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August 18,
2002
Interview by Shane and
others from diffrent Zines, Sites and Media sources.
Round
Table Interview with Strung Out/Rise Against
Sunday, August 18, 2002 @ The Kool Haus
People Present:
Melanie from Fat Wreck Chords, Jason from Strung Out, Jennifer
from Dollfazed Zine,Tim & Joe from Rise Against, Kate
from Strung Out, Chris from Strung Out, Mike and David from
KidWithCamera.com, Diana & Misty from CKON, Vanessa from
Punkbands.com and Scratch, Shane and Drew from OntarioPunk.com.
KWC:
You guys seem to take a lot of influence from metal, are you
trying to bring metal to punk kids, um, you know your guitars
are much faster, more chords going on, a lot busier than your
average three chord punk:
SO: Yeah, we've
always been really influenced by, you know metal and punk
bands, so it just kinda naturally came together for us and
it's cool to open up peoples eyes that are into music and
if we're able to do that, that's great.
SO: I think
metal's always been apart of punk rock, like Poison Idea and
RKL, and uh you know Bad Brains, we've always kinda just been
in there, ya know.
SO: I'd love
to take the credit for it, but I think people were doing it
before us.
KWC:
Well, I just uh, the guitars in metal it seems theres a lot
more solos and in punk it seems to be toned down.
SO: Yeah, just
kinda, we throw in whatever sounds right I guess and sometimes
the lead will help it move the song I guess.
CKON:
This is for both bands, being in an industry where you're
kind of around a lot drugs and alcohol as part of your career,
how do you feel to kind of stay level headed and do you have
anything that you specifically do when you need to kind of
remove yourselves from that kind of saturation from substances.
SO: Yeah, it's
hard keeping up with the guys from Rise Against. <Everyone
Laughs>
SO: Well, it's like kinda uping the ante on the whole partying.
RA: That's what we do. We all party hard.
CKON:
You guys had said that you were straight edged last time though.
Last time that you guys were here at the Kathedral or Reverb
or whatever, and it was like, you were saying you were more
about straight edge.
SO: It's hard
to play our music and be fucked up, you know. It's hard, it
takes a lot outta ya, and you can't go on tour for a month
and get fucked up every night.
RA: I'm sober
but I'm not level headed. <more laughter>
SO: Yeah, we're
trying to find the fine line between the two, ya know, we
do drink and smoke weed a little bit. But you also gotta treat
it like a performance, you're up there every night, and you
gotta take care of yourself.
CKON:
When you take care of yourself, anything specific?
SO: I just
try to drink water these days. <laughing>
Lots of Jane Fonda and who's that chick, oh yeah, Denise Richards.
CKON:
Taking this straight edge approach, how do you react to bands
such as Bad Luck 13 who basically say that the whole straight
edge thing is a joke and all our songs are going to be about
getting ripped up and going crazy and breaking every place
we play. How do you react to those kind of bands, are they
valid?
SO: We're not
straight edged but I think you should do what you wanna do,
but don't critisize others for doing it. You know, if it's
pro or con, you know, what ever makes you happy.
RA: Tim and
I are straight edged but we've been touring with NOFX, Strung
Out, and Mad Caddies, and you know.
MEL:
(sarcastically) NOFX are straight edged aren't they? <lots
of laughing>
SO: We don't
care what anyone does, we don't judge anyone.
RA: It's not
funny to call straight edge a joke too cuz I mean, it's just
a decision, that's all it is. If your brother or sister tried
beer and said it's just not for me. You wouldn't be like,
that's a joke! You could put this name straight edge on it,
but the fact is, whether it's from you, whether I was called
straight edge or not, I just don't wanna drink. I mean, its
just not part of my personality, and that's it. So for someone
to call it a joke, it's really a joke itself.
SO: I think
to them, for them, it's the people who take it to the extreme,
and like hate you because you are. Those people are the jokes.
PBS:
So what does straight edge mean to you? Cuz I know all the
hardcore bands that I do interviews with, a lot of them say
you can't be really hardcore if your not straight edged, and
you cant be in the hardcore scene if you're not straight edged.
What do you think of that?
RA: I guess
you have to define hardcore and you have to define straight
edge and I think hardcore alone is very undefinalbe, so it's,
it's kinda wierd.
PBS: What
does straight edge mean you?
RA: I don't
drink, I don't do drugs, I don't smoke, you know, that's about
it. That's all it really is. But I think hardcore music is
completly different. Like the fact that I don't really drink--
CKON:
You're a vegetarian too though right?
RA: --Yeah,
but the fact that I don't do any of that stuff has nothing
to do with the band. We don't write or have straight edged
songs, we sing about things that other punk band kids sing
about. We don't have really have an agenda, you know.. it
just happens.
OP:This
one goes back to the first question, I was just wondering,
I guess both bands can answer, but Strung Out, you guys have
been around for a long time, and I was wondering who your
musical influences were when you first started and who they
are now? Have they changed at all?
SO: Umm, alot
of our original influences are still big influences on us
today, we haven't really grown past it. We grew up playing
a lot of heavy metal, and then we got into like, The Misfits,
Descendants, Bad Religion and kinda fuse the two. I still
listen to all the old records, but it's also exciting to find
new stuff out there and get new influences and you know try
and keep stepping it up, and meet challenges.
SO: Just like
the four basic bands that you grew up with that like influence
everything that you write. Like the Decsendents were like
God to us. They brought everything together to the table.
SO: Punk rock's
got really good music behind it and also has the attitude
and humour and everything that's not taken too serious. That's
what attracted me to it.
OP:
This one directed to Strung Out specifically. The new record
called American Paradox. Can you explain American Paradox
to me.
SO: It's kinda
just, we're an American band, we're a bunch of kids from America.
We never were really a political band, we're not trying to
make some grand political statement, you know. Its kinda just
the way we are, and excepting a celebration if you will, of
the disfunction that we are. It sounded cool, it sounded cool
for an album cover. I can think of a million images to put
to it. It was just an easy target.
<Unknown
voice from wall>: Rise Against sucks <laughter>
RA: I
can't beleive we're next to those fuckin snapcase guys.
SO: It's sorta
just like an observation, of us seeing what's going on in
our country and things we like and dislike and trying to make
sense of it.
PBS: On
that note, when you talk about respecting other peoples choices
not to be straight edged and they're respecting yours, where
do you draw the line on this stuff and these politics? Alot
of bands have clear agendas, and your lyrics are more i guess
ensured than other peoples.
SO: As far
as politics go, I try to get overly involved in all of that.
SO: Life is
politics though, your relationship with people, and the way
you deal with situations is politics, and I mean, that is
what we try to write about. Just the personal things that
everbody knows about.
PBS:
And at the same time, the way you're saying that, if your
straight edged it's your choice and it's just a decision other
than people who take it on a more poppy level and not just
in their music but in their saying to the kids. Ya know, what
kind of role models are you being, what do you think about
that direction? Is it the same kinda, if thats the way they
wanna be.
SO: Sorta,
I think everyone's free to do what they want, I mean, I'm
not here to say if you play punk rock you can only write about
political stuff or, straight edge or partying songs. I mean,
it's just kinda whatever you can get outta it. Our songs are
like theorpy to us, we get together and jam, its like us getting
all our emotions out, just whatever's going on in our life,
good or bad. That just comes right through our music, and
it sorta influences everything with me at the time. So you
know, I think theirs bands out there that you know, let them
have free things to say about what they wanna do. There's
bands that do political stuff, bands that do pop punk really
well. We just write about our emotions and things. That's
all we can really speak about.
OP:
What do guys think of, well do you think there's such thing
as selling out?
SO: Umm, I
guess if you go and completly change everything you ever did,
and do it. I mean, some bands do it and thats fine. I think
if you put out the same music you've always done, and it just
goes on a different label where more people are into it, i
think its rediculous to call that a sell out. Cuz you're staying
true to your art. More people are getting into it, and that
to me is the beginning, atleast getting out there, to as many
people as possible. But I think there's a way to do it, to
do it well, just go out there and do it. Get yourself on Scooby
Doo soundtrack and stuff. <everyone laughs> It's kinda
tempting sometimes.
DFZ: Usually
Fat doesn't promote their stuff on MTV and stuff like that,
how do you feel about the way they are pushing you guys and
you guys are on MTV and it's on MuchMusic.
SO: We're really
excited about it, you know I mean, growing up we always wanted
to be a band that could get out there and expose ourselves
to many people as possible and I think we made a really cool
video, and it protrays our band and the image and it works
well with the song. So I'm really happy that's getting out
there and it's getting the chance. I can't agree with everything
that MTV plays, but it's all part of the, you know...we're
just trying to show kids that maybe there's something better
than Puff Daddy videos and N'Sync videos. But we're just trying
to get kids another album, another choice of music to listen
to.
SO: And we
did it ourselves, like with Fat, they left it to us to do
whatever we wanna do. So that itself is telling kids that
you can change, you can change what you watch. You watch MTV
and you don't like what's playing. Start a fuckin band, and
do it. Make something different. Make a change.
SO: Don't just
buy into what they're forcing you into, look out there. Find
other bands out there.
SO: It seems
that so many kids are complaining about whats out there, they
just listen to what's giving to them. Then they complain about
it. Like this is fucked. Nobody does anything to make it happen.
Go out there and find something to believe it, find a group
that really gives that to ya. That's what we just do.
KWC: This
questions for Rise Against, no respect to Strung Out in any
form. I noticed your album has 16 songs on it, when I started
getting into punk, I started buying records, and a lot of
the albums had 22 tracks on them, and it just meant alot to
me cuz i paid $25 for an album, and I got a fair amount of
songs, so how do you decide how many songs go on. Do you like
it, do you wanna throw more on than normal? Do you hate filler?
RA: I mean,
that's our debut release, we've been a band for almost a year
prior to that, so we have a whole bunch of songs that we are
really excited about getting out, and we actually had 18 songs,
and one ended up on the Fat Comp, and another one got scratched.
So we just wanted to get them on there, cuz they're all songs
that we've written and have been sitting on for a long time.
So it's kinda as simple as that, we're just really excited
about that.
RA: We all
tend to like, we dont really like really long albums. I think
the next record will be shorter, unfortunatley. 16 songs is
definitly why all the songs made it on there.
KWC:
This one's for Strung Out, just because you have more material
out there. What's important to you guys when you progress
from album to album? What's a sign that you guys are progressing
musically as oppose to stick to the good things and make a
bunch of albums that all sound similar.
SO: Well for
us, it's always about challenging ourselves and trying to
keep it interesting, we've been playing together for almost
10 years now, so after a while you can get stuck in a rut
and you can find an easy fomula, and keep duplicating, and
uh, I dunno, just wanna try to approach it differently each
time. We don't wanna repeat our old records. We like what
we've done, but we wanna stay true to our sound but at the
same time we don't wanna intrugergate like another album cuz
kids liked it. Sometimes we're selfish, sometimes we just
wanna make ourselves happy.
SO: Yeah, we
wanna impress ourselves, thats how we do it the best, we're
so figgle with each other, that we try to press each other,
and that's the main thing.
SO: We're happy
with it now, hopefully our fans will like it, but we dont
try to write what people expect in mind, cuz that way you
just change your, your..
<interruption
for sound check at the door>
DFZ:
This is for both bands, just for bands starting out, and trying
to put cds out and stuff, the funding basically, you guys
know with labels, what kinda advice do you have. How did you
start funding your cds and promoting it?
SO: We got
really lucky, we met with Fat Mike fairly early in our career.
We talked to other independants at the time, and it's really
just about getting your stuff out there. Don't wait around
for some major label or some large life thing, just find someone
who can really get behind it and do a good job. And when Fat
Mike came to us, we were like the third band that he signed,
and it wasn't really much of a label, but we knew he was a
dedicated guy and we knew he would work hard to get us out
there. And eight years later we're doing really well off it.
So I'd just say go out there and put it out yourself or find
someone who seems they'll do a really good job on it.
DFZ:
Well, putting it out yourself can be quite costly though so,
basically, well, pshycologically..
SO: Keep your
day job, enjoy what you're doing, love what you're doing,
and work, work your ass off.
CKON: Pshycologically
speaking, if you're talkin a lot about emotional stuff, you
guys too, I noticed from last time, if you're talkin about
pshycological issues and then you grew up personally and your
talking about music as theropy, then alot of the times the
things you believed, full heartedly, when you wrote the lyrics
or something like that, change from the next time you write
another song, and I was wondering how you approach the old
song with a different mind set after some pshycological growth
might have occured.
SO: Cool question!
I dunno if you ever write in a journal, and you look back
and see how psycho you were but that's what songs are. You
look back and think "Fuck, what was Ithinking" and
you automatically grow from that. You just put yourself out
and record it and you just realize what kinda person you are.
And that Ithink is my way of doing it.
CKON:
You still sing the old songs though.
SO: Yeah we
do, and that's what I was, that's who I was, it's like the
old tattoos I have, I don't regret em, that's what I was and
that's what I am now.
SO: Its like
a learning process, some of the songs remind you of who you
are and who you were, and some of the songs are sometimes
mistakes, like when I write a song where I'm really pissed
at close friend of mine, it's a really angry song. But then
like it hangs on to ya, it's like a learning process, like
if ya dont know history repeats itself, you gotta know the
mistakes you made.
<Strung
Out leaves for sound check>
CKON:
What happend to Mr. Precision?
RA: That's
one of the best stories so far, it just wasn't working out.
It was in the first three months of the band which are very
important three months of us touring and us getting to know
each other, that's when we kinda realized it wasn't gonna
work as the four of us. And it kinda came to a point where
we break up as a band, or go on and make some changes. And
we went on, personal reasons.
RA: Everyone's
always shocked when a band member leaves a band, it's like
we all had friends that we had five years ago that aren't
friends to this day, that's kinda how it is. Some people stick
around, some people don't. Some people you can really resenate
with and some people you don't. Thats all it is.
DFZ:
Getting back to what we were talking about before they left,
about putting yourself out there, do you find that difficult
to go back to those moments night after night with an entirly
large group of strangers, and to you have to put yourself
emotionally exposed infront of an audience, and not being
treated kindly even though exposing yourself.
RA: Definitly
like, if something wierd, well, that's a really good question.
There's certain songs that we have, really bitter songs, really
angry music, like our lives. And sometimes you will be on
tour and like, with Strung Out and Snapcase right now, its
all really good music, and I have to sing a song about how
angry I was. Like, you're in a really good mood at times,
so its wierd to go back into that.
RA: But like
I said before, its a clumsy process, these are our lyrics,
our songs, and to go out there and to sing them and make it
for somebody in the audience is going through that time in
their life. It will help them through that, and that's kinda
what I think a punk rock band does, that's the purpose it
should serve.
CKON:
Do you get sick of playing the same 16 songs every night?
RA: Yeah, definitly.
KWC: In
that regard, you have put a lot of miles on the Unraveling
CD.
RA: Well, this
is the last tour for a while. We're back in the studio for
December, then the album will be out by February or March
hopefully.
RA: And we're
playing new songs, I've been writing a little bit. We have
3 or 4 new songs on our set tonight. So, we've been writing
a lot, it's just the tours have been coming up over and over.
We'd get home from one tour and someone would call us up and
leave the next day for another tour. So we've been really
lucky in that regards, like awesome, to be touring across
the States all the time, and it's our third time in Canada.
We've been really lucky to be on those tours, and at the same
time it pushes back the writing process. And then we end up
playing the same songs. Even one or two new songs to the set
makes a huge difference.
PBS: And
you have another band that you are in? How do you deal with
both bands?
RA: My other
band is just like part time, it's not very demanding, like,
if I'm home and have time, I have another couple guys, we
practice in my basement, and we play the odd shows. Thats
pretty much what it is. Rise Against is definitly a priority,
and it's just what time allows.
CKON:
Ok, this is about lyrics again, lyrical content, you write
a lot about diverse emotional things happening like that.
But the closest thing to do like a love song, would be hands
with the heart thing? Would ya think? And is it always kinda
a sad overtone? Or is it easy to write about negative emotion
rather than happy things and do you think if you wrote a song
about, like theres some bands right now that have examples
of songs like "Im so fuckin happy" or is it like
an angry happy?
RA: I think
our songs, there's an underline message of hope in all our
songs. No matter how angry they are, no matter what, there's
always a message of hope, of angry hope. It's a hope that
sings about being angry about something. So, I think that
itself is reason why kids Ithink you will see with smiles
on their faces while their out there singing along. You'll
see a smile on my face while I'm up there singing, because
its what it is. This pissed me off, but it made me learn this,
and now I'm this. I try to be as positive as I can. I get
really pissed off at bands who are just really depressing
bands who are always singing about how everything always sucks.
I just think there may be a place for it some places but I
think it's kinda lame sometimes.
KWC:
I saw the show you guys played last year with BoySetsFire
at the Kathedral, and that kinda place the stage was the size
of this room. What's it like connecting to a crowd at a place
like here, where you have this huge stage, you've got baracades,
you know, kids can't get anywhere near the stage. How do you
feel about the energy and the interaction?
RA: It's kinda,
that always, that always sucked. When you see that, and the
place is big, you think aw man that's gonna be tough. But
it's really, no matter what it's up to the band, it's up to
the kids to bridge that gap, I mean, you can do it. It's not
that far. And watch the kids, just crazy the kids going nutz,
just singing along, and like, it's their last time up there
I'm giving them the microphone, you can still do that, even
though its a little difficult, it makes it a little better.
You gotta fight for that interaction. So just because the
physical intentions of the stage area doesn't neccassarily
mean you can't have interaction, you just gotta try a little
harder.
KWC:
Do you enjoy it more when you have a stage where kids can
just climb on stage?
RA: Yeah definitly,
I love playing the bowl. We played a show last night in Sudbury,
in a small tiny place, and the kids were just right there,
and nobody was stopping them. No one needs to stop them. And
you guys know, the security out there, nobody's gonna punch
anybody, nobody's gonna steal musical equipment. Security
is so like, you know, when there kicking around the barrier
and they're grabbing you by the head and just throwing you
out!
OP: Thanks
a lot guys
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