Simon: Can you give us a brief band history please?
Greg: We all grew up in the same town and went to high school together. I used to go over to Brian’s house, and Pete and Brian played cover songs, Ramones songs and what have you. Then we all started playing parties, then we moved out together to a house in New Brunswick and just started gigging around that area.
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Simon: Was that the house that was mentioned in the video ‘Release’ by Sick of it all?
Greg: I dunno, Sick of it All never played at our house. Tim from Token Entry did, Supertouch did, and a lot of local bands y’know.
Simon: If it’s okay to ask about it, what happened to Shal?
Greg: It’s a long story, it’s a kinda personal story, too much to get in to an interview about.
Simon: Has he got a new band or anything?
Greg: No I don’t think so, not at the moment.
Simon: So, is this tour just for the sake of doing a tour, or have you got a new record coming out that this is in support of?
Greg: No, we are going to go home and write songs for the new record, but we’re just touring because we wanted to headline Europe for the first time, and I’m glad we did. It’s good to get over here.
Simon: Did you enjoy yourselves last time you were over here with Lagwagon and Avail?
Greg: Yeah, but to be honest I like this one better headlining. The shows are smaller but it’s really good. Playing the smaller shows and touring in Europe is like touring the US 5 years ago. Like playing in some really....
Simon: Inbred, little military towns like this one!?
Greg: Yeah, just playing all over y’know.
Simon: Yeah, I think a lot of people prefer smaller places too, ‘cos the show you played in London last time, at the Astoria, really sucked, I mean you guys only played for what, 20 minutes? But you were still good, but the doors opened early as they had double booked it with one of the Spice Girls or something!
Simon: Anyway, On quite a lot of your records you have one or two tracks that a bit different to all the others, like ‘Moon over Asbury’ on Maniacal Laughter, and ‘Wish me well you can go to Hell’, ‘Screamer’, ‘Undeniable’... How important is it for you to go off on a tangent to your normal sound once in a while?
Greg: It’s always important, it makes everything interesting. I mean, I think every record is different, and all of the songs on the records are pretty different, it just occurs that way. That’s how we are entertained, that’s how we have fun. I mean doing the live show is the most important thing though.
Simon: Who in the band writes the groovier ones?
Greg: Which ones are groovy?
Simon: ‘Screamer’ and ‘Undeniable’ are pretty groovy!
Greg: Oh, I think ‘Undeniable’ started out as going to be an instrumental, and we were going to call it ‘Ronaldo’ after the soccer player, and we played it, and the producer, Tom Wilson said, ‘you should turn it in to a song.’ So I started writing lyrics, then sang them over the recorded track. That’s how that one occurred, but they all happen a different way, I mean they’re usually just when we are sitting around like this going ‘I like your mom’ or something like that y’know (laughter)! ‘I saw your mom last night, we had a real good time’, y’know just making mom jokes at each other, then we just think of a song together when we are all relaxed and having a joke y’know. That’s how that song happened.
Simon: Cool! What bands influenced you in '87 to start the band, and who influences you now to continue being in the band and make more music?
Greg: Everything that I do influences me y’know, like coming here and touring here is just like the US was 5 years ago like I said before. I mean we’ve spent money on the records and now we can tour and put lots of time and effort in to our next records. That is what really inspires us. We are gonna buy some recording equipment and record a lot of the new stuff ourselves. I mean less than actual bands, it’s more like we think ‘let’s do something different for ourselves’ that inspires us to keep making music.
Simon: How important has Epitaph been to your growth in the last few years?
Greg: Very important. I mean there distribution is really the one thing that has made us more available to people in more places y’know.
Simon: How much of a comfort is it to have like drum and string sponsors and stuff like that too?
Greg: It helps! A couple of extra dollars here or there is nice.
Simon: Sure! Are there any down sides to getting free strings and shit, like having to do PR for those companies?
Greg: I don’t think they’re free. Just cheaper. I dunno about the other point, you’d have to ask Pete and Brian about that.
Simon: Your love of BMXes and Football, sorry, soccer!, is obvious from your songs, but if it boiled down to it, which one would you rather do, if you HAD to give one up?
Greg: Riding a BMX is a functional thing I suppose, but so is football as well I suppose! That’s a tough one. I’d have to say I’d keep football... but I’d still ride a mountain bike! (laughter) Tho’ I’d probably be selling out BMX or something.... (laughter)
Simon: I'd guess from your surnames that you have European descendants?
Greg: Well yeah, everyone in America does! But my dad is Italian, my mom is German, Irish, and Scottish.
Simon: So is that where your love of football comes from?
Greg: I dunno.... I just started kicking a ball from a young age, and it just grew from that y’know. But I dunno why, ‘cos not many people in America were doing it, so maybe that is why I did... I dunno?
Simon: Football in America is like big pads and stuff!
Greg: Yeah, I just looked at that, and I was like, I could throw the ball, but I knew I’d just get pummelled! (laughter)
Simon: What is New York like now.... there has been a lot of talk of it going down hill?
Greg: There are a couple of venues that’ve just closed down. A good small venue, Coney Island High, and this other one, Tramps, that we used to play. It’s difficult now for us to even find a decent place for us to play, that is a comfortable size for us.
Simon: Since hooking up with Epitaph have you released any thing on Chunksaah?
Greg: No, but we’re going to soon. We’re going to release a compilation of unreleased tracks called ‘The bad, The worse, and the Unreleased’. There will be a lot of really early stuff from like ‘89 or something. But I dunno when it will be released over here, as we are putting it out ourselves in America, with no help from Epitaph or anyone, so we are trying to find a decent distributor at the moment.
Simon: Do you have any plans to put out any other bands on Chunksaah?
Greg: Sure! But not right now, as it is a matter of money and shit, that I can’t really talk about now as I’m not too sure about it all.
Simon: this might sound like a stupid question, but what does ‘Chunksaah’ mean?
Greg: Our friend Timmy (?) Chunks loaned us some money, that he had actually loaned of someone else (laughter), to put out the very first thing we released. We used to call him ‘Chunksaah’, that was the joke. We literally had to think of something to call the label, and that’s what we called it!
Simon: How important was having your own label to release stuff on in the early days?
Greg: It was the only way. We solicited ourselves to labels but we got no response, so we got really pissed off, to the point where we each said ‘Here is $100 bucks from me’, then Tim loaned us some money, so we got it under way and started selling them on tour. I’d recommend any band that’s finding it tough to get noticed to just put stuff out on your own.
Simon: Are there any Bouncing Souls side projects or side bands?
Greg: Well, we are working on a band called ‘Castle Head’ (laughter), which is just a few friends of the Bouncing Souls, maybe we will work on something with them, and put it out on Chunksaah we’ll see.
Simon: I dunno if you know, but what inspired Brian to do the graffiti art ont he fight to live single?
Greg: Well, he’s always been in to it, just doodling and scribbling graffiti, and I suppose he just decided to go for it on that single.
Simon: I mean, New York has a rich graffiti heritage, did that have a lot to do with it?
Greg: Oh yeah! Of course. I’m not really in to it, but there was a place near where I used to live called the ‘Aerosol Art Museum’. If you ride on the 7 train out to Queens (?) then there is this whole warehouse area devoted to graffiti. It’s cool
Simon: How would you describe the Bouncing Souls in 5 words or less?
Greg: Let’s have a good time
Simon: If you could put on an ideal festival, who (dead, living, disbanded or still going) would play?
Greg: We would play, we’d be the only band! (laughter)
Simon: What’s the question you’d most like to be asked?
Greg: Are you ready for the interview to be over!
Greg: Errr... nah, I’m only joking with ya. But a lot of interviews are really shitty, but this is really relaxed and fun, but a lot people are really boring!
Simon: Fair enough mate! Anyway, Do you still see the Bouncing Souls going in another 10 or 13 years?
Greg: Oh yeah! Making music is fun, I’d always love to do it. It is my job, my life y’know.
Simon: Cool. Okay then, one last question, what does Brian’s nick name ‘Papillon’ mean?
Greg: It’s French for butterfly. You might’ve noticed the huge butterfly tattoo on his back?
Simon: Oh yeah, I should know that, I do French at school!
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