BandNation

Can you introduce yourselves to our bandnation readers?

Daniel: My name is Daniel, I play bass.
Brandon: Brandon Forsberg, I play drums.
Brent: Brent Schneider, guitar and vocals.

The band was formally known as Understated, why the name change?

Brandon: We had the name for six years and felt a time for a change; it was a more mature name. We made the first name when we were about 12, so it seemed like a good time to change the name.
Brent: I second that.
Daniel: I agree strongly.

Does the name stand for anything?

Brent: Rocketry is rock plus poetry. I just put some songs on ITunes, and in the genre I put rocketry. It is either going to be really cool or really gay and no one is going to like it. I thought it looked pretty cool, I felt that we created our own genre, even though all rock plus poetry is rocketry. Bombshell because it sounds cool, that’s really it, there is no real meaning behind it.

Brandon and Brent, I saw your video for ice blocking boots, can you fill us in on what ice blocking is and why you made boots?

Brent: Ice blocking is when you go to the store, and you buy big blocks of ice—I don’t know what they are for really.
Brandon: For big drinks.
Brent: Yeah that’s it, for igloos too, given the time of year. Anyway, we get the ice blocks and for cheap fun we would sit on the ice block and slide down the biggest hill in Rancho. The thing with those is when you sat on it, even with the towel, you got really wet and grassy, so you just came home itchy and sweaty and it sucked, so we thought of an idea to make boots so you eliminate that problem. It took a long time; I took apart my entire freezer and made the boots. We went through a lot of trial and error; first we tried it with shoes and it didn’t work, so we bought rain boots and that worked perfect. The hard part was trying to get them to freeze straight; you have to fill it with sand or something. Once they were frozen we were really excited, we went out, they came out of the plastic real easy, put them on, just ran and it worked beautifully.

It looked like you guys had a pretty fun time. I would like to try it.

Brandon: They will be at Kmart, Wal-Mart, and Target.
*Everyone laughs*

Way to promote it guys. You all are very young. Are you guys working, or are you just pursuing music, are you in school? What are you doing?

Brent: I work as a waiter in the daytime. It’s okay, but I want to do music for the rest of my life no matter what. No is not an answer.
Brandon: I work part time and go to school part time. I would love to do music instead of all that but you have to pay the bills.
Daniel: I work part time. I agree with Brandon, this is what we want to do for the rest of our lives.

What is your ideal record label that you would want to be signed to?

Brent: Any label that will just help take us to the next level, because we have been kind of stuck at the same level for about six years now. The next level is to tour, because we do not have the money to tour, get a CD in stores—even though people are just stealing CDs, that’s okay. Anything that can take us to the next level would be amazing, to where I can pay the bills, I don’t need to be rich, just pay the bills.

Which band, famous band, would you like to share the stage with?

Brandon: Prince would be cool. KC and the Sunshine Band, the Carpenters, any kinds of band like that.
Daniel: I would say Hellogoodbye and The Rocket Summer.
Brent: Of course it’s obvious that green day would be a dream come true. I still can’t believe we played with Mxpx, that was real nice, a dream come true, and Rocket Summer definitely.
Brandon: Blink 182 would be amazing.
Brent: Yeah, if they get back together; I would love to be on their tour if they got back together.
Who is your favorite from blink 182?
Daniel: Mark Hoppus.
Brent: Mark Hoppus, too.
Brandon: I really don’t have a favorite; I like them all.

Have you guys ever had any weird fan encounters?

Brent: When we were younger, yeah, when everyone was more immature. Now everyone has jobs. Earlier on you think, “Oh, no one is coming because they can’t drive,” but now they can drive and have jobs so it works out.
Brandon: Once a few years ago I had to sign a guy’s butt. Each one of us had a different cheek.
Oh my gosh, that is so weird.
Brent: I really just consider our fans now our friends. I really do not know anyone that likes us that I don’t know. There probably is, but I don’t know.

Are you guys going in the studio, are you making a new CD with your new name?

Daniel: We have five songs coming up. As soon as we get the drums in the studio then we’re going to do it all. It’s going to be amazing.
I’m excited.
Daniel: It’s going to be the best understated rocketry CD ever. It’s true. It’s true.

Any message for the fans?

All: Come to our shows.
Brent: Thank you for supporting us. I know everyone says this, but I won’t forget any of you.
Daniel: I second that.