Face to Face - Trever Keith

Face to Face - Trever Keith

By Daniel Robert Epstein
Jun 9, 2004

On those melancholy days my mind often drifts to the classic Hank Williams song “There's A Tear In My Beer.” I felt it even more when I heard that one of the most important punk bands of the 1990’s, Face to Face, was going to permanently breakup. All through the 90’s, Trever Keith, Scott Shiflett and Pete Parada were the mainstays of the band and of the music scene.

But after 13 years and many albums they’re all going their separate ways. It’s not a bad breakup as you will soon read. I got a chance to talk with Trever Keith about the final Face to Face tour called The Only Goodbye Tour, which launches on August 13th.

Check out the official website of Face to Face

Daniel Robert Epstein: What made Face to Face come back for a final tour?
Trever Keith: We kind of planned that we would do one more right after we announced the breakup because we were getting complaints from people that the last time they saw us was on the Warped Tour and not as a headliner. You only get to play a half hour or so at Warped Tour. We took that to heart and we thought we would do one more headlining tour.
DRE:
But you are doing one stop on the Warped Tour right?
TK:
No, they are doing a 10th anniversary party after the whole tour is over and we’re going to be playing that show. We were on the Warped Tour the first three years of it. So now we will have played the first year and the tenth year.
DRE:
How big of a difference was there between the first Warped Tour and the last one you played?
TK:
Everything! The first one had bands like L7, Sublime and Orange 9mm. It was practically a club tour because we were playing a lot of parking lots of nightclubs.
DRE:
How was the attendance?
TK:
Not great but the first year of any festival is slow. There were pro skaters, one half pipe and a stage. Kids didn’t really know what it was but it’s grown into something amazing. When we played last year after we hadn’t been there for six years, we couldn’t believe how big it had gotten.
DRE:
How serious are you guys about this being the last tour?
TK:
It’s absolutely it. We’ve been together for 12 years; we feel like we’ve had a really great run and we’re so fortunate and thankful to everyone who has supported us over the last decade. We’ve all agreed that it’s time to move on to other things. I think we’ve done everything we could do in Face to Face. We’re still artistic and creative but now we’re going to focus it into other projects.
DRE:
Will you still work with one another though?
TK:
Oh I’d love to. We still get along great. We’ve whittled the band back down to a three piece in recent years so there aren’t too many guys to fight with anymore. We’re not ending the band because we don’t get along but we just feel like we’ve run our course. Scott and I started a side project a few years back called Viva Death. We released one record and recorded another but I’m not sure when that’s going to come out. We may do things together here and there.
DRE:
Even though you are still young, does the fact that you are turning 35 soon have anything to do with it? Do you feel a little old to do stuff like the Warped Tour?
TK:
No. Because there are plenty of guys older than me playing punk rock. It wasn’t too long there was a Sex Pistols reunion.

But honestly I don’t feel like I have all that much to be punk rock about. The face of punk has changed so much that I don’t feel like I am part of what’s happening now. At a point it starts to feel a little bit forced when you are trying to sell what you do to a new generation of kids that are doing something a little different. I want to leave what we’ve achieved with the band intact and be able to look back with pride and not feel like we forced ourselves on people.
DRE:
Lets say five years from now someone goes, “Here’s a million bucks to be on this headlining tour.” What would you do?
TK:
I don’t know, never say never. Especially if we’re all still alive, healthy and there is a million dollars on the table.
DRE:
How is this last tour going to be different from previous ones?
TK:
We are probably going to play a lot longer [laughs]. We normally play about an hour so we’ll stretch that into 90 minutes. We usually play a pretty wide variety of material but now we’ll cover even more of it with a few songs from every record we’ve done. I expect some special guests will be stopping in here and there in different cities.
DRE:
Are these secret special guests?
TK:
Yeah I can’t promise anything. I don’t know with what regularity it will happen but we are already getting some calls in.
DRE:
You're kicking it off in Orlando, is that a special city or anything?
TK:
Not necessarily. It’s been a great city for many years but there is no significance.
DRE:
Will you guys be welling up with tears at any point?
TK:
[laughs] I don’t know think it’s going to be that intense but you never know.
DRE:
What city will be the most special?
TK:
Probably our hometown of LA. We will probably end up playing to the most people in Los Angeles. New York will also be pretty good but we’re keeping the tour pretty streamlined. We’re hitting the cities where we do the best in and where the largest number of fans are. I think they will all be good in their own right.
DRE:
What about new solo albums?
TK:
I was hoping you would ask. I’ve already begun working on another album. I’ve written about eight or ten songs and I’ve been recording them in my home studio. I hope to have something put together with that and potentially release it by the end of 2005.
DRE:
What’s the name of the band?
TK:
It’s called Pablum.
DRE:
Who else is in it?
TK:
I haven’t started recruiting band members yet. I have a name and songs but no members yet [laughs].
DRE:
Will you be playing any other instruments besides guitar on it?
TK:
Nope, just guitar and vocals. The music is incredibly different from Face to Face.
DRE:
How so?
TK:
It’s more of a nod back to my influences, you call 35 young, but I consider it old. I was a teenager through the mid to late 80’s so I was a big fan of bands like The Cure and The Smiths. This was a little bit of a nod that stuff. It’s not quite as aggressive but its still melodic like Face to Face. It’s not punk rock but more rock and a little New Wave.
DRE:
One of the things that made Face to Face unique was that you cited The Cure as an influence. Will your new songs be as melancholy as those?
TK:
Absolutely.
DRE:
I did read a lot of stuff from the mid-nineties where you said that you don’t consider Face to Face punk. Were you just being irascible?
TK:
Probably. We were just being pain in the asses. But that influence has always been there but in Face to Face it turned into something that was heavier and aggressive. Now that I’ve grown a little bit I want to play music that I feel fits my personality and where I am at this stage of life.
DRE:
Was everyone in the band mutual on ending the band?
TK:
Yeah it was pretty mutual.
DRE:
How long have you felt this coming on?
TK:
When you’ve been together as long as we have I would say its something that we are at least aware of in the past two years. We are looking around, surveying the landscape and trying to figure out our relevance. You look at what is motivating your songwriting and when you start to ask those questions you're not just enjoying your experiences. Those are the first signs that you should be sticking to something that is more true to your artistic nature.
DRE:
Were you totally happy with the last album?
TK:
Not to be cliché but I think it was one of our best. That record was recorded live off the floor of a concert. I think the songs are great and I think the combination of Scott’s and my songwriting style really enhanced one another.
DRE:
Is Pablum a band that could tour like Face to Face?
TK:
That remains to be seen. I have sort of a direction I’m going in. It’s not going to be a totally solo project by any means.
DRE:
What label do you want it go out on?
TK:
That also remains to be seen. We’re in an every changing climate in this industry so I’m kind of keeping myself a free agent until the time comes. But that also brings up another interesting point because I’ve started my own record label it might come out on. It’s called Antagonist Records and it’s going to cover a wide spectrum of music. First off is a best of Face to Face, which will be coming out on Antagonist next year. The first band I signed is a band from Canada called Seconds to Go. It’s kind of Coheed & Cambria meets Thrice.
DRE:
How did you find Seconds to Go?
TK:
They actually gave me a demo tape at a show.
DRE:
So that works!
TK:
For the record, yes it does work. People are always handing us tapes but this one really stuck with me. We recorded an album together and it’s going to come out next year.
DRE:
Have you done anything like a label before?
TK:
No so it’s all new to me.
DRE:
Do you have a family?
TK:
Yes I’ve been married for 16 years and I’ve got small children at home.
DRE:
Are you nervous about taking risks when you’ve got a family?
TK:
I feel confident enough. I’ve been in the music business for long enough that I think I’ve figured out how to eke out a living from it. I know what the parameters are and I’ve been able to keep myself safe. It’s exciting and scary at the same time but I’m very hopeful. I have the luxury and talent to work on stuff I really like which gives me great confidence in that the stuff I’m doing is good. So I’m not necessarily looking for bands that will make me a ton of money but ones that write good songs, perform great live and will come out on the road. Seconds to Go will be opening for us.

Also I should mention that the main support for the tour is My Chemical Romance.
DRE:
You were big advocates of downloading music to the point where you headlined a tour sponsored by Napster. What’s your opinion now?
TK:
My opinion is still the same. I think downloading has been good and bad for the industry. Good in the sense that it’s been a giant wake up call for the record industry because records are overpriced and there is a bloated overspending standard with record labels and artists. It’s helped bring up the independent record label scene and polarized the main labels. Lets face it, it hurts more like Top 40 stuff which I’m not a part of. People that support underground music continue to buy CDs.
DRE:
What do you think of Napster coming back and selling songs for a buck apiece?
TK:
Yeah but iTunes came out and blew everyone away. It’s just a better model.
DRE:
Where are you living now?
TK:
Out in Ventura County. But I grew out in the desert area outside LA.
DRE:
Do you have a ranch?
TK:
No I have a pretty normal existence in a housing area. My kid goes to the public school and plays baseball. I don’t have some exotic rock star life.
DRE:
Does your son play music?
TK:
Yeah he’s been taking piano lessons for the last couple of years.
DRE:
Can you play piano?
TK:
I’m self-taught so I don’t really read or anything.
DRE:
Is he ready to form a band?
TK:
He’s only eight so I hope not. Unless it’s like Old Skull or something.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

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