Category: Interviews

Pennsylvania’s Innerpartysystem have been crafting some rather shocking music videos and clips over the course of their last two singles ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Die Tonight, Live Forever‘.

Playing with imagery and containing some rather intense sequences, the video for ‘Die Tonight, Live Forever’ is a must-see. What follows this video is the band’s top picks of some of the more ‘controversial’ videos out there.

Die Tonight, Live Forever – innerpartysystem

“Crossfire have asked us to make a list of our all time top 5 ‘controversial’ or ‘banned’ music videos. We’re huge fans of videos, film, etc. and very quickly realized we couldn’t cram it all in to 5. So, here’s a quick top 10 – Jared Piccone – drums, backing vocals.

1. Chris Cunningham- EVERYTHING – I think it’s no secret that we celebrate Chris Cunningham’s entire catalog of videos, commercials, and short films. From the grained out UFO footage in his Autechre video, to the Aphex Twin videos, the crazy Playstation ad with the alien, Rubber Johnny, through Sheena is a Parasite. His videos are all amazing, and stand as the video mark that we aspire to. Not that they’ve all been banned, but they’re all worth mentioning. If we’re talking about his videos that have been ‘banned’ or ‘censored’ Windowlicker would have to be our top pick. The dialogue in the beginning is brilliant.

2. Prodigy- Smack My Bitch Up (Director: Jonas Akerlund) – At the #1 on every list of Banned videos is always Smack My Bitch Up. It’s the ultimate in pushing a night out too far. Plus the track still slams. The twist at the end makes it a classic. It’s no secret that this was a huge influence on the ‘Die Tonight, Live Forever’ video.

3. NIN- Closer (Director: Mark Romanek) – CLASSIC AND AMAZING, enough said. – despite being ‘controversial’ it was still a massive hit. Again, these are the types videos that we look up to and aspire to create, we just hope by the time we get there, stations in America will still show music videos on television. It almost seems a shame to try and create something this beautiful only to have it live in a youtube box.

4. U.N.K.L.E. and Thom Yorke- Rabbit In Your Headlights (Director: Jonathan Glazer) – It’s impossible to watch this video and not get chills at the end. It’s brilliant. It got banned from stations but honestly there’s no reason why. It’s not nearly as well known, but for us this video is right up there with Smack My Bitch Up and Closer as one of the best ‘controversial’ videos, with amazing production and direction.

5. EBN – Emergency Broadcast Network (www.joshualpearson.com/) – EBN was an artist collective in the 90’s that made these amazing videos out of real TV footage. When we were brainstorming ideas for the “Don’t Stop” video, a good friend turned us on to EBN, and we became obsessed with their clips on youtube. It really became a huge influence on how the end product of ‘Don’t Stop’ turned out and the editing style of a lot of our video clips. Once Don’t Stop came out, we linked up with Greg Decampo, who used to be part of EBN. He’s working with a video DJ collective called Eclectic Method who created an amazing video remix of “Don’t Stop,” that mashes in real media clips, old and new, with the stems from the track. We’ve been slipping out a few bootleg DVD’s of it here and there at shows. They did an awesome job on it. I can’t imagine how many hours they spent manipulating the footage.

6. Madonna- Justify My Love – No list of controversial videos is complete without mentioning Justify my Love. In my mind I feel like it’s the first big ‘banned’ video I can recall, but I may have just watched one too many VH1 specials. I remember seeing it on VHS as a kid. I don’t think there’s been another video that became such a big deal that it got banned. The funny thing is, in hindsight, it’s really not as controversial as the media made it seem. Maybe that means that we as a society have made some progress…or maybe it just means that hip hop and pop videos have become so sexual that by today’s standards this seems edgy, but not totally shocking.

7. NIN- Early Videos: Help Me I Am In Hell, Happiness In Slavery, Pinion – We had no idea that Nine Inch Nails made these videos until the golden age of YouTube. I’m not even sure how they were originally released, but the fact that they put this kind of production video into videos that are completely fucked is awesome. Pinion is such a simple, pointed statement that you once you see it you will always remember it. Help Me I Am In Hell is just painfully unnerving, and if Happiness In Slavery doesn’t turn your stomach you’re definitely missing a few screws. We tried to stay away from “shock for shock’s sake” videos on this list (sorry Cradle of Filth and GG) but Happiness In Slavery will really mess your headspace up for the rest of the day.

8. Sigur Ros- Untitled #1 (Vaka)- While Glosoli might just be one of our favorite videos of all time, our ‘controversial’ video list would not be complete without Flora Sigismondi’s beautiful video for Untitled #1. It gives me massive goosebumps every time I see it; not just ‘woah that’s good’ goosebumps, but those fucking huge, all over your body crazy goosebumps. Not to mention, as studio rats, Sigur Ros is amazing. We’re huge fans. The imagery of the kids playing in the ash with gasmasks, and making the black snowman, always blows my mind.

9. Bonnie Prince Billy- I Gave You– This one might seem like a curveball for us as a band, but being a group that makes a lot of low/ no budget video content with big production aspirations, the simplicity of this one shot video, and the way it connects with the track emotionally always blows my mind. It’s beautiful. Ever since I saw it online it always stuck with me as one of my favorite, emotionally heavy, simple one shot videos.

10. Rammstein- Amerika – I’m not sure this video got ‘banned’ but I sure never saw it on American MTV. I think we as a group have always had this closet fascination with Rammstein. We aren’t huge fans of everything they’ve ever done, but ever since we were teenagers every couple of years they’ll come out with the craziest videos and we have a huge amount of respect for the scope of their live shows, if for nothing else then the amount of pyro they continue to use, despite a serious crackdown in pyrotechnic regulations over the past couple of years. This video isn’t really their most offensive, or even the biggest production value, but it was just really well done. A much needed statement delivered with poignant timing, if for no other reason than to get people talking and thinking.

And so there’s our top ten. Even as I’m writing this I’m thinking of other videos and other artists that should be on here. Fuck, I guess I’d make a terrible music journalist, I’d want to put everyone in the top 10. I’ll cut myself off here. If you haven’t seen these, We hope you enjoy them, and if you have seen them, we hope you enjoy them again”. – Innerpartysystem.

Innerpartsystem’s self-titled debut album is released via Island/Fallout Records on 29th September.

Those Dancing Days are one of Alex Gosman‘s favourite discoveries of 2008; five Swedish girls that have taken indie, girl-group and Northern Soul influences, and have come up with a clutch of truly beautiful, dance-worthy songs.

He caught up with Linnea (vocals), Rebecka (guitar), Lisa (synth), Mimmi (bass) and Cissi (drums) shortly before a recent show in Kingston.

So how are you all? You played the Latitude festival a few weeks ago – how did that go?

R: Very good, thanks! And Latitude was cool…

C: Yes, we played on the same stage as Blondie, and we thought that was very cool! We’re not really used to playing on such big stages, but it went very well, so we were happy.

Lisa: And they had pink sheep there too!

Could you briefly tell us how Those Dancing Days originally formed?

Lisa: Me, Rebecka and Cissi had a band before, but we ended that band and wanted to form a new band. We needed a bass player, and Cissi knew Mimi, and Mimi knew Linnea – because we needed a singer too. So we all hung out together, and soon started playing together as a band.

So who are your favourite bands, and main influences?

C: I think we all have different favourite bands that we are inspired by…

Linnea: But we all like a lot of Swedish bands that have become our friends!

M: Especially a band called the Shout Out Louds, they’re really good. And I think also the Strokes, maybe? We’ve never met them, but we do like their songs.

Rebecka, you recently said that your forthcoming debut album (‘In Our Space Hero Suits’) is inspired by “life and pretty boys” – is that true?

R: Well, it’s more inspired by life, that just happens to include pretty boys! But it’s like, we’re five people, all writing lyrics about different things, so that quote was really just something I said for fun.

Lisa: Yeah, we really just write about whatever’s going around in our heads at the time.

Linnea: That’s how ‘Hitten’ was written, when I was just feeling a bit confused about some things in my life…just the voice of a confused teenager!

Is there any story behind the title?

Lisa: It’s taken from the lyrics of one of the songs on the album…and it’s like, when we’re in our space hero suits – as if we’re trying to save the world – we’re at our best. So when we’re playing music together, that is us at our best – it’s like we’re in our space hero suits. We’re on top of life!

I’ve been teaching English to foreign students for the last six months, and have yet to teach a Swedish (or Scandinavian) student – how come you speak such good English?

M: Because no-one else speaks Swedish, so we have to learn English!

Lisa: Also, English shows on Swedish television have subtitles – they don’t translate the voices into Swedish. And we watch a lot of TV, so we learn a lot from that, and also most of the music we listen to is sung in English.

M: I think Swedish people are quite interested in learning English, to help them communicate. We’ve all accepted that people won’t learn Swedish – we are the only ones!

R: And we start learning English at a very early age, too – at about six or seven.

You’re all from Stockholm – what is it like as a place to grow up, and to play music?

Lisa: It’s a great city, you should visit it sometime! We come from a nice suburb of Stockholm, where they have a youth garden area with rehearsal studios…if you want to start a band, you can just go there and borrow their guitars and drums and whatever you need.

Linnea: And they organise small festivals for kids too, where bands can play. We played our first gig there – and we’d only been together for 2 months at that point!

M: We played about four songs, I think, to our parents and maybe a few other people!

Lisa: But it’s good to start early, to get used to playing live…

C: I think that because we’d played at a lot of small places, it wasn’t too scary to then start playing in front of crowds of people that we didn’t know.

M: Yeah, and there are so many bands in Sweden, so if you are in a band too, then there are lots of people who can help you and inspire you.

Some of you finished school quite recently – was it difficult to balance being at school and playing in a band?

Linnea: Yeah, it was weird…we would play shows at weekends, and we’d have the time of our lives, and then we’d be back at school on Mondays, thinking “What am I doing here?” When you’re having as much fun as we were having, then the boring stuff becomes even more boring!

R: I think I got lazier and lazier towards the end of school…

M: And it was hard getting back to reality when we had to go to school – everyone was like “Don’t think you’re pop stars, you’re still at school!”.

R: Yeah, one of my teachers told me that I had to choose between music and school, which I think was a pretty stupid thing to say!

So what makes you happy and sad?

R: Food makes us happy!

Lisa: When we’ve been travelling for a long time, and we get to a place, and we’re all tired, then it makes us very happy when there’s nice food waiting for us! And we get sad when we have to get up early in the morning, and when we have to fly Ryanair.

R: And I get sad when I see animals in movies…I get tears in my eyes, because they’re cute. All kinds of animals, really…lately, it was a lion!

C: But generally, we get happy and sad just like most people.

Speaking of animals – if TDD were animals, what would you be, and why?

[Unfortunately my dictaphone goes a bit fuzzy at this point, but there was plenty of laughter, and suggestions included a monkey, a cat, a giraffe, a seal, a deer, a butterfly, and a meerkat].

So what are your plans for the near future, after the album is released?

Linnea: I think we’ll already be on tour when the album is released…we’ll play some shows around Sweden, and then we’re gonna go to Japan for the first time! After that, we don’t really know, we haven’t got any firm plans for the new year yet. But we’ll be back in the UK later this year.

‘In Our Space Hero Suits‘ will be released on the 6th October, via Wichita Recordings. Check www.myspace.com/thosedancingdays for more info.

Interview: Abjekt
Photos: Dennis Duijnhouwer

Holland has always been a hidden gem in the world of hip hop but of late a number of artists have come to the forefront with panache and verve. Pete Philly and Perquisite are a duo whose first album, Mindstate, was a concept album that ran through the gamut of emotions and their latest album, Mystery Repeats has garnered critical acclaim across the board.

Abjekt caught up with Pete recently to discuss everything from growing up in Aruba to being bothered when shopping for groceries.

Pete, you’re from the Caribbean, when did you move to Holland?

When I was 6.

Do you bring any Caribbean elements into your music?

Not really, however I do dance on stage like a latin artist would rather than a hiphop artist.

Why do you rap in English rather than in Dutch?

English was the first language I spoke with my friends/classmates on Aruba when I was little, I grew up speaking 3 languages, English is just one of them. It never occurred to me I should/could rap in Dutch too.

Does it help to broaden the way you rap and write music?

Writing songs is a really unconscious process, so I wouldn’t know..

Were you always a fan of hip hop as a kid?

Yes, but mainly a fan of good music. I listened to a lot of rock, metal, drum and bass, house, soul and R&B too..

Who were your favourite groups/rappers growing up?

Biggie, Pac (I know it’s a cliche), Busta, Meth, Snoop, De La..

Were there any Dutch hip hop groups that you loved as a kid or was it mostly American artists?

Mostly American artists, but that’s changed for me. European groups like Saian Supa Crew (France) and Ocho di Brucho (Spain) inspire me more than U.S artists.

When and how did you meet Perquisite?

I met him through a mutual friend, I just quit this PFunk band I was in to do solo stuff. We started making some tunes together as a side project, it blew up so we kept at it. Now, we are mostly known for our live performances, when we started as a studio duo.

He was studying Architecture, did you have to persuade him to be a full time producer or was it something that he was planning on doing anyway?

No, I didn’t really persuade him, the thing just started rolling and he had to choose to either do it right (meaning quit his studies) or not do it all, he chose the first option.

Does his being a cello player help him when he writes his compositions?

Sometimes, though the basis of his production is really composing with samples which is different from composing music by writing the arrangements, he does do both though.

Like your fellow Dutchmen C-Mon and Kypski, you like to perform with live musicians. Tell us about who they are and what they play…

Kasper Kalf: Upright bass, Ruben Hein: Piano, Rhodes and backing vocals, Remco Keijzer: Tenor Saxophone, flute, Soprano Sax, EWI and Flute, DJ PCM: turntables and backing vocals, Perquisite: Laptop, Beats and Cello.

Do you prefer having a band behind you when you rap? Are there times when you like to just go on stage with Perquisite as a DJ/MC team?

Perquisite isn’t a DJ so that wouldn’t work. I’ve done both. As long as the people I share the stage with posses the same musicality and sense for creating shows then I can do something electronic or something acoustic. What I like about the formation Perquisite and I have put together is that it is a mix of both those ideas. Best of the MC/DJ thing and a Liveband.

So let’s talk about your first album together – Mindstate. It’s an album where every track represents a different emotion. How did you invent this concept?

I was going through a lot of different emotions around that time, I needed to document them. Plus it felt like a cool concept.

Was it difficult trying to find lyrics to match emotions? Did you have a list of emotions written out or did they come to you randomly?

They came randomly, not all of mans emotions are on that record.

You feature Senna on that album. Do you like bringing other Dutch guests onto your records to try and show them to a wider audience?

Well she was my girlfriend at the time and an amazing talent, so that choice was pretty natural. There is talent in the Netherlands, but it’s really hard to get people outside of the Netherlands to listen to it. With us it’s like they hear it, they like it and then find out it’s from Amsterdam. Trying to convince someone to listen to a dutch group though, that’s tough. We might as well have been from Hungary or something..

What is the Dutch hip hop scene like these days? Recommend us some Dutch artists to listen to.

Cmon & Kypski, Arts The Beatdoctor, Senna and Opgezwolle

Another guest on that album is Talib Kweli, how did that collaboration come about?

We asked him to listen to our music and then decide if he wanted to the collabo. He heard it and we recorded the track in Brixton actually.

Do you think Dutch rap is becoming more noticed outside of the Netherlands? Talib on your album and Sadat X on C-Mon and Kypski’s last record seems to show it is…

I don’t know, what I do hope is that we can become as known for our stuff as the Swedish producers and songwriters are for theirs..

And now onto your latest album, Mystery Repeats. Were you tempted to make another concept album like Mindstate?

I’m a conceptual writer all my stuff will have some kind of theme. Mystery Repeats is about fate and growing up.

I read that you travelled to a house in France to work on the new album. What was the thinking behind going to France? Did it help being in another country?

It’s just a place to work without people asking you how the second album is coming along when you’re doing groceries haha. It could’ve been anywhere, the mountains and the sun helped though I think..

It seemed to me like your sound grew on this album and you moved even further, past hip hop and jazz. Did you want to push yourselves to see if you could achieve such a broad sound or did it come naturally?

I think it comes naturally, the success of the first album gave us a free pass to keep experimenting, plus Perq and I are easily bored so.. Like the first album it starts as a basic hiphopalbum and slowly progresses to different styles like a pure jazz song, to a flamenco broken beat crossover to a classical piano sonnet..

The album come out on Anti- Records. They’ve got a really varied roster which includes hip hop acts Lyrics Born and Sol.illaquists Of Sound. Is this label a good home for your record? Why?

The label fits cause the let us do our music the way we want to, they release it exactly the way we want it released. That kind of autonomy is very important to us.

Have you ever played in the UK?

Nah, British people tend to come see us at festivals in Europe, so far the powers that be in the UK aint trying to let us in.. They could never fathom that with how laid back our album is we totally blow up venues.. We still receive like 50 individual emails every month with fans asking us if we can do a UK show..

So, would you like to come over and rock a show in London?

Of course.

Is it hard going from playing big crowds in Holland to smaller shows in new countries, or do you enjoy the challenge of winning over people and turning them into Pete Philly and Perquisite fans?

Love it, it also keeps you grounded. Doing a show for 10 000 people and a week after that do a magical concert for like 250 people somewhere in Germany or France. However in the rest of Europe we are now at the point where we’re starting to sell out shows as well. We’ve just kept at it, doing good live shows and through word of mouth we went from 5 people, to 150 to 500 people a show. It’s the same way we’ve built in the Netherlands; Just staying consistent.

Any words of wisdom before we finish?

The more love you put into something the more love you shall receive for it.

Thanks for your time, and good luck with everything in the future!

Mystery Repeats is out now via Anti- Records. You can find out more about PP&P at www.myspace.com/petephillyandperquisite

With the release of new album ‘The Tide And Its Takers‘ on Ferret Records, 36 Crazyfists hit the road in the UK this summer in support of their new album. Aaron Coe caught up with frontman turned tour manager Brock Lindow at The Junction in Cambridge following the closure of the Barfly only a few days previous over a quick beer to discuss Jackie Chan and Download Festival amongst all those other important things.

Tonight is the last night of the UK tour, has has everything been on the road?

Excellent, It’s been great, we always love playing the UK so it has been a lot of fun.

As this is 36 Crazyfist’s first time in Cambridge, have you had a chance to check out the town, have a wander around?

Yeah, but not not too much. Had a wander over the bridge, got something to eat in the little courtyard thing round the corner, but not really too much. All I know is it’s a big college town. I don’t even know which way the town is.

After tonight your off to Europe for a while and back in the States touring till the end of the summer, what are the plans after this? Are you going to take a break, get back into the studio, what’s the plan?

Well really, we’re on tour all the way till next summer, even past that. It will probably be well over a year of touring. The record came out. Were in the States till Christmas and we have Christmas and New Year off, then we’re back over here to do some headline shows, then Europe, Australia, Japan, and South East Asia.

Wow, South East Asia. Not many bands get the chance to play to that part of the world?

Yeah but I’ll be stoked when we get to go there. I have no idea what the rock/metal scene is like there, but hey.

What happened with Roadrunner Records? There have been a few bands who have been quite vocal about Roadrunner after they’ve left the label…

I think as the years went on we got lost in the shuffle on the US side of things. It’s a big business and if your not generating X amount of record sales you kind of fall to the wayside and that’s the unfortunate side of the business, but I get it and became aware of it as the years went on so no harm no foul. They let us go graciously and helped us get onto Ferret; they’re still friends of ours. It’s just a little better place to be at Ferret where it’s a little more low key – a bit more hands on – people who actually work the label are also in bands; there aren’t any suits looking for radio airplay. I’m not bad mouthing Roadrunner by any means but Ferret is just a better fit for us.

So your happy and everything is stable to stay with Ferret for the foreseeable future?

Yeah, we couldn’t be happier to be there. It’s the best place we could be for sure. That is unless someone offers us $1 million or something!

What was the decision making behind letting Steve be the full time producer on the new record, although he has co-produced a lot of your records?

Well as you know he has co-produced the last 2 records. He’s always done the pre-production, and does some producing with local bands where he lives. I guess Roadrunner never paid enough attention to him, maybe they didn’t have complete faith in him to do a good job; although we always did. So when we got to Ferret we said “Hey Steve is recording the new record” and they simply nodded and said “ride on“.

What was it like when you first started the band? How difficult was it getting shows in Alaska as it seems so isolated from the mainland US?

It’s definitely removed from the rest of the lower 48, I guess the world too. We’re kinda like the big fish in a small pond up there; we’re friends with a lot of people putting on shows so its easy to get shows. There’s an awesome music scene up there – really good.

A lot of the time you can be seen sporting an Alaska t-shirt. Do you all still live in Alaska or have you relocated due to the band?

I’m the only one that really lives there right now. The drummer is in the process of moving back and the bass player and guitar player live in Portland, Oregon.

Have you heard much press or feedback about the album yet?

Not too much to be honest with you, besides our MySpace page, which has been really positive, but I haven’t seen any reviews or anything like that.

How has the new material been going down live, Is it mixing well into the live show?

It’s been excellent, they’ve been going down real well. I think MySpace is a nice tool for getting songs known. The record come out only a few weeks ago but a lot of people have been listening to the new music for a while on MySpace. So yeah they’ve been doing really great.

Why did you opt to bring an EP so close to the album release?

That’s another one of the really cool things Ferret did which I know Roadrunner wouldn’t have done. When the album release date had to be pushed back again they came to us and said “We’ll put out a 3 song EP and get people hyped up about the record”. We were just so happy they were willing to do that so that was the reason behind it.

How was playing the Download Festival this year as you’ve been there a few times?

Yeah, it was our third time playing there. If you think about the grand scheme of things, how many bands there are in the world to get asked to play such a prestigious event; we felt honoured, it’s killer. It was our second time playing the main stage, so that was pretty crazy in itself. There’s a lot of people there. This was our best year, the previous time we played I was shitty, was sick, everything was messed up, so it wasn’t as good but this time….I had vengeance.

The band name comes from the Jackie Chan film of the same name, are there any other Jackie Chan films you guys still bring on tour?

I did go through a big Jackie phase in the early days of the band, I haven’t been following him that much lately but I love the Rush Hour films, The Big Brawl, Drunken Master, Fist Of Fury. To be honest, I was a really big Bruce Lee fan before the band started, so I knew all about Bruce Lee and didn’t even know who Jackie Chan was when we named the band. The guitarist did but back in like 94 Jackie wasn’t a household name yet. On this tour we’ve signed a couple of dvd’s of the film, ‘The Crazyfists‘ which is really cool. It’s nice to see that people have gone out and seen the film just because of us.

The Tide and Its Takers is available now from Ferret Records.

Hailing from Oakland, California, Rogue Wave have gone from strength to strength. Having lost his job when the dot com bubble burst, Zach Rogue decided to follow his dream and started Rogue Wave. Having signed to Sub Pop, they released their first full length album Out Of The Shadows to critical acclaim from press and fans alike.

Their second record, Descended Like Vultures, saw Zach bringing in a full band after posting an ad on Craigs List. When their contract was up with Sub Pop they found a new home in Brushfire, Jack Johnson’s label. With their third album just about to be released in the UK, they’ve proved they’re not just another run of the mill American indie band, with an exciting, rich and promising album that goes far to show how some bands really do get better with age. Whilst on tour with Death Cab for Cutie, frontman Zach Rogue took a little time out to answer some of Dee Massey‘s questions.

How’s the UK tour been going?

The record isn’t quite out yet, so it is a little slow. But I’m hoping once it is out, people will know about it and want to see us play.

So going back to basics, how did Rogue Wave come about?

I recorded songs with a friend of mine and it just sort of turned into an album. When it was done, I posted an ad online and recruited some band members. We started playing locally in Oakland and San Francisco all the time. After 6 months or so, some bands (the Clientele and Mates of State) asked us to do some regional touring on the West Coast (US). During that time, Sub Pop got in touch with us and asked about re-releasing our record. Not too long after that, we were signed to Sub Pop and on the road all the time….

I understand you’re now signed to Jack Johnson’s label Brushfire after many years with Sub Pop – how do you know Jack, and how come you parted ways with Sup Pop?

Jack and I have known each other for about 10 or 12 years. Our wives grew up together, so we met when we were in college. When our contract was up with Sub Pop, I started talking to Brushfire and everything came together pretty easily. They are great people and are able to use the resources of Universal while still remaining very independent.

Let’s talk about your latest album – Asleep At Heaven’s Gate. You co-produced the album with Roger Moutenot – how did you find it producing the record? Has the end product ended up sounding exactly how you wanted? How does it differ from the Sub Pop releases?

Nothing is ever exactly what you think it will be. And that is why I love recording music so much. Roger was able to help us think through some arrangement ideas in a way we were unable to in the past. After doing the basic tracking at another studio, he spent some time with us at our studio in Oakland.

He encouraged us to really experiment with all of the noise boxes and toys we have laying around the studio – as well as encouraging us to use some unconventional mic’ing techniques. There is no doubt that this is a more experimental record for us. Some of the songs are a bit longer than the first 2 records. But it will always be changing, I hope…

Have you thought have being the sole producer for the next album? How do you find spending time in the studio, do you enjoy it?

I prefer being in the studio to just about anything else. No matter how much you think you have rehearsed something or thought about it in your mind over and over, you never really know how it will ultimately come together until you press the record button (or mouse click). I read an interview with Kevin Barnes in the recent issue of Tape Op and he was saying that he doesn’t even do any pre-production or demos. He just starts working on a song and when he is done, it is done. It kind of shocked me a bit. Maybe we’ll try that approach next, who knows. It is so much easier to work on our ideas now that we have a studio and some modest gear.

Who writes most of your material and what inspires you?

I write our songs. Inspiration can come from anything that can happen during the day. It can be an ice cap melting or a bird lying dead on the ground. It can be anything really. Some of my favourite songs come from the strangest of subjects. Who knows what “Game of Pricks” is about? What is Eno’s “green world”? In “Morning Has Broken“, Cat Stevens is singing about the simplest of things, just a profound love for being alive and welcoming a new day. When Chet Baker sings, it’s not even the words I hear so much as the sad way he sings it. I don’t really think I know who the character is in Cheap Trick’s “High Roller“, but the song kills me every time I hear it. Same with Polvo’s “In This Life“. I don’t know what they mean specifically, but the way it sounds rocks my brain to the core. That guitar riff never ceases to amaze and thrill me.

Where’s been your favourite place to tour so far?

Amsterdam has been incredible every time we’ve been there. I’m surprised that every time we have played in London, the crowds have been outstanding in there enthusiasm. In the US, we love playing in Chicago a lot. New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Atlanta, have all been great. Really though, every night is a new night and things are always changing. There are always surprises in the least expected places.

Who has the grossest habits on the tour bus?

This is the first tour we’ve had with a bus. We’ve all been nice young chaps so far. Let’s see what happens after a few weeks…

Have you ever been stalked by obsessive fans?

I think that only happens to famous people. With us, people are usually very nice. There are some very hateful people too, but they reserve their vitriol for the blogs…

What would be the question you’d least liked to be asked in an interview?

I’m not gonna say. I want to stay happy.

If you could tour with any band, past or present, which band would it be?

Wait a minute, you just asked it!

If you weren’t in a band, what do you think you’d be doing now?

I wonder that all the time. Hopefully something that would make people’s lives a little better. I am a terrible dancer, so that is out.

What’s been your most memorable moment with Rogue Wave?

We’ve been playing music for over 5 years, so that’s an impossible question. We just headlined at the Fillmore in San Francisco a few weeks ago. That was definitely a high point for my life.

And finally – please could you give us some words of wisdom for the Crossfire readers?

Don’t take advice from musicians. We’re too stuck in the present.

For further information about Rogue Wave check out www.myspace.com/roguewave.

Interview: Nick Calafato
Photos: Roman Laris

After releasing their 2nd full length effort, ‘Misfortunes‘, New York hardcore thrashers This Is Hell came to the UK to play a string of Barfly shows with Brighton’s very own up-and-comers Dead Swans.

Nick Calafato caught up with guitarist Rick Jimenez for a quick chat just before the band systematically laid waste to London’s Camden Barfly.

So this is the last date of your tour, how has it been and what have you thought of Dead Swans?

Ah man it’s been so much fun. We knew of Dead Swans already and actually handpicked them to come out on tour with us, they’re such an awesome group of guys and we’ve had one of the most fun weeks ever. It’s been so awesome playing in these small venues, I mean we’ve been over here a few times already but these Barfly shows are so cool. Especially being in a hardcore band, playing in these venues with no barrier means we get to be so intimate with the crowd and it makes the shows so much more fun and real to play, ya’know?

What has the reaction been like to ‘Misfortunes‘ on the tour?

It’s been really good man, obviously we have mixed up the set-list with old stuff but we’ve felt more comfortable playing the new stuff because obviously the new album is already out so the kids know the songs. We’ve been really excited to play the new stuff, I mean when we last come over last year on the Comeback Kid tour we played a couple of new songs but obviously the kids didn’t know them then. But overall the reaction to ‘Misfortunes‘ has been nothing but positive really.

How about from the British and American press?

Yeah, the same, we haven’t seen any bad reviews so far!

‘Misfortunes‘, to me anyway, sounds like there was a definite ‘back to basics’ mentality, as it seems a lot more thrashier than your previous record ‘Sundowning’.

I guess so, yeah. I mean we never set out to make a record in a specific way, we just wrote in a way that seemed natural to us. It’s been interesting for us as musicians in the fact that some of the songs on ‘Misfortunes‘ would never have been on ‘Sundowning‘, in the way that some of the songs on ‘Sundowning‘ would never have gone on the EP. But of course it’s definitely faster than some of the stuff on ‘Sundowning‘ but this was just natural for us. There has also been a line-up change with this album so it was cool to take in some new ideas too.

What are some of the lyrical themes that have featured on ‘Misfortunes‘?

Well our bassist actually writes a lot of the lyrics. To be honest it’s a pretty negative record, but it’s also definitely a real record. We didn’t wanna come out with a really posi record because that just wouldn’t be true to us. There are a lot of issues we’ve dealt with on the album that we haven’t dealt with before, I mean for one I’m a manic depressive so a lot of the songs are truly heart felt to me. We’re not a bunch of depressed wierdo’s we just wanted to write a record that was real to us and hopefully people can relate to it.

Between the two years of releasing ‘Sundowning‘ and ‘Misfortunes‘ how do you feel the band has progressed as musicians and as people?

Well we’re definitely still the same people, ya know. We have progressed as a band but I don’t necessarily consider ourselves successful. I mean what is successful? I still love playing these small shows and I don’t aspire to play massive shows to thousands of people. It ruins the vibe of the show. I would rather play a show to 20 kids who absolutely love us and will go off as opposed to playing to a crowd of 5 thousand people where 50 kids know us. It’s just so much more us playing these shows, we feed off the crowd and the crowd feed of us. We definitely don’t consider ourselves rock stars or anything, we’re just a bunch of dudes playing the music we love, I guess. I mean, people like Pete Wentz in Fall Out Boy, I fucking hate that guy. Seriously, I saw him half naked on the front of Kerrang this week and I just couldn’t believe it. I doubt his marriage with, what’s her name, Ashlee Simpson? will last very long at all.

Yeah, also Fall Out Boy used to have connections with hardcore didn’t they?

Yeah, they used to be friends with Bane or something like that. It’s just so annoying seeing him like that, parading himself about. I mean fair play to the guy, he’s done well ya know but it just angers me so much seeing him acting like such a dick all the time.

What have been the best countries to play so far?

I’m totally not just saying this but England is absolutely brilliant to play, we love coming here so much. Even playing in different parts of America and seeing kids getting into it is amazing for us. We’re still like, “Oh my god kids in another state knew our songs!“. Even just going to nearby countries like Canada gives us such a buzz. Mainland Europe is always good, especially Germany and Belgium, the kids just go nuts over there.

What does the rest of this year hold for This Is Hell?

Well straight after this we head on over to mainland Europe, then back to America for a few shows and who knows after that!

Thanks for your time, really appreciate it.

No worries man, take it easy!

When asked to describe Jesca Hoop‘s music Tom Waits summed up her melodies with the line “Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night“, and on listening to her debut album ‘Kismet‘ it’s not hard to hear why he had such high praise for her. Hailing from a Mormon family, Jesca grew up surrounded by music, singing in a choir and learning from her opera singer mother.

Whilst she was working as a nanny for the Waits family, Tom sent the song “Seed of Wonder” to KCRW DJ Nic Harcourt, where it became one of the most requested tracks in the station’s history. Having signed to 3 Entertainment (Columbia) Hoop thrilled both fans and critics with her debut album, and has already written the tracks for number two.

Dee Massey stole her away from a jam session with Guy Garvey of Elbow for a chat about life on the road, Kismet and what the future holds.

Firstly welcome to London! How’s the UK treating you so far…apart from the miserable weather?

It’s great! I mean, it’s rainy and blustery but as long it’s not too windy and just wet then it’s ok..

This afternoon you played in-store at the Apple store – how did that go?

It was really fun actually, I wasn’t expecting it to be fun – I mean, you never expect to play in a store and for it to be fun, but it was really enjoyable actually.

Did you manage to blag any free Apple stuff?

They gave us t shirts….[sighs]

That sucks!

I know! [laughs]

Right back to business, can we go right back to the beginning. I understand your mother was a trained opera singer, was she fundamental in your career choice – did she teach you to sing?

Yes – she taught us through church hymns and musicals, we would sing them as little children and it all went from there.

Is it true you had a theatre in your basement?

Oh yes! We had a place where we’d put on productions. There were five of us [children] altogether…and the theatre had a ghost.

Really?!

Yes – it had a ghost.

Did you ever see it?

My mum’s friend, who was prone to those kinds of things, saw her. And my mother I believe saw her. [The ghost] was like a familiar for a dark period.

Your very own ghost! And whilst growing up, as well as the musicals and choir songs, what kind of bands would you listen to?

The Beatles – The Beatles were my first choice anyway. Crosby Stills and Nash, Neil Diamond – all those from growing up at home.

Your music can’t really be pigeonholed into just one genre; it transcends them all in a way – so how would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard it before?

It’s free willed. It’s very spontaneous and of its own free will – I think that’s the best way to describe it.

You worked for Tom Waits and his family for five years, which must have been an amazing experience. Were you a Tom Waits fan before the job?

I was familiar with him, but I became a fan over time. I mean, I was familiar but I didn’t know I was that into him until then.

I read that he played a fundamental role in getting you signed? Can you tell us a little about that?

Not so much in getting me signed, but in terms of getting that first door opened, which was my publisher, and it all went from there.

So let’s have a little chat about your album, Kismet. Did you go into the studio knowing how you wanted to sound.

Oh no… I knew certain fundamentals, and I knew what milestones I wanted to work everything else around. I wanted a blend of old and new, with rhythm combined with song writing, and some digital and acoustic elements. I sort of wanted to just cross the genres, make it a hybrid.

Are you proud of the results?

I am pleased with it – and ready to move on!

So are you thinking about starting to write the new album?

It’s written! [laughs]

Already!

Oh yes [laughs]

When you write your songs, do you work melodies around your lyrics or write lyrics for the music?

They usually coincide luckily.

You co-produced your last album with Tony Berg – will you co-produce the next album – or would you ever let a producer take total control?

I would always be involved with it; I could never just yield judgement to just one person. [Being in the studio] is my favourite thing to do. We work for very long hours… I love the process of recording songs because it’s such a well rounded scope of feelings. We use pro tools, but we don’t do auto-tuning – you’ve got to sing! If you can’t sing…don’t sing! [laughs] Or learn how!

Well said! You’ve toured with some amazing bands including Elbow – who were singing your praises on XFM last week.

Yes – and Guy [Garvey]’s going to sit in on us tonight!

I’ll watch out for him! How do you find touring – does life on the road suit you?

I love touring. I honestly do, it can be grinding, and it can be hard, but I like the process of travelling and playing from place to place.

What’s been your best experience on stage?

My favourite experience was playing at the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, opening up for Sinead O’Conner, and what was special about it was the room was absolutely unbelievable to perform in, and gave me a gauge of what I aspire to.

What do you like to do when you’re not on tour or in a studio?

I like to cook! And lots of physical activity, riding a bicycle, walking, hiking – when I can I’ll grow a garden, although I live downtown so it’s kinda not the thing to do. [I like] dancing…going to see music, I like all those things.

When do you think you’ll come back to the UK for any people who missed you this time?

As soon as we find someone to distribute the record over here [laughs], that’s what we’re working on, so as soon as those people ring me up!

I’m sure they will.

I hope so!

I have a few quick fire questions which I ask everyone..so here goes! What three things do you always take on tour with you?

Erm…a dry brush for my skin! A yoga mat and a pair of tennis shoes.

What’s the best thing about being a musician?

Writing music and singing it for people.

Do you own any really shameful CDs?

You know what, I’m a huge Billy Joel fan, and some people absolutely love Billy Joel who are aware of where the good line is for music, and know when it becomes bad..and I’m one of those people [laughs] I love Billy Joel!

What’s your favourite alcoholic beverage?

It’s a toss up between sake and a good red wine.

And what’s your best hangover cure?

Oh I wish I’d had one the other day! [laughs] Hangover cure would be sleep and movies.

And finally, could you leave us with some words of wisdom for the Crossfire readers?

My favourite quote on the planet, it goes “The only thing of true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with another person when you’re uncool”

And on that note – we’ll leave you in peace!

For more info on Jesca Hoop check out www.myspace.com/jescahoop or www.jescaphoop.com Kismet is out now.

Photo courtesy of Bryony Shearmur

California based indie rocker Lissie is making an name for herself in the music world, with opening slots for Badly Drawn Boy and Lenny Kravitz, to name but a few. Having signed to Columbia she’s midway recording her debut album which promises to be soulful, enigmatic folk music, tinged with some rock for good measure.

Lissie took some time out before her Borderline show to have a chat with Dee Massey about what it’s all about, from recording in Elliot Smith’s old studio, listening to Celine Dion in high school and what’s happening with the new album..

So welcome to the UK for your first UK tour! You played the Apple Store this afternoon right?

Thank you! Yes, we played at the Apple Store which was cool, I didn’t really know what to expect but there’s a stage in there, and a good sound system. There was a good turn out, and I think there were people who were just shopping who stopped and listened so it was cool.

We don’t really know that much about you – can you introduce yourself to the Crossfire readers?

Well, my name is Lissie…I’m from Rock Island, Illinois, which is 3 hours west of Chicago on the Mississippi river, it’s a kind of a small town. I moved to Los Angeles about four years ago to pursue music. I’m a folk singer, but with a little more rock in there, I played solo for years but now that I’m playing with other musicians I feel that more of an ‘edge’ is coming out, so yeah…I’m basically a folk singer with some edge!

How did you get into music?

When I was really young I always liked to sing, and was Annie in the musical ‘Annie’, ..so I was always in musicals, I loved to sing but then I grew out of the acting side of it…and in high school I taught myself to play the guitar, and started writing songs, and stuck with it enough that I decided 4 years ago to move to LA and give it a shot. ..and here I am! [laughs]

Your first success was in the form of a track with DJ Harry ‘All My Life’ – what was that all about?Well when I moved from Illinois, I went to Fort Collins for college in Colorado for a while, and I met DJ Harry through a mutual friend, and we just decided to collaborate on a song. We wrote it from scratch with me improvising lyrics and melody to this instrumental loop that he had come up with, and we just did it again and again until he was able to pinpoint what the lyrics were, and where the chorus went. So the song got played on some TV shows and movies [including “The OC,” “Veronica Mars,” “House,” and “Wildfire”] and radio.

You got involved with Maverick Records – can you tell us a little about that.

Yeah [sighs], I was on Maverick – after about a year of living in LA I got signed to Maverick Records but after a year or two and nothing had really come of it, and Maverick was closing. I wasn’t really aware of that when I was with them, but basically they were letting everyone go, and they let me go too. [laughs] At that point my manager got me over here to London to sing for some people at Sony BMG UK and I ended up getting signed to Columbia UK, so its been a long process but I just know that I love to sing, I love to be around other musicians and I love to sing with other people and I don’t think that my main goal is the fame or anything, I just wanted to be able to make a living of [it]..and it’s been an adventure….I don’t regret any of the time that I’ve bounced around because I think it’s made me a better musician.

Who are you main influences in your music?

I really like Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Mamas & The Papas, Willy Guthrie. There’s a certain kind of music that I like to listen to, that’s simple, that’s telling a story… but the more I grow the more I feel that my music has more of an edge to it, it’s become folk rock, so to speak.

What’s your biggest inspiration for your song writing?

Really just whatever I’m feeling at the time, I’m not really good at writing things on purpose. It used to be more about guys [laughs], if some boy made me sad, nowadays it’s pretty much just where I am emotionally, wherever I’m at.

So where are you with your new album, have you started recording?

I’ve started recording and I’ve got about six songs which are mostly done, and now I’m in the process of going backwards and forwards with the label saying they like this or don’t like this. So we have started, but it won’t be done for a while [laughs]

How do you find the recording process?

I enjoy being in the studio, I think as long as I take it moment to moment I enjoy it. If I get too ahead of myself and think about the end result I think I get stressed out. If I’m just being creative in the moment then I really enjoy it. We’ll work from like 2pm-2am, Monday thru Friday- the engineer has more work to do when the artist has gone, and they have families to go home to, so I feel sorry for them – they work so hard!

I heard you spent some time recording in Elliot Smith’s old room?

Oh yeah! Before he died Elliot Smith bought a studio in LA, and after he did die these people bought it. It’s a space that he recorded in that’s now called New Monkey Studios, and it’s a small room, but it sounds good. It’s affordable, and I know the people that ended up buying it, a lot of the Hotel Café crowd over there. It’s cool knowing that he was there, and he originally bought the sound board and everything, but apparently couldn’t get it to work or something [laughs] Then someone else came along and sorted it out, but apparently Rush used to record on it! There are all these cool little connections. You kinda get used to that when you live in Los Angeles, there’s so many musicians..

It must be amazing being involved in the music scene over there.

Yeah but you have amazing legends in London, all the best musicians came from here!

You have to say that since you’re signed to a UK label!

[laughs] No no! You have like…David Bowie..The Beatles…Rolling Stones, even Donovan.

What’s been your best experience on tour?

I guess one of the best experiences was the second night on tour with Lenny Kravitz, and it was just me, solo on my guitar when this portion of the room started chanting my name, and I just started laughing. It was like ” Oh….I like that!” and then pretty soon tonnes of people were chanting, and it wasn’t even that they were chanting my name, it was more that they were with me and I was able to joke with them and feel comfortable. I felt part of something, and that was pretty cool.

And the travelling’s been cool, my boyfriend plays piano and he’s played with me from time to time, and came on the Badly Drawn Boy tour, and just driving around, seeing the Pacific North West, which is beautiful – it’s so pretty.

What do the next six months hold for you?

Hopefully I’ll finish my album, that’s really my main goal in my life, so that I have something that I can give out, and I can tour and actually have something to leave with people…

And finally I have a few random questions that I ask everyone…firstly, what are the 3 things you always take on tour with you?

If possible my dog , my guitar – that’s obvious I guess [laughs] and Neosporin [laughs].

What was the first gig you ever went to as a child?

One of the first concerts I ever went to was a Neil Diamond concert, but the best concert I ever went to was a Fish concert back in high school.

What’s your most shameful CD that you own?

Well I feel bad..I don’t want to offend anyone! But..ooh..I definitely listened to some Celine Dion in high school [laughs], I do listen to musicals sometimes, but yeah, it’s probably the Celine Dion CDs I used to rock in high school!

Where would you most like to tour and who with?

I’d like to go to warm tropical places! And I’d like to on tour with…someone like..erm…Madonna? [laughs]

What’s your favourite drink?

Probably beer.

And best hangover cure?

Chicken noodle soup [laughs] and Gatorade!

And lastly – do you have some words of wisdom for the Crossfire readers?

I think that there are few lasting virtues in being cool, so you should serve what is true in yourself, and not try to be different for others people just so they’ll like you. I think that’s good.

There is nothing complicated about the Knife Fight, just straight forward punk-rock.

First off, they’re not from Tijuana, this band hails from Long Beach, California. They don’t advocate violence; however one has an avid interest in knifing people and another is studying Krav Maga so you could say there is some aspect of violence.

Through two telephone conversations with guitarist Chris Muench and vocalist Dan Cady, Crossfire’s Californian correspondent Enorme Nuez got a brief history on the band, their music, skating and life as a whole. As with most punk bands they share their history with a local bar. Why a bar, who knows, but you can’t go wrong when an idea is based around the great pastime of drinking!

As Chris Muench put it, “The idea for the ‘Knife Fight’ came from a chance meeting with Jesse Rowe. We shared a beer and both realised that we had similar tastes in music so we decided to jam.”

Their jam session resulted in four-songs so they recruited friends to join the ensemble. With Muench on guitar and Rowe on drums they recruited Alex Hernandez, who owned their favourite bar to play bass while Aaron Broderick joined on second guitar and to round it off Dan Cady on vocals. This line-up didn’t last very long though, Hernandez with the responsibility of running a bar and other bands left, as did Broderick, as a guitar-tech for the Deftones, Fall Out Boy, Bad Religion and the Beastie Boys, he was pretty much gone for two-years!

Another of Muench’s friends Chris Friedman joined on bass and for the time being they kept it to a four-piece to finish the process of recording their first release. After recording was done bassist Vince Giobbe joined and Friedman moved over to guitar.

It is safe to say they haven’t had the best of luck with band members. It was shortly after Giobbe joined when drummer Justin Rowe decided to leave and it was then they had a ‘Spinal Tap‘ moment. No, their drummers didn’t mysteriously explode, but they had drummers come and go in a flash.

Giobbe’s friend and original Blink-182 drummer Scott Raynor joined. They got on with things and played shows to support the recording. Things looked up until Raynor informed the band that he too was leaving so he could finish his studies. Friends filled the seat while they searched for a permanent drummer; even former drummer Rowe played some shows to help the cause. The process was taxing and as Muench put it, “We were kissing a lot of frogs and no prince’s so we put up a post on MySpace and said if we don’t get anyone we wanted to call it quits.”

It was after this posting that they were contacted by two friends who recommended a drummer. After conversations over the phone they invited Justin Whische down to jam. Muench was quick to say, “After talking to him on the phone for an hour I knew if he could play, he was our new drummer and, well he can play!”

As I had them all together I thought it was primetime to ask them who their influences were. They said many names and through the many voices came many bands. From early Ramones and New York Dolls to the Riverboat Gamblers; Hot Snakes and The Bronx to Bauhaus, AC/DC, At The Drive-In, Bad Brains, Black Flag, the Misfits, the Dirtbombs, Born Against, The Catheters, The Buzzcocks, The Clash, Guns N’ Roses, (old) Mötley Crüe, the Detroit Cobras, Drive Like Jehu, Pitchfork, Fugazi, Motörhead, Murder City Devils, Refused, Joy Division, Slayer, Sonic Youth, Tanner, Toys That Kill, Underground Railroad to Candyland, Wipers, Karp, and Dead Kennedys. (Those were the names I could catch!)

In their time together many things have changed, they’ve experiences the highs, vocalist Dan Cady got married and Chris Muench will walk down the aisle this summer and they’ve experienced the lows, the passing of Friedman’s father. They all have day jobs and as much as they would like to play music all the time they are realistic. Cady and Muench are designers by trade, Cady redesigned and ran Mattel’s Hot Wheels website for some years while Muench made the Listen Skateboards website. They both now work together designing websites for celebrities. Giobbe still skates, “I still skate at least once a week. Punk rock has always been the sound track to skating because of its aggressiveness and its do-it-yourself mentality.” He was also quick to say, “Jay Adams. He never sold out!”

Their tours have kept them locked to the Pacific Standard Time zone but it doesn’t mean they haven’t had their share of tour stories. Muench was quick to let me know, “we did some dates in Mexico and well we almost weren’t allowed back in to the US…but that is all I can say about it.” I was talking to Muench while the band was heading out to play a show in Las Vegas, which is something they try to do as often as they can.

Through their many performances up and down the West Coast they’ve shared the stage with some great bands, even those they site as influences such as, the Riverboat Gamblers and The Bronx. They’ve played with Mike Watt, dios (malos), Tiltwheel, Juicifer and the Smutt Peddlers.

Leading up to the gig in Vegas I was able to have a quick chat with Dan Cady and fire off a few questions.

Where do you fit in? You can snuggle with ‘Rock’ and you can cuddle up with ‘Punk’. Where do the TKF fit in?

Dan: “We all have a different take on it, we have so many varying influences and the only commonality is that when we do it…we do it loud and usually fast! “It’s nice that we don’t always fit – rock bills or punk bills – it’s difficult at times but all in all it’s good to be on a bill, finish playing and have people be like, “damn!” And say that it was heavy or that was intense…even if they don’t like it…it’s a reaction.”

One common fault I’ve noticed is the need to pigeonhole. We see the need to have an attachment to a sound or a style before we can commit to listening or watching a new act.

Dan: “I think a lot of acts try and fit in…Or catch a vibe…but I think what we are doing is honest, organic and natural.”

So it is good that you don’t fit or that you give the listener a surprise…

Dan: “Precisely…but what we do musically stems from just turning on, plugging in and letting it go…and that’s the knife fight.”

The ‘Knife Fight’ are loud, they like to drink and they like to have a fun time when they play. I’ve had the pleasure of watching them live many times and they improve with every performance. They just recently finished recording their latest record which they are hoping to release later on this year.

Hopefully they’ll make their way to Europe in the near future, but in the meantime you can listen to their music via their MySpace page or watch the video for ‘Knee Jerk Reaction’ below.

If you just-so-happen to be in Southern California visiting the sights and happen to get lost in Long Beach on your way to Disneyland then keep an eye out as they might just be playing. Saturday Night Apocalypse LP is out now.

Enorme Nuez

Now in their tenth year of creating raucous rocking dirty southern tunes, Every Time I Die were recently back in the UK once again to promote latest album ‘The Big Dirty’.

Speaking from beneath a rather impressively hefty mass of facial hair, guitarist Andy Williams discusses dirtiness, food, reviews, music and touring with Sarah Maynard.

How do you think ‘The Big Dirty’ stands out from your previous records?

I think it’s a better record than the other ones and obviously good music stands out.

And where did the title come from?

It came from a Canadian TV show called The Trailer Park Boys and in the movie of the show they reference this thing called The Big Dirty which is like one big crime spree they planned so they could retire for the rest of their lives.

What’s the dirtiest thing you’ve ever done? Any tales from this tour?

There’s a LOT of dirty stuff… some girl called me up and said that I was wearing the same shirt every day. She was outside and she came up to hug me and said ‘You’ve been wearing that shirt every day of the tour’. And I was like ‘What the fuck do you know? You haven’t been there every single day…’ and she was like ‘well you wore it the first day’ and I said ‘yeah – since then I’ve washed it.’ So that wasn’t dirty at all really! I dunno… I signed a girl’s butthole once… that was weird. We were like waiting to get on stage and we heard the crowd go nuts so were wondering what the fuck was going on. We peeked our heads out and there was this girl stripping on stage. Then security grabbed her and pulled her off but took her right by where we were waiting to go on. So we went up on stage and played and when we got down the naked girl and her friend had obviously got thrown out. And they were both wasted. And she went ‘Please just sign my body – you can sign anywhere you want!’ And the other dudes were like ‘Dude, just sign her butthole’ and so I said ‘alright’ and so she really bent over….. (pauses) yeah, that was pretty dirty.

That is quite dirty…

Yeah, pretty gross. You know, when things like that happen there are bands that take advantage of those situations but we’re not like that. If I can sign a butthole I could probably do whatever I want to that girl but I never do. I also like to ask these kinds of people what they do and what their goals are and this naked girl was like ‘next week I’m joining the airforce to be a fighter pilot!’ So, I’m glad she’s protecting me! (Chuckles all round)

You’ve been to the UK a fair few times now. What American elements would you bring to the UK to improve it?

Tacos. Fucking Mexican food. Jesus Christ. Kids are like ‘oh man, I saw you eat all those tacos on your DVD. How do you do that?’ And I say ‘dude, you’ve obviously never had a taco. They’re easy to eat.’ That’s literally the only thing I would change about the UK. The weird thing is that there’s a lot of misconceptions about over here. The food isn’t as bad as everyone says but I just miss Mexican food you know? A lot of people think that every girl over here is going to be hideous because of Benny Hill and the old ladies in that show and stuff. So people think that everyone in the UK is hairy and ugly but actually some of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen in my life are here. So misconceptions of the UK are something I could do without. I was actually looking forward to this tour more than I’ve ever looked forward to Europe. We haven’t been here in two years. It’s been so long.

That long? I saw you at the Garage in London a while back and it was literally the hottest show I have ever been to.

Oh my god. It was like raining inside. That show was awesome.

They’re doing that venue up at the moment…

Actually I was doing an interview with another guy and I said that this venue (London Astoria 2) is awesome. There’s not a venue with a stage like this in the States. If you play a venue that’s 1200 capacity like this is then the stage is pretty much enormous. It’s super-high but this is like – the stage is not so tall and there’s not a bad seat in the house. You can pretty much see the band from wherever.

Yeah, it’s not bad… So how do you come up with the super dirty riffs all the time?

Um I have no idea. I have another band at home called Chopper that I sing in. I don’t play guitar with them but I write most of it and it’s dirty too. It’s so hard to explain. I don’t know! It’s exactly what I want to play so that’s what I write. They are dirty. That’s a good way to explain it. Dirty riffs.

I don’t recall ever seeing a bad review of Every Time I Die. Do you remember ever getting a stinker of a write up?

All the time. But that’s because we look for them. As soon as something bad is written, we find it. Yeah, Gutter Phenomenon got a lot of bad reviews. In the States, Alternative Press bashed it. And then they put us on the cover this year. Kind of weird. But with The Big Dirty we haven’t seen anything bad written actually. Everywhere I look people are liking it. It’s awesome. No one buys it though. But it doesn’t matter. As long as people are coming to the shows, that’s all that matters. I don’t care if labels get money at all.

I don’t know if you can talk about it, but you guys have said you’re doing Taste of Chaos International?

Did we say that? Well… I can say that we’re supposed to do a big tour towards the end of the year.

If you could put together your dream big tour that you guys were on, who would be on it?

You’re asking the wrong person! Because it would be all bands that nobody cares about. It would be us, Torche, The Bled, Alexisonfire, High On Fire… It would be a cool tour but no-one would care about it. Basically just a music fan tour. All the bands would love it.

Is there any one place that you’d really like to play that you haven’t yet? Country or venue?

Sweden.

Have you not been?

Never. We played Denmark and it was rad but it wasn’t Sweden.

How do you survive being on the road so much?

I dunno. I guess it’s just automatic at this point. It’s just second nature. It’s what we do.

Any essentials for tour?

iPod. PSP. Computer. Any way to get away from the rest of the dudes. That’s the best way to tour.

What you listening to at the moment?

The new Torche record I just got… it’s fucking beautiful. I hope they get enormous. I’ve been listening to that a lot lately, I’ve been listening to Björk and the new Radiohead a lot. I only get a chance to listen to my iPod when I’m setting up my guitar and that’s usually only for five seconds before someone interrupts me. Last night I fell asleep listening to Björk.

What about when you were writing the record?

Usually nothing heavy. I don’t listen to anything heavy at all when we’re writing. I listen to Thin Lizzy – that’s as heavy as I’ll get.

Something to chill out with?

Yeah, exactly. Massive Attack to clear my head for a minute…

You’re doing some of Warped Tour this year right?

The whole thing.

And you’ve done that before?

Yeah yeah. Two years ago we did the whole thing but this year we’re on the main stage.

Are you excited?

We are excited. I love that tour – it’s one of my favourites.

Don’t some bands hate it?

Yeah. But people take what we do for granted. Some bands don’t get how lucky they are. They think they were born to be a guitarist or whatever. No!

What about the comparison of English festivals to American?

Oh it’s really different. American festivals don’t exist. People aren’t fans of music over there – they’re so spoiled. Over here, you guys aren’t spoiled so when the festivals come, it’s a bunch of bands you want to see and everyone goes crazy. It’s fucking wild.

I’m always impressed with the organization of Warped Tour, being in a different place every single day and being such a massive operation. UK festivals are massive but they’re static…

Yeah, totally. I mean that Kevin Lyman dude is a busy guy. He does that, Taste of Chaos, and he’s doing another tour. So he’s got Taste Of Chaos at the start of the year, then Warped Tour in the summer and now the Metal Mayhem tour over the summer too. He runs both of those tours at the same time. That’s crazy. Then he does international Taste of Chaos which is overseas and a whole new ballgame. That dude is literally insane. That’s crazy.

Would you like to do something like that if you weren’t in the band?

I think I would. I hate being home so I’d definitely be on tour somewhere somehow!

The Big Dirty is out now on Ferret Records