HOME      EXCLUSIVES    FEATURES    MOVIES    REVIEWS    CONTESTS    TALK TO US    SUBSCRIBE  Mumbai Itinerary: This Bay Area quartet was in the city to round off the VH1 Hip-Hop and Hustle event and it seemed like their performance was the place to be that night. Crowd management issues aside, a massive number of eager music lovers waited outside the club entrance for a chance to watch Flipsyde live in action. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make our way through the crowd into the gig so we can’t give you a first person review. The Record Q&A: The next morning, courtesy their record label Universal Music, we met with guitarist Dave Lopez and vocalist Piper for what turned out to be a heartfelt interview. Here they are talking about music and other meaningful matters. TR: How was your gig in Mumbai city? Dave: I think we were more moved last night than I’ve ever been moved at a concert! The audience here was so receptive. They sang [our song] Someday to us louder than we were singing it to them. It was incredible, I was choked up! We wrote these songs and recorded them in our two-car garage in Berkeley and to be here in India and have people sing them to us… it’s like a dream come true. We’re very honoured. TR: That’s a really cool guitar solo you play in the song Someday. Dave: Thank you! You know, to me a solo is like a voice, like a lyric, like I’m singing... Luckily people have responded to it. You had solos in rock music, but now most people that play rock don’t play guitar solos, I don’t know why. To me it’s powerful having a solo like that because it doesn’t have language ~ there are no lyrics, it’s just a feeling. I think that solo, is like ~ when I did it ~ I wasn’t really thinking. You get lost in the moment. It’s special. TR: What is Flipsyde as a band about? Dave: We’re about a community, about breaking walls; we’re so different from each other, each one of us. If we could influence people to not see colour or religion, just to talk, get together and unite, that’s a beautiful thing. We have boundaries in life, even in music. In Flipsyde, we have the rock guy, the Latin guy, the country guy, the rap guy… these music styles apparently aren’t supposed to be together. But now most people don’t listen to just one type of music ~ they listen to a lot of music. So I think Flipsyde is what’s happening now. The future of music has to have a fusion of people and styles. Imagine an Indian artist meeting a rock guitar player or a blues guy ~ imagine what they would do! That’s what we represent. I’d love to work with an Indian artist you know, somehow we could meet in the middle musically... TR: How did you get your record deal? Dave: We went to Jimmy Iovine the president of Interscope Records, with two acoustic guitars, a radio with beats and our voices. It was him and the A&R guy who signed us, and we just played live. We did three songs. I remembered feeling in that moment that it had to be the most incredible feeling in the world! All my life spent playing guitar came down to those ten minutes that we were there. It was a crazy experience! Most people hide behind effects, delays and things when they play live. We only had acoustic guitars and voices, and you can’t really hide anything with that… [the record company] just understood the music. TR: Who are your musical influences? Piper: So many of them ~ mine range from Sam Cooke, Gail Costa, Run DMC, Tupac, Busta Rhymes, Eminem, Ray Charles… there are so many more; as a band we don’t listen to just one type of music. Dave: My brother plays guitar and growing up he was into Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Santana. As a kid I used to emulate him a lot, always wanting to be like him. I was born in Chile during the dictatorship. Now before that, in the ’60s there was a movement of music talking about politics. That [was so powerful] it [overthrew] the president. The coup happened and one of the major singers of our country was killed. People were banned from listening to that music. So I would listen to that music as a kid, really scared, like ‘We can’t get caught.’ Songs by Victor Jara, Quilapayun, Inti-Illimani… all this music that was illegal. It really influenced me. I was always scared to talk about it because of what happened. Also Featured: ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: The Record has been around since 1998. Do you have every issue of your favourite magazine? to order back issues Would you like to have your favourite music magazine delivered directly to your doorstep? Website: Thrillpill Design © THE RECORD MUSIC MAGAZINE. All Rights Reserved.