Interview of Fletcher, the almighty Chewbacca like guitarist of
the SoCal punk group, Pennywise.
by Shane Rodack
slr1578@garnet.acns.fsu.edu
Shane: Ok, I got a list of cool questions here. I know who you
are so I'm not even going to bother asking you that. I'm talking
with Fletcher...How old are you, Fletcher?
Fletcher: 29.
S: 29..ok.. And if someone were holding a gun to your head and
told you to describe Pennywise in 2 words, what would you say?
F: (Person in the back says, "Fuck Off.") Fuck off. (Fletcher
says agreeingly)
S: How long has this tour been going on for?
F: I think about a week.
S: I know that you were touring with Joykiller and DFL before,
why'd you drop DFL and go with various local bands?
F: Wait, what was the question? Oh, you mean why didn't we bring
DFL on this tour?
S: Yeah.
F: I don't think they really wanted to come with us actually.
The last tour they did was the first tour they've ever done
before and it was pretty hard for them because they had to take
time off from their jobs and stuff. They're still working day
jobs, they can't afford to not have jobs because they're not, you
know, making millions of dollars.
S: But they had a good time, right?
F: Yeah, they had a good time. But I don't think they could
afford to. They weren't really selling that much, and they have
competetion at the shows. DFL sells a certain amount of shirts,
Joykiller, and then us. And they're an opening band so.. We
decided to bring in local bands on this tour rather than bringing
another band out.
S: Are you happy with how "About Time" is doing right now?
F: Uh huh.
S: Is it about where you wanted it to be?
F: Yeah.
S: Did you think it'd be doing any worse or any better?
F: Uhh...actually I thought it'd be doing about how it is actual-
ly. It's pretty much at the same level we left off at and con-
tinuing. I think we shipped about 400,000 copies, and it's kinda
like, I don't know...
S: Do you expect it to all of a sudden just take off?
F: No. No way.
S: What new bands have you been listening to lately?
F: 98 Mute, a band from Hermosa Beach. War Called Peace, they're
from Hermosa Beach too. Both of them are really good. Ummm, No
Fun At All.
S: I was gonna ask you about them. Do you think they sound a lot
like Pennywise?
F: Yeah. But, I mean, I thought they sounded more like us before,
but now that...when you listen to it, every band, kind of gets
its own style. They're a lot of similarities tough.
S: Do you think it's cool how reviews compare them to you?
F: Like all the reviews compare us to Bad Religion?
S: Well, kinda.
F: Yeah. I like it, although I like it when reviewers try not to
compare the bands to other groups and just try to review the
album. But if it sounds like something, I guess it's worthy to
bring it up.
S: I got Pennywise Home Videos and I never knew you liked to
vomit so much. How long have you been doing that?
F: Vomiting?
S: I mean, on people.
F: For years. A pretty long time I think. About 15 years.
S: I read about what happened at KROQ in L.A. Did you plan that?
(Fletcher vomited on the host of a radio show on a L.A. station.
He then proceeded to vomit on Riki Racthman and a college couple)
F: Yeah. I planned it. I just got hammered, and I figured, they
never played our music and it was kinda a joke because that's one
of the biggest stations in L.A., and not that we want to be
played on the radio or anything, but we were selling out places
like the Hollywood Paladium and what big bands usually do in L.A.
and they wouldn't play our music and I just figured I'd throw up
on one of them... Not straight out going, "Fuck You, KROQ!", but
I gave 'em a little treatment. So it worked out pretty good.
S: If you had your pick of one person in the whole world you
could vomit on, who would it?
F: One person? Wow...that's an interesting question. (laughing)
I'm going to have to think about that for a second.
Guy on Bus: What was the question?
F: If I had my pick of person I could vomit on in the whole
world, who would it be? (pause) Maybe right now it'd be Sheroque
.
S: Sheroque?
F: Yeah, he's the French president and he's doing some nuclear
testing.
S: And you disagree with that? (Said sarcastically)
F: Yeah. (laughing)
S: I don't blame you.
F: I'd throw up in his mouth.
S: (Laughing) Is there anything that offends you?
F: I'm pretty much un-offendable. I do some pretty nasty things.
It kinda grosses me out when other people do stuff.
S: So if you vomited on somebody, and they did it back on you
would you be offended?
F: Vomit is like the least of it. Vomit is like LOW on the
scale. Try, like, shitting in people's mouths. That's better.
S: Have you ever done that?
F: (He nods and approves)
S: Really?
F: Of course.
S: Wow. (In awe) I saw your video on MTV and I saw you hanging
out with Lewis Largent and Kennedy a couple times at the Reading
Festival. Which one was cooler?
F: I think Lewis was kinda scared of me.
S: Is he a weasel?
F: Nah, he's average size.
S: Was he a nice enough guy?
F: I didn't really talk to him. I'm not a big MTV fan. He just
wanted to do an interview and we said "ok." Kennedy was actually
cool. I've always liked Kennedy. I think she's got a little
personality. I lot of people hate her and think she's a geek,
but she's actually fucking hilarious. She was going around
terrorizing people at the Reading Festival. She attacked this
other girl VJ from England who was like the big hot English VJ.
It was cool. They were both cool, but I would say Kennedy is
cooler than Lewis...but then again, I don't know Lewis.
S: "About Time" sounds like Pennywise, but it's a little tamer.
Did you do that out of progression or did you do it to get a
wider audience?
F: It's just different. We didn't do it to make any more fans.
All of our albums are pretty much fast all the way through and if
this album was the same exact thing as Unknown Road, then you
would say, "Oh, it sounds exactly like Unknown Road!" We try to
make every album different, but still in the Pennywise style.
Some people say the album's slow, but fuck, there are faster
songs on this album than on any of the other albums. Like Per-
fect People, fuckin' why can't I think of it...uhh.. Waste of
Time is pretty fast, I Won't Have It (Brought up by me), What You
Do With It is fast, and the majority of the songs on the album
are fast. We tried to get a little bit of a different groove on
some of the songs, like mid-tempo, but really driving and power-
ful. Sometimes you can't capture power with speed, because it
gets so blurry and the speed doesn't really seem that powerful.
It seems monotonous. I think the more powerful stuff is actually
slower..Like Pantera or something. So we were just fucking
around really. You can't put out the same album every time.
S: I saw that you quoted the guy from Rage Against the Machine in
"I Won't Have It." Did you do that for any particular reason?
(They quoted Zack De La Rocha for "You Got a Bullet In Your
Head."
F: No, Jason wrote that song and it's just...a lyric. It had
nothing to do with Rage Against the Machine.
S: So you felt you'd just give him credit for it though?
F: Did it say that?
S: Yeah, it said by Zach De La Rocha.
F: Oh, I didn't know it said that.
S: You learn something new every day.
F: I've never read our lyrics. (laughing)
S: Talking about lyrics, in the Unknown Road insert, I noticed
the other day that there are a lot of fuckups on it. Did you
ever notice that?
F: Yeah. The artist is an artist. He's not a fucking speller.
S: But then I saw you made new copies of it.
F: Yeah. He even misspelled "Unknown"....he spelled it "Unkown
Road." And then there's the wrong address for Epitaph... he just
totally fucked it up. And the funny part is, we're selling cd's
at the shows, and we pulled them out and they're fucked up
copies, with the right cd (The cd had errors on it too), but the
fucked up labels and shit. So, he didn't check it, and no one
checked it and we were in a hurry to get it out, and they printed
like 100,000 copies or 50,000 copies with it totally fucked up.
S: I read that Jason was supposed to sing on that album.
F: Yeah, that was when Jimmy was out of the band for like a year.
And Randy Bradburry was playing bass, and we went in the studio
and we recorded it and Jason started singing and we're like,
"Fuck...it's not Pennywise with Jason singing." And then Jimmy
wanted to get back in, so we squashed all the problems.
S: Do you think you'd still be together today if Jim never came
back?
F: I don't know, it's hard to say. I don't think so. Because
it's not the same without the formula, 'cause everyone has their
own part and Jimmy's voice is probably the biggest part of this
band.
S: If you were to write the lyrics for the group do you think
it'd be a completely different band?
F: I wrote some of the lyrics.
S: What songs?
F: I wrote You Can Demand, I wrote City is Burning, I wrote... I
don't know what else I wrote.
S: Was that when Jim was out of the group?
F: Yeah, we started working on some of those songs before Jim got
back in. We had them written. I wrote parts to Nothing. A lot
of the songs on the albums, I'll write parts, like I'll come up
with a melody line, or Jason will and I'll give 'em some words to
sing along to. Like, I wrote the first line to Same Old Story,
Jason wrote the chorus, and Jimmy wrote the rest of it. Like
when we're having trouble with a line, someone will come in and
help. I pretty much back our lyrics 100 percent, I really like
'em. It's pretty much how all of us live our lives...by those
lyrics. They're pretty right-on. I might be a little more out
of hand then the rest of the guys and do some crazy shit, but
there's a balance of craziness and ethics.
S: Do you think in all the Pennywise articles, they make you out
to be a much crazier person than you really are?
F: No, it's totally underplayed. Way more crazier than anyone
can talk about.
S: What's the name of that hidden song on Unknown Road?
F: Slow Down.
S: I also read that you were supposed to have a hidden track on
the new album.
F: Just can't find it? (laughing)
S: Nope..it must be really hidden.
F: It's just not there! It's hidden in the studio. It never made
it to the album.
S: Do you have a lot of songs that you haven't released?
F: There's a lot of songs. But they're all unfinished. We usual-
ly take a song pretty close to finishing it, and then if we don't
like it, we just say, fuckin', we're not gonna do it. So a lot
of them just go through the cracks we never heard them again. We
make so many fuckin' tapes and we lose 'em. A lot of them are
good songs too, and they should have gone on the album.
S: I got that Soul Arching thing from Theologian. Did you do
those songs after Unknown Road?
F: Yeah, we did them after Unknown Road. "Tomorrow" was a really
old song, and what's the other song called? Nothing? Or some-
thing like that..
S: "I Don't Feel Nothing?"
F: Yeah, that was a new one.
S: And then there was a Black Flag cover, right?
F: Yeah, exactly.
S: Why don't you have any other covers on any of your newer
albums. I think everybody loves "Stand By Me" and would like to
see you do some other covers.
F: Well, we got Stand By Me and the Black Flag song. I don't
know. We could tape covers from live shit. We tossed up the
idea of putting a cover on the new album, but it seemed to be
getting trendy right now. Offspring did it, Rancid did it.
[Jason had walked in a few minutes earlier]
Jason: You also gotta buy the song.
F: Yeah, you gotta pay the people that write the song.
S: I heard that you're playing some Nirvana covers at some of the
shows?
F: Yeah, we're doing a little Territorial Pissings.
S: Are you going to do most of the new songs tonight? Or is it
gonna be a mix of old and new?
F: It'll be a mix of everything. It's probably about equal. It
takes a while to get into an album. The last Bad Religion album
I got, "Stranger Than Fiction", I hated it for months and now
it's one of my favorite albums. It takes a while for people to
get into things, you gotta keep listening to it. If you keep
listening to "About Time," you'll probably end up liking it
better than any of our other albums.
S: Why weren't any Pennywise songs in "The Chase?"
F: (Laughing) I don't know, man. We just don't get lucky on that
sorta stuff. Like for some reason, radio doesn't like us, pro-
moters don't like us, movies don't like us. MTV doesn't like us,
although they might through us a bone here and there.
S: I'd say you're getting more airtime than the last album. I'v
heard Same Old Story a bit and now they're starting to play
Searching.
F: Really? Cool.
S: This is a strange question, but if you could pick any of the
Golden Girls to have sex with, who would it be?
F: I hate that fucking show! With a passion! But you know who
it'd be, man. What's her name, the horny one?
S: Blanche...
F: Blanche....
S: Everyone says that, I think it should be Betty White.
Some Guy on the Bus: You just wanna do that because she's all
pure and innocent.
F: What's grandma's name?
S: Sofia.
F: Sofia. (said agreeingly)
S: I met her once.
F: Really? Cool.
S: How do you feel when you hear people calling Epitaph a sellout
label just because they're successful?
F: Well, I think most people don't know what the fuck they're
talking about. They know nothing about the label, they know
nothing about how it's run. They know nothing about how hard
Brett worked to get the label that status. He worked his ass off
and don't forget about the part where he was working 20 hours a
day doing a studio and a record label and all that shit and the
fast that he believed in punk rock the whole time. If we went to
Sony six years ago and said, "Here's our tape.", they would have
said, "Get the fuck out of our office!" He (Brett) had faith in
the punk rock scene just because he liked the music and he played
in a punk band, ya know? And he's been around for 15 years.
Anyone that says he soldout maybe doesn't know that he turned
down $50 million five times over.
S: Is he even considering selling Epitaph to a major label?
F: No. Every major label in the world... [Fletcher begins
eating his Taco Bell] You guys want some Taco Bell?
My Friend on Bus #1: Nah...I'm cool.
My Friend on Bus #2: Do you got those Cinnammon Twists?
F: Take whatever. He's turned down about every major label in
the world. They came to him and said, "Look, you can have your
record company, we'll take half, you can run it the way you want,
we split the profits, we'll back Epitaph with all our
money,..Here's a check foir $50 million." Brett just goes, "Fuck
you, get out." And he took out an ad in Billboard Magazine, you
know, one of the biggest corporate magazines, and got everyone at
Epitaph to go out in the parking lot, took a picture of everyone
giving the finger and ran a full page ad in Billboard and it
said, "To Whom it May Concern, Fuck You!" Is that selling-out?
He runs his label the way he wants, he makes all the decisions
for that label, he's the coolest guy in the world, a rich mother-
fucker, but it hasn't changed him at all. He's the same guy that
I knew with no money six years ago as he is with $50 million or
however much money he's worth these days.
S: So he's basically accomplished what anybody starts an indie
label would ever think of doing?
F: The thing is, then Rancid got courted by a bunch of major
labels...
S: So did they sign? I heard they signed, but weren't going to
tell anyone until the new album did good enough?
F: No, that's not true. They re-signed with Epitaph. But they
were real close to signing with Epic because they just had all
these people doing shit and fucking with their heads and going,
"You know, Epitaph can't do a good enough job. They just got
lucky with the Offspring and you're not gonna sell enough re-
cords... Come to us." And they were ready, but then they took a
step back and said, "Fuck this! We're stayin' with Epitaph."
And the whole music world went, "What the fuck's going
on here? We just threw 1.5 million dollars at these punkers and
they said 'No' and went back to a label that doesn't offer them
half of that." It really showed the loyalty of the bands on
Epitaph and it freaked everyone out. It freaked all the fuckin'
big-wigs out. They were shattered. One of the biggest corporate
fuckin' heads in America died his hair blue to be cool with
Rancid. He was like, "Hey, check it out! I died my hair blue!"
I don't know. Brett just has some cool bands on his label and
they are pretty loyal. We turned down about six major label
offers for "About Time" and stayed on Epitaph for a shitload less
money. Like tons less.
S: So he (Brett) treats you much better, right?
F: Yeah. You just do what you want. I do whatever I want. If
we wanna do this, or we wanna do that and Brett says, "I don't
think it's a good idea.." but we think it's a good idea he'll
say, "Alright, go ahead." Whatever we want to do. Whatever we
want, whenever we want it.
S: What's your favorite band out of all the new Epitaph bands?
F: I really like Joykiller a lot. They're album is killer. But
their live show is fucking raging. It's just so killer. So,
they're probably my favorite band on Epitaph as far as new bands
go. I really like Offspring a lot and I like Rancid a lot.
S: Do you like the new Voodoo Glow Skulls?
F: I haven't listened to it much. But I like their old stuff,
but I haven't gotten a chance to listen to their new album. I
don't listen to music that much when I'm on the road, and I'm
always on the road.
S: So I see you're playing Nintendo or something back there?
(There was a video game system in the back of their tour bus.)
F: Yeah, we got a video game system! Let's talk about the bus!
If you have any questions about buses, like when kids go, "Oh,
fuckin' rockstar's got a bus. At our level, we're not at a big
level, but we're not at a small level. We're just a medium band,
right? But the thing is, we have equipment, we have merchandise,
and we have people that have to travel with us. In order to
bring the sound man, the tour manager, the guitar tech, and the
merchandise guy, who are all people who work for us, and to bring
the band and all the equipment and all the merchandise, it would
take minimum of fuckin' three vans. Three to four Econoline,
huge vans, right? Or a copule Ryder trucks or whatever. And to
do that you gotta pay like 100 bucks a day for the van, you gotta
pay for a driver, and you gotta pay for gas on three vans. This
bus is cheaper than three vans. And you can have all the equip-
ment, all the merchandise, all the people. This bus is like $350
a day to rent. And it's way more comfortable...it's fucking too
nice! But you're comfortable. Shit, if you wanna take a nap, you
can go lay down in your bunk and wake up fresh. Kids don't know
how it is driving across the country in a fuckin' van with no air
conditioning with six guys and all the equipment like we did last
time. And you're just sweating and you can't sleep and you've
fucking been up partying the night before. You get here and
you're like, "Yeah, I'm gonna put on a great show!" So, the bus
is totally functional for a decent price. If I could spraypaint
"Fuck you, Pig!" on the side of it I would, but it's not ours.
We're still punk rock though, even though we're riding around in
a slick ass bus!
S: So, what's the worst thing that's ever happened to you when
you were on the road or at a show?
F: Nothing actualy. I like the bad stuff. So, I couldn't answer
that question. We got searched today, by the dogs for drugs.
That's pretty bad. We were just driving and they pulled us over
and they decided they wanted to search the bus, and I said,
"Sorry, can't let ya." So they got a warrant and brought the
dogs down. And the funny thing was we asked them, "What happens
if you find a little bud on here?" and they said, "Well, some-
one's gonna go to jail." And we're like, "Well, what about a
bong?" and they said, "Someone's gonna go to jail. We're gonna
bring the dogs down." So I said, "Well, I'll tell you right now
there's pot and a bong on here and it's hidden and we'll just
take the ticket. We'll send somebody to jail." Our drum tech was
gonna go to jail for the day. We were gonna bail him
out and the cops were like, "Yeah, alright. We're gonna send the
dog on anyways." Cause they wanted to make sure there wasn't a
pound of dope on here. And the fuckin' dog couldn't find the pot
or the bong! So we were fucked. We had to give it to
them, we had to show them where it was and then they just let us
go.
Some Other Guy on Bus: He (I guess the manager) wants all the
kids off the bus.]
F: What?!
Some Other Guy: He said ALL kids off the bus.
F: Fuck that.
S: Do you want me to get off the bus?
F: No, stay. I'm the boss.
S: Ok. Cool. What were all of you like at school?
F: I've really been the same all my life.
S: Were you a popular kid?
F: Nah. I got into punk like 15 years ago. So, back in those
days, punks were really unpopular. They got beat up all the time
by the football players, the teachers hated you, your parents
hated you, the police hated you, so I was totally unpopular.
S: Were all of you into punk when you were in highschool?
F: Yeah. Jimmy got into it around the same time, Jason was into
it in highschool, Byron was kinda whatever.
S: Have you always been into the surfing scene?
F: Yeah, since I was about 10 years old.
S: Are you good at it?
F: Umm.. I can surf. I'm not gonna same I'm some ripper. I'm
not gonna say I'm shitty.
S: Will we ever see you in one of those movies?
F: No.. Fuck no!
My Indian Friend, Kiran: When did you start playing guitar?
F: Fifteen years ago. I basically taught myself.
Kiran: How long did it take you to get good?
F: A year. I progress, but I don't progress much. I pretty much
suck on the guitar. I know how to play what we play. The key to
playing guitar is writing your own songs and not just learning
other people's. Just write your own and develop your own style
because otherwise you end up sounding like everybody else.
S: What were some jobs you had when you were younger?
F: Let's see... I was a bus boy. I stole a bottle of wine from
the restaurant and got really drunk. I couldn't go to work the
next day. I was too hungover.
S: What kind of restaurant was it?
F: A Mexican restaurant.. Next I was in construction, and maybe
I delivered pizzas or something for a day.
S: What year did Pennywise start in?
F: I think '88.
S: I read about Positive Mental Attitude. (PMA) What was that?
F: PMA? No, Jimmy gets confused sometimes. That was Jason's
band. Jason was in a band called PMA and I was in a band called
. Jimmy was in a couple differ-
ent bands.
S: Were you guys friends at all before Pennywise started?
F: I knew Jason a little bit, I knew Jimmy a little bit. We all
grew up going to the same school. I saw Jason play. That's when
I called him up and said, "Dude. Come on over." And then we saw
Jimmy and asked him to tryout and we got him. Then we got Byron.
So, yeah, we knew each other.
S: Did you ever imagine you'd ever have such a following? I
mean, this show is sold out just on word of mouth.
F: No, never. It slowly built up, so I'm not surprised.
S: So, are you happy?
F: Yeah. Fuck yeah! Kids go off.
S: How's the video doing? (Pennywise Home Videos)
F: I don't know. It's doing alright.
S: I like it. There's a lot of cool stuff in it.
F: We tried to do one a little different. You've seen a lot of
home videos of the bands playing like 15 songs and it's really
fucking boring. We didn't wanna put any songs in there. We were
just gonna fuck around the whole time. We've been carrying the
cameras around for years, so we tried to get a little bit of
everything put together. It turned out pretty cool. Their
could've been a lot more shit in there, but people would've
gotten in trouble.
S: What's with that thing at the end where you're looking at the
shrunken head?
F: That was a guy that we know that has a head in a jar. I can't
say where. Well, I can say. It's in Denmark. He stole it from
a laboratory. It's pretty trippin'.
S: Now let's move on to O.J. What do you think of the whole
situation? Did you think he was guilty?
F: Yeah I think he's guilty. Not because he's black.
S: Do you think that there would've been riots had he been con-
victed?
F: I don't think so. The police were too prepared for that shit.
There's just way too much racism in the United States. There's
no way he could've been found guilty, because of the fact there
were fuckin' 8 black jurors on there and they're fed up. It was
like a message to the white race saying, "Hey, you wanna beat on
Rodney King? You wanna fuckin' do this, you wanna lie? This man
walks!" It's pretty sick, but 2 people had to die.]
S: And then some jurors said they thought he was guilty after the
trial was over. How the fuck do they get away with shit like
that?
F: I don't know, man. Not enough information I guess. The stuff
I saw, the evidence I saw, was overwhelming and unquestionable.
S: Some kid I know said you walked off stage at concert where you
opened for Biohazard because a bunch of skinheads were starting
fights. Is that true?
F: Nope. Wasn't us.
S: I didn't think so. But you guys are really anti-violence and
everything, right?
F: You know... Fun violence is great, if you consider slamming
violent. We're totally anti-fighting and anti-racism and all
that shit. Bigtime.
S: One last question. This is kinda stupid, but it's been bug-
ging me. On your self-titled album, on the song "Homeless",
there's a part where Jim is singing, and then he goes,
"Ok...that's it." Is that part of the song, or where there just
no words to go with the rest of the music?
F: He just said it there.
S: Alright. It's answered now! Thank's a lot for your time.
--The end!--