Review Fix chats with The Reverend Al Camino, the lead singer of Seattle-based rock band Underride, who shares his thoughts on the group’s newest album and the creative process that led them to cover Lady Gaga, as well as their current tour and future goals.
Review Fix: How was the band formed?
The Reverend Al Camino: UNDERRIDE was formed out of a desire to hear straight up hard rock. Really, we started making our brand of Camaro Rock because we couldn’t really find much of it out there. I think we’re cooking up rock with the basic ingredients but somehow it comes out sounding original and quite different from most of the current stuff in Active Rock.
Review Fix: How would you describe the sound of Underride?
Camino: Straight up meat and potatoes Camaro Rock for the masses.
Review Fix: What is the band’s creative process like?
Camino: Princess or el Barto usually brings in a string of riffs. We jam them out on the floor live and then I take it and put vocals to it. We’ll hash out intros and outros, guitars solos and whip up a demo. If we still like it, we make final tweaks and record it in our rehearsal space. That’s how we did all of DISTORTED NATION.
Review Fix: Why did you guys decide to cover Lady Gaga?
Camino: We’re huge fans. Her show in Tacoma was the best “rock show†I have seen in years. She writes excellent songs and we thought it would be interesting to do either Poker Face or Paparazzi in a hard-rock format. Prince and El Barto showed up two days later with their own versions of the song. I jumped on drums and we put the two versions in to one and made a hybrid of the two. We think its fun as hell to see people react to the song at live shows.
Review Fix: Your version of “Paparazzi” rocks, what was it like to cover it?
Camino: People who love to hate Gaga love the song and people who love Gaga love it too. Either way we win because our fans have fun and they’re being entertained. That’s all we want… to connect with our fans and give ‘em break from life’s factory of sadness… welcome to the rock show!
Review Fix: How has the tour been so far?
Camino: We are prolly having more fun than one band should be allowed to have. All the crew actually get along and we even hang out together on our nights off. Man Made Machine and Eve To Adam are really good friends now. The Tantric guys have been helping us with trade tips and tricks too. We’re learning a lot about life on the road. Spider (Tantric Tech) helped us fix a guitar rig one night and Gunner (Tantric TM) is helping us with merch. The MMM guys even lets us use their cabs and have been super kind to us as well. I’m guessing that we got really lucky on this tour because it’s going great.
Review Fix: What are your goals as a vocalist and in the band?
Camino: I just want to represent my band mates as best I can. They let me front the band each night so in return, I wanna deliver a solid performance each and every night. It’s all about the rock show and making our fans happy.
Review Fix: What do you think the immediate future holds for you guys?
Camino: We’re going keep touring and get more radio exposure. As we build this thing up we’ll get into larger clubs and then we will jump to the next tier. It’s just a matter of time because people love the show. It works every night in every town. People want to rock and this thing works. It’s gonna build… I can already see it happening.
Review Fix: How do you guys want to be remembered?
Camino: The best fu#*ing rock show on earth.
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