Band Interview: exPorter (Written)

Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life bring you an updated interview with pop-punk/emo/alt rock band, exPorter.

1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.

Destin Cavazos: Well, Alec and I have been playing music since we were kids. One day we were playing Rock Band on the Wii and our dad said if you can play pretend you can also play for real. At Christmas we got our first real instruments and I took up the bass and Alec took guitar lessons. We played all the time and then started making up our own stuff and we thought it was time to make a band.

Alec Cavazos: First we had our family friend play drums until she left to figure out college. Then we brought our neighbor Owen on to play drums then he also had to leave cause of school. Then we found Henry (Kish) around 2017 and it’s been that lineup ever since. At one of our first shows we were still calling ourselves “Porter” but as once we knew we wanted to really do this we knew we had to change our name. We knew there was already a band from Mexico under the same name of Porter. Growing up fans of Blink, we know their name hassles. Instead of waiting to get sued we tried a bunch of names and settled on “exPorter” and it’s been that since 2018.

2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?

DC: I still tell people that exPorter sounds like early Blink or Green Day with a lot of other stuff mixed in. I started saying we’re a band you would have had on the Van’s Warped Tour and if you ever saw one of those shows you get it right away. We’re straight up 90’s pop-punk meets emo meets alt rock, that sort of rough-edged radio rock is really the core of our sound.

3. What’s currently going on in your camp? New releases? Tours? Etc.

AC: We’ve got a lot going on in exPorter land right now. We released our debut album last year (NoBreaksNoBreaksNoBreaks) and we’re still promoting that. We’ve had 4 songs out as singles and all 4 have cracked the top 50 of the specialty radio charts. Pretty stoked about that. The current single is called “Lusitania” and it hit 15 on the chart. It was also just on the legendary Rodney Bingenheimer’s in The Underground Garage show on SirusXM. We grew up in Southern California and when you think about what Rodney on the Rock has done for alt music it’s pretty cool. If you check out his wiki page and check out the bands he’s introduced, way more than 50% of those have been an influence on our band.

As for touring, we have a couple SoCal shows coming up but we’re planning a pretty large Summer tour for us. We’ve been really lucky to play some great stages in California but we’ve had to keep it all local because of school or other work or stuff. This time we’re hitting all of the western U.S.

4. What has been the most positive experience of making music to date for you?

DC: It’s pretty cool to have anyone listening to our music, whether streaming or checking us out live. It’s a pretty surreal thing to have this thing we wrote and now they’re following us or adding us to their playlist or whatever. I’m also pretty blown away with some of the venues we’ve played. To get to play a show somewhere that one of your idols have played before is such a cool feeling. A while back we played at a venue in Santa Barbara that I’d seen Glass Animals play at just a few years prior, it was just so neat to be in the same room playing music. We’ve played venues that have Green Day stuff up on the walls, a venue like Strummers in Fresno or Casbah in San Diego that iconic bands have come through before, it’s cool to really feel like you’re a part of that world.

AC: I think hearing exPorter on the radio always is a proud moment for all of us. To have DJs spin it and don’t think it sucks and it has brought some good opportunities for us.

I think another positive thing for our band was the Jensen’s project we did during COVID Jensen’s is a legendary shop in Santa Barbara. We learned how to play music there and it’s a special place for our band. We couldn’t do our normal show there cause it was COVID so we were going to do this livestream. We found out the shop was hurting like a lot of other small businesses so we turned it into a fundraiser. A little mini documentary, new songs, a live CD and stuff and then we tied it to a GoFundMe. Just as this was getting noticed in SB, the Foo Fighters also did a fundraiser for the shop with Vans. Chris Shiflett has ties to the shop, like I said it’s a legendary place. So now there was biggest band in the world and exPorter who’s just getting started both trying to help the shop. It’s pretty cool having that connection and it was all because we were trying to help this place that means so much to us.

5. Likewise, what has been some of the more challenging aspects and how have you overcome them?

DC: I think it’s hard to get shows when you’re just starting out for sure. As a band, all 3 of us love playing live and we work pretty hard on our shows. But as a newer band, we can’t just get on any stage we want. I mean I get it, cause it’s a business and venues can’t just put something on and hope it works. It would be cool though if they gave more new bands a shot though.

Like I said, we’ve been really lucky getting some cool spots but it takes time to get those. The main thing we do is just be as professional as we can….show up, set up and work with the sound guys. Then put on the best show we can. And then do that again and again. So far all of the venues we’ve played at have said they’ll have us back which I think helps with getting other shows. I think they all probably share secrets about bands and which ones are a pain in the ass so we just try to not be one of those.

AC: I think the whole streaming aspect has also been challenging cause there are just so many songs out there. It’s really cool to be able to get songs out there for people to hear but when anyone can do it I think you miss out on a lot of bands.

To overcome that we just work on writing more and more new stuff. I think anyone can write a song or do a tiktok that goes viral. There’s also a lot of manufactured bands out there. If we keep writing and recording songs at least our catalogue grows.

6. How do you handle the modern expectations of being in a band? Always online, having to put out content constantly, your success measured in likes and follows?

AC: The whole social thing is kind of weird for us and we’re still trying to figure it out.

I think the best advice we have been so far is to just focus on being ourselves, writing new stuff as much as we can and just try to be exPorter. Anyone can go out and try to get likes or maybe it’s just this made up thing that becomes popular but eventually I think people figure it out. If we’re focused on what’s going to work on our social stuff and not the music then are we really doing the best thing for our band?

It’s tough for sure cause we want to be a popular band but I personally think it’s better to focus on music and real fans then trying to get likes. We try to check what pics get more likes, what hashtags to use, or whatever and we’re probably never going to figure it out so we figure just put out our true selves and hopefully they people get it.

7. What’s something that really ‘grinds your gears’ about the industry/business these days and what would you propose is done to combat it?

AC: Again I think it’s pretty frustrating just trying to get heard. There are sooooo many good bands out there and no one knows about them. And then to have some crap thing all of a sudden be on every station or the popular band of the day kind of sucks. And I’m not saying that exPorter deserves to be heard or that “it” band but I know how hard we work at this and it would be cool to get some exposure. And there are bands that are working harder than we are and getting less exposure.

I don’t know how to fix it and I wish I did.

8. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support your music?

DC: Just keep listening for sure. It really is a special thing to have people listening at all and I hope they know how much we appreciate it. I think to support any band you like it helps if you download the songs or buy their albums or merch. Streaming is great and all but we’re not the ones making money from that.

9. Outside of the music, what’s do you do to relax?

DC: We’re actually pretty normal guys outside of being in exPorter. We play video games though we realized that we don’t necessarily play at the same time. Alec and I will get online every now and then but not as much as you would think. We all read.

We’re kind of boring!

10. Where can people find you?

AC: If you want to check us out live we’ll be out on the road later this month and then later this Summer. You can check our web site for updates – www.exporter.band.

You can also check out our insta – https://www.instagram.com/exporter.band to see what we’re up to. And take a listen on Spotify.