Sonny Sandoval...
Karma a....

You can call it karma, you can say that good things come to those who wait: whatever it is. But after the sale of nearly three million copies of their most recent release, Satellite, you can definitely say that everything for rock super group P.O.D. is coming up roses.

And in the middle of all of this is the soft-spoken front man from Southtown, Sonny Sandoval. Thankfully, far from your stereotypical rock star. Thankfully. In a world of music saturated with little-boy-wanna-be-punks, b@#ches and the bling bling, its refreshing to know that there actually is more…So if you haven’t [already,] meet Sonny; chillin’, live and direct, in his own words.

Honestly, its been difficult coming up with questions to ask you because it seems there are so many articles out on you or the band. So I really wanted to talk to you about anything I could think of that might be different. But in thinking about it, everyone does love you guys because of your story. So maybe you could just gimmie a little bit of history…

Well, there’s more to the package than just like ‘crazy rock band.’ When they know the story, they see four guys coming from where they come from: whether it’s broken homes or whether it’s just family troubles. Four regular guys you know, coming together and making music and music being a positive thing in their lives you know what I’m sayin.’ But I think its ‘touchable’ when kids see that…Of course there’s people that just want to rock and roll; like, ‘Hey man, I just want the rock and roll life’ and that’s what they see. But then there’s people that look at us and think, ‘Hey dude, those guys are like me.’

All of it is almost like a dream come true. We go around the world or were sitting on a beautiful tour bus and we’re like this is a trip because we were just playing in our garage you know; it seemed like yesterday, touring in a broken down van.

It’s ironic because the public knows you as Sonny; the quiet-like-tortured rock-star-singer-dude, but we both know that you’re not all that glamorous!

[laughs] Yeah.

But I think if your fans or the people who really look up to you got a chance to sit down and talk to you, they would just say, ‘Yo’ this dude I look up to was like me.’ And I think they would appreciate knowing that about you.

We’ve always been open you know. I mean at times now it gets hectic because the more popular you get, the more demand-so its harder to just go to Denny’s after a show anymore you know. But for years, with our core fan base-that’s all we used to do. We’d tell them from the stage, ‘Hey, we’re gonna be eating at the nearest Denny’s.’ And people would show up and we’d hang out. Even now, when we have the time you know all the guys will stand out for hours. If we don’t have to leave and we can just stay awhile; we’ll hang out for hours and just talk to people. Because there are a lot of people we remember that have come to shows for years. A lot of times you start talking with these people and it’s not even about music; its just about what’s going on. You know, how have things been going and they get a chance to see that were the same people.

I walk around like I don’t know what the big fuss is. Like earlier today, taking my little girl to the mall and you see people recognize you. It’s like big deal? [laughs] But you know, then I realize that dude I’m that way towards actors and stuff; if I were to see them it would be like, ‘Whoa trip!’
Yeah, they would appreciate that you’re down to earth. Cuz I guess it would be easy not to be…
That’s a big thing for me you know, I hope people see it that way. You know someone asked me a question, how would you describe yourself…And I was like, I don’t want to describe myself. I’d rather have people describe me you know what I’m sayin’ and tell me what they think because that’s the true you. You know anybody can front and act a certain way, but when people see a real person inside of you, then that’s what’s genuine. For me all of this is a roller coaster ride, it’s a dream come true that I never planned. And I’m having fun doing it. But at the same time the most important things, I think, to our band is who we are, where we come from and our families. I think that its taken us so long to get to this point, that that has a lot to do with it. It wasn’t like yesterday we started a band and then the next day everybody loved us. It’s been a hard struggle and so it kind of seems like you’ve been working on something forever and now the fruits of that labor have finally arrived.

It seems like a lot of people in general, but especially in San Diego, share in P.O.D.’s success. You know people will see you around and they’ll claim you; like, ‘Oh that’s Sonny or that’s Wuv; I remember when we used to see them at Battle of the Bands at the Chula Vista Rec Center, blah, blah, blah…’

Its true too! [laughs]

You know when you’re around San Diego, like if you’re at Costco or the grocery store, sometimes people want to tell you how proud they are that you’re from San Diego. Or like you said, people will say, ‘Yo, I saw you back in the day at this high school,’ or kids will say, ‘I remember when you guys played Chula Vista High School ten years ago!’ And that’s what’s cool, cuz people realize that we have worked hard…But around here, it is cool because people don’t really get like star struck like in other cities. Its more like they just feel for you and they want to tell you to keep it up you know.
Its like even when I wear a San Diego shirt, people will remember exactly when we played. Even on Saturday Night Live, I wore my cousin’s San Diego Car Club shirt and he was like, ‘That’s tight homie!’ So it’s all good.

Like today’s world is so full of negativity, where its seems that ‘niceness does finish last’-but you guys are a rare example of obtaining your goals through positivity…

I think its just more or less an appreciation of life and the everyday. Dude, I’m a blessed person and I cant deny that…You know that’s never why we did music, it wasn’t to be in this position. We did music because it was something that either kept us out of trouble or just felt good to do. Music has always been personal to us; it wasn’t for anybody else-and I think that helps us even now.
You know people are into that norm of rock and roll right now kind of being whiny. I mean its always been kind of dark and angry…But we just want to be one of those bands with like a Marley spirit or even Santana, but at the same time we love to make heavy music. It’s odd because people say our vibe doesn’t fit the genre of music. But hey that’s the kind of music we like to play. Hopefully, as we become older, maybe we’ll do a reggae album or just a mellow-jazz-Santana-type album. But for eleven years now we’ve just been playing kind of rockin’ music. And I think that positivity will always come out because that’s just who we are as people. It’s not like, ‘Hey, we need to be positive.’ Its not like we’re perfect or we don’t have bad days. I just try to be this person and these things in my life make me this person you know.

It’s funny because P.O.D. is known as these hardcore Christian dudes and really its not just that. Like media grabs certain things and exploits them. When, in reality, you guys are just regular dudes from around the way.

Media has done that for years and that’s just what they do. But I think as we continue to answer the same questions, people will get tired of that. Then they’ll know that yeah, these guys do have a faith in god; but their album rocks, they’re the same all the time, you know, you don’t hear anything but good things about these guys and hopefully that’s the kind of things people will remember. You know its funny you hear about us as Christians, but you don’t ever hear about some Christian truck driver or garbage collector. But that’s just something that he believes in and shapes his life. I told an interviewer once that you wouldn’t care if I was a Christian if I was collecting garbage.

It’s like an angle…

Yeah, I just don’t want them to ever use that as some type of gimmick or marketing tool. Cuz if anything, it hurts us in the long run you know, because then people will say, ‘Hey man that’s that Christian band, you can't listen to them.’ It’s like just listen to the music bro.

But I don’t let it get to me, I don’t even really care. Its just like you can’t take nothin’ away from what we’ve done and the groundwork that we’ve laid and what we’ve accomplished in eleven years-I mean we’ve really worked our butts off.

So what do you see for yourself personally in the next ten or eleven years…

You know eleven years ago, if you would’ve asked us, ‘Hey what’s gonna go on in ten or eleven years.’ I wouldn’t have known what to say. I don’t even look that far ahead you know. I love doing what I do because basically I get to be a kid. I try not to look toward tomorrow, I just take every day step by step and hopefully we can make music for a long time. But dude if it ends tomorrow, I’m stoked on what we’ve done. I’m still gonna be brothers with guys in the band, we live in the same neighborhood- so I guess we would start something up. I always want to be involved with music to some degree. But hopefully ten years from now we can look back and say, ‘Dang, we’ve been together twenty-one years.’

I really don’t take anything for granted. And I think that’s when you change the person, when you let all of this stuff around you start getting to you. We’ve always said, ‘Let’s stay the same kids that we were when started this band and we’ll be strait.’

You just gotta take all the things around you with a grain of salt or it [this business] will suck you up, like that. I think a lot of times you see that with bands. They’re just like jaded.

I mean I don’t know how far P.O.D. is gonna go. But I hope that in the long run people are gonna remember that we were genuine. They’ll say that, ‘They’re music meant something, it meant something to them and it sounded all right. But those guys were the same from the beginning to the end.’ Instead of being just some headline.

You know it’s just the whole thing of doing unto others what you want done to you and you treat people the way you want to be treated. And you just try to keep things in perspective.

So less is more.

Yeah, less is more, that’s true.

by jesse shamshoian

WWW.PAYABLEONDEATH.COM