Lost Valentinos – “17 Deaths”
Goose – “Bring It On” (The Knife Machine Remix) [exclusive]

Yeah – so Pat Santamaria from Lost Valentinos is now officially one of our favorite people. Oh, just in case you might not be up on them, here’s a quick rundown: ill indie band from Australia, was formerly called The Valentinos but was forced to change their name because of soul band Bobby Womack & The Valentinos, the picture above is not them, The Knife Machine is Pat & Jono from Lost Valentinos on their techno tip, and the Miles From Nowhere EP is now available on Kitsuné.

Whew! Dope. Introductions aside, Pat chatted it up with Attorney Street concerning style, the hot teacher at his school, y mucho mas compadres. Read on!

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AS: Firstly – are you a Wu-Tang fan by any chance? I only ask because you jokingly (I think) said “peace to the gods” in one of our email exchanges so I was just wondering. If so, which member would you say you are most like?

You caught me out there, I love the Wu. If Lost Valentinos were the Wu-Tang Clan, then that would make me the RZA.

AS: In a lot of what I was reading about the band, as well as what my own somewhat novice ears can pick up, you seem to have a very diverse range of influences. Name a few cats that you don’t mind saying “yeah we take a lil’ bit from them”

Well there are 5 of us in the band, and we’re all music lovers who could never stick to one genre, so I could be here all day talking about that. I think the main influences which make their way into our songs are Krautrock bands like CAN and neu, Manchester guys like Happy Mondays and Stone Roses. But we also grew up around grunge, so you can’t deny the influence of bands like Nirvana and Sonic Youth. Also, you can’t forget that electronic music, clubs and drugs have been a huge part of what we do since the beginning. I guess we’re kind of lucky that this strange combination of influences is somehow working.

AS: Give us a little background on the band. How did you guys all meet?

Well, Andrew is my brother so I guess we never really met. Nik is a childhood friend of ours who we’ve known forever. We all grew up together but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that we finally got our shit together and started a band. We met Jono (guitar) playing in another band and poached him. When he joined us things started to really take shape, and most recently Jonesy has joined as our latest and greatest drummer. For me, the most important thing in our band is friendship – we’ve been through a lot together already and it’s only going to get better

AS: What’s the dynamic like between Andrew and yourself? What was your childhood like? Tell us a bit about the neighborhood you grew up in.

Andrew and I have been really close as kids, it was definitely good to have a big brother going to an all boys school (that’s where I met Nik). We grew up in the suburbs of Sydney, (2.5 kids, a swimming pool and a dog) – It’s a really comfortable place that can easily suck you down into a void of mediocrity. We grew up with a lot of kids in our area, some I have stayed close to, and many others have fallen into living average lives which I find it difficult to be around. I guess we were lucky to have parents that really encouraged us to follow our dreams. They always said “It doesn’t matter what you want from life, as long as you go for it 100%.”

AS: Who would you say is the weirdest in the band and why?

Nik’s an alien. We always say he’s like that guy in Men In Black who has a little alien inside his head controlling his body. Sometimes he disappears for days on end. I can’t be sure, but I think he’s saving the galaxy from alien terrorists or something.

AS: Any bizarre experiences from being on tour i.e. impromptu genital stapling or thumb wrestling with little people?

Once we were on tour with our home boys Van She in the middle of nowhere and our hotel room got broken into. We came home to a fucking crime scene after our gig that night – it was horrible. We were doing some detective work, looking for clues and evidence etc, when we discovered a trail of stuff that had fallen out of our bags as they fled – spare guitar strings, odd socks, a shoe, etc etc. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the trail of “evidence” ended in a pool of blood and a severed pig’s foot. X-file.

AS: Tell us about the teacher that you wish made you into one of those “oh that poor boy that was taken advantage of” cases that we see on TV from time to time. Mine, was my spanish teacher. But that’s another conversation…

[Laughs] I remember when my English teacher went on “long service leave.” When she came back, she had the biggest breasts I’ve ever seen. I was 15. That was the end of my English education. I remember my best friend actually used to fall into trances staring at those things.

AS: In terms of fashion, how you would describe your style, starting with maybe junior high school and charting the evolution from there. Feel free to note any awkward experimentation with polkadots and lizard skin pants if you would like.

I can remember it was all about Reebok pumps and Nike Air Jordans when I was a kid. I used to beg my mum to buy me cool sneakers but she thought it was ridiculous to spend that kind of money on sports shoes. Everyone had them! Even if your parents were on welfare there was still money for Nikes. In early teens grunge became a big thing for me and I had to forget about basketball shoes, it was all about cut off army green pants, flannel shirts, long hair and converse all stars. Around this time I started playing in my first bands with friends, and I felt like image and identity was everything – You had to be like Kurt! I think I started to relax a bit by the end of high school and experiment with music outside of punk and grunge. That’s when I discovered Public enemy, Wu-Tang Clan, Run DMC and so on. Of course sneakers came back into my life and I must have gone through a million pairs of shell tops at that time. I was never a home boy but i’ve always had a problem with sneakers.

AS: Whose style do you think is dope?

Anyone who isn’t a sheep. I really like the way the Horrors have just come out of nowhere with their full on Nightmare Before Christmas vibe. That kind of audacity I will always respect. I really hate when people think they’re originators when really they’re imitators – Kanye West I’m looking at you!

AS: In your opinion, what are the best shoes/sneakers ever created?

Hmmmmmmm that is a very tough one, and many sneaker purists would disagree with me, but I equally like : Puma Clydes (because in beat street, my favourite movie ever, all the kids are rocking clydes and they looked fresher than fresh), Nike Air Max 90s (when I was a kid that air bubble was the most amazing things I’d ever seen); and Converse All Stars (the greatest classic of them all).

AS: What cliche phrase or contemporary slang are you currently sick of hearing?

“Dope on plastic.” Only because I can’t stop saying it myself and it sounds ridiculous.

**Attorney Street Closer**

AS: What question have you never been asked in an interview that you’ve always wanted to answer? Now feel free to let us know the question and the answer.

I’ve always thought it would be a really obvious thing to ask “What’s it like being in a band with your brother?” but until now no-one ever has asked me that. Also, you let me talk about sneakers, so you’ve covered everything. Peace to the gods!

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Bong Bong.

p.s.: can’t get enough? download the megamix promo from missingtoof, and cop the ep here.