Getting to Know Exporter | Interview 🎤

In the 281^st Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from California pop-punk/emo/alt-rock band, Exporter.    

“We are straight-up a pop-punk emo alt-rock band coming straight out of the 90s only we started in like 2017.” Awesome, 🎙 Exporter! The California pop-punk/emo/alt-rock band is comprised of three members: brothers 🎙 Destin and 🎙 Alec Cavazos, and 🎙 Henry Kish.  In a rarity in our Q&As, all members of the collective answer our burning questions! Similar to other Getting to Know Q&As, we get the inside scoop on the band: their genesis, goals, musical influences, and of course, current, and future musical endeavors. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into 🎤 Getting to Know… Exporter: Interview No. 281!

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Exporter distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

🎤 Destin Cavazos (DC): Well, I think to start, my answer would be in there in your question – Exporter is a band built to rock your socks off! We are straight-up a pop-punk emo alt-rock band coming straight out of the 90’s only we started in like 2017. We just released our debut album (💿 NoBrakesNoBrakesNoBrakes) and have been doing a lot of press and (drummer) Kish has been using “bombastic and fun” to describe who we are, and it totally fits. If you ever went to a Vans Warped tour show, I think you would agree you’d see a band like us on that lineup. We keep praying for Vans to bring it back but until then we’re keeping that vibe alive.

🎤 Henry Kish (HK): Yes, we are definitely bombastic and fun, and we want the audience to enjoy the show. If they’re feeling the music, I’m happy with what we’re doing.

🎤 Alec Cavazos (AC): I think we’re unique in that we’re trying to stay true to that vibe too. The pop-punk scene isn’t like the 90’s but it’s still there and we’re doing what we can to keep it alive and I’m glad to think we fit right in. We are guitar, bass, and drums but I think we get a ton of sound out of it.

🎤 DC: If you know Exporter, you would obviously get that we’re committed to the sound, but if you’re new to us, I think you would pick that up pretty quick. You would probably also pick up on the high energy we try to show live. It doesn’t take us long to get jumping around on stage.

🎤 AC: I think once we get going it’s clear we’re having fun too. It happens often where someone will come up after a set and ask who we are or tell us we were bangin’. That’s always a pretty cool thing. We may be just starting out and not a lot of people know us, but I think if you come to see us you would have fun at the show.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Exporter form and what were some of the goals or visions you had early on?

🎤 DC: Ha, we’ve been playing music for 10 years but as a band, I think we’re just starting to grow so not a lot of juiciness yet. We’re working on that part of being a rock and roll star. To date, I think the juiciest trivia would be we blasted through drummers pretty early on…not like Spinal Tap where they were literally blowing up or nothing, just things kept getting in the way like school and stuff.  We don’t let Kish near any risky things though just in case.

But really, Alec and I grew up playing music together, so it really all goes back to those times we spent jamming to Weezer and Green Day in our room as kids. As we got older we realized how much we liked playing music together, and we started coming up with some pretty cool stuff in terms of songwriting, so it just made sense for us to say, “hey let’s just be a band.” Sure, we’ve had a couple drummers on the lineup through the years, but Alec and I have always been at the heart of this band. I think for us, as brothers, it was really about getting out and sharing what we love doing together, getting to share that energy with the crowd. And once Kish came on, I think we all just sort of knew this was the band.

🎤 AC: We started as a band called “adj.” pronounced adjective which was Destin and me and our good friend Jessica (Lord) on drums – A-lec, D-estin, J-essica. I still have stickers we printed up for that band. Destin and I had been taking bass and guitar lessons and Jess and I were in band camp together and we were always hanging out, or families would go on vacation and stuff, and we thought it would be cool to be a band. We did local shows and stuff then Jess left ‘cause she got into school.

🎤 DC: I think even that early, Alec and I just wanted to keep being a band so our neighbor down the street (Owen Dawson) started playing drums and we changed our name to “Porter” – wait, that’s some juicy trivia – Porter was picked because of John Porter who was the Smiths’ first producer. Our dad is a big Smiths fan and had seen a documentary and asked what he thought of that which we really liked. So, we were Porter for a bit until Owen also started looking at schools.

🎤 AC: That’s when we found Kish… He and I played Pony baseball and his dad was a drummer in our dad’s dad band, so we knew who he was and that he played drums. That was 2017 and Kish played the first time in front of people with us at the Avocado Festival with like 1 rehearsal. It was awesome. He crushed it.

🎤 HK: Yeah, I think we rehearsed once, and they said to just make up parts for their originals which I think they just sent me a week before.

AC: Our next show with Kish was this Halloween haunt where we were going to play 3 hours. As this band, we’d played live once, rehearsed a couple of times, and were now playing 3 hours which was pretty cool.

🎤 DC: We did 3 sets and repeated some songs, but I still think of that as one of our most awesome shows. For the last set, we had these painter suits and Kish was totally into wearing them and at the end, there were a ton of folks that kept asking for more, like shit, we just played 3 hours and had to re-use songs, we didn’t have anything more, but I remember thinking right then that this was the band.

🎤 AC: Early on this goal and vision was to just be a band you know. Play our songs and do legit band stuff and once Henry joined it felt right.

🎤 HK: I know early on I just wanted to play and record and get better.

🎤 DC: So, we had this new lineup and we wanted to start recording and grow and then we knew there was this band out of Mexico already using “Porter” so we knew if we were going to move forward we would need a new name. We’re obviously fans of Blink-182 and knew their issues with their band name so we added “ex” to the front. We thought about X-porter or Porter-183 or something but Exporter just seemed to fit.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now? 

🎤 AC: Well, early on I know we always wanted to get better as a band…write better songs, perform better, look better…we worked hard at that, and it definitely continues to this day. Make the next thing better than what we did before, and we just keep growing. In terms of new perspectives and things, I think one of the hardest things for me especially was in learning that this is a business. Like it or not, it is, and I know we’ve had to work on figuring out what a brand was, how to promote stuff, and how to talk about yourself without feeling weird. There’s still more for us to figure out and I definitely get stuck on that a lot, but it needs to be worked on. For us, writing songs has come easy, and getting on stage and rocking is cool but there’s a bunch of stuff that goes on to make stuff happen.

🎤 DC: I think the goal of the band, at least for me, has always been to just be the best rock stars we can be. I definitely love writing and performing music, so I want to be able to give it my all. As we’ve grown as a band, it’s really become clear it takes hard work, there’s definitely a level of grind that’s involved in getting your music out there. But we’re still all about working hard at something we’re passionate about. Fans have already started digging our music, so now it’s our job to put in the effort to give them the best of Exporter.

When Kish came on board, I think we all sat together and chatted about how this band thing should work, could it work, and once we decided we should do this we had to start thinking about what that meant. I think our first goals were to write songs and record them so that we could start building out what Exporter was. Alec and I had recorded our demo songs (The Hidden City Sessions) which were just us recording 6 tracks in a couple of hours and then Elliott (Lanam, owner Hidden City Studios) adding drums and other tweaks but as this new band, we wanted something more us. So, we thought, hey we should do an EP as this band.

🎤 AC: We worked with Matt Molloy and Made for More recording and tracked 4 songs for that. It was cool ‘cause we recorded it in a more traditional way. I also learned to accept that recording was more a team sport in that there were other ideas that could make their way into a song. Like for 🎵 “Rain Delay”, the idea of strings never was in my head, but we thought it would be cool to add, then after we did those we thought, hey, what if we added some to 🎵 “Simple Minds”. Stuff like that to me showed we were growing as songwriters and if nothing else we felt like it worked towards our goal with getting better with every new thing.

🎤 DC: Another early goal was getting a song on the radio. We had songs streaming and you can track the number of streams and things but to us it just seemed like something more tangible. So, we started bugging our local radio station, KJEE. We had grown up listening to that station and going to their shows, so we just pushed for that.

🎤 AC: They do this thing called phone-in Friday where you can request anything, so we had all these friends hit them up to request 🎵 “Carsick”, post on insta, whatever and all of a sudden, one of them DM’d us and said, “Ok, we get it, maybe stop with this and try Localize it instead?” And we thought, oh man, we pissed them off. But it actually turned out really cool. The DJ’s that run Localize It which is this show where they highlight local bands eventually said yes and next thing you know, “Carsick” was on the radio. I think we still have a screen grab of all the insta requests, and I remember our mom crying when it played but that whole thing was a really big thing for us.

🎤 DC: It also helped create a relationship with a lot of the DJs there. Like, they could have played the song and left it at that, but they’ve now played several of our songs but more important have been folks we can reach out to for help or feedback. They listen to a crap ton of music and have been around to see it all and their support has been huge.

🎤 AC: I think it also helped us reach for other things too…like maybe getting more songs on there, maybe there were other radio stations, that then helped us decide to record our album and reach out for more. With this being a business, we have to keep pushing so now we want to play bigger shows, get signed by a label, and stuff like that, those are the vision and goals now. Other than promoting the new album, which is the immediate, short term.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

🎤 HK: For me, The Who was one of the first bands I remember hearing as a kid, and they are definitely a strong inspiration for me. I mean, it’s an iconic band so I think they influenced a lot of people, but they are one of my go-to bands. I’ve been listening to Turnstile a lot lately and I think how they have grown has shown me that bands can still do that.

🎤 DC: I’m definitely a product of the late 2000s emo rock era; I think bands like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance really made a big mark when I discovered them in my teen years. For me, that genre really cemented music as a powerful medium for dealing with all of life’s emotions. It’s cliché but I just picture like, “eyeliner running as you’re screaming along to the latest emo anthem” as a core value of musical experience. On the flip side of that, I really take a lot of inspiration from 80s rock, like, I love the type of music you’d find in all the classic 80s movies. Simple Minds, Tears for Fears, Oingo Boingo, etc., I just really enjoy the bright and poppy energy of that era. All very catchy and danceable, I think it’s hard not to be drawn to that sound.

🎤 AC: Blink-182 and Tom DeLonge are absolutely a huge influence on me. Tom was the reason I started playing guitar or at least started enjoying playing guitar in the first place. I saw him with Angels and Airwaves when I was like 10 which is right around when I started taking lessons and before that, I hated practicing. After that though, there was like this thing that clicked.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

🎤 AC:  Well as we’re just sort of starting out, I don’t think there is anything too crazy, yet. We’ve played in some places that were pretty tiny and if I tried to stage dive or something I think I’d dive right into the wall. There is one thing though that I always think of and that’s when we played the Santa Barbara Fair. Anyway, it was a good crowd and a great vibe, and we were really into it. Usually, I do most of the jumping and I remember Destin like running across the stage and he jumps and gets massive air but almost ripped his cord out of the bass and pulled down the amp. It was awesome. Also, speaking of the fair, we played last year and that was crazy. It was right after things opened up from the pandemic so there were tons of people there. We like to tell people we played in front of 10,000 people which isn’t really a lie. There were soooo many people there.

🎤 DC: I’ll stick with the fairgrounds too… At one of our first shows with this lineup, we got asked to play 3 hours at their Halloween event. It was just starting up and they weren’t paying anything, but we were totally down to do it. We had no idea how to figure out how to do it, but we just sort of went for it. Our family does crazy Halloween decorations, so we made this spooky graveyard, had a cool fog machine. When we did the first set (out of 3 total) Alec and I had some old costume zombie jackets and I remember wondering what Kish thought of it all, it was his second show with us. But by the last set, we all were jamming, and he even wanted to put on these white coveralls we brought. Walking onstage with the 3 of us in those suits with the fog machine going was pretty classic rock and roll.

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?  

🎤 DC: For me, it’s definitely our 2019 single, 🎵 “Nightmare.” A lot of our stuff is very riff-heavy and fast-paced, so, I really enjoyed doing something a little different. It’s a lot more intimate as a track, you get to spend a little more time with the lyrics rather than just rocking out.

🎤 HK: Off 💿 NoBrakesNoBrakesNoBrakes, 🎵 “Sister Cities” is a favorite and one I’m really proud of. It was really an addition to the album, and I love how all the parts worked out.  I think the first time I heard it was the day before we started recording it but it all came together and I’m really proud of that song.

🎤 AC: We get asked that a lot and the truthful answer is It’s hard to pick a favorite for me, cause they all mean a lot. I mentioned 🎵 “Rain Delay”, and that one comes back to me as a favorite a lot…I thought the lyrics and story fit the vibe of what I was shooting for. And once we recorded the violins and the funky parts Matt did with it was really cool. Right now, though, with 💿 NoBrakesNoBrakesNoBrakes just coming out and we’re playing it, we seem to have a lot of fun together playing the new stuff, with 🎵 “Sister Cities”  or 🎵 “Retrograde” being really fun. But if I had to pick just ONE song I think 🎵 “Carsick” has to be the one. When I wrote the lyrics, it was one of the first ones I came up with most of the parts, and it was our first song ever on the radio – love you KJEE! It also works for the live category ‘cause I love playing it live too. We call it our “hit” cause people are always asking for it and it’s cool to see people actually singing your song back to you. There’s a line that goes, “I press the pedal and I drive by,” and I’m always trying to come up with a different way to do that “and I drive by” line so, that’s fun to try to come up with something unique.

🎤 DC: Yeah, I think the way Alec sings that line should go in the creative question above for live stuff. I don’t know about Kish, but I am for sure always listening to how or what he’s going to sing there. I have a part I sing right after that and there for sure have been times where I’m cracking up at what Alec did and I miss my part.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

🎤 AC: Well, we all love cats! Both Destin and Kish have cats and I really, really want one. I guess that’s a little Exporter fun fact: if you want to get us a gift, cats are always welcomed!

🎤 DC: Yea maybe one day, we will have a cat mascot like what Bowling for Soup used to do with their dog; we met them and the pup in 2014 at Warped Tour Ventura.

🎤 AC: Also, I think people should know Kish is a pretty aggressive baseball player. I remember this one year, we were on the same team, and he was coming in to score and totally trucked the catcher. He got thrown out of the game and was crushed but I remember it was a clean play and thinking, damn, he’s passionate about this game.

🎤 DC: More Kish trivia – he can play the guitar upside down, which is cool. Alec and I both play right-handed but he plays lefty and he’s always picking up one of our guitars and plays it. I think we should record a guitar part like that on a new song.

Closing out, what is Exporter currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

🎤 DC: Right now, we’re just focused on hyping the heck out of our album and growing as a band. There’s been a lot of momentum trying to get this out to the fans, so, we want to keep up that energy and really bring that out with us onstage. Of course, we’re always writing new music, but we’ve also already got like 20 or more unreleased originals that we want to bring into the studio eventually. So, there’s definitely going to be more music from Exporter before too long.

🎤 AC: Pushing 💿 NoBrakesNoBrakesNoBrakes is our number one focus right now. There are a few Exporter secrets too that we are working on, but we couldn’t tell you ‘cause they’re secrets. Nothing crazy, just stuff like business stuff we’re hoping works out, maybe some bigger shows and stuff but I promise we’ll let you know if any of it works out.

Thank you so much for sharing and taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

Getting to Know… Exporter: Interview No. 281 [📷: Alfred Derks from Pixabay, Brent Faulkner, Darkmoon_Art from Pixabay, The Musical Hype]