Dave Gomez, 20, Singer/Songwriter

Dave Gomez knows what it’s like to be heartbroken but he also knows how to take and create something positive from it. 

The Chicago-based singer/songwriter of Plastic Smiles, may be a one man army, but he’s one with a mission: to meld together his love, influences and hardships to ultimately help bring back the essence of 90’s pop punk.

SPF: Can you explain how Plastic Smiles came to be?

DG: In 2008, I was in a band called the Show and Tell. That band broke up in the summer because of musical differences and lack of dedication and stuff like that. I just wanted to continue playing music. I was the singer and bass player in a band before the Show and Tell so I kind of just wanted to continue what I was doing back in 2005.

SPF: What exactly is a Plastic Smile?

DG: The name is derived from a song called San Francisco from Alkaline Trio. The lyric is plastic wings and plastic smiles, and salted peanuts to stretch my mile. The whole song is about being on a plane going to San Francisco. I just thought it was a pretty catchy lyric.

After [The Show and Tell] broke up, I was going to start a side project with my friend Travis [Brown], who was trying to start a band. It was going to be more Postal Service-ish, like more electronic. I was going to use [Plastic Smiles] for that but it never really went anywhere. I asked him if I could use the name for this. I mean, I came up with it anyway, but I just had to ask.

SPF: What’s the Chicago music scene like?

DG: It’s kind of dead, to be honest. I mean, as far as the local scene goes, it’s going, but at the same time it’s kind of hard to get kids to go to shows these days. I’m hoping to fix that.

SPF: How do you hope to do that?

DG: I want to bring the fun back into pop punk. I understand that it’s kind of been done before. I mean, bands are still doing it, but I want to put some depth in it. I was kind of inspired by bands that came out of the late 90’s. Now, you have bands like All Time Low and Forever the Sickest Kids, who are great bands, but aren’t really my thing. They’re a little more on the poppy side, and I’m going to bring back the more in-your-face punk rock kind of deal. That’s what I was going for.

SPF: You mentioned you had played in bands before this. How is it different being on your own? Is it harder or do you find it to be liberating?

DG: It’s a little bit of both I guess. It’s fun, but at the same time it’s kind of a lonely process. [Laughs] It’s definitely cool because I get to do whatever I want. It’s not like there’s too many cooks in the kitchen and stuff like that.

SPF: You’re sort of starting to look for members though. How has the search been going so far?

DG: It’s been going pretty good. I’ve been asking people from other bands to just jump in and play like one-off shows. There are people interested in doing it but they’re already in other bands and stuff. It’s been difficult but hopefully it’ll happen really soon.

SPF: Let’s talk about your free EP, Deadlines. You recorded at Studio 770 with Travis Brown right?

DG: Yeah, I recorded with Travis. I’ve been in 3 bands prior to this and I’ve been in 4 different studios, but my friend Travis was in a band called Split Habit. They broke up in 2006. After that he went to school and started recording bands. He’s just a really cool dude and a really good friend of mine.

SPF: You brought in a few other friends to help with recording as well. 

DG: Yeah. There’s a few different collaborations on the Deadlines EP. Just people from other bands and local bands just helping me out. There’s a different drummer on 4 out of the 5 songs. I had my cousin play drums on one song, this kid named Mike played on another and my producer Travis recorded two.

SPF: Out of the 5 songs you’ve released so far, if you could pick one, which one is your favorite?

DG: My favorite is definitely, I Hope You Find What You’re Looking For. That was the last song I wrote for the EP. I just want to write more songs in that sort of direction in the future. It’s kind of darker but still poppy and punchy.

SPF: You have a song called The Great White Buffalo. Now, that’s supposed to be a metaphor for “the one that got away.” Could you tell me the story of your white buffalo?

DG: The whole EP, except for one song, is about heartbreak. They were written about a girl I had dated over the summer. I recorded that EP in a 5-month span, but a lot of the songs’ lyrics, were written around the same time I was going through a tough time with this girl. 

I was just inspired to write because she dumped me [laughs]. There are a lot of metaphors in the lyrics that are directed towards her. I don’t know if she’s heard it but I’m pretty sure if she has she could point them out and be like, “Oh crap, that’s about me.” [laughs]

SPF: Runaway is the one song not about heartbreak. I read your write up about it and you said that it’s about that sort of sudden desire young people have to just get up and leave without a real game plan. I know a lot of kids, especially in their early twenties, go through that sort of quarter-life crisis type feeling. What do you think it is about being young that while you know you have the world at your fingertips, and you want to grab life by the balls, you also have the urge to runaway from it all?

DG: I think the main thing that people get freaked out about around this age is that, for the most part, whatever you go to college for, whatever path you take, you’re pretty much set to be that for the rest of your life. I think people just kind of get freaked out and sometimes they just want to be free. That song was just about that.

SPF: Like you said, quite a few of your songs are inspired by break-ups and bad relationships, but what I noticed is that they don’t sound sappy. Which, I mean, sappy’s not a bad thing, but you instead put this really upbeat spin to breaking up. Was that a direct influence from music you had listened to during these break ups or was it just a conscious decision you made to maybe fill a void in break up songs?

DG: Growing up I was really influenced by bands that came out in the 80s, bands like the Smiths, New Order and The Cure. All those bands seemed to have really depressing lyrics but like really upbeat dance beats. I wanted to incorporate a lot of that. I was also really into Blink-182 when that whole pop punk explosion came out in the late 90’s and early 2000’s so that was definitely a huge influence. I kind of mashed those together. I mean, there’s a lot of pop punk bands that go for the goofy, funny thing and I was trying to be a little more respectable, I guess.

SPF: What were some of the things you were listening to while you were going through all of this?

DG: Oh, I don’t know. There’s so much. Alkaline Trio and this band Goldfinger. They definitely have upbeat songs but they have more emotional lyrics, something with more depth. So yeah, I’d say definitely Alkaline Trio and Goldfinger.

SPF: Are you currently writing?

DG: Yes I plan on releasing a 3-song EP… soon [laughs]

SPF: Are you going to be going back to Travis?

DG: Definitely. Since I don’t have a full band right now and just kind of doing everything on my own he’s definitely a good friend of mine, who not only just records me but he’s also a great producer. He’s also a musician himself so he kind of helps me out a lot. It’s like a collaboration. Like he’ll write some different guitar parts and vocal parts and he played drums on it.

SPF: Last but not least, why should anyone listen to Plastic Smiles?

DG: Because I’m trying to bring back the fun…I’m bringing back the balls to pop punk. [Laughs] Yeah, bringing back the balls. I think it got a little, I mean, not that anyone’s doing anything wrong. I don’t want to point any fingers, but I think pop punk needs something completely different today than it did 10 years ago. I think 10 years ago, it was a lot better. That’s just my opinion but I just want to bring that back.

Download Plastic Smiles’ current EP, Deadlines, for free. Make sure to check out and like him on Facebook. Also, follow his tumbles at Plastic Smiles Music.