The reggae-rock group The Expendables kicked off their Winter Blackout Tour at their all-time favorite venue, The Catalyst, in sunny Santa Cruz, Ca., on Dec. 9 & 10.  

The tour will continue with stops in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and California, heading for two Southern California cities: Pomona on Feb. 16 and San Diego Feb. 17. 

I had the chance to sit down with, the band members comprising vocalist and guitarist Geoff Weers, drummer and vocalist Adam Patterson, lead guitarist Raul Bianchi, and bass player Ryan DeMars to talk about their sound, upcoming tour, and what fans can expect from them in the coming year. 

NT: Name a song that you’ve listened to in the past 24 hours. 

Ryan: LMFAO? What’s that one song? I’m sexy and I know it or something like that? 

Raul: "Obsession" by Animotion.  

Geoff: "So Easy" by Rascal Flatts. 

NT: What’s the last concert you guys have gone to? 

Ryan: Besides the last one’s we’ve played?

Adam: I saw Journey and Foreigner. 

Raul: I think Prince was the last one.

Ryan: Oh, I saw Britney Spears at the Shark Tank.   

Geoff: The last concert I saw was Passafire, here at the Catalyst. [They all chime in laughing, "Oh yeah, Passafire!"] 

NT: How would you describe your style of music? 

Ryan: A little bit of this, a little bit of that. 

Adam: Yeah, it’s a little bit of everything. It’s mixture rock. 

Raul: We have a lot of reggae and rock but we have other shit too, so it’s mixture rock.

Geoff: Rock mixed with some other shit. Rock with diarrhea.  

NT: Who are your main influences? 

Raul: Everything and anything, I think. 

Adam: Adam Patterson, Raul Bianchi, and Ryan DeMars influence me. 

Ryan: The great mother nature earth. 

Adam: And obviously weed [laughing]. Bands would be like Police, Steel Pulse, Bob Marley, and Slightly Stoopid is an influence on us for sure. That’s all you get.  

Raul: Well, there’s like a billion. 

Adam:  Yeah, there’s probably like 180 bands that have influenced us. 

Geoff: Maybe not just a band but one band’s song or the style of song…. Maybe a couple of lyrics here and there is very influential. 

NT: What do you think differentiates your sound from another reggae bands or rock bands? 

Raul: We’re not great at anything but we’re good at lots of things. [laughing] 

Adam: There’s a lot of like '80s metally, guitar stuff going on that a lot of other bands don’t do but we keep strong. Like dual leads and stuff a lot of bands don’t do in our genre.  

Ryan: A drummer that sings. 

NT: Which genre would you guys like to be associated with? 

Ryan: That’s the hardest question ever. I would like to be in the top-selling genre [all laughing]. 

Geoff: Top 40.

Raul: Whatever one has the most musically accepting fans, it doesn’t matter what you play. 

Adam: I guess rock.

Geoff: Ryan nailed it. 

NT: Do you think growing up in Santa Cruz influence your music? 

Geoff: Definitely. 

Ryan: Any musician or any artist, wherever they grow up or whatever there surroundings are is going to influence them.  

Raul: We don’t write only about Santa Cruz but there’s definitely songs that have been influenced by our town. 

Adam: Environment.

NT: So most of your lyrics are based on personal experience?

Raul: Basically. 

Geoff: What we do is take the input and regurgitate it out in song. 

NT: So is this the first stop of your Winter Blackout Tour? 

Geoff: Yes. 

NT: Are you guys excited? 

Adam: Yeah, it’s a short sweet one, I think it’s like a couple weeks. We’re doing the mountain towns so it’s actually kind of wintery. 

NT: Do you guys ever get tired of being on the road touring? 

Geoff: I do. 

Adam: After like 6 weeks. 

Geoff: You just want to go home.  

Adam: It's not like while we’re playing but afterwards it would be cool to just be in your own bed, but I mean it’s kind of what we signed up for so… 

NT: What’s your favorite food? What do you miss? 

Geoff: I miss the Mexican food in Santa Cruz.

Raul: They don’t have any good Mexican food outside of California. 

Geoff: There’s just a lot of crappy food everywhere.  

NT: Where’s the farthest you guys have toured? 

Geoff: Germany or Guam, whatever is furthest. 

Adam: Yeah, they’re both pretty far. 

NT: Where is your favorite place to play? 

Geoff: Right here at the Catalyst. 

Adam: Florida is really fun. Colorado is cool. 

Geoff: Texas is becoming more and more fun. 

Adam: They’re all really fun. 

Ryan: It’s nice to play places where the weather isn’t super crappy. Like we may love the Northeast but it’s too cold. 

Raul: Yeah, Boston is a fun place to play but it’s cold as balls all the time. Except for two months out of the summer. 

NT: How do you think your band and your sound have changed since you first started? 

Geoff: When we first started we were super cover bandy, we did a lot of covers. We did more bluesy surfy stuff. And then the bluesy surfy stuff kind of melted away and we stuck to rock and reggae for the most part. 

Ryan: We’ll play reggae that is kind of bluesy. 

Adam: But our stuff hasn’t changed a whole shitload as far as style, we’re just better musicians now. We’re older and we have had more experience with things. 

Raul: At first we would write songs and going back and listening to them now, we’re like, wow, that sounded exactly like Slightly Stoopid [laughing]. 

Adam: That’s what we liked so we were trying to find our own, hopefully, we have found our own style. 

NT: Well, what projects are you guys currently working on? 

Geoff: Acoustic stuff.

Adam: We're doing an acoustic album and we’re going to put it out within the next twelve months. 

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