(done on March 15, 2000, in the backroom of Birch Hill Nite Club in Old
Bridge, NJ)
Josh Nacho: My first question is about the new album, compared to your first
cd's. Between "Battle Hymns" and "Destruction By Definition" there are some
changes, and even between the new album, there's a transition- a new sound in
a way. I mean, you can still hear, "Yeah, it's the Suicide Machines" but
it's still kind of different.
Jay: Ok, can I ask you a question?
J.N.: Yeah.
Jay: Didn't you think "Battle Hymns" was pretty different from "Destruction".
J.N.: Yeah, they were pretty different there.
Jay: We just fuck around, I mean, it's just the way it is. You know what
I'm saying? I don't know. Hopefully we'll never make the same record. More
unlike we're bored untalented fucks I'm sure we'll end up making the same
record over again sooner or later, but we'd like to try not to. I really
would like to try to have at least one thing different on the record. At
least. But, that's just us. Most people who are out playing music try to
do stuff like that. Try to do something a little different, a little weird,
you know? It's fun. Who knows what the next record will sound like. You
might love the next one, you might hate it. Who knows what we're gonna do.
I have no clue, man. You know what I'm saying? I truely don't know what the
future holds in store for the next stuff. So, we'll see. That's the only
way I can really answer that one.
J.N.: Do you feel that you've grown as a band kind of, or got more musical
and that's why you kind of changed your style?
Jay: Well, yeah, I suppose. You do get better over the years. At least you
should. If you're not, maybe something's a little wrong. Yeah. Yeah, we've
gotten better. But, whatever the fact of the matter is we're always gonna be
a punk rock band. That's just where we came from. That's how it always
was. That's where our hearts are at. That's where we're always gonna play,
regardless of the weird stuff we'll thrown in every now and then.
J.N.: What's the story behind "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden"? How did
that cover end up on the album?
Jay: Well, the funny part is, originally it was on a movie. An independent
movie called "SLC Punk". It's kind of like a comedy. And, you know, it
didn't really, obviously, sell very much, you know? And we thought that was
a great song, so we had to throw it on at the end. You know, no one really
got to hear the song and we really like playing it live. And no one got to
hear it. So, we were like, "Ok, we're gonna throw it on the new record",
even though we recorded it a year before. And, uh, that's kind of where the
ideas came from with doing strings, because we had done that first. And you
know, the Lyn Anderson version has strings. So, we did it and we were like,
"That's pretty cool" and that's where a lot of ideas where the new stuff came
from. So, there you have another reason why the new record is like that, was
because, specifically, a lot had to do with that song.
J.N.: Now, I gotta ask you, this is not written down, but you said you like
to play that song live.
Jay: Yup.
J.N.: But, it's not in your setlist right now.
Jay: We're gonna wait until more people are buying the record to start
playing it. We really wanna, uh... We're trying to help the guy at Vacant
Records sell that "Before You Were Punk 2", so we're playing that for him for
a while. But, next time I'm sure, next time we come around, on the next
tour, it'll probably be "Rose Garden". I can't guarentee it, but more than
like it. The whole simple fact is, you saw tonight, there's a lot of kids,
they know the new songs and some people still haven't bought the new record
yet. So, it's like, we're trying to wait before we start adding new songs.
Some of the songs we just don't like playing already. We found that out,
just by ourselves at practice. We'd played 'em, we're like, "Ahhh, we're not
gonna do that one live". A perfect example is "Punk Out" on "Destruction by
Definition", hated playing it live. You know, there's just some songs you
play, you write, you think they're cool, listen to them, then you start
playing them, and you're like, "You know, I don't really wanna play this
live". So you don't.
J.N.: And then are there songs too that you just get sick of playing because
you've played for so long?
Jay: "Hey".
J.N.: Yeah.
Jay: You know what I'm saying?
J.N.: Yeah, it was just overplayed live and didn't really fit in any more.
Jay: Yeah. And it was really cool 'cause we took a long break from like,
say "The Vans Song" and "New Girl", and it was really cool that we did,
because now I think we're like, enjoying them again.
J.N.: Yeah, like you didn't play them for a while, then went back and you
were like, "Yeah..."
Jay: Yeah, I started playing the Tony Hawk skater game, and I was like, "You
know what?" I turn the music down now. I can't take it any more. But, at
first, I was like, "We should start playing this song again. It's a goofy
song, but it's a good one." So, we started playing it, and it's fun, so.
J.N.: What's in your cd player right now?
Jay: The two things that I have had in my cd player for the past couple
days, actually the three things, has been the Outkast "Quemeni" album, "Fear
of a Black Planet" by Public Enemy and Mineral. I can't think of what it's
called, but it's the first Mineral record. I guess I go to sleep to. Those
are the three things, that's it. I mean, I haven't really been listening to
anything, but those three records. Mostly the Outkast record, though, dude.
God, that's sweet, dude. The "Quemeni" awesome fucking record. There's not
much good hip hop nowadays and that's fucking a great one. Do you know what
I'm talking about?
J.N.: Yeah.
Jay: Man, is that a good record.
J.N.: If you could tour with any band past or present, who would you tour
with why?
Jay: You know, I've gotten this question before and it kills me every time,
because there's so many bands I'd love to tour with. I know it sounds
ridiculous, but maybe Zeplin or the Doors. I would like to play with the
Circle Jerks back in the day when they were first startin'. I don't know,
dude. That's a crazy question, man. There's so many bands I could think of,
I could just pop a million out. That's a crazy question, you know what I
mean? You could just go on forever. You got me, man.
J.N.: Then this question might not be to your liking either, but, who are
some of your influences?
Jay: Well, the reason for starting this band, we were listening to the
obvious, which is Operation Ivy, and the Specials and Bad Brains, and you
know, no one at the time in Detroit was really doing punk rock ska. There's
a lot of ska bands, don't get me wrong, but no one was like, straight out,
balls out punk. And we were like, "Let's try it". And we didn't know how to
play it. We didn't know what it was called. We were just like, "Yeah,
Operation Ivy, this is so cool". 'Cause it was like, '90 or something when
I got the "Energy" album, and I was just like, amazed by it. And I was just
like, "This is the coolest shit". And Bad Brains, of course, was amazing. An
d we were just like, "Oh, we gotta do this" and we did. But, besides that
our influences are just all over the place, you know, anything from the Who
to fucking Drop Dead to fucking any type of hip hop. I mean, it's just all
over the place. Which is probably why every album has been different.
Because we're just like, fucked up, we like so many different styles of music
we try to play a little bit of everything, you know? It's crazy. The world
around you is definitely an influence too. In Detroit, you know? Home.
J.N.: Of all the bands you've toured with, who has been your favorite and
why?
Jay: Hmm, man, that's another crazy one, man. The Descendents. Avail.
The Specials. So many good bands. We've gotten really lucky with all the
bands we've got on tour with. They've been all bands we love, and we've just
been like, "God, how in the hell did we get on this tour?" So, it's just.
There's just so many good bands, man. I could go on, man. There's just so
many. Suicidal Tendencies. I don't know, man. I'll stop. There's just too
many. Too many.
J.N.: Do you have any interesting or really funny road stories?
Jay: The last Suicidal tour, Mike Meere cooked us a Thanksgiving dinner. He
chose vegetarian stuff. He cooked the hugest meal ever for us. Like, took
time out from his family on Thanksgiving, went to the Dogtown Suicidal
warehouse, straight up made sure it was vegetarian stuff for me and Dan.
Cooked the biggest, phattest dinner for us. It's the most amazing thing to
have someone you listen to... Like, the Suicidal Tendencies were amazing when
I was young. They still are now, but I'm just saying, it's a big influence.
And to me, to have Mike Meere cooking me fucking Thanksgiving dinner was
fucked up. And to me, that'll always be a crazy memory.
(Royce comments about his pants.)
J.N.: What is your relationship with wrestling? And have you ever thought
about writing a song about wrestling?
Royce: I've written one song about wrestling, but it fucking sucked, so I
never showed anybody. It was called, "The Irresistable Force Meets the
Unmoveable Object". Like, if you don't remember, Gorilla Monsoon, that was
his big catchphrase when he was announcing. Like, Hulk Hogan would be
against King Kong Bundy and he'd be like, "The irresistable force meets the
unmoveable object!!!!"
Jay: That's actually a pretty long fucking title, man.
Royce: That's probably why the song sucked so bad. But, if you ever heard
of the Bumpin' Uglies, they have songs about wrestling that rock.
Jay: Unbelieveable.
Royce: "The Man of a Thousand Holds", "The Horsemen Are Here", "The Attack
of the Moondog". Great fucking songs.
Jay: We're currently sort of stealing their schtick for this tour. But,
those guys are the masters. They're the masters, dude, baseball bats, barbed
wire, everything. It's always out of control. They're always bloody and
nuts. Definitely one of the best bands.
Royce: Yeah, they use real steel chairs, barbed wire bats, and they blade
and fucking bleed all over the place. And tables. And we use the little
plastic chairs.
Jay: You know, they're the real deal. The reason we do it, I mean, well,
it's just a part of us. We like wrestling. And we figured for one tour,
it's fun for us. It entertains us. We have a good time doing it, it's fun.
Royce: It's more for us than for the crowd.
Jay: Yeah, I hate to say it, it's definitely more for us. I really can't
guarentee that it won't ever be done after this tour is done. I really don't
know. Maybe every now and then we'll bust it out if we're having a really
good time, but this is kind of a one tour deal. If the crowd pumps us up
enough, it happens. We didn't think we were gonna do it in CT. We thought
it was gonna kinda be not the best show, and kinda boring, and we were like,
"Wow, this is pretty cool, all the kids are here having a good time and going
crazy", so at the last minute we pulled it out of our asses and did it.
J.N.: What is the relationship with Vans and you?
Jay: They hook us up. We get shoes. Straight out, dude. The whole
situation was all these club goers did that just sucked that we didn't get
along with, all the trendy kids that were going to the dance clubs and stuff,
a lot of people were weirded out by that lyric "club fag". It had nothing to
do with a homophobic remark. We knew what we were doing when we said it and
we were like, "Maybe we shouldn't. People don't understand the humor in
Detroit" but that was an actual dubbed term for quite a while. And it
wasn't the best term, but any way, that was the point of it. And all the
kids were like, wearing Doc Martins, and we were all the punk rockers. We're
like, "That asshole shouldn't be listening to my music." You know, like,
"What the hell is he doing listening to Green Day?". You know, like, "What
the hell are those guys doing wearing Doc Martins? Fuck!" And, you know,
I'm a skater, and Dan started wearing Vans, and he was like, "Well, here's
the song" and it was like, Jeff Spicolli from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"
had the checkered board slip ons. I remember seeing, like, fucking the
singer of the Q's, fucking, in the air, his hair's every where, and he's
wearing a pair of Vans. And it's just like, the best thing ever. I mean, it
was a metal band. And we were just like, "This is it. This is what we're
gonna represent". It's stupid. But, hey, you know. Most of their shoes
are decent. They have some stinkers. Like these. These things suck.
Usually they're pretty damn good, but, I like yours. Yours are fresh. Those
are like, mountainclimbing shoes or something.
J.N.: Yeah, mine are like... original. I have yet to find anyone with these
shoes too, though.
Jay: I've never seen 'em.
J.N.: I've only ever seen them in one store, and I can't even remember where
I got them now.
Jay: I've never seen them.
J.N.: I was suprised too, because they had them in my size, cause I have a
size 13 foot.
Jay: Yeah, we have a hard time with him [points to Ryan], cause he's got big
feet.
Ryan: 13's.
J.N.: Now, the next thing I wanna ask you, this is gonna sound kinda dumb,
because I know this, but there was that movie on the Disney Channel...
Jay: The rollerbladers?
J.N.: Yeah. How did it come about that your song "Give" was in it?
Jay: I got no beef with the rollerbladers, all right. They get in my way at
the park, I yell at them, they stay out of my way. I'm the fucking scary old
man on the skateboard. So, they pretty much stay out of my way. That was
just, you know, they just asked it, and we were just like, "Well who cares,
whatever, fine", you know, we didn't care. It was like, that's cool. It's
no big deal. Someone asks us, usually, for things, usually, depending on
what it is, we say, "Yeah, go ahead." Just like Mtv ran a whole bunch of our
shit years ago like, snipets of our soundbites, of our songs on certain
things. And the funny part is, we were never asked, they just kind of did
it. We were just like, "Well, whatever", you know?
J.N.: They used to do that, like, right after "Destruction by Definition"
came out, they used to do the inbetween break thing, like, "This is paid for
by..." you know, and you'd hear "No Face" in the background.
Jay: Really? See, I saw some Mtv Sports thing and it was these dudes riding
half on bikes, and they were playing it, and I was like, "Oh, that's cool."
J.N.: Ok, sadly, this is my last question.
Jay: Why is it sadly?
J.N.: I don't know.
Jay: Oh, just because it's the last one?
J.N.: Yeah, I guess.
Jay: Don't be sad.
J.N.: This isn't the best question to end on, and I've been ending on it a
lot, but when you're out on tour, where's your favorite place to eat?
Jay: To eat? The only place I usually get to eat is Taco Bell. But, my
favorite places to eat, there's this place called "Swingers" in L.A., I love
to eat there. New York, I like going to Kate's Joint, in NY, it's a
vegetarian place. Mostly vegetarians, so it's hard for me to eat. And you
know, I don't really like french fries and shit, so it's like, I usually get
stuck just eating bean burritos every day. But, I get lucky. There's some
good NY pizza. You know what you should end on now? You should end on,
"What's your favorite place to masterbate when you're on tour?"
J.N.: (cracks up laughing)
Jay: That's your next question, that's what you need to ask. That's your
final question, dude. That's what you should ask. You'll find weird shit,
like people masterbating into socks. All kinds of interesting ones.
Personally, I look at Ryan's ass when he's sleeping.
Ryan: Or into other people's socks.
Royce: Right.
Jay: (laughing) Other people's socks.
Ryan: You'll get a surprise.
(Photos taken from SuicideMachines.com, if you are offended by this, email me and complain.)
