BAND: Scary Kids Scaring Kids
INTERVIEWER: Kayli VerSteeg (kayli@bandvibe.com)
INTERVIEWEE: Lil Steezy of Scary Kids Scaring Kid
DATE OF INTERVIEW: 06.29.07

BAND MEMBERS:
Tyson: vocals
Lil Steezy: guitar
chad: guitar
James Ethridge: drums
Dj: bass
Pouyan: keyboard

BV: How did you guys all meet?
Lil Steezy: Well, I don’t know. We just all basically met in high school, and everyone became friends. People, certain people in the band were in bands before, but we were all still friends and then that band ended. Then the friends decided to make a band together, so it became, The Scary Kids

BV: How old is the band?
Lil Steezy: It has been a little over 5 years now.

BV: When did you know you wanted to make music?
Lil Steezy: The second I listened to Pantera, I wanted to fucking shred like that. So like I was never able to get a guitar, my parents weren’t really supportive in the whole music thing, but I asked for one and ended up getting one for my 16th birthday. I was practicing every single day, to the point where they would have to tell me to stop practicing because I wasn’t spending enough time with the family. Then I went out bought a better guitar, I went and bought a little 4 track tape recorder and just went from there, just doing it on my own. I had no plans to be in a band or anything I just wanted to make music, it just kind of ended up happening.

BV: Are your parents more supportive now?
Lil Steezy: Definitely. My mother was very supportive from the beginning. My dad isn’t the kind of artsy kind of person, so he wasn’t. It kind of turned into this “prove you wrong” situation, and now that I’ve gotten this far without his help, he now respects me for doing that.

BV: Are you playing all the dates of Warped Tour?
Lil Steezy: Thankfully no. We’re only playing the first half.

BV: How many years have you done Warped Tour before?
Lil Steezy: We’ve done it the last two years, just here and there. We did like a little over a month last year, about a month the year before.

BV: What do you think sets you guys apart from a lot of other bands that are out there right now?
Lil Steezy: We have a keyboardist that likes to get naked and hump people’s faces. He’s an animal…he’s definitely a showman.

BV: Yeah, he does some crazy things. Has he ever had an injury before?
Lil Steezy: No. I’m amazed that he hasn’t. Last Warped Tour, we were playing like Virgina Beach or some place really rainy. He climbed up the rafter, like at the very top, like a good 25 feet in the air. Its wet, the bar is slippery and he starts swinging off of it and he swings and dives into the crowd from that high, and somehow miraculously people catch him and he doesn’t break an ankle or anything.

BV: Tell us about your new album!
Lil Steezy: Ugh, I wish you could just listen to it! It’s so hard to talk about. Its definitely a freaking’ big step for us, we’re all very very proud of this CD. We put a lot of time and work in writing it, perfecting it. I want you to hear it! It’s the only way to explain it. We all love it. We love it to death. I know it’s something that we are all looking forward to very much, so we know it’s going to do some good things, we’re just very excited to get it out there.

BV: What is your favorite song to play live?
Lil Steezy: Um…probably “Only Medicine” because that is just straight rocking’ fun-ness.

BV: What is your craziest story from being on tour?
Lil Steezy: I remember we played a show in Kansas, first time we ever played there. We played in this barbecue restaurant that had a stage area off to the side. We were maybe 19, we were still young and the bar ended up hooking us up with free drinks all night out of the tap. So I’m still a light weight because I’m young and I don’t drink that much, because I can’t because I’m under age. By the end of the show I end up having about seven beers, and we end up going to these people’s house, that they end up letting us stay at. I remember getting out of the van, walking half way up the steps and then the night is a complete black out after that. I don’t remember anything except walking up the fucking door. Then I end up waking up the next morning, outside on a couch, really confused that I woke up outside. I finally get up and start walking around the house, kind of stumbling like a penguin. I look down and I realize I’m wearing completely different clothes then I was wearing the night before. I’m wearing these big XL silver gym shorts and this big Kansas University shirt. So I start wondering, “what the hell happened last night?” And once everyone wakes up I hear little bits of the story. Basically I got trashed while I was there and I ended up passing out on the couch and throwing up on myself. Then some girl helps me into a bathroom to get me changed so she can wash my clothes, she takes my clothes off and I end up shitting in her hand apparently. That was the definite crazy part; that I shit in somebody’s hand.
BV: And you don’t remember it?
Lil Steezy: Not at all.
BV: Did you apologize to her?
Lil Steezy: I don’t think I ever saw her again. But yeah that was definitely a crazy thing that happened.

BV: Who would your dream line up be with?
Lil Steezy: Oh, Michael Jackson. I want three bands: Michael Jackson to open, then us play and then Michael Jackson would play again. Actually, maybe Dragon force would be on there too…I’m lying. I’m fucking lying. My dream show would be, it’s basically nothing but us and a bunch of power metal bands and Michael Jackson. Bands like: Dragonforce, Rhapsody, and us and Michael Jackson.

BV: So I’m assuming those are the main bands you listen to?
Lil Steezy: Power Metal. Anything that makes you want to summon dragons from the heavens, and then slay it by putting a sword right under their neck. Stuff that makes you hold your hand out like you have a mystical orb in it all times.

BV: Have you ever summoned a dragon before and then slayed it?
Lil Steezy: I’ve been waiting…
BV: Oh well, we did it just last weekend…
Lil Steezy: That’s so unfair; I’ve been waiting forever.

BV: How did you guys come up with your band name?
Lil Steezy: Well, our other guitarist actually kind of came up with the name. It ended up being a Capt. Jazz song name and it just stuck. It’s ridiculous, you don’t fucking forget it. But people also love us or hate us for it, we have no in between fans.

BV: So what is your writing process?
Lil Steezy: It’s usually, generally, always music first then lyrics. Chad, the other guitarist, and me will kind of independently come up with things and then put them together with everybody. Then we collaborate and make changes here and there, give ideas but for the most part it’s always music first and then we just fuse our stuff together.

BV: So lyrics are a joint effort too?
Lil Steezy: Not so much, there have been times in the past when a few of us have written stuff and tried to make it work and give it to Tyson and he will change some of it and keep some of it. Vocals are usually kind of last minute. Especially lyrics just because you can never be fully super satisfied, until you really know that you are. Half the time it takes us until we are in the studio before things get finalized.

BV: So if you were stranded on an island, what three things would you bring with you?
Lil Steezy: Well I would probably want a lifetime supply of Jack Daniels. I would probably want a Mexican Restaurant and a boat with a driver that can take me wake boarding whenever I want…damn that would be a sweet fucking island.
BV: What would you name it?
Lil Steezy: Um…”A Sweet Fucking Island”…I would probably spell it different though, to make it cooler.

BV: If you had to be reincarnated as one thing, what would it be?
Lil Steezy: The American Bald Eagle.
BV: Why?
Lil Steezy: They’re so fucking sick! They have like a 9-foot wingspan, or a dragon.
BV: And then we would slay you.

BV: What do you do in your free time when you’re touring?
Lil Steezy: Well, I usually spend my day with a bottle of alcohol because there really is nothing else to keep my mind off the boringness that is Warped Tour. But once we get a bus it’s pretty much going to be video games, movies and alcohol all together and friends. We have lots of friends on Warped Tour, like Joe Brown.

BV: Do you enjoy Warped Tour for the most part?
Lil Steezy: Everyday is different. Some days you like it and you have fun and then other days you hate it because someone can just fucking rubs you the wrong way and just makes you feel terrible. Then you go out in the heat and it just makes everything worse.

BV: It doesn’t seem like an easy tour to be on…
Lil Steezy: Yeah it isn’t. It also depends a lot on the venue. Today sucked because we had to push gear through like watery grass, while sinking into the grass.

BV: How did you come up with the idea for the video for “My Darkest Hour”?
Lil Steezy: We had a buddy that kind of collaborated the idea together. He had done a couple of videos before and he was just trying to get his portfolio built up so he basically did the video for free. We paid a thousand dollars for that scene at the end when we crash through the wall, but besides that it was entirely free. Then we just pieced everything together last minute. He was just as stoked to do it as we were.

BV: Is there anything else you would like to say? When will the album be out?
Lil Steezy: We are going to be on Warped Tour until July 27th, then directly after that we are doing our headlining tour with “Boys Night Out” until mid-September. That tour will be fun, it’s our first headliner ever, so come check it out and have fun with us. We will be hanging out all day meeting people and hanging out with them. After that, the record will come out somewhere between August 28th to October 7th. It really depends because September is a really bad time to release stuff because the release date in September is September 11th…so its either August or October. So late summer or early Fall, check out the new album, we love it and we hope you enjoy it too.

For more official information on Scary Kids Scaring Kid, please log onto:
http://scarykidssociety.com
http://www.myspace.com/scarykids