FOCUSEDxMINDS Interview

Who are the members of FxM and what do they do?

   

FocusedXMinds is John Taylor (myself) on vocals, Andrew Dean Meier on guitar, Brian Groszkiewicz slappin' da bass, and Chris Sarauer beatin up the skins.

What kind of music do you guys consider yourselves to play?

We consider ourselves a fast contemporary hardcore band to be honest. I realize that sounds super vague but when we started practicing we had every intention of starting a youth crew revival band. As we started it became very apparent that although we draw influence from the music we don't really stick to that genre. We kinda draw influences from all over actually, between the four of us we listen to a lot of different styles of hardcore and when you mix it all up FocusedXMinds came out. 

How did you get the name FocusedxMinds, and was it the first name that you guys decided on?

It's actually an interesting story, Drew and myself went to This Is Hardcore 2k10 and after watching enough straight edge bands I knew I wanted to front one. I walked up to him and asked him when we were gonna start a straight edge band. He kinda laughed it off and went back to his conversation. Ten minutes later i said, "No, seriously, when is Focused Minds going to practice? He asked me if that was the name and I told him it was. We never discussed another, no one ever mentioned not liking it either. We added the X just because we are an edge band and apparently with a name like Focused Minds that wasn't apparent (sarcasm). It's crazy to me still that the first name I came up with could embody so much of what our band is all about and what we're into, but it happened, FocusedXMinds. 

How and when did FxM start?

FXM had our first official practice in the first week of September, unofficially the week before. Drew, Brian, and I kinda got together and they wrote some riffs and I fit my lyrics to them. Drew recorded the "songs" and sent them to Chris and he came up to Milwaukee and we started jamming that week. 

Can you tell us a little bit about the band and what you guys stand for?

FocusedXMinds is a straight edge band. What comes with that, however; is the forward thinking that can only come from living such a life style. We are for self empowerment, human rights, and animal rights. Whether that speaking about sexism,   racism, and homophobia like in our song Face it, or the topic of being proactive and making something of yourself      in our song "No Satisfaction". We definitely believe having a clear mind should be put to good use and that is what I write about.

What are some of your major influences?

We draw influence from all over to be honest. Like I said we just write what we like, we keep it fast and aggressive but past that we don't really try to limit ourselves to have a specific "sound."

What's your favorite venue to play at, and can you tell us why?

Before this last tour this question would have been a lot harder to answer but now I can definitely say Aladin Jr's in Pomona. We've played their twice and both times have been amazing. A lot of kids there and a lot of them setting it off. Playing a show is always fun when you feel like the energy in the crowd is higher than ours on stage and Pomona definitely delivers. (Shout out to Nate from Xibalba for booking us there both times)

Do you have any crazy stories from touring?

Yes. I wish i could say more but legality comes into play. We did however have a merch guy meet a girl he had been talking to in Alabama and still has not left, and that was last June. It doesn't always have to be crazy the four of us really just enjoy being on the road playing music. But the amount of stupid shit that comes out of boredom is pretty wild.