There aren’t many local musicians who have navigated between genres quite like Kevin Oakley. The bassist has spent time in bands like Molotov Solution (metal), A Crowd of Small Adventures (indie) and She Turned Us Into Trees (pop punk). When not jamming on the bass, Oakley is also one of the main operators at Stoked On printing, a company who has produced merch for us as well as many of your favorite bands. Most recently, Oakley teamed up with 3/5 of Caravels to form Dark Black, a post-punk project, so we thought now would be a good time to ask him five questions.
So let’s start with music history. How did you become interested in music and how did your first band come together? Can you give us a rundown of the bands you’ve played in and which musicians inspired you?
I didn’t necessarily come from a family of musicians, but more so of music listeners. So growing up I was constantly introduced to a lot of second hand music listening from a wide spectrum from both of my parents and a lot from my older brothers. It was a lot of 90’s alternative from my brothers/Dad and also from my Dad came classic rock and a little country from my Mom. It was great, because I could pick things out from each genre that I really liked/maybe didn’t like so much (country..), but I appreciated it all!
I remember in the 3rd grade one of my brothers got a bass for his birthday or Christmas or something and I couldn’t wait for school to be over with for the day so I could rush home to play it before he came home and caught me haha! Then around 5th/6th grade I went to a summer camp where a kid I was friends with brought an acoustic and from there I was hooked completely and had to get a guitar when I got home.
My first band was with my friend Shane in the 8th grade. I am having a hard time remembering the name, but we just played A TON of Blink 182, Thrice and Senses Fail covers etc. etc. Hahah it was a good time, since I had pretty much only played by myself up till that point.
Like a lot of people, I first got into Jimi Hendrix from a guitar point of view. I loved the feel and vibe he gave. Right about the same time, friends of mine started introducing me to punk, so bands like The Ramones, The Clash, Minor Threat and Black Flag influenced me to go into more of the DIY punk/hardcore scene where I fell in love with higher intensity shows and performances.
I’ve played in the following bands:
Lynch Thy Beauty
She Turned Us Into Trees
Molotov Solution
American Cinema
Primal Rage
A Crowd of Small Adventures
Dark Black
StillSuit
I’m curious how the writing process goes when playing in bands across multiple genres. How did you approach writing for She Turned Us Into Trees compared to A Crowd of Small Adventures or Molotov Solution?
It definitely has been very different when it came to each band’s writing style and getting to the end process. I was never the primary song-writer in any above projects, but more so of a support. Especially being a bassist, I learned that I really had to play different roles in each band. I also have lucked out a ton, because I have had the privilege to play with such great musicians in my opinion and they gave a lot of vision to both me and to the music.
For a lot of Molotov, it was all of us in a room for hours and days on end with the guitars writing riffs, then the rest of us feeling them out and finally putting the songs together. It was a lot of work and we all wanted to kill each other at times, but the albums I was involved with are pieces of music I am still very proud of.
With Trees, it was more pop punk driven where I could really groove with the drums, while also having a lot of room to do some really fun bass runs. I took a lot of influence from Eben D’amico, who was in Saves The Day in the glory days. That guy is just something else and really opened my eyes to being a backbone, without sacrificing being creative.
A Crowd Of Small Adventures has been an incredible experience as far as playing with some great musicians. I came into the band after they were very established so I was really nervous being the new guy, but from the first time I got together with them, we all vibed really well. It was a great opportunity for me to really hang back and just lock in with the bass drum and let everyone sit on top!
Being in different bands across different genres, you’ve played to a lot of different people. How do the different scenes compare? Do you have a favorite gig or favorite venue you’ve played at and do you prefer 21+ or all ages shows? And how has the Vegas scene changed since you started playing?
I think Las Vegas is a pretty cool place in the sense that there are a lot of people who like widely different types of music so you see them at all types of shows. Or maybe not even at shows, but talking to people you will find they grew up on the same style of music you did, but then went a different way. Actual Las Vegans who have been here and who actually care about the scenes are some of the coolest and welcoming people. Maybe it’s because of the transiency of the city with people coming and going so much, you can’t be closed minded or if you choose to, you can miss out on great experiences.
A really fun show I played was one I had at our first shop which was with Trees, Primal Rage, Caravels, Bingo and another band I can’t remember [editor’s note – it was Rivalries], and it was just a lot of fun with a lot of different people there and all having a great time!
The scene when I was younger definitely was great because there were a lot of small to mid size venues that would bring in bands that were too big for a house show but too small for the House Of Blues or something of that size. Now there is a big gap now a days in between those two sized crowds.
Also through losing a lot of venues we all saw people around us step up and take charge, especially in the Yayo Taco-era and still to this day with house shows and what the Artistic Armory was doing. It was a DIY shift into bringing bands here without a guarantee and having everyone chip in so that they can make it to their next stop. I’m not sure if anyone has a solution to the all ages problem that we are running into, because there’s a whole lot of risk and a lot of work/money involved to make it happen. I like 21+ shows, but we really need to get a solid all ages venue so we can continue getting younger people into the scenes.
Either way, there are a lot of great bands and music/art coming out of Las Vegas right now and I am still excited to be here and a part of it all.
You’ve got a new band with some of the ex-Caravels guys, Dark Black. How did that band come together and, for people like myself that couldn’t make the debut show, what influences does this band draw from?
I met them when they were in Sevenatenine back in the Rock N Java days and from there I became best friends with all those dudes, a lot of hanging out in garages, at shows and at Dillon Shines’ Mom’s tower. So towards the end of Caravels, they (Matt Frantom, George Foskaris & Dillon) started working on a different project which is now Dark Black. At first they had Mike Poulin from a band called Defeater playing, but he didn’t work out. So it was a very natural thing for me to start playing and through our long friendship, it meshed well and felt right!
I would say it has maybe a shoegaze/post-punk feel, with influences from The Wire, Total Control, Slug Guts & True Widow. It’s different than anything we all have been involved with in the past and we are really not trying to stick ourselves into a writing box. I am really excited to have everyone hear it and we should have some recordings out soon [editor’s note – hear the first records below]!
Now let’s talk Stoked On. How did that business come to be? Do you find that with you guys being from bands that you bring a different ethos to the business than other printing companies?
Stoked came out of what we saw as a lack of a place for kids like us to get shirts printed. My friend Shane Snodgrass came to me when we were still in High School and suggested that we start screen printing ourselves. I distinctly recall saying “but how do you get the ink on the shirt?!” and him responding “I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out!” hahaha! Right after High School, I went on tour for awhile with Molotov and Shane kept printing while I was gone. I left the band and from there we quit our day jobs, got our first shop and really started grinding on building the business.
I definitely think that we bring a more DIY aspect to what we do here. A lot of screen printing shops and people doing it, they buy all this equipment and get into it thinking they are going to make a million dollars because they saw some infomercial or read a “get rich quick” article. But that’s simply not the case for 99% of printers out there.
Coming from a band/DIY background, we both were on the same page when we essentially said to hell with college and giving this gigantic racket all this money for a piece of paper that when starting a business doesn’t mean much a lot of the time. Instead we knew we wanted to take something we enjoyed and turn it into a living.
From there we took to the forums, Youtube, Google and books and figured it out by ourselves! We wanted to do it our way and to keep the art aspect of it alive, not just cut corners to make an extra buck and take advantage of people on pricing. We just want to be able to give our friends and people who are selling their merch to get by and help support their passion, a place and price that is fair to them, because that’s exactly what we were looking for when we were young.
Thank you, Kevin!
If you want more information on Stoked On Printing, you can check out their website here: http://stokedonprinting.com/
For more information on Dark Black, check out their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/wearedarkblack
Kevin Oakley photo by Trevon Serge Angulo
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