Seven Nines and Tens

Where the band's name came from?
Dave Cotton (Guitarist): The name "Seven Nines and Tens" is a lyric from the song "Stars" by legendary space rock band "Hum"

How the band started??
I started writing songs for this band in late 2006 and began auditioning potential members shortly thereafter. Our old bassist Aylon was the first member to join but getting a drummer proved to be alot harder. We literally auditioned 15 drummers and although neither Aylon nor I would admit it, I think we were getting close to just giving up. Thankfully, one fateful October night Earl Heath came to the rescue and with his killer drum chops he was quickly branded the official 3rd member. He now plays bass btw, confusing isn't it?

What's the message to transmit with your music??
We don't have a vocalist, so we don't have lyrics that are there to convey a message of any kind. I think a common thread with all the members of this band is that we enjoy creating music that is a bit more challenging to play and somewhat removed from the standard conventions of modern music.

What's your method at the time of writing a song??
I generally come up with ideas on my boss digital 12 track in my apartment. Usually an idea has been re written/re arranged countless times before I ever take it to practice to show the fellas. When an idea of mine gets to practice the other 4 guys have free reign to add whatever they like, 99% of the time whatever they add is killer. I'm lucky.

Which is your music influences??
Stephen Brodsky from Cave in has been a longtime influence of mine. He's just such a clever songwriter; completely unconventional and brilliant. His work really hit home with me when I started to play along to some of the records he put out with the band Cave In. That was def a moment where I never looked at songwriting, arrangements or performance the same way again. Matt Talbot from hum is also a big influence, we are all pretty close in the band so I feel I can tell you what the other guys are into influence wise. I know that Earl (bassist) is really into King Crimson, Meshuggah, Blotted Science, Primus, Oingo Boingo, Faceless and Intronaut. Jon (guitarist) is into Gifts from Enola, Mono, Stars of the Lid, Fuck Buttons, God is an Astronaut, and Mogwai. Riley (drummer) is into Deltron 3030, I mother earth, Dameira, Mgmt, Muse, Dillinger esc, Mike (guitarist) is WAY into 70's prog like Magma, aswell as Portugal the Man, and actually I just looked at his Ipod and he's got obscene taste, stuff like the band Karate.

What plans do you have for the future??
Put out a bloody full length record! We've been actively gigging for a year and a half and we have no official release. We plan on playing the States as well. I think our home base of Vancouver is 2nd to none as far as playing music is concerned but I know we are anxious to get out and see what other crowds are like.

Which has been the funniest prank you have been or took part while on tour or after a show??
Every third gig or so I'll get a text from our drummer Riley or bassist Earl saying "We got kicked off the bill for the show tonight!" or "Everything is in disarray, get here now!" only to find out that all is well when I do arrive. One time after a gig, a woman who was visiting Vancouver from another place in British Columbia pulled a knife on me. It wasn't so much funny and I know I'll never forget it: One time after we played the club Biltmore in Vancouver, there was this super drunk guy stumbling around swearing and yelling while we were loading up our van. He tried to pick a fight two friends of mine who are brothers, Rob and Gord. Thank fully these friends of mine are upstanding young citizens and politely excused the drunks behavior as they are both 6'3 and would've demolished the guy. I had just watched Pee Wee's big adventure and I was still marveling at the genius of the film and told the drunk guy to "chill out, think of pee wee's playhouse, that will make anyone happy" For some reason the guy didn't like my comment about our good man Pee Wee and literally was trying to climb over people who were holding him back to fight me. He was so drunk that I could have given him a small shove and he would've collapsed. Good times.

If you were stranded in the middle of nowhere after a show or while on tour. The help is 100 miles away from where you are, ¿Who would you send to look for help? And if while the rest wait, there's no food and the only way to feed yourself is by eating each other, ¿Who would you eat first?
I love this question. Hmmmmm, well, I think Jon our guitarist would be wise to the fact that the risk of cannibalism was afoot, so I think he would be the one to go for help while the rest of us waited, I think I would be the first to be subdued and eaten. I imagine that the other guys would use a fretless 6 string bass to knock me unconscious and then go from there. If I had my way I think I would eat our bassist Earl first. I would imagine that eating Earl would be the equivalent of eating a nice steak that has marinated in the finest lager.

Which country you guys would love to play?
England, New Zealand, Wales, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Scotland, Egypt, I could go on and on.

With which bands you guys would love to share stage??
Cave in, Blotted Science, Amusement Parks on Fire, Dillinger Escape Plan, Congress, Hidden Towers, def anything that I mentioned before as far as influences, Oceanside, Hum, Rush, yes, King Crimson, Mogwai, Cult of Luna, Botch, Minus the Bear, Drive Like Jehu, Rival Schools, Oingo Boingo etc.

Are you OK, with the direction the band is going actually?
100% I think the post hardcore influence in our sound is slowly being replaced by more a progressive post metal sound.

Check them out by going to: http://www.myspace.com/sevenninesandtens