When his former band, uniSEF, disbanded in fall of 2009, Sef decided to take a break from the punk scene, possibly for good. Sef turned his focus to his family and to the development of a stronger worship team within his church’s youth group. After some time had passed it was evident that Sef’s desire to play punk rock had never left and that it was getting stronger by the day. With that, an idea that he had considered experimenting with for quite some time became the focus of his new project.
Nowadays Sef is back in the scene with his new band False Idle, let’s have a talk with Sef and his band mates.
[TMR] Hello to you from ´The Metal Resource’ Holland, how are things going there in Boise / USA?
[Sef] Things are going great!
[TMR] Will you Introduce yourself and the band please ? (name and instrument)
[Sef] I’m Sef. I am on lead vocals, and play guitar while Tyler is away. We have Matt on drums, Seth plays bass, Phil plays guitar, and Tyler will play guitar when he gets back in February.
[TMR] Can you tell us something about the origin of ‘False Idle’ please?
[Sef] False Idle started as a solo project. After taking some time off from my previous band, uniSEF, I decided to start writing again and started with a project that I had been thinking about doing for a long time, punk rocked hymns. So with the EP called “Hymns of Punk Rock Praise”, False Idle was born. After that project I bribed all of the other guys to come play in the band by telling them we would all be rich and famous.
[TMR] Are you guys full time musicians ? If not what kind of job or school do you do beside the band ?
[Sef] I wish… I’m an equipment/electronics technician for a semiconductor company
[Matt] No, Production manager for a rebar fabrication/placing company
(TMR) Is this your first band ? [for everyone personal]
[Matt] No, my 10th band
[Sef] Whoa! 10th!? That’s a lot of bands dude… this is my 5th
[Tyler] No, that’s how I met Sef. He came to see my high school metal band play… we were so good he stole me to form uniSEF
[Sef] Haha… That’s what I told him anyway… We just needed him for his good looks
[TMR] Why the name ‘False Idle’? Is there a story behind it ?
[Sef] When I first started the project and was trying to find a name for it, the word “Idle” kept popping up everywhere and I felt like that word explained what I was being before I started False Idle, and that wasn’t cool to me… So when I decided to start writing again I wanted the project to reflect my desire to get off of the couch and stop wasting life and to also encourage others to do the same. I honestly believe that Idleness can be an Idol for a lot of people, and with that in mind, the play-on-words just worked.
[TMR] Who writes the music/lyrics in ‘False Idle’? .. how do you get in the mood for writing music? And which bands/situations have influences you for writing music and lyrics ?
[Sef] I have written a majority of the music to date, but with the new additions to the group I think that will be split up pretty evenly. So far I have written all of the lyrics to our original material.
I just love creating music… so I’m kind of always in the mood for it…
Most influence has just come from life experiences and music I have listened to for the last 20 years
[TMR] How do you describe the music of ‘False Idle’ the best
[Sef] Punk, with a hint of melodic hardcore, all with a mainstream twist… haha… I really don’t know… that’s the best I can do
[TMR] For a lot of bands the lyrics are just a accidental circumstance, but for some bands they use them to communicate ! ..can you tell us how that is for ‘False Idle’?
[Sef] We always try to say something that is worth saying. The Hymns were lyrically powerful, which is the reason I wanted to re-write the music for them. And the I Refuse EP was all about not wasting your life. We will have to wait and see what comes next, but I’m pretty sure that whatever it is it will have some sort of message attached to it.
[TMR] What is the message you want to bring with ‘False Idle’?
[Matt] To Rebel against low expectations
To rebel against mediocrity
[Sef] Exactly! And don’t waste the life God has given you. Get off your couch and make something of your life!
[TMR] Is there already a highlight you will always remember, since the beginning of ‘False Idle’?
[Matt] Meeting Phil for the first time… 45 minutes before our first show
[Sef] Haha… that was awesome… How about breaking my wrist the morning of our first show
[TMR] And the worst thing were ? [if there is one]
[Sef] Same as the last question, breaking my wrist the morning of our first show… haha
[Matt] The drive back to Washington, and the next day or two after. I get angry/depressed that I live so far away
[TMR] Name some of your favorite bands to play with live [past and future] and tell us why ?
[Sef] Playing with FF56, and OCD was a great show. And then we all went to Denny’s restaurant and hung out for a couple hours. The Huntington’s were a lot of fun to hang out with. Local Boise punk bands always have crazy shows. I was lucky enough to play a show with One-21a long time ago, and The Deal jumped on the show last minute. That was such a fun show
[Matt] AFI, Screw 32, The Hellbillys
[TMR] What is your favorite food and drink? for everyone personal [no idea why people always want to know that]
[Matt] Chinese food and cherry cola, AKA The Roy Rogers
[Sef] I gotta have Coffee in the morning and Bacon cheese burgers with fries are my favorite… Oh man… Now I’m hungry
[TMR] First record you bought? [for everyone personal]
[Sef] I think it was an Enter Sandman single, on cassette
[Matt] I think it was the Pixies Trompe le Mond
[Tyler] Jewel, Pieces of you… haha
[TMR] What makes you laugh? [for everyone personal]
[Sef] My family can always make me laugh… Have you ever seen the show Wipeout? Oh man that show always has me rolling.
[Matt] The Office, My wife and kids
[Tyler] Farts
[Sef] Hahaha… Tyler’s stupid jokes make me laugh
[TMR] How do you prepare for a show? [for everyone personal]
[Matt] Prayer
[Sef] I like to go to the skate park the morning of a show and try to wreck myself… haha. But seriously, it is great to be in a band with a group of guys who take prayer seriously. That has put all of my pre-show nerves at ease every time we have played.
[Tyler] Not to put new strings on your bass right before you play a show. Other than that just hang out / have some laughs. Nobody likes the serious uptight band
[TMR] Favorite movie(s)? [for everyone personal]
[Sef] Dumb and Dumber, School of Rock, and anything inspirational… I always get choked up watching those stupid things.
[Matt] This is Spinal Tap, The Bourne Trilogy
[Tyler] Smokey and the Bandit
[TMR] What is the dumbest question you have ever been asked? [for everyone personal]
[Matt] Why do you play punk rock? My response is, “If you need to ask, you won’t get it”.
[Tyler] Is your Mohawk real?
[TMR] Do you have a life philosophy? [for everyone personal]
[Matt] Die with your boots on! When life sucks at times, I remind myself that it is only temporary
[Sef] Luke 1:37 – nothing is impossible with God
[TMR] Are you visiting many gigs by yourself and what do you listen to these days? [for everyone personal]
[Tyler] Ska shows are my favorite… Debtor, The Hoax, Big D and the Kids Table, MxPx
[Matt] Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Social Distortion, Hillsong, MxPx, Minor threat
[Sef] Strike Anywhere, Rise Against, and all of the bands on Thumper Punk Records… for real. There haven’t been too many good shows around here to go to lately, so I’ve kinda been a homebody.
[TMR] Tell us about the hardrock/metal scene in your area please?
[Sef] It isn’t a huge scene, but the punk scene here is full of some great people. They have treated us as one of their own.
[Matt] Not much going on in the Tri Cities
[TMR] How do you think about downloading music from the Internet
[Sef] I like it… Keep it legal, and it is super convenient… It’s the way all music is heading, I think.
[Matt] It’s a great idea as long as you are not stealing it. Bands should make more music available for free download
[TMR] About your album ‘I Refuse’, please tell us about the songs, the recording proces, etc
[Sef] I initially had a few different ideas for song directions, as far as lyrics go, that I thought would span a wide array of topics. As the lyrical writing process progressed, I realized that every song on the EP was starting to have similar message. I tried to refocus on making all of the songs about completely different things in order to keep the EP diverse in content, but in the end I discovered that the words that were coming out onto that paper were a direct representation of where I was personally at the time. So the theme of the EP named I Refuse came to life, and this is it in a nutshell
“No matter where you are in life, there is more. We all need to find the fight within ourselves to become better people. Whether it is for our families and friends, for ourselves, or in our spiritual walk, we all need to strive to do more with what we have been given. Mediocrity is not acceptable to God, and you shouldn’t accept it in yourself. I will no longer accept it in myself…
I Refuse”
[TMR] The EP is free to download, why have you made that choice ?
[Sef] Well, the Hymns EP was a pretty big success, at least in my opinion, so I wanted to follow it up with some original music. I knew it wasn’t going to be a full length, because we were just writing a couple of new songs as a group, and we were just feeling out that process as a new group. I thought the best way for people to see that False Idle was more than just “The Hymns Band” was to give them something for free. That way they could see what False Idle was, and what they were becoming, without any risk on their part.
Basically it was our way of saying, “This is what False Idle is all about… Check it out”
[TMR] You guys signed with ‘Thumper Punk Records’. How did you get signed by them ?
[Sef] David made me do it… Haha
It is a pretty unusual story, but TPR is not your usual Record label. As you know, I played in the band uniSEF for a long time. When we broke up I pretty much decided that I would never play punk rock again. I loved the music, but I felt that there was no place for it anymore. I had put so much into my last band, and it went nowhere. I considered trying to write a worship album, I had taken over as the overseer of our church’s youth group worship team, and I felt that was where God wanted me.
After about six months of doing the worship thing, I felt like I needed to do something just for fun. I threw the idea of a Hymns remake project on the hxcchristian.com forums and talked about it for a little bit. I had planned on making it free music for people to have, something that wasn’t a serious project. Then one day, out of nowhere, I got an email from a fellow named David. He was a fan of uniSEF back in the day, and he had heard about my project idea. He had also been throwing around the idea of starting a record label and wondered if I would be interested in being the first release on that new label.
Initially, I didn’t plan on doing it. I didn’t want to get back into the punk scene, get really serious, just to end up being disappointed in the end all over again. I happened to bring it up in a casual conversation with my wife. I told her that I wasn’t going to do it. She told me, as lovingly as possible, that I was an idiot if I didn’t do it. So I reconsidered, prayed about it for a while, and decided that I would give it a shot. Now when I look back at almost saying no, I am so glad that I said yes. David and everyone that is involved with Thumper Punk Records are an awesome group of people that I am honored to know. I am glad to be a part of what we, as a team, are doing. I can’t thank them enough.
[TMR] And what about the (near) future, any plans ? [Full lenght, European tour maybe ?]
[Sef] Hmmm… What to tell… We have a lot of plans. We have mentioned touring, but it probably wouldn’t be in Europe, at least not next year. But we’re looking at things like cornerstone and North West USA tours.
I don’t want to say too much about releases. We are trying to keep it under wraps, but let’s just say that both the people who like the Hymns, and the people who like the original material, will both be happy with what happens in 2012.
How’s that?
[TMR] Guys thanks for your time and the interview, we wish ‘False Idle’ all the best ……Is there anything you wanna say at last? [any final statement ?]
[Sef] Just huge thanks to everyone that supports what we do. We are very humbled by it all. And thank you for doing this interview; sorry it took us so long to finish it up…
God bless
Bandmembers:
Sef Idle — Vocs/Guitar
Seth Warren — Bass/backing vocs
Matt “Goose” Lagusis — Drums
Phil Harris — Guitar
(Tyler is on a temporary hiatus)
Weblinks: Website / Myspace / Facebook / Twitter
Video below: Sef, Phil, and Seth of False Idle jamming out an acoustic version of their song, Incomplete.