INTERVIEW: Steve Brooks Of Torche/Floor

This is an excerpt from an interview I conducted on my WFMU radio show in 2016, and you can hear the podcast here. If you want to hear the complete interview with all of Steve’s music selections and the full 3-hour radio program, go here.

D: I don’t even know what to say about Torche vs Robots. Tell me about the the making of the video, and the thought behind it -it’s really super cool. SB: Torche versus Robots is a video game, that Relapse pretty much had somebody put it together. We just agreed to it and came out great. I remember I mean, I’m not, not too big on video games. But at a point my favorite game as a kid was Journey Escape. So being in a band and actually having a video game is pretty incredible. So yeah, the music video for Annihilation Affair was done by the very talented Phil Mucci. He agreed to do it and It came out great. The idea behind it was just basically our own creation destroying everything – everyone dies.

D: And would that be the way you would want it Steve? You standing there on the smoking planet grinning? SB: Well, not really but it is a beautiful planet. Sometimes we’re terrible. The idea of destruction was just an idea, basically doing it before it before humanity as a whole does it.

D: So Relapse (was) a new label for you guys. And how did the the union happen? SB: I’d been in touch with Relapse when I was in Floor back in 2002. I started talking to them, and they were interested in putting out the next Floor record, and then Floor broke up. And I kind of went with other options in the meantime, and then, we’d still been in touch and right before we recorded this new record, I reached out and wanted to know if they were still interested. So we worked out a deal and we have a new record out with them.

D: Tada! It’s called Restarter and it sounds awesome. What’s your process when when Torche puts out a record? SB: It’s been the same since the beginning pretty much. Other than the Meanderthal record, we recorded everything ourselves, we’ve had Kurt mix the last few records Kurt Ballou at God City, but we’ve self recorded, basically everything at John’s studio, John, our bass player. Now he’s in Gainesville, but everything was recorded in Miami. The first 10 years. Basically, we get in a room, write a bunch of songs and demo them and then start tracking. And then a year later when the record comes out.

D: What are you like when the record comes out? Do you sit and listen to it quietly? Do you care at that point? Do you get worried? Are you super, super critical? SB: Super critical. Sometimes I have to put it aside and not listen to it and kind of come back to it later to get, a new perspective of it. Once you’re in the studio, you’re tracking the songs and listening to them over and over and over again. It’ll make you crazy, which is basically why we’ve had Kurt mix the last few records because John can go crazy mixing his own band, sometimes.

D: That seems like a process that would never end if it’s your own band. SB: Yeah. Cuz it’s just never it’s just almost there always three months later or even, sometimes it’s six years later but Kurt’s really quick. And John does other things like the EPs – he’ll mix them because they’re just a couple of songs and it won’t take too long but a full length record is pretty brutal.

And then, what’s the status of Floor? SB: I don’t know, to be honest with you. I’m not really thinking about Floor at the moment. We did the Oblation record, we’re all really happy with it, but we’re all kind of in different places. So I don’t know what’s going on with Floor.

Was it your idea or was it one of those things where so many people were saying to you, oh, Floor Floor, Floor, that you felt that there was a public need or a public want for another Floor record? SB: It was really Henry and Anthony. We were playing shows a lot. We started saying, well, we should probably do another record, so we can keep doing shows and play other songs because, these are all really old songs. So, Anthony, hadn’t been playing any other bands really, since the early 2000s – just Floor basically. So he had a lot of songs and ideas, riffs and everything. So him and Henry were in Florida, fairly close to each other. So they wrote a bunch of music and sent me demo recordings or rehearsal recordings and to see if I liked it and a lot of it was pretty awesome. So I went down there and collaborated with them and came up with a few songs myself and then we did a record and I wanted it to be, similar to the self titled Floor record –  keeping that sound, but just a little more mature, I guess. And it’s definitely a Floor record.

OK, next we have a short list of “choice” questions. Like … Priest or Maiden? Tough one – they’re two different bands and I feel differently towards both of them, but they’re both great. I can’t do that for those 2 bands. Swans or Neurosis? Swans. Slacks or trousers? Trousers. And now which one is worse? Sandals with socks or those barefoot toe shoes? Oh, barefoot, toe shoes. Those are weird, I would think someone would get their toes stuck on something. Yeah those things freak me out. And who is your favorite Sesame Street character? Cookie Monster! Yeah, old school!

You obviously you have good standards. You’re a good person, a true role model – who were your role models growing up? I mean, I had really good parents. I guess they were great role models. They taught me to treat people the way I want to be treated, it was a loving family so I would say my parents. 

What was the thing that got you into music full time? I’ve been playing music since I was maybe 11. I would come home from school and sit in my room and play guitar. And then, until I go to bed. I remember, I would always stay up on Monday nights to hear Metal Shop. So I was kind of obsessed with it. I was, one of the only long haired guys in school and I met friends and jammed with a lot of people. And then I was was looking for my own band for many years.  Floor started when I was 18. And I did that, was working jobs I was kind of wrapped around just the whole, music as a hobby type of thing. It wasn’t really a business it wasn’t, it was it was what I was gonna do with my life. I did all kinds of things like, relocated to play with people, travel to play with people, everything. In ’97 I went back to school to be an optometrist -I sold all my gear because I thought that I needed to grow up and by getting rid of my gear it would help me get a professional job. And that didn’t last very long.

How did the optometrist thing go? I just ended up buying equipment again and started playing in bands. Did you correct your eyesight or correct your friends’ eyesight? No, I just, I didn’t actually graduate. I took a break after a few years of school and then was playing in bands again. I didn’t really start taking it serious until touring and we did like a few tours back in the 90s like in 96. And we’d play shows out of town, but I didn’t really quit my job, I believe it was 2002 after the self-titled Floor record came out. Then we started going for it, I guess to see what would happen. And then 2003 it all fell apart and I got back home. Then Floor broke up and I started Torche. And then Torche was really the first time where, I just thought, man, it’s a brand new band. I was like, well, this is what I want to do. I guess it took my entire 20s to realize that this is a lot better than working two jobs in order to support myself. If it works out – if other people are actually digging it. 

What’s the hardest thing about the lifestyle for you? Just not having privacy really, like basically touring with five other people or more in a van, not having your own room or you get to a club and you’re just waiting. The best part is actually getting on stage and playing. And then I love writing. I wish we’d write more. I like the creative part of it. But the touring – other than being able to see parts of the world, and being able to experience things that I never dreamed I would be able to do, that’s amazing. But it’s a lot of waiting, it’s a lot of traveling, it takes a takes a toll on you physically and mentally. And it’s not glamorous in any way. But it does give you a taste of things, like, places I’d like to go and visit on vacation. And I’ve been able to do that. In between tours, if we have a week off or something in Europe, I’m going to Prague or I’m going to Berlin to hang out. You know, though, and then, the other part is, just have your work. I work with three other like really strong personalities. So there’s a lot of bickering and, and things from time to time, but we all really, we all have a good connection.

Well, you all want the same thing is Just the way that you express express it may be different. Yeah. The hardest part is really touring. It’s having patience and biting your tongue. Sometimes, just getting along with everybody which, which we do, but once you’ve been on the road for a few weeks, things start getting a little irritating.  Do you find you might let things go that you would not normally? Yes, we all know each other very well. So if things get heated, we all just take a break, and then within an hour or so, everything’s cool. Well and they are also your team too. Yes, you’re basically married to three other people and working with them. So it’s tough you know, unless you’re actually doing it, it’s hard to explain. Everybody out there really does appreciate you doing what you’re doing cuz Torche is amazing as is Floor, of course. 

 Torche put out a split with Part Chimp right? Yes, we had been talking about doing a split with them for a while and then they had already started recording theirs. I think we were writing a record. So there was a deadline and I knew we didn’t have any original material. So we put together a few covers from Guided By Voices and did that for the split. It’s always weird doing someone else’s song, because you always like the originals so much better. You get to put your version out there, but there are definitely songs where the cover became the better version. Some great bands that do that – Melvins are one of the best  at covering other bands. Oh yeah, they really do. Oh, speaking of covering other bands, Torche does a cover of Nirvana’s In Bloom for the Whatever Nevermind, release. Yeah it’s been out for a little while. That was all Andy Low from Robotic Empire records. He kind of begged us to be a part of it. So we did the cover for him. Did he choose the song or did you choose this song? Well, we had to do a song from the record. I would have picked Drain You, which is my favorite song on there, but that was taken. There were only a couple left that weren’t taken. So we took that one. 

Talk about your releases – primarily the Robotic Empire ones that have 5 million different versions – the camouflage vinyl and the opaque dark pink vinyl or the smelted ore vinyl… Yeah, I can’t keep up with any of it. I think when we started putting out those releases, we had ideas for colors and we just let Andy and the label do whatever they wanted to do, and it’s been wild. There’s some really like cool versions that have come out, but I can’t keep up. There’s so many, so many different colors and I just get lost. It’s what I liked about the Harmonicraft record is it was just clear and had the slip mat so that was it. No colors, just clear vinyl. I dig black vinyl you know, I’d be fine if we just put out a record on black vinyl. Everyone’s digging the colors, they’re cool though, they definitely look cool. Vinyl sells on the road, and in record stores. Thank goodness for that. 

Check the full interview on the podcast here, the original radio show with playlist and songs here,  Torche’s website here, and the Torche vs Robots game seems to have been removed from the Relapse website. If anyone can find it, please send a link!