EXCLUSIVE: Crooked X Interview!

I had the chance to chat with Forrest from Crooked X last week. Crooked X is an up and coming, talented work of 4 young rockers out of Coweta, Oklahoma. The quartet, comprised of Forrest French (vocals, guitar), Jesse Cooper (lead guitar, vocals), Josh McDowell (bass) and Boomer Simpson (drums), began playing in fifth grade and cite has been playing for three years, inspired by such bands as Metallica, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin.

They were discovered on the CBS TV morning show when they submitted a video to Living Room Live and came in 2nd place.

JuniorCelebs: How long have you guys been playing together and how did you meet?
Forrest: We’ve been playing together about four years now. We started in the fifth grade, when we were about eleven. Me, and our drummer Boomer, we were in the same football team in fifth grade. We hadn’t won a game the entire year. We sucked, I mean we were atrocious! We decided to do something we could maybe enjoy a little more, because we were not very good. I had been playing guitar since I was about 4, knew some Metallica songs. Boomer had a drum set in his garage. We started jamming, doing some cover songs. Found Jesse. Found Josh in a guitar center. We all stuck.

JuniorCelebs: Can you describe your genre for us?
Forrest: I like to describe it as Southern Metal. It’s metal, but it has its Oklahoma roots.

JuniorCelebs: Tell us about being on Living Room Live?
Forrest: It was probably one of the biggest blessings of the entire band. My mom had seen it previously on TV and decided she that she should send in one of the tapes. We ended up getting on the Living Room contest on CBS.

JuniorCelebs: Which song did you send in?
Forrest: We sent in a song called ‘Death of Me‘ which is going to be on the new album in January.

JuniorCelebs: I assume you write your own songs? Where do you get your inspiration?
Forrest: We get our inspiration from every day things. We have our upbeat songs, but we also have our songs that are kind of deeper and feelings that most fourteen or fifteen year olds would feel – which is a lot of being left out and going through troubles. It’s not always fun and games in life.

JuniorCelebs: What is your favorite song on the CD?
Forrest: Lost Control and Gone.

JuniorCelebs: What band would you want to open for most?
Forrest: One of my favorite bands is Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. They’re probably one of my biggest influences.

JuniorCelebs: At which venue would you most like to play?
Forrest: Whisky-A-Go-Go would be awesome. Haven’t gotten to play there yet.

JuniorCelebs: What has been the best moment thus far?
Forrest: When we were in Sweden with KISS I looked over at my dad’s face and he was just lit up. It was great.

JuniorCelebs: How do you mix school with touring?
Forrest: The other three bands are homeschooling. I maintain my grades with public school. Whenever I’m home I am in school. When I’m not home I do homework on the road, just a lot of makeup work. I’m in marching band also, so I’m a band geek.

JuniorCelebs: What’s up with the Rock Band gig? That’s pretty cool!
Forrest: That’s one of our favorite parts about this. We’re on a video game, which is pretty much amazing for any fourteen year old kid! We’re on Rock Band, we’ve got our song Nightmare on it and Rock and Roll Dream. I’m not sure about Rock Band 2, we’ll find out.

JuniorCelebs: Do you have a message for other teens?
Forrest: There’s one thing I really stand extremely strong for in my career. Stay straight edge (no drug use, no tobacco, no cigarettes, no alcohol). That is what I feel is my calling in this world. I’m a really strong Christian. If you’re being pressured in life and people try to get you to use drugs and stuff, look to God for stuff.

Listen to the group below or check them out at “>MySpace:

Following their release today of their digital-only EP of TIL WE BLEED, Crooked X will tour and prepare to launch their full-length EMI/Capitol debut on January 13, 2009.

Image Credited to Fanscape