Your Music Magazine

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” and MC Rut certainly has nothing to fix. Being a two piece, this Sacramento based rock-duo is frequently approached and questioned if they have any desires to add another member, as if they’re missing something. “If we feel a song needs a bass, tambourine, cello, or anything, we’ll record it, and figure out how we’ll play it live later,” proclaims Sean Stockam, percussion and vocals. Well said. Besides, MC Rut have put in some heavy, long hours of blood, sweat and passion, and now have their debut full-length record, No Name No Color, soon to be in the ears of fans world-wide. From first recording songs just to hear what has been created, to now being a full-blown project, Sean Stockham and Zack Lopez are stoked with the results, and have found no reason to stop a good thing. The band will be celebrating their album release at the Boardwalk in Sacramento on October 8th and I had the chance to chase down Stockham to discuss the madness at hand.

Interview by Jon Hermison

MC Rut is about to head out to Europe right?
Yeah, me leave this Monday. Just getting everything ready and a last minute rehearsal in.

This is not your first time there?
No, we’ve spent a good chunk of last year bouncing back and forth from here and the UK, and then doing a full blown European run that included some festivals in Germany.

Are you doing festivals this time around?
No, we’re just doing four dates with Circa Survive at clubs that hold anywhere from 600-1,200 people. Festivals are fun - it’s a shit load of people - but I’d rather play in a solid club where you’re one of two bands.

Absolutely man, it’s hard to tell if people are even coherent at festivals. When you guys get back to the States you’re playing the Boardwalk on October 8th. Do you plan on relaxing after that?
There’s all sorts of stuff bubbling around that show. When we start rolling we like to just keep rolling as long as possible, so hopefully we’ll get back and stay busy for the next couple months ‘cause the start and stop stuff is not fun for us. We like to stay oiled.

Yeah, keep that momentum as long as you can. Back to the Boardwalk, that show is the LP celebration right? It’s the release party for No Name No Color?
That’s what they tell me. It’s hard to believe because we’ve been doing this for so long and never released an album. It should be fun, man.

Is this album sort of the collection of the EPs previously released?
Exactly, it’s the definitive collection of those EPs and the other half of the record will be all new.

A nice surprise for the fans?
Yeah, don’t get me wrong, we had enough material left over and we could have put two whole albums of just old stuff, but that would feel weird. We wanted to put some songs from those EPs that people really liked on the new album and the stuff that we like. I believe all together it makes for a pretty good record.

How does the song writing process work for you guys? Being a two piece, do you guys hold onto new songs longer to see if they work?
I’ll say 98% of the time the really good songs happen really quick and we record them right away, so it doesn’t give the song much opportunity to evolve. We really like that fresh feel to a new song, I guess that’s why we record right away. You can’t fake that.

That’s an awesome concept, man. Trying to capture that passion and excitement in the track when you first discover it.
I’m saying all this shit now as if we have figured that out a long time ago, but we would record the songs purely so we could hear them. After we started doing that we started to realize how cool of a thing it is.

When MC Rut performs, do people ever approach you and seem surprised for how entertaining of a show it is for only two guys?
Usually it’s a bit of a shock. They can’t believe how much sound we’ve created for only two people, and we like that reaction because we feel like that’s happening on stage and for people to recognize that feels good. There’s plenty of two-piece bands and I think most of them go for that two-piece, stripped down garage-y sound, but we’re trying to get the sound of an eight piece band, we just don’t have that many friends to make that sound possible.

Making do with what ya got.
That’s all. We just want people to see us live.

On your album, No Name No Color , the featured single, “New Low,” was also released on a previous EP?
Yeah, we released it on an EP because the radio station (KWOD) at the time was here in Sacramento. We sent it to them to see if they would play it and they ended up putting it in full rotation like it was a hit, and we didn’t have any way for people to get to it so we smacked together a little EP and put it out.

What was that like initially, when it took to the radio and people were rocking to it?
It was amazing, don’t get me wrong, it was just unexpected and was like “holy shit” and we just wished we were better prepared. It was great though. It allowed us to play in Sac and have a real audience and it helped us in other states and even outside of the country, so we’re really thankful that KWOD was so supportive.

And now the “New Low” video is finished? Where did the cinematography/storytelling ideas come from?
When we first made the song, we shot a thirty second home video thing to go along with it, on some railroad tracks and everybody liked the vibe of it. So, when it came time to do a video we were introduced to Lance Drake, whom we quickly became good friends with (a really talented dude and on the up climb) and he came up with this whole concept, and we love it.

It seems to tell a story about all the ways you can die in the hands of others.
I love that people get from it what they want, but I think one key is that we never actually die, and I had to tell my mom that when she was watching for the first time.

The album is around the corner, video is out, release party coming up October 8th at the Boardwalk. You guys are steam rolling.
We’re excited man, it’s been a long time coming and to see it all come together and to get a chance to work with great artists like Lance and Doug, who did our artwork, it’s amazing!