Determined to follow in the footsteps of such Sacramento-based heavyweights as the Deftones, Far, Will Haven, and most recently Shortie, is the 4-piece band Simplistic. With a powerful new 7-track EP that the group is promoting, Simplistic has created quite a buzz in the music industry, most notably Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. Explaining the connection to Linkin Park as well as bridging the gap between the group’s past, present, and future is bassist / backing vocalist Nick Kellogg:

Q: In your bio you state that Simplistic was originally a side project that eventually became a full-time band. On this note, can you give us a rundown on each band member, their prior musical experience (former bands, etc), and what they each bring to the band musically & creatively?

Ivan England – Ivan was the singer for a punk band called No Reply. He took voice lessons for 3 years and piano lessons for 6 years. He received a scholarship to The San Francisco School of Arts for composing music. In Simplistic, Ivan writes all the lead vocal melodies and most of the lyrics. He also has written several songs on piano that will most likely be on the full-length, debut Simplistic album.

Nick Kellogg – Nick has been in many other bands and projects. Two of his major projects were a punk band called The Velcro Swingers at age 15 and a punk band (with Danny) called Another Dead Hero. He rotated to every position in Another Dead Hero at one point or another. He started as the drummer, went to bass, guitar, and then ended up as the lead singer. Nick started playing music in the fifth grade on the trumpet and went on to play it in statewide honors bands and youth symphonies. He is self-taught on bass, guitar, and drums and has played all three in bands. In Simplistic, he writes all of the harmonies and background vocals and some of the lyrics. He writes the bass lines to complement Danny’s guitar riffs and works a lot with the structure and general pre-production of the songs.

Danny Cocke – Danny has been playing guitar, bass, and drums with various musicians since he was twelve. The only other serious band he played in was Another Dead Hero, where he first played and wrote music with Nick. He played lead guitar. In Simplistic, Danny writes the root riffs and chord progressions for the songs on guitar and then works with Nick and Justin as they write their parts. After all the individual parts are finished, Nick and Danny will then put the song together and make sure the song’s structure is flowing and effective.

Justin Barnes - Justin has been playing drums semi-professionally for the last 6 years. His semi-pro career started when he joined his first band, Harper. Justin has focused mainly on school programs. He has been playing jazz in school for 6 years as the lead drum set player. He also played for Folsom High Schools nationally acclaimed Jazz Choir and has received scholarships and/or consideration for his playing from Fresno State, Long Beach, Sonoma, Reno, and from the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Justin is one of the many proud Sacramento Freelancers (a world-renowned indoor drum corp.). He went with them to Wisconsin for the WGI World Championships last year, and took third. During all this time, he had been doing numerous side projects with bands such as: The Pasty White Thighs, Public Bathroom Stall-mate, The Chicken Patty Conspiracy, ATEARIS, Mr. Voggs, The Peter Morgan Group, and Taqueria and the Bean-Burrito Bandits. Justin’s only other serious band was called Secret Six, which was an experimental punk/dub/reggae band that recorded two LP’s and disbanded when Justin received the audition call for Simplistic.

Q: Focusing on your moniker, "Simplistic" how did you end up with the name and is there a specific meaning behind it, and if so, would you share it with us?

At first, the name was just something we thought sounded good. We picked it off of a list of names that we had each come up with. It was really nothing that held too much meaning, but I think now that we have formed a definite style, it does somewhat represent what we do musically. We try to make our songs and our individual parts as intricate and intelligent as possible, but lay them out in a way that is simple and easy for listeners to understand and relate to.

Q: As a whole, what are you trying to accomplish musically & creatively with Simplistic?

Like I said in the previous answer, we are trying to make something that is the most intelligent and well thought out music we can. We try to "think outside the box" of modern day rock and be as creative as possible.

Q: Moving on, I believe you have a 4-song demo that you recorded with another drummer, Lance. Can you tell us what you thought of this release?

We were very happy with this release at the time. It was very early in the band. We recorded it only two months after the band began, which under most circumstances, probably would have been a big mistake, but I think it really got us up and running quicker than we expected and made us push ourselves just that much harder.

Q: A couple of tracks that were found on the 4-song demo and are now on your latest recording are called Simple Lines and Life Without, which I believe was formerly known as Life Without Life. Can you tell us why you chose to re-record these tracks, and how they differ from the originals?

Simple Lines was on the first recording, but Life Without was actually just a song we were working on at the time and it appeared on a later recording that we never released. Several songs that were on the unreleased recording and Simple Lines from the debut, were redone on the new recording simply because we felt that they didn’t represent us very well. We felt that with the new drummer and the 6-8 months of working on our songs and our all around style, had matured us quite a bit in our song-writing and individual talent.

Q: Are there any plans of re-recording any of your other material, and if so, which tracks would you re-record and what would you like to do to them?

Right now, we are actually working on re-writing a few of our older songs as well as finishing new ones. The older songs that we have in mind are Cemetery and Due Date from the debut CD and Mindset from the unreleased CD. Some of the parts will be changed, but the main ideas for the songs will still be the same. We will most likely just work on the structure of the songs and make them a little bit stronger.

Q: Going back to your new recording which features drummer Justin Barnes and was produced by Eric Broyhill, can you tell us what you tried to accomplish with this album that perhaps you weren’t able to on the first one?

With this CD, we really tried to show each aspect of the band as far as giving each member a time to shine as well as defining our sound as a whole. The first two recordings were somewhat experimental and rushed. We didn’t get to spend as much time as we would have liked to on the first recordings or even the song writing prior to the recordings. Also with this CD, we tried to show a new level of professionalism, so that a listener would take our music as seriously as we do. We tried to present it so that someone in the music industry who is considering working with us, would see that we can make something that sounds professional on our own and they would not have to do very much work with pre-production on our songs. Eric Broyhill was not so much the producer, but he was the studio engineer and he gave us some ideas for the sound of the recording.

Q: How do you feel your band has improved from your first recording to this one?

Just like any band, we matured a lot in a matter of months. As we played together more often, we learned to complement each other better with what we were playing to make an all around tighter sound.

Q: Can you pick 2-3 tracks off the EP and give us a more in-depth description behind the music, the song structure, the lyrics, and the song title?

Track 1: Far From Found – We tried to make this a song that would be a good first impression of Simplistic. I think it shows our range as far as dynamics, with a strong catchy chorus to a really low, soft breakdown in the middle. It hits you hard with a screaming bridge and then leaves you with the chorus to remember it by. Ivan and Nick collectively wrote the lyrics for this song. It’s about two similar situations that happened to each of them where a girl with a drug problem basically ditched them for the drugs. In Nick’s case, specifically, it’s an ongoing situation with a good friend of his who he really cares about.

Track 4: Last Trip to the Moon – This song is one of our softer songs. There is a lot of emotion put into this song by each member of the band. Ivan specifically, because he wrote the lyrics to this song about a girl who saved him from committing suicide. With the music in this song, we tried to make the structure a little less "by the book" than some of our other songs. We want this song to really tell you a story and give some ups and some downs, but make the ups hit very hard even though it is a softer song. The ending of the song is somewhat of a "grand-finale" I guess you could say. It leaves you with a note that Ivan holds out pretty long to kind of give it a lingering, emotional touch.

Track 5: Life Without – This is one of our darker and harder songs. Some of our favorite influences come out a little more in this song, such as Tool, Stabbing Westward, or Mudvayne. The structure of this song is set up to be very focused on building up to the chorus. We wrote and added the pre-chorus ("everything fades…") when we were in the studio because we felt that the verse was too soft to go into the chorus as drastically as it did. We tried to make the bridge ("now I know why…") hit very hard and be as strong as possible. The lyrics of this song were written by Ivan and it’s kind of a before and after picture of how Ivan’s life has turned around quite a bit during the life of the band. The lyrics to this song were different when we recorded it on the unreleased CD. The lyrics on that recording were about how he was really bitter about a lot of things and mad at God for how his life was turning out, but this recording shows his turn around. The chorus changed from "You were never enough for me to love" to "You are more than enough for me to love".

Q: Just based on the demos you have, do you believe that your band has found your own signature sound? If not, in what direction would you like to push your music to on future efforts?

I think we have found a sound that we are very happy with now. Justin (the new drummer) really helped us define that sound with his very intricate style of drumming that really molds to what Danny and Nick play. We have a very wide range of influences and I think all of those influences come out a little bit in different places and kind of push us toward creating a genre of our own. Something that we would like to do in future efforts is to incorporate Ivan’s piano playing into some of our songs and also put together some songs that Ivan has written on piano as Simplistic songs.

Q: Speaking of future efforts, I believe you are working on a possible demo deal with Warner Bros. through an imprint label founded by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park? Could you give us some more information on this as far as what the demo deal would consist of and how close you are to signing?

This demo deal is something that will give us a foot in the door in the music industry. We will be able to record a new demo in a professional studio in L.A. and use it to get a deal with a major label. There are a lot of details that we haven’t quite worked out yet, but we are in the middle of negotiations with the lawyers right now. As soon as all the details get ironed out, we will be able to start the recording and do some showcasing for major labels. No matter what happens with this deal, we are just very grateful to Mike and Linkin Park for showing their support and helping us get our start. We take it as a huge compliment that they have shown their interest in us. They are all really nice guys and very intelligent, and they have gained our total respect for what they do.

Q: If this deal does fall through, I assume you will then head into the studio with a fairly prominent producer to record the demo. So, do you have any other tracks in the works, and if so, could you provide us with any info like song titles, lyrics, possible producer collaborations, and expected recording/release time frames, etc?

Mike Shinoda will be our producer for the demo. We are really looking forward to working with him and seeing what he could do with our songs. He did a good deal of the production for Linkin Park’s debut album "Hybrid Theory", which was just nominated for a Grammy as best rock album of the year. As far as new songs, we have several songs in the works that will show a lot of dynamics in our over all sound. The seven songs that are on our latest recording are a representation of our "average" sound. Some of the new songs will be a lot harder, some will be a lot softer, and some will be almost a completely different style and mix it up a little bit.

Q: Not trying to jinx you, but assuming everything went well with the demo, etc, and your band was approached by a major, what aspects would you look for in the record company that would persuade you to sign with them?

If we do start looking at major labels, we would want to go with a label that treats their artists as career musicians, not just a here today gone tomorrow one-hit-wonder. Obviously, we also want to go with a company that treats all of their artists well and someone who would work with our music as it is and not try to drastically change our style or image.

Q: Moving on to your live show, can you tell us what fans should expect from Simplistic live?

Our live performance is another place that fans will really get to see all the emotions that we put into our music. We really like to put on a good show and make it very entertaining. We’ve been told that our live show is very captivating and really keeps people’s attention throughout the whole performance. The order of our songs at shows is very important to us. We try to take the crowd through a lot of different emotions and highs and lows. We also try to stay as involved with the crowd as we can by staying towards the front of the stage and making eye contact with fans in the crowd.

Q: Since your band is based out of Sacramento, CA, which is known as hotbed for talent, what are the advantages & disadvantages of being located in such a scene?

The local scene in Sacramento is like a close-knit family. We know and hang out with a lot of the other bands that are from here. It’s very cool to play with so many talented bands in our area. We are influenced by several bands that we play with here in Sacramento, which makes it nice for us to be able to directly interact with other influential musicians and not just be influenced by mainstream artists that we don’t get to actually talk to about music yet. The disadvantages lately have been a growing disrespect from cops always hanging around local clubs just trying to bust kids and shut down shows. A lot of the clubs in Sacramento have shut down because local regulations have made it too hard for them to stay open and make money.

Now I just have some basic questions:

Q: Can you share some of the influences of the band?

Our influences on our sound as a band differ very much from our individual influences as musicians. Our influences as a band would include bands like Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, Linkin Park, Alien Ant Farm, Perfect Circle, Deftones, Glassjaw, Sevendust, or even System of a Down. Our individual influences come from all different genres and styles of music.

Ivan’s influences vocally are Chris Hall of Stabbing Westward, Maynard James Keenan of Tool and Perfect Circle, Brandon Boyd of Incubus, Chino Moreno of The Deftones and Team Sleep, Jimmy Gnecco of Ours, and Denni Lyxen of Refused.

Nick’s influences as a bass player include Ryknow of Mudvayne, Alex Katunich of Incubus, Flea of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Justin Chancellor of Tool, and Victor Wooten.

Nick’s influences vocally come from Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, and the harmonies of Chris Carrabba of Further Seems Forever as well as Nick Hexum and Douglas Martinez of 311.

Danny’s guitar influences would be Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Jackson Mould of Slick Shoes, Adam Jones of Tool, and Cat Stevens.

Justin’s drumming influences include Carter Beauford of Dave Matthews Band, Tim Alexander of Primus, Mike Marsh of Dashboard Confessional, Chad Smith of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Zach Hill of Legs on Earth and Team Sleep.

Q: As far as your lyrics, what kind of messages or issues does your band like to address?

We don’t necessarily go for any one particular issue or message. We really just talk about whatever is going on with us at the time, but we try to present it in a way that listeners can relate to. We try to take whatever issue it is that we write about, and look at it in a different light, so that listeners can kind of read between the lines and relate their own life situations to our songs. That way, it will mean something special to them every time they hear it.

Q: What do you feel are the positives and negatives of the current music scene?

I think that mainstream music goes in cycles. For the past few years, pop music and boy bands have been huge and have taken over MTV and the music that is part of pop culture. But I think that rock is definitely on the rise and a lot of good, new, talented rock groups are making their presence known on radio, MTV, and everywhere else. We think it will set the stage for a new generation of rock bands and will also create some new genres and give them the popular attention they deserve.

Q: What one track do you feel is an accurate representation of Simplistic?

We would say that Track 1, Far From Found, would best represent us and the genre that we are going for or maybe even creating…

Q: What are your current top five albums?

Ivan’s Top 5:
Live – Throwing Copper
Stabbing Westward – Darkest Days
Mudvayne – L.D. 50
Tool – Aenima
Ours – Distorted Lullabies

Nick’s Top 5:
Glassjaw – Everything you ever wanted to know about silence.
Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory
Hoobastank – Self Titled
Alien Ant Farm – ANThology
A Perfect Circle – Self Titled Debut

Danny’s Top 5:
One Side Zero - Is this room getting smaller?
Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory
Tool – Lateralus
Incubus – Morning View
Cat Stevens – Tea for the Tillerman

Justin’s Top 5:
Dave Matthews Band – Any Album
One Side Zero – Is this room getting smaller?
Tool – Lateralus
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication
Pressure 4-5 – Burning the Process

Q: What artists are you looking forward to hearing from in 2002?

We’re really looking forward to hearing new albums from bands like Korn, Glassjaw, and Linkin Park. We are also looking forward to debut albums from The "Rage Against the Machine/Chris Cornell" project and Team Sleep (Chino Moreno and DJ Crook’s side project). We would also be very interested to hear projects from individual musicians like Carter Beauford of Dave Matthews band or bass player, Victor Wooten. Another thing that will be interesting to see is how some "more underground" bands that we like, such as Lifer, One Side Zero, Glassjaw or maybe even Simplistic, might show up in mainstream music.

Q: Who out there you would love to collaborate with as far as producers, engineers or musicians, etc?

Some great producers that we would love to work with someday would be Ross Robinson (Korn, Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne, Glassjaw) or Glen Ballard (Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews Band, Alanis Morrisette). We are also really looking forward to working with Mike Shinoda as our producer for the demo.

There are so many musicians that we would love to collaborate with in the future. We could name off a million people that we would love to see on one of our albums one day, but there is really no telling who we will come across or have the privilege of working with.

Q: Is there any fellow underground acts that you would like to mention or promote?

Die Trying is a band from here in Sacramento that we are very good friends with and greatly influenced by. Each of them have been in the music business for a long time and they have taught us a lot about song writing as far as song structure and writing effective songs and even hit songs.

Singe is another band from Sacramento that we play with all of the time and are really good friends with. We really like their music and they deserve to make it big someday.
WWW.SINGEMUSIC.COM

End-Ever is another young band from Sacramento that we have heard some stuff from and really like. They are really creative and have a lot of potential.

Final Summation is a old-school punk band from downtown Sacramento that are good friends of Nick’s and used to be in a different band with him. They are really good and they just finished a recording that I was very impressed with.
WWW.FINALSUMMATION.NET

Q: With so many bands out there striving to become noticed, what do you feel separates Simplistic from other groups?

What we would like to have set us apart from other groups is our creativity. We try to do things a little bit differently than other groups that we see and hopefully a little bit better if we can.

Q: With the year 2001 now a fading memory, what will you remember most from the year musically, i.e., favorite album, favorite artist, favorite concert, etc. etc…?

This answer may be a little out of context from your question, but I think the biggest thing that we will remember musically from this year is the growing success of Simplistic. To see people reacting to our music like they have been lately is an amazing thing for us to experience. To think that in the near future, we may be a part of the music industry and we may be able to associate ourselves with a lot of the genius musicians that we have mentioned earlier in this interview as our biggest influences, is a total dream come true. All four of us have dreamed of becoming professional musicians for our whole lives. And now for a group like Linkin Park, who is one of the biggest rock bands in the world, to give us recognition and a chance to break into this industry that they are dominating, is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to any of us. We are very appreciative to them and all of the fans that support us and are listening to our music.

Q: What does Simplistic hope to accomplish in 2002?

The only goal that we have set for ourselves for this year is to just stay focused and do the best that we can with whatever comes to us. We really can’t even imagine all the things that we have in our future, so we will just try to take it day by day and do the best we can.

Q: Any last words you would like to share?

We would just really like to thank everyone who has supported us and supported this band for the last year and a half. We especially want to thank our parents, grandparents, our whole families, and our huge family of friends. We want to also thank all of the bands we have played with and all of the bands and promoters that have helped us to get where we are now and who have helped us get the chance to chase this crazy dream as far as we can. And to all the fans and future fans; we love every single one of you and we appreciate all of you coming to our shows, listening to our music, and showing interest in this obsession of ours.

Originally Published 01/29/2002 Written by Robert Thompson Comments? Feedback? Email the Author