Gothic Theatre

War Tapes

When you think of Los Angeles, one might think of Hollywood, fame, sunshine and the beach. Downtown Los Angeles is dark, full of junkies and abandoned warehouses. In the middle of the fakest city in the world, there’s a bull’s eye of reality. Musicians, Fashion Designers, Artists, Drug addicts…Whites, Blacks, Latinos, and Asian immigrants all congregate around the dirty, covered up, glamorous, but rotted buildings that were once the life and center of the city.

A new breed of fashion designers, artists, and musicians are finding inspiration from these surroundings. War Tapes have made downtown Los Angeles home and like most of Los Angeles’ population, War Tapes are primarily made up of transients who’ve found inspiration in downtown Los Angeles.

For brother and sister Neil and Becca Popkin, growing up in a blue-collar suburb of Boston, Massachusetts was the perfect breeding ground for music. She grew up on Boston heroes like the Pixies, The Breeders, and the Sheila Divine; he spent his time at all-age Boston hardcore “DIY” shows, which were held in VFW halls, churches, and Mission Hill art school house parties.

During her high school years, Becca took guitar lessons. Neil demanded that his older sister teach him. 3 chords later, Neil was on his way to an obsession and the beginning of a life long musical companionship with his sister.

While working an odd job to pay the rent, Becca met William, a traveling musician who took any gig he could find. With their common taste for music and hating their jobs, William and Becca fell in love and decided to maintain a long distance relationship for 2 years.

While Becca , age 25, was falling in love and making plans to move cross-country to California with her fiancé William, Neil was back in Boston, and beginning to get into trouble with the wrong crowd. Drugs and violence were all too common, and twenty-one year old Neil decided to leave town. He took refuge across the country in downtown Los Angeles with his older sister and her new husband, William. Neil explains, “It was a tough time for me. I was running away because I had to.”

“Neil booked a show for himself and told us that he needed a band,” states Becca. She had never played bass publicly and husband William, an accomplished guitarist and bassist, sat down to play his very first show as a drummer. Friend and Smashing Pumpkins drummer, Jimmy Chamberlin gave William pointers before going on stage. Jimmy instantly supported the band and became William’s drum mentor. “The very first show was a 3 piece with 2 of us debuting on our instruments and Jimmy Chamberlin in the audience…not the easiest situation to be in for a first show.”

While playing shows as a 3 piece, Becca, Neil, and William shared a bill with a band from Hawaii containing guitarist Matt Bennett. Matt was in a dark place, in the middle of leaving his band and moving to Los Angeles. Neil and Matt became friends and soon after Neil asked Matt to join the band. They changed their name to War Tapes and played their first show as a 4 piece under their new name at an art opening in Long Beach.

War Tapes are currently finishing up their debut album and have been praised on the Smashing Pumpkins website as their favorite new band. War Tapes opened 3 of the Smashing Pumpkins San Francisco residency shows at the Fillmore. The Bravery also had War Tapes support them on their UK tour as well as shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Radio One in the UK and US radio stations Live 105 in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston, and Indie 103 in Los Angeles are also starting to spin the band on their specialty new music shows…an amazing feat for an unsigned band.