff but it was just thought of as a huge community with different styles. Eventualy the styles became more closed off and you didn't see shows where the bands were different. Emo got a uniform and kids started dressing up and trying to be all cool. At that point Still Life kinda got left behind because even though everyone considered us emo we didnt realy fit in with the style. Now adays it seems things are very segregated. You can really tell from one show to the next what style your going to see. Its funny really, how fashion is so mixed with musical styles. It makes me laugh how people judge other people by the way they dress and shit. I've seen people discount other people because they were not wearing the correct uniform for the show. that has never been what Still Life is about. Now emo is some huge thing but no one can really figure out what the origin was. I think thats because in the day when emo was emerging all the bands really just thought of themselves as another punk band. so there are so many different styles of music that got called emo that its hard for people to narrow down what it really is. I use the term emo all the time but usualy not to discribe music its more to describe anything that tugs at the heart strings. ie "I just saw this new movie and it was so emo it made me cry" or "Wheres dave at? Oh, he's in the back being all emo" hahahah yeah thats it.

what are your musical influences?

The Cure well I guess we have tons of influences but I think pretty much everyone in the band would have The Cure on their list.

how important are live shows for you?

I like live shows alot. It would acctualy be much easier to just record albums and never play live. I'm acctualy very shy so playing is a real scary thing sometimes but there is really nothing like a good live show where everyone is into it. Plus traveling on tour is great. I guess I think live shows are really important. its good to give people something to be entertained by. Makes everyone happy.

how is the "scene" there in LA/calfifornia? how are the connections to other bands?

Well L A has been pretty consistant at not wanted anything to do with Still Life. I love the city but as for our band in the music sceen, it has pretty much always sucked. its funny when we would go on tour we would have great shows and meet lots of cool supportive people but once we got back home it was like playing a show to the 5 people that we brought with us. pretty much sucked ass.

so what are your future plans...?

Well Paul and I are planing on starting a new band. real mellow acoustic stuff, pretty much country/folk. so we hope that goes well and if we ever get more equipment we will be playing shows and putting out more stuff as Still Life as well.

i wish you all the best and hope to hear soon from you guys...

thanks
David-