The Oral History of Love It Or Leave It (Vegas Archive)

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Welcome to Vegas Archive, a feature where we re-release music from local bands that are gone, but certainly not forgotten.

Today we’re bringing you the complete compiled discography of pop punk band Love It Or Leave It, who were active in Vegas from 2006-2011.

For more information about the band and these songs, read the oral history as told by former Love It Or Leave It members Angel Ayala, Chris Daniels, Carlo Mazzone and Russell St. Clair, as well as other musicians and friends who knew the band.


“We just want everyone to love our music if not they can leave it. We are love it or leave it and we’re here to stay!” – Love It Or Leave It (Myspace)


Pop punk band Love It Or Leave It was formed in Las Vegas by longtime high school friends after their previous bands’ dissolution.

Russell St. Clair, Love It Or Leave It bassist

The members of Love It Or Leave It – Angel Ayala, Adam Salvin, Manny Lanuza, Chris Daniels, Carlo Mazzone and myself – were all friends during high school while we were in separate bands.

Chris Daniels, Love It Or Leave It synth/piano/vocals

Before joining Love It Or Leave It, Manny, Angel and I were all in a metal band together called Uryah.

Carlo Mazzone, Love It Or Leave It drummer

I became friends with the Uryah guys while drumming for Vegas hardcore/metal band Destruction of A Rose. Uryah had a battle of the bands show that I filled in for on drums so that Angel could shred the guitar.

Chris Daniels

While we were jamming, Angel was also jamming with Russell and Adam while their band practiced.

Angel Ayala, Love It Or Leave It vocalist

Despite being really good friends in high school, Russell and I were in different bands. I’d always chill at his band’s practices and, well, he never chilled at mine [laughs].

Russell St. Clair

Things changed the summer after graduation when we decided to combine our talents and form a band that meant something.

Angel Ayala

After our senior year, Uryah went on a hiatus and I started helping Russel’s band out because he had asked me to. During that time I started messing around with vocals and Russell thought it sounded great. So we devised a plan to start a new band with catchy hook-driven vocals and pop punk fundamentals.

Carlo Mazzone

I heard a demo that Angel, Adam, Russell and their original drummer Oscar had put out. I thought to myself, “Man, I wanna jam with those guys again.” After nagging for a while the opportunity finally came for me and from then on it just got better.

Russell St. Clair

Our name was originally going to be Small Talk, but it didn’t feel right. After brainstorming countless names, we came up with Love It Or Leave It, a name we felt perfectly characterized our new project.

The band soon began playing shows in Las Vegas and eventually started touring, often with bands who’d go on to bigger success.

Russell St. Clair

We were fortunate to be able to play so many awesome shows during our time together. One of our first shows was a packed one with fellow locals The Cab, Fletch, and The Stript at University Theatre, one of the coolest Vegas venues that used to be around. It was right next to UNLV and everyone from Saves the Day to The Matches to Portugal the Man played there.

Carlo Mazzone

All of the Jillian’s shows were very successful, and a favorite venue of mine.

Angel Ayala

Jillian’s was definitely my favorite venue to play.

Chris Daniels

I’d have to say every Julians show was amazing! They were always packed and we played with The Cab and Pierce the Veil and a bunch of other good bands there. And the turnouts were always awesome.

Patrick “Pulsar” Trout, show promoter

LIOLI was always a good time to book. They were a bunch of super fun guys with a lot of heart and you could tell they loved what they were doing. Their live shows were always high energy and they brought a real sense of fun to the shows they played when a lot of supposed “pop punk bands” were trying to be uber-serious and moody.

Russell St. Clair

We did six west coast tours, which included stints with the Wonder Years and I Call Fives on those band’s early visits to the west.

Drew Conte, I Call Fives bassist

We played with LIOLI our first time in Vegas. I remember checking them out on Myspace beforehand and being pleasantly surprised at how good they were. We would end up playing with them a bunch of times out west and they always put on a great show. I’ve always appreciated bands with a good singer and Angel could definitely sing.

Chris Daniels

The West Coast tour with I Call Fives was super fun! When we played in Vegas we all stayed at my apartment and at the time I had my grandmother was living with me. We ended up partying with my Grandma all night! [laughs] It was funny, the fact there’s like 11 dudes and an old lady partying in a little apartment. It was fun.

Angel Ayala

We ended up playing tons on the road, but Extreme Thing 2009 at home was the big one.

Carlo Mazzone

Extreme thing ‘09 was a huge show for us at the time and the support we had was unreal.

Russell St. Clair

In 2009 we got to play Extreme Thing, which also featured Bad Religion, Silverstein and the Vandals that year. That show still sticks out as great because it also happened to be our tour kickoff show for our only national tour,with Down for the Count.

Carlo Mazzone

I can’t leave out our six week US tour with Down for the Count which was one of the best times of my life. Our out of town shows and experiences never failed to surprise me with people all over the country coming out to the shows and supporting Love It! We seemed to have a following everywhere we went.

Angel Ayala

While in San Antonio for the “Swing for the Fences” tour with Down For the Count, Russell nearly took off my face with the head of his bass! That was the definitely the bloodiest show we’ve played [laughs].

Nate Sirotta, Down for the Count frontman

Love It Or Leave It was one of the most underrated pop punk bands in the game during the height of the Myspace era for music – circa 2008/2009. Not only did they stand out amongst the pack of pop punk up-and-comers musically, but they were also ALL about the DIY ethic. Booking their own tours, hustling like crazy, and making the band their entire lives – which is really the only way to make it in the scene…at least back then, it was.

Russell St. Clair

But the most fun we had on tour was our last tour with Heart to Heart.

Nick Zoppo, Heart to Heart frontman

We met Love It Or Leave It through a friend who ran away from California to Vegas for love at 16 years old. Although things with his lady didn’t work out, he was able to bring Heart to Heart and LIOLI together. One of our first tours was with them and it was one to remember. We had a blast. I almost drowned on that tour and LIOLI tried to blow up an air mattress to save me! [laughs]

Angel Ayala

Touring and playing out of Vegas was so awesome, considering I did it with my best friends. Best time with the best dudes!

Chris Daniels

I love every memory I have playing with our band, from the big shows to playing in front of two people in a town we’d never heard of before. Seeing the country with my best friends is something I’ll always appreciate.

The energetic young band went into the studio a number of times, primarily working with Kyle Black.

Russell St. Clair

We recorded almost every single Love It Or Leave It song with my good friend Kyle Black, who ended up recording some awesome records for bands like Heart to Heart, Comeback Kid and New Found Glory.

Kyle Black, producer

I worked with Love It Or Leave It at the punk rock recording mecca of SoCal: Love Juice Laboratories. I was 21 at the time and the guys were 18-ish. That was actually my first paid job.

Carlo Mazzone

Kyle is a longtime friend of mine, since back when I was a kid. Since I was about 12 years old, he had been producing my bands, and I remember he’d bring his old BR8 digital 8 track recorder to my parents’ house to record my bands [laughs]. . Then, when I moved to Vegas in ‘04, Destruction of A Rose did all of our stuff with him as well.

Kyle Black

Carlo was tight, fast, and spontaneous. Russell had some mean bass riffs and Manny always had this sick fusion of punk, funk, and metal in his guitar riffs. It was always fun and exciting to work with them.

Chris Daniels

Working with Kyle was super awesome. He’s a good friend and a great producer who’s gone on to work on a lot of awesome things. I learned a lot from spending so much time in the studio with him

Angel Ayala

Kyle Black is a monster at what he does. I’m going to school for recording and everything I’ve learned from him production-wise is really kicking in.

Kyle Black

Recording Love It Or Leave It was a blast 100% of the time. The guys were full of energy and creativity and I think that shows in the music we recorded together.

Russell St. Clair

The only songs not recorded by Kyle were the last two we recorded: “Word Around Town” and “Cloud 9” – which we recorded with Justin Powell from Chico, CA. Those ended up being on our last release of assorted demos.

Carlo Mazzone

Justin Powell was a new experience for me but was a lot of fun, considering the only style of recording and criticism I was used to was Kyle’s. I was pleased with the small amount of work we did with Justin with that staple, echoey big kick and snare sound that I hear in all of his stuff.

Chris Daniels

Working with Justin was okay. It was basically just recording the songs and let’s get them done. There just no personal friendships that got built like with Kyle. Justin’s a good guy, but Kyle blacks the man. He’s My Buddy and he’s super talented at what he does.

Love It Or Leave It soon caught the ear of then-Yellowcard guitarist Ben Harper, who took the young band under his wing.

Russell St. Clair

Ben Harper, who was in Yellowcard at the time, managed Love It Or Leave It for all of 2008. He was just an overall great dude. We were involved briefly with his Takeover Records digital project along with fellow Vegas band A Phoenix Forever.

Ben Harper, former Yellowcard guitarist

I first met Love It Or Leave It while in Vegas watching A Phoenix Forever. I was doing Takeover Digital at the time, signing bands to digital deals back in that dead zone when bands weren’t able to make money online as easily. They were playing a small show and just killing it. It was obvious that they were super talented.

Carlo Mazzone

Ben Harper and Takeover, oh man. I’ll never forget meeting him for the first time. Seeing Ben at one of our shows here in Vegas was so crazy. Then we found out he was there to see us and it was so cool, seeing as he was the guitar player for the platinum fucking band Yellowcard.

Ben Harper

After getting more information from A Phoenix Forever, I reached out to LIOLI and acted as their mentor more so than an “on paper” manager. I gave them pointers and helped a band that was already working hard to avoid some of the mistakes we made in the early days of Yellowcard.

Carlo Mazzone

He was very interested in helping us out, so we went to stay at the “Takeover House” in Big Bear, which is where Ocean Avenue was written.

Chris Daniels

We went and spent a week with him there and we got so stoned that I couldn’t even move! [laughs] But it was really fun jamming there.

Carlo Mazzone

It was quite an amazing experience.

Russell St. Clair

Ben also helped us out in the studio, financing our Christmas single “You, Me, and This Christmas Tree.”

Ben Harper

It was time for new music and the Christmas single was a great idea. They were probably going to do it anyway, but I’m glad I was around to help, especially as it turned out to be one of their more popular songs. LP [Longineu W. Parsons III, Yellowcard drummer] was there and helped with drums and stuff like that.

Carlo Mazzone

I developed a friendship with LP, who I still keep in touch with to this day. He has helped me in so many ways when it comes to drumming, especially in the studio. He was watching my every move, giving me tips and showing me new shit along the way.

Ben Harper

I started getting feedback from people who saw them live and they told me how good they thought they were. People don’t realize how hard it is to make it, how much money and sacrifice. But they worked and toured and I was really proud of them.

The band released a number of music videos, including one for the aforementioned Christmas single.

Emilio Gonzalez, StrobeLightMedia

I first met the guys from Love it Or Leave when I shot their first live performance video, for the song “You Might Be Square, But I Still Think You’re Hip.”

Russell St. Clair

That led to us filming a couple music videos with StrobeLightMedia.

Emilio Gonzalez

I was just starting out and working on finding artists to film music videos with. One of the guys from my production crew approached me with the song “Stateline Between Cali and Envy” and I was instantly hooked. I immediately said “We have to work with these guys!”

Carlo Mazzone

Recording videos with StrobeLight was always a blast! Those guys showed us so much love and support and helped us out a lot. They were extremely motivational for a group of lazy musicians [laughs]. They were always at our practices (usually before we even got there), shows and anything else we had going on.

Emilio Gonzalez

We would meet up at their practice sessions at the Alamo downtown and pitch ideas until we came up with a solid concept for a video.

Chris Daniels

It was a blast working with StrobeLightMedia as well because they were friends. We really didn’t know what we were doing at the time and just went for it with them. It was really fun and turned out alright. I honestly wish we would have done more with them.

Emilio Gonzalez

The guys were awesome to work with. It was a great learning process for our Strobe Light Media team, and after working with Love it Or Leave it we were able to branch out and shoot more videos for bands in Las Vegas.

Angel Ayala

It was amazing working with StrobeLight; those dudes are true visionaries. And their work ethic is insane and inspiring.

Carlo Mazzone

They definitely played a huge role in what we accomplished as a band in our day.

Love It Or Leave It’s next move was to sign to a label. But before that could happen, the band came to an end.

Russell St. Clair

During our time together we were approached by a couple of labels. Towards the end we considered signing with StandBy Records, a label mostly known for heavier music, but unfortunately that never happened because our band was falling apart.

Angel Ayala

StandBy Records was interested in us and sent over a contract. But the contract stipulated that we work with one of their producers, a guy who we were not impressed by whatsoever. Also the deal sucked so it just didn’t work out.

Carlo Mazzone

It became a lot for all of us growing kids. We spent so much time together, wrote so much, and there became personal barriers that would arise, whether it be musically or something completely off subject.

Chris Daniels

We all knew each other since middle school and it can be hard to mix good friendship and business all into the same cup.

Ben Harper

It was really quick. They were close friends and they got along well and they tried to travel for a bit. I just wish they would’ve kept going. But it was so quick.

Carlo Mazzone

Heads were hot and egos collided. We needed a break and a break turned into it being nearly impossible to even get all the dudes together at one time.

Chris Daniels

We really didn’t know what we were doing besides just jamming, writing music and having fun. So when all these business opportunities came around for our band we kind of dropped the ball

Russell St. Clair

We got a new singer, played a few shows, but things just didn’t work out and we decided to call it quits.

Chris Daniels

But we’re all still like brothers and best friends, to this very day.

The LIOLI members soon moved on to other artistic endeavors.

Russell St. Clair

After LIOLO, a couple of us played in a band called Bingo!

Angel Ayala

I had written a few songs and went to Kyle Black to record them. I originally wanted to put them out as a solo project but I got together with Russell and we set out to record an album using the songs I initially recorded with Kyle as the basis for the album’s flow. But that band didn’t last.

Russell St. Clair

After Bingo! I joined up with another band in Vegas called Guts with Adam, then joined Second to Last, a pop punk band from Northern California. I released an EP with them and did some touring on that. I decided to leave STL after two years. I toured with them for that time and I was seeing very little progress. It also didn’t help that I was 28 and just felt it was time to quit touring and work on other aspects of my life.

Carlo Mazzone

I joined Taking Dawn (formerly 7th Son) on Roadrunner Records and did quite a bit of traveling with them, including a six week tour with In This Moment and Nonpoint, a headlining UK tour, and Soundwave 2011 in Australia. I quit that band shortly after due to personal reasons in and out of that band. I got an offer to play drums with In This Moment shortly after that, but was pretty burnt out at that point and so in between living that lifestyle I needed a break.

Russell St. Clair

Chris is living in Texas with his family. Manny is a DJ at a couple of clubs on the strip here in Las Vegas. Angel is working on a new project here in Vegas.

Angel Ayala

I’ve been writing a lot, I’m working on a reggae project right now and once I have everything ready I’m going to drop some songs. I’m also going to school for recording and interning a studio here in town.

Emilio Gonzalez

It was always special working with the band, and I feel like the music video “Word Around Town” is still a classic. I feel like their music and music videos hold up today, I can throw on both albums and it takes me back to great times. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the comeback album and shows!

Chris Daniels

I loved hanging out with these dudes, just jamming and having a good time.

Carlo Mazzone

So here I am now, years later beating my drums every day at home. And, occasionally, jamming with the Love It dudes.

Ben Harper

I wish there could’ve been more. I know that they were just super, super talented and I could just tell that their Vegas fans and other people liked them when they saw them. They have that “it” thing. They had the “it” thing, and I would have loved to have seen them spread it.

Nick Zoppo

I miss that band a lot. Literally just listened to them yesterday. LONG LIVE LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT.

Carlo Mazzone

I believe Love it Or Leave it will make a comeback someday, so keep an eye out for us!

Written and compiled by Emily Matview. Edited by Emily Matview and Ian Caramanzana

please

Love It Or Leave It
Please Don’t Forget the Fact that I’m Still Here
2006-2011

Recorded by Kyle Black and Justin Powell

Angel Ayala – Vocals
Russell St Clair – Bass/Vocals
Adam Slavin – Guitar
Manny Lanuza – Lead Guitar
Chris Daniels – Synth/Piano/Vocals
Carlo Mazzone – Drums

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