Teazyr

By Jay Oakley

I'm currently outside House of Rock in White Marsh, Maryland getting ready for Ratt's Stephen Pearcy and I'm being joined by the band Teazyr. How's it going, guys?

Collectively: Good, Good, How's it going?

Good guys. So, we'll start off with who are each of you and what do you do for the band?

Darren Vayne: I'm Darren Vayne, I do lead vocals.

Jimmy Mac: Jimmy Mac, otherwise known as Skulls, bass player.

Joshua Lixx: Joshua Lixx, lead guitar.

Kevin Drezz: Kevin Drezz and I play the drums.

Alright guys, you've made some noise lately all around the scene and it's not exactly been with your instruments. Issues with other bands, issues with venues, ya know this is your time to say your piece. The floor is yours, say whatever you want. You don't have to use names if you don't want to but go ahead.

Joshua: I've got this. Basically, we're Teazyr. We're the pretty boys of Baltimore and guys don't like that because their girlfriends love us and they all want us so when they come to us, they confront us, so what are you going to do? We're not push-overs, we're not going to back down and we're going to handle whatever we need to handle. That's pretty much it. There's these forty or fifty year old rock stars around the scene.

Kevin: They're all washed up. They look at us and they're like, "What the fuck?" "I wish I was young again."

Darren: We're just here to have a good time, but we're not gonna take no shit. Don't start no shit because we don't want no shit but when shit comes our way we'll handle it. 

That's cool guys, that's totally fair. So being the new kids in town do you find that you have to work harder or prove yourselves? Or do you just take it in stride?

Kevin: You always have to work hard to be good. Practice, we practice two times a week for three hours, get our shit done. I think when other bands look at us they don't really know who we are.

Joshua: They look at us as the new kids.

Kevin: Basically, they think we don't know shit but honestly we've been doing this since we were fifteen, me and Josh have and Jimmy Mac. So they might be like, "Fuck this, you can't do this shit, you can't use my drums," or something like that but whatever. I know how it is, drummers sharing shit, I know how it works and I'm twenty. 

Jimmy, you look pretty good for a couple years past fifteen.

Jimmy: Thanks dude, I am officially seventy-one. I am the oldest member of the band, probably considered the Mick Mars of the band.

Joshua: Jimmy gets it done and Jimmy gets more freaking snatch then everybody in this band

Kevin: He really does, that's OK though.

Darren: The blood keeps us young.

So, you guys have been getting booked very regularly. How has that been for you and for your playing having gigs pretty consistently?

Kevin: It keeps us tight.

Joshua: It's a pain in the ass though. We ain't got time to write music ya know but its a lot of fun.

Darren: And we have to work twice as hard as everybody else. You're only as good as your next show, you've always got something to prove.

Joshua: We always have a chip on our shoulder no matter who we're playing with.

Darren: We can't depend on the same crowd all the time. No matter how good our crowd is we always have to look for new faces because everybody knows you play shows every week your crowd thins out so we constantly gotta look for new people to come out.

Joshua: We constantly try different types of alcohol too. That's the biggest thing.

Darren: Because we buy out the freaking liquor stores.

Joshua: But sometimes they don't have what we want.

Jimmy: Certain alcohol tends to bring out certain chicks so we try to dibble and dabble here and there.

Joshua: And a lot of our songs, they're written by alcohol basically. 

So what has been your favorite show that you've played so far?

Collectively: All of them.

Darren: You always have something you remember about each one.

Joshua: My favorite show was the Battle of the Bands Finale.

Kevin: That was a good show, ya know we didn't even get to play and that was a good show.

Did something happen that night?

Joshua: Oh hell yeah.

Darren: Funny you should ask. I mean we won't mention the club it was at but it was in downtown Baltimore.

Joshua: We got drug out by about five bouncers.

Darren: The bouncers didn't like that we were pretty boys wearing makeup and had more women then they'd probably seen in their life and they decided to grab someone by the back of the neck over some freaking mesh gloves and got laid out.

Kevin/Joshua: It is what it is. Whatcha gonna say?

Fair enough guys, absolutely. On more of a positive note what are your influences? What got you into music and playing your instruments?

Joshua: Guns N' Roses! Yes, Slash.

Kevin: Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee.

Jimmy: Everybody. Everything from Alice In Chains to Tony Bennett to Vivaldi.

Darren: Exactly, I like a little bit of everything.

Kevin: Even some newer bands like Crashdïet, Hardcore Superstar those bands over in Sweden. They write good shit and they're barely noticed around here and we try to bring that out in our music.

Besides the covers that you do that have sort of become a staple of your set, you perform originals. Are there any plans to record them?

Joshua: Yes, as soon as we get the time, the breaks from shows and the funds that we need we're gonna hit the studio for them. 

What do you guys have coming up?

Joshua: We have a show coming up on the 25th (January) in Westminster, I think we're going to take a little break after that maybe through February just to get some new originals out there maybe some new covers. Then planning on booking all through the summer.

Kevin: I've got a question for you, Jay.  

Sure, shoot.

Kevin: Out of all the originals we have what's your favorite one?

I really like, "Don't Spit Me Out." I really enjoy that one. I like the guitar parts for it but also being the fan of lyrics I am, I'm really into the chorus. I like the two-part choruses.

Joshua: You wanna know something funny about that song? When we started writing that song it was a joke. Darren was like, "I'm gonna work on some words." and I was like just say, "Suck my dick, don't spit me out." and that's how it happened and he started building off of that. So it all started as a joke.

Honestly, I'll give a shout-out too to "Right Here, Right Now" also because one of the things from shows I've gone to and bands I love, I love crowd harmonies. Anything that the crowd can sing back to the band that's playing the song I'm a big fan of. So having your "Whoa" chorus is awesome which is one of the things that drew me to that song as well.

Joshua: That was the first song overall that we wrote.

Darren: We want to get the crowd pepped up but the crowd gets us pepped up also. The crowd really gives us a lot.

Kevin: Especially during the "Nightrain" cover we do. It sets everything over.

Jimmy: When you see people for the first time that you know you've never seen before at a show and they're singing back like "Teazyr" and "Right Here, Right Now," it's so sweet. 

When it comes to new faces in the crowd, do you see them?

Collectively: Oh Yeah!

Joshua: Well I don't know how much Darren seeing because he's usually highly intoxicated so he can't see a whole lot. I've got another question for you, man. Our style, what do you think it is and who do you think we sound like?

I've always considered you guys and the same way I've always described you is a glam/sleaze rock. That's the way I've always seen it and it's not look or clothes related because I don't ever put a lot of stock into that. Stuff like that is always gonna help give people seeing you a type of visual. I mean, for example, I wear clothes, shirts for all the bands that I'm into but again that's all about influences. So that's what I've always gotten from you guys, from listening etc. Covers like "Mr. Brownstone" and "Nightrain" are gonna help, they're gonna put a Guns N' Roses visual into your head. But you can hear it in your playing and you can also see in your performance that there are certain songs that you give a little extra to. So glam/sleaze has always been the way I've looked at it myself.

Kevin: OK, one more. Over the past couple of shows that you've been to, have you seen a difference in the crowd? Do you see more people coming out to see us? Do you think we're growing?

I do. I definitely have seen a larger crowd. I'm not going to lie to you either, it's a slow progression but slowly but surely. (Jimmy: We do play a lot.) It's not like playing in a small venue to playing The Forum. But that is something that is going to work well for you guys is consistency. The one thing that your friends and families has expressed concern about is you becoming a house band. The way that I have always said it to them is if they're playing every couple of nights or once a week at the same shows, opening or to a certain degree playing with nobodies them that could hurt in the long run. But you guys have played with a lot. You've got Pearcy tonight, you've played with Never Never and L.A. Guns to cover shows with bands like Cold Gin.

Darren: Do you ever leave our shows sober?

Yes but Jimmy and I have a tradition and that will not die tonight. Thanks a lot for your time guys. I definitely want to thank you guys for your time, everything was great and I know that we're going to try to get a bunch of new faces out there for you. For the people that are going to be reading this let everyone know where they can find you.

Joshua: Facebook.com/Teazyr we're also on Instagram: Teazyr and realquick, we want to thank everyone for supporting us over the years and you guys have been the reason we do what we do and the reason that we keep doing what we do. Just keep supporting us, keep believing in us and we'll see where we can get to.