Whose in the band and what do they do?

Drew Juergens- Drums Armando Morales- Bass Dave Pacifico- Guitar Michael Saretsky- Guitar Peter Bloom- Vocals

Give us a brief history of the band?

The band started in 2001, when Mike, who I had met at a party a couple months earlier decided to give me a call out of the blue. It's actually funny, b/c I was about to pick up the phone and call him when the phone rang with him on the other line. Anyway. we we're both into similar stuff and we both wanted to start a band. Then we gave Dave a drunken audition on drums, which sucked, so we convinced him to play guitar instead. We then acquired a drummer and bassist neither of whom are with the band at this point. What were your aspirations when starting Balboa?

We wanted to start a band that was both melodic and brutal. It was that simple. Everyone in the band brings a different influence to the table, and I think it shows in our music. All of us have our personal reasons for being in the band, but overwhelmingly we want to play good emotional music and rock people's socks off.

You guys are very talented musically, anyone go to school for music? (looking back this was a dumb question haha)

Not at all. Most of our members are actually self-taught. We appreciate the compliment, though.

What artists/bands are you guys into?

Like I was saying before, we are all into different stuff: Metal, Punk, Screamo, Reggae, Hip-Hop, Hardcore. Although, we all basically are into the same scene of underground music, whatever it happens to be called or categorized as. I would venture to say all of us are fans of the band Yage, from Germany. That might be the only one we agree on.

Talk about giving back. Pete, you run a non-profit community organization for the Mexican immigration in Philly. What exactly does this organization do and what prompted you to start it?

I could write ten pages about that, but I'l try and keep it short. I founded a non-profit organization called Juntos ("together/united" in spanish). We mainly do community organizing and English literacy work. This effort was born out of the terrible life situations many "undocumented" immigrants are put in. You can walk into any restaurant in this city, and all the people who work there are probably from another country and are likewise probably here "illegally". My job is to help these people organize and then advocate for their community and rights. I have met some of the most amazing people doing this work, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I really love the track "Dues ex Machina", I'm guessing the lyrics deal with how computers have taken over. Could you go a little more in depth about that.

You're right on. I feel like the inceased involvement in the web, specifically, has really eroded people's involvement in the things that go on right under their noses; in their own neighborhoods, scene, whatever. There is pretty well known saying: "think globally, act locally". Everyone is doing a great job of thinking globally, but they get so wrapped up in this, that they forget to actually do something about it. Although computers are great for communication, and other things, they also kill a lot of the genuine things that life is made up of. For instance, hearing someone's voice, or looking them in the eye. The point is, it means nothing to know everything when you lose you're capacity to do anything about it.

Whats your views on the venue situation in Philly?

This is a great question to follow up the previous, because is it as necessary to have a thriving scene when people can stay in touch with one another through message boards? I wonder if the lack of DIY venues in Philly is due to them not really being necessary. I think they are, because before message boards, if you didn't see someone at the show, you didn't talk to them. Now you can--so if that's why you were going to the show in the first place, to hang out, why not just get rid of the show altogether? Bottom line, the venue situation is crappy. We've been trying to get some stuff going in west philly to varied success. We'll see though.

What kinds of jobs do the guys in the band have?

You know about me. Drew does distribution for a metal label, Mike goes to school and waits tables, Dave works with crime victims/witnesses and on an anthropology project, Armando goes to school and plays video games.

You guys just released your CD on Forge again Records last month. How'd you hook up with Forge again Records?

Drew actually met Justin from Forge Again through work. He was stoked by our stuff and decided to put out the CD version of the LP we released on Word Salad Records in Boston.

Do you got anything else in the works in terms of tours, splits, albums in 04'?

Justin already wants to do another release, even though the full-lenght hasn't even been officially released yet. We've also gotten a few offers for stuff, and we're going to try and release a bunch of 7 inches in the next year. We're always trying to tour, but we are all super busy doing other stuff that we care about, that it's hard to get everything organized. We did just buy a sweet van though

Any bands you guys want people to check out?

Anyone doing sweet DIY shit deserves support from everybody.

Any last words or shout outs?

Just thanks to Jeff for wanting to do the interview.