The typhoon-pop of Colorado quartet ALL has swept across the country more then twenty times since their inception in the late 80s. Truepunk caught up with founding songwriter/drummer Bill Stevenson from former base Los Angeles where he’s visiting family and friends and producing an album for former Black Flag band mate and fellow Cruz Records artist, Greg Ginn.

Interview by Steve Tauschke with drummer Bill Stevenson.

Hey Bill, your singer Scott Reynolds left the band last year after four years .. what happened there?
“He just left! He got tired of doing it and just he left.”

His replacement Chad Price has previously done backing vocals for ALL right?
“Yeah, I tried out Chad first and then I tried out many, many other people from all over the whole world and ended liking Chad the best.”

On the album sleeve photo he actually looks a little like Scott Reynolds!
“It’s funny, from a distance there are similar qualities.”

Of those auditioned, are there any notable names that missed out?
“I’d rather not say really.”

Despite working with various singers over the years - Dave Smalley and obviously Milo with the Descendents - the spirit of your songs seems to remain intact?
“I would totally agree with that (long pause), um ..”

So tell us about starting the Descendents as a 15-year-old .. I assume punk rock played a big part in your life?
“That’s all I did, just listen to my records. I didn’t have any outside life, I didn’t have any girlfriends or hardly any friends in school either. I was kind of like the nerd. So I would just listen to my records. And then I wanted to play, I wanted to beat on drums and I wanted to play guitar and bass so I just went out and bought all these instruments and started playing everything. Man, if you give me an instrument, I will play it. Everyone in this band can play every instrument. Like for this new album (Breaking Things) most of it was originally arranged with me on guitar and Stephen on drums but at the last minute we hesitated and switched back to the normal way.”

Your passion seems to over ride technical ability when it comes to the songs though.
“Yeah, sometimes I think we get a little bit stuffy, a little bit progressive but usually we don’t. Allroy Saves was the weird one, it sounded like Rush playing punk rock or something!”

A couple of years ago you said Allroy Saves perhaps appealed more to musicians .. how do you feel about the last year’s record Breaking Things?
“I think it has a little bit broader appeal because the song structures are pretty straight forward. It’s just more high-energy and there’s physically more to it. It’s a good mix between the elements that we like of rock n’ roll and punk rock and pop. There’s not really any jazz influence either, maybe a tiny bit on one or two songs. I actually hate jazz myself.”

The track Politics almost has a Greg Ginn feel to it.
“Well, there again, if you look at all the stuff we’ve done I would compare Politics to something like I’m Not A Loser or I Wanna Be A Bear.”

You’ve tackled some interesting covers in the past too, Hot Rod Lincoln and most recently A Boy Named Sue, made famous by Johnny Cash .. they’re weird selections.
“Well, we were doing some strange covers because Scott’s singing style was so country-influenced. It’s weird, you don’t notice it but after I’ve said this to you, you will notice it. So we were doing like country things. ALL with Scott was very country-influenced, like the song Dot, that’s very country to me whereas with Chad he has a lot more of a typical rock voice, rougher and more aggressive-sounding so the country stuff doesn’t seem to fall into play as much.”

So what will you playing on this current tour?
“We’ll do a cross-section, with an emphasis on the new album. We play I Like Food all the way through to She’s My Ex.”

So long as you throw in some thing off Allroy For Prez!
“Oh, like Postage or something?

Yeah, just perfect!