Middle Class Rut

The intense, urgent and loud sounds emanating from your speakers can be found on No Name, No Color; the debut, full length disc from Middle Class Rut.  MC Rut are Zack Lopez and Sean Stockham; a two man band with the power and fury of Molotov cocktail.  The duo has an extreme sound reminiscent of Rage Against The Machine and At The Drive In.  The duo is not shy about their politics or about how heavy and loud they can get.   During a break while on tour with 30 Seconds to Mars, I had the opportunity to chat with Zack Lopez about his hard hitting two man band.

David Carr: How long has Middle Class rut been together and how long have you and Sean Stockham been playing together?

Zack Lopez: We started the band in ’06.  Sean and I have been playing together for about fifteen years.  We were in a band for a while and it just fell apart.  We took a couple years off, then we got together and just started writing and recording until we had a bunch of songs we really liked.

David Carr: I am curious about the name of the band.  What’s the story behind the band’s name?

Zack Lopez: There really is no big story behind out name.  Middle Class Rut was the name of a song we wrote.  When it came time to sign on with a label we needed a name.  There were some legal issues with the other name we had so we scrambled and took the title of that song and made it our name.

David Carr: Tell me the story behind the tune “USA”.  That song in particular, is truly an intense piece of incendiary music.  It’s also very timely considering what happened in Arizona.

Zack Lopez: That song is probably one of the most blatant songs on the record.  I had the melody and chorus in my head.  I was just driving around listening to a lot of am talk radio and there was a lot of shit being said on these stations.  That’s what inspired the song.

David Carr: Do you consider Middle Class Rut to be a political band?

Zack Lopez: I don’t think we are a political band.  Our songs are written about real life experiences and they deal with what is happening around us.  Some of that can be political.  There are a lot of artists out there who know much more about politics than I do.  If you are going to be a political band like Rage Against The Machine you better know what you are talking about.

David Carr: Who are some of the bands that have inspired you?

Zack Lopez: I am still inspired by the bands that I got into when I was very young.  I get inspired by music that moves you.   Bands like Rage Against The Machine and Tool still inspire me to do music.  A lot of newer music nowadays doesn’t do much for me.

David Carr: You are now on tour with 30 Seconds to Mars.  How is the tour treating you so far?

Zack Lopez: We have just stared the tour.  We are 2 and half weeks into it and its going well.  We have been lucky to have the chance to open for a lot of different bands.  We get a chance to play in front of different crowds and try to win them over. 

David Carr: What’s next for the band after this tour?  Will you be headlining shows on your own?

Zack Lopez:  After the tour we will be playing our own shows.  We want to headline our own shows ASAP.  We will also be doing a bunch of shows at South by Southwest. 

David Carr: Are you excited about playing SXSW?

Zack Lopez: To be honest, we have played it twice so the initial excitement has faded.  The coolest part of the festival for me now is seeing all the other bands.

David Carr: Is there new music on the horizon for MC Rut?

Zack Lopez: We have been writing but we won’t be releasing anything new for a while.  We will be touring on this current disc for the rest of the year.

Check out Middle Class Rut on tour…they do indeed know what they are talking about.