From Simi Valley punks to career musicians, rock band Strung Out has been blowing out speakers for 30 years. Three decades in any relationship requires passion and dedication — especially when that bond is built on the do-or-die rebellious ideals of the fringe music scene. After 16 albums, EPs, and compilations, this favorite of the ’90s SoCal skater-punks continues to bring an edgy energy, shameless intelligence, and devil-may-care panache to the stage, making even the most aggressive of anthems seem sultry.
“I was one of those kids who was always looking for something,” said lead singer Jason Cruz in a recent phone interview with the Independent. “I honestly thought that music and punk rock was a way of saving the world. When I was young, I wanted to join some great battle … I wanted there to be some kind of meaning in my existence. That’s where music came in.”
Throughout the band’s journey, the music has explored motifs of humanity that give voice to a haunting vision of American culture and its dark foibles. “Every record has a theme to it. A kind of searching,” said Cruz, before offering the gruff vulnerability evident throughout Stung Out’s anthology of music: “I lost my best friend to cancer a month before the new record [Songs of Armor and Devotion] was recorded. So this record is about loss and love, and about songs being there as shields and armor.”