Interview with Hotwire's Rus Martin Rus Martin is absolutely stoked these days. His band, Hotwire is finally breaking out with their RCA Records debut, THE ROUTINE and this summer they' re scheduled to head out with Ozzy Osbourne on Ozzfest 2003 to perform on the second stage. "This is all actually kind of beyond me at this point," says the vocalist. "At this point it's just like not real, you know.

THE ROUTINE, released May 6th, is a tight record that evolves around the intensity of hardcore with a SoCal punk mentality. "Our music's like that first rebellious feeling you first got when you were in JR. High and see what kind of trouble you'd get into, then you like end up in the back of a police car," Martin says to describe his music. "It's just all of those first immediate feelings that you get off of just being rebellious."

The rebelliousness is evident throughout the record as it is dips in and out of extremes from hardcore to punk to metal to melodic rock and Martin's philosophy of life comes through on nearly every track. "I like to write about stuff that's in the now, you now, there is no tomorrow, there is no yesterday. I mean, there was at one point and there will be, but that can change. I live in the moment, that's what it's about.The moment."

Martin seems to understand the notion that we only live once and that each day should be lived as its last. That people should not roll over and be defeated, but rise up and never stop fighting until they conquer. On the song "Invisible," for example, Martin touches on how difficult it is to succeed and how easy it is to fail and hide and become invisible. "Its just one of those songs that says wouldn't it be great if everyone wasn't hiding," explains Martin. "Life is like a giant chessboard and everyone is hiding behind all these pieces. The pieces that are right up front are obviously the bravest and the ones in the back are the ones who are hiding and are safe because the ones in front usually go down first."

So, was Martin himself always standing in the front or was he hiding in the back? "I was a little bit of both," he answers, "and that's what eventually led me to write. Even when I was in the back I wanted to be one of the pieces in front and I still do and will still strive to be in front. But at the same time it is so easy to just stay behind and that sucks."

While "Invisible" primarily jolts with a harsh punk rock style that comes together with a catchy chorus line we get a different vibe off the track "Color Blind." "Color Blind" is a more melodically soulful performance that builds from a single guitar and oozes with Martin's passion. "Yeah, that songs pretty personal," he says. "That songs was about me being with someone so long and it was kinda like I was mass-murdering myself everyday. I couldn 't see anything, I didn't care if I was destroying everything around me. It was like a bloodletting, it had to be done."

It is that kind of diversity and bloodletting of emotions that may very well help Hotwire stand out in an over crowed musical genre. The ability to show range and diversity and do it effectively is rare and Martin seems to be the real deal.

Martin joined Southern California's Hotwire after he was invited to jam with Gabe Garcia, Dan Hartman and Brian Borg in 1999. Martin had already had underground notoriety from his hardcore band 'Eyelid' and was looking for a new band with a similar vision of merging different styles of rock to create a brand new sound. Over the course of the resulting session, the group distilled their punk, metal and urban influences into a distinct and alluringly violent sound and realized they had something unique.

The group soon formed into a band and Martin took to the role as front man and lyricist, Martin was writing more and more about life in the deceptively cheerful Southern California suburbs. Before long, the singer was peeling off surreal lyrics about his own troubled childhood and his parents' divorce, along with his observations about life and living life. "I'm not afraid to sing about stuff like that, I don't care. It's therapy for me, every time I sing those songs the pain hurts a little bit less."

This summer Hotwire will set out on their first Ozzfest. This will be the eighth year of the annual head-banging mosh festival which has championed the hard rock scene by providing the freshest heavy metal to anxious head-bangers all around the world. Ozzfest 2003 will feed the masses with 14-hours of non-stop fist-pumping rock with its most ferocious line-up to date and Hotwire seems more than ready to take on the Ozzfest audience. "We' re gonna terrorize that second stage," the front man confidently states, "and we're very thankful that we were given the opportunity to terrorize the second stage. We're gonna have a lot of danger. Give me danger. There will be no time to breathe, man. Just be ready for some danger."

Yeah, Rus Martin certainly has a lot to be stoked about, but right now he and his mates are just taking one thing at a time. "I just want to get this record out and get it to the people," says Martin, "getting the noise and the sound out to the people because the people gotta know.That's our quote, the motto I live by, 'people gotta know.'"

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