A Chat with Valentino Arteaga from
Of Mice & Men
and
Lower Definiton
Interview by Ken Morton Live Photo by Jack Lue Of Mice & Men (pictured right) has spent their time within the wilds of a great pandemic creating their sonic artistry, with the stunning results being a duo of EP’s entitled Timeless and Bloom both now available via SharpTone Records. OM&M’s drummer Valentino Arteaga is also very active with the reawakening of his previous band Lower Definition, best known for their The Greatest of All Lost Arts album from 2008 on Ferret Records. With a brand new single entitled Grief Eater and even more music on the way, Lower Definition is primed and ready to present their dynamic auditory visions to the world once more. Highwire Daze recently caught up with Valentino Arteaga via Skype to find out more about the current happenings from Of Mice & Men and the return of the post hardcore collective known as Lower Definition. Read on...
Part One - Lower Definition How did the return of Lower Definition come about, especially when you’re already super busy with a major band called Of Mice & Men? A couple of years ago back in 2018 we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the release of Lower Definition’s first and only album The Greatest Of All Lost Arts. And I kind of had some foresight in seeing that that time was coming up – and I thought since I had some time, that we could schedule a show in our hometown at Soma – which is basically our home venue in San Diego. And that whole 2018 kind of sparked us into talking about it. Obviously, we’ve taken it slow, but that’s also because we’re holding it close to our hearts. That’s kind of how we always did it, and we don’t want to rush it for the sake of putting out music just to put it out. We want to make sure that the music is absolute top tier quality of what we expect from ourselves and what we hope our band would sound like in the year of 2021 and onward. It’s a whole new 26
landscape and I think our mindset as a band back in the early 2000’s post hardcore and underground metal scene / underground punk scene. It’s a different realm out here now. And we want to stay true to what our sound is – whatever that means to us today. I think I saw Lower Definition either at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood and/or at the Cobalt Café in Canoga Park. I was going to say I remember Highwire Daze from Cobalt – you guys were always out there covering those shows. And there was such a killer scene out there man – we were always so stoked when we got to go out there to play. Back then it was just moshing, and it was crazy. It’s these small venues that really gave way to these iconic memories for us. It was either the Knitting Factory R.I.P. or the Cobalt. I don’t know if the Cobalt is still around. Cobalt Café R.I.P…. Aw man! Yeah, it’s pretty crazy but being in those circles and playing at those venues – being from San Diego we always felt like we wanted to get out of our town and go up and play in the Los Angeles area. We’d always go out to the Los Angeles area and play The Showcase out there. The music scene back then was like the fabric of what built who we all are today. And for myself especially with having taken a career in music, and everywhere that that’s taken me – so I feel very strongly rooted in the hometown scenes in the So Cal June /July 2021
HIGHWIRE DAZE
