DJ Steve O's blog: "CaptNSteveO"

here we go

I am here with Carlos Cruz front man for Stonebreed.

So first off thanks for talking with me and spending  time with me  here today.

Steve O - lets go back to when you first wanted to be a frontman / musician.

Carlos- Wow, I can remember way back listening to Elvis, and all the stuff my parents listened too on the radio. In grade school all the girls were into TEEN IDOLS , I was into Girls, so I remember learning to sing to like The Osmonds, and The Defranco Family,Jackson 5, David Cassidy, Leif Garrett, stuff like that to try to impress the girls lol, then when I got a record player and I started getting more into rock, I would listen to the top 40 rock like Elton John, Brownsville Station, The Sweet, but I started going to concerts at a very young age of like 13/14 and saw bands like Kiss/Van Halen & Aerosmith and that’s when I KNEW I was destined to be a singer in a Rock n Roll Band 

Steve O - having been in the industry for as long as you have been what are some of the highs and lows of this crazy business.

Carlos - The HIGHS are the FANS just being able to write a song from your heart, record it and then have people from all around the world be able to hear it. Then when you tour and do shows and someone half way across the country tells you something about how and why that song means so much to them. That is a HIGH just like being on stage and you and the band are just TIGHT firing on all cylinders and just killing it and giving all you got for the crowd and you FEEL the love from the crowd. LOWS? Hmm too long a list lol but, Shady promoters, declining music sales in general, COVID 19 ( which has almost destroyed live music) and booking tours lol 

Steve O - lets get off of the music train for a bit.... what do you do for a living?

for fun, you have a beautiful family how long has you been married? 

Carlos - Thank you, I actually own my own food distribution company so I guess I’m like a food broker, and yes I have been married for 27 years, with 3 children and 3 dogs. 

Steve O - whats the worst movie you have ever seen ? 

Carlos - That’s actually a very hard question, I watch a lot of movies, and I can’t really think of the worst movie I have ever seen, I mean if it sucks I usually turn it off quick, but most of those zombie type flicks are pretty dumb, oh yeah and anything that Ron Jeremy is in probably sucks. 

Steve O - back on the music scene... I know you guys (all bands) are going stir crazy with not being able to play ... anywhere... would you have any ideas as to something we can do to make life better.

we all miss live music its frustrating not having live music. all these live videos are cool but its never the same. maybe bring back house / garage bands. thoughts??

Carlos - Oh I’m not a fan of The live streaming stuff, we Have actually turned down a few gigs wanting us to do that, we were able to do a few outdoor shows recently and I’m hoping more venues start to offer that. We’re taking this downtime to concentrate on writing and recording NEW MUSIC:) And selling merch to help fund recording since we can’t earn money playing live. 

Steve O - what made you come up with the name of your band Stonebreed.

and how do you come up with all the awesome music and songs that you play 

who all is in the band now last i saw you guys have an awesome line up.

who plays what and for how long.

Carlos - When we first formed the band, back in the myspace days. We ran a contest and had people send in  names, we liked  the name Stonebreed, did a Google search to make sure it wasn’t taken, and we thought well were a rock band and Rock is a stone, and we’re a rare breed of rockers so we thought that name fit us.

As far as writing the music, it’s always a collaboration, usually guitarist comes up with riff, and I write lyrics and melody’s. And the whole band makes it complete.

STONEBREED is

Carlos Cruz-Vocals

Jess Tzimas-Guitars

Louis Collins -Bass-

Peter Dallas-Drums