Rock Confidential (www.rockconfidential.com)
Confidentially Speaking With Rockets To Ruin 
Interview with Chris
By Jesse Capps, Editor

June 19, 2004 

How long has Rockets To Ruin been together? 
The band has been complete since the fall of 2003 and we started playing shows in mid November. 

Tell me about the members of the band. 
You don’t want to know anything about those guys - they are trouble...just joking. Cleve is the singer and Mike plays guitar. Our current drummer Rob is on loan from a band called Union Drag, so we are looking for someone permanent. 
Cleve and Mike are the ones that initially put the band together. I met them through a mutual friend after my last band broke up, and within 5 minutes of us playing together for the first time, I knew it would work. As soon as I walked in and saw a Les Paul/Mesa Boogie and Mike cranked out some old school Kiss style riffs, that was it. Our writing style, attitude, personality, influences…everything…we were all on the same page. 

How would you describe your music? 
I don’t mean to sound vague, but it’s just straight up Rock n Roll. We grew up on bands like Kiss, GnR, Crue, Ramones and The Cult, so we have elements of those bands in our sound. Great hooks, riff oriented, raw with lots of energy. 

How serious is the band? Are you in it for the long haul or just for fun? 
Very serious! This is what we do and we are in it for the long haul. I couldn’t imagine my life without playing music. It’s what keeps me sane. 

What makes Rockets To Ruin different from everybody else? 
When you compare us to the mainstream bands out there right now, we sound nothing like them. We aren’t Nu Metal, Pop Punk, Emo or anything else trendy. We aren’t complaining about how bad our lives are, bitching about how our parents sucked and how the world isn’t fair. 
Our music and attitude about what we do is what makes us different from everybody else. When people come up to us after a show excited, telling us how much they liked us, and that they didn’t even know there was a band like us in Atlanta, and how they are sick of everything they hear on the radio, that’s when we know we are doing something right. People are tired of the same boring, bland bullshit. 

Tell me about your live show. 
Very loud, energetic and fun. 

What would you say is Rockets To Ruin's greatest accomplishment so far? 
We’ve only been doing shows for about 7 month’s and we seem to win over new fans at every show and have a decent following already here in Atlanta. 
We are getting some airplay on a handful of radio stations (go to www.rocketstoruin.com  to see the list). 
We were recently chosen to play the Atlantis Music Conference in late July. 

Anybody cool that you've shared the stage with? 
We did a couple of shows with Josh Todd and recently played with Ed Roland of Collective Soul. We have a couple of tentative things coming up, but I don’t want to jinx it. You’ll have to visit our site on a regular basis and once they are confirmed, it will be posted there. 

Who are some of your influences?  Who made you want to make music? 
Nikki Sixx, Duff McKagen, Rachel Bolan, Pete McClanahan (Warrior Soul), Dee Dee and CJ from the Ramones. 
Motley Crue was the band that made me want to be a musician. I was 14 and saw them at the Day On The Green festival on the GGG tour, and I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen. Loud guitars, pyro, hot chicks walking around, Tommy’s drum kit spinning around…everything was so over the top. The whole vibe about being at a concert like that was cool! 

What's your immediate goal(s) for the band?  What about long-term goal(s)? 
Our immediate goal is to go into the studio in August to record a 5 song EP. Keep writing and play live as much as we can with whoever and wherever. Long term, same thing every band wants…get a deal and tour. 

Do you throw in cover songs in your live set?  What are they? 
No cover songs. We’ve talked about doing some for fun, but we just haven’t done it yet. Maybe someday. I’ve always wanted to cover Love Destruction by Warrior Soul. Maybe I can convince the other guys. 

What are some bands you listen to regularly? 
I just got the new Velvet Revolver and it rules! I’ve been listening to Backyard Babies, Monster Magnet, Soil, Hardcore Superstar, D Generation, Donnas, Datsuns, Turbonegro and the Wildhearts. 

Are radio stations, media, and venues supportive of local music in Atlanta? 
96 Rock and 96.7 The Buzz are very supportive of local bands here and have been great to us. There is a local paper here called The Creative Loafing that does articles on local bands all the time. Atlanta also has a lot of clubs here for bands to play. That’s one of the reasons why I moved here….. 

What do you like best about Rock Confidential?  Why? 
Well, you guys interview cool bands plus there are a lot of hot girls to look at. You can’t ask for more than that. The only thing I would improve on is MORE pics of Tiffany Teen….LOL. Other than that, you guys are great! 

Here's your chance to tell us about your website and anything else you want to promote. 
That’s for letting me do this interview! It was fun... 
Make sure to visit us at RocketsToRuin.com for upcoming shows. Again, if everything goes as planned, we will be in the studio in August to record an EP. Once it’s finished, people can get it through the site and at shows. In the meantime, we have a couple of songs on our site for people to download.