The Oral History of OFFWITHHISHEAD (Vegas Archive)

Feb 7, 2019 Posted by Emily Matview In Oral History, Vegas Archive Tagged OFFWITHHISHEAD Comments 1

Click here to download Swallow the Creek

Click here to download My Heart Beats Only Out of Habit

Click here to support PIV and purchase The Oral History of OFFWITHHISHEAD on Amazon

Welcome to Vegas Archive, a feature where we re-release music from local bands that are gone, but certainly not forgotten.

Today we’re bringing you ‘Swallow the Creek’ and ‘My Heart Beats Only Out Of Habit’ from local hardcore band OFFWITHHISHEAD, who were active in Vegas from 2002-2008.

For more information about the band and these songs, read the oral history as told by former OFFWITHHISHEAD members Ben Christensen, Joey Dimatteo, Jesse Hartlauer, Austin Jeffers, Roger Ortiz, Kyle Peterson, Jess Stewart and C.J. Wintch.

OffWithHisHead is back with a new frontman, Austin (ex-Beacon). They still play metalcore. They still love video games. And they love Subway. – Sin City Straight Edge

OFFWITHHISHEAD began life within a different Las Vegas band.

CJ Wintch, drums

OFFWITHHISHEAD came together when Jesse [Hartlauer, bass] and I decided to do a new project.

Jesse Hartlauer, bass

I’d been playing in various bands in the Vegas hardcore scene since I was about 16. After a break from one of my bands I started a group with Craig (Folsom), Justin (aka Gremlin) and CJ.

CJ Wintch, drums

That project fell apart but Jesse and I enjoyed being in a band together so we started seeing if we could find anyone to continue playing. Jesse knew Roger [Ortiz, guitar]. As soon as he came in we knew he would be a good fit.

Roger Ortiz, guitar

I was new in town and looking to join a band so I could get connected with the local scene. I found Jesse through a coworker, who was Jesse’s wife (at the time).

Jesse Hartlauer

My ex-wife told me that this guy at her work listens to the same type of music as me and plays guitar, too. At the time I was playing guitar in the band and wanted a second guitarist. So I told him to come and play with us.

CJ Wintch

The first time Jesse and I jammed with Roger, we had such great chemistry. It was like we had been playing together for years. I think we hammered out two songs on that first day of practice. It was just easy. No egos, nothing like that.

Roger Ortiz

That slowly turned into OFFWITHHISHEAD.

The original band broke up but the three musicians decided to continue with a new project.

Jesse Hartlauer

CJ and I were growing very frustrated with the direction of the band, as well as Craig’s and Justin’s attitudes towards it. So after Roger came in and we realized he was good, we decided to split and start a new band. Roger was on guitar and I switched to bass.

Roger Ortiz

We went through a couple of singers before we found Austin [Jeffers]. The first singer was a guy named Spencer and he was pretty cool.

Jesse Hartlauer

We were looking to add a second guitarist and Spencer knew a guy who played guitar. So through him Joey [Dimatteo] joined the band.

Joey Dimatteo, guitar

My friend Spencer asked if I wanted to play guitar with some random dudes. I didn’t have any real projects going on so I was down. We met up at CJ’s and I learned a couple of their songs. The dudes were really funny, so I just kept showing up for practice [laughs].

CJ Wintch

Joey and Roger had different backgrounds as far as influences go but when they combined them together and wrote songs, it was such a fun experience. Not only were they amazing guitar players, they were also great people. We would all hang out together, even if we weren’t practicing. Most bands don’t have that comradery or tight friendship. It made every practice fun and we all looked forward to playing together.

With the band members in place, it was time for a name.

Joey Dimatteo

The band name (don’t laugh) actually came from a dream I had before I joined the band. I dreamt I was in a band called OFFWITHHISHEAD and we were fucking heavy. I thought the name was cheesy but also brutal. We never got as heavy as my dream band. I regret that.

The newly christened OFFWITHHISHEAD was formed, but finding a permanent vocalist proved to be a problem.

Jesse Hartlauer

We started playing shows shortly after Spencer joined but it wasn’t working out with him.

CJ Wintch

Spencer and Joey had been friends for a while and it was good at first.

Roger Ortiz

I don’t remember how exactly it went down but there was a disagreement between Spencer and Joey. Spencer ended up leaving.

CJ Wintch

I think our styles just didn’t really mesh well. We wanted to be a little different musically and we all just kind of felt that it would be better to move on.

Jesse Hartlauer

We decided to replace him with one of Joey’s friends, Jess Stewart.

Roger Ortiz

Jess joined up and he was really good. He used to be in The Weirding Way, so he had good experience.

Jess Stewart, vocals

Joey asked me if I wanted to play with them. He’s a good buddy of mine so I said, “Sure.” I wasn’t doing anything, so why not? We were just hanging out and he asked if I wanted to yell into a mic. That’s about it *laughs*. It was fun.

CJ Wintch

He was a very energetic frontman who fit in well with our style of music at the time. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Jess and how he helped us grow as a band.

Joey Dimatteo

We had him for the first demo and a lot of shows but I think he lost interest in our music and he stopped showing up and we had to let him go.

Roger Ortiz

We eventually decided to get a new singer because of the missed practices.

Jess Stewart

To be honest, I was drinking heavily and having drug problems and was pretty all over the place. I was really angry at the world. It was a bad period, I don’t recall much.

Jesse Hartlauer

Jess was going through a lot in his personal life and had to walk away from singing.

Jess Stewart

I don’t know if I really left, as I was basically just skateboarding all the time, hated driving really far to practice and was always pretty fucking intoxicated. Everyone got sick of my shit and we all moved on.

CJ Wintch

The remaining members continued to write new songs and we discussed what direction we wanted to go with next.

OFFWITHHISHEAD eventually found a vocalist in someone with little singing experience.

CJ Wintch

There was about a 4-5 month period where we were trying out new singers. We were happy that we waited and didn’t settle on the first couple people we tried out. It worked out well for us.

Jesse Hartlauer

CJ suggested Austin to sing. CJ knew him as a singer, I guess *laughs*. I went to high school with Austin and only knew him as a musician, as a guitar player.

Joey Dimatteo

Everyone knew Austin from school and the local scene and we practiced next to the band he was in at the time.

CJ Wintch

Austin was the guitarist in another band at the time, doing backing vocals. The “pretty” parts. I was the one pushing hardest to have him come and try out. He was reluctant at first as he hadn’t been a frontman before.

Austin Jeffers, vocals

When CJ was looking for a new vocalist, I was second guitarist for Beacon, and a bit skeptical since I’d never really focused on vocals as a place for me in bands. But I’d done some light back-up vocal work before and the guys were all really awesome and welcoming when I tried out. I didn’t know at the time that I’d just met some of my best friends ever.

Joey Dimatteo

I wasn’t sold right away with Austin but CJ talked me into it. And the dude was hella motivated and helped write songs. We changed a lot when Austin came in. It was a solid choice.

CJ Wintch

With the new stuff we had been writing, I knew Austin would be a perfect fit for what we were trying to do. I think it took like 2 or 3 practices of him just sitting and observing to agree to play one song with us. Once he put lyrics to it we all looked at each other at the same time and knew we found our fit.

Austin Jeffers

CJ told me I could start from scratch with all the songs if I wanted… so I did. Jess was good but I had a very different vision and tried my best to work on it as if I was approaching it fresh from step one. I think that was the best plan for me as I was already nervous switching creative places in a band, from being a guitarist to purely singing. I remember it being very exciting though, and the beginning of a whole new phase of me being an artist.

Roger Ortiz

We never had a singer that could “sing,” so we got really excited about the direction the band was going to take just because of him.

CJ Wintch

With a renewed passion, we began to write our next EP.
PIC

The band headed to Love Juice Labs in California to record ‘My Heart Beats Only Out Of Habit.’

CJ Wintch

We put Roger in charge of finding us a place to record. I knew that Love Juice is where New Found Glory had recorded so I was an easy sell.

Roger Ortiz

I found Love Juice online just doing research. We were broke and wanted to record really bad.

CJ Wintch

It was a great deal as far as the price goes because they had a place on site for us to stay. That meant we didn’t have to pay for a hotel.

Joey Dimatteo

Love Juice was like a rad old house in an old neighborhood but the studios were in little houses in the back. There was also a little room with bunk beds for the bands to use.

Roger Ortiz

Staying there was really gross but like I said, we were broke and desperate *laughs*. The little room had the oldest sheets and a little tube TV.

Austin Jeffers

Love Juice was a studio mill that had cheap recording for up and coming bands with apprentice engineers. Kind of like a puppy farm for the huddled masses of kids trying to find their way in music. I made it sound more romantic than it really was *laughs* but it was a good way to get something mildly decent recorded in a time when recording of any kind was still very prohibitive, whether it be from price, availability, or knowledge.

Joey Dimatteo

Recording was always a nonstop idiot adventure with us. We pretty much knocked out all the songs in three days. Roger would show me a riff and I would try to make my riff work with it and then we would stare into each other’s eyes and a song baby was born. Gangster shit. We had no money for mastering. We probably should have done less songs and more production but we were kids and kids are dumb *laughs*.

CJ Wintch

I was so happy with how the EP turned out. We were pushed to do things we didn’t think could work by the engineer. I was fortunate to see some bigger things in my other band but when I show people the music I’ve played, I always start with this CD. It was definitely a reward for all the hard work and hours and hours of practice we had put in.

CJ’s time with the band ended shortly after recording the EP.

Austin Jeffers

CJ left us for Wintch Mob, which was a hardcore band he had started with his brothers (hence the “Wintch” – their last name). There wasn’t any bad blood or anything, it was just a “I’m gunna focus on WM, cool?” And we said, “Yeah, go for it.”

CJ Wintch

Wintch Mob was starting to tour quite a bit but I tried my best to make both work, as OFFWITHISHEAD was the project I was in first. Eventually I felt like I was holding the rest of the band back and after telling them this I told them I had someone who was willing to come and take my place. Ben [Christensen] had been in bands with my youngest brother and I had already known him very well. Not to mention he is a way better drummer than I was *laughs*.

Ben Christensen, drums

I had played in bands with CJ’s brother Scott and I wasn’t doing anything at the time so I just slid right into the spot. I went to jam with them a few times and it was a good fit.

Joey Dimatteo

Ben was the best drummer in Las Vegas, hands down. I saw a lot of local bands and watched their drummers play and no one had what Ben had. I still think about his drumming. He was a big red monster.

Roger Ortiz

Ben is such an amazing drummer. He was really easygoing, always in a great mood and very perceptive to all of the ideas we threw at him.

Austin Jeffers

As soon as Ben played his first 30 seconds, I was so stoked, as I had very rarely met a drummer with his talent. To this day he stands out as one of the best musicians I’ve ever met.

Ben Christensen

We all clicked as a band right away. We wrote a five-song EP [Swallow the Creek] pretty quickly and played a ton of shows together. It was a good time.

Joey Dimatteo

Ben was huge for us. He came in with so much energy. He was so loud – I loved it. He pretty much walked in and became one of us instantly.

CJ Wintch

OFFWITHHISHEAD were able to record another EP and played shows in other states and even got to play in Puerto Rico! I’m so happy all those guys were able to experience that stuff. I wish I had been there to experience it with them. It was hard not being around those guys as much. We had all turned into very good friends. I still regret losing touch with them. I live in a different city and we only talk through social media. That’s one of the hardest parts of growing up.

With its new lineup in place, OFFWITHHISHEAD returned to playing shows.

Roger Ortiz

We tried our best to have a high-energy set every show, with our showmanship and stage lights. We always had fun but I think my favorite show had to be playing Fire Fest. It was a music festival in Vegas and it was the first show we played with Ben on drums.

Ben Christensen

Fire Fest was wild! It was surprisingly well-organized for how big of a show it was. I remember Austin climbing the rafters and just having a ton of kids there.

Austin Jeffers

Our set was really fun, giving us all a freedom to go harder than we normally had any chance to. Having pro sound for a band that usually plays VFW halls was a fun way to hear the dynamic and really sink into it.

Joey Dimatteo

That was the first time we played on a stage like that. I didn’t know what to do. It was weird. I always enjoyed playing with Wintch Mob on the same show because their fans liked us and they sang along and brought energy.

Ben Christensen

My favorite venue will forever be Dustin’s [Shaw, current Blackpath Booking] house. That’s where we first covered “Nerdy” and people went nuts. Plus it was always a blast pissing his dad off *laughs*. Love you Ducty!

Austin Jeffers

Dustin’s house was a good time. It was a place where the shows were very focused on a more specific type of hardcore, but even being a “post-hardcore” band we still had a place there. We were always welcomed with warmth.

The band’s sound had changed by this point to something different.

Joey Dimatteo

We were always changing. I think we always wanted to be a hundred different bands at once. We were writing songs all the time and if it sounded good to all of us then it was good enough.

Roger Ortiz

We knew the hardcore scene the best and we liked the music. I think I actually sucked at writing it and it shows in the earlier stuff *laughs*. After Austin joined the band, we started experimenting with our sound more and more. Austin had a lot of input on the new songs and we all found ourselves writing post-hardcore songs.

Jesse Hartlauer

Slowly and after Austin and Ben – especially Ben – joined the band, the music shifted to post-hardcore. That was just what everyone was listening to at that time. Ben is a very talented drummer and he raised the bar and allowed us to play more technical, off-time stuff too.

Ben Christenson

Bands in general grow every record. And with my writing style differing from CJ’s, the songs were just naturally a bit different from My Heart Beats Only Out Of Habit. “Blood on My Nikes” will always be a jammer though.

With a new direction, OFFWITHHISHEAD recorded their second, and final, EP.

Joey Dimatteo

The last recording we did was the first real one with Ben and it’s still my favorite. It’s the most like what I wanted to be like. I wanted to be slightly harder we but never got there.

Austin Jeffers

The EP was recorded with a friend named Adam Punjabi, who had gotten together a decent little recording studio in his home.

Ben Christenson

We recorded in his parent’s living room. I had drums there and Joey and Roger were across the house and we just did a live recording for drums. It was a bit sloppy but fun and turned out better than I expected.

Austin Jeffers

It was a quick and dirty recording, but I think at the time captured the desperation I felt as a singer and musician trying to make art I was actually proud to have made.

Roger Ortiz

Joey helped lay out the drum track with Ben but I wasn’t able to go. When I went in to record the song “Low Light,” the intro was completely different and I had no idea what song it was. I was so mad that they played it wrong and I knew we couldn’t go back and mic the drums because the sound would be completely different. Adam talked me off the ledge and asked to see if I could change the song to try to make it work and it actually turned out way better than the original [laughs].

Austin Jeffers

That EP is still, in my opinion, one of the best things I’ve ever made in a band and it’s almost a decade old. It’s raw, but serves the music well with that rawness. To this day I find it holds my attention and I’m very, very proud of it.

Next up for OFFWITHHISHEAD was a tour of Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, two members were not able to attend.

Jesse Hartlauer

My favorite shows would have to be when we played in Puerto Rico.

Roger Ortiz

That started with me wanting to go visit my family and I offered the guys to come with me. Then that turned into me asking my friends if they can book us a couple of shows, and they did!

Austin Jeffers

Puerto Rico was amazing. It was one of the most wild and interesting trips of my life. I saw a real rainforest and stood under waterfalls in the beautiful mountains. I ate food that gave me heartburn that I can still feel to this day and experienced Puerto Rican nightlife with great, loving people.

Jesse Hartlauer

Honestly, those werethe best shows ever. But it was also bittersweet because Joey and Ben weren’t able to make it.

Ben Christensen

I couldn’t make the trip out there and Kyle [Peterson] already knew the parts, so he got to go on a badass trip.

Kyle Peterson, drums

When the opportunity came up for me to go to Puerto Rico, I was all in. I loved the direction the band was moving in. The songs were some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing music. I had actually filled in for a few shows on bass already when Jesse tore up his hand at work so I knew most of the songs.

Joey Dimatteo

I always liked Kyle’s drumming but around that time I was kinda checking out. I decided to leave the band because I needed to focus on school and my family. I was gone before Puerto Rico. I decided to leave when that trip was planned.

Austin Jeffers

With Joey not going, Roger decided that one guitar would be enough for this tour. He found some great ways to fill out the sound and make sure that not much was lost in the 1/2 guitar attack. That always impressed me, how Rog condensed those songs into a tenable one-guitar form.

Roger Ortiz

We only played two shows and they were both packed and fun but the second show was wilder.

Jesse Heartlauer

The place was filled, we headlined it, and the alcohol was flowing.

Roger Ortiz

The beer was only $1 so we gave the bartender $60 and told him to hand out drinks. Beer was flying everywhere *laughs*.

Austin Jeffers

The venue was covered in sweat and beer and filled with laughter.

Kyle Peterson

I was drenched in alcohol and sweat after the show… and I didn’t even drink at the time [laughs].

Austin Jeffers

OFFWITHHISHEAD had a dictum that was simply “Fuck the songs if you must…Go hard.” That night we lived it to the brim, just burning through it all like we would drop dead as soon as the amps were turned to standby. I’ll always hold that trip in my heart.

With Joey gone and Ben on his way out, the band came to an end, with its members remaining close.

Jesse Hartlauer

The band just fizzled out because of life. Joey and Ben were upset that we went to Puerto Rico. That’s also when Kyle joined and the dynamic wasn’t quite the same.

Kyle Peterson

After Puerto Rico I stayed in the band on guitar for a while with Ben back on drums. By the time Ben left, I knew the guitar, drum, and bass parts.

Jesse Hartlauer

I love Kyle like a brother (I also went to school with Kyle and my dad coached him in baseball when he was 10) but after Joey left, and then Ben, it wasn’t the same.

Ben Christensen

I moved to Reno. There was no bad blood between any of us. But me moving had to start the snowball.

Austin Jeffers

Ben was an integral part of OFFWITHIHISHEAD and I held his position as a “sacred ground” kind of thing. Ben wasn’t replaced and we all mutually stopped.

Kyle Peterson

There was never really a decision to stop it. People get married, work life starts up and time gets away from you. It just kind of happened gradually.

Austin Jeffers

I still see and hang out with almost everyone I met and played with while OFFWITHHISHEAD existed.

Roger Ortiz

I just like hanging out with the guys. It’s cheesy but it’s true. We were all the best of friends and we almost never had any problems and every practice was something to look forward to.

Joey Dimatteo

I enjoyed every practice, every show and every road trip with those guys.

Jesse Hartlauer

The thing about OFFWITHHISHEAD is we’re all still best friends and still hang out. Unlike my other bands, this one just clicked. We were playing music we liked and it was honestly the best time of my life.

Ben Christensen

OFFWITHHISHEAD was one of my favorite bands I’ve played in due to the originality of what we wrote and the different types of crowds we attracted, plus we covered “Nerdy,” so I was always down with that *laughs*.

CJ Wintch

Being in this band was one of the best experiences of my life and I am thankful to all of those guys for being my friends and bandmates. I love seeing the guys doing well and their families doing well.

Austin Jeffers

We had a lot of fun. We were never a very huge band, but still, I always felt like it was one of the best groups I’d ever gotten to be a part of. Every once in a while someone will bring up the band and I’m always proud to say that I really love OFFWITHHISHEAD.

Written and compiled by Emily Matview. Edited by Emily Matview and Julien Boulton

OFFWITHHISHEAD Alumni:

Roger Ortiz-Guitar / Jesse Heartlauer-Bass / Austin Jeffers- Vocals / Joey Dimatteo- Guitar/ Ben Christensen- Drums/ C.J. Wintch- Drums/ Kyle Peterson- Drums / Jess Stewart- Vocals / Spencer Stegeman- vocals

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