I always thought Tearjerk were a pretty good punk band but they never really set me alight, then Baz announced they’d put up their latest demo on their site to download and I thought I’d give it a quick listen. I’m glad I did as they had come on leaps and bounds since the last recordings I’d heard. It was no longer melodic punk with a quirky singer, but a full on hardcore assault that brought to mind Good Riddance or Strike anywhere. The music was harder and punchier and the vocals were stronger and more confident, I was so impressed by them that I actually felt like doing an interview with them, and no band has made me feel like that in the last few years!
First off, who’s in the band and what roles do they fulfil?

- Since Jan 2003, Tearjerk has been - Mark Grossi on Bass, Mike Lindsay and Duncan Craig on Guitars, Roddy Macmillan on Drums and Barry Kydd on Throat

How did the band get together, were you all friends to begin with? What were your aspirations for the band and have these changed over time?

-Band got together initially when Dunc asked me if I wanted to have a wee jam with him to see what happened. I had no experience whatsoever doing vocals, so i was really nervous at first to give it a shot. but we just went for it. I got mark in on bass coz I’d heard he was quite useful (which he is, in more ways than one) and we started jamming on Rage covers with our 1st drummer Iain. Soon after that Mark suggested getting in another guitarist, his mate Mike, so in he came and we set about crafting some sort of a punk sound. All we wanted to do from the start was to make a racket that no one else was making at the time. as with most bands, we were awful to begin with. it took us a little while to get to the sound we always wanted from the start, mostly due to my vocals not being strong enough for the 1st year or so, and Iain`s sometimes shoddy drumming, but my balls dropped, and we punted Iain for Roddy as he was much more the sort of drummer we needed to complete us, and here we are, making the racket we set out to in the first place. the band has always been here as a channel for us to put all our negative energy into something positive, and to have fun doing it. that aspect has never changed

Your sound has progressed from melodic punk to an angrier more hardcore style, has this been a change in the music you listen to or has it been a conscious decision to change the style? Has the line-up change been a catalyst for this?

- what we are doing now, as i said, is the music we always wanted to make. it just took us some time to get here. I had a long struggle toughening up my throat to give it some power and the introduction of Roddy came at just the right time for us. Iain was having trouble coming up with the beats we needed to give us that extra sense of urgency and it was just getting frustrating for all of us. I think he realised this, and that we were serious about progressing as a unit and in the end he offered to leave for the sake of both parties, which was the best thing that could’ve happened. After that we just wrote, and wrote and wrote, and got a good solid set of much harder, faster material. having a good rhythm section in a band is incredibly important and now that we had that we were just excited with the possibilities.

Do any of you have jobs/uni etc and how do you work the band round these commitments, is it fairly easy to organise gigs/tours in that sense? Do you view the band as something you could earn a living from in the future or do you have separate career plans? Would you consider signing to a major and what are your views on that subject?

-We all have full time jobs. we practice 2 evenings a week after work, its tough going but this band keeps us sane at the end of the day, so its a commitment we are happy to make. as for gigs we just need to make sure everyone can make each one as it comes. There’s not really been any problems with that aspect. the tours are a bit harder, its a case of sacrificing your annual holiday entitlement at work for 2 weeks in a van with 6 or 7 sweaty, smelly punks. But the last tour (summer 2003) was a fucking blast and we are looking forward to the next one (April 2004). if we could make a living playing gigs then I’d happily do that for the rest of my days. There are so many uncertainties about it all though so its impossible to say if that will ever happen. Ideally we’d love for a small independent label to come offer us recording time and tours, that would b fucking brilliant. we love playing gigs, touring and recording, we know we can do it, we just hope someone will give us a chance one of these days, until then, we’ll keep doing it all ourselves.
I think any band if asked realistically would "consider" signing for a major, but I don’t think any major would ever look at us. shit, the punk labels don’t even look at us, haha. if any chance came along to get our music out to a bigger audience, it would have to at least be "considered" ;)

What was the first ever record you bought and do you still listen to it? What record got you into punk? Do you consider punk to be a purely musical genre or do you view the political aspect to be integral part that defines punk from rock or pop?

- haha, no-one listens to the 1st record they ever bought! i think it was Vannila Ice tho. Pearl Jams "ten" got me into guitar music. not ever classified as a punk band but they are one of the pioneers of punk ethics and the biggest influence on me as a writer, thinker and punk rocker. Punk has always been here as a voice for the voiceless, a stand against the tide. i think the music has always been that, its never conformed to any sort of "acceptable" media in the mainstream. but now you have all these off-shoots of punk that keep popping up on MTV and TOTP and in all honesty it sickening to see a band like Good Charlotte parading around with Nerve Agents t shirts and Subhumans patches proclaiming to be punk gods, playing pop songs to the masses, because now you’ll get a whole generation growing up thinking that that’s what punk is. its as if its been pre-packaged in a little box, ready to sell to the next kid. i just hope the kids can see past that, and get into the proper stuff. i think when you look at bands like that, its ALL about the music, the catchy, bouncy chorus, the image, anything that will sell a record. that’s not about speaking out, that’s about selling out. i think the political aspect can be seen in rock and pop as well as punk. again, Pearl Jam are a prime example along with U2 and the Manic Street Preachers. the Black Eyed Peas record that was no 1 in the charts for a while at the end of last year had an extremely good, accessible political message to it. people are speaking out more and more these days, and rightly so, never has the world been in such need for change as it is now. as much as punk can be politically motivated, I don’t think its confined to that genre only.

What three songs do you wish you had written and why?

- good question. "Times are a changing" by Bob Dylan, its more than 30 years old but the lyrics are more pertinent now than ever, its completely timeless, something that very, very hard to achieve in writing a song. It’d be great to be able to say, "I did that" "Yellow Ledbetter" by Pearl Jam, that’s my favourite song of all time. Eddies writing and vocal style have amazed me for years now. "Detonation" by Strike Anywhere , you cant really write a better punk song than that. although , we are trying our best :)

What are your views on the punk scene in Dundee? What bands do you think people should look out for? Do you enjoy playing here as I know for a while you cut the gigs you played in Dundee right down what was the reasons for this? Where is the best place you’ve played and what would be your dream gig to play?

- as far as Dundee goes and bands you are likely to see around here, i would definitely make time for - The Ritalins, Allergo, Slaphappy and Engage if you haven’t already done so. Dundee is gonna need a lot more work and dedication if it can ever have something that can be considered a scene. That’s one of the reasons we stopped playing here for a while, i wasn’t seeing anything worth playing for. No local bands were getting support from anyone else but their mates and it was just becoming depressing to play to the same people in the same place week in, week out. you don’t get anywhere doing that. so we thought fuck it, booked shows everywhere we could and said no to almost all the Dundee gigs offered us. I do like to play Dundee, its good to get a lot of familiar faces at the shows and we are gonna be doing a lot more in Dundee this year as we have a lot of new contacts looking to do gig swaps with us up here. its a good way to get out and about a bit more, plus there are some really good venues in Dundee so its daft to not use them. Plus a few local websites like www.undergroundscene.co.uk and www.punkinscotland.co.uk have helped to spread the word a bit, so more and more people are slowly checking us out. So if we keep playing every now and then, its gives them a chance to come if they want to. Best places we’ve played so far would probably be Whistlebinkies in Stirling, that was brilliant, tiny wee pub, rammed to the roof; Zero Hour in Falkirk, great sound, great team that put the shows together and an active crowd and The Cathouse in Glasgow purely for the professionalism and the great sound. Dream gig? for me, I’d kill to play with Pearl Jam. I think if we were on a bill with Bad Religion, Dead Kennedys, Nerve Agents, Suicidal Tendencies, Death By Stereo, Converge, No Means No, Primus and Strike Anywhere, then all of us would be happy :D

How do you go about writing songs, is there a main writer or is it a collective effort? Have there ever been problems with ideas being rejected? Do you write all the lyrics and do they have to be agreed upon by the whole band, are there subjects that can’t be tackled in songs because of conflicting beliefs/view points?

- Music comes first, someone will come in with a riff they have and we’ll work on that till we are all happy with the end result. Takes a little while but its good to get everyone’s ideas in. then I’ll just go through my magic book till I get a set of lyrics that fit and that I’m happy to use, and we’ll jam on it till its tight. i have written every lyric of every song so far and I don’t think that will change. its what I do ya know?, the guys write music, I cant do that, I do the lyrics coz they don’t think they can do that. it my passion, i write all the time. I don’t think I could convey any sort of emotion in my performance if I wasn’t singing about something I truly believe in. all my lyrics are pretty much drawn from my personal perspective of my world, how i see everything i have before me, from personal struggles to social and political problems. the guys seem to be in the same frame of mind as I am about most things, but i do try to make the meanings and words as universal as possible so that it doesn’t just make sense to me. i want as many people as possible to relate to what I’m saying, and take anything they can from it.

Lastly is there anything you want to add? Upcoming tearjerk news etc?

- Keep checking www.tear-jerk.com for all our dates. There will be TONS this year, all over the country. a full U.K. tour is booked beginning April 3rd in Aberdeen, so you’ve no excuse to not come see us at least once this year. All our latest recordings can be downloaded from our "merch" section on the website, and our CD`s remain free for anyone that wants one. Just ask us.
Thanks for listening. Peace
Baz

Thanks to Baz for the answers, I strongly recommend you check out their website and download the songs, you won’t regret it.
Tearjerk website