Four-piece San Diego-based Urethane are out with their debut album, Chasing Horizons, which came out September 24 on Cyber Tracks. It features 12 tracks drenched in thought-provoking, highly-energetic, and passionate melodic punk.
The foursome features vocalist/guitarist/main songwriter Tim Fennelly (War Fever), bassist Chad Ruiz (Skipjack), drummer Dylan Wade (The Bombpops), and legendary skater and punk musician Steve Caballero (The Faction, Odd Man Out, Soda). We had the chance to talk to Caballero about the impressive album and the band in general.
So, you guys started last year.
Yeah, so we pretty much started the band around September 2020, and we basically started out as a three-piece, and within four months, I decided I wanted to play guitar, so we got Chad to play bass. And by bringing him into the band, he got us a record deal as well.
To get it started, was it anything with just last year being cooped up and stuff? Or …
I was actually in a previous band, jamming for about a year, and we had about 10 songs, and it was time to look for a singer to complete the band, I had been playing bass at the time. So, I put a little message out on Instagram about looking for a singer and that’s when Tim answered my ad and reached out to me and sent me a couple of demos in an email and I fell in love, I loved his voice; I loved the songs he was writing.
So, I presented it to the band and the band was not into it. They were like, “No, not our style, not going to fit.” So, it kinda showed me that we weren’t on the same page. So, I made the huge decision of leaving this band that I’d been playing with for about a year or quit and start something new with Tim, and that’s what I did. So, that’s how that all started; I just put all my faith in Tim and his songs. We just got the ball rolling and found a drummer really quickly and started playing.
All those guys are in San Diego; are you, too?
Yeah, I live in Carlsbad, so we’re all pretty much local. The first time I met our singer, we met in a coffee shop right by my house, and I found out that he only lives, like, two miles from me. And our drummer is in Oceanside, which is about 10 minutes away north, and our bass player is in Chula Vista area, near San Diego.
So, you said September 2020, so, that’s cool. At that time, were you able to be in person and practice together at first?
Yeah, to be honest with you, I haven’t really been afraid of the whole COVID thing. And I noticed our drummer, when we first met, I didn’t even know what he looked like because he would show up with a mask; his wife made him wear a mask every time he came and met with us. So, for the longest time I didn’t even know what he looked like (laughs]).
Yeah, ‘cos you hear about bands making records in 2020, and a lot was through the computer and everything and sending each other tracks, but you guys were in it together practicing from the beginning.
Yeah, we were jamming. Sometimes we jammed at my house, but then we decided—because the drums are super loud, and we couldn’t play for a long time—we decided to rent a studio, so we ended up practicing in a studio for months. And then, like I said, me and the singer didn’t really have our fears of getting together and having to wear a mask, so I just have never fallen into that.
How long were you working on the songs, writing? Does Tim do all the lyrics?
Yeah, Tim’s the singer and he’s pretty much the songwriter. We worked on this whole record from day one when we got together to when we got in the studio, to being in the studio and still writing it. So, it’s been a process of learning how to play with each other, learning each other’s personality, learning these songs that Tim wrote, and then just kind of adding our own flavor to changing the way they were arranged. What made it quick was Tim always had a solid base of what a song should sound like and then we would add our own flair to it. And, like I said, even in the studio, I wrote a lot of new parts that I never even played before, before I even got into the studio.
So, you had Cameron Webb (Motorhead, Pennywise, Strung Out) record it.
Yeah, that was another interesting thing. I’ve been in a lot of bands, but I’ve never hired a high-end producer to make a record, which was paid by the label. And I’ve also been in punk bands where you write the whole album and mix it in three days. This project, they allowed us to go in there for three weeks. So, that changed the whole dynamic of everything, and we really just took our time. Also, Cameron Webb has a high attention to detail and perfection, and he worked us, and he really made us play these things perfect.
Yeah, it sounds great. Just even the last song (“What Becomes of Us”), you can hear everything.
I played piano. So, that was something I wrote at home, and I was able to adapt to the song. We decided to make that song—because we were still working on it, we decided to make it acoustic because Tim writes all his songs acoustically, and then we put them to electric guitars.
The whole album is powerful, but that’s a great closer. The piano adds that little extra …
I just wanted to share and showcase all of our talents instrument-wise.
And about that, how powerful lyrically and musically the album is, it sounds like you guys are having fun, and it’s just so spirited. It sounds like you’re having fun playing.
These guys are so easy to work with. Great personalities. No egos in the band. Just really fun, funny dudes that I’d never even met before and learning to get along and play with these guys, we’re in the long-haul with this band. I see a huge future with making more records, and even with Cameron Webb, because we built a great relationship with Cameron, a trustworthy one, we really love the way he works, and we love how he pushed us to be our best. I mean, I’m singing on the record more than I ever thought I would. A lot of the harmonies, and back-up vocals is all me.
Yeah, it sounds great, how it’s all put together.
It’s years of experience from each member. Each member has been in former bands. Dylan was in The Bombpops; our bass player is the singer for Skipjack; Tim is the guitarist and singer for War Fever, and I’ve been in various punk bands, the Faction, Odd Man Out, Soda.
Right. So, your first band was the Faction.
Yeah, that was from 1982 to 1985.
Did you think, well, I know it’s strange at the time, but that you’d still be playing for all these years?
I never really thought about it. I did it for fun as a teenager. I still wanted to keep making music after the bands broke up, so I’ve always kinda got together with friends and put bands together and played shows and just had a good time. But I’ve never been on the level that this band is on with all the connections that we have and everything that’s fallen into place. I’m most proud of this band, the music, the songwriting, and what we’ve come up with in such a short time.
Yeah, that’s true, the album came out just a year after you just started.
We never played a show yet and the album was done. [Laughter]
I was going to mention about how you got Toby [Morse, H20 vocalist] and Jim on there, their voices to the respective songs totally fit. You know?
Yeah. Well, the thing how it happened with Toby, was that dude owed me one because I played on one of his last records, where I was a guest guitar player and wrote the lead for that song and shot a music video at the Vans Skatepark at the Block, so when it was time for us to try to find some guest players, he was first one I thought of. That dude owes me one, so I’m asking him.
I saw you did his podcast (One Life One Chance, Episode 135). That’s cool.
That was a great podcast. I was supposed to do that with just me because I had done a previous one and I asked Toby, “Hey, can I invite Tim our singer?” so we could do it together, and it turned out to be a great time.
Oh, but about this album, did you have more songs and had to pare it down?
(Laughs)
Uh oh …
That’s funny you ask that because that’s what the label was asking. They’re like, “How many songs you got?” And we’re like, “How many do you need?” “Twelve, but it would be kind of cool to bring in more songs in case we don’t use any, you can just resort to other songs.” They’re like, “How many songs you got?” We’re like, “We got enough.” But at the time they asked us, we only knew five. (Laughs) The basis was there. Tim had all these songs. We just hadn’t learned them yet, and we hadn’t rewritten them yet and collabed on them. But Tim had the ideas.
How did you get with the label?
So, the label came about because Tim asked Chad to join the band because we were in the band together for four months, and then I just had this wild hair about playing guitar and adding a bass player to the band. So, when I asked Tim, four months into it, I’m like, “What do you think about me playing guitar?” He was like, “That’s awesome, ‘cause my friend Chad really wants to be in the band. He’s been bugging me for months.” And I’m like, “He’s in.” I didn’t know Chad. And once we got together and played, after band practice, Chad surprised us with, “Hey, I played El Hefe from NOFX and Jen [Abeyta] from Cyber Tracks, Tim’s demo, and they wanna sign us and do a record.” Like, we just asked you to be in the band, and now you’re offering us a record deal for us too? How amazing is that? All great choices that led to this album.
It feels like everything fit into place.
Yeah, and it’s taken a lot of courage for people to reach out and make decisions. If Tim never reached out to me, this record would never be anything. I’d still probably be in that other band trying to find a singer. Who knows? If I never decided I wanted to play guitar, we never would’ve had Chad in the band and the record deal never would’ve happened. A lot of decisions have led up to this amazing album.
Well, even that you got to play Punk Rock Bowling after just starting out, is it because of name recognition? How did that come about?
I think so. I think our record label had a lot to do with it, convincing the festival to allow us to play. Also, to be honest with you, there is truth to it’s all who you know. So, it’s very wise to make relationships all over the world, to be able to say, “Hey, I have a connection here; can I use it?” So, yeah. It’s all who you know. [Laughs] We were hoping the band was going to back itself up, too.
Right. Let’s see, that was just after the album came out, so people didn’t really know the songs yet, but I feel like if you go out now and people have heard it, there’s so many songs that I could see people singing along to. It’s anthemic.
Yeah. I just think it’s going to get better and better and once the album’s out I think people are going to appreciate our live show.
Do you see you guys touring?
It’s really going to depend on if we find a good tour manager and hopping onto a—I like the idea of hopping onto a tour with a headlining band to piggyback off their fame and then so people can hear our band wherever we go.
But everyone’s into the idea of taking time off and going out for some time?
I think that’s the dream for all the guys in the band, to be able to quit their day jobs and have the band as their job. I’ve been a professional skateboarder my whole life, so I’ve been traveling my whole life.
Just about being in that whole world when you were so young, do you think is that what got you into punk and hardcore from being exposed to that music?
Skateboarding exposed me to rock ‘n’ roll. I didn’t listen to rock ‘n’ roll at all before I got into skateboarding. Like, at all. And once I got into skateboarding, the guys at the park were listening to rock ‘n’ roll, so that’s what influenced me to get into that type of music, and then really quickly it changed to new wave and shortly after it went straight to punk rock.
That’s so cool how it coincided. And that’s when you picked up the guitar?
I picked up a bass. I picked up a guitar first. I wasn’t very good at it [laughs]. So, I decided I wanted to play the bass. I picked that up in 1982, and then I remember I started this band with some local friends from the skate park. And we decided to form this band and call it The Faction, and when we recorded our five-song EP, I realized I’d only been playing bass for, like, six months and I’m already in the studio recording. The punk rock thing is always a DIY thing. Do it yourself attitude, so anything we wanted to have made, we did it ourselves, whether it was records, stickers, t-shirts. We all made that ourselves.
So, like you said, you started in 1982 and stopped in 1985 and then came back together.
Yeah. A few times. We reformed in 1989 and broke up and got back together in 2001 to 2004, broke up and then got back together in 2011 until recently, 2020, we stopped playing.
Just about this band, I saw on Instagram you’re practicing again… Working on new stuff?
We’ve just been practicing our live performance. We definitely want to write new songs, but I think we should wait because we have to let people hear these first.
Yes, that is true (laughs).
But we are eager to write new stuff, but we definitely need to work on our live performance so it’s as strong as the record. And we’re also working on our acoustic performance because we’re going to do an acoustic set on the Flogging Molly cruise in March, along with a plugged-in set. We’re playing acoustically, and we’re also playing plugged-in as well. I went two years ago and Face to Face did the same thing. They played one night in a club plugged in, loud, and then the next night, they played in the Atrium where all the elevators are, there’s, like, 11 floors on the boat, and they played in the Atrium where the bar is acoustically, and it was beautiful.
Are you still skating and everything?
Yeah. I’m still skating. I had a couple injuries the lasted a couple years. I’m trying to get back to where I was. I ride a lot of dirt bikes. It hasn’t been kind to me. (Laughs) I’ve gotten hurt twice so far, really badly. But, I’m on the mend and just trying to get back into the groove again and get all my tricks back that I used to do.
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Watch the video for “Gravity” here:
For more from Urethane, find them on Instagram and Facebook.
Photo courtesy of Jeremy Frasca
