Interviews index.

With Greg Lee vocalist of the band.

Where does the name Hepcat come from?

Greg: We used to have two singers, the last time we came through we had Alex and me. He's doing a TV show so he's not here. Anyhow he used to have a cat named Exavier Daniel Hepcat, and we're trying to figure out a name. The stupidest names were coming up like Skabawaby. So Alex was just like, "why don't we call it Hepcat?" And that name just stuck. Took me awhile, I didn't like it at first.

Do you like being on the Hellcat Label?

Greg: I do. Only because well I don't really want to talk about Moon, it's this long hard thing. With Moon Records it was a growing process for us and them, its not a bad thing its just wasn't happening. With BYO on the other hand, they're just not nice people. They used to be, I grew up in a way with they guys for BYO. They were always cool and they asked us to make a record. I was like that'd be so cool cause we've been friends forever, but never go into business with your friends. I didn't realize at the time that this was business so, I thought it would be rad, it'd be cool. But once we started, I started asking general questions like, did any money exchange hands? Did you hear anything from that place in Europe that wants to use our song and pay us a bunch of money? They wouldn't ever tell us, we found out later that they go it and it's taken them a year to get it to us.

When we left the label on our contract, they said that any label that wants us has to pay 20 thousand Dallas and you can go Scott free to the other label. So Hellcat said ok sure and wrote up a check, we'll pay 20 thousand for Hepcat no problem. But when they pay'd em BYO took the check cashed it and said we don't' want 20 thousand we want 100thousand. Because they knew that we are such a broke band, we're just doing our thing we're not going for like the big money or anything. We couldn't afford to go to court or does any of that stuff so we had to just accept it. The way we're paying them and we'll still be paying
them for the next five six years is through our gross. All the records that anybody ever bought, the money goes to them. Until we equal the amount of 75thousand dollars. The rewards we got form that album, they used it on movie sound tracks, and just the other day I found out, they used it on a European Soccer commercial. I was like"YEAH!" and then I though oh I'll never really get to see an actual report of that because we'll never get paid for it the money just goes straight to them.

Does Hellcat give you more freedom to do what you want with the record?

Greg: Totally, we can do any fucking thing we want. We love to have that kind of freedom. Hellcat offered us, Tim Armstrong and Brett Gurewitz from Epitaph, they said we want you guys to keep on doing what you do. Forever because we love to watch you play. That's why we want you to do a record and we want that for you and for us. I was like you guys are creating the perfect environment for us to be a band. The way we were with BYO, not knowing anything all the time, it wasn't' a good environment. We couldn't stay happy because we were always worried. Now its like I don't even think about calling to find out how record sales are cause I trust these people, I feel very close to everyone who works there. At every show we play there is always somebody who's there form Epitaph. To make sure we're all right, hang out. It's more like they're our buddies, we'll all
go out and drink and have fun. Label stuff will never come up unless we have questions and if we do, they'll answer them.

Was it fun to tour with Rancid?

Yeah, It was funny but its kinda strange. Lars told me how he wants me to sleep with me. He's not gay but he always messes with. He always bugs me cause he's always really really forward about it, but he doesn't really mean it. Tim's very quite,
him and I always have heart to heart talks. Its fun it's a lot of fun, they don't drink or smoke, they're totally doing everything they're doing by their own will. What they're doing is exactly what they want to be doing just like us. So again a great environment for us to be doing our thing. Who would have thought a band like us playing with Rancid? But we've been doing successfully now, and we'll do it all the way across the country.

Do you ever want to make it big like Rancid?

I wouldn't know what to do. I'm sure the guys in my band really do, but I wouldn't know what to do. I'm not sure if I could handle it. I like the fact that we have to underground scene and we've always had the underground scene. We love it there that's our home, it's where we started and we hope to always be there with them. The trouble with doing a bunch of videos and everything is people will start to call you a sell out, and it hurts. I did the same thing to bands that I grew up with. I realize now that if you want to live, if you want to survive doing music, you have to go for the big money. You can play squat bars and back yards until you're old and gray, but you'll always be broke. It's not easy to do this. We leave home, everyday we have to make sure our mail gets to us so we can pay the bills, every bit of money we're making on this tour goes to paying our
bills at home. It's really hard. I think it's a good thing but I'm also afraid of it.