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BIO OF HATE
It all started at the end of 1995, when Rick Vasquez asked Preston Smith, a long time high school friend, if he wanted to join his band, which consisted of Rick on guitar and a girl on bass. Preston agreed and he and Rick started to jam out in Preston's room. However, as soon as Preston joined the band, the girl bassist left. So for about six months it was just Rick and Preston in the band, until February of '96, when Rick found a fellow classmate who could play guitar really well. There was one slight dilemma that arouse, three guitar players was not what they were looking for. So Rick took up the bass. Now, all the band needed was a drummer. The good news was that the guitar player knew someone. So in March of '96 the drummer joined and the band was complete for the time being.
This incarnation lasted through the summer of '96, during which they competed in a battle of the bands and did all right, even though they sucked.
After the summer of '96, there was a short break while Preston went off to college for three and a half months, only to discover he didn't like it. So in the beginning of '97, Preston came home from college only to find that the drummer had left the band and that the guitar player had begun to distance himself from the other members. For several months Preston and Rick found themselves in a sort of lull with the band and they were accomplishing absolutely nothing.
Then that June, Preston bought a new guitar from Milano's music. With the purchase of the new guitar came four free hours of recording time in a studio. The only problem, however, was that there were only two members in the band and the recording time had to be used a month after the purchase. So Preston placed ads for drummers and singers in all the local record stores and music stores.
There were many calls in response to the ads, but only two were auditioned. The first audition failed to produce a new drummer for the band, but the second one didn't. The name of this drummer is David Keckta. Preston seemed to have a good feeling about his playing during the audition. David set up his drums, played though the first song and that was all it took. Dave was in the band. Only one problem, time was running out and they still had no singer. Soon one of Preston's fellow co-workers volunteered for the job and since no one else was applying, he was appointed as the band's front man. His first practice with the band was on a Friday and the following Monday the band went into the studio to record. With only a weekend's worth of rehearsal with the new singer and a month's worth of rehearsal with the new drummer, Dave, the band produced a very raw, five song demo that would be used as a tool to book shows.
At this point it is important to mention that each band member naively thought that the band was ready to perform and so shortly after the recording session, they started booking and playing shows. This added some tension to the quartet and after only two shows, the singer and Dave both quit, except that neither one said they were quitting, but instead they just stopped showing up to practices.
This immediately put the band on a temporary vacation that ended up taking about nine-months. During this time, Preston and Rick were under the persuasion that Dave would return and that the band was not completely broken up, but David had them fooled. Instead, with some pressure from his then current girlfriend, David had no intention of rejoining the band and he tried to start new project himself. However, when his attempts to start a new project failed, Dave finally returned to the band in the summer of '98. (This required a whole lot of pleading and arm-twisting on the part of Preston and Rick.)
After the trio regrouped, it was decided that the band they would form would be an entirely new incarnation and as a result most of the old songs were thrown out and were replaced with new, better songs.
The rest of '98 was spent looking for a singer and writing new songs. Then in February '99, they were kicked out of the church basement where they were practicing in, illegally, and the trio was forced to bite the bullet and finally shell out some dough for a real practice studio. Immediately following the band's move to a rehearsal studio, the band continued their search for a singer and decided to scrutinize the songs one more time. The consequence of this was that some were thrown out completely, while others were chopped up and shoved together with other songs. In addition to this, however, some new material arose from the collective pool of creativity.
The band ended up spending the entire year searching for a front man. From time to time the band would find someone, but things never seemed to work out in the end. After going though countless singers, it was finally decided that Preston would have to step up and sing for the band. In February and March of 2000, his vocal ability was put to the test when the band played their first shows as a trio. Then in April, the band headed into Burnt Chrome Recording Studios to record a demo CD with engineers Michael Strub and Mark Hermann. The result was a 10-song demo entitled "Grave Day" and another underground demo, a spin off of the first, entitled "A Taste of Hate."
The following months the band spent a great deal of time trying to become known in the Phoenix scene, only to find out that it sucks. In the past the band has opened up shows for nationally known acts such as Excessive Bleeding and Powerslave, but they still felt like committing suicide, because of their disillusion with the lack of response from the Phoenix scene. As the members of the band quarreled amongst themselves and with the Phoenix crowd, they felt the need to get away and play out of town. Tucson, AZ was the band's first out of town experience. Then came Farmington, NM, which left a huge impression with the band.
Now as the year 2000 draws to a close, the band is looking forward to touring around the southwestern states in support of the album, "The Fear Within," that they just recorded in October at Full Studio, with engineer Michael Bolenbach and producer Blake VanVliet (the CD was co-produced by David). They look forward to playing with other underground Phoenix bands, but what does the future hold? It took four and a half long years to get where they are now. They are currently looking for another guitar player, but perhaps a recording contract would help too. Who knows? If they don't kill each other first they might just make it to the big time, but for now they are looking forward to touring with the new material. And yes, they plan on returning to Farmington, as long as Rick doesn't get killed as a result of their bus or van crashing while they tour. |
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| Date |
Venue/Club |
Location |
| February 17, 2001 |
Boston's |
Tempe AZ, USA |
| February 16, 2001 |
Mason Jar |
Phoenix AZ, USA |
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Location:
Chandler AZ, USA
TEMPLE OF HATE Website
GothV@aol.com
Regular Tour Area:
Arizona, New Mexico, California |
