interview taken from Spank! 24
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DaVo IN bold
KERRY IN RED
The following interview was done in December 1997, in Souix City,Ia. in the kitchen of the hall. If it seems a little disjointed it's because of our trip down to the Red Room.
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A BIT OF HISTORY ON THE BAND PLEASE?
We started around February of '94. I went to see Duanne's band. Exploding Fuckdolls , I had heard a lot of good stuff about them and wanted to check them out. Also I hadn't seen Duanne in a long time, we've been friends for years. I was unaware at the time that this was going to be the last Fuckdoll's show. But I was looking for a band so after they were done playing, I said, "Hey, You wanna start something?" That's it.
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SOME INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THE BAND ALSO HAVE HISTORIES THEMSELVES; LET'S TALK ABOUT THAT.
All of us have played in a lot of bands; most of the band's I've played in aren't fucking worth mentioning. Chuck played with the Discords. Duane played in Political Crap, SS Sharks, File 17. Wade "Joe Schmoe" - played in D.I. and a couple of other bands, mostly Orange County stuff. Chuck's been playing for years, in all different kinds of bands.
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PERSPECTIVE-WISE, HOW DOES BIG MONEY AFFECT YOU?
What big money?!
NOT NECESSARILY YOU GUYS PERSONALLY BUT THE WHOLE ORANGE COUNTY SCENE, BANDS GETTING SIGNED TO BIG MONEY?
You know, I don't know, fucking whatever. A lot of people seem to think we're getting money and stuff and we're fucking getting shit.
I KNOW, I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE PAYING FOR TONIGHT
Exactily. But these kids, I mean some kid was just giving Wade shit for being a sell out and getting on the gravy train at Epitaph but we're not on Epitaph, we're on Hellcat. It's a fucking new label. That kid knows fucking nothing about what the hell he's talking about. Every punk band that mattered in the first wave of punk rock - The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Clash, etc., etc., - were on majors because that's all there were at the time. There were very few independents. Stiff Records didn't come along until way, way later. What I hate is that there's a lot of fucking bands who aren't worth the money who are getting paid, like the Offspring for one, you know, I'm not sure what someone like Social Disortion's thing is....
I'LL TELL YOU THE DIFFERENCE: I SAW THE OFFSPRING A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO AND I COULD HAVE BEEN SITTING AT HOME LISTENING TO THE RECORD - WHEN JOYKILLER CAME OUT, I KNEW IT WASN'T A RECORD. THE LAST TIME I SAW SOCIAL D. THEY PLAYED FOR AN HOUR AND 15 MINUTES IN POSSIBILY THE HOTTEST CLUB I'VE BEEN IN, IN AWHILE, SO I'LL GIVE THEM THAT MUCH. THEY HAVEN'T COMPLETELY LOST IT. AND ONE THING I CAN SAY FOR YOU GUYS, IS THAT YOU'RE THERE FOR THE FANS AS OPPOSED TO A LOT OF BANDS WHO ARE JUST THERE.
Yeah, well we're not into that. We're all the same. We've just been playing music for years, it's not like we popped up out of fucking nowhere and said, "You know what? Let's start a fucking punk band.' That's not it at all. If you took the fucking history for each fucking member as we stand, man, we've probably got close to a good hundred years' worth of punk rock, you know what I mean?
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SO ARE THERE ANY HORROR STORIES FROM THE OLD DAYS?
I'll tell you a fucking new horror story. We were in fucking New Orleans and fucking Duane and Chuck got arrested at the French Quarter - that fucking place is fucked up, man. We tried to do a bail bond and it was just fucking impossible; since we weren't citizens of Louisianna, we were fucked. They were going to hold them for anywhere from 30 days to a fucking year for being drunk in public.Can you believe that shit? So finally we had to pay like $600.00 to get them out. It was fucking amazing and everyone just kept pointing their finger - each bail bondsman told us a totally fucking different story. It was totally fucking insane just for being drunk. We were like, 'What the fuck do you people do on Mardis Gras when everyone here is drunk?' And they said, 'Well, that's apples and oranges.' It's worse in Mexico. In Mexico, you can go and fucking give them $20.00 and they'll let you go. Other than that, everything's been going really smooth. We've had a lot of really good turnouts.
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DO YOU SEE A DIFFERENCE FROM WHERE IT WAS A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO TO WHERE IT IS NOW?
Just judging from our tours, it's getting a lot better. We're seeing more kids, and more old-school and everyone seems to be getting more of a clue.
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DO YOU HAVE ANY WORDS FOR BOMP?
It was good for what it was worth. We originally signed for one record, it's a small label but we really wanted to be on it because of the history behind it. We didn't want to be on some stupid label with dumb bands that call themselves "punk." They did what they could, but we avoided a whole lot of bullshit by going with them.
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HOW DID YOU GET SIGNED TO HELLCAT RECORDS AND WHAT IS THAT WHOLE SCENE ABOUT? BECAUSE IT'S NOT EPITAPH, BUT IT KIND OF IS EPITAPH...
It's Tim's (Rancid) Label, more or less, but Brett (Bad Religon, owner of Epitaph Records) is his partner, but you know, I think Tim's got final say on everything and we're stoked to be on it. It's a good label. I really like Hellcat and we had a chance to play with them (Rancid) last summer and they were incredible. Their disc doesn't do them justice; they're the real shit.
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ONE THING I'VE NOTICED ON THE NEW RECORD,AS OPPOSED TO THE LAST ONE, IS THAT IT SEEMS LIKE IT'S MORE DIRECTED TOWARD WHAT'S GOING ON IN THIS TIME; IT SEEMS LIKE MORE OF A PERSONAL RECORD. THERE'S MORE STRUGGLE, MORE TURMOIL AND IT'S LESS POLITICAL, LESS BAND ORIENTED. IT SEEMS MORE RAW AND EMOTIONAL.
Well, you know, we don't want to keep writing the same shit over and over again. I can't wait to do our next record.
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WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELVES IN ANOTHER FIVE YEARS OR SO?
Hopefully we'll have about 20 albums out by then. Our whole thing is about doing records, and doing something a little different with each one. I think each of them are different.
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WHAT'S L.A. LIKE THESE DAY? IS IT GOING THROUGH ONE OF IT'S WEIRD PHASES?
It's been lame for a long fucking time. There's so much bullshit politics, for what reason I don't know., surrounding Orange County. It's weird but it's getting better. The culture clash there is always cool. They need to open some more all-ages places.
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HOW ABOUT THE ORANGE COUNTY SCENE? IS IT BETTER THEN EVER?
It's not better than ever. It's more or less the same shit but I think something's going to give here pretty soon. You can tell, you can feel the explosion coming. I'll tell you what's different. Back in the day of Adolescents, T.S.O.L., Social Distortion or who-the-fuck-ever, each band had their own sound. Social Distortion sounded nothing like the fucking Crowd; the Crowd sounded nothing like T.S.O.L.; T.S.O.L. sounded nothing like fucking whoever. Nowadays, everybody wants to do that pop punk thing - I mean pretty much every band around the fucking country is into that fucking happy crap.
IT'S ALMOST LIKE DURING THE MID-80S WHEN EVERYONE WANTED TO SOUND LIKE 7 SECONDS.
Exactly and I mean, I don't know, fuck all that stuff that was going on, that'll never happen again.
THERE'S NO WAY TO GET BACK TO THE CUCKOO NEST.
Oh no, man, there's no way. And there's no way of any of today's shit can even compare to that stuff. I mean, I saw it all go down - the Weirdos, the Germs, X. all that shit - and then I watched punk rock come to a standstill for like four or five years to where it is now. Today, if you leave your house with an earring or colored hair, you're not going to get jumped by every fucking idiot on the block. Where I'm from, when I'd used to just leave my house to go to the store. I'd get chased on the way there and on the way back.
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HOW DO YOU FEELL ABOUT ALL THE REUNIONS THAT HAVE BEEN HAPPENING, LATELY - THE ZEROS, DECENDENTS, THE CONTROLLERS
I don't know, I kinda feel fucking mixed about all that shit. I mean I can't stand it but at the same time, these bands have every right to their due time. But I mean with the Pistols and all that shit, I think that shit's retarded. How can anyone take them seriously anymore? And the Stiff Little Fingers have been doing reunions for years.
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I'M GETTING DRUNK, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WANT TO ADD?
I've got a fucking headache and my foot's killing me - we're two peas in a pod, man. Yeah, you know, actually Duane's got a label call Disaster and he's putting out a comp with like the Swingin' Utters - well, actually I don't know if they're going to be on it or not but Dropkick Murphys are on it, D Generation, Rancid and a bunch of fucking great bands - some well known, some just starting out. I think it's going to be called Ol Stars and Upstarts. So check it out.
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I THINK I'M OUT OF QUESTIONS.
That's good cause I'm out of answears.
