Saint Alvia Cartel - Interview With Greg Taylor
(Featuring Members of Boys Night Out, Grade, Jersey, and the Video Dead) August 24, 2008, 10:00 PM   Q: Who are you? What do you do in the band?
A: Hey this is Greg Taylor. I sing and play guitar in the band.
Q: Your lineup consists of members from some pretty influential bands – Boys Night Out, Grade, Jersey, Video Dead. How did your lineup come about? How did you decide on the style you were to play, all coming from very different bands?
A: Rob and I had spoken non shalantly about writing and recording some songs together while we still in our respective bands. it wasn't until our time in those bands ended that we actually brought the project to light. It started off in my basement with some beer and cigarettes, a drum machine and few other instruments. After recording about 4 songs, we started to lay vocals down and we thought Ben we be a great addition to the project, especially because he and I had also spoken about doing a project together. 5 or 6 songs later, we knew we had something, we knew we had to form a band to play these songs, and play them live. That was basically the beginning. We still haven't decided on the style. Basically it's everything we couldn't play in our other bands because we thought it didn't fit. Anything fits in Saint Alvia.
Q: Can you tell us the story behind the name of the band? What significance does the prison numbering 6 have to the band?
A: The The Band’s name comes from the middle name of a Canadian WWII hero. His full name was Ernest “Smokey” Alvia Smith. We was a recipient of the Victoria Cross (The British Common Wealth’s highest award for bravery). Ben had seen a very large scale funeral on TV a few years back, and it caught his attention. It was so large that it looked like a royal funeral. So he investigated more. His researched found the story to be so inspiring he offered it as a suggestion for the band name. Along with the fact that he constantly challenged authority, and it was Canadian, we went with Alvia because it was the coolest sounding of his names. The saint was added on for impact, and the cartel for the rest of the group. We’ve since changes the name to just SAINT ALVIA, because people are having a hard time saying the full name. It's really NOT THAT HARD people! The 6 slashes came from the poster for vietnam movie Full Metal Jacket. The helmet had the soldier's kills marked on it. We kinda took that imagery and used 6 of them to represent each member of the band.
Q: I noticed that that you are playing Warped Tour this summer. Is this your first tour outside of Canada?
A: Yes this was our 1st tour outside of Canada. We'd played SXSW in Texas earlier this year, but warped was our 1st full scale US tour. It was crazy, hot long, dirty and awesome. We made some good friends out there. It was kinda like prison. You are on a compound in the middle of nowhere, it's difficult to leave. You just have to go out there, try not to piss anyone off, and try to make some friends. Bartering with booze and smokes is also a normal occurance. What do you do to battle boredom on the road? Heroin is my bordem battler of choice.....kidding. We try to write songs, we definatley drink a lot, but mostly these days we just try to keep busy, go and walk around, read a book, kill someone.
Q: What is your dream tour?
A: Dream tour would be a world tour on a bus, one for the band, and one for my family. Other bands on it might be Dillinger Four, Hot Water Music, and Rancid.
Q: So you won a Juno award? How was that experience?
A: It was totally amazing. Ben made it into a bong!
Q: How would you compare the scene in Canada to what you've experienced in the U.S.?
A: It's really quite similar.
Q: What can we expect from the band in the future?
A: We are realeasing a new record here in Canada in a few weeks. It's really taking the music everywhere the 1st record didn't. We're stoked on it. We are also planning on hitting Japan in the near future and start our US invasion as well. You may also expect to hear a side project from Me and Jay Mailinowski form Bedouin Soundclash, as well as one from Ben as well. We hit the road with Against Me! in 3 weeks!
Q: Any closing words?
Watch out.
MySpace.com - SAINT ALVIA - [ 09.09.08 ] - New Song Up! - Burlington, CA - Rock / Punk / Reggae - www.myspace.com/thesaintalviacartel
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