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Lagwagon | 28.11.2005 |
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I had the privilege to interview Chris (Leon), Jesse and Dave from Lagwagon before their show in Hollywood. I managed to talk to Flip and Joey for a short time later on in the night. It was amazing to interview one of my favorite bands.
Friday November 25th, 2005
Q: How was your Thanksgiving? Since you guys were away from home, where did you guys spend it this year?
Chris: We went to my dad’s house in Laguna Beach. He had a turkey he bought. It was a last minute thing and we pulled it together. It was just me, Jesse, Chris, my dad and his girlfriend and a couple of friends.
Q: So how is the tour going so far? You guys have toured for over a decade so I’m sure you guys have seen everything on tour. What crazy tour experiences have you guys had that stick out?
Chris: It’s been good. It started off slow in the northwest. Once we got to Salt Lake the shows started to get better.
Jesse: The craziest tour story we had was when we were on our way home from Sacramento. We woke up from the van screeching on the guard rail with Slayer blasting and Flip was waking up from the wheel.
Q: How important was it for you guys to get on the road again and tour after recording this album and especially after the things you guys have been through this past year?
Chris: I don’t think we toured enough with the last record.
Jesse: We really wanted to support this one. We always seem to drop the ball when it comes to touring.
Q: I love the new album. I can’t imagine how you guys felt after the passing of Derrick. Obviously you guys felt there were things you needed to express on how you felt about the passing.
How did Joey go about writing the album?
Chris: Joey was just inspired to write. The lyrics just started to come.
Jesse: For the most part this is one of the albums lyrically it was pretty much all Joey.
Q: To me “Resolve” captures your feelings at different times of your grief and is a therapeutic way of dealing with things? Is there any one song that sums up how you feel, or does the album as a whole sum up how you feel about things?
Jesse: Each song on the album covers different aspects of what happened. There isn’t one song that just sums everything up.
Q: Was there a sense of urgency before Derrick’s death? Did he show any signs that would make you think he would do such a thing?
Chris: He was pretty depressed and he was having a hard time. He had broken his hip and had hip surgeries. He wasn’t being able to play as well as he wanted to because of it. He had been going through a long period of depression.
Q: On “Resolve,” You guys worked with people you have worked with in the past, Angus Cook, Jason Livermore and others. What was the difference this time working with them? This album seems a more raw.
Chris: Jason came to San Francisco to record drums instead of us going to Fort Collins. That was different. Joey engineered almost all of the guitars. He did all the vocals himself at his house. That was a lot different than what we did before.
Q: Explain the intro with “Rager.” Dave, how do you feel about playing that intro that is in “Rager?”
Chris: That was a mix thing. On the demo, it was overhead mic’s. They put some weird filter and distortion in it. Joey and Thom Flowers mixed it. .
Dave: It was a little idea that I stole from another band that did another drum intro. It is not even the same at all. I liked the idea doing something like that with a distance sound.
Q: Anything going on with the Gimmes?
Dave: Always with the Gimmes.
Jesse: Always with the Gimmes. (with everyone laughing)
Dave: There’s going to be a country album. That is going to be coming out in June. I don’t know what songs will be on it yet.
Q: Name your favorite song on each album and why?
Chris: There a lot of songs off the early albums that we never play that I like.
Jesse: My favorite song from Duh is “Of Mind and Matter” because it is probably different from the rest of the album. It is a weird thing.
Chris: From “Trashed,” I like playing “Stokin.” “Rifle” is my favorite right now.
Jesse: I like “Name dropping” from Trashed. That was the first song from “Trashed”
On Double Pladinum, Confessions is my favorite song. “Laymens Terms” is my favorite song to play live overall. We never play it.
Q: Are you guys going to play “Laymens Terms” tonight?
Jesse: Nope. The vocals are little out of Joey’s range.
Q: On the live album Joey said he doesn’t like playing that song. Why don’t you guys like playing “Beer Goggles?”
Jesse: It was one of those songs for years that everyone wanted to hear it. We played it every night for eight or nine years. We got really sick of it.
Q: One of my favorite songs is “Kids Don’t like to Share.” What was your influence or inspiration to write “Kids Don’t like to Share?”
Jesse: That was one of Joey’s songs. It was basically more or less about the scene. It was about bands like Nirvana and bands that had a strong following. Once the band becomes popular people begin to turn their back on them. Even if they change, they start not to like them. Even if they do change, they start to dislike a band because more kids start to like them. That’s where the whole, kids don’t like to share them comes in. It is kind of like a “Know It All” type thing.
Q: What songs are you guys playing on this tour?
Jesse: On this tour it is kind of weird. We are doing a lot of songs with the new album. We try to juggle which songs to drop. A lot of times it ends up being songs that we’ve played for a long time every night. Usually when we do that we will drop them for three or four years and them bring them back.
Q: Who are the people in the pictures in the “Island of Shame” video?
Chris: I haven’t even seen the video for “Island of Shame.”
Dave: That was before my time.
Jesse: There was a cinematographer that really wanted to do that song so we let him go with it.
Q: How did Flip get the nickname, “Big Bitch?”
Jesse: Because’s he's a big bitch. Derrick gave him that nickname. Most people in the band that have nicknames it came from Derrick.
Q: Chris, you’re always talking to fans your message board. What do you think of the Lag board?
Chris: Well I don’t have anything else to do. Now that we are touring people have more things to say about the band and music.
Q: Will you guys plan to be on Warped Tour 2006? Do you like playing it? It has definitely changed over the past few years. I talked to Chris from Strung Out about this and he said he was in hell the entire tour with all the crappy bands.
Dave: I don’t think so.
Chris: The last time we played I don’t think it helped us at all. Too many MTV bands on tour.
Jesse: It is weird playing a punk festival and there is an army recruiting booth.
Dave: We haven’t been on it in three years. It has gotten much different over the years. I think the tour that Strung Out was on was the pinnacle of the weirdness it has become. It has become far from what it started out as. I heard its going to be similar to something like it started as.
Jesse: Someone told me at the Colorado Springs show that Ashley Simpson was confirmed for a week on the tour. It could be a total lie though I am not sure.
Dave: I wouldn’t be surprised that it’s true. It could happen.
Q: Will Joey release the Bad Astronaut recordings they last made?
Jesse: Yeah. He just never really finished them. He was thinking about canning them but that was before Derrick and everything. He will release them eventually.
Q: What band would you like tour with in the near future that you haven’t toured with in years or you haven’t toured with at all?
Dave: I’d love to tour with the Foo Fighters. We’ve met them all a few times.
Jesse: They asked us a long time ago but we weren’t able to do it.
Dave: We actually submitted for a tour in February. We haven’t heard anything about it. So probably not.
Jesse: I’d pay money to play with Jawbreaker but they broke up. That’s not going to happen.
Dave: He’d do more than that.
Jesse: Haha. Yeah I would make sure they would be really comfortable.
Dave: The things you would do for any backstage access. He would do anything to be with them. Any typical groupie thing Mr. Buglione would do to be with them.
Jesse: I think Joey would too.
Dave: I’d pay money to see that. Haha.
Jesse: I would love to play with Against Me. They are my favorite band on Fat.
Could you ever see Joey and Tony (NUFAN) doing a solo acoustic tour? If not, could you see a tour with No Use For A Name in the near future?
Jesse: That was a one off thing.
Dave: I don’t think so with a tour. Like a coffee shop tour, haha. I wouldn’t pay money to see that. We’ve played with No Use many times in the past. I wouldn’t say no to playing with them. We’re all good friends. That’s definitely a cool thing. I don’t know if our schedule and their schedule will jive with that. They already hit a lot of the places we didn’t get to yet. Their album came out before ours. Their touring schedule is a bit different.
Yeah, they’re playing with Pennywise in January.
Dave: That’s funny that you say that because I talked with Byron and stuff. They have some tours going on. There was some talk of us joining them. It might be contrary to play with them. They’re huge in Southern California. I mean we do fine here obviously. It wouldn’t make sense but it would be fun to do a show. I think in the future, it might be cool to do something. There are definitely similarities with our bands. The thing both of our bands have in common is suicide with Jason and Derrick. They are both scary similarities. I was talking to Fletcher about that earlier this year when we were both in Europe. Definitely something can happen where we do some kind of benefit show. No one has talked about it but it is weird that we have a similar situation with them. It is not a good thing but maybe we can put both of our bands together and do something for a good cause. We’ll see what will work out.
Q: If you weren’t playing music what profession would you have?
Jesse: My day job is doing graphics for a coffee roasting company. So that’s what I’m doing.
Dave: I would be hanging dry wall or construction. Or go on the LPGA. Haha. I don’t know.
(Flip walked into the room with a cup and Dave said, “uh oh that don’t look like punch”)
Q: What advice would you give to a band or a young person that is trying to become a successful band?
Chris: Don’t quit your day job.
Dave: Leon, spoke right there. Don’t follow trends.
Jesse: Normally I’m a really negative. My negative statement would be don’t do it. My positive statement would be, stick to it because it takes a long time to get to that. You have to keep at it. If you have faith in what you are doing there is always someone that will say you will never get anywhere. I usually make one statement that is not totally negative a day. That’s the one for today.
Dave: Whatever you want to do. I have no one way or another. If you are enjoying yourself and having fun. If you’re doing something because you want to do it and not because you want to fit in more power to you.
Jesse: If you’re making music that’s really contrived. If you are catering to what the popular thing is, by the time you make that music their will be a new trend.
Q: Do you guys consider yourselves to be punk?
Jesse: It all depends on what you consider to be punk. For me punk is doing what you want to do. There are people that play folk and techno that are way more punk than people that are in a “punk” band.
Dave: There are no set criteria. Do what you want. Stay the course. I listen to old punk or punk that I grew up on. There are all different types of punk. Southern California 80’s punk. Then there are The Ramones, The Clash and Sex Pistols. It all has changed. There is no one thing. It’s a mindset. It is the way you deal with things.
Q: I know Joey just had a baby. Does anyone else in the band have children? Do you ever bring the wives and families on tour?
Dave: My wife has a couple of kids. Everyone keeps in touch. Jesse is about to have a baby actually in April.
Congratulations. Do you know if it’s a boy or girl?
Jesse: Aww. Thank you. I find out two days after the tour.
Dave: Were you trying to keep it secret?
Jesse: No, it’s ok if you post it. It was funny though there were times when Leon posted something on the website about there was a baby coming. People were speculating who it was and most people thought it was Dave.
Jesse: Yeah it said on the message board, “Joey already has a kid. Flip is too irresponsible, Jesse…no way or hello no. Haha. But yeah the secret is out.
Q: In the eyes of tens of thousands of people, you guys are an amazing band. You have inspired other people to start playing and many of those bands are now on MTV. I hear bands like Yellowcard quote you guys as influences.
Dave: Good for them. That’s nice that they mention the bands name. They don’t have to mention us. They’re nice guys. Some of the people we knew are no longer in the band. Ryan and Shawn we know also. They are working really hard and doing their thing for a while now. That’s good for them.
Jesse: I’m glad there are bands like that. That’s one thing we have always avoided, the whole MTV thing. It’s more or less a personal thing. I enjoy being able to go to the store without people recognizing me.
Dave: But that’s all gonna change. Haha.
Jesse: I don’t like doing TV interviews. I couldn’t see myself on TV. It’s kind of like gateway punk like a gateway drug. Where its like, if there are bands like that on MTV kids may have never listen to this music will listen to that music. Then kids will seek out music they have never heard of before. I like that people are doing that and we are doing that.
Dave: Should I bust it out on them?
(All of the sudden Dave busts out his laptop and shows us a video for “Heartbreaking Music”)
Jesse: I have only seen this video once.
Dave: Yeah it should be released soon there might need to be some final touches on it. We will put it on the site and on our myspace webpage soon. The video is really simple. We didn’t spend a lot of money on it.
Q: What does the future hold for Lagwagon?
Dave: Who knows? You never know. This is where were at right now. We’re just going to continue on supporting this. It is too hard to predict the future.
Thank you for the interview.
Dave: You’re welcome. Thank you.
Jesse: You’re welcome.
I would like to thank Lagwagon for taking the time out for such a long interview and for letting us on stage during the show! I’d also like to thank Vanessa from Fat Wreck Chords for setting arranging the interview.
Further Links:
 lagwagon.com
fatwreck.com
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| Author:
Adam |
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