Interview with frontman Warren Mansfield
The band was created in L.A. by Warren Mansfield and Marvin Rinnig during a time when big hair bands like L.A.Guns and Guns and Roses had a hold of the current scene. Screams For Tina and their contemporaries (Ex-VoTo, Human Drama, Kommunity FK) were jeered at by some for playing this dark music that some considered to be passe. The late 80's L.A. gothic scene was an exciting era and Screams For Tina was one of the bands that made it so. They became one of the best bands to see at legendary clubs like The Krypt, Scream, and Zombie Zoo.
HIP: Warren, tell us about the band.
Well, I met Marvin Rinnig, who's the guitarist, around the summer of l985 or so.
A friend of mine had played drums with him and I heard a tape of theirs with some
songs of a rehearsal. I thought it had some potential so I got together with him and
it started working out pretty good. At that time Marvin had some music but he didn't
have any lyrics or structure to the songs so I kind of took that over.
We played together for about 3 or 4 months, maybe 5, and then we decided that we should do a
record before we got the whole band together. So that we'd have some product and something to
give to radio stations and establish a name for ourselves before we got the band and went out
to play. Anyway, we did the record ourselves with just Marvin and I on it and we brought in a
couple of drummers that we knew just to play on the record and not for the band. Then after
that we auditioned a bass player and drummer and formed the complete band. In the meantime the
record was getting airplay on
K-XLU.
After getting settled we did our first gig at the Roxy on October 2nd of 1986 and the record
came out like about a month before that, so it was perfect timing.
HIP: That's great.
Now about music and lyrics, do you think that either one stands out more than the other?
I don't know, it depends. I try to write interesting lyrics, and I think that what we do isn't real
obvious. We've had some people that didn't like us at first but after seeing us a
few times or listening to the record a few times they realized there was a lot more going on below
the surface than what they heard on the first listen.
HIP: All musicians and artists usually have some kind of influences that show up in their work, can you tell us yours?
We have influences from bands that we've heard in the past. I think that my style of writing
is influenced by bands like the Cure, Killing Joke, Bauhaus, and others, but Marvins' guitar
playing is mainly influenced by Brian Eno and Jimmy Hendrix, so that kind of puts a psychedelic
edge to us with his effects and stuff.
HIP: Do you have any releases besides the one with
just you and Marvin on it?
No, that's The only one. The only purpose of that record was to do exactly what it did and that
was get our name out before we started playing live but it's distributed all over the U.S. and
in Europe.
HIP: So it's been about 2 years since it's release
right?
Yeah, pretty close. A little less though, but it's held up pretty good actually. It got in the
L.A. Weekly music pole as one of the best independent
records. We were really surprised.
HIP: What label did it come out on?
It's on our own label, which is Dark Illusion records, through BMI.
HIP: What are you guys doing now?
Right now we're working with a publicist who's also going to be our manager. We're also
looking to step up from the regular club scene to bigger places like the Palace and the
Palladium. We've gone as far as we can with playing clubs in town so we want to go out of
state.
Discography
Here's a promo pic of Warren Mansfield
Here's a promo flyer for a rare show
Screams For Tina
PO Box 661434
L.A., CA. 90066
USA
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