What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences and are they the same as when you started out?
Destin Cavazos (Bass/Vocals): After the drummer in our first band left we brought on another friend to play drums with Alec and I so we needed to change the name cause that first was called “adj.” using our initials – Alec, Destin & Jess.
Our new drummer was named Owen so the clever initial thing just didn’t work. So we started thinking up new names. We joked that adj didn’t work anyway cause people always thought it was going to be a DJ, not these three kids. But then AJR comes along using the same initials marketing strategy so maybe we were wrong to change it???
Alec Cavazos (Guitar/Vocals): Right when Owen came on, Destin had just got kicked out of this college named “Porter”. Our dad is also a huge Smiths fan and he’d seen a documentary on them that talked about their producer John Porter. So we became “Porter”.
Destin: Then Owen left too and Henry (Kish) came on to play drums with us. After our first show with Henry we knew this was the right lineup and started playing more together. One of the first things we wanted to do as this band was write more original stuff and actually record and release it.
We knew there was this band out of Mexico already called Porter. We’re huge Blink-182 fans and we knew about the hassles they had with their name so we figured it was best to change the name again before we got sued.
Alec: We thought about Porter182 or Porter-123 and a bunch of other names and finally settled on “exPorter”.
Destin: As far as influences go, there really are a ton of influences for exPorter. We’re a pop-punk trio so obviously you have Blink and early Green Day as influences – really the whole 90’s pop-punk thing.
But you also have our individual influences too. Like for me I have a lot of 80’s alt rock cause that’s what our parents always had on. The Smiths, Cure, Crowded House…most people know of “Don’t Dream It’s Over” but I had the whole Neil Finn catalog to pull from which really isn’t a bad influence.
Plus there was the emo bands when I got into high school.
Henry’s a huge fan of The Who and is also really into Turnstile now…all of that makes its way into our vibe which hopefully makes the band more accessible
How do you approach songwriting?
Alec: Destin and I usually will write stuff on our own first. It might be most of a song or just parts or lyrics or something. From there we’ll get together and just sort of share what we’re working on and expand from there. Every now and then we’ll write out a new song right there but it’s usually just this show and tell process with whatever song bits we have. Once we have a good idea of what the song is we’ll record a demo on my computer and then send that to Henry so he can start thinking up drum parts. So even though the songs start out with one of us, they definitely get finished through collaboration in the band or even with the producers we’re working with.
Destin: For themes, I think it’s kind of like influences in that they really can come from anywhere. We have a lot of songs about unrequited love and we joke about that. But we have all kinds of ideas that we draw on. I’ve said in other interviews that it’s kind of a trap to try and write to one particular idea or model. We just sort of write what we’re thinking about at the moment. “Feel Good” is a song I wrote about a couch I had in college. Alec started writing “Lusitania” cause he wanted to write a song with the word “inconceivable” in it, probably because he just watched The Princess Bride. The advice we’ve been given is to write what we’re feeling at the moment so that’s what we try to do.
How do you approach songwriting?
Alec: Destin and I usually will write stuff on our own first. It might be most of a song or just parts or lyrics or something. From there we’ll get together and just sort of share what we’re working on and expand from there. Every now and then we’ll write out a new song right there but it’s usually just this show and tell process with whatever song bits we have. Once we have a good idea of what the song is we’ll record a demo on my computer and then send that to Henry so he can start thinking up drum parts. So even though the songs start out with one of us, they definitely get finished through collaboration in the band or even with the producers we’re working with.
Destin: For themes, I think it’s kind of like influences in that they really can come from anywhere. We have a lot of songs about unrequited love and we joke about that. But we have all kinds of ideas that we draw on. I’ve said in other interviews that it’s kind of a trap to try and write to one particular idea or model. We just sort of write what we’re thinking about at the moment. “Feel Good” is a song I wrote about a couch I had in college. Alec started writing “Lusitania” cause he wanted to write a song with the word “inconceivable” in it, probably because he just watched The Princess Bride. The advice we’ve been given is to write what we’re feeling at the moment so that’s what we try to do.
Why?
Destin: The truth is we write what we like. We’re a pop-punk/emo/alt rock band who grew up listening to that music so that’s where we’re comfortable. I say all the time that we’re a band that would fit right into any past Van’s Warped Tour show. Alec and I grew up going to Warped tour and we would be stoked if we had ever played that…I seriously think Vans should start it up again.
You can obviously be this manufactured band or try to play what’s cool at the moment but we play the music we’d like to see and just hope people will like it.
How do you decide what to perform live?
Alec: Ever since we started playing shows as kids it’s been the same thing – Destin and I will usually come up with the base set before any show. Then we all sort of pick at it and maybe move some songs and then chill before set time. We do it old school most of the time by writing it down on sheets of paper.
Destin: We obviously have a lot of songs that will always be on a set, maybe not in the same order but they have to be on there. Alec and I have written close to 100 songs so there’s a lot to pick from. You have a lot from the album (NoBrakesNoBrakesNoBrakes) and EP (Bored) then fill in with some deep cuts and a couple covers.
As far as transposing stuff, we don’t really have to tweak it a lot because at the core our recordings are us – Guitar-Bass-Drums and vocals. Yeah we have overdubs on some of the recordings or there are some synth parts on some, but it’s really just the three of us building on the songs so that translates pretty well on stage. At the show you will get something pretty close to what’s online…mostly anyway. Even with the covers, we sort of make them our own with the three of us so you may not get actual bits of the original but you will pick up on the vibe.
How do you decide what to perform live?
Alec: Ever since we started playing shows as kids it’s been the same thing – Destin and I will usually come up with the base set before any show. Then we all sort of pick at it and maybe move some songs and then chill before set time. We do it old school most of the time by writing it down on sheets of paper.
Destin: We obviously have a lot of songs that will always be on a set, maybe not in the same order but they have to be on there. Alec and I have written close to 100 songs so there’s a lot to pick from. You have a lot from the album (NoBrakesNoBrakesNoBrakes) and EP (Bored) then fill in with some deep cuts and a couple covers.
As far as transposing stuff, we don’t really have to tweak it a lot because at the core our recordings are us – Guitar-Bass-Drums and vocals. Yeah we have overdubs on some of the recordings or there are some synth parts on some, but it’s really just the three of us building on the songs so that translates pretty well on stage. At the show you will get something pretty close to what’s online…mostly anyway. Even with the covers, we sort of make them our own with the three of us so you may not get actual bits of the original but you will pick up on the vibe.
What plans do you have for the future?
Destin: We’re still promoting our debut album NoBrakes. It’s only been out since May of last year so we’re still doing our best to keep promoting it. We have some Summer shows coming up and just wrapped up our campaign for “Lusitania” and that song did really well. It became our highest charting song so far.
Alec: Yeah that was cool. The song hit #15 on the chart and we’re just trying to get more people to give it a listen. A few weeks ago it was on the Rodney Bingenheimer’s in The Underground Garage show on SirusXM so that was pretty awesome. We all grew up in Southern California and Rodney is a legend! When we heard the news it was going to be on that show it was pretty humbling especially when you think of all the bands that he has touted and introduced. So many of the bands that he’s played are such inspiration to the band.
We just heard Lusitania might be featured on Matt Pinfield’s radio show….another legend in the industry. We’re hoping stuff like that continues to happen and hopefully it will lead to us getting signed to a label. Till then it will be more shows and writing new songs.