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"against the grain" #24 mxpx interview

dave: okay, so i'm interviewing you... um... is it fun to live in america?
mike:is that the only question you have? what do you think guys? i think it's funner living in america than say... antarctica or
greenland.
tom: it's like any other place, like here. i'm sure its fun and i'm sure it sucks sometimes as well.
dave (laughing): were you inspired by the grunge movement? everyone - no... we weren't (laughing)
mike: that was pretty much a 21-and-over thing anyway, and at the time we were too young.
dave: you've been out here for a while, you've played a lot of shows... do you notice one great problem in the australian
music scene?
yuri: oh, the 18 and over thing...
mike: oh yeah.
tom: we were told that all-ages shows were really hard to do and they don't make a lot of money, whereas the 18 and over
shows the promoters are way into doing.
mike: even though ALL of our all-ages shows were way bigger.
dave: yeah, funny that. to be honest i think that are just lazy and can't be bothered finding places where they can have
all-ages shows.
mike: hey! i thought this was our interview. come on!
dave: you've got a new album on its way... do you want to talk about it?
mike: hmmm.... do we want to talk about it?
yuri: yeah.
tom: no.
dave: yuri told me some fancy stuff about cutting the mistakes out of the tape and piecing the best bits together...
mike: we can't tell anybody that though-
yuri: oh..
mike: - it's musicians secrets, the way we record and stuff...
tom: well, we recorded it with steve kravac, who did the last record -
mike: - yeah the same guy that did life in general...
dave: and he's famous for...?
yuri: being alive.
mike & tom: being canadian.
mike: he's a good guy, he's done some good bands.
tom: he doesn't have an album that was all huge and people go "oh yeah you did the nirvana record". he just makes good
sounding records.
dave: but he did some stuff with bad religion didn't he?
yuri: three songs or something.
dave: is it different to life in general? have you gone in more of a poppy direction, or is it more aggressive?
yuri: we've sort of gone both ways, i think.
mike: life in general was more of a ball, and this one is more spread out...
tom: it goes up... it goes down, it's a roller coaster...
mike: yeah, there's a bigger spectrum of songs... we're doing ska, metal, industrial...
tom: we're doing some factory rock: it's like industrial but it's a little different...
mike: it's got some mid-tempo poppy stuff, it's got mid-tempo not so poppy stuff, really kinda hardcore screamy stuff, similar to
pokinatcha but better.. and then there's some straight up melodic punk songs similar to life in general.
dave: and the label guys are pretty happy with it?
mike: yep. i don't necessarily know that there's a big single on it, obviously a song will be released to radio, but it's like an
album, not a single and a bunch of other songs.
dave: was it harder to record than the others?
mike: yeah it seemed like it. it felt like it didn't go as easy as other recording sessions.
dave: is that because you felt more was expected of you?
mike: yeah, that and it just took longer...
tom: and we wanted to top life in general too.
dave: you do a lot of touring in the states, and you've done quite a bit overseas. where do you find time to practice and
get the new songs together?
mike: right before we record... and if we're at home we practice when we can but that's not very often...
dave: were these songs written just before you hit the studio?
yuri: yeah some were -
mike: - two or three -
yuri: the rest were written a year or so ago.
dave: do you get sick of playing the same songs and practising?
mike: um... i like practising, unless i'm really tired, but usually practising's fun, cause then we can just do what we want...
dave: how do you practise? do you just go through a song and keep doing it until you get it right? or do you do the
ceasefire thing, and just play it through once and screw around for a while... then go to the shops and come back and
screw around and play something else then pack up....
mike: in the beginning we usually go through it four or five times to get it right...
yuri: until we have some kind of arrangement -
mike: then we'll play something else, then maybe we'll come back to it.
dave: what do you do? do you have spare time... do you have lives outside of the band?
mike: not right now...
tom: last time i checked i just liked to sit in my room. like, i had a good time when you guys went away for christmas, i just sat at
my house and went out once a day for maybe a half hour or something... and i'd go over to seattle and hang out every once in
a while too.
dave: seattle's a nice place...
yuri: seattle's cool.
mike: what else do we do? we go bowling together...
tom: yeah we go bowling, we go see a lot of movies...
yuri: we spend a lot of time with each other, almost constantly.
dave: so you're friends outside of the band and see each other in social contexts?
tom: yeah, we always get back from tours and say 'well i've seen you every day for the last four months, hope i don't see you
for a while...' and then we're like well, 'i'll see you tonight'... (everyone laughs)
dave: what are your favourite types of shows to play?
yuri: last night at the iron duke...
dave: you like smaller shows?
tom: yeah, last night was really fun.
yuri: the vibe's cool when there's a few hundred people.
dave: what's the biggest show do you think you've played.. in terms of numbers?
yuri: cornerstone.
dave: how do you translate to a big, stadium-like show?
mike: it's hard.
dave: do you have to work harder to get going?
mike: yeah, definitely. it doesn't work very well at all 'cause you're so far from the crowd, you have to be a way better
entertainer, which we're not. we're just goof-offs. sometimes it's life... 'i don't know what to say, let's just play' so we don't talk
much, like, what do you say> "hi, what's going on?" i don't really like those shows at all.
dave: they're usually outdoor too, so there's always sound problems...
mike: yeah, definitely.
dave: okay... generic questions: what are your favourite bands? give me a favourite punk band and a favourite non-punk
band....
mike: the descendants and all for punk rock, that's what we were totally into when we first started the band and a lot of their
songs totally related to our teenage lives... girls or whatever. as far as stuff that isn't punk, we all like different stuff...
yuri: there's so many bands...
dave: i know yuri's a big cure fan...
yuri: well, i haven't listened to them lately, but i'd still consider myself a big fan.
dave: right... um... gee i'm really good at this... um... is it fun to live in america? (everyone laughs)
mike (still laughing): no, it sucks, don't go there!
dave: you can buy guns at walmart. that's what freaked us out. you have to go through a lot to get a gun here...
tom: really?
dave: we were wanderng around walmart freaking out.
tom: when you turn 18 up there you can just buy a shotgun.
mike: when you turn 21 you can buy a handgun.
dave: what do you think of reading stuff that gets written about you?
yuri: the screwed up press?
dave: yeah, here's your opportunity... speak out!
mike: we actually took interview lessons.
yuri: yeah, to turn the interview in a certain direction...
mike: see, if we wanted to, we could be controlling you right now...
tom: you know, dave, maybe we are controlling you... (all laugh)
mike: no, we haven't used our skills on you... yet.
dave: you know we had so many problems with our first interview, it was like, "you're a christian band, what do you
think of homosexuality and abortion?"
yuri: your first interview?
dave: yep, they changed what we said anyway...
tom: "how do you feel about abortion?" "well, we feel very strongly about it.." (everyone laughs)
yuri: "yeah, we have strong opinions..."
dave: aha! now i see what you were taught in the interview lessons...
yuri: no, they encouraged you to say stuff like "i dunno, just give me a beer..." (more laughing)
mike: how about i do this... tom, what made you want to be in mxpx?
tom: i dunno, you guys were actually getting out of bremerton, and doing a tour and so i was like yeah, i'll do it...
dave: rumour has it that you did't play guitar before you joined the band?
tom: this is actually the first band i've played guitar in. right after mike and yuri asked me to be in the band, mike and i started
hanging out a lot, and mike taught me how to play guitar. he'd say, "play a power chord", and i'm like, "i don't know a power
chord, so he'd say, "play a minor", and i said "a what? i don't know what you're talking about"...
dave: what made you ask someone that didn't really play guitar to join?
tom: they wanted the challenge...
dave: have you guys ever thought about doing the dave grohl foo fighters thing and setting up another drumkit and
having a big drum off? (laughing) it may live up those big shows...
tom: (laughs) i don't really consider myself a drummer anymore since i'm so out of practice... if i played it'd just be bad!
mike: you know that'd be cool... two drumkits...
tom: next question please...
dave: hey i've got a quetion.. daniel (ceasefire) wants me to ask you why you have sexist lyrics in the cootees album...
(room explodes into laughter... daniel had already cornered them earlier in the day...) mike: um... because we wrote those
songs four years ago.... and they were total jokes..
tom (lauging): oh i thought you were going to say, "we wrote those songs four years ago when we were sexist pigs..."
dave: there was a lot of controversy over cootees lyrics...
mike: oooh yeah.
dave: .... was the perceived sexism one of the controversial points?
mike: no.
dave: hmm... 'cause it seemed to me that all the christians skipped over that and said "oooh, he said hell, and he said
piss", and that was the controversial point.
mike: yeah, that's just it... and the thing is, i didn't say hell, jiles did, he's not a christian...
dave: well, personally, i thought if they were going to complain about something that would be a line they'd complain
about, and nobody mentioned it...
yuri: which line was it?
dave: "ugly girls with cellulite make me scared to sleep at night."
yuri: heeheeheehee.
mike: well, it wasn't as good as some of the others and it was kinda near the end...
tom: you know what's really funny, though about the whole thing, particularly the hell thing - have you ever gone to church and
heard the pastor say something about hell?
dave: yeah, there's a context issue though... how does it make you feel when people think they have the right to tell you
what to write about?
mike: at first guess it makes us want to be rebellious... it makes us defensive, but music is art, it's something we're creating...
and it's something that we're quite honest about. some of our songs are quite light hearted and jokey, but then there's songs
that are totally serious, and who we are is part of the band, so that comes out in our lyrics.
dave: i think that part of your success has been that you write about things that teenagers... even christian teenagers...
are going through. that's why 200,000 kids bought life in general, it's something they can relate to on a more day to day
level. you've got to be true to yourselves...
mike: totally...
dave: yeah... and i know that it can be wuite easy.... well i've done it before... just to flick through the bible and pull
something out of psalms, and write something that looks really spiritual. but if it's not really what you're going through
then i think it's dishonest and i think it's more mockery than anything else...
mike: yeah, i agree, totally. even though we know that christians probably won't think this is spiritual, the truth is i'm not always
feeling totally close to god or feeling like i'm right there doing everything right, and that's going to come out, if i let it and if i'm
honest about it.
dave: ... and that's the universal thing...
mike: yeah totally. but our new album, i think, is more blatantly spiritual. i could name songs off life in general that people
wouldn't think are spiritual but totally are... even though it doesn't say "god" it's directly involving god...
dave: i know, for myself, songs that i've heard that have helped me at specific points in my life have always been songs
i haven't understood on the first listen. then it's like one day the penny drops and you totally know what the guy or girl
was going through...
mike: it's weird to think that people care so much about what we do, and it's good they do cause we want to do something that
matters and make music that matters to people and we never even really felt that would be possible, that people would care.

interview by dave hobson
article by suzanne