Interview

Stephen: How would you compare the writing process of How it Goes and Strictly rude?

Dave: I think before, we had that excitement of maybe we’re going to get on fat records or epitaph. We thought, “yeah this is what we are doing and this is our scene! And this is a good part for the scene and this is what we are all about.” Then after a while of not being in any sort of club in the punk rock indie scene at all, we eventually just looked at each other and decided that we should just write songs that would make each other smile. That will challenge each other. That will be like “ah man that was a good idea!” It was strictly a collective of us just writing for each other. We didn’t really give a fuck about anybody. At one point it was said that if we write for the fans or write for labels, that makes them our boss. And that’s not going to happen. So we were really just writing for each other.

Stephen: So did it make a difference having less of a time lapse between CD’s.

Dave: We wrote the strictly dub record that we keep talking about. We wrote a crap-load of thrash songs for a thrash records. We wrote 40 songs just for strictly rude. We just wrote a butt-load of songs.

Stephen: You guys also just did that split with Brain Failure, I was wondering how you got involved with them?

Dan: That was weird… Ken Casey called us up and he had been working with the label Bad News records and helping Brain Failure, and he asked if we wanted to do a project with Brain Failure. Like Dave said, we had written 40 songs for Strictly Rude. We had in mind to do more of a ska record, but then we couldn’t help ourselves and we still wrote all these punk songs, heavy songs and aggressive songs. And we thought that this project would be the perfect outlet for those songs, because we loved those songs too and wanted to get them out. We really wanted to do a cohesive album, so this allowed us to do that and get out this other side of the band that we love.

Stephen: Have you guys tried to get a tour together with Brain Failure?

Dan: We’ve been trying to do a tour with brain failure for months and months now. We were going to go out and do a headlining tour this spring but then this Anti Flag tour came up. It’s always hard to schedual but it is definitely going to happen. We love those guys and there is a really good vibe with the band. We are definitely going to do a tour with them sometime in the future as soon as we can.

Stephen: Have you met them in person or played with them before?

Dan: They were on a couple shows of the 2005 Warped Tour, when we were on the whole thing. Our friend Josh Smith was managing the band for a long time, so there is a connection there. And we had them on our 10th annual Halloween show last year and that was a blast. They also did a “Little Bitch” video with us when we were on Warped Tour. And they were one of the funniest bands to do one too. It was awesome!
Dave: Words exchanged… probably 12 each. But a great visual stimulant.

Dan: It’s really funny because obviously we speak different languages. But we can tell there is a connection there and we have fun. We kind of just look at each other and smile.

Stephen: So have you done any “Little Bitch” videos this tour?

Dave: We try to cap them off now because as far as you look at life, that chapter is over. It would kind of be reliving that, which is wrong. But we did one recently with the crew of the people we just shot our video and the people who were in our video because it was fun. But… there are 23 of them now, so I think that’s it.

Dan: That one was kind of neat though because we did it with an HD camera and a film crew. It’s really funny that we have been doing this DIY video for so long and then we saw it in really high quality. It was still just crazy drinking.

Dave: I think the only one that we said we would do, is a sky diving one. Some of us sky dive in the band and we thought that we would do one in the plane and when everyone is drinking they will jump out of the plane and I will jump out last. That one is going to happen for sure. And then there is a strip club one, where we said that if we get enough strippers in a strip club together we will do that one. And that’s about it.

Stephen: So are all of those “Little Bitch” videos going to be on the DVD coming out?

Dave: Yup. The DVD is called “Built Up From Nothing” and it’s going to be three disks. There is going to be a soundtrack, a film, and all our videos and live footage. It’s basically supposed to be like a DIY handbook and an anarchist cook book for new bands. Like the best ways to not get totally swindled by a promoter. We teach everyone that the promoter will try to give you less in the guarantee because they don’t know if you are going to make a fuss, but that’s why it’s called a guarantee. We tell you the best way to sneak into certain hotels if you have too many people. Don’t keep the money box inside that sweatshirt that you think no one will find in the front bench of the van, they are going to steal it. These are certain things that will help. Even something as simple as merch tubs you can buy at target. You see people showing up with just all their shirts getting fucked in laundry bags. So it’s kind of like look… you don’t have to do what we do, we don’t care. But this is what we do and you might want to write some notes.

Stephen: And you have been doing this for ten years, so you guys know how it goes (no pun intended).

Dan: It’s 11 now. That’s the funny part too, you get to see us 10 years ago when we were 18, 19, 20 and we look so different. It’s really funny and sometimes even embarrassing.

Dave: We were very good about putting some footage on there that is very embarrassing. And if you want to feel bad about yourself, watch three days of footage of your self at 18 or 19.
Stephen: So any last words?

Dave: I guess just check us out on 2007 Warped Tour. We are finally on a proper stage, so you won’t be coming up to us saying “oh we missed you! We didn’t know where you were playing”. Everyday on Warped Tour, I heard at least 3 to 7 people telling me that they didn’t know where we were playing. I have a book coming out which is called “The Gypsy Mile”. It is all of the lyrics from 1996-2007 and tour observations and stuff. It’s cool it’s cool. I guess come check out our headlining tour in… (looks at Dan for a date) eventually… Please go to our headlining tour. We have been opening up for half an hour sets for 3 and a half years. Thank you very much.

Stephen: Any last words Dan?

Dan: Thank you. (everyone laughs)