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.

Today, we have a hardcore band who's going to be performing some songs from their brand new EP titled EP 2024.

Ladies and gentlemen, and to everybody watching, give it up for Knuckle Sandwich Knuckle sandwich Straight from the IE If you didn't know, you're about to This is Intro Oh!

Is a two step Oh!

IEHP!

This is Melting Ice Where do you go When there's nowhere to hide Making my way through the dark of my mind Everyday it's a battle to find another way to end this torture of mine Eyes wide open I can see right through you talking all that- when I never even knew you Always on the sidelines Running that mouth Pray that I don't see you or I'll turn your lights out You say that I'm childish You say that I'm fake Take a look inside my mind Its weight will crush you with its hate Yeah Knuckle Sandwich Straight from the IE You talking all that- Running that mouth I'll catch you slippin' your mom and that chick you came with Clock is ticking Get ready to die Watch your life fade away Just like melting ice Banging on the net Homie, I don't even know you keep that to yourself keep on thinking and you'll know who Put that stuff in the past You were faking after all Get your head out your- and look me in the eye And now it's time to die And now it's time to die Shoutout 97minutes Look into my eyes and tell me what you see I see my demons and they're staring back at me There is no way out no reason left to live I must've ran out of a single care to give Death is knocking, it's standing at my door It's time to die but give me one day more Keep your mouth shut don't you look me in the eyes I can see it in your eyes it's time to die This is IE You're about to know Got some screws loose in my head and you're about to die Count your days Embrace death I'll get you when I see you and I'll take your final breath Violent rage has blinded me again I take a blade up to my wrist and watch it end Real heavy-weight hardcore Welcome back to Rhythm Lounge.

My name is Manny Sandoval and we are here with Knuckle Sandwich.

Guys, how are you feeling today?

I think you're feeling pretty good today.

Yeah.

It's funny, during the initial intro, I was trying so hard not to say knuckle punch, but it's knuckle sandwich, so we all know.

But, Yeah.

First off, let's, take a second.

Have you guys introduce yourself and what instrument you play.

My name is Jorge and I play the vocals I'm Alan and I'm the drummer I'm foolish genius, and at the moment I'm playing, all strings, so guitar and bass.

Gotcha, And how long have you.

So you guys have each individually been playing for years, but collectively as a group, as knuckle sandwich.

You guys just started about two months ago.

Is that correct?

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

You know, we've known, Alan, me and my brother, Ruben, who's not here Well, that's correct.

today, who's originally on drums, and Alan is originally on bass, but we knew each other from when we used to work at the swapmeet right here at the Pro swapmeet in San Bernardino And then we eventually reconnected, you know, through our love for hardcore.

So that was really cool.

When we met Patrick too, we were finally able to cook up some jams.

So speaking of your brother Ruben, I hear that he has a fractured arm.

That's amazing.

Oh, I can't believe it's, It's always tough to differentiate between a fractured hand because somebody does have a full and fractured arm.

Tell me about the fractured arm and what the story was behind that.

So it was during our first show that like, like a week or two ago Yeah.

and, you know, we were just, really having a good time in the mosh pit, and he ended up breaking his, his left arm after he had just recovered from fracturing his right hand.

So, as you know, those are things that happened to hardcore it comes with the territory But, you know, we wanted not to get in the moshpit that day, but the music was just really good.

Shoutout Smoke 909 Shoutout 97minutes And speaking of 97 minutes, they're featured in one of your guys's songs.

That's right.

Patrick, if you can, tell us a little bit about that song, because you guys performed that, just just for the break.

I think, our first show was like a week, a week and a half ago, but, Yeah.

I don't know, I'm.

I mean, I just played an instrument, so, my, my my friend George, he just had this jam written, and he was like, no, we got to have Gilly from 97 minutes hop into song.

So we just, booked studio time, had a couple leftover riffs.

So, you know, the we wrote the song in a matter of a day, and probably 30 minutes after we finished it, the singer from 90 minutes came in and, you know, he just did his vocal part.

So it was pretty cool.

And are you guys recording live instruments for your songs That's awesome.

or.

This is kind of half and half.

It goes into like drum programing just to get like the best result sound wise.

But eventually you want to move in that step And Alan, you are a student and part of the film program, Gotcha.

San Bernardino Valley College, but you're also a part of two bands, as you were mentioning to me.

But you also play multiple instruments.

do you play specifically, and at what age did you pick those up at?

What instruments So drums I started when I was six and then I around like eight years old.

I started playing guitar and then my brother, which is a big inspiration for me.

He brought in a bass like around like for me it was like at age 11.

So I picked that up.

So along the years I just started picking up those instruments, which is in essence the ones I just said.

And for my other band, I play guitar and I do vocals.

Yeah, yeah, you do it all basically, I guess, Jorge, you mentioned Gotcha.

that you just picked up on vocals and noises, sounds a few months ago.

Tell me about because, I mean, when I first seen you and seen you rehearsing, I kind of just, presume that you have been likely doing it for a little while.

How long have you actually been doing it?

And what inspired you to start, you know, using your voice?

Well, I, I've always done live music.

You know, I remember when I was, seven years old, I would play the congas, you know, in church, my grandpa would play the piano.

My uncle would also, play his instruments as well.

And then I played trumpet in church, too.

But, you know, I always liked metal And I always liked hardcore, it was just when I first started showing up to the shows, I always thought in my head, I'm like, man, I wish I could be in a band, but I don't have any friends or I ain't know how to start that.

You know, any friends that would be able to to help me get started on that step?

I just started doing vocals in December, you know, and we started cooking this up.

But, you know, And, you know, we just met up one day and, in Alan's room, you know, and it was four of us guys in there with a drum set in there.

We didn't have a lot of space, and I just shared some of the stuff that I had written that I thought would sound cool in the hardcore song.

And, you know, I just do vocals.

You know, like, with my actual voice, you know, copying off of some bands that got me into hardcore, you know, there's no need to shout them out, you know, because they're already so popular with shout outs and, you know, they're the ones that really got me into that, like, feeling comfortable with my own vocals.

But, over the past month or two, you know, it's March, right now.

You know, I would practice over some songs on my way to work, you know, and I would practice, and I, I really hurt my throat in the morning until I got lightheaded.

And that's how I would start my day.

And, the practice has worked, worked out.

And, you know, it doesn't hurt my throat no more.

Yeah, it definitely sounds like it would be rough on the vocal chords.

Gotcha.

So what's you earlier today off camera, you showed me and mentioned, like a squeal noise.

What is the purpose of that?

And what does that help with?

I think you mentioned that for vocal warm up sometimes.

Oh, yeah.

So the pig squeal that I do, you know, you don't really hear the pig squeal align hardcore like you hear more in some other genres like grind or grind core or mince.

And those are just other subgenres of the subgenre of hardcore.

It's, more intense music.

They got some blast beats, and we're working on a project like that right now, and it still hasn't come out too late.

But yeah.

No, it's, my plan is to incorporate that in our next project.

Kind of get some slam in there, too.

You know, we're working on some really good stuff for our next EP you know, breaking out of that mold of hardcore, purism because there is some there are some purists within hardcore, but we're, we're looking to challenge gotcha.

It's great to hear looking at pushing the boundaries and whatnot.

Yeah.

Patrick, you are typically a guitarist, but these performances today, you are guitar and bassist.

So earlier you were mentioning to me that you are switching kind of back Yeah.

and forth to play both, in Garner, both sounds in the music.

Can you kind of show us and give us a quick demonstration on how that comes to life and what what you did to prepare for that?

So, really, I saw our interview where a death metal band I like called Sands of Sugar Bog.

They go back and forth.

They do the same thing because they wanted to get the most low end possible out of the guitar song, you know?

So I as soon as Ruben had his accident on his arm, I was just like, I got to try to, you know, I want to be able to, like, go back and forth.

I want to be able to experience that.

So I looked at a couple videos and basically all I do is you split the guitar signal into a bass rig, and I use pedals to lower my frequency.

So that way it sounds like a bass.

And I mean, yeah, I use a switcher to switch back and forth whenever I need to.

Yeah, yeah, that's pretty impressive.

Gotcha.

I would say just to, obviously have one actual piece of equipment slash instrument and doing teetering on both sides of that.

That's awesome.

I'm a gear nerd, so it wasn't too hard to go.

Yeah, yeah.

And George, what would you say inspires the lyrics that you write?

That's awesome.

I know you mentioned that you showed up with your buddies, all of these guys basically, and your brother, you know, with a notebook with lyrics written in them.

What inspired that specific the specific EP, titled EP 2024.

What what inspired those lyrics on the album?

So the first song to come come out of fruition, you know, that we cooked up was Melting ice because that was going to be the original name of the band Melting Ice that it ended up being the name of when I write songs in the EP.

But what inspired me to write those lyrics?

You know, just the life that I've lived, what I've seen, and then also, copying off of some motifs and, you know, some key words that are used in hardcore, but like, for example, there's a song that we didn't perform today, Knuckle Sandwich.

kind of stemmed from my own experience with the police.

And that Well, I'm going to share this story out loud.

You know, you know, when I was six years old, you know, I saw my dad taken away by the police, and I never saw him again for 16 years, only to find out that you know, he was thrown in prison, eventually deported back to Honduras.

He made his way back to Mexico.

And upon reconnecting with him, you know, I was able to show him some hardcore music.

And he he messes with it.

He likes it.

But, everything that I write and everything that I do is for the Inland Empire.

And it's to the memory of my dad.

And, you know, hardcore is just real and raw like that.

Like, we're just talking about the messed up stuff that happens in our lives, and, kind of like the violence we see every day.

Day to day basis.

It's real.

That's what attracted me to hardcore.

That is real.

You know, within that moshpit, you know, I do research on this for my master's program, you know, within the moshpit, you know, it's considered a microcosm of society.

You know, we're just reenacting what we see.

And, that's what I mean.

That's what we make music for so our friends can go crazy in the mosh pit.

And, and that's something that you could see if you look at our first performance, that we had in Pomona, we got that reaction.

People understand what real heavyweight hardcore is.

That's amazing.

And this guy didn't just go to any school.

He went to UCLA, which graduated in 2022.

And what was your, degree in?

Yeah.

So I majored in Chicano studies and minored in history.

And, shout out my homies in my fraternity, Kappa Sigma.

You know, they support me as well.

And they're going to be at our next show and, at at the midnight hour, where we're going to be headlining with some other, beat down bands.

So that's going to be really exciting.

And right now I'm working on my master's in Chicano Studies at Cal State Northridge.

And, I feel like that's what I feel like.

That's what, is special about me being in a hardcore band is that, you know, I've been stacking up those degrees, but, I don't look at hardcore as something that is mutually exclusive to that.

You know, I believe that they can go hand in hand.

And it's been working now, and, that's what my research is in.

And people love it.

Combating the stereotypes.

Now Alan, this is a question for you, Yeah.

what is the difference between punk and hardcore and hardcore and metal?

Just for those who may be watching and are unaware of those sort of vast differences, what's the simplest way to express?

So take a look at it as like, a pyramid.

So you got the punk up here because punk was really the one branch it all off.

And then from there, just as the years went by, I mean, when the 70s came along, you had bands like Motorhead, Venom, all these, they would call it rock and roll bands, you know, and then, it just started emerging, honestly.

Fans themselves started, calling the genres what it is today.

Like when black Sabbath came from the UK.

They knew that.

They knew it as, rock and roll over there in the UK.

But when they came here, they were being told, hey, you guys play heavy metal and they're like heavy metal.

So it all just kept evolving from fans.

What is that?

So take a look at it was like punk is up there.

And then comes a lot of genres.

But honestly, it all goes on.

What's, what was discovered, you know, because some people could have been making hardcore music at the time, but they would call it punk.

So it's honestly a whole like full circle of, You know?

of, music, like a big rabbit hole to get yourself into.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

And.

Oh, good.

It's because I was about to say, if you really think about it, hardcore is more of a lifestyle.

It's not really a sound because there's multiple bands that are considered within the hardcore spectrum that sound nothing alike.

Take, you know, listen to Drug Church or listen to Tsunami Those are completely different sounding bands.

However, they are within the same spectrum because they preach the same thing, to have the same message and they live the same lifestyle, the same style too.

Yeah, this is more of a lifestyle rather than actual music or sound.

Yeah, it's making me think.

That goes back to what you were stating about the whole, you know, the degrees combating stereotypes, but also still enjoying being a part of that hardcore lifestyle, as you mentioned, and whatnot.

So thanks for sharing that.

That's, simple way of differentiating what is what what's music, what's not, what's a lifestyle and everything in between.

So, Patrick, this one's for you.

What what are some of your guys is as a band, what are some of your guys's inspirations musically, as a collective?

What then individually, you as it.

Okay, so, when I first joined in this project, all I really wanted to do is grab the, that I liked out of every local, hardcore band things and just implement it into my own way, you know?

So it mostly just, Abominate I'm 97minutes again Smoke 909 Bit of God Awful.

Yeah.

You know, there's, couple of other bands that I'm probably forgetting about, but mostly IE bands that inspired me in, in a longer scale.

You know, we got bands like Coalesce Live, you know, saying we Sugar Bog, probably a bit of 200 stab wounds.

I mean, just a bunch of bands that doesn't really fall into, you know, the same category as hardcore because there's also death metal into it, So it was just everything.

Yeah.

Like, you know.

you know?

It's not just hardcore bands, you know, that influence our writing style or sound.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, me personally, I could talk about my writing.

So, just one rapper that I could think of off my head that really is a big inspiration in how I write my lyrics and my bars and space it out with the syllables is Conejo we got a sample on one of our songs from Knuckle Sandwich towards the end, You know, which is his song.

My mind just erupted, and, that was a big inspiration for me to.

I was able to kind of see the song structure, and I figured out how to write lyrics, because sometimes when, when you don't know how to make music, you're like, how the heck do those people make those sound sounds and make it, you know, make a cohesive song?

But it just it's like building Legos, you know, I come and bring.

I come and bring the bars.

These guys come and bring the, you know, the noise.

And we just start.

We just get to making music.

That's amazing, guys.

So finally, where can people learn more and keep up with you guys online?

Well, we're on, we're on Instagram.

@knucklesandwich.iehc that's where we've been most active right now We're, we're still working on getting, like a Twitter and a TikTok, but Instagram is where we're mostly.

Yeah, but you can also find us in the moshpit, at a lot of hardcore shows.

So we'll be there.

Awesome.

Well, everybody, this is Rhythm Lounge.

My name is Manny.

Thank you so much for tuning in.

Knuckle sandwich has one more song for you guys after the break.

All right.

This is Knuckle Sandwich.

This is for Inland Empire Hardcore See you pigs in blue I'll tell you what's the deal You better not resist Or imma make you squeal Gimme all your money Don't even make a sound I'll dig a hole up for you Six feet underground Six feet underground Yeah, baby.

Protecting and serving It's not what you do I'll believe it til I die It's always- Don't forget the trophy wives Got a blower by my side and a rusty jagged knife Get ready The day has come It's time to attack Line them up against the wall Watch their necks snap Knuckle Sandwich Mother lover You already know Keep talking that- and I'll catch you at the show and I'll catch you at the show Stupid mother lover Imma catch you at the show