Hey hey hey kids! This is your friend, SuperJonk here with a big bag of Ska goodness! This interview with Keith Frenzy of Five Iron Frenzy was done a little while ago -- but due to my A Drive, which I had to get fixed, I couldn't get this posted until now (thanks computer). I hope you guy's enjoy this interview, as much as I had doing it!
Thanks to some girl, SuperJonk and Keith Frenzy for this interview!
- GodSka
PS For more cool and wild Christian Ska shtuff, go to RudeCentral.com!
First of all, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. I realize that you're taking your time doing this rather than going and... flossing... or whatever you guys do... hehe.
Ummm, yeah, I just got done using all my masculine hygiene products. (don't you think it's unfair that women have "feminine hygiene products" but we don't have any "masculine hygiene products"? I do, so I refer to any hygiene product I use as a "masculine hygiene product". Dental floss would apply here. So yeah, I actually just did get done brushing and using all my MASCULINE HYGIENE PRODUCTS!!!!!!)
2. Okay -- first question: GIANT POLAR BEAR!
YES!!!!!!!
Hey, it broke the ice! Hehe.
Very funny.
3. How's it goingright now?
I am kind of hungry. I just woke up.
What's the band doing? Hanging out, or are you guys busy in preproduction?
Work and school. I am working. Reese, Jeff, and Sonnie are all in school. Everyone else also has jobs.
How is it being Keith Hoerig right now?
I am good. (Ed. Note -- out-dated stuff I deleted for the sake of not being embarrased - Jonk)
How are things going for you right now? Do you guys feel rested enough to be going into another mass-promotional hoopla running until the end of 2001?
Yes, the end of 2001 should be fun for us. We will be releasing 2 new FIF albums, and probably another BS2 album. We are working on all of them right now. The 2 FIF albums will be one serious album and one that is just a bunch of stupid songs we make up as we go along. It will be fun for us, but horrible for anyone who has to listen to it. DON'T BUY IT!!!!!!!!! The fall tour is also looking like it will fun, big fall tour all over the US.
4. What's the word on the production of the new album? Will it be produced by Masaki? Quite truthfully -- I would like to see a new FIF album with a different producer. No offense to Masaki! It's just I'm sure lots of people would like to see how a band sounds through the ears of another producer. Heck, even Dave Matthews Band tried that out and succeeded with their new release.
Produced, engineered, and mastered by Masaki. He is honestly the best person for the job, I think. BUT we will be taking the tracks to other producers to mix songs. So we will have like 2 or 3 different mixes for some songs to choose from. And we are gonna try some weird stuff in the studio.
5. How about songs? What do we have lined up for the new album? Who's working on lyrics? Music? What can we expect?
It's all really too early to know a lot just now. I know that Andy and Dennis both have several songs each. Reese will still be the main lyric writer. Our goal has always been to NOT make the same album twice, so we are trying some new stuff, but it will still sound like FIF.
6. Many people have quoted FIF as saying that the new album will be 74 minutes of pure sillyness. Is there absolute truth to this statement? In form of songs... or whats going on here?? lol
See above. One album will be nothing but us fooling around, the other will be a "real" FIF album. Most of the "funny" album we are just recording ourselves in Micah's studio that he has in his basement. It will be along the lines of the pants songs, Kingdom of the Dinosaurs, ect. We don't know exactly when that album will come out, because the "real" album is the priority. The "real" album is tentatively called "Five iron frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo". (Ed. Note -- GodSka was the first to tell the world that this was the final decision on the album name, as it is now official. GodSka had the exclusive on this one, baby!)
7. Is 5 Minute Walk pouring all of there efforts into FIF this year?
Yeah, basically 5MW is really concentrating on us and Justin McRoberts this year.
8. And the massive new tour this Fall...
Will be massive, and new and in the fall. We are working on some ideas. We don't want it to be just another FIF show, but we want it to be lots of fun. If you saw us do the Star Trek thing on the Skamania tour, that is the kind of thing we are working on. But this time we will be headlining, so we will have more than 30 minutes to work with. I think it is gonna be fun. Again, we just have some ideas, and nothing is for sure yet. We don't even have confirmed bands to go out with yet.
9. Now, about the deal with distribution, has 5MW just been hooked up with Chordant as of a few years ago? I remember being surprised at seeing Live Proof the Youth are Revolting and All the Hype, and the bS2 CD at my local Fred Meyers! Will some Chordant sound engineers or executives be having any say or hand in the new album?
No. 5MW is distributed by EMI (Chordant is a division of EMI) their job is to get our album into stores (like your Fred Meyer) but they have never been involved with the creative process at all.
10. Not to mention I also saw the previously mentioned albums at Wal-Mart... ;)
That is a regional thing. I don't think you could walk into a Wal-Mart in Denver and see our CDs. I think it depends on how many record stores there are in a certain geographic region. But I am not sure how the distribution all works.
11. Hehe.
HA HA HA, HA HA!
12. How is everyone taking the splitting of the W's? I'm sure those guys were pretty darn close to you. Any talks about Val or anyone jumping back on 5 Minute Walk? I'm sure you guys must keep in touch.
Ummm, I am still very much in contact with Bret (he is a good friend, and was my roommate for a while) and also Val. Those are pretty much the only 2 I have talked with. Everyone seems OK with it. I mean personally I think they should have finished their 3rd album and then called it quits, but things happened that made that difficult. I mean, Bret has some health problems that he had to go get surgery for and he couldn't play any trumpet during the reco very time, so that's a big part of it.
13. Is it hard trying to deploy a Spiritual Message all the time? Especially when the Christian Music Industry is really limiting at times. How do you and the rest of FIF feel? Is it more a long to be a good example, jsut have fun, or what's going on here?
We just try to do what God wants us to. It can get VERY annoying when people are like "your lyrics aren't 'evangelical' enough", or "you guys don't say 'Jesus' enough", but we just kind of have to have faith that we are doing what God wants us to. Some people want every band to be having altar calls and stuff at their shows, and I think there are bands that are called to do that, and they do it well. But there are bands that are called to just be a good example. FIF is somewhere in the middle of those 2 extremes. I want to clarify that I don't think bands that are "just a good example" are exempt from evangelizing, no Christian is exempt from this. my point is that if they are doing what God wants them to do, then they ARE evangelizing. I know from personal experience that there are kids who would NEVER go to a "Christian" show, who saw MxPx on like Warped. MxPx generally doesn't "preach" at their shows, but because they are doing what God wants them to they are seeing people come to Christ. I have seen these kids go from the MxPx show to something like an FIF show and then from there to like a Supertones show (the Supertones generally always have an altar call), and then they hear the gospel and are saved. So anyway, I guess this is just a really long way of saying that we are all parts of the same body, and just because not everyone does things the same way, we have to trust that our brothers and sisters are seeking and doing God's will.
14. If anything, FIF is very much notoriously known for it's massive hardcore fanbase. Looking ahead to a new album, do you feel pressured to cater more to the initial core fan base -- or for a larger crowd?
I don't think we consciously worry about that when writing an album. We just want to make an album that we are happy with, and again, to do what we think God wants us to. It would be great if a billion people got into our band tomorrow or whatever, but we don't write that way. If we did, then we would start writing songs that sound like N*sync or Limp Bizkit or something. Musically we try to write songs that we like, and we think that if we like them then other people will too.
15. All the Hype has succeeded perhaps more upon winning new fans.
I am not sure. It has sold a little less than others, but I honestly think that is because of file sharing (ie: Napster, etc.), but I don't know for sure. I know that there are people who have bought "Hype" and it was the first FIF album they bought, and now they are working backward, and that's cool. We like new fans, we like old fans, whatever. I guess we just want to be 'real' no matter how many 'fans' we have. (I don't even like that word, the guys in the band Mortal once said "we don't want fans, we want friends." I think we try to make that be our attitude as well.)
16. And that seems to be the dillema! The good thing about the core fan base -- is that they'll always likely be loyal... but there's not that much room for growing musically or lyrically before they start screaming their heads off at you!
I scream back! AGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! Just kidding. Ummm, I honestly think the majority of our fans are intelligent and enjoy musical diversity, so I really don't think it is that big of a problem. I mean if someone doesn't like our music anymore, then don't buy the album. Music is a personal preference. Sure I would like EVERYONE to have FIF as their favorite band, but it just doesn't work that way. I mean, I have favorite bands, just like everyone else. I am not upset at all if people don't buy our records because of musical reasons. But it REALLY bugs me when people who LIKE our music don't buy our records because "we sold out", "we are too popular now," "ska isn't cool anymore", etc. Those are not legitimate reasons, in my opinion.
17. I actually asked the FIF Board for questions for this Interview (I hope she doesnt ask people to call her "some girl" in person -- told me to get questions ready a few days ago, so I was like "uhh okay") -- and they gave me the weirdest weirdest questions ever! I mean -- it's not like I wasn't expecting them to be weird -- but man! Here are a few examples of what they wanted to know: A) "what color feather dusters taste the best?" (haha) by FrenzyPhreak
I have only eaten one, and I can't remember the color, so I am not an expert on this. Sorry.
B) "ASk keith to tell the world what his last name means in dutch!!! I know but i cant tell. it's sick" by AudioAgirl
It means "I am a Prostitute", but not quite that polite. It is a common last name in Germany, where it means basically the same thing. When we played in Germany last I asked some people how such a horrible word could be a common last name. They said it had something to do with Hitler and WW2 and a bunch of other stuff. i could tell it all to you, but it is long, and this isn't a history lesson.
and also C) "ask them why they hate canada so much as to taunt them with a song and then NEVER TOUR THERE!! and what size socks does micah wear?" by the Skamerican.
We have been to Canada once. The Canadian customs is the HARDEST IN THE WORLD to get past. I am not kidding, the hardest country I have EVER tried to get into is Canada. We want to come back, and we probably will someday, but until then, sorry to all those in the great white north.
Micahs socks??? I don't know.
Now if you answer those -- I personally don't care for their sakes (lol) -- but my main point, err question -- is that man -- you guys have some silly silly fans. Doesn't it ever get tiring? I'm sure there are lots of times where you have to thrive on being silly on demand which isn't fun at all.
Yeah, we just try to be ourselves. I mean if we aren't feeling silly, then we won't be silly. But we feel silly an incredible amount of the time, so that's good.
18. Can we see the current "friendly rivalry" between you and the fiveironfrenzy.com's Message Board resident "The Lost Supertone" develop into an eventual angle on the WWFIF?
Right, that's what we are hoping for the whole message board. Like WWF just did the XFL thing. Well, we are gonna get them to invest in our message board, it will be the first ever virtual wrestling match. I'll call up Vince McMahan right now. (THIS IS ALL FAKE!)
19. You are familiar with the WWFIF, right? (lol) What about wrestling in general? Oh heck let's talk about ants! Just kidding.
I used to watch WWF all the time when I was in 7th grade. Back then Hulk Hogan and Macho Man were the coolest. I recommend the movie "Beyond the Mat" if you are interested in what pro wrestling is really like.
Ants???? We have them in our house in the summer. I don't like them. I think they crawl into my mouth in my sleep.
Okay okay okay -- a few more questions, then we'll let you get back to... your ummm "masculine hygiene".. heheh...
20. The Dreamcast... please tell me you guys still play it. Can we look forward to playing online games against big bad Keith? And you *have* to get Daytona USA!
None of us have one. But they have one at the studio we record at. I like the fishing game. I'm a nerd. These are the only video games I play:
Ms Pac Man
Galaga
Parappa the Rapper
Ummm Jammer Lammee
Tetris
and video Scrabble.
21. Ska. It's been a good two or three years since this bad boy's hit it's Golden Year. It seems every other band has gradually shifted it's sound. Does FIF feel compelled to stick to its Ska/Punk roots, or move onto a different genre? Again, the whole hardcore fan base debate pops up again...
Again, we will try to make a record we like. What is popular or trendy will have little influence on it. But we have never been a "ska" band. I say this not because it's no longer "cool" to be a ska band, but to give nothing but respect to the people out there who play real ska. The Isrealites, Hepcat, Skatalites, etc., those are ska bands. I am comfortable with the label "ska-core" for what we play, but whatever. People can call us whatever they like, I just hope they will LISTEN to the records and decide if they like us or not based on that, instead of whether or not the label we call our music is still "cool".
22. What do you hope the average person experiences through an FIF show or CD?
I hope that people, including us in the band, will be encouraged to really seek what is true, and have the courage to do what we think is right.
23. The FIF Suggestion Hotline. Please elaborate. Or is this more-a-long just for the FIF Message Board?
See the news section of www.fiveironfrenzy.com for details.
24. Fingers, thumb, or pick? (bass)
Pick.
25. We here at GodSka would like to be servants -- is there *anything* we staff here, and also all of our visitors can do to help support FIF, and also its respective members? Is there anyway at all that we can help out? Please leave us with some last thoughts and requests --
Thanks for the chance to talk to people. That's enough for now.
-Keith Frenzy
Visit me online at: http://www.hometown.aol.com/keithfrenzy - Thanks.
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