San Diego Reader

Jesse Fritsch: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric), Vocals | Josh Vargo: Drums, Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric) | D. Reed: Keyboards, Piano | P. Tornroth: Bass guitar, undetermined | R. Flach: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric), undetermined

Genre: Rock

Sound description: Jesse Fritsch describes the band’s music as “eclecticistic Americanismo.”

RIYL: Counterfit, Operatic, First Wave Hello, My Chemical Romance, Finch, Hot Rod Circuit, Face to Face

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Related Links

• Sayvinyl website

• Blurt · May 28, 2008

Synoposis

Influences: David Bowie, Spoon, Queen, Postal Service, the Beatles, Counterfit, Operatic, First Wave Hello, the Stranger's Six, the Strays, Sugarcult

Background:

Sayvinyl formed from the remains of Operatic, Counterfit, and First Wave Hello.

“Right after I turned pro in ’99, I had a bad break at the YMCA skate park in Escondido,” says Sayvinyl singer and guitarist Jesse Fritsch. “I sort of sat on my ankle and it just popped. I was out for six months…I can only skate for a certain amount of years.”

Fritsch is one of the featured skaters on Tony Hawk’s 2008 Boom Boom HuckJam Tour, but he’s also been able to expand his career outside of skate parks using his music savvy. Hawk tapped him to cohost a weekly skate-and-music show on Sirius satellite radio. As the “music dude” for Demolition Radio (channel 28), Fritsch chooses which bands get played.

“I try and play as many locals on the show as I can,” he says. “We’ve played Irradio, Apes of Wrath, Scarlet Symphony, and Reeve Oliver.”

Besides the Sirius gig, Etnies, an Orange County shoe company that used to sponsor Fritsch as a skater, hires him and Sayvinyl drummer and guitarist Josh Vargo to score instrumental tracks for commercials and skate videos.

“We’ve done, like, 60 different segments for companies like DC Shoes, Transworld, and Adio,” says Fritsch.

Though residuals from a 2002 Sprite commercial that featured Fritsch skating on a ramp in downtown L.A. helped him buy his first home in Encinitas, he says his soundtrack work is a “one shot” deal, where he and Vargo get paid a flat fee.

Fritsch says the music preferred by the skate culture “goes through phases.… It started in the ’80s with punk rock like Minor Threat and Black Flag. Then there was a phase in the ’90s when hip-hop was big. Then, around 2000, classic metal like Iron Maiden and AC/DC was the craze. Now it’s wide open.”

Sayvinyl released its first CD, God Forbid, in summer 2008. It won Best Local Recording at that year's San Diego Music Awards.

Discography