Yoga Flame: Totally Crushed Out v. Open Fire
By Ryan Pangilinan

While most people recognize bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Gatsby’s American Dream or Acceptance as representative of what Seattle has offered in the post-90s years, they clearly haven’t kept their eyes on the South End, a collective of Seattle suburbs (Auburn, Kent, et. al) and Tacoma. From this largely insular scene, bands like Owen Hart, Sojourner, and Open Fire! have been able to forge their own identity apart from Seattle’s cocaine and hipster-friendly aesthetic. Unlike some of their other local counterparts, Open Fire’s! sound rests on a style that is simultaneously melodic and hard. While talking to their vocalist, Steve, it’s clear that you’re more likely to find him talking about the Foo Fighters or Jimmy Eat World than Anal Cunt. Maybe. 

Totally Crushed Out: How did Open Fire form?

Steve: Open Fire! started in the tail end of 2005. I was friends with Kenny and Rick, who were in a band called Forget the Grey. They were looking for a second guitarist so I learned their songs, but we never got a show together before the other members wanted to call it quits (other than the last FTG show/second OF! show). So, we decided to form a new band. I had been demoing some melodic metalcore-esque songs under the moniker Escaping the Tide, trying to get band members together but having no luck. I showed them the material, and although they liked it they wanted something aggressively heavy and as pissed as possible. We decided to try and meld the two ideas together, and writing songs just took off. every song had different elements, so it was a very weird mix of melodic and heavy. I wouldn’t call it good, but I am happy with what we tried to do. The result of the next couple years (and a lot of bullshit) was Built to Abandon, our first release.

Kenny and Rick eventually departed for real life, and after several member changes, I was left with writing duties solely. So, I went with what I knew best - the material I started out with in 2004/2005. Some of the most recent Open Fire! songs including shit that’s on the new record are revamped versions of demos of songs I wrote back then. Its crazy seeing them come to fruition now, but I believe that the songs are in their best form under the OF! flag and I’m proud of what OF! has shaped into.
 
The band’s sound is a lot more melodic than what is usually associated with South End bands. What are some of the band’s primary influences?

Well, for one, I always like referencing the night we decided to do keep it a bit melodic - Kenny, Rick and I were at the Trial reunion show in October 2005 (a common influence) and decided then and there that we wanted to keep a melodic tone. But we loved bands like Most Precious Blood, Poison the Well, Blood Has Been Shed, Misery Signals, 7 Angels 7 Plagues, Converge, Shai Hulud, Killing the Dream, Hatebreed, etc. Those were bands we always found common ground with. I myself have always identified with a lot more ethereal and melodic bands, like Glassjaw, Beloved, Thrice, anything Anthony Green touches, This Day Forward, Hopesfall, Pelican, Isis, Deftones… in the recent years I’ve found myself really loving some oddball things. I listen to lots of Frank Sinatra. I love this relatively new band called Harvard – they’re insanely talented.

Fisch and Chug and I all connect on lots of different pages, we all love lots of the same hardcore, metal, death & black metal bands. And we all mostly have a disdain for the average/run of the mill pop punk band. Haha…thats certainly driven us to where we are. Also - the NW scene has always influenced me, and helped shape my views on music. Left With Nothing and then into Lahar, some of the best heavy music around. Seeing The Great Disappointment and then them becoming one of the best bands out today known as Owen Hart. Even newer bands like Circle of Defeat and Wreck make me smack my forehead and go “holy shit! this is fucking great, why didn’t I ever think of that or approach shit in that way?” I just like a fuckload of music, and get inspired pretty easily.

Now you guys just finished a new record. Have you decided on whether you want to take that to a label or whether you’re going to put it out yourselves?

We haven’t quite fleshed out every idea or avenue with that yet. None of us are made of money and it’d be great to have some support, but we dont hold our breath nor do we want anyone else controlling what really happens with our music. So we dont know just yet. Its being sent to labels, and we’ll see what they say, if anything. If they say nothing, then so be it. We’d end up releasing it ourselves. Digitally first, probably. Maybe some home-made special CD’s. Then if it generated enough interest, maybe we’d put it out on vinyl. I dont know if we can though, the album is an hour long! 
 
Where and who did you guys record with?

We recorded it in Tacoma, WA at RandleRawk Studios. RandleRawk did relocate in the middle of the recording process though, so it was done in two different spots in Tacoma. We tracked all the music with Ahren Lanfor, and the vocals with Randy Wheeler. Ahren has done previous OF! recordings, as well as our other band Oblivion, and tons of other fantastic locals. Randy did “What Means the Most” by us a few years ago, and has been a friend of mine for a few years. Notorious for recording nearly every single metal, hardcore, punk and pop band out of the South end, because he’s that damn good.
 
Once the record does come out, do you have any plans to tour it, regionally or otherwise?

We certainly WANT to - but all of us are hitting our mid 20’s and that’s when real life starts to take shape - we have jobs, apartments or homes, girlfriends, kids, bills, etc. All of which take serious time and money and dedication to keep strong. And then the band itself usually takes equal amounts of time, money, and attention, sometimes even more. If we get snagged up by a label and hit the road that way we definitely will. Otherwise, we’re looking into doing some small tours, a few days here, a couple weeks there, over the summer and second half of the year.

You can check out some of Open Fire’s! previous recordings on their Bandcamp page.