When I hear it now, it sounds like a beginner's effort and like we're struggling along. The objective was to try to experiment with a different kind of rock music, influenced by the Minutemen but trying it our way. We were also into some of the same groups they were, British groups like the Fall and Gang of Four. I was introduced to that music through Mike Watt and Dennis Boon. Previous to that I was more interested in being a visual artist, which is actually how it started.
Joe Baiza / Saccharine Trust interview, Vice, 2015
SACCHARINE TRUST released their debut EP, Paganicons, on this day in 1981 through SST.
In the beginning when Jack and I first started to write songs he might strum a chord progression on his guitar. It would usually be a strange combination of chords. I would hear that but would not want to play the chords. In fact, I didn't like playing proper chords at all. Instead, we would assign that part of the song to the bass player who would play the root or fifth or maybe little bit more than that. I would then create my own chords or notes to go over that framework. Most of my chords were dissonant sounds that I just liked to hear or they could be some arbitrary visual pattern that I would see on the fingerboard. So for me, there were no restrictions and whatever pleased my ear would become my part of the song. Most times, the drummer would come up with whatever he wanted and Jack would find a way to squeeze all his words in there. Jack had a lot to say and a lot of words. All this might sound boring and I'm only saying this now looking back. At that time, we weren't so analytical. All these things did happen naturally.
Joe Baiza / Saccharine Trust interview, Perfect Sound Forever, 2004
I approached music as a conceptual art project for myself. I said, "OK, I'm gonna be in a band," rather than taking the approach of a real musician. I was never in a band before that. I had very limited experience playing the guitar. I approached it without any foundation—there were no groups I could say I was individually influenced by. It started with just making sounds with the guitar. Jack would occasionally try to play basic punk chord progressions and I wouldn't want to do that, so we'd have the bass play the chord progression and then I would do something around that.
Joe Baiza / Saccharine Trust interview, Vice, 2015
We had a tough time trying to start a band. No one really wanted to play with us at that time. Some guys would hang in there for a while but they would eventually quit. Mike Watt jammed with us a couple of times and Dez Cadena played with us for a while. Finally a couple of guys from San Pedro joined us and we started playing our first gigs.
We were part of the early Pedro punk scene along with the Minutemen and a few other Pedro crazies. I always thought that the Pedro scene was different from the other punk scenes in L.A.. In Pedro, everyone sort of challenged each other to be different instead of trying to sound like the most popular groups of the time. For Jack and I, starting a band was like opening a door to another world beyond. We were leaving Wilmington and never coming back.
Joe Baiza / Saccharine Trust interview, Perfect Sound Forever, 2004