Introduction
When I was 10 years old, back in the June of 1997, I was just getting into music. A school friend of mine had spent the night and turned on Muchmusic. I never watched the channel before in my life, but I watched. I became instantly addicted to watching the channel. In watching the channel, I discovered my first rock band. The video started with a guy falling into a bed that turned into mud. It was Econoline Crush�s video for Home. I thought that this was the coolest band. I didn�t think much of it first but as I watched the video more and more, I became a big fan. I had found a band to call my own and a rock star to be like.
For Christmas in 1997, I got the Devil You Know as a present. I played the cd constantly for weeks and weeks. I loved it so much. I started dressing like the guys in the band. Everyone at school knew it, family knew it.
When All That You Are was released, I saw Robbie play the solo and it was that opening riff and solo that put an idea in my head to play guitar. After begging my parents to buy me a guitar and them refusing, I got a summer job mowing lawns. By my 12th birthday, I bought a Les Paul copy and played the hell out of it.
Fast forward to 2001, Brand New History is released. I got into other bands like Tea Party for example, but Econoline was still my favorite. When they toured with the Much Loud tour, I made the mistake of going to something else. Me foolishly thinking they�d come again. By the end of the year, The official site went dead. I thought it would come back, but it never did. Not a peep, a goodbye. It was gone. My favorite band was gone. I would search over the years trying to find a glimpse of hope that the band was still around.
In 2003, Canoe.ca had an interview with Trevor talking about the break up of the band and that he was writing for a solo project. It was official, Econoline Crush was never coming back. By 2004, I had heard about new bands that Econoline members were in. They were good, but none could compare. I found out at Diepopstar.com that Trevor had formed a new band called Early Moses and that they had a sampler. I heard it and I freaked out. I was happy. After a year, The site never updated and I feared the worst again. Until, I got directed to hurstband.com. I saw it, heard the music and I felt that I was 11 again, hearing Econoline for the first time.
Why am I doing this?. I love this band and I will always. This band gave me so much, it�s only right to give something back. It gave me inspiration, music and influence. Try to let the music live on and not let it fall to deaf ears. Fans were left in the dark as to why things happened the way it did. I wanted to show that members are alive and still rocking. It�s more of a chance for us to learn more about the band, and a chance to look back at the band�s history.
For the first time anywhere, we have the lineage of Econoline Crush answering questions about the band. This has been a great honour for me as I have had the utmost respect for 8 years. I never thought that back in 1997, that nearly 8 years later, I would be speaking to the band I loved so much. I�d like to thank Robbie Morfitt, Dan Yaremko, John Haro and Bob Wagner for helping me out. My hope is that out of this interview, if you love Hurst, Tourist, UCHU, The Dreaming, Morning Maker and never heard of Econoline Crush, this will give you a chance to check out the band that made these guys stars, or some cases more established. Enjoy these interviews as much as I did writing it.
Will DeConto
Well, my story isn't anywhere near as exciting as Will's but anyways, here goes...
I was a late comer to the charms of Econoline Crush. On my 15th birthday (in 2002) I received a Playstation 1 and two games came with it. One was Hot Wheels, which promptly was sold by me for $5, probably fair to say I ripped that guy off big time! But the other was a game called Sled Storm. A game where the objective was to ride your snow sled like it was a BMX, doing tricks for points which would then convert to money. Money would buy you better parts for your sled, making it go quicker...anyways thats beside the point.
I remember thinking to myself "this game is crap, I don't get whole 'snow sleds being used as BMX' thing". I was about to turn that game off too but was stopped dead when I heard the song playing on the soundtrack.
That song was the remix of Nowhere Now you find on this site today. Before this moment I was only ever into one other band (Live). After this day, I really learned to appreciate music a whole lot more. Trevor, Robbie and Dan became my heroes. Nowhere Now was the first song I had heard in my life that I felt I could really relate to. I will always feel indebted to the guys for having wrote and performed such an amazing song.
I tried to find Econoline Crush EVERYWHERE!!! In department stores, cd shops, on the net...anywhere I could think of. Until one guy I knew at the local cd store agreed to pull some strings to get me copies of Brand New History and The Devil You Know on the next shipment over. I got Brand New History in 6 days...The Devil You Know took 6 months!
I realise now that the guy had taken me for a ride...I paid $50 for each cd. But I didn't care! The music I heard was by far the best I had ever heard in my life.
I have memories of trying to get all my friends to even just give it a listen...no one in Australia knows Econoline Crush. Not one person I asked was into their stuff. They are all idiots (and may I say they all now listen to punk...shows they have no taste in music whatsoever :P)
But all of this did not solve the void of not knowing what happened to the boys. After 2003 I assumed that they had broken up...I didn't know for sure until I joined myspace this year and found Trevor in his new band Hurst etc. Thankyou again to Marci who was the one to point me in the right direction.
I wanted to keep Econoline's legacy alive...much like Will. I dream of one day going up to Trevor, Robbie, Dan, all of the band members...shaking their hands, thanking them sincerely from the bottom of my heart for all they gave us as fans and me as an individual. Maybe in reality I will never get to do that...this is the next best thing I could think of. I guess that's why I am so keen to run this site all this time after their demise...I want to give back something, anything to these guys.
Enjoy these interviews, and one last time thank Will for doing the running around and getting them.
Matthew Hopgood
(or Steve, whichever you prefer)