Web Exclusive: A conversation with Derek Bloom of the Color Of Violence

From First To Last members Derek Bloom and Travis Richter have been dabbling on the side since 2002 in THE COLOR OF VIOLENCE, but only recently did the duo finally release the proper, tangible musical evidence: Youthanize. Issued this past Tuesday on Epitaph, the pair’s debut full-length is loaded with the screamy, grinding discordance that have garnered comparisons to Converge and the Blood Brothers, putting the band in far heavier and more jarring company than the melodic manifestos that From First To Last fans might be used to hearing. BRIAN SHULTZ recently spoke with drummer Bloom about the project, its inception and the history taking shape since.



This project has been in the works since 2002, right?

Right. We did our first tour in January of 2003. Then we started focusing on FFTL fulltime after that.

Even I Use To Be Sex – The Color Of Violence


Is that why it took so long for a Color Of Violence full-length to materialize?

Yeah. The Color Of Violence are actually how I got into From First To Last. Me and Matt Good and Travis [Richter] were friends. We all lived together and wanted to start a band that was like Discordance Axis, and it never ended up sounding like that. We kinda just started writing like that and that’s how the tour EP that we made [materialized]. One of the songs on the full-length, "Even I Used To Be Sex," is one of those songs that we wrote back in 2002. We did that tour, and after that, we started touring full-time with FFTL and things just kinda started going so fast that we didn’t have any time to even practice the Color Of Violence stuff. And then a couple years later, Travis and I were like, "Yeah, we should just start doing that again for fun." We recorded a couple songs and put them online and sent them to Brett [Gurewitz, president of Epitaph Records] and he liked them. He signed us in, I think, 2006, it took about three years from when we got signed to put the record out, but that was just because it was one thing after another with FFTL. Things were either real crazy or an "Oh my God, what do we do now?" kind of thing. So it always kinda felt like the wrong time to go out and work on another project.

Rock Music – The Color Of Violence



So have you been secretly writing these songs all that time?

You know, it’s funny, because I was always trying to write stuff for it. There are a few riffs here and there that are a little bit older. Like [there’s] one or two songs on the album that are older, but for the most part, I love going into the studio with nothing. I’m a real big procrastinator, so most of the material on the record was written in the studio with maybe one rough idea and [saying], "Here’s a rough idea I have. I want this kind of vibe for the song. Let’s all go in there and just jam it out." Travis and I went into the studio about six months before we actually recorded the album and demoed about seven songs. I would just go in there and record a guitar riff idea that I had; record drum parts and kinda figure out what goes next. Once I had what felt like a full song on drums, we’d go in and record the guitar and the bass over it; make up the leads and stuff like that. We did that for about seven songs and then when we actually went into the studio, we had other musicians with us—Jon Syverson, the drummer from Daughters, and Joel Coan, the drummer of the Felix Culpa… With "Christina, Christina," actually, Jon and I just sat at the drum kit and wrote the whole song on drums, without any music. Once we had all the drums all arranged, he and I sat in the control room with guitars and fucked around with the song until it was done. I guess it was improv. Spontaneous writing and stuff like that is a big part of that record.

Christina, Christina – The Color Of Violence

Have you tried to incorporate aspects of this sound into From First To Last songs?

Yeah. When I first joined From First To Last, that was kind of all I wanted to do–play extreme music and stuff like that. The other guys–or most of the other guys, not everybody–wanted to do more pop-punk stuff and I think that’s probably just where the sound [of 2003’s Aesthetic EP] came from, it’s me trying to play metal drums over pop-punk music. [Laughs.] For Color Of Violence, I write the guitar parts and a lot of the other musical arrangements and stuff. But this is the first time I’ve been able to actually get that stuff out there. With FFTL, I try to just focus on the drums and make those as good as I can.

How do you think Jon and Joel’s contributions changed the album?

Well, since I had the responsibility to write guitar parts that are interesting, it was hard for me to focus on doing that with every instrument. And both of those dudes are so tremendously talented–it’s like really, really easy to work with them. They’re very open to constructive criticism. It was like for every idea I had, they had 10. We would just run with everything–try everything out and it always felt like it worked really well. It definitely took a lot of the pressure off. It was easy to put songs in their hands [and say], "Just run with it, because I know what you do is gonna be amazing." I’m trying to get them down here to start writing for another record.

Do you think you’ll manage to get them together again and start writing this year?

No, I’m trying to start writing in the next couple months. We want to tour off the Color Of Violence stuff. Still, it’s definitely a side- project. It’s just definitely way more fun to be in the studio with [the Color Of Violence] guys and hopefully other musicians, [too]. I’d like to bring in new people for every record–like guitarists from other bands and things like that–and just get [a] vibe out with new people all the time and see what happens.

Do you have anyone in mind?

I have a couple people in mind, most of whom don’t really seem interested so far. [Laughs.] So I wouldn’t want to go out and say any names yet [and] have them call me like, "What the fuck?"

What bands or albums had the biggest influence on this project?

It’s funny but I think the stuff that I’m most influenced by is definitely not heavy music. All I really listen to is real chill stuff. I think I’ve listened to that last Blonde Redhead album, 23, every single day since I bought it the day it came out. I think you can kind of hear that a little bit in a lot of the Color Of Violence songs–there’s a lot of guitar layers and a lot of melodies almost fighting against each other to get through the music. If I had to say metal stuff. There’s this French black metal band called Blut Aus Nord, and they put out a record called The Work Which Transforms God, which has some of the most creative, extreme metal guitar playing I’ve heard in a long time. That band are more of an artsy black metal band, but they do such weird stuff with the guitars it’s really cool. If you like that kind of stuff, I definitely recommend checking it out.

What made you decide to open the album with Pixies’ “Rock Music”?

The album that song is from [1990’s Bossanova] is the first album I’d ever heard by them and it’s one of my favorite albums by them. That album opens with a cover [of the Surftones’ “Cecilia Ann”] and "Rock Music" is the first original song by them on it, and I thought it was just kind of a fun nod to them. I was hoping that it wouldn’t piss people off by covering that song. We pretty much sound almost exactly like the original, except, you know, without Frank Black’s voice. [Laughs.]

Look! I Made It! Im Dating An Actress! – The Color Of ViolenceeDoes the title of "Look! I Made It! I’m Dating An Actress!" reference anyone specifically?


No, that song is more about, I guess, the whole star-fucking thing; what people get out of trying to date people in bands or actors or whatever, whom they really have absolutely no kind of connection with mentally. It’s more of a status thing, I guess. At shows, or places like Hollywood, it’s like this game that everyone’s playing. It seems so ridiculous. It’s hard enough for musicians to kind of relate to each other as people, but for people outside of that whole world, especially if you’re so deep in it yourself, it’s very difficult to meet people that are involved in that, that you can really legitimately connect with.

Do you expect the Color Of Violence to appeal mainly to people within FFTL’s fanbase or outside of it?

I think there’s gonna be people who like FFTL who will check out anything that we do because they’re loyal fans of the band. Considering a lot of the lyrical content and stuff like that, I can’t imagine a lot of people who are into FFTL would really be super into the Color Of Violence stuff. It’s hard to say, because I mean, it’s not like, to me at least, it doesn’t sound like a lot of hardcore records that are out right now. It doesn’t sound very current. [Laughs.] It doesn’t sound like something that’s going on right now in the music scene or whatever, and that usually is not a good thing as far as how people will receive it. But I don’t know. I really like it, and I think that there’s definitely a niche for it somewhere. I just haven’t figured out who that niche is with or what kind of bands we should tour with, I guess, to get out to the right crowd. alt