Buried under distortion and static, Detroit’s Tyvek harks back to the gritty garage rock of old, and though they wouldn’t admit it, sound a little like the Stooges on ecstasy. Tyrone Warner passed a few questions onto the band, hoping for some salvageable answers, and Kevin wrote back.<!--more-->

How exactly do you drive a Honda?

I don’t have a Honda at the moment, but when I did have one I drove it very civic-mindedly.

Tell me a bit about the current line-up of your band.

The line-up right now is four core members: me (Kevin) on vocals and rhythm guitar, Heath on lead guitar, Larry- on bass, and Matt Z on drums. We also have an extended family of musicians who basically play with us when they get the chance. Our friend Hendrik plays synth. Our friend Joe plays second drum kit. Ben plays sax. Lane plays “Mayan” guitar, and Damon plays “Dosed” guitar. For Toronto, it should just be the four core members.

If you were evangelists what kind of message would you relentlessly proclaim?

K: Our evangelical message would be, “Think for yourself.” It’s a tired old cliché, true, but that’s just what we believe.

What kind of child would put your band’s poster on their wall?

K: Our posters would probably be found on the walls of the kids who carve the logos of imaginary early ‘80s hardcore bands into picnic tables during recess while the other kids are busy either bullying or placating.

Which bands do you think you sound similar to? Is that intentional?

K: We sound similar to the Buzzcocks after spending three days at the free festival with no sleep watching weird Gong related side projects and getting into five-hour-long arguments about things that are essentially matters of opinion and aren’t even worth bringing up in the first place.

You guys are coming to Toronto to play Wavelength; have you heard about the audiences here? Do you have a plan to uncross our arms and get us on the floor?

We haven’t heard about the stoic Toronto crowds, but they’re bound to be a step up from the standard non-existent Detroit crowds. If people don’t wanna dance, we don’t try to browbeat them or shame them into shaking their asses. It’s really their prerogative. We’ll be dancing. Guaranteed we’ll be going fucking crazy ‘cos that’s who we are. Lenin said that we’re all just dead men on leave, and I take that to heart. We expect to have an amazing time every chance we get to play in front of people, because you only get one life so you might as well have fun. We could all die tomorrow. If people see us having fun and enjoying ourselves physically and want to have fun too, than I’m that much more excited about the whole situation. If they just want to drink a beer and enjoy the sounds then I understand; I’ve been there. If they’re just closed-minded as a rule than I don’t expect they’d find anything in our music that’d turn their lives around.

Give me some intra-band gossip.

Sad to say there’s not too much intra-band gossip, except for the fact that the rest of the band thinks I’m obsessed with clock radios for some strange reason. I don’t know what they’re talking about.

By Tyrone Warner