I’ve read a lot about you talking about punk rock as a community thing. Do you still feel like the community aspect is still alive when there are plenty of ‘punk’ bands on MTV and signed to major labels, where rebellion is turned into profit?
That’s what’s been happening since the [Sex] Pistols. It’s nothing new. The punk rock, the actual punk rock, community is just as tight knit if not closer. You have The Fest in Florida, which is the biggest actual, real, underground punk rock festival, which is getting bigger and bigger every year.
And you know, there are plenty of places. Out in the Bay Area and San Francisco and Oakland, almost any day of the week there’s a small punk show with just 40 or 60 people there and some terrible band playing. And you go there and end up knowing half the people there. So there is still a network and a close-knit scene in punk rock. Just because some bands get popular does not mean the punk scene is not valid and vibrant.
Punk rock is something that kids are expected to grow out of, but obviously not all kids do. What do you think it is that keeps some kids interested, whereas others just drift away from the genre?
I don’t know exactly. It’s the only sound—well not the only sound. I guess metalheads stay old, too. But you know metal is silly music, whereas some punk rock is actually socially relevant. Shit I don’t know if there’s ever been any metal band that’s been socially relevant. That’s beside the point.
Being part of a club that no one knows about is just kind of fun. When I discovered punk rock when I was 14, I was just like, ‘This is so cool. No one at my school knows about this! This is awesome!’ It’s still fun and I still like going to see weird bands in small dingy holes.
People, they go see shows in arenas. Everyone goes to see U2 or Green Day, like one of these big summer festivals. I would never go to one of those things. It’s fuckin’ horrible. I’ll play ‘em because back stage is really fun and the money’s good. But I would never go to a show like that. It’s terrible. I want to go see a band in a club. If I go out to see a band I’m going to a small club or a warehouse party.
I gotta give the Warped Tour credit as a punk rock tour though because, you may not know being a fan in the crowd, but just the whole theory behind no set times! You go on at different times everyday, there is no real hierarchy and you park your buses wherever and there’s no secret backstage. Everyone is out there together, all 50 bands. It’s a really cool tour. It’s not a rock star tour. It’s very DIY. You want to sell t-shirts? Just bring t-shirts and set up your stand. It is really the closest tour to a punk rock tour that there is. We’ve heard horror stories about the other tours.
Like what?
Ozzfest. How everyone is trying to outdo each other and everyone hangs with their own possies. Just how all bands are rock stars and assholes. The Deftones were, I think, the only band that did Warped Tour and Ozzfest.
Really?
That’s what they told us. There might be a few others, but that’s the only band I know that did both of them.
Did they say Warped Tour was cooler?
Oh yeah. At least one hundred times cooler.
