Interview w/ Target for Tomorrow & the Horns of Destruction
What happens when a bunch of engineering students from Oregon State University assemble to construct a musical ensemble? While it may not produce this same result everytime, on this occasion the byproduct has been the tremors of skindustrial (ha ha – refer to 2nd question) revolution which have launched the re-birth of ska in the hollowed halls of Corvallis. Target for Tomorrow and the Horns of Destruction have certainly made me a believer in the possibility of the resurgence of ska. TFT is far from a typcial ska band though, as you will note from the unique gathering of their members to the diversity in their collaboration. Enjoy the results of this Myspace interview, our thanks to the band for taking the time to connect with fans in this way.
HC What inspired the name of your band? How did your band come together?
TFT Well, we were originally called Pilot Light, and then it had been brought up that there were probably 10 other bands called “Pilot Light”, some of which had already released albums, and there was even one in Portland. We came together through the Oregon State Musicians Guild more or less. Michael and Aaron had a previous ska band, and then they formed Pilot Light after a few auditions for some extra instrument parts, which picked up Jason and Brian. Then Charley and Orin joined the band replacing their respective instruments a few months later from the original members. After all this, we decided to change our name once we began recording for our first EP because we’d need something unique if we were going to take the band seriously.
HC How would you describe your musical style? How receptive have crowds been to your sound?
TFT Our musical style could be said to have been directly influenced by the RX Bandits, but we pull influences from all over, funk, rock, industrial, and what have you. There was a show that somehow was advertising our sound as Ska/Industrial, so we just say we’re a skindustrial band now. The crowds have been amazing, they love to dance and experience something different. People have loved our sound because it’s so diverse, ranging from pure anger all the way to slow jams you just want to hold your lady tight to.
HC You are currently based out of Corvallis, Oregon are you all natives? Are you all students at Oregon State University? What do you enjoy most about the local scene?
TFT We’re actually from all over, majority is from Portland/Beaverton, but our bassist is from Medford, trombone player is from St. Helens. 
We are all students at OSU, Orin is the only Music major though, all the rest of us are engineering students. The thing we enjoy most about the local scene is that it’s such a friendly bunch. Through the Oregon State Musicians Guild we’ve met many of the other bands around town, and we all help each other out. The local venues are wonderful too, especially Bombs Away Cafe. The owner has been extremely nice to us and genuinely seems to enjoy having us play at his place.
HC I really enjoyed your performance at the Oregon State University Battle of the Bands (congrats on 3rd place), I left the show thinking, “Ska is still alive!” I was impressed with how unique your brand of ska was as several elements jumped out to me in that there were times when you expressed anger (not normally a “ska” thing), there were songs where the guitars were chunky/heavy, surf and even spiraling solos. How did you come to settle as a ska band?
TFT The band Michael and Aaron had been in in high school had started off as a ska band from the beginning, so they were already set on starting specifically that kind of band when they came to OSU. All of the variety we’ve created within the genre has come from everyone’s collective input, as oftentimes we’ll start a song off as traditional ska-sounding, then once everyone’s pitched their two cents most of the time things end up sounding pretty different. Everyone in the band has a pretty strong personality, so nobody’s afraid to contribute their musical ideas. With everyone’s different musical backgrounds, and given that we are all pretty open to stray from a core genre, it’s pretty easy to end up with something that sounds completely different as a finished product than what it started as.
HC It is clear that the horns were not an afterthought as they compliment every element and even are given segments within songs to carve an impression in the listener. While your band is a compilation of several elements, each flows well to create a sound that entertains and challenges, what wizardry have you been using to craft such a blend? 
TFT In Michael and Aaron’s old band, both of them actually played saxophone, and that band had a hornline of 5, so all the music they wrote was designed to feature the horns. When they came to this band and Aaron moved to guitar and vocals, they wanted to make a point of keeping the same style of writing, and to never leave the horns forgotten. With that in mind, when they formed the band at OSU, they had the trombone and tenor saxophone positions filled, but advertised they were looking for a trumpet player nonetheless to fill the high voice. Transforming our sound into one where the rhythm section was more than just background music meant working in some ways to transition between featuring either. It’s something we’ve been working on for over a year now, and that we’ve been more and more satisfied with lately.
HC Have you discussed or thought of what your plans for TFT would be post-college?
TFT If we keep the band together, chances are we’ll kick it up in Portland, since most of us will probably be living up there anyway once we’re out of college. As long as we keep writing and recording, and people are still up for playing, we’d all be down.
HC Where can those interested best connect with you to find out about news, releases and tours? Where are you at in terms of preparing for a formal release and/or tour?
TFT All our business is done through our gmail account, at targetfortomorrow@gmail.com. Any public information can be found on our myspace at www.myspace.com/target4tomorrow, which would include all the info anyone could desire about gigs 
and the like. As for releases, we actually just got our first 4-track EP released, available at any of our gigs or through any of our band members. The show we played after battle this year was actually our CD release show. Our music will also be showing up on iTunes hopefully some time in the next couple of months. We’d all love to do a tour as soon as we can get one organized. Oregon, Washington, California, whatever.
HC Where are you currently grabbing inspiration and/or frustration from and how has this been affecting your music?
TFT A lot of our musical inspiration comes from the music we all listen to. As far as anger goes, it’s anyone’s guess, a lot of the angry noises even come from outside musical influences. At the very least, we’re not afraid to sound angry when we feel like it.
HC What have been some of the most important lessons for you as aspiring-artists?
TFT To not take anything with the band too seriously, ‘cause as far as we’re concerned, all a band should be anyway is a bunch of friends having fun. That’s probably the best overall lesson so far.
HC Are there any favorite/funny/scary memories from recent tours/shows
TFT It wasn’t from a show, but one of our best ones so far was the all-night experience that led to us getting our tracks mastered for the EP in Portland. Our singer was wrapping up his vocal and guitar tracks all day Sunday the day before, then started getting final mixes together for the masters late into the night. Over at our drummer’s, he was working all night on the album art, getting everything put in its place while mixing in studying he had for a test that morning. So all through the night up until we left for Portland, nobody but our trumpet player (who had to drive us the next day) was sleeping, instead going back and forth between Charley’s and Aaron’s while they were wrapping up everything we needed for the CD to be submitted. Just when we were about to leave for Portland in the morning, we still had a track that needed more mixing, so we loaded Aaron’s gear into the car and spent the car ride up getting the last mix put together. We were mixing all the way up until we were parking in our space in front of SuperDigital. When we sat in our mastering session, after none of us had slept all night, everyone was groggy, Jason was even falling asleep on their couch. It was a crazy ride up, following about 20 hours of work beforehand, so when the appointment was over and we’d submitted everything for our CD to be duplicated we were relieved to go chill out and eat Japanese food.