Every ten years or so an album comes into one’s life that can only be described as, well…epic. I remember clearly that last moment this happened to me. It is burned into my brain as a flashbulb memory in the same way that Regan’s shooting or the fall of the Berlin Wall are, embedded forever like a tattoo. It was the day I got STP’s Core and went for my first drive in my brand new, very expensive car. The feeling I got when that first guitar riff hit me could be described as nothing short of euphoric. I proceeded to listen to that album, front to back, probably over 200 times over the course of the next month, memorizing every nuance, every word, trying to decipher the meaning of every hidden message. Such gems, when one comes across them, are beyond rare, they are the priceless jewels of our existence.

Having gotten to know Daniel and Aviv of Drugstore Fanatics to a certain extent, I think it is safe to say that they will feel somewhat embarrassed by such a glowing comparison as this, but I refuse to dampen my enthusiasm for what is, to me, the best musical moment since that glorious day in the early 90s. What’s Born in the Basement is, from the first hard hitting riff to the last ambient chorus, the most completely fulfilling musical moment I have had since I took that now long since repossessed car for it’s first test drive. So naturally, when I got a chance to interview them, I took it. Who wouldn’t? The video below is only 4 minutes of what was a generously donated hour and forty minutes of silliness, cutting humor and genuine sincerity that is difficult to find in the Los Angeles music industry these days. Read on to learn about one of my favorite new bands, and why they might be your new favorite too.

CM: First, I have to ask, why give a gem like this away for free?

Daniel: Well, I’m not the first person to say this, but it’s free already. I mean, once it’s out there, it’s out there. The minute somebody’s giving something away for free, I can’t compete with that. I mean, maybe I could. Maybe we could say “oh it’s good, maybe you wanna pay for it.” But because you’re unknown, and want people to listen, it’s easier to say, “just click here and the album’s yours” because I think our main goal at this point is to have our music in as many IPODS as possible. Once you do that, and you develop a certain sense of trust between you as a music provider, content provider and the public, and the fan or consumer or whatever trusts you to provide a quality product, I guess it’s easier the second time to ask for something; to invest in a special edition that would be worth paying for, and that way maybe make a living out of this. It’s like any other business, you gotta invest first, it’s more of a promotion thing. So yeah, it’s an album that you invest a huge chunk of your life for, that you’re giving away for free, but hopefully your next one will be better and people will be expecting it.

CM: Are you writing for the next one already?

Daniel: We’ve got a little bit of stuff, but we’ve been so busy the last year promoting it and learning the whole game of  the indie artist, that’s mainly all we’re doing. We’re working on the whole live aspect of it.

Aviv: yeah, we’ve been messing around, with some ideas, but we haven’t officially started writing for it, but yeah, we have a couple of ideas. I will personally be happy once we start doing that, that’ll be different; it’s a different state of mind.

Daniel: It’s just funny the attention span of people these days. you know, they download so much music, I don’t know how much of it they really get to listen to but I’ve heard comments “oh, your album is awesome, I can’t wait for your next album.” and I’m like “you just downloaded the album! How many times have you listened to it? You’re already sick of it?” I remember back when I was a teenager, I would save up to get the album I wanted, I would go buy it, and I would listen to it for six months. You know, just, go crazy. But these days, and it’s not just kids, I’ve seen it in myself and my friends too, you know you just, you don’t have the amount of patience you used to have.
Even today I’m listening to stuff, I just get the urge to change the track already. I used to be able to listen to long tracks, just dive into it, indulge, and these days, it’s crazy, it’s part of what’s going on. People don’t have time to listen to a whole album. They have time to listen to one track that becomes so popular that they now like it, or they’ve been told to like it. That’s why I think songs are more popular these days than albums. Who has time to listen to an album?

CM: I do

CM: So I want to ask a few questions album itself. At the beginning of the second song, Lonely Winter, there is a background dub of a voice talking. What is he saying?

Daniel: ” There is a truth to be told about where we stand which hasn’t yet revealed itself”.

CM: This song seems so full of regrets, for the past.

Daniel: This song, I guess, is one of my many ways to deal with the uncertainty and confusion that comes with growing up. I feel that as I get older, life makes less and less sense. I used to have it all mapped and planned out, knowing that if I play by certain rules things will happen right. But I feel more and more like I’m floating around looking to anchor myself to something. The last part of the song is the yearning to go back to early times, when things were simpler and everything had a certain logic to them, even if it was just in my head. I guess the first quote is me still hanging on to the notion that there is something behind what we all are doing here, but it’s hidden from us. A notion I’m afraid to let go of.

CM: What did you mean when you said life seems to be here for me in my mind like a passing melody? cool lyric)

Daniel: Every week I have a different conception about my life in the hopes of finally getting it, unfortunately these conceptions are as sturdy as a passing thought, and I’m a very fickle person.

CM: In The Boy, you say “burn my loved ones, it seems I’m so indifferent to the meaning of existence and feelings. ” Explain.

Daniel: That’s just an extreme expression of numbness. What can I say? These thoughts come to me, there’s no fighting them

CM: Is that a flat line in the background at the end of the song? What does it mean?

Daniel: That is a flat line. What do you make of it?

CM: Is The Distance about a particular person? This song is like every messed up relationship everyone has ever had.

Daniel:You know, the funny thing about this song is that I really didn’t consider it a heavy weight on the album, but it’s probably the song we’ve been getting the most reactions to.
It is about a particular person, and we’ll leave it at that…

CM: One of the first things I liked about your music is the ambient piano backgrounds and melodies. They actually aren’t typical of the current heavy sound. What influenced the sound?

Daniel: I always had an affinity for the atmospheric and ambient parts in the music I was into. It helps me drift into the fantasy life I always wanted for myself where things go a certain way. Naturally I incorporated it into our music, so I could still drift off into what I know is BS. But isn’t that music? Escape? I guess I could use drugs like a normal person too.

CM: Bullet has one of the fiercest drum lines I have ever heard. Did that just come out of the blue? This song sounds like you are about to beat the shit out of someone who deserves it in every way.

Daniel: One of the things we did in order to get inspired in different ways was to record drum grooves and see what comes out of that. Aviv came up with that groove and I fell in love with it. The bass line and song naturally followed.
Lyrically, if Hangman is the realization of a situation, Bullet is the getting angry about it part.

CM: What was going on in your head when your wrote Hangman?

Daniel: Um, well I guess in general it’s kind of when you realize you’ve put your own needs on hold and have served someone else’s needs for a very long time until you wake up and you realize that and you do something about it or you just wither away like most people. It’s about your needs as some form of a beast that needs to be fed. If you don’t feed it, it’ll turn on you, one way or the other.

CM: What’s the lullaby or song in the background of the hidden track?

Daniel: How did you hear it? This was supposed to be an ending verse to Hangman that got cut out. It’s actually the closure to the song, the part where you wanna leave and now that the other side is full from feeding off you, you feel comfortable enough to do so.

CM: The sound of Shifter is a cool change of pace for the album. Where did it come from?

Daniel: That came from this drum loop I found somewhere. Then I added that ambient synth sound in the beginning and for some reason it inspired a song.
The first verse says it all. You prepare your whole life for the day you get out and escape into what you want to be only to get cold feet and back out just before you do it. At times, everyday is that day.

CM: What is the one message that you most want people to take away with them after listening to this record?

Daniel: Message? Maybe they can help make sense of this shit, and I’m not talking about the album.