Get ready to kick into the weekend with a blast from today’s Band of the Day, On Better Terms…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are from the Dallas, TX area. Everyone except Josh (drummer) grew up here.
How did you meet?
Alex and Andrew have actually been friends for a long time. They knew each other through playing club soccer and working at the same place growing up. Josh joined the band after answering an ad 2 years ago, and Alex we knew because he runs a popular DIY house show venue in the area.
How long have you been playing as a band?
Officially we have been a band since 2013, but we started playing shows in the summer of 2014, so roughly 5 years give or take.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
When the band first started we played around with a few names, our first name was actually Capital. But we scratched it, and changed the name to On Better Terms a few weeks later. The name stuck because it seemed to match the lyrical theme of our songs that we were writing.
What are your influences?
Our influences and heroes have a wide range, but our primary influences are Troubled Coast, Being As An Ocean, Touche Amore and La Dispute.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We would say our live show is what makes us unique. We really don’t feel like we try to fit into a specific genre, but rather work towards communicating a specific emotion or feeling in our music.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Andrew talks a lot about subjects like accepting death, our struggles with religion and spirituality, enjoying youth, depression, hope. We really want our first time listeners to remember that it made them think about something, enough to where they would want to listen again.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We feel our live shows are a celebration of emotion and a culmination of the natural feelings of life. A very raw and beautiful experience that guide the audience toward inner reflection and resolution. OBT has been playing shows since 2014, so we had to tally it up—we’ve played over 100 shows in the last 5 years.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
On our first long tour, we played in an abandoned house in the middle of the Ohio valley. There was only one room in the house with power which was run by a gas generator. Next to the stage, there was a makeshift plywood half pipe built into the living room. People were skating right in front of us while we were playing, and those who weren’t were going crazy for our music despite never having heard of us. It’s our favourite show we ever played.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Josh (drummer): I play a Ludwig Classic Maple kit. 13×9, 16×16, 18×16, and 24×14. For cymbals, I currently play Istanbul agop 15 inch hats, Istanbul Xist 22in crash, a 26in Soultone vintage crash/ride , and a 20in meinl dual crash/ride.
Alex Rincon (guitarist): I use a completely customized Fender Stratocaster, an Egnater Rebel 30 tube head, a custom built 2×10 cabinet, loaded with custom 10 inch Celestion speakers, as well as various pedals.
Alex Kershner (bassist): Fender PJ Bass.
Amp: Darkglass Microtubes 500 going into an Ampeg 8×10.
Board: Ernie Ball VP Jr, Boss TU-3, Darkglass Hyper Liminal Comp, ISP Decimator, Darkglass Alpha Omega, and a Sansamp.
What are your plans for 2019?
The plan for the band is to continue to write music and tour until we can’t do this anymore.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
A band we would love to support on tour would be Prawn, we played with them once when they came to Dallas and they were very nice genuine people. If we had to bring a band to open for us, it would be our local mates in My Apologies. We released a Split EP back in March of 2018 with them, and their music is simply amazing.
