Sorry, Maroon, but the award for kindest interview-partner now moves to MPB’s vocalist Rob Fusco who not only took alle the time we needed for the interview (although the band did not know about) but also supplied me with cake and something to drink.
N: My first question, as you might probably expect, is, how is touring so far?
R: Touring’s been great. We’re in the first week and we’re folding into the crew very quickly and are very happy to be travelling with Turmoil. It’s a great honour with such an amazing band. And we get along very well because we are all completely out of our minds. It’s a lot of fun. It’s been a great tour so far and I’m looking forward to the rest of it to be a great time.
N: So you wanted to do the tour with Turmoil or have you been asked? Because I know that first Nine were about to do the tour with them.
R: Nine were supposed to do the tour but dropped off. We put the word and said okay, if they drop off, we would like to do the tour. And they dropped off, so were happy to be here.
N: Do you head all over Europe?
R: Yeah.
N: For how long?
R: Three weeks with Turmoil and then a week on our own. Besides Germany we’re hitting to France, Spain and Belgium.
N: How do you like the crowd? Are there any differences compared to your last tour here?
R: Too early to tell. So far we played in Amsterdam and Berlin. Amsterdam was total garbage. But Berlin was very good. The kids in Berlin were very receptive and very energetic. It was a lot of fun.
N: So you are still a full-time band; the band is still your job?
R: Yes, we all do this as our job. We don’t have jobs at home because we’re not home long enough.
N: Did you know Tourmoil before and therefore the wanting to play the tour with them or did you get to know them now?
R: We’ve known Turmoil for a while from being involved and so on. Now I live in Philadelhpie as well so I like talking to those guys.
N: You seem to be a very concerned band (Peta-Information, American-Apparel-Shirts) – are you trying to bring a message besides the music and lyrics?
R: I mean it’s very important to exercise the form you have. We do our best to raise consciousness, wether if the animal rights or whatever issue we’re talking about. A lot of people now do not challenge themselves. They do not think politically and they like their answers handed to them instead of having to figure things out on their own. We encourage people to think for themselves and do the best to question everything. Even the things that they think are safe – just question.
N: So does it have a special reason that you have no Peta flyers today or is it because of lack of space?
R: Lack of space. The bus is pretty tight.
N: Is it also imoprtant within the band with members being straight edge or vegan?
R: Not at all. We’re all pretty easy going. We like to get loose and have a good time like everybody else.
N: There’s a line in “Driving Angry” (Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.) that reminds me much of “Life goes on” by LeAnn Rymes where she sings “Shame on you if you fooled me once. Shame on me if you fooled me twice.”. Is that kind of a saying in the US or are you also influenced by that kind of music?
R: That’s a thready connection. It’s a common saying. I heard she did a song with that line in it but I’ve never heard it.
N: So do you have any influences? Or is it just life and what comes from your heart?
R: Lyrically I have no direct influences. There are many sources from which I draw to write. But on the whole I think my writing process is pretty automatic. Musically the band listens to so many different things like Dark Wave to Black Flag to Rohrschach to Johnny Cash. It’s such a huge variety of music. I guess you draw inspiration from everywhere.
N: What would “a world without music” mean to you?
R: Empty, you know. It’d be an unbelievable void. I don’t like to imagine that.
N: Do you have any thoughts on the Bible or religion in general?
R: I do not.
N: ‘Cause the Bible appears in “temporary solution to a permanent problem and here in Germany you hear a lot about radical Protestants in the US having so much influence…
R: That song is not so much an anti-organised-religion song. It is a song which encourages independent thought, like I said many times before. People are turned to organised religion because all the answers are already there and they don’t have to think for themselves and don’t have to do any hard work. But in this case we’ll say we appreciate people who can stand on their own feet, have backbone and think for themselves.
N: One point came through my mind when I read through the lyrics of the new album and I hope I don’t seem rude now when I ask if the beautiful things in life are not worth writing songs about?
R: No, they are. But the type of music we write does not mesh with writing about beautiful things. I am screaming and in real life people sream because something is wrong. So when I sing this I am mostly screaming because I sing about things that are out of bounds or gone wrong. It’s almost like trying to be therapeutic in a way. I do believe that life has a lot of beautiful things to write about. There are important things to be expressed, but not through this band. And it’s not like we’re solely concentrating on negative things. Quite the opposite: We concentrate on positive things and the aggressive nature of our music is kind of a reflection of our frustration because the beautiful aren’t appreciated as they should be. And there’s a huge focus on unimportant things. People think that material is going to make them happy, like buying things. Like extravagant pursuits or being a slut is going to make them happy. And this is not true. There’s way more important things in life to focus on. It’s frustrating. ‘Cause so few people have the right ideas.
N: So that’s basically all I prepared. Do you want to add anything?
R: First I wanna thank you for the interview.
N: Thank you, too.
R: Oh, of course. And I look forward to playing the rest of this tour, coming back and seeing your readership at the shows. And I want everyone to remember not to take themselves too seriously. People do so, they take themselves too seriously. And then nobody has fun any more. Nobody enjoys themselves. On this tour we do nothing but enjoy ourselves. So be punkrock and enjoy your life because it’s the only one you got.
Nice final words he spoke and off he went to enjoy himself on stage and make the crowd enjoy themselves…