By snoadmin
The small pizza restaurant and live music lounge, DiPiazza’s, hosted nine pop-punk bands Friday night. One of the bands that stood out was Save the Swim Team, which had one of the most active and responsive crowds of the night. Although their sound leans more toward the punk genre than ska, their horn section opened up doors for them to play with big name ska acts such as Reel Big Fish within their five years as a band.
The Daily 49er spoke with Richard Martin (vocals), a Cal State Long Beach alumnus, Brent Friedman (drums) and Scott Wellborn (guitar) after their set at DiPiazza’s and talked about their journey as a band so far.
Q: How did you guys come up with your band name?
Brent Friedman: The origin was from the movie “Van Wilder.” There’s a small scene where a fat guy wears a speedo with the name on it.
Q: What is your favorite part about performing live?
Richard Martin: Just having kids be into it. It doesn’t matter if there are 10 kids into it or like 1,000 – OK, well not really 1,000 – but the most we’ve played for has been 200. It makes it more fun, and meeting people is rad too and having friends who are in bands.
BF: Well, the [Reel Big Fish show] was actually close to 1,000.
Q: As a local band, what’s it like performing with big name ska bands?
RM: My thing is, I don’t listen to ska, but I understand Reel Big Fish, Big D and the Kids Table are bands in our genre, and I respect them. I love playing with them ’cause they’re rad dudes and I can appreciate a good show. We sound nothing like Reel Big Fish, but it’s awesome to play with them.
BF: With there not being many ska bands around, we’re working at playing bigger shows. We’re pretty much an easy pick for a lot of promoters.
Q: You’ve been around since 2007. Did you guys expect to still be a band?
Scott Wellborn: When you’re playing in a specific genre that obviously isn’t thriving like the rest, it’s not like you can imagine, ‘Oh yeah, in a year of two, we’ll have done this.’ The way we released our full length was a lot different, so we’re doing what we want to do. It’s fun, we enjoy it, and we love playing shows.
The band has currently released a full-length album with 13 tracks and EPs. For upcoming concerts and updates on the band, visit their site at: www.facebook.com/SaveTheSwimTeam.
