June 1, 2007

[ Previous ] [ All articles in this category ] [ Next ]

FUCKED UP INTERVIEW
At several thousand words already, this interview with FUCKED UP singer Damian (aka Pink Eyes) needs little for an introduction. Simply, FUCKED UP operate like a punk and hardcore band from the early 80s, putting out a flurry of releases often and everywhere, spanning the globe and with little regard for professional organization. While legions of conformist bands opt for the new-record-every-two-years philosophy, FUCKED UP abides by no one's rules when it comes to output, and with each and every successive release, the band refuses to fall into a discernible pattern. Just when you think punk rock has caved in to be just another genre of music, a band like FUCKED UP comes along and stirs things up. Jason Bergman conducted this interview in June of 2007 in New York City outside of a police station - Jordan.

Pastepunk: So did you guys just start the tour?

Damian: Yeah this is like day three of thirty-two.

Pastepunk: Oh my god...

Damian: Yeah we kind of are barely on speaking terms right now.

Pastepunk: I kind of got that sense on stage, like the late thing... [Damian was nowhere to be found when the band was ready to go start playing at around 9:15pm. The show had to be over by 10pm.]

Damian: Usually when tour starts I’ll go like hang out with a bunch of friends in the city and we’ll all kind of go our separate ways. It’s kind of hard when you’re doing this long tour, you don’t know everyone in every city or anything like that. So, yeah we’ll see.

Pastepunk: So where did you go today? Record shopping?

Damian: I fell off the wagon; I went to a record store.

Pastepunk: Which store?

Damian: Academy Records.

Pastepunk: Ah I never heard of it, have you hit Generations though?

Damian: No but my friend hit it up before I got here. See I’m doing pretty good with not buying records. I have a problem. I’m doing pretty fucking good as of late, but as soon as I get phoned like, “Hey you know what we should do? Go record shopping!” I’m like, “fuck yeah that’s what we should do.” So I’m very weak willed, that’s why I’m not a vegetarian anymore. All I need is one person to tell me it’s not a good idea and I’m like “fuck this.”

Pastepunk: Especially in New York since there are so many awesome places (record stores)

Damian: Exactly, exactly. I mean it was good, I got the MUMP 7’’ today for five bucks and I’ve wanted that record for a long time. Never thought I’d find it, so you know. I think the savings justifies the mistrust.

Pastepunk: Was that a thing that like, you weren’t going to record shop?

Damian: No records on tour.

Pastepunk: After the third day [laughs]?

Damian: Yeah, and third day I fell of the wagon. To be completely honest, I fell off the wagon on the first day. I’m not in the good books with my wife right now. But that’s the problem with bringing your wife out on tour. Like a lot of bands don’t want to bring their girlfriends or wives out on tour cause they’re sleazy. I guess I’m sleazy in a way too, but mine’s not booze or you know, coke or you know, other people that I’m having sex with. It’s records.

Pastepunk: I know the feeling, I have like 300 CDs.

Damian: You know the pain my man.

Pastepunk: I feel like my parents are judging me like, “where is all your money going to?”

Damian: Yeah that’s why I moved out, so my parents couldn’t judge me. And then you know, you marry someone and they judge you or you live with someone and they judge you.

Pastepunk: Well speaking of the vinyl thing, I mean your vinyl is like a hot commodity, you guys even mentioned it [tonight on stage], how do you feel about that?

Damian: It’s kind of weird since obviously it doesn’t affect me a lot, since otherwise we wouldn’t do it if it did. So as much as it pisses me off to see people selling things on eBay, I understand, it’s a free market economy, that’s how it works. It bums me out when I see people who I gave the record to for free.

Pastepunk: Who then flip it or something?

Damian: Yeah. We’ve had problems especially in Europe. We had a 7’’ out in Europe were you would get one copy and one copy only and people will send up friends or girlfriends or boyfriends so they can buy more copies just to flip it.

Pastepunk: Which 7’’ was that?

Damian: The Two Snakes 7’’. So yeah, it’s one of those things where I don’t feel taken advantage of, but I feel they’re not doing it for the right reasons. If you make a limited run of anything, chances are that people are going to want it.

Pastepunk: I’ve read that people feel it’s not the same now when you can just like “pre-order the limited thing” as opposed to digging in a record store and finding it...

Damian: Yeah exactly, that being said some of those early Dischord records were trade-only colored vinyl things. THE NECROS had limited sleeves for certain shows, so it’s always kind of been limited vinyl and anyone who collects records wants to have something.

Pastepunk: That one, that shrine…

Damian: That total sense of ownership of the band I guess, and by that extension, something else no one else can own since it’s yours.

Pastepunk: Back to the tour thing, I remember you guys were playing CMJ and you guys had trouble getting in to the US. It seems like New York is a bad thing for you guys [the venue, 538 Johnson Ave, where the June 22nd show was supposed to be held got shut down 3 days before due to the landlord].

Damian: Well we love coming here, it’s like the best place to play. It’s a lot of fun, we’ve always played good shows here.

Pastepunk: Yeah, I saw you guys with TRAGEDY...

Damian: Yeah and that was fun ass show. Even one of our first shows we ever played here, we played like a Cartoon Network after party. And above us THE RAPTURE were playing and HAR MAR SUPERSTAR and DJ DANGERMOUSE was DJing. It was at the Knitting Factory and we actually got thrown out for having a food fight, but it was the most fun ever. It was just ridiculous.

Pastepunk: And you guys are playing there again, right?

Damian: Yeah we’re playing there again in the big room. We played there once since then too, but we also got in trouble since we kept sneaking people in since all these kids couldn’t get in. So we were like, “yeah we’ll get you in, we’ll get you in.” ... But yeah I love coming to New York, I have a really good time here, go record shopping, good food, the kids are fucking awesome. The thing that happened before with New York was that we tried to cross, we’ve always crossed kind of illegally. Which is fun since we had the fake names, the pseudonyms, no one knew.

Pastepunk: Then you guys got real popular...

Damian: Then there was this big article in this newspaper, the Canadian National Newspaper. Which was a weird thing to happen. In my old high school they have it hung up on the wall which is really weird.

Pastepunk: Were you like in good standing at your high school?

Damian: Well I kind of was, I was in OK standing. I was the guy they expected to be completely fucked up. And the newspaper refused to use our pseudonyms; they used our real names, unbeknownst to us.

So yeah, we tried to cross and the American border is very [tough] in the wake of 9/11 and stuff. So we thought we had it all figured out, we had no gear, nothing, no merch. We’re like, “we’re gonna get in no problem.” We roll up to the border and they’re like what are you doing and we’re like, “we’re going to a record convention in New York City” cause there was that big record convention in New York City (the CMJ Music Marathon held annually). And they’re like “ok” and they took us aside. We had the fool-proof story so we’re just kind of smiling and the guy looks back at us and smiles and we smile and he comes up and says “can I ask you a question” we’re like “sure.” “Where’s your gear?” “Uh we’re not a band, we don’t have any gear. We’re just going to a record fair.” “That’s not true FUCKED UP!" and he just slams down a Google print-out of the newspaper article and our real names. So we’re fucked. They said that if we tried to sneak across the border again, we’d be banned for five years; they'd impound our vehicle, fines, all this shit. So before, we were an illegal band. But unfortunately we missed CMJ which would have been fucking amazing.

Pastepunk: Yeah I know you guys were playing a bunch of shows that weekend...

Damian: Yeah, we were so pumped and it was just the worst ride home. We live like an hour and a half, two hours from the border. So driving back we’re sitting in dead fucking silence.

Pastepunk: With no gear...

Damian: No gear. We had to get our gear from our friend who brought back the gear. We’re getting the merch now that we had shipped over [back in the fall]. Yeah it was a fucking nightmare.

Pastepunk: Yeah I guess you have to be careful if you go to Japan. I’ve heard horror stories. Like you know, with Strike Anywhere...

Damian: Yeah yeah.

Pastepunk: They tried to get over and something got messed up and they have this old hotel where they store people in...

Damian: For illegals I guess...

Pastepunk: Yeah and it’s just this windowless room and the guy had no idea how long he was there. People carved their stories into the wall and he like wrote a song about it

Damian: Yeah, it definitely, obviously, we feel the same way about keeping things as DIY as possible, but that was one instance where we were like “I guess we could play Canada for the rest of our lives,” or we could go legit and register. So we went legit with mixed emotions. Some in the band weren’t as stoked as others.

Pastepunk: Why? Just wanted to stay DIY?

Damian: Yeah, wanted to stay below the radar. It just seemed like being a punk band, it seemed weird going to the government and being like, “Hey we’re a punk band called ‘FUCKED UP,’ we’d like to be a legit rock band.” But at the same time, we’re a band, we’re a commodity and as such, we gotta do this shit.

Pastepunk: So did the signing with Jade Tree cause any issues then?

Damian: It definitely caused some issues in the start and you know, once again, it was one of those things where we were like “well, what do we want to do as a band?” We had this whole plan, that we were going to break up after recording these two LPs back to back and then that’s it. And then we kind of got to this point where we changed it, and whatever makes our lives more interesting, we’ll try once. And if we don’t like it, we’ll get the fuck out of it. So that’s kind of how we handle everything now.

Pastepunk: So you guys are still doing stuff with Gordon at Deranged?

Damian: Yeah we still do stuff with Deranged, still do stuff with... Jade Tree has been really cool with letting us do stuff with other labels.

Pastepunk: Like how you guys put out stuff with Vice in the UK?

Damian: Yeah and like Feral Ward in Portland is doing something, What’s Your Rupture in New York is doing something, the Year of the Pig 12’’. Blocks Recording Company did a record. We’re constantly trying to make sure we can still put out our 7’’s and that we’re not… we don’t want to be a pro-core band, but at the same time, for us we were like, “Fuck, let’s try to make our lives as interesting as possible while this lasts.” Plus, where else would I get free shirts?

Pastepunk: You guys did the 7’’s for a long time and is that how you wrote, like write every once in a while…

Damian: More like, when we started, Mike (10,000 Marbles, etc.) would pretty much write all the songs, and Jonah would come in and help him and figure stuff out. Now it’s gotten a lot more collaborative.

Pastepunk: Is that why Hidden World was so different? I remember getting a promo copy at my school’s radio station that said “For fans of Black Flag, The Ramones, and Pink Floyd” and I was like “Ok…”.

Damian: Well I think with Hidden World it felt really rushed. I guess it was like a hurry up and wait thing. We wrote this thing and it took us fucking forever to get things planned, and then we went into the studio and it just felt like… we were on our way to England to tour, we were doing the US thing for a couple of weeks and the record had to be out by a certain time. Which we didn’t realize, but when you sign to a label, like a “bigger” label. They have blackout dates from November to January and they want to have a lead time before the record comes out.

Pastepunk: So they won’t release anything in that period?

Damian: Exactly. So to get our record out before the year ended, in October when it came out, we had to have it to them by May, at the latest. So we were in the studio and it felt really rushed. It just was kind of an accident how the songs got placed and how it really does kind of sound different. I guess if we had more time it would be a little more refined.

Pastepunk: It’s funny how you say that since it seems like you put a lot of effort into that, like getting Owen from ARCADE FIRE to play strings on the album.

Damian: It was really weird because we did this single called “Ban Violins.” It was on this single Generations. Toronto’s got this huge indie rock scene, like a monolithic indie rock scene, like Broken Social Scene… and at that point we were like “Yo, fuck Toronto indie rock. We’re a hardcore band, fuck all those dudes.” So we wrote the song “Ban Violins” and we credited Owen Pallet on it because he played violins on like everyone’s records. We didn’t realize it was because he was a nice guy and does it for free, we thought he was like probably getting paid. So we did this song and we heard he was kind of pissed about it, but kind of into it. And at the same time, two years later, we met up with Blocks Records, who put out his record, the FINAL FANTASY record. The guy who runs Blocks, Steve Kato, was like “Owen really likes you guys,” and we were like “really?” So kind of half-jokingly we asked if he would play on our record. He was like “I’ll see.” So Owen came to the studio and did all his parts in one take and listened to the songs one or two times and liked the parts. He was amazing, the only thing he asked for in return was a copy of Looking for Gold. He was amazing to work with. All that kind of fell into place. We went into the studio and just called people and asked “do you want to sing on this song?” And they’d be like “ok” and come down and sing on the song.

Pastepunk: So even though you think it's rushed, it sounds like a lot of planning went into it…

Damian: Maybe, I don’t know, maybe I’m remembering it differently, but it really felt rushed at the time.

Pastepunk: Are you surprised by the positive reaction it’s received?

Damian: Really surprised. It’s really weird. It’s definitely a really weird thing. Because at the time we were like, “We wrote a 74-minute punk record.” And we didn’t try to set out to make a pretentious art statement, like I don’t think it’s a great statement on culture or…

Pastepunk: Like messing with distortion doesn’t really say anything about Bush...

Damian: Yeah. I just think, we made a record where there are songs I wrote that are political or whatever. We just want to make this record and the fact that people are into it is really awesome and kind of surprising. But yeah, it was really surprising since it is 74 minutes. It’s a long listen. I’ve only really listened to the whole thing in one sitting, twice. Because I’m like “it’s a long record.” I like singles you know, one song and then you flip it over.

Pastepunk: Are you guys working on a DVD or anything? I know you did the Practice Space [a show on VBS.tv]...

Damian: Yeah we did the practice space with Vice… Vice has been super fucking cool with us and filmed a lot of shit. We have filmed a lot of footage and I just wouldn’t want to put out a DVD… like there are so many shitty band DVDs and either you make a DVD that’s really crappy or you completely overstate the importance of your band.

Pastepunk: Like the AGAINST ME! one?

Damian: I haven’t seen that.

Pastepunk: It’s kind of like half documentary and half live show. It's based on when they were being courted by a major label and they’re interviewing fans and stuff, mixed with live footage. And then a year later it’s like “Oh, well we signed to Sire,” and I was like... “but the movie…”

Damian: Yeah there’s that, and like, there’s funny stuff, but there’s funny stuff that would only be funny to me.

Pastepunk: Like you guys in the van?

Editors note: van footage is the worst on band DVDs. Please, please bands... NO ONE ENJOYS SEEING BANDS LAUGH AT THE FACT THAT THEY FART A LOT INSIDE THE VAN - Jordan.

Damian: Yeah. Like we filmed Mike and Josh in a fight once and Josh peed on Mike’s pillow. And I think that’s hilarious, but it might not make for a funny video for someone who isn’t in the band. So, for a DVD it would have to be something where we sit down and would have to come together and look cool and not be like “FUCKED UP changed hardcore.” There’s so many DVDs like that where the band thinks we have hit this benchmark, our story needs to be told.

Pastepunk: We are the most important band…

Damian: Yeah exactly. At the end of the day, you’re just playing four chords, in a band. You’re not changing the world. All we can hope to do is at the end of the day, make someone’s day a little better or a little worse, depending on what sort of mood they want to be in. We’re not going to change the world.

Pastepunk: So the lyrics on Hidden World, a lot of it deals with rebirth and the cover art has life spawning out of…

Damian: Yeah I think it’s more of a personal thing but I think it’s not too obtuse like “Ugh, how do you penetrate this record?” Like hopefully it’s accessible, where I’m not trying to think of the most inspiring thing I can think of, then write it down, then code it so no one can understand it. There’s songs about gardening on that record, cause Mike gardens. And there are songs about…

Pastepunk: It’s kind of like PISSED JEANS where the guy wants ice cream, so he writes a song about ice cream.

Damian: Yeah. I guess there are political songs and personal songs, but we’re not going to change the world. I think that would be really arrogant, or to expect anyone to get anything out of our records. I think if someone gets anything out of our records… the first time I heard “Committed for Life” by 7 SECONDS I got like a shit ton out of it. But I’m not going to play that for my Mom and expect her to get something out of it. It’s all personal, whether you like something. Like I don’t care if someone connects with it, I hope it brings someone joy, or melancholy, or anger, or whatever they want to feel.

Pastepunk: I was going to ask about the lyrics to “Reset the Ride," since what I got out of it was a statement about bands today and how everyone, not that you guys are putting yourselves on a pedestal, but there is a lot of shit out there and everyone thinks they are number one or better than everyone else…

Damian: Well that’s a lot more inspired than what it’s actually about. The song is actually about going to a graduation, graduating from high school, or graduating from elementary school or college, graduating anything. You look around and you see people getting really emotional and teachers give tearful speeches and everyone’s like “we’re so important.” But then the whole system resets and there is a whole new level of grads coming through, and so it’s bands too. You know, everyone thinks, like what we talked about earlier, everyone thinks that what they’re doing is so important, but you have to remember that you’re so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Live your life the best you can and maybe improve someone else’s life. Because you’re not, unless you’re George Bush or some arms dealer, you’re not going to change the world. Even our Prime Minister is never going to change the world, since we’re such an insignificant country. So that’s what that song is about, just about how nothing changes and everything is constantly resetting. As much as you think you’re changing things, there is someone right behind you thinking the same thing and someone right in front of you who thought the same thing.

Pastepunk: And no one is really going anywhere?

Damian: Yeah exactly. There was a band from Toronto, that for me, well for a lot of people, was super fucking important. So there was this band that was really significant and really political and I see those guys now, they’re great people and I’m not putting them down as people, but they made all these profound speeches and songs with these lyrics that were inspiring and things like that, but here they are, family people now, at forty, working these jobs and I think realism set in. Here was this band that for me was like “Oh my God this band can change the world.” The ride’s reset and now FUCKED UP’s there. And pretty soon that will reset and someone else will be there.

Pastepunk: It’s kind of like when you go to a show and have that feeling of “that was fucking amazing and incredible, and then “ok I have to be at work at nine in the morning.”

Damian: Yeah exactly like we’re on tour, and not to understate it, since tonight was fucking amazing, but you know, you do your shows and they’re really fucking awesome, but I go back home to my really shitty job. We all go back to our shitty jobs and the ride resets. Another band comes through and we play another town and the same reactions happen, obviously not the exact same reactions, the ride constantly resets.

Pastepunk: It’s kind of funny, since Stereogum.com has this feature called “Quit Your Dayjob” and they just interview people, in these giant bands, who you figure make enough money to live off of and they’re like “oh I work in a pizza place” or “I work in a dress shop.” Like the drummer of PELICAN works at Whole Foods when he’s not on tour.

Damian: Out of all the bands and people I know in bands… Canada’s an exception since you can get paid by the government if you’re a big enough band...

Pastepunk: Yeah I was going to ask you about that… did you guys ever feel that you wanted to take advantage of that?

Damian: Yeah, I mean it’s free money. It definitely… we’re gonna try and look at what is involved in doing it and see if we can exploit it and get something better out of it. No, but like I guess it’s a good system to support the arts and it goes to a lot of bigger bands. Avril Lavigne still draws a paycheck from the Canadian government. SUM 41 still draws a paycheck from the Canadian government... All the Arts & Crafts bands. All these bands are drawing a paycheck for the government and in Canada it’s a little different...

Pastepunk: Do you see it as conflicting with the whole DIY thing you were talking about before?

Damian: To a certain extent, yeah, but Canada is this kind of “socialist” country. Like I take health care, I vote. Maybe I shouldn’t, and maybe it’s against DIY or anarchist principles, but….

Pastepunk: I mean can you really argue with one dollar health care?

Damian: Free health care. So yeah exactly, I could say I would never take advantage of it, but like it’s free money. The Canadian government who we pay taxes to, maybe not me, wants to supply us with a van, I’ll take that van. They didn’t though on this tour.

Pastepunk: I saw that you guys just played Hidden World in it's entirety recently and I was wondering how that went...

Damian: We played the whole thing and everyone who played on it was in town. Trying to get Owen Pallet (of Arcade Fire) and George Pettit (of Alexisonfire) in Toronto at the same time was fucking impossible. That was the only day we could do it and we barely promoted it.

Pastepunk: Yeah I saw it on the blog: lookingforgold.blogspot.com.

Damian: Yeah we put it on the blog, made a couple of fliers and yeah, we raised a lot of money for the charity (SPOC - Sex Professionals of Canada, a group whose “main objective is to work toward the decriminalization of sex work through political activism” – spoc.ca), the woman at the charity were really happy with the results. They came out and did a speech, we kind of broke it into two parts… [the woman] came up and did a speech. I don’t expect everyone in the audience to agree with our politics. I don’t expect everyone in the audience to pay attention to what she was saying, but a good number of kids did.

Pastepunk: There’s no harm in at least being aware, so even if you have a positive or negative opinion of it, at least you have an opinion.

Damian: And if you don’t want to listen, go outside. But yeah, we raised a lot of money for them and they were grateful. It’s a small enough charity where the money we gave them… the money we gave them wasn’t just a drop in the bucket, there were visible results.

Pastepunk: So that’s where the inspiration for “Year of the Pig” came from right?

Damian: Yeah.

Pastepunk: And the guy…

Damian: Robert Pickton [arrested for the alleged murders of twenty-six sex workers in Canada]… well it’s the kind of thing where there are things in our society… and as cliché as it sounds, it’s the “world’s oldest profession”… it's a part of our society and will always probably be a part of our society, and they are literally treated like animals. There’s no protection for these people. They’re out there, vulnerable, and in Canada, I’m sure it’s worse in the States, there’s laws, so prostitution is technically legally in Canada, but you can’t live off the avails of prostitution.

Pastepunk: So you can list it as a profession, kind of?

Damian: Well you can’t. If you live off the avails of prostitution… it’s OK for me to pay, well not me but, someone to pay someone for sex, but if that person lives off that, they can’t. Or if they give some of that money to their family or buy something for their family, it’s illegal. It’s one of these things that drives it underground and in the case of Robert Pickton, here are these women whose family and friends were crying out for some sort of answer, they knew who Robert Pickton was, they knew where he lived and it was totally ignored. Once again, these people are left vulnerable by a system.

Pastepunk: It’s weird because just being in America, I didn’t hear anything about it, but if two prostitutes were killed in America it would be a big deal.

Damian: That’s the information exchange between the Canada and America. I can tell you every American news story for the past, oh how many years, because we get every news story... Yeah, once again, it’s one of those things where… like the "Green River Killer" is another example where these women were going missing. There’s a reason these serial killers, well I’m sure there are a lot of reasons, pray on these women is that they are vulnerable and because not that they don’t have friends and family that care about them, but as a whole in society we ignore it and expect it to go away. So that is the inspiration for that record. It also kind of feels weird since it feels like we’re exploiting it too by making a record out of it and selling it.

Pastepunk: But also you raised the money for them and you’re raising awareness for it. Is there an insert for it or anything?

Damian: I don’t think so, maybe in the final version since this is just the tour version. Ebay gold right there [point to copy of “Year of the Pig 12’’ sitting on a ledge near us].

Pastepunk: Are you guys going to put out a cassette again or any other type of unusual releases?

Damian: We just put out an 8-track of Hidden World. They made, I think, 300 of them. It’s sold out now. We did a mix tape, we’ve got two mix tapes now. We did a tape in Poland and I think a couple coming out in different places in Asia where CDs are rare, or punks just buy tapes there. We’ll do wax cylinder if anyone can make one. We’ll try anything. We won’t make a DVD, we’ll put it out on video cassette.

Pastepunk: Laserdisc?

Damian: Yeah [laughs], or a uh, Quadraphonic sound LP.

Pastepunk: Also, the MTV Canada thing, I have to ask...

Damian: Have you seen it?

Pastepunk: Yeah I’ve seen it. I thought it was really funny how they had the girl [imitates high pitched Canadian girl yelling] “F’ED UP!”

Damian: Yeah it was really fucking weird.

Pastepunk: I hear they were cool with it and the head of the station was down there and into it. And you guys caused like $2,000 in damages or something?

Damian: Yeah, it was an insane moment in my life.

Pastepunk: Those were all your fans, right? Not just random kids.

Damian: Yeah those were our fans and I’m sure there were a couple of random people there, but yeah, they were all there to see us. Well the thing was, MTV in Canada is a new thing since we have Much Music. MTV came up before but it failed, so this is a new thing. The station they’re on are committed to showing a certain amount of talk, because of how their license from the government works. So they have this daily talk show called “MTV Live” and they’ve had a lot of bands on it. A lot of cool, punk, indie bands from Toronto have played on it and some touring American acts. So they asked us to be on it but they were like “we want you to be on it, but we’re going to pre-tape it,” so we can beep out all the swearing. And we’re like, “we don’t want to do that.” I went on to do something about straight edge [at the station] and met Dave Smalley there [member of Dag Nasty, DYS, Down by Law] and they set me up in the dressing room and they gave me all this stuff. I was like “this is amazing! We gotta do this” and they wanted us to pre-record and we were like “no way.”

Pastepunk: Are there still the same limits on language and stuff, like the FCC here?

Damian: Oh yeah, absolutely. In Canada it’s the CRTC. So we’re like “no way” and then they’re like “ok.” It kept kind of going, “are you sure?” “no?” So eventually they’re like, “We got Henry Rollins to come in, can you guys come in on the same day” and we’re like, “Holy shit.” We kind of were hoping that, our best case scenario… we were watching FEAR on Saturday Night Live in the dressing room and we’re like, “Holy fuck what if it’s like this. Even an eighth like this.” And then we’re sitting in this dressing room, we’re downstairs, can’t see the audience, and we kind of see people outside and see that there’s a lot of kids here. So we go up and do the interview and it was so cringe-worthy. It was embarrassing. Not because of them, but because of our way of dealing with that interview was like… it was embarrassing. Like no one liked it.

Pastepunk: Were there some members who didn’t want to be there?

Damian: Yeah, yeah. Like we all wanted to play on it, but some members didn’t want to be there for the interview. We go right to the stage and we see all these kids and we’re like, “This is kind of weird.” So we started and kids start trashing the place and some kid gets on stage and injects himself with a hypodermic needle. It was like pandemonium. We kind of knew it was going to be crazy, we kind of hoped it would be crazy, and we were like, “If it gets crazy let’s get the fuck out of here when we’re done.” So I start bleeding and I took way too much Aspirin and I started gushing blood. Have you seen all three songs?

Pastepunk: I think I’ve only seen one.

Damian: Well by the end, I’m covered in blood from head to toe, there’s blood everywhere. So bloods pouring out of my mouth, kids are singing along and I’m spitting blood into their mouths. It was crazy! Kid’s were tearing apart the stage. So we finish and I’m like, “Let’s get the fuck out of here!” So we leave, but I guess yeah, MTV was stoked on it. The technical people weren’t, they were like really pissed and were like, “You guys can’t come back.” But I guess the producers and all the creative people were into it. I heard, I don’t know if this is true or not, but the president of MTV Canada was downstairs watching and rocking out. I think it’s bullshit, I don’t know if it’s true.

Pastepunk: How do you guys deal with the rumors, like the fascism thing?

Damian: It’s weird, it’s definitely weird.

Pastepunk: Do you think it’s people taking more out of it than what’s really there, or…

Damian: I think it’s a little of that and us fucking with people, not expecting to go as far as it did. You forget what certain symbols and references mean and…

Pastepunk: Then again it’s a symbol and it’s whatever people attach to it.

Damian: Yeah exactly, I have crust records of bands with pictures of burned babies, napalm babies, and it shows the reality of war, but at the same time, it’s someone’s family.

Pastepunk: Yeah, it’s just like exploiting it.

Damian: Yeah, exactly. For us, it was an experiment in imagery that wasn’t 100% successful.

PUBLICATION
Paste Punk

AUTHOR
Jason Bergman

DIRECT LINK TO ARTICLE
http://pastepunk.com/features.php?v=242