COLIN & DANNY WITH DUCTAPE ZINE (November 1996)
Reprinted with permission of Zack Feldberg, Ductape Fanzine

Ductape: Go ahead, introduce yourselves...

Colin Vitamin: I'm lead vocalist and lyricist.

Dan Syndrome: I'm lead guitarist and vocalist. Jeff Obnoxious on other guitar, Adam Puerile's our brand spankin' new bassist, and Dick Teenager is the drummer.

DT: When did you guys all get together?

CV: Marilyn's Vitamins started up in the spring of 95. Me, Jeff, and a couple of friends got together for lack of anything better to do, and proceeded to make a couple stupid 2-minute punk rock songs. Over the past year Dan, Dick, and Adam replaced the other guys and the lineup has since stuck.

DT: How did you hook up with Raw Energy?

DS: We E-mailed them for about 2 months , and sent them our demo "Down and out in Levittown" and they liked us a whole bunch and signed us in June of 96. We all thought it was a wise move, due to the fact that the contract was basically a handshake deal over pitchers of cheap beer.

DT: How did you get into punk rock?

CV: When I was 16 I heard the Dead Kennedy's for the first time, fell in love, and since then, I can't get enough. Dick got into it throught Fugazi I think, and Jeff's pretty much the same as me. Adam's just a young guy, lovin' it all, new and old.

DS: Back in high school I liked bands like Green Day and Beastie Boys a lot, and I still do, but since then my musical preferences, both listening and songwriting wise, have changed a lot--did I just destroy all my "Punk Rock Credibility"?

CV: We're just a bucha suburban kids who latched onto anything rebellious and different.

DS: 20 year old suburban kids.

DT: Do you guys enjoy playing all ages shows more than licensed shows?

DS: Yeah, because old drunks don't dance.

CV: And at all ages, young drunks do...

DT: Is the new album out yet?

CV: It's out now, and it's called "IN THESE SHOES"

DT: Any plans on re-releasing the cassette?

DS: Nope. Nine of the ten songs on "Down and Out In Levittown" were re-recorded and put on the new disc. The Operation Ivy cover had to be let go. It was a cursed release anyway. At least a hundred people have told us that their dog ate it, or that they lost it, or it got eaten in their tape-deck or whatever.

DT: How is public response in relation to the band?

DS: The young skater kids seem to really like us in Brampton, and Orangeville, and a lotta people are starting to come out when we play Toronto too. That's mostly due to Raw Energy, Mod's and Rockers, and word of mouth.
DT: Are the new songs as socio-political as the old ones?

CV: A lot of the new songs are just as socio-political as the demo, and a few are far more personal. Shit I observed or experienced living in a small suburban area.

DT: I noticed you quote George Orwell's Animal Farm in the song "Bread and No Butter". How did that come about? And how does Colin say it so fast?

CV: Animal Farm is one of my favorite books, and I thought the quote summed up a lot of misconceptions of poor or homeless people. I can say it fast cause I practice lots.

DT: Why did you decide to form a band?

CV: As fucked up as it sounds, it lets me get out a lot of my frustration and aggression. If somebody does something, if I do something that I later think is fucked up, I can write a song about it and deal with it in a far less destructive manner.

DS: I never wrote many lyrics to songs or anything, I basically found whatever guitar chords sounded catchy together and tried to make songs out of them. That's what I still do now. Before being in a band myself, I had a lot of friends in high school who were in so-called "Alternative" bands, and i guess that made me kinda jealous. I really wanted the opportunities that they all had, but I wanted to do it as differently from them as I possibly could. I wanted to get on stage with a buncha' guys I got along with and have fun grinding out energetic 3-chord punk in front of other people just like myself. Now, I do.

DT: When did you hear about Mod's and Rockers on CIUT FM?

CV: Back in high school, this guy dubbed me a Minor Threat CD and told me about it. Back then it was on Wednesdays.

DS: I started listening right after it switched to Mondays.

DT: (The Big Question) Would you agree that Tim Hortons is the superior doughnut king?

DS: My girlfriend once worked there, it has good coffee I guess. I hate it when the lids on their cups don't open properly though.

CV: I don't really eat donuts, but their chicken salad sandwhich is the second best I ever tasted. The first was made by this lady I worked with last year when I was a dish pig in a restaurant. Holy off topic!

DT: Is the song "Pills and Vomit" about someone in particular?

CV: Yeah, it's about Marilyn Monroe. It's the song that explains what our name's about and that is that things are not always what they seem. For example, Marilyn Monroe was seen as the biggest sex symbol and probably the most famous woman to come out of the 50's and '60's, but in the end, she committed suicide. It's kinda like in the 50's when suburbs were springing up across North America, they were considered to be perfect little neighbourhoods, but if you check the history books, they were riddled with alcohol abuse, and a dozen other similar domestic problems.

"When it all looked clean but smelled so rotten, and all the bad stuff was ignored or forgotten".
-- Quote from our song 'Pills & Vomit'.