FUN Artists: Do you guys just wanna introduce yourselves?

Keith Morris: That’s Mario Rubalcaba, his nickname is Ruby Mar; his girlfriend calls him Jimmy! He plays drums.

Mario Rubalcaba: This is Keith Morris – rock singer.

FUN Artists: Tell us about OFF!

Mario Rubalcaba: Go for it.

Keith Morris: No, you go for it ‘cause you’re taller than me.

Mario Rubalcaba: Okay okay. Well, my version of OFF! is that my other band Earthless was playing a show for Sean Carlson, it was a Fuck Yeah presents show with Black Dice and Wolf Eyes, and we played and it was loud, and it was a big crowd … Anyway, he goes “Hey, Keith wants to get in touch with you,” and I had met Keith from Rocket [From the Crypt] and from Earthless a couple of times throughout the years and he gave me his number. Two months later I called him and he sprung this project on me and he told me what he was thinking.

Keith Morris: I think it was quicker than that; I thought it was like two or three days. You said that you would drive up from San Diego to play in this band when I told you that Dimitri [Coats] was playing with us.

Mario Rubalcaba: Wasn’t it two to three minutes? But yeah, he told me Dimitri was involved and I actually played in Burning Brides for about a week of shows, so we had this connection already. And he told me the motives behind the band of doing something really urgent and really powerful – along the lines of the Nervous Breakdown EP, just write the songs, put it out, just hammer it down – and I said I was down to do that and I was really psyched to drive up.

Keith Morris: We, when I say “we” I mean Dimitri and I, had started writing songs – we were working on another project; Dimitri was going to produce another project that I’m a part of and it just all started to spiral down, it got ugly “Oh he’s too arrogant,” “He’s egotistical,” “We don’t want to work with him,” and it’s like “Fine – I put in all this time to write these songs and to be creative and you don’t like it?” So we [motions to Mario] are playing them. And when I was contacted by Mario I was super stoked; it was like this is awesome because Dimitri and I made a list of the guys that we wanted to play with and Mario was on it by where it said “drums.” Mario was number one under who were going to have play drums. And then as a bass player we had Steven McDonald who I’ve known since he was like 11 years old ‘cause we grew up in the South Bay. And so Mario said that he would be a part of it, and I had run into Steven and I said “Steven, are you interested in doing this?” and I explained to him who the players were and I gave him three songs. We have this little Marshall backstage practice amp that we were writing all the songs on in my living room, and we made a CD of three songs which I gave to Steven who was just like “When do we start rehearsing?” So everything’s moved really fast. We were hoping it would unravel that way so it wouldn’t be like “Oh you got to do this” or “We gotta record that” or “Here’s this deadline” or all of that fun shit. But we got it done, and it sounds amazing. We’re all proud of it, and we’re here doing it.

FUN Artists: Where would you guys like to take OFF! from here?

Keith Morris: Our next move is at the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas. Being that three of the guys in the band are fathers, and they’re not deadbeat dads, our windows of opportunity are limited. So we have to be very selective about what we do; we’ve been bombarded to play with like 100 bands and it’s kind of like—for me it’s kind of hard to say no because I’m a yes-guy and I have all of the Yes albums up to Topographic Oceans so I have like 7 or 8 Yes albums, and at one time they were one of my favorite bands. Anyway, all of these people are like “Keith, do you want to play with our band?” “We’re doing this thing at this warehouse,” “Oh were doing this thing over here,” “We’re playing over here at this club,” and it’s like let’s do something fun and special; let’s not just jump at every opportunity that presents itself. It would be too easy to do that and nobody would care about us. We’re the new boy band on the block so we’ve got to let all the people who are in charge of what we’re doing make sure that our career – our arch to super-stardom isn’t just a catapult. It’s like let’s cruise; let’s do some low riding. Let’s just take our time, we’re some older fellas. We’re in no hurry – we’ve been to all of these places. Although we were just asked to play some shows in Brazil which is pretty amazing.

FUN Artists: Introduction and history?

Ben Gallaty: I am the original flip-flop Ben Gallaty and I play upright bass in Andrew Jackson Jihad.

Sean Bonnett: My name is Sean Bonnett – it’s actually Sean Claude Vincent Bonnett, I play guitar and I sing, for the most part, in Andrew Jackson Jihad. Our band started in the summer of 2004 when Ben and I were both working at a coffee shop. I had started writing songs—learning to write songs rather than just being in a band and making up lyrics to music I didn’t write. And Ben’s dad had just given him an upright bass so we decided to start playing together; not really thinking about forming a band but just kind of jamming, whatever that actually means … I don’t know, that sounds really pompous.

Ben Gallaty: I don’t know man, unfortunately jamming has a negative connotation; it brings to mind all those “jam bands” – we need to take the word back.

Sean Bonnett: After our first show it became apparent that we should probably be a band because it was really fun and we’ve been in a band ever since. We went on our first tour about a year later and put out our first record, self-released. And somehow it has led us here to the wonderful Troubadour.

FUN Artists: So you guys release a lot of your own stuff and kind of that DIY attitude…

Ben Gallaty: We originally, as most bands do, released our own stuff because nobody was willing to release our stuff for us…

Sean Bonnett: We didn’t really try to hard either. We never really asked anyone to put our stuff out for us…

Ben Gallaty: I was in punk bands when I was younger and we did try and it was really disheartening but it was really empowering and fun to release it ourselves. You don’t really get much distribution, you have to distribute it yourself – you know, it’s all on you. But it was really a good way to do it financially as well because we just made the actual CDs and then we’d make the packaging as we sold them. And at that point in time, when you’re like a starting band you have time but not much money, whereas later in your career, hopefully, it gets to the point where the demand of music exceeds your the amount of time you have to actually hand make stuff. But we did, and DIY is great and it’s really good to be in control of the distribution of your music and your merchandise. A lot of the stuff we’ve done DIY is because we had the time and it’s cheaper to do it that way. Ya know – do it yourself or do it with somebody that shares a similar mindset, or at least follows similar ethics to you; someone you trust.

Sean Bonnett: We were really lucky to have a lot of the templates to follow with do it yourself touring and stuff. There’s an amazing book that I hope everyone reads one day called Our Band Could Be Your Life. It tells the story of some of the first DIY bands: Minor Threat, Black Flag, The Minutemen, Fugazi, The Replacements … it shows the different routes that each band took, with the different—well, not the same set of rules but kind of with the same attitudes – not even the same attitudes – like: The Replacements had a manager and Fugazi totally didn’t. But it’s pretty much an awesome guide book to give you ideas on how to record and release music and go on tour without anyone really helping you. Actually, it teaches you how to get help from people who can help you in other towns.

Ben Gallaty: I think it’s unfortunate when bands get criticized for not following really strict DIY methods. There are so many different elements of being in a band and we’re getting to a point where we really can’t do every single thing ourselves, so we can use our best judgment in working with good people we trust. However, there are a lot of bands too that could do it themselves but they relinquish control over the whole process early on and never get it back. As long as you can develop a comfort zone and be realistic about what you are and aren’t capable of doing – outsource it to someone you trust when you can’t.

FUN Artists: Is your label, Asian Man Records, responsible for the current tour?

Sean Bonnett: Not this one.

Ben Gallaty: He did book our last West Coast tour for us, and also, Mike Park [owner of Asian Man Records].

Sean Bonnett: He’s definitely helped us in many ways, immensely.

Ben Gallaty: Mike Park has helped us so much. It is a label run out of his mom’s garage; it’s a pretty good sized garage, but still it is run out of the garage. And they may not be able to have publicists in-house or really great promotions and stuff like that, but they do their best and a lot of people really respect them and a lot of people are going to check out Asian Man Records bands because of Mike Park. And he’s helped us so much along the way and no matter what we end up doing in the future we’re gonna maintain a relationship with Mike Park because he’s always been so helpful.

Sean Bonnett: He helped us by our van. He fronted us the money and we’ve paid him back. So Mike Park, thank you very much for the van.

Ben Gallaty: I booked the first tour, which was hard. I helped booking in the earlier days but Sean’s definitely done most of the booking in the last couple years. I made a good amount of the shirts, I’ve always done a lot of shirt making and stuff like that. So we still follow the DIY stuff when it makes sense.

FUN Artists: You guys have a very kind of punk way of playing live and interacting with the audience, there is not much of a dividing line between you and them.

Sean Bonnett: My favorite shows have always been like that. I really like it when bands get to heckle back. It makes it more like a show rather than just like playing a room where you are lucky enough to watch. Even if I don’t necessarily like a band’s music, if I like the way they interact with the audience I’m going to like that band.

Ben Gallaty: It’s really great to be able to have dialogue with the crowd, and a crowd that brings energy to the show. There have been shows where we’ve been exhausted from long drives and we get up there and we’re haggard and were really not enthusiastic about the show, but then the crowd comes and they bring a lot of energy with them. So in that kind of scenario it’s important to not really have that many barriers. Unfortunately some times there are too many kids for the living room that we are playing in and in that respect sometimes it can be great and kids can be super respectful and the show can go off without a hitch, but sometimes it really makes the show not as much fun as it could be for everyone involved. So it’s great – finding that balance where you have the most intimate show you can possibly have where everyone can have a good time.

FUN Artists: Where do you see yourselves going, what would you like to see happen?

Sean Bonnett: Straight to hell. I don’t know, Id like to see our band get bigger, I’d like more people to listen to and connect with our music.

Ben Gallaty: I’d like everyone to connect with our music. Well, how do I put this? Our music is available at Hot Topic, and some people have a hard time with that. But we know the guy who buys the music for Hot Topic; he’s a great guy; he’s a really great friend of ours, and he likes our band and he buys stuff from Asian Man Records and of course Asian Man is going to sell Hot Topic a whole shit load of CDs … So you know some kids don’t really have access to the really hip clubs or hip scenes and so maybe that’s going to be their introduction to a really cool culture they would otherwise be oblivious to. I’m just using this as an example, I want kids to be able to get access to our music if they like it. I don’t want it to be shoved down their throat or anything, but I want it to be available, so we do our best to make it available online and we work with people we trust and like so hopefully kids can hear it and like it and enjoy it.

Sean Bonnett: I want to add that I want to keep writing songs that make me feel good; that’s the biggest reason I write songs, is because it lifts a huge weight off my chest when I’m feeling sad or lonely or stressed out. And I’d like to really keep in touch with that part of myself that can alleviate that stuff through writing music I like. So that’s what I really want to see happening; I’d actually like to see that more ‘cause I’m a really stressed out guy.

FUN Artists: Anything else to say?

Sean Bonnett: Go to school to be a social worker. Thats my fuckin’ agenda. Instead of being so punk that you refuse to have a job, get a job where you can make a difference in the world.

FUN Artists: Do you support yourselves in other ways besides the music?

Sean Bonnett: I work on call as a suicide hotline supervisor for teenagers. Its a peer run program which is really cool so teenagers can call in and talk to another teenager who is specially trained to talk to teenagers in crisis and they are next to a masters level clinician who can oversee the call and make sure everything runs smoothly and then be there for them afterwards to process the call if it’s a particularly rough call. And it benefits pretty much everyone involved from the callers to the peer volunteers and then to me – I really love doing that work; I’ve been doing it since I was fifteen when I was a peer counselor myself. That’s what I do for a living and I’m really, really stoked on it because I can do it on call so I can do it on tour if I give them enough notice.

Ben Gallaty: I’ve been working pretty much coffee shop and record store jobs for the better part of the last ten years, but I just got a new job working in education, so I’m really excited about it. It seems like a really great organization and I just started there a week ago. Everyone there seems really nice and it seems like something that’s going to be really fun.

Sean Bonnett: It’s a Montessori school that yields Stanford Graduates

Ben Gallaty: Yeah, I’m just gonna be a substitute. Actually, I don’t have to say “just;” I don’t have to qualify it.

FUN Artists.com: Could you introduce yourselves and tell us about Ceremony?

Ross Farrar: I’m Ross, I do vocals.

Jake Casarotti: I’m Jake, I do drums.

Ross Farrar: Ceremony is a hardcore punk band from Rohnert Park which is a suburb of San Francisco about 40 minutes north of the city. We started out just playing punk songs, fast punk songs, and we’re still playing fast punk songs but they’re a little slower now – let’s just say that. But we’ll probably make it way faster on this next record – a hundred times faster.

FUN Artists.com: So are you in the process of writing the new record?

Ross Farrar: Well Anthony [Anzaldo] has some tracks but we haven’t gone into the studio and actually pieced the songs together yet.

Jake Casarotti: But we’re always making shit up.

Ross Farrar: We’re always making songs. In the next month or two we’re going to start practicing again and writing a new record.

FUN Artists.com: So from Ruined and Violence Violence you went from really fast and angry – really punk rock – to more of an LA skate vibe. How did that transition go down?

Ross Farrar: We wanted to do songs that weren’t as thrashy, not as like power-violence style. We went from thrashy hardcore songs, then tried to do something that was more power-violence, and now we’re going pack to more punk /punk roots. It’s what we wanted to do on Rohnert Park.

Jake Casarotti: The idea was to do one 7” of like older sounding punk songs and then another 7” of like hella weird experimental shit, but by the time we got around to recording we couldn’t tell which songs to put on—

Ross Farrar: So we just combined everything. We were going to do a whole bunch of different genres of music.

FUN Artists.com: The new album definitely sounds like some stuff that makes me want to skate.

Ross Farrar: That’s Awesome

FUN Artists.com: Do you guys normally skate, cause I read the book that comes out with Rohnert Park where you talk about going out and skating a lot. Is that still happening when on tour?

Ross Farrar: I skate as much as I can. I left my skateboard in this girl’s car and I don’t have her number so I had to buy a new one – but when I get the new one I will skate again for God’s sake.

FUN Artists.com: Did you guys skate when you were in Korea?

Ross Farrar: I skated once in Korea. Part of my bearing cracked and broke off and I didn’t find a skate shop for awhile, but I did get to skate for a tiny second.

Jake Casarotti: It was like funnest skate session ever.

Ross Farrar: And it was so fun because we were skating down the street in this weird, I don’t know – paved street, Williamsburg kind of like hip part of Korea, and we were skating through the main part of it like, “Oh yeah this is awesome!” We were all drunk and skateboarding.

Jake Casarotti: Everyone was looking at us like they had never seen a skateboard before and shit; it was dope.

Ross Farrar: Yeah, they were pointing and like “What the fuck? He’s white; he’s not Asian … what the hell?” So that was pretty fun.

FUN Artists.com: You guys are about to do a tour in Europe with Sabertooth Zombie. You looking forward to that?

Ross Farrar: Yeah… Ha ha ha he’s not going [points to Jake].

Jake Casarotti: Yeah, I can’t go.

Ross Farrar: But I’m looking forward to going.

Jake Casarotti: I was looking forward to it. I don’t want to talk about why I’m not going.

FUN Artists.com: Are you more excited about going to Europe or going with friends, because you’re all from the same city.

Ross Farrar: Going to Europe with all of our friends is going to be incredible. It’s going to be the best. We did a US tour with them a long time ago and it was probably the greatest thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life. So going overseas where we get all kinds of food, we get places to stay, we get drinks, we get everything for free –  that’s going to be really fun.

FUN Artists.com: Growing up in a small town like Rohnert Park was it hard to get involved in the punk scene? How did you get in?

Ross Farrar: Just a lot of friends of mine from high school were into it. They were into the hardcore scene and I didn’t really know what it was; I was more into Minor Threat and Black Flag and fast punk at that time. But I didn’t know what hardcore was; I thought it was just rock punk that was fast.

Jake Casarotti: Yeah, we all went to the same high school. We went to the same high school as the guys from Lifelong Tragedy and they started the first hardcore band and we were like “What!” and they went on tour, so we were like, “Damn this shit’s fucking proper as fuck.”

FUN Artists.com: And what was it that made you want to start playing drums?

Jake Casarotti: Just that we needed a drummer. I played guitar originally, but there are all sorts of guitarists; everyone plays guitar. All of our friends were starting hardcore bands and shit so I knew we needed a drummer so I got a drum set and learned to play.

FUN Artists.com: So the scene from down here in Southern California is pretty different than up your way in the North…

Ross Farrar: I think Northern California has random influences. There’s stuff coming from all over the place; there’s a lot of weird bands, for example Sabertooth Zombie. They just have all kinds of weird different parts in it, and I don’t think that people from Northern California – the bands especially – listen to another band and say, “I want to sound like this,” they just start making music. It ends up being a band that’s kind of weird but kind of cool, and I think that happens with a lot of bands. But with SoCal, I don’t really know much about the scene. I just know that when we come here we have really fucking good shows, and the bands that I know from here are really cool.  But I don’t know; it’s just different from Northern California, I don’t know why but it is.

Jake Casarotti: It’s totally different. Everyone seems like they rock Jordon’s down here and shit.

FUN Artists.com: How did the book that came with Rohnert Park come about?

Ross Farrar: I was taking a creative writing class at Santa Rosa Junior College, and the teacher I had kind of got me into poetry – I wasn’t very familiar with it until I met him. I started writing poems and formatting poems, and making them. I was making poems and he was teaching me how with stanzas and line breaks and I wanted to that with Ceremony lyrics – make poems out of them. Just break them up into different line breaks. I did it and in like a month I called the people at Bridge Nine and was like “I want to do a book, will you help me do a book?” and they said “Yeah sure.” So I did the whole discography of lyrics; I did some normal poems that I had just done for personal reasons, and I did a short story. They said they wanted to put it out and I was like “Cool,” and there are also photos from tour – there’s a photo of Jake jumping off a cliff naked, which is cool – it’s his big flexing butt all like “Ahh!”

Jake Casarotti: Straight action.

Ross Farrar: Straight action shot.

FUN Artists: So do you still get jitters before playing a show?

Bad Brains: No not really, but it’s basically a new concept; soul-reggae-hip-hop rub-a-dub love groove on music – it’s brand new and the youth of today are the men of tomorrow.

FUN Artists: O really?

Bad Brains: Yes sir, it’s a baby boom on the way. I’m very honored and very privileged to perform. And today is a new revelation and new transfiguration for the most of us.

FUN Artists: When did Bad Brains start?

Bad Brains: Human Rights Big Brains groups started about a year ago.

FUN Artists: How did it come about?

Bad Brains: We use to play around as kids; we went through different locations and forms of playing and a bout a year ago the group decided to go on tour. We went to Anthony County and we asked him if he had time for us; we knew him from before, he was our coach – he had been my diving coach and my old friend I grew up with. He said “Sure, why not?” So to make a long story short after jamming out at different locations I decided to take those boys to the studio again and that’s gonna be in a few more days.

FUN Artists: Your first album, Pay to Cum, what was it like recording that?

Bad Brains: Well it was an experimental jam session with Jimmy Quidd in Manhattan and I didn’t really know if we could pull it off, so I gave it a try – through the efforts of Mr. … ahh, an old friend of ours, Joey Miserable and the worms – he loaned us his band and some friends of his worked at this 171 studios, and we went there. Then they invited us up to record the Pay to Cum sessions over at Jimmy Quidd’s studio and we were able to pull it off. Then the group started sparring here and there and they went their way and I went my mine. For years and years I just kind of floated around like a freelance musician, and then like I said, in 2009 which was a fine time for me, I asked the group would they be into trying it again and they said sure. So I got musician of the year, and I started going over to a friend’s house who invited me, his name was Mr. Hudson,  I went over to his house – he’s my dad, I grew up with him. He’s my friend and he invited me over and we talked for a few hours and he gave me some good advice. He told me to keep my head on my shoulders and stay away from trouble-makers. I saw my mom, talked with her. And then I asked my dad if it would be okay if I could invite some reporters over, home, because they wanted to scan some pictures on your computer and do a movie of me and the band. He said “sure, its okay.” The reporters asked me some weird questions about the photos. After that they went their way.

FUN Artists: Within a lot of documentaries you’ve been shown in American Hardcore; Jon Joseph of the Cro-Mags, Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye… many have said Bad Brains paved the way for hardcore music. Do you guys feel that you guys are the founders of hardcore music?

Bad Brains: … Function music has been around for years; Bo Diddley played his sessions  of outrageous music. There was another artist, Elvis Presley – he had his hay-day and was a big influence, along with Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five and he went on to do his thing, and later on Roy Orbison gave it a try with Ray Charles, and, of course, the ever-so-popular Stevie Wonder, and then Sidney Poitier put out some very fine films, and I’ve been a filmmaker for years; I’ve been putting out films ever since I was about three or four years old. Well the Cro-Mags, along with Harley, gave it their best shot, Mackie had to move to Florida and he went underground and he changed up his diet along with his groove – so we decided to change up our groove and our diet too. I’ve gotten some good advice from a brother there at John Hopkins because I was questioning him and asking him: “Why am I going through this transformation, what exactly is happening to me?”  He explained to me, “Well, you’re going to have to stop smoking, eating certain kinds of foods…” I had put some canned food aside for about 30 years, and some blokes that I know had stolen a whole lot of people’s Christmas presents and we were pretty bummed about that, anyway I went to go and visit my old studio and I was eating all this canned food – it didn’t agree with my stomach, you know? And they were explaining to me that “Its very important for a young entertainer like yourself to take it easy,” so this year I’ve been taking it easy and taking his advice.

FUN Artists: You’ve got a song “Rock for Light”, what was that song all about?

Bad Brains: Well the Human Rights Big Brains group had put out a few undeclared sessions and for me the album, produced by Rick Ocasek in acceptance of eventually re-releasing the God of Love sessions for Madonna under a new name, a new concept, we wanted to play all reggae, and still do want to play all reggae but the fans are still a bit immature and demand for us to play the rock music, quote unquote. So for personal pleasure we give them what they want.

FUN Artists: What was the reaction back in the 80’s when the skinheads were there and you’d play your reggae live?

Bad Brains: It was a toss up situation, some people didn’t like it – some people did, fifty fifty. On the other hand, my mother was concerned about kids coming directly up on the stage and spitting on me – she would give me good advice. Sometimes at the last minute she would call the promoters and say “Oh no, watch out, tell the kids to be careful because he might get angry and he’s a different type of… but like I said my dad told me to keep my head on my shoulders. I’d ask my mom, “Well, what do I do if this happens or that happens…?” And she would say, “Just smile and grin and bear it,” and my dad would tell me “Just take it with a grain of salt and don’t sleep on your back.” He eventually became president, and for security purposes his lifestyle changed dramatically, and then when he got the bloke who had been posing as the president fast asleep one night he just took over control and finished the letter [as HR makes typing motions with his hands/fingers]. Then we gave him his share of the profits and now he understands what’s going on. I had three birthdays; I was born on Christmas Eve, and then on February 11th, and then it was confirmed officially on July 23rd.

FUN Artists: So your parents were supportive of what you were doing and your lifestyle?

Bad Brains: Well I had 12 parents, 12 fathers and about 360 mothers. They were very supportive of that style of music. But the techniques, often my friends from Ethiopia would encourage me not to get wiped out over the rock music – to be gentle with the guitars and my performing, although it might sound a bit evasive to take a more sympathetic approach to performing. And so I would wait my turn and years would pass and I’d want to play my guitar, but I’d have to be very patient and perfect in every way. So that’s what I did.

FUN Artists: So you were born in Ethiopia?

Bad Brains: I was born in Liverpool, England and visited Ethiopia as a small child. Me and my mom and dad and some other friends were kind of like in a traveling circus outfit [laughs], and I use to hide in the canons and my dad would shoot me out of them. I had this one outfit that had wings… who knows where I’d land sometimes. I’d land as far as Nigeria; he’d come looking for me a few days later and fish me out of some hut. He’d ask me “Did you enjoy the flight?” I’d say, “Well, it was a bit outrageous but you know I met some of the strangest people dad.” He’d explain to me “Son, life is not a party, you’ve got to calm down” and I eventually did calm down. I met Gary, Dr. Know, the guitar player, in junior high school again, because as youngsters we had met formally in the first and second grade but he had just been born

FUN Artists: Where were you living at this time?

Bad Brains: I was living in Texas and I would communicate with a friend named Mr. Anderson who had been working with Bob Marley. For a few moments I visited Washington DC and Baltimore and that’s where I officially, for the second time, met Gary. He had a little guitar work on his shoulders and he had asked me, “Well, what kind of music do you want to play?” and I expressed to him that I’d like to play good music; pop music and experimental music that’s sensational and he’d say “Hmm, well do you want to play bass?” cause he was a bass player and knew a little guitar, and I gave him my guitar, and I said to him, because I had a five string acoustic guitar…

One day I had met Darryl, this was around the ninth or tenth grade, he was walking along and I saw him on the road out of my Camaro – I was completely wiped out over this dude walking, I just couldn’t understand what he was doing just walking along on the road like that because I had been zooming around ever since I was in the second grade; my parents had bought me different cars and mini-bikes and bicycles and limousines and station-wagons. Anyway, I asked Darryl if he wanted a lift and he said sure. I said “Well, where are we going Darryl?” and he said “Well Im going, I’m going, well, where are you going?” And I said “Well I’m going straight ahead, where are you going?” “…Uh, well you can take me straight ahead too.” We drove all night long. We played music in my car and sipped beer. I said “Hey man you wanna’ start a band together?” and he said “I don’t know how to be in a band,” and I said “Whoa man, like you’re a musician, you can just take some pictures, we can go to the top man! Come on dude.” And he said, “Whoa are you serious man, what’s your name man? I don’t even know you.” I said “Come on man you know me…” And I kind of accepted him as being a shy guy cause he was very shy and quiet and he wouldn’t really want to take pictures all the while and he just kind of like would stay to himself and fiddle with different things. And he asked me “What instrument do you got for me to play?” I said “Well, you can play, bass, guitar, drums… whatever instrument you want to play.” He said, “I know how to play guitar, but I’d rather play bass.” I said, “Sure, we’ll  ask Gary and see what he says.”

Earl grew up with me – he was my understudy student, undergraduate, and early in life he made up his mind that wherever I went he was going to go, but within reason – he had his limitations, because he was a perfect citizen and he wanted to be treated perfectly. So he let me know exactly where I was. And so I said, “Well are you sure you want to be a drummer?” and he said, “I want to be the drummer in the band, and I mean business.” I said “Okay, lets talk to dad about this,” and I asked my father again and I asked him, “Can we rehearse in the basement?” And he said, “Yeah sure you can rehearse in the basement,” and my mom would come down from time to time and shout “Turn that music down!” and “You’ve been at it all night long!” and “What are you doing, what are those purple things in your pants pocket” and “Come here boy let me go cut your hair” and this and that, you know?  And I’d say [in a Jamaican accent] “Mom, come on give me a break” you know – Rasta. And she’d say “Lord have mercy, me don’t know what kind of man like you” ‘cause she was born in Kingston. My father was born in Alabama and he had met her ‘cause she had her personal career in the entertainment business too. Well me being sort of a caring son would stay at home under my mom and dad’s house instead of doing what most boys do and that was join the army, because my father was a military man from the Air Force, but when I was about 31 or 32, then I decided I wanted to join the Marines. They looked at me: at my wide eyes, my age, and they said, “Son, I don’t think you can join the Marines; it’s a little too late.” By that time we had traveled the world and played for all the boys and girls and I pretty much made up my mind that I wanted to retire in Richmond. So I moved to Richmond, bought a house, bought an El Dorado Limousine, took some pictures, moved to LA all in four or five weeks. Then there was a snow storm in Richmond and in DC so I called my friend and said “Look man, I can’t take this. I gotta get out of here, can you get me some tickets?” And he said “Yeah I know what you’re going through; I can get you some tickets, just pay me forward when you can.” So he buys me a couple tickets and I hop on a plane from Richmond and came out here to California. I had to leave my El Dorado behind with some nice friends I met; it was a bit sad. But anyway, like I was saying, the group stayed together, a few years passed, and I started doing shows on my own. I was doing freelance. I preformed with P.O.D. and Sublime and also a group from Mexico, and was packing arenas and I was getting paid fairly, but as far as living conditions go after the show that didn’t exist.  So here they were giving me $50 or $100 dollars after doing 10,000 seat arena show and dropping me off on the side of the road, and I’d say “Okay, I understand, mucho gracias, see you later.” And one day I got a phone call from the studio that I worked for; I was working three jobs, I was working as a youth counselor – self made youth counselor in the daytime, and recording artist in the afternoon, and then performing in the evening. And I would walk up and down Hollywood Blvd.  trying to do shows and I was given a message that said some of the Brains wanted to get back together. So I said, “All right, I’ll come and I’ll do some shows at CBGB.” And to make a long story short, we did the shows at CBGB; they went their way I went my way and I didn’t see them for about 5 years when I moved to Baltimore.

FUN Artists: Where do you find inspirations for the songs you write?

Bad Brains: I kind of study former songs, and then sometimes ideas – experiences from people I meet or premonitions from The Angel of the Lord, whom, by the way, is in the midst thereof, but I cant really talk too much about Him for security purposes, just like I cant really talk too much about our precious Lord and divine savior.

FUN Artists: Were there any memorial bands that you got to see that made you want to play music more?

Bad Brains: Yeah there were. I kind of liked Earth, Wind & Fire a lot. I always wanted to go on tour with them.

FUN Artists: When you first saw kids going crazy at your shows, jumping off the stage, landing on each other, landing on you… What were your thoughts?

Bad Brains: I thought it was a bit outrageous but then my manager would explain that it was all in fun and so we came with this new philosophy, this new reason, to justify the means. And instead of being mean we were into justice and we became the “justice keepers.” To us it was a “under no condition do we tell lies, do we break the rules,” and we were going to be loyal to the states and unified – the kids would come to the show and be all pro-America and you know that kind of groove.

FUN Artists: “PMA” has become a huge catch phrase, where did that “positive mental attitude” come from?

Bad Brains: In the late 60’s, early 70’s I had an orchestra group that would perform in Carnegie Hall from time to time, and I was very determined to get them off and running, but sometimes because of my lack of patience and lack of experience the things that I did were a bit out of sync. And the local authorities would explain to me: “Well just don’t steal buses and put them people in handcuffs and go downstairs in the stolen bus and force them to play in Carnegie Hall.” And I’d say, “Well man we just want to be in a band,” and they’d say, “We know that Mr. Hudson but please do not do that.” And then my dad would come and say, “Boy, are you crazy? Did you really do that?” And I’d say “Well dad I just…” “Come on, lets go home,” he’d say. And I’d go, “Well dad, I just want to groove, come on man I just want to be in a band… I can groove – I’m the top rankingest organized dude in the world.” He’d say “Yes son, but life is not a party, you have to stay in school.” And I’d say, “Where’s the white house?” and he’d say, “For security purposes I cant tell you that ha ha ha ha…”

Anyways, one day he gave me a book and the book said “Think & Grow Rich” and it was written by Andrew Carnegie. And in the book Mr. Carnegie was explaining that there are principles one lived by; one was PMA, and it meant positive mental attitude: ought to be professional, pleasant, hardworking, loving, caring, determined, have a burning desire… but to remember to be compassionate, remember the Christ-like Spirit that existed in the book, the PMA Think & Grow Rich. Well, I read my Bible and I would read this book and I suddenly understood what it meant to be nice. So I put down my weapons of cruelty and I started being nice to a people that I owed favors too. And I drove my car for a few more moments then I just pulled over and I left the car there and I just started walking around. I had this long Dashiki on – and we were all in to PMA philosophy.

I eventually got to visit Earth, Wind, & Fire in the studio, the Brains were still a young band we were getting kicked around Manhattan, cause they remembered me from the super-fly days when I was a filmmaker and they said, “That sure is a strange way to transform, ‘cause we remember you being like that; walking around with dashikis, with short hair – almost bald, and then mini pants… Where your clothes at?” And then you could see through the dashiki. “What’s wrong with you boy, you loosing your mind or something talking about peace and love in the 70’s in Manhattan after doing a super-fly movie?” Well I had a few albums under my belt, I had performed with Aretha Franklin, Barry White, and Johnny Nash, and I wanted to complete the series that i started with the Brains, but for security purposes that wasn’t possible because I had to become a security guard. So off I went to work at the Greater Southeast Community Hospital as a security guard. And people would come in the hospital and I’d do nice things for them and let them park their cars for a few extra minutes without charging them and just said “Oh go on, go on, it’s okay” and I’d wave at them. There I’d be at this one little box all night long all alone… Well, one day Gary, Darryl and Earl came to visit me and said “Man you’re going to miss the show of your life. Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder and Deep Purple are gettin’ ready to jam. Do you wanna go? And Earth, Wind, & Fire just played at another location and they’re getting ready to go over there too, you better come on dude.” I said “Oh man… Okay!” So we went to see the groups play and they were magnificent. Earth, Wind, & Fire performed, they were just incredible; Stevie Wonder performed, Bob Marley came on and I seen all this long hair and said,  “Whoahaaaa, Holy mackerel he’s got dreads!” Cause I had tried a few times in Jamaica myself. I met some brothers up there in the Columbia Park region that I hand picked as a youngster and raised, but I hadn’t seen them in years because of a notion that maybe one day they would do their own thing, and they are doing their own thing now. But I remember as a child I’d get them their own little New Testament Bibles, chairs to sit in, and raised them. Under the guidance of, the so called, Rasta, that I found out years and years later was still in his thesis period of theory, and that, although he was a Rastafarian he was still  theorizing the formula of being a Rastafarian. And so that’s that.

FUN Artists: Can you introduce yourself?

Langhorne Slim: I am Langhorne Slim.

FUN Artists: What happened to the rest of the band, The War Eagles, do they still play with you or is it different people?

Langhorne Slim: One different person. What happened was that I played solo for awhile and toured alone and then I formed the band with Paul Defiglia on bass and Malachi Delorenzo on drums, and we toured and played together for about 5 years, some of which we called the band The War Eagles. Then Paul left, and we got Jeff Ratner on bass and David Moore… I guess The War Eagles was just a certain time, we liked the name for awhile and then it just kind of wore off.

FUN Artists: How was it playing the Newport Folk Festival?

Langhorne Slim: We played it last summer [2009] and it was amazing.  Obviously with the history of the thing it was really exciting just to be invited to do it. We were the first band on like the first or second day at like 11:00 o’clock in the afternoon, and so I was a little worried if there would be people there, but it turned into an amazing thing, we had  a bunch of people at our tent. And then Jeff and I wound up on stage with Pete Seeger and Joan Baez and a bunch of other people dancing around, so it was surreal and a really cool experience.

FUN Artists: What would you say is the greatest difference between your newest album, Be Set Free, compared with your previous releases?

Langhorne Slim: I think that from album to album there’s differences just because, as one grows… or as one rises or falls or whatever, your creative output is going to change based on the mood of when you write a song or paint a picture, you know, just where your taste and interests develop. So I don’t know, I don’t hear such a big difference, but I don’t listen back to the albums so much. When I hear people that follow my stuff think that theres a big sort of departure or change its confusing to me but then if  I do listen back to stuff I did five years ago it almost sounds like another person.

FUN Artists: How has what’s inspired you changed in your playing music besides the normal growing up?

Langhorne Slim: It’s a non-conscience kind of a thing. Mainly it’s just interstes in musical direction. I don’t want to go down, I don’t know that most people who are songwriters would ever want to, but I certainly don’t want to go down just one path. I’d like to go in whatever sort of direction strikes me. So just trying to be as open with, I guess myself, and with that possibility of whatever direction feels right and to kind of go in it and don’t be scared. Easier said than done I think.

FUN Artists: Do other types of art inspire your music?

Langhorne Slim: Well sure, I guess I can go to a museum and see a painting and write a song about it, but doesn’t really happen… I don’t go to a lot of museums so I don’t know, not that I wouldn’t like to though. You know, I really don’t know, I don’t know what inspires me, I guess sometimes I feel inspired and I follow that. You [FUN Artists’ interviewer Erin Smith] are inspiring to me right now, I’m gonna write a little song about it.

FUN Artists: Are you destined to be a family man or a drifter?

Langhorne Slim: A drifting family man.

FUN Artists: What is the quality you most respect in another human being?

Langhorne Slim: Um, wow, just one? Lack of fear. That’s a good one.

FUN Artists: At this point in your life do you consider yourself a healer, a seeker, a trickster, or a teacher?

Langhorne Slim: Shit man. A little bit of all of those things.

FUN Artists: Are you concerned with questions about your existence?

Langhorne Slim: Who’s questioning it, me? Not at the moment, but I’m sure we all question our existence at different times throughout our lives.

FUN Artists: Are you a religious or spiritual person?

Langhorne Slim: I have not found the one right answer yet to religion or spirituality.

FUN Artists: Where do you think America is headed creatively as a nebulous whole?

Langhorne Slim: I have no idea. I meat a man in Italy though, a very cool interesting guy, I’m not sure if I agree with his theory but, he thinks that in 2012 the world will start spinning in the opposite direction and that people will make better art. So, I don’t know what I think, but that’s what this man in Italy thinks and I’d like to offer that as my answer for you.

FUN Artists:  Where does the story of your affection for old-timey music begin?

Frank Fairfield: [chuckles] I don’t know that there’s a story, I don’t know that there’s necessarily old-timey music. I guess that’s just a weird word people threw on it. In the 1920’s, in 22’ or 24’ arguably, that just happens to be when this music first started getting recorded, its been around forever. It’s for the same reason that birds like to sing; the same reason everybody likes to do what they do. I just like the music; I think it’s the natural music, the people’s popular music. This is the music I play, America’s popular music.

FUN Artists:  Can you remember the first time you first heard this music?

Frank Fairfield:  I don’t know. I guess a friend of mine collected some 78’s and he played me a Phil and John Carson record once a few years back, some time ago and that’s probably the first time I started getting into collecting the records.

FUN Artists: Given your straightforward old skool style, would you say that there’s a particular musical code of ethics you have to stick to when creating or recreating your music?

Frank Fairfield: I guess this isn’t something you do on top of something, this is just the way people live, it’s the way people make this music. It’s just completely natural. I think this music is completely rational, there’s nothing tricky about it that you have to do to it, it’s just the way it is.

FUN Artists:  I got to see you play at 2023 and the whole show was just like a scene from a movie, with all the guys and dolls dressed to the till in tweed coats and polka dotted dresses. I felt like I stepped into a time continuum and landed in a moonshine during the prohibition. Would you say that between your cohorts and yourself you’ve begun or are part of some kind of a movement?

Frank Fairfield:  I don’t know. I just think we’re doing what we’re doing. We’re not starting anything. We’re not stopping anything either. We’re not starting or finishing anything, we’re just playing music. We’re just playing the songs the people used to sing. Eventually corporate music took over [but] these songs never went anywhere. These styles or the way of playing a fiddle, bowing a fiddle, these techniques have been around for hundreds of years. This is nothing from one period or another; this isn’t 1920’s music or one kind of thing or another. I think, spontaneously for one reason or another, there’s a few young people out there that are, in my opinion, trying to be respectable, that are trying to be gentlemen and play men’s music, women’s music. I never knew these people until recently, bumping into people and saying “Oh you’re kind of in the same boat as I am!” I think it’s all more than natural. This stuff is finally starting to get reissued, people are starting to get a picture of what people used to do. Everything goes full circle. There was a time where all this kind of got clouded over and now technology is starting to [take things] right back around, showing us how things used to be and how that makes so much sense and people are going “Oh yeah” and picking up the old songs like they never went anywhere.

FUN Artists: Is it safe to say that if you could live in any other era besides the one in which you do that you would choose the days of the proletariat vs. the bourgeoisie?

Frank Fairfield:  I don’t think there are eras I don’t believe there is time. Those are such ridiculous concepts. There’s only right here. Everything that’s ever happened has happened right now and anytime anybody ever did anything it was in the present. There is no going back or forward or progress or moving up or down. Everything’s going up and down and left and right all the time. So, I don’t believe that there’s progress and I think that’s really what this… if there is a “movement”- is… It’s people that are finally coming to a realization of that. Realizing that this is a lie, that there is no progress. How can all of existence just move in one direction? There’s nowhere for things to go. So you know, you may have bigger buildings, but now you have less trees. You just mashed up a bunch of rocks and you put em over here, you slapped em up, and you slapped over some country and that’s not getting anything anywhere. So I think some people are finally coming to an acceptance of existence and are just being. I thinks that’s maybe why these people are playing a certain kind of music and are turning away from the corporate music, the things that are being sold and the…. Anyhow…blah blah blah. I’m just rambling.

FUN Artists:  Are there any governing philosophies driving you in this movement, because there’s an obvious difference in the music and style you represent vs. that of pop music?

Frank Fairfield: Well I don’t believe that it’s popular music; it’s not popular, it’s corporate music. It’s the difference between McDonalds and people’s regular cuisine. People just make food to eat it, and it may evolve and people change and the different people pick up different spices from different, well, from the trades and certain things. But nobody said “you know what, we should mash all these lymph nodes together and package them all in plastic cases”, you know people didn’t do that- corporations and people that are trying to take advantage of you do that. And then they try to sell it and make it look pretty and give it toys, and go at your insecurities and adolescence… you know, that’s what happened to music. The people didn’t choose this, it’s not popular music, it’s corporate music.

FUN Artists: You toured with the Fleet Foxes, how was that and how did it come about?

Frank Fairfield:  Oh just how anything comes about. I used to just play in the street and this guy said “hey I want to book you to something.” People have asked me to do those things before and I was never interested in doing that kind of thing. And for one reason or another I said yes and was opening up for a rock and roll band in a rock and roll concert venue hall or whatever you call them. You know, those guys were very nice to me and they asked me to go on the road with them. After much deliberation I went, “alright.” It was a crazy experience and I almost had a nervous break down. I wasn’t used to being out and playing for those kinds of circles and being around that many people and those kinds of things. I don’t think I was quite prepared for it but I don’t know, those guys were very friendly, I can’t say anything unkind about those fellows.

FUN Artists:  Did you enjoy playing your music for that many people?

Frank Fairfield:  Yeah, maybe. I mean sometimes you enjoy yourself and sometimes you don’t so…

FUN Artists:  You’ve got quite the vinyl collection here. Have you been at it a while?

Frank Fairfield: I don’t know. I’ve gotten lucky and I’ve done a lot of footwork. It’s something I certainly love to do. I really love finding things that nobody knows about, that no one’s ever seen before. I have a lot of ethnic records or what they call “ethnic records”, records from different parts of the world. I’ve got pretty much all the continents represented and all kinds of regions and a lot of different instrumentation. I think people start getting a bigger picture when they see this; they see the music of humanity, the people. Ethnic is a word for the common man, for people. There is no history for the people there’s only a history of the aristocrats, of a king or some jerk off or some duke or some duchess. We just have the history of a bunch of jerks. We don’t have a history of what the people were doing. So I think people collect these things because they want to get a bigger picture of humanity.

FUN Artists:  What part of you relates to these songs and ballads that you’re playing in light of the music that surrounds you; the corporate music that you mentioned?

Frank Fairfield:  Well everything’s in its place, everything is as it should be. I’m not upset. I don’t think anybody’s doing anything wrong, you know everybody’s doing what they’re doing and I don’t think anything has changed. You look outside and see the trees are still out there and birds are still flying. A man is still a man, he’s not getting any smarter or any dumber or any this or any that. I don’t know, these songs mean the same just as they always have. They don’t have a different meaning today than they did before. They’ve always been here and people have been singing them for a long long time. People have been singing them all over the country, not just in the Appalachians, we may think that but those are just misconceptions. This is the music of the people, of the country, of America. There’s all kinds of music that’s of this country- you know, the Canaan music is American music, Texan Border music is American music, Pennsylvania minors from Slovakia- that’s American music, and the Native music is American music- that’s the most forgotten America there is, and the Cuban and Puerto Ricans in New York- all that’s American music. All of that music was recorded in this country.

FUN Artists: Who is this music for?

Frank Fairfield:  Well it’s the same reason the birds sing- it’s cause he’s gotta sing. I don’t consider music some fanciful thing. I’m not an artist, music is not an art; music is a thing that’s done because you do it, because you need it. Just like making food or making anything. You know it’s not an art- you can decide to make “art food” if you want and try to make it wear a fancy hat, and say “Oh this is a gastronomy”, or something like that. Or you could just make food and it can be beautiful and simple. Most all of these cultures had all of these things. All cultures have their food and their music and their taste-I don’t consider these to be art forms, I just consider them to be utilities that people do to live. This music is not any different than any other music really, it may have its own flavor and it’s the English speaking music of America but its not really any different than any other people’s music. People make music because they need it and they want it.

FUN Artists: You mentioned the contrast between McDonalds and foods that you make in simplicity at home. Do you consider yourself somewhat of a purist when it comes to participating in culture?

Frank Fairfield: I don’t know, I’m not some purist or something. I don’t know what it is; I just try to be a human being. All of these things are just my opinions and the way that I feel for some reason or another. I don’t know why I feel the way I do, I don’t choose to feel a certain way. I can’t say that I’m right. I justify my feelings with things that we call facts which are nothing more than, you know, bullshit- just something that we’ve all kind of agreed upon. Nobody has to listen to me or think I’m right.

FUN Artists: What do you think the future of your music is?

Frank Fairfield:  Well first of all it’s not my music. It’s the people’s music; it’s America’s music. I didn’t make any of this up. I don’t think music is something that you make up. It’s not something that you go- [snaps] and you’ve made it up. Nobody makes up music, and anybody who thinks so is really fooling themselves.

FUN Artists: Would you say that it’s more like a discovery?

Frank Fairfield:  It’s just an action, just something you do. Just like nobody invented cooking. All these things are here and you just make them. That’s just the way it is. I don’t think it’s going anywhere or that it shouldn’t go anywhere. So I don’t know where things are gonna go, whatever that means. I know I’m right here and this is where anything is. This is all the life there is right now. And right now I’m pretty at peace and I’m not too worried about anything. I’ll be on the road a little this year and there’s going to be the re-issuing of a few records for Tompkins Square and that should be out in June I think. Some records from around the world and a couple American records, we’re just trying to show that there’s only one music, and that this is it. And that’s all that’s in the- what’s that expression- woodworks, for now.

Far

FUN Artists: Introductions?

Jonah Matranga: Hi. I’m Jonah and I sing and play a little bit of guitar in the band Far.

Shaun Lopez: I’m Shaun, I play guitar in the band Far, all the time.

FUN Artists: So you guys got back together in ’08?

Jonah Matranga: Wow, was it 2008? That is insane. I guess so.

FUN Artists: Have you been touring since then or just focusing on recording the new album?

Jonah Matranga: For the past year the focus has been the record. It feels like we just fell down the stairs and we were a band again.  It didn’t start out that we were gonna record a record, we were just gonna play a few shows, so we did a handful of those. And I swear, I don’t even know where it happened, all the sudden we were recording our new record. That was it, no big tours, no nothing; just play some shows for fun and hangout. And then we did this weird cover [Pony by R&B singer Ginuwine] and all hell broke loose.

FUN Artists: Does anyone have families?

Jonah Matranga: We both have 15-year-old children.

FUN Artists: How has that changed touring, recording, etc.?

Shaun Lopez: Well, I’m a producer and I have the studio at my house, my kid is a musician too so he kind of has it made.

Jonah Matranga: When the band split I kept making music, but generally I toured solo which was a lot easier logistically, going out for a little spurts of time. And with the band there’s kind of a lot of stuff you have to do and you can’t generally fly a bunch of places unless you’re really rich, and it’s a huge country, so driving… It just basically makes it harder to do. I mean, I did it when my daughter was really young and we made it work, but yeah it’s nice to be home. Our drummer has two kids now too, so, we all live in different cities.  It’s awesome.

FUN Artists: Where do you all live now?

Jonah Matranga: I live in San Francisco, Shaun lives in LA, John our bassist lives in Sacramento, and our drummer lives in San Diego.

FUN Artists: What would you say have been your biggest creative influences in the last ten years?

Shaun Lopez: I guess I wasn’t really into The Beatles when I was younger, but as I got older I got really into them, and I’m still really into them, and I can only get more into them. I was more of a metal kid growing up, and I still love some metal. It’s really weird when I think about songs from the new record.  I was really trying to capture that one thing about that one song I really like. For me it hardly ever sounds like that song, but there’s something, it’s like a feeling I get from that song that I want to put across. But maybe we’d be a bigger band if I ripped the song off.

Jonah Matranga: I think for me the single biggest sonic influence has actually been R & B hits; the most creative production has gone on in them. It’s not that I’ve made music that sounds like that, but I’m enthralled with it and it’s definitely the thing I’ve listened to most. I’ve always loved hip hop, but I’ve never tried to make hip hop, and I doubt I ever will, but it’s always inspired me, and that production has always been really, really great. And the, as cliché’ as it sounds, the biggest influence in my life, in the last few years at least, has been Obama. Aside from the fact that I agree with his politics, but just his focus, and his drive, and his fearlessness has been so inspiring to me. And just that he didn’t settle for anything but having the most incredible life. I think like a lot of other people in the world, it really lit me up to see him tear it up. And he continues to really blow me away.

FUN Artists: Did you ever have a reaction like that to any other political figure?

Jonah Matranga: No, no. That’s the whole thing, it’s…

Shaun Lopez: Yeah, it’s whether or not you believe he’s actually following through with all the things he’s promised.  I feel kind of like what happened during that whole thing with people getting involved, young people, it was pretty insane just to see that.

Jonah Matranga: Again, I’ll defend him and sing his praise forever. I think he’s doing an incredible job actually, of being the president of a really really polarized nation that is even more polarized because we now have a black president. All that said, I remember when he was campaigning, he was just my favorite band in the world. And when he spoke it was like going to a rock show, it was like that intense. It was like the same feeling I got while I was watching a U2 concert, it was just big and huge and for everyone and really inclusive. It was just a really fun time that year; it was like my favorite tour ever.

FUN Artists: What is the relationship to your earliest albums and material; nostalgia, impressed, proud…?

Jonah Matranga: I’m proud of moments on everything we’ve made. I feel like the more music we’ve made the more consistently it gives me that feeling that I want to get from music I make. Even way back in the beginning I can point at little tiny moments where I thought “O, we got it!”, but then it’s surrounded by a lot of stuff I really want to never hear again. I mean not that I hate it, but I just wouldn’t play it for anyone trying to explain what I think is special about us. But I think on this last record there are a lot of moments and there’s a consistency… I think the main thing about this record verses the other ones is really that we… Well, it certainly took me by surprise, that there was really no time to freak out about out identity the way we might have done in the past. And also I think we’ve all really grown as musicians and so this record, I know I went to it as a singer with a lot more confidence. Not that I’m so great, I just think that before I was very self conscious about my voice and how I wanted it to be treated. This time I just told him [points to Shaun] “Go to town. I’ll sing my heart out and you just take it…” And there was a lot of freedom cause he was making it in his own studio.  I’d be sending him mixes and he’d say “Yeah that sounds cool, what about a little noise here?” and I’d say “OK great…”, so it was this very collaborative process and there was a lot of freedom having him do it.

Shaun Lopez: I think there was less of a battle. I would say most of our earlier stuff, I kind of felt like I was trying to show off, and he [Jonah] was trying to show off, and we were trying to like out show off each other in a way.

Jonah Matranga: I don’t know about showing off.  What I would say is, I was always scared of going too far into “your direction”, and if you’re too scared to go in “my direction”, which might have been valid cause we both have these very strong visions, but it was like we were always trying to pull it back from the other way. I don’t think it was that we wanted to look so great, but that we just wanted to make sure that our stamp was on it and that it didn’t get overwhelmed by the other dude’s stamp. And this time I think our actual visions of what a good rock group is kind of coalesced actually, and we both kind of settled down; [speaking to Shaun] like you like The Beatles more, and we both have kind of settled into it. For me, I certainly went into it with a lot of healthy detachment of like, “Alright, we’re just gonna make this thing, all I want is for us to be proud of it…” And the minute I started hearing stuff Shaun was tracking I was like “It’s gonna be fine.”

Shaun Lopez: And I think one thing we’ve both been better about is like, we just cared a lot less about stupid things that really don’t matter. And you know, we kind of just pick and choose and say “OK this is important, I’m gonna really stick to this, and I could really care less about this, either way the decision is going to be fine and something I can stand behind”. I think in a way that’s really been great.

Jonah Matranga: And I think it goes back to that identity thing. I think we’re not so worried about a particular vision being fulfilled.  We saw enough being fulfilled and saw that it was gonna be fine and none of us were gonna run away with it. Really this is the most collaborative record we’ve ever made writing wise. Cause a lot of time before I was coming with a lot of full songs, and again it was a type of songwriting that you just didn’t do, whereas this time a lot of your musical ideas, they weren’t more like mine but they were more…

Shaun Lopez: …They were more varied, and also if I would send him something it would never have to be exactly that. And in the age of computers I’d send him something and he’d cut it up and all of the sudden it was something totally different that I had never envisioned, but it was always for a reason and always good. So I was like, go for it, cut it up.

Jonah Matranga: And it was fun for me cause he would just send me these… I’d just look at them like these little puzzles cause they’d just be these really cool little ideas here and there and I’d just get to play and he was so open to me messing around.

FUN Artists: These are most of the songs on the new record?

Jonah Matranga: These are all the songs that are on the new record. There’s two songs on the new record that weren’t co-written by us… and even those I like how they turned out, but the reason I like the way they turned out is that he took them to town and really produced them in a neat way. But also, frankly, those two songs kind of came into the band at a stage when we weren’t even sure we were making a record. It was sort of like “Hey, what do we have that would be easy to do right now?” and I was like “well I have these songs and I think we can play those well…”.  But I see them as, I love them, but I don’t see them nearly as strong as some of the other stuff on the record, and they’re my songs and I love them, but I think the collaborative stuff is way better.

FUN Artists: And the collaborative efforts are mainly you two?

Jonah Matranga: It’s only us two. Back in the day there was more from the other guys, but because of the way this record was being written with all of us in different places, it just… Well I mean, we were just the ones that were just doing the ideas. We’ve all got , everyone in the band, really full lives, but Shaun and I are the two people, in some ways, in the band who are actively still doing something like the record we made. John our bassist is still playing a bunch of music in several bands actually. So he was kind of busy with that. Chris has got a very full life… We’re still like the two hideaway music geeks, so we would just be on our computers and pass ideas to each other.

FUN Artists: Is there anyone in your individual projects that you guys would like to collaborate with?

Shaun Lopez: I just love… I really didn’t write music for like four years, I didn’t write one song just cause I got really busy producing other people. If anything, even if this band doesn’t do anything, it kind of really renewed my love for writing music, and now I’m writing all the time… I love working with other people period, so it’s just fun, especially when it’s stuff I write, if it’s people that I really dig what they do and they’re talented and all that…

Jonah Matranga: I could give you a dream list… Give us a couple days with Timbaland, Johnnie Greenwood [Radiohead]… Who do we want on bass? I could build you eight bands and producers.

FUN Artists: Besides The Beatles, who are you guys listening to, like heavy rotation style?

Jonah Matranga: Dirty Projectors is probably my favorite recent band, they are killin’ me. And full disclosure, I know someone in the band, but it’s not, I’m not trying to vote for my friend, I just think. [looks to Shaun and says] Have you seen them yet? Man you gotta. Go check em out, I think it’s on the…what show did they debut this on? Saturday Night Live dude with The Roots as his backup band… Jimmy Fallon! They debuted a new song on his show that was insane. And it was so, the way they do the vocals was so nutty that Questlove and the rest of The Roots kind of thought they used tapes or something like that and so this amazing Flip Video shot by Questlove in backstage where he’s like “will you play that song?” and they do it and it’s amazing. So anyways, Dirty projectors rule, Band of Horses are one of my favorite bands the past few years, and then again, all the R & B stuff; Beyonce, like no sarcasm, I think she’s amazing. I think Jay Z’s new record is really good, I kind of admire him more as a person then as an “artist” in some ways, I don’t listen to his records that often, but I think he’s done some amazing stuff. And kind of that stuff that got made for him, like for his a capellas, like The Grey Album and Jaydiohead and weird… you know, the whole weird remix mash up thing is something I don’t really like, but some of it can be really exciting.

Shaun Lopez: Fever Ray, this girl sings for this band called The Knife, she kind of has her own thing and it’s really cool, just really cool production, and her voice is so sick… I like this French band called M83, it’s just one guy, but he’s kinda… it’s very synthie, and kind of  80’s, but it’s really sick production and I really dig the songs.

Jonah Matranga: I feel like there’s a synthie thing that we did…

Shaun Lopez: Well yeah it’s funny, cause The Ghost That Kept on Haunting, which to me off all the record is my favorite thing I wrote, and that was the first thing you wrote too, which I thought you would never write… That’s me trying to be M83… in a way, Because the newest M83 record, the opening song is like this thing that is kind of like that, but it’s on piano, and he’s just repeating this vocal over and over, and it’s very Prince style, and it kind of gave me this feeling, and I wanted that, and I kind of mixed it with this like Nine Inch Nails… that drum thing… But, I don’t know, it’s kind of tough for me to say I really like this band, because I get into songs; and I hate that because I hate that we are living in such a song world…

Jonah Matranga: So True…

Shaun Lopez: I mean, I really think that the shuffle has killed my… my soul. And I shuffle all the time, that’s all I do, and even when I’m on shuffle I still skip to the next song, I don’t finish, it’s like a problem.

Jonah Matranga: Yeah, the shuffle’s kind of weird, but even that’s kind of OK, what I really think is destroying music is this whole music in the cloud, endless streaming, aggregated music where it’s, “If you like this, then you’ll like…”, that sort of Pandora thing, and Pandora is a fine idea and everything, but I just don’t want a machine telling me what it thinks I’ll like, I want a friend to tell me that. And maybe that’s old fashion of me, but I just like that better… But there are still… I think Band of Horses and Dirty Projectors they are two bands that I think are making really quality records, but getting back to the hip-hop thing, I think Lil’ Wayne has made a couple of the coolest most consistent records over the past bunch of years.

Shaun Lopez: Yeah that last Lil’ Wayne record, not the new one, it’s terrible, but the last one is so sick. It lived up to all that hype, it sold millions in the first week, and I really do think it’s just a good good record… There’s also this band, I wont say I dig all their stuff, but, called The KickDrums and its basically these two white hip hop dudes that are more known for making beats for rappers, but you can tell they are like really into Radiohead. They made this record where the production is great, and that’s the weird thing because when you produce music sometimes when something just sounds really good you’re like “O man, I love the way this sounds”, and they are definitely like that. Their songs are really cool, I wouldn’t say they are great, but just the way they put it all together, it’s very hip hop influenced, but it’s mixed with more of a rock song format.

FUN Artists: Are you guys happy?

Jonah Matranga: Yes. I recently had a good realization that I think that I do not articulate how happy I am around other people because I’m scared of it somehow being uncomfortable for them…

FUN Artists: Wow, you gotta get over that.

Jonah Matranga: Yeah and I did, it was this great realization that I get to say “O wow, I get to say that I’m happy in my life!” and if they’re not happy in their lives…and like most things, it’s a way back to childhood thing… but it was a really good thing for me to realize that. So, it’s not like I’m walking around smiling all the time, but I just feel so lucky. I mean I have raised my kid making music, this whole thing is a total miracle in a lot of ways; I mean I’ve done literally hundreds of interviews saying “Nah, I don’t think Far will ever play again,” and so I just didn’t see this coming. So there’s a lot of… I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.

Shaun Lopez: O yeah. Amen.

FUN Artists: Can you introduce yourself?

Swingin’ Utters: My name is John Bonnel. I’m the lead singer of the $wingin’ Utter$.

FUN Artists: Can you talk about the new releases and why, after such a long time off, you guys are playing and touring again?

Swingin’ Utters: I think Fat Mike was the instigator of putting out some more music; he was like ‘Hey its been a long time.’ We were sort of taking a break because of kids and jobs, and so the band sort of drifted apart in terms of where we were living. Greg [McEntee], our drummer, moved down to Los Angeles, Darius [Koski] moved to Santa Cruz, I stayed in the East Bay, and Spike [Slawson] and Jack [Dalrymple] live in San Francisco. So we’re all kind of scattered so it was kind of tough to get things together. We’d do weekend shows here and there, but there was no new material – and we were getting sick of what we were playing. We have a lot of songs to choose from, but with no practice you tend to play the same set every time you go out, ‘cause it’s like “they never heard it.” So we got kind of lazy I think… Yeah, Fat Mike was the guy who said ‘Hey lets put out some new music,’ and I lost my job—sort of all the band members had problems finding jobs, so we thought now is a good time to start doing new material and touring again, but Fat Mike got the ball rolling.

FUN Artists: The Swingin’ Utters’ sound has evolved a bit over the years, and I know you thought the more recent records were a little too fast… Was there any talk going in to this recording of how you guys wanted to sound?

Swingin’ Utters: Yeah, we were kind of – not disappointed with our last recordings — but always searching for more of a live sound, so I think we went into this new material wanting it to sound like it had more of a human element to it. ‘Cause a lot of the new music these days is auto-tuned and what not, a lot of Pro Tools used in the recording process. But we don’t mind when things are out of tune, it has more of a human feel to it and a rawer quality. All of my favorite records have a raw sound to them, like you could hear them all, sort of, screaming at each other as they’re recording; ‘Speed up’ or ‘Come on!’ you know, egging the band on. So yeah, that was our main idea. It was just ‘let’s make it sound live’ … and I don’t think it sounds live enough still. I think that’s why there’s a delay on the release. It was suppose to be released in July; we got those three songs out on the 45 so there was a release, so the full length is probably going to come out in September.

FUN Artists: When we get older and tend to like more diverse music and our tastes change, is it ever a chore to maintain this “street punk” Swingin’ Utters sound? Do you have to go out of your way to get back to that sound, or is that still very prevalent for you?

Swingin’ Utters: I think it’s just all the stuff we listen to is so different, every band member has a different taste and they’re always bringing stuff into the van; we get to hear new music all the time. So once you stumble across something you like I think it’s going to be in each song. Spike’s really great at this ‘cause he has such diverse taste in music and he always brings in rad music that I’ve never even heard of – even the style – and it’s like, I told him one time, ‘That makes you a really great person just that you did that. That you let me hear this shit. It makes you a better person.’ But yeah, we don’t really strive for a Swingin’ Utters sound; I think its’ just what we’re listening to at the time. I’ve been listening to a lot of English stuff so a lot of my songs have this sort of dark English sound to it and kind of garage-y, like 60’s garage punk. There’s no way we can get away from the Swingin’ Utters sound ‘cause as a group we tend to speed things up – it just tends to go that way as your coming up with new songs. But yeah, Darius is going to keep writing and he has back catalogs of songs that he wrote when he was a teenager. Some of the stuff he wrote then is popping up now. I kind of think that’s interesting too, I mean he’s got a catalog of shit, of this weird teenage brilliant mind, and that just excited me; I’m like ‘Damn, you wrote this when you were a fucking teenager? You’re like Elvis Costello man.’

FUN Artists: You guys have so many side projects, who gets what songs?

Swingin’ Utters: For our other bands Filthy Thieving Bastards and Drug Lords of The Avenues; starting with Filthy Thieving Bastards, I usually write songs and usually figure it out once you get down to doing demos. I usually do demos with Darius – I’ll like hum them, I can play a little bit of guitar, but I’m not that great yet. So I’ll go over to his house and we will figure it out right there. ‘Ah that’s a Filthy Thieving song; that’s a Swingin’ Utters song.’ There’ve been crossovers, I mean, I think there’s a Filthy Thieving song on a Swingin’ Utters album. So there are definitely crossovers because that’s the way we write, but you sort of know.  Filthy Thieving has sort of got more leeway; Swingin’ Utters are more pigeon holed into this punk sort of rawer sound, but we want to take those raw elements and keep them with Filthy Thieving.  Thieving has more influences of country, early 60’s rock, stuff like that and it just gives us more freedom to do whatever the fuck we want. Not that we have to do punk rock for Swingin’ Utters albums cause there’s always a slow Darius song on a Swingin’ Utters record, or a country song here and there. There’s actually a country song on the new one too. But yeah, you sort of feel it out once you demo the songs. But for Drug Lords of The Avenues it’s just a bunch of young guys that are into Slayer; they just come up with the music and I get stoned and write lyrics to it.

FUN Artists: In the Swingin’ Utters what are your guys’ favorite songs to play and what are the crowd pleasers?

Swingin’ Utters: My favorite songs to play, the reasons behind them are usually crowd response, but there’s one, “Petty Wage,” we play all the time. I think that’s just because of me; I think I let Darius, Spike, and Greg and Jack know it’s one of my favorite songs. I don’t think they like it though – and it’s not a crowd pleaser all the time, but for some reason I like playing that song. I think maybe, its got like breathing room in it, so I’m not fucking devastated and out of breath after the song. But yeah, I think crowd response is the main reasoning behind our sets. And that’s another thing we’re figuring out with these new songs; they are going over fairly well but we won’t know until we do lengthy tours on the East Coast and Europe and stuff which songs are going to be good and which songs aren’t. Yeah, you’ll find out what your favorite songs are live when you get the response from the crowd. If they’re fucking screaming it back to you then your like ‘Fuck yeah this is a song, lets keep doing it.’ It’s keeping me going at least, at this age.

FUN Artists: What is the “Freebird” of the Utters where people are climbing on stage and jumping on your back?

Swingin’ Utters: Oh yeah, it’s “Next in Line.” How do I say this? It’s not my favorite song – and it’s not anything against Max who wrote it, he’s a great songwriter – I don’t know, I just don’t like playing it live, but we have to play it live, ‘cause I mean, certain people will kill us if we don’t.

FUN Artists: Any serious fans out there? We’re talking send you guitars, getting tattoos, asking you to be in their wedding?

Swingin’ Utters: The thing is, when it comes down to fans, they become friends. Most of the time a big fan will become one of my friends. I got a bike from one of my friends, but he is a fan so I guess that would be like… I mean that was just insane; I almost broke down crying it was such a nice gesture. We just shot the shit one night and I told him I like to cruise out on a bike every once in awhile and it just makes me feel really good – it gives me a little break. But yeah, like a week later I had this beach cruiser in the mail on my front porch. I see a lot of tattoos of songs and stuff which is super flattering and crazy.

FUN Artists: Why do you play music?

Swingin’ Utters: I think I do it just to create—and to be able to do this and travel. We’re people in bands, the luckiest people in the world, I think, at least who are able to tour and make records. It’s got to be one of the luckiest – not ‘professions’ – but luckiest outlets to be in, you know? Nothing beats it. ‘Cause there’s so much involved: there’s meeting new people, seeing different cultures, and drinking with people … It’s like rituals; every stop is a ritual – I sort of dig that. A community of people bonding; you don’t see that that often, you know? So I do it because of that mainly, the ritual, the arm in arm, singing the same song together; I can give a shit if I’m the one singing. I mean, I’m the one with the mic, a lot of times; [motions handing a mic to the crowd] I just want to hear them, when you hear it back at you it sounds so fucking rad man, so rad.

FUN Artists: Are there any famous Swingin’ Utters fans?

Swingin’ Utters: I don’t know too many famous people so I wouldn’t know, but Spider Stacy from The Pogues. That’s a big one –  and I don’t think he heard of us until Darius met him in Santa Cruz ‘cause his sister lives there or something like that. Yeah man, I don’t know … Oh, I totally spaced out on this one. When Max was in the band he lived in New York and he worked at this bar called Niagara and Joe Strummer [The Clash] was in the back – this was before he died – I don’t know if this is true or not, but Max is pretty legit, and he said Joe Strummer got on his knees and did the ‘I’m not worthy’ [motions bowing down] to him.

FUN Artists: If you couldn’t be in the Swingin’ Utters what profession would you be in?

Swingin’ Utters: I honestly think it’d probably just be printing shirts man. I dig that aspect of creating something and not necessarily putting it in galleries but putting it on telephone poles, on people’s chests—on a T-shirt. Knowing your art is walking around and is interacting in different places, I think to me, that’s the most rad way to get your art out there. And the flyers, I mean who hasn’t collected flyers?  The photographs and stuff like that, I never got into photography but that would interest me. But I seriously think just printing shirts, I don’t know why.

FUN Artists: How did you start working at Cinder Block doing shirts and then deciding that you want to do it for yourself?

Swingin’ Utters: It was right after our first kid, I needed to get a job and I was like, ‘Well we get our shirts from Cinder Block, let me just go check,’ sure enough they needed someone to do inks. So I had to clean up their ink room and learn how to mix the inks and stuff like that. I did silk-screening when I was in college and high school, so I was interested in that since I was a teenager. But yeah, I just learned all the aspects of printing shirts while I was there and I found it really interesting and kind of cool.

FUN Artists: So now you’re getting into doing actual shirt production yourself as well as the design?

Swingin’ Utters: Man I still don’t know Photo Shop; I’’m still cutting and pasting. My brother is pretty active in design so he knows all that stuff so if I have any questions I can always go to him. But I like the way things look when they are just cut by hand. You can almost see the hair of the paper at certain points – it just looks more real; it has a rawer quality just like in the music and it looks like it was made by hands instead of like, ‘Oh I cut and paste everything with the computer.’ I don’t know, I don’t like that for some reason. It just bothers me and I have no idea why. Maybe it’s just a grass-roots thing, like gotta keep it grass rootsy and folksy. But yeah, I gotta learn that shit though, right?

FUN Artists: So what are your creative outlets? Do you sketch, make collages…? And where would you like to see these eventually go?

Swingin’ Utters: I’d like to get people to see my art. The internet is a good way to get your portfolio out there. I like the T-shirt idea, and selling T-shirts on the road, that’s getting it out there. I’d like to put it in galleries and stuff like that… I just – I’m not a confident person and I don’t like selling myself. I think you need to; you need to hustle. You need to bust your ass. I’m into busting my ass, but I don’t like selling myself man, I feel like a fucking whore. It’s like tooting your own horn, ‘Look at me, I’m fucking great,’ when I know I’m not fucking great; I’m just as dysfunctional as everyone else.

FUN Artists: But you have a talent because people ask you to do their album covers and make their shirts.

Swingin’ Utters: Right, I have people that ask me to do their record covers and T-shirt designs, but that’s … I made business cards recently, that’s the farthest I can go. I hand them out every once in awhile. I don’t know, I just can’t stand that ;Hey wear this!’ ‘Look at this!’ ‘Look at my shirt!’ I think I’m advertising enough going on tour and designing our T-shirts for Swingin’ Utters, Filthy Thieving Bastards, and Drug Lords of the Avenues, and the record covers. I think most of that is just from other bands seeing that and finding out that I do that I’ll do it for any band that wants it for a fairly cheap price; I can understand times are tough.

FUN Artists: Where would you like to take your art?

Swingin’ Utters: I kind of like that idea of making it look like Velvet Underground sounds. Cause I thought they were the most –  I don’t know – something about it, its got a creepy sound about it, its got a drug fueled sound to it, its got a punk attitude to it, its really tough sounding to me, but it’s psychedelic at the same time. I grew up in the ’70s in a place called Santa Cruz when it was kind of a dark time; we had a lot of bikers in the mountains, it was the murder capital of the world at one time, the Manson family was hanging out in the mountains, there was always someone talking about people walking around in black capes up in the hills of Santa Cruz, there were cults everywhere … And I just like that aspect of like those ‘70s photographs that are all washed out, weird colors – almost like vomit colors with blood mixed in; just like a really creepy, washed out, bright look to it, but demented. I think murder plays a lot in my art, I mean I have a million song titles that have the word “kill” or some kind of weird shit like that, and I think it’s from growing up in Santa Cruz ‘cause it was kind of violent back then. I mean, we had teachers that were abusive to the kids. Growing up on that stuff, it’s gonna get inside you. I thought that was normal at the time. That stuff interests me for some reason. I don’t know why it does. I kind of like being shocking, but having a definite sense of humor cause I think that’s super important in life – to be able to laugh – ‘cause you’ll live longer if you laugh everyday.

FUN Artists: Who are you?

Cheap Girls: My name is Ian Graham and I’m in the band Cheap Girls, I’m the singer and I play bass.

FUN Artists: Where are you guys from?

Cheap Girls: Lansing, Michigan; all of us live there.

FUN Artists: What’s the music scene in Lansing, Michigan like?

Cheap Girls: The music scene in Lansing is kind of… there’s a lot of local shows, as far as, you know having friends bands; there’s not a lot of bands that do the touring. We all grew up in Lansing, it’s comfortable, and since it’s so comfortable there we end up spending a lot more time playing music cause there’s not really as much to do.

FUN Artists: When did you start playing music?

Cheap Girls: I started playing guitar when I was seven. My brother, who’s our drummer, started playing when he was four and I believe our guitar player started when he was about 10 or 11. Pretty young.

FUN Artists: The new record?

Cheap Girls: It’s been about a year since we finished recording it.  It came out about 6 months ago, but it’s a newer record.

FUN Artists: What do you think are the main differences between My Roaring 20’s verses Find Me A Drink Home?

Cheap Girls: I think My Roaring 20’s is a little more comfortable. It was the first record, and those were the first batch of songs I had ever written. Period. The second one [Find Me A Drink Home] I think was a little more concise. I was living in a house, where I couldn’t really play music because of neighbors and whatnot, so the songs are a bit shorter because of that, it was a knock em out and be done with it. I think I was more focused on the lyrics because that’s what I could do silently and you know, get two and a half minutes of music and then sit there and re-write the words a bunch of times, so it worked out. But, I think it’s a little more focused.

FUN Artists: Do you do the majority of the songwriting then?

Cheap Girls: I write the lyrics and the foundation of all the songs, and then we all kind of build on it.

FUN Artists: When you guys go in to record is it an organic process or do you have limitations set exactly on how you want it to happen?

Cheap Girls: I think going in to record a record we know the songs really well… I mean a lot of friends of ours will write songs in the studio from start to finish on a really loose idea. We generally know what every song is essentially going to be as far as the format of it, but recording wise and things like that; so far, we’ve always tried really new things. Whoever we’re recording with will be like “let’s try…”, you know it’s really open but at the same time there’s still an underlying focus that makes sense.

FUN Artists: Do you prefer the truth or something beautiful?

Cheap Girls: Normally something beautiful would probably override the truth.

FUN Artists: Do you think your music is relevant?

Cheap Girls: This music is relevant to me because it’s honest. All three of us are pretty honest about it. We don’t waste a lot of time… there’s a lot of thought put into it, but there’s not a lot of debate I guess you could say. We just do what we’re capable of and we don’t over think it. I think that’s why I personally like the band. I’m not going to say what’s right or wrong, but that’s what I enjoy.

FUN Artists: Why is this style of music the kind you’re attracted to, as opposed to say maybe electronic music, or folk, or whatever…?

Cheap Girls: A lot of the same reasons: it’s something that we can do kind of on the spot. And, like I said before, I’ll kind of just write a loose foundation; set of words over a few chords. I see more room for… I guess being a three piece band, being a rock n roll band, your limits are set right there for you. You can only do so much with three people and one singer. It’s a good way to keep it open, concise, and quick moving… we like to have a lot of songs. Everything just moves along really nicely, but if you just do it with three of us… I don’t know, all that electronic stuff, I just personally, I don’t think I have the attention span to sit there, I wouldn’t know where to begin.

FUN Artists: Do you feel it’s important to be a part of that three-piece rock n roll tradition?

Cheap Girls: I’ve never really thought about the importance of it, but it’s enjoyable and I’m glad we are.

FUN Artists: Are you happy?

Cheap Girls: Yeah, more or less, I’m getting there. I’d say overall, yeah, I mean I’m essentially doing what I want to do… I’m a lot happier than when I’m at home at work or when I was in college.

FUN Artists: What’s your day job?

Cheap Girls: I work at a liquor store [and smiles].