SELF

John Sease: vocals, guitar
Garrett Grashuis: bass
Rusty Corley: drums

Self is a 3 piece melodic, pop punk band from Columbia, South Carolina. They've been around for quite some time and their debut CD Codename Spivey has just recently been re-released on Offtime Records. There will be a new 20 song full length from the band coming out soon and also a split CD with other bands such as The Revolvers, Amish Jihad and 30 Deep. I interviewed John Sease (guitarist/singer) in my car outside of 27/58 in Columbia, South Carolina during the Ann Beretta show on May 29, 1998.

SS: TELL ME HOW THE BAND GOT STARTED.

JOHN: Oh crap. (laughs) The band got started about 6 years ago when I started playing in a cover band with Rusty, which is our drummer now, and Donny which was our old bass player. We played stuff like Bad Religion, Social Distortion, hell we even covered a Primus song.

SS: WERE YOU GUYS CALLED SELF BACK THEN?

JOHN: We didn't have a name at the time. We got this guy Wilson to sing and we played one show and we didn't even have a name. Then we got a guy named Russ Reaves to sing for us and then we started doing half originals, half covers. That's when we named the band Self.

SS: WERE DID THAT COME FROM?

JOHN: I don't know. We exhausted every resource we had and one night we were like, "What about Self" and we all settled for it and now we're stuck with it. We played five or six shows with Russ and I guess stuff didn't work out and he quit. That's when I started playing and singing. It was rough in the beginning but then I got used to it. We became a three piece and ditched all of the covers and worked on original stuff.

SS: WHEN DID GARRETT COME IN?

JOHN: About two and a half years ago, our bass player left and we tried out a couple of bass players and stuff wasn't really that great. Then we met Garrett and a Face to Face show. Garrett used to play with Premonition which was a big local band. We practiced with Garrett really late night and we practiced five hours straight. We hit it off perfect, it was great. Great chemistry I guess. We went on a writing spree and wrote 15 songs in 8 months and that was Codename Spivey. That was about 2 years ago.

SS: HOW DID THAT ALBUM GET PICKED UP BY OFFTIME RECORDS?

JOHN: Over a year ago we played a show in Charleston with Cletus. The guy that runs Offtime Records was filling in for the drummer of Cletus. And so he said, "Hey I run a record label and I want to do something with you guys." And so we were like whatever and got really stoked about it. And last March we told him that we wanted to do a new record and at the time, Codename Spivey hadn't gotten a fair chance and we weren't really sick of it yet. We had sold a bunch regionally but it didn't have good distribution. Offtime had good distribution at the time, he didn't have Cargo at the time though. So we agreed to do a repress and a year later it's just now coming out. We were kind of frustrated with that and we've actually had a rough time these past 4 months. We hadn't practiced in 3 months. We just played a show here and one in Jacksonville and both of them were really good. But we got some momentum now and we're going to record a new album within the next two months. We're going to do 20 songs and it may or may not be on Offtime. It should be out by the Fall though.

SS: WHAT ABOUT THAT SPLIT CD YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT DURING YOUR LAST SHOW?

JOHN: The split CD should be out in 2 months. It's going to us, The Revolvers from Kansas City, Unfound Logic's new band which is just Unfound Logic minus Paul and they're called Amish Jihad and they're talented as hell. And right now there's a band called 30 Deep and they're like a Fat Records type band but they're much better than any band on Fat Records. I think it should be good. Right now there's four bands, I think we might be shooting for five or six.

SS: HOW DID YOU GUYS SET THAT ONE UP?

JOHN: Chris McGee, the guy who's putting it out, called and said that he wanted to do a 7" with Self and we set it up and we set up studio time and we sent it to him. We sat around and said, "Well pop punk kids don't really buy vinyl anymore," which for the most part is true. Most of the fanatical pop punk fans these days are younger kids and record players are like 8 tracks to them. So we thought about doing a CD EP but I hate CD EPs because you put it in and it's over in like 4 minutes. They were like, "Well he's going to do a 7" for Amish Jihad too so why not do a split full length, it would make much more sense." We got a few more bands to be on it and it's now going to be an hour's worth of music. That'll be a lot better than buying a 7".

SS: YOU PLAYED A LOT OF OLDER SONGS ON THAT LAST SHOW.

JOHN: Yeah. It was fun. That's the thing, we have a lot of new stuff but people won't like it until it's been released. That's just the way people are. That's what happened with Codename Spivey. We would play a show and people would be like, "What are they doing?" but then we put out the album and now people are going "Play this song, or play that song," because they had a way to listen to it.

SS: DID YOU GUYS REDO SOME OF THE LAYOUT ON CODENAME SPIVEY?

JOHN: We didn't do it (laughs). Our record label redid the layout and didn't tell us. We spent all this money on a nice layout with the lyrics and stuff and when you open the CD now it's all dinky and it says "Write for lyrics." And then he changed the color of the CD to the ugliest looking orange color you can imagine.

SS: I SAW AN AD FOR YOU GUYS AND IT SAID THAT YOU WERE DOING A NORTH AMERICAN TOUR?

JOHN: That's what we were going to do but we had problems in April and May. We were bummed out about the new record not coming out but now that's all behind us. We're going to do some small tours in the next months like weekend things, but probably won't do a full tour until Fall Break. But we will be doing a big tour as soon as possible and hopefully we'll have a new album out in time.

SS: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE HARDCORE THING?

JOHN: Hardcore isn't what it used to be. Hardcore now, you get into all these cliques and crews. It's all about crews and fashion. The music stays the same but the fans just have a whole new perspective on hardcore. I can't really condone it. It's just fun to sit back and watch the fads.

SS: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE COLUMBIA SCENE?

JOHN: It's seen better days but it's looking better. It's always had good people at the base of the scene. It's good but it's not nearly as big as it used to be. I remember going to shows and it would be normal to see over 200 kids at any given show. The shows are still really good but it's really the quality of the people that matters and not the quantity. It's fun and you got people like Mark and Travis starting up 27/58 and they're doing a lot for the scene. If it wasn't for 27/58 we couldn't have shows. We would have told this band (points to Ann Beretta) that we couldn't do a show because we couldn't afford it. Putting out all this money to rent out the Vet's Hall all the time just digs into your pocketbook. Not to say that I really miss Rockafellas but it was an easy outlet to do shows. So it's really good to have a place like 27/58.

SS: ALL OF YOU ARE IN SIDE BANDS, DOES THAT AFFECT SELF IN ANYWAY?

JOHN: Not really. It did at first. My side band affected Self at first but now it's come to a nice balance. I'm playing with Six/Ten/Split which is fun but it's a totally different outlet. It's a more rocking type. It's not like it's taking anything from Self. It's definitely got some punk edges to it but it's not stealing songs that could be Self songs. Which is good, if it was, I'd probably have a problem with it and quit because Self is the priority. Garrett and Rusty's band, Insult to Injury is doing well also but there's a nice balance to it all.

SS: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SPINAL TAP?

JOHN: Oh man. Kick ass. Spinal Tap rocks. I think they're the best fake band on the planet. The fact that the bass player has lamb chops like that and stuffs a zuchini down his pants is timeless. Can't beat that. They're just the ultimate rock band that never found what they were looking for.

THE END