By: Carolina Jones

We here at UTM like the bands we cover to have personality, professionalism and most importantly we like them to sound awesome.  So we present to you China Room.

This five man ensemble are admittedly victims of pop culture: The melodies of yesterday, big city glamour and the hopelessness of a despair deferred. Since music is their only option, they present songs of fear and isolation that attempt to hint at a comfort and hope that only exists in the imagination.

Heavily influenced by the Beatles, Lou Reed, and the Beach Boys, while later discovering the treasures of Joy Division, Syd Barrett and Radiohead; China Room is indie pop with a dark and disturbed past.

Since their fruition in 2004, China room has played all around the Los Angeles area including a residency at the Tangier in Los Feliz and has enjoyed performances with other indie bands such as The Grey Kid, the Shore, Black Black, the Cold War Kids and Red Lightning ( featuring Alain Whyte of Morrissey fame).

Their debut album “Put On a Smile, They’re Coming Your Way” is expertly produced, mastered and mixed down.  From start to finish the lyrics and vocals transport you to a world of sunshine and teardrops where you can be caught either driving with your top down on a beautiful breezy day or holed up naked in the corner of a room sobbing.  Either way, you’ll feel something with this album.

Their sound although polished serves to transmute pain and anguish into something uplifting and radio friendly. 

UTM - Okay tell us who's in the band and who does what.

CR - Nima Kazerouni is on lead vocals and rythym guitar. He occasionally picks up the accordian when he wants to. Vince Mazza is a maniac on lead guitar. Joaquin Pastor plays rythym and lead guitar, organ, and is also known to take off his clothes and dance into an astonished crowd. Johann Carbajal is a madman on bass and Greg Irwin does his
thing on drums.

UTM - What's the ultimate goal of your band?

CR - At the very root is to continue to develop a sound that is so honest and real that there is no mistaking a China Room song with anything else out there right now. This is a lot to ask for but it is what it is.

UTM -Tell us how you came up with the name China Room?

CR - The name comes from a philosophical argument against artificially intelligence. As a rock band it's the perfect homage to such a mind blowing idea.

UTM - What's the best part about being independent?

CR - The best part about being independant is that we can more or less do what we want, how we want. It's completely in our hands what we choose the next step to be. That kind of freedom is quite refreshing these days.

UTM - What's the sucky part about being an indie?

CR - The flip side to that of course is the same reason it's so great: The responsibility completely rests on our shoulders what the next step is actually going to be.  There isn't a major label pushing us with PR teams and the capital to shove the product down people’s throats. To grow as an indie band it takes pure and sweet hustling.

UTM - What represents the pinnacle of success to you?

CR - To dream a dream...seeing our name on the marquee of sold out shows not only in the States, but in the UK and Japan. Japan would be unbelievable...

UTM - What's the best advice you've been given?

CR - A stranger who later became a  dear friend once told us while we were selling CD's on the streets that as long we continue to be truly fascinated with what we are doing,  then we will all find what we are looking for. The moment this seizes to be the case is the moment we should stop doing what we are doing.  We have since taken this to heart and we really want to pass this piece of advice to everyone out there.

UTM - Reveal your secret super hero identities.

CR - Joaquin is Channel-man, whose special ability is to live completely and utterly unconsciously at all times. He allows something greater to flow through him. In fact, if you couldn't see him, he wouldn't even exist.

Johann is Dr. Serling, who wields the ultimate power of intense concentration. And he wears a hood so no one can read his thoughts.

Nima is the Time Traveller. What sort of alter-ego did you expect from a UCLA History major? If you can't decipher what his powers might be, then perhaps it's time for you to put this magazine down and take a nap. Or call your mother.

Vince is Captain Planet. Except he doesn't need all those pussy-footing teenagers to unite before he can do some serious earth-saving.

Greg is a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger - the Green Ranger to be exact, mostly good, but almost mostly bad. Powers? We're talking Sword of Darkness, Dragonzord, Dragonzord in Battle Mode and on a good day, the MegaDaragonzord.

UTM - You all are offered 20 million to do music that isn't really you.  What do you do?

CR - 20 million dollars offered to an indie band is just so much money.  The truth is, nobody needs to sell themselves out to achieve wealth and success. That goes against the very reason we started this band in the first place.

Well there you have it. They wouldn’t sell out for 20 million where as we totally would.  Maybe we’ll do an article on just how much we would sell out for...but I digress...

You can catch up with China Room at:
www.chinaroomband.com
www.myspace.com/chinaroom

 

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