This week's Locals Only feature introduced some of you to the power generated (literally) by scrappy punk quartet AM. Known for their fiery, stripped down tunes as well as their affinity for guerilla-style live shows in parts of OC and LA, the band is definitely an exciting act to watch, let alone listen to. We got a chance to sit down with their guitar-toting lead singer, Fonzie Heredia. Check out a couple extra tidbits about the band after the jump.
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How did you guys get started–you formed in Garden Grove right?
Fonzie Heredia: Yeah, I live in Garden Grove, Karen lives in Garden Grove too. In the beginning, her first time playing drums was pretty much on stage at AAA Electra 99. Basically how it goes it you sign up for a membership whenever you want and book a show. And AAA stands for “Any Art Accepted”, so they don't care what kind of music you play, or what you do, you just go onstage and play. So I went on stage with a friend of mine and we didn't even have songs at that point, it was the first AM show ever. And it's just been a trip since then. We started about 4 years ago.
How did you guys end up getting hooked up with Paper Made Records?
FH: They got in contact with us. At that point we were playing alot of shows at the time and they just came up to us and told us they wanted to release something of ours. And we pretty much released our first cassette [1998] off Paper Made. And it was really organic, they just came upo to us and told us they wanted to release it and we put it together with our own hands kind of.
How did you guys get into making cassettes?
FH: We really wanted to do a cassette just because the quality was better to us and it was cheaper. And I remember we used to go to Amoeba [Records] and just buy cassettes and we just thought that we wouldn't mind trying the cassette thing for ourselves. We also added a free download card inside of that one so even if they didn't have a cassette player, they could just download the album and burn it on to a CD like everyone else is doing anyways, ya know? But at least with the casette, they'd have something cool to look at.
