She Wants Revenge Wants to Celebrate

Having just last year celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its eponymous debut album, Los Angeles–based rock band She Wants Revenge will visit Santa Barbara as part of the lineup for Starry Nites Festival with an electro-hard-rock sound (think Morrissey and The Cure meeting the angst of Blink 182) that has both contemplative lyrics and undeniable sexiness. In the band’s early years, She Wants Revenge played alongside Depeche Mode and Placebo, and the group’s music has been featured on a variety of television shows, including Fringe and American Horror Story. I chatted with lead singer Justin Warfield (pictured second from left) before the band’s visit to S.B.

How does it feel to have recently celebrated a 10-year anniversary? It’s cool and a pretty big deal. When you start a band, it’s usually not something with a lot of planning; it’s just something spontaneous. If you would have told me when we first started recording our songs that 10 years later we’d be playing them in front of an audience that A, knew them, and B, loved them, I would have thought you were crazy.

How did you guys become a part of the Starry Nites lineup? The circle of friendship. We love Santa Barbara, and when we saw the lineup, we were blown away. She Wants Revenge played early on at a radio festival at the Bowl, and we’ve played at SOhO. It’s a great place.

With how busy you guys are, do you find the chance to play for fun? Two of us have children, one of us has a full-time job, but we hang out. Since we got back together and played our reunion tour, there’s always something to look forward to. When you’re not on the road, you get to go live your life, but when we do get the opportunity to get together and play, we get really excited.