Interviews



Here are some interviews of Lagwagon.They aren't mine, i stole them from other pages.




This is a interview with Joey



How long have you been together now?
Joey:About six and a half years, but the current line up, well not the really current line up. We just got a new drummer.
What happened there?
Well let’s just put it this way, I’ll say that our old drummer had problems. We tried to work with it for a long time, we finally had to find a new drummer. It’s just didn't work out it’s really to bad.
Have you gone through a lot of members?
Minus the drummer, it’s been the same people on every album.
Before Duh did you have a lot of different members?
Before we recorded we had a different guitar player, a different bass player.
There have been a lot of rumours about tension in the band.
We were pretty much going to break up, I mean we did break up, but I don't know if you can really call it a break up if you only split up for a few weeks. We were on tour and we got as far as Florida from California and we were having a lot of problems, a lot of disagreements. That’s the first we ever did that.
On Goin’ South you recorded a fight scenario what was that about?
That’s just standard for touring. When you're lost, it’s like everyone knows how to get there and yet nobody knows how to get there. That always happens.
Are you aware of all the attention you are getting on the Internet?
I'm aware of it, but I'm not online right now so I haven't actually seen them. I think that’s cool.
Do you notice your music is setting the trend for music today?
Well it’s hard to say because we get a lot of critisiszum, that’s based on just our band, I think. It’s hard for me to take any of it too seriously, but I'm happy to see that more people are coming out to our shows. The label’s been great for us, we're really happy about that. Ya things are going really well.
Are you getting any backlash now that things are going well?
In some places it’s kind of getting to be an Epitaph kind of thing. We were just in Sweden, there were people with "Fart" records shirts on, it was just funny. It’s funny to me , I think it’s just natural. When too many of people’s friends start listening to bands on a label there’s always going to be people that are too cool that they have separate themselves. It’s just barely starting to happen. I figure that if you are into your band and you're being honest and you keep trying to make good music there will be enough people that will appreciate it.
Are you feeling any pressure after your success with Trashed?
No actually in some ways it kind of relieves pressure more than anything else because you feel more comfortable doing what you want to do if things are going well. I think it’s just important to do what you want to do and if people like it they like it and if they don't they don't. Ultimately there’s always going to be people that get sick of your band for what ever reason cause there’s only so many people that you can please because people change. I'm pretty cynical about the whole thing, I think a lot of people are just into the music like a flash in the pan thing. A lot of people are just fad oriented, I think it’s just more important to worry about the music. If you enjoy what you're playing then you're going to be happy no matter what happens. I know it sounds kind of corny and cliche, but it’s true
How did you come to be on Fat anyway?
He did a 7" that were recorded for Duh, because Duh took so long to come out, but that doesn't count as far as I'm concerned. Actually I met Mike a few times through NOFX they lived in Santa Barbara for a while that’s where we're from, and I just met him at shows and stuff and actually we made a demo we had a different name then, we were called Section 8 and we had a different bass player and different guitar player. I met up with Mike when I moved up here to San Francisco and I ran into him at a bar, when he was talking to friends of mine I said I heard you started a label here’s a tape check it out if your into it at all, and at that point we had pretty much broken up cause things weren't really happening for us, and he called me the next day and said that he really liked the tape you know I really wanna do a record with you guys. So I called the guys up and said do you wanna do a record. When Mike started heckling us to change our name, because we went on tour a few time and there were a lot of bands called that, and people would come up to us and say oh a I love that song drunk fat and stupid you guys are cool and I was like well that wasn't' us. So after Mike bugged us for a while, we came up with a bunch of names, and some how or another we picked the name Lagwagon
What came first Lagwagon the van or the band?
The band for sure, we bought the van a little while after the first record because we were touring in our cars, so we ended up buying the Lagwagon really cheap and fixing it up, and it just became the Lagwagon because it was always breaking down and stuff. It was just a natural name for it. We had like 200 names on a list and that was the only name all 5 guys could agree on, it just seemed like a name that nobody else had
When did you start touring?
I think we started tour in 91, we did a lot of shows in san Francisco if you'd call that a tour, but I think at the end of the year we did our first northwest tour and we went to Vancouver. We actually went out with NOFX and that was before our first album came out, and them when the album came out we did the same tour again. The first few tours definetly bit, there was a lack of people and no money, but it was fun those are some of the best memories I have
Is the band your full time job now?
Well it's a full time job but it doesn't take that much to make a band a full time job. Like for example we're going on tour in may and we're basically on tour till' October and I'm going to move out of my place and put my stuff in storage so I live off the band now that way, I think everybody is at this point. I've been doing it for a while now, the tours are going pretty well now and we can make some decent money so,
Are any of you married of have long time girlfriends?
Everybody in the band, up till' recently me too, I'm single again (laughs), ya I'm totally happy about it
Has there been any interest from bigger labels?
Definetly, but I've always been really into Indie labels that do well, and I don't think there's any better place to be, to be honest, because today especially distributor are more than willing to work with Indie labels on a bigger scale, and sometimes you can get better distribution over all with indie labels.
How does your deal with Fat work?
Fat is really basic, our set up with them is really easy to follow, we're paid a certain amount for each record sold. We only sign for one record at a time. Everytime we do a record we do a new deal so we can leave anytime we want. There's only six people that work at Fat and their all friends, we've been there since day one so we've had a chance to meet everyone when they come on. It's just really cool, cause if you have a question about something that's going on you can call the label and I can talk to one person that I know will know the answer. There's just never any bullshit, it's just really cool.
Has Mike ever helped you out with your material?
On the first two records he really helped out a lot, People have this thing that having someone in the studio helping is just a copout, but the way I see it a producer is really valuable, having someone there with an opinion that you can trust is great. Escepcially for me, doing vocals in the studio sometimes you can just go brain dead. He didn't want to come in the studio on our last album he was like you guys go in and do it on your own, because he was just so busy, and I was like come on you gotta be there, and it was really great for me cause every once and awhile he'd make a suggestion and in retrospect I'll listen to the record and I'll think god I'm so glad mike was there to make that suggestion.
Have you ever run into any problems with Fat?
We never had any problems! and that's amazing
How well is HOSS selling right now?
I don't know the exact number, but we're somewhere around one hundred thousand
Tell me about what you write about, like Know it all for example
Writing is a good means to getting your aggressions out about something, it's always been that way for me and I think a lot of other people that write lyrics too. I take it pretty seriously most of the time, cause you figure we're going to have to be playing the songs hundreds and hundreds of times so if you just whipped out some lyrics and didn't take them too serious id just be a drag. Well it gets to be a drag sometimes anyway (laughs).
Is Know It All about a specific person?
I use to work at a college radio station, there are a lot of people out there that are know it alls, people who listen to bands and once they start to get popular, it's like they don't wanna share and I've just always hated that mentality. I listen to everything, if Stone Temple Pilots put out something with a song that I like, I'll buy it because I like the song, I don't give a shit
What do you say to people that say certain bands sold out?
So many people will come up to us saying "oh your so much better then Rancid" and you know the only reason they're saying that is because their on MTV, and their all over the radio, and it's kind of like "well cool thanks" but it a loaded compliment. I usually don't say anything, but if I'm in the right mood I'll say something like "oh I get it your saying that cause we're not on MTV" Bands can't decide to get on the radio or not, I mean legal any radio station can play you, you can't keep your song off the radio. If there's a song that people wanna play their going to play it, and that's probably going to start happening to bands like NOFX, they've already got some, but there probably going to start getting a lot, and they've done everything they can to stay out of that. They don't wanna be part of that main stream fade thing. They make video's but they don't send them to MTV or anything. We feel the same way about it. We've made one, and we probably won't make another one, well we might make another one, but just for fun, and we would never try and send it to MTV
How did the video for Island of Shame come about?
The guy who made that video put it out on a comp., and basically he was on us for a while saying "you guys should do a video" and we were like well no we don't want to, it's really expensive, it's a waste of time , it's a waste of money, and we don't really wanna go that MTV route, and finally it got to be too good of a deal to pass up he was like "I'll pay for the video, I'll set up the show all you have to do is play and we'll film it" and he told us what he was going to do with it. He was going to send it to public access shows and stuff like that, and put it on a comp. video. So we were like what the hell why not
You guys are pretty straight ahead with your songs, how does your writing process work?
It's not really that calculated at all, speaking for myself I just write songs, we're probably to lazy to be calculated about it (laughs), we just kind of put things together and what ever happens. I think on this record I was writing a lot less technical riffy stuff, I was kinda over that. It's really hard to write a good song and I sorta appreciate simplicity, so I think the new album it more simple, but the song are still complexed, it's really hard to be critical about your own stuff.
What do you think about being compared to NOFX?
It doesn't bother me at all, we're getting less and less comparisons to NOFX which is nice, cause we use to get and lot, and understandable. We're kinda from the same ball of wax as NOFX, the more albums we put out the more accepted we are as a band.
Do you hope do keep moving on for as long as NOFX has?
Ya that would be totally great, that's the route I'd like to see the band go. If you can maintain a certain degree of popularity with out getting too popular which I don't think is that hard when you play hardcore. I have a lot of respect for bands like NOFX that stay together for a long time, you develop a really devoted following.
What are you doing next?
We have no plan. We are so bad about that stuff. The only plans we have are just to tour a lot, you know we had a lot of problems with our drummer so we haven't been able to tour, so we just did half a Europe tour, and now we're going to go back and finish that, we didn't even finish our U.S. tour, but we're making that up in May, then we're doing the Warped tour. That's the only plan just to tour as much as possible, because that's the whole reason to do it, is to tour.
How's your new drummer?
He great he was in this band called RKL his name Dave, actually I was like well if Dave's into it I'll do it. If he didn't join the band I don't know if we'd be together (laughs)
How do you handle inter band conflicts?
The best way to look at it is like a family, you may not like everyone in your family, but you care about them anyway, and you kind of learn to deal with each other, so when a bands together for a while it gets easier and easier. We all live in different places, our bass player lives an hour away from me in Santa Cruz, I live in San Francisco, two of the guys live in Santa Barbara and they don't even live near each other, they live on different sides of the city, and our new drummer lives here in San Francisco, and we're just getting to know him.
How do you write when your that far a part?
When we start writing again, we'll just sort of end up somewhere, staying at one of our houses, the last time they all came up here to my apartment, they just stayed here sleeping on the floor, and all day we just worked on new songs, then we did it again down south at one of their apartments. We just get together and write for a month, then before a tour we rehearse for a week. Every records been different, this last album I think I wrote about 90%, I'd have the whole thing, drums, bass, worked out in my head, so I usually write the whole song, so I can think about the whole thing at once. I played drums for a long time, and I can play guitar, so it's pretty easy for me to do what I wanna do, but Shawn write's stuff too, he has a band where he write's all the stuff like music and vocals, so he can totally do all that stuff, but I guess he just likes to leave the vocal end up to me for our band, which is cool. For the most part we don't collaborate as much as we use to. NOFX does it that way, like Fat Mike writes everything, I like it that way cause you can get too many cooks in the kitchen so to speak.



This is a interview with Joey and Chris


How was Lagwagon put together?
Chris: Me and Shawn have been playing guitar for a long time, fifteen, sixteen years. Shawn played in a band called Lethal Dose. Joey was also in that band.
Joey: We were a metal crossover band like DRI and Excel, Lagwagon basically evolved from a band called Section 8, which was the same kind of trip.
Chris: We were way into long hair, ponytails and blazing guitar solos.
Joey: I played drums in a punk band when I was fifteen. I was terrible. I was also in a speed metal band, I'm sorry to say.
Chris: He played the lead guitar. He was the solo master.
Joey: Anyway, the way Lagwagon got put together: I was living with out old guitar player, who was in Section 8 at the time. They were having trouble with their singer. This girl brok up with me, ruined my life, then my band at the time brok up, and I was just like, "Hey, man, kick out your singer, I'll be in the band.". So, I sort of snaked my way in. I was recording their demo. I brought my four-track over. They weren't happy about how the singer sounded, so I stole his band. He was going out with the girl that broke up with me, so I felt it was justified. He had it coming. He took my girl and I took his band. All's fair in love and bands.
Is he still with her?
Joey: No, she dumped him, too.
Your music seems to be evolving towards simpler, more cohesive songs.
Joey: We got stuck with a "progressive" tag, and I kind of bum on it, to tell you the truth. The new album is more straightforward, and hopefully our music will get more so. It takes away from the strength of the song if you have too many parts going on. What I'm more into is trying to put more in each part, rather than having twenty different parts in a song.
Talk about your involvement with skating.
Chris: It's just me now that skates. I really don't like street, just ramps. That way I can fall and pretty much just hurt my knees. When I was nineteen, I was living in a house with my girl friend and some other friends, and we all got together and starting stealing wood from construction sites and saving up money to build a ramp in our backyard. It was a 4 ft high, 16 ft wide mini-ramp. It had 2 inch metal coping and Masonite on it. It was a nice ramp. Before that, when I was living at home with my parents, the only thing I could do was go down to the ditch, this drainage pipe with really bad transitions. When I was real young, there was a skatepark near where we lived called Sparks.
Do you skate on tour?
Chris: On out first tour, we got to skate Burnside. A few months ago, we drove all the way from San Diego to Arkansas to play this show at a barn. We drove two-and-a-half days to play to play in a barn, but it was cool beacuse they had a ramp. Bur, for the most part, we try to avoid skating on tour. We were i Europe, and Shawn dislocated his arm snowboarding. Our old drummer also broke his wrist skating on tour once. So, we made a rule: no board sports on tour.
Joey: It's a stupid rule; it's not like any body can live by it. But if we're on tour, and someone gets injured and they can't play, everyone gets hurt.
Do you like touring?
Joey: It's one of those love/hate things. Sometimes when you're out, you just want to be at home. You don't really want to be on tour anymore. But, as soon as you get home, maybe for like three hours there's a sense of relief, but then, all of a sudden, it's like, "Wait a minute, do we have a show tomorrow? Don't we have someplace we're supposed to be?"
Kind of like when someone gets out of prison, they can't function in the real world.
Joey: Yeah, exactly. That's a good analogy.
This is the first time you've played New York City, right?
Joey: It's the first real show we've had here. We were scheduled to play here twice before. The first date was cancelled. The last time might as well have been cancelled. We showed up to the club, and they were having a gay rave night. We were with Youth Brigade, and we walked up to the door, and they said, "There are no bands scheduled to play here tonight." We were really nice about it and said "Aw, c'mon, we drove so far." For some reason, they went for it and let us play. There were like ten people there. No one knew we were playing.



Again a interview with Joey

Why did Shawn (guitar player) leave the band?
Those things are always a little bit complicated and there's not always just one explanation but we've been together for seven years and there comes a time when it becomes a lot of work. Shawn began to feel a little alienated by the rest of the band and wasn't getting along with anybody. We started rehearsing for our new record and he didn't show up to any of the rehearsals for like three months. It got to the point where we had to make a decision because we had waited so long. It had been over a year since we had done our last album and we really wanted to do a new one. We finally had time booked and it was one of those things where we couldn't re-book the time and it couldn't put it off any longer. The whole band decided that we didn't want him to play on the record and we decided to just make the record work because we had been rehearsing with just me playing the guitar for three months and the songs were really down. We didn't want to have to break someone in at the last minute. So... he quit.
You didn't replace him then?
We did. We replaced him right off the bat actually and it was amazing. A friend of ours from the band called the Posies called us right away and it was just good timing. We had him come and down and play on the record a little and toured us in Europe. But he's still in the Posies and had other stuff to do so the guy that's in the band now is named Chris Rest.
So is Chris going to be with you from now on?
It looks that way. I really fuck'n hope so because this whole change up round up thing is bogus. But we get along great with him and have known him for years. He was in a band called RKL since the very beginning of that band back in '84 and they're from our hometown of Santa Barbara. Him and I grew up together and I played in a band with him when we were like 12 so it really makes sense. Our drummer that's on our new album and in our band now was also with him in RKL.
You replaced your drummer too?
About a year and half ago. We've had a new drummer since we recorded the last record. So he's really not new at all.
Why were you calling your bass player the guy from Man of War today at the show?
It was all a joke. Have you ever seen the bass player from Man of War? d: No, I haven't. J: He's this huge, buff New Jersey guy with big black hair and he wears a loin cloth.
When is your new album coming out?
I just heard today that it's coming out August 19. It was supposed to be out around now.
What's your new album going to be called?
It's called Double Plaidium cause it's kind of a play on words. The cover has one of those commemorative record things on the front of it. We did it because indie bands like us hardly ever go platinum, it's so rare that it ever happens. We don't do MTV and we don't do radio. Or at least we don't send CDs or videos to them. So it's almost impossible for us to go platinum or anything. It's a joke but actually it's not that funny. (ha ha) It happens every time after we finish a record and we don't know what to put on the album cover. We thought Double Plaidium was funny at the time. There was some really good ideas besides that one. At one point we were thinking about a rock on the cover and then it would say Lagwagon rock and on the back there would be a sock and it would say sock. On the inside we were going to have a backpack and say rock sack. It was totally insane. That's how insane it gets in the studio.
Are you still with Fat Wreck Chords?
Yes.
Do you plan on being with them for a while?
Yeah , but you can never say so for sure. I can't see any reason for leaving them. The thing about Fat Wreck Chords is that I'm pretty familiar with other indie bands and labels and I also have a label myself. The way they run their labels is that... I think Fat is one of the best indie labels in the world, they're really strong and everybody there is like family. There's maybe seven people who work at Fat Wreck Chords and they're all really good friends of ours and they give us everything we need. They definitely take care of us to the capacity that they can. The cool thing about being on Fat for us is that we were really the first band on the label. So we got to grow with them.
Have you been with them for seven years then?
We signed with them in 1991 and then we recorded our first record which came out a year later.
How did you go about getting on the Warped tour?
We did the first year of the Warped tour which was two years ago and we just did two or three shows with them in California. We just made good friends with the people who were running it and then last year we did six of them. Then this year they offered us the whole tour but we couldn't do it because we had the Europe stuff that we were doing so we took the second half. We're in for the hot part. Yesterday we went to Chicago for the first show and it was pouring there with thunder and lightening. Lightening struck a building that was a half block from the show. That's how out of control it was. They had to cancel all of the sideshow bands and shut it down for a while.
Would you go on the Warped tour again?
Oh yeah, tours like the Warped tour for bands like us the deciding factor is really just the bands that are on the tour. We didn't really want to go on the tour again this year but we decided to because there were so many bands that we liked. It's great going on a tour like this because we can just stand around and watch all of the bands we love all day.
Do you model your music after anyone or do you try to be totally original?
I don't think we really try to do anything. I write songs and we go to practice and start working. Whatever happens, happens. There's obviously bands that we all like. Most of the bands I listen to are nothing like our band. Which I think is a good thing. I'm sure there was a time when we did our first record when we were like NOFX those guys are fuck'n cool. It was all really about L.A. punk stuff for us. We were all into punk but we still dug metal too. We knew NOFX because they used to live where we lived. I think they were the first band to fuse that melodic stuff with the fast, hard-core. I heard Ribbed just before we did the first album so that was a big influence for us. So it's kind of ironic that we ended up on Mike's label. But now, a lot has happened and there's a lot of bands out there like us and I think we make a little bit of an effort to branch out.
What's the new album like?
It's a lot different. I don't know if people are going to like it. We recorded like 16 different songs and the ones that were extremely different didn't make it on the album. Not because they too different but because we didn't finish them. It's still within the vain but it's definitely different for us.
Is it harder?
I don't think it's harder but it's more melodic. There's a lot more concentration on melody and harmony's. Most of the bands I listen to are all about song writing and that's all I care about. But the album's got more dynamics. I think it's our best album by far and I'm really, really happy about it. It's the first record we've done that I've been happy with production, sound and song writing. The last record I liked because I think the songs are really good but I thought the sound was a little weird. So you never are really 100 per cent happy with it but this one I almost am. It really worked out.
Do you do all of the writing for the albums?
Yeah, I didn't used to. Shawn wrote a lot of the songs but I've always written the lyrics and melodies. I usually co-write with other people because that's the way it has to be when you're in a band. Sometimes you have to change things that don't work but we've been really lucky cause all of the people we've had in the band have been really open minded. It's kind of weird with this album because of the whole Shawn issue of him not being there. It made me kind of upset that he wasn't around to work on the songs with us but it all worked out. I look at music as art and I think it's cool to be able to work with it. It's important that a band has chemistry and can work together as a unit.
How long did it take you to write this album?
It didn't really take that long. It's really weird because I'm one of those people who write a lot of songs and throw a lot of stuff away. With this album, we were on a tour where we went to Australia and we were there for three weeks and it was really sunny and hot everyday. They set up the tour so that you go to one central place and then you drive to the different shows. So sometimes you have to wait all day long until you have to play and that's the way they set up the shows there. I don't like the beach and I'm just not into the sun so I just sat in my room all day and wrote the songs. Pretty much all of the songs on the record are from that tour.
Would you change anything about this Warped tour?
The only thing I would change would be for there to be showers at every show. Showers are pretty important because after you play you feel all gross. The catering is kind of funky. But I don't want to sound like a spoiled little boy because it's all great.
Do you like the way it's set up?
Yeah, I think they did a really good job and it's really cool. It's really organized. Last year was nothing compared to what I've seen yesterday and today. They're together this year. There's just some really good people that work on this tour.
Are you into skateboarding?
I was when I was younger but I don't do it anymore. I snowboard and do all of that. I live like two hours from the mountains so in the winter I just go up there for the day. We're on tour a lot so it's kind of hard. I used to skate a lot when I was a little kid and everybody from where I grew up did it. I think I'm getting a little old for it now.
Do you think having a music festival and skateboarding show together is a good idea?
I totally back it. There are times when the whole skateboarding, snowboarding, punk rock, hard-core association game gets a little tiresome so me because I think it gets a little repetitive sometimes. I've also got a really good attitude about it. I think aggressive sports and this music makes a good soundtrack for it. The image is good for us. The fact is that having this other scene with the sports involved opens up a lot of people to our music. It's cool to watch people skate and stuff. I'm into it.
What's your favorite band on the tour? Is there someone that you really idolize?
I like almost all of the bands on this tour. I dig the Bosstones. It's really hard because when you're on these tours you get to know the bands and they're just all really cool people and have a good time with them. It really colors your opinion of the music and you start hanging out with them and they're so great so you see the band in a whole new light. I don't think there's one band on this tour that I have all of their records. Oh, the Descendants! I completely grew up listening to them. They are so fuck'n good live.
Do you have any advice for any new punk bands coming out?
The only advice I have for any band is try to stay together, just deal with the tough times you have to go through. Too many bands start out and have a period when they start out and everything's great and it's such a rush playing a show and then after a year it seems to be all the same. In relationships as well, it's like the honeymoon is over and the gigs aren't that good and it gets boring. You have to get past it. The only way to do it is to keep writing and making more music. The most important thing is to not to have too many influences. What makes bands great is originality. That's kind of a lot of advice.
I bet you wish you heard that when you started out.
For sure.



Interview with Chris from Lagwagon on 22nd of november 1997 in K4, Ljubljana, Slovenija

Rok:How's the tour going?
Chris:The tour is going good. It's been long and we are all kind of tired cause we drive all night for the last couple of nights but the shows are great.
Rok:How do you like your new album?
Chris:I like the new album alot, 'cause it's the new album. I like every new album, 'cause there are new songs.
Rok:I like every new album from Lagwagon better.
Chris:Thank you. When you are in a band you've got to play the songs every night. So, we've got to do it nine months a year, so the songs on the other albums are getting old. So it's nice to be able to play new songs.
Rok:Where did you got the Double plaidinum idea?
Chris:It's Joey's idea. It's kind a little Bosstones deal, I don't know, we could call it something else but it didn't look good.
Rok:Do you ever listen to your records?
Chris:Like before we go on tour I listen to all of them like if I still know how to play (haha).
Rok:Have you released any 7"s besides that split with Jughead's revenge?
Chris:We did when we started, a single with Angry days and fuck I think it's Of mind and matter. That was a record CD, about 5000 of them released. Than we made three 7"s.
Rok:Now that you have 4 albums out, are you thinking to do a "Real live one"?
Chris:No, not a live one. We are not like, we are not Nofx. We'll do it with nine or ten albums. You know what I mean? You better stick on the show if you want a live album.
Rok:I heard you like Iron maiden.
Chris:Yeah, a lot. I'm old, I'm 29. So... I don't like anything after Powerslave. The new one suck. Even those with Bruce Dickinson ones are ok, but like the stuff with Paul Dianno, fuckin' rad. And Killers, Killers is a great album. With all that energy.
Rok:Punk!
Chris:I wont say punk, but you know, punky.
Rok:What has Lagwagon to do with Buckwild?
Chris:Well, the other guitaris Shawn, and me were in Buckwild. When we were going to record the new album, he was trying to get Buckwild going and stuff. We wanted him to come up north and record the new album. He was like six hours from the other guys. And then the big band fight happened and he quit the band like ten days before we started recording the album.
Rok:Derrick is in the Ataris now, right?
Chris:Yeah. We did the U.S. tour with the Ataris for about a week. So, that was cool.
Rok:Where did you got your new guitar player?
Chris:You know R.K.L.?
Rok:Yeah!
Chris:Well Dave was in R.K.L.. And then they broke up, and he was in the band the Other. And they weren't going anywhere, they weren't selling any records. They also had some problems so he finaly came in the band. And he's stable with everyone.
Rok:How do you like Slovenija?
Chris:It's cool. I wish we could see it more. I thought it would be a lot different. When I woke up this morning I looked around and said whooaaa.
Rok:How did you like the crowd and the show tonight?
Chris:Good. It's actualy the first show that is really hot. We played yesterday in Magic bus (Venezia, Italy) and it was really cold.
Rok:Do you often play in places like this one? I saw you in Bologna last year on a big stage.
Chris:Yeah, we play big things, we play small things. We played four or five shows on really small venues. But than also there's a huge venue. It works like this for a punk band it's like you play in a huge place and the next night it's really small. You know, like we played Magic bus (Venezia, Italy) and that was huge and tonight is really small.
Rok:You are touring for a long time. I remember you being in Europe few months ago.
Chris: Yeah, we were doing all the festivals and stuff. And than after that, we went from the tour here and we did the Warped tour in America, from Chicago and on for aboth three weeks.
Rok:I missed the Warped tour in Europe.
Chris:Yeah but it wasn't that good. In America, it was like Blink 182, Mighty mighty bosstones, Descendents, Pennywise, Lagwagon. There was a lot of good bands, and for the bands, we hung out with all these people. And Suicide machines too. And I like them, so. And also H2O. I like H2O a lot. Then after the Warped tour we took twelve days off and than started the U.S. tour with No use for a name and bands like Armchair martian, the Ataris and another band named Schaister (I hope that's written right ). They are very good, they are really good.
Rok:Why do you have a song called Making friends? That's the new No use for a name album title.
Chris:They were in the studio right after us. They were trying to think of a name for their album and they saw our song titles. They called Joey and said, "Making friends is our album title". And he said "I don't care, do it!" Making friends is like sarcastic, all the songs are about making enemies.
Rok:What do you think about Fat Mike?
Chris:Fat Mike? He's Mike. I don't see him that often, maybe nine, ten times a year. Joey hangs out with him. I like him. I wish I could play golf better, so... He's into golf now. When we meet we go to lunch together.
Rok:What happend to Guttermouth?
Chris:Their singer has a, like Joey had, problem with the voice. Like if you sing wrong, cause Mark screams every night. When they were practicing, he lost his voice. And the doctor said that he must have an operation.
Rok:This happened before you came to Europe, right?
Chris:Yes, we hung out with guys for acouple o' days. They are in Paris right now and they will join us for the rest of the tour. Cause they bought the plain tickets to come out here and than he lost voice, they couldn't get the money back, so guys just came here to party.
Rok:How about Blink 182?
Chris:They released a video for Damned on MTV and it was on 120 minutes and than on regular rotation and then on heavy rotation. They were supposed to do the whole tour with us, but since they are on a major, their manager suggested them, which means they told them that they should only do half of the tour and than they should go to the states again.
Rok:Which are your favourite bands?
Chris:In punk rock, like Descendents. The new bands like H2O, I like them a lot, and Suicide machines. And the old ones like Black flag, the english Subhumans. Than I like some American bands like Ill repute and Cro-mags and Gang green. Well R.K.L. too.
Rok:Were any major labels interested in you?
Chris:Kind of. Like before we did this album, all the music industry know that we were doing it. And the big guys look out for you. So Joey was going out and have dinner with people. And he asked "How much will you give us?" and then he called Mike and said, "Hey they would give us this much". So after three or four months he was doing that. So we didn't sign and just said, we were going to do this album. We were already in the studio recording it for ten or eleven days and we went on the lunch with Mike and signed it.
Rok:You signed only for one album?
Chris:Yeah, I'm pretty sure. but I'm sure we'll do the next one with Fat. Like, major labels really doesn't have more to offer us except there's much more people working for them to say us "You have to do this and that". I saw once that they took off the pictures from a magazine. you know? So fuck off than!
Rok:What do you mean about prices for records?
Chris:We try to keep our prices down. The problem is that our record is $ 12 in a cool record shop, and than you go to a warehouse or Virgin or something and there is $ 15 or $ 16. The problem is that we can't control that. We always sell them for the same price. And when they buy them they go like, "We bought it for $ 8, let's sell it for $ 16". Than in other shops are $11 or $12. in our town when the new album came out, it was $ 11.
Rok:What about Santa barbara?
Chris:You know, that strange bowling? I hate it, because we did a big thing trying to get a skate park there. Like with skate contests and bands playing there. We had like $ 10.000 and we went to the city and the city still said no. Why? You know with all this kids. You could keep'em in the skate park, and they would have fun. Our roady, his brother is in Pully. He did a skate park in Simy valley.
Chris is talking to one guy and than...
Rok:What does he want?
Chris:He recorded the show on video. And he wants to publish it and make money.
Rok:You don't wanna?
Chris:He said "You are not going to be famouse". If we are going to do a video, Fat's gonna release it.
Rok:I saw that you are looking for video clips.
Chris:Yeah, cause we don't do videos. We tryed to do one for Cinema beer video. But it was wierd. Like on the close shot you can see our shirts all dry and on the show we are all wet.
Rok:Ok. thanks for the interview.
Chris:No problem. Do you want a Twix?



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