Another Joe

Who is who and what do you do and how old are you?
Alison: I play the bass guitar and I’m in the band Another Joe and I’m going to be Twenty Four. Allison

Richie: My name is Richie and I play the drums, and I’m Twenty Three.
Jon: I’m Jon, I’m Twenty Four also. I play guitar and sing.
How did you guys end up with each other and when did you come about?
Jon: Our previous drummer John and myself were playing together in a band that we started a long time ago, that was like three years ago maybe and then about a year afterwards we decided that the songs sucked and the people that we were playing with, we had musical differences. So, John and I stayed together and we started playing and we decided we needed a bass player because we thought it was getting a little boring without a bass, so we put an AD in the paper and Alison responded to it, and talked my ear off for about two hours and I thought she was crazy so I loved her good friends and that’s the thing, it’s just a joint thing that we thought would be a really fun to do. Something to do, that would be cool.
I heard gob was broke. That’s what I heard.
Jon: You heard gob was broke?
Yeah, they couldn’t put out your record.
Jon: Couldn’t put out our record?
No, I mean... Couldn’t put out your split.
Jon: Actually, we were talking about doing another record for ourselves but in the time that “Pee Against the Wind” has been released in wouldn’t be a good idea to go release another CD. We just released “Pee Against the Wind” really... So, I mean as of money and being able to fund us for doing a record, Landspeed had no problems doing it and I know that Positive wouldn’t have any problems doing it either because Positive’s rad to us. But, Positive will be doing our next record and we’re already writing for that and talking about getting that all finished up and money’s no problem I don’t think. I don’t think so, I don’t know. So, no that’s not true. Damn Rumours. Actually, George Zorin might be funding some money towards that to, so we’re having George Zorin as part of it.
Who’s that?
Jon: George Zorin?
Yeah.
Jon: He’s a guest, he helped out with the “Ass Seen on TV” record.
Is that the guy on the cover?
Jon: Yeah, Oh no no, the guy on the cover isn’t George. George is actually on the inside of the cover, you can see his picture in there. So, when you open that sucker up, you’ll see him. There’s a screaming ghost in the background of his picture. We can’t give out names.
This is your second release in I think a year, do you think it’s better than your last record “Pee Against the Wind” on Positive?
Jon: No, I don’t think it’s any better and I don’t think it’s any worse. I think the recording quality is alot better but then not to say the recording quality on “Pee Against the Wind” is shitty, they both sound good. Alot of the music we played on “Ass Seen on TV” , over half the stuff we already had that music while we were recording “Pee Against the Wind” and we just didn’t record them because we didn’t have enough time to do it. Some of the stuff we had already, so the songs are all in the same veiin so there for I don’t think they’re any better then the songs on “Pee Against the Wind” then their are a couple brand new songs on “Ass Seen on TV” and I think they’re just as good. We’re happy with both CD’s, we don’t have any regrets over either CD, we’re really happy about them.
How well has “Pee Against The Wind” been selling? How do the punks like it?
Jon: The punks!? (chuckle)
Alison: It’s selling really well...
Jon: Yeah, I think... Pee Against The Wind, is actually doing quite good...
Alison: It keeps going up, and up and up...
Is it on Spin’s top ten yet? (sarcastic, just a joke)
Jon: I don’t know. It’s on some charts.
Alison: It’s on lots of charts apparently.
Jon: I just don’t keep up with that, it’s just kind of like whatever. It’s selling well in the stores which I find is kind of weird. But, I have no idea about charts, supposidely it is.
You guys are going on tour with gob in a couple weeks to promote your split record with them, are you happy to finally tour?
Jon: Oh, this is not our first tour. Let’s get that out of the way.
No, I know... I mean, your new tour.
Jon: Yeah, we’re stoked to do this tour, we’re so excited.
Alison: This is going to be an excellent tour, we’re going to be exposing ourselves completely to all of Canada.
Jon: This is cool because this will be our first tour that we are actually going with somebody. Honestly, when you go on tour and your going by yourself, when it’s just your band mates and stuff like that, it creates alot of friction between members sometimes, you know it gets a little stress...
Alison: Same faces everyday...
Jon: It’s going to be nice to go with a different band and hang out with different people and stuff like that... And, yeah we’re stoked, it’s going to be great.
Where are you guys going to tour and for how long?
Jon: I think we’re gonna go for 4 and a half weeks, and we’re going right across Canada. Coast to coast baby!!
Alison: Halerfax.
Jon: This is going to be our biggest tour, our first extensive long tour.
Where are you going in the States, just the west coast?
Jon: On this tour with gob we’re going to go across Canada and come back, shortly afterwards we’re gonna to take a couple weeks and go down the west coast as far as LA and then come back up and it’ll be about a week and a half, two weeks... And, then we’ll come back and then play lots of shows and hopefully release a 7" or something... Just release something, we want to get some more vinyl.
Is this going to be new songs?
Jon: It’s hard to say right now, it’s still in the hush hush zone.
Who’s the shithead putting it out? <sarcistic> Is it that Jason dude?
Jon: Jay?
Jason Schreurs...
Jon: Jason Schreurs... Who’s that? Who is it?
Ivan: He does SCHtuff...
Jon: Oh, Jason SCHtufff... Jay? Why is he going to?
Oh, I thought you said he was putting it out, huh?
Jon: That’s what I said?
Yeah, that’s what you said inside there...
Ivan: <whisper> I said that...
Jon: He said that...
No, you said that.
Jon: I would never say Jason from SCHtufff... is ever gonna release anything for us.
<laugh> Man, I’m on drugs...
Jon: Hey, hey... Let’s rewind the tape recorder and find out. No, I’ve never even met Jason before.
Someone is screaming: “Goofballs everybody! Goofballs!”
I’m out of it...
Jon: That’s okay, you’ve had a long night, you’ve been doing some heroin. That’s alright.
What do you think of fanzines as an aspect of helping the punk scene grow, do you think they work?
Jon: Yeah.
Alison: Yeah, totally... They are good. All different opinions...
Jon: Fanzines are great. A fanzine I think as far I’m concered is like having your own little band And, you have to work at doing something for the fanzine, you have to put your time away to do it, you have to... There’s just so much time that goes into making a fanzine, I just wouldn’t have enough time to do a fanzine. I’d love to do a fanzine, but I can’t... I think fanzines are totally important for the scene. It’s better than doing a Spin article or RollingStone or something like that you know... Yeah, they are great.
Alison: That’s enough, okay we’re done.
Jon: I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t get to extensive on that.
Do you guys regularly read ‘zines, if so which ones do you read and what makes you want to keep reading them?
Alison: I read tons and tons of ‘zines, because I read all the ones that come through the mailorder and stuff... All the Positive stuff, so I don’t really know which ones. There are so many excellent ones out there.
Jon: My very favorite ‘zine that I have ever read is, Sven and Gimpy.
Alison: There’s is really cool...
Jon: That’s a great ‘zine. Those guys are really nice, Sven and Gimpy. Like, nice people... and, their ‘zines great they put alot of work into that. They got a great ‘zine. Uhmmm...
You gotta plug mine!
Jon: Whoops!
Alison: And, Uhhmm... Yeah. And, Uhh...
Jon: What’s it called again?? It has a fucked up name though, that’s why I can’t remember...
Agree to Disagree
Alison: And, Agree to Disagree...
Jon: Did you change the name again?
Yeah, I did. it’s a new name.
Jon: Then what the hell did you expect. And, we love reading Agree to Disagree.
Alison: And, there’s one I find exceptional... All For Nothing. It gives you a full education...
I’ve never heard of that. <sarcastic>
Ivan: I heard the guy who does it, is a fucking idiot.
Alison: That’s what I heard, too.
Ivan: He’s gay or something...
My boyfriend said he was cute, though.
Ivan: Make sure that comes off as sarcastic because you know, I actually am gay. I’m not being homophobic, I am serious, I’m not being homophobic.
You guys made a video and sent it to MuchMusic a corporate television network for mainstream bands for play, why did you go this avenue instead of independent stations and punk rock video compilations? Do you think alot of people will hate you for this?
Jon: Two independent stations in the states do have our video and play it... Can you tell me one independent station in Canada that plays videos?

Richie hamming it up Hamming it up even more... Richie must be drunk...
There’s one in Surrey actually.
Jon: What is it?
It’s Rogers 4.
Alison: We’ve already done that...
Jon: They do play our stuff, we’ve done that... Been there done that... Any others that you can think of?
There’s lots.
Jon: But can you think of any?
Not locally, no.
Jon: I haven’t heard of any independent canadian video playing stations, that I know of.
There isn’t any national ones.
Jon: Yeah, that’s what I mean, in Canada. Like I said, Roger’s we’ve done that, they have our video. In the states there’s two that I know of, that they are playing our video and MTV doesn’t have our video. The reason we sent our video off to MuchMusic is for the plain reason is that radio stations and stuff like that, say college stations or university stations and that, they have our CD and they play it I think ever so rarely... (Alison laughs) It’s a very rare accurance that it ever gets played... It’s even rare if it gets played here for all I know, at CiTR, which is fine, I mean, I don’t care. But, in order for us to be able to go somewhere...
Alison: Tour.
Jon: Say to tour across Canada... We’ve done Alberta like a few times, in those few times we’ve accomplished getting a small little gathering of people that atleast that know who we are, and it’s easy for us to go back there and atleast have ten people to see who we are. When we released at “Eat at Bernie’s”, we had no idea we were going to be doing a Canadian tour with gob, we had no idea we were going to be releasing “Ass Seen on TV” with gob, we had no idea about alot of things that were coming up... We just decided we needed something to promote our band somehow, to more people basically... The video is by far not one of your mainstream Bush X videos, by far it’s not...
I like Bush X.
Jon: You like Bush X?
Yeah, I like them, they are cool...
Jon: Okay.
Alison: Well, there you go...
Jon: Okay, Brian... On mentioning mainstream videos... and bands, let’s take Bush X for instance... No, but do you see what I’m getting at?
Alison: You have to expose yourself if you want to tour, if you want to be able to go across Canada, you can’t just go across Canada without any exposure at all because it takes...
Jon: You can go across Canada wihout having the exposure...
Alison: But, your going to end up coming back with nothing, your not going to be able to go anywhere, it’s just not the same...
Jon: We all just thought it’d be a good idea to be able to ill expose ourselves to more kids, we can go across Canada fourteen times, and say in those fourteen times, that those ten kids that came the first time well they’ll get a couple friends to come out to the next one, so that’s like 12 people, and get maybe 5 more from that, seventeen people and stuff like that... This allows more people to hear Another Joe and maybe they’re gonna like Another Joe and I don’t think there is anything wrong with exposing music in some way like that, it just allows more people to hear a band, basically. I don’t think we’ll be booking any shows with Bon Jovi anytime soon...
Why not? They’re awesome! <sarcastic>
Jon: Are they? Old Bon Jovi... Actually, I probably shouldn’t say that, they wrote my name like that on the record. <laugh>
What does punk mean to you and has it changed your life? If so, How?
Jon: Do you want to do this in stages, Richie?
Richie: How has punk rock changed my life?
<Alison laughs>
Jon: We’re on much music man!
Richie: I don’t know, I thrash on my car... I don’t know, really I don’t know... It’s fun to play n a punk rock band, there’s lots of energy, the shows are crazy, it’s just great, I don’t know...
Alison: More do-it-yourself stuff...
The whole ideals behind it, just basically about caring...
Alison: It’s about having fun and giving a shit, and not being so abusive, more positive... It’s a better feeling, that’s what I get out of it anyway... You goto a punk rock show, all the kids on average they’re all happy and cool to each other, where is alot of other shows, there’s alot of fucks and they’re all fighting and bullshit, you know...
Jon: If you were going to make a independent all ages show and compare it to a bar show at the Niagara in Vancouver, there is such a complete different atmosphere... Two totally different worlds...
It’s a cool place to play...
Jon: Maybe, for some bands like some huge band that can draw a whole bunch of people or something like that... When we goto a bar show, we’ve played our fair amount of bar shows and I mean in that time the people that goto those shows the majority of the time are they’re there to get pissed and there happens to be a band there playing and they might listen to them. Atleast at an all-ages show, half the people that come to the show atleast they come up and they’ll talk to us, and say Hi and introduce themselves to us and they’ll come back, it’s such a friendly atmosphere, everyone is allowed to do that, it’s really tight... There’s so much support in the all-ages scene between bands and people and stuff like that, it’s a great thing. There is such a close circuit...
Alot of punk bands are political when it comes to writing music, do you write about politics or anyting in general?
Jon: I stay as far away as I can from writing political lyrics... And, actually if I can quote off of “Ass Seen on TV” the first line that comes out of my mouth is, “I don’t know much...”
Or is it your ass?
Jon: What’s that?
Is it your ass or mouth?
Jon: The first thing that comes out of my ass is, “I don’t know much about political views, but I know what is right or wrong...” and that is almost the whole basis about that song is just saying, we’re not political at all. I’d rather stay right out of the political thing, because I don’t have the time or the energy to sit there and learn all the politics to be able to voice a serious opinion on it that’s gonna actually be able to change someones mind. I don’t have the time to do that, I don’ t know enough about it, in order to write a political song...
Has punk made you even think about going that avenue to learn more about it?
Jon: The scene has made me more aware of... Maybe, not political as in Kennedy is running to be a president...
No, not that shit. That’s bullcrap.
Jon: Yeah, exactly... But, it’s taught me alot about...
What’s going on, in the area...
Jon: About anything... Let’s take vegan’s for instance, everyone’s fighting against Mc Donalds and what McDonalds is doing and stuff like that...That kind of thing I think is really cool and I am totally for that... But, at the same time on that note, I’m not a vegan ...
Oh, you don’t have to be a vegan to fight McDonalds though...
Jon: No, you don’t have to be a vegan to fight McDonalds, nor have I fought McDonalds, nor am I going to write a song about me fighting McDonalds because I’ve never done it before. So, I guess maybe if I start reading alot more literature about all the negatives things McDonalds is doing, and it really grabs me somewhere then I will write a song about it, maybe. But,. the majority of the songs are all about just personal crazyness, confusion or anything like that... Anything weird like that, just personal...
Alison: He’s a sensitive guy.
Jon: I’m a sensitive guy.
In what area?
Jon: <chuckle>
What’s your most sensitive area?
Jon: I think it’d have to be my groin area.
Alison: I don’t know, I think your anus.
Jon: I don’t know, could be... <laugh> How about you Richie what’s your most sensitive area?
Richie: Probably my bum... and it’s quite hairy.
Jon: It is a hairy area...
Richie: And, I’m quite scared of it...
Alison: Hairy asses are the best! I’m quite partial to hairy asses myself..
What kind of asses do you like: Do you like nice shaved ones or Do you like nice hairy ones?
Alison: Hairy asses definetly...
Jon: Is that a question?
And why...
Jon: Was that an improv?
Ivan: That was a prepared question?
No, <chuckle> it’s a new question...
<Tape recorder accidently got shut-off for a few seconds...>
Alison: Also, if you have a hairy ass there is more stacks if you have a hairy ass...
Jon: Next question...
Ivan: She calls them stacks???
Alison: <laugh>
Now, we’re getting into the personal questions... Are your asses hairy or shaved?
Jon: We’re not even going to answer that question...
Alison: Cause, you can look for yourself...
<For a split second, I thought they were all going to bend over and show me their asses, oh well...>
Jon: You look for yourself, in Ass Seen on TV, cause we have nice pictures of our asses. But, on the other hand we don’t have a picture of Richie’s ass yet, we are still fighting him to get one...
Alison: Oh god...
Oh, I gotta get my camera out...
Jon: Yeah, you should probably take a picture of that.
Richie: You’re not going to see my ass hog yet...
Jon: Are we going to see that you have a really hairy ass, Rich?
Ivan: Not as hairy as mine...
Richie: Actually, it’s not all that hairy, I’m just quite self concious.
Jon: Your just self concious about it?
Richie: It’s like this....
Alison: That’s nice...
He has a big birth mark on it, that’s why...
Jon: Do you?
Richie: I have a huge mole in the middle of it.
<everyone laughs>
Ivan: That is bad...
Richie: I’m growing a finger out of the middle of my back right now...
Jon: Holy shit... I’d like to get that remedy’d before we go on tour...
Get the clearasil... err, the moleasil...
Jon: Moleasil, yes!
What do you guys hope to accomplish with your music and what are the future plans for Another Joe?
Jon: I think the only major accomplishment we want to achieve with the music, is just to entertain baby! Just have alot of fun, that’s it. There’s no real big focal point or anything like that we’re trying to accomplish or anything... We’re just doing this 100 percent to have fun, this is a totally fun thing for us and as for future plans, we’ll release another CD and do more touring and play around as much as we can.
Grant Lawrence and Mint Records exposed!!!...
Jon asks himself a question... “Jon, was there currently a rumour that you guys signed to Mint Records?”
Jon: Why yes as a matter of fact... Some idiot was spreading that around and we’ll make it quite clear right now, that we’d never sign to Mint Records.
Alison: No!
And, Why is that? Look at Richie go!! I told you he was drunk!!
Jon: Well, because we don’t agree with the things that Mint Records does, and I’m not going to get to into it...
I think you should, and burn them hard.
Jon: Okay, well let’s say... I think Grant Lawrence has his head up his ass the majority of the time, I don’t agree with any of the politics that he has...
Alison: Snakey bullshit and just ignorance.
Jon: We’ve heard so many... They’re not just petty rumours, we know off-hand the way they run their company is just the most ridicolous way of running a company. The only thing Mint Records cares about is money, that’s it. All they want to do, is they want money. Because of a band that we know of, they don’t get any money and they’re screwing them Jon: And, that would be in beautiful British Columbia, Canada not the United States. We’re one-hundred percent Canadian, baby!
Richie: And, proud...
Do you taste Canadian?
Jon: We taste Canadian... We’re Canadian and proud.

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