Hotwire guitarist/lead vocalist Rus Martin used to think that he couldn't play the guitar and sing at the same time.
"I started out with just playing the guitar," Martin said during a telephone interview from San Diego. "I didn't want to sing. I thought it must be hard to sing and play guitar at the same time. But I tried it and found that I liked it. At least I'm not the lead guitarist."
Martin, lead guitarist Gabe Garcia, drummer Brian Borg and bassist Chris Strauser — collectively known as Hotwire — never thought about playing music as a job. They just wanted to get out and have a good time. "We tried not to make playing music so serious," said Martin of the punk band's early days in Newbury Park/Thousand Oaks area of California. "And we weren't even worried about whether or not our music would sound original.
"I mean everybody's going to say it sounds like something, because it's already been done since classical music, with the exception of rap-rock — but those bands need loving, too."
What Hotwire wanted to do was make music that captured the mood at a particular the moment. "We know we're not the greatest musicians in the world," Martin said. "And we didn't want to make a record that had boring music on it. We took a risk and made music we thought we could as a band. We had written a few songs that we had to flush down the toilet because they weren't very good, but we kept the ones we thought were our best and those made the album."
Hotwire did have a chance to test the waters before releasing its new album. In 2001, the band released a four-song extended play. By October, 2002, the band entered the studio with producer Matt Hyde, who worked with Pornos for Pyros and Slayer, to record the band's full-length debut, "The Routine."
"Matt became a fifth member of the band," Martin said. "He understood us."
If you go
What: Shadows Fall and Hotwire
Where: DV8, 115 S. West Temple
When: Sunday, doors open at 7 p.m.
How much: $10
Phone: 467-8499 or 1-800-888-8499
Web: www.smithstix.com
E-MAIL: scott@desnews.com