Like it or not, Pop Punk's not dead yet and may even be on its way to recovery in a foursome out of Abilene, TX. With brothers Stephen and Andy on rhythm guitar and drums respectively, Matt on Bass, and Zak filling things out on lead guitar, Swing the Lead is ready to hit the airwaves with their combination of catchy melodic leads and tight, simple instrument arrangements. BoyBand 625 was able to grab a moment Stephen and Zak's time to find out what gear the guys are using and what's happening with the band.

BoyBand 625: How did you guys end up meeting? I guess you guys are from "California/Texas", so what's that all about?

STEPHEN: We all go to college out here, but our drummer is my brother (Andy). We were in this band, and then that didn't really work out. Then Matt was playing bass for us, and that was really interesting. We used a lot of effects and a lot of pedals on that band. It was real experimental and didn't really work out. Our friend Zak - we were just like let's start an alternative/pop punk band, and that's just how it went.

ZAK: Yeah, he basically called me up one day and was like "you wanna start a punk band?" "Sure, let's do it." He came over, and we probably wrote two or three songs that day.

BB: So you guys are all in Texas currently then. What is the scene there like for bands like you?

S: We are located in Abilene, TX. It's right in the middle - about 3 hours west of Dallas, three hours north of Austin , and three hours south-east of Lubbock. We honestly play with a lot of metal and hardcore bands. That's kind of what's out here right now.

Z: There's not a whole lot of straight-up pop punk or even really punk bands. It's mostly hardcore and metal. It's cool, because we get asked to play a lot of shows, because we have a different sound from what the scene's like.

BB: You guys definitely have a pop punk sound and remind me a lot of Rufio or The Starting Line for example.

S: Love those bands. That's really cool to hear.

BB: Who would you guys call out as your influences or just favorite bands in general right now?

Z: I got into music like New Found Glory, Blink, and The Starting Line. All those bands are really like my base of influence with that pop punk genre. If it wasn't for New Found Glory I wouldn't really be into music. I wouldn't play guitar. I wouldn't be in a band. Those bands have really shaped who I've grown up to be.

S: My influences are more like Taking Back Sunday and early Brand New. Definitely two of my favorite bands - and then of course Blink 182. Those are some of our heavy, heavy influences.

BB: Yeah, I know you guys like to throw in backup vocals, and a lot of those you mentioned definitely know how to use backups and counter-melodies - and that's always nice to find in guitarists. So let's jump into a little of the tech stuff. Let's start with you, Stephen. What's you guitar rig like?

S: I am playing an American Telecaster 2006 model. I run it through a B-52 AT-100 head and a B-52 4x12 cab. I don't use a whole lot of effects in this, but some of my favorite ones are the DigiTech Hot Fuzz distortion pedal. I really like that one. It gives me good clean, crunchy sound but it's not too metal or hardcore sounding. It's got a good punk sound. And then I love the DigiTech delay pedal. That one in previous bands let me do a lot of stuff. I used to actually play a Crate 150-watt amp which had a lot of different built-in effects like delay, chorus, wah pedal, and stuff like that - which if you're looking for an amp that's not super-expensive but can still get really loud and give you a lot of variety, that amp is great. It lasted me for about three or four years. I used the Crybaby wah pedal a lot. I really, really like that one. It's cool sounding and real simple to use - so basic that it produces a great sound. On my B-52 AT-100 I don't use a whole lot of gain there. I like the treble up really high, the mids up a decent amount, and the bass down a little bit lower than normal. It just produces a good rhythm sound. A good clean sound. The clean tone on that amp is just phenomenal. Especially paired with my Telecaster. You really can't get anything better than that warm, deep feeling. And then that Hot Fuzz pedal produces some amazing distortion.

BB: So are you primarily the rhythm player for the band? How do you fill out those roles?

S: Yeah, I play mostly rhythm.

Z: Usually the writing process now is Stephen will come up something, and I will layer it with little sprinkles of lead parts. With most of the songs that Stephen writes that's how it is. Then some of the songs I write are basically the same thing. Stephen will play the rhythm part, and I'll take over the lead part.

BB: So what's your setup then, Zak?

Z: My guitar's an Epiphone Les Paul Standard that I bought in '05 I think. On the recordings on our website, I was using this old Fender...I don't even know what it's called but it's like a 100-watt 212R or something. I don't know what it's called. I bought it from a friend for $150. I was never really that happy with the sound of it. It was just loud and got the job done at shows and stuff, but just a few weeks ago I got a Line 6 Spider III head on a 4x12 stack. On that the distortion settings I use are an amp preset based off this old Marshall amp. I usually don't have the bass up too loud. I usually have a lot of treble though, just so I can get a good sharp tone. I never use too much gain though. I feel like with gain for our kind of music you need to have enough so that you can tell its there but if you use too much then you're gonna sound like grungy or metally. I don't like that at all. For the clean tones I just use one of the amp settings on that Line 6. On the recordings I know that all the clean tones we did with a Telecaster. I didn't use the Les Paul. I don't use a ton of effects - just mainly distortion for me.

BB: Yeah especially with pop punk I would expect you don't need to overload things with effects.

Z: Since I got that Line 6, I actually started using a little bit of chorus and a little bit of delay on "Welcome to the World We Live In" but just for one little part. We're gonna go re-record those songs and hopefully record all our other songs sometime this year. I'll probably experiment with effects and sound a whole lot more when we go in to record everything.

BB: Aside from the re-recording, what else do you guys have planned? Is this next recording for putting a CD together?

S: We're trying to record a full-length that's coming out here hopefully within the next month or so. We've got a couple shows coming. We've got a big one, Battle of the Bands finals, in Dallas. Hopefully we'll be pretty good there. The grand prize is like $1,000, some gear, and studio time. Then once summer hits we're gonna head out west and do a little west coast tour.

BB: Definitely let us know about that. Well thanks a lot for your time guys. Do you have anything else you want to say?

S: Check us out at myspace.com/swingtheleadmusic and tell all your friends. Thanks.