Basking in glow of Battle of the Bands

by Eva Dameron

Daily Lobo

Local band Your Name In Lights had a goal to play the Warped Tour, said singer and guitarist Mario Rivera.

They entered a contest for the ninth Battle of the Bands through music executive Ernie Ball's Web site. Ten thousand entered. Four bands won $25,000 in musical equipment, including Your Name In Lights.

Supposedly, Rivera said, people vote for the best band and they win, but Rivera said it worked out differently.

"They want your band to go and promote so it can draw attention to the Web site," Rivera said.

He said it's a two-way street in which the bands promote the Web site and the Web site promotes the bands.

"They see who's promoting their bands the most, but voting doesn't actually say who's going to win," he said. "We had a few hundred votes, and there were bands with a thousand votes, and we beat them out."

He said the winners are determined by a panel of judges, made up of producers and members of well-known bands, like Goldfinger and Flogging Molly.

As part of winning the contest, Rivera said, the band will play for the Warped Tour after-party in Los Angeles, and be featured on a Battle of the Bands compilation CD.

In last year's Warped Tour, Rivera said they played for a day in Las Cruces. Next year they will get at least a week's worth of stage time.

Your Name In Lights will have some newer songs by then because it's coming out with a new album.

"I write all the words, but we all write the music together," Rivera said. "There's not a leader of the band. I like to write stuff that people can relate to. I do it all random."

He said people who follow trends need to grow up and learn to speak for themselves.

"I have a song about how television portrays the life we're supposed to live, how society makes you have to be this way," he said.

Members of Your Name In Lights individually left other bands in 2004 to form the group.

"Since we've all been in bands for so long, we network and meet a lot of people and people helped us," Rivera said. "We just work our asses off. As soon as we started, we've practiced all the time."

Drummer Gabe Archuletta said they let their instruments speak for themselves, and he described the band's sound as two gorillas colliding with an antelope and a mean dog.

"It's good exercise music," he said, jokingly. "It's going on Richard Simmons' next video."

He said they play out of state more than they do at home, and this helps them promote better.

"We don't want to work normal jobs," Rivera said. "I want to do something I know. All I know is music. I've played music all my life and I don't want to give something up that I truly feel passionate. I'd rather die trying at what I want to do instead of putting up with stupid rules. When I was young, my dad used to try to make me play sports and I hated it."

Rivera said he's going to sell some things, pay rent and buy a guitar with the prize money.

"I haven't bought a new guitar in seven years," he said.