Actionslacks
At the Drive In
The Faint
Fluke Starbucker (Heavenly States)
Jack Rabid from The Big Takeover
Kill Creek
Rocket from the Crypt
...more soon
by Kevin S. Hoskins
Kevin: First off, tell me about the new label.
Cedric: Well, we’d been talking to other labels like Reprise and Warner Brothers and they were courting us and all that.
K: Taking you out to dinner?
C: Yeah. Yeah.
K: Well, did you eat well?
C: Yeah! One of the girls from Warner Brothers was kind of disappointed because she was going to take us onto the lot and take us to a nice place, but it was closed...blah blah blah... She got kind of nervous because of the things we asked for. We asked for a lot of freedom...to let our (thinks for a second) wings flap...she was kind of like, “Maybe they should put out their own record, you know?” and we were like, “We can’t afford to do that, man.” So, we talked to other people and then, at the last minute, this guy, John Silva, and Garry Gersh, who started Digital Entertainment Network, gave us a last minute holler. They had never seen us before, whereas everyone else was the opposite, they would say, “I don’t know too much about this. This is not my cup of tea.” And then they’d come see us and say, “Oh!!!! Now I understand the record!” But these guys, they’d heard it and they like it and they said we had to talk to them. So we went out to California and they offered us a 50/50 split and a lot of artistic freedom. They were just basically telling us stuff like, “If you guys wanted to make a techno record, we would let you do it.” It just ended up really working out with them.
K: So, are they building their label around you guys?
C: It’s an internet-based thing.
K: Have they ever released anything before?
C: No, we’re the first band to do that with them
K: Is that scary?
C: Kind of scary...it puts some pressure on us. We already felt the first wave of pressure. We played this festival called Coachella...people like Morrissey were playing, I think my body got really nervous, I played really shitty. It was during the day, the sun beating down on us, it was just shitty and I could feel that pressure already. And then we played with the Foo Fighters and that was nerve-wracking too. But I had fun, a lot more fun, at that one. It was more of an intimate setting. Being a band on something like that is really flattering, but there’s a lot of pressure. With us, doing what we’ve been doing - whether it be the way we play our shows, the way we tour, and the way we make our records - if I want to do a fucked-up vocal track that’s not exactly done for radio, then they’re down with it. Just because they’re managing Sonic Youth...when Sonic Youth comes out to play a show now, you better be prepared for a 24-hour space jam. They’re not into playing their hits anymore. So that, to me, said a lot. Plus, they have a lot of weight in that respect, having managed Nirvana, The Beastie Boys, and the Foo Fighters. But, above all, they’re really down with us as an art form, more than a radio hit. I’m down with that and they know that.
K: Has ATDI always had a heavy hand in getting the CDs out and letting Flipside and then Fearless what you would like to see happen?
C: We’ve had a pretty heavy hand. When we went to Fearless, we didn’t really think they wanted to put our record out and then they did and we were like, “We don’t really want to sound conceited or snobbish, but we’re not exactly like the other band and we don’t really want to tour with the other bands” because every night’s a fight with audiences that are of the Fat Records genre and like that. No offense to people like that, but it is a struggle having to tour with bands like that and having to be associated with that kind of punk rock. We just got tired of it. We did one week with Good Riddance and AFI and that was one week too much. Those bands are sweethearts and we love them, but their audiences are terrible to play for, they’re not open-minded. Narrow-minded. They want fast, ferocious and that’s it. We go play with bands like that in Europe and those crowds are just like, “Anything goes...whatever.” It’s got heart and soul and so do we. That was cool. We can totally do that in Europe but not in the States. Everybody over here’s jaded, I think.
K: It’s almost like they already know what they want from a show. Why bother going? Why not just listen to the record at home? How was Europe? Tell me about Europe!
C: Great! I have never felt like such a little ant before in my life. Going over there, I didn’t even think people had heard the record. Tons of kids were totally into it over there. They were just grabbing us by the shirts and screaming the lyrics. We were being treated like artists really as opposed to over here. This is nice. We’re being treated nice now...it’s the Get-Up Kids’ tour. Whereas I don’t think we would have been treated that way... we’re so used to sleeping on people’s floors, sleeping in the van, and we go over to Europe and we encounter some of the governments totally funding the arts. I mean, kids put on these shows that they’re totally going to lose their ass off...it’s okay, because their government pays for it. The government over there pays for their tours....Going and witnessing that, playing in squats, playing in communist-run squats and being in the heart of all this heavy political stuff...Going over there the second day that everything broke out in Kosovo, you realize how small and insignificant you are, especially as an American.... You just get slapped in the face by the harsh reality of where you come from. We come from a place where people are just so conceited and we’re nothing like that, but we had this burden of “Oh, here come the Americans. They think they’re so hot and so good.” We didn’t like that.
K: Did you have a lot of dialogues with the kids that you met, especially because of the time that you were there?
C: Yeah, totally. And a lot of them spoke English and a lot of them didn’t, but more than ever, we found people asking us specific questions about lyrics. Asking us what was happening within the state of (in German accent) “hard core.” And they asked us whether we considered ourselves hardcore and stuff like that. I don’t know if they just pick up on things a little bit later or what.
It’s very intense. Everything over there is dissected and spit back out at you. I always make jokes with Robbie from the Get-Up Kids in German accents, not making fun of them, but just because they have such an efficient way of speaking. “Oh, you’re first record, it’s very good...I love it, it’s out of tune, it sounds like you recorded it in basement...now, the new record, it’s not so good, it’s polished, nice harmonies - not punk, not hardcore.” People are always coming up to us, giving us the straight shit and we’re like, “Oh, we didn’t ask you for that critique, but thank you very much!!” (laughs) “We’ll keep that in mind.”
Spain was awesome because we can speak Spanish somewhat so we totally communicated with everybody there. Italy we could understand what they were saying half the time, because I could break it down and pick out the more Spanish-speaking parts.
Germany was awesome. We made so many friends, more than I think we did fans. We’re having kids come and visit us from over there in the States. When we get back, I know I’m going to be hanging out with one kid that kind of followed us around over there. To me, it’s friendships.
K: How do you think they found you?
C: I guess they’re just like me...a record geek. Just being totally into stuff that that you can’t find in a major record store, you know? I’m so stoked to see that they do their homework...
K: What was Eastern Europe like?
C: We played Berlin and we played Dresden and that was mind-blowing. They didn’t speak as much English there, but you could feel the fact that things were just barely changing. It was intense. Very intense.
They’re very hardcore-oriented over there. They’re not over it yet. I guess nowhere is and it’s never gonna die, but it’s all like Youth of Today era. They’re still totally into that. We we’re playing one of our slower songs and they were just beating the shit out of each other!...
K: What’s the plan right now?
C: We have a split coming out with Sunshine, a band from the Czech Republic, which was another beautiful place that we played!!! God, I loved it over there!! This guy Paul toured with us and he’s always over there with all the bands and he had talked it up so much that I was expecting it to be over-rated, but it was a BEAUTIFUL city. We played with Sunshine and they were very intense people and the music was awesome. We ended up saying to each other, “Let’s do a split.” I talked to the singer and he asked me, “Do you like House?” And I was like, “What do you mean, ‘House’?” I didn’t think he liked House music, like techno, trance, whatever. And he was like, “You know....(Cedric makes repetitive drum sounds)...House!” And I was like, “Oh yeah!! I love that shit.!!”
Both laugh
C: So we ended up talking... “We should do a drum and bass or a dub or some sort of remix or something...and we’ll do a regular song and you guys should to and we’ll do a split!”... This guy, Rama, from Big Wheel Recreation is putting it out. And we did a split with Burning Airlines on Thick Records.
K: With a
picture disc?
C: Yeah, I’m stoked because the singer from Trenchmouth, which is
one of my favorite bands, a Chicago band who’re from the Ulysses
era (they’re not exactly like them, they’re a little more
dub-orientated) did the artwork for that. I’m psyched because I’m
such a big fan of theirs. Then, we’re going home to write some new
records and then get shit going. (The new album is currently scheduled
for a September release.)
K: You sound like you’re pretty big record collector?
C: Yeah, I try to be. Omar is more than I am. Whatever I get I just put
in his collection, try to put it with his stuff because he takes better
care of his vinyl than I do. We live together so if I can just put my
stuff in his collection I know it’ll be taken care of.
K: Are any of you still living in Texas?
C: We all moved to Long Beach, CA...everybody except for Jim. And then
Pall lives in Silverlake which is 20 minutes away.
K: Is this your first time living outside of Texas?
C: Yeah, totally. I mean if you consider touring...but, this time it’s
for real. Four houses up from us is a place where they have shows and
we know all these kids, so it’s just fun being in L.A. now, getting
situated. And Jim’s kind-of going back and forth now.
K: Well, I guess you tour so much that it probably doesn’t matter
much. Do you even rent apartments?
C: Me and Omar are renting this warehouse-like place and DEN’s helping
us out with stuff like that too. They don’t want us to have to worry
about any of that kind of shit. They just want us to be able to concentrate
on our music. For me, it’s a point in my life where I can just concentrate
on that and that’ll be my job. And...I can tell my parents, “Hey
look! I’m getting paid...for real...to do this.
I don’t really consider it a “sell-out” or anything
like that. We’ve never waived the banner of anti-major label or
anti-this or “we’re going to stay on the streets and in bars
and underground” because now more than ever people are telling me,
“I can’t find your record anywhere.” And that bothers
me. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a point where we’re
going to say, “Fuck this punk shit!” because we grew up this
way. Now we just have people saying, “Hey! You can do this for a
living.”
K: When did you guys start playing together?
C: With the group as it is now: ‘97. But there were other people
before, going back to ‘94. It just seems like a different era with
those other people. Some of them left because of school. Some because
we had a falling-out of ideas. This is the most solid. And we click really
well. And we almost had to click. When Tony and Pall entered the band,
we just through ourselves in the van. It was like, “Hi! This is
the tour. This is who I am.” Total shell shock to say the least.
But I’m very proud to say that we’re very mature in handling
situations and disagreements, whereas I hear horror stories of bands fighting
on stage and shit like that. I never want to get to that point. I don’t
want it to be like a shotgun wedding with us. I totally want to work things
out ‘cause I feel totally connected to everybody...musically...and
other things too. I mean, we’ve been through a lot.
K: And it shows live. It seems like you’re at this point where you
can free things up and play around with the songs a bit.
C: Yeah, totally. We can improv a little and then go into the song, which
is what I’ve always wanted to do. But it took baby steps to get
there, to know each other, to read each other when we’re on stage.
If they’re going to cue off something I said to go into the next
song...we can play around with feedback and stuff...and we’re going
to get more toys to play with to fuck around and alter our sound a little
more and hopefully develop differnt things because I don’t want
another Vaya or another In/Casino/Out . We want to push ourselves to whatever
level we want to achieve, you know?
K: How or why’d you guys decide to bring the keyboards into the
mix?
C: Jim had always wanted to do that. He’s just really into playing
piano. I’d always told him....”You know, we should try it.”
I remember listening to TSOL which is one of the punkest of all groups
and they have piano in their songs and they were just the raddest. And
I just found out recently from Blaze [their manager] in L.A. that we’re
going to be sharing a practice space with TSOL so that’s totally
funny! (laughs)
I’d always told everybody, “Don’t you remember those
old TSOL songs...remember those old Bad Religion songs that had piano
in them?...” What happened to that, that old punk style, you know?
I’d always wanted to experiment with that and then Tony getting
the drum machine...playing beats and I want to put em in the songs and
experiment. I like more dance stuff.
K: You’re really into that now, huh?
C: Yeah, totally. So we got more toys to play with... and I’m trying
to school myself on playing the melodica.
K: The melodica?
C: It’s like a harmonica and a piano put together. It sounds like
a French harmonica basically. (Laughs) It just sounds French to me. A
lot of reggae artists use it for dub music. There’s always a lot
of delay... That’s where I come from...I love dance music type stuff.
But I never want to lose the punch that we have. The chunkier stuff, the
meatier stuff. With Jim in the band, he always adds a sensibility, a pop
sensibility. And then Omar digs the noisier stuff and so do I. And then
Tony can swing either way. He likes whatever. I like the electronical
side. I listen to stuff from like Trans Am to Brainiac and then Jim listens
to Old 97’s and Johnny Cash and different pop music. And then you
have Tony, who’s into drum and bass and then heavier stuff like
Deicide and Slayer. Hopefully we can just meld it all together and it
won’t sound too fucked up... (laughs)...too contrived.
K: Well,
I think the danger for some bands is that you bring this stuff in and
you it waters down what you were doing, it becomes more the focus.
C: Definitely. But you need to change it up to not get bored.
K: Have you guys gotten bored of any of your songs yet?
C: Yeah, we don’t play the first song off of Casino anymore because
we’ve played it for so long I love that song but...it just gets
so boring...we hardly play anything of the first record now ‘cause
we did six months of jail time with those songs. We’re just like,
“No more, please.” People are always like, “Play ‘Initiation’!!
And I like that song too, but sometimes I wish people would understand
that for every city where they ask for that song, there’s a thousand
more where we have to do that. I don’t think I could put the same
punch in as I did two years ago with that song. If we lay off of it for
maybe a year and a half and we play it later on, it’ll be fresh
again. We’re not going to stop playing them, we just need a break.
K: Are you a band that writes a lot?
C: Yeah, we try to...especially lately. With moving and then coming out...we
were almost cramming for the record, but we have a lot of time before
the record comes out. I just want to get out a lot of ideas so we can
pick out the songs to put on the record. That way we have time to fuck
with our new toys and get to know them and try to execute a live set involving
the dynamics of everything.
K: You guys seem like a band that just doesn’t stop...touring, recording.
C: ...Now it’s like I don’t have any obligations at home anymore,
no job to worry about, and with the girl I was seeing, I don’t have
to worry about not being home so I’m just like, “Fuck it!
Let’s just go!!” If I get a little burned out, I get a little
burned out. Sleep it off, you know. Hopefully it won’t catch up
with us too much, but if it does, we’ll just die trying.