to, but somehow managed to lean towards music that was a little different.
Though I listed among my favourite bands, The Beatles and Queen, I also
listened to R.E.M. before anyone cared who they were and bands like New
Order and Erasure. In grade 12 I first heard Skinny Puppy and thought
it was pretty bizarre, but a year later I was listening to it myself.
I guess my first taste of Punk music was 1981. The Kitimat Public
Library had a copy of "End Of The Century" by Ramones on cassette.
I borrowed it from the library several times over the next 5 years.
I did not realize that this was the band that spawned the New York City
punk scene and influenced so many punk bands later. To me they were
a great Rock 'n' Roll band. Punk was not in my vocabulary.
It wasn't until the summer of 1987 when my friend Kevin came home from
University that I first realized what punk was. For the first time
I heard bands like The Sex Pistols, The Clash (actually I did see the "Rock
The Casbah" video a few years earlier), The Jam and an assortment of other
bands. Suddenly, my listening interest changed. I started buying
records by bands like The Damned, Ramones, Hard-Ons, The Cramps, Buzzcocks,
Dead Milkmen, Dead Kennedys, and the list goes on. Life had started
anew. The following year, my buddy Juho dubbed me Assman. At
that time Juho and I formed a band called Psychotic Rendition. That
is a band you'll be happy to not hear about. Without these beginnings,
and my next band, Castrated Turnip, Sid Died For Squid would not have ever
existed.
Jari and I wrote the music at my apartment shortly after the lyrics were complete. I really wanted the song to have a Ramonesey feel to it, as it really is a tribute to the punk bands that influenced me, Ramones being my biggest. I pushed the other guys to keep it simple, and I think the end result was effective. Oh yeah, the "Nothing Is More Refreshing" line I added because Jari felt that some kind of "chant" was needed during the riff between the Chorus and Verses.