Thirteen
And A Half
I came across Thirteen
And A Half from a compilation released by Stevie Hayes Records, under the
title "Unconstitutionalism In The USA" and I have to say that their song
"Planted" stands out and it's one of the best in this compilation, revealing
a band with an original and unconventional sound. Mike Repel, the band's
mainman is here to answer our questions and he managed to give some really
clever and thought provoking answers. Here's what we talked about...
1. FIRST OF ALL, I’D LIKE YOU TO TELL US A
FEW THINGS ABOUT THIRTEEN AND A HALF AND THE BAND’S AIMS… INTRODUCE THE
LINE UP TO THE READERS. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THIS MONIKER? IT’S VERY
STRANGE.
Thirteen and A Half started as the mindchild
of myself, Mike Repel. The whole idea for this came when I picked up a
guitar again, after a long break in my playing. During the time that I
wasn't playing guitar, I had turned to the streets. Most of the people
that I went to high school with got killed, locked up, overdosed, or ended
up fucked up in one way or another. It was the neverending story of the
dramatic streets of Chicago that inspired me to do this. Our goals are
simple, we want our message to reach out to youth at risk, and try to deter
them from the pain and suffering that the older generations have dealt
with. If we can keep people out of trouble by not making the same mistakes
we did as youth, then we've done our job. As musicians, well, our goal
is to be heard by as many people as possible that could take a liking to
us. The band consists of myself, Mike. Our Bass player, Jesse. And our
drummer Val. The name of this band stems from all the trouble we've been
in, it stands for "12 jurors, 1 judge, and a half assed chance of getting
off.
2. CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR MUSIC. ALTHOUGH I ONLY
HAD THE CHANCE TO LISTEN TO ONE SONG OF YOURS, I REALIZED THAT IT’S REALLY
DIFFICULT TO PUT YOU UNDER A SPECIFIC LABEL. YOU HAVE CREATED A QUITE ORIGINAL
SOUND PLAYING SOMETHING BETWEEN THE OLD FASHIONED THRASH AND THE 80S BLACK
METAL. DO YOU AGREE?
Well 13 1/2 can't really be pigeonholed, and
we are very proud to say that we definately DO NOT sound like anything
that's currently out there. Most of our other material is a little more
like 80's old school New York Hardcore. Yeah, we do have some definate
metal leanings, but that just goes to show how diversified we are.
3. "PLANTED" IS A MID TEMPO SONG WITH A REALLY
DARK ATMOSPHERE AND IMPOSING RIFFS AND VOCALS. IS THIS HOW ALL YOUR SONGS
SOUND PRETTY MUCH? WHICH MUSICIANS HAVE, LET’S SAY, “GUIDED” YOU TOWARDS
THIS MUSICAL DIRECTION?
"Planted" is about a heroin junkie who meets
his demise and has Satan tell him that he created his own nightmare and
welcomes him to hell. That song basically wrote itself, I came up with
the main hook for the chorus and everything was written around that. This
song is not our signature sound, you should listen to the mp3s on www.thirteenandahalf.com
to get a better idea of our musical range. The only musicians that really
come to mind as of right now are Tommy Iommi, and Harley Flannagan and
Paris Mitchell Mayhew from the Cro-Mags.
4. RECENTLY YOU HAVE PARTICIPATED IN A COMPILATION
CD BY STEVIE HAYES LABEL CALLED “UNCONSTITUTIONALISM IN THE USA”. TELL
US A FEW THINGS ABOUT IT. WHICH OTHER BANDS DID YOU LIKE FROM THIS COMPILATION?
Steve had a real good idea of how to get this
compilation recognized, he had all the participating bands submit the webzine
addresses that they knew of, and he put it all on a list that we could
all view so none of us would submit the same webzines. We all had to submit
at least 4 webzines, so the list got pretty big. Steve worked with us and
the other bands on a personal level, and proved that he was a man that
could get the job done.
5. FILL US IN ON THE BAND RELEASES AND POINT OUT
THE MAIN DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES AMONG THEM. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS
FOR A NEW RELEASE? IF YES, GIVE US SOME INFO…
We released a demo in July of 2004 and it
was recorded in our drummer's attic on a Yamaha 16 track digital studio,
it sounds pretty raw production wise, but that was because I recorded it
myself and had no real experience in sound engineering. We did a couple
of compilations, and we also had one of our shows televised for cable access
TV. We hit the studio again in February of 2005 and had Louis Svitek (formerly
of Ministry and M.O.D.) record 8 songs for us. We released a single in
March called "Gladiator School" which is pretty much a simple straight
forward groove. Our latest CD released Friday the 13th of May 2005 is "Curbside
Cemetary" is a well rounded album going from Old School Hardcore, to Metal.
Some times people ask us what kind of music we play, and we just say "HEAVY".
6. WHAT ABOUT THE LYRICAL CONTENT OF YOUR SONGS?
TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THEM. WHICH ARE YOUR SOURCES OF INSPIRATION?
HA HA HA, well since you asked... All our
songs deal with real life shit, I'm not talking about walking through the
park with your girlfriend either, I'm talking about life on the streets,
and the pain and misery attached to it. Our songs deal with such topics
as prison, drugs, murder, gang warfare and shit like that. Growing up on
the Southside of Chicago was pretty fucking rough and we experienced a
lot of shit in our youth, and that's what we talk about and this is who
we are.
7. ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK YOU’VE GOT
SO FAR FROM THE PRESS AND FANS? WHAT WAS THE MOST FLATTERING AND WHAT WAS
THE WORST COMMENT YOU’VE READ?
Yeah, I would have to say that I am satisfied
with the feedback that I've gotten, some people absolutely love us, and
some of my friends that think we can improve our music have offered constructive
criticism and try to push us in the right direction, and some people just
don't like us at all. That's fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion,
as long as they don't start being disrepectful, then they can say anything
that they want.
The most flattering comment that I've gotten,
hmm, thats kinda difficult. But the one that does come to mind was when
someone said that our band was"Droppin heavier chunks of metal on your
head than a guillotine" oh and a friend said that the only way to decribe
our music was that it was like getting hit in the mouth with a bumper jack.
The worst thing that I've heard, well a lot
of people like to talk shit, but the thing that I think pissed me off the
most was when some chatroom prick said that our website looked like"Duke
Nuke 'Em meets Americas most wanted". We got our Mugshots on that site,
and theres a bunch of pictures of guns and shit on there, so I can see
where he got that from.
8. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THIRTEEN AND A HALF
AND YOUR MUSIC TO SOMEONE THAT HAS NEVER HEARD OF YOU? I’D LIKE TO KNOW
SINCE YOU GAVE ME A REALLY HARD TIME TRYING TO DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND IN MY
REVIEW…
Once again, I see that everything is all my
fault here. I would tell them that we have an old school hardcore/thrash
crossover sound. It's getting really difficult to categorize music nowadays,
and maybe we may have started our own genre, I don't know. But I would
tell them "It's Chi-Town Ghetto Ass Motherfuckin' Thug-Core".
9. WHAT’S THE BEST AND WHAT’S THE WORST PART IN
YOUR MUSIC, ACCORDING TO YOU?
You just want to ask me difficult fucking
questions don't you? You're asking a man that mills over shit constantly,
one day I'll think some of my shit sucks, and the next day it's the greatest
shit I've ever written, so I guess you will have to point those things
out for me.
10. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS? WHAT
SHOULD THE METALHEADS EXPECT TO SEE?
We play out all the time, and you can expect
to see any angry motherfucker yelling at you, an intimidating ass Bass
player, and a hot blonde chick beating the living fuckin' shit out of her
drums.
11. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD
IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
If our music was an emotion, it would be uncontrollable
rage, if it was a painting it would show Hell, misery, pain and suffering,
prison, helplessness , despair, murder and damnation.
12. IF YOU COULD BE A FAMOUS PERSON FOR A DAY,
WHO WOULD YOU BE AND WHICH PERIOD OF HIS/HER LIFE WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE
A TASTE OF?
Well any part of Hugh Heffners life would
be great.
13. LET’S SUPPOSE THAT SUDDENLY ONE DAY ELECTRICITY
CEASED TO EXIST. WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN TO EXTREME MUSIC?
That would really fuckin suck. I think everyone
would start tuning their acoustic guitars and banjos in drop "D".
14. THANK YOU! LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS…
We have some mp3's on www.thirteenandahalf.com
our new release will be available on that website through paypal. If you
guys want to actually see and feel our music, listen to a couple of tunes
on the site. We play heavy music and we would love to find an excuse
to come to Europe sometime in the future. My advice to all of you is to
really think about the things that you are doing in your life. It could
have consequences that you are unprepared to deal with. Thanks for reading
about us!
Mike 13 1/2
Christine Parastatidou
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