Interviews from Scene Slut
Brendan Brown (Wheatus)
We caught up with Wheatus front man Brendan Brown after the Good To Go show in London
for a chat about touring, major labels and why Chris Jay is the man...
You put on an awesome show tonight Brendan, how was it for you?
It was great, there was an easy conversational pace. I’m all about the rock but I feel more
or less like we come across better if the vibe is conversational. We don’t have the illusion of
power rock, I’m not into that.
You seem very crowd orientated, if someone shouts out a song than that’s what you play.
Yeah, I can’t stop myself from feeling like I’m in the crowd, I do the things that I would want
to see somebody do if I saw them.
Do you use a set list or do you just play what the crowd wants to hear?
We had a set list for the Get Happy tour but we don’t ever play with a set list in the States, or
anywhere else for that matter, we prefer not to use set lists, we prefer to let the crowd call
songs out. When the vibe is conversational, you can really give them what they want.
How’s the UK treating you on the Good To Go tour?
Oh it’s great, I love the UK, it’s a great place. It’s different from America in a lot of
fundamental ways but there are things I miss when I’m not here. When I’m in America I
think “Why do we do things this way? The English do it so much better.” But there are other
things, especially driving here in the streets of London, that I think “New York City beats the
shit out of this place.” New York City is a much easier place to get around, fundamentally
more travel designed city, that’s what it’s built for, so you know, there’s differences. But then
again you do breakfast better which is my favourite meal, so I miss English breakfast when I’
m home.
Really? Most people I’ve spoken to think that the food sucks over here.
No I don’t, I like the food over here, I lose a little bit of weight. (Laughs)
What have you guys been up to since the Get Happy tour?
Well, we went home and we took a little break because we had been touring a lot, the
combination of which was the Get Happy tour and then I got sick. We took about a month
and a half of just to relax. That has good sides and bad sides, I tend to develop insomnia
when I’m not working, so I just lose all my schedule and momentum and my sleep patterns
get all fucked up. I sleep shallow, and I’m awake but I have this sleepy feeling.
How did you get involved in the Good To Go tour?
Chris Jay…Chris Jay is the man! Chris Jay from Army Of Freshmen seems to know how to put
a tour together better than any promoter or booking agent I’ve ever seen and another guy
called Ed Sellers he’s a really, really high quality dude and he puts it together. So, you know,
it’s just artist minded personalities putting a tour together, that’s how this happened. Chris
Jay is probably the epicentre of all this.
Why did you guys decided to have co-headlining slots?
I don’t like and have never liked hierarchical schemes and any opportunity I have to be
involved in something artistically that is non hierarchical I jump at. It feels a lot easier
because everyone has to check their ego at the door and as a result the tour has been
grease lightning smooth, and there are great friendships and personalities on this tour so no
one ever has a problem.
You seem to be good friends with the people you tour with, has that helped your experience
of the music industry?
To be honest the music industry has changed quite a bit since we started. Initially I didn’t
friendships and relationships because the work that we did was very hierarchical and ego
driven and the people who have survived through the first decade of the year 2000 are
people who think without hierarchy, they don’t think that way. They have had more
opportunities to become more successful and have been smarter about the way they treat
other people. When I started things weren’t like that, things were much more cutthroat and
very competitive and I just couldn’t bring myself to compete, I’m not competitive that way. I
prefer to focus on what I actually do, and try to keep it simple in that we stand on stage and
play our music and the crowd either like it or they don’t, whether or not we get the best
lighting guy or the sound guy torpedoes us. Things like that don’t tend to happen anymore
because we tend to roll in non hierarchical circles and we stay away from the old skool
competitive mentality.
Are you happier now you’re not on a major label?
I am, I have a much happier, peaceful, sound life now I’m not on a major label. More
importantly, I’m not dealing with bigger booking companies and big lawyers. I couldn’t talk
the talk really when it comes down to it.
The media have made out that it was your decision to self-produce ‘Hand Over Your Loved
Ones’ that caused the rift between you and Sony, was that really the cause?
We self produced the first album and that wasn’t a problem, what really caused the rift was
that they didn’t get us. God forbid you make money on your first record because then they’ll
want to keep it and not spend it on a second record because they consider themselves to be
up, why not quit while you’re ahead? The other thing is that Sony as a company is not an art
company, they’re not even a media company, it’s hard to say what they really do, they’re like
a fad company. They bet on whatever the latest stupid, ridiculous fad is and they don’t really
take into consideration whether or not the art is economically viable they just consider it if it
fits into a fad or an art type and they roll with it. They lose tons of money and no one is ever
held to account about the decisions they make there, especially the higher up executives,
they blame it on the artists. They considered it our fault that the second record didn’t do
well, but they didn’t even release it in America.
I was going to say in comparison to the first album there didn’t seem to be any promotion or
anything.
No there wasn’t, as a matter of fact they were so disinterested in promoting it in any way that
they actually sent posters around the country with the wrong release date, then our product
manager went on vacation the week that it actually did come out. They literally abandoned
us after we were successful. What’s crazy about it is we made that first record, I produced it
in my mother’s basement, second record I produced as well and compared to other major
acts that had had a record that went platinum and sold a million copies it cost nothing for
them. The problem was I couldn’t talk the talk. They had a lot of bad ideas, they were
always trying to get me to play in the centre of the stage, trying to get me to ditch my
acoustic guitar. It was like all the things that made us special, all of our DNA they wanted to
undo and wanted to plug in leather pants and all the bullshit that they know how to do, or
they think they know how to do. See, they’re not musical people, they don’t know music.
They’re not even businessmen because if they were businessmen they’d be some what
successful. The music industry is in the fucking toilet because they don’t know anything, it’s
not our fault it’s theirs.
After the record label turned their back on you what drove you to keep going?
I never needed them in the first place, we were making records on our own and they came to
the table after the fact. Sony Music isn’t the reason I started playing guitar when I was 11
years old and they’re certainly not the reason I started writing songs, they can come and go,
I don’t care. They like to think that they influence your viability in the market but they don’t,
they don’t have that kind of power. I want to see all of the major labels absolutely financially
bankrupt and destroyed by the end of this decade, I look forward to that and I’m going to
watching from the cheap seats.
I can’t say I blame you. How do you feel about the way the industry is moving into a digital
era where more and more bands are releasing download only material?
I want CDs to go away too! They’re expensive and dirty and they sound bad. They fuck up
the atmosphere, every time you make a CD you burn a thousand million tons of carbon,
forget about that, that’s crap, it’s old, it needs to go away, it needed to go away five years
ago. The last historical example you could draw an analogy with would be the coal industry.
Coal didn’t see oil coming (laughs) and now nobody burns coal anymore, nobody even knows
how to burn coal any more it’s ridiculous, it’s completely antiquated, it’s like the horse and
buggy. Well, the CD and the major labels and their distribution system and all of the
businesses involved failed to see digital coming and they insisted on being stubborn about it
and trying to torpedo it, the recording industry in America is suing 12 year olds for
downloading songs on LiveWire, it’s preposterous. They have lost their business and rightly
so.
How important is Wheatus to you?
Well it’s my band, it is what I’ve been working on my entire life. Wheatus happens to be
something I’m very fond of, the name, the aesthetic and the way we work together, I love all
of those things. That’s the vehicle for my song writing so it’s extremely important to me.
You’ve probably heard about Son Of Dork’s tour being cancelled, you all did a great job on
Get Happy, so why do you think GTG sold tickets and is going ahead and theirs didn’t sell?
I just think that Helter Skelter don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t have young,
hungry, knowledgeable people there who get art. They have old men who carry old
vendettas, it’s ridiculous, they’ve been doing things their way for so long they can’t see things
changing. They like the old way of doing things, you can try and tell them that things have
changed and there are new ways of doing things but they wont listen. Son Of Dork are great
live band, they pulled it off, it was their first tour and they pulled it off. Everyone has been
saying that they can’t tour and boom, they toured and the crowd loved them. So why can’t
Helter Skelter put it together? I wasn’t there so I don’t know what happened but I must say
that Son Of Dork are a viable live band and that it’s not as complicated as people think, you
just have to be realistic about the rooms that you play. If you cut greed out of it and make
things a little bit more practical tours will be successful and if you have to lower expectations
and lower peoples pay checks then do it, it’s either that or do nothing. I would rather have
less money in my pocket and be on stage every night than anything else. Whatever, we
used to have Helter Skelter, we used to be with them and there was a time when it became
very difficult for us to work with them because their booking agent wouldn’t do anything, they
wouldn’t move forward on tours. We needed to stay out there, we needed to tour and get
support but he wouldn’t do anything without Sony backing it. What about the band? Where
does the band come in? Yeah, it’s an easy job to do if a multinational corporation is beating
down everybody’s door, but that isn’t what art is always about.
How does it feel knowing that you’re inspiring new generations to play music?
I don’t know, when we play with Lars every night and he plays his Stanley Cooper intro I get a
little emotional, it’s like here’s this kid who is almost ten years younger than me and I’m
standing on stage with him and we both get it and we both know what that little montage
does. It says “This is our idea of the future” we might not be 100 percent correct but we’re
right when we say “Lets move forward.” Even if we’re a little bit wrong about how it sounds and
how it looks lets not dwell in the ancient, ego driven hypocrisy of the old major label system,
lets find something new. I don’t think it’s particularly prophetic I just think that it’s practical,
we just get on stage and embrace the future.
What’s your view on scene sluts?
I’ve never gone there. It is hard enough to find people I trust, so I’m not going to take any
random stranger.
Luke Wilson or Owen Wilson?
Vince Vaughn (laughs)
What’s you proudest career moment to date?
I tell ya, I was exceedingly proud of my band the other night because our gear is very
difficult and very complicated to set up and we all know how to do it, so we crew ourselves,
but what happened was that we had a major malfunction on the stage while we were sound
checking and everybody just went into action response mode and fixed it in 15 minutes. It
just proved to me that you don’t need to spend a lot of money on a crew or expensive
touring gear, you just need smart people and my band made me very proud that night, it
was pretty nice.
You’ve had a few line up changes over the years is this one definitely here to stay?
The thing is I feel like Wheatus has an aesthetic that you either recognise or you don’t and
right now we have musicians that definitely recognise it very well. But if Gerard or Matt said to
me “I have this opportunity, I have to go for it” it wouldn’t be a vitriolic thing it would be
amicable. I have more respect for a musician’s right to work and get paid than I do for the
“magic” or “chemistry” between band members, that to me just sounds like a whole lot of
horse shit. You can either play or you can’t. Of course you get chemistry between band
members but that’s about respecting each other, that’s not about “my ego bullshit fits in with
your ego bullshit, so lets go be assholes together” that’s not what we do.
You do all seem to work well together, I remember seeing you years ago when Uncle Brian
were supporting and from just listening to you guys today I wouldn’t know it was a totally
different band on stage.
Cool, I’m glad, thank you.
What can we expect to see from you over the next year?
Another record with 40 songs on it by 2008 and we’re going to rerecord albums.
Are you playing any festivals?
No, I think we’re just going to go back into the studio and get some new material to put out
there.
Awesome, we’ll look forward to hearing the new material and good luck with the rest of the
tour.
Chris Jay (Army of Freshmen)
The Good To Go tour is in full swing, we caught up with Army Of Freshmen front man Chris
Jay for a chat and he very kindly gave us some exclusive news…
How’s the UK treating you so far?
The UK has been treating us excellent, as always the people are wonderful, the shows are
good and the food is terrible, so you know pretty usual but good.
What have you guys been up to since you were last over?
Since we were last over in February with Bowling For Soup with Get Happy we have been home
and sadly enough we embarked on the world of real jobs. We had to make a couple of
bucks to pay the bills from while we were gone, and practising and getting ready for this tour
because we’re going to be over here for so long. We’re out of the country for over a month
and the amount of work that has to go into that is really just dizzying. So, I’ve pretty much
just been in my bedroom setting up the next tour.
What exciting day jobs did you all have?
Well, we just did a YouTube for AOF TV on it, you have to check it out!
I did see that and thought it was a joke.
Yeah, yeah, yeah we pretended, but Dan and I work at a real cool record store called Salzer’s
in Ventura where we live, I also write for the local paper occasionally, so I was doing a lot of
that and trying to eBay some stuff which is really nice. Owen’s got some desk job. Aaron and
Mike just live off the land, I’m not sure what they do exactly.
How did you get involved in the Good To Go tour?
Ed Sellers who owns it and runs it is a really good friend of ours and he was the guy who first
bought us to England in 2004 on the Brand New Hero tour, which was great, we were so happy
to be here but no one was there to see us. We played some really small shows on that tour.
He just been a very close friend, he’s a great guy and this is his tour. We were talking around
Christmas even before Get Happy and after Get Happy I was like “We gotta follow up with
something!” and he suggested doing the Good To Go tour and collectively we got our friends
Wheatus, MC Lars and Punchline involved and its been great so far. The first night was over
400 people which is incredible for the Good To Go tour, the second night was sold out in
advance at 350, last night was 200 and that was Wales. Wales ticket sales tend to be
slightly lower than anywhere else. And the crowds are just incredible, great energy, just that
cool, that feeling of 300 people really being into something is almost better than like, 1000
people that are kinda into something, I would rather have 300 people going nuts than like
1000 people trying to be cool. It has been incredible and it’s only looking to get better,
tonight is a Sunday night and they’ve done over 200 tickets and we’re happy to be back in
Southampton because we played here at the Guildhall on the Get Happy tour and that show
was incredible. We got a great response that night so hopefully we have a lot of our friends
and fans here, I’m thrilled so far everything is great. Obviously the pound is taking a
beating on us and the money is just outrageous. That’s the thing a lot of kids don’t seem to
understand they’re always like “Why don’t you come here more? My favourite bands don’t
come here.” They just don’t understand.
It is bloody expensive.
It’s literally like trying to explain to someone to take their bank account, empty half and put
it in the trash can, that’s the equivalent really. For instance say you’re getting paid £100 a
show, that’s 50 bucks, you know what I mean? So it becomes really problematic.
It’s great when we go out to the States though!
I can imagine! When you guys visit America you have twice the amount of money, it is just
sensational.
Why did you guys decided to have co-headlining slots?
I think it was just a matter of the situation. It is Punchline’s first time in the UK so we knew
they were going to open. We did great on Get Happy, MC Lars has been here quite a bit,
Wheatus had a huge hit back in the day, so it was a weird thing. We’re coming up, MC Lars
is established, Wheatus still have their old fans and new ones of course, we didn’t see one
band as a clear headliner. We’ve been playing second every night just because I
volunteered, we’re coming back in direct support with Reel Big Fish at the end of the month
so there is no reason for us to play last, we’re going to be here a lot, if that makes sense.
Indeed it does, I thought it was odd because whenever I’ve been to the tour before there
has been a headliner.
Yeah, the Aquabats have done the first two.
Am I right in thinking you had to cancel some dates on this tour to go to Europe with Reel Big
Fish?
Yeah, that was the thing, this is hot off the press, we got offered Download so we’re super,
super excited and you’re the first person we’ve told, but we were going to finish Good To Go
and have two or three weeks of nothing, no shows. We couldn’t do that, so when we got the
Reel Big Fish thing it was the answer to our prayers but the catch was they offered us Europe.
We’ve never been to mainland Europe and you only get one chance to do things like that, so
unfortunately we had to lose a couple of Good To Go’s, but we got to play the bulk of the tour
and got to go to the places we wanted to go to and we’re coming back. We’re doing 14 other
shows with Reel Big Fish so if a kid wanted to come a show that was cancelled they should to
be able to get to one of the Fish shows, but we did feel bad about that because it certainly
wasn’t our policy. But it was a survival issue, we would have been homeless in England for
three weeks if we didn’t take the Fish tour.
How did your fans react to that?
People were really cool, it was kinda a bummer because Norwich was an AMAZING show on Get
Happy and the sales for the Norwich Good To Go show were great, so we felt really bad about
that one. It’s tough when you Myspace a kid and they’re like “I’ve got my tickets!” and you
have to email back and apologise but at the same time it’s still a great show. You still get to
see Wheatus, MC Lars and Punchline and they are great bands.
Haven’t some UK bands now been added to the bill?
Yeah, they filled it with Failsafe, and another band but I’m not sure of their name, so it is
going to be great. We’re here for a long time so hopefully nobody will miss us that wanted to
see us and if they do then we do really apologise.
What crazy antics do you guys get up to on the road?
I gotta tell you, the most fun I’ve had in a long time was when we played Yeovil the other
night. It’s kind of a small town that doesn’t get a lot of shows but they’ve got this venue
called the Ski Lodge and they’ve started to get some amazing shows because the bands
come there and have such a good time. They have this huge mountain that you can go
tubing down and have an amazing time! You can imagine four bands partying, midnight,
hammered going down a massive mountain on tubes, we had a wonderful time, that was
great, great show.
How important is Army Of Freshmen to you?
It’s my whole life, it is everything. I started the band, I’ve given up college for it, I’ve given
up money and having any type of financial help, I’m in poverts, we have nothing, absolutely
nothing so it’s everything to me, it is my whole life, everything I think about, everything I do,
the whole nine yards. If it didn’t exist I literally don’t know what I would be doing. I’m not
talking Kurt Cobain or anything bint1ut it would be a huge, huge hole in me because that’s
what I’ve spent my days doing for almost ten years, I don’t know anything else.
How important are you to them?
To the band? Erm…hopefully very, as they are to me, as they are to me.
It’s your ten year anniversary in October isn’t it?
Technically it is. The first show we played under the name Army Of Freshmen was October
17th 1997 at a coffee house in Ventura, California. The full line up wasn’t together at the
time, it was sort of like the genesis, but it was the first time we used the name so I consider
that to be the night I started playing in this band. Two, three months in the line-up and what
we sounded like came together.
Have you got anything special lined up for it?
Hopefully we’ll spend it over here on Get Happy that’s the game plan. Get Happy will happen
again in October which we’re really excited about and hopefully we’ll be here but I would like
to definitely do something like have a local show in Ventura.
What are the benefits of being an independent band?
The benefits are that you don’t have anyone telling you what to do in any way, shape or
form, which in this day and age is really refreshing. The other benefit is that the music
industry is in utter collapse, at least in America, it is falling apart, the castle is being gutted
from the outside and everything is changing. So it is an exciting time to be an independent
band, but at the same time the problem we deal with on a daily basis is capital. There is no
help, there is no one in this world that I can call if we’re in a jam to get a couple of bucks to
keep going and we’re facing that right now. To be very honest with you, this Reel Big Fish
tour is coming up and we still have not figured out transportation and finances for it, so we’ve
got this amazing tour, we’re really excited about it and we don’t have the money to at least
get the ball rolling. We need to play the shows to start making money. It is a real weird
circle, it’s depressing, you know, it’s a catch 22. I hear about my friends on major labels and
they’re upset because they can’t get any tours and their record got screwed I’m like “Wow
man, I’m glad I don’t have anybody effecting my life like that.” But they also have people
they can go to and say “Please I need a thousand bucks to do this tour” and they will help
them, we don’t have that.
If a label approached you would you turn it down?
No, no, I mean we’re open to anything, we’ll listen and talk to anybody and see them for
what they are and if it made sense we’d go for it. I want help, I mean this isn’t some
anarchist hardcore band, God bless those guys they do what they do but I want help. I want
to be able to pay my bills, I don’t want to be rich, I don’t want to be famous, I just want to be
able to make music, make records, go on tours and make sure that all my bills are paid and
I still haven’t been able to do that and I’m ten years in!
Does it make you proud knowing that you’re labelled as one of the hardest working bands in
the business?
It’s an honour, everybody wants to pat Army Of Freshmen on the back, but nobody wants to
help Army Of Freshmen, that’s the big thing. I know tons of people in the industry who are
like “Oh man, I can’t believe what you’ve done, we’re so proud of you, you’re an inspiration,
you keep rocking!” and we’re like “Well, could you help us out?” and they’re like “NO! But you
guys are great and I’m going to tell my new band all about how hard you work!”. I had a
guy…I don’t wanna name names, but a guy on a major label who represents a very big band
and he was like “God, I wish I could get my band to have your work ethic. I can only imagine
if fill in the blank worked as hard as you, they’d be even bigger then what they are.” And we’
re talking about a band that has gone platinum, and that’s awesome that they think us but it
is a back handed compliment, it’s like “Thank you, but help us then if you respect us that
much.”
And he probably has the money to help you.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
The swines!
(Laughs) Well put, the swines! It’s a good name for a band, there’ll be some English hipster
band coming out called The Swines.
How does it feel knowing that you’re inspiring new generations to play music?
It’s hard to see when you’re actually doing it. When I was younger and I went to shows and I
would see a band every so often I would see inspiration in it. It means a lot, every once in a
while we hear someone reference us and it’s one of the highest compliments that you can
EVER have. Having a kid say “Hey, I started a band and picked up a guitar because of your
record” means the world, that’s really special.
Going back to what you said earlier about how the music industry is changing, how did you
feel about the move from CDs to the digital era where more and more bands are releasing
download only material?
That is what’s happening and I do think it’s a catch 22. It’s helpful because you can get out
so much easier and get your music to people, you’re not shackled by having money to put
out a CD and it’s easier to record, but that’s also clogging the market. There is more bands
now, there’s too many bands! Right now you and I could start a duo, record something
before the night is over and have it online and have a Myspace site, so we’d have music, a
site and a band in less than 12 hours, it can be done and that’s weird. It is not good, that’s
too much music, it makes it hard. The cream hopefully rises to the top and great bands,
great songs and great songwriters come through. I love the fact that it is ruining these major
labels, fuck them, let them burn, they’ve ignored my band for ten long years. At this point
there’s no part of me that’s like “I wanna be on a major label so bad!” If you don’t like us,
you don’t like us, you don’t wanna do it, don’t do it. Do I think it is a horrible decision? Do I
think we’d work very well on a major label? Do I think our music very commercial? Yes.
Do I see bands that get signed all the time that I feel like “My god! Are you kidding me?”
Yes, but that’s ok, we’re cool with who we are. I like to see that they’re falling apart a little
bit, that warms me up inside but at the same time there’s a catch 22 because although we
are bigger because of the internet and more people find out about us because of the
internet, the capability of making money isn’t there. It is a weird thing, for us I think it is a
benefit, we don’t have a record in stores so I’m all for it. The minute we get a record in
stores, say in a year from now, we could do this interview again and I could be like “I hate
downloading!” but at the moment I just want people to find out about us and like my band.
When it comes to you buying music would you rather download it or have the hard copy?
I’m a hard copy guy, I’m a collector, I like discs, I like to look at the artwork, I like to read
the liner notes. I own a ton of CDs, I have bought a couple of songs on iTunes simply
because I needed one song. For that it’s unbelievable, but I get these kids coming up, who
live in a different world. If you’re fucking 12 years old right now you are an internet kid, you’
re going to buy music online. People that crossover almost never go back. I think in ten
years the CD may not be here beyond a collectors thing, a limited release. I think the record
store as we know it will change drastically.
I know what you mean, I hate it though I’ve paid for CDs to be shipped in from the States or
New Zealand or wherever just so I don’t have to have the download version of something.
Me too, I love imports, I love walking around music stores and record stores, that’s where I
feel comfortable. You always have those dreams of meeting the girl of your dreams in the
They Might Be Giants section those times are done now. It is a different world now.
I find it strange from a fan point of view too, when I was younger I used to get bands to sign
the CD so what are kids going to do now? Ask people to sign their iPod because they have
their music on there?
That’s a great question, that’s a great question. Ten years from now there maybe no more
signing the CD cover. It was weird when they got rid of records, a signed record looks cool,
the artwork is big it’s exciting shit and that’s gone now.
What’s your view on scene sluts?
I’m very opinionated on this subject. I think there’s a misconception that scene sluts or
“groupies” as they are commonly referred to… they don’t exist any more, this is not the
seventies. The days of Led Zeppelin and all that crazy shit are over. I don’t go to shows and
see 20 girls lined up that want to hook up with me, let alone hang out with me, those days
are done. Does it exist? Maybe at some level of rock ‘n’ roll, I’m sure if you go and see
Motley Crue or bands like that there will be groupies hanging out, but the world that I’m
in…no way! We play to a lot of younger kids so a scene slut to me would be 14 years old and
that would be jail, and weird and uncomfortable to begin with. Maybe they exist but not really
in my world, I think they tend to exist in a different place, but the days of girls getting
dressed up in leather, going to Poison concerts and trying to sleep with the guy in Poison are
long since done. But what do you think seeing as you took that name for your site?
Obviously in jest and mocking, and I get it, I get it and it is a great name for a site.
Thank you, I think they are still very much around on the metal scene. I’ve interviewed
bands and they’ve told me that there’ll be a girl at the show that sleeps with everyone.
Wow, so you think it happens with heavier music?
Yeah, I was at a show and like the guy had said this girl turned up, trying to get close to the
bands, then started speaking to me, so I was a bit like hang on, I don’t want to be
associated with you, that’s not why I’m here. Anyway, then I met her “friends” who were
basically just other groupies and they were talking about who has slept with who and trying
to score points off of each other.
Wow!
This one girl had apparently slept with all of Dragonforce.
Jeez!
I just think it’s wrong, I don’t get it why you’d want to do that.
Ok, so maybe it’s out there but it’s not out there for me, you know what I mean? I find it
very interesting though, I like reading books about it.
Have you got Pamela Des Barres book?
I’ve never read that but I love hearing about that stuff and you know, and I don’t want this to
come out wrong, I’m not saying I want groupies because that’s not at all what I want, but that
was a different era of rock ‘n’ roll. I’m not saying downloads have killed groupies, maybe
they did, but in the world that existed in the seventies and eighties rock was far away, rock
wasn’t accessible, you couldn’t find out about new bands. Being in a band back then was a
very exciting, cool thing and I think that there was an attraction of the opposite sex either
way. Guys were going to see Stevie Nicks and falling in love with her and wanting to hook up
with her, there was an attraction there because it was exciting and it was different and now
there is just so much of it. You know a thousand people in bands, I know a thousand people
in bands from garage bands to teenagers to huge bands so that attraction isn’t there
anymore. Little girls used to want to go out with rock stars no girl says that anymore, girls
want to go out with doctors or lawyers, girls follow the money, so I think it’s interesting that
with everything changing, especially with the downloading and what not, without getting to
philosophical about groupies it has had that effect. Things have changed, it is a different
world we live in, the days of ten super hot chicks at the side of the stage is for Motley Crue I
don’t think that’s for anybody else, and maybe it’s sad that doesn’t exist.
Hmm, well maybe for you, but keep your eyes peeled at Download I guarantee you’ll see
some!
Yeah Download we’ll probably see some, when we talk to you next we’ll have a completely
different conversation and I’ll be telling you that you’re right and they’re out there.
Luke Wilson or Owen Wilson?
That’s a great question, I’m going to say…they both have good points and the both have bad
points. I think Owen Wilson is a funnier actor, but Luke Wilson is a better actor. They’ve
both done cheesy love comedies which I hate, they’ve both had their cameos in Anchorman,
Zoolander and Wedding Crashers which contains the girl of my dreams Rachel McAdams, I
actually wrote a song about her I haven’t heard if she likes it yet.
Have you ever met her?
No I haven’t met her which I probably should do but I haven’t.
So no preference over Luke or Owen?
I like them both. I think it’s a really interesting question because it is a real equal thing, I
don’t think one is clearly better than the other.
Everyone else I’ve asked has said Owen.
No man, both of them have written stuff and Rushmore is a classic, classic film.
You guys seem to keep tabs of kids with AOF tattoos…
We try, we try, are you going to show me one?
No, I was going how many are out there that you know about?
I think there are ten right now, there’s always rumours that someone’s getting one and then
but they never do. It’s one of the coolest, craziest things. It blows my mind that somebody
is going to have my band on them for life, that’s pretty amazing, it’s a real honour, it’s cool
I'd love to see more.
Does it ever freak you out a little bit?
If I think about it for to long it’s a little freaky, but freaky in a good way. If I wasn’t a coward
I would probably be covered in band names, I have bands in my life that mean that much to
me but I don’t know if having They Might Be Giants running down my arm is a good idea.
Do you have any at all?
I don’t, I’m completely clean. I have a theory that in ten years that just like the CD will be
gone, dudes without tattoo will be very attractive. Girls will be like “You don’t have any
tattoos? Let me see” because everybody my age is covered in them. Sometimes I wish I
had some to be more “rock”.
You don’t need tattoos to be rock, being individual is much more rock.
Yeah but sometimes I think I’m not rock enough, I need tats. A lot of my friends have them
and they look cool on stage, but then at the grocery store people see Mike and think he’s a
criminal.
What’s you proudest career moment to date?
Great question! Going to Japan for the first time was like walking into Alice In Wonderland, we
were at this huge festival, we’re a very small band then suddenly we’re in Japan at a massive
festival with huge artists. We stayed a hotel and David Beckham was in line in front of me
waiting for a key to his room and I thought he was a roadie. At the time I didn’t know who
he was and some little kid come up to me crying like “Did you get his autograph?” and I’m
like “No?” and the kid said “He’s the most famous man in the world!”. Just being in foreign
country, people speaking a different language with these huge bands was a dream come
true, there has been a million other great moments but that one is hard to beat because it
was the first time we were in a foreign country, the first time we played a major festival, that’s
pretty intense combo.
Did you find the fans much more intense over there?
Yes, I mean Japan has the best fans, England has a close second, America is definitely
lagging third.
Do you find that kids in America are into one scene rather than music in general?
Yeah, yeah, I don’t think kids in America know how to go to shows any more. Kids here know
how to go to a show it’s like they go to a show, they have a great time, they rock out , they’
ve saved up money, it’s an experience to them. In America it’s not like that, they expect it.
“You’re American, you better come and tour here I’ll see you when I can.” It’s not like “Hey,
holy shit I’m a fan of Army Of Freshmen and they might not come here for another year so I
better go see them now!” You tend to get more of an intense feeling at shows here. The LA
area is the worst, the people there are jaded as hell, they see everybody, they go to shows
and stand there with their arms crossed, it’s a terrible place for that and it’s weird that the
music industry is based in a town that doesn’t appreciate music.
I know what you mean, I know people in LA that are constantly playing shows and they don’t
get the recognition they deserve but you guys seem to be constantly touring, how do you
keep it new and fresh?
It’s fun and being out with your friends helps a lot, we’re friends with all the bands on this
tour and friends with all the bands on the last tour and that makes all the difference. If you’
re out with people and you don’t enjoy their company it is going to be very difficult.
I hear Son Of Dork’s tour has been cancelled.
I heard that too, has it been announced yet?
Yeah, yesterday I think.
Wow, that’s pretty unbelievable. I don’t really know what to say about that because I don’t
want to come off the wrong way, but we should talk about it, it’s a good question. You’ve got
to look at it this way, we did the Get Happy tour and us, Wheatus and Son Of Dork were on
it. Us and Wheatus got together to do a small tour and Son Of Dork went to do a small tour
and I don’t know why our tour with Wheatus has sold better and is happening and their tour
didn’t sell well at all and was cancelled. Is that an American thing? Maybe it’s still the Busted
backlash. I would say this to James because I am friends with him, but I don’t think he did
the right thing when he came out of Busted and a lot of that was his management holding
him back. He should have gone out and did what Charlie did, he just went out and started
playing shows, small shows, big shows, playing clubs, he was showing people he was in a rock
band and started gaining respect. James’s management made some very bad calls, put
them on lock down, didn’t let them tour because they weren’t as big as Busted. They wanted
Busted 2 and James just wanted to be in a rock band, he is a great songwriter, he just
wanted to be in a band, but they wouldn’t just let him do that. By the time he finally toured
and did Get Happy the record had been out for a year, the hits were long since forgotten
about, people saw them, they got to see it and they didn’t want to see it again. They saw
them play, it was cool but there wasn’t that draw to see them again and I’m thankful that we’
re on the opposite side of the card and there is an example of James being major label
artist, he doesn’t know what it’s like to do the grass roots indie thing not that I’m saying that’
s a bad thing. He is a friend, I love him, he is a great guy, he has great ideas but he came
from such a different world that when that world betrayed him, when the major label backed
out and didn’t help them any more and didn’t put their record out, when they label said “We’
re done” he was done, you know. That’s the thing with us, we weren’t in Busted, we don’t
have millions of pounds but no one can tell me I’m not allowed to do something and they
held him up. Son Of Dork was completely screwed by their label, they could be doing great
right now. We tried to help with the Get Happy tour and they did a great job and put on great
shows and I don’t know why people aren’t lining up to see them again, so it’s probably time
for them to make another record.
They were scheduled to play much bigger venues than this one so that must have had some
effect.
That probably had a lot to do with it too, they should have come down and done the small
venues, played in front of 200 kids, get in front of the music fans, get in front of the
audience, don’t try and shot too big, but with major labels and major management there’s
more money in big venues. They don’t know what’s like to play the Nexus they want to play
the Guildhall because there’s more money. Money, money, money. Money makes this
whole machine goes round.
Yeah, I know in my hometown they weren’t scheduled to play the Guildhall but size wise it
was the next venue down.
What place?
Portsmouth Pyramids.
Ok, but that’s like a thousand seat room where they should have played a 300 or 400 seat
room. You’ve got to know where you are, where you stand and when people start making
decisions for you things can get really weird and he has learnt that a very hard way and he
knows it. He’s a smart guy and he wishes that he’d done things different with that band.
They’re great guys, they’re going to make another record, it’s going to be fine. The UK is
fickle, the UK loves to love you and they love to hate you. Right now we’re starting our love
to love you phase and hopefully that will get big enough so that when they love to hate us it
won’t be too huge. You should speak to Brendan from Wheatus and ask him about the UK
industry and his career. I don’t have to tell you how big they were. I really respect him a lot,
when the industry said “you’re done” he said “fuck you” and he’s still going. It hurt him, it
took a long time, it was not easy but he kept going.
What do you still have left to achieve?
Pay the bills. We’re getting ready to go to mainland Europe and play a major UK festival
those are two things we’ve always wanted, those were two goals. I wanted to see what it was
like to play a major festival in the UK and I wanted to tour mainland Europe and I’m going to
be doing both of those in the next month, so a lot of my dreams have come true and that’s
what I live with. My dreams have come true I just haven’t had the financial success, but I
wouldn’t trade that. If I was making $100,000 working a desk job I would be miserable, I
would rather make nothing, see the world, be with my friends, make music, hang out with
kids. I like talking to people like yourself, that’s who I am, that’s what I like. I’m the same
way as you, I like music, I want to be around it and it’s all worth it in the end.
Awesome, thank you for your time and I’ll see you at the show.