By Amahli Vivian
About a week before their show at SubRosa Community Space on June 5, I interviewed Sex Ed, an electroskramz band based in the North Bay Area. Sex Ed creates a sound entirely their own, pulling influences from electronic music, alternative metal, screamo/skramz, and jazz (amongst other genres). We chatted about live shows, the surge of the screamo scene in recent years, Taqueria Mila, Bay Area show organizers, and building music–based communities.
Sex Ed is: Chase (synth), Caleb (drums, vocals), Kira (bass, saxophone)
Amahli: So, how did you come up with your band name?
Caleb: Being transgender. That’s the TLDR of it I suppose. But Sex Ed was a very big influence on a lot of my life. The fact is it didn’t work very well and left a lot of gaps in my life and a lot of people around me. “Sex Ed” also has a nice ring to it. Everybody kind of has an infamously bad experience with sex ed in this country, too. I remember my principal in elementary school was doing a sex ed thing. We ended up just talking about how cigarettes were bad for you. And I was like, “okay, well, we were supposed to be talking about puberty and stuff.” It’s basically that sex ed resonates with us in terms of…that was kind of the first legislative system that I noticed kind of failing me.
Amahli: How do you incorporate that into your sound as a band?
Caleb: I mean, it’s just rage (laughs). I think of this synth. We use a synth called the Mario Venom, and it’s just this terrible rave synth. It was like mass produced in the 2000s, and it just has these terrible, awful sounds on it. And it was used for like, kind of like happy hardcore and German techno kind of stuff. And it just didn’t sell at all. And it’s like I bought it for 200 bucks and like, that’s the sound of Sex Ed. That synth, like with our laptop pedal board. I think that even kind of speaks to that message, because it’s this thing that’s being mass produced that nobody really wants. It’s out in the world, and we’re repurposing it for our own sake. I think just having such an unconventional setup, maybe, conveys that as well. It’s just, a lot of people have seen classic screamo guitar throws and, you know, sh*t like that, like the f*cking Ben Wineman holding the guitar up, and that really cool.
But I think this [band, Sex Ed] is a really interesting presentation. And I think it kind of takes people off guard through the lyrical content but also exploring. It’s taking a screamo angle and then it’s talking about very personal, like anguish that we have and taking these very specific personal examples and then kind of tying them into, like wider issues and being like, “these are things that everybody has to deal with to some extent or is perpetuating to some extent.”
Amahli: I thought it was pretty cool you had a saxophonist and a synth player. You don’t really see that in screamo.
Caleb: Yes, typically not!
Amahli: You describe yourself as electroskramz. How do you deal with those dynamics of electronic music and screamo/skramz?
Caleb: There’s some wider influences as well. I mean Kira, you listen to a sh*tload of jazz music?
Kira: Yeah, I listen to a lot of jazz. That’s the main genre that I listen to, to be honest.
Caleb: And I think, like, I think we just have a really interesting ethos because we weren’t really into guitar/bass music for a good portion of the time that we were friends because we all met in high school. I was very close with Chase in terms of sharing music (because Kira was doing a bunch of cool sh*t). Chase and I were making beats on Ableton… just making instrumental electronic music. Then we had a friend who started pushing us into these weird alt metal, methcore, and hardcore kinds of directions. They introduced us to Snapcase, Botch, Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge; all these weird alternative hardcore, kind of like bands. By extension, we just got into screamo. And then I think when I was listening to the kind of the early to mid 90s [screamo]. It was just like there was just a few albums that I was like, “Oh my f*cking God. This is the most raw I could ever hear in music.” I don’t think there’s any other music work that I’ve listened to where the emotion has been expressed like that. I think we wanted to kind of throw those two things [the electronic and screamo genres] together because there’re a lot of politics behind electronic music that people don’t really understand. But it can be interesting when people do understand what we’re talking about in terms of electronic music. I think it can be kind of adjacent sometimes, for sure.
Amahli: I definitely feel like a lot of the 90s screamo, it’s like, this is why I feel like screamo has the most cathartic music, both live and just listening to it in your headphones. What specific music influences are you pulling from?
Caleb: We joke that we just rip off Jeromes Dream all the time. There’s this one song where he’s [Chase] is like, “okay, we’re playing the Jeromes Dream beat. That’s the Jeromes Dream beat.”
Chase: Also a lot of Death Grips, Aphex Twin, and a blend of a lot of mathy stuff.
Kira: I feel like I take a lot of influence from electronic music more than anything else in Sex Ed. It was you guys [Caleb and Chase] who kind of got me into listening to Square Pusher and Apex Twin. I hadn’t really listened to them that much, but I think about those artists a lot, definitely when we’re playing our music. And also I play saxophone and, just in terms of playing saxophone, my biggest influence is definitely John Coltrane, which is not in the same realm at all, but just in terms of the instrument that I play.
Amahli: I was listening to your music and it really reminded me of a specific niche in metal, where it’s industrial and doomy. Kind of like The Body, but with saxophone and synths!
Caleb: We’ve gotten to industrial comments a few times. I think that’s really interesting because it really speaks to the themes of
Sex Ed, that’s still expressed in the music, even though we don’t really listen to stuff like that.
Amahli: I know y’all are based in the North Bay [Area]. Could you talk a little bit about the music scene there?
Caleb: Yeah. I mean, it’s f*cking popping right now.
Chase: It’s insane.
Caleb: It’s really revived in the past few years. There was a huge boom post-COVID, with more alt punk bands. And that was really inspiring to see. There were a lot of local bands that could pack the Phoenix Theater out, which I mean, I don’t even know how big capacity that is.
Chase: 500 people, easily.
Caleb: I think there was a lull in the scene for a while. But when we joined, we started doing shows at a really good time because I think two local screamo bands started forming at that time, like Placeholder. We can’t even talk about ourselves without Placeholder! We’ve played so many shows with them and think they’re such sweet people. And they make such interesting, cool music. But yeah, it’s [the scene] really strong here right now.
Kira: Especially in Santa Rosa. There’s like 3 or 4, like venues that have consistently good shows.
Amahli: Are there specific venues you like playing at?
Caleb: We love Taqueria Mila. That place recently got shut down. They’re not hosting shows there anymore, which is f*cking really sad., But they’re still open as a food spot, so anyone in the area needs to go there and support because they still haven’t fixed their window (laughs). Also The Shop, a sort of DM for address venue. That place is very cozy, it’s very nice. And I mean, the Phoenix Theater goes without saying. We basically try to say yes to any shows there because it’s a great venue.
Amahli: Why do you think there’s such a stronghold of screamo right now?
Kira: I think part of it is in response to politics, for sure. It’s a very political type of music inherently. We’re responding to it in a little bit of a different way from a lot of other bands. But I think a lot of other bands also, similarly to us, want to push back against a lot of bad sh*t going on right now.
Caleb: I think it’s definitely like a move toward community centered involvement and people getting away from screens and indoors. You know, as the kids say, touching that grass. Screamo to me is really the most unfiltered, raw, emotive, music that you can get in terms of guitar based, aggressive music. And it’s like what you [Kira] said, it’s a very f*cked up time. People really need community right now. This is the worst time now to be like a doomscroller on your phone. What better way to connect with somebody than to just see them express these emotions that you are also feeling? And I’ve discovered that since being in a band, I feel like I’ve come out of my shell like so much more and I’ve met so many kind people through music.
Amahli: I think there’s a point where being on the internet and having an online community can only do so much. I talk about emo and screamo online with people all the time, but it’s nothing really matches being at a show and talking to random people.
Caleb: And I think it’s so much more interesting to connect with people over influences and music and art when they’re not viewed in this internet lens of the whole, “this is the essential thing you need to listen to. If you haven’t listened to this, what are you doing?” thing. It’s just so much less cynical speaking on it in real life.
Amahli: Do you have a memorable show you’ve played before?
Caleb: We’ve been praising Brahm like no tomorrow, but that one [show] was just crazy.
Chase: Brahm!
Caleb: We’re so excited that we were able to land that. They’re so nice. Both us and Placeholder were, like, over the f*cking moon about it. And then Lorrel just blew the house down. It wasn’t our first Phoenix Theater show, but it was the first one we booked.
Kira: I feel like the Neck of the Woods one too.
Chase: Yeah, I was gonna say that one too.
Caleb: That was our first Lapse of Memory show.
Kira: It was also our first show in San Francisco. So far…
Caleb and Chase: More to come!
Caleb: But that [Lapse of Memory show] was the first time we met Angel (Lapse of Memory) and Corey (Ineffable). They’re awesome. I love them so much. They throw like, such good show
Kira: Totally. I feel like some of the Taqueria Mila shows are also some of the most memorable for me. And it’s kind of like bittersweet looking back at it.
Caleb: Yeah, definitely.
For the most part, each show we played has been pretty solid and consistent.
Amahli: Are you guys working on any songs right now?
Caleb: It’s really hard to get recording time in, but we have ideas. We’re trying to experiment with a lot more stuff. I don’t want to talk about it too much, but it’s a split.
Chase: That’s it
Caleb: Probably 10 to 15 minutes of material for each band. But other than that, we just have an endless flow of shows coming on slot…
Amahli: Awesome! Thank you so much for talking to me. It’s been pretty fun. I’m excited to see you all next week.