How has LA been different for you than say the Andover/Boston music scene?
I hate the music scene there. It’s a hipster place that doesn’t exist to the rest of the country when those bands tour. You know, nobody cares about them. But we do have some friends’ bands we like to hang out with. Whether for a show or just to get food. I mean there’s a lot more bad bands than there are good bands, aren’t there?
Absolutely. Whose idea was it to run your band van on grease?
Our friend Mike runs a website: Grease Not Gas. He’s the only one I’d ever seen who converted diesel engine to run on vegetable oil. You get the same mileage as your car would normally on gas.
From Barely Legal to Accidental Gentlemen, what was your favorite project? What hopes do you have for it?
It’s more spontaneous. We’re going back to our punk rock origins. It’s darker. A lot of people talk about liking things that bands do at the beginning of their careers, but I look at it this way: would you rather have a sandwich I made six years ago or would you rather have one I made two months ago. I’d go with the two-month-old sandwich; it’s fresher.
Over the years, what bands have you become closest with?
Mewithoutyou. The Format. The Jealous Sound. Cave In. Koufax, Young Love, Hey Mercedes, Braid. I still call Bob (Nanna) drunk.
Who are your influences? Where are your ears right now?
The Kinks, a band called the Ooh La’s, that dirty wall of sound, The Stooges. Spaceman 3. You know I didn’t get The Stooges when I was twenty.
Yeah I didn’t get ‘em when I was twenty either. Now it’s turn it up!
Yeah! Turn that shit up! Let’s see what else? My Bloody Valentine. We’ve been listening to a lot of Howard Stern just because we have Sirius Radio in the van and we can. We forget about all the swearing and then the twelfth fuck comes on and you remember you don’t hear this on normal radio.
What was your most moving experience as a band?
Opening for Dinosaur Jr. But really every time we play a brand new song and we’re not sure how it’s going to go over and then the audience loves it.
What do you do when you’re not playing music?
I ride my bike and work in a Vietnamese restaurant. (Laughs with rest of the room.) I play with another band and just hang out.
I was reading you write lyrics after the music’s completely written. Where do the messages come from? Is it time appropriate? Just writing what’s on your mind?
Sometimes I can write lyrics in forty seconds. Sometimes it’s time appropriate. Like when I got mugged. I’m being a wise ass about it. I was riding my bike to the subway through a real shady area of Southgate (MA) at about 8:30 at night when four guys surrounded me. One pulled a knife and then another pulled a knife. I mean they weren’t getting my bike that was between my legs. And I told them, look, I just want to live. They were all like, “Don’t make it obvious.” So I gave them my wallet and they let me go. I made it to the subway and I was just standing there like this (crazily grins and flits eyes back and forth), with my knife like a psycho.
Do you miss The Fireside Bowl? Because when I write about you guys, I always go back to The Fireside.
I’ll give you two answers. Love it. Miss it. Love it and miss it. There you go.
What do you eat? What do you stand for?
I eat anything. I stand for things that make the world a better place.
What would your life be if rock left it? What has shaped you as a group and as an individual?
I’d teach or work with kids if rock left it. Performing and writing is a daily thing. I mean as a musician I think you listen to the radio with a pickier ear. You’re a little jaded. I mean it’s easy not to try, right? I try to do something new or something heard on a new level.
In your opinion musically, has something died since 2001?
Yes. But it’s more that something died in the mid-nineties. Everything is cold and coming out of the computer. The computer has killed relationships too. It’s just incestual. Everybody flirts. Everybody flirts now. The nineties though. Nirvana killed hair metal. And then Radiohead. Then there was the hardcore scene. There were a lot of revolutionary feelings.
Do you like to listen to yourselves?
Right after we record, but not on a regular basis.
What did you like about The Clash?
I liked all their records. Guns of Brixton was my favorite. And off Combat Rock, the only good song on the second side – ‘cause I listen to it on vinyl – is “Straight to Hell.”
Favorite books or authors and why?
Oh! Um..Five People you Meet When you Die. Reading a really good book right now. Hold on. (Runs into backroom to check the author and runs back to the couch.) Cider House Rules By John Irving. Also reading The World According to Garp.
If Piebald made a movie what would it be in terms of cult subject matter.
Cult subject matter… zombies and aliens.
Yeah, before Kind of Like Spitting broke up, Ben Barnett told me he wanted to be the bloodiest thing put in a movie, so that makes sense. Best heckler you’ve ever had or show story not in Killer Bros and Killer Bees?
You get ten guys on a stage and start screaming “yo” at each other like there’s going to be a fight. Mike and Aaron. Awesome. (Laughs.) We did it with Mewithoutyou a few nights ago. Audience was like, “What’s going on?” (petrified stare.)
“Hard Kid” is gorgeous. What is that one about?
People you meet who are jaded. Who can’t recognize anything good.
What was the studio reaction to Accidental Gentlemen?
Well we were working with Alex Newport and this guy Doug Batchelder put a studio in a barn and we did the album in two weeks. It’s something to record in a barn.
My little band recorded in a barn. Told the engineer I paid not to have chickens on the drum track. What were you for Halloween?
That’s funny about the chickens. (Nods seriously with wide eyes.) I was a clown. Luke was a prince. Jim was a fighter pilot and Aaron doesn’t dress up.
Any one particular fan or fellow musician or band causing a life change with you?
Yes. Mewithoutyou. I have respect for them as a band and individuals. Those are inspiring dudes.
What would you like to tell new musicians?
If you suck, stop. Don’t rely on a computer. Use a tape. See if you’re any good first.
Do you like to gossip? Anyone prominent who pisses you off?
No, but I’d like to. Life’s too short to be a grumpy bastard. I like my friends.
How do you want to be remembered?
As a nice guy. Piebald were good dudes. Who wrote a good song. Feel. Smile. Drive.
Anything missing in your lives you’re questing for?
Happiness is a daily process. Not sure what we’re questing for.
Burt Bacharach hurt or helped Elvis Costello’s career?
Don’t care. Elvis Costello is too nasally. But I shouldn’t talk. I’m nasally. Maybe that’s why I’m tired of listening to him. As for Elvis Costello’s career: Everyone survived it.
Last words?
Nope. Try not to let the world get you down. Smile more than you frown. Life is good; eat some with cream.
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