Updated: 02/14/00

Third Grade Teacher has two CD’s out. . This band is always in growth, forever changing, and experimenting with music. They keep doing things the way they want to do it. This is and will be how they plan, as a group, to make it in the music biz. I the recent chance to catch up and chat with lead guitarist David Guerrero one of the founding original players.

Highwire Daze:You produced this new record The Underklass. What does it feel like being an independent record producer?

David: All that the producer means in my mind is that the person has the concept for what is happening as far as what it should sound like and then making that happen. That is all I did for our new record The Underklass. It was a blast. The production credit was given because that is what I did for it.

HD: Where did the concept for this record come from.

David: The concept came from more or less the songs. The art work was done by our old bass player Sharon Schloss.. As far as music, how it was to sound and making it sound that way, and as far as engineering it that was my department.

HD: This record doesn’t sound so radical, ruff or as raw as your first release Third Grade Teacher’s Greatest Hits Volume # 1 why?

David: I think that was because we had more time with it. It’s what we really wanted to do for this record. We’ve had a lot of songs floating around for a long time that have been quite a bit more polished pop oriented that we really didn’t get a chance to do out or express. But, we had to get them out and expressed so we could grow. We had to explore that or it would just die.

HD: How did you get your current CD into The Virgin Records store on Sunset Blvd.?

David: The buyer came to one of our shows and really liked us.

HD: If someone told you that your band sounds like early Blondie, what would you think?

David: Cool. That would be a very high complement. We are really into Blondie. Actually we are going to be on a compilation soon doing Blondie covers. This compilation is going to be a tribute CD for Blondie. We are covering Blondie’s song Atomic for the project.

HD: Are you currently playing that Blondie song Atomic live in your concerts right now?

David: No. Actually, we need to get together really soon and rehearse it. It’s due on Valentines Day. (both of us start laughing). It’s actually Third Grade Teacher doing home work. (both of us laugh again)

HD: What is The Underklass?

David: The Underklass is the title track of our second record. The song itself can be seen at a bunch of different angles. The idea is sort of, that as a band, we consider ourselves as The Underklass., like being the underdog. It like working our way up from the bottom the hard way, Not like other band getting signed right away and going that route. This is what the record symbolized, that we are doing this the hard way. We even put this new record out on our own label Third Grade Teacher Records instead, like our first record we did, with Al’s Bar records. The statement being that we are going to do it by ourselves for our selves. In all of this we will be successful by ourselves. On a large or political scale, our lead singer Sabrina is teaching her Third Grade class of kids that the kids themselves are The Underklass and as they grow they will start taking over. There are plenty different spins on this songs title, that is for sure.

HD: In the song TheUnderklass why did you change the spelling from a C to a K?

David: Just for humor. It seemed very rock ‘n roll to go about changing the spelling from C to K.

HD: In your song B.O.F what do these letters mean?

David: It doesn’t really stand for any real words I don’t think. Some people take it literally and call it Boy Of Fear. But, what it really came from is that we had written a song called Fear Of The Boy. Then I put down our demo tapes and played them backwards on my four track. So we listened to Fear Of The Boy backwards and we liked it better backwards. So then we wrote a song around the backwards Fear Of The Boy and just named it B.O.F. Even the chord changes are also backwards as well

HD: You also named a title for one of the other songs letters as well. So what does A.V.U.M stand for?

David: It came from Avium, which was the original name of the song. But it really means is Animal vegetable mineral. But that was too much of a mouthful for a title. So after saying avium for a long while, it then became A.V.U.M. I kind of disagreed with the band because I wanted to call it Avium with a question mark. That’s how I thought it was supposed to be I thought. But, I was out voted by the rest of the group.

HD: So what is your favorite song from your album The Underklass?

David: All You People. Because it’s a religious song about Christ. It’s a very up lifting song for me.

When you have a chance to see this band live you will feel very up lifted, whether by dancing around or from the spitiual and touching lyrics. Either way you’re in for a great treat. Personally my favorite songs on The Underklass are: The Television Song and Holiday to name a few. The band will be playing in Orange County soon. But also check out this group’s web site at http://www. thirdgradeteacher.com.