Symbol Six

What's the meaning behind the band's name?

It’s a story about the temptations of good and evil and the choices we make. It’s about how what might be tempting, sweet and easy right now, just might be fatal if tasted and consumed; it’s about choices.  Symbol Six was one of the first songs we wrote, before we decided on a band name. I believe Donny (Bass), first suggested we use it as a band name, nobody objected and that was that!  We must have liked the song a lot at the time OR it might just have been, it sounded cool?

How the band started??

Symbol Six started in the fall of 1980 in Santa Monica, CA.  Phil George (Drums), Taz Rudd (Lead Guitar) and Eric Leach (Vocals) all went to Jr. High School together.  We were big time skate rats. We skated everyday together, pools, ramps, skate parks etc… In 1979 the skate scene in Los Angeles slammed into the music scene of punk rock and we all started listening to punk rock and going to shows (14 yr olds).

Freshmen year at Santa Monica High School (SAMO) Eric met Mark Conway (Rhythm Guitar) and asked if he’d be interested in starting a band.  Donny Brook had just moved to L.A. from Ohio,  Donny was an original Bass player of the legendary Mid-West band “The Necros”,  he was asked to play bass. Phil and Taz were soon recruited and Symbol Six was on it’s way to being born. We started playing shows all over Los Angeles at one of the most amazing times in rock n’ roll history!

A year and a half later, when famed punk rock photographer Edward Colver started showing up at shows, talking pictures of Symbol Six, we new something was about to happen.

We were signed to Posh Boy Records in 1981 (Posh Boy Records at the time had recorded and released albums by Social Distortion, TSOL, Agent Orange, The Adolescents, The Crowd, CH3, Rik L Rik, the Simpletones just to name a few). Symbol Six released their debut, self-titled 4 song E.P. Produced by Robbie Fields, Jay Lansford (Simpletones & Stepmothers) and David Hines. The record was played around the world, including on World Famous KROQ’s Rodney on the Roq show, pretty cool!

What's the message to transmit with your music??

I think we champion the under dogs of the world. A lot of the songs and stories are about being told you CAN”T only to show the doubters you CAN! Some songs talk about the darkness of the world but shows a belief that you CAN get through the shit of this world, win, and choose your own direction! One of my personal favorite lines off the new album, Monsters 11, comes from a song called “Slave” it says, “The Future Honors the Brave, the rest are just slaves”.

What's your method at the time of writing a song??

We all get in our rehearsal room and the riffs come out, lyric ideas are tried and ideas start to go all over the room. It can get pretty intense at times. It is pretty organic how the songs evolve, there’s an amazing amount of synergy with Symbol Six. We write a lot of songs, the writing process is some of the best times we have, the good the bad and the ugly makes it a fun ride. Best ideas win and we all fight hard for those ideas!

Which is your music influences??

We have so many from all the early English punk: Sex Pistols, The Damned, Sham 69, 999, X-Ray Specs, Generation X, The Clash, Motorhead, to The Ramones, Johnny Thunders, and Led Zeppelin.

Los Angeles, CA. from 1980-1982 was really amazing for us and the punk rock scene. The Weirdos, X, Black Flag, Fear, The Detours, The Mau Maus, Social Distortion, TSOL (Vicious Circle) Adolescents, Agent Orange, China White, 45 Grave, Rik L Rik, The Crowd, The Chiefs, Redd Cross, The Germs the list is very big!

Turbo Negro, Backyard Babies, The Black Widows, The Beasties so many more!

What plans do you guys have for the future??

We recently released our full-length album titled “Monsters 11” produced by Jimmy Sloan. We are really happy with the album and the fact we are playing a lot of live shows again. We would like to tour and tour a lot. We love playing live and meeting people before, during and after shows! We have ½ the next record already written and look forward to many more albums in the future.

Which has been the funniest prank you guys have been or took part while on tour or after a show??

The funniest one cannot possibly be put into words or even repeated for that matter! You are just gonna have to tag along on a tour with us and find out for yourself, but just remember, nobody is safe, sweet dreams - hahaha!!!!

If you guys were stranded in the middle of nowhere after a show or while on tour. The help is 65 miles away from where you guys are, ¿Who would you guys 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?

Wow, never was asked this question before!  We’d most likely send Donny east and when he was out of view, we’d head west! He’d get eaten by coyotes within the hour anyway! Hahaha.

We would definitely starve, that would just be so much better than the food poisoning, lockjaw, STD’s or rabies we’d get from eating any which one of us!

Which country you guys would love to play?

As many as possible! Germany, England, Japan, Norway, - all of em’! South America, Australia!

With which bands you guys would love to share stage??

Elvis of course!

But if we can’t find him, and we are looking…. then anyone who will have us, we like to play with all types of bands and playing outside of our genre is always a good thing. It exposes us to different audiences and different audiences to us. We love that connection and when there’s a disconnection, figuring out a way to connect it!

Are you guys OK, with the direction the band is going actually?

Bottom line is that at the end of the day, it’s all about the belief you have in yourself and what you are doing. We believe in ourselves, each other, and we believe in our songs. Every new day should try and better the last, that’s the ride, that’s Symbol Six!

Check out more:  http://www.myspace.com/symbolsixband