raised in the Bronx. I’m one of nineteen children. Overall I basically grew
up playing rock and hip hop. From there I moved on to punk rock and am
now well rounded within music. For the most part it’s really just taking
this journey with these guys and seeing what’s going on in the world and
just trying to make a change. We’re trying to be different and be impactful
to everyone and let them know who we are.
IH: Shit, where do I begin? I was born in the Bronx. I grew up there un-
til I was about four. I grew up in the Heights until I was about fourteen. I
grew up with a lot of hip hop around me but as I was growing up I found
it very hard to identify and connect with that kind of music. I remember
my big breakthrough was sometime around eighth grade going into fresh-
man year of high school. An old friend of mine made this heavy metal CD
and it changed my life forever. I went to high school very punk and metal
influenced; bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Metallica, Marilyn Manson,
My Chemical Romance. It transferred into me always having an interest in
bass. For some reason I always responded better to those lower frequen-
cies. I felt more connected with them. I think one particular festival was
Bamboozle 2009. It was the first festival where I was like “Ok Ivan, let’s
get rid of your fear of going out to certain places like that. Let’s just do it.”
I went to see Fallout Boy who headlined that night. It was life changing for
me. I went home and was like “Dad, I want to learn bass.” Low and be-
hold, give or take seven or eight years later, here I am with this band do-
ing our thing. Kicking ass all over the world and whatnot.
How did you guys come together?
SL: Well that’s an interesting story. There was a chemical spill and we all
jumped in (laughs). At first I started doing R&B music but I knew that once
I started doing rock music I was like “This is it!” I knew that it was what I
wanted to do for the rest of my life. I knew I didn’t want to be just a solo
artist. I wanted to be in something that showed unity. I was looking for
people who played music and I was like “I want to create the best band
in the world!” I wanted to create a band that was so badass that people
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