I recently sat down with Battle of 1337, a San Diego act with a unique take on music. The band is a duo consisting of drummer Noel and bassist, Gustavo.

Before they played their set, they were kind enough to lend me some headphones, but wanting to get the full experience, I bravely exposed my naked eardrums to the auditory onslaught.

Battle’s style is loud and in your face, but over time it also becomes hypnotic, allowing the listener to lose himself in the texture of the music.

After playing through their set, Noel and Gustavo (sweating profusely) sat down to talk to me about their one of kind creation.

So how did you guys first get into music?

N: For me it was around 10^th grade. One of our classmates pulled me aside and said ‘what do you want to play, drums or guitar?’ – ‘cause he wanted to start a band. So I was like, ‘all right I’ll choose drums’, because everyone picks guitar.

So you didn’t have any interest in guitar?

N: I have a lot of family who plays drums, so I figured I’d pick up on it pretty easily, and I did; I’ve only been playing for about three years.

G: I wanted to play drums, but I was like he already has drums, so I thought might as well get something different…

You could have two drums, that would be original!

G: (Laughs) Well I thought might as well play bass, because not that many play bass.

So you were classmates?

N: Yeah we knew each other in high school.

It sometimes seems like everyone plays guitar. And one guitarist often finds another and it’s like ‘we need someone to play drums and bass’. They’re way more in demand…

N: Yeah, so since we were friends we always thought that if we stuck together, we’d always be able to find another guitarist.

G: yeah and pretty much bass and drums go together, they’re almost like one instrument…

So what is your practice regimen? Do you practice just your own songs or other people’s songs?

G: Well, I think all bands start by covering other people’s songs, stuff that you like, so if we have a show coming up, we’ll just practice a set, just to be sure, but we pretty much have it down…

N: When I first started practicing, it was just a bunch of songs from a bunch of bands. I started off pretty easy, learning a lot of Interpol songs and the Vines, and it taught me a lot. Its funny cause after about three months of playing, some guy came up to me and wanted me to play for his band, it was this talent show at a high school. And after only playing 3 months he wanted me to play a pretty difficult song by Coheed and Cambria and I pretty much had a couple weeks to learn that. So I had to rush my ass off to learn every part of the song. And like that, everything I’ve learned with my other bands I’ve had to learn fast, crammed in. I liked it because I learned really quickly. It was a lot of pressure, but still worth it.

When you were learning, did you spend a lot of time on theory?

N: I only took one class and I don’t even remember it (laughs). I know what a quarter note is (laughs). I just kind of skimmed across it. Most of it was just by practicing.

G: we had a bunch of people, like guitarists who were trying out and some would say like, lets play in G and I didn’t learn notes, and I was like ok, lets play in G and because I have a good ear, I just played something that sounded like it was in G.

I think that’s a common story with guitar.

N: I know a couple of guitarists who went straight into theory and it just seemed, from

my perspective that they got too into it, it didn’t really have any expression of the soul.

G: We had one guitarist who came to us and we started playing and he was like “dude you can’t do that, you can’t play like that” and I was like, ‘it doesn’t matter it as long as it sounds good…’

N: We never really liked boundaries, so that’s why we stayed away from theory…that might be a little ignorant though…I’m learning notes right now. I’m really getting into Brazilian samba and Latin jazz and with the stuff that I'm buying now, you have to learn how to play the notes…

I noticed some of the stuff you were playing had different rhythms to it. It sounded like many different genres put together.

Yeah. When I first started, I liked Latin and was always trying to work that in…

I have to ask about the name of the band.

It has a few meanings at least to us…

Should we leave it a mystery?

N: Ha ha. Well I’ll explain it. We’ve always been nerds/ geeks and we always played video games and—

G: right now there’s a lot of gamers online and when they talk to each other they sometimes use numbers instead of letters. So like 1 means L, three means E and 7 means T, so 1337 means ‘LEET’, like elite— its like a gamer slang.

N: The meaning for me for battle is like we use so many different genres in our music, it’s like a battle of different genres. Some indie rock, some hardcore influence….

Can you talk a little bit about your influences, and who you listen to the most?

G: I think we both started real heavy on the Mars Volta,

N: Yeah, Mars Volta, Block Party, Fall of Troy, but we listen to a bunch of stuff. I take a lot of influence from electronic bands like Justice, Daft Punk, and Death From Above,

G: And MSTRKRFT, they’re kind of heavy on dance….

What’s your process of writing something? Do you work on it together, or do you work separately and bring the ideas together…

G: We usually work from the bass and then chop it up and try to do different things to it…

Do you ever feel any limitations with writing songs that consist of just bass and drums? Do you write songs and picture where a guitar or vocals will come in?

G: Yeah, definitely with the vocals. We’re in the process of finding a vocalist and we’d like a vocalist that plays something. But I don’t think a guitar would work because I mainly play riffs like a guitarist, so I think we’ll get a synth…

N: We’ve tried a lot of guitarists already.

So the songs that you have so far… do you look at those like a finished product, or one that will change down the road?

G: Yeah, we’re probably going to add some vocals to some soon, at least to 70% of them…When we play shows and announce that we need a vocalist, people come up to us afterwards and say ‘oh you don’t need one’…

If you do get a vocalist, what type of style are you looking for? Are you looking for a screamer, or something mellower?

N: Something with high energy and a high pitch….

I noticed all the songs you played were upbeat, nonstop. Have you thought of making slower songs, maybe an interlude?

N: Yeah, I like slow parts. But it will probably have to wait on the vocalist. We have some good ideas for slow parts but it would sound kind of empty right now with just bass and drums. We definitely need a third part for some of the ideas we have.

Can you talk about some unique touches that you use? I noticed in one song, the whole bass part was tapped. That seemed really unique.

G: I think that with every song that we play we try to add differences. I mean they’re all high energy, but they’re unique.

N: Yeah, I always try to put one unique thing in each song. Sometimes I’ll reuse beats, those beats that you kind of ride with, but at some point in the song, I’ll have a unique beat going on. Like with the Judas song, I finish it of with a ding ding ding (gestures), I always try to put something in that, you know, catches your ear.

What type of equipment do you use?

G: I use my Ampeg with 2 cabinets. One with 4 10s and one big 15. My head is 1000w—

super loud. I use an overdrive effects pedal, and I crank up the gain and the high (Treble). I also usually use a synth pedal and am looking into a loop pedal..

Yeah, I noticed your tone sometimes has a kind of buzzing, cutting sound. It almost sounds more like a guitar.

(To N) Do you ever listen to a click track?

N: I usually plug it into a metronome, or I sometimes listen to my iPod and try to learn some Mars Volta songs.

And recording. Do you have an album in the works?

All of our songs are recorded—but just demos for the venues.

After you record them, do you add a lot of effects, or do you try to keep it pure to what it was when recorded?

G: I like the live sound…

Tell me about some recent shows. What’s the fan reaction like?

G: I think its really unique because even though its just the two of us, we make more noise than a five or six member band…We have more of a tighter sound.

N: Yeah it’s definitely tight. That’s what guitarists say when they come over and try to play over us, they say it’s hard to play something that fits in.

If you had to classify yourself, what label would you use?

G: Dance-experimental-tech-electric progressive. (Laughs) It’s a long list.

N: It’s hard to label because we use so many genres!

What advice would you give to those just starting out, learning instruments or trying to get their band going?

N: As far as practice goes, just practice what you love, if you have certain bands that you like, just keep playing what you like and eventually you’ll get the hang of it. That’s what I did—it just crammed it into me and they can do the same and have fun doing it.

G: It’s just another job, it takes time and it takes money too..

N: Definitely takes money. Laughs I’m so in debt right now! My kit was like four grand…

Can you talk about your future plans?

N: We're concentrating on getting a vocalist right now. We've actually started working with a really talented vocalist this past week and its going great so far, but we'll keep playing shows till we can fit someone in the act.

myspace.com/battleof1337