Uodated: 02/10/03

Based out of Indiana, Project Bottlecap is an indie rock band who find themselves signed to a heavy metal label. Featuring a former member of The Ataris – yet their sound has little in common. Definitely their own entity, Project Bottlecap’s new album Days And Seconds is a winning album filled with memorable songs. Here is a brief email interview…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Project Bottlecap and how long the band has been together.

P: I'm Pat, I write lyrics and sing them for Project Bottlecap.
J: I'm Jasin. I play guitar and sing from time to time.
D: My name is Dan and I play drums in the band.
A: Adam Derloshon - bass guitar
B: Brad - guitar

Where is the band from and what is the music scene like there?

J: Central Indiana, Out of Indianapolis. The scene fluctuates up and down so often. It's never certain. But definitely getting better all the time.
A: In the past, Indianapolis has had an extremely supportive and successful underground music scene. It is the scene that gave birth to bands like Split Lip/Chamberlain, Ice Nine (whose members later formed Cave In), Sloppy Seconds, Toxic Reasons, and several others.
B: I think it’s a little bit of the “grass is always greener.” The metal kids think the punk scene is huge. The punk kids think the Hardcore scene is huge. The emo kids cry because no one is thinking of them.

Does Jasin still talk with The Ataris and why did he leave the band to begin with? And how long ago was Project Bottlecap formed?

J: I still talk to Kris. I don't get to talk to the rest of the guys all that often. Kris and I are great friends and always will be. Why I left the Ataris was the result of a lot of things happening at once. But basically I cared more for the life of a person than I did for the music I was playing. and because of that I packed up and moved back home.

Describe the music of Project Bottlecap to someone who has never heard it before.

J: Intense and emotional, melodic, mid-tempo to upbeat rock.
A: To someone familiar with the indie scene I’d say we sound like a cross between Samiam, Jawbreaker and the Foo Fighters...with touches of Chamberlain and Hot Water Music.
D: I'd guess the best way to describe us is indie rock with punk influences.
P: I think that we're beginning to stray a little more from the pop influence (although I doubt that we'll ever escape its clutches entirely) we've made it a point this time around to get in touch with what we're all really capable of creating, what that is, I couldn't tell you yet but it sounds good so far.

Where did you get the name Project Bottlecap from?

J: After I left the Ataris in 97 I quit playing guitar for a year. Then one day while living in Bloomington, Indiana I picked it back up and started writing again. It was just me and a cassette recorder. I used to collect bottlecaps and I guess since that was my little project I would write that name on the tapes I made.

Who writes the lyrics and where does that person get their ideas from?

P: I "write" the lyrics for Project Bottlecap, if that's what you want to call it. When we first started the lyrics came from everywhere: love life, television, current events, God, relationships with friends, all that stuff, and boy did they come, most days I didn't even have to try, all the words just fell into place. More recently, in the past year, its been coming together like some sort of skitsofrantic nightmare. I’ll get these small glimpses of the big picture (never anymore than a sentence or two) and I’ll have to write them down as soon as possible or they'll be lost forever, this usually results in having to write on my hands, walls, and little pieces of paper. Then its a matter of putting together the puzzle. it's very seldom, though, that I’ll come to practice with a bunch of lyrics and shit takes off. I rely heavily on what the rest of the guys come up with, you know, like what kind of emotions the music portrays .

Describe a live Project Bottlecap show to those who have never seen you play before.

A: Pat flails and sings and dances like Molly Ringwald. Jasin does little dance numbers with his feet. Brad swings his guitar around like it's going out of style. I do my thing and jump when the opportunity arises. Dan, well, Dan sits behind a drumset and complains about being tired.
P: I’ve heard it said that I look like some Tourette’s ridden person about to die, the rest of the guys get into it too, sometimes we look like a Discovery Channel documentary on some funky group of bird’s mating rituals. Everyone's weaving back and forth doing their own thing missing each other by mere inches and somehow it all fits together it's a death defying demonstration of acrobatics (well... I wouldn't go that far). Sound like fun?
B: We have a tendency to not really pay much attention to each other. We’re just more doing our own thing. We had a review once where the reviewer commented on how we are all going in different directions all the time. He was waiting for something disastrous to happen but it never does. We always seem to just miss. I guess it’s like a train wreck that ALMOST happens but doesn’t.
J: everyone gets laid.

Has your band ever played here in Los Angeles and/or do you plan to do so in the future?

D: We played in a area close by called Arcadia at Club 101.
B: Haha. We headlined the show that night but went on right before a wet T-shirt contest. 200+ drunk people waiting to see breasts makes for an interesting crowd. It was fun. Adam and I played background music for the contest. haha

How did you hook up with Skeptic Records and what do you think of your death metal labelmates Amongst The Swarm?

B: Because of Skeptic’s “heavy” reputation we had never really thought about contacting them as a label but word got to us that they were looking to branch out and sign some “rock” bands. I contacted Chris and he had heard good things about us. A mutual friend played our full length for Chris and Skot and they loved it. A little bit later we were signed up for our next full length and are going to be their first venture into indie rock as a label. As for Amongst The Swarm, it doesn’t seem that strange to us to be on a label with a band as brutal and heavy as they are. They come from the hardcore scene and in a strange way, so do we. The Indianapolis Hardcore scene has always been VERY supportive of us. Indy HC has sort of become our family. Amongst The Swarm’s Crowning the Defeated EP is doing great and we hope we can follow that success for Skeptic with our upcoming LP.
P: Amongst The Swarm are the coolest I’m not sure what they think of us though, you know what it's like being the bastard indie-rock son in a family of death metal/hardcore brothers. Haha.

If Project Bottlecap was invited to contribute a track to a "Punk Goes Metal" compilation, what song would you choose and why?

B: For me, it would be either Angel of Death or Raining Blood by Slayer. Reign in Blood is the greatest metal album EVER recorded and it most likely will never be topped. It has everything I love about metal. It’s short and fast with AMAZING guitar work, heavy on riffs and not on solo’s. Not to mention repeated use of the phrase “Praise Hail Satan.” haha.. good stuff.

While on the road, if some guy offered you $100 to play a Britney Spears song in your set, what would you do?

P: Beat him up and take the $100.

What is it you'd like someone to get out of hearing your music?

J: Satisfaction and enjoyment. I would like people to hear our music and feel the same way we feel when we're content with a song. It's the kind of feeling that feels so good you hope you don't experience it too often, so it won't become cheapened.
P: I’d like them to shake their asses and have a good time, and maybe come away with a sense that someone has, in some way, expressed things that they have felt from time to time.

With Days And Seconds being recorded just about a year ago, how close are you guys to recording a second album?

D: We are in the process of writing and recording our second album right now. We go into the studio in March and it should come out around late April/early May. Then we will tour in June.

Do you have any messages for those who might be interested in checking out your music?

A: Please do.
P: Listen to it more than once but less than twice a day.
J: Don't expect us to sound like the Ataris. We only sound like ourselves.