All right, here's the deal with this interview. I had a bit of trouble deciding whether or not to print it for a couple of reasons. First of all I couldn't tell if it was interesting to read, also pretty much every zine has had a Tilt interview lately. In fact I read an interview with Tilt in a zine from Calgary in which they listed all the questions they hate being asked, and guess what? I asked all of them! Another reason why you almost didn't get to read this. Oh well, let me know if it's ok by you.

Nik: Okay, just introduce yourself and say what you do in the band or whatever.

J: I'm Jeffery and I play guitar.

C: Cinder Block, I sing.

G: Gabe, I...complain.

Nik: gabe, you're a new member, hey? Or relatively new...

G: As of eight months ago, about...

Nik: What happened with the lineup change, how did that come about?

G: Well the old guy Pete, who used to be in Crimpshrine by the way, he didn't have time to tour really...he didn't have time to do everything, cuz like it takes a lot of time to do what we do. And he's gettin married next month!

nik: wowee.

G: ...plus he wanted to worn n' stuff...

J: Basically, when we lost our bass player, we looked to people we knew, and Gabe was in another band in Santa Rosa called Ground Round, and we just asked if he was interested.

C: He was the best bass player we could think of! He was our dream bass player.

J: He was, he was the first one to come to mind and he accepted so...

V: I didn't really want him in the band actually. Everybody's saying nice things... (laughs all around, ha ha)

Nik: So how does the song writing sort of thing go in Tilt? Who does what? I know Cinder writes the lyrics...

C: Yeah

Nik: Okay...who does everything else?

G: Me an' Jeff sit down with acoustic guitars in the park and write songs and haggle for hours over which chords to play right before the chorus and then when we finally get it right Cinder does her thing and then Vince is our producer and he says "Fuck you! play the bridge there and then we'll add this here" so...(laughs all around 'cause Gabe said a naughty word)

J: We don't burn incense or anything it's just, like convenient to have acoustics.

Nik: Sittin' in the park and jammin' (we all laugh because we think we're funny) So what was the basis of your move from Lookout! to Fat Wreck Chords?

J: Well basically, I don't know...we're a free ramblin' band, and if we're not allowed to do what we want then we'll go somewhere else where we are allowed to do what we want.

V: Also Fat Mike came out to one of our shows in San Francisc, like a long time ago before we really even did record our record on Lookout! and he saw us and he said to himself: "punk rock was achieved tonight" and that was all that mattered to him. (we laugh because we are happy folk)

J: actually he had wanted to do our first record at that time, but we already had our hearts set on Lookout! at the time so...

Nik: So you guys are through with Lookout! forever and ever?

J: Well, we're doing our third record on Lookout!, but Lookout! doesn't know it yet.

C: We still like them.

Nik: So Tilt toured with Green Day last year...(I got cut off because they all started groaning and rolling their eyes and saying "shut up, no we didnt't, that's a lie" etc.)...how was the response on that tour?

G: It's kind of a drag to go to every town and have the flyers say "previously on tour with Green Day!" or something like that...

J: Yeah, that's kind of annoying, but it was actually really cool because it was right after Dookie came out and it wasn't like an arena thing, it was like thousand seaters and they were really cool shows, there was a lot of kids, and it hadn't gone completely to the whole MTV thing yet, not that that's bad in my opinion, but it was still kinda of quaint (I think he said quaint but I'm not sure because my recorder didn't pick that part up too good) When we were in New York the MTV video was being played and when we were in New York they were doing the Letterman thing and the 120 minutes thing and all that shit...actually, scratch all that fuckin' advertising for the stupid stations and shit...(It didn't sound much like endorsement to me so I left it in)...they were just there and it was cool, it was a really good time.

Nik: What do you think about Green Days huge "success"?

G: I say "how the hell did that happen!?"

V: My fingernails are falling off. (hein?)

Nik: Okay, back to you guys...you're touring Europe later this year?

C: We are?

J: Hopefully come the fall, that's the plan.

C: I don't even have a passport!

Nik: Have you done that before then?

J: No, this'll be our first time.

Nik: Are you excited?

J: Absolutely, I mean we just love to tour, and this time we're really stoked 'cause we're playing ten shows in Canada, we're playing all the way over to Winnipeg and then doing Quebec and Toronto and all that so...uh...we just lvoe to tour.

Nik: What do you guys do when you're not touring?

G: Uh...I hang out.

J: I make punk rock t-shirts for lots of bands.

V: I hang out with Gabe.

C: I search the town for little plastic toys.

Nik: Are any of you involved with any political/socail organizations or causes? i know there's a huge food not bombs in San Francisco...

C: I'm the president of "Used Plugs" which is a counter intelligence agency opposed to U.S. thugs.

V: they're also trying to save the Midwest farmers.

G: I do a zine called positively 4th street which is all about my boring town and it's history and the culture there.

J: I make punk rock t-shirts for bands!

Nik: You're kidding (we laugh at Jeffery's funniness) I got the ad for your new album on Fat, "'Till it kills" which shows your van after it was rolled, what happened there? (they all groan 'cause it's not the besst memory)

J: They let me drive.

C: We hit a freak ice storm in Tupelo, Mississippi and we went over a bridge and it was freezing ice, and we lost control of the vehicle, and...uh...went across the median and landed on our roof in the shoulder of the coming lane.

J: Basically that was my Detroit karma because I was born in Detroit and I bailed as soon as I was able to quit school and so...

(cinder interrupts)

C: What the fuck does that mean!?

J: Well, I turned my back on Detroit and it was a Ford vehicle and there's some kind of correlation between ford and Detroit...

C: that's so fuckin obscure. (we all laugh except Jeffery, who is deeply hurt and begins to weep. Just kidding.)

Nik: Was anyone hurt in the accident?

C: No one was hurt and our brand new equiptment was all ok.

G: Oh...these guys are starting (Agent Orange was about to go on stage and wanted us to move) Summarize all these questions that you haven't asked us already.

J: You can ask us some more questions while we're packing our van...

(at this point everyone except Cinder ran off to do whatever, but the rest of my questions were basically for her anyway, so I didn't bother chasing them)

Nik: Cinder, which do you perfer to write, personal lyrics or more political lyrics?

C: Well, I think that anyone who thinks they ahve the answers is a fool, and can only write from a personal point of view. That's all I know...what I know from my own personal experiences and I can study an issue all I want and I still won't have the absolute truth, so I try to just follow my instinct and delve into my own problems which is the first step in helping things.

Nik: "Dumb little world" seems to be a heavy anti-nationalist kind of song, or a sort of disgust in blatant nationalism...

C: Yeah, well if it happens to be political like that, it's just filtered through my own psyche, you know that's just how i feel...I don't know...um, there's a lot of things that I'm upset with in the states, not just like what they call progress and that's sort of what the song is about.

Nik: What would your ideal government be?

C: Fuck, who knows, I don't know...I used to think that I was a socialist in college, but I don't know now! I just don't have any fucking idea, who does? (the singer rfom Victoria's Breach wanders backstage and calls out "hey they know Green Day!". I figure this is a good time to conclude the interview.)

Nik: One last question then I'll get out of your face: what would I find in your stereo these days?

C: Uh... The Gits, or Good Riddance, or what have I been listening to lately... I don't know, those are two good ones... I have forty eight CDs in my car if you want to come flip thorough my envelope.

Nik: Oh, that's o.k., anyway that's about it, so thanks a bunch for the interview and I'll talk to you later!

C: Sure, sure, that's cool. Nice meeting ya'! (I feel cool)