Lords of Ruin's Lauren Boquette on Opening for Korn, Writing a Book and Google-Driven Name Changes

Full disclosure: I've known Lauren Boquette of Lords of Ruin for approximately seven years and I consider him a friend. But the first time we met, I wasn't so sure we'd have much in common. Allow me to explain.

Without ever meeting him, I hopped in a van with Boquette, my friend Gabe, someone who I think played in Dread Zeppelin and the only man who knew everyone in the vehicle, the one, the only, Alfunction.

I'm an introvert who doesn't do well with people (but I'm amazing with
animals). I'm also a pipsqueak and a nerd, so you can imagine my
trepidation when I first saw Boquette. Dude is at least 6'3'' and one of
his arms is as wide as my entire body. Add a bunch of visible tattoos
into the mix and I was certain he figured I was a total lame ass not
worth talking to.

Keep in mind, I am a total lame ass not worth talking to, but by the time we hit Baker,
Boquette was not only keeping the van in good spirits, he was actually
engaging me in conversation. Turned out, my fear was nothing but my
often-irrational belief that no one will like me because about 14 hours
after we left Orange County, our party ended up at downtown Las Vegas' Glitter Gulch,
where Boquette got us in for free and all of our drinks comped. Later
that night, someone who wasn't me puked outside a car while it was
moving. I'm not saying who, but he knows who he is.

]

Anyway…I
write about Boquette's musical endeavors as often as I can for a few
reasons. First, dude's a powerful frontman. He commands attention and
goes for the jugular. I know that sounds totally cliche, but it's the
truth. Next, out of all the musicians I've interviewed over the past
decade or so, Boquette is one of the most sincere and passionate I've
met. No joke, the guy's into what he does, but even more importantly,
he's a genuine fan of those around him. I remember talking with him
about AC/DC at length and instantly I knew he was an even bigger music nerd than I am.

Boquette spend the '00s fronting SiX, a hard rock/hardcore hybrid that should have ruled the world. SiX called it quits for reasons we still don't quite understand, but from the ashes of SiX comes Lords of Ruin,
a quartet — comprised of Boquette on vocals, guitarist Corey Bush,
bassist Travis Dunn and drummer Daniel Martin — making its Orange
County debut Saturday in Orange. 

OC Weekly (Ryan Ritchie): Tell me about the morphing from SiX to Lords of Ruin.
The band
evolved out of in 2010. We got to a point after releasing
three albums independently and touring for years that it was time for a change.
Founding member guitarist Alfunction left the band to focus on his full time
gig working for Clutch, so Corey and I starting writing with our buddy producer/engineer
Daniel Martin in his studio, Beehive Recording in Costa Mesa. The material had
a different feel to it and that, combined with some other elements at the time,
we decided to call it something else.

How does a band get its first show opening for Korn?
You gotta be badass! Kidding…that was another factor that pushed us to go ahead and change the name. In the
middle of writing all this new material we were offered a show with Korn by our
good friends at Jagermeister. We've been sponsored by Jager for years and they
were cool with letting us launch our new band at that show. We saw that
opportunity as a time to just go for it, so Lords of Ruin was born! What a
killer night it was to do it!

Why has it taken you so long to play OC?
For the first time in years I've
wanted to stop touring and just write. With SiX it was always tour, tour, tour
and that doesn't leave a lot of time to write and just focus on new material.
With this band we are taking a different approach by recording and releasing
more music as opposed to running around America supporting just one album at a
time. Work smarter not harder, I guess. It's helped with my sanity, too.

You said you are playing all new songs. Can you tell me about the
tunes? What do they sound like?
We took
what we felt was the best material off the last SiX album and released those 10 songs on iTunes as the Lords of Ruin debut album while we continued to
write. The first three new Lords of Ruin tracks became what we named our Beehive EP that we released that on iTunes as well. We have been evolving our sound and have been
trying to write as much as possible. We are not trying to totally reinvent
ourselves or jump on some new trend or anything — we're just working to refine
what we do. I've always been a product of
classic metal and punk rock. Those influences will never leave me, but the focus
lately has been on better songwriting. Corey has such a varied musical
background that it's really wide open. We love to cook up jams that will rock a
crowd, so that won't change but this time around I guess it's a mix of classic
metal, west coast punk, east coast hardcore and straight up rock & roll.

On your website, you mentioned changing the name from SiX to Lords
of Ruin because of having a hard time with an online presence. Can you
talk a bit about that?
Like I said, SiX toured
constantly and released three albums, all during the time when the world
starting buying music online. With such a simple name, it became harder and
harder to find online. Also, during that time a few other bands named Six popped
up; then the final blow was when Nikki Sixx launched Sixx AM. It was like, are
you kidding?

What's next for Lords of Ruin?
We recently signed on to be part of
a new Sullen Musik compilation album. The clothing company Sullen is launching
a music side of their brand and we are honored to be a part of it. Our song Life is a War will be featured on this album along with B-Real from Cypress
Hill, BMX legend Rick Thorne's band and a handful of other Sullen sponsored
artists. It is great to be working with real people who have built their
company from the ground up for over 10 years and have always been a part of the
SoCal lifestyle.

Your website also mentions that you are writing a book. Is that
true? If so, what's it about? Can you give me one good story that you will
include in the book and one you won't?
This first book titled The Birth,
Life and Lies is really a collection of poems and short stories that is sort
of my story as an artist who was saved by music. I won't lie, it's a dark book
but I come from a dark place. I want the world to see that just because you
come from a fucked up place doesn't mean you have to grow into a fucked up
person. Our lives are our choices and it's easy to change and move forward as
long as you really want to. Some people just love the misery. I'm not one of
them. The second book will be more crazy
stories from tours and rock & roll madness. That one will spill some dirt.