About Me
THIS IS NOT A REUNION...THIS IS NOW...
the line-up with new member Steve Miller....
The Story of Forced Down.....Forced Down was a band that started, essentially out of members of many other bands It became an idea, the idea became a sound, the sound had a look and identity... And it was all built out of what was not happening in our local scene... It never wanted a Label, it never wanted a scene, it wanted to be for everyone... This, at the very time the "scene" was becoming more and more cliquish.... we would not...from our artwork to our recordings and our interviews..... we were only to be, a band called forced down....The band started in motion by Mike Down and Joey Piro...Mike was singing in local H/C heros "Amenity" who were based out of the south of San Diego in Chula Vista, (all thou he lived in Pacific Beach) and Joey was playing drums in SD Legends PitchFork... Led by John Reese, but based round, and practicing in the North County region of Encinitas...Mike would drive up with John and attend practices, tape recording their songs... He and Joey would talk about similar interests in music which led to them jamming out with a couple bass players....In the blink of and eye they decided to form a band.... MIke brought in good friend and singer Rob Osbourne to fill vocal duties and Bass Player Chris Pippin. Rob originally from Texas, was attending school and living in the Kearny Mesa area....Chris was playing in a band the Abyss, and was living in Point Loma.... Many Names for the band were tossed around....but it was Rob aka Robb/Base that would brainstorm a "SSD" song title from "the kids will have there say" album entitled "Forced Down Your Throat"....we clipped the end and felt it represented a lot of what mtv and other institutions were doing to the kids of the 80's...Forcing Products and Culture thru a little machine called Capitalism...today it is no less than ironic how the machine has sold the very parts of what we were creating in opposition to it then...This first incarnation would practice for about 4 months and track a 5-song demo intitled "forgot".. It was crude, recorded 10-9-89 at Tony house of sound using an 8 channel 2 track....and of course recorded live....with a Xeroxed cover...and the first time the DOWN SIDE logo was ever printed on something....we were off.... full of idealism, love and anger....of note is the liner note on the tape which was sort of a mission statement for us.....it read...As the social values in our society becomes more set in stone, the individual is forgotten. When what the individual stands for goes against the ideas of the mass, and is considered a threat to order, be it right or wrong---they are forced down--- disciplined to maintain "the order" Some conform, some resist, some fall, and they are forgotten.... "time to rise from our knees and live on our feet"1 year later Niloufar "nilo" Naghdi and Mike Down had started downside records... partnered with the infamous Bob Barley and his Vinyl Communications label, He lended them a hand with distribution and general support in showing them the art and trade.. The First release was a seven inch by one of the greatest bands San Diego would ever hear.....The band was Helicopter....it was a 2 song Seven Inch that had a cover that was stamped front and back,, Each of the Five stamps were a different color... ..There was no printing on the out side sleeves what so-ever...The inside was printed in one color...black. This was done initially to save money, as we were unable to afford full color printing.. Many "indie labels" have since used this technique but to all of our common Knowledge, down side is where it began...period!The Next release would be the Forced Down 4 song 7" entitled "Rise" The band recorded and mixed the four songs in one night...Engineered by Joe "Master" McGrath The band had matured a lot since the demo's and all things considered, the record was a success. The outside of the record was printed but the inside cover and lyric sheet was stamped....It sold thousands of copies and the band began to get notice in the underground scene world-wide. The mail poured in, zine interviews became regular and the shows got bigger.....and so did the ideas of the band...Change would come soon....Chris Pippin was moving other directions and was quickly replaced by the multi-talented Josh Gabriel, playing bass....who was then playing drums in statement and for a short stint Scott Bartoloni, who was in Herion, became the second guitar player in the band. They recorded the "stifle" double seven inch and this was a landmark for the band....It was the first time they had been allowed the time in the studio to capture the energy that they expressed.....in retrospect...this recording would be the milestone of their beginning and end.....one extra song "Texas" was tracked but not mixed. It was later released for the 7 inch in Germany on Old World Records and once again released on their compilation of music and performances on Vinyl Communications.
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