In 2005, Metal Sludge published an interview with Ethan Collins, the supremely talented guitarist for the New York band White Trash, a collection of friends from Queens that just happened to have talent up the ass, and were signed to Elektra Records in the late 80’s. Today, 20 years later, we are proud to have the opportunity to conduct the first interview with Luke Collins, Ethan’s son. While Luke’s style is different - he grew up with different influences, and there will of course never be another Ethan Collins - he’s no slouch on the six string, and we feel he’s got a very bright future. He shares the same dedication and sense of innovation as his late father, only with his own distinctive style.

We caught up with him to hear what he’s got to say.

How did you first get into playing the guitar?

Well, I got my first guitar when I was about 4 or 5 years old. It was a red First Act "Flying V" that my mother had gotten me from a thrift store. But as I grew older, I became less interested in playing music. I showed some interest in bass guitar when I turned 13, but that didn't go anywhere for a while. Eventually, around the time I turned 14, something just sparked in me. All of a sudden I was into all this rock 'n' roll music! Guitar just seemed like the logical thing for me to do with my life at that time.

Your family seems to have a rich musical history. Do you feel any pressure to live up to the "Collins" name?

Sometimes, yes! Though it's usually pressure that I put on myself. I doubt there'll ever be a time where someone walks up to me and goes "Aren't you the nephew of the bass player from Butterbrain? And the son of the guitarist from White Trash!" If anything, it's more worrying to me that I might continue the legacy of having a band only for it to never become popular outside of very local circles!

What’s the story behind the name of your band, Third Rail Shock?

Well, there's two answers to that. The more simple answer is that it's something that happens. On railroad tracks, there are three rails. Two for the train, and one for the electricity. If you touch the third rail, then you'll get electrocuted (sometimes to death). Hence, "Third Rail Shock". The long answer is that we stole the name. Years and years before I was born, my mother had a tendency to date guitar players. One of the guitar players she dated was in a small band named "Third Rail Shock". According to her, the band never recorded anything or played any gigs; they just jammed in some basement in Elmont. A few years ago, my mom told me about the band, saying "That's a really cool name!" As time went on, I just really grew attached to that name. So I started making this logo - The one with the star. It just seemed right. Then, I took a song called "About" which I was writing at the time, and started saying to myself "About, by Third Rail Shock." and it just fit. If the original Third Rail Shock frontman is reading this - Sorry for stealing your band name!! (editor’s note: our attorney’s got your back)

Who are your biggest musical influences, both as a band and as a guitarist and singer?

I think the two bands that influenced the genre and style of the band the most were blink-182 and Sum 41. blink was the band that got me into what they call "crappy punk rock", and Sum 41 was the band that showed me how musical styles can evolve. Those two bands taught me how to have humor while still expressing my negative emotions. Though as a guitarist, I tend to play more like Kurt Cobain in my opinion - which is weird because I rarely listen to Nirvana. I'm fully self-taught and can't solo, so I tend to appreciate Kurt’s more ... primitive style of guitar playing. On the slight chance that I do play a solo, it's nothing beautiful or melodic. It's usually more avant-garde and raw, just like how you scream at the top of your lungs to get your anger out - I play these weird, horrible-sounding solos to get my musical frustrations out. As a vocalist? I only have one major influence: John Frusciante, especially his style during his solo career between 2001 and 2009.

What's it like being the frontman of Third Rail Shock?

I didn't realize we were a big enough band to have a frontman!

How does your father's legacy as a guitarist influence your own playing and songwriting?

As a guitarist, I look at him the same way Frusciante looks at Hendrix. He's a major influence, and someone to look up to. At the same time, I won't ever get the chance to have a conversation with him about music or technique or anything like that. As a songwriter, he's not as big of an influence. I don't think my dad was too much of a writer or lyricist. In fact - has he ever written any lyrics? I'll have to check.

Aaron Collins (Butterbrain), Luke Collins, and Mark Sokoll (CHAKA)

Which band has influenced you the most?

Which band has influenced me the most? Pink Floyd. But the band that provides most of my "Third Rail Shock" inspiration is Sum 41.

Your father was also an inventor. Do you have any of his inventions, or do you have any interest in tinkering yourself?

Yes! I have two of his guitars, which he played and modified the hell out of. I also have a few more complicated projects, some being unfinished. I have a custom distortion pedal that he hand-built, an unfinished rack-mountable effect of some sort, and even an entire organ that he wasn't able to finish! He called it the "Suga-Tron", a play on his stage name "Sugar Brown". I also love modifying and building guitars. Some of my favorite guitars that I own have been modified (or built) by me! From small things such as changing the knobs or pickguard, to big things such as replacing the pickups or electronics as a whole! If this whole "music" thing doesn't work out, my second career choice would probably be to become a luthier who specializes in electric instruments.

What's it like having your uncle, Aaron "White Owl" Collins, as a bass player? Did he teach you anything?

He actually bought me my first bass! It was a Squier Bronco Bass in black - I eventually sold it to get a guitar. He's taught me a lot about playing guitar and bass. Since he's got 30+ years of playing under his belt, it helps me a lot. I can just walk up to him and play an incomplete riff and say "What chord would I play at the end of this progression?", and he'll figure it out on bass and give me a suggestion.

What's your favorite song that you've written, and why?

That's a tough one... I have so many unfinished and scrapped songs that are great, but only have a few lines. I have this one very short song which is the final track from a short (unfinished) suite of very meaningful and depressing songs. There's three or four songs that are all filled with depression and self-doubt and self-hatred, very intense stuff which I go through a lot. But after all these dark, depressing songs, you get a sort of melancholic, uplifting song. It's called "Sometime Tomorrow" and the suite of songs it's from has a working title of "Lonely".

"When it's all said and done, there'll be a new rising sun,
We won't see it today, but maybe sometime tomorrow it'll show it's face"

Ethank “Sugar Brown” Collins, Mike “Ssslestak” Caldarella, and Aaron “White Owl” Collins rehearsing

Are there any instruments you’d like to learn besides the guitar?

I'd love to learn the drums or the keys. I think either of those would be great because they'd help with solo songwriting a lot!

What’s the music scene like up in Connecticut?

Wait, there's a music scene in Connecticut? I've been traveling down to New York for music when I could have just stayed local the whole time? This is life changing news (editor’s note: we know where that sarcasm comes from!)

What’s the most challenging part about being in a band?

Collaboration. Sometimes you have a great idea, so you show it to your bandmates or friends and they all go "That sounds horrible, we're not doing that". It can hurt at first, especially when it's something you're really excited about. But usually you'll get over it and eventually you'll look back on the idea and think "This is horrible, they were right"

What are Third Rail Shock’s goals for the future?

We have a few concepts for albums that we'd like to write and record. I personally also think that some collaborations would be cool. Hey, maybe eventually there'll be a Third Rail Shock/Butterbrain collaboration! You never know!

What's the biggest misconception people have about being a musician?

I guess the fact that it's easy. Playing and writing music isn't something that you can just pick up and immediately understand. It takes years of studying and trial-and-error with unfinished songs to get to a point where you're confident enough to go out and record a song or play a concert. I've been playing guitar consistently for almost 4 years and I still barely know anything! If you tell someone that you've been playing for 4 years, they might think you're still a beginner! It's not a hobby you can put down at any time. It's a commitment that lasts most of your life. If there are any guitarists out there reading this and thinking "that's completely untrue, guitar is super easy!" - they're either prodigies who were born to be good at guitar, or they're lying to themselves about how good they are.

If you could collaborate with any artist, living or dead, who would it be?

I think my writing style would work best with someone like John Frusciante - But I would LOVE to write or record something with Mark Hoppus from blink-182. He just seems like such a nice, funny guy! Incredible bass tone too - That Jaguar Bass with the reversed pickups? It looks and sounds AMAZING!

What advice would you give to other young musicians just starting out?

Don’t expect too much from yourself, but also don't limit yourself. Go try to learn that really difficult song that you want to learn! But also, don't get disappointed if it's too difficult for you to learn. As long as you stick with it and you're motivated, you'll accomplish it. Maybe not right away, but eventually you'll do it. You have to believe in yourself and you have to want to write or play. If you don't believe that you'll be as good as you want to be, then how are you going to get the motivation to become as good as you want? And if you don't want to play your instrument, then how can you play or write without sounding uninterested? Music is an extension of the mind and the soul. If you can't make that personal connection between your thoughts and feelings and emotions, then how can you translate any of that to your fingers or playing or style?

Or if all else fails - Just do your best. No one has the right to ask you for more than you can do.

What’s the story behind your favorite guitar?

My favorite guitar constantly changes, but at the moment I'd have to say it's my custom Stratocaster Partscaster that I assembled. I got the body and neck custom ordered from Warmoth, got all the rest of the parts from their individual retailers, and put it together once it all arrived. I ordered the body to have something called a "swimming pool route" - Basically just a big open cavity instead of routing the body for individual parts. That way, if I ever decide to change the pickup configuration I don't have to worry about if it'll fit! For all the gear nerds out there - The body has a Holo Flake finish, and the pickups are a DiMarzio HS-3 in the neck, DiMarzio "True Velvet" in the middle (though I believe it's meant for the bridge position), and a Seymour Duncan Invader (AKA the SH-8) in the bridge with a coil split

How do you approach songwriting, and what inspires your lyrics?

Songwriting is a very emotional thing for me. I struggle with severe writer's block most of the time, so when I write, it's not a choice - It's a stress relief. Many of the songs I've written have come from sort of a dark place. My lyrics are part of that. If you really start dissecting some of my lyrics, you'll get a very clear view into my psyche. Most of my more upbeat and happy sounding songs are instrumentals or extremely short songs. "About" is a great example: it started out as sort of a love song about wanting to be with someone romantically while they're already in a relationship. The original lyrics were about being torn between going "I'm better than him, why don't you just come be with me?" and acknowledging that same sentence as being extremely one-sided and self-centered. I wrote those lyrics with an extremely simple guitar melody as a way to put the focus on the lyrics. It was originally going to be titled "About A Girl", but I didn't want any confusion with the much more popular Nirvana song of the same name. So it became "About".

That whole song came out of a situation I was going through at the time. I never intended the song to go anywhere, so I let it sit for a while, and eventually I realized that those lyrics were way too specific to be relatable. A few months after the song was written, I was going through a stressful time where people kept coming to me and telling me about their problems. I was just so sick of people coming to me with their problems and not being considerate about if I was already going through something myself, so I started playing this very simple guitar riff. It took me a minute, but I realized I was playing "About". Instead of changing what I was playing, I stuck with it. I wrote new lyrics to the same melody. This time, the lyrics were about how people seem to be so focused on themselves that they don't consider other people's feelings. I didn't want to be outright mean and say "Hey, it's your problem, not mine. Go deal with it yourself", but I also didn't want to encourage anyone to do the same thing that was making me stressed. I wanted to tell people that instead of just going right into their own issues, they should check if the person they're venting to is okay. Yes, you're getting the stress and problems and everything off of your mind, but you're putting them onto someone else. There's always a chance that the person you're venting to already has a lot on their plate. I also didn't want to tell people to just bottle up their emotions and never tell anyone what they're going through. Neither of those two things are healthy. I wanted people to just be more considerate. If you feel bad, the healthiest thing to do is tell someone. That final lyric is just there to point out how the cycle continues. And the last line of the song is the irony of the whole topic.

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MANiK: Unity, Community, and Rock & Roll