10: I’m Scott, I’m not in the band, and I am 21. (laughter)
JS: Right on.
CH: Liar.
JS: No you’re nineteen.
PT: You’re nineteen too, come on, don’t lie.

10: All right, I am nineteen.
JS: OK, good.

10: How long have you guys been around?
JS: Pat and I have been together about 4 years, almost 4 years, maybe not quite that long.

10: Was that under the name Anti-Flag? 
JS: Yeah, yeah and then Cock and Chris just jumped on for this tour. Well, Chris was with us for about a month before this tour and then Cock joined for the tour. But this is the line up, you know we don’t expect it to change.

10: What brought about Andy (previous bass player) leaving?
JS: We just weren’t getting along, but you know it’s cool because we have these really great new members and I feel like we got the same direction going. We got new energy and it’s really cool.

10: What motivates you guys to write song lyrics?
JS: Well, definitely a lot of personal experiences. Almost a good, I would say 90%, of the songs on our new CD are all things that have happened to us or they’re things that we have just observed that have really made us angry or happy, you know. “Die For the Government” was one thing that, it just blew me away. One day I saw this documentary on this thing called the Bonus March. That was a march during the great depression where the US Veterans from World War I were trying to get help from the US Government during the great depression and so they marched to Washington DC and when they wouldn’t leave they were mowed down by US troops and one of the commanding officers turned out to be the guy who later became President Eisenhower. And he led the charge to mow all these guys down. They killed about 6 or 7 people who supposedly died for their country. So that kind of motivated the idea for “Die For the Government.” Then with the Gulf War there’s these people with Gulf War sickness and the government says they don’t know what it is and it’s like, they said that about agent orange for 25 years. So, you know it’s kind of the idea that these people die for their country supposedly, but it’s just a line of shit!

10: On the songs you guys have on that split with d.b.s. (North America Sucks) there’s a lot of lyrics sprouting from television and media portrayals.
PT: Yeah.
JS: Well, I’m in school for communications and we learn a lot about how the media works and the things you learn about the media are incredible. There’s no interviews done with the Pentagon that are asked by the journalists. The Pentagon makes up all the questions. So anything you see on television, an interview with anyone from the Pentagon, the question was made up by the Pentagon. Sometimes what they’ll try and do, to make it look realistic, is they’ll make the question seem like a tough question for the general, or whoever, to answer. And so in the media, because they’re an industry you know to make money, it’s an entertainment industry. They’re perfectly fine with taking these totally fake portrayals and putting them on television. That’s considered good journalism. So that’s where a lot of the songs on that are motivated.

10: What do you see as some of the biggest dilemmas for today’s youth? I know for me it was trying to get into a major university like the University of Washington. I just barely made it financially.
PT: We had friends at home who couldn’t go to school without joining the military or joining the reserves or whatever and I think that’s a big issue because they think that, well I could go to school or get the GI bill or whatever, but then they almost got shipped off to the Gulf War and almost got their ass shot off. I think that college is for many people, something that they can’t afford or their families can’t afford to help them out with, so that’s a big issue.

10: Who are some of your musical influences?
PT: Stiff Little Fingers.
JS: Dave Heir from Samiam. (Standing 6 feet away)
CH: He’s our musical influence. (Laughing)
PT: He’s our singular and only. (More laughing)
CH: There’s nobody else.
JS: There’s nobody else. (Even more laughing)

10: Who else?
JS: Lesser Humans from Cincinnati.
PT: Naked Raygun.
JS: Yeah, Naked Raygun, um... ?: Anti-Flag
CH: Urnisexuals.
PT: The Avengers.
JS: The Avengers. The thing is a lot of the bands we listen to don’t really influence us.
PT: Paul Simon.
JS: In the beginning a lot of bands that we listen to that really influenced us are Naked Raygun, Big Black, um...
PT: I hate Big Black.
JS: Even like Jesus Lizard was a really big influence, but then there were bands like the Exploited or even the UK Subs and you know that was stuff that we like too so it was a really big array of stuff that really influenced us. A lot of people don’t even consider some of those bands punk and to us they were always punk bands. Recently I think too it usually has a lot to do with the bands we play with, like I think the Bouncing Souls have influenced us a lot in the last couple of years. I think that d.b.s. from Vancouver really influenced us a lot. When you’re around a band that much you know you kind of get new ideas from them.

10: You ever listen to much metal when you were younger like Iron Maiden or anything?
CH: Aahhhhh, an Iron Maiden fan, are you?
10: (Nod yes, I love Maiden)
PT: I’ve never gone through a metal phase. I don’t care how cool it is. I’ve never done it!
JS: Now Chris on the other hand...
CH: Piece of Mind was my first record.
JS: I hate metal. Metal sucks. I fucking hate metal with a vengeance. I never went through that phase either.

10: The Trooper!
CH: Yep, good song!
JS: All my brothers and sisters were punks you know and it was like none of us ever listened to metal. Now everybody is really into this metal phase thing and I just was never there man. Never understand it.
CH: You just weren’t living when you were younger.
JS: Ah, I wasn’t, I was just...I missed out.

10: I guess you had to have an older brother who was a metal head.
JS: It would have helped.

10: What bands have you guys played in before Anti-Flag?
PT: Nothing that you would know...

10: Anything you want to mention?
ALL: No, (followed by laughter, tee he)

10: This isn’t the first time you’ve been to Seattle so how do you think the scene in Seattle is compared to the scene in Pittsburgh as far as the kids go?
PT: Tonight actually there were a lot more similarities than the other times we have been here. We were here a couple of times and played a 21+ show and have been .. a bar and a party.

10: Lake Union Pub?
PT: Yeah... Katrina was there on that day actually.
JS: She got mad at us though. She thought we were making fun of her. Katrina, I’m so sorry! (Justin runs with arms in the air to Katrina and apologizes.)
PT: But anyway the Seattle show tonight we had was really cool and similar to Pittsburgh because there were a lot of young people enthusiastic about what was going on, so that was cool.

10: Are there a lot of problems with violence at the shows there (Pittsburgh)?
JS: No, not in Pittsburgh. Even if a fight starts up in Pittsburgh, kids are very unified and you know they feel like they have a common goal. Fighting at shows is just not really accepted. And if you do it, kids really intervene.
PT: There are some really great older punks who are still around who haven’t given up on everything and who are there to set an example and to keep things in line for that type of thing (violence) so it’s really great that they are still around.

10: Are any of you guys currently working, aside from playing?
JS: Well, we’re starving.
PT: Chris is the corporate head of Little Caesars.
JS: Yeah, ha ha ha, he’s taking time off for this tour.
CH: Yeah, I was allowed to.

10: Pizza Technician.
PT: I work in publishing at home but whenever you leave you never know if you are going to have a job when you get back.
JS: Yeah, I watch my sister’s kids so that’s a pretty steady job for me.
PT: cough cough hack cough (he is sick).

10: Has anything exceptionally strange or funny happened on this tour so far?
JS: Whoa!
PT: We got offered 26 thousand dollars, what was it total?
JS: Well the Subs were offered 25 and we were offered 6 grand.
PT: To play a rave in Denver and uh...
JS: Actually Colorado Springs.
PT: ... and in the end, obviously it wasn’t real.
CH: They were going to fly us to Seattle.
PT: They were going to fly us to this show so we wouldn’t miss this show.
JS: It was a representative from the biggest rave outfit in the country.

10: Do you guys know what made the UK Subs decide to go back on tour?
JS: According to them, all our records. That’s what Nicki says, he says (Justin uses cheesy British impersonation) you guys, your records you know... Well it was just 20 years.
PT: They haven’t been out for a while and they just figured it was a good time to go out.
JS: Yeah, they just thought it was time, I mean it has been 20 years since they got together. And Nicki you know he never quit writing songs so you know they released two new records and you know they’re good fucking songs, too. So I think a lot of their new songs are a lot better than their old songs... I just think they thought it would be fun.

10: Do you guys get much support from your families?
JS: Tons.
PT: Chris’s dad makes us the fucking, most rocking chocolate chip cookies you’ll ever have!
CH: Yep.
JS: Seriously like dozens of chocolate chip cookies.
PT: Yeah, like whole canisters full and I’m a big chocolate chip cookie fan so it’s amazing.

10: Toll House Morsels?
PT: Well they’re made from scratch I think.
CH: Yeah, but he does use the Toll House Morsels.

10: He doesn’t try and slip the Chips Ahoy in?
PT: No, no he doesn’t scam us with factory, store bought cookies, it’s all good stuff.
JS: And of course it’s like we borrow money from everybody, we have borrowed money from our parents so many times. You know I don’t know if they ever expect us to pay it back. You know we always think were going to, but we never seem to make any money so they have been really cool like that too.
PT: So if anybody has any money they would like to send to us,(Justin laughs) we will make them honorary family members. (More laughter and coughing)

10: Cash, checks, and C.O.D., is that all OK?
JS: Yeah, its all good.

10: Credit cards even?
PT: As long as it can get us some green.
JS: Ha, the green.
PT: It’s all about the green.

10: Does the song “Summer Squatter Go Home” have to do with homeless people in Pittsburgh or not necessarily?
PT: Not necessarily homeless people. It’s about kids who squat because they think it’s cool and then and then go home for the winter, but they come into the scene and really trash things and fuck shit up. We have had experiences where kids come in and it’s not their scene and they’re just traveling around and then they get all fucked up and don’t want to pay to get into shows and want to break shit and just cause problems and then they go away and leave the kids whose scene it is to clean it up and try and get a new place to do shows because they (summer squatters) fucked it up. So that’s what that song is about in my interpretation.

10: What are your views on religion?
PT: We have been asked that a couple of times in the last couple of weeks. I guess were not allowed to talk about MxPx... That’s what the kids were talking about tonight. It’s not a big thing for me.
JS: It’s definitely something that could be used to control people and I’m never in favor of that you know. But I think that there are some open minded religions where you can go and believe the things you want to believe and allow people to start up their own beliefs. I don’t think it’s bad to believe in God. I mean there’s a lot of people who believe in God who don’t practice any religion so there are some different forms to look at I don’t think it’s always a negative thing. I think spirituality can be a very positive thing but as far as any kind of organized religion, I don’t really chase after it.

10: What would an Anti-Flag discography include?
PT: It’s really strange actually because we have a lot of things that you can’t get anymore and there’s a lot of things that aren’t out yet that were supposed to be out about two years ago.
JS: You can write to us for any of these things but the stuff that’s in print is our first 7 which is a split 7 with the local band called the Bad Genes who are really rocking, then we have the “Kill Kill Kill” 7 ep, then coming out we have a split with Against All Authority from Florida and a band from Japan, then we have the “Die for the Government” full length CD that just came out about 4 or 5 months ago, and we’ll have...
PT: A split with The Dread , a 12” picture disc RocknRoll, and a split with Clearview coming out in 6 weeks.
JS: So that’s all the stuff that is still around. We had a split CD out with d.b.s. from Vancouver, Canada. That’s not in print anymore and won’t be printed again. We had a split with this band called God Squad from Connecticut. They had former members of the Pist. And I think that is everything.

10: What’s the near future going to hold for Anti-Flag?
PT: Going home, taking the summer off, and doing nothing but having a good time all the time.
JS: I don’t have a girlfriend but my goal is to go home, meet a really nice cool girl, fall in love, go to the beach, and hang out on the beach with her and my dog for the whole summer.
PT: What’s the near future hold for you Chris, corporate take over of Pizza Hut?
CH: Yeah, that’s it.

10: I thought it was Little Caesars?
PT: Well he’s the corporate head of Little Caesars but he needs to branch out and take over Pizza Hut.
CH: Yeah, I’m going to have to go straighten things up back in the ‘burgh (Pittsburgh).

10: You should take over Pagliacci’s, Seattle’s finest.
PT: Or take over, what’s that fascist one?
JS: Domino’s.
PT: Domino’s yeah, take over Domino’s and make them peace loving hippies. They would love the half portions.
JS: This tour, it’s going to be like four months or something like that when we are done and we are beat. We’re going to go home and we’re just going to relax and then at the end of the summer we might record a new record. We got a ton of songs so it’s just a matter of practicing again after the summer and getting it together. Maybe we will tour in the fall. We really aren’t sure. There’ll be a new full length out within a year I imagine. We’re going to keep this line up together as long as possible since Cock is from Canada, we’re kind of working the details out on that right now. But you know this is great. This is the most fun I’ve ever had in this band so I hope we can keep this together.
PT: He never had any fun with me before.
JS: Well (chuckle) it was all boring before.
CH: Well at least he’ll have fun with you now. (More chuckles)
JS: That’s why I need Cock and Chris because I’m too bored.
PT: All right it’s: A/F, PO Box 71266, Pittsburgh Pa 15213. You can write to us and we’re really bad about writing back.
JS: We do it, it just takes a long time.
PT: Because we’re out for long periods of time and can’t get to our mail, so bear with us please.

10: That’s also the address for all the ladies seeking Justin.
CH: Who want to go the beach.
JS: If you want to go to the beach and fall in love, I’m really up for it right now. I really need some love you know.