What's up, Inland Empire?

My name is Manny Sandoval, and I'm your host.

Welcome to Rhythm Lounge, where we spotlight the top musical talent from across the Inland Empire.

You're in for a great show.

Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Cotton Lens!

We're Cotton Lens This is our first song, House on a Hill.

House up on a hill It stands there oh so still Watch families inside Watch them as they die More will come along They'll sing the same old song That's just how things go And when it stops you'll know A house up on a hill A house up on a hill A house up on a hill A house up on a hill I wanted to live I wanted to live I wanted to live I wanted to live in a house up on a hill It stands there oh so still I watch from shattered glass I watch as I lose my past A house up on a hill A house up on a hill A house up on a hill A house up on a hill Feels like a cage It's in the walls, the rage Looked out and gazed The house became ablaze The house began to turn Watched it spark and burn Tried to see my fate, but It's too late It's too late A house up on a hill It stood there oh so still But as the walls come down, It's no longer safe and sound House up on a hill House up on a hill Breakdown Break me down into pieces Takeout Take me out to some place special Never Never wanted more than this Hope that Hope that it wouldn't come to this Breakup Break us up and drown in blood Makeup Make something up to make me better Oh, never Never wanted more than this Hope that Hope that it wouldn't come to this Hope that You would stay with me Hope that Life would be happy But that's All just in my dreams And now I hope for the best of you And I hope for the best of me Best of me Welcome back to Rhythm Lounge.

My name is Manny, I'm your host.

Inland Empire.

We are here with Cotton Lens: alternative rock band Guys, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having us.

Let's give you guys a second to introduce yourselves.

Let's start over here.

I'm Jesse.

I play bass.

Uh, I'm Aidan, and I play guitar.

I am the guitar.

I sing.

That's my role in the band.

I'm Adrian, and I play drums.

Gotcha.

Well, your sound, How do you guys explain your sound?

You know, there was backstage earlier, a couple of people were explaining it as maybe like garage rock, alternative rock.

How do you guys identify your sound and how did that come about?

Uh, I'd say we're alternative.

I earlier, like a long time ago, I'd say we were more grunge, but it's kind of softer grunge, so I just do alternative.

Gotcha.

And so what about you guys?

How do you explain your sound and your style when it comes to drums?

I got a lot of punk influence I listen to a lot of punk albums like Descendents, Agent Orange, you know, that whole thing, Dead Kennedys.

But you know, mostly grunge, you know, they well, they they get a lot of punk influence, too.

So you kind of say what the whole grunge thing is.

Right.

And Jesse, what about what about you?

Well, I guess I could say I kind of have more of, like, a funk kind of influence.

I try to make my basslines, like, as groovy as possible.

So.

And when you talk about make them as groovy as possible, what does that mean exactly?

Um, well, I just try to do a lot of, uh, fills and try not to make it so basic.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

No basicness up in here.

All right, I was going to ask to, So, Cotton Lens, what inspired the name of that?

I know you were kind of briefly mentioning it earlier, so can you explain that?

Um, I mean, well, Aiden came up with the name, Yeah.

but how you explain it to me was it's a perceiving the world incorrectly.

It's a it's a filter over the eyes.

It's a it's a punk thing, you know?

Gotcha.

And so speaking of, you know, and it's very interesting because punk the the style is a whole sort of like community, right?

And there's a whole community of people when it comes to style, when it comes to sound, and, you know, just even like hang out spots or whatnot.

But, um, in terms of like your guys' show because you guys played recently, right?

Couple, what was the name?

I think you have the sticker on your, Wisecrack Records Yes, you guys played Which is a record store in Hesperia.

Right.

How was that show?

I know you guys said you performed 15 songs.

That sounds pretty daunting.

What was that like?

It was it was cool.

It was a 45 minute set.

We featured most of our own songs.

We did like, three covers.

Sounds about right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What were those three covers?

One was Junebug by Melvin's White Lace and Strange by Nirvana.

Um, and then My Sharona by the Knack.

We Yeah, but we changed the lyrics to, like, McDonald's.

Gotcha.

Wait.

And why was that?

Because it's just funny.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the songs that you guys covered, how'd you guys go about choosing those in, like, why?

How did they relate to you guys a sound?

Because obviously you're trying to go for cohesion at the same time.

Why did those three make the cut for you guys?

Um, well, I like Melvins just because they're like one of the probably pioneers of grunge, you know, super early.

They wouldn't call themselves that, but I believe to be so.

And I like the drums on it.

Aiden picked well, we all we were just jamming and we did Maestro to the tune of McDonald's.

That was just pretty funny.

So.

Right.

And then Jesse wanted to do White Lace and Strange because it's a fun song.

And so, Jesse, I think you just joined the band right Gotcha.

this past October of 2023.

How did you guys all get together?

Man Well, I knew Aiden from high school and basically he just reached out and, um, asked me to join their band, and it was really sudden, honestly.

And, um, but I was so down and then all of a sudden, you're at the record store in Hesperia just playing 15 songs, How do you guys prepare for that?

Because 15 songs is a lot.

So how did you guys prep for that then?

Um, practice like every day.

I just try to.

Even if when we weren't all together, you know, we have all our songs on Spotify or on files, and then we just practice the covers by ourselves.

And as a drummer, you mentioned to me, which was pretty impressive.

Gotcha.

You just started playing about a year ago.

So is.

That's correct, right?

Yeah, about I'd say probably a little over a year, but not nothing, you know, a year and a half.

What would you say has been the biggest sort of hindrance Gotcha.

or the most difficult element of drumming and timing you mentioned was a big part of that.

Um, I came from because we had a little cult like little group before this.

It was nothing crazy, but it just was having fun.

And I sang and I played bass.

So coming from singing and basing or basing coming from playing bass was just as different.

And then when I came to drums, I had to follow him because we didn't have Jesse yet.

So I have a I had to follow guitar a lot.

And following guitar and drums is just you're a drummer, you know, you get it.

It's it's really weird.

So when Jesse came along, I had to reorganize everything in my head to follow Jesse instead of Aiden.

But I still get, you know, mixed in there sometimes.

So, I mean, you're making up new words to drum, basing, Gotcha.

Yeah.

Do a little bit of everything.

And guys, I want to kind of get into the songs that you performed to the first.

You perform two songs at the top of the show and you're going to stick around with us, right?

Get more with you guys.

Thanks.

You say no, I guess they're not.

But.

But yeah.

Rhythm Lounge.

My name is Manny.

We will be back after the break.

Welcome back to Rhythm Lounge.

We are here once again with Cotton Lens Thank you guys again for joining us.

So at the top of the show, you guys performed two songs.

What was the name of those two songs that you guys played?

It was House on the Hill and Hope.

House on the Hill specifically, what inspired the lyrics of that song and who wrote it?

I wrote it.

It's it's based on this house that I saw when we moved, right?

I moved up to Hesperia and there was this house in Apple Valley that's on a hill.

It's abandoned.

But that just kind of inspired me.

It's also like I forget what the meaning is of House on the Hill.

I looked it up a long time ago, so.

So, like solitude, I guess.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Gotcha.

So when you wrote that song, were you like, what?

What was the whole process of writing that?

Then?

Like, you?

Oh, man.

I was thinking through that.

That was like one of the first songs I wrote.

So it was really hard.

Constant changing of the lyrics, finding what chords sound good and doesn't sound like anything else, because then people will just say, like, we took that, took that from Foo Fighters.

You took that from your heart?

Yeah, I still might be a hack.

I don't know.

But, you know, it's.

It's difficult, right?

I think I hear a lot of artists just talking and mentioning, Yeah.

rewriting songs, and I feel like that's such an important component of songwriting, too.

And sometimes when I hear even songs on the radio, even like when it comes to popular music in my day, I wish they would have rewrote that because there's like certain sometimes songs are too wordy at the same time too.

What's your thoughts on on rewriting?

I like rewriting because you get the best words out of what it is, you know, like, yeah, songs can get wordy, but they also can just be nothing like a lot of songs.

Now I feel like have some lyrics that aren't really thought of that much.

They're just kind of thrown in so that they have lyrics, right?

I could definitely see see that?

I was going to ask you, so Hope that's the second song that you performed.

Who wrote that specifically and what was that about?

It was me.

Oh, you again.

Okay.

Gotcha.

He's our songwriter.

Gotcha.

That one is, uh, I guess, like, a, like, sad breakup song.

I don't really know.

Gotcha.

So, what are the lyrics?

What are the lyrics mean to you, then?

Uh, moving on, really.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

And so when you.

When you talk about moving on and moving into the future, what do you see yourselves as?

What are some you guys' goals as a band?

just to play music That's really, you know, just for the love of it.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

What about you, Jessie?

Man, I just want to have fun.

Jessie just wants to have a good time.

I love hanging out with my friends.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So, are you guys at some point going to get into songwriting or... I've been trying date.

It's hard.

This dude has, like, a whole red folder of, like, it's like, like, 40 song.

I don't know how he does it.

That's crazy.

Well, yeah.

So.

Well, are you going to say I haven't really put much thought into songwriting?

Yeah.

I think you can handle all the hard, hard guys and Aiden.

Yes.

So when you guys are performing, I notice there's a couple of times where you are the little or not kicking, but like tapping the pad here, which is purple.

kicking I know you guys probably cannot see it.

What exactly if you can explain to us what that does for the sound, that's a distortion pedal.

It, uh, it just makes it, you know, distorted.

I'm not a tech like, I'm not an engineer, so I don't know what it means.

I don't know how sound comes out like that, but it just.

You press the button, it sounds different.

There's two buttons, so I can choose from high gain or low gain.

I don't know the difference between that either.

Gotcha.

Hey, I like the honesty, though.

That's great.

What about you?

Because I know to with drums Are you?

Well, you're not necessarily like shifting any any pedals or anything like that, right?

Or.

You have a kick pedal, and then there's the pedal over there that closes.

Yeah.

The high head's in.

And I mean, that's pretty much it.

Everything else with your hands.

Gotcha.

So would you guys say as a group, what?

Since you guys are a new group, obviously.

What for you guys collectively has been the toughest thing, especially for you since you're coming in like, new?

What's been the toughest thing for you being integrated into a group?

Well- band, my bad I said group, as if you guys are like, NSYNC over here, with choreo or something.

But, um, actually, it's like, I think the hardest thing for me was, um, just coming in the band with songs already written.

Um, I had to learn them in a short amount of time.

Um, before we played our first show together.

Um, it feels like the time when I joined the band and our first show Yeah.

was a short amount of time.

So, you know, I think learning songs, it was like, it wasn't like a month.

It was like three weeks.

It was a couple weeks.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

So who are some of your guys's musical influences?

Would you say?

Um, personal musical influences?

They can be just.

Just a bunch of punk.

Just.

It's just.

It's not about the past, Not about the.

The music, sort of the sound.

It's just about your mindset.

So like, try to stay to a mindset.

Play different than everybody do.

Try different things and if they don't like it, you know, they don't like.

But Desendents, the Kennedys Agent Orange Operation Ivy, um said that's you know, that's about right.

What about yourself?

Uh, I'd say, you know, Chris Cornell from Soundgarden or the band slant is really kind of big influences on me.

I forget the names of the band members of that.

I know their first names.

It's like Brian and Brett, but cool.

Um, I would say, you know, just like nineties rock.

Um, I grew up on a lot of different kinds of music, so I kind of just pick and choose from here and there from my influences.

So yeah, I would say nineties rock though.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

And where can we find more about you guys?

You guys have, are you guys on social media individually, collectively share those handles we're on, I think right now We're just on Instagram but we're you know under Cotton Lens, the username's cottonlensband we're on pretty much every major platform.

Our first EP we put out Buzzard, uh, it's on Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, our radio, it's on the peloton, the workout bike.

No way.

Yeah, pretty much everywhere you can find it.

Yeah.

Is that what you do on the weekends?

Peloton.

Yeah.

Since your music.

Yeah, I, you know, I bike and I listen to Cotton Lens What guys you're using to perform music like a psychopath driving down the street.

Yeah.

You're going to perform one more song for us, right?

Yes.

Yes.

Well, Cotton Lens, thank you so much for being here with us today on Rhythm Lounge.

Everybody watching at home.

Thank you so much for joining us.

My name is Manny.

We'll see you next time.

Live in a box Let me out I'm on my own Eyes on the clock Let me out and give me my pills that kill me inside My pills that kill me inside I'm not afraid.

I'm not afraid.

Rather die Give me my high Give me a hit Give me a hit You talk too long Now give me my pills that kills me inside give me my pills that kill me inside give me my pills that kill me inside my pills kill me inside watch the blood mix with the mud stain my bed lie down dead shuts your throat starts to choke give me pills, give me pills give me pills, give me pills