BAND: Pennywise
INTERVIEWER: Sarah Boger (Sarah@bandvibe.com)
DATE OF INTERVIEW: 04.25.09

BAND MEMBERS:
Jim Lindburg – Vocals
Fletcher Dragge - Guitar
Randy Bradbury - Bass
Byron McMackin – Drums

Fletcher: Wanna hear the story of the guy who tried to break in here?

Sarah: Sure!

Fletcher: He climbed over the barbed-wire right over there, see that rock on the right? That's his blood, he got caught on the barbed-wire and it's all the way over here, and the whole bathroom is covered in blood, and the he tried to wrap toilet paper around his leg and then jumped over the fence into the crowd when there was a door right here.

Sarah: That's crazy, he really wanted in.

Fletcher: It coulda been for Pepper but I dunno it sounds more like a Pennywise fan to me.

Sarah: OK lets start with the obligatory questions first, you guys have been around since 1988, what has changed the most?

Fletcher: Since 1988? Just punk rock in general, a million things have changed in the world but I think the punk rock scene has changed tremendously since we started doing this, it was like we where at a point where in the LA punk rock scene in 85-86 was dead. Black Flag broke up, Minor Threat broke up, Dead Kennedys broke up everybody broke up and there was no one doing shows so we started doing punk rock music in our garage and at back yard parties, Bad Religion came out with Suffer and that kinda put punk rock on the map again a little bit I think, we got signed to Epitaph and just back then it was so much more raw and there wasn't that many bands so, well there wasn't a scene so it was really more DIY it had more meaning. When record labels started signing bands, like when major labels started signing Green Day and Offspring and blowing it up and putting it on the radio and on MTV and everything they brought everybody into it, and everybody that wouldn't have probably been a punk rocker, or been into it because of what it was, got into it because the media said it was cool, and that’s when shit got ruined in a way.

Sarah: So I know in 94 you guys said no to all major labels is that one of the reasons, that you just didn't want to be flooded, didn't want everyone to know? Try to keep it a little pure?

Fletcher: Yeah, it's like we had a really good thing going and we were stoked beyond our wildest dreams to be able to go on tour and make a little bit of money and to have that and then we say all these bands blowing up and the record company kinda wanted you blow up too and make money because that's what they're there in business to do but Brett was also in business to do cool things for punk rock. And I dunno we're really bad a doing what people tell us.

Sarah: That can be a good thing...

Fletcher: We didn't have a manager so it wasn't someone saying 'you gotta do this' or 'you gotta do that' we've always been self managed.

Sarah: So it's a total group thing, a democracy?

Fletcher: It's a really fucked up democracy, there's no such thing as a true democracy that’s' just a lie. But ya know we just kinda did our own thing there wasn't any pressure from all angles we were happy doing it this way and we didn't want to be one of those bands that blew up overnight was gone the next day. So we chose not to take any meetings with major labels and stay with Epitaph and we've seen bands, like Rancid perfect example, they went to a major label, they came back to Epitaph. You go to the major labels and expect them to sell your records and make you more popular and they do, and I'm not one to say that only certain people can listen to music, everyone has a right to listen to everything and some will say 'I don't want that kook listening to our music' it's like so what if that kook, or shit head or geek is sitting in his room and he's listening to out music and something changes him, touches him, ya know that person has a right to hear it.

Sarah: So you guys pick where you wanna play do you like the big venues like tonight where it's a huge crowd or somewhere more intimate?

Fletcher: I like everything, the last time we played here we played at Emo's and I prefer no barricade and total mayhem. Tonight I would call a medium size place, like 2,000 it had a really good vibe, and awesome vibe it was a great show, great crowd. When we play festivals when there is 20-30,000 I kinda feel disconnected you can still see the crowd going off and singing the songs and having a good time so it's kinda you just go out there and do your thing. If you want my ultimate show, 300 people in a place that holds 150.

Sarah: Who would you play with?

Fletcher: Who would I play with? It would just be 100% for sure Black Flag, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedy's Circle Jerks, can I just go on for like 2 hours? TSOL Bad Brains....

Sarah: That would be an amazing show.

Fletcher: My favorite thing is playing back yard parties with no stage, so security, just complete fucking mayhem, the cops come and break it up and ya know it's just was the shit. I miss that shit a lot, that was the real days of punk rock. Now it's kinda sedate and there’s rules and security and its bullshit. It's cool that kids are still into it. They have a good time, they have the rowdiest time they can as far as the authority figures are concerned, it's still rad getting up there and playing, seeing kids having and awesome time, I'm not knocking it at all, but 10 years ago when the riot squad got called 3 songs in, it was way radder.

Sarah: So who are your influences then?

Fletcher: I never really liked music growing up, me and my brother listened to some Steve Miller, got pretty into Devo, the old Devo like 77, Foreigner, I think I listened to them, Nothing ever really did anything for me until I started listening to punk rock and the first band that I ever really clicked with, I head a demo of Bad Brains “Pay To Come” that Rodney on the rocks played laying in my bed, he used to have a Sunday night show in La, and that was pretty much the first time that music made me feel something physically and emotionally i was laying in my bed just twitching, thinking 'fuck yeah this is the shit' I kinda already listened to Band Brains, I was listening to Dead Kennedys, and I never really fit in, I mean I played sports, football and shit but i never really fit into that mentality there was all the cool kids that hung out at court 5 , it was a volleyball court and like i was excepted into those circles but I never really wanted to be in them, and i just hung out with the metal kids, the strange ones hanging out in the corner, by a bush, burning something or whatever and punk rock came along, and I said this is what I like, there really are no rules and you can just fuck with people, that were normal. I mean I was doing it long before punk rock came along there was just no category for people that wanted to antagonize. I was just looking for a place to fit in, and punk rock was it.

Sarah: Out of all of the albums you've produced, what was your favorite?

Fletcher: Chaos Delivery Machine. It was the last album I produced, it's awesome the lyrics are just incredible. we went into the studio and recorded and mix 22 songs in 2 days and i played bass, I like it that much I also sang a little too, like background and it's fucking crazy punk rock.

Sarah: How do you guys write your music?

Fletcher: Every way I'll come up with guitar riffs, record it with Byron he'll give it to Jim and he'll write the lyrics boom, songs done. Jim will write guitar riffs, and put it on his drum machine and then the lyrics come in and we'll say do a bridge here or lets do this and we'll practice it and hash it out with our style and Randy writes entire songs. Every one has a home studio basically so we all write different ways, I'll go to Randy's house and play around with the guitar and we'll drink some beers. There's really no set method, some of our best songs were written took like 5 minutes. Jim will say 'I got something' he'll get up and start blasting and we're done. So there's no rhyme or reason to it, I'll get up in the middle of the night and go wherever and pick up my guitar and start playing. My thing is that I don't record anything so I just play it and remember it and keep playing it and modifying it and then after that I'll go and record it. So it's way unorthodox style and we really don't know how the album is going to sound until we get about 6 or 7 songs we really like and then we kinda have a direction. I'd say Jim does write most of the lyrics, but I write lyrics, Randy writes lyrics Byron writes guitar parts, Jim writes guitar shit everyone has multiple facets in the song writing process. It's not like some bands where one person writes all of the music and that's what you play.

Sarah: Do you think that's the key to it?

Fletcher: It's the tension, it's miserable; Jim says he'd rather go to the dentist and get 20 root canals. You think it's not that bad and then you get in the middle of it, and it's horrible but it's that tension that makes it Pennywise. We're a band, it's a rare thing where it's not just one guy who dictates and writes all the songs, witch would be way easier. If I could get paid equally to just say 'OK I'll play that" that'd be great but then it would feel like I wasn't really contributing so, and it makes it really hard but that’s how we do it.

Sarah: So what is in your CD player right now?

Fletcher: Black President, they are a really good band. Charlie from Goldfinger is actually the guitar player and a couple other guys. You would really like that band Hardcore punk rock with some very political lyrics really cool. There is a band form Hermosa called The Darlings that I really like a lot, that are a little Pennywiseish not that I only like bands that sound like us but, they also have a little Rockabilly vibe. I know there's like way more than that, I'll probably get in trouble for not saying all of the bands that I like, but I'm just drawing a blank. I still listen to Ice Cubes last album, and Bob Marley and Pantera, Metallica's new album is pretty good.

Sarah: What kind of bands do you like to tour with?

Fletcher: Bands that are cool, Pepper they are super rad guys. Not bands that are like, asshole rock stars that think they're better than you. The ones that don't talk to you and walk around with security guards next to them, but some of my favorite bands to tour with are; Suicidal Tendencies, The Vandals, The Circle Jerks, TSOL, Joy Killer, Black Eyed Peas were really rad, before they were Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas, I don't really talk to them anymore. Cyprus Hill, really, really cool guys. Like Soundgarden, assholes. They wouldn't fucking talk to us. Chris Cornell I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, like I understand you're a big star and you don't like people talking to you but I'm in the band that's playing 2 below you, and we're on tour for 15 weeks at the breakfast table say like 'Hey man what’s up? I'm Chris nice to meet you, good set last night.' Nope, so I just started fucking with him 'Hey Cornell, you gonna come sing Brohymn with us tonight?' You really start to find out who's real, who's a real person, we like to tour with people that are real and don't have egos, we don't.

Sarah: Zombies are attacking, what do you grab to kill them?

Fletcher: Fucking Bazooka. If the thing that is attacking you is in a million pieces, then it's not attacking you anymore, unless it's like Samuel L Jackson in 'The Spirit' and it can just put itself back together.

Sarah: Who would play you in the 'Pennywise movie' (and no, not the Stephen King movie)?

Fletcher: Well if we're going for looks than Brad Pitt. But um, for character, then I'm kinda feeling weird, I dunno, maybe Jack Black? he's kinda Nutty, and I'm pretty weird I do some weird thing like he'd probably think that peeing on people is funny, and he'd be able to pull that off. Cuz I do that all the time.

Sarah: So what's one question you want to be asked in an interview?

Fletcher: Well, I've never really thought about that, um, I think 'If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?' Now I'm going to ask you first. What's one thing?

Sarah: One thing? Hmmm. I'd make higher education free.

Fletcher: Pretty good, but not good enough. My answer is, I would end world hunger. Starvation. That's possible with the amount of food, we, a country throw away. Want to hear my plan? I'm going to go to Bill Gates, all restaurants that want to participate, when they do their busing, will take an extra 20 sec to get rid of chicken bones, or other bullshit, and takes what looks good, like the other 2 and a half enchiladas, the beans that were left over, or the half a sandwich that someone didn't eat they scrap it into a trash can, a refrigerated trash can and all day long, they do that quick separation and a truck comes by, depending on how fast they get filled, takes it to a processing plant, it goes through a conveyor belt system, that picks out bones, and forks or what have you. a sorter, then it goes through a steam cleaning process that disinfects it by heat. The only thing in that food is bad is someone else's germs and it gets freeze dried packed or flash frozen or whatever it may be into a little brick. Shrink-wrapped and that goes out on planes every couple days to countries that are starving and a kid get a block of whatever it was, turkey mashed potatoes, enchiladas, some chili cheese dog leftovers from Der Weinersnichel. What they do with that is put it in a stew pot, add some water and they make a soup, or a stew whatever. I tell people and they always say it's so gross, but if you're a kid with flies in your mouth and you're dying your going to eat that, and not only is it's going to taste good you'll be stoked. And this way the restaurants don't have to pay for waste, or refuse, right? The company is a non-profit organization, one of the hardest things to deal with will be pirates and evil dictators that want to steal the food. But the basic necessities for people, food and water 30,000 children a day are starving. and we're sitting here munching on these chips and the rest is just going to get thrown away, it's fucking crazy. I've been saying it for years and people say it's disgusting, but what’s disgusting is that we're sitting here letting children die and no one is doing anything about it. I just need someone to finance it, and that would be Bill Gates, all he's doing is charity stuff now anyway.

Sarah: OK one last question, what do you want to tell the kids that want to do what you do, have a band. What is your advice to them?

Fletcher: Follow your heart. It’s really simple, if you're doing something for the money or for fame or for chicks or whatever, it's never going to work. Very rarely. You have to follow your heart. You have to play music because you believe in that kind of music and because you truly like it. And it doesn't matter if it's country or rap or if you're black, white, yellow, play what you want to play and you'll always be successful weather you sell a record or not. You'll always have that feeling of something good happening. The bottom line is do what you want to do, do what makes you happy. Play the kind of music that you feel best represents who you are. Don’t try to follow trends ever. You’ll never catch them. Fucking start trends, do what you want and start a trend. Not that we're trend setters or anything, but after things got big you noticed a ton of bands playing west cost punk rock, and it's not like we all tried to start something. It's not like Bad Religion was trying to reinvent the wheel they were just putting out a great album called 'Suffer' Bottom line is, do what you want to do in life period. If you don't want to work at your desk job being a computer programmer and you want to be a photographer or an interviewer do that pursue your fucking dreams. You spend a really short amount of time on this planet and if you're not living it to your fullest every minute, then you're fucked. If you're doing stuff that you hate you need to step out of it, no matter the consequences. If you're miserable working a job but you’re scared you're not going to have any income, what's worse? Being miserable? Anything is possible, all you gotta do it try.

For more official information on Pennywise, please log onto:
http://www.pennywisdom.com
http://www.myspace.com/pennywise

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