Dirtnap Operatives: KC= Ken Wisconsin JF= Justin Folkers
KC: All right if you could just go around and tell us who you are and what you play…
Cinder: I'm Cinder. L&L - Language and Larynx
Jeffery: I'm Jeffrey, I play guitar and strings.
Jimi: I'm Jimi, I play bass.
KC: Could you guys give us a brief history of the band; were you in other bands before this, when did you all get started?
Cinder: We started in February of '92. Jeffrey and I were in a punk rock acoustic band called Phoenix Iron Works Jimi put out a comp with the one and only song Phoenix Iron Works has ever recorded, it's called "This Ain't Rocket Science."
KC (To Jimi): So you have a label?
Jimi: Yeah, Cheetah Records. I've got about 5 seven inches out and a 20 band comp CD, and a bunch of other stuff coming out. I got an "American Steel" seven-inch as my next release, the Tantrums; I'm coming out with a ten-inch by those guys. A lot of other stuff…a lot of vinyl.
Cinder: Jimi used to be in Screw32 and Vince used to be in Basic Radio…
Jimi: …and a bunch of garage bands that no one ever heard of.
Cinder: I've been in bands since '83 - something like ten different bands.
KC: So how did you guys initially hook up with Lookout Records?
Jeffrey: We were making t-shirts for them actually, and we were playing a lot at Gilman Street. A lot of the Gilman bands ended up on Lookout, that was what was happening at that time and so that was what we were doing by the time we hooked up with them. It was pretty cool actually, we were really lucky. We got together that February and recorded a demo -
Cinder: -for 25 dollars, at Gilman Street, with Marshal Stacks at the helm.
Jeffrey: Right after that we recorded another demo that became our first seven-inch on Lookout. That came out in June. So we got together in February and our first seven-inch came out in June, we were pretty stoked, it was pretty cool.
KC: So why did you decide to move on to Fat [Records] then?
Jimi: It just seemed the right thing to do. Things were changing, both for us as a band and for Lookout as a label. It seemed like the best thing for us and them. It was kind of a mutual decision.
KC: Are things going well for you over at Fat?
Cinder: We love Fat. Fat is like our Dream label.
Jeffrey: We're still close with Lookout too, we played their ten-year anniversary show. Chrisser and Molly, they're all cool…
Cinder: One big happy East Bay family!
KC: How do you think your sound and song writing have progressed since you guys started? It seems like your lyrics have gotten to be more political, more social.
Cinder: Uh… Well -
Jimi: Cinders is reading the question right now…
Cinder: Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what he said... well, I haven't really analyzed that, its an interesting question. I think the sound -
Jimi: May I answer that question? As Artists we all hope to progress
Cinder: Its kind of subjective because I'm not going around like; "how am I doing" "what am I doing" "what do I sound like." I am so immersed in the creative process that to stand so outside of myself - looking at myself - would be far too narcissistic. I'm just muddling along as I go, trying not to be close minded to different things. As far as the song writing (on my part) goes; as time has gone along my writing has become focused less on my internal hell and more on things around me, that may tie into the social commentary. I think my forte is really dark humor - black comedy, irony using satire and various dark comedic devices to get my point across about the ills of society. I'm not trying to change the world or anything. I'm just sort of holding up a mirror and saying "Isn't this absurd?" That's what's fun to me. My dad was a theater professor and I saw a lot of plays growing up. I was exposed to all the B's like Beckett and Brecht…all the good playwrights seemed to have a last name that started with 'B' - Brendan Behan… Those are playwrights that really affected me, I really like that dark sense of irony.
Jeffrey: What about Bauhaus?
Cinder: I don't think that's a playwright…
KC: I take it then you guys write the lyrics before the songs?
Cinder: No, there is no pat way. Sometimes the melody comes first, sometimes the guitar picks it up first. The melody of the guitar and the voice are different most of the time. Sometimes they write the songs and I put the words to it, or I might write the chord progression and not have the words yet. I don't like to say, "it has to be this way" because then you're closing yourself off to spontaneity.
Jeffrey: Sometimes at rehearsal, we'll be rehearsing and she'll stop singing and start writing stuff down. She'll think of words and get inspired to write lyrics like that, so it's always in different ways. There is no one set way that this band writes songs.
Jimi: We've always just kinda liked to keep it open and keep it fresh and not get to precious about it. We try to work off of each other.
Cinder: Sometimes it'll just fall out of your ass, and then other time you'll have to put the piece of shit on an anvil and hammer it out.
Jimi: Basically we just take a lot of Chuck Berry rifts and play 'em really fast...
KC: Hey, I think I heard another band say that before. I had one more song writing question -
Cinder: Good, no one ever asks questions about creative process, I'm diggin' it. They all want to know what it was like to play with Green Day.
KC: Ok well, I'll scratch that one off…At the end of Berkeley Pier, you guys have that little piano outro, that sounds a lot like the song Chesterfield King by Jawbreaker -
Jimi: That's Right! You win the prize. Jawbreaker are really sweet guys and they're really good friends with Cinder and Jeff so, its more of an homage to a band that Tilt loves…although I had nothing to do with it.
KC: So, do you guys tour a lot? I noticed you've been doing a lot of different kinds of stuff, everything from basement tours to the Warped tour. What is your ideal tour situation?
Cinder: I like playing peoples' basements and having their parents feed us.
Jeffrey: The Warped tour is pretty awesome. It was really fun because there were so many people on that tour and, if you can believe it, there wasn't any rock star bullshit and even the people that promoted the tour are all in the trenches, they're out there getting their hands dirty and doing shit. It was also fun just being our own band and not have to worry about following other bands or anything like that, we'd just drive across the country- it was like, if we were there we were having fun.
Jimi: I don't know, I like playing club shows. About the size of the show tonight is perfect. Whatever. As long as it's a creative, fun atmosphere it doesn't matter whether it's a huge show or there's only two people there. As long as people are having fun and getting into it, that's all that counts.
KC: Do you play smaller basement type shows anymore or are they typically larger like this?
Cinder: We haven't been playing at all recently. Tonight was the second show we've played in six months because we took off a lot of time to write and record and I can't remember past that…
Jeffrey: We haven't played basement shows in awhile but we're totally into it, we're fine with that.
Jimi: We play Gilman and stuff when we're at home, we'll play there around twice a year.
Cinder: That's probably my favorite place to play.
KC: That segues nicely into my next question; how do you like living down in the Bay Area? I know a lot of people are bad mouthing it these days because the whole gentrification issue. Does that affect you over in Oakland at all?
Cinder: There's still enough scum on the streets to go around.
Jeffrey: I set roots down In the East Bay a long time ago, it's my home, that's all there is...
Jimi: I've never heard a black person say anything about gentrification. I've only heard a bunch of rich honkey kinds talking about it so I don't know what the "Gentrification Problem" is. It's always been a bunch of white kids playing punk shows in crappy neighborhoods.
Cinder: Yeah, what he said.
KC: Are you guys well received down there when you play? Do you think you have an easier time of it there than if you're off on tour somewhere?
Cinder: It depends. In Chicago we had the best show of the tour as far as I'm concerned.
Jeffrey: We have fun playing at home, but there's nothing like going to Philadelphia and having 500 kids show up singing your songs, it's fuckin' great. But it's also great to show up in the middle of nowhere and having a hundred kids there.
Cinder: It doesn't depend on the number of people that attend, it's their attitude - are they having fun and responding.
Jeffrey: Exactly. And also whether I'm having good bowl movements before the shows, tonight I didn't but still had a good show.
Cinder: I had a great pre-show shit, how about you Jimi?
Jimi: I didn't have one.
Jeffrey: Jimi's been constipated for two and a half days.
KC: I guess you started answering this one already, but: what's your motivation for doing this, whats your favorite part of being in this band if you had to choose one?
Jimi: The dames.
Jeffrey: The creative process, I love…I love rock - n- roll.
Cinder: I don't know, I like it all, each step of the way. I like the torture of pulling the lyrics out of the depths of my twisted brain. I like sitting down and throwing them onto whatever music these guys pull out of their twisted brains. I like recording it and I like playing it.
Jeffrey: What was the question again?
KC: Why are you doing this, what keeps you motivated…
Jeffrey: I thought I had an answer…well, I guess because I'm just a trained punk rock monkey here to entertain you.
Jimi: This is what I've wanted to do ever since I was twelve years old. Its what I've geared my whole life to do: play music and put out records.
KC: So, then what are your least favorite parts. Do you find it hard to maintain a normal home life being in the band?
Cinder: Fuck a normal home life. My least favorite part is people smoking!
Jeffrey: My least favorite part is coming into a place feeling good, and then having to contend with unnecessary attitudes from people that are used to dealing with rock stars and think you're expected to act like that and they treat you horribly. It doesn't happen that much but that's what I hate the most; getting an unnecessarily bad attitude pointed toward you for doing nothing.
Cinder: But that didn't happen here…
Jeffrey: No, it didn't happen here, and it rarely happens. But when it does it's a real drag. I understand that people are under pressure and they have these shitty jobs and these smoky clubs but that's just a drag.
Jimi: The home life thing is an issue for me because I have a wife and child so, a little separation anxiety there. We don't tour that much though so it's not that big of an issue. Over all I'm really happy with what I do.
Jeffrey: But when you're on tour for a long time and you come home… Boy do you get lovin'!
Cinder: In California there is a law now so people can't smoke in clubs which makes my job a lot easier, I can breath. It sucks when people are right in front of you blowing smoke in your face, they don't realize you want to pummel them.
KC: Yeah, I smoked for 11 years but gave that up about a year ago. So, is the band a full time gig? I know you guys have other outside; The T-shirt thing and Jimi's got the record label…
Cinder: Yeah, the T-shirt thing takes up most of Jeffrey's time…
Jeffrey: That's our day job. At Cinderblock we have about 13-14 people working there. It's really turned into this major operation. It basically sucks up all of my time but its also a lot of fun, we have a lot of great people working with us. But it is all consuming - I really have to cut away cut away time for the band, which is kind of a drag, but it's worth it.
Cinder: Are we sitting next to raw sewage or something…
Jeffrey: I farted.
Cinder: Oh, I thought I recognized it.
KC: Do you have any other non-music related interests you pursue when you aren't out on the road?
Cinder: I'd like to say I do Yoga, because I do, but when I read myself saying that in interviews I think I sound like one of those trendy motherfuckin' Hollywood bitches that can't keep their mouths shut.
Jeffrey: We collect toys, so we go to the toy stores. Jimi collects records and sometimes we let him go to book stores and record stores, but not very often.
Jimi: We usually go to the toy stores and then we have to get on the road. I'm taking up macramé in my off time.
Jeffrey: Macramé is definitely a lost art.
KC: So are you all politically or socially active at all?
Jeffrey: My social action is trying to create this place where people can work and not have to work for an asshole. Even though, a lot of people think I am an asshole, I try to create a cool place to work. That's about as socially active as I get.
Cinder: When I drive by the needle exchange I honk and go "Yeah!"
Jimi: I think we do a certain amount of political activity in our music and I'm really happy about that. We have quite a bit of social lyrics and, you know, we're down for the cause. We're supposed to be going on a Plea For Peace tour, it was like the Rock Against Racism tour, with the benefits going to the Tolerance Museum. That tour got postponed, but we're all into working for causes like that.
Cinder: But don't call us up to play your stupid fuckin' mealy-mouthed benefits. We got bills to pay.
JF (Token Question): You mentioned Mia Zapata when you were on stage tonight and I could help wondering what kind of influence she had on your songwriting.
Cinder: Well, I had already been in bands for about ten years before I ever saw the Gits but seeing that band really renewed my faith in punk rock, and especially women singing in punk rock. Not many female singers have the guts to develop their own vocal style, she definitely had her own style. There are very few singers that I like because everyone sounds alike. I don't like a technically good sounding singer, I like it when there is something fucked up about their voice, some character, some depth of soul. When those guys played together you could just see the music coming through her, she was like a conduit - a filament that the music just came right through, she was very charismatic. It's rock -n- roll, the spark of rock -n- roll was there, which I had seen absent from so many so-called punkrock bands parading and performing for years. I hadn't been stoked on a band until I saw the Gits. I just really appreciated her lyrics and the music from her and the rest of the band, those guys are all great players.
KC: Are there any bands playing now that you feel that way about?
Cinder: There are a couple, but none that really strike that chord in me like they did, but I'm not looking either.
Jimi: We listen to a huge variety of music, especially when we're on tour. We'll be listening to Motown, Soul, County, Punk rock, it's really all across the board. Music in general is very inspiring to us but as far as singular bands that actually move us? I can probably think of a couple for me but there aren't that many new bands that really -
Cinder: There are a lot of bands out there that are technically good. They're tight, they're powerful but the music doesn't really inspire me because its tried and true, its not out there on the edge, its not pushing the envelope of acceptability or delving into any new ground. People latch onto some popular band's style and they just try and emulate it, that's boring to me.
Jimi: As long as it's sincere, that's what is important. Even if it is the same old Chuck Barry riff, as long as its sincere and somebody means it, that's all I care about. I can hear 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' by a hundred more bands and that would be all right with me, as long as they mean it.
KC: Are there any goals you all have for the band that you may be working on?
Jeffrey: Actually, I think we're doing what we want to be doing right now. We're making records, we're going out on these tours and doing shows that are fun for us. We're at a level that is really comfortable, we're not caught up in chasing some brass ring or anything; we're not trying to be the next so-and-so. We really hit a stride of just being ourselves. As far as goals, I think we need to keep touring, keep making records. We'll be going to Japan this year and hopefully back to Europe. We're doing an EP that's going to be coming out in Japan only. It'll be two songs off the new record and then two unreleased songs, we're going to go over and tour that.
Jimi: Take it a little bit farther and reach a few more people, but keep doing what we're doing.
KC: I guess that's about it, anything else you guys want to throw in?
Jimi: We're also working on this new radio hit for the next album.
Cinder: What?
{Laughter}