Get Back Loretta

Tours From Hell with Get Back Loretta

After months of viewing their high jinx on tour antics on You Tube, I finally managed to secure an interview with all five members of Get Back Loretta, winners for Best Pop Band at The 2008 San Diego Music Awards. No strangers to the local music scene, GBL won Best New Artist in 2005, Best Pop Band and Best Pop Album in 2006 and Best Pop Band again in 2007. The catch was that I had to meet them before a show at San Diego’s upscale club, Anthology and what a treat that turned out to be. This beautiful three leveled venue is located on India Street after it crosses B. The site features flat screen televisions, recessed seating, a second level balcony, an elevator and a bevy of helpful and polite staff members. Initially, as a belly dancer graced the stage, the band invited me to the backstage area, a gorgeous glass walled conference type room overlooking the stage. But, the crowd of friends and family proved too noisy so our ragtag troupe sought out the respite of the club’s lobby. As the horn filled jazz melodies of Bedford Grove filled the air, we sat down on the modern geometric furniture and snazzy striped rug of the foyer. Aside from the band, Isaac had an un-named but very tattooed female friend in tow and I brought along lovely Rita for company myself. The boys of Get Back Loretta with the exception of Josh’s blue jeans and Isaac’s tan vest and plaid Jesse James neck kerchief were all wearing black. Sorry guys, I didn’t get the wardrobe memo but apparently neither did Isaac’s date who proudly displayed a white t-shirt advertising the slogan, “I heart goblin cock,” which, I was later embarrassed to find out (via Kevin Martin) is actually the name Pinback front man, Rob Crow’s new band.


Penny: I’ve heard through the grapevine that you boys have had some pretty rough moments on tour. Individually, what is your most vivid bad memory from the road? Sonny, we’ll start with you.

Sonny: Oh Jeez! Am I at liberty? We just jumped right into this, didn’t we? I would say my first show outside of San Diego with the band, second show period. Going to jail, Arizona State Penitentiary. One night. It was a great time. (Laughs sarcastically). That’s my most vivid bad memory.

Sonny, who up until recently wore his hair in dreadlocks, smells deliciously of cologne as he opens up the proverbial can of worms.

Isaac: I would say, same here. Very vivid, I remember hearing them calling me “Kitty” in the jail cells. Eating bad food, jail would be the worst tour experience for me.

Isaac twirls a lock of dark hair around his finger as he talks.

Kevin: Jail food sucks, but it’s funny when jail mates call Isaac “Little Kitty.”

What the guys are referring to is their first tour. Somewhere on Highway 8 in Arizona around three o’clock in the morning, as they ambled towards their first tour destination, Isaac who was driving, noticed a check point up ahead. His response? Light a cigarette, and express his nervousness to Sonny, also smoking in the passenger seat, not wake-up Kevin or Steven who happened to be asleep at the time. (Josh was luckily at home in San Diego). The next thing they knew, the foursome was having their cavities checked, donning orange jumpsuits, and facing three felony charges surrounding a bag of Mary Jane that in California would have warranted them a slap on the wrist or at the very most, a ticket and a fine. What’s admirable and worth mentioning is that these guys refused to place blame solely on one individual and chose instead to face the music, so to speak, collectively. After a fifteen hour jail stay, pleading down the charges and agreeing to drug awareness classes, they’ve had their records expunged and learned some valuable lessons.

Kevin: Yeah, I would have to say getting arrested was my worst tour memory. Oh, yeah, while we’re getting arrested, this cop, he has the nerve to ask us about our personal lives. He’s all, “So…you guys are in a band, what kind of music do you play? I like Iron Maiden. I’m really into Iron Maiden.” Like, what am I supposed to say to that? Does it matter what I answer at this point? We play mariachi music!

Isaac: And Black Foot Idaho sucks too.

Josh: That was my worst tour.

Isaac: Oh, never mind.

Kevin: Actually, aside from jail, all of us getting sick on the Jack’s Mannequin Tour, and having pneumonia is a pretty vivid bad memory. Steven passed out, we were pretty much just throwing up before we went on stage. Everyone was sick the whole time. There were eight sick people in the van and we were eating Goji Berry extract and Cocoa powder.

Josh: You guys need to grow beards, me and Sonny didn’t get sick. That’s the power of testosterone. Worst time on tour would be Black Foot Idaho, on the last tour we did. It was a desolate nightmare playing at Clynn’s Family Billiards, something ridiculous. We played to… well, we actually never did play, it was so bad that we just left.

Steven: Actually, I really enjoy touring. I don’t have any bad times. It’s all fun and games for me. (Everyone laughs) Jaime is the best tour tech on the planet, and he was the last one to get sick, ‘cause he’s so tough, but he still got sick never the less at the very end of the Jack’s Mannequin tour.

Josh: I prefer to call it the Audition tour.

Penny: I was bending over from the pains of hearty laughter while watching your remake of Queen’s, Bohemian Rhapsody on You Tube. Tell me, was this tribute staged or impromptu?

Steven: Truthfully, that was very impromptu. The song was just playing, and we had the camera, so we just started singing along to it, and everyone started joining in, you can’t not sing to that song. It went perfectly. Well executed camera work by Kevin Martin.

Kevin: I think part of what happens is I get obsessed with the camera, and so situations are forced upon people, and that was one that everyone just went with.

Josh: I think it was eight in the morning and we had just gotten to Oregon. We had been driving all night, and we pulled into Taco Bell, just to get some breakfast or pee or whatever you do after being up all night. And then, the song comes on and I think most of us were exhausted, or just waking up, so it was the best way to ease the pain, to jam out to Queen.

Penny: With a lot of tour time being spent on the open road driving from gig to gig, are you ever able to write new material or is it too distracting of an environment?

Kevin and Josh high five each other. The guys of Get Back Loretta have a slapstickish giddiness to them which often comes through in their onstage performances. Here, it is evident in their social interaction, they laugh, tease and talk over each other, the way a group of grade school kids would as they prepare for an exciting field trip. Talking with them, I get the feeling that being on tour with Get Back Loretta would have its share of good times too.

Sonny: Far too distracting of an environment.

Kevin: I write a lot of worship music in between just kinda kiddin’ around with myself.

Josh: I think a lot of other bands could probably be productive on a drive, but we’re just a bunch of asses.

Isaac: Very unpredictable.

Steven: The best conversations in the van happen between three AM and six AM, between three or four people and two half asleep people just listening in and it’s usually religion or politics. It’s so heated, but it’s like female heated where it’s all innuendos and there is no “You’re an asshole” going on, it’s all how chicks fight.

Penny: Tensions can sometimes run high when you’re stuck in a small, crowded environment for a length of time…do the members of Get Back Loretta ever argue? Has any quarrel ever come to fisticuffs?

Steven claps his hands together in excitement as he unsuccessfully tries to stifle his trademark Cheshire Cat grin. The powerful vocalist is a mischievous ball of energy and throughout the interview he shakes his white loafer clad feet at a rapid pace.

Isaac: Me and Josh fight every now and then in the hotel.

(Everyone laughs)

Steven: We are always bickering.

Josh: Well, we get in the car and then someone starts saying stupid shit, and then we end up doing word association for an half an hour. Then, it’s quiet for ten minutes. Driving in the van with us is an experience.

Steven: I got a story, In San Francisco in a hotel, Josh and Isaac finally had enough of each other. Who threw the first punch? Ok, Isaac being the bigger, older brother. He goes by Josh and slugs him in the gut. So, Josh basically picks him up by the legs, and flings him around the room like a rag doll. It was awesome, it was over nothing.

Penny: So, a little bit of sibling rivalry on the road.

Josh: Yeah, it happens.

Penny: Your virgin tour, dubbed “The Aerostar Tour”, had a few pitfalls including a run in with law and their sniff dogs…care to elaborate a little more on that or are you under a court ordered gag?

Kevin:I’m under a court ordered gag. (Penny Laughs)

Josh: I wasn’t there, I find out through the grapevine, various people drove out to Arizona, mutual friends, and I get a phone call saying, “Hey, do you know your band was arrested two days ago in Phoenix?” Oh how funny, they didn’t call and tell me that, I was just glad I couldn’t go on that tour.

Steven: We didn’t want to worry you, Josh. (Everyone laughs)

Penny: Is it true that Get Back Loretta once had a sherpa on tour with them? Was that for spiritual guidance or just a good luck charm?

Isaac: It was for health.

Steven: He brought along Goji Berry drinks, he brought along Yerba Mate, and Kung Pau chicken. He brought all kinds of healing essentials for the road.

Sonny: The sherpa is of course, is Mister Gabriel LeBlanc of Chula Vista. He is Mexican and French. He is a guide.

Kevin: The cool thing about Gabe is that any time you are in a situation; he is the most mellow person. He was on that tour from hell where we all got sick and he didn’t even get sick at all. He was legit the whole way through. He told us to drink some of his Goji Berry drink and have some of this Cacao Yerba Mate mix and we’d be fine, and we were all like, “Screw you, man.” Then, finally, by the end, we realized we should have been drinking that stuff the whole time. Gabe, the sherpa knows what’s up.

Penny: Josh, I’ve noticed here at home that you often play barefoot on stage. On tour, do you still play barefoot or are you worried about picking up strange out of state germs?

Josh: No, I actually went on a tour without shoes on accident. I forgot my shoes at home. I always play barefoot, that’s how it is. I’ve been playing barefoot for so long that my calluses are to point where…

Penny: (interrupting) You’re impenetrable.

Josh: Yeah, pretty much, I’ve gotten pretty gnarly splinters before, and just yanked ‘em. Nothing a little penicillin won’t fix.

Penny: You’ve got Fred Flintstone feet going on.

Josh: Exactly.

Josh, who is quite animated this evening, is uncharacteristically donning a pair of bowling alley, bowling shoes. Chances are he won’t be wearing them for much longer.


Penny: Isaac, you were made infamous on You Tube for your notorious barf in the parking lot of a Jack-in-the-Box. Was it just nerves or do you often get sick on tour from eating fast food?

Isaac: That was all staged, and I had it all premeditated. I wasn’t sick at all. Well, we eat a lot of shit food on tour and I was making a point that fast food makes me sick.

Kevin: We were leaving a crappy place that we often eat at, and Isaac was looking across the street, and he said, “You know what? I could throw up right now! And I said, “I’ve got the camera right now.” He looked at the Jack-in-the-Box and said some funny line, and just totally puked. And then the funny thing is, after he puked once, he went back to the van and he had to go puke again, and that was uncontrollable. So, making himself puke once actually did make him sick, and then, he really had to puke.

As Kevin speaks, his soulful blue eyes recede from focus on the present and you can tell, he’s back in that Jack-in-the-Box parking lot reliving a moment from the past.

Penny: Your experience at SXSW (South by South West) a musical festival in Austin, Texas was less than thrilling. Tell our readers what you observed there.

Josh: Ten thousand bands, in four days is the biggest waste of time in the world. You couldn’t do anything. It was four days of nightmare. Unless you are headlining a stage, it’s totally pointless.

South by South West proved to be both chaotic and disappointing for Get Back Loretta. What they thought was going to be a huge musical festival turned out to be an industry party for record label executives. If your band wasn’t playing one of the official South by South West stages then getting your equipment in and out of the smaller venues was difficult at best. And the venues that hosted smaller bands weren’t “officially” part of SXSW which translated into limited audience members at said venues. One of the nights, Get Back Loretta played to a crowd of twenty people. As far as the experience of watching your favorite bands live, passes were required at each show and I’m told their prices rivaled the expense of gas from San Diego to Austin, Texas.

Penny: At The Warfield in San Francisco, were you surprised to see fans sporting homemade shirts that said “I Love GBL” and “Isaac‘s Lover?”

Isaac: I was very surprised to see a girl who I had no idea who she was wearing a shirt that said “Isaac’s Lover” I didn’t know anyone would ever do that.

Kevin: That was a good sentence.

Isaac: Thanks, I can read, I’m five. (Laughs)

Steven: I was surprised the very first tour we went on, to see Isaac with a new girl every night. But now on the road, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Because Isaac’s a pimp.

Kevin: I don’t think any of us were surprised; the surprising thing is that there wasn’t one for me, and I was really upset. No one actually was into me at all, they were all into Isaac, and wanted to bang Isaac, but Kevin, not so much, not even a little bit. And I was out there trying to sling the merch being cool with my hair, not so much. Nothing.

Isaac sneaks a peek at his cell phone. Oh, give it a rest already, buddy.

Penny: On a more serious note, when the driving on tour gets precarious due to bad weather, challenging geography or unfamiliar roads, who takes the wheel as the most capable driver of Get Back Loretta.

Steven: That is always one of our biggest arguments, who is the better driver? Because. I would say it’s me, but they would all disagree completely. I’m gonna say Steven, I vote for Steven.

Sonny: We all have our shining moments!

Kevin: Honestly, I think Josh is the best driver, and I’m the second best driver. I think Josh drives the slowest. We’re all good and we’re all bad, Josh is the best at gas conservation, which is key during this recession. If you want to conserve gas, Josh is your man. I am very aware of what’s going on and I feel like I am a safe driver. I think that Steven has the best reflexes, but he drives like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. He’s like 90 mph. I’ve already had a bad situation where I went off on an exit ramp going 50 mph when it was a 20 mph exit, and I proved myself with my reflexes and I swerved around the curves.

Isaac: Yeah, I swerve a lot too. I’m the worst driver, no one votes for me. And I always get the three AM to six AM shift.

Penny: Who was driving when you all got pulled over in Arizona?

(Everyone laughs)

Isaac: I was.

Kevin: He was smoking a cigarette too.

Penny: Sonny, there is a dirty rumor going around town that this is your last Get Back Loretta show. Is there any truth to this rumor, and if so, what are your reasons?

Sonny: There is no truth to this rumor, I will be going on the next tour. A three day stint up the coast, so I don’t know where you might have heard that, but I never announced that publicly.

When the interview finishes, I step outside the club for a breath of fresh air, and strike up a conversation with Jaime Jurado, longtime sound tech/bouncer for Get Back Loretta. After listening to him extol the virtues of his new glasses, “I can finally read street signs!” and disclose that GBL’s other bouncer, Danny is begrudgingly on a blind date, I confide in him my fears. That the fun filled interview with Get Back Loretta will entertain readers but not necessarily give them insight into the real people behind the catchy lyrics and powerful sound that is Get Back Loretta. Jaime smiles knowingly, “Oh, these guys, you’ll never get a serious interview out of them. They’re like onions; you have to pull back the layers.”