This is an interview done with Gone Before Us, read their story below! If you, or anyone you know, would like to be highlighted in The Zillennial Zine, shoot us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com or DM us on Instagram!

Q: Tell us your story! Where did you begin and how did you reach the caliber you’re currently at?

Logan: Yeah, it kind of started out with just me and Ethan, cause we’d known each other for a really, really long time, like seven or eight years now. And we were kind of jamming, experimenting with stuff. And then one day he just came home from school or whatever, and he was like, “Hey, I met these guys who said they would want to jam with us.” And I was like, “okay, cool.” And then we jammed and, we literally like, it just worked out so well, and never stopped.

Q: Are you touring at the moment? What should fans be on the lookout for?

Logan: We’re currently trying to plan one for over summer, like a So Cal tour. But right now we’re just doing a lot of like Arizona shows. It’s been a couple months since we played shows just for some other random reason. So we’re getting back into the swing of things here and then getting to branch back out.

Charlie: We’ve been working on a lot of new songs, a lot of shows coming up, and we’ll be working on some studio time that we won from Battle of the Bands.

Q: Definitely. And then you guys also have a documentary coming out, right? What’s the theme of the documentary?

Logan: Yeah, directed by the lovely Brenna Fox. Who is “Gone Before Us” is the general theme of the documentary. It’s kind of funny because she did that as part of her capstone project, but really, really likes the idea and wants to continue forming it. So it’s kind of going to be like an introduction to Gone Before Us. Get our name out there.

Ethan: She just has full creative control over it. Like if she wants us to do stuff, we’ll do it. It’s really, you know, whenever happens.

Q: What makes you love what you do? How long have you been making music? Would you call it your passion?

Charlie: We get free drinks.

Logan: Oh yeah, that’s the only reason. No. It is a passion for me. Like I think about this all the time, honestly. And music has always been such a huge part of my life ever since I was a kid it’s always been around me. I’ve always been listening to it. And like, there’s definitely been a few times in my life where I wasn’t in the best mental state and music would kind of help me get through those things. And I realized how you can probably play some music to spread messages and bring people together and stuff. I think that’s really what I want to do. Like not only do I want to make good music, but I want to be able to bring people together and like to affect people in a way that music has affected me.

Ethan: No 100%. I used to like playing drums ever since I was three years old. And I just used to do it as a coping mechanism, to be honest, until I started picking it up for real and started getting better. Music is such a fascinating concept to me because it’s a medium that anyone in the world can enjoy and get behind. It’s literally a universal language. It’s frequency, you know, nice sounding, wiggly air that people like, and it’s just perplexing that anyone around the world can listen to something and get it, you know, the same message and idea behind it. Just based on what you’re playing. It doesn’t have to be lyrical based or anything like that. That’s why I love music. It’s really just profound like that.

Jason: So for me, I’d say there’s like two main things. For one, I love it. No wait, three things. One, I love it. So like Logan said, it’s a passion. Also, guitar is extremely addicting for me. What I love about guitar and music in general is that there’s really never an end as to how far you can go with it. Once you’ve mastered one concept that just leads to many more then more from there and just keeps going and going. And, like Ethan said, everybody can understand music. It’s like a universal language.And for me, you know, I look at the world and I see a lot of bad things happening everyday. You know, we’re incredibly fortunate to be here being interviewed by you guys. And yeah, like we didn’t get to play because you know, the snow shut our concert down, but compared to people in Ukraine right now, we’re fine. Right? So for me, I really just want to help ease the suffering in the world through music and to help inspire others to do the same.

Charlie: Kind of a little different note just about me. I played piano growing up and eventually people just SoundCloud stuff like a couple of summers. I’d say I’m more based around building the body of work. I really liked to just be able to work on your craft and get better at something. And then at the end of the day, you know, say I actually did something and I’d say being in a really cool band, and being able to do really cool shows, see a lot of cool people. This is all stuff that I put my energy into and I really didn’t expect this to be the outcome. No, no, no. I’m just impressed by myself, but also with everyone I’ve encountered. This is kind of  bigger than me. I’m really happy to just be here.

Q: What have you been the most surprised about? What’s the most motivating?

Logan: I honestly think some of my happiest moments ever have been after shows when people that I don’t know come up and they’re just like, wow, that was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Like “we want to start a band now. Your music is awesome.” And that’s exactly like the kind of response I want to have. I want to make an impact on people in a positive way. We kind of started this just goofing off, but realizing that it actually is so impactful to people is really nice. You know, it makes me happy.

Ethan: Don’t get me wrong. I love shows. But seeing something we’ve worked so hard to make because you know, like making an album it’s really, it was hard. It’s a much harder thing than I ever expected it to be. And like, you know, we’re having complications with the one we’re making right now, but you know, every step of it, it’s so rewarding, you know, and just getting every new song written and every new song recorded, mixed, et cetera. Yeah, it’s beautiful, honestly.

Q: What’s the thing that you’re most proud of as a band?

Logan: I think winning Battle of Bands, at least for me, that, that, to me, like that was one I never even expected to be playing at such a huge stage in the first place. It was at The Orpheum Theater. I remember seeing all the other bands play and I was like, “wow, these guys are really, really good. This is isane, like, how are people going to think of us?” And then like it came out that we won. I don’t even have words because I just never would’ve pictured that happening. The fact that so many people voted for us, it almost says to me, or, I mean, I view it as the universe’s way of telling us we’re doing the right thing, you know? And like, it was just awesome. So many people had good nights that night.

Ethan: Yeah. I mean, honestly I know the critical moment that I’ve had. It was our second to last show before COVID hit. And we were playing at like this little coffee shop where ee kind of got our start and out of nowhere… It was a coffee shop, it’s such a chill environment and we were playing on the side and everyone just started moshing in the coffee shop. And seeing that happen, I was so blown away and I thought, “This is insane, I cannot believe that this is happening right now.” It was a sign from the universe that we’re doing the right thing right now.

Logan: Honorable mention was releasing our first album just because that was really cool. Like our first, our first thing we’ve ever done.It felt unreal.

Charlie: It’s all of these like little milestones and memories and you put them in a little photo album in your brain. It really just shows the progression that we’re making. That we’re really snowballing into something bigger, larger than life, I guess. All these shows we’re playing, more people are liking it. It shows we’re doing something.

Jason: Overall. I’m just really proud of our consistency and our discipline. Who we were when we put out our first EP, we’re radically different now. I don’t want to say a completely new sound, but it’s definitely evolved and it’s going to keep doing that. And I feel like every song, every new song we put out is just better than the previous.

Q: Do you have any advice for someone who is starting out in the music industry?

Logan: Just do it, just literally do it. Like there’s nothing else to stop you from doing it. Just keep at it. Cause I mean, before Gone Before Us, there was a band Public Access and before Public Access, there was another one called Aberrant. And I think a lot of people get deterred when things get a little difficult or the first project doesn’t work out. Like I was in probably five to six bands before Gone Before Us really started to take fruition. I really think if you just have the motivation and the drive and the will, you can do anything. So I would say take that energy and run with it.

Jason: I think you should always try to get better at your instruments. I play guitar a lot. I try to practice a minimum of two, four hours a day. So I think, you know, even if you just want to play like four chords, like punk music, I think it’s still good to be able to play beyond what you’re trying to do, because you don’t want to just replicate a sound. You want it to be your own. I’ve noticed that when I start practicing and learning other people’s songs, you really start to develop your own stuff.

Q: What is your favorite part of performing?

Jason: For me, I would say not necessarily being onstage, but being in the perfect mindset to where, when I’m playing, I’m just not thinking, you know, it’s almost like a rush of adrenaline. It’s almost like a high honestly. Um, so you know, if we’re just doing like a jam and I just start playing stuff and it sounds great and I’m not even thinking, you know, like I’m really just feeling it in the purest form.

Ethan: Being in the zone is my favorite part. You feel enlightened. And I mean, I’ve known these guys for so long. I feel like at this point, like every time, like there’ve been like a few shows where like I’m so focused on everything, but at the same time, I’m just able to read everyone’s mind so well, and just like work off everything they’re doing. And it just creates like this perfect match of music.

Logan: One of my favorite parts about us, as a band, is because we play off of each other a lot. We never have to plan like what we do. Like we play Police State differently almost every time we play it. Before the show, we’re not like, “all right, let’s do this instead of this.” One of us will just start doing something and we’re like, “okay, cool.” And then it just works out. I’ve never felt so connected, like to these people and especially like jamming and just like pulling something out of nowhere. It’s pretty cool.

Charlie: It was like, at some point I remember applying, there’s like an intersection between being crystal clear, focused with perfect clarity and just being completely coordinated with everyone else. You don’t even have to think. You’re just playing like the best that you’ve ever heard. I feel like Iron Man right now, is this even real? I’m not this good. I should not be doing this well.

Q: What do you want our readers to know about you and your music?

Charlie: We’re making new music right now. We’re going to be dropping an album sometime within a year. And hopefully we’ll try to line it up with when we go touring and whatnot, but yeah. Keep your eyes up for that. To be a good one. We’re excited about it.

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