The Many Voices of Ghetto Blaster

“The music is schizophrenic. There’s a different personality for every song. It’s like Science Fiction Theatre,” says Ryan Foxe, former front man for ’90s punk band Fishwife and current singer for the Grids. We’re sharing a booth at the Live Wire in North Park, and Foxe is describing his new band Ghetto Blaster.

What started last year as a two-piece with John Cota, guitarist from Hostile Combover and drummer for hardcore act Rats Eyes, and Irradio drummer Greg Sudor, has turned into San Diego’s newest post-hardcore supergroup.

An experimental math-rock-y four-piece, Ghetto Blaster is made up of Foxe, Cota, Sudor, and former Hostile Combover bassist-guitarist Cole Mears.

Sudor was in Europe, but the remaining three Blasters explained the formation of the band over PBRs and a club soda.

“I was just going to fill in at first,” says Mears. “But when [Cota] gave me the recording, I said I was in.”

Convincing Foxe was more of a challenge. Cota handed Foxe the recording. Weeks passed without any word from the singer.

“Yeah, I pretty much treated them like a whore. I strung them along,” says Foxe with a smile. “It was an unpredictable type of music. It took a lot of effort to find the right lyrics. It took, like, ten hours to come up with lyrics for each song.”

Foxe came up with some lyrics and got back to Cota, agreeing to jam with the band. Four months ago they met for their first practice and knew the band was complete.

Cota knew beforehand. “Fishwife and [Foxe] have always had an influence on my music. I like that every song has a different character.”

At the table, Foxe gives the band fair warning on the different characters to come. “I got some voices coming. I don’t know how they are going to take them,” he says. “I keep telling them, ‘You write weird shit and you’re going to get weird lyrics and different voices.’ ”

Ghetto Blaster will play their first show May 13 at Bar Pink with Oregon punk-rock band Dog Shredder.