Updated: 01/26/05

Before Today is based out of the San Diego area, and has been touring all across the country in support of their A Celebration Of An Ending release on Equal Vision. We caught up with the band while on tour with The Beautiful Mistake.

Introduce yourselves, tell me what you do in Before Today, and what your favorite heavy metal song of all time is.
Mike: Alright, my name is Mike and I play drums in the band Before Today. And my favorite heavy metal song of all time is Iron Maiden – 666 The Number Of The Beast. How more metal can you get?
Vic: I’m Vic Fuentes. I play guitar and I sing. And my favorite heavy metal song has to be Pantera’s Cemetery Gates.
Mitch: My name is Mitch Balatorre and I play bass guitar. I’d have to go with Pantera’s Cowboys From Hell.

What made you guys change your name from Early Times to Before Today?
Vic: We had to change it legally. There were copyright issues. The label didn’t want to have to deal with any suing. They had already gotten into a lot of trouble with that band American Nightmare that was on Equal Vision. They didn’t want to change their name and they got sued and it cost them a lot of money. So they just didn’t want to deal with anything like that.

So who had the name Early Times?
Vic: It was an actual person. His name is Early Times. It’s like, “Hi, I’m Early Times!”

Interesting. So where did you come up with the name Before Today?
Vic: It was an old song title if ours when we used to be Early Times. It was like one of the first songs we wrote.

Did you guys ever record anything under the other band name?
Mike: Just demos. Really bad demos. Don’t ever hear them!

How has this tour been going? Any road horror stories you’d care to share on this or the EVR tour?
Mike: On the first EVR tour, we had just played here (at the Knitting Factory) with Fear Before The March Of Flames, and Vaux and Codeseven. We had just played here and we were going to stay at a friend’s house. And we parked our van in an apartment complex – and I don’t know if we blocked someone in, but we came out the next morning and our tires were slashed. So that was bad. It was tough getting to the next gig in time. This tour’s weather has definitely been an issue. But we didn’t get the worst of it. We dropped off when everyone started heading up to Colorado and up that area. Liars Academy flipped their trailer – they hit black ice and totaled their trailer. And the singer of The Beautiful Mistake got really sick. We didn’t hit the worst of it.

So where did you get the idea for the CD title A Celebration Of An Ending?
Vic: That is a lyric from one of the songs on the album. It’s from the song Staring At Backgrounds. It sounds kinda dark, but it’s really not at all. It means that you’re celebrating an ending of something maybe bad in your life, so it’s actually a positive statement.

Where do you get your ideas for the lyrics in general?
Vic: Personal experiences. I used to get a lot of inspirations actually from when I was in school – from classes and just learning things. Like one of our songs The Well Of Tradition – Mitch’s grandpa almost passed away, but they recovered him. That song is actually about almost losing a loved one and learning to cherish every minute you have with your friends and family.

Who did the artwork on the CD?
Vic: It was done by Pete Chilton – he’s the bass player for Bane and also Silent Drive. It’s awesome. He did the artwork for Silent Drive and we loved it, so we asked him to do ours. He did a great job I think.

I saw something on your My Space page about someone’s stage dive. What happened?
Mike: That was our buddies in Yesterdays Rising. They were playing at a place in San Diego called Ground Zero. And we all went to the show because we love them so much. And I made the mistake of trying to do a front flip off the stage where there wasn’t too many people there. I got a little excited. I actually flew across the crowd and landed in the little circle pit – on my back. And Vic rushed me to the hospital in the RV and it turns out I was okay. I bruised my spine but that’s okay.

I noticed that you guys list Queen as an influence.
Vic: Queen’s a really big influence for me as far as recording wise. I just love how they layer everything – vocals, guitars – it just sounds like magic – it’s so crazy. You can really tell that they are smart musicians and that they really took the time to make something that they’re really proud of to give to the people. And I like that idea about Queen. I like to do a lot of layering and cool stuff like that.

Who in the band is the My Space addict?
Vic: Uh, I do most of the answering. We answer pretty much every comment that gets mailed to us. None of us really like My Space really. And Mike hates it. But I think it definitely helps. It’s necessary and a cool way to get people to go to the shows. They comment and say you guys are awesome and we say come to the shows.
Mike: That’s a good aspect of it, but I think the last time I checked our My Space, somebody left a comment. It wasn’t even a comment – they actually had a video put in the comment section and it was a Salt-N-Pepa video.

What? You guys don’t like Salt-N-Pepa?
Mike: (Laughs) I just thought that was just a random comment that somebody left us.

Yeah and also your music starts playing too, so you’ve got a battle of the bands there…
Mike: Yeah that’s a weird remix. Salt-N-Pepa and Before Today.

What’s up next after this tour?
Mike: We’re waiting on a January tour.
Vic: A possible tour with Folly on the East Coast in January – it’s still like 50/50 – we don’t know if it’s going to happen yet. And for sure a few weeks on the West Coast in February with Yesterdays Rising and Halfway Home.

Do you guys have any messages for people who might be into checking out your music?
Mike: When we come to your town, you’ve gotta see the show. I mean, there’s one thing to hear the album. But Vic usually takes off his shirt and stuff happens onstage.

Do you stage dive at the end of the show?
Mike: They don’t let me do stage dives anymore actually – after the Yesterdays Rising incident. I’ve tried one time, but he actually grabbed me before I went.

Next time you can fall on something useful, like your drum hand.
Mike: Yeah, seriously!
Vic: Just tell people to come out to the shows and have fun and share a good time with us.
Mitch: And come talk to us, we’re really friendly.

And now pick your Best CD of 2004.
Mike: I’m going to go with the new Mewithoutyou album on Tooth & Nail. I think it’s amazing. Actually Brandon from Fear Before The March Of Flames got me into them and I want to thank him for that.
Vic: I’m going to go with the Codeseven record. I listen to it all the time – I think it’s great. It’s called Dancing Echoes/Dead Sounds. I love the production on the album.
Joe: (who has just entered the interview) I’m Joe Tancil, I play guitar and my favorite album of the year is Usher.
Mitch: My favorite CD of the year is My American Heart. I don’t know the title but I listen to it a lot.

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