Dick: My name's Dick and I sing for a band called Citizen Fish. I wear vegan shoes. These trousers are a bit sweaty especially around the groin area because I just finished a gig in Eugene; Eugene, Oregon. TIS: How long have you been playing music? Dick: Well, really since 1979. I was in a punk band called the Mental Rockers. Lousy attitudes. Highly inefficient, loud, grating, silly punk rock. TIS: Who were your biggest influences? Dick: The Damned. The Whine. The Sex Pistols. Then we found out about the Stooges. They majorly became a large favorite. I'll stop there or it will just become a list of early punk rock bands, you know? I like some classical music.The fast vibrant stuff that makes your spine go somewhere. All music is of the same nature. There are certain notes that do chemical things to the brain or the spine. You can find it in most forms of music except Country & Western, there is not ONE tune that does that. TIS: How did you get into integrating ska with your music? Dick: We liked ska. Ska was part of the early eighties scene. There was like punk rock and you went to see punk rock at discos. And Ska music was the other alternative music that was going on. At first you're like "fucking mods, fucking bastards." Then you get a bit older and you quit saying fuck the mods and the rest of that stupid shit. Then you start to realize that some of that Two-Tone stuff was actually really good. And you sneak out with your jacket up and you buy all these Two Tone records and listen to them. Then you dig a bit deeper and go back to the 60's skankin' bands. Then you find out about Reggae and Dub, and so music is sort of a progressive thing. You find something you like and it sort of leads to other things you like. TIS: What messages do you feel Ska carries with it? Dick: Most Ska bands don't have any messages at all. Operation Ivy is a point in difference, exception to the rule. A lot of Ska bands sing of getting drunk and falling in love with hats and things. I think it's such a good form of music. It's a fun music. I think it is more of a fun music thing. TIS: What was your favorite venue? Dick: Koop de Kopee in Berlin. It's an old squat with houses about where you played for several hundred people. It was massive, you knew you were really up there. It was a small, letter C shaped ramp with a big courtyard, with busses parked in it, and a car out in front with weeds growing in it. And we played there three times. The gig is a late gig, your'e going on at half-past one or two in the morning. The food is fantastic The beer is German, so like people are getting stoned around the place. By the time it gets to half-past two o'clock in the morning, that's if you're still in your sober head, something's gone wrong if you're not falling by the time you go on stage. Well anyway, it's like boom, it's fantastic. It just clicked. Now, I mention that one because we played there three times, and that's happened every time. That's like a rarity in really, really good gigs. If it happens once, you go back and its like something just doesn't click like the time before. Quite often, the novelty of being in a different place can be a large amount of what is good about the gig. A good gig goes beyond the place, or stays in the place. TIS: How did Two-Tone effect the path of Ska music? Dick: There wasn't much path in Ska music before Two-Tone came along back up out of the 60's, (they were) faster, revitalized and with socio- political lyrics. They made the path. They cut the road. They sort of blazed the path or something jet fuel, instead of a horse and cart. They did it so well, it's sort of a major event in the 80's. TIS: Was anyone else mixing Punk and Ska when you started Culture Shock? Dick: No, not really. Back to the Planet did, but I think they may have started after us. The idea kind of came out of the festival scene where there were lots of Dub Reggae music with bits of Ska, and sort of a festival punk attitude. It all sort of came out at once. There was AOS3, Culture Shock, Back to the Planet, and all the other ones. But a lot of punks didn't like it because it wasn't punk. A lot of rude boys didn't like it because it wasn't pure Ska, but that's how they think. We think differently. Play what you want. Mix it up. Mix and match I say.