ISSUE 02 - Winter 2003

features interviews with:
AntiProduct
Bowling For Soup
Crash Kelly

What has been the response to Crash Kelly been like on this tour?
It's been very good. In a lot of ways it's the perfect tour to introduce the band to England because you already have a built in rock and roll fanbase and we're touching on a lot of the same influences The Quireboys have. So it's been outstanding, I've been really surprised.

Had your bass player Ky given you any indication of what to expect after touring here already with Robin Black?
Ky has been bigging up England and particularly Nottingham for a long time. Every time he came back from a Robin tour he'd be telling me how great it was, how receptive the crowds were and how friendly everyone was. And to be honest I always take things with a grain of salt until I see it for myself, but it's been a dream come true! It's always been a dream to play in a small club in England and so far things have far exceeded anything I ever thought.

What made you decide to take the step from session musician to frontman?
I was doing a lot of those gigs to pay the rent, but whatever musical situation I get put into I always try and give 100% and I can honestly say I've loved everything I've done. But what happens, and especially with the last project I was in, when you have five people in a band your ideas and initial grains of songs have to be filtered through those five other people. Now this is my own thing I'm able to fully form it myself and I've been fortunate to find other musicians who are sympathetic to it. Usually what happens is Ky and I get together and I'll play him the song, he'll programme the drums and we'll go right into the studio and cut it.

The feel of the album and the band in general seems to have a real jam band edge to it. Was this an intention of yours or does it just come from your love of 70's music which always had that vibe?
As loose and ragged as the album is, it's all by design. We sort of modelled it after early KISS, Alice Cooper and Thin Lizzy records and really went for that vintage feel, which was really diametrically opposed to what was happening around us in the current new breed rock scene.

What was the first album that turned you onto rock and roll?
My older sister had a great Glam Rock record collection and especially a lot of 45's so I was picking up on Slade, The Sweet, KISS and all those bands. It was probably hearing T-Rex 'Electric Warrior' though and then rediscovering years later because at the time I was getting into music through bands like early Motley Crue and Hanoi Rocks that had really sparked me when I was like ten years old. I then realised there was a direct connection to all those records my sister had and you kind of follow the chain. Today I get a lot of flack back in Canada, but to me the first Ratt record 'Out of the Cellar' is a classic and so is 'Too Fast For Love', I don't have to defend that, but a lot of people feel they do by saying stuff like 'Look at me, I like Motley Crue but my tongues in my cheek, and it's a big joke!' For me it's what I grew up on and from there you trace music backwards and find out what influenced them. 

You took the name 'Crash' from a relation of yours, were does that come from exactly?
That was my uncle, Orville 'Crash' Kelly, a professional hockey player in the 50's and I'm inspired by him in the same way I am my father who was also a hockey player because they lived it like they saw it. They had hearts of gold but they also lived life a bit on the edge. My uncle played hockey like a demon, he would be the sweetest guy on one sense and then he would be an absolute wild man! To me that's a very human thing, you get the good and the bad, and in the end you hope the good out ways the bad! It's like playing live in a band, go for the jugular but make sure you shake everybody's hand afterwards!

What direction do you see the next Crash Kelly album taking?
We've been discussing this with the other guys and we're gonna build it around the great grooves of the Seventies. For example, take a Foreigner or Sweet record and listen to the great grooves they had. We're gonna base it around things like that as I think it's the next logical extension. I'm really hoping I can produce something that would have been considered high fidelity in 1976, that's my ideal!

Is this touring line up going to be the permanent band?
Without sounding too 'flip' I liken Crash Kelly as being kind of like Whitesnake, because I'm always gonna be there and whoever can come along for the ride then you're in my band. It's a band when we're on the road and we split everything evenly but if you can't make it because of other commitments then someone else can come along - another soldier will get in line and we'll move forward! But I tell you, the line up on this tour has just been sensational. My guitar player Alistair was the best man at my wedding, Neil (Leyton - guitar) was my room mate and Ky, I met through Neil, and we've been together forever so he'll always be involved with Crash Kelly at least on a production level and hopefully always as a bass player or guitarist.

There seems to have been an increase in Canadian bands breaking through into the mainstream recently since rock music has once again become 'fashionable'.
That's kind of a different thing as those artists are signing direct to a major label whereas we've had the pleasure of signing to a smaller label with people who are as passionate about music as we are so we've still got direct contact but also the major label distribution channels. I don't want to wait around until someone tells me I can make a record - I want to do it when I want to do it!

The debut album from Crash Kelly 'Penny Pills' is out now.
Catch them on tour in the UK this autumn with Enuff Z Nuff or visit www.crashkelly.ca

What was your first UK tour like and how has the UK changed since you began touring over here?
Jaret: The first thing that happened for us over here was through Steve Homer who used to work for Mean Fiddler whose now our promoter with Clear Channel. Steve saw us at a festival in Austin, Texas called South by South West and said he wanted us to come play Reading and Leeds, and we're 'Okay whatever' and didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Then one of the guys called me up and said 'I just went to the Reading and Leeds website and this is some really big shit!' So I go on there and it's like 'Holy Crap, 100,000 people!' So we fly in and play the smallest stage there and it's absolutely packed and the kids knew the words to the songs already. It took us a year to come back over again when we did our own tour with Uncle Brian,  just little 200 seater clubs and all the shows were great.
Erik: Eleven people packed into a transit van!
J: The drummers dad took two weeks off from work and borrowed the school transport van and drove us all over. It was just so much fun, like real old school.
Gary: Singalongs every night on the way back to their house to stay up all night long with the singers dad drinking his beer and the next morning he'd wake up and already have the fridge stocked with more beer!

Other than playing live what's your favourite thing you like about the UK?
J: Drinking, we like drinking.
G: I went to Jilly's Rockworld last night and thought it stayed open till seven, so I'm ringing everyone up going 'Get over here man, they just finished playing 'Hot For Teacher' it's fucking rocking, we're having a blast!' And as soon as I hang up the phone, Boom, the lights come on!
J: The thing is I'd gone outside and I'm like telling this cab guy  'I need five cabs here like soon cos we've got to make it to this bar!' Then Gary rings me back to say the clubs closed so I'm like lets get the fuck out of here, there's five cabs on the way! So we haul ass back to the bus!
E: I went to Jillys and I was told we were getting in free, so I get up to the front and look like a dip shit!
J: Imagine that!

How did you become associated with Butch Walker?
J: One of our A&R guys flew down to see him at a show and played him some of the early demos from 'Drunk Enough To Dance' which was 'Emily', 'Out the Window' and a couple of others. And Butch was like 'Man, I'll do this in a second, I'm all over it!' I went out and brought 'Ready, Sex Go' because I didn't know that much Marvellous 3 stuff other than the 'Freak of the Week' song. So I go into the practice place and go 'You guys are not gonna fuckin' believe what I'm about to play you, this is the guy who wants to produce our next record' and I didn't say another word, just pressed play and everyone just went 'Holy crap, this is gonna be awesome!' So it was cool how we got together and we became friends really fast. I don't know if he's gonna work on the next album though because he's such a busy guy and that's question number one right now. He's working with people like Avril Lavigne and Pink and all these huge artists so whether he'll have time for little old us I don't know.

When TrashPit spoke to Robin Black earlier this year he mentioned you might be working together sometime in the future. How did you guys hook up?
J:  He's a genius, if this guy had come out in like 1987 he would have been the biggest thing ever! But I don't see why he still can't be now, with everything that's happening over here with bands like The Darkness and stuff. This guy can drink......more than me! He's the best guy ever! I met him through our manager who is also my business partner and we manage another Canadian band who they opened up for at a showcase one time. My partner calls me up and goes you're not gonna fuckin believe what I'm hearing right now, there's this guy up there like wailing and shit and meaning it! And he brought the album back, and that 'Some of you Boys' song, I couldn't believe it, it's such a smash! He's gonna come down to Dallas and we're gonna write some stuff together. E: He was hanging out on our bus and I was sitting there talking to him for like forever and these guys just didn't tell me who he fuckin' was. Then he left and I was like 'Who was that guy?!' and they go 'That was Robin Black, man' and I'm like 'Oh Fuck!'
J: No, I said it was 'Robin Fuckin' Black', that's his name!

You're one of few bands who find it important to build up your fanbase on touring alone. You've been back to the UK several times without a single to promote. Why is this important to the band?
J: Everybody tells us not to come when we don't have a single but the tours are always awesome. What people fail to remember is that the kids over here have a real loyalty aspect, and they want you to make that commitment to be the band that's gonna come over to the UK. So every kid that comes up to us after the shows keeps saying 'Please come back!' So we decided we're gonna come over three times a year and for the last three years we've done it.

With almost twenty tracks on the current album and numerous B-sides and soundtracks, just how many songs do you have?
J: We have more songs than we even know. I'll just be sitting around singing a song without knowing what it is and Erik will tell me it's some song we did like eight years ago! We wrote forty songs for the last album.
E: There was a lot of good ones that didn't make it.
J: It got to a point were we had to stop because it was getting confusing. But hopefully we'll have  that many again.

You've become a regular on the festival circuit but what would your ideal festival line up be?
J: There was some combination at Reading and Leeds one year when Green Day and the Foo Fighters played on the same day, and I couldn't fucking believe we weren't there. But you know the Warped Tour this year was pretty cool, simply because of the hang out factor. The cool thing that people probably don't realise is that there is no ego on that tour at all. I thought people would give us the cold shoulder because we're the new guys and not from California but it was so amazing that people would want to come up and meet you just because they'd heard your song. We'd get people like The Used coming up and sitting at the side of the stage watching our set. It's not that they're the biggest band ever but it's cool that they took the time to come and watch our show, and it was like that for the whole tour.
E: Then at night when everything starts shutting down and people start leaving, all the buses empty out and everybody's in the bus parking lot standing out in the greatest and hugest parking lot party you've ever seen in your life!
J: Every night! So that was a dream come true, as much work as it was it was a good time and I hope we get to do it next year. What's cool though is the Warped Tour used to be predominantly punk but there were so many more rock bands on it this year so the audience was way more diverse. It was such a good experience for us and opened up a lot of doors.

If asked would you ever consider doing the Monsters of Rock at Donington, should it return in the future?
J: Absolutely, I think it would be great. We'd be that band that gets fuckin' pelted with bottles though.
E: It'd be worth it
Chris: Fuck off, Bad News!!
J: That'd be exactly what would happen to us!

Do any of you remember the first album you brought?
E: Run DMC 'Raising Hell'
J: Donald Duck 'Disco Duck'
G: Poison 'Look What the Cat Dragged in'
C: Willie Nelson & Family

First album you stole?
E: I stole the first Beastie Boys album for my cousin.
J: I stole the first Queensryche EP from Gibson's in Wichita Falls, Texas. It was back in the day when the CDs came in those big boxes and I had a friend distracting the guy whilst I tried to get it open. I felt really, really guilty but I stole a couple more after that!
C: I've stole a bunch from out of cars but the first one I stole from a store was U2's 'Under a Blood Red Sky'
J: Good one, Bono would be fuckin' pissed!
G: I think mine was Bon Jovi 'New Jersey', I remember stealing that one.
J: It's funny you ask that and we really all did steal a bunch of stuff and we're trying to distinguish 'Did I steal this one first or was it this one!?' What the fuck are we saying about ourselves here!?
Most embarrassing album?
J: I own the soundtrack to Grease and I still listen to it too!
E: One year for Christmas my aunt thought it would be a good idea to buy me the Milli Vanilli album because that's what all the kids were listening to.
J: I also own the entire Dixie Chicks collection!
C: I was gonna say the Dixie Chicks 'cause I've got their first album. And I've got fuckin' Bananarama's Greatest Hits!
E: Is Pure Moods embarrassing?
J: No, that's sex music!

First album that made you want to play in a band?
J: Easy, 'Blizzard of Oz' by Ozzy. This kid came into school with his walkman, with just fast forward no rewind, and played me 'Crazy Train' and I couldn't believe what I was hearing, it was the greatest thing I'd heard in my life! I went out and brought a pair of drumsticks that day and asked my Dad for a drum set at Christmas but he laughed at me. I got one in the end though!
G: Mine's actually kind of gay, it was Billy Joel 'Uptown Girl'
E: What the fuck is gay about Billy Joel man, you stand up and be proud!
G: I wish I could say it was 'Appetite for Destruction' but I'd be liar.
J: It was weird how pop culture influenced me as a kid. I would go watch a Rocky movie and all of a sudden I was gonna be a boxer, I'd stand in front of a mirror and practice my punching.
E: When you saw Footloose did it make you want to be a dancer?
J: I swear that was the next statement out of my mouth! I went and saw Footloose, came home and I swear to god, I had a Sound Designs stereo from Sears, turned that fucker up as loud as it would go without shutting itself off....and I started dancing!
G: Whenever I saw Top Gun it made me want to make out with Kelly McGillis.
J: Everyone danced to Footloose!

The album 'Drunk Enough To Dance' is out now on Music For Nations
Visit www.bowlingforsoup.com