Category Archives: Interviews

June 4, 2012

Who are you? The Cassettes

By welcometoflavorcountry

I first heard of The Cassettes because I am a fan of Shelby’s other band, Frodus. But who ARE they? I emailed Shelby and here are his answers.

Who are you? What position do you fill in your band?

Shelby Cinca — guitarist/vocalist/occasional sound engineer

Tell me a story from your childhood, please.

I once had a pet gerbil named Fuzzy. When he passed away I was very sad and I insisted he was properly buried and set up a ritual which consisted of putting him in a cinderblock in a short walled section of our patio which had a loose slab on the top so one can access the holes of the cinderblock. I placed the gerbil down in the block and an Indiana Jones plastic mummy toy next to him. After my dad sealed the block with concrete I scrawled “hieroglyphics” on top of the slab.

When an older family member asks what kind of music you play, what do you tell her/him?

Rock N’ Roll.

I’m sure you have been asked a number of times about how the band got together. So, could you please make up a story about how you all got together? No, really. Just make something up. Knock yourself out. 

The real story is pretty interesting actually. The current lineup came to life in 2002— upon completing our 1st album I went to Paris and was visiting friends and while being there I sensed in the force that something was up with the band and emailed my buddy Saadat Awan saying that we should jam one of these days as I remembered him mentioning a year before he’d be interested in playing music with me. When I returned home the band met up and stated that they were going to quit and focus on their other band Dead Meadow. We played our record release show being the first and last with the original lineup and then three weeks later I played CMJ with Saadat Awan on drums as a two piece opening for Dead Meadow with a bunch of new material and some old!

What was the first album you bought that ignited your love for music?

John Williams’ Return Of The Jedi soundtrack. I loved the band in Jabba’s palace, Max Rebo & The Rebo Band with their hit “Lapti Nek” which was edited out in the newer versions of the movie.

It seems we all have that person who got us into non-mainstream music (punk/hardcore/indie/metal/emo)? Who was that person for you?

Probably my older brother as he was always listening to punk and “alternative” music throughout the 80s and the 90s.

There is nothing new under the sun, so, let’s be honest: musically you’re ripping somebody off. Who is it?

Huun Huur Tu.

Why should I listen to your music?

I think we bring something interesting to the rock music genre with some more world music influences and sounds. Some songs our drummer sings in Urdu and we like to incorporate different sounds/instrumentations to a traditional rock n’ roll structure.

Where can someone go on the internet to listen to your songs?

http://thecassettes.bandcamp.com

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May 29, 2012

An interview with Amy Adoyzie

By welcometoflavorcountry

Amy Adoyzie is a fine lady who I know of through the magic of Razorcake. We finally met this past summer in Portland, Oregon, after knowing one another for many years, and she is just as awesome in person as I figured she’d be.

Illustration by Amanda Kirk

When you went to teach English in China, did it help you understand your parents any better by living in that culture?

It helped me to understand what I knew about them, but not necessarily who they are. If that makes sense.

Sort of, but can you expound upon that?

The thing is that my parents didn’t grow up in China. My parents were both born in Vietnam. But we’re ethnically Chinese. I think the mainland Chinese that live there now weren’t raised much different than my parents because of the Cultural Revolution. People my parents age would have lived through that. They’ve had a really different upbringing in that way. My parents had to go through a war in Vietnam. So in that way it’s different.

It didn’t directly tell me more about who they were but more in an indirect way. The way I can explain it is like this: Before I went to China my parents didn’t want me to go. I think there were a lot of reasons, but I think one of the main reasons was that they wondered why I would want to volunteer in a developing country. I know that China is becoming a huge economic powerhouse, but there are many parts of China that are very underdeveloped and people would consider them a developing country. There’s this notion that my parents came here so I could have a stable job and earn a stable income and not to go back to the native country and live and work there. So that’s something that showed me who they are.

When I was getting ready to leave they were really worried about me and how I would survive there. They were concerned I would get hurt or harmed somehow by thieves or bad food or whatever. My mom told me that she saw some story on the news about how they re-use broth. When you’re done with your soup they’ll pour it back in the pot and heat it up again. Things like that. They were worried I would get ripped off. So it wasn’t so much cultural things there that showed me who they are as it was how they felt about me being there that showed me who they are.

They were being paranoid and over-protective of me and actually very negative about me doing this. They also don’t have this idea of volunteer service. I think that’s because of where they came from and how they got here which is more of a dog-eat-dog culture.

Were they South Vietnamese?

Yeah. They both lived about three hours from Ho Chi Minh City.

So they came after the war was over?

Yeah. In ’79.

Did they come directly to Los Angeles or did they move around a little before settling there?

I don’t know if you want to hear about how they got here.

Sure. Whatever you want to talk about.

My mom and dad didn’t know each other in Vietnam. Things there were pretty dire, though. My mom told me about how they had to eat roadkill once – a dog that got hit by a car. Things like that.

I guess a boat pulled up to shore – I don’t know if this is true, but it’s the story they told me – and they literally had a split second to decide if they wanted to get in the boat. They knew it was a refugee boat and there was only so much room. That boat would take them to Thailand and then they would get processed through Hong Kong and then they would get sent to America, or wherever.

So, my mom, who is the oldest of six children, and her brother, who is the second oldest, got in the boat. And my dad got in the boat too. That’s how my parents met. My mom had another boyfriend at the time, but she got on the boat. The way I heard the story is that she didn’t even have time to say goodbye to her parents.

My mom has terrible motion sickness and so my dad helped my mom with her sea sickness. And when they got to port where they process you, my mom had the choice to go to Australia where she had an uncle or go to the States with my dad. And she chose to go to the States. So, my parents weren’t in love when they came here. I think my mom and dad got together for survival’s sake. They weren’t in love in our Western, romantic sense. I think they were in love in another way.

So they went to LA because my dad had a brother there and that’s where I was born in Chinatown in Los Angeles.

How did you get into music and writing, since I’m guessing it wasn’t instilled in you in your home life?

I think I just wanted to escape. I think I found that through the Arts. Either watching TV or things I learned at school. I just wanted to be someone else. I always felt like I didn’t fit in with my family, and I didn’t fit in with my community. I created these worlds. I started writing when I was in third or fourth grade. I would write these stories about this curly, permed, blonde-haired girl. I’d draw her and her name was Angela because that seemed like a white person’s name. She was popular and a cheerleader and her friends were always jealous of her. Her boyfriend was a football player. I drew these stories out and then I never showed them to anyone. I made book covers for them out of construction paper and put them together like they were books.

Nobody recognized I wrote until I was in sixth grade. My parents had bought an electronic typewriter and I decided to type out my class’s yearbook. I had no idea what a yearbook was and I viewed it abstractly from watching TV. So I wrote out all these weird stories about my classmates. Just totally random, made-up shit. The sports section had all these stories about how our teams played others schools, but I didn’t know anything about sports. All I knew was about basketball because my uncle liked to watch the Lakers play and so I’d be writing about baseball and the final scores would be 89 to 92 because I didn’t know any better.

I would write totally random, fake stories about my classmates and it was just for me. But one time in sixth grade I had re-written the Christmas Carol with my classmates in it. And I showed it to my teacher and she loved it so much she had me go into another classroom and read it for them. And around that time I showed them the yearbook I had written and everybody thought it was super funny and interesting. And then I thought, “Oh, this is my thing now. I like to write silly stories about people I know.”

I also think that in Junior High School I got totally into reading terrible young adult horror fiction. Did you ever read Christopher Pike?

I’ve heard of him, but I don’t know if I’ve ever read anything by him.

I’d read his stuff and then before middle school I’d read Garfield and the Peanuts cartoons.

Oh god…

And I loved Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series because I identified a lot with Ramona.

Really?

Yeah, because she’s mischievous and stubborn and a know-it-all and a brat. And even if I didn’t show it all the time, I felt that way. And all the time I was reading my mom would see me reading and be upset with me. For my parents, they didn’t understand reading for pleasure. In their minds, you read to get knowledge so you can do your homework and get good grades.

Hmm. That’s interesting. So, we had talked before we started recording about making some changes in our respective lives. Do you have any you want to mention?

I really want to travel again. It’s been years. And I’m referring to serious travelling. I just want to pack my backpack and get on an airplane and go somewhere. But that’s also unsatisfying because it’s like traveling in vain. I have to be doing something, too. I have to have a purpose when I travel. So I’ve had to think and re-evaluate the things that make me feel good and purposeful when I’m traveling. I think one thing is helping to share stories of people whose stories don’t get shared. But I have to find those stories. I don’t know what those stories are. But that’s also sticky because I also feel like a very privileged American. It’s like, “Let me tell your story for you!” I recognize that there are citizen journalists in every country. They can tell their own fuckin’ stories. Who the fuck am I to tell their stories? I know I’ve told stories that haven’t been told before. I know they exist. I just don’t know where they are and if they are better equipped to tell them than I am.

I think I just think too much. I think about things to the point where I wonder if I should even do them. Some people miss that part of their brain where they don’t think enough and then they do some crazy shit. I want that to be removed from my brain so that I can act that way sometimes.

You don’t do any crazy shit anymore?

I do some crazy stuff now and then. I’ve been thinking of doing some more photojournalist things, but I don’t know what stories I want to tell. I’m just stuck.

Does this mean you’ve put away the idea of grad school for good or just for a while?

Probably for good because I don’t want to be in debt any more than I already am. A lot of people around me think that I don’t need it. I think a lot of people in my life – it’s not that they think it’s a waste of money, but that I don’t need to pay to learn these things.

I think if I were to go to grad school for writing, a lot of people would say, “Why would you do that? You can write.” In a way, I get that. I’m so stuck right now that I can’t imagine going to school for writing.

So, since I know your writing through Razorcake, I’m curious how long you’ve been doing the column for them.

Since 2005. It was crazy when I got that call. As a person who writes and a person who does zines, that was a big fucking deal to get a column in a punk zine like that.

Totally.

I wrote a column about how I ended up with the column and I was so much ballsier then. When I first met Todd, I told him I wanted to design a cover for the magazine. And Todd didn’t know what I could do so he asked me to do a layout first and he liked that so then I got to do some covers. And then I wrote one web column and Todd liked it and decided to put me on the roster.

Has anyone famous (at least in punk rock circles) ever reached out to you based on something that you have written in a column?

The thing about writing is that it is done in solitude. You write it, put it up, people read it, and the vast majority does not get in touch with a response. The columns I tend to get the most feedback on are the ones that are totally posi-core. People like that. People need someone to tell them that someone is experiencing a good thing in life and thus it creates hope for them. In the past two or three years since I got back from Bangladesh I think my columns have been complete downers and I recognize that, but that’s where I’m at right now. I’ve literally gotten zero feedback. I think you’ve written me a couple times but outside of you, nothing.

The one exception is this column I wrote that was probably my least well-received column. It was correlating something that Lauren Measure had written about sexism and punk rock. She pointed out how when men take their shirts off at shows it creates a sexist environment. So I wrote a column about how that small butterfly of an act does not necessarily create rape but that it contributes to a culture where it’s more susceptible to happen because it’s a patriarchal, male-centered culture where men are always allowed to assert their male-ness and female identified people are just supposed to be there to take it in.

So, I wrote that column and Todd and I got into a tangle about it because my first draft wasn’t that great. It was poorly written and not very tight. And he said, “If you’re gonna do this, you better have your shit together.” So I had to re-write it two or three times.

In my column I say that as a man, when you’re at a show, it might seem like a really innocuous act, and I can understand why you would feel that way, because that’s how we were raised. But there are people in that room who find that gesture very threatening. I’m not saying people who do that are rapists; I’m saying, “Think about what you’re doing.” Think about all the privileges you have as a male and in the punk rock scene, as a straight, white male. Your privileges are boundless sometimes.

In that same column, I wrote about how this young girl in Bangladesh was raped by her cousin and then she was lashed to death for adultery. I talk about another story of how this young girl in Texas was systemically gang-raped. I’m sure a lot of men don’t feel comfortable reading a story that talks about men taking their shirts off at basement shows and also these horrific acts of rape and death. But for me, at that moment in time when I read those stories and read Lauren’s story, I think culturally they work together. Maybe they’re thousands of miles apart, but culturally, I think there’s something there.

About male dominance.

And our culture and how men assert themselves. In a culture where half the people are not them.

I got a lot of shit from a lot of people about that, for sure.

But to get back to your question – sorry, I veered off track – there’s a columnist for MaximumRocknRoll named Mykel Board and he wrote me. He said he liked my perspective in my columns because I’m a woman but not too girly. But this column was ridiculous and he was calling me out on it. And he asked me if I wanted to respond to him because he was going to write about what I wrote in his column for MaximumRocknRoll. I was like, “Are you creating some kind of zine flame war?” I didn’t even respond. Well, maybe I’m responding now that I’m telling you about it. I don’t really care what some guy writes about what I said. It doesn’t affect me in my daily life.

What was his problem with the column?

He was also focused on the taking your shirt off thing. My point was that you should respect those around you and not take your shirt off and he said that if you’re a woman you should join in and take your shirt off. It was completely off the point of what I was talking about. I was saying that our culture is very unsafe in many respects and punk shows are theoretically supposed to be safe places and I would say the majority of women would not feel safe taking off their shirts anywhere – even at a punk show. So to say that you should liberate yourself and not adhere to these norms and join in on it – well, it’s not that easy. It’s not that simple. It was intense because he attached the column he was going to run and I just didn’t respond.

Wow. I don’t understand the taking off your shirt thing. I think maybe I would have when I was a teenager but I don’t feel comfortable enough with myself to take off my shirt. I don’t want people to look at my tattoos or my farmer’s tan. I don’t understand why dudes are so full of themselves that they would take off their shirts. You wouldn’t take off your shirt other places, so why do it at a punk show?

Personally it doesn’t bother me. But if I was a survivor of sexual assault and a bunch of men simultaneously take off their shirts and start dancing violently, it could be triggering. And I think that’s what Lauren was talking about. People who were upset about what she or I had written didn’t understand why it was that big of a deal and why we were being so sensitive. Well, it’s not for you to say how somebody else should feel. These things happen to people. Be respectful.

Well, I hope you continue to get more positive comments from your columns. If you do get negative ones, I hope they will be edifying to you in some way.

You know, for someone as sensitive as I am, they don’t bother me that much.

Do you think you would have been more sensitive to them in the past?

No, I don’t think so. I may be bothered by it for a day or two and then I let it go. Everyone has their own opinions. It’s not true of everything in my life as far as negative criticism. But as far as my column, whatever. It’s just a column in a punk zine. I’m not going to get too upset about it.

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May 7, 2012

An interview with Tim Showalter of Strand of Oaks

By welcometoflavorcountry

Tim Showalter is one of the few people I know who can fit in both the “friends and acquaintances” category and “musicians” category on this blog. We grew up in the same neighborhood together and I interviewed him a number of years ago before he became a full-time musician under the moniker Strand of Oaks. But for this interview we both agreed to focus more on the non-music stuff and see where it took us.

Do you ever miss teaching?

I miss the routine of it. There was a lot of gratification in seeing results in kids doing well. As a whole I don’t miss it that much. I think I was pretty good at it but not great at it. I don’t know if I’d go back to it. I’d like to work with kids but not in the form of a classroom teacher. Maybe something different. I always had a lot of big ideas with the kids but it was hard with the details. I think teachers are really good with detailed plans and day-to-day stuff and I like the larger arcs of where to take things.

I liked my specific job. I liked the school I was at. I think why I enjoyed teaching so much was because my school was so cool. It was a loose setting. I only had eight students every year and so I had a lot more freedom than a public school teacher.

What kind of school was it?

It was a preschool through eighth grade Orthodox Jewish School in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

What do you think you’d like to do with kids, then?

I’ve always been fascinated with working at a summer camp. Or working with curriculum. I really have no idea. I always knew I was good at it, but I got into music so I kind of lost trying to define what I should do with it. I stopped thinking about it as much. If I would have stayed at it a little longer I probably would’ve discovered it. Maybe writing kids’ books. Something along those lines.

Your undergraduate degree was in what?

Psychology and elementary education.

How has the psychology undergrad affected your daily life? How do you use it?

I don’t think I use it at all. It was a requirement for the school I went to. They required you to do both. You couldn’t just get a degree in elementary education. Psychology just fell in line. I just started taking a lot of classes. It was really interesting but I don’t think I could do it. It was too much science when you got down to it. I took a class on pharmacology or something and I had no idea what was going on from beginning to end.

You went to Wilkes University, right?

Yeah. I actually picked it because it was close to my apartment in Wilkes-Barre. It wasn’t some dream I had when I was fourteen. It was more about the proximity to where I lived. It was a great school but it didn’t have a lot of identity. It seemed like a school where a lot of people were business majors. It seemed like just a normal school.

Just a second ago you mentioned a dream you had when you were fourteen – what was a dream you had when you were fourteen?

When I was fourteen it was just Indiana University. That’s where everybody went. I knew for one thing that I never wanted to go to Goshen College (Goshen is where Tim and I grew up). From my earliest memories that was something I knew I didn’t want to do. College was such a utilitarian thing for me. I just wanted to get out of school and get a job. I probably wasn’t the best student. As opposed to somebody like you who just loves going to school, I was just ready to not be in school anymore.

But did you have any other dreams when you were fourteen? Not even things related to school, but what did you think you wanted to do then?

I don’t know. Probably be in Joy Electric. Be the touring keyboardist in Joy Electric. [laughs]

That actually leads into something I was wanting to talk about with you. (Note: Joy Electric was a Christian band.) What specifically happened with you to go from growing up and affiliating yourself with a lot of Christians – I guess I’ll say that because I’m hesitant to speak for you in regards to your religious beliefs – to not practicing that anymore?

I think I was a very emotional teenager. I was either lonely or sad and it was a pretty immediate gratification to be part of a community. I think back – and not to discredit people who think that way – and traveling around I think that I could’ve been part of the local hardcore community or the local skateboard kids in California. Something along those lines. What happened is that at that age the friends I had went to church and instead of drinking beer and skateboarding it was youth group. Even shows; there was no non-religious oriented things that happened in Goshen. They all had something to do with a church. I think it all had to do with where you grow up.

I got into it pretty genuinely and I also don’t know why. If you can get into it that much and easily get out of it, I don’t know how important it was to begin with. It was more like wearing a certain kind of clothing for me.

I’m not an atheist. I just don’t know. I don’t put a lot of thought into it anymore. I think a lot of people put so much thought into why they’re not thinking a certain way anymore that it seems just as strange as someone who wants to believe in something so badly.

There’s still times going on hikes and thinking of Lord of the Rings that I get those feelings.

Did you just say Lord of the Rings?

Yeah. Going out on hikes and thinking of Gandalf. I think that’s spiritual. I got really into Battlestar Galactica and I think I was about into that as much as I was into youth group.

And again, I have this tendency to make humorous situations out of serious things but I genuinely think those ways. It’s not just me trying to make a joke. It’s not me trying to avoid real emotions through humor. That’s how I genuinely think about it.

But was there some point where you thought, “I don’t feel like I identify with Christianity anymore?”

I think it was just moving away from it. When you live in places like Goshen or other parts of the country it’s what you do because it’s what your friends do. Just like a lot of friends may drink and so you drink. It’s not peer pressure; it just feels like location. It seems kind of natural.

I think if it would have been a deep desire and need I would have stuck with it. I don’t know if I ever understood it or culturally understood it. When I was at the Jewish school I related to Jewish practices. It was around me every day. I loved being around it. Maybe it’s community that I loved being around.

Well, I know for me it was moving away. It’s complicated though.

Yeah. I think it’s complicated for people who even believe in it [Christianity]. Another thing for me is that I have friends and family who really like it and I want to respect them for doing that. I feel people respect me for pursuing something weird like playing music for a living and I should just as much respect them for wanting to have stuff like that as part of their lives. I don’t understand it but I can see why they want to believe in that.

Have you run into anyone from high school that thought you were a certain way spiritually and you’re not that way anymore and has there been conflict over that?

I don’t think so. Most of the people I hung out with who were in those scenes and churches were all really cool people. I don’t see many people from that time but they were all pretty genuinely nice folks. The only time it gets weird is with the people that weren’t. Then, over the ten or twelve years it’s been since I’ve seen then they’ve got a lot more serious about church and that’s almost harder for me to relate to. It’s like, “Whoa! I guess you’re really into this now. That’s different.”

J [a mutual friend of Tim and I] and I were talking about this once and I was noticing this same thing and I said to him, “What’s up with all those people we went to high school with that were fuck-ups?” And he said, “Oh, they’re still fuck-ups, but they’re fuck-ups for Jesus now.”

Yeah, it feels like that. It’s like all the hippies who dropped acid started all those rock and roll churches. They wanted to keep that experience going but they had kids and were losing their hair and getting older. And let’s just try and find that same release and community.

Now, am I imagining this, or at some point did you want to be a youth pastor?

I think I probably did. It seemed like something similar to being a teacher. But I don’t think it was some inner calling as much as it was circumstance and what my proximity to people was and what you know. I wanted to do a lot of things. Ask my parents. My mind was changing constantly.

Do you worry about people who might hear this and think you sound flaky or insincere?

I think I’m kind of full of shit. I honestly think I am. Ninety-nine percent of the things I say are bullshit. I probably disappoint a lot of people and I look up to the people who don’t change their opinions but for some reason I always am changing and moving around. I’m always thinking about different stuff whether its music or books or other stuff I enjoy. I might be flaky. I might be flaky with friendships. I think I get really excited about things and then that excitement changes to other stuff and for my personal perspective it seems normal. “I’m just shifting into something else I’m really into.” There’s the people who never shift and are into some things their whole lives and I think some of that has to do with me probably being really good at being mediocre at a lot of things and not mastering anything. I think those people who can really focus on one thing can become great at it. It’s just not a quality I have.

I don’t know. Don’t you think you’d say that about music?

Maybe that is the thing I’ve found that I pursued to no end. Even in the past year I’ve realized I’m really good at this. This is the one thing that I’ve realized I got the equivalent of my doctorate in. Performing and making records and writing songs. It’s grown. It grew from a hobby and not being very good at it and especially in the last year or so it’s solidified as something I do well.

Two words for you, Tim: Birthday Boy. (This was one of Tim’s first recording projects.)

Yeah. I’m really glad I wasn’t good at recording because I had no idea how to make music. I don’t think I knew how to make music until about six months ago. It’s exciting now. Songwriting has changed for me. It used to be this thing that kind of happened. “I have no idea how I wrote that song.” To where now I know how I want to write a song and put it together. It’s exciting to me, creatively. It opens a lot more doors because it’s not so random anymore.

I’d like to go back to this flakiness thing. How does your wife handle that?

That’s another area of my life where it’s pretty stable. The focus on being married is consistent. She knew what she was getting into when she married me. It finally has settled since I’ve known her, especially. As I get older. There was a time in my from fifteen to twenty-two where I was changing every second, which I think is important for people to do that.

Socially I have really good friends that I keep as good friends and then I have this constant shift in social circles. Sometimes I just don’t hang out with anybody and sometimes I hang out with a lot of people.

Do you worry that the music business exasperates that?

It does. Sometimes when I’m done with a tour I don’t want to talk to anybody at all. I love connecting with people and talking with people but it does require you to say a lot of the same things over and over again. It’s not the fault of the people who are asking the questions and it’s not my fault for answering them, it’s just the nature of it. It comes to such an automated place that it’s just as automated as playing a song every night.

I definitely think that touring for an entire year changes you. You’re talking to so many different people and meeting so many different people where you get to the point where it’s like, “Man, I don’t know if I could meet a new person.” My wife wanted me to go out to dinner this weekend with some other people and I said, “I just don’t want to meet anyone new just now.” I’m kind of flushed right now with people.

Does it bother you to hear yourself say you’re full of shit?

I don’t know. Maybe it’s kind of healing. Hopefully it will help me change. It can also be seen as an excuse and it might be seen as me making an excuse to cover flaws I might have. I don’t try and make it that way. Maybe I’m not full of shit because I do mean what I say, I just change meanings a lot. When I am saying it I am very sincere but a year from now I might change again and it might be something different I really care about.

Somewhat related to that – what’s one of the biggest regrets you have in your life?

*sigh* Regrets. Going back to the flakiness thing – the thing that’s the least flaky in my life is my family. Moving around so much and pursuing music, the people who are the most stable and make me feel the most comfortable somehow get neglected the most. That’s a regret. Not being at nephews’ birthdays or having phone calls with my parents when they’re at their nice family functions and I’m not there again. I’m in San Diego playing a show or something. That’s definitely a regret.

How often do you get back to Goshen each year?

Not enough. Maybe one or two times. I need to do it more. The more I go back it’s great. But going to Goshen now doesn’t mean going to Indiana, it means going to see my parents. I don’t think Indiana holds much to it; it’s just good to be back with my family.

Are you still much of a drinker?

I’ve actually kind of cut that out recently. I’ve replaced it with seltzer for the time being. It got to the point where I was drinking a beer and whiskey and I just said, “I don’t need to do this so much anymore.” It wasn’t benefitting me whatsoever. It was just like everything else in my life; it was just a phase that I’ll probably go into again. For this day, this time you’re talking to me, I’m not into it much right now.

I didn’t know if you had been like, “The beer gut has gotten big enough!”

Yeah, I don’t really have the greatest skinny jeans body. Maybe I do need to work on it. I’m starting to look more like a bouncer than I am the guy who plays the songs. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing.

Whose hair is longer: yours or your wife’s?

Oh, my hair. It just keeps growing. The last haircut I got was in 2006. I cut it once for Locks of Love about three years ago. It just comes back. It’s always there. There’s so much of it. I was joking that in the summertime in that place underneath my beard around my neck if I put a thermometer down there it’d be about 350 degrees. It’s so warm. It’s like the same kind of climate as Laos in the summertime.

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April 30, 2012

An interview with Jason Barnes

By welcometoflavorcountry

My friend Roy is back again with another contribution for the blog. Thanks Roy!

I met Jason Barnes for the first time nearly ten years ago. I was working for a record label in Seattle and went to see his band, Haste the Day, at a small church outside the city. After about a year of negotiations (I think this was the longest time I would work on signing a band), his band signed to the label, the same label that would lay me off about a month later. Ahhh the music business! Over the next six or so years Haste the Day would become a significant band playing Warped Tour numerous times as well as concerts all over the world.

In 2008, before the band began writing their fourth full-length record, “Dreamer,” Jason was asked to leave Haste the Day because he considered himself an atheist. Although I hadn’t been involved with the band for several years, I always tried to see them when our paths crossed. Jason’s sudden exit from the band was painful to hear because I knew how close the guys were to one another.

Some time passed before I was able to reconnect with Jason again. Recently we sat down and talked about what life has been like since he was asked to leave the band, how his philosophical and theological perspective have evolved and check in on his new band, Beyond Oceans.

 

Where do you live?

Indianapolis, Indiana.

What do you do to pay the bills?

I am a bartender at a martini/sushi bar.

How did you get into bartending? Did you have a genuine interest in it or did you just need a job and acquired the skills along the way?

Well, the staff was the first to come to my rescue when I was in need of a job once my tenure with Haste the Day came to an end. I started as a bouncer and then got moved up eventually to head bartender. Plus I enjoy a drink myself so it was a pretty natural fit.

Nice! Before we get into your history with Haste the Day, let’s talk about your new band. Do you guys have a name yet? Who’s in it? 

We are called Beyond Oceans. It is Brennan Chaulk (formerly of Haste the Day), Dave Powell (Emery) and myself. We are finishing an EP that I will have a link to in the near future. Brennan broke his ankle recently, which has delayed the process slightly. We are all very excited about the music we are creating though.

How would you describe the new songs?

I like to think of it as just good rock music. It isn’t heavy; there aren’t any breakdowns or screaming. Just good melodies, guitar riffs, and solos. If I had to compare it to anything I suppose I would go with Foo Fighters or Muse, something along those lines but definitely epic!

Most people that know you as a musician are familiar with your time in Haste the Day. What is the biggest difference in writing the music you’re doing now vs. the music in Haste the Day? Is one more satisfying for you than the other?

I loved being in Haste the Day but this new project is really what I have wanted to do all along. The heavy stuff is fun to play live, and we had amazing fans. I think most of them will really enjoy the stuff we are playing now. I am writing all of the music for this project and Brennan is taking care of the vocals, so it’s not much different from our time together in Haste the Day. This project resonates with me more; it’s something that I would listen to even if I weren’t in the band.

I remember talking to you a few years back and you were into big guitar rock bands even then. What was some of the music that inspired you to begin playing guitar?

Well I have been playing guitar for 20 years now, and I still listen to most of the same stuff as I did when I was a kid – stuff like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Green Day, AC/DC, etc.

20 years? Crazy! So, let’s get into some of the Haste the Day story. How did you first get connected with the guys in the band?

I met them when I was in my first band with Dave in the late 90′s. We played shows with Devin and Brennan at a Christian coffee shop called the Catacombs. I met Jimmy later; I used to work with his ex-fiancé.

Correct me if I am wrong but you were one of the original members, right?

The original members were Brennan, Mike and Devin. I joined about 5 months later and brought Jimmy with me. So essentially yes, the first full line up that originated in 2001.

It seemed from the very beginning that Haste the Day was a band that actively evangelized and often stated that, if not their sole mission, it certainly was a big part of it. Can you tell me about how you first became a Christian and how it shaped your worldview prior to the band?

Yes, Haste the Day was always a ministry-oriented band. Christianity was something I kind of inherited from my family and was raised to believe. It was a driving force for me as a teenager, up until I started thinking a bit more objectively about it.

And what began that journey to begin thinking more objectively about Christianity? Did that present a crisis for you?

Well, for me it was just bound to happen. I am the kind of person who needs good reason and evidence to believe something, and it became increasingly difficult to square my Christian worldview with reality. The amount of mental gymnastics I had to put myself through to keep rationalizing my religious faith started to get really old. There seemed to be a mental mechanism that I was employing that felt dishonest and didn’t allow me to really address challenges and questions about faith. Once I decided to be completely honest about what I believed to be true and where the evidence pointed, religion naturally dissolved for me.

What branch of Christianity did you come from? Would you describe it as conservative or maybe fundamentalist?

I belonged to a non-denominational Christian church. The people there were nice for the most part but my leaving Christianity had nothing to do with being wronged by a church member or anything like that. They all did seem to have a very fundamentalist interpretation of scripture which I knew in my core was a bit childish. Like young-earth creationism and whatnot.

Haste the Day

As I’ve gotten to know more people who have left Christianity and started calling themselves atheist or agnostic, they seem to go through a process similar to what gay and lesbian folk who are coming out experience. When you finally realized you were no longer a believer, did you begin to talk about it right away or was it something you kept hidden?

I certainly kept it hidden from my band members because I was afraid of how they would react. But, as time went on and it felt much more natural to me and not such a big deal, I started opening up more.

How did your family, friends and band members respond to that? Haste the Day toured constantly and everyone seemed very close so I would imagine conversation about it would happen naturally.

Well, conversations about it were had one on one but it wasn’t until we met to start writing “Dreamer”, our 4th full length album, that it became a full band conversation. Well, not so much a conversation as it was I being told I was no longer welcome to be a member of the band. It was really difficult for me to handle at the time; I would compare it to being disowned by your family. But I have mended relationships with all of them, and it’s water under the bridge. And in a way, I was glad that I was honest about who I was and wasn’t part of something anymore whose message I no longer believed to be true.

I would imagine that had to be intense. I remember the day when the press began to report the reason for your departure, one of the bands I worked with at the last label I worked for were staying at my place and they were dumbfounded, they couldn’t understand it. Haste the Day was not only something you helped create but it was your livelihood as well. What did you do after that? Did you have a network at home that was supportive? I imagine this was a surprise to a lot of folks.

Yeah, it was a surprise to most people, including me. I didn’t see it coming; maybe I was in denial. Luckily, I did have a group of friends who were there for me. They were there for me when I was a Christian, and when I wasn’t. That is unconditional love.

How has your family dealt with your departure from Christianity?

That was actually the most unpleasant conversation – nobody wants to make their mother cry. The bizarre part of it is, I didn’t do anything wrong, you know? I was just being honest. I would imagine gay people deal with a similar coming out process.

One of the challenges folks who leave religion encounter is the existential crisis of meaning. When you think the creator of the world is directing and talking to you, meaning comes about kind of naturally. It sounds like you were already skeptical of religious claims early on. How did you deal with the question of meaning? What directs and gives your life meaning now?

Well I try to deal with the question of “meaning” as honestly as I can. I think we can give our lives meaning by loving and being loved. As far as people who think that we can’t have morality without religion, which is really something that doesn’t even resonate with me because we know it isn’t true. The universe is almost 14 billion years old, the planet is 4.5 billion years old, and primates (which we are) have been around for millions of years, all the while showing empathy, creating moral guidelines, and practicing everything that we would call ethics. Christianity has only been around for 2,000 years so thinking that it has a monopoly on morality is almost laughable.

The Bible is a really challenging book to use if you want to establish a moral code. If God is the author of it, like some Christians believe, God seems to endorse a lot of terrible stuff.

Well, of course, and the fact that we are able to discern that proves that our moral intuitions come from outside of scripture and not from it.

You have reconciled with the guys in Haste the Day now. What did that reconciliation look like?

It took me a while to be able to really feel comfortable around them again. They are all still Christian but, as most people do, they have re-evaluated how that actually works out in their lives and how they interact with other people who don’t share the same views. Brennan and I are in this new band together and are closer than ever. One night Brennan, Mike (bass player of Haste the Day) and I all had a little too much Jack Daniel’s and we really let all that emotional baggage go. It was pretty therapeutic.

One of the most powerful things someone can do to learn and broaden their worldview is travel – even just around their own country. Did you find that getting out of your hometown and interacting with different people and different cultures on tour had an impact on validating your skepticism? Did you have friends and confidants along the way you were able to talk to about this process or was it internal?

It was mainly an internal, introspective realization. Studying history and science played a big role too. And yes, traveling and exposing yourself to other cultures that are completely different from your own helps in shaping your worldview and puts things in perspective. There have been several people from Christian bands, and people in ministry positions at churches, that have contacted and confided in me about their own lack of faith because my experience was kind of a public example.

During my time at Tooth and Nail / Solid State several band members talked to me about either being gay or agnostic/atheist. It’s a hard predicament to be in when your livelihood is wrapped up in endorsing a set of beliefs you no longer hold or might be hostile to you. Were there any resources that were helpful for you along the way? Anything you would recommend to people just beginning to open themselves up to skepticism about their faith?

Well, part of the whole thing is just learning how to think, not what to think. If there is any topic that is troubling you, seek out an author that is properly trained in their field and see what they have to say. I am a bit weary of recommending books on atheism because I don’t want to sound like an evangelical pushing the Purpose Driven Life (laughing). I do think Sam Harris has a very good talent though for eloquently pointing out the difference between good and bad rationale. Just get yourself out of your comfort zone, and base your beliefs on facts and evidence. The truth is nothing to be afraid of.

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April 23, 2012

Who are you? Underground Railroad to Candyland

By welcometoflavorcountry

I’m getting older. Like a lot of die-hard music fans, I used to feel as though I was on top of all the latest bands. I knew who was on what label and who had toured with whom. I could tell you the good record stores and venues in major cities. I still keep tabs on some bands I like and read some music websites. Nowadays, though, I find myself more on the periphery of the scene. I hear about some acts, or friends will mention someone but I don’t know much about them. Thus, I decided to start a new feature where I email bands that I’ve heard of but don’t know anything about and ask them some questions. I hope you enjoy it.

Underground Railroad to Candyland (URTC) is from Southern California. I first heard about them through Razorcake, the bi-monthly zine for whom I write and podcast.

Who are you? What position do you fill in your band?

Todd Congelliere. I’m a guitar player and singer.

Tell me a story from your childhood, please.

When I was about ten, during a sleepover, me and a friend (let’s name him “Bobby” for this) liked Star Wars action figures so much that we decided to play with them one day with our clothes off. I dunno if it would’ve been good or bad to lock his bedroom door but we didn’t end up locking it and his mom walked in to tell us dinner was ready. I’m 99.99% sure that it looked pretty sketchy in her eyes but she didn’t react with words. During dinner Bobby’s dad kept sipping on milk giving us the evil eye. The milk sipping evil eye. Nothing worse.

When an older family member asks what kind of music you play, what do you tell her/him?

“We sound like The Beatles…but really shitty.”

I’m sure you have been asked a number of times about how the band got together. So, could you please make up a story about how you all got together? No, really. Just make something up. Knock yourself out.

One crisp February morning in 2006 I found myself walking down Pacific Ave. in San Pedro, California, looking for a carton of half and half for my coffee. I hate to be a bitch of convenience but shit man, WHY DON’T THESE FUCKIN’ CORNER STORES SELL HALF AND HALF?!?!?!? They stock that flavored Irish cream, white chocolate buttshit but they won’t stock, normally, the good ol’ half and half. It’s milk and cream fuckholes! What makes matters worse is that they occasionally stock it. That’s bad because I walk there with my fingers crossed only to never feel like the golden ticket will fall outta my chocolate bar. By the way, I woulda ate that chocolate bar, Charlie! Why did you let it fall to the ground like it was just in the way to your shitty golden ticket? Piece of shit, Charlie, you are. Digress I will. I eventually had to walk back to my house, hop in a car and drive for half and half. Later that night we started URTC.

What was the first album you bought that ignited your love for music?

Adam and the Ants – Kings of The Wild Frontier

It seems we all have that person who got us into non-mainstream music (punk/hardcore/indie/metal/emo)? Who was that person for you?

It was a group of skaters from the South Bay area. The dude that really pointed out to me how fuckin badass Greg Ginn was at guitar was Jim Shank. I remember we had to sneak into my sister’s room because she had THE cassette deck and I was jumping all over her bed, sweaty from skateboarding. It was a cool memory.

There is nothing new under the sun, so, let’s be honest: musically you’re ripping somebody off. Who is it?

Everyone from A to Z. Most obviously ZZ Top.

Why should I listen to your music?

You shouldn’t. I don’t want your parents to sue me.

Where can someone go on the internet to listen to your songs?

Recess Records

4 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Bands & Musicians, Interviews, Who are you?

April 16, 2012

An interview with Meghan O’Neil of Punch

By welcometoflavorcountry

Meghan O’Neil is the vocalist for the band Punch.

Do you write most of the lyrics for Punch?

There’s one song not written by me but otherwise the other forty-plus are.

When I was reading your lyrics, one thing I kept noticing is this sense of empowerment – taking charge of your life. Would you say that’s a theme with your lyrics?

Yeah, totally. Writing was something that used to be really hard for me. I had tried out to be in the band when my friend Keeth was starting it and I wanted to try out because I thought it would be fun. And then I thought, “Crap – not only do I know I have extreme stage fright, but I’m not a writer. I can’t write lyrics.” It has definitely come a long way in the past five and a half years. I think the biggest part of it becoming easier is me feeling free to become more personal. And not be cheesy but be myself; wail out there and write those empowering lyrics. And not worrying about people judging it. When we first started I worried about what people would think and now I don’t care anymore. Now when I read criticism I just laugh. Recently I read somewhere, “I just can’t get into that band; their lyrics are too posi.” And I actually thought that was awesome.

A lot of times I write when I’m going through hard stuff. For Push Pull I was going through some shit and I had written some lyrics that weren’t posi and thank god there was a part that I had wanted Keeth to sing back-up vocals for and he asked, “What are the words?” and I showed him and he said, “I’m not singing that. There’s no way. I don’t like that song. You’re going to look back on that and you might regret writing that when you don’t feel like that anymore.” I went home, I tore it up and wrote some new stuff and went back the next day and recorded it and he was totally right. I look back on that situation, see the positive lyrics and I feel way better. You don’t want to look back on something and say, “Remember when I was all mad and bitter?” No, life gets real and you get through it. So, I really appreciate that part of Keeth.

So you’re a glass half-full person, then?

Yeah, I try to be. I feel like for my bandmate Keeth the glass is maybe all the way full, so he’s a good influence on me.

The thing about all of that, which is interesting to me, is that when I listen to Punch I feel like putting my fist through the wall because it’s so intense and fast. I feel like it’s really angry, but the lyrics aren’t reflecting that. How do you deal with the fact that generally punk and hardcore are angry types of music but you’re making the lyrics positive?

I think that instead of saying intense or angry, I would say emotional and charged. I have songs – I can think of two off the top of my head – that leave me borderline in tears because they’re really powerfully emotional.

Which songs?

“Let Me Forget” and “If Not Me” are the two I can think of. It’s really cathartic for me. Our last show was in February. And I had really been looking forward to it because I need that catharsis. I need that outlet of screaming for twenty minutes with a bunch of other people in the room who want to let that out. Even though I try to have a positive message, it’s still emotionally charged and I think people are attracted to punk or other intense music because it allows for an outlet for that stuff we all feel. And in daily life we have to tone that down a little bit.

Have you found other outlets besides music that help you get rid of some of the anger?

Listening to music is a huge thing. It’s super therapeutic. I was going to three to four shows a week – last week I went to five shows. Obviously it’s not like that all the time. But going to shows is a big outlet. I like to ride my bike, too, and hang out with my friends.

When you say you’re going to the shows, do you mean you get a release from being in the pit?

Well, I’m not moshing or anything. I have a restless mind and I’m always thinking about stuff and when I’m at a show that’s the only time I’m not thinking about anything and I can be present in the moment. I’m not a huge mosher at shows besides my own because I seem to be prone to injury. At our show in February I got a fucking concussion because during “If Not Me” I was so overdue, and I had a lot of angst and shit built up and I apparently collided with my bassist – his guitar. A couple years ago I broke my foot on tour and I’ve chipped my teeth. I’m accident prone as it is.

I’ll definitely sing along at shows. I went to the Ceremony record release show recently at Gilman and I was like, “Hold me back. Don’t let me get in there.”

Growing up, were you an aggressive kid?

Not really. I’m not hyperactive, just restless. I’m not a wild child or anything, but I like to have fun.

What are you doing for a day job right now?

I’m a nanny, but about two years ago I completed nursing school, so I’m a RN and I also have a degree in nutrition. But breaking my foot set that back a lot. I had a long recovery because I had surgery. Ever since the experience with my foot, tour has always been right around the corner so it’s never been a good time to get a stable nurse job and the nanny job I have gives me the whole summer off and whatever other time I need. They know about the band so they’re supportive. So for the time I’m doing that kind of stuff as I continue to balance my two lives. We haven’t been touring as much right now because two of the guys in our band – their other band (Loma Prieta) has been really active. Knowing that, I went back to school in the fall and I’m working on my bachelor’s in nursing. I’m still very much nursing-oriented but the band has always been my priority. I’m very happy and lucky to be able to do it.

How far along are you in your program?

Halfway. It’s four quarters. So yeah – another degree. It’s a lot of school.

Me too. I can understand that.

Okay. Yeah, Keeth went to Berkeley and our drummer recently finished law school and is studying for the bar. It works that it’s not just one of us. Right now it’s only me but I know Val’s going to be starting soon. It works. We all sort of get it.

So you all have lives outside of Punch?

Yeah, absolutely. Our other guitarist, Dan, moved to Germany a year ago and has his own screenprinting business there, so he very much has his own life. And Val and Brian have Loma Prieta right now and that’s definitely a big part of their life.

It’s always interesting for me to hear what people do outside of bands because, I hate to break it to you, but you’re probably not going to be doing Punch when you’re 65.

Oh yeah. When I first got back with my broken foot and I was newly a nurse, I got depressed about not doing it but now I’ve come to terms with it. I’m going to be a nurse for decades. So I’m going to do this for as long as I can and at least I have that other thing waiting for me.

Who was the person who got you into hardcore or punk rock?

My younger brother, Aaron, who’s in some Seattle area bands, On and Devotion. We’re two years apart and we grew up going to shows together. We’d get dropped off together at Gilman when we were little.

How little?

Not super little. Our parents were somewhat strict, but I think I was 15 and he was 13. When we were much younger, we split that Columbia House mail-order deal. The 15 CDs for 1 penny thing.

The summer Val wasn’t able to go on our European tour because of school, my brother was our fill-in drummer. He’s a very powerful drummer and it was just a dream come true. He’s my favorite person in the world and I got to go to Europe with him for a month. It was unbelievable.

Was there some moment when he played something for you for the first time and you were just like, “What is this?”

You know, I just got asked this last night, but I really can’t remember. I do remember the first show that my parents dropped us off at in the city was Less Than Jake.

My brother used to make mix tapes and when he was dubbing them he would edit the swear words out himself. He would turn the volume down and back up real fast, because like I said, our parents were a little strict. I remember my brother making this mix tapes with Gorilla Biscuits on it and editing them so that my mom would play it in our mini van.

Wow. Did she?

Yeah. Totally. My parents were so down. They’ve been to Gilman a ton of times. They’ve been real supportive. It took my dad a while to come around. But he’s a musician too. He’s got a folk band and I was able to sing some back-up vocals – I can actually sing – on his new record. My brother plays drums on it. It’s all very cute.

So it’s like a family band. You can all go on tour together.

Yeah, my dad would love that. He plays like farmer’s markets and stuff like that. He plays the mandolin.

Maybe he could play in Punch sometime. He could do a guest mandolin spot.

I don’t know about that. But Keeth, my bandmate, played accordion on my dad’s first record.

And your mom is cool with Punch, too?

Yeah. She’s very supportive.

So what were they so strict about?

Just movies and TV and curfew. I didn’t see “Goonies” until I was 18. We didn’t watch movies or TV. But music was a different thing. My parents both met when they worked at a record store. Music is a big part of their lives. So, no movies, no TV, but we’ll take you guys to see the Rolling Stones. That was our first concert when we were pretty young. Pearl Jam opened. Actually, Keeth, my bandmate, that was his first show too. We grew up in the same area but didn’t meet until we were twenty.

What’s on the horizon for Punch? Some touring?

Yeah, definitely. It’s a work in progress right now. We can’t do a lot of planning while two of the members are on tour, but yeah, we want to get out there.

“Do It Yourself” from Punch’s Nothing Lasts EP

5 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Bands & Musicians, Interviews

April 9, 2012

An interview with Liz Prince

By welcometoflavorcountry

Liz Prince draws comics and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. Recently, she and I sat down at a coffee shop in nearby Cambridge. She had coffee, I had tea, and we had a conversation.

How do you describe to people what you do?

I’ve always just said I draw comics and I’ve never gotten an adverse reaction. Some people think I mean newspaper strips, but it’s more books. I actually have a funny story: When my first one came out – I don’t describe it as a graphic novel, but my mom does and she was talking to one of her friends and said, “Liz has a graphic novel coming out!” and her friend said, “Oh, you’re okay with that?” And she said “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” And her friend said, “Well, graphic novel…like porn, right?” And my mom said, “No, like comics.” But I mean, there were boobs in it.

But they were cartoon boobs, so no one was aroused.

Well, I don’t want to stroke my own ego, but I think a couple of people got pretty aroused by it. [laughs] There’s this college professor that does this graphic novel “Reading Rainbow” class where the students are assigned to read graphic novels of their choosing and write a review. They’ve been posting them all on Tumblr and someone reviewed that book. I don’t know how old the person who reviewed it was, but one of their statements was “I saw boobs in this book and I wasn’t expecting to and it made it more interesting all the way through.” That’s probably the best thing anyone has ever said about my comics ever. I’m going to have to use that as a tag line on the back of my next book. I’ll also probably have to make sure there are some boobs in there for good measure.

[The band Minus the Bear starts to play on the coffee shop’s stereo.] I think this is Minus the Bear. Weird.

A guy from Santa Fe is in that band.

Are you from Santa Fe?

Yeah.

Were you born and raised there?

I was born here in Cambridge and my family moved to Santa Fe when I was six and then I moved back here to go to Museum (of Fine Arts) school.

How was Santa Fe?

I really hated it when I was really young because we lived 30 minutes outside of town and there was nothing to do. So my brother and I pushed each other into cactuses a lot. It was really great. But in high school I got involved with this teen art center that did a lot of DIY shows where kids were booking the shows. By the time I left I felt like, “I don’t want to leave! This place is awesome!” I had a really awesome community. But I don’t think I’d move back there until I was not ready to have a life.

Did you go to MFA school straight after high school?

No. I graduated in ’99 and then hung out in Santa Fe for another two years and worked. So I was a little older than everyone when I started college.

At MFA school it probably doesn’t matter much.

Well, it kind of did because I lived in the dorms my first semester and that really sucked. Being old enough to buy beer and everyone else isn’t. And you also hate everyone.

Why did you hate everyone? Because they were young and immature?

Or cause I’m old and stuck up. I really didn’t get along with my roommate at all. She had this 30-year-old gross boyfriend who would come visit her and say all kinds of racist shit to me. She was Hispanic and he said, “Did you think she wasn’t going to be able to speak English?” And I’m like, “I’m from fucking Santa Fe, dude!” He was the worst and she was the worst and so I moved out of the dorm after the first semester.

So you’ve lived in Boston ever since then?

Yeah.

So what keeps you around here?

I have a really, really good living situation where I don’t pay a lot of money to live in a nice apartment. So that’s what keeps me here. I’ve never been the type of person who has wanderlust. I like traveling but I don’t have the travel bug. I’ve only left the country once and I never went to Mexico and I’ve never been to Canada.

So where’d you go then?

I went to France for a comic book convention.

When was that?

In 2007. I have a publisher in France and he set the whole thing up.

How was it?

It was cool because I went to Paris with two friends of mine and we rented a little apartment and the comic festival was about three hours south of Paris. So they stayed there while I went to the comic fest.

My publisher told me about the hotel we were going to be staying at and said that there were four beds and that my friends could come if they wanted to. So I was thinking it was going to be some swanky-ass place – and I guess this was normal for a roadside motel in France, but it had four bunk beds that were tiny. And the bathrooms were self-cleaning. So everything was open and plastic and in the middle of the night it just sprays itself. There were a couple other American comic creators with us. One of the guys got up to pee in the middle of the night and didn’t bother to turn on the light in the bathroom and the thing started. I guess if you turn the light on it won’t start because it assumes it’s being used. So he got sprayed with some horrible bathroom cleaner in the middle of the night. But it was depressing and desolate in that hotel. The people in the room next to us were chain-smoking and watching TV all night. I don’t even know if what was between our rooms was a wall. It was not what I was expecting. I had this totally romantic view of France and that just shot it in the foot.

Also, being vegetarian over there is kind of a bummer.

So do you have fans in France? Were you surprised at the turnout?

There were definitely a lot of people that were interested. It’s really hard to not be able to communicate with the people who are talking to you about your work. My publisher was acting as a translator the entire time. I got asked some really bizarre questions about my personal life. I thought my publisher was fucking with me and then he had to repeat it to me in English.

What kind of questions were they?

Well, my first book is about my relationship with my then boyfriend so it’s all a bunch of stories like that, so people were asking in-depth questions about that. And some woman said, “I read somewhere that the only reason you dated this guy was so you could write a comic about it.” She was basically saying, “You’ve been accused of this. How do you plead?” So yeah…that’s France. And that’s the only place I’ve ever been. Except for right here!

Cambridge? So the earlier story about growing up in Santa Fe was all a lie?

Yes. I just wanted to make myself sound exotic.

[I mention an upcoming trip to Taos, New Mexico.]

Yeah, I never spent much time in Taos. I went to Girl Scout camp close to there.

You were a Girl Scout?

I was a Girl Scout. And the funny thing: I lied to get all my badges.

Oh, do tell.

They give you this book – the Girl Scout guidebook. It has all the badges and shows you what they look like and so I chose the ones that I liked the way they looked the most. You have to complete a certain amount of tasks to get them and so I would say, “Yeah, I totally saw twenty wild birds and catalogued them!” I remember the one that I really, really wanted was the wildlife one that had a raccoon on it. Because…

I love raccoons!

Actually, I used to be really afraid of raccoons when I was a kid and lived here because they’re kind of scary and there was this tree across the street from our house that had a family of them living in it. I’d stand in the door at night and watch them going in and out of the tree. If we ever left the house at night my parents would have to carry me to the car because I was afraid a raccoon would get me or a slug would get me. Those were the two big fears when I was living on the mean streets of Medford.

So are your parents separated?

Well, my dad actually died in December, but they had been separated for…forever? I dunno. Funny thing about raccoons, actually – the world’s biggest raccoon tried to break into my apartment on the day my dad died. It was so big. It was the size of a horse.

It kind of ruins the story to tell you that it was a raccoon. But I live on the third floor and in my living room there’s a door that goes to the fire escape. It was probably midnight and I was getting ready to go to bed and one of my cats was in my bedroom and all of the sudden she ran into the living room and was staring at the fire escape door and I thought, “There’s someone or something on the fire escape.” I could hear them up against the door and they were trying to move the doorknob. I didn’t know what to do. There was a window and I was looking out it but couldn’t see anything. I knew that my friend was across the street at this big holiday party and if she just looked out the window she could see if something was on the fire escape. I called her and she was so drunk. I told her what was up and asked her if she could look out the window and tell me what she saw. Before she hung up the phone I could hear her say, “Let’s go guys! Liz needs our help!” I see her run out the front door across the street and she’s running and I hear her in the alley. And she starts running up the fire escape.

I was freaking out because I don’t know what’s out there. There could be some dude with an ax. I mean, I read a lot of Tales from the Crypt. And she’s running and screaming and all the sudden she yells, “OH MY GOD! NO!” And then the loudest thing ever is on the roof. I can hear she’s outside so I open the door and ask her what it was and she says, “There was an ape man!” I asked her, “Was it a person?” and she said, “I don’t know. It might be. I’m scared!” I didn’t know what to do so my friend told me to go across the street to where the party was so I went over there and we’re looking out the window and I couldn’t see what was on the roof. At some point my friend goes back to the window and says, “Oh my god!” and there’s this giant raccoon walking down the fire escape.

But this was the same day that your dad died?

Yeah.

Did you draw any kind of correlation between these two events?

So this is going to make me sound weird but I believe in ghosts. Why not? I don’t think you have to be religious to believe in ghosts. I think believing in ghosts is fun. It’s more fun than believing in no ghosts.

So you’re looking for the maximum amount of fun when it comes to your theology and spirituality?

Yeah! I like Buffy the Vampire Slayer so why not? So like I said earlier, I used to be really afraid of raccoons growing up and used to have my dad carry me to and from the car. Before he died I didn’t get to say goodbye to him but his girlfriend held the phone up to his ear so we could say whatever we wanted. So I basically told him, “If there’s anything else out there, let me know!”

So he was trying to break into your apartment!

Well, I told my younger brother that story and he said, “So you think dad’s a raccoon now?” And I was like, “No, asshole – I think he’s a dick who sent a raccoon to my house in the middle of the night. I think he controls them. I don’t think he is one.”  [laughs]

[laughs] Please tell me you’ve worked this into a comic somehow.

It’s on the docket.

Was there anyone who inspired or encouraged you to start drawing?

I don’t remember any sort of catalyst moment. I always drew. I have all kinds of stuff from when I was little, like a drawing of me holding hands with Luke Skywalker from when I was five, which is funny because I don’t even like Star Wars now.

Really? I’m surprised you’d want to go on record saying that. I’ll erase that from the interview.

No! You keep that in. That is a thing I want known! [laughs] But I distinctly recall believing that cartoon characters were real for the longest time. That’s what I wanted to be when I grew up: a cartoon character. Then someone told me they weren’t real and I was like, “Fuck my life! Now I have to re-evaluate everything!” I’m sure that it was more like, “Nuts!” and then I probably cried. I don’t remember. And then I thought I’d be an animator and I used to make a ton of flipbooks. But it took way too long to animate something. I’m not very good at it. There’d be a walk cycle and at the end my character would be really small. “It’s forced perspective! I’m walking into the distance! But still from the side.” When I realized animation was a lot of work, then I thought I’d go to comics. It’s like animation and cartoons but slowed down. You get to tell a story with words and images.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a longer story. It’s the third issue of I Swallowed the Key To My Heart. It’s about breaking up with my first post-high school boyfriend, which I’m releasing as issues.

And my friends and I are working on this project called “Four Squares” where we each draw a short autobio comic every day for an entire month, and then we compile them together. The first issue was called Four Squares, the second was called More Squares, and the third, which I hope will be out in time for Boston Comic Con (I don’t know what everyone else’s status is on finishing) will be called GORE SQUARES because it took place in October and we think we’re really fucking clever.

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February 27, 2012

Best & Worst Jobs #2

By welcometoflavorcountry

A while ago I did a feature where I interviewed people, asking them what their best and worst jobs were. I thought it was fun and so decided to do another round.

Sara Billups

Sara and I went to college together. When I think of Sara, the first thing I think of is the Misfits song, “Mommy, Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight?”

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? Why?

Writing dry-as-bone articles about information technology, fitness, endowments, you name it, for a poorly-designed alumni magazine in the Midwest. The rag was stuck in the 80s, and I was stuck attending homecoming brunches with wild Indiana sports nuts driving banana yellow convertibles.

What’s the best job you’ve ever had? Why?

Right now, working as a writer from home. It’s certainly the scariest and the best at once. I take that back. Motherhood is both the wildest and most insanely excellent thing I’ve ever done. And it was pursuing the classic work-life-balance thing (such a trendy topic right now, I admit!) that compelled me to leave my stable job working for an small art book publisher. But see, I have a kid. I like him a lot. I wanted to be around him more. So when the chance came to leave my job and work remotely for a company in the Bay Area, I took it.

The last several months have been a hearty lesson in the beauty of losing control. I’m writing blog posts, press releases, and SEO web content for a few clients now, and also writing a column about kids and food for the Seattle Weekly’s Voracious blog.

Roy Culver

Roy is Roy. Like the dude even needs an introduction. Okay, fine…

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? Why?

For me, there’s a razor thin line between love and hate when it comes to employment. Responsibility and I, well, we have often had a strained relationship. I like to go to bed when I want and get up…occasionally. I am responsible enough to realize that I can’t spend every day in bed watching Netflix but I’m still grieved by this fact. I know that some people like their work but, as a friend said to me once, my resume is basically just a list of all the things I hate to do.

That being said, out of high school I did a bunch of odd jobs but none more disgusting than making sausage at a local meat shop. It was winter break between semesters at the local community college and a friend got me the job. For eight hours a day I would stand around a metal table in a freezing room with other unfortunate souls and dump boxes of pig parts on the table, mix them with spices, grind them, and then make links out of the shredded meat. The thing I remember most was how cold it was – we could all see our breath and, because we were never given gloves, our hands would freeze from handling the meat. I also remember a guy who worked around the table with us who had a nasty beard and no front teeth. He’d regale us with stories of all the girls he’d had sex with and all the pussy he’d eaten. He referred to his beard as a “flavor saver.” I also remember spit constantly flying out of his toothless maul and into the meat as he talked. I hated that job.

What’s the best job you’ve ever had? Why?

I guess my favorite job was when I worked for a record label in southern California. I have been accused of being cynical, sarcastic and nihilistic but truly, compared to the crowd I worked with there, I must have seemed positively hopeful. There are so many incredible stories from that experience but one of the first that comes to mind is the morning when the executive assistant to the president who, having been given the duty of planning and executing the annual company retreat, called me at 6am on the day of the retreat to let me know that she was in the office parking lot, having been up all night doing blow, and needed me to come pick her up and take her grocery shopping. That was an adventure. There were also the meetings with Frodo, that little dude from Lord of the Rings, who decided he wanted to be a band manager and picked up one of our bands. That was surreal and, unsurprisingly, didn’t go anywhere. There are other stories of threats of violence from unpaid reggaetone artists, games called “Who’s in my Mouth?”, a coked up forklift driver, meetings with David Hasselhoff & Michael Bolton and on and on it goes. In addition to all the ridiculousness I also got to work with and sign some bands I really liked.

Adam Gnade

Adam is a musician and writer who currently lives in Kansas. I forget exactly how we met but I think it had something to do with an old website I had. I’ve also reviewed his fine book, Hymn California. You can read all about his life here.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? Why?

The worst job I ever had was watching people die. I was 19 and my girlfriend at the time did home-care for people with late-stage cancer. She didn’t want me writing and neither of us thought I’d make it, so when she got too busy I “volunteered” to take over.

At the stage my patients were at, there was nothing I could do but sit by their bedside and talk to them and give some kind of comfort at the very end of everything. It was a lot of waiting and a lot of quiet rooms and a lot of holding hands.

And they died. One by one. It was devastating.

There are people who can work jobs like that and they’ve got something both steel-strong and more gentle than anything I’ve seen. I wasn’t one of them.

That was the point I learned just how weak I am.

What’s the best job you’ve ever had? Why?

My best job was my very last non-writing/publishing gig. In the midst of burnout from the home-care job I got hired as a waiter in a retirement home. It was a proper post high school job–everyone as decadent and horny and stone-dumb as teenagers get. Busboys on acid. Pregnant 14 year olds. XXXXX and XXX and I leaving mid-shift to score beer and drinking it in the boss’s office. Terrible pranks. Blood on the walls. Darkness. Poor, doomed XXXX who did a barrel of speed and disappeared for three months and came back schizophrenic. Sweet, curly-headed XXXXX who took it on herself to “learn to give head” in the broom closet and ran through all of us and broke half our hearts.

The one I’ll never forget is good-hearted, gentle XXXXX who threw himself off the 10th story of our building the day his wife gave birth to another man’s child.

The place was called Wesley Palms. It was tragedy and lust and triumph and I miss it every day.

Ann

Ann and I used to work together at a library. I miss our Monday morning bitch sessions.

What was the worst job you’ve ever had? Why?

This is a tough question, because I’ve had a lot of jobs that weren’t that great. But it’s probably got to be the time when I was the personal assistant for a venture capitalist and his filmmaker wife. He worked in agri-business—you know, the world of GMO: Syngenta, Monsanto, all the people who bring us self-destructable seeds and chemical-ridden foods. His wife was usually high. He was besties with lots of famous people, and would always ask me if I knew who they were, like I was supposed to be impressed with everyone he knew: Daryl Hannah, Lou Reed, Adam Clayton. But I never met any of them, despite the fact that Daryl often came to stay with them. I managed his calendar and all of his phone calls. I ordered and mailed out birthday gifts for friends and family. I managed his cell phone plan and prepped his paperwork for tax time (which I wondered if it was a sneaky way to show me how much money he made). I was pretty much on call whenever I wasn’t in the office—like the the time I had to come in on a Sunday afternoon so he could dictate an email to me. Or the time I had to be at work at 5:30am to dial the phone number for him on a conference call to India. I even scheduled bikini waxes for his wife! I also handled all of their RSVPs for both his business engagements and their personal party invites. They were, in fact, invited to Fidel Castro’s 80th birthday bonanza that was canceled because he was hospitalized. Remember, when Fidel turned over control to his brother Raul? That one… Anyway, they required me to have a college degree for the job, but then called me “Kiddo” every day. But they also expected me to eat at all of the fancy restaurants they ate at and shop where they shopped, despite the fact that they did not pay me the big bucks to do this job. It was just degrading….and oddly similar to The Devil Wears Prada.

What was the best job you’ve ever had? Why?

The best job I’ve ever had was when I worked for a 200-year-old membership library in Boston. There was a real sense of purpose at the place—the people who work there know that the place they work at is special. I was just a graduate student and learning the ropes, but was always treated like a real colleague, like I had something to contribute. Because I did! We had birthday parties every other month. We celebrated the re-opening of the terrace each spring with champagne (yes, during work hours). And I got to research and use rare materials every day I was there. I got to work with authors I knew and admired, who also respected me back. It was fantastic to walk by a Gutenberg Bible, or a well-known portrait of George Washington and to feel the history around you. But the kicker, the thing that made this job the coolest, is that the building is haunted. I did not believe in ghosts until I worked at this place and encountered one myself. But it’s true, I swear.

Julie

I interviewed Julie before. She’s still pretty badical.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? Why?

The worst job I’ve ever had was detassling corn in Illiniois. This job paid a lot for someone who wasn’t even of legal working age. I think I was 14 or 15. For those who don’t know, detassling is actually pulling the penis off of the male corn to make it into female corn so that the corn can have sex. Or something.

This is a seasonal job, taking place during the hottest months of the year. Your day starts before sunrise at about 5 am. Because there is dew all over the corn, you have to wear a rainsuit. My mom bought my brother and I the camo rainsuit because it was cheaper and ironically we stuck out like sore thumbs, which when you’re a self-conscious teenager, that sucks. You also have to wear a mask to protect your face from the corn’s leaves because they are sharp and cause a paper-cut sort of situation. So you look like you’re about to hold up and bank and you can hardly breathe. With gloves on, you pull the tassel out of every corn stalk going down the rows. As the day heats up, you have to get rid of the rainsuit and your clothes underneath are soaking wet. I really did not like this job. My mom forced us to do it because all of my cousins did it every summer and she didn’t want us to be the soft grandkids who never did backbreaking labor in the fields. This did nothing to harden my composition; I am still a wimp, just a wimp with nightmares about walking through endless rows of corn. And camo rainsuits.

What’s the best job you’ve ever had? Why?

I love what I do right now; I teach college and I do consultant work on the side. I love being around college students. They are idealistic and unaware of how the real world will eat you up and spit you out like an angry komodo rhino. I get to teach writing which I’m good at, and assign whatever I feel like reading and talking about. My consultant work allows me to be creative and I get to meet interesting people and travel. I don’t have to work very many hours and so I have plenty of time to live my actual life.

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February 20, 2012

Interview with Chris Estey

By welcometoflavorcountry

Chris Estey and I go back a ways. We trolled on the same message boards in the late 1990s, but didn’t really get to know one another until I moved to Seattle in 2006. While at first glance Chris may appear intimidating, he’s really an incredibly sweet guy with a great sense of humor. He’s also a fine writer, whose piece on Phil Ochs was part of Da Capo’s Best Music Writing collection in 2010. Chris has led a really interesting life and if you ever meet him, you should ask him to tell you the story about how he kicked Henry Rollins out of his bed back in the ‘80s.

What’s your connection with the documentary Spokanarchy!? How did you get to doing press for it?

I told you some stories about Spokane.

Yes.

Like the one about kicking Henry Rollins out of my bed. And Joey Shithead getting mad at me for chasing people with fu-fu haircuts at a party at the group house that D.O.A. was staying at. You know, after I lost my testicle.

[laughs]

Well, my parents were living in Spokane and I was living in Seattle back in the early 1980s. I was doing a bunch of political stuff over here like a Marxist-Leninist faction. I was doing a lot of protesting, like pro-abortion protesting and anti-Reagan war in Nicaragua protesting. So my parents had moved to Spokane from another town in eastern Washington, Kennewick, and I decided to go live with them because I had no money or friends left in Seattle after donating my life to the cause. I was an administrator for a group called North American Anarchist Network. So I thought I could go to Spokane and do that shit and I did for a little while until I basically got run out of town. While I was there I made friends with everyone who was in the movie. Basically everyone in the movie I know except some of the people who were in the bands later on. The principal filmmaker was Dave Halsell and he worked with four other people. It was a five-person team who did the movie. Dave was the guy I knew. Dave was in a band called the Sow. Actually, their full name was An 425 Pound Yorkshire Sow. It was a noise performance art band that would freak people out. And he was one of those poor unfortunates in the punk rock scene in the 80s who got sent to a Mormon boot camp. His parents were Episcopalian but they decided to send him to a Mormon boot camp in Utah. When I entered the Spokane scene everyone loved Dave. He endured a year of that shit and then eventually made his way back from Utah. So he was kind of a martyr to the scene when I got involved with it. I knew him briefly before he left and then when he came back.

When he got a hold of me, Spokane was having a bunch of reunions. Some people had emailed me and wanted to know why I wasn’t responding to peoples’ emails. And I’m not a big nostalgia guy. I had some very bad times in Spokane; most of them caused by myself. It was almost all my fault and I didn’t want to relive it. Then when the movie was done and I found out it was Dave, I told him I’d send him a list of publications where it should start being reviewed. I just thought it was going to be a punk rock doc but I knew that Spokane is weird so I knew it was going to be a weird doc.

While Dave and I were never particularly close back then, I respected him. He said he’d like to have some help with where it needed to go. And even though we hadn’t seen each other for almost 30 years we got together at the Elliott Bay Bookstore here in Seattle and spent five or six hours talking. He had read my interview with Steve Ignorant of Crass and knew I had handled the Black Angels and knew my work with Light in the Attic Records. And I changed my mind about being involved. I decided it would be interesting to be involved, especially since I had felt completely ostracized and cut out of that scene.

Why had you felt that way?

At some point in my life I felt that everyone in that town hated me. I felt I had been driven out of that town due to my behavior.

What had you done? Just drugs and drinking and stuff?

Well, without naming names, I’d do something like walk into a club and punch the bouncer in the face. I burned a guy on a speed deal and that guy has never forgiven me. I asked Dave why he was getting involved with me, because I was under the impression that people still hated me and he said, “I don’t think so.”

So this kind of came out of nowhere, but Roy told me that you did this movie with Calvin Johnson called Have You Ever Grown A Beard? What was the impetus behind that?

I do have to ask you – have you ever grown a beard?

I’ve tried but it doesn’t turn out well.

Well, you’re a good-looking man, so I guess you don’t need to hide.

So what happened was I got that story published in Best Music Writing 2010 –

Phil Ochs?

Yeah. It was from a fanzine and never intended to be in any mainstream, commercial thing. I sent copies to a bunch of different people and one of them was Daphne Carr, who at the time was editor at Da Capo. So it got published. And then a year ago this woman, Kathy Wolf, meets me. She’s going out with Pat Thomas, who wrote Listen, Whitey! They’re kind of a creative team and they decided to do a movie.  I don’t know how they came up with it, but they thought it would be interesting for me to interview Calvin Johnson. They didn’t know if I had ever met Calvin Johnson before.

Kathy never told me why she chose Calvin and I as a topic. I actually didn’t know Calvin. I knew of him. There’s a venue here now called Columbia City Theater and it’s a beautiful old, historic theater. Kathy wanted to film a documentary there. The idea would be to have me read from the book, so that people knew who I was and then have me interact with Calvin. My take on it is that it’s just a film version of the live fanzine I like to do. As opposed to reading discographies and discussing specific histories – basically I take the place of the audience because I’m as big as the audience collectively. [laughs] And I sit up there and I usually get very drunk and ask knowledgeable questions but also fucked-up questions. I make it meaty but also weird where anything can happen. And that’s what I tried to do with the Calvin piece.

So how do you feel about it? Are you happy with how it turned out?

Oh, I’ve never seen it. [laughs] It’s showing in Portland on February 24th and Calvin’s going to be there. But because I don’t leave within four blocks from my home I won’t be there. But I will make it up to Capital Hill in Seattle for the March 5th showing at the North West Film Forum and I think Calvin’s going to make that too.

It’s a short film – about a half hour at the most. I’ve seen some clips and they’re very good. I thought it was interesting Kathy gave me a bottle of Jack Daniels about halfway through it. I was reading from the book and I was sweaty and itchy, but once I had the liquor in me I was doing better. And then we did the interview. I think the first question I asked him was “Have you ever had a beard?”

Was he receptive to this process or did he seem taken aback to being interviewed by you?

Calvin is a gentleman. He’s a sweetheart. When he initially met me I was sober and we were able to talk and things were going very well. I think after I ingested the Jack Daniels and he had performed he seemed a little bit nervous about what was going to happen and my questions may have been a little strange for him. And there was no audience. I think if he had had an audience to play to it would have been a different thing. But what had happened was, because of the nature of his persona, which I don’t think is contrived at all, when it was juxtaposed with mine I think it created an interesting energy. Which is I overshare and spill out everywhere. And his work is appreciative of that. He’s passionate about flakes and losers and freaks like me. So as different as we look from each other, I think people will be interested in the juxtaposition of the similarities and the differences.

How was it different than the other interviews you’d done in a similar setting with Eugene Robinson from Oxbow, Steve from Crass and David Yow from Scratch Acid?

Not very because Calvin and I are really passionate about what we’re doing. And even though Calvin isn’t as aggressive musically or socially like those other guys are, he’s still an extremist. He’s still a freak. All the people I’ve interviewed and all the people I’m interested in are people who try and re-define reality in their own way. They’re not really happy with how society projects itself on other people. People don’t want you to be strong or mindful because it takes away from how they can manipulate you. The stronger you are with yourself, the more off-putting it will be for those people who don’t share those energies. So every single interview I’ve done, including this one with Calvin, has been with someone who has basically said, “Fuck you! I’m starting a house where all the weird kids can hang out.”

It seems that music has affected you more than any other thing in life and I’m wondering why you think that is.

That’s an interesting question. I think all the stuff we’re talking about – it all leads to one thing: Punk really wasn’t about punk. A lot of this was about learning a way of life: how to live and create a reality that isn’t imposed upon us by others. You can get all socio-political about it but I don’t think that’s necessary. I think reality – not just society, but reality – really sucks. If I turn on the TV, the most asinine crap will be screamed at me and I’m supposed to accept that as reality. When you realize how lonely people are you realize reality isn’t doing them very much good. Whatever they’re clinging to in terms of sanity, it’s all really based in vanity. The only thing we can do is to find mutual self-indulgence, which is to really enjoy the passions of others and ourselves and make that as mutual as possible. And if it seems reckless or childish, then I think that’s probably it as its most transcendent. Being there for other people in joy and in the pain is the only meaningful moment in the world.

I think in punk rock – as Jaime Hernandez of the Love & Rockets comic said – punk rock was how you drank your coffee in the morning. And he doesn’t answer that – how you drink your coffee in the morning. It’s how you do it. And what it is, is that you wake up and you know the day is fucked and you’re basically going to kick at the darkness as hard as you can. Or laughing at it as hard as you can. But the reality is such a sheer, horrible burden, so fuck the shit out of it. Just enjoy the fuck out of the moment. Whatever you’ve been given now is awesome, but it’s also on loan and hopefully your shoelace won’t break. But it will. [laughs]

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January 23, 2012

An Interview with Matt Fast of The Undecided

By welcometoflavorcountry

This post is a guest interview done by my friend Roy.

I worked at Tooth & Nail records from 2000 – 2004 and one of the bands I really enjoyed getting to know was the Canadian band The Undecided. While pop punk wasn’t the genre of music I normally gravitated toward, I really liked the guys in the band and their music grew on me. Thanks to Facebook I’ve had the opportunity to reconnect with The Undecided and was happy to discover some of the exciting things going on in their lives. I caught up with lead vocalist Matt Fast and we talked about life now that The Undecided isn’t full-time any longer. You can hear the band here.

Where do you currently live?

I currently live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

What do you do to pay the bills?

I pay the bills through student loans and scholarship money. (I am currently doing my Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies).

Are you still involved with music in any way (work for a label, play in a band, do press for a band, book shows, etc.) or any of the other arts (performing, visual, literary)?

As far as music goes I don’t really do much. I would love to though! I still write lyrics and stuff, but I don’t actually know if they’ll find their way into a song one day or not.

At what point did you decide to “give up” the touring and band life and why? Was there a sudden realization that you wanted to live in the “real world” or was it gradual?

I think there were a couple of reasons why we stopped touring. One of them was getting dropped from Tooth and Nail so that left us without a record label to put out our records. Another reason would be that at the time I was married (I’m now divorced), and our guitar player John Paul also got married around that time. When you’re a smaller band touring out of a van it’s hard to balance those things if you can’t bring your spouses on tour with you and you’re not making enough money to support the marriage. So we just sort of stopped touring. We still play maybe once a year or so if one of our friends is doing a benefit or something like that.

You’ve been away from being in a band for a while now. Looking back, what are some lessons you learned during that time?

I learned that nothing is given to you. I learned that to “make it” as a band (and by no means do I pretend that we ever made it) you have to spend a hell of a lot of time on the road. I also learned that it doesn’t necessarily matter how good you are as a band. A lot of your success has to do with networking. I don’t think we were good networkers and we didn’t dress the right way. HA!

So, you lived in Uganda for a while after The Undecided ended.

I initially went there just to do some volunteer work for a few months. I have my undergrad degree in International Development so I wanted to get some practical overseas experience. I went to volunteer with this organization that worked with former child soldiers. They were a well-intentioned org, but really unorganized. This was January 2008. Because they were so unorganized I felt my time was not being used properly so I left them and randomly met this dude who’s from the UK who had been in Uganda for several years at that time. He had worked for a few different organizations himself and was now starting his own so he told me I could come and volunteer with him for the remainder of my time. He was just moving into his office at the time so I bought a mattress, threw it on the floor of the office and slept there for the next 3 months. We were working in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, in a neighborhood called Namuwongo, which is one of the city’s largest and poorest slums – our back door literally opened to the slum. We did child sponsorship, micro-finance for women stuff – like that. I stayed there until April of 2008 and then he told me that I could apply for personal funding to this Irish organization, which personally supported him. So I did that and got accepted. In October 2008 I came back and stayed until October 2010. I got my housing paid for and 600 Euros a month to live off of.

Why did you choose to go to Uganda? Why not another country?

I had originally wanted to go to South Sudan, but I had a friend who had been to Uganda and she told me it was good so I checked it out. By the time I finished in Uganda our org had a child sponsorship program, micro-finance for women, vocational training for women, street kids program, medical clinic, we did HIV/AIDS awareness and testing. It was pretty awesome! The organization is called Uganda Hands for Hope: www.onlinehope.org

My perspective of Uganda is that it’s a war torn country with immense poverty and a lot of folks living with HIV/AIDS. What was it like moving there? What misconceptions did you have? How was it to adapt to a new culture like Uganda?

There is immense poverty in Uganda, especially in the community where I worked. You had open sewage running everywhere, no running water or toilets, small mud one-room houses that slept six or more people. It was on the edge of a swamp so lots of malaria, cholera and flooding. Many of the families that we worked with were war affected and had fled areas of conflict. That being said, you could drive through the capital city and think that the country is very rich and prosperous. There are plenty of high rises, plenty of fancy hotels which are $200-$300 per night, people in their land rovers etc., but the wealth is in the hands of the few. The rural areas are also very poor and there’s no social welfare

How do families in those areas most impacted by poverty and disease sustain themselves if there is no social welfare?

Some of the families we assisted who had small jobs in the informal economy would lose all their savings when one of their children would get sick. They’d have to spend all their savings on treatment. They wouldn’t have any money to put back in their business and so it would collapse. Many worked informal market jobs like selling vegetables or fish, wash people’s clothes or stuff like that. Over 80% of the people we assisted lived on less than $1 a day and most of those were single parents (mom) with an average of four kids.

So when someone gets too old to take care of themselves does it fall back on the family to take care of them or are they just SOL?

The family takes care of the elderly, but they often don’t reach that age.

Here in America the conservative wing of our government often talks about shutting down or scaling back social services. The idea is that if we all just had control of our own money then we could invest it and get rich. However, a lot of folks are barely sustaining themselves and their families. Saving and investing are not even options. Granted, the situation in Uganda and America are very different and I am hesitant to even compare them but I bring it up to demonstrate what could happen here in America or Canada if the government completely gets out of the business of taking care of its impoverished citizens.

In Uganda there is decent healthcare, but you have to pay for it. They have sort of a two-tier kind of system where you have private care, which is well funded and resourced for the wealthy. And then you have the public hospitals, which are grossly underfunded and understaffed. You have to wait all day just to get in and if you have to stay overnight you have to bring your own toilet paper, bedding, food, etc. You also have to have someone take care of you; the nurses do not do that. So that means a relative or a caregiver has to come and bring you food, bathe you, etc., and that means if they’re doing that, then they’re not working which means they’re losing valuable income especially for those living hand to mouth

You mentioned to me that you were a lot more diverse in your own personal beliefs and in how you live your life now compared to when you were in a band on Tooth & Nail. What did you mean by that?

Well, I guess for starters I don’t go to church anymore. I still believe in ‘god’ but I don’t believe that the Bible is the infallible word of god. I think there are some good lessons to be learned from the Bible, particularly from Jesus and his message of Love, but there are some other things where I just shake my head.

Did that transition have an impact on your family or are you still “in the closet”? 

I wouldn’t say my family is conservative so it hasn’t had much of an impact. I’m a Mennonite, but that can mean different things to different people. My parents are pretty liberal in their theology nowadays. I mean, they probably wish I went to church but I can have a good discussion with them about the way I see things and they appreciate it.

Over the last couple years the international community has come down on Uganda because of what came to be known as the “Kill the Gays” bill.  Can you speak to how that impacted the country or how that bill even came to be?

For starters, homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda as it is in most African countries. This new bill, which was being proposed by a member of parliament named David Bahati, wanted to push for the death penalty if someone was found guilty of “being gay.” It also included imprisonment for anyone who knew people who were gay but did not turn them in to authorities. Apparently an evangelical American group who came to Uganda and worked with churches and members of parliament heavily influenced this bill. Thankfully there’s been huge international pressure from the U.S., Sweden, Canada, etc., to kill the bill or they would cut all funding to Uganda. So far this had been successful, as I don’t think Uganda would be able to function without funding from the States. The backlash against this is that people are saying homosexuality is a “disease” of the West and that Africans will no longer be told what to do by the West. They’re framing it in colonial terms. Of course there’s the whole propaganda machine, which tries to tell people that homosexuals are the same as pedophiles, which you also see being used by the Christian right in North America.

When I hear that I think surely no one believes that anymore but low and behold some Christian organization runs with it. I still don’t understand completely why so many high profile, anti-gay Christian leaders here in America got involved in that.

Yes, very odd indeed.

Once you finish your masters degree, do you plan on returning to Uganda?

I’d love to return to Uganda as I still have a lot of friends there and of course I still have a personal connection and feel a personal interest in the organization I was with. I was there from its inception and helped to build it up. But I’m open to going anywhere there’s work. I would love to work in the West Bank or Gaza and also South Sudan but we’ll see where the wind blows.

Let’s get back to your time in The Undecided. What are a few of your fondest memories?

One would be our very first tour in ’96 way before we were signed. We booked our own tour and played Gilman Street. That was pretty cool just given its history. Another would be playing Warped Tour. Another would be swimming in the ocean in Pensacola. We had a day off and just went. I’ll never forget that day; I just felt so free. To be honest a lot of the good memories weren’t necessarily playing the shows, but just hanging out with three of my best friends in the world and trying to make something out of what we created. Laughing with them and the banter in the van. All the shitty sleeps in the van, driving all through the night to get to the next show half way across the country, all that kind of stuff. At the time you’re like “this sucks” but in reality not very many people have the opportunity to do what we did with their best friends. It was pretty special.

Do you still speak with the other members of the band?

All of us guys in the band are still really close. I hang out with Steve at least once a week if not more – he’s married now and does computer work. I see Dan a few times a week as well, as we play on the same hockey team – he’s a firefighter and also married now. And we don’t see John Paul quite as often because he’s super busy with work and family. He owns and runs his own studio so as a producer / engineer. He works crazy hours and then he’s also married with two kids so he’s quite busy, but we catch up whenever we can.

Are you content with not living the “rock and roll” lifestyle of your past or do you miss it? (Please note: I use the phrase “rock and roll lifestyle” loosely.)

I’d say I’m content with where I am now. I love academics and I love what I’m studying so I’m very happy with that. Touring and playing music was definitely awesome and it’s something not everyone gets the opportunity to do so I feel quite privileged to have had that chance. I sometimes wish we would have put more effort into it to see where it could really take us, but I suppose the timing was never right, as we always seemed to be at different stages in our lives as band members so it was hard to get us all to commit to that lifestyle at the same time. But hey, I have no regrets!

Do you feel as though you can still relate to the person you were when you were in a band and touring? Why or why not?

Although I’m a much different person in many ways since our touring days I can still relate. I still care about much of the same stuff as far as social issues go, etc. But I’m definitely a lot more mature and a lot more diverse in my own personal beliefs and how I live my life. That part has probably been the most significant change in my life. I used to be very sure of what I believed regarding religion or faith, whereas now I’m not so sure. I don’t believe a lot of the stuff I used to, or at least I’m a lot more skeptical of it.

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